Given the hell that was known as Last Week, Kakashi was looking forward to some relative piece and quiet. It was the first week of December, Christmas advertisements had already been blasting for almost a month, and shoppers were out, paying full price for various toys, cloths, books, gift cards, etc. Sasuke had come back to school, his arm still encased in the larger cast, and walking gingerly from class to class, with either Naruto or Sakura carrying his books (he refused anyone else to help him), and having full support from Kakashi and his team so that nobody pestered him with questions in regards to his new cast. Anyone who tried to talk to Sasuke in the halls was faced with the stone wall of Sakura and Naruto. It was a much-needed grin that Kakashi couldn't hide, no matter how he tried. That and, now that December had started, the orders for the hitae-ate were in, and students all around the building were proudly wearing the Yuuhi creation on heads, around necks, arms, waists, whatever worked.

Monday and Tuesday proved to be life as normal. In fact, none of them had needed to write up a student yet and Kurenai had quietly suggested that they might be able to get through the week without having anyone end up in ISS. Or at least, it was a prayer that they all hoped for. There was of course, the usual trouble. Naruto served an ISS on Monday for his usual misdemeanors (ie: talking back to Ebisu) that occurred on Friday. It was two days of bliss that Kakashi needed after the turmoil of last week and Orochimaru almost deliberately showing his face in front of the Scarecrow and silently gloating.

Of course, such peace couldn't last.

Wednesday, the English teacher enjoyed lunch with the sixth grade teachers, as was his habit. He lingered as they left, enjoying the last of his coffee and greeting the next wave of teachers as they arrived. Still, he had waited long enough; it was time to irk Iruka with his tardiness.

"Ah, Kakashi, my rival."

"Hello, Gai. What brings you down here? I would have thought you'd be waiting for me with everyone else." He grinned broadly. "Is Iruka finally fed up and sending you to fetch me?"

The social studies teacher grinned right back. "While our youthful comrade is, indeed, much chagrined with your perpetual lack of punctuality, he is not my reason for finding our esteemed English teacher."

"Oh?"

"It seems that there were not enough substitutes this day, as many of our fellow guardians of youth are absent. Shizune has been frantic, trying to ensure that every class has coverage, resulting in some teachers having as many as three or four substitute educators of youth in for one person over the course of the day."

Well, December usually started the flue and cold season. Days like this were bound to happen. "So let me guess," Kakashi made some deductive leaps. "You came to find me because you now have to cover something else and won't be in for team time."

"You are indeed perceptive, and one day I will exceed you in that field. It makes my passionate fire of rivaldom beat all the more!"

Kakashi stood and walked with his teammate. "So, what duty do you have?"

"I must watch our youthful students enjoy their midday meal."

"I don't envy you." Kakashi had always hated it when he got stuck watching kids shovel food down their mouths as quickly as possible just so they could continue gossiping. If the Scarecrow needed the grapevine, he had several after school clubs that he ran to get it, either from Student Council, the Book Club, the Homework Club, or the students who liked to hang out in his room after school. He followed Gai into the cafeteria across the hall. "Still, I'll keep you company for a few minutes to give you the basics of what we'll be discussing."

Together, the seventh grade teachers strode into the cafeteria. The cafeteria was a wedge shape, with the narrow end holding the lunch line, deli line, garbage cans, and other usual tidbits that made a cafeteria a cafeteria. The lunch ladies' area was further sectioned off by a half-wall where the garbage cans were lined up on one side, with utensils and napkins on the other. In the rest of the wedge, the students ate. The other team had assigned seats in the cafeteria, requiring their students to sit with their homerooms. Kakashi's team hadn't had to do that, because their team's behavior during lunch, while hardly stellar, didn't warrant assigned seats. The two teams were separated only by a gap between lunch tables that was larger than the rest, but it was enough.

