Power Reshuffle in Kumogakure

At this point, those who had yet to choose to support the Third Raikage were basically those whose interests were deeply tied to the two advisors.

The Jonin Council easily passed the Third Raikage's proposal to add two advisor positions, then smoothly promoted two of his trusted confidants to advisors.

With that, Kumogakure's upper ranks had gone from four people to six, while the Third Raikage's side had grown from two to four.

The balance of power had shifted from evenly matched to completely one-sided.

At the Jonin Council meeting, Chiba Shun did nothing and said nothing. He merely raised his hand three times.

Once to approve the addition of advisor positions, and twice more to approve the two advisors nominated by the Third Raikage.

Oh, and Chiba Shun had some impression of one of the two new advisors.

It was Dodai, who had gone to Konoha as an envoy in the original story.

The day after the Jonin Council meeting, the heads of many positions in Kumogakure were replaced.

However, from beginning to end, the Third Raikage did not kill anyone, nor did he remove the two advisors who had effectively been stripped of power.

To maintain the appearance of peace, the two would announce their retirement a year later.

In truth, whether they announced it or not no longer mattered.

After that Jonin Council meeting, they never went to work at the Cloud Ninja Building again.

Their offices remained, but their authority was gone.

Chiba Shun believed that the vast majority of the village's Jonin would no longer treat their words as orders from the upper ranks.

This internal struggle had involved no bloodshed, no rebellion, and naturally, no defections.

Because the two advisors were still alive, the Jonin they had supported had even less reason to defect.

Although they had lost important positions, these Jonin still chose to pledge loyalty to the Third Raikage.

The Third Raikage had minimized the impact of this matter on Kumogakure.

The village's strength had not been damaged, which was a good thing for Kumogakure, which was already short on manpower.

The Third Raikage's gentle methods had also earned the recognition of all the Jonin.

The major reshuffle among the village's upper ranks had not actually affected Chiba Shun.

Aoki Yuyi and he were both on the Raikage's side, so neither of them had been touched.

Chiba Shun did not inquire into the affairs of the other departments either.

Chiba Shun only felt some regret that he had not personally dragged Advisor Yukio, who was always making things difficult for him, down from his position.

The last time Chiba Shun left Kumogakure, he had encountered bounty ninja just after leaving the Land of Lightning. He suspected that Advisor Yukio and the others had been involved.

However, just as Chiba Shun began cultivating the Yin Release Danzo had given him, an order spread throughout Kumogakure.

All ninja and ninja apprentices aged eight and under had to return to the Ninja Academy for retraining.

He had even ordered that the children of all ninja clans had to attend the Ninja Academy as well!

The Third Raikage directly abolished the original ninja training system, making the Ninja Academy the village's sole institution for training ninja.

It was a rather drastic move, but since it was the Third Raikage's first decree after fully taking control of power, no one opposed it.

At the very least, those who opposed it temporarily swallowed their anger.

This was not the time to confront the Third Raikage at the height of his power.

They all knew about the Third Raikage's fiery temper. His use of gentle methods to seize power last time had already surprised everyone.

No one could be sure that the Third Raikage would remain so good-tempered next time.

They could only wait for the future and influence the village's upper ranks through the slow-boiling-frog approach.

Aoki Yuyi was finally relieved when he received the news.

The expansion of the Ninja Academy not only meant greater authority and more funding.

It also erased his previous concerns.

No wonder the Third Raikage had kept two Jonin stationed at the Ninja Academy despite the manpower shortage.

Now that the Ninja Academy was expanding, let alone two Jonin, it would not be too many even if two more were added.

In fact, the Third Raikage had indeed assigned more manpower to the Ninja Academy.

For example, Yozuki A had entered the Ninja Academy as vice principal.

However, Yozuki A did not directly participate in the Ninja Academy's affairs. This was merely the Third Raikage's way of conveying his determination to reform to all Kumogakure shinobi.

Chiba Shun had no choice but to postpone his Yin Release training. With so many students entering the Ninja Academy, he was destined to lose his leisure time.

Especially since these students were different from those recruited before.

They already had a foundation in ninja training. Many had experienced battle, the vast majority had completed missions, and some talented ones had even learned jutsu.

Aoki Yuyi, Yozuki A, Chiba Shun, and Ichikawa Yuka, another female Jonin who had newly joined the Ninja Academy, gathered together to discuss how to arrange these children.

Aoki Yuyi looked at Chiba Shun. For this sort of matter, they still had to hear Chiba Shun's thoughts first.

Yozuki A had no objections either. He also felt that only Chiba Shun's brain could solve this problem.

The last person looked at Aoki Yuyi and Yozuki A, then wisely chose to remain silent.

Chiba Shun thought for a moment and said, "First, we need to understand these people's circumstances and compare them with our current students."

"The village has lost so many people who were originally carrying out missions. It was already short on manpower, and now it must be even more understaffed."

"We do not have much time. We must quickly get a group of children to graduate."

