Given the abnormal occurrences of the last two weeks, Kakashi decided to take the weekend and immerse himself in normalcy. He spent the majority of Saturday going through his bank statements and credit cards and bills, surprised that it didn't balance on his first try. The reason behind it simply was that he'd forgotten that he'd switched his life insurance (finally) to direct withdrawal from his account, and noticing it, he made the entries in his checkbook and was happy that the end accounts were the same.

He also took the time to pay his bills; his credit card and his cell phone bill had both snuck up on him, and he regretted how much of this week's paycheck was delegated to catching up on the money he owed.

Afterward, he did a complete wash of two thirds of his clothes and turned the music up while he ironed, a funny habit that soothed his mind. In the evening, he went out for pizza and came home to watch a DVD. By Sunday; he felt much more refreshed and moved on to the next item of normalcy: food shopping.

It should be stated that, amongst the pile of points that he made, he made a point of not being seen by students outside of school. Outside the fact that, for certain students, he really didn't want to see them more than he absolutely had to, he disliked the overall novelty a student or former student felt when he or she saw him; regardless of who the child would rush over and say, "Hi, Kakashi-sensei! Do you remember me?" and leave him to try and guess who the student was - this was particularly difficult for students he hadn't seen for several years. This was not because he couldn't remember the name, Kakashi was one of the few teachers alive that had a good memory with names and faces, but instead because the student was now upwards of a foot taller, covered in pimples or now sporting a goatee, or had filled out and was heavily made up, or some of the other radical changes that happened to children under the umbrella term of "growth." Some students were rendered unrecognizable over time, and his being unable to recognize them always crushed them and Kakashi didn't really want to do that to a student, former or otherwise.

This Sunday, however, he decided to take a chance and went to the local supermarket, just up the street from the school. He'd prepared for the chance encounter, and was dressed completely in sweats underneath his large overcoat. The weather was still in the twenties outside, and so he pulled a scarf over his chin as he got into his car to make the ever-familiar drive to - er, past - school to the supermarket.

He'd had almost a full page of groceries to make up for. Outside of his empty fridge he'd run out of other household items; soap, toilet paper, plastic bags, and other amenities.

So he was in the paper goods isle, pulling out a packet of Styrofoam bowls, when he saw a familiar face turn the corner and jog down the isle. Uchiha Sasuke was nearing sprinting speed, and when the boy looked up Kakashi realized that he'd unwrapped his scarf when he'd come in to the overheated supermarket. Damn!

But, to his surprise, the boy ran up and didn't say "Hi Kakashi-sensei!" which in itself would have been slightly disturbing because Sasuke wasn't the type, but instead ran up and said, "Hide me."

Kakashi blinked.

"My brother... hide me," he said again.

The immediate image of the bored-faced man with Obito's eye color grabbing his throat filled his mind. The Scarecrow reacted instantly.

"Under the cart, now. Make yourself as small as you can." Sasuke dipped down and disappeared as he crawled into the shopping carts undercarriage. Looking around, Kakashi reached up to a high shelf and grabbed a wrapped eight-pack of paper towels. He bend down stuffed it at the front end of the cart. Sasuke was struggling to curl himself into a ball; had the boy been any taller or any heavier he wouldn't have been able to do it, but he was finally able to pinch his legs up against his chest and have one hand grip the wire frame of the cart above him and the steel leg of one of the wheels. Kakashi secured the huge package of paper towel rolls and stood up, grabbing the two things nearest him, a box of plastic forks and a bag of plastic bowls and put on a show of examining them in detail.

Kakashi cast his senses out, but there were too many people in the supermarket. This was a Sunday, and weekends were when the vast majority of the universe did their shopping. Frowning, he realized he would have to cut this short. The checkout stands were directly behind him; he could hear their beeping drone. Letting out a sigh, he pushed up his headband and slowly tugged and pushed his now much heavier cart one hundred eighty degrees around and made his way there.

Someone was looking out for him, because he was able to quickly find a station that only had two other people in it. He slid his cart in and waited. The genius of a supermarket was that all the most popular and incidentally most expensive items were right at eye level; only the smart shopper would crouch down or reach up because the normal person only took in what a sweep of his eyes could see. Sasuke was perfectly hidden under an overloaded cart with a roll of paper towels, and now in between shelves of reader's digests, horoscopes, magazines, and candy bars, he might as well be invisible to the eye.

