"You're late!"

"Sorry I'm late, I flipping through the dictionary to see if there was a word longer than antidisestablishmentarianism. I haven't found one yet."

Kakashi slouched down into his chair and flipped open his book. "There are some big events coming up," he mentioned. "Report cards go out tomorrow and Parent/Teacher conferences are Friday. On top of that next week is Thanksgiving Break, so we're going to have to decide what to do with Homeroom Challenge. Oh, and we have that newsletter to do."

Iruka, who had been writing furiously, looked up. "Is there anything else you want to add to the agenda?" he asked with more than an ounce of trite.

"Okay, when are the headbands coming in for the fundraiser?" the English teacher added. Iruka admitted defeat.

"They should be in at the end of the week," Kurenai replied. "Mother wants as many as possible made so she won't have to go back to the project. It's easy enough to make, but she does have other clients to think about. We should have about two hundred headbands when all is said and done. I figure we can do the sale after break, and spend this week and next advertising."

"Then we'll want to put up something in announcements," Asuma suggested. He tugged at the end of his own headband as he spoke. The entire team had taken to wearing them everyday as a sort of quite ad campaign. "Let me drop by the office and let them know."

"You'd better had an ad already written up," Iruka called out as the math teacher headed towards the door. "They won't do the writing for you."

Asuma saluted before leaving, and Iruka went back to taking notes.

"Any other upcoming fundraisers we should worry about?"

"Student council handed out boxes this morning for their can drive, did everyone get one?" Kakashi asked. They all nodded. "Good, next month they'll probably do a gift drive for Christmas. There's also going to be a dance next month, too; but nothing in the immediate future."

Gai glanced up from browsing through a catalog. "Do we know how much in funding we currently have?" he asked.

"Ask Asuma when he gets back. Why?"

"I have found some very interesting posters and pencils in here, and I wish to order them for our flourishing youth. I have heard no word of freezing out budget this year."

"Our fingers are all crossed on that one," Iruka replied. "I remember my first year here, they froze the budget three weeks into school. We couldn't buy anything."

"Ah, yes, the year without paper," Kakashi reminisced. "I'd rather not relive that. Let's move on."

"Parent/Teacher conferences. The Hyuga's have already emailed me twice about when they're going to be."

Iruka dug through a separate folder than the team notes and pulled out a sheaf of paper. "Friday three to five and seven to nine."

"Two sessions?" Kurenai asked.

"It is a big school," Iruka explained. "Plus some parents can never be sure of when they can get off work or had night shifts, etcetera. One of the quirks of urban poor, I guess."

"It's another long day," Kakashi offered, flipping a page in his book. "We'll probably go out for dinner again. I want to do a team session like last year, it worked out really well."

"I've scheduled it for the second hour, not the first," Iruka said, continuing to take notes. "We're so tired by the time eight o'clock rolls around, it would be better to have more people to fire at than one tired teacher."

"Well put," Gai agreed.

"The sign up is in the office," Kakashi said, "The parents have been coming in since last week. My blocks are already full."

Iruka grinned. "It must suck to be popular. I only have three people coming in across my two blocks."

"Lucky bastard."

Everyone chuckled.

"Grades will have just come out," Kakashi continued, "you can use that for whatever presentations you're making to the parents. The Haruno's are spreading across our individual sessions, and the Hyuga's are signed up for our last slot of the evening team session."

Iruka groaned. "What a way to end the night. We'll be there 'til ten."

"Kurenai, it's also a good idea to have student work with you, give parents a snapshot of what you're doing. Some parents, I know for a fact, will only show up to find out why their kid is failing. Some of them are downright confrontational about it."

"I've been through this before," Kurenai said. "I know what to do."

"I think we can do the newsletter next week," Gai offered after a moment of thought. "The conferences will be over with, and we can then inform the dutiful parents that could not come of it's success and offer the week after next for private sessions if they still want to meet."

"That's a good idea," Iruka said, making a note of it.

