I don't own Naruto and I don't know anyone who does.

Team Seven had returned from a very trying mission an hour ago. Kakashi had just gotten back to his apartment after turning in his report and was looking forward to a hot shower.

He had sent his team made up of Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke home to rest. They didn't need to be there for the report after all. Since they had been whispering together on the road home, Kakashi had assumed that they were tired. He certainly was.

Their simple herb-gathering mission had somehow turned into a search and rescue. Naruto had met a girl in the woods. When she got kidnapped, Naruto got kidnapped on purpose to help her and Sasuke got hurt trying to rescue Naruto. After Kakashi rescued all three of them, Sakura hit Naruto and Naruto consequently needed to be carried because he was unconscious. Naruto's friend, on the other hand, ran along home safe and sound.

By evening none of the genin could keep watch because they were all too tired. So while Kakashi kept watch all night, he made a shadow clone to find the herbs that they had gone out to find in the first place. He didn't want to have to explain to Lord Third why the mission couldn't be completed for another lunar cycle.

Of course, the report he gave went as follows: "Mission: gather medical herbs in Fire Nation, complete."

Kakashi turned on the water and stepped into his shower. He sighed as the hot water hit his back, letting his head fall into the stream. With his eyes still closed he reached for his shampoo, he had a mane to maintain after all.

In his head, the jonin was weighing out the benefits and drawbacks of making dinner verses going straight to bed. He had just started washing the lather out of his silver locks when he heard a clang come from his kitchen. His eyes snapped open and soap ran into them. They stung and he quickly washed the shampoo away. Who in the village has a death wish? Kakashi wondered.

Kakashi turned off the water and slowly reached for his towel, listening. Familiar voices squabbled beyond his bathroom door. The jonin sighed. He finished drying himself and pulled his pants on, towel still draped over his head. This had better be good, Kakashi thought. He slipped his shirt over his head and adjusted his mask. He then gave his hair one more ruffle with his towel before tossing it in the hamper and opened his bathroom door.

Three genin came under his gaze. Naruto stood in the middle of the kitchen holding an arm up, defending the package of ramen cradled in his other arm. His eyes were squinted shut, anticipating a blow. Sakura was next to him holding a frying pan over her head mid-swing. Her attention had changed to Kakashi as soon as the bathroom door had opened. Sasuke was on Naruto's other side, holding him by the collar and trying to drag the other two apart. Upon seeing Kakashi, he released Naruto and stuffed his hands in his pockets, staring at the floor.

"What are you three doing in my apartment?" Kakashi asked calmly. Naruto cautiously opened his eyes, realizing that he was no longer in danger of imminent head trauma.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto exclaimed. "We came to make you dinner!" He held out the ramen in front of him proudly.

"Sensei doesn't like ramen Naruto," Sakura ground out. "We'll make him soup."

"You're making soup in a frying pan?" Kakashi asked, an unseen corner of his mouth twitching. Sakura realized that she was still holding the pan over her head and put it down, her face flushed.

Naruto was still glaring at Sakura, "you only want to make soup because you don't know how to cook anything else!"

Sakura's face went from red to burgundy in her rage. She rounded on Naruto, "isn't that why you want to make ramen?!"

"No!" Naruto shot back defensively. Sasuke hmphed, earning a glare from Naruto. "I don't see you offering to cook anything Sasuke."

"Why would I add to the problem when you two already can't decide what to make?" Sasuke said.

"Fine!" Naruto said, "we'll just make them both together." Naruto snatched the frying pan out of Sakura's hand and headed to the stove.

"I'm gonna go lie down," Kakashi said, one hand covering the visible half of his face and the other pointing toward his bed.

"Oh yes," Sakura called out as Kakashi walked away. "You just rest sensei, we'll take care of everything." She scurried after Naruto toward the stove. Sasuke followed, hands in pockets.

Kakashi lay down in his bed, arm covering his eyes. It seemed like he had only closed his eyes for a second when he heard a crash and a hiss. Kakashi's eyes snapped open and he launched himself out of bed. His third step landed in hot water. He looked down and lifted his foot out of a large pool of broth and a crushed noodle.

"Now look what you did," Sakura screeched.

"Me?!" Naruto retorted. "You just didn't want my ramen in your soup so you spilled the whole thing!"

"Why would I spill out perfectly good soup?! Despite your ramen, it still would have turned out alright," Sakura huffed.

Sasuke was wiping up the broth with a washcloth and wringing it out into a pot. I hope that isn't the cooking pot, Kakashi thought.

"Oh, let me help you Sasuke," Sakura said, seeing him cleaning up.

When Naruto was looking over the mess on the floor he caught sight of Kakashi. "Oh hi sensei," Naruto said a little too loud, scratching his head. He kicked Sasuke hard in the foot to get his attention.

