Cultivation

Over the next few days.

Aside from handling day-to-day affairs and developing Yin-Yang Release with Shadow Clones, Yan spent most of his time with Kabuto and the four other children of Uchiha descent.

The children had been carefully selected from the clan by Yashiro. They were about the same age as Kabuto, around eight or nine.

They were relatively bold, quick-witted, and highly impressionable.

Under Yan's guidance, the children got along quite well with one another.

During this time, Yan didn't teach them any ninjutsu. He only explained a few simple things, such as changes in the nature of chakra.

His main focus was cultivating their scientific thinking.

What was scientific thinking? It was a way of thinking that followed logical rules, relied on evidence, and was both critical and creative.

As for how to cultivate it...

First, they needed to study a broad range of scientific knowledge and build a solid foundation, giving their minds the material and groundwork they needed.

For that, he'd have to find Orochimaru.

Yan didn't know jack shit. The things he'd learned during his nine years of compulsory education had long since slipped his mind.

He could only recall bits and pieces when something happened to jog his memory.

A little here and a little there.

Second, they needed to focus on observation and practice, gaining experience and discovering problems through firsthand experience.

Yan had no problem with that. He just had to take them out to see more of the world and ask more questions.

He couldn't explain the theory, but playing devil's advocate was easy enough, right?

Third, he needed to cultivate their critical thinking. They shouldn't blindly accept existing conclusions, but should evaluate and question information, then analyze whether it was reliable and reasonable.

That wouldn't be much of a problem either. Put simply, he needed to get them to be bolder, to question everything in the world—even traditional beliefs.

There were also a few other odds and ends, like taking part in scientific discussions, learning to ask questions, and doing logic exercises.

Yan would teach them whatever he could, and find a way to teach them whatever he couldn't. If all else failed, he'd send them over to Orochimaru.

Yan trusted that Orochimaru could handle it.

As for reading scientific books and papers, that was just nonsense.

Did the Ninja World even have such things?

Orochimaru himself was a quack scientist, after all. It was only because chakra was such a versatile catch-all.

He could attach any hypothesis to it.

And the best part was that the success rate wasn't even low. Wasn't that incredible?

One afternoon.

After taking care of affairs in the Special Zone, Yan took the five children to an outlying area.

This was also within the Special Zone, near the Forest of Death. It was thick with trees, and the forest covered a full third of the area.

Or at least, it had before.

Many clan members and civilian ninja had now been hired by the Special Zone to cut down two-thirds of the forest.

Some of the land would be cleared for farming, while the rest would be used to build residential areas and factories.

The Special Zone didn't cover much land, and its population wasn't very large, so Yan had to make use of every inch of ground and get the most out of it.

Hiring ninja cost more, but it was worth it for the speed.

One person could do the work of more than ten in a day.

When he put it that way, Yan was actually saving money!

"Tell me what you think!" Yan pointed to the ninja using jutsu to fell trees and clear the land, then asked the five children beside him, "When you see them, what comes to mind?"

At Yan's question, Kabuto stirred slightly, as if an idea had occurred to him.

But he was good at reading people. Seeing the other children looking troubled, he held his thought back for the time being.

Gradually, a long while passed without anyone speaking.

Yan frowned, then pointed at one of them at random.

"Shigeru, you tell me!"

When Shigeru heard Yan call his name, his little face immediately fell. With a hint of a whine in his voice, he answered reluctantly.

"Lord Yan, I can't think of anything, but they're really amazing!"

Yan smiled and patted his head. "You're right. They are amazing, but what makes them amazing?"

After speaking, he looked toward the child in the crowd with deep tear troughs on either side of his nose.

"Itachi, you tell me!"

That's right, Uchiha Itachi was one of the five children too.

It had been a sudden idea of Yan's.

Uchiha Itachi was clever, but when faced with a problem, he liked to think it through on his own instead of taking action and putting it into practice.

If things continued that way, something was bound to go wrong sooner or later!

He might as well send Itachi over to Orochimaru and broaden his horizons.

At the sound of his name, Itachi lifted his head slightly. He turned his gaze away from the ninja clearing the land and looked at Yan, then gave his answer.

"Lord Yan, ninja are far more efficient than ordinary people."

"Powerful ninja can do the work of dozens or even hundreds of people by themselves."

"If all ninja could work like that, then..."

"Then ordinary people would be left with no way to make a living!" Kabuto interrupted.

Hearing someone disagree with him, Itachi felt a flicker of displeasure. "Why?"

"If all the ninja went to farm and clear land, the amount of food would increase dramatically. Everyone could eat their fill, and there'd be no need to fight over resources anymore."

"Wouldn't that bring peace to the world?"

Kabuto met Itachi's gaze and shook his head. "Itachi, you're oversimplifying things!"

"Setting aside the question of why ninja would share the food they worked so hard to grow with ordinary people..."

"Let me ask you this: if the ninja did all that work, what would ordinary people do?"

"Ordinary people?" Itachi furrowed his brows. "They could do some simpler jobs!"

"Ninja are still a minority. They can't possibly cover every field."

Kabuto nodded, indicating that he agreed with that part of Itachi's argument, but quickly countered him again. "True, ninja can't cover every field!"

"But have you considered that they don't need to? They only have to take over the main fields that affect people's livelihoods."

"For example, the things Lord Yan mentioned: food, clothing, housing, and transportation, along with fields like medicine. That would be enough to control the lives and deaths of ordinary people."

"But isn't that already the case?" Itachi retorted.

"At least if there's more food, ordinary people won't starve to death because they have nothing to eat."

Kabuto let out a soft sigh and was about to speak.

But Yan interrupted them. "All right!"

"You can keep discussing this question among yourselves later."

"I'm glad you can debate each other based on your own views, but when you look at things, you often need to consider the whole picture."

Kabuto and Itachi exchanged a look, both gave a cold snort, then turned away.

As luck would have it.

Itachi turned toward Yan, so he continued with another question.

"May I ask what your opinion is, Lord Yan?"

Yan shook his head and didn't answer directly. He simply turned to lead the children away, leaving them with one final remark.

"The Ninja World is a supernatural world, a world where individual power outweighs everything else."

With that, Yan and the other three children gradually disappeared into the distance.

Only Kabuto and Itachi remained where they stood, frowning as they pondered Yan's words.