「I never expected to end up crossing over into the Naruto world, let alone becoming a teacher。」 Shinichi Chiba muttered to himself in his heart with a wry smile after sorting through the original owner's memories.
He wondered if he simply had some sort of deep-rooted fate with the teaching profession.
Back in elementary school, a female teacher had once asked everyone what their dreams were.
While the other kids answered that they wanted to be doctors or astronauts, he had blurted out that he wanted to be a teacher.
After graduating from college, his family pulled a few strings to help him smoothly land a job as a people's teacher at a private middle school.
Never in his wildest dreams had he expected that the very moment he stepped foot through the school gates—
In the next instant, he had crossed over, becoming a new teacher at the Ninja Academy. Facing such a situation, Shinichi Chiba felt completely at a loss.
The Naruto world was no walk in the park; it seemed packed with weirdos at every turn who wanted to reshape the world, and the worst part was that these weirdos were terrifyingly strong.
Thinking of this, Shinichi Chiba could only let out a helpless sigh.
Just as Shinichi was pondering how to survive in this paranoid world, the bell rang outside to signal the end of class.
Class was over!
And it seemed the next class was his.
At this thought, Shinichi felt his scalp tingle, especially since he was supposed to teach Ninjutsu.
"What on earth do I know about Ninjutsu?!"
The teacher at the next desk seemed to sense something was wrong, turned his head, and tried to comfort Shinichi.
"As new teachers, we're generally only responsible for teaching students how to knead chakra and explaining some basic knowledge. You don't need to be so nervous."
It was as if these words had triggered a chain reaction, and the other teachers in the office chimed in to comfort Shinichi one after another.
Several female teachers even offered to help him cover a class, telling Shinichi he could just watch and learn from the side.
Shinichi naturally expressed his gratitude for the offer, though he politely declined the substitute teaching part.
He had systematically studied pedagogy, after all; at least he still had the ability to fool—no, guide a bunch of brats.
Finding a random excuse, Shinichi hurried out of the office.
Passing by the courtyard, he watched students spitting flames and leaping dozens of meters into the air, a constant reminder that this was no longer his peaceful and safe world.
Before long, he had arrived at the door of his classroom.
Although Shinichi was only a new teacher, he was still qualified to be a homeroom teacher.
Mostly because the Ninja Academy was severely short on teachers—and of course, he was assigned to a class of fresh recruits.
Shinichi looked down at the class roster in his hand and spotted several familiar names right away.
First were the future Konoha guardians, Kotetsu Hagane and Izumo Kamizuki, followed by Hana Inuzuka—the older sister of future Konoha 11 member Kiba Inuzuka—and Iruka, the future teacher to the Hokage.
Further down was Gekko Hayate, the protagonist of the Shippuden era, and to Shinichi's utter astonishment, Uchiha Shisui was also in this very class.
Such a tiny classroom actually housed this many future heavyweights.
Shinichi had no idea what kind of feelings were swirling inside him as he finally stepped into the classroom.
The classroom layout of this era was identical to the later years.
The students' seats were arranged like a modern tiered lecture hall, with each row higher than the one in front of it—likely designed so that every single student could clearly see the blackboard at the front.
The moment Shinichi walked through the door, the classroom instantly quieted down. After all, they were only five or six years old, and they still held a mix of awe and curiosity toward the authority of a teacher.
Of course, there were exceptions; Hana Inuzuka was still chattering away with her little best friend next to her.
A gray-and-white puppy on the desk was also shaking its head from side to side.
Her friend seemed to sense something, hurriedly straightening up her posture, and Hana stopped her little conversation with obvious reluctance.
Seeing everyone sitting quietly in their seats, Shinichi finally stepped up to the podium, a gentle smile on his face as he spoke to the class:
"My name is Shinichi Chiba, and I will be your homeroom teacher moving forward. I'm mainly responsible for teaching you the subject of Ninjutsu."
