"Third Hokage, sir, after my own thorough assessment, I can tell you that Gai possesses a strength of will and physical constitution that his peers don't have," Kitagawa said in the Hokage's office, measured and direct.
"You of all people understand the true nature and source of chakra."
"Even without talent for ninjutsu or genjutsu, a spirit and body like his are more than enough to create miracles."
"And I'm confident I can train him into a capable, excellent ninja."
"So please, let Gai enter the ninja academy."
Kitagawa knew that in the original story, the Third Hokage would've let Gai in anyway. But he couldn't be sure his presence wouldn't change things. Either way, as a teacher and a person, he owed it to the Hokage to state his position clearly.
The Third Hokage nodded slightly. "In fact, I've already observed this child. He does have remarkable qualities."
"I'll give this serious consideration and have an answer for you tomorrow."
Kitagawa left the office knowing it was a done deal.
Walking out of the Hokage building, he felt a little disappointed that the Third hadn't "shown" any equipment. Then again, even if he had, it probably would've been impossible to get anyway.
And thinking about the gear on Kakashi's back... Kitagawa's mood soured.
As for Dai's neon-green bodysuit? No thanks.
"Can't waste this ox-body," Kitagawa muttered to himself. "Time to train."
Triple recovery, triple damage resistance—he needed to push himself to the absolute limit. And he'd been thinking about developing a new fighting style, or maybe a new body-and-weapon technique.
He grabbed a three-person lunch box and headed to his usual training spot in the grove.
Sitting on the grass, he ate dinner while thinking hard.
If he was going to train Gai to be an excellent ninja, he couldn't just talk about it. He couldn't sit around waiting for Gai to master some advanced technique and suddenly become strong.
So what fighting style should he focus on?
Eight Extreme Fist? Tai Chi?
Kitagawa dismissed those ideas instantly and locked onto one goal.
The Navy's Six Techniques from that pirate series.
It was a superhuman body-art used by the marines in that world—the kind of thing that pushed physical limits. In the Naruto world, that would be taijutsu. And here's the thing: the pirate series was all pure muscle power, but in Naruto, taijutsu actually used chakra. There was even ninja-body technique, like Lightning Style chakra mode, which used chakra's elemental properties.
Shave, Iron Body, Paper Drawing, Moon Walk, Whirlwind Kick, Finger Pistol...
Kitagawa thought to himself. "Shave and basic Body Flicker are basically the same thing."
The Navy's Shave worked by repeatedly stomping the ground at high speed to build up reaction force and achieve rapid movement. Basic Body Flicker worked on similar principles—it just used chakra for the explosive burst, so you didn't need the repeated stomping.
But was Shave useless here?
No. Kitagawa thought there was something worth learning from it.
High-speed stomping combined with rapid, consecutive chakra bursts—to achieve even faster movement.
The Body Flicker technique Kitagawa had mastered was just the basics. Speed-wise, he was at the high-chunin level, maybe a touch above. He'd only awakened his innate talent a month ago—no time for major breakthroughs yet.
Dinner finished, he got up and started developing Shave.
He started with the fundamentals: pure muscle power, no chakra. Just getting his legs to move fast enough to generate explosive force.
With no mentor, Kitagawa had to figure it out through trial and error, non-stop training.
At least he wasn't starting from zero. He was a solid chunin, after all.
By the time the sun set completely, he'd made real progress: five consecutive stomps in a single second.
But damn, his legs felt like they were filled with iron. The training was brutal.
He sat down, massaging his legs to loosen the muscles and recover.
"Without Iron Body, this kind of intensity would've given me cramps for sure," he muttered. "A massage gun would be nice right about now..."
As his muscles loosened up, Kitagawa got to his feet and walked slowly through the grove, thinking hard. "Okay, five stomps in one second works. Next step—add chakra."
"But that's gonna be way harder. I need to pull off five chakra bursts in a single second."
The moon hung in the starry sky. After resting, Kitagawa got back to training.
And yeah, just as he'd predicted—pulling off multiple chakra bursts in rapid succession was way harder than just stomping.
"I need to gather enough chakra in my feet for five bursts," he muttered while experimenting. "Then sequence all five bursts, like... like waves rolling one after another."
He kept trying.
"No, that takes too long."
"Waves don't work. I need to compress the chakra more—stack it like a mille-feuille pastry, one layer exploding and then the next layer exploding."
He kept pushing, but quickly realized that didn't work either. The recoil from the first burst messed with the stability of the second layer, making the second burst fail. It was even worse than the wave approach.
By 9 PM, Kitagawa was completely wiped out. He hadn't finished developing Shave yet, but he had to drag himself home with his trash.
He showered, went to bed, and passed out from exhaustion.
That night, he dreamed that he'd perfected the Navy's Six Techniques, renamed them Kitagawa's Six Techniques, and become the strongest taijutsu ninja ever.
Too bad dreams don't come true.
He woke up feeling a bit depressed, showered, and headed right back out.
I'm not giving up until I crack this.
Outside the ninja academy bulletin board.
Dai and Gai were back at the board. When they saw the roster of accepted students, father and son hugged each other tight, tears streaming.
"Congratulations, Gai!"
Kitagawa's voice cut through.
Dai and Gai spun around. Gai saw his teacher and immediately got excited. "Teacher Kitagawa, I'm going to be a ninja!"
Kitagawa nodded, but his expression turned serious. "Then, Gai, are you ready to face an even harder challenge?"
Gai hesitated, then nodded firmly. "Yeah!"
"Good," Kitagawa said. "Now forget about yesterday's 500 laps. You need a bigger goal—and you need to complete it with the determination to become a ninja."
Gai nodded, then asked, "Teacher Kitagawa, what kind of goal should I set?"
Kitagawa smiled. "That's for you to decide."
"But your teacher will be watching."
He turned and walked into the academy.
As Kitagawa left, Dai shouted to his son. "Did you hear that, Gai?"
"Just because you got into the academy doesn't mean you slack off. This is what youth is—never stopping."
"We're going to do even harder training now. Like 1,000 laps. Let's start!"
Gai nodded immediately. "And if I can't finish, I'll do 500 push-ups as punishment!"