He and Gai wandered over to the half-wall, where they had a good view of their students, still discussing various meetings and such coming up. The union representative was getting to be a bigger hassle, Gai explained, as he had just mandated teachers to come to the union meetings. To make matters worse, it seemed Orochimaru was backing him. Just what Kakashi didn't want to hear.

It happened out of the corner of his eye. A carton of milk was spiraling in the air, open, its contents spilling onto almost a dozen students. In retaliation, a container of applesauce was thrown. The English teacher lost track of what was thrown after that as some students ducked to avoid the flying food, others started tearing up their own lunches, launching the edible projectiles.

"Get the teachers from the teachers lounge," he told Gai. Ebisu and Sandaime, who always prowled around the cafeteria during lunchtime, started shouting directives that the students weren't listening to. Food fights were only beat out by atomic bombs when it came to efficiency in destruction. Such fights never lasted more than a minute, up to three, depending how long it took to basically create a wall of teachers for students to think twice before throwing the next sandwich or drink. But the damage done in those short minutes was massive. The janitors would have enormous amounts of liquid and edible mess to clean up before the next lunch wave came in, students and teachers would be stuck wearing sticky, stained clothes that would be uncomfortable to sit in for the rest of the day, long hair could end up hopelessly tangled and mussed up, leaving the ladies (and some of the guys) complaining for the rest of the day.

As Kakashi and the other teachers started shouting orders, the Scarecrow saw, from across the room, a milk carton exploded into something worse. His Team 7 had been sitting together at the end of a table, near the windows that overlooked the courtyard. The milk carton spilled all over Naruto, sending him falling backwards into Kiba. The Scarecrow started to head over there because he knew this couldn't end well. Kiba and Naruto were both having bad days in Resource, and Kakashi knew that Iruka had given Kiba a detention over something he claimed was Naruto's fault. While the two weren't bad students, Kakashi knew that even in his class, the two could play off one another swimmingly, with loud angry bickering until he intervened.

Unsurprisingly, Kiba took his leftover anger out on Naruto for falling into him, and Naruto shouted right back. Kiba said something Kakashi couldn't hear over the shouts and screams of the food fight, but it must have been bad, since Naruto threw the first punch. There was suddenly a wall of students between the English teacher and his Team 7. Given his advantage of height, Kakashi watched the fists fly between the two of them before Sasuke and Sakura intervened.

Sasuke, who had been sitting in front of Naruto, stood and grabbed Kiba from behind, and the hooded boy's struggles were obviously irritating Sasuke's taped ribs, but the dark haired boy continued to hold Kiba back. Sakura, who had been next to her blond teammate, got between Kiba and him, shoving Naruto back. "Naruto!" she shouted. "You idiot! Don't get in ISS again! You can't keep getting in trouble like this!" Trust Sakura to insult Naruto and give sage advice all in one breathe. But Kakashi didn't have time to smile yet again at his prized team's increasing closeness. He to get from here to there before matters got worse.

After Sakura's harsh words, Naruto came up short and appeared to calm, a bonus in his favor that Kakashi would push, until Kiba wriggled out of Sasuke's weakened grasp, reached out, grabbed Sakura's long pink locks, and yanked, wanting her out of the way.

Sakura cried out in pain, tipping backward and overbalanced, before she fell hard onto her back. Naruto's calm disappeared in an instant and Kakashi could see Sasuke's face darken before he kicked Kiba's legs out from under him. The blond member of Team 7 launched himself forward, fists flying fast. With Sasuke still struggling to hold Kiba, Naruto had an unhindered shot until Shino appeared behind Naruto to hold him back.

Kakashi finally waded through the students and with the perfect pitch of his voice, commanded, "Stop!" His verbal whiplash, plus the wall of teachers behind him thanks to Gai, finally put a halt to all activity in the large cafeteria. Both Kiba and Naruto were bleeding on the floor, Kiba more so. Sasuke finally let go, sinking to the floor, breathing hard, his good arm clutching his ribs. Sakura was by his side, one hand holding her head, the other gently touching Sasuke's back, a quiet inquiry.