"If you encounter any difficulties in the future, feel free to come to me, okay?"
"Now that I've introduced myself, shouldn't you all introduce yourselves as well?"
Hearing this, most of the students didn't react much.
On their very first day of class, their elders had given them strict warnings to listen to the teachers, or else they'd be locked away in the Military Police Force's dark cells.
Of course, the bigger reason was simple shyness; none of them wanted to be the first to stand up and speak.
Yet where there are shy kids, there are always bolder ones. Hana Inuzuka, with face paint smeared across her cheeks, stood up and said loudly and cheerfully:
"Teacher Shinichi, my name is Hana Inuzuka, from the Inuzuka Clan. I love puppies, and my dream is to become a great female shinobi just like Lady Tsunade."
With Hana taking the lead, the other students stood up one after another to introduce themselves.
For a moment, the entire classroom livened up with cheerful energy.
It wasn't until Uchiha Shisui stood up to introduce himself that the rest of the students stopped messing around and fell silent instead.
Clearly, even at their tender age, they already knew the Uchiha name was one they shouldn't mess with.
Seeing this, Shisui sighed inwardly, then proceeded with his introduction:
"My name is Uchiha Shisui, from the Uchiha Clan. I like eating three-color dango, and my dream is..."
He had wanted to say his dream was to achieve peaceful coexistence between Konoha and the Uchiha, but upon catching the looks of disgust from the surrounding classmates, he sat back down with a lonely expression.
Seeing Shisui cut his introduction short halfway through, Shinichi didn't ask why, simply telling Shisui's deskmate to introduce himself next.
After everyone finished their introductions, Shinichi motioned for the class to quiet down.
"Before we start our lesson, does anyone here know the name of the place where we live?"
The moment Shinichi's question left his lips, the classroom instantly erupted like a boiling pot, buzzing with excitement.
The children shouted out answers over one another, some yelling "Land of Fire" at the top of their lungs, while others cried out "Konoha."
Shinichi didn't try to stop the uproar in the classroom; he just quietly watched the children enthusiastically debating among themselves.
It wasn't until everyone realized that no one could convince the others that they collectively turned their gazes back toward Shinichi.
Their eyes seemed filled with anticipation, all hoping Shinichi would validate their own point of view.
"Classmates, your answers are actually all correct. The place we live in is Konoha, and Konoha is a part of the Land of Fire."
Before the students could fully digest this answer, Shinichi continued:
"Speaking of this, we have to talk about a piece of history.
Before the Shinobi Village era, historians called that period the Warring States Period.
It was an era of utter and complete chaos.
In order to fight for resources, shinobi often used their clans as units to engage in endless, chaotic warfare.
During those turbulent times, the average human lifespan was barely over thirty years.
Even more terrifyingly, countless young children died untimely deaths."
At this point, Shinichi's tone involuntarily dropped into a low, somber register, though it quickly picked back up with renewed vigor.
"Against the backdrop of such chaos, two young men once made a pact.
They swore to change the world together, to ensure there would be no more innocent victims, and to keep young children from ever losing their lives to war again.
However, fate played a cruel trick on them.
Those two youths were eventually forced into opposing camps, compelled to fight for their respective clans.
Yet, one of those young men always kept his original intention close to heart.
After becoming the head of his clan, he relentlessly continued to strive for his dream.
Through his efforts, the other youth finally laid aside the prejudice in his heart.
After joining forces, these two clans became incomparably powerful, and no other shinobi clan could rival them.
In the end, they created the paradise of their dreams—'Konoha.'
Konoha Hidden Village possesses advanced ideologies and systems, acting like a giant magnet that attracts more and more people to join.
From then on, they fulfilled the dream they had originally shared.
Ever since that day, young children were no longer forced to pick up weapons and rush off to the battlefield, and the deaths of innocent people were drastically reduced."
"Wherever the leaves dance, the fire is also burning. The light of the fire will continue to illuminate the village and nurture new leaves."