Kitazawa hadn't even had time to fully process the Substitute Jutsu when a commotion broke out.
"Kitazawa-sensei!"
Aburame Shibi hurried up to him, voice grave. "Someone's been hit by an Exploding Insect!"
"Take me there."
Kitazawa's expression turned serious at once.
"This way," Shibi said, lifting his hand to lead.
Before long, Kitazawa was standing over the Aburame clansman who'd been infected. The man loosened his clothes and bared his chest.
His chest was faintly bulging, and something beneath the skin seemed to be…breathing.
A line from Kitazawa's past life flashed through his head.
Bro, you've got a xenomorph in there.
And the Exploding Insect really did look a bit like one.
"The insect's already absorbed a lot of chakra, but the good news is it hasn't matured. We've still got some time before it detonates," Kitazawa said, reassuring him. "Don't panic. I'll operate now."
"Thank you, Kitazawa-sensei!"
Because Shibi had called him "-sensei," the Aburame ninja followed suit, profusely grateful.
Truth be told, Kitazawa's current status was a little awkward. Officially he was just a special jōnin and an Academy instructor. On paper, every Aburame here outranked him in both position and strength. But given his…unclear relationship with Tsunade, their posture toward him was very deferential.
Surgery for an Exploding Insect isn't simple. By this point it had fused completely with the host. Separating it required extremely advanced medical ninjutsu—and above all, they couldn't startle the insect. It's a living thing with some awareness; if it realizes it's being removed, it'll thrash about in a death struggle. That cranks the difficulty up even further.
Minutes ticked by.
A short distance away, seven other Aburame clustered together.
"Kitazawa-sensei's chakra control is terrifying," Shibi murmured, genuinely impressed.
They were in the field, so Kitazawa hadn't screened them off. Shibi knew little about medical ninjutsu, but his eye for skill wasn't bad. Right now Kitazawa was like a precision cutting machine, severing the insect from flesh and blood without the creature even noticing. Just watching it made Shibi's scalp prickle.
"Well, he is Tsunade-sama's student," Aburame to the left said.
"That's not confirmed—don't spread it," Shibi coughed lightly. "If Tsunade-sama hasn't announced it, she has her reasons."
Though in his view, public or not hardly mattered at this point. Every major clan had basically accepted it already.
"Okay, the Exploding Insect's out. Rest up for a while and you'll recover," Kitazawa said, exhaling as he stood.
Two straight hours on the table had left him tired—but it was a win; another high-difficulty operation in the books.
"Good thing you were here. Otherwise the consequences would've been dire," Shibi said, stepping forward. "On behalf of the Aburame, thank you."
"No need to be so formal," Kitazawa waved it off, then asked, "Did you bag the insect?"
"We did." Shibi produced a special vial. "This is the Exploding Insect."
"Looks kind of like a firefly. The glow is actually pretty," Kitazawa said, peering in.
Inside were clearly larvae—tiny as dust, clumped together, giving off a soft light.
"The prettier it is, the more dangerous it tends to be," Shibi nodded.
"What's your plan for them?" Kitazawa asked, curious.
"First we'll breed them and scale up. Then we'll develop secret techniques around their traits," Shibi said with a snort. "The Nokizaru Group's use of them is crude and wasteful."
"When it comes to bug-handling, the Aburame are the pros," Kitazawa said, giving credit where due.
"Should we head back to the village now?" Shibi asked, seeking his input—without realizing he'd already started treating Kitazawa as a peer. The surgery had done that. In the shinobi world, you don't pick fights with an excellent medic unless you have to. Even setting Tsunade aside, Kitazawa qualified.
"Let's go," Kitazawa nodded. "If we make good time, I can still get back to teach."
"With your skills, why stay an Academy teacher?" Shibi asked, puzzled.
"Because I like it," Kitazawa said. He'd fielded that question a lot. It's true—Academy teachers don't rank highly. Funny enough, Aburame Shino—Shibi's son—would end up a teacher too.
They took the same route back. With a wounded man in tow, they moved slower, and didn't reach Konoha until Sunday night.
"Kitazawa-sensei, I won't belabor the thanks," Shibi said earnestly. "If you ever need the Aburame, just say the word."
"I will." After saying goodbye, Kitazawa went straight home. It was late; no point bothering Tsunade or Kurenai.
