"Actually, you can't really blame the teacher for being so angry. The children here really are very different from the children in Konoha..."
Yuhi Qiang struggled to move her lips, her face pale as she defended the teacher who had whipped the children. She was even a little relieved that it was still daytime and that the students were all children. If Shingetsu and Madara saw what the adults' evening classes were like-oh boy, her career might be finished for good!
Madara Uchiha, however, had little objection to this. He even approved somewhat of the teacher's methods. Disobedient children with no drive to improve needed a good beating, and more beatings until they behaved.
It was just that, compared with this pack of absolute brats, the little runts in Konoha looked a bit more tolerable to him. At least they hadn't degenerated into piglets that drooled at the sight of food. Of course, that was about the extent of the improvement.
After the three of them left the school, Shingetsu watched the farmers working along the field ridges and asked the question that concerned her most right now: how many years would these indigenous people need to become qualified civilian shinobi?
"Would two years be enough?"
Yuhi Qiang pressed her lips together, then shook her head solemnly after a brief silence. She coughed nervously and offered a figure that even she didn't quite believe:
"At least three years, I think."
"That's far too long..."
Shingetsu let out a small sigh of helpless concern. If Konoha wanted to expand outward, large numbers of civilian shinobi were essential.
The current batch of working civilian shinobi had mostly come from shinobi clans. Since they didn't need lessons in literacy or arithmetic and had known about shinobi and ninjutsu since childhood, most had completed