The weekend could be summarized by one word. Plotting. This week had something special happening and Kakashi had taken it upon himself to ensure that everything went off without a hitch. Granted, with only three weeks left after this week, Kakashi was hard pressed to find time to devote to his little pet project, but he was making time whenever he could. The main obstacles in his way were two simple things that took a lot of work.

The first obstacle was the amusement park field trip. Since it was going to take place the following week, there were all sorts of last minute details that were occurring and demanding attention. Students were haphazardly handing in permission slips, but not the money needed to go, or handing in the money but not the permission slips. Students with health concerns like asthma seemed to be forgetting the additional form that their parents needed to sign about what the needed to bring with them for such an exciting excursion. The bus company was calling to say that the buses that Kakashi's team had arranged were being called to a massive fieldtrip from another school across the state. The amusement park had the tickets mailed to them, but not enough. Etc, etc, etc.

Granted, some of these things would be happening right up until they were on the buses to leave next week, but the more major concerns had to be dealt with. Kakashi swore by Wednesday that he'd spent all of his free time on the phone with various parties to ensure that everything was set up. Even the students in his SSR ended up playing witness to a particularly frustrating call to the amusement park about the missing tickets that had started at the beginning of C Period and ended somewhere during E Period.

Still, aside from a few parents that needed to be called about slips or money, by Thursday morning, the field trip was finally as ready as it was going to be. Any more problems would be purely student related. For that, Kakashi was infinitely grateful.

The other major obstacle was even more time consuming. An email was sent out Tuesday morning asking about students that were close to losing credit due to truancy, absences, etc. Most people would think it a simple job of counting up absences, tardies, and seeing which met up with the requirements or not.

The first problem with that was, even with advancements in technology that allowed teachers to record attendance on the computers, not all teachers recorded it every period. Some didn't consider tardiness an issue unless it was an obviously chronic condition. Kakashi had a fine memory and recorded at the end of the day. However, several students had extraneous circumstances that needed to be taken into account. Chouji, for example, had many absences and late arrivals from when he was using. The young Akimachi had already been punished enough for that slip of conscience; the Scarecrow didn't feel he needed any other consequences. Then, there were students like Naruto and Hanamaru, who were had been in ISS frequently.

With the looking up (and adjusting) of those who were losing credit and ending up in summer school, it prompted Kakashi to start looking at the grades and who was missing work or had grades that needed to be made up. The students knew the drill when the end of a marking period came, but Kakashi still started to chase down students to help bring up their grades. Especially with end of the year grades being a computation of four quarters and the final. With next week being the last week to turn in work many students would need to be sat on in order to get any production out of them.

It was late Tuesday evening when Kakashi finally had everything set for those still missing work. He'd dug up (and remade) old copies of worksheets they needed, pulled out books that they might need to reread, and made lists of what everyone still owed. Thus, Wednesday morning, Kakashi made it all seem to occur to him at the last moment that time was running out and that the students still had work to turn in.

Of course, that meant that work was pouring in to be graded.

But despite these obstacles eating up massive chunks of the Scarecrow's free time, he couldn't keep the mischievous plotting smile off his face. He practically bounced through the halls on fake errands as he set up his trap for Friday. Naturally, his team knew what he was up to and helped him to some degree, but Kakashi wanted to do most of this trap himself. It was a self-imposed mission that had him going to the far reaches of the school to call in favors.

Finally, Wednesday, during F Period, a student seemed to notice his odd behavior and wanted to comment on it. The odd teams were across the hall with Iruka, and the English teacher was left with his quieter teams. This gave him time to do some prep work for the trap he was setting, and his desk was covered with construction paper, scissors, glue, glitter, and other various odds and ends. Granted, most of these items would be made by people like Kurenai and the art teachers, but Kakashi's contribution was going to be something necessary, even if nobody else understood why.

"Kakashi-sensei?"

The English teacher looked up. "Yes, Shino?"

The dark spectacled boy looked around Kakashi's very messy desk. "What are you doing?"

He pondered how to answer for a moment. Should he bring the students of the school at large into his trap? That would make hiding it much more difficult. But after the year the school had been having... Kakashi smiled. This was just too good an opportunity to pass up.