He glanced around. His little general store had been closed for a while—nights were too busy to keep it open. Not that he needed the money. Between the Aburame and the Inuzuka giving him eight million ryō, he was set for a long time.
That reminded him of the Substitute Jutsu he'd gotten yesterday. It lets you copy a target's appearance, ninjutsu, taijutsu—even thoughts. Sounds busted, but there are limits. You can't copy someone vastly stronger than you. Try to copy Tsunade and it's not happening. In simple terms: a pony trying to pull a train. Even if you "copy" it, you can't run it.
And the target has to be under your control first. No copying at range—so it's a bit worse than the Sharingan in that respect. Still, as a disguise technique it's fantastic. Transformation Jutsu can be seen through by the strong. Substitute can achieve a perfect disguise without obvious tells. If a person's face, ninjutsu, taijutsu, and thinking all match, even Kitazawa would doubt himself—am I the original or a stand? You really wouldn't be able to tell.
…
Fourth week of November, Monday.
After breakfast, Kitazawa headed to the Academy training field.
"Kitazawa-sensei." Yakushi Kabuto spotted him and hurried over.
"You picked up Wind Release: Vacuum Blade?" Kitazawa guessed.
"Still a bit short on that," Kabuto shook his head. "I wanted to ask who our third teammate will be."
"With you and Torune, passing the Chūnin Exams won't be hard," Kitazawa said after a beat. "I do have someone in mind for the last slot—you'll see."
In truth, he didn't. But it hardly mattered; on registration day, he could just rope in a genin.
Kabuto's heart skipped. That one line confirmed his earlier suspicion: Tsunade storming Root to rescue Aburame Torune…maybe it was because Kitazawa needed two teammates for the Chūnin Exams.
"Thank you, Kitazawa-sensei." Kabuto chased off the wandering thoughts and went back to practicing Vacuum Blade.
That reminded Kitazawa—the Chūnin Exams were only about a week away. He looked over at Uchiha Sasuke. The week-long "live combat" test had gone well, but if Sasuke was going to awaken the two-tomoe Sharingan, it had to come from the sting of a crushing defeat.
The class-versus-class sparring wasn't stimulating enough. The real key would be the Student Council selection matches. A school-wide practical exam—that would do it.
He rubbed his chin. Students alone wouldn't be enough; you need an audience. For Sasuke, the most effective onlookers would be Uchiha Fugaku, Uchiha Itachi, and Uchiha Mikoto. Kitazawa's standing had jumped—everyone now basically treated him as Tsunade's student—so he was finally qualified to invite Fugaku.
Still, he needed one more ingredient: Sasuke had to feel he had a real shot at winning. If he walked in expecting to lose, the emotional impact wouldn't hit as hard. Losing when you thought you could win—that's what burns.
"Sasuke," Kitazawa walked over. "You've pretty much got the leaf exercise down. Time to switch to a new drill."
"What kind of drill?" Sasuke blinked. The leaf exercise helped—he'd felt it in last week's fight with Naruto, dodging faster. But against the Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu? Dodge one, get hit by twenty.
"I'll teach you the Shadow Clone Jutsu," Kitazawa said with a smile.
Very few Year 1, Class A students could learn it—but Sasuke qualified. With his chakra, splitting into two or three clones was feasible.
Sasuke's eyes lit up. He knew exactly how valuable that jutsu was—after all, Naruto's clones had pounded him more than once.
"Can I just learn the Multi Shadow Clone version?" he asked, hopeful.
"You don't have the chakra to sustain that," Kitazawa shook his head.
"Alright," Sasuke said, a little deflated. Naruto's technique looked way too cool not to know.
"Shadow clones are about precision, not quantity," Kitazawa guided him. "Once you have them, your combat options jump way up."
"Got it!" Sasuke perked up. He'd just thought of a way to deal with Naruto: the kid could snap out of genjutsu instantly, but it still takes a moment. If he and a shadow clone chained genjutsu back-to-back, they could stretch that tiny window. Even one second might be enough to win.
Kitazawa was about to speak when three lines of text floated into his vision:
[Current Mission: Help Uchiha Sasuke defeat Uzumaki Naruto once in the live-combat test.]
[Reward: Genjutsu: Unknown Fire.]
[Accept?]
A mission for this too? Figures.
His first thought was whether it would derail his plan. On reflection, it wouldn't—might even help. Let Sasuke notch a win first, let his ego swell, then have him lose at the Student Council selection. The emotional whiplash would be twice as strong.
