Root

Chiba Shun smiled as he answered Aoki Yuyi's question. "Of course we do as he says. Everything he said is quite right and beneficial to the Ninja Academy."

"I guess those suggestions might not have been his own. Danzo and the other Konoha higher-ups probably taught him those things so he could take control of our Ninja Academy."

Aoki Yuyi nodded. "Then let's do it that way. You can handle the specifics."

Chiba Shun nodded as well. He knew his place now. He was Aoki Yuyi's employee; the boss only needed to move his mouth, while a subordinate like him had to run himself ragged.

Still, Aoki Yuyi was quite generous. He gave Chiba Shun plenty of funding, and handed over eight Jutsu at once!

"By the way, what did you think of the people who came to interview today?" Aoki Yuyi asked again.

"Are those disabled ninja suitable to be teachers?"

Chiba Shun hurriedly replied, "Of course. They're perfect for it. Although they came here to retire, their battlefield experience is exactly what we need to brainwash those children."

"However, before they start teaching, I'll need to train them first. I have to tell them what they can say and what they can't, how they should phrase what they can say, and how to alter the things they can't before saying them."

Aoki Yuyi could not understand what people like Chiba Shun thought about all day.

Why did such shady ideas come so easily to him?

Still, it benefited Aoki Yuyi, so he did not dwell on it. He let Chiba Shun do as he pleased.

After a pause, Aoki Yuyi said, "You guided those children a few days ago. What did you think?"

Chiba Shun answered without hesitation, "They can only become cannon fodder. Maybe one or two of them might have a chance to master a C-rank Jutsu in the future, but that would be their limit."

"Senior Aoki, you should give up on them. Not just them—even among the more than two thousand students already enrolled, I doubt any talented ninja will emerge."

Aoki Yuyi was somewhat disappointed.

Seeing this, Chiba Shun added, "However, if the Ninja Academy becomes more influential and we can bring in all the children who would otherwise be taken in by other ninja, there may be a genius among them that you want."

Aoki Yuyi knew Chiba Shun was afraid he would change his mind. He waved a hand. "Fine. We'll do as you said."

Konoha, an underground base.

Danzo had only established this underground base in recent years. After helping Hiruzen Sarutobi win the Second Shinobi World War and secure his position as Hokage, he had officially retreated into the shadows.

It was also from that time onward that he began building Root.

Thus, Root was far from the organization it would become by the time the original story's protagonists grew up. It was nowhere near as powerful.

Many powerful figures were still only children, undergoing Danzo's training.

Having only recently moved into the shadows, Danzo was still unaccustomed to it, and he was often in a foul mood.

Today, he was especially displeased. He had just returned from Hiruzen Sarutobi's place, where the man had deliberately or casually shown off his Sannin disciples.

At that moment, a masked subordinate hurried over to him.

The Root ninja removed his mask, dropped to one knee, and said respectfully, "Lord Danzo, the person infiltrating Kumogakure under the alias Matsuda Shan is dead."

"Before dying, he sent back intelligence saying the mission had failed."

After a pause, seeing that Danzo did not immediately question him, he added, "According to the plan, Matsuda Shan was supposed to contact Chiba Shun, a Kumogakure Chunin at the Ninja Academy, and infiltrate the academy through him."

Danzo finally spoke. "Kumogakure's Ninja Academy?"

"Yes, Lord Danzo," the Root ninja replied. "A few years ago, because we sabotaged them in secret, the construction of Ninja Academies in Kumogakure, Kirigakure, and Sunagakure did not go smoothly."

"Only Iwagakure, personally overseen by Ōnoki, has gotten on track."

"Logically, Kumogakure's Ninja Academy should not have shown any improvement for at least five to ten years."

"But Kumogakure's Ninja Academy has suddenly begun expanding enrollment, and it seems to have received the Raikage's support."

"That was why Matsuda Shan wanted to infiltrate it and carry out internal sabotage."

"To that end, we even provided some experience in establishing Ninja Academies."

Danzo frowned. "What useless trash!"

"List Chiba Shun as an assassination target. Carry it out immediately!"

"Yes." The Root ninja gave a concise reply, then directly used the Body Flicker Technique to leave.

Once he was alone, Danzo frowned and muttered, "Ōnoki?"

In Danzo's mind, only Ōnoki, another village's Kage like himself, was worthy of being his enemy.

After all, in Danzo's mind, he was the Hokage—the Hokage in the shadows!

As for a small fry like Chiba Shun, Danzo believed that once he issued the kill order, Chiba Shun was already dead.

Chiba Shun had no idea that he had entered Danzo's sights so quickly. He was still busy preparing the Ninja Academy.

