Kakashi's excuse this time was about an interesting pedagogical tale in which he ran into Orochimaru who was browbeating a student. Now Orochimaru was a good guidance counselor for troubled kids. He always made them aspire to learn more and aim high for themselves, but the Snake Guy's personality sucked. Jiraiya was always far more approachable. In this tale, Orochimaru's browbeating was harsher than normal and the student he was talking down to was their very own Uchiha Sasuke. While Kakashi listened, it was clear that the Snake Guy was trying to get Sasuke to do well in school. The problem was that Sasuke was already doing well and, therefore, didn't need Orochimaru's "intervention".

So naturally, Kakashi did his own intervention.

"Ah, there you are, Sasuke."

The Uchiha boy looked over, his face stoic. "Kakashi-sensei."

"If you'll excuse me, Orochimaru, I think Sasuke and I need to have a little talk. Besides, I heard Jiraiya was looking for you in regards to one of Iruka's SED students."

Orochimaru gave an arrogant smirk, as was his usual style when dealing with teachers, and replied, "I know the one you mean." His gaze easily slid back to the short twelve year old. "Remember what I said, Sasuke."

"Hn."

As the Snake Guy slithered away, Kakashi shook his head. Orochimaru was good for some of their students, but he'd never fit in well with the faculty. He glanced down at Sasuke's stoic, if tightly held expression. "I don't know what you and he were talking about, and I won't pry. You'll talk to me if you want to," which was true enough. Sasuke only spoke up in class if the topic interested him. Otherwise, he'd stare out the window or bicker with other students in the class like Gaara or Naruto. "However, I know a little of how Orochimaru works. He isn't with you everyday. I think you need to make your own decisions, not whatever Orochimaru wants. You're an intelligent young man and can make your own informed choices. Remember, one viewpoint is not the only viewpoint."

"Hn."

Kakashi grinned widely. "That's what I like about you Sasuke, a man of few words," he patted him lightly on the shoulder, not missing Sasuke's wince. Kakashi said nothing, but raised an eyebrow as Sasuke's hand reached up and massaged his shoulder.

"My brother had me doing a lot of yard work yesterday, sensei. I'm a little sore."

"I see." That would make sense. Itachi would need to have a full-time job in order to keep food on the table for both himself and Sasuke. So, naturally, a lot of the round-the-house chores would fall on the seventh-grader's, apparently soar, shoulders.

Nothing ever worked as well as an excuse as working with the students.

"Fine, fine," Iruka grumbled, noting the incident in his notebook.

Kakashi grinned blithely while reading his book before dropping back to seriousness. "I see Naruto next period. How's he been?"

"Normal for Naruto," Asuma replied. "It's like nothing happened last week." Kurenai and Gai nodded.

"I met with his new foster parent today," Iruka stated. "A nice fellow named Yondaime. He's relatively new to the foster parent thing, but it looks like he might make a good one. I've talked a lot about what Naruto's disability is and what to expect. We'll see as he and Naruto feel each other out."

Kakashi nodded. It would be nice if Naruto had found a foster parent whom he could stay with, but given Naruto's track record, they'd all have to wait and see. He glanced at the clock, not liking how his encounter with Orochimaru had taken longer than he would have preferred. He may be tardy all the time, but Kakashi had standards with his tardiness.

"Kurenai, Gai, inform us tomorrow about the dance, I don't think you two will have enough time. Instead, since we're now starting October, I want to talk about Halloween."

"Oh?" Kurenai asked.

"Every year, the teams and departments of this noble, youthful facility choose themes for which to decorate themselves in costumes," Gai explained dramatically. "Here in the seventh grade, there is often a heated unofficial contest to see which team has the better costumes."

"Last year," Asuma added, "the office staff did monster movies, one of the fifth grade teams did clowns." He smirked. "We did The Wizard of Oz. Kakashi was the Scarecrow, obviously. Gai was the Lion, also obviously. I dressed up as the Tin-Man, and our old science teacher was the Wicked Witch of the West."

Iruka snorted. "Both students and faculty commented that her choice was somehow very fitting."

"What about you, Iruka?" Kurenai asked, smiling. "Which character were you? The Wizard?"

