As dusk settled in, Kitazawa dismissed Class 1-A before heading to the training ground.
"Kitazawa-sensei." Uchiha Sasuke, Hyuga Hinata, Yamanaka Ino, and Haruno Sakura all paused their training and gathered around him.
"Sasuke, starting tomorrow, you can begin practicing the Moving Target Shuriken Technique," Kitazawa said, turning to him.
As a member of the Uchiha clan, Sasuke grasped the fundamentals of the technique swiftly.
Unfortunately, he hadn't awakened his Sharingan yet—otherwise, he wouldn't even need an hour to master it.
The Sharingan was like a cheat code, easily overwhelming ordinary ninja. After all, once Kakashi Hatake received the Sharingan, he learned over a thousand jutsu.
Meanwhile, most shinobi would consider themselves accomplished after mastering just a few dozen jutsu in their lifetime.
"Understood, Kitazawa-sensei," Sasuke nodded.
Kitazawa's gaze moved to Hinata. Among the four, she was easily the most diligent. She had pushed her Byakugan training to the limit—just one final push, and she could awaken it.
But due to her introverted nature, she hadn't realized how close she was.
Kitazawa planned to have her participate in the friendly match against Class 2-A to give her that spark. Of course, he wasn't going to pit her against Neji Hyuga.
Despite the growth she had shown, Hinata still stood little chance against him. Kitazawa didn't want a sparring match to undo her progress and send her retreating into herself again.
Still, Hinata would have to face Neji someday. He was her mental block—and she needed to confront that fear to overcome it.
"Sakura, Ino," Kitazawa continued, "Your water-walking training is nearly complete. After the match, we'll move on to new training."
"What kind of training?" Ino asked curiously.
"Have you not started learning your clan's secret techniques yet?" Kitazawa asked instead of answering directly.
"My dad said my fundamentals aren't strong enough yet and wants to wait," Ino replied.
"In that case, in a few days, you can start learning the Yamanaka clan techniques," Kitazawa smiled.
After all, secret techniques were still jutsu, and their foundation relied on three core elements: chakra control, chakra form transformation, and chakra nature transformation.
Ino already had decent chakra control, so trying to learn her clan's techniques was more than possible. She might not fully master them immediately, but getting started wouldn't be an issue.
"Really?" Ino's eyes lit up, instantly understanding the hidden meaning in Kitazawa's words.
She joined the training originally to surpass Sakura. She hadn't expected to gain something like this as a bonus.
Kitazawa nodded with certainty. "Yes."
"Then what about me?" Sakura couldn't hold back her question.
Unlike Ino, she wasn't born into a ninja clan and didn't have any inherited jutsu to fall back on.
"What kind of jutsu do you want to learn?" Kitazawa asked.
"I… I want to learn medical ninjutsu!" Sakura hesitated for a moment before speaking with excitement.
Part of it was because Tsunade was her idol. The other reason? She wanted to be able to treat Sasuke's injuries—so she could, well, take advantage of the moment.
"Sakura!" Ino's expression stiffened. She immediately signaled to her with her eyes.
As the Yamanaka clan heiress, Ino had broader knowledge than Sakura. She knew just how difficult medical ninjutsu was.
Kitazawa was an excellent teacher, sure, but he was just a regular Chunin. How could he possibly know medical ninjutsu?
If he did, he wouldn't be teaching—he'd be working at Konoha Hospital. Ino spoke up to stop Sakura, worried she'd put Kitazawa in an awkward position. After all, it wasn't easy to find such a good teacher.
"I can teach you," Kitazawa said calmly.
In truth, Sakura wanting to learn medical ninjutsu was exactly what he had anticipated—and it aligned perfectly with his upcoming plans. He had been looking for an excuse to demonstrate to Tsunade both his interest and talent in the medical field.
"That's amazing!" Sakura exclaimed with joy.
"Eh?" Ino's pupils trembled. What kind of madness is this?
A regular Ninja Academy teacher… can teach medical ninjutsu too? This defied logic. And the laws of the shinobi world.
[New Task: Help Haruno Sakura learn her first medical ninjutsu.]
Reward: Delicate Illness Extraction Jutsu.]
[Accept?]
Kitazawa raised an eyebrow in surprise. The Delicate Illness Extraction Jutsu was a B-rank medical jutsu used to extract poison or damaged organs and even transplant them. Typically, only elite medical Jonin could perform it.
"Alright, for the next two days, continue training as usual. Let's focus on winning the friendly match against Class 2-A first." Kitazawa clapped his hands. "See you all tomorrow."
"Goodbye, Kitazawa-sensei!" The four responded together.
---
After leaving the Academy, Kitazawa headed straight to Kurenai's home.
"Lady Tsunade hasn't arrived yet," Kurenai said, plopping down on the sofa. "We can go ahead and discuss things first."
"Is Yakumo here? I have something I'd like to ask of her," Kitazawa asked, still standing and admiring Kurenai's beauty.
She had changed back into her usual red-sleeved white outfit, revealing her fair legs.
"She's on the rooftop," Kurenai said, pointing.
"I'll go find her first." Kitazawa smiled and headed upstairs.
As he reached the rooftop, he saw Yakumo sitting before a canvas, painting something. He walked up and saw that she was drawing a nearby tree.
"Kitazawa-sensei," Yakumo noticed him and greeted him first.
"Have you heard of Hyuga Neji?" Kitazawa asked straight to the point.
"Yes," Yakumo nodded. "He's a famous genius from the Hyuga clan."
"Our class has a friendly match with Class 2-A on Friday," Kitazawa explained. "Would you like to spar with him?"
"Can I really?" Yakumo paused, hesitant.
"You underestimate your own power," Kitazawa chuckled. "Just your current illusion, 'Genjutsu: Real Life,' is enough to give most ninja a massive headache."
Yakumo's Kekkei Genkai was terrifying—it couldn't be broken without outside help. Genjutsu had two ways to be broken:
Self-release: If the victim realizes they're under genjutsu and disrupts their chakra flow.
External release: If the victim can't break it themselves, a teammate has to intervene.
This includes ordinary illusions where the user doesn't realize they've been caught, and high-level ones like the Sharingan.
This was what made the Uchiha clan's Sharingan so powerful. Most people couldn't escape their illusions alone.
Yakumo's Kekkei Genkai worked in the same way. As long as she didn't let Neji get close, she was practically undefeated.
"I'll give it a try," Yakumo agreed after a brief moment. She had never fought anyone before, but she couldn't refuse a request from Kitazawa, who had helped her so much.
Half an hour later, Tsunade and Shizune arrived, and the group began discussing the new jutsu.
Many memory-sealing techniques in Konoha could serve as references. Unfortunately, Kitazawa didn't know any of them.
As the conversation died down, he wandered to a quiet spot behind the house.
He pulled out a balloon he'd bought earlier. That's right—he was going to try to manually train the Rasengan.
In the original series, the training steps were clear:
Step 1: Burst a water-filled balloon.
Step 2: Break a rubber ball a hundred times tougher than a balloon.
Step 3: Abandon the props and condense and rotate the chakra in your hand freely.
Each step was harder than the last. Kitazawa held the water balloon and began injecting chakra, causing the water inside to stir irregularly.
[~ A genius should learn jutsu on their own.
New Task: Learn Rasengan without any assistance.
Reward: Konoha's Body Flicker Jutsu]
[Accept?]
Kitazawa let out a soft chuckle.