Asuma finally returned and joined them. "Something's rotten in the state of Denmark," he said. "The office is abuzz with cops." Seeing the collection of interested gazes, he continued. "I didn't get all of it, but there was something about a sixth grader breaking down when one of the teachers showed her the grade she was getting. Something about getting the belt with a grade like that. Tsunade was talking to someone about old and recent scars." He paused, his face darkening. "It's times like this I remember exactly where I teach."

"It's not exactly a bed of flowers, this school," Kakashi agreed. "But then, if we were teaching anywhere else, we wouldn't be nearly as satisfied with the work that we do. It's why we're here." Kakashi kept his promises, after all.

"I would like to inform this splendid team that I will be absent Wednesday, because like my Eternal Rival I will be attending a regional conference across state boarders. I shall strive to fair better then our beloved Scarecrow, and in doing so I shall advance my lead even further!"

"... Whatever."

While nothing spectacular happened Tuesday, the overall noise as students received their report cards and saw their grades was about expected. Some were cheering that they did so well to start off the year (giving them cart blanch to completely blow off the rest of the year, whether they realized that fact or not), while others lamented violently about how dismal their year was beginning. Kakashi bared it all with flat-faced indifference. After all, he wasn't the one that assigned the grades, the kids were. So long as they did the work, tried their hardest, and turned it in, they passed. No work no credit, it was one of the many phrases he repeated until he was blue in the face; but kids at the tender age of twelve didn't truly understand it - often not until they were grown up did they realize that they earned the things that they got: their wages, their promotions, etc.

Wednesday, however, was when things got interesting.

Gai had a substitute. With that knowledge came the inevitability of his room being louder than normal, because whoever was in there could never be enough. It was simply impossible for a person that was going to come in for only one day to ever hold enough sway to keep a class quiet and well behaved. It was the way of things. Besides that, because the sub was only there for the one day, the students automatically (the world over) thought the day was a freebee to talk, take a study hall, and do various things to try test and overall see how much they could annoy said sub.

The team all agreed to back up subs whenever the inevitable disaster happened. There was one time when Kakashi was out, years ago, when Asuma and the old special ed teacher made a point of telling their classes that they were going to get popcorn and sit out in front of Kakashi's C period class because of how horrible they had been to the sub. Kakashi had, on several occasions, stepped into a sub's room randomly to remind the students that there would be Trouble if they misbehaved.

That Wednesday was one for the record books, however.

Various shouts, shrieks, and clanks filtered across the hall through Kakashi's open door and into his unsurprised ears. As the morning progressed, he heard the buzz of the students about some of the things going on in Gai's classes, and he had to remind himself (several times) that children were prone to exaggeration and to not take what they were saying seriously. The clincher, however, came D period, SSR. Kakashi had to put down his book because he could not concentrate. The second student had asked to go to the bathroom, and in Kakashi's class, that was unheard of. It was then that a theory struck him, and as an experiment he let the student go. Watching from where he was leaning by the window, he saw the student go out his door and then mill around the hall, clearly bobbing his head to get a look at what was happening across the hall in Gai's room and. . . Iruka's room?

Sensing that boundaries of all kinds were being crossed, Kakashi got up. "Sakura, you're in charge," he said passing by her desk. His voice was tightly controlled and only she heard the directive, but she nodded her understanding and put her book down to watch the class and make sure they were reading. Sasuke, too, put his book down and tucked it under his cast to help her.

The English teacher's moment to revel in that was null, however, because he saw two things when he stepped outside. One was that more than just his class was asking for bathroom passes. Also, a glance in Iruka's room showed that the Special Ed teacher was having difficulty with his resource. One level glare dispersed the collection of kids in the hall, and Kakashi stuck his head briefly into Iruka's room. Naruto was at his desk, trying and failing to concentrate, while Kiba and Chouji were animatedly talking about whatever was happening on the other side of the wall that they shared with Gai's room. The noise carried even better here through the concrete, and Iruka was clearly nonplused as he tried to get everyone to concentrate.

"My room," Kakashi said.

