"Chakra has five basic natures and two special natures. The five basic natures are water, earth, wind, lightning, and fire, while the two special natures are Yin and Yang. A shinobi who lacks a specific nature's chakra cannot use ninjutsu of that nature. Take myself, for example. When I first awakened, I only had earth nature. Now, after several years of training, I have managed to cultivate fire nature chakra."
"Like this!"
Teacher Shinichi formed Hand Seals rapidly with both hands, exhaled, and spat out a massive fireball roughly five meters in diameter, launching it toward a giant boulder not far away.
Seeing the huge fireball, the students below erupted into complete excitement.
No matter how well a lesson was taught, some would inevitably find it dry—especially a group of five- and six-year-old children. To boost the students' enthusiasm, Teacher Shinichi had specially moved this class outdoors.
"Teacher, Teacher, can you teach us this?"
"Teacher, is this ninjutsu?"
...
"Alright, everyone, you can quiet down now."
Hearing Teacher Shinichi's words, the students below quieted down instantly. In fact, Reiya Yamanaka, who had been chattering nonstop, was immediately clamped over the mouth by Hana Inuzuka.
Seeing the students' brimming enthusiasm, Teacher Shinichi nodded with satisfaction and continued:
"This is Fire Release ninjutsu. It took a very long time of training for me to cultivate fire nature chakra. Only after cultivating fire nature chakra was I able to use Fire Release ninjutsu. The same principle applies to the other natures."
Seeing that some students were still nodding in sudden realization, Teacher Shinichi couldn't help feeling speechless. *Did I not literally just explain that?*
"The prerequisite for using ninjutsu is chakra. Without chakra, whether it is ninjutsu, Genjutsu, or Taijutsu, we have no qualifications to use it."
"So, let me ask you all a small question: do you know what action I performed just now when I used Fire Release?"
Hearing Teacher Shinichi's question, most of the students looked blank. They had only heard a swoosh, seen Teacher Shinichi move away from them, and then a giant fireball appeared before everyone's eyes.
"Teacher, it was Hand Seals!"
A crisp voice rang out from among them.
"Correct, Iruka-kun is doing great. It seems Iruka-kun was observing very carefully."
With that, Teacher Shinichi took a piece of candy from his pocket and handed it to Iruka.
Hearing Teacher Shinichi's praise, Iruka's face turned beet red, but the corners of his mouth refused to stay down.
"Damn it, it's Iruka again. I thought of it too! Next time, I'm definitely going to be the one the teacher praises."
Seeing his close friend's sour tone, Kotetsu Hagane smiled without refuting him.
After Iruka's little interlude, every student buckled down with absolute focus, all hoping to earn Teacher Shinichi's praise.
"Alright, everyone, class is over. Go ahead and take a break for a while."
Hearing the class bell ring, Teacher Shinichi had no intention of keeping them late. After giving the students a few instructions, he began gathering his things and walked toward his office.
[Lecture complete. Calculating evaluation.]
[Evaluation: Good]
[Reward obtained: Body Flicker Technique Mastery]
*It's actually the Body Flicker Technique!* Teacher Shinichi gave the system a mental thumbs-up.
When he had used the Body Flicker Technique on the playground just now, it had felt exceptionally stiff. If his level of body control hadn't been vastly improved, he probably would have failed the technique entirely.
"Inoue-san, how come you're heading to the front lines too?"
The moment he stepped into the office, Teacher Shinichi heard his colleagues talking.
"Alas, my name is on the roster for the front lines this time. There's nothing I can do about it!" Inoue sighed heavily.
"Did something happen?"
Hearing the word "front lines," Teacher Shinichi couldn't help stepping closer to fish for information.
"Oh, it's Shinichi!"
"It doesn't really concern us directly, but the Third Hokage of Sunagakure disappeared a while ago."
"Sunagakure has massed a large number of shinobi along the borders of the two nations. This morning, Lord Third called a meeting of the Jonin and ordered a batch of shinobi to be summoned to the front lines. Inoue-san is on that roster."
Hearing that teachers were needed on the front lines, Teacher Shinichi felt puzzled and couldn't help asking:
"Tanaka-san, why are teachers being sent to the front lines in the first batch?"
Hearing this, Tanaka couldn't help chuckling. Just as he was about to answer, Inoue, who had been quiet until now, chimed in:
"I studied Medical Ninjutsu on my own for a while."
"I wouldn't say my medical skills are great—just so-so. I never expected to be drafted to the front lines because of it."
As he spoke, Inoue sighed dejectedly again.
Seeing Inoue's miserable state, Teacher Shinichi patted him on the shoulder with a sympathetic expression.
Inoue himself was regretting it a bit. Why on earth had he messed around studying Medical Ninjutsu for no good reason?
"Ah, war!"
Fujiyama, the oldest teacher in the room, couldn't help letting out a sigh.
Konoha had lived through two World Wars, so it was hardly a stranger to war—especially since only a few years had passed since the Second Great Ninja War.
"Alright, alright, the war hasn't even broken out yet. Talking about all this now is a bit too early, don't you think?"
Seeing that the mood in the office was turning heavy, Tanaka quickly changed the subject.
"By the way, Shinichi, how do you feel your classes have been going lately? Are the kids in your class especially mischievous?"
Shinichi knew Tanaka was changing the subject, but at the thought of the unusually well-behaved students in his class, he suddenly didn't know how to answer.
However, he quickly recovered and said:
"The students in my class are all quite well-behaved. It's just that they're too young, and when I teach them, some of the concepts are a bit difficult for them to understand."
"Teacher Shinichi, you're taking things too seriously."
"The stuff we're teaching right now doesn't really help the students all that much anyway."
"The students who actually want to learn will master this knowledge on their own later on."
Inoue, who had remained silent, suddenly spoke up.
Hearing this, Teacher Shinichi was stunned at first, and then felt it sounded rather absurd, though for a moment he couldn't think of how to refute it.
The atmosphere in the office instantly grew stifling.
"Inoue-san, you can't say something like that. What do you mean it doesn't help the students much?"
Seeing that Teacher Shinichi hadn't chimed in, a female teacher couldn't help speaking up.
"That's right! What do you mean our teaching is useless?" Other female teachers chimed in as well.
...
"Everyone, everyone, ladies, I misspoke."
"How about this: tonight, I'll treat everyone to yakiniku. Consider it my farewell party."
Seeing that he had provoked the public wrath of the room, Inoue hurried to apologize.
Hearing Inoue's apology, the other teachers found it hard to keep pressing the issue, though they didn't immediately accept his offer to treat them.
Seeing that everyone else agreed to go, Shinichi naturally didn't want to stand out by refusing, so he also indicated that he would attend Inoue's farewell party.