'Green Satchel' and 'Master Craftsman': The Initial Core Team

Kumoi continued, "Tsunade is naturally sensitive to matters related to medicine and vitality. She must have sensed that something was different.

As for Jiraiya... that guy might have initially just found it fun or novel, or perhaps he was simply dragged in by Tsunade and Orochimaru.

But regardless, they caught this 'shift in the wind' and expressed it in the most 'formal' manner, the one most in line with the 'rules'—a joint petition.

This showed that they not only had ideas, but had also begun learning to use the rules to achieve their goals. Impressive, these little ones."

His fingers tapped unconsciously against the tabletop as his gaze swept over Hiruzen Sarutobi and Nara Shikato before him. The smile on his face faded slightly, replaced by a more contemplative expression.

"The actions of these children have reminded me of something we've always wanted to do, but whose progress has remained slow."

He spoke slowly, pulling two more summaries from the stack of documents.

"It is the 'Green Satchel' project—upgrading the medical system—and the 'Master Craftsman' project—incubating technological research and development—both ranked after 'Bedrock' and 'Red Leaf' in our Five-Year Plan."

The expressions of Hiruzen Sarutobi and Nara Shikato grew serious as well. They knew how important these two projects were, but they also understood the difficulty of advancing them.

"The current situation is this."

Kumoi pointed at the summaries. "Under Elder Utatane Koharu's leadership, the Medical Corps operates steadily. It can effectively handle ordinary battlefield injuries and illnesses, and it has done a decent job providing relief and treatment for war orphans and the wounded. But—"

He paused. "That is limited to 'application' and 'maintenance.'

"We are still using the medical ninjutsu system, prescriptions, and diagnostic principles compiled during the Second Hokage's era, or passed down from even earlier times.

"We lack proactive, breakthrough research into new poisons, complex internal injuries, Chakra Dysregulation Syndrome, and especially how to apply medical ninjutsu more efficiently and universally to everyday healthcare and public welfare.

"Elder Koharu's philosophy is 'prudence' and 'inheritance.' There is nothing wrong with that, but it lacks the sharp edge of 'pioneering.'

"Tsunade's displayed talent and interest should have made her the best stone to break the stillness of this pond. But she is too young, and the traditional system has been quietly excluding her."

He pointed at the 'Master Craftsman' project again. "The same is even more true for technological research and development.

"The village's ninja tool workshops and certain clans' secret techniques do each possess their own specialties, but the barriers are strict and exchanges are scarce.

"Our concepts of 'standardization' and 'assembly lines' can only solve the mass-production problem for basic ninja tools.

"But when it comes to deeper applications of chakra's properties, new materials, expanded research into summoning contracts, or even the possibility of miniaturizing Sealing Jutsu for civilian use... almost no one is taking the lead in these directions that could truly bring qualitative change, and they lack the resources and support for sustained investment.

"Orochimaru's tendency to get to the bottom of the principles behind everything, then attempt to modify and apply them, has no suitable outlet in the current educational and work systems. It might even be regarded as 'neglecting proper duties.'"

The Nara Clan Leader spoke thoughtfully. "What Lord Hokage means is that although Tsunade, Orochimaru, and the others' self-organized group currently looks like nothing more than children playing at exploration—

"its core—their curiosity toward unknown fields, their desire to personally verify or create something—is precisely the 'Upward Drive' most lacking in the current 'Green Satchel' and 'Master Craftsman' projects?"

"Exactly."

Kumoi answered firmly. "We cannot expect a few children to produce revolutionary results right now.

"But we can, and must, pave a road and build a stage for them—and for the many future children like them who possess a spirit of exploration.

"Their spontaneous curiosity must be guided, protected, and nurtured, rather than slowly worn away within traditional frameworks."

He leaned forward, his eyes gleaming with the light of planning. "This Future Technology and Exploration Interest Group will be the first test field.

"We will provide limited resources. On the surface, it will encourage extracurricular interests, but its deeper purpose will be to observe and cultivate two core abilities:

"First, the ability to learn independently and study deeply based on personal interest; second, the preliminary ability to turn vague ideas into concrete practical projects, however small."

Hiruzen Sarutobi understood. "Just like the Ninja Academy reforms and future specialization tracks you mentioned before.

"This group can be seen as a way to identify and gather, even before specialization, those seeds with potential in the areas of 'research' and 'creation.'"

"Precisely."

Kumoi nodded. "Through this group, we can very naturally do certain things that were previously difficult to intervene in directly.

"For example, Tsunade can, under perfectly legitimate grounds, consult more non-core pathological case files from the Medical Corps and attempt to analyze them with her own ideas;

"We can provide Orochimaru and his group members with safe, discarded puppet parts or basic sealing tools that they are permitted to dismantle and study, and see what they can figure out;

"Or even, in the future, under the name of 'group practice,' allow them under guidance to encounter practical problems from the 'Red Leaf' project involving medicinal ingredient purification, or from the engineering teams involving material strength."

The Nara Clan Leader quickly followed his line of thought.

"Take some foundational, exploratory problems that 'Green Satchel' and 'Master Craftsman' will need to solve in the future.

"Break them down and package them as 'topics' suitable for student groups to research, then have instructors offer them as 'suggestions' or 'challenges.'

"This can both stimulate their interest and accumulate the earliest, most unconstrained ideas and data for the village's future projects. The cost is extremely low, while the potential returns may be immense.

"Even failure would be valuable experience."

"Yes! This is the cultivation of 'Upward Drive.'"

Kumoi concluded, "What we need to do now is not immediately demand results from the children, but establish a small ecosystem that allows, encourages, and even rewards 'exploratory failure.'

"Let Tsunade know that researching new treatment approaches is just as important as practicing the Mystical Palm Technique;

"Let Orochimaru understand that figuring out why a particular sealing rune works is as valuable as learning how to use it.

"When their generation grows up and enters the Medical Corps, research institutes, and engineering teams with this habit of active exploration—

"only then will 'Green Satchel' and 'Master Craftsman' truly cast off the shadow of the Second Hokage's era and gain the vigorous, rising vitality of Konoha's new age."

Hiruzen Sarutobi smiled. "So this joint petition, which seems like children's foolishness, came at exactly the right time. It gave us the most natural and gentlest point of entry."

"Exactly."

Kumoi nodded.

"And this is not merely about those three.

"The children who signed after them may not possess talents as dazzling as theirs, but they share the same interest in 'knowledge' and 'creation.'

"They are precisely the young talent we will need in the future.

"This group can become a pilot program, an incubator."