But how to pull it off? Could Sasuke beat Naruto right now?
Maybe. If Sasuke learned Shadow Clone before Naruto picked up Rasengan, and got in some targeted sparring, it was doable. Fortunately, Shadow Clone isn't that hard.
"Let's start now," Kitazawa said, snapping back.
As expected, Sasuke learned far faster than Kiba Inuzuka. Kitazawa figured he'd have it within a week.
Time slid by, and noon arrived. After lunch, Kitazawa sent Sasuke and Hinata for a nap and left the Academy himself. The selection matches were still half a month away, but he wanted to invite Fugaku's family early. Shinobi are always on missions; a tough one can tie you up for weeks or months. Invite now and they could block the date out.
Uchiha compound. Kitazawa had been here many times and knew the way. Soon he was at Sasuke's door. He knocked.
A moment later, it opened—not to Mikoto, but to a girl of twelve or thirteen.
Kitazawa blinked. Who's this? He didn't recall Mikoto having a daughter.
"Are you here to see Aunt Mikoto?" the girl asked, studying him.
"Yeah," he nodded, introducing himself. "I'm Sasuke's teacher—Kitazawa."
"You're Kitazawa-sensei?" Her face brightened. "I've heard Itachi mention you. He rarely talks about people."
"What's your name?" Kitazawa asked, a guess already forming.
"Uchiha Izumi," she said.
Called it, Kitazawa thought. In the original story, Uchiha Izumi was Itachi's classmate and close in age. Her father was a non-Uchiha shinobi; her mother, Uchiha Hazuki, was from the clan.
After her father died, she and her mother moved back into the compound. Izumi was gentle and kind—one of Itachi's few friends.
Tragically, she died on the Night of the Clan Massacre. Worth noting: she awakened a three-tomoe Sharingan that night—definitely a genius.
She had feelings for Itachi and even confessed, though of course it went nowhere; Itachi's head was full of Sasuke and Konoha.
"Izumi, who is it?" Mikoto called from the living room.
"It's Kitazawa-sensei," Izumi answered.
"Kitazawa-sensei, please come in," Mikoto said, hurrying to the door with a warm smile.
"Mikoto-san," Kitazawa greeted, stepping into the living room.
"Please have some tea," Izumi said, handing him a steaming cup.
"Thank you," Kitazawa took a sip.
"Dropping by at noon—what's the matter?" Mikoto asked proactively. "If it's urgent, I'll call Fugaku home right now."
In just two sentences, Kitazawa felt the perks of a higher standing. Previously, Mikoto had been friendly but wouldn't lightly trouble Fugaku—the clan head and head of the Konoha Police are busy men. Unless the guest was important, she wouldn't summon him.
"It's not urgent," Kitazawa shook his head and got to the point. "I'd like to invite you to the Student Council selection matches."
He explained the event, adding that Sarutobi Hiruzen would attend.
"I see," Mikoto said after listening. "We'll be there."
Hiruzen attending alone made it worth the trip—never mind an invitation from the man widely thought to be Tsunade's student. In every sense, they should go.
"It'd be best if Clan Head Fugaku and Itachi could make it too," Kitazawa added. "Sasuke often tells me he wants praise from his father and brother."
"That child does care about them," Mikoto smiled. "I'll tell them."
"Can I come?" Izumi asked, hopeful. If Itachi would be there, she wanted to go too.
"Of course," Kitazawa said, giving her a look. "It's a rare spectacle at the Academy—the more spectators, the better."
"In that case, I can notify the Uchiha and have anyone free stop by to watch," Mikoto mused.
Kitazawa's eyebrow twitched. Sorry, Sasuke—don't blame me; your mom's idea.
"Works for me," he said easily.
"Anything else, Kitazawa-sensei?" Mikoto's smile softened. "If not, stay for lunch."
"I've already eaten." Kitazawa was about to take his leave when a thought struck him. He looked at Izumi. "Izumi, you're a genin now, right?"
"Mhm," she nodded.
"Interested in taking next month's Chūnin Exams?" he asked.
"Eh?" Izumi blinked, puzzled.
"Here's the situation," Kitazawa explained the backstory.
"But I—" Izumi began, only for Mikoto to cut in.
"If it's Kitazawa-sensei asking, of course you should say yes," Mikoto said with a smile. "And as it happens, Izumi doesn't have a jōnin leader or teammates yet."
~~~
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