Iruka nodded and made the announcement even as Kakashi left. "Alright, Naruto, Chouji, Gaara, Kiba, Takato, and Hanamaru, to Kakashi's room right now."

Gai's room was a site to behold, meanwhile.

After four periods of untold horror, the room physically was a mess. Handouts littered the floor, ripped and stepped on and mostly incomplete. None of the desks were where they were supposed to be, the neat rows hopelessly lost in a nonsensical collection of clusters and groups, some students so hopelessly buried there was no chance of leaving their desks unless someone else moved. There was an odd blue goo oozing over one of Gai's filing cabinets, and not one but three students were at his computer browsing the internet. Paper, paper clips, pencils, and a purse were all airborne, to say nothing about the whiteboard markers. The overhead projector was on and several "pictures" littered the face of the overhead.

The sub was in the middle of the room, her hair disheveled and wild look in her eyes as she tried to maintain a calm voice and get a collection of girls to hand over the whiteboard markers. There was a cut on her face, and Ino's bare arm also sported a small slash. The noise was horrific, everyone was shouting to the top of their lungs to be heard; there were at least a half dozen people laughing uproariously, and the rest were all shouting at once. Only one student - Hyuga Hinata - sat on the floor by the door with her hands over her ears as she tried in vain to read.

A marker bounced off his head, and only then did the students realize that the English teacher was there. But even that warning bell did not register to the class mob.

"The title of this class is Sustained Silent Reading." Kakashi had excellent voice control, and it carried over everyone and bombarded his or her ears. They fell silent immediately, but any hope of redemption had now come and gone. "Sensei," Kakashi said, his voice now quiet but hard as steel. "You are bleeding."

The sub blinked, putting a hand to her cheek and pulling it away to see the faint specks of blood. The wild look in her eyes hardened to ice and she turned to the girls. "Give. Them. To. Me. Now."

"But--"

"NOW!!" The shriek carried, Kakashi later discovered, all the way to Asuma's room. The girls complied, stunned at the volume.

Kakashi looked to Yamanaka Ino. "How old are you?"

"Twelve, Kakashi-sensei," she said quietly, trying to look demure.

"And you, Ryoko? Yuzuhi? Shiori? Kentaro?" One by one every single student listed off his or her ages.

"Hinata? How old are you?"

"U-uhm, I'm... I'm twelve, Kakashi-sensei," she stammered.

"Congratulations, you're the only person in this room that actually acted their age. Go finish reading in my room while I talk to the babies." Hinata grabbed her book and fled as he lifted his headband. "Now," Kakashi began, leveling both of his eyes at the class. "Get your desks where they're supposed to be and sit in your assigned seats. You have until the count of five: One, two, three..."

The class scrambled to get everything the way it was supposed to be.

"Everyone sits properly: backs straight, both feet on the floor, both hands on the desks where I can see them."

Again, they complied.

"For a bunch of kids who are twelve years old and complain constantly that they want to be treated like adults, you all, as of right now, the sorriest collection of immature babies that I've ever seen. Preschoolers behave better than you. Unacceptable isn't even the word for it. Deplorable might be better. You can look that word up in the dictionary later. I can honestly say that I am ashamed to be called your teacher. I'm ashamed to have any association with you, that I even know you. I pity your parents that they have to put up with such disreputable behavior as this day in and day out. That's another word I expect you to research in the dictionary. When a teacher is going to be absent, it is your responsibility to show the substitute the same courtesy and respect you show your teacher - perhaps even more, because your behavior is a direct reflection on the teacher. You are not only embarrassing yourselves and your parents, you're embarrassing Gai-sensei, who trusted you to do what the substitute tells you, because it comes directly from his mouth.

"Gai-sensei is going to come in tomorrow, and he's going to make you wish that I was the one dealing with you. The substitute is going to make a detailed list about what happened, as I am - and I know all your names. You are not going to cry your way, talk your way, complain your way, or defend your way out of this. Retribution comes tomorrow, so you'd better prepare for it. I'm going to go back to my room now, and I'm going to leave my door and my ear open. I'd better be able to hear a pin drop for the rest of the day. Is that clear?"

