A/N: So as I stated, here are the fight scenes! I hope they're fine, I really tried to make it as descriptive as possible, so I hope you enjoy this chapter! If someone, anyone, is willing to help me out with planning and writing future ones, please let me know and we can work something out! :D Oh I've also got a poll on my profile page where you can vote whether or not you'd like to see Minato paired up with anyone. Keep in mind he is mentally as old as many of their fathers! Also keep in mind that none of the pairings will happen in the near future. He is only seven right now after all.

p.s. I apologize for not getting this up a few days ago. I am currently on my bed resting from a bout of either the flu or the cold. I can't tell which (nor do I really care) and am trying to get better as quickly as possible. That and I foolishly deleted the parts of this chapter that I already had written... you've no idea how frustrating it is to lose all your progress! Well, maybe you do... but yeah that happened. Again, sorry and I hope to keep updating as I have since I started writing this story.

Key:

"Speech"
'Thoughts'
Demon/Deity
Demon/Deity thoughts
"Sign Language/ANBU coded signing"

Chapter 8: Minato v.s Kakashi

"Hajime!" the ANBU's words barely echoed into Minato's mind before he and Kakashi moved toward each other, both meeting with two kunai in their hands, blocking their opposing weapons with practiced ease, though given his seven year old body's strength, Kakashi could easily overtake him. Kakashi hadn't pushed his hitei etai away, so his sharingan eye still remained hidden behind the dark folds of the cloth wrap. Pushing back from Kakashi in a swift movement, Minato quickly threw a handful of shuriken, forming the proper hand seals quickly afterwards causing the small shuriken to multiply into over a hundred fast flying projectiles. He knew that Kakashi would move out of the way, or block it with some sort of technique, so he quickly sped forward, forming the hand-seals for a Kage Bushin in the process and shushin'ed past the attack to surround him effectively.

Kakashi, all the while, was shocked at his (unofficial) student's speed. He had known through watching the son of his Sensei that he was holding back considerably, but this was something he hadn't fully expected. Sure, the Hokage filled him in that Naruto had been training with the Jiraiya the Sennin since he was four, as well as learning a bit from the Sandaime himself. While he had a bit of doubt on the truth of the story at the time he was given it, he couldn't doubt the kid's skills.

Pushing himself to the far left to avoid the bombardment of shuriken, Kakashi realized Naruto had chosen to speed past the incoming projectiles and surround him in a rather effective manner. Bringing his hands to the proper seals, Kakashi sunk into the earth bellow, moving under the grass and dirt toward the body he thought was the real Naruto, and sunk him into the earth. The moment he had sunk one of the Naruto's into the ground neck deep, he heard the unmistakeable sound of whirling chakra and immediately rushed his hands through the proper seals for the kawarimi, replacing him with a harmless log just as Naruto pushed a fully formed Rasengan through the log, obliterating it into splinters of wood that scattered around the surrounding grass.

Minato had realized the moment Kakashi hadn't taken him over with physical strength in the beginning that he really wasn't going full out. It was to be expected, he supposed, for a full grown Jonin to go easy on a seven year old boy, but he wanted, desperately, to see how much his student had improved since his early demise. And he'd be damned if he didn't get the fight he'd been excited about since the previous day.

"The brat's gotten better." Jiraiya mumbled, knowing that the Hokage would understand his words as shock of seeing a child take on a Jōnin, and ANBU Captain, so effectively in the very beginning of the fight.

"Training with Gai has done him well." Sarutobi said as he watched the fast movements of the two. He himself was shocked at Naruto's abilities. It hadn't even reached a minute into the spar, and he had already shown a strategy that was more than worth genin status. Now, he wanted to see how truly powerful the son of the Yondaime was.

"You have trained him well, Jiraiya-sama, Hokage-sama." the ANBU said in a low monotone voice. He knew that the boy was a jinchuriki, ANBU status gave him that little tid-bit of information through heavily suggestive hints and not-so-hushed whispers. While he bore no ill will for the boy, he hadn't been overly sympathetic to his plight. Life was simply cruel and unforgiving in many aspects, and more importantly, never biased; it was something he had long come to terms with. Other than that, he had his own business to deal with at home with his father and the pressures of becoming and being an ANBU to truly do anything for the boy, though he did protect the small child to the best of his ability while he was in his charge.

