A Flicker In Time

Chapter 1

Minato left the house that morning with Kushina yelling after him to invite his kiddos over for a New Year's dinner. Minato was quick to agree, flashing to the training fields before Kushina could shove a grocery list in his hands.

He had known it was coming and he could already picture Kushina's furious look when she stomped out of the front door, only to realize that he wasn't anywhere in sight. Good thing his students would be there to serve as a buffer tonight.

Training proceeded in the normal manner. Individual training in the morning followed by a team lunch, then group training in the afternoon. It was one of those rare days that Minato had a day off and judging by Kakashi's eagerness to spar with him, his student knew it too. And he wanted to make the most of his sensei's free time.

Minato would gladly train with Kakashi anytime he asked. A prodigy in his own right, Kakashi always kept Minato on his toes, lest he pulled another trick from out of nowhere. Minato wasn't sure how he was learning all these jutsus on his own, but he learned to not underestimate the chunin after the genjutsu stunt Kakashi had pulled on him last time.

For a chunin, Kakashi was certainly impressive and Minato was certain that he would make it to jonin soon.

However, Minato had two other students to train as well. He couldn't exactly pick favorites, even though everyone else around him would tell him that it was painfully obvious who his favorite was. In Minato's defense, it only seemed like that because he had been training Kakashi for much longer than the other two.

At least that's what Minato told himself.

While Rin never said anything about it, Obito didn't hesitate to make his frustrations known.

Following the second individual spar with Kakashi, Obito stomped over to him, with Rin following closely behind him. She tugged on his arm, trying to calm his rage, but Obito's thoughts were too clouded with fury to process anything she was saying.

"Sensei!" Obito shouted, pointing an accusing finger at the duo. "When are you going to spar with me? You told me it would be my turn after the last spar!"

Minato chuckled lightly, rubbing the back of his neck. "Ah sorry Obito, guess we got a bit carried away."

"Sure, sure," Obito responded. "But it's my turn now."

Kakashi shrugged, moving to step out of the way. On his way to the sidelines, his shoulder brushed against Obito's, head turning and eyes locking on to Obito's gaze.

"Good luck lasting five minutes against Sensei."

Obito sputtered, whirling around with his fist raised ready to clock the arrogant prodigy, but Kakashi was already out of reach. He stood next to Rin, an eyebrow raised at him, almost like he was taunting him to come after him. With a vicious glare, Obito dropped his fist back to his side and walked towards Minato.

Just watch and see, Bakakashi, Obito thought angrily. One day, I'll become an even better shinobi than you'll ever be!

Obito lost the match, but that was to be expected. Even the oh so arrogant prodigy had never gotten the bells from Minato. As Obito walked to rejoin Rin on the sidelines, he traded a glare with Kakashi. As usual, Kakashi decided to ignore him.