Chapter 10.

"You are not Kurenai."

"I am aware of it, thankfully." Kakashi knew that Hinata wasn't the only one assigned to 'supervise' his lessons, but he'd never expected Danzou Shimura himself to appear at his doorstep. "I asked to swap with Kurenai just this once."

'To see you fail and suffer,' was left unsaid.

Frowning, Kakashi let the older man in. Or rather, Danzou let himself in. The two of them had a history, despite being alike in many ways. Danzou didn't like Kakashi's willful attitude, while the old man's hubris and hostility never failed to rub Kakashi the wrong way. Both were extremely strict, however, and didn't tolerate irresponsible behavior. Suffice it to say that when the two meanest teachers gather in one room the students would rather wish they had skipped the class.

"Shut… er, quiet please," Kakashi caught himself, remembering Hinata's guidance about acceptable language, "let's begin the class." Danzou was already scribbling some notes in his report form, eager to note every little misdemeanor from the art teacher. Mentally, he was glad that he decided to come early, thinking initially that Kurenai would surely appreciate his punctuality. And even though the vice-principal that sat in the corner of his classroom didn't, he at least couldn't say anything about him coming late.

The students, however, seemed not to have expected their notoriously tardy teacher to start the lesson on time. Many of them were late that day, but given that it was only by a few minutes Kakashi allowed them in, the fact that didn't seem to please Danzou.

"Your students are being late, why are you not at least asking them of the reason?"

Kakashi sighed, he should've expected that Danzou, being the stickler for rules that he was, would question his every action. He was beginning to miss Hinata. She was much more reasonable, not to mention a far better sight to look at...

"I don't think the reason matters much when it's only by two minutes."

Danzou bristled but didn't argue. Afterall, the transgression was minor at worst, by all accounts, even the vice-principal's. When Naruto and Sasuke arrived twenty minutes into the second period, and then Shikamaru arrived in the middle of said period, Danzou seemed to have finally found something to hang onto.

"How is it that you give detention to one student and not to the other two?" he asked, and by the expression on his face he was genuinely scandalized.

The vice-principal's attitude started to piss Kakashi off – not even half an hour into the lesson and the man had already found countless violations in his teaching method. And now that there was one controversial thing he did an hours later, he was not going to let it go. The actual criticisms he could understand, like the lack of professionalism when he spoke to students. But when it came to students breaking rules during his class, Kakashi did not tolerate someone telling him how to handle that. That was exactly why he snapped at Hinata the first time she 'supervised' him… Now that that image was again at the forefront of his mind, the art teacher tried to calm himself by slowly counting to ten, but couldn't even reach four when Danzou interrupted him.

"Well?" he asked, starting to get impatient himself.

"Naruto was late because he is a dunce," Kakashi started to explain through gritted teeth, forcing out each word, "that is why he gets a detention."

"Then what about his friend that arrived with him? Surely, he–"

"Sasuke was late because he waited for Naruto," the man cut their vice-principal off. "Otherwise he would've been on time."

"And that is why he doesn't get a detention?" Danzou raised a brow, Kakashi's explanation surprising him so much that he let go of the fact that he got interrupted by the art teacher. "He waited for a friend, so it's not his fault – is that what you are trying to say?"

"If you bothered to get to know your students, you'd realize that those two do everything together," Kakashi ignored the rhetorical question, managing to cool off somewhat. "Sasuke doesn't need a detention because he'll come and sit with Naruto anyway."

His words seemed to have shocked not only the vice-principal, but the students as well. Naruto and Sasuke exchanged an incredulous glance, clearly not expecting their teacher to know them so well, much less understand Sasuke's reason for being late and empathizing with it.

"That is absurd! But leaving that aside, what about the third student?" Danzou wasn't giving up. "He was even more late than Naruto and Sasuke."

How could the vice-principal not remember his students' names by their 5th year in this school was beyond Kakashi. Even he bothered to memorize all of his students' names by the end of the first month…

"The reason for Shikamaru's lateness…"–he said, emphasizing the teen's name–"is none of your business."

A collective gasp could be heard as soon as those words left the teacher's lips. Danzou in his corner looked like was about to explode, his face getting red and nostrils flaring like a bull that was about to join a stampede. Those students who were the closest to the vice-principal wisely decided not to attract attention and feigned work while quietly observing the unfolding situation like everyone else. You just didn't piss Danzou off, teacher or not, it was common knowledge in Konoha.

