The travelers let out a collectively held breath as the scene changed rapidly before them. Kakashi hadn't even known the real cause of his mother's illness. All his father had ever told him was that she died when he was a little over a year old due to a long sickness. Naruto was in shock that he watching three people he missed terribly all gathered in the private moments of his sensei's life; it never ceased to amaze him how closely connected the people of the village were to one another. Sakura couldn't believe that Kakashi had been one of the only babies delivered by Tsuande (her master hated delivering babies) and that she had apparently been very involved in Kakashi's early life. Sasuke didn't even have words for what he was feeling, he just took advantage of drinking in every possible bit of information about their secretive, mysterious sensei that he could.

The thing that amazed them all, though, was that they were feeling every one of Minato's emotions right along with him. Almost as clearly as if they could read what he was thinking at times.

Training field 7 swam into clearer view with Jiraiya standing in front of three young teens. The memory travelers recognized one as Minato a couple years older than he had been in the previous memory. The other two must have been his teammates, a tan-skinned dark haired boy and a girl with a dark ponytail flipped on top of her head.

"Juuna, Tai, Minato! Are you ready to hear your mission?"

"Our mission?" Asked the dark haired boy, Tai.

"Are you ditching us to go peeking again, Sensei?" The girl, Juuna, sighed dramatically and rolled her eyes.

"I hope you're more careful this time, Jiraiya-sensei," Minato apprehended, "I don't want to have to patch you up again." Jiraiya had the decency to stutter and blush as he denied that he got hurt while researching. The three young shinobi just rolled their eyes.

"Well, what's the mission then?" sighed Tai, it probably wasn't a good one if Jiraiya was sneaking off. They never got exciting missions with their perverted sensei. All the decent ones went to Orochimaru-sensei's team.

Jiraiya gathered energy around him as he tried to excite his placid team.

"You three! Will be guarding! The Hatake Heir!" There was an audible groan from Juuna and Tai, while Minato lectured his teacher.

"You shouldn't keep accepting to babysit kids that you can't be around for!" It wasn't the first time they'd babysat for important children. Both Jiraiya and Tsunade had horrible habits of accepting to watch kids while their parents were away on missions. Tsunade generally kept her promises, albeit bringing a flask with her, but Jiraiya was a different story. He often forgot until the last minute and then decided to assign his now-chuunin team the duty. As genin, the three had accepted it, but now, they were not so easily convinced.

"Come on, Sensei, we can handle more than that stupid kid! He's like 2, couldn't he just go to the academy nursery?" Juuna complained.

"Yeah, isn't that what it's there for?" Tai muttered darkly. Jiraiya laughed nervously.

"Well, he… ah… Kind of… Terrorizes the kids in the nursery," the older man said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck. All three chuunins groaned loudly. Jiraiya took that as acceptance of their mission. "Sakumo-san should return in a few days' time!" And with that, their pervy sensei was gone.

"Ugh, damn Jiraiya-sensei! Leaving us with kids again!" Tai yelled, kicking the ground in frustration. Juuna sighed and looked at Minato.

"I guess you know where the Hatake compound is? We definitely don't, but Sensei didn't exactly give us directions," she said.

"Yeah," Minato sighed as well in defeat, "I was there a couple years ago. Let's go and get this over with."

The three bounded away from the training grounds and Minato led them to the HATAKE signpost in the secluded area just outside of town.

The house itself was not much different than the last time Minato had been, but the feeling surrounding it was. There was no sense of urgency, which was nice; but somehow it seemed as if it were cloaked in gray, as if any color around the place had been stamped out. He shivered slightly, but continued the lead of his group to knock on the door.

"Hatake Sakumo-san?" He shouted lightly as his knock went unanswered. He heaved a sigh and pounded a little harder. "Hatake-san?!" His voice got louder, it was possible the man was in back rooms or something. Minato decided it was probably polite to wait a minute before resuming his knocks to give the man a chance to get to the door.

He was about to raise his fist again when the door was pulled open by a seemingly unseen force. The three chuunin looked around uncomfortably as they got a crazy feeling that this place was haunted. Just as they were about to unanimously decide to run for the hills, a tiny, angry child voice crept out to them.