Silence.

"I said is that clear?"

"Yes, sensei," someone mumbled.

Kakashi turned to the substitute. "They shouldn't give you any more troubles, sensei," he said congenially, finally dropping back into his singsong voice and dropping his head band back over his scarred eye. "Any trouble makers, kick them to my room."

"Which room is that?" the sub asked.

"Across the hall, Kakashi-sensei's room."

"I'll be sure to," the sub replied, and gave an icy glare to the SSR class.

Word spread through the grade like wildfire about Kakashi's riot act, and the sub didn't have to send into another student until Temari during the last period.

Furious didn't even begin to cover Gai's reaction as he heard about what happened. The minute he saw Kakashi walking down the hall the next morning the social studies teacher stomped towards him. The students smartly parted and gave him room.

"Kakashi-sensei! Is this... this... is this true?!" he demanded, waiving pieces of paper that were clearly the sub notes. He snatched the paper out from Gai's hands and took a moment to read the notes. He raised his hidden eyebrow at the accuracy of not only the events, but the descriptions of students the sub could not identify. The notes consisted of three pages covering the first four periods, half of which was devoted to the infamous D period.

"Yep, she covered just about everything."

"You mean to say those... those... kids did everything written down there?!"

For Gai of all people to use the word "kids" instead of "youth" was testament in itself of how pissed off he was, and Kakashi threw a meaningful look around the hall, noting which students were paying rapt attention. Finally, he replied, "Just about, yes. If you want a more detailed account, you can ask her." Kakashi threw a sidelong glance to the timid Hinata, a gaze only Gai picked up on, saving the grey-eyed girl from retribution for "telling." The social studies teacher saw it but was too far into seething to react to it.

"I will not stand for this!! It is an outrage and an insult to the very duty of a student! What were they thinking!" He was not even trying to calm his voice, and Kakashi realized it was at least partly deliberate, to warn the students the hellfire and damnation was about to fall down heavily about their ears.

Kakashi, more than happy to play it up, replied, "They weren't. Wasn't that obvious?"

"There will be retribution!!"

Kakashi openly grinned. "Have fun with that. If you run out of ways to torture them, I'll be more than happy to share some of my more successful ideas."

Kakashi was more than a little curious about what Gai was doing, but paid him proper courtesy and kept his door closed. The students were also anxious about what was to happen, and Kakashi spent most of his morning squishing and squashing them to get back to work.

His excuse for being late was his department head, who needed a more concrete outline of how his curriculum was coming along. Kakashi had enjoyed a full fifteen minutes delaying, hemming and hawing, and overall stepping around the entire question just to get a rise out of her. It was great fun, really, and filled up the last few minutes of lunch and the first few minutes of team.

When he strolled in casually and offered his excuse to Iruka, he sat down and looked right at Gai. "What'd you do?" he asked.

"Yes, this I want to hear," Asuma said, grinning. "Naruto was positively white when he walked into homeroom this morning; I think half the school heard you bitching about what happened."

"I gave and will give all of my classes a verbal lashing twice as painful as the humiliation my Eternal Rival dealt them, a beautiful collection of words about honor and responsibility and thoughtful attention to directives. Then I made them write two letters of apology, one to me and one to the substitute. The latter was a general apology, but the former I explained was a graded assignment; they were to not only apologize for their behavior, but they are to detail explicitly every sin they committed and outline how they will rectify this behavior next time. On top of that, I had them state their goals for my class and list five ways they would go about achieving that goal. Those that finished before the end of the period spent the remainder of the time sitting straight and perfectly silent."

"Keeping a kid still is the best way to torture them," Kakashi agreed philosophically.

"Their detentions will be even worse. Those whose behavior was deplorable to the extreme will be spending their detentions with me running laps in the gym for the entire duration of the detention."

"Physical torture on top of it? Nice touch," Asuma said.

