C Period was normally prep for Kakashi's team, and he was certain the others were taking the time to finish grading homework, get ready for the next class, checking email, planning the rest of the week, cleaning the mess students always left, or (like he often did) just blew off the period and read. Kakashi's book was calling to him, certainly, but sadly he had a PPT with Iruka. It was the first one with Uzumaki Naruto's new foster father, and the English teacher had volunteered to be the teacher representative.

He gave his beloved book one last, mournful glance before leaving his room and locking the door behind him. He poked his head across the hall to see no sign of Iruka; he'd already left (probably at the beginning of the period) and the paras were working with the various kids from resource.

Kakashi wandered down the hall and rounded a corner to reach the main hall of the building, following it all the way to the guidance office. Walking in, he asked which conference room was being used for the PPT and entered.

"You're late!" Iruka called out. Kakashi didn't hear him, he was too busy staring.

"Oh," the object of his gaze said, standing. "I don't think we've met yet. Name's Yondaime, I'm Naruto's new foster father."

"... Hatake Kakashi," the English teacher mumbled. Numbly, he sat down and mindlessly signed off on the offered paperwork to note that he was in attendance. It was all subliminal, however, because he was still staring at Naruto's foster father.

The resemblance was startling. Yellow blond hair, somewhat long, trailing behind a white jacket. Round face and startlingly blue eyes. To others, he was a grown up version of Naruto, almost like he was the birth father. To Kakashi, however, he was someone else entirely. The man smiled and Kakashi felt an icy chill crawl down his spine.

"Is something wrong, Kakashi-sensei?" The teacher looked over and saw that Naruto, too, was here at the meeting. Iruka was next to the boy, giving him a concerned frown. Kakashi struggled to turn off the swirl of emotions that were churning through him, fighting to regain some semblance of balance and more importantly control.

"Shaaa," he drawled, pulling it out for longer than usual. "I'm just thinking of new way to torture your class." Blithe grin in place? Check. Singsong voice? Check. Now, wink into an innocent but all-too dangerous smile.

Naruto squinted at his teacher, frowning. "I don't think it can get worse, sensei! I mean just look at all the work you gave us last week!"

"Well," Kakashi quipped, willing color to return to his face, "If you have time to complain then obviously I haven't given you enough." It was an old line; it didn't require any thought. Naruto shrank back in fear and Kakashi felt much more in control. He just had to avoid looking at him, Yondaime.

"All right," Raido said, getting their attention, "I think we can start now. Thanks for showing, Kakashi-sensei."

"No problem."

"This is, I guess, a take two of the PPT we were supposed to have a few weeks ago, but didn't get around to," Raido continued slowly, trying to state everything delicately.

"Yeah, they were too busy finding the perfect guy, me," Yondaime said, laughing at his own joke. "Then Naruto and I had to go and get to know each other. Then work had to interrupt. Sorry about all the delays. So give it to me straight: will he live?" He laughed again, and it was the same laugh. Kakashi slouched further into his chair, trying in vain to lower himself enough as to be invisible.

Iruka was laughing politely. "Well, Yondaime-san, that all depends on how much trouble Naruto gets into." The room chuckled lightly, except for Kakashi, who could only slouch further. "He has a ludicrously short attention span."

"What's 'ludicrously'?" the boy asked.

"It's the same as ridiculous," Yondaime said, ruffling the boy's hair. "He's saying that you can't hold a thought for more than five seconds. That's why you like those twitch video games so much. It's why you can cover six topics of conversation in as many minutes."

"Aw, I'm not that bad!" Naruto complained.

"Be that as it may," Raido said, "we wanted to go over the goals for this year since you don't know them, and the steps that are in place to ensure success."

Iruka picked up from there. "Apparently, Naruto's grades last year weren't all that great. So this year we've set the goals for Cs in his academic classes. With the last parents we sent home an email every week letting them know his progress and any outstanding occurrences of behavior. Do you want us to keep that up?"

"Sure, why not?" Yondaime said. He was still smiling. "Does that include his pranks? He's already pulled some rather spectacular stunts at home."

"I have not!"

"What about when you jumped off the banister of the second floor with only a few pillows as a cushion?"

