Will of Lightning

The person in charge of the Ninja Academy was a young Jonin named Aoki Yuyi. He was not that old, and becoming a Jonin at his age already made him a genius in the eyes of ordinary shinobi.

After reviewing Chiba Shun's record, he asked him curiously, "I assume you know the Ninja Academy's current situation."

"The Ninja Academy originally had twenty Chunin, but now only three remain."

"At thirteen, you were already able to kill a Chunin alone. Your talent is decent too, so why did you choose the Ninja Academy?"

"What do you intend to do by coming to an institution that is about to be abolished?"

Chiba Shun smiled. "Senior Aoki, the reason the Ninja Academy has fallen to this state is because the direction you set was wrong!"

Aoki Yuyi looked at Chiba Shun with an unreadable expression, waiting for him to continue.

Seeing this, Chiba Shun went on, "Senior Aoki, you wanted to use the Ninja Academy to cultivate a group of loyal subordinates, thereby raising your status in the village, didn't you?"

Aoki Yuyi still said nothing.

Chiba Shun had guessed correctly. That had indeed been his plan, and the result was that the Ninja Academy was now stuck in an awkward position.

It had neither numbers nor elites.

Chiba Shun continued, "The Ninja Academy's first priority should be training cannon fodder!"

"Its second priority should be selecting elites from among vast numbers of cannon fodder!"

"The first step does you no good, but if you fail to accomplish it, you will have no conditions to carry out the second!"

Aoki Yuyi's expression changed. Only then did he lower his head and seriously consider Chiba Shun's words.

A moment later, he looked up at Chiba Shun. "Tell me your plan!"

Chiba Shun revealed a brilliant smile. Only at this moment was he sure that he had not come here for nothing today!

He said with a smile, "The Ninja Academy needs to expand. It needs to take in all the village's orphans."

"Beyond that, it needs to search for orphans throughout the Land of Lightning, even in other countries."

"Only with sufficient numbers can the Ninja Academy serve its purpose."

"Then these orphans must be indoctrinated. They must be made loyal to the village and willing to fight and die for it!"

"Senior Aoki, you must recognize one reality: the overwhelming majority of Ninja Academy students are merely there to make up the numbers."

"To put it bluntly, as long as they can refine chakra, hand them a few kunai and they can be sent to the battlefield!"

"Only once the Ninja Academy proves useful will the village devote more resources to it, and only then can it attract the children of civilians, even the children of shinobi."

"Only among shinobi's children can the geniuses you need possibly emerge!"

When Aoki Yuyi heard Chiba Shun's first point, he had initially wanted to refute it. Funding was already insufficient, so how could they expand enrollment?

But when he heard the second point, his attention was immediately diverted.

This had actually been a huge problem troubling him all along.

Over the past few years, the Ninja Academy had trained some people. Although they had not yet become true shinobi, he knew their fighting spirit was not particularly strong.

At the very least, it was far inferior to shinobi like Chiba Shun, who had followed a Chunin or even a Jonin on various missions since childhood.

But Chiba Shun's mention of indoctrination piqued his interest.

He immediately pressed, "How do we indoctrinate them?"

Chiba Shun slowly uttered four words: "The Will of Lightning!"

Aoki Yuyi pondered for several seconds, then said, "Like Konoha's Will of Fire?"

He personally dismissed Konoha's so-called Will of Fire with disdain. If such a thing truly existed, how could Konoha have been besieged? How could it have suffered so many casualties, only to rely on its allies' support to hold on in the end?

So he had never considered this approach.

Chiba Shun nodded. "That's right. Only then can this cannon fodder fulfill its purpose!"

Aoki Yuyi asked curiously, "How do you plan to promote the Will of Lightning?"

Chiba Shun had long since thought it through, so he answered without hesitation, "Naturally, by smearing Konoha and praising the Raikage throughout the generations!"

Aoki Yuyi shook his head. "You may not know this, but Hashirama was universally acknowledged as the strongest in the Shinobi World. Even Madara was far beyond anything our Raikage could handle."

"Konoha has the credentials to promote itself. We do not."

Chiba Shun smiled. "Of course I know how powerful Hashirama was, but precisely because Konoha is powerful, we need to promote this even more."

"We can portray Konoha as a demon, while our First Raikage was a hero who resisted the demon's rule!"

"And Hashirama and Madara's final battle can be portrayed as dogs tearing at each other, an internal conflict caused by an uneven division of interests!"

Upon hearing that, Aoki Yuyi subconsciously opened his mouth wide.

Yet Chiba Shun continued, "The Senju Clan and the Uchiha Clan were both ambitious schemers who sought to enslave the entire Shinobi World, while Kumogakure is a pure land that protects the civilians of the Land of Lightning from oppression."

"Those two powerful men are dead now, but their descendants and the shinobi clans attached to them have inherited their ambitions."

