Monday morning, Kakashi would only barely admit to himself that he felt just the slightest bit silly. Walking down the halls, students and teachers would give him double takes and questioning glances, and, since the Scarecrow had parked on the opposite side of the school, he encountered a lot of stares and raised eyebrows. When he stopped off in the office to get his mail, someone finally had the strength to comment.

"Kakashi," Orochimaru hissed. "Are you sure you're alright?"

"I'm just fine," Kakashi replied blithely, his eyes not leaving the guidance counselor. "Is there a problem?"

"That depends, do you know what day it is?"

"Perfectly well."

"Then, Kakashi-sensei, one must wonder. Why are you still wearing that?"

"That" of course, was the leaf-engraved headband that had gone with his costume that was still covering his eye.

"Haven't you heard?" Kakashi smiled. "These are going to be a fundraiser for our team. Everyone's going to be wearing them soon."

Orochimaru smiled, nodded, and slithered away. Frowning, the Scarecrow wondered what the Snake Guy was up to. Try as he might, Kakashi just couldn't trust the sneaky guidance counselor.

Glancing briefly through his mail, Kakashi didn't see anything important and just tucked it under his arm as he continued back down the hall heading for his teams corner of the building. At least there, he was pleased to note, the other members of his team had also taken to continuing to where their hitae-ate. Fundraiser advertising? Who needed it with how often their students were still asking about the headbands. There was also the added bonus, for Kakashi, of hiding his scar, which students tended to pester him on. If he worked this out right, his hidden face would be a whole new way to poke the students into learning. It could add a whole new dimension to his teaching style. Oh, the possibilities. The Scarecrow grinned as he walked into homeroom.

Team Time was marked by two important things. The first was that both Kakashi and Iruka were very late, because Kakashi was going over his lessons with Iruka for Wednesday, when the English teacher would be off at the regional conference. Given the chances of getting a good substitute (non-existent) Kakashi wanted to make sure that Iruka knew and understood how things would be going, as well as the paraprofessionals that Kakashi had in his earlier classes (although his para in A Period would be useless and just sit there so that the sub would do everything).

Kakashi both loved and hated days off. He loved days off because it was a day off, a chance to just read the day away. But he also despised days off because it was such an upset in the schedule for the kids. They'd have busy work, they knew they'd have busy work, and they'd get out of control, leaving Kakashi with all the paperwork of referrals and detentions and getting them back on track. In order to put the kibosh on such shenanigans, the English teacher had been warning the classes about his absence and the behavior he expected. He was also counting on the various paras to help keep a handle on the class, and he knew Iruka would do just fine.

So, when the two of them finally sauntered into Asuma's room (alright, alright, Kakashi sauntered, Iruka skulked), it was the smoking teacher who proclaimed tardiness with a great big smile. Offering his own grin, Kakashi slouched into his chair and let Iruka give the excuse this time.

Still smiling, Asuma grunted a greeting. "Nice of you two to join us. Now, which of you hasn't had Sasuke yet, aside from me?"

"I have the youthful Uchiha second period."

"I have him last," Kurenai added.

"He's in my F period," Kakashi stated, "but I just saw him for SSR. Is it about his cast?"

Asuma nodded. "He came right up to me told me in homeroom this morning, that he's not going to repeat the story to thirty thousand people. He said that his house got the toilet paper and egg treatment for Halloween, and when he and his brother were cleaning up, he leaned too far out from the ladder and fell." Asuma smirked, reaching for a cigarette that wasn't there, "And he doesn't want anyone to sign his cast. He's embarrassed enough as is."

Kurenai snorted. "I remember when I was a kid. My house would keep getting toilet paper every year until we got a little guard dog. We trained it to chase anyone carrying eggs and toilet paper. Silly string was a little harder, but that could be washed off with the hose." She smiled. "I think I'll suggest it too him."

Asuma shook his head. "He's too soar to suggest that now. Wait a week or so for him to cool off."

"Our youthful Uchiha was very quiet in class today, more so than he is under normal circumstances. His solitude has even made Naruto unusually reticent in class."

"He was quiet with you?" Kurenai asked. "Both he and Sakura were silent first period."

"I see the three of them next period," Kakashi observed, book still open, but he was no longer reading. "I'll see if I can dig up anything."