"That wasn't a prank!"

"Okay, then how about just yesterday when you dyed all my shorts neon green? I still have to get you to pay for all the replacements."

Raido blinked. "Has Naruto been a problem?"

The blond boy froze, knowing where that question lead to all too well.

"Hell no," Yondaime replied. "He's a twelve year old boy entering puberty. I remember how I was at that age, and it's all perfectly normal. I'd be more concerned if he wasn't doing these things. He's a brat, but I like him just the same."

Naruto's eyes were noticeably shiny, and Iruka looked at the boy with a broad smile of satisfaction. "What did I tell you?" he eyes seemed to say. "Everything worked out just fine."

They finished with the rest of the formalities, filling in Yondaime of Naruto's academic history and letting him know how he was currently doing in his classes, etc. Yondaime asked a few questions, such as if the child ate anything other than ramen, and what sort of books on ADHD he should get since he'd never had a child with it, and so on.

After the meeting Iruka left with Naruto (to deposit him safely in class, to be sure), and Yondaime asked a little more about what had happened with the previous foster parents. Raido gave the broad generalities, and Kakashi was about ready to disappear when he asked, "Kakashi-sensei, what's this literary group thing Naruto keeps talking about? He's always going to this girl's house, it is legit?"

The true sign of a good foster parent. Kakashi had had time to shore himself up properly, and he was able to answer the question without much incident. He explained the set up of the team-competition-individual grade motivators and the team selections; as well as giving a brief overview of Haruno Sakura and why she was one of his teammates and the talk he'd had with her over how she was his stability.

"Naruto is horrified at the idea of again being rejected, again written off, again judged as impossible, unchangeable, and unlovable," Kakashi explained. "How many foster families had he gone through? How many times had his chances of a happy life, a chance at hope of even the faintest lights, be violently jerked away from him? He's perpetually cheerful because, simply put, to be otherwise would drive him mad. He has eternal optimism, he's constantly shouting out positive platitudes, simply because he has to believe that good things would happen, to fight against the pattern he knew too well." He shrugged. "At least that's what I see."

Yondaime nodded, his face serious. "You've only known him since, what, September? That's pretty perceptive."

Kakashi shrugged again, suddenly feeling irrationally nervous. He wanted to leave. Now.

"I have one last question," the tall blond man said. "Who do I remind you of?"

It startled him, to tell the truth. He looked around and realized that the two of them were the only ones left in the room. It all felt suddenly very surreal, and Kakashi wondered in a detached thought if he'd finally snapped and crossed over that invisible line to insanity that he regularly walked next to.

"... Do you have a grandfather, or an uncle maybe, that used to go by the nickname Yellow Flash?" Kakashi later refused to believe that he had actually asked the question, refused to acknowledge that this man who looked so much like him had not only seen Kakashi's reaction, but wanted to know more about it.

Yondaime frowned, thinking back. "No, not that I know of. Why? Friend of yours?"

"He's dead."

And that was all Kakashi could say before he quickly left the room. The halls were filled to overflowing with students, the bell had rung and fourth period was about to begin. He had maybe a hundred feet to put a cease-fire on all the memories that were launching back and forth in his head, squish and kick his emotions under a rug and glue on the demonic-yet-innocent grin on his face as he entered the classroom.

He was late, of course.

Kakashi arrived later than usual the next day, having lingered in various places around his apartment as he tried to shake off memories. Between Veteran's Day and this, he wasn't entirely sure he should just call in sick. But then, work was the best way to get his mind off it all. He'd made a promise to make something of his life; he spent every day remembering it because if he didn't, if he didn't try to make a difference in one student's life, if he didn't work his hardest, it would be insult to him, to them. He loved them too much, respected them too much, to tarnish their memory with his weakness.

He took a very deep breath before stepping out of his car. He'd deliberately parked as close to the school as he could, because if he didn't, he was sure his nerve would break.

He opened the doors, stepped into the yells and shouts and random bits of students, and for a moment just stood there, absorbing the sound, the smell of whiteboard marker, the thuds of running.

"Kakashi-sensei! What are you doing here?" He looked down to see an eighth grader, Tenten.

