The ninja academy staff room was already crowded when Kitagawa arrived.
"Ryousuke, sir!" he greeted.
"Naoto, sir!"
...
Kitagawa made the rounds. At sixteen, he wasn't just the newest teacher at the academy—he was also the youngest. By a lot.
"Kitagawa, the student roster assignments just came down. Congratulations!"
"Yeah, and you got first-year Class One right out of the gate. That's rare!"
Kitagawa gave the expected humble response, then headed to his desk. Sure enough, there was a file waiting.
He opened it and found a class roster: First Year, Class One.
Asuma Sarutobi, Kurenai Yūhi, Kakashi Hatake, Rin Nohara, Obito Uchiha, Gai Maito, Shizune...
A whole bunch of names he recognized.
Perfect.
Though the pressure was on, he had to admit.
A teacher didn't have to be stronger than his students. But if a teacher got beaten by his own student? That'd be pretty embarrassing.
Especially when he had a cheat code.
Time to prep lessons.
Kitagawa headed straight to another office: "Natsumi, ma'am!"
A woman with blue hair and large eyes looked up from her desk, pleasantly surprised. "Kitagawa!"
"I've been assigned as the homeroom teacher and ninjutsu instructor for Class One," Kitagawa explained. "Since this is my first time, I was hoping to borrow some of your lesson plans as reference."
Natsumi looked impressed. "Class One? That's so like you, Kitagawa."
"Lesson plans? Of course—honestly, I don't need these anymore. Consider them a congratulations gift!"
She quickly dug out her old lesson plans and handed them over, then made a fist. "Kitagawa, I believe in you! You've got this!"
"Thank you. I'll do my best," Kitagawa said with a smile. "How about I buy you lunch as thanks?"
Natsumi's face flushed. "Oh... well, if you insist..."
They made plans for lunch, and Kitagawa headed back out.
Equipment: Senior Teacher Natsumi's Lesson Plans
Trait: Perfectly Tailored Student Learning Curriculum
Note: As a sucker for attractive people, you're drawn to beauty down to your bones.
That was the real reason Kitagawa had asked to borrow the lesson plans.
Of course, Natsumi was also a senior teacher with eight years of experience. During his teaching certification exam, she'd been the one who'd actively supported him in front of the Third Hokage.
Kitagawa was young and inexperienced, but he was good-looking. And that didn't hurt.
Kitagawa did come from solid stock—both parents were ex-Hokage guard unit ninja, though they'd died in combat.
Seeing the hallway was empty, Kitagawa quickly stashed the lesson plans in his equipment inventory.
In an instant, his brain reorganized all the information. A perfectly tailored curriculum for his students materialized in his mind. Knowledge he'd forgotten or overlooked suddenly became crystal clear.
"Perfect."
Kitagawa headed back to his office to finalize his teaching plan.
As for being a sucker for good looks—who isn't?
The morning flew by.
At lunch, Kitagawa and Natsumi walked out of the office together, and he spotted Gai still running laps on the training grounds.
"That kid's still at it," Natsumi sighed. "Such a shame."
Kitagawa smiled. "Actually, he's been specially approved by the Third Hokage to enter the academy. And he's in my Class One."
Natsumi looked shocked. "But I heard he has no talent for ninjutsu or genjutsu. If he only relies on taijutsu, how will he survive in the future?"
Kitagawa spoke with complete confidence. "I'm going to make him a qualified ninja."
Looking at Kitagawa's confident, handsome face, Natsumi's eyes brightened. "I believe you absolutely can do it!"
"Come on, I'll treat you to seafood."
"If you keep calling me 'ma'am' it feels too formal, Kitagawa. Just call me Natsumi."
"How about Natsumi, sis?"
"Huh? ...Sure, okay!"
...
The seafood lunch lasted an hour.
Walking out of the restaurant, Kitagawa waved goodbye. "See you later, Natsumi-sis!"
"Um, see you..."
Natsumi had actually been hoping to ask him to take a walk, but she didn't get the chance to say it first. She just watched the cute guy's back disappear into the distance.
Sigh... looks like Kitagawa doesn't like me that way. Well, I am ten years older than him.
Natsumi turned around feeling a bit melancholy.
Back at the academy office, a female coworker immediately teased her. "Natsumi, you're back so early. Didn't you and Kitagawa do anything else together?"
Natsumi's face went red. "Don't say stuff like that, Eimi! Kitagawa and I are just coworkers. Besides, there's a big age gap between us, and... he's not even an adult yet."
Eimi, who was already married with kids, grinned. "I can't tell at all. Kitagawa's got the vibe of someone way older."
"Plus, you're still young too. That age gap isn't really a problem!"
Eimi wrapped an arm around her friend and whispered in her ear. "If you like him, just go for it. Otherwise you'll definitely regret it later."
"Besides, even if things don't work out, that's okay too."
Natsumi froze at her words. Just then, a male coworker walked into the office, and the two women quickly ended their conversation.
Meanwhile, on the street, Kitagawa suddenly stopped in his tracks. He was watching some kids folding paper airplanes on the sidewalk when an idea hit him like lightning.
Origami.
Kitagawa instantly used Body Flicker and zipped home to his study. He grabbed a sheet of paper and started doing wave-pattern folds.
When you unfolded it, it created rippling waves—or you could keep it folded in layers, one on top of another.
"What if I folded my chakra like this? Compress it in layers. Say, seven layers. Three for buffering, four for explosive bursts."
"The difference from the mille-feuille approach is that folded chakra like this doesn't actually get split up. It stays as one continuous unit, flowing together. Way easier to control."
He set down the origami and rushed out to practice.
But when he actually tried it, Kitagawa realized he could only manage five layers of folded chakra in his feet. That meant a maximum of three bursts.
But that was his current limit.
"Master three bursts first, then see how much speed improves."
After he'd completed the chakra folding, Kitagawa moved on to the next phase of training.
His form kept flickering through the grove, testing the technique over and over, explosive burst after burst.
Before he knew it, the date had become Leaf Village Year 41, March 22nd.
This was the day the new students officially started at the ninja academy.
When Kitagawa walked into the classroom, the previously noisy room instantly went quiet.
His eyes swept across the room, and massive amounts of equipment information appeared in his vision.
A smile tugged at his lips. Kitagawa walked up to the podium and spoke clearly. "From today on, everyone will sit in the seats you're in now."
"Next up: introductions."
Kitagawa turned and wrote his name on the blackboard in chalk.
"I'm Kitagawa. For the next six years, I'll be your ninjutsu instructor and homeroom teacher."
"My favorite food is all kinds of seafood."
"My least favorite food is anything that tastes bad."
"My dream is to become the strongest ninja in the entire shinobi world!"
"Alright, starting from the front row, introduce yourselves using the same format I just did."
And so his teaching career began with the most clichéd of openings.