Just a short, cute chapter. The next one will dive into more of the angsty-ness of Kakashi's childhood, so I decided to lighted it a little with this one. enjoy:)

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Sakura, Sasuke, and Naruto were frozen in their spots.

"Your father hit you?"

Kakashi just sighed. "I'm sure you'll hear more about it later. Minato-sensei was a very big part of my life then, as you are seeing. Often I would see him more in a given week than I would my father."

The three teens sat in shock as Kakashi offered them a small smile.

"I have forgiven him, you know, for everything he did. Minato-sensei only saw the difficult parts of our relationship. I did love my father and I know he loved me as well. There are often times when the village is just more important; he only wanted me to be able to take care of myself because he knew he would be gone often with a war coming. We were very close on his good days." The teens with him were still only managing to stare at their sensei, but a sudden shout from the scene unfolding before them brought their attention back to the memories.

"BAKA, BAKA, BAKA! Why would you go to that house in the middle of the night?!" Kushina was angry enough that she was barely recognizable, yelling at a slightly cowering blond shinobi.

"I just wanted to be sure Kakashi was alright," Minato sighed for the millionth time. He definitely wasn't going to come to Kushina with inexplicable scratches again. He winced as she wrapped a slightly deeper gash on his arm with a distinct lack of tenderness. He had been stalking the Hatake compound the past couple weeks in order to keep an eye on his young apprentice. After seeing the bruise on the boy's face, he'd been horrified by unjust treatment at home. Thanks to his nighttime escapades though, he had learned to his satisfaction, that Sakumo and Kakashi actually had a very regular father-son relationship; perhaps there was a bit of extra drama and loneliness due to them both being genius shinobi, but Minato had quickly seen that it was balanced with the amount of pure affection Sakumo showed his son.

He'd spent many nights sitting in trees listening to Sakumo regale Kakashi with stories of heroic missions, saving comrades' lives, destroying enemy intel in grandiose explosions, protecting the village in valiant feats, and otherwise epic adventures with his team. Sakumo was an incredible storyteller, who even caught Minato up in his tales. Kakashi, understandably, hung on to every word, and would often recite his father's scenes when the two would train together.

Minato would have thought that the occasional drunken-ness would have made Kakashi less trustworthy of his father, or of people touching him in general, but soon this was also proven untrue. The small boy would fall asleep in his father's arms, and Sakumo would take supreme care not to wake him if he decided to move. Their main form of real communication surprisingly seemed to be through touch. Gentle hair ruffles, squeezing of the shoulder, Sakumo inviting the boy to sit on his lap or squeeze by his side, careful repositioning of hands or feet when training, etc. These were the parts of the relationship that Minato found incredibly heartwarming. As soon as Kakashi would prove himself capable of handling fears or challenges that would otherwise be difficult for such a young child, Sakumo would reward him with stories, training, a new book, or sometimes even just the promise of his undivided attention for a few hours. Some would have seen Sakumo's treatment as harsh, much like he and his teammates had a few years ago, but watching it up close and seeing how dramatically Kakashi progressed as an individual as well as a shinobi, had Minato realizing that there are many things that can't ever really be classified as right or wrong.

Sakumo had only gotten drunk once in the time Minato watched them; he had clapped Kakashi way too hard on the back and the boy fell over. It wasn't a vicious move, but all the same, it had Minato cringe in anger. Kakashi had trained well the next day, albeit a little stiffly, and Minato decided that he would continue watching, promising to himself that he would definitely intervene the next time.

The next time never came; instead, Sakumo being the elite shinobi that he was, caught just a second's glare of Minato's unmasked chakra before realizing their house was being watched. It had been quite a scene as they 'fought,' which mostly consisted of Minato trying to run away unrecognized and Sakumo outsmarting him at every turn (it was late at night and Minato wasn't exactly in his shinobi mindset). The repercussions of Sakumo discovering him were actually what had led to his arm being torn up. The grey-haired elite jounin had insisted that if Minato wanted to spend that much time with his son, he might was well just join in their activities. Of course, Minato accepted and found himself involved in vigorous training sessions when Sakumo was on break from missions or atrociously home-cooked meals that the Hatakes ate with gusto when the older man was only off for a night. As he convinced himself of Kakashi's happiness at home, he backed off and only joined the two for training once or twice every couple weeks.

The most recent spar had ended up being Kakashi and Sakumo against Minato, and they had been a formidable pair. He knew the older man wasn't fighting to his full potential; he was playing the distraction so his son could feel the real effects of the training. He'd ended up with a few kunai in his arm and, for some reason, thought Kushina would take some pity on him.

He sighed playfully at the young woman in front of him, who despite her yelling, had bandaged his arm quite thoroughly.

"I know I should let them be, Kushina-chan, but I just want to do everything I can to help my student."

"Yah, keep playing that 'I'm so cute to be worrying about my student' card, it'll get you nowhere in the future, yah know?" She had stopped yelling though, she couldn't resist the bright blue puppy eyes from the blond man. "No more getting injured off missions, though, ya hear?" She did her best to scold him again. He just grinned, jumped up from his chair, and gave her a light kiss on the cheek.

"Of course! I best be going now, Kakashi likes to be early for our morning training."

Sure enough, a still small silver-haired boy was waiting at the training grounds for his sensei to arrive.

"Hey Pipsqueak!" Minato shouted in greeting. "Should I just start telling you that training won't start until 11? Then maybe you'll show up at 10 instead of 9. I happen to like my sleep," he rambled a little, wanting to get a rise out of the small boy.