"Oh, just sleeping while standing. I have to do it sometime, don't I?"

"Sensei, you're just so strange!"

And life was back to normal. Kakashi entered his room and barely paid any mind to the veritable sea of hats: baseball, cowboy, berets, headbands, and even a clever student who had decided to wear a football helmet. It was Hat Day after all, the second day of Spirit Week. He paused for a moment, surveying the hats more closely, and happily noted that there were no offensive hats yet. No beer, no rabbit heads, no swears. Good, maybe this grade would have a sense or propriety.

Which reminded him, as he waited for morning announcement to end, that he had an announcement of his own.

"Okay," he said lightly, eyeing the collection of twelve year olds, "I just want to take the opportunity to remind you of something. Tomorrow is Sports Day, Thursday is Twin Day; there shouldn't be any problems. Friday is, of course Halloween, and you all will no doubt be dressing up. I just wanted to remind you that how you dress still falls under the school dress code." He pulled out the copies he'd made the previous day after school and handed them out. "I'm sure you all read the student handbook page by page so this page should look familiar," he said lightly, taking note as to how many of them picked up the sarcasm, "but I thought I'd remind you: clothing of offensive nature, such as hats or shirts that have beer logos, swears, racial slurs, or derogatory comments; shorts and/or skirts that are too short; exposed navals and bra straps;" several students blushed and coughed, "and indecent exposure, etc. The first offense for any of these is a five-day OSS.

"Oh, and one more thing," he added. The homeroom visibly drew back, already conditioned to dread One More Thing. "Have fun."

The bell rang, and they were off.

Team Time passed relatively uneventfully. Kurenai had tossed three kids across the day to the office because of offensive hats, and Gai was again proclaiming his genius at the competitive pairs and the resounding success they were turning out to be. Iruka gave an overview of the PPT with Yondaime and his impressions of the man, and Kakashi pleased himself with adding a comment or two of his own without incident.

When F period started, they split the class into their respective teams, and Iruka took the even numbers off to his room.

It wasn't long, however, before Naruto was at Kakashi's desk, and oddly pensive look on his face. "Kakashi-sensei," he said slowly, in the quietest voice he'd ever heard from the boy. "Do you know why I'm with Yondaime now; I mean what lead up to it?"

An odd bell rung in Kakashi's mind, and he wondered if it was a warning bell or not. Nevertheless he worded his reply very carefully. "I don't know all the gritty details, if that's what you mean. Iruka passed on that something happened, but that you wanted to keep it to yourself. Why?"

"You... know me... don't you sensei?" Naruto tried again, trying to aim at something specific.

"I know you as well as I know any of my students. Why?"

Naruto frowned, trying to work through whatever was going on in his head. Kakashi looked over and saw that his teammates, Sasuke and Sakura, were glancing over but otherwise trying to pretend that Naruto wasn't missing. The rest of the class was talking quietly, the proper noise level of a working class.

"Sensei, if something really shitty happened to you, do you share it with other people? What I mean is," and Naruto paused again, his blond head dipped low, his fists opening and closing. "If two people are working with you, and you kinda feel like they might be okay, do you tell them about that shitty thing?"

Kakashi had to work very quickly to suppress his grin, covering it by shifting in his seat. "Well," he said. "That just sort of depends, doesn't it? Being guarded is a natural thing. If you've been hurt enough it becomes almost second nature." The English teacher kept his voice even, almost light, but keeping enough seriousness in it to give Naruto's answer proper respect as he continued. "When that happens, you tend to just believe in the worst before anything even happens. Picking people to be friends is suddenly very hard, and you feel really lonely in the meantime. When you're finally ready to have friends, you're lost on how to get them. Am I right?"

Naruto nodded, understanding Kakashi's words all too well. It was easy, really, because Kakashi had gone through it all himself.

"I'll tell you what you do. Make a test."

"... Huh?"

"Make a test. Ask a question and then grade their answer. If their answer is an A, and it has to be an A, then they can be classified as friends and you can tell them about your bad thing. If they don't pass, then it's probably best to keep it to yourself until they do pass your questions. Does that make sense?"

