Break time over, the prodigy class got back to training.
Kitazawa led Hatake Kakashi and Uchiha Sasuke to a nearby clearing. He was about to explain Lightning Release: Chidori Current when Kakashi pulled down his forehead protector and revealed his three-tomoe Sharingan. Seeing that, Sasuke reacted as well, activating his two-tomoe Sharingan.
Kitazawa paused—he'd forgotten the Sharingan can copy techniques. With Sharingan, both Kakashi and Sasuke would pick up Chidori Current faster than he'd expected.
"Lightning Release: Chidori Current trades away Chidori's speed and surprise for defense," Kitazawa said, lifting his right hand. "I'll demonstrate."
Blinding arcs of lightning raced from his right hand across his whole body.
"I see," Kakashi said at once, impressed. "A clever idea."
In canon, his development of Chidori never matched Sasuke's. But after the Fourth Great Ninja War he lost his Sharingan, stopped using Chidori, and eventually devised Lightning Release: Purple Electricity, which doesn't require the Sharingan.
Kakashi formed seals; in a heartbeat, lightning wrapped his body. That's the convenience of a three-tomoe Sharingan. Of course, being able to copy something doesn't mean you can immediately use or master it. You still need the right chakra nature and a certain level of shape- and nature-transformation.
Kakashi has affinities across all seven natures—that's the real reason he could become the "Copy Ninja" and Konoha's top technician. Otherwise, with so many three-tomoe Sharingan in the Uchiha, those titles would've been a dime a dozen instead of his alone.
Sasuke formed seals too. Lightning flickered—then went out like a bulb during a blackout. Failure.
"Your chakra shape transformation isn't quite there," Kitazawa said after a moment's thought. Chidori Current demands more shape transformation than Chidori—it coats the whole body rather than concentrating in the hand. It also didn't help that Sasuke's Sharingan had only two tomoe; in every respect, two tomoe lag behind three. And Kakashi's eye was actually a Mangekyō Sharingan, though he himself didn't realize it.
"You handle your own thing; I'll teach him," Kakashi offered. Sasuke was already in his study group, so it made sense. Kitazawa had other students to coach.
"Alright," Kitazawa nodded. "If anything comes up, come find me."
He demonstrated once more—enough to count as "teaching" for his system. All that remained was for Sasuke to learn Chidori Current; Kitazawa figured he'd have it within a month, and then Kitazawa could tick off his system task.
"Thank you, Kitazawa-sensei," Sasuke said. He was no longer that posturing kid; he said thank you when it was called for.
After seeing them off, Kitazawa went back to his own regimen. Mornings were for Five Release Great Combo Technique; afternoons for Ninja Art Creation Rebirth — Strength of a Hundred Technique; nights for researching how to modify the medical-forbidden technique Body Activation—essentially a Yang Release chakra mode.
He already had an approach for that Yang Release mode. He didn't know exactly what the Lightning Release Chakra Mode looked like, but he believed cellular activation should proceed step by step—point to surface. For example: activate an arm first, then both legs, and finally the whole body.
At sunset, the prodigy class wrapped up and everyone headed home.
Kitazawa was about to leave when an Anbu operative suddenly appeared in front of him. One look at the mask and he recognized Crow, the operative stationed long-term in the Land of Waves. Anbu masks differed enough that you could tell who was who at a glance.
"Kitazawa-sama," Crow said, producing a scroll. "The Sea Exploration Team asked me to deliver this."
Kitazawa nodded and unsealed it. The contents were brief: they'd dug up quite a bit of ore and could move to the next step—separating it by type. The lode contained many kinds of ore, but gold and silver were the most abundant.
"Is the factory in the Land of Waves finished?" Kitazawa asked.
"It's nearly done, but we're still short on skilled workers," Crow replied after a beat. "We also don't have enough designers."
Kitazawa fell into thought. Mining was simple enough—kikaichū or chakra could handle that. Separation, design, and finished products were a level harder. Fortunately, the shinobi world already had a decent jewelry craft. In theory, they could recruit the right people.
But that wouldn't give them a unique edge. Ninja should lean into ninja strengths—and their edge was chakra. He thought of the Hyūga: the Byakugan could serve as a high-precision instrument or tool. The bottleneck was design. With no copyright law in the shinobi world, copying others would make it hard to stand out.