"While I'm sure we all want to wallow in various ways to torture students," Iruka said, finishing up that particular note, "I think we really need to talk about Homeroom Challenge. We're not going to have a lot of time next week."

"I've been meaning to ask, what is it exactly?" Kurenai offered.

"Okay," Asuma said, leaning back in his chair and preparing for a long explanation. "It's a thing our team does. On days before vacations, like Wednesday next week, or before Christmas break or what have you, the students, frankly, are too absorbed in the vacation to be able to get any work out of them. So we don't even put up the pretext of trying to get them to work. Instead, each room sets up a series of challenges and activities, and over the course of the day the students rotate around the rooms to do the challenges. The bell schedule is completely ignored except for specials, C and E period this year.

"For example, Kakashi always does locker cleanout, he mans the halls as the students filter through and try to organize their lockers. I usually do mind benders, logic problems, and brainteasers. Iruka does word searches or crosswords or pictionary with vocab from all the classes, things like that. The old science teacher would do a variation on something she did in class, a science current events kind of thing. Gai does a current events Jeopardy game, that sort of thing. They rotate about every ten to twenty minutes.

"After E period, we settle down for movies that they sign up for. Of which, we have to decide the movies and make the announcement in homeroom tomorrow so that they can start signing up for it."

"I'm doing the Cardcaptor Sakura movie," Kakashi said, raising his hand. He always made a point of showing some kind of anime movie.

"I have decided on Pirates of the Caribbean," Gai said.

"And I was thinking of Finding Nemo," Iruka said, writing all of this down.

"I think I'll do one of the Spider-man movies," Asuma said, thinking about it. "I have to dig up which one I have."

Kurenai blinked, mentally running through her list of movies. "They're all under thirteen, that makes it difficult," she muttered, closing her eyes. "Shrek, I guess," she finally decided, "since we have a theme of summer blockbusters."

"Good, now that that's all settled," Iruka said, "here. I'm going to go to the office and see if anyone else has signed up for me tomorrow night."

"Could you look up mine, too?" Kakashi asked. He already knew it, but he liked annoying Iruka.

"Oh, and me," Kurenai asked.

"Me as well," Gai added.

"Throw me in while you're there," Asuma said, "and the team blocks too, while you're at it."

The all grinning innocently while Iruka muttered ugly words under his breath.

Friday was a loooooooooong day. The idea was simple enough; split the parents across two different sessions so more of them would show. Put the sessions on the same day to get it all over with in one swoop - at least that's what the vice principal said three years ago when he started this. What Ebisu failed to realize (and never, ever listened to) was that it was very, very draining to talk to over twenty parents (assuming the ideal that they each took only ten minutes - that never happened) in one day. Kakashi and other teachers had brought it up several times, and some had even bothered the old man about it. When Sandaime was ever cornered, he would listen diligently, and then say: "Is this really a battle worth picking?" Most of them shut up after that, because there were so many other things worth complaining about.

That Friday was downright nightmarish - a full day of teaching with students acutely aware that their parents were coming (Kakashi played that to his advantage, of course) and then almost as soon as the buses left the halls began to fill with parents.

Kakashi had a full schedule, the price of being a popular teacher (though how the students decided he would be popular when there were much more amiable teachers like Gai or Iruka), and he was immediately assaulted with the one parent he could not deal with: Yondaime.

"Yo!" the tall blond man said, a hand raised so much like him, a trait that Kakashi himself mimicked.

Kakashi steeled himself and raised his hand in an odd mirror of the gesture. "Yo."

They sat down, and Naruto dashed in and skid to a halt. "Sorry!" he apologized, "Sakura-chan and Sasuke-teme had some questions about tonight's homework so I had to save their asses."

Yondaime grinned. "Sure you did," he replied. "That's the only real question I have for you, Kakashi-sensei," he added, turning to the English teacher. "My new little brat over here," he gestured to the blond Naruto, "seems to have a screw loose."

"More than 'a' screw," Kakashi replied blithely, proud he was managing to act normal.

