After the meeting, Kitazawa headed straight back to the first-year Class A classroom.
Karin was chatting away with Yamanaka Ino, Uzumaki Naruto, and the others. From the looks of it, she'd already started making friends.
Kitazawa wasn't surprised.
They were just a bunch of six- and seven-year-old kids—how much malice could they possibly have?
Besides, Karin wasn't like Hyuga Hinata, who froze up around people. In the original story, her personality was a lot closer to Tsunade or Haruno Sakura.
"Alright, class is starting."
He walked up to the podium, gave it a couple of taps, and spoke.
The room went silent instantly.
Karin instinctively glanced around, realizing how much authority Kitazawa carried. Every student sat up straight, paying full attention—no trace of reluctance anywhere.
Even the usually laid-back Nara Shikamaru looked serious.
The first period was on the "Will of Fire."
Karin had thought she wouldn't understand much—she was a transfer student who had never even gone to school before—but to her surprise, she followed along easily.
So this was a teacher from one of the Five Great Ninja Villages, Konoha?
Scary stuff.
"Karin, my office," Kitazawa said after class, before leaving the room.
"I'm going to see Kitazawa-sensei," Karin told Ino and the others.
"We're heading to train—if you need us, come to the training grounds," Ino said with a smile.
"I'll be at the school's artificial lake with Sasuke-kun!" Sakura quickly added. "You can come find us too!"
She usually interned at Konoha Hospital, but if Kitazawa wasn't around, she would go to the lake to practice medical ninjutsu… and maybe sneak a few glances at Sasuke while she was at it.
"Hey, don't forget me!" Inuzuka Kiba cut in.
He trained at the lake too, though he was working on water-walking practice.
"Mm!" Karin felt her chest warm.
Back in the Grass Village, she and her mom were locked up all the time—no going out, no friends.
Now she had more invitations in a single morning than she'd ever had in her life. It felt unreal.
She made her way to Kitazawa's office and knocked.
"Come in," his voice called.
"Kitazawa-sensei," she greeted as she stepped inside.
"How's your first day at school?" he asked with a kind smile.
"It's great," she replied honestly. "My classmates are nice, and your lessons are really good."
"If anything comes up, come see me right away," he said with a nod. "We're in the second semester now, and you've missed a lot, so you'll need to catch up."
"Okay," she agreed immediately.
"For now, you won't attend regular classes. Once you're caught up, you can rejoin." He picked up a stack of textbooks. "Come on, let's go to the training grounds."
"Huh?" Karin blinked. Supplementary lessons… at the training grounds?
"It's too quiet for you to study alone in my office," Kitazawa explained. "Better to be somewhere lively, with Ino and the others around."
Karin paused for a moment.
He really thought of everything.
She wasn't used to this—especially after living in a village where no one ever treated her kindly.
They arrived at the training grounds.
"Karin?" Ino looked surprised.
Shikamaru instantly took the chance to stop training.
Hinata kept practicing, though her eyes flicked toward them.
Neji gave them one look before turning away.
Yakushi Kabuto stepped forward.
"She'll be doing her catch-up lessons here with you," Kitazawa said, pulling a desk and chair out from a summoning scroll.
Karin sat down immediately.
"These are the first-semester materials," he said, placing the textbooks down. "Go through them—my shadow clone will guide you."
With just self-study, she'd move slowly. With a shadow clone tutoring her, she'd catch up much faster.
"Thank you, Kitazawa-sensei."
The sheer stack of books made her head spin, but she didn't complain. Compared to the life she'd left behind in Grass, even studying felt wonderful.
"You all keep training," Kitazawa said, glancing at Shikamaru. That kid could turn slacking into an art form.
Shikamaru gave nothing away in his expression and got back to practicing his clan's Shadow Strangle Technique.
"Kitazawa-sensei," Kabuto said, "I've learned Wind Release: Gale Palm and Wind Release: Great Breakthrough."
"Not bad," Kitazawa nodded.
Learning two C-rank wind jutsu in half a month was impressive.
"Next, I'll teach you a B-rank jutsu—it's tougher." He pulled out a shuriken.
Wind Release: Vacuum Shuriken.
Spotting a boulder in the distance, he threw it. The weapon's surface glimmered with sharp wind chakra, and the boulder split clean in half.
"This is Wind Release: Vacuum Shuriken," he explained. "Practice it. If it's too hard, focus on wind chakra nature training first."
"Yes, Kitazawa-sensei," Kabuto said, taking a deep breath.
After about half an hour of guidance, Kitazawa left the rest to his shadow clone. Kabuto's fundamentals and chakra control were strong—he didn't need constant attention.
"Kitazawa-sensei!" Hinata called out, unable to hold it in anymore.
"What's wrong?" he asked, patting her head.
"No, nothing's wrong," she said, smiling. "I can land twelve consecutive strikes now!"
"Fishing for compliments?" Kitazawa teased.
Her cheeks went pink as she looked down, fidgeting with her clothes.
"You've improved a lot," he said with a smile. "You could probably pass the Chunin Exams already."
"Thank you! It's all thanks to you!" she said happily.
"Alright, keep training—aim for the Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms," he said, giving her cheek a playful pinch.
"Mm!" she nodded.
He stepped back, watched her for a while, then headed to another part of the grounds.
Two paths later, he spotted Naruto—or rather, a whole crowd of Narutos.
They were drenched in sweat, looking worn out. The third stage of Rasengan training was tough—without shortcuts, progress was slower.
"Naruto, take a break," Kitazawa called.
"Kitazawa-sensei?" Naruto brightened instantly.
"Dispel your clones first," Kitazawa said, lips twitching.
A swarm of green jumpsuit-wearing Narutos surrounded him, and his eyes practically hurt.
Naruto quickly formed the seal, and with a rapid series of pops, the clones vanished, dumping all their fatigue back onto him. He collapsed onto the ground, pale-faced.
Kitazawa thought privately that if he tried that, he might not survive.
"Here, drink," Kitazawa said, handing him a water bottle.
"Thanks," Naruto gulped down several mouthfuls.
Kitazawa glanced at his stomach, wondering if the Nine-Tails ever eavesdropped out of boredom.
He suddenly had an idea to test it.
"Naruto, wait here," he said, disappearing before the boy could ask. Moments later, he returned with Sasuke.
"Sasuke, turn on your Sharingan."
Sasuke blinked, confused, but did as told. The red glow spread across his eyes, and a chill filled the air.
Inside the seal space, the Nine-Tails snapped awake. "An Uchiha?"
It hated two things most: Sharingan and Wood Release. And it hated the Sharingan more—being bound without even a fight was infuriating.
"Oh, it's that brat," the fox muttered, recognizing Sasuke and losing interest.
"Since you're resting, how about I tell you the story of the First Hokage and Uchiha Madara?" Kitazawa offered.
"Yes!" Naruto lit up immediately.
Sasuke also looked intrigued. Even the Nine-Tails leaned in.
Kitazawa proceeded to spin the most ridiculous "history" imaginable—claiming Madara was raised as a girl because of a girlish baby cry, that he wore skirts as a kid, and that his first competition with Hashirama was to see who could pee farther.
Naruto was delighted. Sasuke was horrified. The Nine-Tails laughed so hard the entire seal space shook.
Kitazawa wrapped up by saying they'd continue "next time," though he had no intention of doing it soon. Maybe the fox would get so curious it would talk to Naruto first.
Sasuke was left conflicted. Naruto, though, couldn't get enough.
~~~
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