Manly Training! [Private, English]

"Were you drunk?" Minato quickly snapped at the next possible accusation. "Or high? Or whatever?"

"No, of course not! Seriously. I don't want to know what my step parents would've done if we were. Even now theyre less than approving of me drinking once in a while since there's still a little over three years left 'till I'm over the legal age, for us, anyway..."

Minato snorted. "I don't believe you. 'Things got a little foggy'. Pff."

"Do you really want to think of me having only done bad stuff to her?" he sounded.. Very much hurt. "I loved her, Minato. I still do, though not in that manner. There wasn't anything 'weird' or 'fishy' about this. Just.... Love. You should know how much it can fuck up your head once in a while. That night was one of those times. We were so caught up in each other that..." he sighed and stopped. "You know what? Forget it. You won't believe a thing I say, anyway."

Minato had an accusatory answer all lined up and ready to go - but then he visibly deflated, looking away, his entire body slumping. This... he was acting like a complete asshole. Just like those guys he wanted to protect Kushina from. He mumbled something and turned away from Kakashi, trying to gather enough composure to figure out what the hell he could say that could fix this.

While he waited, Kakashi sighed and went back to the balance training.

It felt like every single hair on his body stood on end, the monumental wrongness of Kushina ever loving anyone besides him, Minato, actually making him physically shiver. He kept seeing them kissing in his mind's eye, doing.. other stuff.. and it was just.. wrong - no matter what they said, both of them...

... And from the other end of the smaller hall, small curses when he sometimes did fall over.

Maybe he should just walk out? That'd certainly be easier.. but then Kakashi'd have won.. as if he hadn't already...

Eventually he gave up, and sighed. "Look... I get it. You're jealous anybody else had her. Don't you think I got jealous when she went to my step brother instead?"

Minato, still looking away, just nodded.

"See... It's perfectly normal." he ran a hand through his hair. "And to be honest, Minato... If any of us two has something to live up to, its me that's got to live up to you. You're the best thing that could've happened to her."

"Shut.. just shut up. With all that. Stop. I'm not that good. You - you just saw it. I.. I keep messing up," he muttered through clenched teeth. "Whenever.. it's something about her I just.. I just fuck things up."

"Not as bad as I did once in a while."

"You never did anything wrong to her. I did."

A weak snort. "I never did anything wrong to her? Yeah, right. Not at all like I broke her heart when I broke up with her, when I couldn't figure out my feelings.." he bit his lip. He really, really wasn't proud of that.

"That wasn't wrong. That was just fair. Do you know how much I've made her cry? That she nearly kept the baby for my sake, because I thought .. I thought it'd be perfect, having a kid with her? That she had to get a late abortion, and oh, by the way, those are really painful and.. and completely shitty?" A low, pained voice, still staring at the floor.

He sighed. "It could've happened to anyone, Minato."

"Yeah, and anyone probably would've handled it better than me. I - I failed her again. I just.. just walked out on her, afterwards. I.. I kinda wish you'd just kick my ass."

He shook his head. "It'd hurt her more than it'd hurt you."

MInato nodded. "Yeah, I know. Doesn't make me feel less shitty about it. I just.. sometimes, I look at her and I wonder what I'm going to mess up for her next."

He sighed. "You're really not as bad as you think you are, Minato."

"You never got her pregnant."

"... Only because I already knew how forgetful she is."

"See? Better than me. I just figured she.. knew all about that whole thing, so - it never occurred to me I needed to be careful." Sigh. "Then I walked out on her at your place."