"I suggest we establish a quantifiable standard and score everyone's abilities."

Aoki Yuyi and the other three did not understand. They looked at Chiba Shun and waited for his explanation.

Chiba Shun said, "We'll list out all of a ninja's attributes."

"For example: hand seals, taijutsu, ninjutsu, Illusion Technique, swordsmanship, concealed weapons, actual combat, chakra control, medical skills, sealing, perception, and intelligence."

Mm, the intelligence attribute was the same wise character as in Wise Two.

Speaking of Wise Two, he seemed to be two or three years old now. Chiba Shun wondered whether he could help an old lady cross the street yet.

These were the various attributes Chiba Shun had listed based on some of the original story's settings.

Quickly pulling back his wandering thoughts, Chiba Shun continued, "For outstanding ninja, we also need to note their talent in the various chakra attributes."

"For example, I have an Earth attribute, while Senior Aoki has a Lightning attribute."

"Each category will be worth ten points. Considering that some children are geniuses and may have reached a very high level in a certain area, I think we should simply use the ordinary Jonin standard as ten points."

Seeing that no one spoke, Chiba Shun added, "We'll hold standardized examinations and use standardized scoring, then rearrange the classes according to their scores and ages."

"Because these people are generally more talented, we can create an elite class for every age group. It does not matter if the elite classes are not full; they can have fewer students and cover more advanced material."

"Also, we need to make use of the Ninja Academy's strengths. The Ninja Academy's greatest feature is its comprehensiveness. We have talent in every field, and with the village's full support for this reform, we can recruit more ninja with specialized skills."

"So after dividing the classes, we can provide targeted supplementary lessons. Especially for the older ones, who will soon become official ninja, we cannot let them have overly obvious weaknesses."

"Besides, the village has recently obtained many jutsu. In the past, we would have given up even if we encountered geniuses with attributes other than Lightning, but now we can train them all."

As he spoke, Chiba Shun looked at Yozuki A.

Yozuki A understood what Chiba Shun meant. He nodded and said, "I'll speak with Lord Raikage about the jutsu."

Because this was a formal occasion, he did not say Father, but Lord Raikage.

Chiba Shun continued, "The last point is to divide these children into groups."

"I wonder whether the Ninja Academy has an obligation to group the children?"

Yozuki A and Aoki Yuyi exchanged glances, then Aoki Yuyi said, "Tell us what you have in mind. If it is suitable, I'll report it to Lord Raikage."

Chiba Shun nodded. "Previously, our jutsu attributes were too singular, so team compositions were very simple."

"But now, we have some jutsu from all five attributes, as well as Illusion Technique, so there are many possible combinations."

"I suggest that we divide the students into groups first, then have the team leaders confirm them. If they have no objections, we'll proceed according to the plan."

"When assigning teams, we can reasonably distribute close-combat ninja and long-range ninja, taijutsu ninja and ninjutsu ninja."

"Additionally, we can specifically form reconnaissance teams, firepower teams, rapid-response teams, and intelligence-analysis teams."

"For some genius teams, we can even consider assigning a medical ninja."

"Of course, with so many students, quite a few will certainly be unsuitable to become combat ninja. We can also consider their placement and see whether they can be directly assigned to the village's various logistical departments."

Chiba Shun rambled on about a great many things, leaving Aoki Yuyi and the other three completely unable to get a word in.

They could not understand how Chiba Shun had so many ideas in his head.

After they had a general direction, the four divided up their tasks and began working separately.

Chiba Shun's task was simple, yet troublesome.

He had to create assessment papers for every student to evaluate their scores in various abilities.

There had to be one for every type of ability!

Hand seals only needed to be tested on those who knew jutsu. That was simple: have them perform a jutsu once and measure their hand seal speed.

Taijutsu was simple as well. Speed, strength, and combat techniques could be scored by arranging for several Chunin to evaluate them.

Ninjutsu was more troublesome, as the vast majority of students had never actually tested their own attributes.

Chiba Shun simply ignored those people and directly stipulated that anyone whose chakra amount had not reached a certain level would automatically receive zero points for ninjutsu talent.

He only needed to test the remaining people whose chakra amounts met the standard.

Their attributes needed to be classified, and each person would be given a C-rank Jutsu. The rest would depend on their talent.

Chiba Shun estimated that even after obtaining jutsu, not many would truly be able to learn them.

Testing Illusion Technique was simple. They only needed to find a ninja who knew Illusion Technique to cast a group illusion on the students and see who broke through it first.

Swordsmanship, concealed weapons, and actual combat could be tested together with taijutsu.

Chakra control could be tested through tree climbing and water walking, though they needed to establish scoring standards.

For support skills such as medical skills and sealing, interest would take priority. Those who were interested would be prioritized, while those who were not would be left alone for the time being.

They would organize those who were interested into elective classes. These fields required a great deal of time investment, so results probably would not be visible in the short term. For now, they would first test their theoretical knowledge of medical skills and sealing.