The entire event took a total of two minutes.

Tsunade came in as the teachers were herding students back to their tables from the circle that had appeared around the fistfight, and made a straight line going to Team 7 and Kiba. All three were taken to her office, with Shino supporting Kiba, Sakura helping Sasuke, and Hinata appearing to take Naruto's arm.

Sandaime and Ebisu leveled icy glares at the gathered student body. There was very little time in the lunch period left, some students at their seats hurrying to finish what was left of their lunches. "All students," Sandaime stated, "will report to their F period classes. You will not go back to your specials. You will wait there until you are called down to the Lecture Hall."

Kakashi slipped out of the cafeteria at that point, and stepped double time to the office, where he took the phone out of Shizune's hand.

"Kakashi!"

"Asuma?" he ignored her.

"Kakashi, we were wondering where you'd gotten to. This is late even for you."

"We won't be having Team Time. The entire seventh grade is coming straight up to F period. There was a food fight and a fistfight. Gai and I got caught in the middle breaking it up. We'll be called down class by class to the Lecture Hall for something. Sandaime's hardly pleased."

"Shit. I'll explain to the others. Any students we should be looking for as missing?"

"No, they're all my in F."

"Right."

Rushing down the hall, Kakashi opened his door and then went across the hall to Gai's room, unlocking that as well. Iruka poked his head out, question on his lips, but went into Kakashi's room as the thunderous sound of footsteps approached. The Scarecrow waited in Gai's room until he appeared, then meandered across the hall back into his room to start expressing his displeasure. He noted, however, that Iruka already had the class sitting upright and silent. Noting Iruka's blatant look of wanting to ask questions. Kakashi walked over and quietly gave the lowdown on what happened and why Teams 7 and 8 were missing.

It wasn't long before his phone rang, and Kakashi picked up to hear Ebisu. Evidently, his team would meet first down at the Lecture Hall, so he nodded to Iruka and took their class down to the most uncomfortable room in the building. The Lecture Hall was a sloped room designed to hold more than the average class. The base of the room had a good-sized amount of floor for teachers to stand, with a computer shoved into the corner by the blackboard. The rows of seats were old, wooden, and not very flexible. The seats were decades old, and many of the students swore that the people who the seats were designed for were midgets, because nobody could sit down in them and be comfortable. Each seat had a mini square of a desk that could be lifted and slid down between the seats. This was where some of the faculty meetings were held before the new library was added, so Kakashi knew how uncomfortable the chairs were. And right now he was happy to let the students squirm in the chairs for hours if he wanted.

Once his class was all settled, he and the teachers lining the walls along the slope, Sandaime looked coldly up to the student body.

"I am disappointed. Very disappointed." And thus the lecture on responsibility and how your actions reflected your future began. Sandaime was known for getting longwinded if he wasn't happy, and making you listen to every word. He used that skill and then some as he verbally spanked the students in front of him. He went on for almost ten minutes before he started a basic question and answer session designed to sniff out who had started the food-fight. After a few minutes of prodding and working the students to try and get a straight answer, Kakashi had had enough. He left his comfy spot on the wall and stood by Sandaime and Ebsiu. Lifting his hitae-ate, he glared at the student body, the kids already knowing that if his headband was raised, he was dead serious.

Kakashi raised his fingers, "I have only two things to say. First, the person or persons who started this food fight have exhibited the height of irresponsibility. Not just because of what Sandaime-sama has said. As your teachers, we are given a list of students who have various allergies, such as bees, seafood, wheat, peanut oil, etc. Now, food allergies don't always require you to ingest food to get sick. Sometimes the smell can induce nausea, or even touching residuals of the food can initiate an allergic reaction." His eyes narrowed. "Trust me, watching somebody die isn't fun." The students knew, at the very least, that he'd been in the military. This would, of course send speculation on what he'd done spiraling with rumors; he'd be inundated with questions, but that was secondary right now.

