My dad was fired from his job. It was a happy day.

We celebrated with a walk around the village. Everywhere we went, people would stop and greet us. My dad knew many storekeepers, stylists, cooks, cleaners, repairmen, and bakers, and they all knew him.

When we reached the clothing district, we decided to pay a visit to the fabric shop. Ms. Hyuuga and Emi were there. Hiro sat further away, on the low cutting table next to the counter.

Hiro beamed when he saw my dad, who brought him his favorite choco-bun. He shared the choco-bun with Ms. Hyuuga's niece, who had been hidden behind a spool. Hiro shared half the choco-bun. That was how I knew their friendship was serious.

"I thought you worked on Sundays, Kenta. Did something happen at the Research Facility?" Ms. Hyuuga asked.

"Oh, no no, it's running great! I'm just fired," my dad said cheerfully.

Ms. Hyuuga recovered. She looked amused. "I see." To me, she asked, "What about you, Ayae? How is your apprenticeship going?"

"Oh, I got fired too," I said, pointing to myself.

According to Shisui, I had done it, I had messed up so badly, not even nepotism and five years of sparkling friendship could save my employment. He had patted my head in congratulations and pinned a job ad outside my school.

My dad and I laughed.

Ms. Hyuuga sweat-dropped. "I suppose this shouldn't surprise me. We're lucky, at least, that income is never a concern."

She paused.

"Kenta?"

Ms. Hyuuga slowly realized.

Over the years, Ms. Hyuuga had been very kind to me. She had taken me along to many festivals. She bought all my yukata and dance competition costumes.

She must have done them thinking I didn't have a mom to take care of me. It never occurred to her that it was because we didn't have enough money. After all, my clan, like her clan, was very wealthy.

It was an easy mistake. My dad and I could have money, and lots of it, from our clan. But that meant agreeing to everything the clan wanted. It meant giving me up. I wouldn't have been able to live with my dad, but put under one of my relatives in Konoha. Or worse, sent to Miyako and trained under Tomoe.

I hadn't fully understood when I was younger, but I understood now my dad had to make lots of hard choices. He made those choices so I could keep all my choices.

But in exchange, it meant we now had to cut back. This meant eating less dessert, less meat, and less fruit. Earlier, my dad explained that we might not have strawberries in our cereal anymore.

I had nearly cried at that. No cake was expected. And okay, I could give up chicken. But no strawberries?!

My dad had been grim. He warned it could get worse. Worst case scenario, we'd have to go on Shao's diet.

We had shivered at the thought. To be honest, I didn't think we were strong enough to pull that off. You had to be sennin-level to pull that off.

Ms. Hyuuga was quiet. Then she had an idea.

She needed another stage hand for the upcoming dance competition. It'd only be for a short time, but she could hire me. The pay wouldn't be much, but it would be something.

"Really?!" I exclaimed, teary.

Ms. Hyuuga nodded. She was startled by my hug. She laughed, patting my head.

Ms. Hyuuga really saved us. Thanks to her, we no longer had to worry about grumbling stomachs. We still couldn't eat everything we wanted, but if we were careful with our money, we could have strawberries every other week. We just had to cut them into very thin slices. I made sure to nibble around the stem.

My dad had ideas too. He got good at making a lot of food out of very little food.

Low on milk? Put it under the faucet and boom, more milk!

Low on eggs? Mix in flour and wow, extra scramble!

My dad was very smart.

In the following month, my dad enjoyed his new freedom and time. No place would hire him, so he volunteered. He cleaned up parks and fixed appliances for grandmas. He helped out with the normal school, like packaging and delivering school lunches.

Then our math teacher had to leave. She was pregnant. With her belly getting bigger and bigger, she wanted to focus on herself and her soon-to-be baby. Our class sent her and her baby our good wishes.

So my dad stepped in. My principal was overjoyed. It was hard to get volunteers. But to get a volunteer who also understood higher-level math? My principal kowtowed.

"Hey, Mr. Kenta, what are you doing here?" Dai asked. She opened the classroom door wider for him. The rest of the Dropouts looked up, surprised.

"My dad's going to teach us today!" I exclaimed, peeking out from behind. "He'll be our new math teacher!"

My dad was carrying a huge stack of books that he had brought from home. The stack was tall enough that he swayed.

"Would… you like some help, Mr. Kenta?" Tamaki asked.

"No, no, I'm good, got this, ahaha!"

When class started, everyone was curious about their new teacher. They slowly settled back to their desks.

I was bouncing in my seat. Having my dad teach math was exciting. Finally, the class wouldn't be so hard!

"Ah, so, welcome class!" my dad said. My dad noticed his stack of books were in the way, so he pushed them aside. A few of the top ones fell. He rushed to pick them up.

Jumping up, he held the books in his hands. "Very happy to meet everyone. My name is Uchiha Kenta, but you can call me Teacher Kenta… well, technically I'm not a real teacher, more like a substitute, so I guess you don't have to say the teacher part if you don't want to, just call me Mr. Kenta! Well, unless you're my daughter—hi, sweetie!" He waved. I waved back. "She can still call me dad… though, hm, that might be unfair, so I guess everyone can also call me dad if they want! Or just Mr. Kenta, or Teacher, or whatever works for you!"

The class stared in silence.

It was fine. They'd get over it.

My dad looked at me. I gave him a double thumbs up.