"He left over an hour ago. You're late." The voice belonged to the pipsqueak with a mess of silver hair who was pulling a couple shuriken out of the door that he had apparently attached strings to so he could turn the knob that was too high for his reach. The young shinobi just stood on the doorstep watching him and as turned and walked back to a scroll laid out on the floor.

"Um, WHAT?" Tai turned on Minato. "What the hell is this? He's barely old enough to walk, never mind throwing real sharp shuriken and manipulating chakra strings and reading scrolls and scolding us for being late." He seemed to have genuinely lost his cool. The toddler didn't give any indication that he'd heard what was going on in his doorway.

"Tai, I don't think he's actually 'reading' the scrolls, those are definitely just pictures. The shuriken were dull, they barely left a dent in the door, and he tied strings to them, those weren't chakra strings," Juuna soothed, even though none of that was at all expected from a 2 year old ever. Minato had tuned out his teammates and was looking curiously into the house, remembering the last time he'd been there. That newborn baby had been cute, especially once he was all clean and giggling with rosy cheeks. It was a little unbelievable to think that only two years later, he had an attitude and could throw shuriken. And his father left him home alone enough that it didn't seem to bother him in the slightest. Huh?

Juuna saw the confusion reflected in Minato's eyes. It wasn't the same dumbfoundedness as on Tai's face, it was a more sincere concern about the young kid.

"What's wrong?" she asked, also tuning out Tai.

"Isn't it odd for a kid to not be afraid to be left home alone? I was terrified when my parents left a room, never mind the house to go off on multi-day mission."

She just shrugged, "I used to be too, but all kids are raised different I guess. I'm sure Sakumo-san is called on a lot more often than our parents ever were."

"Yeah, I guess," he murmured, then remembered something else. "Hatake Ahiru died a few months ago, didn't she?" The girl looked confused for a minute, but slowly comprehension dawned in her dark eyes and her lips parted slightly.

"Oh, yes, she must have been his mother. Poor little guy, maybe he really is more scared than he's letting on," she murmured gently, already forgiving the miniature brat for anything he would do to them while they had to babysit.

"Well, anyway," Minato sighed, "we should probably head in, I'm sure he also doesn't appreciate us standing in the doorway gawking at him." Juuna nodded in agreement before clapping her hand over Tai's mouth and hauling him inside too.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

It had felt like hours of the four just sitting and staring at each other. The toddler seemed quite content to sit and stare quietly. This kid was really just getting weirder and weirder, he wasn't like any of the others they had babysat before. In reality, the three chuunin had only been in the house about 5 minutes. Minato realized that apparently it was, yet again, his duty to be the conversation engineer.

"My name is Minato, and these are my teammates Juuna and Tai. What's your name?" He pointed to each of his comrades as he introduced them, then turned his bright blue gaze onto the child when he asked the question. He was actually quite curious what the tiny infant he remembered had been named. He and Jiraiya had left that day before they heard or had opportunity to ask Tsunade.

"Hatake Kakashi," he said, in his tiny voice. The boy still seemed way too small to be two years old, in Minato's mind, but it wasn't like he had oodles of other toddlers to compare him with.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Kakashi," he said, using his kindest voice and extending his hand formally across the table. A look of surprise and joy flitted across the boy's face as he seemed excited to be treated with such formality, almost like he was a real shinobi!

"So, what sort of things do you like to do, Kakashi?" Juuna asked, trying her hand with the little guy. He shrugged.

"I wish I could read. Mostly I try to teach myself or I aim at targets with Father's old shuriken. There's not much else to do here." His nose scrunched up a little at that. Minato felt a pull at his heart as he noticed the toddler was right. There were no children's toys around, no colorful picture books, not even the plastic little kid's bowls and utensils that would never crack when they fell. In fact, if it weren't for poorly drawn targets around the living room or the fact that the kid was sitting right in front of them, one could have easily assumed the house belonged to an old bachelor too dedicated to his work to marry.

"If you could do anything in the village, what would it be?" He asked, wanting to show this boy something fun. Kakashi looked taken aback at the question.

