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The blond-haired shinobi smiled at his young student. "We had a rough day today huh?"

Kakashi nodded. Training today had been extraordinarily difficult, although this was to be expected; he was no genin.

Minato peered down at his student. At nearly ten years of age he was younger than most chuunin, yet refused to socialize with kids his age, who were mostly still in the Academy or recently graduated genin. Minato knew that Kakashi's parents were no longer alive; the kid's father had taken his own life just a year and a half earlier. Minato frowned at the memory. Hatake Sakumo had chosen to save his comrades over the success of a critical mission, and Konohagakure had suffered great losses because of his decision. He quickly fell into disgrace and was shunned by his fellow ninja, including those he had saved. Soon, both his mind and body became weak...and depression consumed him completely. Minato had known Sakumo briefly—Jiraiya-sensei had introduced them sometime back—but he was over his death at this point. Hatake's only son, however, was not. Even though the young child would never show it, Minato could feel his sorrow and sense of betrayal toward his father. He did not like the heavy feeling burdened upon his student, so he took it upon himself to erase all the sadness from his heart. He would become a father figure if he had to. Kakashi had become too precious to him...

The silver-haired boy began to yawn. Halfway through, he quickly straightened up and forced it away.

His sensei laughed at this refusal to show weakness. Closing his eyes, he stretched out his arms and yawned, prompting the boy to force back another yawn. "Maa, I'm tired." He glanced sideways at him. "Go home, Kakashi."

The boy frowned. "No—"

"I mean it," he asserted. "We've been out here all day. Look at yourself." Instead, he squinted toward the setting sun. The glowing rays lit up his peaceful face and reached into the depths of his ocean blue eyes, and his hair looked to be a golden fire.

Kakashi admired the sight, gazing in awe at who appeared to be his guardian angel. He would forever protect this man. He vowed to it. After all, with his father dead, Minato-sensei had become his most important person. He felt a pang in his heart, remembering why his father had died. No...I can't keep him close to me. Emotions are useless, and only get in the way. Or he would only end up like his father someday. And that was what he was most afraid of. He kept some distance even when he was a young child—he had begun wearing a mask once he started at the Academy so he wouldn't be easily recognized as the son of the great Hatake Sakumo. He had been very proud of his father, but wanted desperately to step out of his shadow and become distinguished as a great ninja of his own. His reasoning for donning the secretive cloth only became stronger with his father's suicide—he did not want to be associated with Konoha's Shiroi Kiba for as long as he lived. He would take it off only when necessary, and he hated and avoided any situation where had to, especially in front of others. "But, Minato-sensei! I have to train...!" He looked up earnestly at his sensei. He did not get a response. "...Fine, I'll just stay then." He averted his gaze, inconspicuously hurt.

With a sigh, Minato waved an arm before placing them both behind his head as he turned away from the training grounds. "Ok, go ahead," he said carelessly.

Kakashi's half-lidded, dark grey eyes became darker as the sun continued to set while his sensei furthered the distance between them. Not wanting to watch him leave, he immediately turned around and faced four large, curiously aligned trees. He jumped back and pulled out eight shuriken, placing four in each hand. Making a wide "X" motion, he sliced his arms through the air and all but one shuriken pierced their targets. The middle two trees had a perfect square of shuriken, while the other three shuriken, although stuck to the intended outermost trees, refused to line up with the first four.

Sigh. He walked over to collect his weapons, stopping at the eighth shuriken that did not make its mark. He bent down and slowly picked it up, examining its smooth, metallic surface. A dull, faint reflection of the moon against the darkening sky stared back at him. Gai's voice suddenly intruded on his thoughts.

What are you doing? Don't stop! You must resume your training...else our next match is mine! Come on!

Ehh..that Gai. He was always coming up with insane training routines and would relentlessly challenge his eternal foe, Kakashi, to a ridiculous assortment of matches...he was already thinking of actually keeping score.

Minato watched from the shadows of an old oak tree as the masked ninja grabbed his silver hair in frustration. After a moment he heard him shout, "Again!" He saw him try the same exercise once more, and although not perfectly set, this time all the shuriken hit their respective trees. Following several more, increasingly successful attempts, the small yet effective weapon-distractions were collected for the final time. He then heard the sound of a poof! as three kage bunshin appeared in front of the boy. The jounin nodded, understanding what he must have been thinking.

He could not get stronger if he could not beat himself.

Folding his arms wearily, Minato leaned against the aged wood and watched with piqued interest.

"Yooshi. Iku zo!"

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A/N: Story title is "My Important Person." Reviews are highly appreciated, and I shall grant you one cyber cookie (oh look a pun) for your act of kindness~