Kitazawa took Yakushi Kabuto to the place where their ninja squad usually trained, which happened to be on the academy grounds.
But since they weren't academy students, they didn't train with the Advanced Class.
"Kitazawa-sensei."
Aburame Torune and Uchiha Izumi immediately stopped their drills to greet him.
"Mhm."
Kitazawa nodded. "Keep at it."
He walked over to a nearby clearing.
"Wind Release: Vacuum Great Sphere is a B-rank wind technique, but it's a lot harder than Wind Release: Vacuum Sphere."
He stopped and said, "Once you master Vacuum Great Sphere, it's fair to call you a wind-style jōnin."
In the original timeline, Shimura Danzō used Wind Release: Vacuum Great Sphere against Uchiha Sasuke's Susanoo. He didn't completely break Susanoo, but it clearly rocked it.
Combine that with the wind techniques Kabuto already learned—Vacuum Sphere, Vacuum Shuriken, and so on—and he'd meet the standard for a wind-style jōnin. Of course, that means a typical wind-style jōnin; there'd still be a gap compared to someone like Danzō.
[As a squad leader, the greatest achievement is helping your students reach jōnin.]
[Current Mission: Produce your first jōnin.]
[Reward: 20% Senju bloodline.]
[Accept?]
Kitazawa's eyes widened on reflex.
Well, that's a nice surprise.
He hadn't expected Kabuto to suddenly trigger a mission.
The task said "first jōnin," but it obviously meant Kabuto. His medical ninjutsu had been jōnin-level for a while; add wind release and he was even more of a lock—assuming he passed the jōnin assessment.
Kitazawa was confident Kabuto would pass. There was one snag, though: their squad hadn't been around long and didn't have enough completed missions on the books.
Both the Chūnin Exams and the jōnin assessment require a mission count. The chūnin bar is looser; the jōnin exam is run by the Hokage.
Even if Hiruzen was willing to quietly relax the standard for Kitazawa's sake, the official tally still had to look decent.
Easy enough to fix.
Have Kabuto and the others grind missions.
With their strength, anything below A- or S-rank would be quick clears. They could farm missions while getting live-combat reps and ninjutsu practice.
Kitazawa accepted the mission without hesitation.
Twenty percent of the Senju bloodline was too good to pass up. He'd already felt how strong the Senju bloodline was. He was at 40% now—who knew what 60% would unlock?
"Kabuto, I'll demonstrate once."
Snapping back to the moment, Kitazawa formed hand seals. He deliberately slowed down so Kabuto could memorize the sequence for Wind Release: Vacuum Great Sphere.
When the seals finished, Kitazawa leaned back slightly and opened his mouth.
Wind screamed forth—huge volumes of wind-nature chakra gushing out.
In the air it condensed in a rush, compressed into a massive sphere, then blasted forward.
He aimed at the ground.
Boom!
The wind ball slammed down and split the earth. Flying dirt, stones, and weeds were immediately shredded by the dense gale.
In an instant the air erupted into a churning storm of dust.
"What power!"
Kabuto stared, stunned. Now he understood why mastering Vacuum Great Sphere put you in jōnin territory for wind style.
A short distance away, Aburame Torune and Uchiha Izumi also looked over, eyes bright.
"Your turn."
Kitazawa stepped back.
Kabuto nodded and began forming seals, hopeful. But the move was tougher than he'd expected—several tries, no success.
He didn't panic. Under Kitazawa's coaching, he gradually picked up the feel for it.
"Pause there. All of you, come here—I've got something to discuss."
After half an hour, Kitazawa called out.
Torune and Izumi came over and lined up beside Kabuto.
"Our squad's mission count is on the low side. That's not great for your future promotion to jōnin," Kitazawa said evenly.
Kabuto adjusted his glasses. Taken with the "wind-style jōnin" comment earlier, he suspected Kitazawa was hinting at him.
Becoming a jōnin would be great—more authority, more standing. It would also help Yakushi Nono and the Konoha Orphanage.
"When I'm free, I'll take you on A- or S-rank assignments," Kitazawa continued. "But most of the time, the three of you will run sub-A-rank missions."
Genin can't take missions alone; they need a supervising instructor. Chūnin also can't go solo, but they can team up with other chūnin.