An idea flashed: in his previous life he'd seen plenty of beautiful jewelry in movies and on TV. It'd be hard to describe or sketch from memory—but with chakra, he could extract the images straight from his mind using ninjutsu. He just hadn't learned a suitable technique yet. Konoha should have one.
"Have them keep recruiting. Once the team is complete, start production," Kitazawa ordered.
Hyūga numbers were limited, so they were best used to craft a high-end line. The ordinary pieces could be made by hired craftsmen. With brand and name recognition, demand would be wild—no worries about sales.
"Yes, Kitazawa-sama." Crow bowed slightly and vanished.
Kitazawa headed for the Hyūga compound.
"Kitazawa-sama," the two gate guards greeted him.
"I need to see Clan Head Hiashi," he said with a nod.
"I'll go inform—"
Before the guard finished, a voice cut in. "Kitazawa-sensei, what brings you here?" Hyuga Hinata asked, eyes bright with surprise. She'd just come home and, hearing voices at the gate, looked over to find him there.
"I'm here to see your father," Kitazawa said with a smile.
"I'll take you to him," Hinata offered at once. "He should be in his study now."
"Great." Kitazawa stepped forward and ruffled her hair. Hinata's lips curled up as she happily led the way.
At the study door she stopped and looked back. "Thanks," Kitazawa said. "I'll talk business with your father first, then come find you." He raised his hand and knocked.
"Come in," Hiashi's voice sounded.
Kitazawa pushed the door open.
"Kitazawa?" Hiashi stood up at once. "Forgive me for not greeting you sooner."
"Clan Head Hiashi, I'm here to discuss a business deal," Kitazawa said bluntly.
"Business?" Hiashi blinked. He half-expected Kitazawa to ask for Hyūga support in a Hokage bid; among shinobi, "business" often meant a political trade, not actual commerce.
"The jewelry business," Kitazawa explained. "Konoha found an undersea mine."
"...?"
Hiashi froze. Was that… right? No one had ever approached him about a jewelry venture.
"I don't follow," he said, shaking his head. "If you want to do business, you should speak to merchants."
"This is a profitable line. If we go through merchants, we won't capture much of it," Kitazawa said, laying out his aim. "I hope the Hyūga can use the Byakugan to help with processing and crafting."
Another question mark rose on Hiashi's face. His first instinct was to refuse—the Byakugan was for sensing and combat, not making trinkets. But it was Kitazawa asking: Tsunade's student, with a strong chance of being the next Hokage. Refusing and harming relations would be a bad trade.
"How many people?" he asked after a pause.
"Not many," Kitazawa said after thinking it over. "Let's start with eight."
Rarity breeds value. Low output is normal for a high-end brand. And "hand-crafted by the Hyūga" was a marketing line all by itself. The Hyūga name carried weight.
"Alright," Hiashi agreed. Eight shinobi wasn't many—he could treat it like assigning long-term missions.
"Ten percent of the profits from pieces they make will go to the Hyūga," Kitazawa added generously.
Ten percent? Stingy, isn't it? Hiashi's brow twitched. In his mind, most jewelry wasn't that expensive; eight people couldn't produce much, and ten percent sounded small. He let it pass, though—his goal here was the relationship, not the cash.
"Please also send them to the Land of Waves as soon as possible," Kitazawa said. "They'll need a period of training."
Even with the Byakugan, Hyūga shinobi wouldn't craft fine jewelry perfectly on day one.
"I'll have them depart tomorrow," Hiashi said immediately. Since he'd agreed, there was no point dragging it out.
"Good." Kitazawa stood to take his leave. He declined Hiashi's dinner invitation, greeted Hinata on his way out, and headed home.
On Wednesday morning, after breakfast, Kitazawa went to the Hokage's office.
"Why aren't you teaching right now?" Tsunade asked, setting down her paperwork. She stretched, then slouched back in the Hokage's chair, the picture of someone ready to slack off.
"Does Konoha have any of the Yamanaka clan's secret techniques?" Kitazawa asked, reflexively glancing at her… outrageous proportions.
"We do, but per our promise to the Yamanaka, other shinobi are forbidden to learn them," Tsunade said lazily. "You don't need to anyway—just have the Yamanaka do it for you."
"I want a jutsu that can extract memories," Kitazawa said, shaking his head. "I can't carry a Yamanaka around every time I leave the village."
