Ninja Academy

Finally, the day of the Ninja Academy's opening arrived.

The Ninja Academy in Konoha started in April. In another month, Satoru would turn six.

His father, Mitokado Homura, brought Satoru to register. As expected, they spotted a big fat man with a little fat boy—

Torifu Akimichi of the Akimichi clan, bringing Akimichi Choza, also here to sign up.

"Homura, I didn't expect you to personally escort Satoru here."

Though Torifu Akimichi was built like a mountain of flesh, imposing in presence, he was actually a gentle, good-natured man.

"I thought you'd be attending the opening ceremony with the Third Hokage as usual."

"Heh... it's my son's opening ceremony after all. The Third Hokage gave me an hour off."

Mitokado Homura patted Satoru on the shoulder. His face, always stern and rigid before outsiders, softened into a faint smile in front of this old comrade-in-arms:

"So, the heirs of your Ino-Shika-Cho three clans—are they ready?"

"Them..."

Torifu Akimichi glanced at Choza, who was making faces at Satoru, and his chubby cheeks jiggled happily:

"Choza being this cheerful is thanks to Satoru. I hope he and the boys from the Nara and Yamanaka clans can get along well at school..."

"Every generation of Ino-Shika-Cho, the heir of our Akimichi clan, has to overcome their own hurdles first."

"Choza will be fine," Mitokado Homura said with a smile. "Satoru will help him too... Look, the Nara and Yamanaka families are here. Go on over."

Torifu Akimichi turned to look, nodded, smiled as he bid farewell to father and son, and led Choza toward the other two old friends.

"Satoru, the Akimichi clan is a major family that's existed since the village's founding, same as the Nara and Yamanaka clans. You need to get along well at school."

At home, Mitokado Homura was a somewhat stubborn father, but from the village's perspective, he was an authoritative, cool-headed advisor.

In his view, the major clans of Konoha had their own degrees of closeness and distance.

"Satoru, Homura's right... if you want to make something of yourself in the village, you need to start working hard now."

Another voice rang out. Satoru turned to see a serious-faced female ninja with a topknot walking toward them.

"Koharu, you're here. Is Hiruzen about to start?"

Utatane Koharu, a female ninja who, like Mitokado Homura, served as a high-ranking advisor in Konoha, was skilled in Medical Ninjutsu and possessed a rare calm rationality among female ninjas.

"Yes, I came to get you to go together."

She smiled at Satoru, who was pursing his lips, then crouched down to look at him:

"I'm sorry, Satoru. You'll have to go into the school and attend the opening ceremony on your own..."

"As for what I just said—you're Homura's son, so you should understand, right? Well, do your best!"

Watching his father and his female colleague disappear from sight, Satoru pressed his temples:

"Two old fossils... The Mitokado Satoru from the original world—did he take your words to heart so deeply that he ended up as some nonexistent nobody?"

At the opening ceremony, holding his admission letter, Mitokado Satoru stood in line with a twitching mouth.

A 6-year-old body with a 28-year-old soul—maybe it was some kind of neutralization? Satoru felt his personality was about the same as a teenager's.

But that didn't stop him from seeing things through a 28-year-old's eyes.

At the front of the crowd was the Third Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, wearing the Hokage Cloak, a red-and-white robe, holding a pipe, and rambling on endlessly.

The old Hokage—Satoru had seen him a few times. A die-hard chain smoker.

But old man, with all that smoking and all that talking, aren't you thirsty?

He'd been going on for over an hour!

Satoru could already vaguely see that the bangs of the students in the front row were a little damp!

"As expected of the top leader... his speechifying talent is maxed out."

Satoru rubbed the corner of his mouth to calm the twitching muscles.

As a harmless intellectual from a socialist background, Satoru's views on Konoha and the Third Hokage were pretty aligned with the netizens'.

He was an indecisive old man. Gentle and kind, yes, but also overly cautious and hesitant.

During Sarutobi Hiruzen's tenure, Konoha was at its peak, producing a wave of brilliant genius ninjas.

Then the Third Hokage himself ran it into a talent gap.

The unnecessary losses in Konoha's strength could have wiped out an entire nation.

The rogue ninjas who left Konoha could have ended the world.

If those people were still in Konoha, none of those nagging troubles would have happened.

This old man wasn't rational enough when he needed to be, and not decisive enough when he needed to be. He let some inexplicable scruples throw him into chaos.

The Professor of Ninjutsu, after all, wasn't a professor of sociology. He couldn't reach the First Hokage's level of overwhelming force, and he was soft-hearted to boot. He kept trying to balance things by weakening, and in the end, he lost control.

The First Hokage's "Will of Fire"—in that era of war—was a simple slogan, and one of the key reasons the major clans of Konoha were willing to pledge allegiance.

But times change. If a slogan can't keep pace with the era, it will eventually become empty words.

The First Hokage's Will of Fire was hope, was the future, was a seed.

The Second Hokage's Will of Fire was protection, was inheritance, was a sapling.

The Third Hokage's Will of Fire should have been development, was accumulation, was a great tree.

Yet the Third Hokage's Will of Fire did not grow healthily toward lush branches and dense leaves, toward many trees forming a forest.

Instead, it was plagued by pests and diseases, damaging its own branches, rotting its roots, shedding its leaves—a giant tree about to topple, leaving the Fourth Hokage with a mess of internal strife and external threats.

And the Fourth Hokage, before he could realize his ambitions, died young, leaving only the Third Hokage to barely hold things together in his old age.

Among those of the Fourth Hokage's generation, there wasn't even another qualified Hokage Candidate!

Oh, there were a few.

Either they defected, or their spirit was broken, or their mind wasn't on it.

There were those with the ambition, but they had long been pushed out of the center of power.

A perfect hand played to ruin.

Not to mention, mixed in with all this, the various dark fantasies the internet crowd loves to imagine.

After these past few years of observation, Satoru doesn't think it's that complicated.

The Third Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, simply lacked the ability to command.

He couldn't manage Konoha at its peak, and as he aged, his authority waned further, leading to all the mess that followed.

So now, when he rambles on to his students with those speeches, normal young Konoha kids listen with shining eyes and unwavering conviction...

To Satoru, it sounds no different from the spiel that idiot boss he got fired from gave during meetings.

Still, Konoha can still be saved.

Though Satoru isn't some savior, since his old man counts as one of Konoha's higher-ups, for the old man's sake, he can't let Konoha end up that miserable later.

As for what exactly to do...

"I'll figure it out when the time comes..."

Satoru isn't a pitying priest, a holy paladin, or a fearless warrior. He's just a rational, self-aware mage... apprentice.

From a rational perspective, when the details aren't under his control, rashly interfering with the main plot is suicide.

But since he's here, his very existence is the biggest variable interfering with the main plot.

"So the safest approach is to build up strength before the big turning points, and at least have a few reliable companions."

"A mage is too fragile in the early stages. Without companions to help, relying only on clever tricks won't let me survive to the finale in this supernatural world."