Prom Night.

Kakashi Hatake stood in the darkness as the sky threatened to rain, watching his high school burn. The night smelled of smoke and the flashing lights of a fire truck illuminated the scene of all his students in formal dress, evacuated from the building. Iruka was trying to gather everyone together, shouting names from a register in his hand, but the teenagers were already scattering. Sasuke and Sakura were screaming at each other, Neji seemed to be creeping around in the shadows, Chouji and Ino were glued at the lips. Hinata was crying, Naruto's fox mascot costume was still smouldering, and Kakashi was not in control of the situation at all.

"Don't beat yourself up, Kakashi," Guy tried to reassure him. "This is only your first prom since becoming Principal of Konoha High School. There were bound to be some teething issues."

"This goes a little beyond teething issues, Guy. Tsunade would never have let this happen. Remember when you and I were students here?" He started reminiscing. "I swear we were never as wild as the new generation are. Our prom was nothing like this." But before he could finish his thought, Guy was in an embrace with his favourite student.

"I'll miss you, Mr. Guy!"

"I'll miss you too, Lee!"

Kakashi sighed to himself. "We didn't even get chance to announce the King and Queen."

The sound of skidding tyres came through the school parking lot, accompanied by thumping music growing louder over the sound of distant sirens. The car drifted a lap of the parking lot then pulled up in front of the building, music blasting from the speakers. It was a convertible and Kakashi recognised the driver immediately.

"You're still expelled, Itachi!" He shouted to the intruder, who paid him zero attention in response. "Get that car off school property!" Itachi just laughed and one of the young men in the convertible leaned out of the car, a wicked grin from under a sweep of blonde hair.

"Afterparty at Uchiha's!" Deidara called to the scene.

There was a ripple of disruption through the students and one of the boys kissed a crying Hinata on the forehead before climbing up on to the car.

"Sorry, Hinata," said Kiba as he left her. "When the party calls, I've got to answer."

The car's engine snarled.

Kakashi saw the other Uchiha, the one who was still a student at Konoha High, across the parking lot and called to him. "Sasuke! Tell your brother to…"

"Give us a minute!" Sakura snapped back at him before realising who she was speaking to. Her dress matched the pocket square in Sasuke's formal suit. "I'm… I'm sorry, Mister Hatake. It's just – we're kinda having a moment here." Kakashi realised he was fighting a losing battle and dropped the issue. Sasuke had begun walking off and Sakura stormed after him.

Before Kakashi could worry about them, Iruka came running up to him.

"Kakashi!"

"Yes, Iruka? Is everyone accounted for?"

Iruka shook his head, catching his breath. "Almost. I have everyone except Shikamaru. No one seems to have seen him."

Kakashi looked to Shikamaru's best friends who were still making out. He didn't think they'd seen much of anything tonight other than the back of each other's throats. As he looked to them now, hands were wandering. "Can we keep it PG, guys, please?" He called to them, but they paid him no mind.

The flames looked to be out now, but smoke still plumed into the sky. From the outside, there didn't look to be too much damage to the building, but Kakashi dreaded receiving a report of the internal damage. What would the parents think when they found out about this? He didn't know what was scarier – having potentially lost Shikamaru, or the thought of having to tell Shikaku that his son was missing. Iruka left to tell the firemen about the missing student while two of the other teachers, Asuma and Kurenai, came to report to Kakashi after their sweep of the safe areas of the school.

"Did you find anything?"

"Nothing about the fire, but…." the female teacher, also in a formal dress, trailed off.

"What is it, Kurenai?"

"I found something in the girls' bathroom. A pregnancy test. It was positive." Kakashi put his head in his hands momentarily, then looked over the class. No wonder there was so much tension in the air. They had been so close to making it to the end of the school year without this kind of scandal. Kurenai already knew what he was thinking. "I'll talk to the girls when everything calms down. Leave it to me."

Kakashi recollected his thoughts. "How about you, Asuma?"

Asuma took him to one side and lowered his voice. "There's something missing from my desk."

"What do you mean?"

Asuma looked around to make sure no one was listening; to make sure Kurenai wasn't listening.

"The ring is gone."

It took Kakashi a moment to realise what his friend meant. "The ring? Your engagement ring for Kurenai?"

"Would you keep your voice down!" He pleaded with the principal.

Kakashi rolled his eye in exasperation. "Why would you keep it in your work desk?"

"Well, I can't keep it at home! What if she found it before I'm ready to ask her?"

"But how did anyone…" Kakashi stopped himself and took a deep breath. "You know what? We'll deal with that later."

He walked across the parking lot to find Yamato, but his attention was taken up instead by Hinata who was still sobbing. He looked between her and the fire truck, torn between the urge to help sooth his suffering student and the knowledge that he needed to try to look in charge of the situation.

"Can anyone sit with Hinata to make sure she's alright? Neji?" Neji caught his teacher's eye upon hearing his name but scuttled away without responding, his arms behind him as though he was hiding something behind his back.

"Naruto?"

"Yes, Mister Hatake?"

"Would you please sit with- what have you done to that suit?" The nine-tailed fox was the Konoha High School football team's mascot, and as captain of the team that had won this year's league (and earned the school substantial grant money), Naruto Uzumaki wore the mascot suit at any given opportunity. Tonight, however, the bottom of the fox suit was filthy with ash and two of the tails were half burnt away, the blackened edges giving off the smell of burning plastic.

"There was a fire," Naruto explained.

"Yes, I'm aware, Uzumaki. Thank you."

"Should I take it off?" Before waiting for an answer, the young football player began unzipping the suit down the middle and Kakashi quickly realised he wasn't wearing anything underneath it.

"No! No, Naruto, that won't be necessary. Please just make sure Hinata is alright."

Their principle left them, without looking back to see if his words were heeded or not. He finally found Yamato, who was near the fire truck and had been speaking with some of the firemen.

"Is it under control? Will we be able to go back inside soon?"

"It'll be a little longer yet," Yamato told him. "There's a lot of smoke damage. And…" he paused until the principal's intense gaze pried the information from him. "I think we found the cause of the fire. But you're not going to like it."

Yamato held up a little leather pouch in a thick-gloved hand. It was soiled with white wax and was still hot, the smell of sage and burnt spices snaking up from it.

"Is that… is that a hex bag?"

"Looks like someone had a vendetta tonight."

"Why are they trying to curse each other? What is wrong with these kids?" He would need to find out who the ritual supplies belonged to, but that could wait after he knew everyone was safe. With permission from one of the firemen, he went up to the building and looked in through one of the windows of the hall where the prom had been taking place before it was interrupted by disaster. The electrics had been turned off so the room was dark aside from where the flashing lights of the fire truck bounced off the glittery décor, the trophy cabinet, the two crowns still sat on the stage, unworn.

Prom was supposed to be a celebration of his students' high school careers; an opportunity to look back on all they had achieved and how much they had grown and to look forward to the next stage in life, which would mean something different for each and every one of them. It was a chance to put differences aside and appreciate each other. A chance to say goodbye. It was fair to say, tonight wasn't quite going to plan. Kakashi looked out over the parking lot and what was left of his class. It started to rain. He sighed to himself.

"Well. Happy prom night, everybody."

Author's note:

Who is secretly pregnant? Why would anyone steal an engagement ring? Was the fire really an accident? Where is Shikamaru? Will anyone be crowned prom King or Queen? Tune in next week to find out

Cinder Rose x