The English teacher bent down to reach for a chocolate bar and turned to the boy. Close inspection showed unhidden fear in the boy's eyes. He was pale and trying desperately to stop himself from shaking.

"Did he see you?"

"Yeah," he whispered, petrified to say anything louder. "He started moving to me, so I ran. He looked like he was going to hit me again."

"I'll give you my coat when we get to the parking lot, put it on and walk by my side. It's big enough that your clothes will be hidden, so just keep your head down and let me do the talking if it comes to it."

The boy nodded, scared out of his mind but able to process what Kakashi was telling him. The Scarecrow stood and began unbuttoning his overcoat. Then he grabbed his own wrist and squeezed, hard, digging his nails in and scrapping them against his flesh. The pain was sharp, but he showed no evidence of it, as it finally became his turn to unload his cart.

"Excuse me," he said genially to the checkout boy. "I had a bit of a run-in with another customer, and I'd like to have someone, your manager perhaps, talk to the man."

"That's not really my job, sir," the teenager said, flatly indifferent.

"Well, I'm not one to make a big deal of things. It was my fault, really; my cart ran into his. I apologized but he became extremely foul-tempered. He made all kinds of threats and accusations, some of them I wouldn't dream of repeating. I would have let it go at even that, but then he grabbed me." Kakashi showed his now pink wrist with the scrapes of his nails. That immediately got the boys attention. "I know this establishment wouldn't allow that kind of behavior, would it?"

"No sir, let me call my manager."

Pleasantly, the manager came right away and was aghast when Kakashi showed him his wrist. "I'm very sorry that this happened, sir," he said apologetically.

"Well," Kakashi said, continuing to be genial as he helped bag his purchases. "You certainly don't have control over your own customers. I was wondering if he could be talked to, however, discouraged from making that kind of seen in the future, you understand."

"Certainly, sir."

"The man didn't give his name, obviously, but he's hard to miss. He's perhaps four inches shorter than me, longish black hair, his face is a little sunken in, and he has bright red eyes."

The manager was nodding, apparently having already seen Itachi. "You'll forgive me if I don't stick around," Kakashi added quickly, pushing his heavy cart. "His threats were very detailed, and I don't particularly want to stick around knowing he's in the building." Not waiting for a reply, Kakashi made a show of hurrying in his bagging process and was more than pleased when the manager disappeared. He saw Sasuke briefly as he was reloading his cart and winked at him before putting a plastic bag of groceries in front of him.

He pushed his cart out to the parking lot and took of his coat; the boy slowly unknotted himself and crawled out, taking the coat and shifting it onto his small frame. Kakashi looked briefly back into the store, but saw nothing, so he made his way purposefully to the car, keeping his eyes and senses open. Loading the car went quickly with two people, and Kakashi ushered Sasuke into the backseat of his car, telling him to stay low until he said so, before getting in himself and slamming the door closed. He looked briefly at the icicle ornament Iruka had given him that year. It was overcast, leaving no light for it to reflect.

Taking a breath to steel himself, he turned on the car and turned the music up before driving out, taking the roundabout route home that he sometimes did on schooldays when he needed to get his head on straight.

"What about your foster?" he asked, finally turning the music down after ten minutes of driving.

"He's not there. He got called in for another kid," he said slowly. His voice was stronger now, but the boy was still hidden in the backseat.

"Naruto and Sakura?"

"No! Just... no..."

That had not been the reaction he had been expecting, and Kakashi realized very suddenly that Sasuke probably didn't have anyone else to go to. The thought was slightly disturbing, Kakashi was far from qualified to deal with things like this, and he knew for a fact that he wasn't mentally healthy enough to be what Sasuke was looking for. Frowning at a stoplight, a car honked him before he realized it had turned green.

Out of options, Kakashi broke one of his most sacred rules: he took Sasuke home with him.

