By ten in the morning, Hatake Sakumo had finished reviewing all the documents that needed his approval.
Then... he had no idea what to do.
Jiraiya and Orochimaru were wrapping things up on the front lines and hadn't returned yet.
Sakumo had originally planned to go find Madara Uchiha, but the fighting still wasn't over, and negotiations and discussions of reparations with the other countries hadn't begun.
As the Fourth Hokage, he couldn't just up and leave, dumping everything on Tsunade and Nara Shikata.
After thinking it over in his chair, Sakumo decided to start by putting things in order in the village.
The first step was the Ninja Academy.
He stood up and gave his Fourth Hokage haori a shake. Leaving the Hokage's office, he strolled slowly toward the Ninja Academy.
The Ninja Academy was Konoha's "foundation." He hoped the "pillars" inside hadn't all been led astray by Hiruzen Sarutobi's "Will of Fire" brainwashing.
Sakumo arrived at the gates of the Konoha Ninja Academy.
Two Chunin stood guard at the entrance.
They might have been only two Chunin acting as gate guards, but that was enough.
Would anyone really dare come to the heart of Konoha to cause trouble?
What? Why had Hinata been kidnapped in the anime?
Why had Naruto been able to steal the Scroll of Seals?
Heh, those were all the Third's problems. What did they have to do with him, the Fourth?
Nothing like that would ever happen while he, Hatake Sakumo, was in office!
As soon as the two Chunin at the gate saw the Hokage, they hurriedly saluted and called out in unison, "Lord Hokage!"
Sakumo nodded to the two "gate guards" and walked inside.
The two Chunin watched the Hokage enter, their eyes fixed on the "Fourth's haori" as it fluttered with his steps and billowed in the wind. Neither of them could look away.
The one on the left nudged his companion with an elbow and lowered his voice. "Hey, look at that haori. When will the two of us get to wear one..."
"Stop dreaming," the other scoffed. "You can forget it."
The Ninja Academy had a six-year program. Students enrolled at six and became Genin after graduation. Both the original owner of his body and Sakumo, who had watched the anime before transmigrating, knew that.
He first wandered over to the first-year classrooms and peered through a window.
A bunch of little sprouts.
They were all tiny, sitting in their seats. Some were learning to read, while others were dozing off.
He moved on to the second year.
This time was different. He spotted several familiar faces in the classroom: Rin Nohara, Obito Uchiha, Might Guy, Kurenai Yuhi, Anko, and Asuma.
The sight of these little ones brought his dear son Kakashi flashing back to mind.
Every day, that boy went straight between home and the training ground, either practicing Taijutsu or studying the forbidden techniques on the sealing scroll...
No, he had to make him come back to school.
If Kakashi hadn't been a genius and graduated early after one year, he would be sitting obediently in the Ninja Academy's second year with Rin and Obito now.
He was only seven, yet he'd graduated so young and started going on missions as a Chunin. What kind of normal worldview could he develop like that?
Besides, the Ninja Academy didn't just teach ninja basics like the Substitution Technique and Transformation Technique.
There were academic classes too.
Sakumo stood outside the window and listened for a while. The longer he listened, the less interesting it seemed.
What the second years were learning was far too basic, wasn't it?
At Kakashi's level, if he really made him come back and repeat the second year, he would probably be bored to death.
He shook his head and continued wandering.
He looked through the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth years, one by one.
After making the rounds, Sakumo had a clear idea of what the Ninja Academy taught over its six years:
For the first two years, students learned to read and do arithmetic, ran a little, and learned about Kunai and Shuriken.
Only in the middle two years did they begin extracting chakra and learning the simplest of the Three Basic Techniques, like the Transformation Technique.
In the final two years, they finished learning the Three Basic Techniques and practiced working together in squads.
No wonder. Before transmigrating, Sakumo had wondered how Naruto had spent six years at the Ninja Academy only to learn the Three Basic Techniques-and still be so terrible at them. What had he been doing all that time?
Now he knew.
