Kakashi was surprised when he entered his homeroom. Given his propensity to be late, Iruka had the habit of opening his room for him, since he was just across the hall. The tardy English teacher didn't keep anything valuable in his room aside from his computer, but students knew enough to not dare take that. What had surprised him was the Penny Drive jug on the counter by the wall. It was already almost a quarter full of various coins and dollar bills. Someone in the student council had evidently been billing this fundraiser over the weekend, because if Kakashi's estimation was anywhere close, there was already almost fifty dollars of coins in there. Someone was evidently a big spender.

Smiling as he dropped off his bag, Kakashi went across the hall to Gai's homeroom. His jar was fairly full as well. So Kakashi did only what was natural. He pulled out a twenty-dollar bill and dropped it into Gai's jar. Knowing Gai as he did, the competition between their two homerooms was about to flourish.

His excuse for being late E period was that he'd gone on a mythic and epic adventure for a working copier, traveling through many lands and facing many enemies, including the evil dragon Raido and wicked sorcerer Ebisu, before finally digging his way through the vast jungles known as the Finance Office to catch a glimpse of the sacred item, only to discover that he had to go all the way back to his room for the worksheet wanted to make copies with anyway.

Gai burst out laughing. "Such a harrowing adventure could only be endured, let alone told, by the illustrious Scarecrow Knight, Hatake Kakashi!"

"You're still late," Iruka grumbled, but there was a grin under his scowl.

Kakashi decided not to deem that worthy of response, instead slouching in his chair and pulling out his beloved book. "Did anyone else's homeroom have a lot of money in their jar this morning?" he asked.

"Yes," Kurenai said. "I was surprised it got started so quickly. It only begins today, right?"

"I think Haruno Sakura might be behind it," Kakashi offered. "She was mentioning at the council meeting last week that she was really excited about the idea of a penny drive. I get the feeling she's one of those self motivated kids."

Asuma rolled his eyes. "Yeah, self motivated about her grade. She wants exact details on what's expected for an A, whether or not there's a rubric, how much it counts against her grade. It's annoying."

"I find it refreshing," Gai countered. "To see such a beautiful young flower burn with the passion for knowledge is ever so rare in this besotted dust storm of apathetic youth."

"Wasn't there supposed to be a bake sale by the eighth grade?" Iruka asked, still taking notes. "When does that start?"

"It doesn't," Kurenai replied, flipping through her planner and writing in the boxes. "That new legislation passed last year bans the sale of unhealthy food. No cookies, turnovers, cupcakes, brownies, candy, or chocolate. Nobody will buy healthy food, so it was a no go." She looked up. "May I complain for a moment?" she asked.

"That's what we're here for," Kakashi answered, turning a page.

"In my last school I was a biology teacher. My degree and my passion was environmental science. But the seventh grade curriculum looks to be almost nothing but physics. I only have a passing knowledge of it, and my predecessor was the most disorganized person in the world; everything she left behind is trash, and I don't know the middle school standards and curriculum very well yet. I don't know how I'm going to get through the year." She sighed and rested her hand on a small fist. "It's very frustrating when I don't know what's coming next any more than the kids do."

Asuma sat forward. "Have you talked to the department head?"

Kurenai flushed. "I would, but I don't know who is the department head."

Kakashi looked up to the ceiling, filing through his brain. "That'd be Anko, right? She took over after your predecessor left."

"Short hair? Grey eyes?"

"Yes," Iruka said, pausing in his note taking. "Her room's clear across the building in the sixth grade wing. She's relatively new, came here three years ago, I think. Right after me. She's really strict with the students, but she's really nice once you get her one on one."

"When's her prep?" Asuma asked.

"Don't know. Let me call the office and check." Iruka got up and went to Asuma's phone.

"Thank you," the red-eyed science teacher said sincerely. "It just gets so frustrating."

"It always does," Gai said sympathetically. "Challenges arrive to test our spirit and our hearts every year; they always seem particularly difficult at a new school, because there is the added pressure of new faces and new routines and new regulations. But the purpose of a team is to support one another so that we may better instruct youth in the knowledge of tomorrow." He flashed a toothy grin and shoved a thumbs up in Kurenai's face. "Know that this team shall assist you in any way possible, as will our beloved Anko and our irreverent and illustrious principal!"

Asuma chortled even as Iruka came back from the phone. "Notice that he didn't say our vice principal," he said slyly.