"I'm glad you asked."

And thus the student body was involved in his trap. As Kakashi wandered the halls, his ears picked up the whispers of various plans that the kids were doing to augment his trap and while underdeveloped, some of them were brilliant. On Thursday morning, he came across a pack of fifth graders swapping materials for their own contributions, the sixth grade had a banner that was subtly making its way through the various rooms, Neji, Tenten, and Li were seen in the woodshop after school making something. And yet, the object of their trap knew nothing.

Oh, this was so good.

Shino proved to be an invaluable aide. He provided regular information to the English teacher on how the student preparations were going on. The Aburame boy seemed to have a bug in every grade that he used to find out what was appropriate and what wasn't and provided the necessary warnings to Kakashi, who would call certain teachers and squish the bad offerings. Several students came up during Team Time to ask Kakashi and his team what they should do, get, make, etc. Team 7 was there during Team Thursday to help organize last minute details and Shino with the rest of his Team 8 were with the Scarecrow during C Period Friday before the trap was to be sprung, helping with last minute preparations, as well as other representatives from other grades.

The school had never seen such building-wide collaboration. Not with the students, nor with the faculty. Usual bickering points were put aside for Kakashi's well-laid trap. Several teachers came up to the English teacher and said that such an undertaking couldn't have been done by anyone else and Kakashi just threw off the compliment, saying he'd had a lot of help. Granted, his military training probably helped in some way, but this was just something that Needed to Be Done.

So Friday afternoon, after the lunch blocks were done, classes were called down to the auditorium one by one in secret by Shizune. The students were all silent in the large hall, no one wanting to spoil the surprise. Kakashi stayed with his F Period class as Shizune made the announcement over the loudspeakers for the victim of the trap to report to the auditorium.

When the door opened and Sandaime stepped in, the room roared with cheers and clapping, whistling, and a disjointed chorus of "Happy Birthday."

Kakashi's trap was sprung.

The Old Man stood at the doors, jaw agape, eyes large and ornamental pipe hanging from his lips. All around him students were yelling, clapping, reaching out to slap him on the back, all in a long path leading up to the stage where a bunch of folding tables had been set up. One bore a large cake with numerous candles, plates, napkins, cups, sodas and plastic flatware. The others were all devoted to cards, drawings, and presents of many shapes and sizes to the point of overflowing. Up on the stage Asuma stood grinning, his hitae-ate gleaming under the lights, with an eight-year-old on his back.

"Happy birthday, Grandpa!" the little boy shouted over the din, almost choking Asuma as he tried to climb onto the math teacher's shoulders.

With everyone singing and cheering, Sandaime stood frozen at the doors, staring at the sea of students. Finally, a tiny smirk tugged onto the old principal's lips. He looked up to the stage again, seeing the giant, glittered, hanging banner proclaiming its congratulations. The Old Man's eyes found Kakashi's visible one. Kakashi only grinned back.

The beloved principal walked up to the stage, smiling and getting hugged by various students who poured forth to shower him with their affection. He made slow progress getting to the stage, but the English teacher just smiled.

"Kakashi."

"Yes, Ebisu?"

"I must grudgingly admit that your preparations, though seemingly inane and overdone, have shamed even such an elite vice principal as myself."

The Scarecrow merely grinned.

"Your timing also remains impeccable."

That made Kakashi's ear twitch. "Oh?"

Ebisu nodded gravely, pushing his dark glasses up his nose. "You are such a well-informed member of the faculty. You know of the troubles that the seventh grade has gone through, as well as the issues that other grades had been having."

And how, Kakashi noted grimly. He was already learning which students would probably be bloodied each week for next year's seventh grade and which students would probably be pregnant. Plus, as always, he had heard some of the problems that the current eighth grade had gone through and the fifth grade. The entire school had had a difficult year.

"What you may not have heard is that a fifth grader's parents have been lobbying to remove Sandaime-sama and put in someone more... traditional."

Kakashi turned to the vice-principal. "You're joking, right?"

"Add that with all the times we've needed to call in police this year, the bad press, the board of education getting all screwed up with the last election, it's been a bad year to be an administrator."