Pulling into his driveway, he gave the All Clear, and serendipitously started dropping grocery bags into Sasuke's hands, weighing the boy down before getting his own fist-load and letting the two of them in. With the extra hands it took three trips to and from the car instead of the usual half dozen, and Kakashi cordially offered Sasuke the couch while he started putting things away. It wasn't long before he heard the TV turn on, and the teacher grinned slightly as he continued. Once the perishables were in the fridge, the non-perishables in the cabinets, and the miscellaneous in their proper homes, he pulled out a two cans of soda and tossed one to Sasuke before turning off the TV by hand and leaning against the wall.

"So."

"So."

Kakashi prayed a crowbar wouldn't be needed. He started simple. "Why not Naruto or Sakura?"

The boy looked away, shamed, hiding his head with his thick mass of hair. "Do you really wear that on the weekends, too?" he said, changing subject.

Kakashi put his hand to his head, only just realizing he was still wearing the hitae'ate that had sold so well after Halloween. "Oh," he said, slightly surprised. "I guess its just habit now. I don't even think about it anymore. You still wear yours."

Sasuke blinked, putting his own hand to his forehead, feeling the plastic plate, and running his finger over the stylized leaf symbol. "... Oh," he said simply.

The two looked at each other and laughed.

"All right," Kakashi said. "The PS2 is on the VCR, I think I have an RPG in it right now. Mindlessly leveling up always relieves stress for me. I can picture the students as my enemy!" he added in a light tone.

Sasuke stared at him incredulously before realizing that there really was a platform on the VCR, and he tentatively took the controller and powered it up. For the next three hours, Kakashi and Sasuke bumped the characters at least a dozen levels, to the point where the random-encounter battles were boring and hardly worth their time. Kakashi offered the occasional color commentary, throwing in a student's name at random and an appropriate comment. Sasuke was clearly trying not to laugh, the grin of mirth wide on his face as he listened to Kakashi's increasingly inventive overtures of ownership.

By the time six rolled around, Sasuke looked much more relaxed; the color had returned to his face and it was more controlled now, instead of the blank fear of earlier. Kakashi pulled out some of his pizza from last night and stuck it in the mircowave.

"Do you think you can talk to me now?" he asked. "Or do you want me to drop you off somewhere?"

The boy started, apparently having (at least temporarily) forgotten why he was here to begin with. He frowned and looked down again, becoming silent. The only noise in the kitchen was the drone of the microwave until it dinged in completion of its task. Kakashi pulled out the slices of pizza and put one on either side of the table before pouring two glasses of diet orange soda.

Obviously not getting an answer, Kakashi tried a different avenue. "Do you know if a restraining order has been passed? For Itachi I mean?"

Sasuke started again. "You can do that?"

"Of course," Kakashi said. "You're a minor, so an adult would have to process it."

The boy frowned. "Kabuto didn't show me anything. I didn't sign anything."

"It's easy enough to check. Call the police station and mention that there was an infraction against it, and they'll look it up. If it doesn't exist, then you can ask to have the forms drawn up."

"But you said I need an adult...?"

"Put me on the phone when it comes to it. I still have the notes on all your injuries beforehand."

The boy looked down again, a habit the English teacher had seen all year when the boy was thinking.

"I should be able to do this myself," he growled (actually growled!) as he pounded his fist onto the table. "I shouldn't have to need help. I should be over this by now! Orochimaru-sensei said--"

"Stop right there," Kakashi said, surprising the boy with the vehemence, almost venom, in his voice. "I normally don't interfere with student decisions, but I have to make one thing clear: never listen to Orochimaru. Never." The boy looked like he was about to protest, an expression of indignation on his face, but Kakashi spoke over whatever Sasuke started to say. "You want power, right? Power to handle your brother by yourself. That's how Orochimaru sells it; you'll be able to trample the people who hurt you. What he doesn't say is that there are many types of power. Let's look at the kind he's offering.

"Who would you say is the most powerful kid in your grade? Ino? She can make the boys flock to her and has half the middle school wrapped around her finger. Is she happy? Does she look pleased whenever you're with Sakura? What about Temari, she has a lot a clout, too, but does she spend every day grinning from ear to ear? What about Shikamaru; he's the smartest kid in your grade. Is he happy now that Chouji's gone? Is Hinata happy with the wealth and privilege that she has?"