Seemingly realizing that they were making a scene, Danzou hastily stood and strode right up to Kakashi's desk until their faces were mere inches apart.

"This matter is not over," he whispered to the art teacher before leaving the workshop altogether.

Kakashi only followed the angry old man as he left with his eyes, immediately turning to his class as soon as the door behind him closed with a bang. "I thought I gave you work to do."

As if a spell was broken, everyone turned back to reading their handouts. Not without a fair bit of curious murmurs, but Kakashi was too tired to care by that point. Let the kids gossip, his own rest was more important than maintaining silence in the art classroom. Besides, his hand hadn't let itself be known yet, so he figured he could use the rest of the class to get some practice of his own done. Now where did he save those reference photos...


After an uneventful morning in the nurse's office, Hinata headed upstairs to the cafeteria, where she was met with Kakashi surrounded by her other colleagues.

'Weird,' she thought. Normally they didn't give so much attention to the art teacher.

"How was your first lesson with another supervisor?" she asked sprightly as she approached their table. "What's the matter?" The health assistant looked first at her male friend and then at Kurenai who was supposed to supervise over his class, her confusion growing as the expressions on her co-workers' faces did not match her expectations.

"Well, you see, I wasn't the one supervising Hatake's class today…" Kurenai blurted out, covering her face in shame. Asuma beside her patted her shoulder as if to comfort her. "Sorry, guys, I was going to go but then Danzou came out of nowhere and asked if he could swap with me and then I panicked…"

"It doesn't matter," Kakashi said, picking at his food wearily. Afterall, Kurenai was not a teacher, she likely thought that an accountant was more needed at her primary job rather than overseeing a random class. Rightly so.

"No it does!" Kurenai almost cried out, immediately shrinking into herself and then repeating more quietly, "No it does."

"Kurenai is right, Hatake. I don't know what you said to Danzou back there, but he came in here looking royally pissed," Asuma informed. "Knowing Danzou, the subject will be brought up on today's staff meeting."

"The dumbass could get fired," Anko pointed out.

Absorbing all the information, Hinata turned to the main character of the incident. "What do you think? Is it as bad as they say?" she asked Kakashi, and the man clearly didn't expect her to worry.

"I told them not to make up stuff," he shrugged, trying to play it cool. "It was just an argument, hardly enough to kick me out of here."

Despite its aloof tone, Hinata couldn't miss the hint of displeasure in her friend's voice. Like he was dealing with things like that so often that it no longer registered as 'getting in trouble' in his mind.

"If you are sure…" she hesitantly agreed, before offering him yet another home-made meal. "Here, this'll cheer you up."

It had become a constant occurrence in their friendship that Hinata brought food she cooked herself and shared it with Kakashi. He resisted at first, but soon enough gave in, likely unable to refuse free food of such good quality. Their colleagues never missed a chance to tease them on that account. Thank God they didn't know that Kakashi and her exchanged phone numbers. Just a mere thought of that knowledge getting in their hands made the woman shudder. Shizune and Kurenai would have a blast embarrassing her! And the worst part was that their teasing was totally baseless!

'Wait a minute, why is it the worst part?' Hinata asked herself, furrowing her brows in confusion.

"You are just jealous the punk is getting a pretty girl cook him all that delicious food," they heard a voice from behind after yet another such teasing remark. Turning around, they saw none other than Tsunade. The older woman smirked, giving unamused Kakashi a wink and unceremoniously joining them at their table. "You made quite a ruckus, brat," the nurse said as she practically slumped into her chair, stealing a cookie from poor Iruka, whose protests were successfully ignored by the older woman. "I haven't seen Danzou so angry since I was a student in this school," she sighed, the memory obviously brining her humor. "Ah… Good times…"

Now Hinata at least had a fair idea of where Kakashi's manners came from. Thankfully, Tsunade was among friends, and she promptly promised the wronged math teacher to treat him to lunch this weekend, the promise Iruka begrudgingly accepted.

"Seriously," she said, "it seems like Saru won't be able to let you off the hook this time. Danzou was very serious about it the last time you fucked up."

"Maa, he just likes to get offended," Kakashi refuted, trying to close the matter. He clearly didn't enjoy being the center of attention. Seeing that, Hinata changed the subject of their conversation, steering it towards a lighter direction.