"Ah, our fearless leader is going to use his mysterious methods to probe the youthful psyche of our students! I await your revelations, Kakashi, and will try to exceed you with my own attempts of intelligence gathering!"

Kakashi ignored the social studies teacher and went back to reading.

When next period came around, the students found Kakashi slouching at his desk, book open, and legs up on his desk. Normally, the English teacher was late to their class, and they knew it was because he had the team meeting beforehand. But to actually see their teacher there and Iruka putting the warm-up on the board was a little unnerving to say the least. Did the English teacher skip out on team time? Was he angry with one of the other members of the team and avoiding them?

As the kids tried to rationalize why their teacher was actually early, Kakashi just held his book open and listened. Team 10 had Ino and Chouji wildly speculating on what was going on while Shikamaru just stared out the window, Team 8 was Kiba and Shino theorizing while Hinata read. Team 1 had Temari and Kankuro talking as well while Gaara just ignored them. Kakashi grinned to himself. He was known throughout the grade as being a tardy teacher and to see him there was such a shock, the students were all theorizing the ludicrous and impossible theories that students always jumped to.

The only team not discussing possibilities was Team 7. The English teacher glanced at their group in front of his desk. They were in some sort of hissing match in voices so low, even Kakashi's well trained ears couldn't pick up what was being said. He could make out the fact that both Sakura and Naruto were trying to say something to Sasuke, but the boy just ignored them, staring at the cast on his wrist.

"Sasuke-teme!"

"Sasuke-kun!"

They weren't going to get anywhere, from the looks of things, and Kakashi filed the information away, as he stood up and started class. He and Iruka presented their material, or at least tried to. Within five minutes of starting, Asuma called to have Iruka come and help a student who was having a meltdown in his class, so the special education teacher went around the corner to help Sudoku-sama. Kakashi continued his presentation, but the phone rang three separate times: one wrong number, Jiraiya looking for Shinosuke (try Kurenai's class), and Ebisu's secretary looking for Kiba.

Once the Scarecrow had finally finished his highly-interrupted discussion, he finally was able to let the groups get to work. Naturally, he wanted to eavesdrop on Team 7 to try and figure out what was up with the three of them when the phone rang again.

"Grand Central Station," Kakashi drawled into the phone, getting very tired of all the calls.

"Busy day?" Tsunade asked.

"Busy period. What can I do?"

"Gaara didn't come down for his afternoon dose of medication. Could you send him down please?"

"Aah." Knowing of Gaara's tendency to get "lost" and wander the halls, Kakashi wrote out a pass in case anyone who caught the quiet kid could take him directly to the nurse. Gaara glared at the pass and at him before stalking out of the room. Finally, he could get back to Team 7. He extended his ears, listening.

"Look," Sasuke growled, "It's my choice. Respect that and leave it alone."

Kakashi gleaned two things from that one line. First, Sasuke wasn't asking Naruto and Sakura to leave him alone, just "it". That was good. Very good. Secondly was that Sasuke didn't want any help with "it". That could be bad, depending on what "it" was. Given how concerned Sasuke's teammates appeared, he probably needed help with "it." Now, to find out what "it" was. To Kakashi's disappointment, the subject appeared closed with Team 7 as they finally got to their assignment. Damn.

Iruka finally returned from helping Asuma, muttering not-nice things about the paraprofessional who had been with the math teacher. Apparently, she had instigated the meltdown for the student and did nothing to help.

"Iruka." Kakashi signed. This gave the special education teacher paused, stopping his ramblings and looking to the English teacher.

"What's wrong? Did something happen while I was out?"

"Sort of." Kakashi detailed what had occurred, including Gaara and Kiba, since they were Iruka's students, and what he'd over heard with Team 7. "Bully Naruto during Resource. See if you can pull anything from him. I'll work on Sasuke during SSR, but I'm not holding out much hope given how tight-lipped he can be. I'll also talk to Sakura during homeroom."

Iruka nodded.

After school, Kakashi had been surprised when he looked at his calendar to see that there was a student council meeting after school. So he sat back and listened as the council sat in his room to discuss upcoming fundraisers and the like for the school. Sakura sat in her seat that she sat in during class and Kakashi had to pull teeth to get her to say anything. Something was clearly bugging her, but she wasn't discussing it. She was discussing anything. Neji, the student council president tried to elicit responses from her throughout the meeting, but Sakura merely recorded everything, as was her role as secretary. Kakashi sat back frustrated.

