A week passed in the blink of an eye.
During these five days, the students of Class 1-A were busy preparing for Sunday's monthly exam and next week's friendly match against Class 2-A.
After a month of intensive training, Uchiha Sasuke, Hyuga Hinata, and the others had basically reached Kitazawa's expectations.
The chances of beating Class 2-A were high, but whether they would actually win depended on the circumstances at the time.
Saturday.
Behind Kurenai's house, Kitazawa stood in the open space, forming a hand seal with one hand.
Fire Style: Great Dragon Fire Technique!
A massive amount of chakra gathered in his throat, and as he leaned back slightly, a dragon of fire shot forth.
Sasuke had gifted him four fire-style ninjutsu.
Except for Fire Style: Dragon Fire Technique, which was C-rank, the other three were all B-rank.
Among them, Fire Style: Great Fire Annihilation was a system reward he had already learned.
Between Fire Style: Phoenix Flower Jutsu and Fire Style: Great Dragon Fire Technique, he chose the latter to study.
After four days of training, he had a preliminary mastery of the Great Dragon Fire Technique.
It was only "preliminary" because he could currently only create one dragon of fire. Once fully mastered, he would be able to create three dragons, greatly increasing its power.
At that moment, applause rang out.
Kitazawa was slightly startled, withdrew his chakra, and turned to see Tsunade smiling and Shizune looking surprised.
"With your skills, why become a ninja academy teacher?"
Tsunade stopped clapping. "Even forming a hand seal with one hand is something few ninja can do."
"I prefer teaching children."
Kitazawa smiled at the familiar question.
"Are you close to the Uchiha clan?"
Tsunade nodded slightly and asked again.
She immediately recognized the jutsu he used as Fire Style: Great Dragon Fire Technique.
Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique was widely known, but B-rank fire-style jutsu outside of the Uchiha clan was rare.
Yet here was an ordinary Chunin teacher who could use it, a curiosity to her.
"It's Sasuke's reward."
Kitazawa explained, "I taught him some jutsu."
He didn't hide it; in fact, he had done it deliberately.
With Tsunade's endorsement, using one-handed seals or fire-style jutsu wouldn't be a problem in the future.
"Mikoto's second son?"
Tsunade sighed. "I didn't expect Mikoto's second son to already be of school age."
The last time she had seen Uchiha Mikoto was at the funeral of Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki, six years had passed in a blink.
"Pause your training for a moment."
Tsunade returned to business: "Come with me to see the old man."
"The third jutsu has already been created?"
Kitazawa's eyes brightened at her words.
"Yes, just completed."
Tsunade said, walking toward the exit.
"What's the name of this jutsu?"
Kitazawa followed, walking side by side with Shizune.
"Illusion: Heart Technique, a C-rank genjutsu," Tsunade said casually. "Its effect is to trigger the patient's psychological illness."
The name resembled Fox Heart Technique somewhat.
Previously, Kitazawa and Kurenai had envisioned using this jutsu to locate a patient's negative emotions.
After Tsunade's modification, it directly recreated the patient's psychological illness.
In other words, the patient couldn't escape, no matter what the disease.
It wasn't particularly friendly to the patient, but some sacrifice was necessary for treatment.
Bang!
Tsunade kicked open the Hokage office door.
"How many times have I told you, knock before entering during work!"
Hiruzen Sarutobi hastily put away the crystal ball, speaking seriously.
"Disrespectful old man!"
Tsunade pursed her lips in disdain.
Jiraiya's peeping habit had been learned from Hiruzen.
"I'm just inspecting the village," Sarutobi cleared his throat. "What brings you here?"
"For you."
Tsunade casually tossed a scroll toward him.
Sarutobi opened it and examined the jutsu.
After a moment, he nodded in approval.
"A jutsu that applies the right treatment to the patient."
He set the scroll down. "Kitazawa, go collect one million ryo from the ANBU."
"One million per person?" Tsunade squinted.
"One jutsu, one million ryo," Sarutobi corrected.
Although Tsunade could benefit a little, she shouldn't overreach.
"Such stinginess!"
Tsunade frowned, openly showing displeasure.
"This is village money. It cannot be wasted."
Sarutobi's expression remained serious.
"Enough. I don't want to hear it."
Tsunade impatiently grabbed Kitazawa's hand and started walking out.
"Tsunade-sama, how should we split the money?"
Kitazawa glanced at her fair hand.
"I'll take 400,000. You and Kurenai take 300,000 each," Tsunade decided after a moment.
Although she wanted it all, she had her limits.
"Fine."
Kitazawa had no objections.
Tsunade's contribution was greatest; 400,000 was fair.
In reality, Kitazawa benefited since he did the least work, but it wasn't wrong to take advantage of it.
"Kitazawa, want to gamble a bit?"
Tsunade twirled her eyes and asked.
"I'm not interested in gambling."
Kitazawa shook his head.
As an accomplished young man in his previous life, he had always detested gambling and drugs.
"Then lend me 100,000?"
Tsunade extended her hand.
"No." Kitazawa smiled. "Unless you take me as your student."
"Want to be my student? Not so easy," Tsunade paused, lips slightly parted. "You're not qualified, for now."
As one of Konoha's Sannin, her students had to be truly exceptional medical ninja.
Kitazawa, 21 and a Chunin, lacked such talent.
In the original story, Tsunade had only two students: Sakura Haruno and Shizune.
"Maybe with time, you'll change your mind."
Kitazawa wasn't surprised by her rejection.
He was merely testing the waters, and the result was expected.
He actually had a more appealing idea: mutual mentorship with Tsunade.
For example, she could teach him medical ninjutsu, and he could teach her Wood Style techniques.
The system only cared about the nominal teacher-student relationship.
Of course, with his current skills, he wasn't qualified to teach her.
But with the system, anything was possible.
"I'll be waiting."
Tsunade didn't believe him and completely ignored the remark, heading toward the casino. "See you next time, Kitazawa."
Shizune, however, glanced at him, expression unreadable.
Saturday ended, giving way to Sunday.
Today was the May monthly exam, written theory. Tomorrow would be practical, including clone techniques, physical tests, and ninja tool throwing, just like April's exam.
"Naruto, confident?"
Kitazawa arrived at the classroom holding the test papers.
"First place, easy!"
Naruto grinned. "Kitazawa-sensei, watch me unleash my youth!"
"Here comes another braggart. Last time you didn't even make the top ten, and now you talk about first place?"
Inuzuka Kiba snorted.
"You were sixth last time!"
Naruto placed his hands on his hips. "This time I'll beat you!"
"Really?"
Kiba didn't believe it and laughed. "If you beat me, I'll treat you to Ichiraku Ramen."
"Deal!"
Naruto immediately agreed.