"Well, yeah, I guess," Naruto replied. He threw a glance filled with something almost like longing to his teammates, Sasuke and Sakura. "But what kind of question do I ask?"

Kakashi leaned back, as if giving it some thought. "Well, I don't really know," he answered. "After all, I don't know all your life experiences; so I don't know what's important enough to you to use it as a test question. Only you know the curriculum, right?" He smiled.

A rare look slowly grew on Naruto's face: one of complete understanding. The orange clad youth rejoined his teammates and picked up his book to read.

"What was the heavy conversation about?" the pink haired Sakura asked.

"He was telling me about how you make a good test question," Naruto replied. "You have to really know the curriculum."

"Hn."

The smile was open now. That was two out of three; the only one left was Sasuke. Once he bought into it, he knew that this would be his star team.

"You should all just leave me the fuck alone!!" Kakashi stood straight up and made a beeline to the owner of the voice: Kazekage Gaara. The redheaded goth boy was standing at his desk, his normally apathetic green eyes filled with rage, his lips curled into a vicious snarl. He immediately got in front of the boy.

"Why don't we take this outside?" the teacher asked in a light, soft voice.

Gaara's glare was intense, and whatever rage was boiling through him was instantly directed at Kakashi. Good, better him than the students. "You're team shit is a fucking stupid idea! I should kill you for making me go through this shit!"

Kakashi flattened his gaze. "I know you don't really mean that," he said in a low, serious voice. "Because if you did, the trouble you'd be in would be astronomical."

"I don't give a fuck about your fucking authority! You can't make me do anything!" Spittle ejected from his mouth, he was so angry. The boy suddenly grabbed his head and started groaning. Falling to his knees, Gaara started swaying back and forth, shaking his head and generating more groans and keens. Kakashi turned around to the class.

"Naruto. Get Iruka-sensei. Sakura, find Tsunade. Sasuke, go to the office and tell the principal what's happening."

Team 7 immediately dispersed and Kakashi crouched down, reworking his presence from one of authority to one of comfort. He glanced up and looked at Gaara's teammates, Temari and Kankuro. "What happened?" he asked quietly.

"I don't know," Temari whispered, he face pale with the color of fear. "We were reading and he suddenly started groaning. Kankuro asked what was wrong and he just flipped out!"

"Sshut up," Gaara slurred. "Shut up!"

Temari visibly backed away, leaning further back in her seat, afraid that getting up would set Gaara off further.

Iruka appeared and immediately put a hand on Gaara's shoulder, offering soothing words and soft platitudes before Tsunade arrived. Between the two of them they were able to convince Gaara that everything was fine and that it was okay to go to the Health Office. The class breathed an audible sigh of relief when he left.

Gaara was absent for two days - put in the isolated classrooms until his medication (the cause of the outburst) was readjusted - and came back Friday, just in time for Halloween. The Sports Day went off without a hitch, and Thursday was noted by the ludicrous attempt by Gai to dress as Kakashi's Twin. For some reason, the social studies teacher, dressed in rumpled clothes, a poor-fitting grey wig, a stage makeup scar, and a not-perfect slouch just looked rather... silly. Kakashi informed Gai that he was just too straight-laced to pull off being lackadaisical. Gai's steaming could be heard for hours thereafter.

Thursday also brought the completed costumes by Kurenai's mother. It was a stunning job to say the least: simple pants and shirts (or, in Gai's case, a green jumpsuit for the Green Beast) with the altered combat vests, gauze for bindings, and some magnificently constructed open toed sneakers. There were pouches to keep kunai and other accessories, for not only the smalls of their backs, but to wrap around their legs as well. The best feature were the hitae'ates; the navy blue headbands had a metal plate sewn into them with the Konoha Middle School stationary insignia - a stylized leaf - stamped into it. Asuma immediately locked his door as they examined the costumes in detail, noting the personal touches and little hints that made each costume unique. Gai had the green jumpsuit, for example, and weights for his legs given his propensity for physical activity. Asuma had a sash with some kind of insignia on it. Kakashi had been given fingerless gloves with metal bands sewn onto their backs and a mask. Kurenai had healed shoes and a silk wrap designed to look like scrolls.

