It was Friday before Iruka was finally able to join them in team time. Kakashi had been checking in on the special education teacher during his prep during C period and during homeroom from time to time. When he'd said there'd be a marathon of PPTs, he hadn't been kidding. Iruka hadn't had a free period yet that week and had, on occasion, missed a class that he co-taught in order to get through the almost thirty meetings he was trying to cram in.

So when Kakashi meandered around the corner and into Asuma's room, Iruka only offered a half-hearted proclamation of his tardiness. If Iruka was that tired, plus having Open House or Parent-Teacher Conferences always made for a long day. So Kakashi slouched into his preferred seat. Iruka, he decided, needed a break.

"Sorry for the delay," he started, "I had the most interesting conversation with Kiba."

"Oh?" Asuma asked, a wry grin on his face.

"Indeed. He asked me if it was true if Iruka and I hated each other."

"Hated?" Kurenai raised an eyebrow. "Should I even ask?"

Iruka looked over to Kakashi, a wary expression covering his face.

Good. Kakashi had him. "Well, it seems that the rumor mill around the students has been in full production. Apparently, Iruka and I despise each other so much, detest working together to such a degree, that we had a fight involving sharp and pointy objects, hence the scar over my eye and over Iruka's nose."

The special ed teacher snorted, a bemused grin covering his face while Asuma and Gai chuckled. Excellent. Mission accomplished. Stage One in Relaxed Iruka was a success.

"So, oh-hated-colleague, how has the marathon been?"

Iruka hid a grin, shaking his head. "I've been through eleven of the twenty-odd PPTs. My paperwork load just increased by about a hundred fold, the parents are either going to be a really good help or more likely are molly-coddling and have no boundaries for the kids which, as usual, makes life difficult for us." He sighed, resting his chin down on his desk. "I've already given all the pertinent information to all of you when I've caught you during homeroom or class time. The required paperwork will probably get to you in about a month, but I'm getting a good handle on what each kid needs and has available to them."

"My youthful colleague! You have valiantly represented the best interests of today's youthful generation," Gai offered his sparkling smile. "You must now rest for the meeting of more parents of youth this evening!"

"Here," Kakashi tossed his book so that it neatly landed in front of Iruka's slumped figure and glancing at Asuma and Gai. "Maybe some good reading material will help you." Operation Relaxed Iruka, Stage Two, now in progress.

"I don't need you're porn, Scarecrow."

"Porn?" Kurenai exclaimed.

"Our English teacher has always preached the virtues of an alternate curriculum," Gai explained, his sparkling smile increasing in shininess. "His reasoning being of being more pertinent to our youthful students and more fascinating for them."

"P-P-Porn!" Kurenai repeated.

"Don't worry," grinned Asuma, "He never lets the book leave his person, so the students never see it. It's what he always reads, especially during faculty meetings and professional development."

"It gets the kids interested in reading," Kakashi protested. "They keep asking me what it's about and I tell them to improve their reading skills before they can even see the cover. They get so curious, they'll try anything."

"But, porn?!" Kurenai continued to sputter.

Finally, Iruka burst out laughing. Stage Two. Mission accomplished. "Please don't worry, Kurenai," the special education teacher chuckled. "His book really is several levels above even college reading. He really does use the book to challenge students to read." Iruka snorted again. "He uses their curiosity against them."

Still sputtering and blushing bright red, Kurenai looked down and seemed resolved to just fade into the background.

Iruka turned, an amused grin tugging at his lips. "Okay, Kakashi. You've loosened me up a little. I'll be leaving the last two periods today to you and try to squeeze in another few PPTs."

Well that just wouldn't do. Stage Three: Initiate.

"Fine, fine," Kakashi waved his hand in a dismissing manner. "But this afternoon, you're sleeping with me." The entire team sputtered and stuttered.

Operation Relaxed Iruka, Stage Three. Mission accomplished.

True to Kakashi's word, once the last bell had rung and the buses had finally disappeared down the street, he shooed out the usual straggling students from his room. His after-school help session was canceled this afternoon because he had a meeting. That taken care of, he went across the hall, reminded Iruka of his "appointment" and dragged him away from his students. Once back in Kakashi's room, he locked his door, turned of the lights, and shut the blinds.

Iruka grumbled, but yawned. Kakashi, after all, had a small couch in his room. It was used during Sustained Silent Reading, and the kids would often clamor over who got to sit in its soft cushiness by the lamp. It wasn't something he let the students do during class time, but it was another tool in his arsenal to encourage reading. The couch, however, had other uses, such as forcing hard-headed, exhausted special education teachers to take a break.

"I'll take care of your students, Iruka," Kakashi stated flatly. "You need to sleep at least a little before dealing with parents tonight."

"Fine, fine," Iruka yawned again before stretching out.