The following morning during homeroom was more successful in the sense that Sakura was actively talking and appeared back to her old self, but any attempts by the English teacher to find out what had so concerned her were stonewalled. Somewhat perturbed by his inability to find out anything, when SSR came along, he sent Sakura out on student council business and tried to use a crowbar on Sasuke. But, as he had predicted, nothing doing. Since that didn't work, Kakashi left SSR in an attempt to find the local rumor mill representative and get some info (his kids weren't going to be a problem without him there, they all knew better). Nothing.

And so it was that Kakashi showed up late to team feeling somewhat put out. It had been years since students had blocked him out so well. The English teachers strong point was English and his ability to listen to the language and find out what was underneath the underneath. Students were exceptionally easy to pick apart because of their penchant for gossiping. If the student themselves won't discuss it with you, then go talk to their friends, something will eventually slip, giving enough leverage to pry out what you need. The grape vine might be highly exaggerated, but it provided enough clues for Kakashi to put two and two together. Team 7, however, wasn't discussing "it" with anyone, which meant the Scarecrow was limited to the team itself.

He glanced at Iruka as he slouched into his usual chair, but the special education teacher just shrugged.

"So, Kakashi, my eternal rival, what seems to be the situation putting our youthful Sasuke, Sakura, and Naruto into bouts of silent contemplation and distraction?"

The Scarecrow shrugged. "Still looking."

Asuma, Iruka, and Gai's jaws dropped.

"You, the 'underneath the underneath' Kakashi, haven't figured out what's bugging them?" Asuma sat back, looking very much like a cigarette should be falling out of his mouth. "I'll be damned."

Kurenai glanced around. "I take it Kakashi is good at getting information?"

The math teacher snorted. "Good? He was in the military, and if you listen to the rumors the kids come up with, he's a CIA operative that was so good, the CIA doesn't know he's retired and working with kids."

"And our Scarecrow Knight has never failed in getting whatever information we need for a student who is troubled. My eternal rival is renowned throughout the administration as the go-to man when our youthful charges are acting oddly, for his speed in getting to the heart of the problem is superb, to the point of being told and getting an answer within an hour."

Iruka nodded, fingering his scar. "His own record is something like ten minutes. And here we are, a day later, and he's coming up with nothing?"

Kakashi looked flatly at his team. "I said I'm still looking. Now can someone give us good news?"

To that, the math teacher chuckled. "I can. I've already mentioned this to Iruka, but Shikamaru's going to spend more time with me during SSR. He hates his new math teacher over in the eight grade, and any questions he has he's coming to me with."

"More like coming over just to talk," Iruka retorted.

Asuma shrugged. "He does have legitimate questions, but if he keeps up what he's doing, he's going to be bumped up a level again. I'm not as comfortable with that, just because of maturity with classmates at a higher level than him, but I'm proud that he's taking up the challenge."

"You mean our youthful genius is not being lazy with his new challenging curriculum?" Gai smiled brightly. "Now he must learn to put forth the same effort in all of his classes so that his grades can improve!"

Kurenai snorted. "Good luck with that."

"Speaking of grades," Kakashi interrupted, "Report cards come out next week. Grades close for us on Thursday. Has anyone shown you the software we use?"

Team time went about the more mundane after that.

On Thursday, Kakashi had quite the harrowing tale to tell about his trip to the regional conference. First was the weather. Wednesday had rained all day long, quite heavy at times. Now Kakashi didn't mind rain, and even liked it on some levels, especially if it meant he could curl up around a good book. But no, he had to venture out into the tumultuous weather to drive over two-and-a-half hours across the state line to get to the conference. Of course, since the event was all day long, with breakfast being served at 8:00 sharp and presentations and panels starting at 9:00; that meant that Kakashi ha had to get up at 5:00 in order to get there on time. But because of the contentious rain, that was pouring on the highway, Kakashi had ended up in rush-hour traffic with three major accidents between him and the hotel where the conference was being held.

The Scarecrow had just known that he wasn't going to get to the hotel for their breakfast, and he'd be lucky if he got in at 9:30, so once he got to the right city, he found a good looking coffee shop to stop off at to at least try and have the most important meal of the day. However, his luck continued to be sour as the place was jam-packed and he couldn't find anything beyond fast-food drive-throughs that he refused to eat at due to the slave labor that they employed.