A corner of Kakashi's mouth flicked upwards at Minato's playfulness. He had grown taller since the last memory, finally resembling an average 5 year old.

"I'll be here at 9 every day, Sensei, no matter what time you tell me. I know all your tricks," there was laughter in his voice, bringing an easy sparkle to his eyes. Minato grinned, it was incredible how much expression Kakashi conveyed with less than half of his face showing.

"Well then, let's spar this morning, we haven't done that in a while. We do need to give your chakra a break while you keep growing into it."

"Ok," he said, a little reluctantly, "but you have to give me all your kunai. No flicker technique until I can beat you without it." He held out his hands expectantly, with a challenge in his eyes. Minato pretended to sigh in defeat, but really it made the fights more interesting when he didn't use his super speed. He was greatly looking forward to the day when he and Kakashi could spar with it. He guessed at another few years, then the boy would probably be jounin level and they could have some real fun. For now, fighting without it would be good practice for Minato if he ever lost his precious kunai on the battlefield.

The sun eventually worked its way to beating down at the sparring shinobi directly. They were both sweating and taking a water break to catch their breaths. It had been a productive morning, Kakashi had landed a number of good hits on the blond jounin that were sure to bruise quickly. Likewise, Minato had landed several on the young chuunin that he tried not to make too hard, since he knew how easily the silver-haired boy bruised. He glanced up at the blaring hot sun and then over to the sweaty child. He knew he probably didn't look or smell too great either.

"What do you say to a diving competition?" The young boy raised an eyebrow skeptically.

"That sounds like something Gai would suggest," he responded, nose wrinkling under his mask.

"Will you let me explain the rules before judging?" Minato asked, amused by how the 'rivalry' between his student and that weird Gai kid had sprung up. It was pretty pointless, since Kakashi won everything, but he had to admire the other kid's stamina. It would lead to an interesting friendship between the two to say the least.

"Fine," Kakashi sighed, he wouldn't argue with his sensei too much, especially not when it was hot and the offer was to cool off in the river. Minato started to explain as they walked over to the gently flowing river.

"Well, we're going to walk on top of the water, as I taught you a year ago, and then we'll use our water chakra to raise ourselves up a diving board. Once we climb to the top, we have to jump on it and dive in."

"But, I have lightening chakra and you have wind," he responded, confused.

"Do you remember the paper test I gave you when we first started training together?"

"Hai, my paper crinkled."

"Yes it did, but, it also was slightly more damp than a normal piece of the paper and a corner even crumpled off."

"Really?"

"Hai, most shinobi are able to use more than just one nature manipulation."

"Father uses lightening and water, does that mean I have those two as well?" The boy's excitement was growing. Minato chuckled.

"I believe you have a certain amount of earth natured chakra as well. Would you like to experiment?"

"Hai!" He ran onto the surface of the water as soon as they reached their new training area. "Show me what to do, Sensei!"

Minato chuckled and joined his student on the water. After several minutes, they both had towering waterfalls and they raced each other to climb to the top. Once reaching it, Kakashi dove in first, propelling himself as far forward as he could underwater. Minato followed once the boy had resurfaced. He had initially decided to let the boy win, but was surprised when his breath nearly ran out before getting there. He gasped for air a number of feet closer to the waterfall than Kakashi.

"You cheated!" He spluttered accusingly. The boy laughed, pulling himself out of the water to stand on its surface.

"You never said speed swimming was against the rules!"

"Speed swimming, huh?" Minato was a little confused, the same principles of speed running didn't apply to swimming too, did they?

"Yeah! It's easy! It's like speed running using your arms and legs at the same time!" He was proud that he could still teach his sensei something, even if it wasn't exactly important information. Minato shook his head, smiling, as he pulled himself out of the water behind Kakashi.

"Alright, alright. You win, fair and square," he sighed, again in mock defeat. "Do you want to try more water manipulation, learn some earth manipulation, or go back to sparring?" He asked.

"Actually, do you mind if I bring my summons out, Sensei? I promised Pakkun steak for dinner, but not unless he trains for a bit."

"Your summons?" Now Minato was really confused.

"My ninken pack. I have 8 dogs. Well, puppies really, Pakkun is 6 and he's the oldest." The boy clarified.

"I didn't know you had summons. How come you've never brought them up before?"

Kakashi shrugged, "I've got some secrets from you, Sensei, otherwise I'd never be able to enjoy that look on your face." Minato snorted loudly.

"Alright, Kashi-kun, I'd love to meet your pack." Kakashi grin was big enough to be seen through his mask. He bit down on his thumb and performed the hand seals to summon his pack.

8 young dogs appeared on the scene. All had blue vests with henohenomoheji on them, as well as Konoha forehead protectors. The incredibly small pug bounded towards Kakashi first.

"Hey Master, is it steak time?" The pug asked, voice low for such a small dog.

"No, it's training time. No steak until you train, remember?" He said, sounding like a child trying to command a younger sibling around. It was kind of cute, Minato had to admit. Though it was a little unsettling that a seven year old had 'control' over more dogs than he had years of age.

The training that went underway with dogs involved a lot of finding Minato. He clamped his chakra down until there was none left and hid himself anywhere in the village. Eventually, it was either Pakkun or Uhei, a red dog with bandaging around her neck and head, that managed to find him and Kakashi would be there seconds later.

The rest of the afternoon passed well with the two shinobi and the 8 ninken-in-training. Minato had to admit, he was impressed with them. Like Kakashi, they were well advanced for their ages. By early evening, Kakashi was ready to head home, with the promise of a steak dinner for his dogs that night. He waved to Minato cheerfully and the group bounded off back to the Hatake compound.