Kakashi frowned deeply. "They won't get rid of the Old Man."

Ebisu shook his head. "No, but he may have to retire soon."

Why did such a good celebration have to be marred?

"Your timing is indelible. He needed this."

"I try."

With a dry chuckle, the vice-principal walked away. Meanwhile, Sandaime had finally arrived at the stage and had a plate of cake in one hand and his grandson clinging to his other.

"I suppose," the Old Man said to the gathered students, faculty and staff, "that this is where I should make some sort of speech?" The assembly chuckled. "Suffice to say, I'm speechless."

"Come on, Granpa," the boy whined, tugging at Sandaime's hand. "You always have something to say! You're always lecturing my ear off!"

The auditorium chuckled.

"Ah, Konohamaru, which lecture would you like me to offer?"

"LECTURE!" the grandson said indignantly. "You should make a speech, not a lecture!"

The old man laughed.

"If you don't mind, I'd rather have my cake."

Administration and staff started to gather on the stage where there was cake and drinks while the teachers manned their students. Around the perimeter of the room a teacher from each team had their own cake and drinks set up. For those with food allergies (of which, there were many) a separate table had been set up just under the stage by the specials teachers. Now Kakashi had been expecting to squash students into behaving properly and he'd even taken the liberty of preparing his room as a place for him to hold any boneheads who got out of control over the next two periods. But the English teacher was pleasantly surprised. Much like after he'd been stabbed, the student body was remarkably well behaved. The Scarecrow couldn't determine if it was because of the teacher presence circulating around the auditorium or if it as because they didn't want to ruin the celebration for such an adored principal.

Of whom, Sandaime was opening presents one by one on the stage with Konohamaru hovering on one side, opened presents at the other. The smile on the Old Man's face seemed to be growing exponentially and despite the disturbing news Ebisu had dropped earlier, the English teacher let the happiness surrounding him wash over his soul, buoying parts he didn't think needed uplifting.

With all the stress of the year, such a happy moment of release was sorely needed and something to cling to. After all, who knew what disaster would come dropping down on them next.

Kakashi flitted about the auditorium, checking in with fellow faculty, squishing the occasional students who were pushing boundaries, and checking in with his usual sources of gossip. The student body was doing quite will until Yugao Uzuki, one of the Spanish teachers of the school, dragged a pair of sullen sixth-graders over to the English teacher. Kakashi missed the rest of the party as his room slowly started to gain various troublemakers. Those that did arrive to his room were put about his usual detention rules of sitting completely still. He was pleased to note that only one seventh grader, from the other team, arrived in his room, and only two eighth graders, those two grades knowing better than to end up with him looming over their shoulders.

When the bell for the end of the day finally rang, Kakashi was rather pleased with how his little trap went. It was also unsurprising that the Old Man arrived in his room, another slice of cake in hand.

"Kakashi, you sneaky dog."

"Am I?" he replied cheekily. "I wouldn't have known."

Sandaime laughed heartily, taking a seat on the English teacher's soft couch. "You do an old man well. I must admit seeing such an outpouring from the student body was good for this old heart."

Kakashi shrugged. "It wasn't my original intent, but when the opportunity presented itself, I ran with it."

"But you kept the students silent about it."

"No," the English teacher smiled. "You did that. They wanted to surprise you. I didn't really do that much."

"You never take enough credit."

"Mah."

Sandaime merely smiled.

A bundle of energy burst into the room.

"Grandpa!"

"Get back here you little brat!" another bundle of energy shouted as it arrived.

"Leave me alone! What good are you? You don't know anything!"

"Hey! I'm in seventh grade and getting As, can you say the same thing?"

"Naruto," Kakashi stated in a low teasing tone, "who's older and more mature?"

"Me!"

"Then act like it."

Naruto pouted.

"Konohamaru," the Old Man eased his way to his feet. "What have I told you about running around?"

"But Grandpa! This loser--"

"Hey!"

"And what have I told you about being polite?"

The eight-year-old huffed and crossed his arms.

"Now I think you've had enough cake," Sandaime continued to smile broadly. "Let's go home."