"Lady Tsunade, you never mentioned that you used to study here." Her attempt to divert everyone's attention was successful, as her friends had immediately peppered the older woman with questions about her times at Konoha as a student.

"The school was pretty much the same back when I studied here," she responded easily, the amusement behind her eyes indicating that she caught on to the younger woman's plan. "Same subjects, similar rankings… oh, the atmosphere was totally same!"

Kakashi gave both women a grateful look for their timely diversion. He was content listening to Tsunade's obviously exaggerated stories of her youth while savoring Hinata's excellent cooking. At one point, Gai asked what year did Tsunade graduate KL, to which he got a scolding from Shizune who said that it wasn't polite to ask a woman her age. Everyone seemed to have a bit of fun before the no doubt mentally exhausting meeting.


"Is everybody present?" the principal asked, glancing around the room when the clock hit 5:20 pm. Making sure that yes, everyone was indeed there, he commenced the staff meeting. "Now, usually we start with discussions of less difficulty"–Hiruzen glanced at Danzou–"but the vice-principal had a matter of higher priority to bring to our attention." With those words, he gestured for Danzou to take it from there.

"Thanks, Hiruzen," the vice-principal began in his sharp, throaty voice, "as some of you are probably already aware, today I was supervising Mr. Hatake's class…"

And he proceeded to explain the whole thing, from the beginning to the moment he left, leaving no detail of the art teacher's transgressions out. Everything, from the way he conducted class to the way he addressed the students to the way he acted towards Danzou himself was meticulously laid out before the unwilling audience.

Hinata kept stealing glances at Kakashi, as if questioning if what Danzou had just said was true. So far the accused hasn't spoken a word in his defense, and she began to worry. With the way Danzou was painting it out it didn't look good for Kakashi.

"…and after reasonably questioning his intent to punish one student but not the other two for an identical transgression, he just snapped and insulted me in front of the whole class," the vice-principal finished, visibly agitated by the end of his report.

Everyone's eyes turned to the art teacher. Kakashi just sighed at the whole ordeal being so unnecessary.

"As I explained to Danzou, which he so conveniently left out, Sasuke didn't need to get a detention to attend one. Besides, these idiots don't care about detentions, the school is like a home to them."

"See, Kakashi, this is the kind of attitude we are questioning right now," their principal decided to intervene before Danzou exploded. "You always call your students names–"

"Only those who do idiotic things," Kakashi corrected. "Who just happen to be mostly those two."

"That's not the point," Hiruzen pressed on. "We have already established in the beginning of the year the boundaries between teachers and students. You will follow them, is that clear?" Rarely did they see their principal's strict side, but on the unprecedented occasions it came out, heads were quick to roll.

Kakashi crossed his arms, a defiant glint flashing in his eyes as if challenging the principal to make him. Hinata, who sat right beside him, nudged his knee with her own, giving him a pleading look. All the fight was gone from the man that instant, the fact that didn't go unnoticed by smug Tsunade. With a heavy sigh, the art teacher conceded.

"Fine. No more 'idiots'."

"Not just 'idiots', Kakashi," principal warned, "no more insulting language. This is a school, not street, and if you have a problem with a student there are perfectly acceptable mechanisms to deal with that."

"And what if they can take it? Am I not allowed to speak to my students the way they are comfortable with?" the man retorted.

"If they can take an insult it's good. That means they are adults, at least in that respect," Kurenai chimed in, her indirect jab on Danzou earning her a glare from the older man. "But don't you think that there is an imbalance of power between you and your students? That your words affect them more than theirs you?"

"Besides, how do you know they are comfortable with such… crude way of communicating?" Iruka added, ever the mediator. "I think Mr. Shimura was right to question your decision, as he is a vice-principal and maintaining discipline in school happens to be his responsibility," he then said after a moment of contemplation.

Judging from everyone else's expression, Kakashi will find no allies in this matter. Even Hinata agreed with that, of which of course she warned him long before this meeting took place. Kakashi found himself unable to hold a grudge against her, the fact that would've surprised him greatly had he been in a more relaxed atmosphere. He understood that they were 'right' and trying to be unbiased, sure, but he couldn't help but get a little mad, however irrational and childish that was.

"Those are the rules," Hiruzen stated simply, ending the argument. "Now, as for the detention to one and not the other two…"

"I already told–"

"Sasuke will come with Naruto anyway, yeah, we know," Anko finished for him. "Frankly, I don't think that's a problem, as you said you know your students. But what about that Shikamaru kid?"

