(To Shikamaru, before he died) "The "kings" are the unborn children who will grow up to take care of the leaf"

~Asuma Sarutobi

~Story~

"Don't lie, Kakashi. Don't you have something more to tell me? Something… important?"

Kakashi narrowed his eyes

Sometimes having a sharp sensei sucked.

"No, nothing" Kakashi lied, which didn't go unnoticed by Minato. The Fourth Hokage looked down, introspecting himself. In his opinion, he wasn't that great of a teacher. He was too focused on stopping the Third Shinobi World War that he didn't have enough time to try to get closer and know more about his dear students. Sure he knew about their likes, dislikeS, personalities, pasts and all, but most of the time he couldn't completely guess what his students were thinking about. He also knew that his students respected him greatly, and in exchange, he also loved them dearly, but his love toward Konoha was much bigger.

Minato clenched his hands as his mind flew back to years before. That time when...

He trusted Kakashi to be the captain on a mission consisted of Kakashi, Obito, and Rin, which ended with Obito being crushed by a huge rock and passed away. When Kakashi and Rin went back to the village with grim expression, in a second Minato knew something went wrong, and his bad feeling grew stronger when he couldn't see Obito anywhere. He also remembered how Kakashi said "The mission is done, sensei" with hoarse voice while covering his left eye. At that time, before Minato could ask if something had happened, Rin hugged him and cried loudly. Knowing he couldn't ask anything to Rin at the time, he looked at Kakashi, expecting him to say anything to explain the situation. Kakashi knew what Minato wanted, but instead of explaining, he just opened his left eye slowly, revealing the sharingan which was given to him by Obito as a gift of him being a jonin.

Minato's eyes went wide as he gasped. He didn't believe that Obito has been killed in the mission, nor he wanted to, but he needed to. He knew that he should accept whatever fate that had befell upon them as Shinobi. But having one of his students died? That was something Minato had a hard time to accept. Maybe he could never even accept it until he died.

"Now, now.. Rin, stop crying and let's head to the Hokage's office to inform this to The Third. You can cry all you want after that" Minato said as he ruffled his female student's hair gently. He also wanted to cry, but he tried to fight the urge to do that for the sake of his students, because he needed to look strong for them. Even Kakashi didn't let his tears fall from his eyes, but Minato knew that the silver haired boy had cried at least once before.

At that night, Minato unusually didn't have any mission due to Hokage's concern about his student's death. Minato went out of his house and wandered aimlessly. And as if being pulled by and invisible magnet, he went somewhere unconsciously and saw a shade of silver from afar. He walked closer, and recognized that was Kakashi. The young shinobi was sitting on a big rock, looking at the sky. Minato didn't see, but he knew that his student was crying. He stepped closer, but immediately stopped, thinking that Kakashi may need some time to be alone. Then there he stood, in the middle of the night, not really far from his student who wasn't aware of his presence, resting his back against a tree. Slowly, he let out his tears. Then, he started to tremble, and let a soft whisper repeatedly "I'm sorry…". He was talking to no one, but his apology was directed to Kakashi, Rin, and especially Obito.

"If only I knew this was coming… if only I could be there.." Minato regretted his mistake as a teacher. Of course he wasn't there when Obito died, so he couldn't do anything about it. But that was exactly what made him so upset with himself. He let his student died without even trying anything. He was ready to kill himself and repent for his sin if only he didn't have a war to stop, people to protect, and a dream to reach. He spent the rest of the night mourning and he promised to become the Hokage, someone Obito dreamed to be and eventually failed.

Then, Minato gritted his teeth as he remembered the time when another one of his three students died. It wasn't really long after Obito's death, but it was the same. The same as in he couldn't and didn't do anything to prevent it, and instead, his only remaining student needed to bear the height of his two ex-teammates' lives.

Seeing his teacher's expression, Kakashi could more or less guess what the blond was thinking.

"It's not your fault, sensei" Kakahshi said "It's mine" he added. Minato looked up and stared at his student "No, I should have been the one responsible about Obito and Rin… I was supposed to be their teacher, after all" Minato said with pained expression

Kakashi stared back and memories came and went in a fast motion in his head. "You are our teacher, sensei. No matter how I see it, you were the one who taught us many things, trained us, made us be better shinobi, and protected us. I believe Rin and Obito taught the same. We are glad to have someone like you to be our steacher" Kakashi said, his tone went a little bit softer, but still serious.

"I see.." Minato used his hand to wipe away his tear before it could go down from his eyes. He felt happy, sad, but mostly relieved to hear what Kakashi said.

"It really wasn't your fault, sensei…" Kakashi said again, this time he gripped his sword tighter and readied himself to attack once again. Realizing this, Minato held out his kunai

"Rin died for the sake of the village, just like you, sensei. And, even though I was a bit upset about it, I also can't help but be proud of you and her. And that also made me want to do anything for Konoha, something that you and her died to protect" Kakashi said as he ran toward Minato. He made some hand seals, and 3 kagebunshin appeared next to him, also attacking Minato. Of course Minato could handle all of them. Yes, all of them. That meant there wasn't the real Kakashi.

'Where did he..?' Minato quickly looked back as he barely blocked Kakashi's shuriken. Minato threw his typical kunai to the tree where Kakashi was standing, and he teleported there.

"and Obito…." Kakashi couldn't finish as he disappeared with a 'poof' after being stabbed by Minato

'A bunshin, too?' Minato was slightly impressed, pushing what Kakashi was going to say out of his mind. He had priority, and now he wanted nothing more than to test his student. He could get detailed explanation about whatever happened later, if possible.

Then a kunai was thrown again, and Minato dodged it swiftly. But his eyes widened and he saw a paper dangled from the kunai handle.