He paused, letting the information absorb for a moment before pushing on. "The kind of power Orochimaru is offering is based entirely on if you're alone. Let's examine that for a minute; Naruto was alone for heaven knows how long. Was he happy? How about Sakura?" he pushed, seeing Sasuke squirm. "She tried to handle all that bullying by herself. Wasn't she so proud, elated?"

"Shut up!"

"And let's look at you," he pressed, not even pausing to acknowledge the outburst. "Weren't you thrilled with going through all that abuse on your own?"

"Shut up!!" Sasuke said again, louder, pounding his fist onto the table again. "Shut up..." he whispered.

"Sasuke, there are many kinds of power," Kakashi said slowly, in a softer tone, "and you're only twelve years old. You just don't have enough experience to deal with these kinds of things, and frankly nobody's expecting you do. Even at fifteen you can't be expected to handle it, but you at least are mature enough to try it at that age. But let me tell you right now, doing it all yourself is a surefire way to push everyone away. Including me," he added, putting the last nail in the coffin.

Sasuke snapped to attention, his face furious even as his mind absorbed the information behind his eyes and realized the truth of the Scarecrow's words.

Too hard? Kakashi had felt an irrational frustration at the mention of Orochimaru; the words fell out of his mouth, and only after the fact did he realize that he was pulling a Class A mind job on a twelve year old. He hid his head behind his hand and sighed. Sasuke didn't have that much in the way of a support system, Kakashi himself was one of the few he felt comfortable enough to come to with his problems with Itachi; and now he'd threatened to remove his support if he didn't do as told - a move Itachi would and no doubt had done. What and idiot!

"I'm sorry," he said finally; suddenly feeling very old. "I shouldn't have said all of that."

Sasuke said nothing, staring at his fist blankly on the table.

Damage control. Kakashi got up and got his keys. "Come on, let's go."

He got up in mute reply and followed the English teacher, and Kakashi mindlessly drove him to the place that would do the most good: Sakura's house. The Haruno's were thrilled to see Sasuke, but a little confused to see Kakashi as the escort.

"Is everything alright?" the father asked.

"Oh, yes, I was driving around and saw him freezing in the cold, so I offered to give him a ride. I'm sure the entire school population knows about it by now and will be spreading all kinds of rumors; we wouldn't want this week to be dull, would we?" he added with a wry, bitter smile.

""Parasites, the media," the mother said, verbally waving her support flag. "Don't listen to a thing they say, we certainly don't."

Kakashi grinned weakly, knowing he couldn't take much more acting. "Could you pass on a message to Sakura before you leave the two of them alone?" he asked. When the nodded he continued, "Tell her to talk to him about being alone. He needs to hear about it right now."

The Haruno's were confused but sensed Kakashi's unwillingness to explain.

It was a long drive home.

Iruka was absent Monday, but that didn't really surprise anyone, given the cold temperatures. They all assumed it was because of his accident; on some days he was too stiff to move, let alone maintain the grueling schedule of teaching.

Tuesday came, however, and Kakashi saw dark circles under the special education teacher's eyes when he came in. "Iruka?" he asked.

He turned a tired face to Kakashi. His hair, normally pulled back into a tight ponytail, was unkempt, stray hairs zigzagging this way and that. His clothes were rumpled, wrinkled, and looked overall as if they hadn't been washed. The limp was significant, and there was a dead look in his tired eyes.

"She died," he said simply. "On Saturday. She died." Tears welled up, and Kakashi realized that Iruka's mother had passed away.

"Oh, Iruka..." The English teacher really had no ability to deal with tears, and all he could think of to do was awkwardly put a hand on his fellow teacher's shoulder. "You'd said she'd taken a turn for the worse earlier this year, right?"

Iruka bowed his head down, fighting to get himself under control. "Yeah. It's been coming since Christmas. My brother flew in from California yesterday, that's why I was absent. The funeral is Thursday." His entire frame bowed lower, as if the information he was giving was heavy to even think about. Kakashi frowned, his brain unable to generate an appropriate thing to do or say.

"Hey sensei! Are you two going out or something?"

The pair snapped to attention immediately, and Kakashi gave a scornful detention to Kankuro for inappropriate conduct. It was too late, however, the entire hallway had heard it, and the silver haired man just knew what was going to come over the next few days. He'd laugh, if he didn't feel so damn shitty.