"I've never really been out in the village. Except for the academy nursery and the cemetery," he said, becoming unsure of what exactly the blond boy was offering. Tai broke his silence.

"You've never been out in the village?! How? We're totally going to take you to get dumplings! There's a stand on the main street which has the best dumplings in the whole world!" Tai jumped up in his excitement to get sweets. Juuna grinned too.

"I'll treat us all!" She exclaimed also excited about the sweets. This mission wouldn't be too bad after all, and she would steal Jiraiya's wallet later to pay herself back. Minato turned to the nervous Kakashi.

"It's all right," he said gently, "sweet dumplings are rolls of sugared dough covered in sprinkles." He smiled, assuming correctly that the boy had never heard of them before.

"Oh-kay," he sighed uncertainly, but he accepted Minato's hand as they walked out of the house.

The group of four had a good time out in the village, teasing one another, and taking care to point out all the great spots to Kakashi after they'd filled up on dumplings for dinner.

"There's the best Laundromat, the old lady gives out lollipops!"

"There are always a bunch of dogs around that house, but they're nice enough. They don't attack."

"If you watch the sunset from up there, you'll be surrounded by lightening bugs within minutes and it feels like your whole world is twinkling!"

"This old lady always forgets who her children are, so she'll give cookies to anyone!"

Kakashi seemed to take everything in stride, but it was a lot of information, and his stomach was starting to hurt from the amount of dumplings he'd eaten. He deemed Minato the most friendly and understanding of the three, and so soon enough, he was tugging on the blond boy's sleeve to bring him home.

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Minato, Tai, and Juuna made themselves comfortable on the living room floor of the Hatake house.

"This is much more comfortable than sleeping on branches," Tai mumbled appreciatively as he snuggled his way further under a thick spare blanket. "I'm kind of glad Jiraiya-sensei dumped this on us."

Juuna couldn't help but nod in agreement. Kakashi was by no means a normal 2 year old, but showing him the village and seeing his incredibly childlike reactions had made her feel much more comfortable with him. This mission could even be fun.

"Don't let him hear you say that, or we'll be lining ourselves up for even more kids," Minato warned playfully. "I'm going to make sure Kakashi is asleep, I'll be right back." He was a little worried about the kid getting a stomachache and he could feel a storm brewing. From what he knew about kids, thunderstorms never really meant well.

He reached the door to the young boy's room and knocked gently, "Kashi-kun?" He said softly, not wanting to wake the boy if he was asleep.

He heard a low moan in response, so he opened the door. The boy was curled into a ball on top of his blankets and hadn't even bothered to change his clothes. Minato swept quickly but not alarmingly into the room and knelt by the bed.

"Does your tummy hurt?" He asked, pushing the boy's unruly bangs back to check his forehead in case of a fever. Kakashi nodded fervently.

"Father doesn't let me eat sweets," he groaned quietly again, but managed a small smile up at Minato. "I guess I know why now." Minato chuckled and ruffled the silver locks.

"I'm going to make you some tea, try to lie flat and relax while I'm gone." He waited until the boy unfurled his body, then went to the kitchen to boil water.

He noted his teammates already asleep on the living room floor as he made his way back to Kakashi with two steaming mugs. That was alright. He felt like he could relate more to Kakashi anyway. Both of his parents had passed away a few years ago, Jiraiya had become a surrogate father-figure to him. Not that Kakashi had lost both his parents, but with one dead and the other an essential elite jounin, the boy was obviously more familiar with being alone than most kids ever would be. Perhaps he could be like a surrogate father-figure to this boy. That idea warmed his heart a little as he looked at the stretched out tiny body and the scrunched up face.

"Here, Kashi-kun, this tea should help settle your stomach," he said and he helped the little boy sit up against his head board. Minato set his own mug on the bedside table and helped Kakashi hold his so that little fingers wouldn't get burned.

After a few sips, there was a deep crash of thunder and the boy jumped a little.

"I thought I could feel a thunderstorm," Minato sighed lightly.

"Me too," mumbled the boy, much more apprehensively than Minato.

"Do they frighten you?" The toddler did not answer, but took another sip of tea. Minato chuckled a little. "They scare me sometimes. Especially when someone I love is on a mission." Kakashi nodded almost imperceptibly.