Going back to Iruka's room, Kakashi looked over the students who were hanging out. It took him only ten minutes to shove them off to the other teachers of his team for extra help and let the gossipers know that he just wanted to read. Aside from the random student poking their head in the door, Kakashi quietly whiled away the afternoon in his beloved book. He didn't look up until it was almost 4:30.

Smiling to himself, Kakashi stood and checked in with the rest of his team. The school was like a ghost town with the halls empty and the only sounds being the janitors rolling garbage cans down the halls as they hurried to clean the room for Open House that evening.

"Kakashi, I have discussed the dinner establishment that we will attend with our fellow educators of youth, we will introduce Kurenai to our usual restaurant of choice on such lively evenings as this."

Kakashi nodded and checked to see if they'd use Asuma's van as usual. Good, everything was set, so the Scarecrow quietly unlocked his door and evilly flipped on all of his lights.

"Argh!" Iruka grumbled and Kakashi chuckled lightly, opening the blinds to let in the afternoon sun.

"We'll be leaving in about fifteen minutes. You may want to straighten up."

Still grumbling around a yawn, Iruka offered a unique and rude gesture before getting up to go to the men's room and straighten up. Kakashi did a few minor things to straighten out his room before being the last to arrive at Asuma's van to go out to eat.

It was a reasonably priced restaurant that offered a fair variety of food that many teachers frequented. Once they all sat down, their special education teacher looked around, appearing much more refreshed. "So," Iruka asked, "While I've been kidnapped with PPTs, how have my kids been? Resource time isn't enough to really assess when PPTs are about the only think I can think about."

"Shiori was having a bad day earlier this week," Kurenai offered. "She was having trouble with some of the math I was introducing for the unit I'm doing." One by one, each teacher on the team detailed how the special education students were doing, along with several stories that made Iruka chuckle about the other students in their class, such as the accidental kiss that occurred in Kurenai's room between Sasuke and Naruto.

"Speaking of Naruto," Asuma's smile disappeared, "he's been horrible this week."

Iruka perked up. "Really? He's been oddly quiet during Resource with me."

"He's been anything but," Kurenai observed. "I don't have proof, but I'm positive he smashed a set of my test tubes on purpose."

"He and Kiba have had to been put in separate corners in my class," Kakashi agreed, "those two have been arguing, even across the room. I ended up throwing Kiba out for his foul language on Tuesday."

"Naruto has indeed had much more youthful energy in my class," offered Gai, "to the point where he distracts other students with his chatter, questions, and frequent arguments."

"In all of your PPTs this week, did you meet Naruto's foster parents?" Kakashi asked.

Iruka looked darkly at his plate. "No. I won't until next Tuesday. I think his foster parents must be arguing more and more. But why has he turned quiet in my time with him?"

Kakashi shook his head. "We can't solve the problem tonight. If we see Naruto's parents during Open House, we might be able to get some insight, but for now there's nothing we can do." He looked around at his team. "Keep an eye on him. Try to corner Naruto at some point during class and get him to talk if you can, he's got to have a teacher that he can open up to."

Everyone nodded. "Now," Kakashi continued, "I think we've spent enough time on business. It's time for pleasure." He turned with a sly grin to the special education teacher. "So how was sleeping with me this afternoon?"

Conversation turned much lighter after that and Kakashi sat back, watched and listened. Some of the "in jokes" were finally explained to Kurenai, such as Kakashi's reading material, his constant need to state things in a dirty manner, etc. The English teacher was pleased to note that he was the one who had the most running gags with the team. Kurenai offered some amusing tales from her own school, which led to some of the reasons why she left (mainly the driving distance and there were some faculty she didn't want to work with). Asuma offered various unpleasant descriptions of her predecessor and Gai countered with outrageous stories of previous years. Iruka added his two cents as he talked about some of the schools he'd worked at before landing here, since Iruka had been a substitute as well as a paraprofessional before finally getting to their school.

Naturally, this led Asuma to offer his own substitute experience and Kurenai laughed along with them, regaling them with tales of what she would do when a substitute was in the room when she was a student. To that, Kakashi smirked, adding to the conversation only when he felt it pertinent, and watched. So far, Kurenai was presenting herself as a very good fit to the team. Her predecessor had been atrocious. A teacher from the old days who refused to change her methods for what was best for the children, one who lamented of the old days almost fifty years ago when children weren't so troubled.

While Kakashi would agree that each year kids seemed to get more and more difficult, that didn't mean you should stay the same. It was one of the draws of teaching for the Scarecrow teacher. Each day was different and each class had its own personality. The old science teacher couldn't change with the world and ended up as a bitter wound that wouldn't heal. She had caused hell for him his first year at the school and was infinitely worse to Iruka when he'd started. Kakashi praised their principal Sandaime immensely when he started suggesting to her that she retire.