The others teachers were equally sympathetic during team, and soon Kakashi just gave up and ordered Iruka to go sleep on his couch for a while so he could look a little less dead. There was a half smile under it all, and the English teacher took that as a good sign.

All things considered, by the time it was Thursday, Kakashi was ready to swear up and down that it was Saturday, and he couldn't understand why on earth he was driving in. He was also (in his mind justifiably) clueless as to what day it was. The chocolate and heart displays at the supermarket over the weekend had gone by unnoticed, and frankly he was trying very hard not to think about the weekend. It wasn't until he saw a giant stuffed bear with a lacy pink heart tied around its neck that he realized the awful truth.

It was Valentine's Day.

Someone upstairs must have hated him.

The entire day was spent with chocolate, candy, lollipops, sugar, flowers, hearts, and stuffed animals. This was to say nothing of the memories of Rin. Normally he'd had time to prepare for the horrible day, but as stated it snuck up on him, and he almost couldn't deal. As it was, he found himself constantly repeating the phrase "Bah! Humbug!" whenever someone wished him a Happy Valentine's Day. The holiday was celebrated vehemently, culminating in someone, presumably from Sasuke's fan club, putting a stink bomb in Sakura's locker. The hallways stunk most of the day because the girl was absent and it took a long time to determine where the stench was coming from. Meanwhile Ino was again working her magic; being caught several times kissing with her latest catch, and Temari was virtually surrounded by a harem of boys. Even Kurenai, who'd again surprised everyone by giving them all white chocolate lollipops during team couldn't break Kakashi's foul mood. Gai covered for him for the most part, saying something about the days of love being wasted on a man who'd already lost his, but couldn't go further because Kakashi simply got up and left team, unable to act normal anymore.

F period was particularly annoying. Sasuke was still brooding over what Kakashi had said over the weekend, and overall reminded the Scarecrow of what a screw up he was. Ino, meanwhile, was determined to put a lovey-dovey smile on the dark boy's face by any means necessary. Sakura was absent and Naruto only served to escalate the situation. Shikamaru tried to run interference but simply couldn't understand how Ino worked, and this was all before Teams 6 and 9 got involved to cheer them all on. With Iruka absent and no sub to help field the fire, Kakashi was forced to send both Teams out of the room. Kiba and Gaara were both muttering under their breath, one out of unnamed irritation and the other having the beginnings of another episode before Kakashi called Tsunade and sent the boy to the nurse's office.

By the time the day ended, Kakashi was near collapse. He shut and locked his door, not even noticing Gai watching him make his way to his car and driving to a familiar location.

The Konoha Memorial Cemetery was an old haunt for Kakashi. He visited Obito's grave the most, and the English teacher promised to visit in a moment, but today was about Rin.

Between her and Yellow Flash, they'd pulled Kakashi back to some measure of sanity after his tour of duty, after Obito's horrific death and the loss and renewal of his eye. It was rather classic, really, she was one of the nurses for physical therapy, and their relationship had jumped from there. She had seen his tears; his regrets; his guilt at living when Obito was so much more worthy, had so much more to give. He'd told her about his promise on his deathbed, to help people. It was Rin who'd gotten him his first job, a D.C. desk position to start off with before he rose in the ranks. But it wasn't satisfactory to him; the work he did didn't have any immediate affect on people, and between the two of them they had decided he should try teaching.

He hadn't been sure what to teach at first, anything would do. It had been Rin who had suggested English, given his propensity to read porn, she added with a smile. With her having finished her schooling, he went back to school - a novel experience now that he was so much older, and oddly much more enjoyable. He flew through the coursework, and they slowly began planning their future.

It was three days before he started his first teaching job that the accident happened. Rin was in the ER when the patient had a bad reaction to the medication, suffering convulsions that no one was expecting. She was trying to get restraints on him, Kakashi was told, when the man struck her in the head and she fell backwards, striking her head again on the edge of a table and again on the floor. She suffered from swelling of the brain, and a week later she died in his arms, just as he had come to tell her how much he loved teaching.