Now they were getting to the root of the matter. No longer willing to stand their expectant looks, Kakashi sharply cut off.

"There is nothing to discuss."

"Shikamaru does seem like a troublesome child," principal attempted to alleviate tensions in the room, chuckling at his own joke as it was no secret what word the Nara himself liked to use. "He often sleeps during class and despite his exceptional intellect his marks have dropped recently."

"Perhaps you should ask him why," Kakashi's dry remark served to do the opposite of his intentions, only increasing everyone's concern.

"Do you perhaps know why?" Iruka inquired cordially.

"The reason why Shikamaru was late is a personal matter between me and Shikamaru, and I don't think a punishment is appropriate in this case. That's all I'm going to say."

And as much as they protested and pleaded, Kakashi wouldn't budge. It seemed he was putting his foot down this time. Danzou, who so far seemed to have been forgotten, finally snapped.

"I am not letting you leave this unsolved again, Hiruzen!"

The principal pinched the bridge of his nose, likely wishing he was somewhere else. "I'm not leaving anything unresolved," he assured, turning to the art teacher. "Kakashi, are you sure that the matter with Shikamaru does not warrant any interventions from the officials?" Getting an affirmative response, the oldest teacher in school sighed in relief. "Then I am going to trust your judgement. However, you must apologize for what you said to Danzou."

"That's it? An apology?!" Danzou asked, clearly unimpressed. "He is acting like that and all he gets is a slap on the wrist?"

"Come now, friend, were you really that affected by his words? Remember when we ourselves were students here? We didn't give a damn about things like this," he stated to his amusement and everyone else's confusion.

"Of course not," Danzou scoffed, even though a hint of mischief crossed his hardened face, making it look younger for a moment. It quickly returned back to its default irate expression, "but he said it in front of the students."

"I understand, and for that reason he must apologize. And I know what you want to say, Danzou," Hiruzen stopped his long-time colleague with a raised palm, "but I also see the improvements in Kakashi's conduct, you can't deny that."

Their principal's words seemed to surprise everyone, Kakashi most of all. Even Danzou had to begrudgingly agree that compared to his past year self, Hatake was almost a proper teacher. He filled his reports without a hitch, actually took his duties seriously and even started an extracurricular club. Although to really register as a club and receive additional funding it needed at least two members.

"Taking all of this into consideration, I think to leave the matter of Mr. Hatake's punishment to vote," Hiruzen declared, and it seemed there was no end for surprises that day. "What do you think, like in the old times, eh?"

As Hinata was later explained, this was another weird thing unique to Konoha. It was a practice established by the very first convocation of the student council, led by none other than Hiruzen and Danzou themselves! They say the idea was so loved by Hashirama that he introduced the practice into official staff meetings. Later, Tobirama continued the tradition as a token of respect to his brother and previous Head, even though he personally found it idiotic, like any normal manager would. Somehow, it worked well enough and stood the test of time. Since then, Konoha had traditionally decided many things via a vote. Sometimes it was teachers who voted, sometimes students, and sometimes both.

What seemed to surprise everyone was that they were supposed to vote on Kakashi's punishment.

"Not to say that we are, but isn't it prone to bias?" Iruka asked, ever the scientist.

"It is, but this matter concerns us all," Hiruzen said. "At the beginning of the year we had all agreed to the terms of Kakashi's suspension. When he breaks those terms it is the school matter."

As much as he wanted Hatake punished, Danzou couldn't disagree that his personal strife with the art teacher was just that, a personal strife. Spurred by the memories of old times, he agreed to the vote.

"Now, who is for Mr. Hatake to apologize to Danzou?" the principal asked.

All hands in the room shot up, barring Kakashi's own, of course. Giving a disappointed look towards the defiant man, Hiruzen continued.

"Who is for more severe measures? Your suggestions?"

"Like a fine?" Kakashi scoffed. "I already pay enough, and Danzou knows that."

This remark earned a quizzical look from all of the staff members, except Kurenai, the principal and Danzou himself. What did he mean by that? Was he already on reduced pay due to his suspension? And why did Kurenai look guilty? Those questions popped in Hinata's head as the bizarre disciplinary voting went on.