"True," Yondaime laughed, and Kakashi felt his gut clench. It was still the same laugh. "What I mean is, I've had him for a while now, and I'm starting to notice a few things. One, this kid is not nearly as dumb as everyone seems to think."

"Damn straight!" Naruto piped up.

Both adults grinned.

Yondaime continued: "I've been working with him on that book in your class, and he struggles with the words, yes; reading is very difficult for him, but his ability to conceptualize the story is phenomenal. Once he takes hold of something, he doesn't let go until he understands every inch of it."

"I've known that since about the second week of school," Kakashi agreed, nodding. "That's why I put him in the literary group that I did. He can handle the higher order thinking that pops out of his teammates, and his own thought process is different enough to generate his own spins and opinions that will give them pause. I wish very badly that I was a fly on the wall the first time they got together after school. I can picture it very clearly: One of them would have the assignment already done and wanted to spend the time oogling, the other brought in the work and just wanted to get it done, and Naruto would come in with all kinds of questions that - at first - would drive the other two crazy with their seeming stupidity, until he gets to his point and then both would stare."

Naruto stared at Kakashi, wide eyed, mouth agape. "Sensei, are you sure you weren't a fly on the wall?"

"Hm. Maybe I was."

"Haha! Kakashi-sensei, I like you!" Something warm sparked in Kakashi's chest, and he was suddenly brought back to that time in his life when he was there, ruffling his hair, taking care of him, teaching him, looking out for him. That time after his father died and everyone was so certain that Kakashi would follow in his footsteps. He blinked and fought to compartmentalize the feeling.

"If you're wondering about the gaps," he said, "the better one to talk to is Iruka-sensei. My guess is that because he's been jumping families so much there generated gaps. It's hard to focus on education when you're wondering where you're staying this month."

"Okay, I'll go bug him, then. Thanks for talking to me."

Five whole minutes of free time until the next parent came in. Kakashi utilized it to bring himself back to balance.

The first hour, after Yondaime, went really well. There was a continual stream of parents and Kakashi dealt with, and after a while they all blurred together. Before he knew it, the hour was up, and he finished off with the parents he was on, Temari's, and got up, leaving his room to walk around Kurenai's corner and into Asuma's room, where the math teacher had bunched two tables together and he and the other teachers were on one side, the first set of parents, the Haruno's, on the other.

"Sorry I'm late," he offered, taking his seat.

"According to Sakura that's quite a common occurrence," the father said, smiling congenially.

"The road of life has a lot of interesting twists and turns, and I always seem to get lost in a back alley," Kakashi replied, equally genially. He liked these parents right off.

The team shared what they thought of Sakura, Gai and Asuma giving them sample pieces of her work and Kurenai and Gai sharing her most recent test grade. They all agreed that she was a conscientious student who was very concerned about her grade and put a lot of work into everything she did.

The Haruno's were pleased.

"We only have two real questions," the mother said. "The first is she's always having these two boys coming over. She says it's for class, but..."

"Let me guess," Kakashi said, "One's a loud blond and the other is a quite black haired boy that Sakura spends her time oogling and drooling over."

"I don't know that I would have used that word, but yes."

"That's my class," the English teacher said. "I've split the class into literary groups, and they work on a book together and answer the packet questions I hand out to each of them. They are easily the best team in that class, and I look forward to when they really start to work together."

"I see. Our last question then is how she's doing in science. It's always been a struggle for her."

Kurenai blinked. "Really? You wouldn't know it in my class. She's one of the brightest students in my B period. I'm always using her to answer questions that no one else would answer."

"Oh! Well, that's good to hear," the father said.

The rest of the hour went about the same, and when five o'clock finally rolled around, the team wordlessly dragged themselves to Asuma's van and drove down the street to their restaurant. Dinner started off quietly enough, everyone too focused on eating and getting energy to really strike up conversation; but it did finally happen as they finished up. Iruka was rubbing his shoulder, rolling it around and trying to elicit a crack.

"Bothering you?" Asuma asked.