That was the beginning of his horrible First Year. Gai and Asuma and the rest of the team didn't learn about any of it until November, when Gai finally managed to push the right kinds of buttons and the English teacher had completely broken down in the Green Beast's room after school. In March Yellow Flash died, one of his foster students pulling a knife. Gai had been there when he'd gotten the call, and Kakashi was in the hospital for two weeks after he passed out; the stress of the losses and the school year and being new finally catching up to him. They were all surprised when he'd finally returned, gaunt and haggard, to finish the school year. The entire team was convinced that he wouldn't return, but Sandaime had stepped in, worming his way into Kakashi's life and giving further support on top of Gai, and after the summer Kakashi had sewn enough of his shredded life back together to try it again.

The memories all flooded through him, in vivid and graphic detail. The cold weather seeped into him, making him numb. He didn't even notice as it started to snow.

Rin was the only girl he knew that he ever felt comfortable with. Kakashi wasn't what anyone could call social, his childhood had seen to that. But Yellow Flash and Obito had found ways in, and Rin was the first girl to do the same. She helped him in so many ways that now that she wasn't here, with him, he noticed it in a hundred different ways every day. It was the little smiles of encouragement, the hours spent pouring over medical or pedagogical books, the small pushes in the right direction, and any number of other things. He was lost without her, without them, and all he could do was struggle to make their lives, their sacrifices, meaningful, to make his life even faintly resemble them.

A hand touched his shoulder, and Kakashi numbly looked up to see Iruka.

"What...?"

"My mother's funeral, remember?"

"Oh, that's right. Today is... Thursday..."

Iruka looked about how Kakashi felt. His eyes were hallow, sunken in, and the man was pale in the twilight - had so much time really passed? He knelt down next to Kakashi, who only just then realized that he was in the snow, and looked at the headstone.

"So you've lost people, too," Iruka said, his breath visible in the subzero temperatures.

"... Nn," was about all Kakashi could say.

"This probably sounds terrible, but that makes me feel... good."

Kakashi could think of nothing to say, and only nodded in response.

"Come on," Iruka said. "Let's go get a drink somewhere. We can talk about our losses; share our memories. Mom said..." he paused, emotion welling up on his face and in his voice. "Mom said the best way to remember someone is to talk about them."

Kakashi mutely took Iruka's hands, and they went off to a bar. Neither of them got completely drunk, it was a school night after all, but by the time they'd finally left both were considerably light-headed. They'd spent over four hours together, talking about themselves, laughing at funny stories, eating off each others plates, and talking about the kids.

They'd both belatedly realized that February break was next week, and the two of them agreed to spend it together somehow. The company lessened the sense of loss, and neither of them was quite ready to let go of such a comforting feeling.

The next morning, Kakashi woke up to an ugly headache; but thankfully it was only that; he'd had much, much worse hangovers over the years. He took a handful of aspirin, took his coffee black, and kept the windows down on his drive in. By the time he parked his car he was almost normal.

Iruka was a different story altogether, however.

"Come now, Iruka-sensei," the Scarecrow said lightly, deliberately patting the special education teacher on the back hard, "it's your own fault, so don't look so down."

"Oh, shut up," he growled before tugging at his ponytail to loosen it slightly.

"Kakashi-sensei! How are you on this marvelous, bright, cheery, and beatific day!"

"Gai-sensei, keep the volume down," Kakashi said in a conspiratorial whisper. "Iruka-sensei isn't feeling well."

"I see, then I shall dole out my words to you in another room and thereby save our illustrious teacher of special needs youth of the tirade I am about to bestow upon you."

Kakashi blinked, and noted glumly that Iruka had a grin of the vilified as Gai nudged Kakashi into the social studies room before sitting the English teacher down at his desk. The Scarecrow looked around before asking, "Am I getting a detention?"

"Kakashi," Gai said in a low voice, his face suddenly very serious. "Are you alright?"

"... Yes?"

"Please don't play dumb with me, my rival," Gai said, his face stern. "I saw how haggard you looked when you left yesterday. Do the memories of your fiancée bother you that much?"

It hit him as suddenly as it all had the day before, and for a brief moment Kakashi thought he would go right back to where he was, but he remembered the laughing at the bar and felt oddly lighter. "Yes," he said honestly. "They do bother me. They all bother me. Every day. Every, single, day. But I manage to get by. Most days I don't even notice the weight, but holidays are special. I'm fine now."