"Kabuto, you take point on this."
"Yes, Sensei."
"Once you've mastered Vacuum Great Sphere, I'll petition the Hokage to let you sit for the jōnin assessment," Kitazawa said, patting his shoulder.
"Thank you, Sensei."
Kabuto thought, so I was right.
Torune and Izumi were wide-eyed. Not even three months into being chūnin, and their teammate was already heading for jōnin?
They wanted to take the jōnin exam too, but they knew they weren't ready. Torune, apart from his nano-poison insects, was barely chūnin in personal combat. Izumi was top-tier among chūnin, but without a three-tomoe Sharingan she wasn't at jōnin level.
"Even after I'm jōnin, I'll still be your teammate," Kabuto said with a gentle smile. "You'll both make jōnin too—just a bit later."
Torune and Izumi both nodded.
Kitazawa smiled. With Kabuto around, he wasn't worried about rifts or infighting in the squad.
"Even though you're more than strong enough for sub-A missions, you may occasionally hit something above your pay grade," Kitazawa cautioned. "If something feels off, come find me."
After all, in the original story Team 7 ran into Momochi Zabuza—one of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen—on a C-rank.
"Yes, Sensei," Kabuto said. He paused, then asked, "Should we head to the mission desk now?"
"Go ahead," Kitazawa nodded. "But if a mission requires leaving the village, run it by me first."
"Understood."
Kabuto led Torune and Izumi out of the academy.
Kitazawa looked away and was about to head to the artificial lake to practice Water Release: Great Waterfall Technique when three lines of text appeared before his eyes:
[Current Mission: Help Aburame Shino breed fire-resistant kikaichū.]
[Reward: +10% resistance to fire-style damage.]
[Mission Completed. Reward Granted.]
Kitazawa couldn't help arching a brow.
Did Shino's fire-resistance mutation experiment fully succeed?
"Fully" might be an overstatement. He'd only bred two variants that could withstand ordinary fire release—one for three seconds, one for five.
But for Shino, that was plenty. For the Aburame clan as a whole, it was a qualitative leap. They'd have far better odds when facing run-of-the-mill fire users.
Kitazawa clenched his fist. He didn't feel any physical change. Ten percent fire-damage resistance was "better than nothing" territory.
Given his strength, not many fire jutsu would land on him anyway. Still, better to have it than not—and the mission line was worth following.
"Kitazawa-sensei!"
A few steps later, he saw an uncharacteristically excited Aburame Shino—night-and-day from his usual calm.
"I did it!"
Shino held out his hands.
In his left was a cluster of three-second fire-resistant kikaichū; in his right, a cluster of five-second ones. The latter looked like larvae, as if newly hatched.
"Congratulations," Kitazawa said with a smile. "You might end up in the Aburame history books."
"I wasn't thinking that far," Shino said, a bit taken aback. "And I didn't do much—it was mainly your guidance."
"No need for courtesy," Kitazawa said, eyeing the bugs. "Next step, I think you can try breeding water-resistant kikaichū."
He'd been working on Great Waterfall lately and could help Shino with the water-resistance mutation.
"I'll follow your lead, Sensei," Shino agreed at once.
[Current Mission: Help Aburame Shino breed water-style-resistant kikaichū.]
[Reward: +10% resistance to water-style damage.]
[Accept?]
No-brainer.
Kitazawa accepted, and the two of them returned to their previous testing site.
They'd forged fire resistance by literally burning the bugs with fire jutsu; water resistance would mean repeated flooding with water jutsu.
After Shino set the kikaichū down, Kitazawa focused his chakra and began practicing Water Release: Great Waterfall Technique.
Tuesday wrapped up in no time.
After school, Kitazawa didn't leave right away; he headed for the staff meeting room. The semester's first monthly exam was next week.
The reformed Advanced Class might be special, but they still had to take the test.
"Principal Kitazawa."
The teachers greeted him one after another.
"Since everyone's here, let's begin."
Kitazawa stepped up and took the main seat.
The process hadn't changed much: the teachers wrote the questions, and he compiled the final paper.
One difference—Advanced Class would get its own exam. Those students came from multiple grades; handing them a first-grade test would be ridiculous.
He assigned the Advanced Class exam to Iruka, their theory instructor—he was the best fit.