"Now, now," Kakashi said, not bothering to look up from his book. "Ebisu means well. He's a stickler for the rules and is usually pretty good about student discipline."

Asuma had the presence of mind to balk. "You're defending him?!"

"He just has a swelled ego," Kakashi continued, ignoring Asuma's outburst. "He tends to think that he only needs to talk to important people, forgetting that the teacher is perhaps the most important person in the school."

The math teacher let out a relieved sigh. "I'll be right back. I need a cigarette after that scare!"

"Anko's prep is next period, unfortunately. But I talked to her briefly, and she said to drop by after school. She'll get you set up. She was seventh grade long before she switched to sixth."

"Alright," Kurenai said, making a note in her planner. "Thank you again."

"We should probably start talking about this year's class trip," Kakashi suggested. "The trip to the state capitol last year was disastrous."

"The present eighth grade was sadly intolerant of locations of higher learning and signs of working towards the future. They were bereft of understanding of the merit their lives had."

"You're just upset no one liked you're idea of a class trip," Kakashi said blithely.

"Why not someplace fun," Iruka suggested. "Like an amusement park or the beach. It'll be the end of the year, and they'll be itching to be someplace where they can scream."

"The beach is a four hour drive," Kakashi said, "and gas prices might get even more expensive by then. Besides, we'd need a very specific itinerary for them. An amusement park might be better."

"We can look some things up tomorrow," Kurenai said, glancing at the clock. "Do some quick pricing, see what we need versus what we have in the budget."

"Alright, we'll do it that way," Kakashi said just as the bell rang.

"What's the excuse this time?" Iruka asked under an intense glare.

"I got a good look at myself in the mirror and realized I have silver hair. I was trying to count all the experiences I had with the kids that generated them and tried to ascertain if it was enough to make my whole head this color."

Kurenai snickered behind her hand and Asuma had a distinct grin of amusement.

Kakashi grinned in triumph and took his normal slouched position in his chair, flipping open his book. "You had mentioned last week about PPTs?" he asked Iruka without even lifting his gaze.

"Oh, yes, that's right." Iruka dipped to the side and began rummaging under his chair before coming back up with a thick folder, conveniently with the label of PPT on the spine and front cover. He flipped it open and began rattling off names. "Most of them are next week; it'll be sort of a marathon for me. We'll start with Chouji, since he's Monday during team time."

"I'll go," Kakashi offered, raising his hand if not his gaze to volunteer.

Iruka rattled off the names one by one and when their PPTs were. He wasn't kidding when he said marathon, and the others took turns volunteering for the appointments that were compatible with their schedules. "Good," Iruka said finally. "The rest we'll have to get the specials teachers, but the Special Ed secretary will handle that, send of an email I expect. I'll call her and let her know which ones are still open." He got up to go to the phone.

"Students turn in their class dues during homeroom, right?" Kurenai asked.

"Yes," Gai replied. "Why?"

"I've had them trying to pass them off to me all day."

"Did you take them?"

"No, I told them to give it to their homeroom teacher."

Asuma frowned. "You should have taken it," he said slowly. "These kids have a hard time retaining information and remembering things that aren't emotional bombshells. The ones you turned down have probably used the money to buy lunch or a cell phone by now."

Kurenai frowned, looking ashamed. "I didn't know."

"Don't worry about it," Kakashi reassured. "It's their responsibility to remember. You can tell them that when they whine about paying twice. Be smug about it, too; it drives them nuts."

"That reminds me," Gai said, "do we know the results of the penny drive yet? After a week of enjoyable battle, a winner is to be announced at the end of today, right?"

"Yeah, the math teachers did all the counting." Asuma grinned. "We're considered 'impartial.' Overall, seventh grade won, and I have no doubt whatsoever it was because of you and Kakashi. The winning homeroom seventh grade was yours, I think."

"Aha! I am once again ahead of you, Kakashi!" the social studies teacher said expansively, looking pleased with himself. "You are no doubt chagrined from your epic defeat."

"Not really," Kakashi deadpanned.

"Oooh! You're cool noncommittal attitude lights the fire of competition even more forcefully than before! Your number one rival, the Green Beast, shall continue to overpower you!"

"Whatever."

"Green Beast?" Kurenai, again.

"Nickname," Iruka explained, sitting back down and taking up his pen again. "A lot of us have them. Kakashi is called the Scarecrow sometimes, Gai the Green Beast, Asuma is either Go-sama or Sudoku-sama, etc. Even the office and the guidance department have them."

