A week later, Mitsuro sat on an outdoor bench, enjoying the peaceful scenery facing the academy's entrance. He glanced at the new students' files he had been given. Some of the names looked familiar, but one in particular stunned him.
"This is weird," he thought to himself, "It's not what I expected at all." He rubbed his temples, closed the file, and muttered, "It doesn't matter. He's just another side character anyway."
Just as he was about to head into the school, he heard the hushed whispers of a few kids behind him. "Don't look at him! He brings bad luck!"
"What were they thinking, letting him study at the ninja school?"
Mitsuro turned around and saw a spiky-haired boy with three whisker marks on each cheek. He had big blue eyes, a green pair of goggles on his forehead, and a bright orange and blue jacket. Mitsuro knew the kids were talking about him, but the boy seemed to ignore them, his gaze fixed on the school entrance.
"He's probably been putting up with this for five years now," Mitsuro thought. "He doesn't care about their insults until he's actually defeated."
Pity welled up in Mitsuro's eyes. He whispered,
"Old man, you were so hard on this kid!"
He shook his head in sympathy and walked into the school.
"I better not get too close to him, or I'll get in trouble. I shouldn't look suspicious at the academy. Sorry, Naruto, you'll have to bear with it."
..
Inside the classrooms, the sound of students catching up with their friends after the break filled the air.
"Hey, did you hear about it?"
"About what?"
"I heard a new teacher is coming to school!"
Naruto, who had been absentmindedly looking around, lifted his head when he heard the discussion. "A new teacher?" He nervously looked at the pineapple-haired boy who was dozing off. "Shikamaru! Is the new teacher going to replace Iruka Sensei?"
Shikamaru opened his eyes and lazily said, "Idiot! Why would he replace Iruka Sensei? The new teacher is for the lower grades. Iruka Sensei is still here."
Naruto nodded in agreement. "Hmm, so why is it a big deal that a new teacher is coming?"
Shikamaru's eyes slowly moved toward Sasuke. "They say the new teacher is an Uchiha."
Still clueless, Naruto turned with his usual naivete toward the black-haired boy who was staring ahead with a permanent frown. "So, he's Sasuke's relative? So what's the big deal?"
Tired of Naruto's stupidity, Shikamaru cut him off. "Idiot! They say only two people from the Uchiha clan are left! One is Sasuke Uchiha and the other is the new teacher! And most importantly, they say he left the village a long time ago, and it's unheard of for an Uchiha to become a teacher."
"Hmm, so Sasuke's only relative is a teacher now? Lucky him!"
Sasuke, who was trying to ignore his surroundings, frowned and thought,
"Lucky me? It's ridiculous! What kind of relative is he when he hasn't even bothered to see me once?"
..
The reason Mitsuro hadn't met Sasuke in those three years wasn't that he disliked him or blamed him. It was simply that he didn't want to interfere with the main storyline and thought it was better for Sasuke to follow his original path, at least until he killed Itachi. Many Naruto fans might have wanted Sasuke not to go down the dark path from the beginning, but for Mitsuro, who had experienced that pain himself, Itachi was a demon, not a hero.
When Mitsuro opened the classroom door, a complete silence fell over the room. He quietly closed the door, and without even a glance at the students, he walked toward the blackboard and wrote his name with a piece of chalk. Then, he turned to the class and began to speak in a calm and confident voice.
"It's a pleasure to meet you. My name is Mitsuro Uchiha, and I am your new teacher."
He looked at the first row and continued, "I enjoy teaching. There are some things I like and some I don't! Now, let's start with the first row. Please stand up and introduce yourselves in order."
After Mitsuro's request, the students began to introduce themselves. A boy with short, straight brown hair, whose dull eyes were visible behind his large round glasses, sniffled. "My name is Udon Ise. I like dividing numbers, and I want to become a ninja!" He then sat down.
Next was a girl with orange hair tied in two large pigtails with red ties. She also had two red patches on her cheeks. "My name is Moegi Kazamatsuri, and I want to become the strongest kunoichi in Konoha!"
Mitsuro knew her well.
"And the third official user of the Wood Release in Konoha! Definitely one of the Senju clan's descendants."
The next person stood up. A boy with short, spiky dark brown hair and black eyes. He wore a gray helmet with a hole at the top for his hair to stick out. A small chip on his tooth made him look even cuter. A long blue scarf was wrapped around his neck. He announced in a loud voice, "My name is Konohamaru Sarutobi! I like a lot of things, and what I want to do is defeat the Third Hokage and become the Fifth Hokage!"
Mitsuro thought to himself,
"Yep, this is the mini Naruto! The young lord of Konoha! The village shows this kid the attention they should be giving to Naruto! Old man, how much did you favor your own blood over Minato's? Still, no matter how much I hate Hiruzen, I can never dislike this crazy little brother!"
Mitsuro nodded, signaling for the next person to stand up. A girl with long dark brown hair and white-purplish eyes stood up. She looked the youngest of all, but that didn't make her feel insecure. "Hyuga Hanabi. I want to become a powerful kunoichi and protect my family."
Mitsuro thought,
"This is the class variable! The second person to possess the purest Byakugan eyes. Unlike her older sister, Hanabi has both talent and guts, but I don't remember Hanabi being Konohamaru's classmate."
After everyone had introduced themselves, Mitsuro said, "Very well. Now that everyone has introduced themselves, let's start the lesson. Who can tell me what chakra is?"
He didn't start the lesson with the "Will of Fire" but instead went straight to the more important things. The main reason for this wasn't to downplay the Will of Fire, but because he felt that in the past few years, the kids had heard enough about it, and it was time for them to learn more seriously about things that would truly help them become stronger.
A few students raised their hands. Konohamaru's hand wasn't up. Mitsuro calmly said, "Konohamaru! You tell me."
Konohamaru was taken aback. "Hey, I didn't raise my hand!"
He proudly stood up and answered, "Chakra is the magical energy of ninjas!"
Mitsuro said coolly, "Hmm... is that all?"
He picked up the chalk and drew a human body on the board. "Listen carefully. Chakra is the energy that ninjas need to perform their techniques. Every ordinary being has energy, but when it comes to using chakra, the story is a little different. Chakra is the very nature of the energy within every single cell of the body. A kind of spiritual energy..." He turned back to the class and asked, "Now, how do you think this energy increases and is stored in the body?"
Again, a few people raised their hands. "You tell me, Hanabi."
Hanabi said, "With practice."
Mitsuro smiled and confirmed, "Exactly. With practice, the body gradually absorbs more energy, and chakra is stored in the muscles of the body, and the user can perform techniques by combining chakra with shaping seals. But do you know what that means?"
The class was silent. The students listened to Mitsuro carefully. He continued, "It means you can only become a strong ninja with practice and skill."
The class continued, and Mitsuro started asking different questions about chakra and ninjutsu from the students. Time passed quickly, and finally, the bell rang.
"Alright, that's enough for today! You have a ten-minute break. When you leave the classroom, be careful not to fall." He then left the classroom.
The classroom was quiet. The students felt they had finally learned a real lesson after a long time. The noise slowly started to rise. The kids began talking to each other happily.
"The new teacher wasn't bad at all!"
"He was teaching us about being a ninja."