Author's Notes: Hello everyone! Yup, it's another one-shot! This one focuses more on Minato than anyone else. I'm not going to ruin anything for you… so you just read and tell me what you think!
Disclaimer: I OWN NOTHING!
What Makes Us Humans
Minato has always been plagued by one question, a question he could never answer with utmost certainty. This question haunts him when he sees his six-year-old student as he practices throwing deadly weapons. It crosses his mind when he trains in his free time. But it echoes especially loudly when he's out there, on the battlefield.
That was one of those times.
Why do I keep doing this? He asks no one but himself, why do I keep killing when it goes against everything I believe in? Why do I keep coming back? Why is this the only way to survive in this world?
Again, he has no answers, only more raised questions.
Is it really worth all of this? Is it worth it? To lose my humanity, myself, to this death zone all for the sake of one village? For the sake of the Will of Fire?
The answer comes more quickly in the affirmative, with almost no hesitation, and Minato knows that that was only because it had been ingrained into him since he was in the Academy. He knows that deep down, he doesn't really know the answer to that question either.
He doesn't hesitate as he plunges a kunai deep into another Iwa nin's abdomen, quickly flashing away behind his next opponent. He makes sure to keep his little student in sight at all times. This was the first time the Hatake has seen anything like this, after all. The first time he sees a real battlefield, a real massacre.
Sparing a glance in the kid's direction, he notices that Kakashi is handling the situation surprisingly (or perhaps unsurprisingly) well. He helplessly watches the six-year-old regard an enemy over twice his size with cold calculation, he thinks he sees a sliver of fear and apprehension, but it was too quick for him to be sure, he is half-convinced it was a figment of his imagination, what he wants to see.
He couldn't watch for long, as an enemy attacking him forces him to focus. He jabs the kunoichi assaulting him, sending her flying away with a particularly strong hit to her head with the back of his kunai. She's dead before she hits the ground, blood gushing out of her torn forehead, Minato winces slightly and his instincts scream at him to jump to the left. He does so with no hesitation, experience taught him to always, always depend on his instincts, just in time to dodge an axe that would have chopped him in half. A few seconds later, the axe's owner (above average Chunin level, his mind unhelpfully provides) has joined the kunoichi, his body lifelessly falling not far from hers.
Three Rock nin had attacked them, thinking the small boy and his sensei would be easy to take down. The battle was now over with three bodies piled on top of each other, waiting to be burned to ashes. Minato has half the mind to ask Kakashi to go bring water, firewood, anything just to keep him away from the scene that will now unfold.
But he doesn't.
Kakashi would have to see this sooner or later. As his teacher, it was his duty to make sure the soldier (child) knew exactly what to do in cases such as this. Thus, Minato ignores his student's disgusted (at what he had done, the smell that is currently assaulting their nostrils, or what is going to happen presently... Minato does not know) and gets a simple fireball ready.
The fire scorches the bodies within seconds, Minato watches unblinkingly, Kakashi gags. Minato puts a hand on the small shoulder and leads Kakashi to a nearby river. The kid throws up. Minato pats his back and tells him it was going to be okay (he knows it's a lie... he's lived long enough in this wretched world to know) and his heart breaks because Kakashi believes him.
They continue their mission; it's a success, which was expected. Minato includes the run-in with the Rock trio in his report and hands in his report at the Mission Desk the moment they're behind Konoha's walls. He checks in on Kakashi and finds him at his apartment (he refuses to come live with Minato, he's not a kid who needs to be babied, he says). Kakashi is on his bed, staring at the ceiling, the only sign of life being the rhythmic expansion of his chest and the slow blinking of his eyes.
Minato lets himself in and lies down next to his student, pushing him gently to make more room on the small bed. He asks if he would like to spend the night at his place. Kakashi refuses. But he does ask questions, the same questions Minato asks himself and does not know the answer to.
"Is it always like that... out there?" Minato nods, "Is it necessary?" Minato nods again, "Is it to protect the village?"
"And the Will of Fire," he amends with another nod.
"It doesn't feel good... will it always be like that?" Minato pauses, biting his lip.
"The moment it starts to feel good, it tells you something, and consequently, you will know something,"
"What's that?" He asks, with the curiosity of the child he is.
"When you start enjoying it, you know you're no longer human,"
"I don't understand," he says bluntly, Minato shifts as he tries to find a way to explain.
"If you feel good whenever you take someone else's life, when you kill a person who is precious to others, you become less human. And each time you do so, you lose more of your humanity, until finally one day, you no longer are a human being... but rather a killing machine," he finishes and he knows by the way the black eyes blink at him that Kakashi does not fully understand (a more mature, teenaged Kakashi looks back to this moment and weeps). He does not try to explain more. Kakashi'll get it eventually in the future (preferably the very far future).
He leaves the house after a while, when Kakashi asks him to.
But he does not leave his student.
Minato picks a spot in a nearby tree and waits. He spends the night, helplessly sitting on the branch as Kakashi blinks up at his ceiling. He watches the sun as it shyly peeks over the horizon shedding its light to the ground below.