"Nope." Kakashi grinned broadly as the special education teacher started to blush brightly. "He was Dorothy. Blue dress, braids, and red slippers." Kurenai blinked, looked at Iruka, then burst out laughing. Everyone joined her, even the inflamed subject of laughter joining in with some small chuckles and it was a good release. Every now and then, you just had to laugh.

"In any event," Kakashi continued, "there's a sort of unofficial competition between us and the other seventh grade team." He grinned broadly. "And I just heard that the other team will be doing a pirate theme this year. So, of course, I thought we'd do a ninja theme."

Asuma fingered a missing cigarette, "I think we should take that idea up a notch. Instead of all of us dressed in black and wearing masks and hoods, maybe we should think of what a modern ninja would look like?"

The team latched onto the idea and brainstormed for the rest of the period. Gai, naturally, seemed to have many ideas (which Kakashi disregarded totally) and Kurenai offered to have the costumes tailored at a discount since her mother was a seamstress. The conversation was light and fun, with Kakashi offering more practical advice given his brief time in the military, Gai offering how ninja clothing might update (the idea of toe-less sneakers was fantastic, though Kakashi wouldn't admit that to his colleague), Iruka and Asuma discussed what the kids might want to see most out of the costumes, and Kurenai jotted it all down, promising designs by the end of the week. Over all, it went very well and Kakashi was glad that Kurenai had so much to contribute.

"You're late!"

"I'm sorry, I was looking through information about that regional conference I'm going to when it hit me. The light of heaven would be there and I had nothing appropriate to wear for encountering holiness."

Formalities settled, Kakashi slumped into his seat and pulled out his book. "So, Gai, Kurenai, how was the dance?"

"The youth of today are indeed presenting a myriad of challengers for we educators of tomorrow," Gai started. "Kurenai and I decided our best way to observe would be for me to watch the future gentleman, and for her to observe the young ladies."

Kurenai snorted. "Some of the girls were flocking to me and an eighth grader was spending every waking moment during that dance with his ‘honorable Gai-sensei'."

The Green Beast nodded. "Rock Lee was an instrumental source of gossip, both on how last year's class has progressed, and with giving rumors about our current students of youth." Reaching into the folder he'd brought with him, Gai pulled out copies of a sheet that he passed around. "That contains most of the information that I was able to subtly pull from my most beloved student. As you can see, there are several students who are viewed as the ‘loser' stigma, such as the brave Uzumaki Naruto, the loyal Inuzuka Kiba, and the plump Akimachi Chouji. The young gentleman shun these and the other students I have listed and avoid their classmates like they were some form of disease."

Gai paused, frowning. "From what I observed, such punitive attitudes have led to Kiba displaying very negative tendencies, almost like that of a bully, though he may be merely acting out. The boys of the class also know to stay far away from Kazegage Gaara, for he appears to have a violent reputation, while Uchiha Sasuke is merely aloof. I did not see our young Uchiha at the dance at all. Those, I believe, are the most talked about aspects of our current class."

"Very thorough, as usual," Asuma nodded. "And you, Kurenai?"

"While I hardly made a summary," she stated, "it is amazing what you can pick up by just listening. While some of the girls did flock to me, the most information I got was by the refreshments. I won't bore you with the who-likes-who dramas going on, but there were a few notable aspects. Many of the girls are starting to get crushes on our little Sasuke, to the point of destroying friendships. I have Yamanaka Ino and Haruno Sakura in my A period class, and they've been tight friends and good lab partners. Friday night, they got into a hissing match when they both discovered that they both liked Sasuke, even though Sasuke has turned down any girl that talks to him." Kurenai chuckled. "I swear, those two are setting themselves up as anime rivals. I expect that once they're both turned down they'll go back to being friends, but for now, they're bitter enemies.

"Speaking of Ino, she and Temari have some sort of thing going on between them. They never seem to back down from the other. There's no love loss there, that's for sure. In fact, most of the girls are very strong willed and are getting into their argumentative stage. Yuzuhi and Miname's 'bitch fights' won't be the only ones. About the only girl who didn't have much gossip about her was Hyuuga Hinata. She was a wallflower the entire time."

Gai nodded. "There is indeed a sense of competitive spirit among this years representatives of youth. I have an idea I'd like to try and I shall inform you all of its success or failure."