"Alright! So, what are all your names?"

I shook my head, pointing to the clock.

My dad jumped, understanding. "Right, no time. There's a lot of you, ahaha! Okay, how's this. Everyone take out a piece of paper and write your names on it. Then fold it in half like this, and put it on your desk. I'll try to remember them as the class goes on."

I gave the double thumbs up. My dad gave a thumbs up back.

His first lecture went great. Everything he said was super clear. The hardest part was getting everyone's names right, but my dad was getting better. It helped that he had already heard most of my classmates' names from me over dinner.

Time went by fast. Before we knew it, our homeroom teacher had come back in.

"Oh, I guess we're stopping here," my dad said, putting down the chalk. "Thank you for having me today! Good luck and study hard, class!" My dad waved, closing the door behind him.

Just as our homeroom teacher opened her mouth, the door opened again.

"Sorry, sorry, forgot these, ahaha!" my dad said, grabbing his stack of books. After steadying his pile, he turned to the class. "Bye bye!" he said and went out again.

"Your dad… is something," Reina told me after class.

My eyes shined. "I know, isn't he great?!"

Ayame sweat-dropped.

It took about a week or so. As I predicted, my classmates got over it.

My dad put down the chalk and gestured to the board.

"And so, in conclusion, integration is just squiggly multiplication. Which makes derivation... squiggly division!"

My classmates closed their mouths.

The cheers were so loud, the teachers next door rushed in to check everything was okay.

"It makes sense now!" Setsu wept into her hands. "Everything makes sense!"

"I think I might pass this class. I might pass math," Dai said in disbelief.

"Ayae, your dad… is something," Reina sighed dreamily.

It wasn't just math. My dad would sometimes substitute in for industrial arts. Other times, he'd take over domestic arts.

All of his classes were fun and light. He never made you feel bad if you didn't know the answer. After all, why go to school if you already knew everything?

He never assigned homework either. He thought school hours were for school. But the other hours were for the students.

Some students might have to work. Others might have chores. Or maybe they wanted to go out and have fun.

If nine hours a day, six days a week was not enough for the students to learn everything, then the school was not doing a good job at being a school. The solution was to teach better and help students learn faster, not take up more of their time.

My dad didn't believe in quizzes either, much less pop quizzes. Those things gave him heart attacks.

All put together, my dad became everyone's favorite teacher.

Every morning, students would clap their hands before the school entrance. They would pray for my dad to be their teacher that day, in the same way people prayed for rain at temples.

Delinquents who used to skip school came back after hearing cool things were happening in his classes.

My dad was so popular, many students stayed after class to talk to him. Students came to me for rule changes, but they would go to my dad for advice. He was good at giving advice.

Even Mimi, who avoided everyone when she came back, warmed up to my dad. After talking to him, she no longer looked so awful. I noticed her talking to Yuuka again. Midway into their talk, Yuuka hugged her.

My dad might be too popular.

"Daddy-!"

I walked into a wall of people. A new crowd had come out of nowhere, surrounding my dad in the hallway.

A whistle blew.

It was Dai.

"No crowding the hallway," Dai said, dropping the whistle around her neck. "Single line this way."

I breathed in relief when everyone moved and I could see my dad again.

Dai grabbed my shoulder.

"Hold it, where are you going?"

"To talk to my dad," I said.

"Back of the line," Dai deadpanned, pointing to the line.

"What!"

"I can't just let you cut the line, Ayae."

"But he's my dad!" I said, stomping my foot.

My dad popped his head out. "No my, only our!" he reminded.

My eye twitched.

"Yeah, I need to talk to Father Kenta too," said my classmate in line.

"We also need a word with the Exalted Father," said another group grimly.

"I want to show Papa!" exclaimed a third grader, showing me her doodle.

"Tamaki?!" I asked, feeling betrayed.

Tamaki sweated but didn't move from her place in line.

"I… I think I need advice on the whole apprenticeship thing," she confessed.

I deflated.

My dad must have given Tamaki good advice because she came into the club room the next day bursting with confidence.

In front of Ayame, she slammed down her filled apprenticeship form.

The rest of us immediately crowded around, curious. I wondered if Tamaki finally found a tailor who accepted her. Maybe all her lessons with Riku paid off!

We went eye-wided at the name in the employer box.

Koyabashi Tamaki.

"Riku said I'm as good as any professional," Tamaki said, hands at her hips. "So to hell with all of them! If they won't hire me, I'll hire myself!"

The whole point of the apprenticeship was to learn skills for a job, but Tamaki had already been learning all the skills… on her own! There was no point in working for someone for free, when she could work for herself and get all the money too!

"You know anyone who's done this?" Setsu asked Ayame.

Ayame shook her head.

Tamaki didn't look worried. In fact, she grinned.

"Good. You don't become a fashionista by following trends."

At home, I gave my dad the last strawberry.

"What's this?" he asked.

"A thank you for being the best dad ever," I said, serious.

He gave a wobbly smile.

He couldn't accept it though. He pushed it back to me.

I insisted.

He insisted.

We pushed the carton back and forth until we both pushed at once. The carton went flying.

We watched in horror as it fell.

The carton landed on the side. Before we could breathe in relief, we watched the strawberry roll out...

Onto the floor.

We both cried waterfalls as Doku happily munched down on his new meal.