So, starving and already in a foul mood, Kakashi had arrived at the conference at 10:00 after spending almost five hours on the road. Finding the hotel staff, the Scarecrow had managed to beg some food to at least attempt to satiate his empty stomach and found a coffee machine that was serving sludge, but at that point, he'd take anything.

The one workshop that the English teacher had really wanted to sit in on, was already full when he got there and he was left on his feet for almost an hour and a half with none of the handouts that were given out at the beginning. Plus, the next session for this workshop wouldn't be until later in the afternoon, about the time Kakashi would have to leave to get home. He gleaned what he could, went up afterward to get some of the pamphlets, and then went out to the booths. He'd been looking for years to find a good English text that had the compilations of stories he went through without having to buy 150 paperbacks of each book. His hunt this year, was again in vain.

Around noon, the hotel opened up a room with a buffet lunch and Kakashi finally took the opportunity to fill his stomach (and then some, he didn't know how long the drive home would take at this rate), and then went prowling around the various workshops that were having sessions at a better time for him. He was able to sit in on a few, but none were what he was looking for, so Kakashi had his beloved book open for most of the afternoon.

Around 5:00, a full twelve hours after he had awoken to the incessant beeping of his alarm, Kakashi walked outside the hotel to a deluge. He trudged the two blocks to the parking garage where his car was and was grateful that he was able to slip out before everyone else decided it was a good time to leave and head home. Still, it was rush hour, and Kakashi had a hell of a time trying to get back onto the highway. To make matters even better, he was reminded of Rhode Island with all the one-way streets that prevented a direct line to the entrance ramp. The Scarecrow was almost certain he made a full figure eight before he was finally on the interstate.

Of course, Wednesday wasn't done with him yet. The highway apparently had a truck that had jack-knifed, causing the highway to be closed and a detour to be made onto the side streets. So Kakashi got himself good and lost before he saw the glimmer of hope of an entrance ramp. Of course, he got on going in the wrong direction, forcing him to get off at the next exit to get back on going properly into the direction of home.

Once he started to reach familiar ground, Kakashi was able to stop off at a cheap restaurant he knew and did manage to have a good dinner, if fast, before once again braving the rain-slick streets and crawling home at almost nine-o'clock.

Naturally, when he dragged himself into school Thursday morning, rather go straight to his homeroom, he shuffled into Iruka's room and spoke to both Iruka and the paras to see how classes went the previous day. Kakashi was immensely grateful that the special education educators had kept a lid on his classes and done all the detentions and write-ups necessary, and that the substitute had been mildly competent. He was even more surprised to see notes from the substitute on how every class was. Now if only the substitute-service would let him request competent subs like that....

With his story finished, Kakashi was pleased to see the smiles, chuckles, and all around amusement from his team. Kurenai was laughing so hard; she was wiping tears from her eyes while Gai slapped the desk in good humor, his guffaws echoing in the room.

"So, did I miss much while I was out?"

"Not much," Kurenai replied, still chuckling. "I gave both Ino and Kiba detentions this morning. I should see the two of them tomorrow afternoon. That's the only excitement that I've really had."

"Hn. Well, this is what's coming up." And with that, they got back to the mundane scheduling of PPTs, fundraisers, etc.

Friday was as "normal" as a school day could be. Kakashi laid back from his investigation into Team 7 because he didn't want them picking up on his curiosity about them. Besides, given his professional day Wednesday, administration had given him an extra day to get his grades done, and he was using it. It was his reason for being late to Team Time. Plus, with Parent/Teacher Conferences next week, Kakashi would have to be cautious on his probing since he wasn't going to have much time.

By the time the final bell rang, Kakashi was grateful to finally have some time to finish his grades and get everything ready the following week. He was planning out where everyone should be on his calendar when he realized that he needed copies of a worksheet for Monday's classes and, given his investigations into Team 7 and his professional day from hell, he hadn't had the time to make any. Sighing, Kakashi stood, lifted his Konoha headband to rub his eyes before putting it back down, and meandered out of his room with his master copy. He didn't get any farther than the corner when his ears dragged him into Kurenai's room.