Kakashi looked at his costume, his old combat vest, and was half surprised to discover that the bullet holes had been patched and fixed. He looked at the old sources of pain and was glad to note that it didn't come. The clothes were unrecognizable, and therefore safe to look at. He examined his costume and realized that he felt good about wearing these old clothes in a new way. Gai's comment about new memories had been right, and he made a mental note to deliberately lose the next challenge as a thank you to the social studies teacher.

The student costumes on Friday varied widely. There were pirates, superheroes, comic book figures, game characters, TV personalities, knights, princesses, angels, Frankensteins, ballerinas, just to name a few. Kakashi did a double take when he saw not one but two Cloud Strifes of Final Fantasy fame talking to each other, next to a giant Snoopy and what looked to be one of those transforming mecha from a recent movie.

The faculty were again themed: the office had a nursery rhyme theme, with Tsunade as Mother Goose, Shizune as Little Red Riding Hood, Jiraiya and Orochimaru as Hansel and Gretel, and old man Sarutobi as the Boy who Cried Wolf. Fifth grade were seventies movie stars, sixth grade was split between Jocks and Nerds, eighth grade were all anime characters, and of course the seventh grade were pirates and ninjas.

As Kakashi walked through the halls, mask in place, headband crooked over his newer eye, and cardboard kunai spinning lightly in his hands, he made about three steps into his section of the hall before he was bombarded with one Very Important Question:

"Where can I get one of those headbands?"

Every. Single. Student. He ran into asked that exact question, word for word. He walked past his room all together and made straight for Kurenai's corner of the hall.

"I think we have a winner," he said casually.

The science teacher made right for him, a bright smile on her face. "Kakashi-sensei, I just had the most brilliant idea! I just got off the phone with my mother, and she said that making these were very easy, and barely cost her anything. I think we have the makings of a beautiful fundraiser here. She can make them and we can sell them, oh, for five dollars or something. It's an instant hit and money will come pouring into the grade!"

Kakashi grinned widely, seen even through the mask. "Good. I leave it in your hands. Give me a detailed plan sometime next week on how it will run, and we can go about making flyers and announcements."

"I will!" Kurenai replied. "I haven't been this excited about fundraising in ages! This was just the spark I needed!"

The English teacher agreed. He was starting to see signs of that spark he'd seen in her interview. Perhaps she was just a late bloomer, didn't show her true ability until she was settled. Iruka had been like that when he'd first joined, and so Kakashi gave the new teacher a little more time.

The risk with days like Halloween, or Valentine's Day, or other such holidays came in various forms. For one, the students were all dressed strangely, of course, and gave them pause for conversation; plans for trick or treating that evening, planning possible pranks, and the like. But the biggest worry for these kinds of days began with a capital C.

Candy.

Middle school students were a handful to begin with, because they had all the energy of their elementary school years and were just starting to enter into the angst fest known as their high school years; add sugar of any kind to the mix was like putting oil on a grease fire, or something equally horrific. There were students like Haruno Sakura, thoughtful and generous, who handed out candy in all of their classes, which in turn made the students ask if they could eat it then and there, and things generally degraded from there as the sugar started to melt into their bloodstreams. Not one, but three students in different classes all came to Kakashi (sometimes sober-face, usually not) saying that there was blood all over the walls of the bathroom and it was really scary. Five kids donated their candy stock to the English teacher because he caught them trying to eat it in his class. He lost track of the number of times a student would walk by his door and shout, "BOO!" in the hopes of startling the not-quite unsuspecting students.

So, by the time fifth period arrived and Asuma came in with the pizza, everyone was a little raw, to say the least. And they still had the pep rally to go through.

"Remind me again why we do this every year?" Asuma asked.

"The youth like it," Gai answered, a few degrees shy of philosophically.

"So torture like this is okay so long as the kids like it? Somebody give me some hemlock." The math teacher dropped his head audibly on the desk, moaning something about unfairness.

"If you don't like it," Kakashi replied blithely, "take it up with your old man."

"Like hell I will."

"It's your choice."