Although the Ninja Academy graduation exam only tested the Three Basic Techniques, that didn't mean those three were all students learned in six years.
That was merely "the passing standard for the ninjutsu subject."
Academic classes, Taijutsu, ninja tools, survival, tactics, and all sorts of other subjects-a dozen or more in all...
Thinking it over, Sakumo walked toward the teachers' offices.
The principal's office was at the very end.
Sakumo knocked on the principal's office door, then pushed it open and entered.
The original owner of his body had few memories of this principal.
All he knew was that the principal was a Jonin of the Sarutobi Clan named Sarutobi Hiroshi.
Sakumo snorted inwardly. Sure enough, another member of the Sarutobi Clan. Someone in such a critical position had to be one of Hiruzen Sarutobi's trusted aides.
The forty-year-old Hiroshi was drinking tea in his office, taking it easy.
He heard a knock, but before he could say to come in, someone actually dared push the door open and enter without permission?
His face darkened, and he was about to scold this ill-mannered fellow when he looked up and saw that the person entering was actually the Hokage.
Hiroshi trembled in fright, spilling more than half the hot tea in his cup. The scolding on the tip of his tongue took a sharp turn, and he swallowed it back down.
"L-Lord Fourth? What brings you here?"
Sakumo didn't waste words on him and got straight to the point:
"I've come to inspect the Ninja Academy. Go and bring me all the textbooks, from the first year through the sixth. I want to take a look."
After Hiroshi scrambled out to fetch them, Sakumo plopped down in the chair the principal had just vacated.
He wanted to see whether anything about the "Will of Fire" had been slipped into those textbooks.
He also needed to investigate the teachers.
If they kept spreading nonsense like "sacrifice yourself for the village" and "the village's honor comes before everything else," that absolutely wouldn't do.
After about ten minutes, the principal returned with a stack of textbooks in his arms and several people following behind him.
Sakumo recognized one of them at a glance: a young man in his thirties.
He was Mitokado Homura's son, Mito Itsuki.
His talent was average, and through his father's connections as an advisor, he'd landed a comfortable position at the school, something like a dean of students before Sakumo transmigrated.
Sakumo motioned for Hiroshi to put the textbooks on the desk.
He created several Shadow Clones, and each took a textbook and began flipping through it.
The only sound left in the office was the rustling of pages.
The principal, the dean, and several teachers all stood properly to one side, scarcely daring to breathe as they waited in silence.
As Sakumo read, his hand stopped on a page.
What was all this crap?
There weren't any major problems with the upper-year material on chakra extraction and ninjutsu basics.
But the academic textbooks for every year had an agenda slipped into them!
Everywhere he looked, they preached that "the village's honor comes before everything," "one can sacrifice oneself for the village," and "the village's interests are the highest interests"...
Even thinking with his toes, Sakumo knew that old bastard Hiruzen Sarutobi was behind it.
As for why he didn't suspect that Tobirama Senju, the "Second," was the one who had slipped in that agenda?
Simply because Tobirama Senju had only hated and schemed against the Uchiha Clan. He had treated the other villagers and clans equally.
Although Tobirama Senju had also promoted the Will of Fire, his Will of Fire was for the strong to protect the weak and the village to protect its villagers.
His own death had also been a sacrifice he chose in order to put his Will of Fire into practice.
But the "Third," Hiruzen Sarutobi, was different.
His Will of Fire was for the villagers to protect the village, and for individuals to sacrifice themselves for it...
When the Shadow Clones had all finished reading, they dispersed one by one with pops and returned to the original. Everything they had read flooded into Sakumo's mind at once.
Well, they were all much the same.
No matter the year, the academic textbooks all contained an agenda, brainwashing the children with "Hiruzen Sarutobi's version of the Will of Fire."
Sakumo tossed the textbook onto the desk and looked up at everyone in the room.
"Let's give the Ninja Academy a week off for now, starting immediately."
After a pause, he added:
"Stop using all these textbooks. Once the new ones arrive, start teaching again."