Inside was a snapshot. A picture may be worth a thousand words, but Kakashi could only think of one word to describe what he saw. At opposite corners of the room, as far apart as they could be, were Kiba and Ino, desks facing walls so they couldn't even see each other. That didn't stop either of them from turning in their seats to argue with one another. Kiba was currently on the defensive while Ino shouted verbal attacks meant to slice through Kiba's defensive toughness. Neither had any control of their mouths and were saying the first things that came to mind as their verbal war continued in loud volume, getting more and more insulting. In the middle of the room, stood Kurenai, keeping a calm, if irritated voice, ordering both of them to sit back down and get to work, ignore the other, etc. Somewhere in Kurenai's continuous orders to cease and desist, she had given out second detentions to each of them, but the two students just weren't listening. The one word that Kakashi could think of for all this was Defiance.

Since nobody had noticed him, the English teacher went back to his room, pulled out his largest and thickest books (an old English text of his that contained all of Shakespeare's plays in both the original text and a "modern" more easily understood equivalent) and returned to the science room. He stood at the door for a moment before lifting the book over his head and letting it drop.

The resounding thud! was enough to finally stop the byplay of three voices talking at once, as three heads turned to see his displeased grin.

"Ino," Kakashi stated. "Come with me. You'll serve the rest of your detention with me."

"WHY?" she shouted. "I've already had three with you!"

"Would you like to make it five?"

Muttering unpleasant things, she shot a glare at the hooded Kiba before reaching down to gather up her stuff. Kurenai smiled at Kakashi, mouthing a "thank you" before strolling over the Kiba and pulling off his hood.

"Ino, first thing is for you to pick up this book and follow me."

"Yes, sensei."

"Good, now follow me. And don't put down anything."

With Ino now following him, Kakashi went about his business. He didn't let her sit down or put down any of the materials she was carrying, meaning she had to trail along behind him as he made copies, went to speak with teachers and administration for various reasons that could have waited, and made a loop around the school in what he explained to Ino as his daily exercise lap. The blond was naturally perturbed to basically have to keep up with her sensei while carrying all of her own books, her large purse that was filled with who knew what (Kakashi never understood the need of purses when a simple pocket would do), as well as his largest and heaviest book nestled in her arms and all his copies.

With her still weighted down, flushed and sweating from the exertion, Kakashi stopped off at Kurenai's room again and called her out into the hall.

"Now, Ino, do you have anything to say?"

Ino glared at Kakashi, but managed a small bow to the science teacher, her heavy backpack almost sliding down her arm and making her fall. "I'm sorry for not listening to you Kurenai-sensei, and I'm sorry I swore in class yesterday."

"Thank you, Ino," Kurenai smiled sweetly. "You can finish up your detention with Kakashi-sensei and consider us even."

The blond snorted, but looked expectantly at Kakashi for him to get going back to his room so she could finally deposit all the weight she was carrying. Naturally, since that's what Ino wanted, Kakashi did the opposite and chatted with Kurenai about various things for several minutes, subtly watching the blond roll her eyes. Kakashi waited. When Ino finally looked resigned to just standing there, to the point of slouching to try and take some of the weight off her arms, Kakashi winked and Kurenai and took off at a brisk pace back to his room, inwardly laughing as Ino struggled to catch up. Once back in his room, he had her start to copy out of the dictionary and called the science teacher.

"So how's your day been?" he asked.

She sighed into her receiver. "I can't thank you enough for your help, they were feeding off each other and I couldn't stop it. They both got detentions for different reasons, they usually don't speak to each other in class, so I can't figure out what happened today."

"She likes to talk and he was the only one available."

Kurenai snorted. "He hasn't exactly gone back to behaving. I'm writing him up as we speak. He's currently laid out across the seats talking nonsense. Plus the second detention he's gotten from me."

"Will she keep that second detention?"

"Yes."

"If he's still not listening at the end of detention, just come over here and clarify for her. She's probably thinking that she's all set with this detention."

"No problem," Kurenai replied, sounding very tired. "I'm having a glass of wine when I get home, that's for sure."

To that, Kakashi smiled. "We all have days like that. See you later, and enjoy your weekend.

But I do have to admit, it was funny a heck writing it. :P

That detention from hell, by the way, is yet again a real story. Two boys, both pranksters, were in the same room and just feeding off each other so badly that I ended up taking one of them to my room just to separate them, while the other one was completely asinine. Kids can be horrible nowadays.