Sorry about the grammatical mistakes.

"I don't understand what I did wrong," Guy whined, for the sixth time in less than five minutes. Kakashi sighed. "I mean, I've given him nothing but love. One would think all he should give me back is love too. Not trouble! Rebellion! Unruliness! Disappointment!"

"I'm sure there's a reasonable explanation, Guy—"

"HE HATES ME! That's the only explanation! Why else would he disgrace all the precious lessons I've taught him?" Guy sobbed. "The entire village has heard about this! I'll never live down the humiliation. Everyone will think I'm the worst sensei and…"

Guy went on and on, rambling about his now stained reputation and the indescribable ache that was slowly destroying his poor heart while he and Kakashi made their way to the center of the village to collect their respective troublemakers. Hearing his complaints wasn't helping Kakashi at all. It only made him more aware that having their genin in trouble on a daily basis was actually not normal for most jōnin instructors, and that most of them still had some reputation left to lose. Not that he considered that Guy had any reputation left, but—

"Finally! It took you ages. Where were you? You were asked to be here hours ago."

Kakashi came to a halt. Standing right in front of him at the market square's entrance, with his hands on his hips and the most offended look he'd ever seen in him, was Izumo. And he wasn't pleased, judging by his curled lip and furrowed brow. Kakashi made sure to tug Sakura to stand in front of him, to present her as if she were a key piece of evidence to prove him innocent.

"Ah—" Kakashi chuckled nervously. "You'll see, Sakura also got in trouble and—"

"Where is he?" Guy hissed, closing the distance between him and Izumo in less than a blink until his nose was touching the other man's, eyes narrowed. "Where are you hiding him?"

Izumo paled a little, but valiantly held Guy's glare even as he nervously stepped back to recover his personal space. Then he crossed his arms over his chest and scowled at them both, evidently making an effort to show them how annoyed he was. Kakashi'd be lying if he said he understood why. Sure, he and Guy were late, but there'd been no injured so there was no reason for a chūnin to wait for so long in until the jōnin showed up. Unless—

Oh.

Of course.

"Listen. We understand you're busy," Izumo said. "But you have to understand that we also have much more important things to do than babysitting a bunch of genin. Your rank doesn't give you any right to delegate your responsibilities and therefore—"

"I see," Guy interrupted him, nodding his head and placing his heavy hands on Izumo's shoulders and giving them a squeeze that made the poor man flinch. "So, you're also feeling outraged because of what our idiotic little students did this morning. I understand your pain, my dear comrade. This incident was unacceptable, and brings shame to us all, especially to the ones who are in charge of them. But don't worry. They'll pay for this. They'll face our burning rage in a youthful session of discipline!"

Guy delivered what probably was supposed to be a friendly pat to Izumo's back but ended up being a full-force slap that seemed to knock the air out of his lungs. Then he made a beeline for the burned section of the market, not bothering into waiting for Izumo to recover his breath.

"Just wait until I've got my hands on you, Lee!" Guy roared, startling the few civilians that were still there, gathering their belongings. Or what was left of them. Most things didn't look carbonized, but they surely were ruined beyond salvation. Fire tended to do that. "You are due to meet the youthful sting of my hand this afternoon, my beloved student!"

The faces of the civilians seemed to light up at hearing that.

Kakashi couldn't say he blamed them.

"Listen, Izumo," Kakashi sighed. "I'm really sorry. I know it wasn't fair. No one deserves to be stuck with that little gang of juvenile delinquents for longer than necessary. I can imagine the hell you went through in the last hours, believe me, that's my every day when I'm training them."

Izumo looked terrified all of sudden. Kakashi forced a tense smile.

"Oh, yes. Did you think that they were being absolute demons only for you?" Kakashi asked, raising an eyebrow. "No, they behave like that all the time. It's their fulltime job. It can only get worse than that, never the other way around. That's why Sakura got in trouble too, even though she wasn't with the boys this morning."

Izumo's attention focused on Sakura for a moment, on her bruises and the thread of dry blood running down her chin. Sakura curled a lip slightly to show him her teeth, a habit she'd probably learned from Sasuke. Kakashi couldn't bring himself to feel dismayed, he'd already had enough surprises that day to care anymore. He was only grateful she'd at least had the decency not to hiss.