'An explosion tag!' Minato quickly jumped to avoid the explosion, and succeeded, but only to be faced with two of Kakashi's bunshin. Minato smirked. That trick would have worked with other people. Made the enemy go up in the sky and then attack immediately, because they couldn't do much when not on the land. But, unfortunately, that didn't work on someone like Minato, whose jutsu was teleportation.

'I don't think Kakashi is stupid enough to forget how I fight..' Minato thought as he teleported to the ground and took a look around, trying to find the real Kakashi, but as soon as he thought that, he heard the ground cracked. He wasn't fast enough to dodge, and a hand emerged and grabbed his left foot. Then, another Kakashi suddenly appeared in front of him from above, ready to strike with his chidori.

'even though I have told him to not use that jutsu because it eats too much of his chakra…he just never listens, does he' Minato smiled a little.

'but that wont work too' Minato made a hand seal again,

"..Obito was still alive"

BADUMP

Minato, who ALMOST used his jutsu to teleport again, froze. Then, still in shock, he realized his forehead protector was touched by none other than Kakashi, his chidori was nowhere in sight.

"I won" Kakashi chuckled, and even though Minato couldn't see it, he knew he was smiling. He pulled his hand down and panted heavily. Of course he would, after using two high-class jutsu in one day and making several bunshin, he should be out of chakra by now. Then, he walked to the nearest tree and sat down, breathing some air. He didn't have much energy to walk anymore.

"I'm glad. If I were late even for 0.1 second, I wouldn't have got you. What a great gamble" Kakashi said between his breath. Minato was still standing, not moving. After a few seconds, he finally spoke up "was that true?"

"huh?" Kakashi raised his eyebrows, trying to look innocent

"Was that really true? Obito… was alive..?" the skyblue eyed boy asked, there was a hint of expectation in his voice. Kakashi looked at him and he looked serious for a second, before putting on a smile again "Nope, he already died, of course. I was just using that to trick you, sensei. Since I knew I wouldn't be able to win with my current chakra, without a little petty trick." he said.

"You are… lying, aren't you?" Minato asked, a little bit hesitant. He couldn't care less about how Kakashi beat him anymore

Kakashi took out a book from his pocket and opened it, starting to read. "Who knows" he simply said. As Minato thought, he couldn't really guess what his student was thinking about.

"You better look for another person, sensei. You don't want to be 'it' until the game ends, do you?" Kakashi said, flipping the page of his book. Minato was about to say something again, but then Ashura fell from the sky.

THUMP

"Ouch!" Ashura rubbed his back which fell first. Minato and Kakashi watched him in amusement and surprise, completely forgot that the Ootsutsuki was there with them the whole time.

"uh.. well.. I'm curious about this Obito guy and Rin, but I guess you don't have to tell me if you don't want to. So, wanna catch the others?" Ashura said awkwardly, since he was planning to wait for them to finish their conversation, but some freaking ants were making their way to the inside of Ashura's clothes and made him freak out. And fell, of course.

Minato, realizing Ashura referred to him on the last sentence, nodded. "yeah, you can tell me about it when you want to. But now that I really want to know, expect me to know things before you tell me" he said to Kakashi and started to walk off, Ashura close behind him, leaving Kakashi alone.

Kakashi knew what Minato meant –he would look for information from others- and he smiled "I'm already glad that I have told you, sensei"

.

.

"So, who do you want to chase, Minato?" Ashura asked excitedly, since he really wanted to see Minato fighting again. He was really fast, and Ashura made his goal to be able to follow Minato's movement in the next fight. Minato seemed to think about it and said "hmmm actually, I don't know". Ashura raised his eyebrow. 'so that's why he is running in a slow mode right now, he is still thinking about it' Ashura thought.

"do you want me to fight someone in particular, Ashura?" Minato asked, already satisfied after fighting against his student after a long time. Of course he wanted to see how much Naruto had grown, but he was scared he couldn't bear raising his kunai to attack his son, after just seeing him born before he died and was brought to the past.

Ashura put his hand on his chin, seemingly thinking. "between Tobirama, Hiruzen, Tsunade, and Naruto, huh…" he murmured, trying to guess who would be a good match for Minato, even though he didn't have any clue about it. Minato sweatdropped, seeing Ashura who was thinking too hard about it

'he shouldn't try to use his head too much' Minato thought

"Then, between 2, 3, 5, and 7, which one suits 4 better?" Minato asked, hoping Ashura would just answer immediately, but instead, the black haired kid thought even harder about that

"err… it's not a question which you have to answer with your brain… just answer it.. instinctively" Minato added, wondering why Ashura put too much of his mind into a simple question. But unfortunately, Ashura didn't hear him and continued to think. He looked like he could explode out of overthinking.

And he really did.

Except, he exploded out of excitement

"It's 2, isn't it? I'm right, aren't i? because 4 is a multiple of 2! Right?" Ashura said, happiness and satisfaction aura coming out from him. Minato sweatdropped at his new friend's act, but smiled weakly nonetheless.

"Yeah, you're right"

"Hell yeah! I knew it!"

After waiting patiently for Ashura to finish his yells of celebration and self-satisfaction, Minato finally continued to run to chase after someone, Ashura running behind him with a wide smile

'But he really chose a very interesting opponent for me, huh' Minato thought

'The Second Hokage, the one who bears the name of The Fastest Shinobi'

Uwaaa i'm back, finally TwT

National Exam is finally over, and i feel like i have this heavy weight off my chest :D

And I can't believe i already have 70 reviews, and it's my first fanfiction

It's likely that i will update a new chapter in a short time, so i'll answer the reviews then. But, thank you very much for the reviews! for the favs and follows, too! i greatly appreciate it. Just like most of the writers out there, the reviews keep me going with my story.

Please Review, fav, and follow ^_^

~NightOfHappyLight