Monday, Classroom of Class 1, Year 1 at the Ninja Academy.
Class had not started yet, and only about half the students had arrived.
"Kotetsu, when are you going to introduce me to that cute girl you mentioned before?" Kamizuki Izumo asked impatiently.
Hagane Kotetsu immediately locked Izumo in a chokehold and said viciously,
"And you still have the nerve to ask me to introduce you to a girl? Last exam you pretended you did badly, but your score ended up being so high. Messing with your brother is fun, huh?"
Izumo cried out in protest, insisting it was an accident—that he had just been a bit lucky. Besides, he had only scored five points higher than Kotetsu.
Only then did Kotetsu release him, though he still said introducing him to a girl would be difficult now.
Recently his hateful cousin had revealed some embarrassing things about him to Mihui, so he didn't have the face to meet her for the time being.
"What a treacherous villain! A rebel! A scoundrel!" Izumo said indignantly.
"That's way too exaggerated," Mitarashi Anko complained from the side.
"And why do you need to meet another girl? Aren't I a girl?" Anko asked in confusion.
Izumo and Kotetsu both fell silent. They looked at each other for a moment before Izumo finally spoke.
"Anko… that's hard to explain. Just know that we're brothers."
A girl?
If Anko hadn't mentioned it, Izumo might have forgotten she was one.
But what kind of girl stands on a desk and shouts to the entire class? Anko behaved even more boyishly than they did. How was Izumo supposed to treat her like a girl?
At that moment, Makoto walked into the classroom.
"Teacher Hosokawa , do you think I look like a girl?" Anko asked directly.
Makoto smiled and nodded.
"Of course. You're a very cute girl."
Setting aside her behavior, little Anko really was quite adorable.
Hearing Makoto's answer made Anko extremely happy. She stuck her tongue out at Kotetsu and Izumo.
Kotetsu & Izumo: …
What kind of girl asks a question like that and then makes a face afterward?
Soon, the entire morning of Ninjutsu Theory class came to an end.
[Lecture Completed]
[Evaluation: A]
[Reward Obtained: Demonic Illusion: Tree Binding Death]
Memories of learning this B-rank genjutsu, along with its usage techniques, immediately appeared in Makoto's mind.
"Another genjutsu. That makes two genjutsu I can teach Shisui now," Makoto thought to himself.
Besides Demonic Illusion: Tree Binding Death, he had previously obtained Demonic Illusion: Hell Viewing Technique through teaching rewards.
The effect of Tree Binding Death was to trap the target in an illusion where trees wrapped around their body, preventing movement while leaving their mind conscious. It was usually used for interrogation and extracting information.
Meanwhile, Hell Viewing Technique allowed the opponent to see the scene they feared most in their heart.
In the afternoon there were originally no classes, but a teacher from Class 6, Year 4 asked Makoto to substitute.
In that class, Makoto discovered two more ninja who would later appear in the storyline.
[Name: Genma Shiranui]
[Potential: A-]
[Name: Ebisu]
[Potential: B-]
This lesson was a ninjutsu class. Because of the current special circumstances, fourth-year students were considered the graduating class. Makoto mainly taught them the Clone Technique, since that was usually part of the graduation exam.
"So the rumors were true. This Teacher Hosokawa is really good at teaching."
"So the problem with my clone wasn't what I thought. Luckily our usual teacher got sick today, otherwise we wouldn't have had Teacher Hosokawa 's class."
"Can we transfer to Teacher Hosokawa 's class? If we were taught by a teacher like this every day, mastering the three basic techniques wouldn't be a problem."
"That's probably impossible. Teacher Hosokawa only teaches a first-year class…"
Thanks to his systematic training on how to become a teacher, the Teaching Skill bonus, and the vast ninja knowledge in his mind, Makoto's teaching quality was clearly on a different level compared to ordinary chūnin instructors.
The students of Class 4–6 finally understood why the classes taught by Makoto praised him so much.
He really was that good.
However, the large amount of praise from the students did not make Makoto complacent.
Because he knew there were many reasons behind it, and one major factor was that the Ninja Academy's educational environment was somewhat distorted.
What kind of ninja actually becomes a teacher at the Ninja Academy?
Makoto didn't know what things were like in the past, nor what they would be like in the future. But in the current Ninja Academy, most teachers were ninjas who believed their strength had already reached its limit.
A teacher's salary was enough to live comfortably in Konohagakure, but it wasn't nearly enough to support the expenses required for serious ninja training and advancement.
As a result, most academy teachers were only of average strength and lacked ambition.
If they truly had ambition, they would be completing missions every day to earn money and improve their strength, rather than teaching at the academy.
Teachers like that—unless they had a particularly strong sense of responsibility—rarely devoted themselves to studying how to teach well. Most simply went through the motions.
Makoto believed the Konoha leadership was aware of this situation, perhaps even considering it from the very beginning when the academy was established.
That was why there were team instructors.
After graduation, students would receive further small-team training.
However, this had little to do with Makoto. After all, he was just a small academy teacher.
All he could do was ensure the quality of his own teaching.
[Lecture Completed]
[Evaluation: A]
[Reward Obtained: Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique]
Makoto realized he seemed to have quite a bit of fate with the Great Fireball Technique.
This was already the third time he had obtained it.
As more training memories flooded his mind, Makoto felt that his Great Fireball Technique had probably reached the system's Proficient level.
…
After school, Makoto and his students gathered at their usual training ground.
"Teacher Makoto, this is the one request of my life—please grant it!"
Before training even started, Obito Uchiha ran up to Makoto, clasped his hands together, and bowed deeply.
"You haven't even told me what the request is. How could I agree?" Makoto replied, unsure what Obito was trying to do.
"I want you to teach me a powerful Fire Release technique with overwhelming presence so I can win first place in the Youth Ninjutsu Tournament!" Obito declared.
Actually, Obito had participated in this competition before.
Back then, he thought mastering the Great Fireball Technique would easily win him first place.
But unexpectedly, he ran into Kakashi Hatake, a true genius.
As a result, Obito painfully lost the championship.
Recently, Obito saw the tournament being advertised again. He decided to invite Kakashi to participate once more and settle the score.
However, he wasn't confident.
Although Fire Release: Dragon Flame Technique was practical, its visual impact wasn't impressive enough.
As for his Great Fireball Technique—which read "Great Fireball" but looked more like a Small Fireball—that was even worse.
But that didn't matter.
Obito believed in Makoto's strength.
[Disciple Uchiha Obito has set a Training Mission]
[Training Mission: Win First Place in the Youth Ninjutsu Tournament]
[Reward: Determined based on mission completion and strength growth during the task]
Three notification windows appeared on Makoto's system panel.
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