Gai gave a withering gaze, sizing up Kakashi's statement, and the English teacher suddenly felt a wellspring of pride that this good man was his friend. The Green Beast seemed to sense this, and gave his heroic smile.

"Excellent, my eternal rival!" he declared. "Be prepared to meet my next challenge, so that I will best you!"

"Hmph. It's my turn to pick it, right?" Kakashi said lightly, standing up. They both laughed and went back to their work.

The day was a surprise for Kakashi again, because it was Friday, the last day before February break, and therefore a Homeroom Challenge. His brain was still convinced it was Sunday; really he had to do something about that. He hurried over to the janitor's office and apologized profusely as he dropped the Homeroom Challenge bombshell even as he helped grab an extra garbage bin from the cafeteria and rolled it to his team's hallway.

As his homeroom cleaned out their lockers, Kakashi leaned against the wall and listened to the hum of the students. It was like a piece of music in his ears; one that he hadn't heard in years it felt like, but brought up all the happy emotions associated with the song. He soon found himself bobbing to the rhythm of the chatter, and felt much better as he opened his eyes and began touring the homeroom.

Kiba was looking over Hinata's notebook as the girl tried to explain her dilemma. "I have too many notes," she was saying. "I have to find some way to condense this. But everything on here is important; I have to have it. I don't know what to do. I can't keep it all, but if I take it home, father will--"

"Hinata," Kiba said, leafing through the trapper coarsely. "You worry too much. It's all junk as far as I'm concerned." At the grey-eyed girl's look of horror he continued: "Wait, wait, that's not what I meant. I mean you know it or you don't. Iruka-sensei told me, it's better to have, like, catch-words, things that trigger a bunch of other words and stuff you need to know."

"Kiba, I can't take that chance!" Hinata cried, horrified at the thought. "I have to get As, if I don't do well this quarter..." her voice trailed off, the timid girl unable to complete the sentence.

"Do you need my help?" Sakura asked. "You can come study with me and Naruto and Sasuke."

The Hyuga girl looked absolutely stricken. "With N-Naruto?" Her flush was so sudden her body couldn't handle it, and she very nearly fainted.

"Hey, Hinata! Oi!" Kiba grabbed her shoulder, flustered and concerned. Kakashi smiled as he walked past, deciding not to interfere. The temptation to tease poor Hinata was too great, and that was the last thing she needed. He made a mental note instead to talk to Kurenai, see if she could encourage the shy girl.

Gaara was sitting blankly at his locker. There was barely anything in it, and the red headed boy just stared off into space. Remembering what Asuma had learned at his PPT, Kakashi crouched by the boy. "Are you doing okay?" he asked softly.

"Leave me alone."

"If you want that, then alright. But take it from someone who knows, 'alone' may be nice to visit, but it sure isn't a place to live. You have to put roots down somewhere." Kakashi got up and stepped back a ways. The boy continued to stare at his locker, oblivious to the world around him. Kakashi sighed. All he could do was his best.

Iruka's homeroom came by next, and as always, it proved to be uneventful as the kids emptied out their lockers.

Gai's homeroom was also relatively quiet. Kankuro was absent. Shikamaru made a pretense of cleaning out his empty locker before finally giving up and walking over to Kakashi.

"Sensei?" he asked.

"Yes?"

"How can you work with someone you don't like?"

Kakashi hid his grin, keeping his face neutral before saying, "Oh?"

"She's just so troublesome. I don't understand how she thinks or why she does half the stuff that she does. She doesn't even try to understand me, and I'm a pretty easy guy to figure out. It's not going to work. Can't you put me in another group?"

"It's a little late in the year to be playing musical chairs, Shikamaru," Kakashi said glibly. "And besides, you haven't even tried to use your greatest weapon against her."

The boy stared at him incredulously.

The grin couldn't be held any longer and it slowly spread across his face, eliciting a feeling of apprehension in Shikamaru, who involuntarily took a step back. The Scarecrow leaned down to the boy's level and simply tapped him on the head. "That," he said, "is your greatest weapon. Emotions are a thing to take note of, certainly, but very few people can successfully live by them. So logic her out of it."

"But I don't even understand how her brain works!" Shikamaru complained.