"You don't have to kick me idiot," Sasuke said. "I know he's there."

Naruto kicked him again anyway.

"Naruto…" Sakura started.

Kakashi sighed and said, "look you guys, I don't know what this is about but shouldn't you be at home? Asleep?" Like I'd prefer to be. "I did dismiss you for the night."

His three students looked at him with wide eyes. "No way sensei," Naruto said. "We're going to make you dinner and make sure you get plenty of rest. You seemed kind of tired after our last mission even though it wasn't very hard." Kakashi's eye twitched. "So we decided we'd take care of you, like you always take care of us."

Kakashi took in the sight of his once organized kitchen starting with the soup and noodles strewn around the floor. Every cupboard had been opened and pots of all sizes were sitting on the counter as if the genin had been unsure about which size to use and had to compare them side by side. The spice rack looked as if it had exploded, with discarded jars and tins radiating out of the shelf. For some reason there was flour dashed onto the cabinet doors and counters. The flour bag sat discarded and empty under the table. Spoons, whisks, spatulas and tongs stuck out of a drawer that Naruto was absently trying to close with his foot.

"I see," Kakashi said slowly, an idea forming. "But how are you three going to do that if you don't work together?"

Naruto looked at Sakura and then away again, ashamed. Sakura just looked at the floor. Sasuke hmphed.

"Sakura and Naruto," Kakashi began, "you couldn't even agree on a plan of what to make but then tried to go through with it half-baked anyway. When something inevitably went wrong you were too busy bickering to help your teammate clean up, much less solve the problem."

Sasuke hmphed triumphantly until Kakashi rounded on him. "Sasuke, you refused to help at all even though you clearly want to be here for some reason. You'd better figure out what that reason is instead of standing around and criticizing others for trying to do something. A failed attempt is better than not doing anything at all."

Properly chided the students, heads hanging, waited for their teacher to continue but he'd gone back to his bed. The three genin looked up at each other.

"What do we do now?" Sakura asked nobody in particular.

"Clean up, first of all," Sasuke said quietly.

"We still need to make Kakashi-sensei dinner though," Naruto muttered, the goal ever-present in his mind.

"We can discuss that as we clean," Sakura suggested, noticing that she was standing in a shallow pool of soup.

"Alright!" Naruto said, energized once more. He crossed his fingers and made a dozen shadow clones.

"Naruto…" Sakura started to get angry as the clones crammed into the small kitchen.

Sasuke touched her arm to stop her. He tried to be constructive, "it's a good idea Naruto, but with too many helpers, we'll just be tripping over each other."

The Naruto hanging from the ceiling surveyed the situation and agreed. He dismissed most of the clones, leaving two to clean up the floor and soup, and two more to clean up the flour mess. The original volunteered to tidy up the utensil drawer.

"I'll clean up the spice rack," Sasuke said picking up a stray tin.

"I'll put away these pots," Sakura said, then frowned. "Why did we need these all out again?"

Naruto shrugged and Sasuke rolled his eyes.

As Sakura started to put the pots back in the cupboard she said, "what are we going to make sensei for dinner?"

"I only know how to make ramen," Naruto stated, forgetting his shame from earlier.

"Does he have any recipes around?" Sasuke asked.

Sakura answered, "I think I saw a book of recipes in one of the cupboards…" She trailed off, peaking in each cupboard as she opened it. A clone scowled as she glanced inside of the cupboard he was wiping down.

"Is this it Sakura?" Naruto asked. He was holding a book up for her to see.

"Yes that's it, where did you find it?" Sakura said, taking it from his hands.

"It was in the drawer full of spoons and things, that's why it wouldn't close."

"But why was it-," Sakura began. "I suppose it doesn't matter now."

The clones had finished their work and Naruto waved at them in thanks before releasing them.

Sasuke was done with the spice rack and came over to see the book. "What's this?" He asked, pulling a note card out of the pages.

"Miso soup," Naruto read the heading of the recipe over his shoulder.

Sakura read through the ingredients, "I think he has all of this stuff and it seems pretty straightforward." She smiled, "looks like we're making soup after all."

Naruto stuck his tongue out at her. He looked at the card again and his nose wrinkled, "do we have to use tofu though?"

"No. Besides, look, someone's crossed out 'tofu' and written in 'eggplant'. I don't think sensei had any tofu around anyway."

"I think-," Sasuke hesitated. "I think my brother and I made this together once."

Sakura and Naruto both froze. They knew Sasuke didn't like talking about his family. Sakura recovered first. "We can make something else if-"

"No, it's okay. If it's something that Kakashi-sensei would like then we should make it," Sasuke replied. "That is what we set out to do after all."