Kakashi turned a page in his book, absorbing the information. The students this year were going to have tendencies to arguments or maybe even fights. That matched with what he'd heard from some of the sixth grade teachers - that this class had a reputation of being rough. Ah well, his team could handle it. There'd be complaints and probably much needed support in various rooms, but Kakashi would make sure that his team would make it to the end of the year with at least one success story under each teacher's belt.

His excuse for being late Friday was accepted by everyone: an offering a food. Specifically, doughnuts, egg sandwiches, bacon, and sausage. Kakashi brought brunch for lunch. He slouched into his chair with two chocolate frosted nuts of dough and a bacon-egg-and-cheese sandwich. He knew he'd probably have an extra doughnut, but for now, he'd avoid it and just enjoy his food.

"So, Iruka, why the long face?" he started.

Iruka said nothing, but instead just took a large gulp of coffee. "My Demon Resource was particularly bad today. Takato and Hanamaru had one of those block art erasers and took great delight in tearing it up and throwing the pieces at Gaara to try and set him off. Kiba and Naruto were bickering over something inconsequential, but it ended up dragging Chouji and Shikamaru into the fray." He sighed, long and loud. "Takato has detention with me Monday and Hanamaru ended up getting written up for pressing matters. Naruto and Kiba also have detentions Monday with me. Because of their behavior." Sighing again, he bit fiercely into his doughnut. "What I wouldn't give to just have Sustained Silent Reading like the rest of you."

To that, Kakashi snorted. "It's a battle everyday to get them to read, you know that. Even though it has been proven that the more you read, the better your scores will be and the more intelligent you can become, I can guarantee that I'll have students who just stare at a book all year long."

"Besides," Asuma interjected, fingering a cigarette that wasn't there, "You might not have to worry about Shikamaru. I'm recommending him to eighth grade math."

Iruka perked up.

"Ah, our lazy youthful genius has at last been given a proper challenge?" Gai asked.

Asuma nodded. "You know how I have chess and shogi boards in my room for spare time and if kids come up for lunch, right? Well Shikamaru's at the board all the time. I started talking Algebra to him last week and he's not only keeping up with me, he's making deductive leaps that should probably put him in Geometry, not Algebra I. I just need to know the forms that are needed, if we need to do a PPT to get permission and the like."

Iruka noted all of this down in his notebook and moved his seat and lunch over to Asuma where the continued to talk about what paperwork Shikamaru would need.

"Chouji may be in a bad mood today," Kurenai added. "I think he must have a cold or something, because he was distracted and muddle-brained during class today. He actually tried to hit on me."

The room went silent.

"Please tell me you wrote him up," Asuma whispered, looking very much like a cigarette should be falling from his mouth.

"Of course," Kurenai smiled. "Of course, he needs to work on his pick-up lines. I drew the line when he tried to stroke my shoulder."

"That kid has balls," Kakashi stated flatly.

Shaking her head, their new science teacher continued, "I've had students hit on me before, usually by talking when I can't hear about how 'hot' I am. I just redirect and that's the end of it. Chouji came up to me when I was checking off homework this morning, started stroking my shoulder, and asked in a low presumably-seductive voice, how I was doing." She shrugged. "I threw him out for inappropriate behavior."

"I think our youthful Romeo should also be reported to guidance," Gai offered, "for he should not be displaying such ungentlemanly behavior. That is a breach in many ways. It is unfortunate that our society states quite firmly that teachers and students cannot be left alone, nor can they hug or touch each other in any way. Be careful, Kurenai, for while our administration will support such youthful educators as ourselves, you may be questioned, despite the fact that the student touched you, not the other way around."

"I know," Kurenai nodded. "That's why I threw him out. When I called the office, I gave them the run down. Plus, I have Haruno Sakura, Yamanka Ino, and Hyuuga Hinata who saw the event. I'll be fine."

Kakashi made a mental note to go down to the office after school and investigate. While the story itself was amusing, he was going to have to dig up some insurance for his teammate. What a lousy way to end the week. At least next week was only three days.

Author's Notes: Another setup chapter. After Naruto's arc, we needed something lighter and less flavored. Though I do admit, the idea of Iruka as Dorothy is genius. :D It was a good spot to start setting up the social structure of the grade - both because each group of kids/grades/classes have their own personalities, and because it starts spinning other plates for later in the year, particularly something that happens in January.

More plate spinning in this chapter, can you count all the threads we touched upon?