"Orochimaru is called ‘the Snake Guy,' and Jiraiya is called 'Pervy Sage.'"

Kurenai's red eyes blinked before growing to saucer size. "'Pervy... Sage?" she repeated incredulously.

"That's for short," Iruka explained quickly, waving a hand reassuringly. "He was a science teacher before he became a guidance counselor, and he loved that experiment with frogs were you start and stop the heart. The students all called him the Perverted Toad Sage because of it. It shortened to Perverted Sage, and then just Pervy Sage. He even has a sign saying it on the back of his door. It amuses him and gives the kids something to laugh about."

"Getting back to money," Asuma interjected, his hand reaching for a cigarette he didn't have, "I finally made sense of the budget, as well as I'm going to at any rate." He pulled out a manila folder and opened it. "We have about two hundred dollars in the account right now."

"Not including the pizza, I assume," Kakashi said as he took a bite of his slice. Ah, Hawaiian topping.

"Including the pizza," Asuma retorted, smiling. "And the Chinese, and the donuts. It's less than I wanted, but more than I was expecting. I also did some checking. Six Flags is a little over three hours away, and they offer discount prices for schools and other bulk ticket sales. Even with that, the price for one hundred and twenty-six students plus teachers and chaperons is going to be a lot more than two hundred dollars. Plus we're footing the bills on several of the dances and the normal oddities like supplies and the like. We're going to need to do some serious fundraising this year if we're going to pull it off."

"Do you have a number to reach for?" Gai asked.

"Roughly. I have a few, but I need to figure out how generous this grade is on fundraisers and what kind of raisers we'll be doing throughout the year. Aside from the food, we don't spend much as a team, but if this year isn't all that giving, we may end up going on diets."

Kakashi looked up. "Not if we can help it." He liked eating with his team once a week. Social moments for a teacher were rare at best outside of the weekends, and it was a nice way to get a break in the middle of the day without trying to navigate around the faculty room politics and complaints and general dissent and jaded attitudes that often littered the faculty. "I was just going to suggest going out to dinner together the night of Open House. We'll all be here all day anyway."

"I'm for it," Iruka said. "I'll pay out of my own pocket if I have to."

"Like I said, I'll know more after we've had a few fundraisers."

"I see. Gossip?" Kakashi asked.

Iruka looked up but said nothing, instead finishing up his sentence. Kakashi knew the telltale signs. A guilty look, a nervous glance, a silent sigh, and a deep frown; something was bothering him, but he wasn't sure if he should mention it. Knowing Iruka, that meant he had something good. Kakashi spoke up, "What is it, Iruka?"

"It's probably nothing," Iruka said.

"If you noticed it, it must be something big."

Iruka looked down, abashed and flattered at the same time. "One of my kids, Uzumaki Naruto, he talks a lot. He chitters so fast that I can't make it out half the time, and his thoughts flitter back and forth so fast as he jumps from one thought to the next that it's hard to follow. But I've been getting a few hints. I don't think things are going well at home."

"Broken family?" Asuma asked.

"Foster family," Iruka corrected. "He's been an orphan since he was born; bounced back and forth all his life. This family he's been with for a little over a year and a half. They've emailed me a couple of times, but I get the feeling from Naruto that they're not in good straights. He talks about them arguing a lot. I hardly have any proof, I haven't even met them yet; their PPT is the week after next. I can't make that kind of judgment." He leaned back and rubbed the bridge of his scarred nose, still frowning.

"Well, we'll find out then, won't we?" Asuma stated.

"We can call Department of Child and Services if we have to," Kakashi reassured. "It's not like any of us haven't done it a dozen times or more for these kids. But let's wait on it; people argue all the time and it still turns out all right in the end. It may just be a rough patch, and because Naruto doesn't have the right examples he's misinterpreting it. All we can do right now is wait and see."

Author's Notes: More establishment here. Middle school teams all have their own routines and idiosyncrasies. One of the favorites we've come across is one team, once a week, going out to eat. The money comes from the team budget, of course, and it's a really nice treat for the teachers - a reward for dealing with kids day in and day out. There was also some more plate spinning. Naruto's arc sneaks up pretty quickly. Can you guess what's going to happen? There's also set up of later arcs occurring here. The first few chapters are always the most difficult, because a lot of this type of set up has to occur. And, of course, we're showing what teachers discuss and do, something that most students don't know.