"Second, we're not stupid. We can tell you're covering for friends. I'd like to know where the moral decision to be honest begins. Food fight? No problem. Stole some candy? Why turn your best friend in. Oh, they stole some dollar bills now. It wasn't much. A hundred dollars taken? While uncomfortable, you didn't actually do it. A thousand dollars? Wasn't me. In the middle of a theft, a person was struck down? Well, the guy'll live, no major injuries. Somebody died. But they're my friend. Where's the line drawn? When does it become all right to cover for a friend and when is it not okay? Because right now, you're indicating that you'd cover for your friend no matter what they did."

Silence.

Kakashi offered a wry grin. "And let's not forget that this food fight led to the injuring of three students. We'll be lucky if the parents don't bring a civil suit for several million dollars against us, all thanks to a few children who thought a food fight would be fun."

"Two very valid points, Kakashi-sensei," Sadaime agreed, picking up where Kakashi left off. As Sandaime continued talking about a writing assignment that he was going to give them, the Scarecrow walked over to Iruka.

"Make sure they know it's a graded assignment," he murmured. "I'm going to check on our missing teams."

The special education teacher nodded and Kakashi slipped out.

There was no "nurse's office" as most schools knew it. Konoha Middle sported an entire health center, with Tsunade leading the reigns as head nurse. Given how poor the district was, there were many students who needed medications of various sorts, ranging from inhalers, medication for disabilities, diabetes friendly food, aspirin and bandages for the fights that would break out from time to time, and other odds and ends that one found in the lower socio-economic spectrum of things.

Naturally, the first place Kakashi went was behind the welcome desk and straight for Tsunade's office. "So, will they live?" he asked congenially, his hitae-ate back down over his scarred eye.

The nurse barked out a sharp laugh. "We were lucky with Sasuke. Aside from pulling a few muscles, he's his usual beaten self. Sakura just needed an aspirin, but if she gets light-headed later on, she knows to come right to me. Naruto and Kiba were, of course, the worst as far as injuries go. Just bumps, bruises, and the occasional cuts. They'll probably be healed by the time they come back."

Kakashi nodded, since it was a mandatory minimum of five-day Out of School Suspension for participants in a fight. "Where are they?"

"I was pleasantly surprised that Naruto and Kiba weren't still steaming when they came in. Hinata seems to have calmed Naruto down considerably, and Shino has a firm grasp of Kiba."

He nodded again. "Mind if I check in before Ebisu storms in?"

"Be my guest, they're next door to each other over there," she pointed to a wall that was sectioned off with walls jutting out, forming little cubicles that could be closed off for privacy by curtains. "Just don't aggravate them. I know you're good at that."

Ignoring her jibe, he meandered away, "Thanks Tsunade-sama."

First stop, Team 7. Their curtain was partially opened, so the Scarecrow just pulled it back and came in. Naruto and Sasuke were both in beds, between them on a chair was Sakura, holding both of their hands. Pride just swelled up in Kakashi, and he let the grin come to the surface.

"I'm proud of the three of you."

They all looked at him, slack-jawed. Clearly, they weren't expecting him to say that. Good. He still had it.

"You stood up for each other, helped each other, and worked together. While what was done," he glanced at the two boys, "leaves a little to be desired, the fundamental instinct to protect your friends and help each other, especially after only being together for just over a month, is something I wish I had seen more of when I was in the service. You understand that you help one another first, even if it means injury to yourself."

Sakura and Naruto smiled brightly, and Sasuke smirked, looking away with a, "Hn."

"Now, Naruto, what did Kiba say to you to make you throw the first punch?"

Naruto frowned, looking away. "Do I gotta say it, Kakashi-sensei?"

The Scarecrow grinned widely. "I merely ask for you to refer to what Iruka-sensei told you in that last week of September."

The blond squirmed. "Yeah, but I was alone then."

"Dobe."

"Shut up, teme."

"Naruto?" Sakura prompted, forestalling the less-than-enthusiastic bickering.