"Father controls lightening though, he'll be ok," the boy sounded like he was trying to convince himself as well as the teen sitting next to him.

"Of course he will." Minato couldn't resist ruffling the silver hair again, laughing as Kakashi sent him the toddler form of a glare. It would be intimidating in a few years, perhaps, but right now it was one of the cutest things Minato had ever seen.

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The rest of their mission went just as well as the first day. The three shinobi decided to take Kakashi out around the village each day and ate lunch at a different restaurant or food stand. The boy clung tightly to Minato when he would get scared of something or when he felt it was time to go home, but otherwise he seemed truly happy with the three teens escorting him around.

At the end of the third day of their mission (Sakumo-san was expected home later that evening), Kakashi tugged at Minato's sleeve. Minato recognized the signal and gave a yawn.

"I think it's time to head back to the house, troops, I could really," he yawned again, "use a nap." Kakashi giggled at the obvious fakeness of the yawns, but ran along happily to keep pace with the long-legged teens back to his home.

As soon as the HATAKE sign post came into view, they all realized that something was slightly off. Kakashi tilted his head to the side, then took in a deep breath through his nose. The chuunin looked at him questioningly but a huge grin broke out across his face.

"FATHER!" He shouted, breaking into a full-out run to get to the house.

The door opened just as the toddler reached it and he hit the legs of the laughing man standing in the doorway.

"Hey, squirt," the Sakumo said, a smile hinted on his lips and gave his charcoal eyes some glowing warmth. He picked up the tiny kid by the back of his shirt and embraced his son tightly before righting him back on the ground. He looked at the three his son had been walking with and waved them over. "I see Jiraiya ended up being busy after all."

"Hai, Sakumo-san," Minato said, bowing his head.

"It's good to see you again, Minato-kun. What do you think of my genius son now that he can make more sounds than gurgles and giggles?" Sakumo asked, humor lighting his eyes a little more. Kakashi just blushed and kicked at his father's strong legs.

"Haha, he's grown a lot. He'll make a great shinobi someday," Minato aimed this statement at Kakashi more than Sakumo. "These are my teammates, also students of Jiraiya-sensei, Junna and Tai."He motioned at his comrades to change the subject.

"It's an honor to meet you, Hatake-san," they both bowed in respect to one of the greatest shinobi in the world.

"And you both, as well," said Sakumo. "Thank you for taking good care of my son." He smiled down at Kakashi. "Why don't you go take a bath before dinner, I'd like to talk to your friends alone for a minute." The boy huffed a sigh, but nodded and went back into the house. Sakumo waited until he disappeared and then addressed the shinobi in front of him.

"I do appreciate you keeping him safe, but he will have to learn how to do that himself from now on. I told Jiraiya that he was to keep a distant eye on the boy. He won't become a great shinobi if he is babied all the time. I assume Jiraiya did not pass that information on to you." The three shook their heads, quite astonished that the man had actually intended to leave his 2 year old son alone for three days. "Well, he will begin training a ninken pack soon, and they will watch over him when necessary. So, if you would please pass a message to Jiraiya that his babysitting assistance will no longer be required, I would appreciate that, too." With that the man clearly dismissed them and they turned to walk in a haze away from the house.

"Leave his kid alone?!" Tai shouted as soon as they were a good distance away. "Is he kidding? I don't care how many ninken there are around, a toddler can NOT be left ALONE! He'd die!"

Minato shook his head, "No, Kakashi is far too important to the village for Sakumo-san to just let him die," he stopped in thought for a moment to try to decipher what all of this meant. "Actually, I think he's training the boy to be invincible. You guys saw how he opened the door for us that first day, he's already got a very active mind. He is capable of taking care of himself, to a degree. Part of being invincible in a shinobi world is being able to take care of yourself no matter what age you are. By ensuring he can do it as a toddler, he will never grow out of it. He will always be able to care for himself and survive, no matter what the circumstances." Minato stopped again, shocked at this revelation.

"So, basically," Juuna supplied hesitantly. "He's ensuring his son a long life of complete loneliness."

"Damn," muttered Tai. Minato and Juuna silently agreed.