"How about Kakashi does Danzou's work for a week?" Tsunade suggested, knowing full well that said teacher was giving her a nasty look as the words left her lips. "The kind of work that is transferable, like preparing the classroom, event planning, assignment grading…"

"Could he do that?" Danzou asked, disbelief clear in his voice as well as apparent interest. The prospect of dumping his workload on the insufferable man was enticing. And it just so happened to be exam week next week.

Seeing that the vice-principal was somewhat placated by that notion, the whole staff body jumped on the opportunity to finally get this trivial but ludicrously exhausting matter out of the way.

Everyone voted for it with the exception of Kakashi (duh) and shockingly, Hinata.

"What?" she asked, feeling everybody's questioning stares, her cheeks heating up.

"Aww, let her defend the poor creature," Tsunade teased, looking like the cat who got the cream. "See that, Hatake, your knight in shining armor."

Kakashi shuddered at that expression on the older woman's face. God only knows what is going on in her head when she comes up with all this shit just to annoy him. He was grateful for Hinata's solidarity, however, so he decided to be agreeable this time and accepted his punishment with no more than a grumble.

"I hope your chemistry is good," Danzou said to him with a smirk before they moved on to other administrative subjects.

Great, now he had to do Danzou's job for him. At least he wasn't fired…

The rest of the meeting went just as boring as usual, with a reminder about the upcoming parent-teacher conference. People seemed excited for the event. Even Danzou looked like he wouldn't mind it that much. And as usual, the art teacher was an exception.

As Kakashi was drowning out the voices of the principal and his secretary, he felt a nudge to his left, followed by a whisper.

"You don't seem excited."

A conversation with Hinata was welcomed by the bored man, so he eagerly let her know of his disdain of those types of events.

"You think parent-teacher conferences go well when I am the teacher?" he whispered back, raising a brow. To his surprise the woman beside him giggled.

"Always such a pessimist," she smiled knowingly. "You may not like it, but you do have something planned, right?"

The art teacher's eyes widened. How did she…

"Yeah," he said instead, not wanting to let her know that she got him. He had planned to speak with Shikamaru's parents.

The two of them spent pretty much the rest of the time until the meeting concluded in amiable chatter. Kakashi was surprised at the ability of the younger woman to talk to him while at the same time not miss a single thing from the discussion going on in the room. Just what were they teaching in that med school of hers?

Finally, the meeting concluded, and everybody was free to go home, seeing as it was already seven. As per usual, the staff broke into smaller groups, some going to have dinner together, some leaving straight home to have a well-deserved rest, while Kakashi and Hinata went to the art classroom: one because it happened to be where he lived, another because she wanted to get her sister.

They discussed what happened that day along the way there, and Kakashi was once again baffled by Hinata's understanding nature. Somehow, she got him to explain everything from his point of view, and in the process she deduced that he indeed had his reasons for not punishing Shikamaru when he punished others.

"I did what you told me," he confessed as they turned the corner towards the stairs to the basement. "I noticed that Shikamaru was performing badly and asked him what was going on." He chuckled mirthlessly. "Imagine my surprise when he lifted those sleepy eyes of his and told me that his parents were fighting. Me – the shittiest teacher in school! And don't say that it's not true, I know that I'm an asshole."

Hinata couldn't help but chuckle as well, two things you couldn't fault Kakashi in was his self-criticism and the eloquence with which he did it.

"You are not that bad," she said, urging him to continue.

"So anyways," Kakashi obliged, thankful for his mask blocking his rapidly reddening face from the woman's view, "he told me some stuff, and I got a vague idea what was going on. I suspect he wanted someone to ask, because he didn't seem to be much opposed to me knowing…"

"From what I hear, Shikamaru is a smart kid, perhaps he knew that you of all people wouldn't make a big fuss out of it, but he also wanted to share it with someone," Hinata commented thoughtfully. "And look, you didn't share his secret with anybody."

He gave her a meaningful look. It seemed to say, 'really?'.

"Well, you did tell me some stuff, but I know there is more to it," she explained. "If you want to respect Shikamaru's secret it's fine. I know you will do something about his situation."

"How can you be so sure?" he asked, finding quickly that he himself didn't have as much faith in him that she seemed to have. "What makes you think I won't screw everything up?"

"Well, for starters Shikamaru did tell you," she pointed out. "Also, if his parents are anything like him, then you'll find a common ground I'm sure of it."