Sitting up with a wince, the blond looked down to the floor. "He called me a demon-child."

Well that was new. Kakashi had heard many names; both growing up and in the military, but "demon-child" was new to him. He waited for Naruto to continue, sensing a story of bullying; a sad, but not uncommon phenomenon.

"Back in elementary school, kids kinda got word that I kept having to switch foster homes. It was bad enough being called a foster kid, but at least I am one." Naruto frowned at the floor. "When they realized that 'foster kid' wouldn't work, they tried 'foster-reject'." Kakashi nodded, he'd heard Ino refer to him that way during locker clean out a lifetime ago. Naruto laughed harshly. "I even agree with them on that." Sakura slapped his hand in reprimand.

"Idiot."

"That's harsh, Sakura-chaaan," the blond pleaded, a sour but soft expression on his face. "It was true until I got to Yondaime-jiji."

Sasuke snorted.

"Yes?" Kakashi prompted, not wanting conversation to be diverted.

"Well, whatever I am now, back then was different." Naruto smiled wryly, rubbing a finger under his nose. "When the kids realized that 'foster-reject' still wasn't going to rile me, they started calling me a demon, because nobody would keep a demon." He looked down at the floor again, rubbing a hand through his mussed up hair. "One of my foster parents kept calling me a demon, right about when the kids started calling me demon."

Kakashi could see where this was going.

"I was being called demon left and right, at home, at school, even a teacher called me a demon. Finally, one day I snapped and got into my first fight." Kakashi noted that Sakura and Sasuke were looking away. No doubt, this was back when they thought their blond teammate was useless and they may have even participated in the belittling. "Well, let's just say it ended up with me getting shuffled to another home and the kids soon realized that calling me a demon would get their asses whooped."

"I'll let the swearing slide this time." Kakashi grinned as Naruto sputtered and blushed, stammering an apology. The Scarecrow's face dropped, however, as he got serious again. "It's not ISS that you're looking at."

"I know," he grumbled. "OSS right?"

"Five days, minimum for any participant in a fight." He glanced over to the dark-haired Sasuke. "Although I think Ebisu-sensei will look over Sasuke's participation as simply trying to stop a fight, rather than giving you better access."

Sasuke merely looked away. "Hn."

"Ah," Naruto grumbled. "That's no fair. Ebisu-ecchi will probably give me more OSS than just five days."

"We'll see," the Scarecrow replied. "Of course, no matter what the outcome, we'll be expecting you to keep up with the school work."

"Oh please, Kakashi-sensei," Sakura retorted, "he'll be waiting at my house when Sasuke and I get off the bus. You should know that, you set us up together."

Team 7 smiled, and Kakashi couldn't help but smile back.

With his favorite team relatively stable and happy, Kakashi slipped out, checking his watch. If he were lucky, Sandaime and Ebisu would be interviewing/interrogating the other team right now, so he should be able to talk to Team 8, or, more specifically, Kiba. The anger issues he was displaying weren't putting him on a good path, and it needed to be nipped in the bud. While both Shino and Hinata were proving to be calming, they couldn't be around him all the time. So it needed to be addressed.

Sliding back the curtain, Kakashi noticed that Hinata was blushing, and apparently eavesdropping on his talk with Team 7. Taken into account Asuma, Kurenai, and Gai all noting how she tried to sit next to and all-around be near Naruto, Kakashi smelled a crush. Shino was looking up at Kiba through his dark glasses, and Kiba was looking at the wall, a huge bandage on his cheek.

"Shino, Hinata," Kakashi greeted. "I understand the two of you have been having some trouble with your teammate."

"N-no," the shy girl mumbled. "Kiba is f-fine."

The quiet boy shook his head. "He's fine with us. He works well with us and we make a good team." He looked over his shaded glasses to the English teacher. "He just doesn't understand the boundaries of common sense."

"Hey!" the bandaged boy barked.

