"I'm Masahiro Osaki. My favorite food is tomato rice. I hate scrambled eggs with tomatoes. My dream is to become the Hokage."
"I'm Natsuki. My favorite food is vegetable salad. I hate pork. My dream is to become a strong female ninja like Lady Tsunade."
...
One by one, students walked up to introduce themselves. Kitagawa checked them off against his roster while scanning their bodies for equipment.
Not everyone had equipment.
Take Masahiro Osaki—nothing.
But Natsuki? She had something.
Equipment: Natsuki's Hair Clip
Trait: Mid-Level Medical Ninjutsu Talent
Kitagawa ignored the small-print note.
He also noticed something interesting: just because someone didn't have equipment before didn't mean they wouldn't get it.
Like Kurenai.
Last time he'd seen her, nothing. Now she had gear.
Equipment: Kurenai Yūhi's Original Bandages
Trait: Jonin-Tier Genjutsu Talent
Note: A light buzz is a state of mind.
Pervert, Kitagawa thought, unable to help but glance at the bandages wrapped around Kurenai's hands.
Out of forty students in the class, quite a bit of equipment had popped up. But getting any of it would be tough.
Especially something like Kurenai's bandages.
That made Kitagawa a little frustrated.
BANG.
Suddenly, the classroom door flew open, and every eye instantly locked onto it.
Obito Uchiha stood in the doorway, breathing hard, his face red. He looked at Kitagawa, lost. "Um... that is..."
Kitagawa smiled. "You're late, Obito. That's not a good habit."
"Come on, find a seat and sit down."
Relieved he wasn't getting chewed out, Obito immediately bowed apologetically and rushed to find an empty seat.
Kitagawa's gaze followed him for a moment.
Equipment: Obito Uchiha's Goggles
Trait: Uchiha Bloodline - Sharingan
Note: Three times stronger when corrupted. Are you ready?
This was the first piece of equipment Kitagawa had seen with a bloodline limit trait.
Plenty of Class One students came from bloodline families.
Like Hinata Hyūga from the Hyūga clan—she had the Byakugan, but no equipment showed up.
Then there was Kurama Ryūun from the Kurama clan. His equipment only showed a mid-level genjutsu talent.
Gekkō Hayabusa from the Gekkō clan—nothing.
But out of all these pieces of equipment, Kitagawa realized that Obito's goggles were probably the easiest to get.
Looks like I'll need to give Obito some special attention going forward.
He refocused on the interrupted introductions.
Once that was done, he called out a few names and had them help carry textbooks.
There were a lot of textbooks.
The Will of Fire, Introduction to Genjutsu, Hand Signs and Chakra, Basic Sealing Techniques, Math and Codes...
These books would be used all the way from first year through sixth.
After handing out the textbooks, Kitagawa gave each student a weekly schedule.
"This is your class schedule for the next week. Starting this afternoon, real classes begin. I expect every single one of you to take this seriously and not waste the time you spend here."
Kitagawa's expression was stern. "And if you have problems, don't be afraid to speak up. Come find me in my office, understand?"
The students all responded in unison. "Understood!"
Kitagawa smiled and waved a hand. "Alright, class dismissed!"
"Yeah!"
"Finally!"
...
The classroom erupted into noise. Some students pulled out lunch boxes. Others bolted for the door like they couldn't wait to get out.
It was only 11:30—classes didn't start again until 2 PM. Plenty of time.
Kitagawa headed back to his office, dropped off his things, then left the school to grab three packed lunches. He headed to his usual training spot.
After eating, he continued working on Shave.
By now, he could smoothly pull off two consecutive chakra bursts, which gave his Body Flicker a noticeable speed boost.
But it wasn't dramatic yet.
He needed to keep pushing.
And three bursts definitely wasn't the endpoint—nowhere close to the limit.
At 2 PM sharp, Kitagawa showed up at the academy.
First period was "The Will of Fire"—but the instructor wasn't Kitagawa. It was the Third Hokage himself, Hiruzen Sarutobi.
By the time Kitagawa arrived, the Third was already teaching the class outside in the sunlight.
Kitagawa took one look and silently withdrew.
He created a clone to sit in his office, while his real body headed back to training.
For the first three months, the new students didn't have his ninjutsu classes anyway. This period was all general education: basic reading and writing, math, biology, hand signs, and stuff like that. None of it was Kitagawa's responsibility.
But as the homeroom teacher, he had to stay ready for anything. So the clone would hang around the school, check in on the classroom now and then, keep track of progress, and make adjustments as needed.
Plus, given the caliber of Class One students, he figured they'd blow through the three months of general ed pretty fast.
A month flew by.
The glow of the setting sun filtered through the trees, leaving dappled shadows on the ground.
Kitagawa stood between light and shadow, eyes closed. Then he opened them.
In an instant, a violent wind erupted, and Kitagawa's form vanished from his spot.
His shape reappeared on a tree branch twenty meters away—then the wind roared again, and he disappeared.
After a dozen straight uses of Body Flicker, Kitagawa landed on the grass. His breathing was heavy, but he couldn't keep the smile off his face.
He'd reached the sound barrier.
With three consecutive bursts in a single second, his explosive speed was nearly breaking the sound barrier.
During that full-power burst-movement, Kitagawa had felt the sound barrier clearly.
Kitagawa had lived through the Second Great Ninja War. He'd seen a lot.
He'd never seen any ninja below the jonin rank move fast enough to break the sound barrier.
Though he did notice one problem.
This kind of burst put massive stress on his body.
My physical conditioning needs more work. Only a powerful body can handle higher speeds, Kitagawa thought after the initial excitement wore off. And Shave needs more development.
Three bursts is just the foundation. A full Shave would be ten simultaneous bursts in one second.
This level of extreme burst speed was definitely the best among chunin. Among jonin, it was ordinary.
Guys like the Fourth Lightning Shadow could pull off supersonic speeds just in normal form, without even activating Lightning Style chakra mode. He'd create shock waves and sonic booms with every move.
Plus, Shave is the foundation for Moon Walk. The more bursts I can do at once, the better my chances of mastering Moon Walk.
Kitagawa stayed cool about it.
Moon Walk was like the Wudang Sword Technique from legends—you could change direction mid-air. Most ninja couldn't do that.
Gai needed to open all Eight Gates just to move at high speed in midair.
Moon Walk didn't need that level of output. You just needed to leverage air resistance to shift position in the air.
And then there was Whirlwind Kick from the Six Techniques, which was also based on Shave.
So I still have a long way to go.
After psyching himself up, Kitagawa smiled and turned to leave.
He'd been training all afternoon. His stomach was about to eat itself.