Spring, Year 10 of Konoha.
The days grew hotter, and people grew restless along with them.
But there was something else mixed into that restless heat. Ever since the Toyotomi House had brazenly established its "Toyotomi School" and gone head-to-head with the Hokage Office, the other ninja clans of Konoha, great and small, had begun furiously working their own little abacuses.
At first, they watched and waited to see how the Hokage Building would deal with that troublemaker, Toyotomi Yinglang. After all their waiting, what arrived was a toothless ultimatum, and then... nothing much followed. The Toyotomi House's school stayed open, its children still stayed away from the Ninja Academy, and the scent of Toyota liquor could be caught several streets away. Apart from tighter Anbu surveillance, the Hokage Building seemed to have taken no decisive action.
They were starting to get the picture. Rules were rigid; people were flexible. Toyotomi Yinglang's twisted arguments infuriated Lord Hokage, but for the moment, he really seemed to have no good way to deal with him. Especially those claims about "easing the village's burden" and "not competing with civilians for resources." They grated on the ears, but on closer consideration... perhaps their own clans could make similar claims?
And so, some began entertaining ideas.
First came several small clans, former Uchiha vassals, that maintained open or secret ties with the Toyotomi House: those that raised insects, for instance, or worked with small Summoning Beasts. Quietly, they called back a few children of school age from their clans and stopped sending them to the Ninja Academy every day. They cleared out a spare room and invited retired old Chunin or somewhat educated elders from their clans to teach the children the basics of clan secret techniques and how to identify special medicinal herbs and