"Eh, it gets achy when I'm tired like this. I have a doctor's appointment next week after Thanksgiving."

"Not another surgery?" Gai asked.

"Surgery?" Kurenai asked, shocked.

"Oh, no," Iruka said, finally getting the pop he wanted. "Much better. I'm not scheduled for another surgery until summer. I can't afford to take a day off anyway." Seeing Kurenai's puzzled look, he flushed. "Sorry, I keep forgetting you're new. I was in a car crash two years ago, really bad. It's where I got this scar, among a slew of others. I've gone through five surgeries to fix all the damage, mostly in my hip and knee. There are two more to go through before I'm done."

"But why wait so long?"

"Because my body needs the time to heal from the surgeries and mend the work they did, make it stronger. That sort of thing. In really cold weather, or when I'm really tired like right now, I get all achy and poppy. Probably will for the rest of my life."

"Oh. I'm so sorry to hear that," Kurenai offered. "If there's ever anything I can do let me know."

Iruka grinned. "I will. Thanks."

Well, after that they saw the time and dragged themselves back to school. Kakashi already had a line in front of his room, and it wasn't even a quarter to seven. He offered polite greetings as he opened his door and started the cycle all over again.

He rounded off with Shino's father, the spitting image of his son. "He seems troubled with one of his 'teammates' in your class," he said, after hearing what the English teacher had to say.

"Oh, that will change with time," Kakashi said. "His team takes some prodding sometimes, but it's the perfect opportunity to give him training in leadership. Shino has a quick mind, but he doesn't really know how to put it to its best use. I deliberately paired him with two people that he would have to take charge of: a girl who tries hard but is painfully shy, and a boy that can pull his weight but needs some poking to do it. Once Shino understands that he has near complete control over them, it will go much better. Right now he just sort of assumes that they'll do what they're supposed to on their own."

"I see. That's very interesting."

And that was all he said.

The team hour went much the same, and the dread increased as they prepared for the last meeting of the evening: the Hyugas.

The head of the family himself, accompanied by his brother, along with Neji, Hinata, and her little sister. "Hello everyone," the head said.

"Hyuga-san," Kakashi said, beginning the meeting. The team rattled off their observations of Hinata, that she was a steady and hard worker, that she always gave her all in what she did, that they all wanted to see her stand up more and have a voice.

"If you have such good things to say," the head of the family said casting a frosty glance at his daughter, "then why does she have Cs in all of her classes but science?"

"She does her best," Kakashi said mildly. "It's not her fault she freezes up during a test because she knows what will happen if she doesn't get an A."

"Is that supposed to mean something?" the head asked, leveling his frosty glare to the English teacher."

"Just making an observation," Kakashi drawled. "She has her cousin Neji who is a genius, straight As in all his classes without ever studying was the rumor. Ruins curves, is not shy about showing off how smart he is. She has a little sister that's reportedly as smart as Neji, the star of the elementary school. The parents, of course, were all intelligent in school and got As. Now Hinata comes along and she is blessedly normal, which in such a family is considered abnormal. I can only guess at the pressure she must be under. I'm sure you don't do anything to pressure her," Kakashi went on genially, knowing full well that they, in fact, did, "but she also puts the pressure on herself, and in turn completely shuts down if she doesn't know the answer right away.

"I feel sorry for her," he concluded.

The entire family, sans Hinata of course, gave him an ice-cold glare. He only smiled in response. "Am I wrong?" he asked.

The Hyuga clan glared for a full minute before getting up and leaving.

"Good. Now we can leave when we want," Kakashi grinned.

"You just made enemies of the Hyuga family and you're happy you can leave on time?" Iruka demanded. "He'll have your job!"

"Maa," Kakashi drew out, admiring the shocked faces of his team. "I doubt it."

And you're probably not interested in that in the slightest. You want to know more about the plate spinning with all the teacher conferences. Well, there certainly was a lot, but most of them aren't going to come to fruition until much later in the year, so just sit tight and keep reading!