"Big Brother Leaf Dragon! Listen to me, you have to be careful around him! Don't go anywhere unfamiliar with him! Don't be alone with him!"
Tsunade rushed over and locked the Medical Department's door, then pattered back and planted both hands on the desk, her face utterly serious.
"All right, all right~ I'll listen to little Tsunade..."
Tsunade puffed up her cheeks like a little pufferfish.
Dan Katō stood nearby, rubbing his chin in utter bewilderment. He had no idea what was going on; his brain had crashed.
Watanabe Ichiro casually patted Tsunade's head and offered a few reassuring words, then pulled their lesson outlines out from beneath the desk.
"Now that there are no outsiders here, let's begin today's lesson. How did you do on yesterday's homework?"
"We've reached chapter two, lesson one of undercover techniques: concealing your presence. Do you remember our three approaches, four steps, and five precautions?"
"Tsunade, you can recite them first..."
Tsunade froze and looked away, all her earlier energy collapsing in an instant.
"Uh... I need a little more time to prepare."
"All right, then. Dan, would you go first?"
"Yes. The first approach is to control your heartbeat..."
The two children's tangled thoughts instantly vanished as their brains began working frantically, suffering the agony of a spot check.
Good, good. This was how children ought to live: tormented by homework every day, finding ways to fool around with their friends, racking their brains to pull the wool over their teachers' eyes, and slacking off.
What kind of life was it to send a bunch of minors onto battlefields every day to fight and kill, pondering life and death?
It was the incompetence of those in charge, Konoha's failure in its duty, and a future any organization pursuing peace ought to reject.
A