More importantly, Kitazawa didn't want to waste time on it. He was already the academy's vice principal; he could delegate. No need to micromanage everything like Naruto did as Hokage.
His style was closer to Tsunade's: slack when you can.
In the shinobi world, strength is what matters. As Hokage, Hashirama wasn't the administrator Tobirama was, but he was still the God of Shinobi.
After the meeting, Kitazawa left the academy, mulling over the upcoming exam. He had one job: help Hyūga Neji beat Uzumaki Naruto.
Naruto had been training, but the last two months hadn't moved the needle much—he was basically treading water. Neji, by contrast, had learned the Shadow Clone Technique and Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm.
On raw power, Naruto was still stronger, but he was younger and short on experience; letting Neji beat him once wasn't that hard.
The key would be Vacuum Palm. In Naruto's mind, Gentle Fist meant close-quarters; he wouldn't expect a ranged Gentle Fist.
"With a week left, I can run Neji through some targeted combat drills," Kitazawa thought, rubbing his chin.
The next day—Wednesday—at 9 a.m., the Advanced Class gathered on the field.
"I have an announcement," Kitazawa said to the group. "Next Thursday and Friday we'll hold the semester's first monthly exam."
"It's already been a month?" Naruto scratched his head. "Time flew."
"Flew? It's been dragging for me," Shikamaru muttered. In First-Grade Class A, he could slack off in lectures. In the Advanced Class, only Monday was classroom time; the other four days were all training. Even if he wanted to loaf, he couldn't—Kitazawa's shadow clones were always watching.
"It really did go fast. Give me another two weeks and I could learn two more water-style jutsu," Sakura said, a bit regretful. She'd only just gotten Water Release: Wild Water Wave under control, and that alone wouldn't beat Yamanaka Ino.
"Don't think I don't know what you're plotting." Ino jabbed her elbow into Sakura's side. "I've learned two jutsu Sensei designed just for me!"
"You got two?" Kiba gaped.
"What can I say? I'm gifted," Ino said, hands on hips, a little smug.
"So jealous," Naruto clenched his fists. "I want to learn new jutsu too!"
"Aren't you laying the foundation for that right now?" Shino asked, pushing up his glasses.
"True, but I'm progressing slowly," Naruto admitted.
Sasuke let out a quiet breath. His growth hadn't been fast either. He wanted to jump straight to Chidori, so he'd been grinding lightning-nature transformation nonstop.
He had at least picked up Leaf-Style Kenjutsu—without any secret techniques. He hadn't started Leaf-Style: Willow yet.
"That's because you leveled up too fast before; now you've hit a bottleneck," Shikamaru explained, half-complaining as usual.
"I've got a secret weapon," Tenten said, all smiles.
"New ninja tools?" Neji glanced at her.
"Nope." Tenten's tone turned mysterious. "Sensei gave it to me. It's insanely strong!"
"Sensei won't let you use it, right?" Ino frowned. "Wouldn't that be unfair to the rest of us?"
"Eh?"
Tenten froze. She'd been planning to dominate the practical with the Shiromari.
"Hey!" Kiba protested. "What are you two even talking about?"
"Yeah!" Rock Lee urged. "What is this hot-blooded secret weapon?"
Everyone looked at Tenten. Only Hinata and Ino already knew.
Tenten looked at Kitazawa, hands clasped, blinking big pleading eyes.
"You can show it, just not on campus," Kitazawa said with a nod. "We'll go to the Forest of Death."
"Awesome!" Tenten pumped a fist. "Let's go!"
They followed Kitazawa to the vast Forest of Death. After they found a clearing, Tenten bit her thumb and pressed her hand to the ground.
Summoning Technique!
With a billow of smoke, a more-than-twenty-meter-long Shiromari thundered into view.
"S-so big!"
Naruto craned his neck and still couldn't see the top.
Sasuke's expression shifted. Against something that massive, he honestly wasn't sure he'd win.
The others could only gasp in amazement.
Earlier, when Tenten had asked to use the summon in the practical, Kitazawa had shaken his head.
"No. And summoning it will drain a huge amount of your chakra—you'll be out of the fight. The practical is testing you, not your summon."
Tenten could only give up on using the chameleon in the exam. Still, seeing it in the Forest of Death left everyone stunned.
~~~
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