𝑯𝑨𝑳𝑪𝒀𝑶𝑵 𝑶𝑩𝑳𝑰𝑽𝑰𝑶𝑵 •𝒃𝒙𝒃•

Academy Days ~ Age 10

He still didn't understand.

He still couldn't figure it out.

The answer.

Had Kakashi's father done the wrong thing?

Was it better to focus on the mission and not on your allies?

... Should shinobi not care for anything else?

No...

His brother wasn't like that.

Minato wasn't like that.

He cared for both Aizen and Kushina.

And Aizen had always thought Minato was amazing...

An amazing brother and an amazing shinobi.

So why...?

Why was Kakashi's father shunned?

Were the allies he saved not thankful? He rescued them... They were alive because of him...

Was it not enough?

Was it still not enough?

_

Somehow... Somehow, Aizen had managed to burst the water balloon. Even though it failed more times than it worked, he could still do it, so he counted it as a win.

The only problem was that he needed to do that in front of Minato, to prove that he could do it.

... He just hoped that it would work when he does it.

_

"Okay, you said you popped the balloon, right?" Minato stood in front of him with a hand on his hip.

"Right." Aizen answered, nervousness practically radiating off his body.

"Show me." Ah... There it was... The words he dreaded to hear.

Taking a deep breath, he stepped away and glanced at the balloon on his palm.

Was today his lucky day?

Well... He was about to find out.

He stared at the balloon and focused chakra on his palm. There was no reason to be nervous. He told himself. This is going to go just fine. He told himself.

The balloon shifted and multiple protrusions appeared on the rubber.

He just needed to spin the water a bit more.

Raising the output of chakra to spin the water, he watched as the rubber stretched and stretched and...

Water splashed him across the face.

He blinked and shook his hand, making the snapped rubber fall onto the grass beneath his feet. As he glanced ahead of himself, he noticed Minato was looking at him with an unusual expression.

"Is something the matter?" He questioned, making the man blink and look away for a moment.

Weird.

"No, nothing... It's just... I'm surprised you managed to do that in less than two days." Furrowing his brows, Aizen watched as Minato stepped closer to him. "I'm proud of you." The man reached a hand towards him and patted him on the head. "I'm really proud."

Hearing those words aimed at him, nonetheless hearing them from Minato, made Aizen inexplicably happy.

"Oh." Aizen blinked, not really knowing what to say as an answer to that.

Even though Minato was his older brother, the man only praised him on a few occasions.

Like, when he managed to use chakra to climb a tree or when he learned how to balance himself atop moving water. It was always something which was connected to shinobi skills.