A few days later, all the preparations for the Ninja Academy were complete, and classes finally began.

Because of their differing ages, the more than two thousand Ninja Academy students were divided into two groups.

The first group was considered preschool. The children in those classes were younger, ranging from two to five years old. Their curriculum was simple: cultural education, learning to read, and learning to write.

They also played ninja games and did daily exercises.

Of course, the most important subject was ideological education, a class required for students of every age.

The textbooks for this class had been personally compiled by Chiba Shun, and every teacher had undergone his training.

The second group was the formal ninja training class, for students aged six to ten. Naturally, students in this age group focused primarily on learning ninja skills.

Even cannon fodder needed some combat ability.

Taijutsu training was the most important course, followed by chakra extraction, then various practical lessons, such as using ninja tools and obeying a commander's orders during large-scale battles.

Because these two thousand-plus students were all quite mediocre in talent, no actual Jutsu classes had been established for the time being.

The Ninja Academy had only just opened, and Kumogakure's original training system had not been abolished. Many children still directly studied under Chunin and even Jonin.

They learned while carrying out missions, making their learning highly efficient and their progress rapid.

As a result, the Ninja Academy did not expand enrollment much over the following year.

Chiba Shun's own schedule was packed as well.

He was no longer short on money, so aside from handling the Ninja Academy's affairs, he spent half his chakra every day practicing Jutsu and taijutsu.

Half his chakra was just right. Any more, and he would struggle to recover it in time.

Kumogakure remained peaceful for a long time. Since the overwhelming majority of the Ninja Academy's children were orphans, they studied, ate, and lived at the academy, and it gradually faded from the villagers' attention.

Until one day, half a year later, Kumogakure's villagers suddenly noticed many unfamiliar Genin in the village, carrying out extremely simple missions.

For example, helping people farm, cleaning, looking after children, searching for pets, and so on.

This change aroused everyone's curiosity, and people began asking where these individuals had come from.

Soon, they learned that they all came from the Ninja Academy, which they had nearly forgotten about.

After half a year of systematic study, Chiba Shun had sent the oldest children out to carry out missions.

Of course, this had been approved by the Third Raikage.

Though they were not yet true ninja, they had been permitted to carry out the lowest-level missions.

D-rank Mission: helping villagers with troublesome but not particularly difficult tasks.

For Kumogakure, which had lost a great many ninja in the Second Shinobi World War, this was a good thing, so it received the village higher-ups' support.

They likely wanted to see the Ninja Academy's results as well.

Ordinary villagers, however, did not care about any of that. Their attention was quickly drawn away by a piece of news.

Eighty percent of the rewards these children earned from missions belonged to them!

That percentage shocked everyone.

After all, in the past, once someone became a Genin and followed a squad leader on missions like Chiba Shun had, they had to hand over at least half their earnings to the squad leader.

And before Chiba Shun became an official Genin, roughly eighty percent of his team's mission rewards had to be handed over to their squad leader.

On top of that, they had to pay another fee for the squad leader's guidance.

Yet the Ninja Academy's children could keep eighty percent, while also receiving free instruction from the academy's teachers!

Thus, the villagers began doing the math in their heads.

What was the purpose of making their children become ninja?

In truth, many people were not doing it for Kumogakure, much less for the Land of Lightning. They wanted to improve their lives.

Ninja earned more money.

But after calculating it, they realized that sending their children to the Ninja Academy seemed more worthwhile!

At least in the early stages, it was more worthwhile!

As for the future, hadn't the Ninja Academy said that powerful ninja from the village could choose subordinates from its students?

If their children started out at the Ninja Academy, learned while carrying out missions, and then joined a squad leader after becoming skilled, it seemed they could save a great deal of money!

Thus, word spread from one person to ten, then from ten to a hundred. Before long, all of Kumogakure was discussing it.

Even ninja who were parents began considering the pros and cons.

However, they were thinking about something else.

Just how much could one learn at the Ninja Academy?

Thus, over the next period of time, the Ninja Academy welcomed visitor after visitor.

They wanted to see what exactly the Ninja Academy taught.

What they saw was dedicated theory teachers, teaching children everything from literacy and writing to calculating kunai trajectories and learning how to use Explosive Tags.

There were dedicated Chunin swordsmanship instructors teaching students how to use blades.

There were dedicated taijutsu Chunin teaching everyone how to train their bodies properly and learn basic taijutsu.

There were dedicated Chunin teaching the little brats how to make traps and inspect for traps.

There were dedicated Chunin passing on war experience.

And if they learned those things under a squad leader, they would have to pay for them all!

More importantly, if they followed a single squad leader, that person might only excel in one area. At the Ninja Academy, however, they could learn nearly every basic skill!