Minato hadn't been all that nervous about his first real mission with Kakashi. Minato and Kakashi are relatively new to their respective ranks of jonin and chunin, but he's sure of their ability to complete the assignment.

This is the first time they've left Konoha and the forests immediately surrounding her.

The mission is a B-rank.

There is a war on.

These things alone should have made Minato pause when they'd set out. Instead, he'd simply waved goodbye to Kushina at the gates and set a steady pace through the trees toward the Land of Rice.

Minato thought he'd understood why the Third had sent them so far away from the main fighting with Iwa. At sixteen and holding the rank of jonin, Minato is qualified enough to fight in the thick of it. But Kakashi is young, only six though the kid argues fiercely that his birthday is only a few weeks away. Talented though he may be, he is inexperienced. With their advantage on the front slipping, there is no place for a youth's mistakes (they're not that desperate yet).

The mission is simple: intercept a supply caravan sent by Kumo for Iwa and redirect it to one of the Konoha camps, intercept point in Rice.

And it was simple.

There were five wagons, guarded by three Kumo ninja, all likely chunin. Easy.

They attack, and the ambush splits naturally into two fights. Minato against two brunets who look to be twins and Kakashi one-on-one with the remaining blonde.

The twins took more of his attention than he liked, both probably closer to tokubetsu jonin than his initial assessment. He'd managed a couple glances at Kakashi's fight, and was glad that at least the blonde one seemed to be a regular chunin.

Like many ninja battles, it was all over in a matter of minutes, and the two Konoha ninja were left with five supply wagons and three enemy bodies.

Then Minato realizes that there are three dead bodies. He'd only fought and eliminated two. Which means Kakashi killed the third.

When he looks over, Kakashi is calm; he is the perfect example of the Shinobi Rules in use.

He is a ninja.

He is a soldier.

Minato remembers his first kill. A B-rank, not unlike this one, though it had been with Jiraiya and the rest of his genin team. He was twelve at the time, which, in terms of numbers isn't that much older than Kakashi is now. But life isn't just about numbers and the difference between six years old and twelve years old is significant.

There is a difference between knowing a lesson and learning a lesson too, and Minato had just learned something that he should not have let slip from his mind so easily.

"Minato-sensei," Kakashi calls, probably to get the mission moving again. Minato's feeling a little numb, and that little voice is like a cold knife in his side.

The boy is aloof, as usual, eyes caught somewhere between disinterested and impatient. No sign that he's been affected by the fact that he's just killed someone. (Minato is too distracted to remember that those Rules are his coping mechanism, and not just how he is).

"Get the body scrolls."

Gritting his teeth, Minato can't stand how wrong it all is.

Because Kakashi is still clutching a kunai in his left hand, which means he'd put the backhand technique they'd been working on into action. They'd spent the last week improving Kakashi's dexterity in his left hand, had come up with several kunai maneuvers that were easier on his young fragile wrist.

Maneuvers Kakashi had just used to kill the blonde Kumo girl.

He thinks back to all the training they've done since he'd taken on the little prodigy as a student. They'd had so much fun training together. How was it that it was funmaking a six year old into a killer? All the sparring and chakra lessons and stamina exercises were all to become a better ninja.

Konoha's loyal soldier.

This small child, whose soft silver spikes of hair don't even reach his chest, is a soldier, like him, like all the others in the others in this ninja war. This tiny boy, whose hand isn't big enough to properly wrap around the standard body scroll, will fight and kill and maybe even die just like all the rest.

(But not like all the rest, because Kakashi is six and that has to mean something.)

He's not sure why this thought hits him so hard now. Kakashi is a ninja and ninjas with a village are all soldiers and murderers and torn from innocence too early.

The realization that the Third intended this, or at least hoped for this, is a bitter one. Minato had been right, in a way. Kakashi was sent on this mission because it suited his experience and skills. What he'd been foolishly nescient about, was the fact that their kind, benevolent Lord Third Hokage was giving Kakashi the experience he needed to be sent to the front. Genius like that should not be wasted, after all, no matter how young. Minato feels sick thinking about the fact that his student lost his first tooth three months ago and has ended a life before the second has even started to wiggle.

Kakashi will only gain more experience, fighting stronger opponents and killing more people. That's how to job goes.

Minato isn't a terribly naive or ignorant person, but he wishes, just for a little while, that he could remain oblivious to the drying blood on his student's hands.

Kakashi doesn't let go of the kunai until they're back in the village.