"Konoha fights internal conflicts while releasing its ambitions upon the outside world!"

"The recently concluded Second Shinobi World War was something they provoked, and the orphans we have taken in lost their parents precisely because of Konoha's ambitions!"

"Now, Lord Third Raikage has given them a new home. They should fight for Lord Raikage and for the village!"

Aoki Yuyi: ...

The Second Shinobi World War had clearly begun because the other four great shinobi villages saw Konoha's weakness. How had it become something Konoha provoked in Chiba Shun's mouth?

But he understood Chiba Shun's meaning. It was to deliberately invert black and white. This must be indoctrination.

He had originally intended to ask more questions before deciding whether to let Chiba Shun join the Ninja Academy, but now there was no need.

A moment later, he took a deep breath and asked, "What do you want?"

Chiba Shun answered without hesitation, "I want to look through every ninjutsu that passes through the Ninja Academy!"

Poor Chiba Shun. He was an embarrassment to transmigrators—up to now, he had not even learned a single proper elemental ninjutsu.

Chiba Shun continued, "Also, compensation!"

"I'm an orphan, with no clan or elders to support me, so I need a large amount of food to improve my body."

Chiba Shun spoke bluntly, without beating around the bush or speaking in riddles.

However, that manner of speaking suited Kumogakure shinobi's tastes very well.

Aoki Yuyi narrowed his eyes, but still nodded. "That won't be a problem."

Chiba Shun added, "And I hope that when you have time, Senior, you can give me some guidance in my training."

Aoki Yuyi studied Chiba Shun for a few moments. "Fine."

After a pause, he added, "Draft a Ninja Academy reform plan. I will submit it to Lord Raikage!"

Chiba Shun smiled faintly and took out a scroll he had prepared long ago from his ninja tool pouch, handing it to Aoki Yuyi!

Aoki Yuyi froze for a moment before accepting the scroll and reading it carefully.

Aoki Yuyi read while asking questions. The two discussed it for an entire day before Aoki Yuyi finally allowed Chiba Shun to leave.

Over the next dozen days, all of Kumogakure was discussing one matter.

The half-dead Ninja Academy had suddenly begun expanding enrollment, and the order had come directly from Lord Raikage himself.

All the village's orphans were to enter the Ninja Academy, while large numbers of shinobi were sent out to search for orphans.

Moreover, Lord Raikage had overruled all objections and approved a sum of funding for the Ninja Academy's expansion.

The villagers all discussed whether they should send their own children to the Ninja Academy as well.

But the result of those discussions was that no one took action. They still hoped to hand their children directly to a Chunin for training.

Of course, it would be even better if a Jonin took an interest in their child.

At the Ninja Academy, they heard that one Chunin instructor had to teach dozens or even hundreds of students. How could that compare to being taught by a Chunin leading a team?

Only children no shinobi considered worth taking in were sent to the Ninja Academy with a try-it-and-see attitude.

Chiba Shun had been very busy these days, though not with teaching. He was busy arranging accommodations for these children.

The Ninja Academy had originally had only a few hundred people, but now over two thousand people had flooded in all at once.

And those two thousand people ranged widely in age. There were even infants among them.

Fortunately, all the orphanages had been merged together, so their managers had also been brought into the Ninja Academy to handle logistics and care for the orphans' daily lives.

Only half a month after the Ninja Academy expanded its enrollment did its first lesson begin.

The teacher for that lesson was Chiba Shun himself. He had to teach several thousand children of different ages across the entire academy.

Looking at the densely packed, endlessly restless little brats seated on the training ground, Chiba Shun took a deep breath and began his first round of indoctrination!

Originally, something like this should have been handled personally by the Third Raikage, just as Hiruzen Sarutobi had done.

But clearly, the muscle-bound Third Raikage did not possess that talent.

Chiba Shun raised his hand high, coughed heavily, and said to the thousands of little brats below, "Do you know why you became orphans?"

"Do you know at whose hands your parents died?"

Most of the children looked at Chiba Shun in confusion. They had few memories of their parents, but many knew the difference between children with parents and children without them.

Children with parents were treated like treasures. Someone gave them good food, someone gave them toys, and some even had people provide them with the resources needed for training.

But orphans like them had needed to learn how to survive on their own from a very young age. Once they grew a little older, they had to work for others just to earn living expenses. As for training resources, what were those?

Children without parents experienced the cruelty of the Shinobi World earlier than others, and they matured faster. Thus, most of them were drawn in by Chiba Shun's opening words.

Especially the older children. They were already waiting intently for the answer Chiba Shun was about to reveal.

Who, exactly, had made them orphans?

"It was the Land of Fire!"

"It was Konoha!"

"It was the Hokage!"

"It was Konoha's shinobi!"

Chiba Shun gave them the standard answer in an exceptionally firm and unequivocal tone.