Spring, Konoha Year 14.
Spring stepped on the very tip of winter's tail and arrived with a bashful shuffle.
The knife-like chill in the wind had eased a little, and the Naka River flowed with a livelier rush, yet the air in Konoha was stickier and heavier than the muddy ground under the melting snow.
The newly issued "Amendments to the Konoha Ninja Academy Enrollment Management Regulations and Detailed Rules for Implementing Compulsory Enrollment" from the Hokage Building struck the hearts of the major clans like a red-hot branding iron, bearing the Second Hokage Tobirama Senju's distinctive, unquestionable, icy force-especially those clans with their own traditions of "clan schooling."
The regulations had just two central provisions, simple and blunt:
One: all registered ninja clans in Konoha must send their children aged six to under twelve to the Konoha Ninja Academy for at least six years of basic ninja education, except those with medically certified disabilities or serious illnesses. Violating clans would have their mission quotas for the following year reduced by thirty percent and face substantial fines.
Two: the Village Education Inspection Office, with Hiruzen Sarutobi concurrently serving as director, had the authority to conduct spot checks of educational facilities within any clan at any time, ensuring that their teaching did not contradict the Ninja Academy's basic curriculum, particularly core courses such as the Will of Fire, Konoha History, and teamwork, and did not take up the regular school hours of children who should be attending the Ninja Academy.
"Must."
That word clamped around the clan heads' skulls like a tightening band. Before, they could fend things off with excuses like "teaching them ourselves" or "easing the village's burden." Not anymore.
Using village regulations and the Hokage's authority, Tobirama had blocked that route completely, and he was even going to