"A very apt description," Kakashi nodded. He turned his gaze to the bedridden Kiba. "You deliberately instigated a fistfight, correct?"

He looked away. "How would you know?"

"I saw," the Scarecrow said in a flat voice. "I saw the argument. You said something and Naruto threw the first punch. Apparently, he has a reputation for punching first and asking questions second when he's called a certain name." Kiba continued to stare at the wall. "Demon-child, I believe."

Hinata winced, her whole head and shoulders crumpling into each other at the hated name of her crush and Shino's expression was unreadable behind his dark spectacles.

"Common sense," Kakashi continued, "would tell you that to say a name like that would start a fight. Did you want the five-day minimum OSS you'll be getting for this?"

"What would you know about anything!" Kiba growled. "He's the one who started this! He's the one who got me a detention with Iruka-sensei!"

"But who decided to pick a fight?"

"You teachers always take his side!"

"We call it like we see it," Kakashi countered. "Iruka-sensei saw you doing something you shouldn't have. So because one person got away with something, it's all right for everyone? I don't know what happened in Resource, but I do know what happened in lunch." He reached up and lifted his headband. "You became a bully. You many not have thrown the first punch, but this has been happening for a while. Bullying is defined as 'any overt acts by a student or group of students directed against another student with the intent to ridicule, humiliate, or intimidate the other student while on school grounds or at a school-sponsored activity, which acts are repeated against the same student over time'. You've been picking on Naruto in other classes, and now this."

Kiba said nothing, just staring at the wall, scowling. Shino and Hinata stood there, not having anything to offer.

"Shino?" The Scarecrow turned to the bespectacled boy. "If you thought one of your teachers was treating you unfairly, what would you do?"

The boy looked at him, clearly not wanting to upset the balance of his team. After a long pause, he said, "Talk to the teacher."

"Excellent common sense," Kakashi agreed, turning back to Kiba. "Did you talk to any of us about the unfair treatment you feel you've been getting?"

Kiba just scowled further.

"Of course not, and when Naruto fell into you at lunch, you lashed out. Whether you knew it would get him on OSS or not is immaterial. You couldn't control your own anger at your situation and took it out on someone who was an easy target for you. You did it to make yourself feel better by knowing that there was someone worse off than you and farther down in the dirt."

He paused, knowing from Kiba's glare that he'd gotten his assessment of the situation fairly well.

"You weren't expecting him to have backup, though, did you?"

"Shut up."

"Why should someone who's supposed to be nothing, a 'demon-child' have friends that close to him?"

"Shut up!"

"After all, you're working every day as hard as you can, you don't have time for friends. But here's a boy who should have nothing, and he somehow ended up having more than you."

"SHUT UP!"

"But the real shame of it all is that you don't even realize that you have two people here who are willing to help you and back you up. You didn't even see that one of your teammates risked injury to make sure that you weren't hurt anymore."

"SHUT UP!!"

"Am I hitting a little too close to home?" Kakashi asked blithely.

"You fucking bastard!"

"You're lacking common sense again. Is that really going to help your cause at all? Is swearing and shouting going to give you sympathy from either me or Ebisu-sensei when he arrives? Will throwing a tantrum like a little boy garner you the support you want? Will--"

There was a tug at his sleeve and Kakashi looked down to see Hinata grasping it, looking down at the floor.

"Sensei," she whispered. "Please."

He looked back at the fuming bandaged boy. "Do you even see what you have?" With that, he did as Hinata had silently requested and left. To his left, Sakura's head was peaking out the curtain.

"Everything alright, Kakashi-sensei?"

The Scarecrow smiled. "Just fine. Get back with your team. You'll have to answer Ebisu-sensei's questions about what happened when he gets here."

"Okay." She raised an eyebrow at him. Apparently, he still puzzled the students with his ability to switch from lackadaisical to hard-as-nails and back again. Kakashi just smiled all the more.

Now that he'd checked on his teams, the Scarecrow wandered to the front of the health center where Tsunade was glaring at him full force.