"Alright, let's do it." Naruto said speaking up. "Sasuke, since you have experience with this, would you direct us?"

Sasuke's mouth opened a bit like he was going to say something but then closed it and nodded. Team Seven got to work.

In several minutes they had completed their task, at least, as far as they could tell. Sasuke said the soup smelled about right and since that was all they had to go on that would have to do.

It was decided that Sakura would go wake Kakashi up while Naruto and Sasuke set the table. It had gotten dark outside since they'd first arrived and Sakura hoped she didn't trip on anything. Being landed on by someone else was not a good way to be woken up.

The pink-haired girl cautiously walked up to the jonin's bed and said as gently as she could, "Kakashi-sensei?"

Sakura noticed that the next breath her sensei took was deeper than the last, and then his eye opened. "Yes Sakura?" Kakashi answered diligently.

"We made you dinner sensei," Sakura said, then she retreated.

Kakashi sat up smelling the air and thought, Miso soup?

Kakashi got up and followed Sakura into the kitchen/dining room. As agreed, the boys had set the table for dinner. The soup was ladled out into four bowls with hardly a drop spilled. The boys looked smug.

Kakashi gave them a tired eye-smile. "It looks like you three have done a great job."

"You haven't tasted it yet sensei," Naruto said grinning.

Hoping that it wasn't the same soup he'd seen on the floor, Kakashi and his students each took a seat around the table.

Kakashi looked at them suspiciously. "This isn't an attempt to see me without my mask is it?"

The three looked genuinely puzzled by this question. They looked at each other and then back at their sensei.

"Why?" Naruto asked. "What's behind your mask?"

Sasuke and Sakura's interests also seemed piqued, gazing at the lower part of his face with much more attention.

Well darn, that backfired. I guess they were going to be curious about it one day, Kakashi thought. "Never mind, forget I said anything," Kakashi said mentally kicking himself, it was hopeless now.

His students let it go, for now. The four of them ate their soup in silence.

"Time for bed Kakashi-sensei," Sakura said cheerfully. The boys had also agreed to clear away and wash the dishes.

Kakashi's eyebrows furrowed. "Um, Sakura, I'll go to bed when I please."

"Nonsense," Sakura said as she began to herd him toward his bed. "We know you must be tired."

"Well I am but-" Kakashi began.

"No 'buts', we said we were going to let you relax and we meant it," Sasuke said.

Naruto had assigned the dishes to his clones so that he and Sasuke could join in the conversation. Sakura thought that that was cheating but didn't say anything.

"Guys, I'm really perfectly capable of taking care of myself," Kakashi protested as he was practically shoved into bed.

"We know sensei," Naruto said. "But nobody should have to take care of themselves 100% of the time. That's why we have friends and vacations."

"That's right," Sakura added. "You're always helping us, so let us help you."

"And we're staying here to make sure you're not disturbed," Sasuke added as if this irritated him, crossing his arms.

"Um, okay, well I hope you have your bed rolls with you because I don't-" Kakashi began.

Naruto waved him off, "don't worry about us sensei. Sleep well!" He turned around to leave Kakashi in peace.

"Goodnight sensei," Sakura said and followed Naruto.

"Goodnight," Sasuke said and left.

Kakashi smiled after his cute little genin. He was about to go to sleep when a thought occurred to him. One last thing you guys, then I'll go to sleep, I promise. He thought, biting his thumb and summoning Pakkun.

"What's up boss," Pakkun asked.

"Pakkun, would you please run over to the Haruno residence and inform Sakura's parents that my team will be staying here tonight? I don't want them to worry."

"Sure thing," Pakkun said, turning to leave.

"And Pakkun?"

"Yes?" he turned back towards Kakashi.

"When you get back, could you stay here and keep an eye on them for me?"

Pakkun didn't have to ask who Kakashi meant. "Sure, no problem," and Pakkun took off into the night.

By the time Pakkun got back everyone in Kakashi's apartment was asleep. Well, everyone was until the little dog hopped in the window.

Kakashi's eye opened as the brown dog approached him. "I think you should see this boss," Pakkun said.

In the living room were three sprawled out genin sleeping on the hard wood floor. "Well this won't do," Kakashi said to himself.

One by one, Kakashi picked up the pink-haired kunoichi, his Sensei's son, and the last Uchiha and laid them down on his bed. His three small students fit on it easily. After covering them with his blanket he went and got his bedroll and laid it out a couple of feet away. Pakkun lay down at the foot of the bedroll.

Kakashi climbed into his bedroll and then looked at his sleeping students. "Don't grow up too fast you three," he said quietly. "You can take care of me when I'm old and feeble."

"Most ninja don't live that long Kakashi," Pakkun commented frankly.

Kakashi smiled, stretching out, "that's not my problem."

The End