However, getting rid of an old sore didn't mean you left a space open for a new sore. Granted, Kurenai was going to be observed closely by both Sandaime and Ebisu and probably other members of administration, etc, but Kakashi needed to make sure that his team would approve. A good teacher was worth nothing if she couldn't work with her colleagues. Based on what he had seen, both in the classroom and outside of it, Kurenai was a little naïve of inner-city schools, but she could adapt. She had been adapting. She wasn't afraid to ask for help and she was a cheerful, pragmatic person.

However, there was a spark he'd seen at her interview that he'd yet to see truly ignite yet. If it didn't, then Kakashi was going to have concerns. She cared for the students, certainly, but if she didn't connect with them, or they with her, she wouldn't last long here. All the English teacher could hope for was that a student would worm their way into her heart and that her spark would ignite. Only then would she really be able to make a difference at this school. And at Konoha Middle, they needed teachers who could make a difference, not just teach.

Still, so far so good. Kakashi kept up his quiet observations and let half his mind wander over to what he'd say for Open House.

It was getting close to quarter to ten when Kakashi finally locked up his room for the night. It never failed. Open House was scheduled for 7:00 to 9:00, but when parents had multiple children in the school system, they often missed one of their children's teachers. So while 9:00 finished the official Open House, there were always straggling parents coming in to meet the teachers or set up appointments to get more time, or leave email and phone numbers for contact purposes, etc.

It wasn't a bad turn out for Open House, Kakashi mused. He'd met the Hyuuga family before, as well as the Masaki, Aburame, and Hashiba. It was a pleasure to meet the Haruno parents, the Yamanaka, and Nara families, etc. Of course, those were students that he didn't have to worry about. Naruto's foster parents, Uchiha Itachi, the Inuzuka family, those were the students where he'd like to have a little support from the home for. But, as usual, it was the parents you need to see the most that never show up. That probably explained why the kids were troublesome in the first place.

Sensing good gossip approaching, Kakashi meandered to the corner and found Kurenai and Iruka chatting. Or rather, Iruka was reassuring while Kurenai voiced concerns.

"Did you see how many children Shiori's mother had with her? And Shiori had to translate what was being said. How can I maintain contact if we don't even speak the same language?"

"Don't worry," Kakashi interrupted. "That's why we have a translator here at the school. We're lucky that there aren't that many here like Shiori's mom. It's not like we have to send forms home in two or three languages like other school districts have to. And Shiori isn't really going to be much of a concern during class. Her only problem will be that she'll be to busy playing mother to all of her siblings to get much homework done."

Iruka nodded. "The Hyuuga's were nice and specific again this year, and I was shocked to see such a strong resemblance between Shino and his dad."

"Did anyone else see Kiba's dad?" Asuma asked, joining them.

"No," the three of them chorused.

"He dropped in to see me. Looks like it's just Kiba and his dad trying to make ends meet. He really loved my checkbook system in the class."

"Checkbooks?" Kurenai asked.

Iruka smiled. "Asuma has his kids buy their grades."

"Eh?"

"I pay for grades, good behavior, various things like that. Of course, my payments might be something like getting $2 to the tenth power. It makes them practice various skills." Asuma fingered a nonexistent cigarette. "Of course, misbehavior, missing work, using the bathroom, etc, cost them. They write out checks to me and take it away from their checkbook. Honestly, the hardest part is that some of the kids don't know their own address for the checks."

"What?" Kurenai asked, her eyes widening.

Asuma shrugged. "They can tell you how to get to their house from school, from school to the local fast food places, from the fast food places to their best friend's house, etc. But the actual address? No. I go through it every year."

"We told you the kids here are going to be different," Kakashi repeated. "I realize that this month has shocked you in a lot of ways, but you need to adjust fast if you are going to be there for the kids. This is why teachers here are so important. For some of these students, we're the only stability they have. Their home lives are so fucked up, this is their only chance at normalcy."

Kurenai's face hardened with resolve. "Don't worry about me," she stated firmly. "These students are my number one priority."

Good, Kakashi thought to himself. The spark would ignite if she kept this up.

Author's Notes: I don't think kids realize just the kind of days teachers have. This chapter dealt entirely with a 12-hour+ day; the normal eight hours with the kids, the after school, a short break and then Open House - or parent/teacher conferences etc; plus there are the committee meetings, faculty meetings, department meetings, etc. The actual teaching is almost background compared to all the "maintainance" work that goes on after hours. Very few teachers come and leave with the students.

It was also nice to see some of the Naruto world habits slipping into this world. The idea of Kakashi with his beloved book out during SSR (sustained silent reading) and everyone joking it's porn, or the nicknames everyone has fit in rather nicely.

More plate spinning, too, as always. And yes, some of the stories we'll state in passing are true. In poor schools, we have met students who don't know their own address. Shocked? We certainly were.