"Did you want me to give you all the answers? That sort of spoils the puzzle, doesn't it?"

The boy blinked, before frowning, before scowling, muttering "troublesome," before turning back to his locker.

Ah, that felt good.

Next cycle was Kurenai's. Chouji's absence was noticeable, and some students were still talking about the heavy-set boy, wondering when and if he'd ever be back. Temari was again wearing tight jeans, and again the boys were staring, and again Kakashi gave them mute stares. He didn't walk right over, however, until he heard the snap of a camera.

"I want to make something clear," Kakashi said flatly in a low voice. "Whatever snapped that picture had better darn well appear on my desk by the end of this cycle for no one to get in trouble. If not, every one of you is going to have detention with me the first day they get back." By this point in the year, the students knew how true that statement was, and he covertly watched as two boys snuck into his room.

Walking around, he saw Shino throwing glances his way; and the teacher took the cue and walked over. "I get the feeling you want to talk to me?"

The quiet boy frowned, trying to work out his question. "I'm having trouble," he said finally, "finding a place to study. Kiba doesn't like my house because my parents are entomologists, and he's embarrassed to have people where he lives. Hinata's house is out because... well it just is." Good. Shino had noticed it, too. "But we can't really meet anywhere. School is bad because Kiba's father doesn't have time to pick him up, and the mall is bad because Kiba can't..." his voice trailed off again, and Kakashi was acutely aware that his students knew more about what was happening to the increasingly grouchy boy than he did.

"So you can't find neutral ground, is that is?" Kakashi summed up, sensing that Shino couldn't really explain further.

"Yes."

"You three can be quiet if you need to, right?"

"Of course. You've seen us in class sensei."

"Just checking. Alright. Then what about the library? It's a few blocks away, and if I recall correctly, it's sort of close to Kiba's home so there's no need to worry about commute. I believe that you can get study rooms there, too, so that if needed you can be as noisy as you want."

"You can do that?"

"Of course. The whole point of a library is to help people."

Shino frowned, looking down. "I'll think about it, sensei."

"Of course. Is there anything else you want to tell me? Maybe about one of your teammates?"

Shino started, not expecting the question, before quickly covering up. "No, sensei, not really."

Damn. Kakashi turned and sighed silently as he watched Kurenai's homeroom finish up. He helped the janitors change bags as the final homeroom filtered in. Ino was almost immediately sent to the office because she found some spare clothes in her locker and was betting the boys money that she wouldn't change right out in the hall.

Naruto dutifully dug out his locker, the papers horribly wrinkled and dirty and began the painstaking process of sorting them, cheering as he found an assignment he owed, and cursing as he realized it was still late and he'd be docked for it.

While thoroughly distracted, however, Sasuke took the time to walk up to Kakashi. The boy hadn't spoken a word in his class since the weekend, and he clearly hadn't explained everything to Sakura, because she had tried to press Kakashi for information that the teacher wasn't about to admit. The sulking was depressing, and Kakashi was beginning to wonder if he'd done the boy permanent damage. But,

"You were right, sensei."

Kakashi openly blinked. "What?"

"You were right, Kakashi-sensei," the boy said, the words almost giving him pain as he admitted it. "It sucks to be alone. I don't want it."

It was a full ten seconds for the words to process, and Sasuke squirmed horribly as he waited for Kakashi to react. The English teacher only smiled, a rare genuine smile that the students almost never saw. "Nobody wants it, Sasuke," he said simply. He put a hand on the boys shoulder and added, "I'd never give up on you."

The look of surprise lasted only for a moment before Sasuke controlled his face again and turned away, trying to look bored. "Hn."

It was a good way to end the week. Afterwards, the kids were dismissed to lunch and came back for their movies, and Kakashi actually enjoyed watching it before the bell rang and the kids were released for a week.

He had plans to make with Iruka. Maybe, if he was feeling brave, he could include Gai in the process.

In any case, yes, it's frustrating when a student sees you at the supermarket, or the mall, or church or somewhere and you don't recognize them because growing older can radically change appearences. And yes, as an educator you should NEVER bring a student to your home. Just think of the lawsuits that could happen for just having a student in your car, let alone where you live if the child ever got hurt. *shudder*