Then, he makes his move.
He goes to his student's door, knocks and enters without waiting for permission. He knows how hard it is; he had went through the same thing once before and his own teacher had been there for him, then. It was only fair that he would be there for Kakashi as his teacher.
And as his father as well. (He remembers how the White Fang, Kakashi's father and role model, protected the village only to get shunned and hated after a mission gone wrong, and wonders for the hundredth time if it was worth wasting his life for the sake of the village after all.)
Minato offers the kid a small smile, tells him to get ready, "We have a few missions, D-ranks," he says in explanation. While his student usually huffs an irritated sigh whenever he brings in more 'baby missions', as Kakashi has so affectionately dubbed the D-ranks, he gets ready without any arguments instead.
They weed gardens and track down that demon cat all without a hitch. Minato forces Kakashi to go have ramen with him, despite the boy's protests (and Minato thanks God, this was the first reaction he had gotten out of him all day). Outwardly, he laughs his student's protests off and helps him into the seat instead, earning a glare for his trouble. He ruffles the child's silver strands and enjoys the disgruntled growl (which sounded cute coming from a child, but he would never tell Kakashi that).
By the end of the day, Minato thinks that Kakashi had come to terms with what happened the day before.
He is proven wrong when Kakashi asks again, "Why do we do it, Sensei?" Minato considers answering the same way he had before, but knows that that's not what Kakashi is looking for. Thankfully, they make it to Kakashi's apartment and Minato bids Kakashi farewell before he could ask him again, ask him what he does not know.
Minato flashes to his own home. But sleep does not come, even as the last sun's rays are no more and the wee hours of night crawl by. Why do we do it, Sensei? The question repeats itself in his mind, and every time, he comes out empty.
When he had asked Jiraiya-sensei, what was it that he said?
Minato does not remember. And with his sensei not in the village, he couldn't ask him.
Thus, Minato decides, as the sun's light rolls in, that he would ask the most important person, who also happens to be the wisest, in the village.
He sets out early enough, and makes his way to the Hokage Tower without any interruptions. He politely knocks on the door once he reaches the Hokage's office and enters when he is allowed.
"Good morning, Hokage-sama," he respectfully greets, fighting the urge to bombard the village's leader with questions he had had for way too long.
"Ah, good morning, Minato. It's a fine morning we're having today, isn't it?" The Sandaime asks and Minato smiles.
"Actually, Hokage-sama, I was hoping I could talk to you about something more important than the weather," Minato rushes, receiving a raised eyebrow.
"Go on,"
"Well… I've been wondering for a while now… and I really didn't know who to ask, so I hope you don't mind that I came to you," The Third shakes his head and offers an encouraging smile. And so Minato explains about the last mission with Kakashi, and his own questions that had always plagued his mind. The Sarutobi smokes his pipe quietly as he listens. When Minato is done, he sets the pipe down and walks to the large window overseeing the village, hands clasped behind his back.
"Who do you think we're protecting by doing what we do, Minato?" the Hokage asks instead of answering his questions.
"The village," he says impulsively, "and the Will of Fire," he says after a moment. Hiruzen nods his head.
"That is correct, we are protecting them both. However," he pauses and Minato wants to shake him so that he would talk faster, "that is not what we are truly going through all of this for. Tell me, Minato, in this village, who do you think the King would be?"
"That would be you, Hokage-sama," he answers, unsure where this going. The Sarutobi had always had all the answers. Minato just wishes that his replies would be clearer and he wouldn't be so confused after getting an answer.
Hiruzen shakes his head before he seemingly spots something in the village and ushers Minato to stand beside him as he points at a bunch of children playing in the park, "We are protecting the Kings… who will in turn carry the Will of Fire and make sure it flourishes for generations to come,"
With that, everything finally clicks into place in Minato's head. They are protecting the next generation, which will in turn protect the one after it in a never-ending cycle. They would always guard them, making sure that they lived safely, happily behind the village's walls. And in the end, the Kings would make sure Konoha grew and thrived as well.
And the person doing the most work in achieving this goal, is the man he is currently standing next to. Minato decides, then and there, that he wants to protect the next generation from the horrors of the world as well. He wants to carry the same Will of Fire that the Third seems to carry. He grins in understanding and inwardly vows to become the Hokage, one day.
He exits the Hokage's building with high spirits. When he sees Kakashi again, the boy accuses him of escaping instead of answering his question. Minato rubs the back of his head and offers the boy an apologetic smile.
"I'll tell you when you're old enough to understand," he promises (a damaged, teenaged Kakashi remembers this and accuses his sensei of escaping instead of answering his question, of dying instead of keeping his promise).
Minato messes up the boy's hair, his hand gets slapped away soon after and he fights a fond smile. He practically skips home that day.
I guess that's what makes us humans, he thinks to himself, the undying will to protect our Kings.
The End
Author's Notes: Please review and tell me what you think! This is a new writing style, so criticism will be much appreciated! Thanks for reading!