Izumo, on the other hand, backed away a little.

"So, I truly apologize for the trouble I'm sure they caused you," Kakashi said, patting his shoulder comfortingly. "We took so long because this was supposed to be our day off and we were away training, not because we wanted to torture you. You can rest now, we'll deal with the spawns of devil. Konoha will live to see yet another day as long as we're here to watch over them, I promise."

Kakashi reaffirmed his hold on Sakura's wrist, making hear squeak in indignation, and then he shunshined to the crime scene before Izumo had enough time to question him about training, though it didn't take a genius to deduce that he'd clearly not being doing that.

In contrast to his partner, Kotetsu seemed absolutely delighted to be in the company of four very idiotic but adorable genin. And Shikamaru, who looked ready to fall asleep right on his place. Kotetsu even received Kakashi with a radiant smile as he snatched Naruto's and Sasuke's wrists before the little weasels could slip away from Kakashi's sight.

"I was starting to wonder where you were, Kakashi-san," Kotetsu said, dragging Kakashi's two charges to where he was standing, ignoring the way they squirmed and demanded loudly to be left alone. "But you arrived just in time. Naruto and Sasuke just finished cleaning their part of the mess, mostly. I mean, they obviously couldn't do anything about the burned bits of the square. They only put away some of the rubble and swept what they could. They did pretty well, especially considering they've got some minor burns and they must be hurting. But it couldn't be helped, you know, property damage is very serious, and we couldn't just let them go like that…"

Kakashi was handed a pair of very sulky and irritated genin, who looked very ready to start clawing at him to try and wriggle out of his grip as soon as he got distracted. He made sure to fix them with a look before returning his attention to Kotetsu, who wouldn't stop chirping about Naruto and Sasuke's day like he was a preschool teacher passing a report to a parent on his pair of naughty toddlers.

"Sasuke's Gōkakyū no Jutsu has gotten really impressive. He managed to set in fire all of this, look, if you follow the traces of burned plants and concrete…"

"Oh, yes," Kakashi muttered, forcing an eye-wrinkling smile. "Very impressive indeed. I can't wait to hear all the details from him. Do you happen to have a number with you? Like, extent of damage in square meters, number of stalls that were burned down? Number of terrorized civilians?"

He felt Sasuke tensing up at his side. Clever boy.

Kotetsu rubbed his chin thoughtfully for a few seconds.

"I don't remember any of that, but—" He rummaged through his pockets. "But I do have the approximated costs of the damage. Thankfully all this place is insured and Sasuke is a ninja at the service of the village, so he's protected by the law in this kind of cases."

He unfolded a piece of paper and read out loud the cipher scribbled there.

"Well," Kakashi growled between his teeth. He had to push away the ridiculous need to set Naruto free only, so he could use that hand to give Sasuke a sneak peek of what awaited him. "Looks like we'll have to make a small conversion there. Won't we, Sasuke?"

"But that's the total amount of damage. Not all of it was produced by the fire," Shikamaru pointed out. The kid even had his eyes closed, Kakashi was surprised to see that he'd actually been hearing the conversation. "That sum of money includes the consequences of everything together. From Sasuke's jutsu to Naruto's, which made all of it ten times worse, and Kiba's and Lee's own interventions."

"Disgrace!" Guy exclaimed, covering his eyes with his forearm. Kakashi could hear the tears in his voice, he didn't need to see them, but he didn't entirely get the source of his misery. Lee was willfully standing right next to him, not needing to be prevented from escaping away, and was already crying for himself. "I don't want to hear a word about that. Please don't continue. I don't think my heart will be able to handle it."

"Guy-sensei!" Lee sobbed, wringing his hands together as if to abstain himself from throwing himself at his sensei's waist to hug him as he so desperately wanted to. "I'm so sorry. I'll take any punishment you've prepared for me! Please, forgive me, I'm so sorry! I'm so ashamed of my decisions that I'll run fifty laps around Konoha!"