"Well what do you expect from the Great Jiraiya?" the long white-haired man asked with a wide grin, effectively hiding his intense stare at the blonde boy.

"Indeed, though he seems to just be getting started." Weasel replied, keeping an air of indifference around him as he watched the pair.

Far off to the other side of the field, Kakashi stared at the damage Naruto had managed to cause to the offenceless log.

'He was seriously holding back in the spars with Lee and Gai...' the grey haired Jōnin thought as Naruto set himself in front of him again in a readied pose.

"Ready to go for real, Sensei?" Naruto asked him with a grin on his whiskered face. With a slight smirk of his own, Kakashi lifted the cloth over his eye and placed his headband in its proper place, tightening the wrap so that it wouldn't fall back while he moved at the high speeds he was accustomed to.

"Are you sure you're ready for this, Naruto?" Kakashi asked, his eye still closed.

"Show me what you got, Sensei!" Naruto screamed back, in a rather enthusiastic tone that sounded extremely childlike.

With a small chuckle, Kakashi opened his left eye, a fully formed sharingan swirling in it's depths making everything around him look so much clearer. "I'll try not to hold back as much, Naruto. I still will though. I don't want you to be too exhausted for your spar with Weasel."

Nodding, Minato returned to a more serious expression and readied himself for anything his past student would throw at him.

Kakashi quickly ran through a set of seals, bringing his hands up to his mouth before three large fireballs erupted from it, directed straight at Minato's small form. Immediately, Minato rushed forward, twisting his body in odd directions to scarcely miss the three merciless balls of flames all the while running through the seals for the Kage Bushin. Once he was out of the flames way, more than twenty clones had poofed to existence, all facing his student with kunai gripped in both of their hands tightly.

"Charge!" the original Minato ordered his clones, and soon Kakashi found himself battling against all of the clones. While they required only a single hit for them to disperse, they were quick to dodge or block his attacks and slices. It wasn't really difficult to handle, but it was annoying and tedious. While he continued to move in an almost elegant dance against the clones, Kakashi soon found himself facing the sweaty original body of Naruto Uzumaki.

Minato, while tiring from the physical toll the spar was having on his small body, looked defiantly at his past student. It was clear that it would be quite a few more years until he received the proper spar he'd wanted. He was sure that if Kakashi didn't hold back, then he would have been floored to the ground within the first few minutes of the spar. Despite all his memories of experience, his body was only that of a seven year old abused boy. Even with the month of conditioning, there was hardly anything he could do to equate himself with the body of a fully matured and trained Jōnin.

Shaking his head, Minato prepared himself for Kakashi to come at him once more, and he wasn't disappointed. As soon as he had shaken his head, Kakashi had completed a number of seals before pounding his hand to the ground. For a moment, Minato was expecting his dog summons to appear, but a small rumble of the earth proved him wrong. Jumping as soon as he felt chakra ripple through the ground beneath him, the grassy terrain instantly became a muddy trap. He silently thanked himself that in the past month he had taken chakra control so seriously, otherwise as soon as gravity took hold of him completely, he would have sunk through the mud. Thankfully, he had and instead of sinking, he pushed a precise amount of chakra to the soles of his feet and stood confidently atop the mud mess.

Noticing a small smirk forming on his students face thanks to a slight crinkle in his eyes, Minato watched as he once again raced through handseals, all the while dodging every single one of his shuriken he had flung at him, and breathed out a large water-made dragon. His eyes widening slightly at the sight, Minato quickly dodged to the best of his ability, though he was caught in the shoulder and thrown back to the grassy area with such force, he had to take a moment to regain his breath with one thought running through his mind.

'I have such low pain tolerance!'