"What did I say about not aggravating my patients?"

"Aaah, well he needed a long hard look at things around him. Being gentle just wouldn't cut it."

Tsunade scoffed. "Ebisu's waiting in my office if you have any cases to plead. Just stay away from my patients."

Kakashi nodded, knowing that getting Tsunade angry tended to be a really bad idea. He'd only been on the receiving end of her wrath once, during his first year, and he avoided ending up like that again ever since.

"Yo, Ebisu," he greeted, leaning on the doorframe.

"Ah, Kakashi," the vice principal greeted, standing straight and rigid. "I saw you slip out of the Lecture Hall. You've been speaking with the students, I take it?"

"Only for a few minutes," he replied lightly. "I saw the entire fight, how much did you see?" For all the complaints that teachers had with Ebisu, justified as they were, Kakashi knew how to deal with the man. Put yourself in a position that you either had power, or desperately needed information, and the vice principal would listen to you. If you were the one with the question, Ebisu tended to look down his nose.

"I only saw after the girl was shoved. How did it start?"

"Then allow me to enlighten you." Kakashi gave everything he saw in full, emphasizing how Naruto was the first to back down until Sakura was hurt. He glossed over Sasuke deliberately kicking Kiba's legs out, making it sound like it was the only thing the injured boy could do, and pointing out that Sasuke, a student with a history of never getting involved, was standing up for his friends, despite his recent upheaval. He talked about what Kiba had said to set Naruto off and gave the little he knew about what had happened in Resource.

Ebisu frowned. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were lobbying to ensure that both Kiba and Naruto got only a five-day OSS."

Kakashi grinned, "Really? I know that not being in school will have both of them miss the material we're covering. Neither can afford it when they're finally doing well in school. Kiba reacted to anger, so he might need some anger counseling and Naruto didn't start the fight. Plus he was willing to break off. There's no question that they both deserve OSS. Fighting is unacceptable and should be discouraged strongly. But I still see a lot of hope around each child."

The vice principal snorted. "You're lobbying alright. Don't worry Kakashi. This is a first offense for both of them this year. They'll only get five days." Ebisu shifted, so that he was looking down his nose, despite the fact that Kakashi was taller. "But next time I won't be so forgiving."

The Scarecrow nodded. "You're always fair with the students, Ebisu-sensei." They talked a few more minutes, and Kakashi found out what the writing assignment Sandaime assigned was. Each student had to write a letter of apology and state everything that the heard and saw in regards to the food fight. The English teacher agreed with the assignment and further decided he'd grade each letter as a test.

Finished with his business, Kakashi left the health center to go back to his room. No doubt F period had begun and the students would be hard to control for the rest of the day, since they'd be abuzz about both the food fight and the fist fight at lunch.

As if the day wasn't long enough and it wasn't even over yet.

The following day, Kakashi had a surprise in homeroom. He walked in just as the bell rang and went to log into his computer when he noticed something strange. As his computer booted up, he walked over to the strange sight and looked down at it.

Sakura looked up to him and smiled. "Yes, Kakashi-sensei?"

He raised an eyebrow. "You've cut our hair," he stated.

She shrugged. "There was a hopeless amount of gunk in it from the food fight. The only way to get rid of hit was to get my hair cut."

Kakashi frowned. Despite the milk carton that had initiated the fight between Kiba and Naruto, that part of the cafeteria wasn't as into flinging food as other parts.

Sighing, Sakura looked away. "It was too easy to grab my hair," she said quietly. "I don't want Sasuke and Naruto thinking they have to look after me. I can take care of myself. I'm their support, right?"

Finally Kakashi smiled. It seemed that Sakura was concerned that her teammates would wanted to shield her from the harshness of life that had been dealt to them, but Sakura was determined to help and support them, even if she might get hurt in the process as yesterday proved. Kakashi's Team 7 was starting to mature. He couldn't be more proud.