"No, Lee. That kind of punishment will not suffice for this situation," Guy said, lowering his arm so he could look directly into his student's eyes. Fat tears were rolling down his cheeks. "This clearly proves that I've failed as your sensei, at teaching you right from wrong. It's unacceptable. Your punishment shall be something that deeply hurts me as well! And nothing pains me more than giving you a sound and well-deserved spanking, my beloved student!"

"GUY-SENSEI!"

The sobbing evolved into wailing and begging. Not because Lee didn't want that, though it was obvious he didn't, but because he refused to let his sensei suffer because of a mistake he'd made on his own. Guy finally couldn't take it anymore and fell on his knees, so he could embrace his student, openly crying about how unfair teenage rebellion was and how he hated that it had managed to infect his precious Lee.

Kakashi, meanwhile, had to put Naruto into a headlock and pin Sasuke's arm against the small of his back so the tiny idiots wouldn't escape while he carefully examined each of them to determine the gravity of their burns. Sasuke tried to bite him twice and Naruto cried out like he was murdering him when he dared to pinch his arm slightly to chide him for being an absolute brat. All of that while Sakura almost successfully managed to sneak out, if not for Kotetsu who caught her and took sudden concern for her injuries.

Ah.

His sweet kids.

He'd willingly exchange them for dango anytime.

"Okay, that's enough," Kakashi hissed, after Sasuke's third attempt at biting him. He then let go of his both male students and gave each of them a warning swat, being mindful not to do it loud enough to draw attention. Guy's and Lee's little show still had most of the audience distracted. "You can try to escape all you want, but believe me, I'll find you. Wherever you are. And things will be so, so much worse for you. So, I'm only saying this once. Stay. Put."

Hadn't he known Sasuke better, he would've sworn the boy was giving him doe eyes. Kakashi gave him another swat just in case, because if Sakura'd started to imitate Sasuke's habits, then there was a high chance he was also considering imitating hers. And Kakashi'd have none of it. Sasuke's scowl came back, and he moodily slapped Kakashi's hand away.

"Stop trying," Kakashi said. "Nothing will get you out this."

Naruto finally exploded, flailing his arms around not unlike how Kakashi'd seen Ino do it before.

"But we worked together this time, sensei, you know! We actually helped each other, like a team! It's so not fair, we were just trying to get along better like you're always telling us to and— and—," Naruto took in a deep breath, apparently too infuriated to remember that he needed to take some air between each sentence. "And this is so not fair! It was only a friendly spar, and the bastard and I were winning! Things got a little bit out of control but— but—"

"A little bit out of control?" Kakashi repeated, dragging each word between tightly pressed lips. "Does setting half a market on fire seem like something not too serious to you, Naruto?"

The boy sighed sadly and looked at his feet, kicking the dust.

"—n'newas'urt."

Kakashi rubbed his temples.

"I didn't understand a thing, Naruto."

Naruto raised his head again, puffing out his cheeks. Ah, his tiniest genin wasn't any better than Ino. Perfect.

"No one was hurt," Naruto said, stressing each word in a bratty way that made Kakashi wish they weren't in front of so many people in that very moment, so he could teach him manners. "We made sure no one was in danger and they understood what was happening anyway, sensei. We're ninja. People know how risky things can get when—"

Another swat. This time, Kakashi didn't care at all about discretion. And this time, all the heads turned to their direction, and Naruto's face got all red and he fumed and stomped his foot and glared at Kakashi while muttering a few curses under his breath and stomped his foot yet again and— and then, a few tears started rolling down his cheeks, and a sob escaped his lips.

Oh, no.

"Oh, Naruto," Kakashi groaned, while wrapping his arms around his genin and allowing him to hide his face against his chest. He then gave the rest of the jōnin and their genin and Shikamaru and Kotetsu a begging look, until they awkwardly looked away again. Then he leaned so he could hug Naruto more closely.

"—'hat was so 'mbarassing, you know," Naruto whined.

Kakashi hid his own face against his genin's shoulder.

He had a long day ahead.

For some reason lately I've been writing really late at night and that means I'm writing even more nonsense than before. But I'm having fun, so, it's good.

I hope you liked this!

Kurenai and Kiba are in that same scene too, by the way, I was just too tired to find a dialogue to introduce them. BUT THEY'RE THERE.