“Alright, now that we’ve gotten those tedious introductions out of the way.”
Iruka brought the lively and rather unruly group of children to the training grounds.
With a piece of paper in one hand, he faced the students gathered before him and began to speak.
“Before we start, there’s something you should all understand.
My approach to teaching is quite different from the other instructors’.
Ordinarily, Academy teachers teach students basic ninjutsu—the Clone Technique and similar techniques.
But I won’t be teaching that.”
Iruka paused, and an almost imperceptible look of embarrassment flashed across his face before he continued.
“I won’t teach you any ninjutsu.
Don’t ask me about chakra control, either—it won’t do you any good.
I won’t say a single word about anything related to ninjutsu.”
“Huh?
Why?”
A girl with shoulder-length pink hair and center-parted bangs asked in confusion.
Her prominent forehead made her instantly recognizable.
It wasn’t just her.
All the other students stared at Iruka in disbelief.
A teacher at the Ninja Academy who didn’t teach anything about ninjutsu—what could he possibly teach?
The history of the shinobi world?
“Don’t tell me you don’t know any ninjutsu, Sensei?”
A boy with his hair tied into a high, spiky ponytail suddenly asked.
The moment he spoke, several other children chimed in.
“Yeah, yeah!
What kind of teacher doesn’t teach ninjutsu?”
“Does Sensei really not know any ninjutsu?”
Are kids these days really this clever?
Iruka rubbed his forehead helplessly.
The truth was, he really didn’t know much ninjutsu.
His understanding of chakra consisted solely of the theoretical knowledge left behind in the original Iruka’s memories.
The amount of chakra in his body was also quite limited—all of it an “inheritance” from the previous owner of this body.
Asking him to teach ninjutsu was simply impossible.
He was a complete beginner himself when it came to actually using chakra, so how could he possibly teach anyone else?
But that didn’t mean he wasn’t qualified to be a teacher.
“It seems you won’t acknowledge me as your teacher unless I demonstrate what I can do.
Fine, then.
Watch closely!”
Iruka took a deep breath and symbolically formed a simple hand seal.
It looked as though he were gathering chakra, but in reality, nothing of the sort was happening.
Then he suddenly lifted his foot and took several steps forward.
That simple action instantly caused the children around him to widen their eyes in shock, staring at Iruka as though they had seen a ghost.
His footsteps stopped eerily in midair, as if the air itself had become something solid beneath his feet.
Just like walking normally, he took one step after another and calmly walked upward into the sky.
“Amazing…!”
“Wow!
He can walk through the air!
Iruka-sensei is so strong!”
“Someone that powerful is actually teaching at the Academy?!”
“…”
Children were simple-minded.
After witnessing Iruka’s little display, their doubts immediately disappeared.
Only the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, who was watching from the shadows, wore a grave expression as he looked at Iruka suspended in midair.
His aged face was filled with complicated emotions.
Tap.
Iruka landed lightly on the ground, looking completely at ease.
It was true that he didn’t know any ninjutsu, and what he had just used wasn’t ninjutsu either.
But that didn’t mean he was an ordinary person.
In his previous world, he had once been called the most powerful esper, a person with the potential to shake the entire world.
Through scientific methods, humanity had awakened its hidden potential to the greatest extent possible, granting certain individuals incredible powers.
They were known as espers.
And Iruka possessed an ability known as Vector Control.
In theory, this ability could even alter the course of a world, though doing so would require an unimaginably vast amount of psychic power.
In his previous life, the power he possessed had been too great—so great that the entire world feared him.
Even the nation he belonged to, and the organization responsible for developing his abilities, regarded him as a thorn in their side.
The entire world had turned against him.
Without rules, there can be no order.
Even a world has laws by which it operates, and anything that transcends those laws is inevitably rejected by them.
In the end, he had died.
He had died at the hands of the person he trusted most, because the world could not tolerate an existence as extraordinary as him—
The past was like smoke carried away by the wind, and Iruka had no desire to dwell on it.
All he wanted now was to live under this new identity.
Even though the laws of this world were different, forcing him to rely on chakra to use his esper ability—and making his chakra reserves a direct measure of his strength—he had no complaints about this new life.
“Alright.
I trust none of you doubt my abilities anymore, so let’s return to what I was saying.
The reason I won’t teach you ninjutsu is because I believe your future jōnin instructors will teach you those things anyway.
After all, a jōnin’s understanding of ninjutsu is naturally far greater than that of a chūnin like me.”
“At the Academy, all you need to do is master the fundamentals.
My job is to give you the strongest possible foundation before I hand you over to your jōnin instructors.”
At that moment, Naruto raised his right hand high in the air and shouted, “Um, um, Violent Teacher!
I don’t understand what you’re talking about.
Can you explain it more simply?”
Iruka’s eye twitched.
Then he suddenly smiled and beckoned Naruto over.
“Come here, come here.
I’ll explain it to you in detail.”
Without suspecting a thing, Naruto walked toward Iruka completely unguarded, ignoring the looks of pity from everyone around him.
The moment he reached Iruka, however, Iruka somehow produced a large megaphone and held it directly beside Naruto’s ear.
“You idiot!
Even if you don’t understand, you should at least pretend you do!
Got it?!!!!!”
The deafening roar sent Naruto flying straight into a wall.
After he fell to the ground, he lay completely still with foam at the corner of his mouth.
Iruka immediately wore an expression of complete satisfaction, as though the entire world had finally become quiet.
Of course, Iruka hadn’t actually been that cruel to Naruto.
Before shouting, he had used his ability to place a protective barrier around him.
Naruto only appeared to have been knocked unconscious by the noise; in reality, Iruka had used his power to put him to sleep.
Pretend to understand even when you don’t?
What kind of teaching philosophy is that?
Is this guy really a teacher?
Everyone stared at Iruka with dark expressions.
However, with Naruto serving as a cautionary example, no one dared voice another objection.
They obediently stood in place, looking like model students.
Making an example out of one to warn the rest really does work.
That’s more like it.
Before you can teach students, you first have to make them listen.
Otherwise, how are you supposed to teach a bunch of little troublemakers?
You’d spend all your time calling their parents.
A smug smile appeared on Iruka’s face.
But at that moment, a little girl with short black hair and unusual pale lavender eyes suddenly walked toward Naruto, who was still lying on the ground.
“N-Naruto…
are you alright?”
Iruka scratched his head awkwardly.
He hadn’t expected to be proven wrong so quickly.
He had some impression of the little girl—not merely because of her unusual eyes, but because she had the demeanor of a well-behaved student.
Any teacher would like a child like that, someone who was practically guaranteed not to cause trouble.
Naturally, Iruka wasn’t petty enough to argue with a little girl.
“Don’t worry, Hinata.
I know my limits.
I only made him quiet down for a little while.
I guarantee that little brat won’t suffer any lasting effects.”
As if to prove his words, Naruto let out a groan and slowly opened his eyes a moment later.
“Ugh…
that’s strange.
How did I fall asleep?”
His reaction was nothing like that of someone who had been knocked unconscious by an ear-splitting shout.
Seeing this, Hinata immediately relaxed.
Naruto also noticed Hinata beside him, but his attention didn’t linger on her.
He immediately got to his feet and marched toward Iruka in a fury.
“I remember now!
You violent teacher!
This is all your fault!”
Seeing how energetic Naruto was, the others began looking at Iruka strangely.
Perhaps this teacher wasn’t as terrifying as they had imagined…