Kurenai interrupted to explain her idea of the headband fundraiser, and that perked Asuma up noticeably, the team treasurer already calculating projected income based on the general opinion of the student body. He liked the figures he was coming up with.

"We don't have to limit it to just the seventh grade, either; we can open it up to the entire school and see if we can get the other students interested to." He looked up. "Can your mother do triangular bandanas, too? I forget their actual name."

"I think so," Kurenai replied, pulling out her cell phone. "Let me leave a message."

"We can do flyers like: 'Are you a pirate or a ninja?' and give them the option of the bandanas or the headbands." And so it went.

After team came F period, and Kakashi noted that Team 7 immediately sat together, head huddled closely. Had Naruto told them? Kakashi didn't ask, but his tone was decidedly more singsong than normal. Iruka noticed it in combination with his prized Naruto, and was also noticeably cheerier.

Last period, however, the class assembled only for a few minutes before Shizune made the announcement to report to the gym. Kakashi and his team filed through the halls, mingling with Gai and Kurenai as they made their way to the gym. The bleachers were already half full when they arrived, the fifth and sixth graders swelling up one side of the gym. Their students immediately made beelines to the choice seats - up in back, before Kakashi and the others levels glares and various directional gestures to get them seated where they were supposed to be. The eighth graders soon followed, and the teachers themselves spread out. Kakashi and Gai leaned against one of the padded walls to better observe the giant student body. Someone had been blackmailed into being the school mascot, and he or she was running around trying to stir up the already worked-up kids. There was a lot of screaming, and Kakashi, already prepared, pulled out earplugs and handed an extra pair to the social studies teacher next to him.

"Ah, Kakashi, you are as always prepared for every contingency."

"Ah."

"But never fear, some day I will find you unprepared and be there to help you out, and then I shall surpass you!"

"Ah."

"Oooh! Even in the midst of such fiery school patriotism and youthful energy you remain ever cool and aloof!"

"Ah."

"Haaah! Someday I will get a reaction out of you and then I will surpass you!"

"Gai? You're repeating yourself now. You'd better stop while you're ahead."

"Aha! You admit that I'm ahead! Worry not, Kakashi! You will catch up eventually!"

Kakashi stopped replying at that point. It was not long after that the old man himself, Sandaime, came out and took a microphone from the previously set up stand.

"Helloooooooo Konoha Middle!" he called out. His old voice carried very well, and while there was a passion in it, it did not have the energy for injecting spirit into the student body. The crowd yelled politely, but it wasn't nearly as loud as it could have been.

"I just want to take a moment to thank you all for being here, and that this year, is going to be the best year ever!" The crown cheered again, but there were a noticeable number of catcalls and a few boos. "Before I'm booed off completely," the principal admitted, a faint grin on his face, "I'll hand off the mike to a man who can properly excite you! Ladies and gentlemen, give a warm welcome to the Toad Sage himself: Jiraiyaaaaa!"

Kakashi pushed his earplugs in further to stave off the sheer volume. The old man ran out into the gymnasium, waving and grinning wildly. Thus began the pep rally, as he listed off the names of the students on the various sports teams, said students running out in their uniforms and waiving to the crowd. There was a lot of screaming and shouting; the four grades in competition with each other over which one was the loudest, i.e. the coolest. The cheerleaders did nothing to help matters; Kakashi saw Ino in particular was doing her kicks very high and much wider than the rest of the girls. She probably didn't realize what she was doing, most girls at that age didn't, but it was frankly disturbing to see such behavior from a twelve-year old. Kakashi glanced at Gai and saw that he'd seen it too, a deep frown on his face as his eyes were locked onto the spectacle.

The last of the teams were announced, and it was perfectly timed as the bell rang and the students poured out of the bleachers to the buses and their lockers.

Kakashi lingered, his team gathering about him. They shared their various plans for Halloween and the weekend in general, before dispersing to go home themselves.

Ah, Kakashi felt, a good day.

Gaara's plate was spun a little bit, too. Something's is up with him. We're not saying what. At least not yet.

And yes, for this story Yellow Flash and Yondaime are two different people. It just worked out better when we were doing the planning. Poor Kakashi. He's going to get even more reminders of his past in the weeks to come.