a/n: I'm late, I'm late! This was supposed to be up yesterday!

It's part of the Christmas series, set after "There's Nothing Like Christmas," and "The Proper Way to Christmas." But like either, can be read alone.

Kakashi remembered a time when he called Sakura the sensible child of his team of three. Watching the fire spread from the door to the walls of his apartment unit, Kakashi carefully reassessed that statement.

Sakura stood in front of the crime scene, fingers curled weakly and unmovingly from the last handseal she'd cast, while the shadow of the flames contoured the frozen smile on her face.

Somehow Kakashi always thought that if any of his students were backlit by a pillar of hell fire, it would've been Sasuke. And yet here they were.

Briefly gazing up into the sky for strength, Kakashi hopped down from the adjacent rooftop and rounded up on Sakura. The girl immediately whirled to face him, sensing his presence, green eyes wide and innocent. "It's not what it seems, Kakashi-sensei," she blurted out, unplanned.

Kakashi took another glance at his burning home. The fire crackled like a cozy, make-shift fireplace that threatening to send him to the streets for all future nights. "You're not trying to burn my apartment down?" he asked doubtfully.

"I-is that what it looked like?" she wondered meekly, fingers twisting innocently in her short pink hair.

Kakashi added helpfully, "In fact that's what it still looks like," and raised an eyebrow pointedly at his still blazing door.

Sakura stiffened and whirled around. "Oh shoot!" she muttered as she sped through a series of seals under Kakashi's watchful eye, because Kakashi didn't trust her not to have the sudden brilliant idea to switch from arson to completely bulldozing his house down. Finally Sakura spat out a simple suiton to smother the flames.

Kakashi wondered idly to himself what had he done to deserve this sort of treatment. Neglect her training, sure, but Tsunade-sama had commandeered her mentoring now, hadn't she?

Running a mournful gaze over his charred door Kakashi continued cautiously, "So if not arson, what wasn't it actually supposed to look like?" he enquired in honest curiosity, while a small part of him instantly regretted asking – nothing good ever came from encouraging his students' insanity.

Sakura's eyes lingered on the damages for a short while. Then she let out an irate tsk in response. "Breaking in, of course!" she cried exasperatedly. "I have the best chakra control out of the three of us, but Sasuke managed to do it. And even Naruto did, so why can't I? How did I fail?" Frustration bled into her tone as her fist swung futilely in the air.

Knowing exactly what Tsunade-sama was teaching her, Kakashi carefully watched the offending hand and wisely didn't provoke her. She didn't need to know that he'd disabled the traps during Naruto's attempt, and dumbed them down for Sasuke's sake. It was already commendable that Sakura only managed to destroy the front door rather than blow herself up.

"I was not aware breaking in to your sensei's house was a rite of passage."

She flushed. "Not exactly…" she hedged hesitantly.

Sakura shuffled her feet and looked away. Her fingers picked at the frayed ends of her skirt, subtly nudging her side pouch out of view. So of course Kakashi's eyes naturally honed onto that. Her pouch was unusually fuller and bulkier than ever before, and a festively red bow peeked from between the partly opened zipper.

Kakashi was instantly enlightened.

It was Christmas Eve.

The fact that Sakura knew to participate in the team tradition without prompt though was, frankly, unexpected. Kakashi was certain Naruto never mentioned it to her before, nor would have Sasuke. Were reverse robberies really a thing, then? And did Kakashi want to know?

Amicably, Kakashi only said, "Your turn to reverse rob me, mmm?"

There was a pause. "-what? I'm not planning to rob you, Kakashi-sensei. Honest," Sakura refuted, flustered.

"Mmmhm, just reverse rob me," Kakashi agreed.

There was another pause, longer than the last. Finally, Sakura said with a concerned frown, "'Reverse rob'? You do know that's not a thing, right?"

"Nonsense," Kakashi said confidently. Naruto and Sasuke used the term as well. Never mind the fact that Naruto conceived it, Sasuke was enlightened by him, and Kakashi himself never even approved of the term that first year Naruto uttered it either.

Sakura pressed her hands over her cheeks and moaned. "Sensei, you're making me sound like some criminal. There's no robbery involved, I swear. I'm just giving Christmas gifts."

How sensible sounding – if Kakashi hadn't witnessed her partially burning down his apartment door just minutes prior.

Sakura unconsciously bit her lower lip. "It's just- I didn't know what to do with Sasuke and Naruto's presents, since Sasuke is still… gone, and Naruto's still away training with Jiraiya-sama, so I figured it wouldn't hurt to break in and leave them inside as a surprise when they got home. I didn't want to bother you while you were training either, so I thought to do the same - I didn't think I'd trigger your traps. I'll pay for the door, sensei!"

"Never mind." Kakashi waved her off fondly. "It's part of the risk of being reverse robbed." He wouldn't stop his kids from playing Santa.

Sakura gave an all-suffering sigh at his continual use of the term but didn't bother to argue. She laced her fingers together in front of her chest thoughtfully, then suddenly jolted, remembering a prior engagement. "Sorry again, Kakashi-sensei. Let's chat again some other day. I have to go now, Tsunade-shishou is waiting for me to return," she said with a small shiver, anticipating Tsunade's brand of training.

She turned on her heels with a quick gesture goodbye, bashful expression on her face.

Kakashi waited, but she only continued to retreat further and further away.

"What about my present?" Kakashi finally call out pitifully behind her, "You burned down my door for nothing?"

"It's part of the risk of being reverse robbed," Sakura quoted cheekily with a small wink. She twirled in spot, pulling out Kakashi's present from her side pouch, tossing it in her hands positively tauntingly. "Both Naruto and Sasuke made it through, so don't count me out just yet. I'm going to study up on traps dismantlement and break in without you noticing next year. You'll get your present then!"

It was a shame Kakashi's personal wards were much more complicated than the dismantlement lesson he'd gone over with the three of them previously. He'd just been lucky to spot Naruto and Sasuke before their own attempts to indulge their whims. Though it seemed Sakura had a competitive streak just as strong as the two boys. How had he never noticed?

"Next year, is it?" Kakashi repeated softly.

"Wait for it," Sakura agreed firmly, and stashed his present away in her pouch once more.

"I will."

The corners of Kakashi's lips curled upwards as he watched her skip merrily on her way, mentioning nothing of the unspoken promise she'd forced on him. Kakashi needed to survive until next year for him to receive that present of hers, after all. How cute, worrying for his safety against this growing threat that was the Akatsuki, like this was his first war.

It was the teacher's job to worry for his kids, not the other way around.

But it certainly was a warming sentiment. Besides, Sakura had to take care of herself until next year as well if she planned to be able to give him said present.