Despite his pessimism, her reassurances did make him feel slightly more confident in that matter. He didn't fear the upcoming conversation with Shikamaru's parents, but he also didn't think he'd be able to do anything with it. He would've continued pondering on it if Hinata didn't stop him with a sudden greeting. Looking where he assumed the person she greeted stood, Kakashi was met with a blue-haired 8th grader who ditched them during the activities fair a day ago.

"Hello, Konan, how are you?" Hinata practically cooed over the brat, making Kakashi roll his eyes. "Did you want something?"

The girl, still looking down at her feet, mumbled something that Kakashi hadn't bothered to hear. He looked at her expectantly for a few moments, before opening the door to his classroom and going in past her. Hinata, clearly unimpressed with his behavior, let the poor girl in and followed after her.

This time, however, Konan seemed to have found the courage to address the art teacher directly.

"Mr. Hatake, I'm sorry for yesterday. What Yahiko said–"

"You shouldn't apologize for things you didn't do," Kakashi cut her off, this time giving her his full attention. His statement seemed to have knocked the girl off the track, as she fumbled with her next words.

"S-still, I am at fault for leaving in the middle of our conversation a-and not coming back later…"

"Apology accepted. Is that all?"

"Kakashi!"

Despite Hinata's protests, he wasn't going to tolerate this girl's indecisiveness. If there was something that she wanted she better come out and speak.

"I… I wanted to join the art club," she said, looking him straight in the eye. It looked like she was using up all her will power to do so.

"That's wonderful!" Hinata gushed, exchanging a similar look of joy with Hanabi who till this moment was silently watching. The two even did a high five!

"What makes you think I will let you join?" Kakashi calmly asked, turning his swivel chair to face the girl and abruptly stopping the Hyugas' celebrations in its tracks.

"What are you talking about, Kakashi?! She said she wants to join–"

"Hinata, please, I'm trying to hear her response," the art teacher silenced the woman with the same calm tone, looking absolutely, decidedly disinterested. "Now, I will ask again. What makes you think I should let you join the Art club."

"The girl looked like she was about to cry. Indeed, Kakashi was using all of his intimidating aura (of which he had plenty), but Konan still refused to avert her eyes. With the same determined expression, she somewhat shakily answered. "Because I want to j-join, and you have no–"

"I can't hear you."

"Because I want to–"

"Speak louder!"

"BECAUSE I WANT TO JOIN! And you have no authority to prevent me from joining a club of my choice!" frustrated girl burst out with an impressive volume. It looked like that outburst used up all the fire in Konan, and when it burned out she got worried that she'd overstepped her bounds. "Sorry," she meekly added, mere embers remaining from the righteous anger that Kakashi had stoked in the timid girl.

"I told you, do not apologize if you did nothing wrong," Kakashi finally spoke, standing up from his desk and moving towards his office. "You can discuss the rest with our President," with those words, he disappeared into the adjoined room.

A pregnant pause ensued, as everyone apart from the art teacher himself needed a moment to process what he'd just said. Hinata was first to react. Her laughter rang across the room loud and clear; she just couldn't believe what just transpired before her eyes, even though she should've expected it. Kakashi definitely had a flair for the dramatic.

"Did he…"

"Yep," Hinata nodded, recovering, a proud glint in her eyes, "welcome to the club, Konan." Absently she wondered if her cackling echoed along the corridors of the basement floor, spooking impressionable youth.

"That's not funny!" Hanabi exclaimed, afterall how could an interaction during which she felt her own breath hitch with nervousness be considered funny at all? "That was fricking intense! You guys are crazy! Right, Konan?"

Turning to their new member, the Hyuga siblings didn't expect what came next – the girl, overwhelmed with emotions began to cry. Putting a comforting arm on her shoulder, Hinata shook her head with a guilty smile. She supposed they had Kakashi to blame for it. Konan quickly restored her composure, however, and was immediately invited by Hanabi to discuss the details of their upcoming activities. Finally, with the second member they could officially get this club going.

As Konan listened to her senior's excited plans for their club, she periodically shot thoughtful glances at the door of Mr. Hatake's office. His words kept coming back to her head, but instead of haunting her like they had been since the club fair, they felt like a mantra, something to use as an inspiration in her times of need.

"Sometimes you have to stand your ground."

Konan smiled, turning back to her club's President and thanking everyone present once again. She finally did it! And this time she won't allow Yahiko or anyone else to prevent her from doing what she wanted.