How fortunate I was to be the father of three daughters.

Sons? Not a one.

On another note, Kiba was introducing sparring to his eight-year-old students. He had brought it up to me about a month back and requested that I come in to demonstrate a few moves to the students, and I whimsically agreed, figuring he'd forget in a day.

"What do you say, Shino?" Kiba said eagerly. "Sparring? With me? In front of the class? Yes? Yes?"

I glared at him. "Fine." I said.

"All right!" Kiba cheered. "That took hardly any convincing at all!"

"Very well, Kiba." I said. "I have to leave now."

"That's good. I've already said everything I need to say. Fly free, Shino."

As it turned out, Kiba wrote it down on his hand and when he got home, he wrote it down somewhere on a piece of paper and then gave it to Hinata to remind him about it.

Sure enough, he called me to follow through with my agreement and we set up a time for me to come in and help him demonstrate to his eight-year-old students. One of the very LAST things I wanted to do. EVER.

"Now listen up everyone!" said Kiba.

His class was surprisingly attentive. I wondered how KIBA managed to keep control of a bunch of rambunctious little boys. He was practically one of them. Actually, that's probably why he's able to keep control of them.

"This is my good friend, Aburame Shino." He introduced me. "We were on the same team when we were twelve years old but he became a chuunin when we were thirteen. Since then, he's advanced to the jounin rank and even joined ANBU which is, as you all know, the best among the best!"

Way to give them my life story. As if they cared.

"So you all know what that means!" Kiba continued, addressing the class. "Shino is a VERY excellent and skilled ninja, meaning you are to take everything he says seriously! Assuming he says stuff at all, right Shino?"

He nudged me.

What did he want from me?

"Now, since I'm a chuunin, that means Shino is two ranks higher than I am, am I right?"

The class agreed.

"Meaning he doesn't have to go all out in this demonstration!" Kiba said but it was pretty much directed entirely towards me.

Did he actually expect me to harm him? As if I've EVER harmed him. When we were training together way back when, I always used to stop right before it came the time to inflict pain and damage on him.

"Ah…well…" Hinata stuttered as she came over to where the two of us finished up our training session. "Um… are you all right, Kiba?"

"I'm fine." Kiba scowled at me. "Why do you always stop right before the final attack?"

"Because I'm not going to kill you." I answered.

"Duh." Said Kiba. "But I asked you a question."

"That was my answer. If I went in for the final attack then you'd die, isn't that right, Kiba?"

"It's degrading. Beat me up better next time, got it?"

"Whatever you say, Kiba."

And he knew that. So why he was even going there as beyond me.

"This sparring session will be based mostly on taijutsu." Kiba announced and the class moaned a bit. "But maybe if we're all nice to Shino, he'll come back some other time for a ninjutsu or genjutsu sparring session."

Yeah right.

"The first thing you have to do is get into your fighter's stance!" Kiba dictated as he stepped away from me and put his hands up.

I got into my own stance.

"All right…" Kiba said slowly. "First we're going to have a spar and then we'll do it all over again in half speed. So remember what you do, okay Shino?"

"All right." I said.

Kiba gasped loudly and looked at his students. "He speaks!" he marveled, only the humor them.

The class laughed.

I glared at Kiba but I think that only made it more enjoyable for him.

"Okay, seriously now Shino." Kiba said, looking back at me. "Just remember that I'm a chuunin and I hardly go on missions anymore AND I'm in front of my entire class."

"I know." I said.

"Is everyone ready?" Kiba asked the class and they nodded eagerly. Kiba gestured for me to go, but I gestured for him to go instead.

I hadn't fought Kiba in so long so I needed to test the waters. He probably fought completely different now, almost twenty years later, especially since he didn't have a dog partner by his side 24/7. I didn't want to embarrass him in front of his students by accidentally hurling him into next week when I expected him to dodge or block.

He came to me and threw a punch. It was obvious and a little sloppy so I threw it to the side without a second thought. He threw another punch and that one was just as poor as the one before.

"Kiba…come on. I know you can punch better than that. You were the best at taijutsu in our whole class."

"Class, take note of this!" Kiba said, turning his attention away from the battle. "Shino here is…" he paused and glanced around the room at all the eager faces who just wanted us to continue. "I said take note! Why am I not hearing any rustling papers?"

What followed was rustling papers as the students scrambled for their notebooks.

"Shino here is using a technique called 'taunting'." Kiba said as the students wrote furiously. "In most cases, it can be viewed as a shameful way of attacking your opponent, but I personally have nothing against it! The only way to defend against it is to throw it right back."

He turned back to me.

"So throw another mean spirited comment at me, Shino!" he said.

"Um." I said. "I was just stating fact. I wasn't taunting."

"Oh yeah, Shino?" Kiba said. "Well, did your mother dress you this morning or what?"

That was uncalled for.

My mother was dead. Or missing in action anyway.

"Of course, after taunting, you must always be ready for the worst." Kiba told his class, unaffected by my offended aura. "Some ninjas can really let it go to their heads. But don't become one of those ninjas or else your movements will become obvious and sloppy because you will be so BLINDED by your rage! But Shino knows I was just kidding, don't you Shino?"

Well yeah. I guess I had never told him that my mother was dead.

Or missing in action.

"So now we're going to fight for real!" Kiba told the students.

What followed was an extremely mild spar. It was just going through the motions for me with Kiba stopping after every few attacks to explain what just happened to his students.

"And we're just about out of time…" Kiba said, looking up at the clock. "I want everyone to thank Shino for taking time out of his day to come in and show this to you!"

"Thank you Shino!" chimed the students. I nodded at them.

With that, they got up and left the room noisily.

"That was fun!" Kiba told me as he started going around the room and picking up scraps of paper or trash that were left behind by the students. "It felt good to fight again! I don't do it that much anymore, you know."

"I know." I replied.

"So…about what I said about you coming back in." Kiba said, dropping the scraps into the trash and leaning up against his desk. "I was just saying that to make the kids happy. I know you didn't even want to come in for this one so I'm not going to make you come in again."

"Oh." I said. "Okay."

"Well, I have to prepare for my next class." Kiba said. "So you're free! I'm not holding you captive anymore! You can go home! Fly free, Shino!"

Fly free, fly free. Jeez, was that his new catch phrase?

"I'll…see you later." I said, pushing open the door and leaving as Kiba waved to me.

"Hey, when do you want to give your Best Man speech?" Kiba said randomly. "Before or after dinner?"

Best man speech? Was I required to give one of those?

"HELLO!" he said loudly as he waved his hand in front of my face.

I definitely don't want to do one of those. As if I had even prepared one. No one even told me that I had to give one so what made Kiba think that I had made one?

"No." I told him.

"No?" Kiba asked as if my answer wasn't to the point enough for him to comprehend.

You'd think after ten years he'd know better.

"Kiba, don't you know me well enough to know that I am not going to give a Best Man speech?" I asked him.

I looked at him.

His mouth was hanging open like a fish.

"You're going to deny me a Best Man speech on my wedding day!" he yelled.

"No." I told him.

Kiba looked like a little kid, ready to burst out crying. I didn't know it meant so much to him.

I guess he shouldn't have made me his best man then if he was expecting a speech.

He suddenly abruptly stood up and stomped off.

It wasn't as painful as I had originally assumed it would be. I thought I was going to have to be there all day as opposed to just for an hour or so. All I really had to do was throw a punch and then listen to Kiba explain it.

I looked back at the academy as some students ran inside. Maybe it was healthy for me to revisit this place every once and a while and be around kids.

Then again, I could always be in the company of children in my own home.