Reina found herself walking the hallways of the Kirigakure Academy once more. Initially, she had been confused as to why she had been stationed in the Academy, as normally Chunin would get teaching duty. They were experienced enough to gather what they've learned and convey it to the young mind in a systematic manner which enabled them to grasp what was being taught.

But, she had been told that a replacement had been needed urgently, and most of the Chunin who were capable were out doing field work. Those that weren't were off duty for some reason or other – broken bones, broken ribs, broken brain. So, it had been her that had been chosen to substitute the Chunin that had come down with a fever. The fever that had so conveniently attacked the moment his fiancee came back into town.

And so she fond herself back in the familiar walls of the Academy that she had not frequented following her graduation years ago. A part of her felt guilty for not visiting the place that had been her second home for years, the place that had nurtured the ninja talent within her and helped her grow to meet her clan's standards, but she realised it would also have been futile. She wasn't close to many of the teachers, and the only teacher she was fond of had passed away months after her graduation, so she really didn't have anything to return to in the Academy, except to feel for its wooden walls, usually soaked from the mist, and to watch the classes and reminisce about old times.

She found her room – 301, the bastard room full of newbies with high dreams of becoming ninja – and made her way inside. There was already a chunin instructor most likely giving them 'the talk', which was what all ninja had come to know the various speeches chunin used to give within the first few months as. It wasn't really to discourage them from being ninja, as Kiri's chunin were so adept they could change even the most useless of Academy students into the most prominent of ninja, but it was to instil the idea of soldiering on to the end within their little brains.

“And that, children, is how I got my sexy cheek scar,” he finished.

Okay... maybe not that.

“I'm the substitute teacher, Aisu Reina?” Reina winced as she used her clan name instead of her family name. While she was an Aisu, her mother's family had been the Yukis, and her father had taken up her name instead. However, when it came to ninja business, Reina often used her Aisu name instead.

“Okay, Reina. You have group one. Take them out to the training field and work on their taijutsu.”

With that, he returned to detailing how he got his 'sexy neck scar', and Reina was sure he would go on and on droning about how he got various scars on various parts of his body.

Reina led the group of six students outside, where the moist and grassy field provided the ideal and safe training environment. She saw several of them make mistakes, but made no move to correct them. She was one who preferred to look at the entirety of things and see if any lack in normalcy was a mistake, or merely something unexpected.

And truth be told, she was not impressed. At their age, Reina had already been forced to begin practicing walking on vertical surfaces. And she took to it like a fish to water. These kids couldn't even make a correct fist, much less throw a correct punch. It was a grueling hour, and when taijutsu lessons were over, she brought the group of dissatisfied kids (dissatisfied because she had apparently stunted their fun with her inputs) back to the classroom, only to be told to bring group number two out for taijutsu lessons while the Chunin spoke of a scar he got in a place she didn't know could get scars.

And watching the second group of students under-perform was not amusing, and soon, a thought came up in her mind.

“Teaching sucks.”

Word Count: 702