Quickly standing, Minato successfully blocked -with his kunai- a small number of shuriken thrown his way, though not unscathed. He mildly heard the ANBU call out first blood in favor of Kakashi, but he hardly noticed the slight stinging on his arm where the shuriken had imbedded itself. While he noticed the slight flinch Kakashi allowed at the sight, Minato shrugged it off and ended up throwing his kunai at the grey-haired Jōnin. Not a moment later, he rushed through yet another pair of hand seals before sending a huge gust of wind toward them, adding to both the speed they were traveling at and the damage they would cause should they hit their target.

Kakashi, like Minato had predicted, quickly dodged the offending weapons, though not with the same ease he had been mocking him with the entire spar. It was with great pleasure that the ANBU then called out first blood in his favor. Getting Kakashi to be harmed at all during this spar could be considered an accomplishment in itself deserving of Genin status, especially when said Jōnin was none other than the Copy-Cat Nin.

Before either could continue, the Hokage's voice broke their concentration.

"Enough! Kakashi is the clear winner, though you did more than exceptional during the spar, Naruto." the aging Sandaime said kindly.

"You did pretty good, brat." Jiraiya said with a smirk. Leave it to Minato's kid to surpass him before he even finished his first year at the Academy.

Minato tried to keep an expressionless face while he heard Jiraiya compliment him, though he could tell he didn't manage as well as he had hoped. The man he once thought of as a father, was honored with being Naruto's godfather, yet he had allowed him to be treated worse than a common vermin! He had abandoned his responsibilities as a godfather, leaving a child alone in a village that killed him! He forgave the Hokage, Hiruzen was old, and his slight vacation as a retired shinobi had softened him to the point where none of the civilian council, nor his advisers, truly listened to him. Jiraiya had no such excuse, nor any viable excuse to run away from his responsibilities to Naruto. Tsunade was the same, but there was little to be done about her at the moment.

One thing was for certain, though. Jiraiya was one long hell of a way from ever being even slightly forgiven.

"That spar alone leads me to believe you are more than ready to take on the responsibilities as a Genin of Konohagakure." Weasel said, his mask facing the small blonde that had finally walked up the the trio, sweat and dirt clinging onto his face like a lifeline.

"Thank you, ANBU-san." Minato said politely.

"I believe the same." Sarutobi put in, "But I would still like to see how you fare with Weasel, is that fine?"

"Of course." Minato said, adrenaline still rushing through his veins. "If he still wants to...of course..." he added after a moment of hesitation.

"I would like to determine your power for myself, so no, I would not mind." Weasel replied in the same monotone voice he had been speaking in, though this time there was a slight hint, however small, that was almost excited.

"Good! You look a bit worse for wear though, Naruto." Sarutobi said with a smile, "Why don't we get some good food then come back and continue." while it was posed as a question, the other four knew it was more a commanding suggestion.

Bringing his orange book out from his back pocket, Kakashi said while reading in depth, "Right behind you, Hokage-sama."

Jiraiya noticed the book the Jōnin was reading and couldn't help the wide grin from afflicting his face, threatening to split it. Though he didn't notice the tightly controlled scowl Minato was holding back, the ANBU Weasel most certainly did. He didn't openly say anything, of course, but he did file that little tid bit of information for later. One never did quite know what information picked up randomly would be important in the future after all.

Breathing in a small breath, Minato brought out the most Naruto-esqe grin he could manage and asked, "Can we go to Ichiraku's Ramen, Old Man?!"

Chuckling at his antics, Hiruzen replied, "Sure, Naruto."

Their little break lasted a little over an hour and a half, enough time to eat and digest the food they all had eaten before they returned to the training ground, fully ready and prepared for the last spar.

"Alright, are you ready?" Sarutobi asked once more, and once again received two nods from the pair that stood out in the middle of the training ground facing each other in readied poses while the rest stood and watched intently.

"Very well." he continued before he continued, "Remember, this is a full on fight, everything goes but no fatal attacks. Winner by knockout or forfeit."

Seeing the two nod again, Sarutobi looked to Kakashi who silently received the unspoken message and like the ANBU before, called out in a rather bored tone, "Hajime!"

A/N: I'm sure you've all noticed that Lee is going to be a big aspect in Minato's life. I find him to be an underappreciated character in the series. Sure he's weird at times, but he's a really good guy! So I'm giving his due course in my story. :D