"You could've just said so earlier," Tsunade huffed. "Memory-extraction isn't exclusive to the Yamanaka. There are other techniques—just not as good."
"That's fine—as long as it works," Kitazawa said with a shrug and a smile. "Can't blame me for thinking of the Yamanaka first—their brand is huge."
"Tell Anbu to fetch it," Tsunade waved him off.
"Only the Hokage can authorize that," Kitazawa reminded her. Jutsu are a village's most important assets; outside of what a teacher passes down, learning others usually requires Hokage approval or an award.
"Funny how you don't normally care about rules," Tsunade said, thinking of his past stunts—plenty of them insubordinate.
"Now don't slander me," Kitazawa coughed lightly. "I follow the rules that matter."
"Tch." Tsunade rolled her eyes.
"With a teacher as gorgeous as you, I'm sure you won't mind a little rule-bending," he said with a grin.
"Hmph. Don't be so sure." She sat up, eyes on him. "Forget it—I won't argue today. I'll go get it."
Her heels clicked away down the hall. Before long she returned and handed him a scroll.
Kitazawa unrolled it. It recorded a B-rank technique called Ninja Art: Memory Sight—used to read and extract a target's memories. The downside was massive chakra consumption—far more than the Yamanaka's secrets—and its range was poor.
(Yamanaka Inoichi, by contrast, could broadcast to the entire Allied Shinobi Forces—at great cost.)
The chakra drain didn't worry Kitazawa; he currently had twelve "cards" of chakra to throw around.
"Anything else?" Tsunade asked, fingers laced as she leaned back.
"No, that's all. I'll take my leave." He'd thought about mentioning the Hyūga project, but decided there was no need—better to show her finished pieces later.
Back in his office at the academy, he set about learning Memory Sight. B-rank—nothing too tricky. A knock came at the door—Konan stepped in. She'd spent the last two days back with Akatsuki, gathering medicines.
"These are the ingredients we collected," she said, producing a sealed storage scroll. "But two were nowhere to be found."
"Those are indeed rare," Kitazawa said, unsurprised. "I'll have people look."
"Thank you." Konan felt a weight lift. Konoha's manpower and reach far exceeded Rain and Akatsuki's; the odds of success were much higher.
"You'll cover the cost of the ingredients," Kitazawa said with a smile. "But finding them will cost Konoha time and effort. Shouldn't Akatsuki pay a fee?"
"What do you want?" Konan asked without fuss. Akatsuki operated on fair exchanges now, and he wasn't wrong—they should pay.
"Help me find someone," Kitazawa said evenly. "A Konoha missing-nin named Orochimaru."
Konan blinked. The request was unexpected, but reasonable—hunting a missing-nin was only right. The problem was that Orochimaru was currently an Akatsuki member—she couldn't exactly betray him.
"We can make it a slow search," Kitazawa added, unbothered. "He's been running for years. No rush."
"Alright," Konan agreed. She disliked Orochimaru anyway. He'd joined Akatsuki only after failing to steal Nagato's Rinnegan, and Nagato had accepted him "for convenience of surveillance."
In her view, someone hostile to Nagato never should've been let in. "God" didn't care—but she was sure Orochimaru would part ways with Akatsuki sooner or later. That's why she could agree: once he defected, she'd feel free to sell him out.
Which was exactly Kitazawa's aim. With Konan as an inside contact, he'd get timely pointers on Orochimaru's movements.
"Take my token to Anbu and have them look for them," Kitazawa said. He wasn't in the mood to run the errand himself.
Konan nodded and headed for Anbu headquarters. Kitazawa returned to studying Memory Sight.
The next day, eight Hyūga shinobi departed for the Land of Waves. Before leaving, they stopped by to inform Kitazawa.
A week passed; finals were close. The academy used a three-term calendar: finals in July, vacation in August, new term in September. The practical portion of finals would still be conducted in two formats.
Kitazawa had already promised Hinata he'd be her field instructor, so he would take her. For the other two teammates, he chose Aburame Shino and Nara Shikamaru.
He'd originally planned on Kurama Yakumo, but her genjutsu kekkei genkai was too broken—the mission would turn into easy mode. Kitazawa wanted to put some pressure on Shikamaru, so he swapped her out for Shino.
~~~
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