The Library was practically my second home when I was attending the academy. When I reincarnated and realized what world I ended up in, I buried my nose in all the books and scrolls I could access. Some were easier to get than others, but I knew my best advantage in this world was not my meta knowledge but my mind.
I stood in the center of the room, reminiscing about all the time I spent studying subjects I knew from my previous life and subjects that were completely new to me. Technology varied greatly depending on which nation and region you were in. Sometimes, the tech level was in the 1970s, and others, it was in the 1870s. Money and knowledge played the biggest factor in what kind of tech you should expect when going somewhere.
Thankfully, the ninja school was the 1940s-50s tech. The assembly hall had a black-and-white TV, but Radios were mostly used instead. A chime came out of the speaker on the wall, notifying the kids who were waiting for school to start that the front doors were now open.
The kids moved silently through the courtyard. Internally, I wanted to make a joke about ninja schools with quiet students, but the look in the kids' eyes made it difficult to find any humor in the situation. Every single one of them either lost someone last month or was friends with someone who did. Leaving the library, I made my way to the hall for the Thirds' speech.
The kids were lining up in rows when I got there, already having put their bags and supplies away in lockers. Hirazen’s shadow clone was covertly looking over the speech he was about to give. He had given the same speech every year for decades, but Minato had given it for the past two years, so I had to guess Hirazen was refreshing himself. If he fumbled a speech, he could look like age was getting to him, and everything the Leaf village did and will do needed to show strength.
Some of the academy’s staff were on the stage talking amongst themselves. I greeted them, and some commented about my new outfit, which I laughed off. I wore the normal Leaf Flak jacket with loose cotton pants, tactical gloves, and arm guards. My leaf headband was on an elastic head and ear warmer. I would have looked like any leaf shinobi if not for two things. One, I was completely covered in combat-grade bandages. From my head to my toes, which were in normal sandals. Second was the sash I wore on my waist, which had the kanji of fire and wind next to each other. One represents that I am a former guard to the Fire Domiayo, and the other depicts me as the now former ambassador to the sand village.
If I saw anyone else wearing this outfit, I would have sworn they were cosplaying Joshua Graham from Fallout. “You okay, Amon?” One of the instructors asked me with fake sympathy. “Did you spend too much time in the village hidden in the sand castle? You should have used sunscreen.” The teachers laughed.
“Do you keep buying new bandages or wash those?”
“Do you wear clothes under the bandages?”
Even Hirazen took time to comment. “Thank goodness Amon is so proficient with Chakra control. Imagine wrapping all those individually.”
The others smirked, but we had to cut the discussion about my outfit short as the parents gathered in the back of the room. Half of the parents were affiliated with some of the big clans. Inuzuka, Hyuga, and Uchia were the main clans with kids joining this year. It was not lost on me that it was the clans with a focus on Taijutsu that were here. Many clan ninjas not only died normally in battle but were assassinated by another village ninja. Ninjas who focused on Taijutsu had a better chance of surviving attempts on their lives.
I snapped my focus to Hirzen, who gave the same speech he delivered when I was in school, and I was equally bored with it as I was hearing it the first time. “Something, something will of fire. Be good little child soldiers and fight for the Leaf Village/ Land of Fire/ Fire Domiayo.”
Honestly, after being back in the Leaf Village for five months, I was getting stir-crazy and cranky. After the meeting with the Third, many things changed, and at the same time, nothing changed. I needed to give a speech after Hirzen, but even though I had practiced, I was still nervous. It was not about public speaking; yell your orders at enough people, and you can cure your stage fright. It was the reactions from the clans.
To be named Hokage, you officially needed support from three groups. First was the Fire Domiayo. As a former member of the Twelve Guardians, I was confident getting his endorsement would not be a problem.
The second was the Jonin Council. The Jonin Council was a fancy name for a bunch of Jonin who would vote for who they wanted as the next Hokage. Basically, as long as I’m strong and somewhat popular, they won’t be a big issue.
Nope, my biggest hurdle would be the Village Elders. Seeing Danzo and Hirzen’s former teammates where on the council, that was a tall order, but we had a broad plan for that. Step one to the plan was here at the Ninja Academy.
“Now, I know you are all eager to get to your classes and learn to become fine shinobi, but before you head off, I would like to introduce one of the finest ninjas we have in our village. Mr. Amon would like to share a few words with you.” Hirzen spoke, snapping me from my thoughts. I thanked him, bowed towards the Third in a sign of respect, and stood at the front of the stage. The crowd of children looked at me with glazed eyes of boredom, while the parents looked confused and curious.
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“Hello, Leaf Ninja Academy students. As Lord Third just said, I’m Amon, and I will be a guest instructor for the fifth-year students. The reason for that is because of recent events. It has been decided that the fifth-year students will have a more streamlined education for the rest of this year and more opportunities to show their growth. With my help, we hope the students will grow and prove that they are not just capable of being shinobis but are willing to take that next step and join in defense of the village as newly graduated ninjas them selfs.”
I tried my best not to have my distaste for what I was saying show on my face. “Hey, kids, a bunch of ninjas died, so we need new cannon fodder. Don’t worry; I’ll help teach you a few tricks in the hope of keeping you alive and useful for a few extra seconds.” I sarcastically commentated in my head as I talked.
I didn’t get to see it, but from what I heard from Sakumo, Hirzen had to nearly shout at Danzo in the village elders meeting to get me into the academy. The arguments against me teaching were twofold: one, I was already too busy working in the hospital and checking on the wards of the village to waste my time teaching, and two, with my past rebellious nature, I might rub off on the new youthful minds and bring forth a generation of delinquents.
Hirzen used Tsunade’s name and brought up that my skills in chakra control, medical ninjutsu, and ninjutsu were all skills that, if they were taught to the students, even partially, would increase their chances of survival greatly. Tsunade requested that every ninja team have a medical ninja in them, and her idea was shot down for being too costly, but Hirzen managed to argue that it would be a shame to teach basic medical and funijutsu skills to young shinobi just to have them die in battle, but more costly if we lost shinobi because we didn’t teach the new generation these skills.
Hirzen then gave the elders the ultimatum of allowing me to teach at the academy or to convince Tsunade to come back and teach instead. That meeting was three months ago, so I guessed I wasn’t going to see her again for a while. She didn’t even return to the village to pay her respects during the funeral, so I couldn’t be that surprised.
While I gave the speech to the kids who were already starting to lose interest in me, I gave my signal to Hirzen, who went to talk to the parents. I could see some of the shinobi parents catching on to what I was doing, but the ones who didn’t trust me and would have moved to stop me didn’t want to cross the Third. If they noticed what I was doing, that meant the Third knew as well and had already given his permission to proceed.
The hallucinogenic smoke tags I hid on the rafters above the lined-up children trickled out the heavy smoke and slowly draped over the kids. In the back, I could see Hirzen give his consent to a few parents, and they went to retrieve their kids. The Aburame, Inuzuka, and Hyūga clans pulled their kids away from the assembly. Aburame clan pulling out made the most sense, seeing their kids had a higher chance of getting a bad side effect from genjutsu like mine. An argument could be made for the Inuzuka clan for pulling their kids out, seeing forming a bond with their animal companion was a big part of their time in the academy, and my genjutsu could put that in harm's way, although only to a small degree.
The Hyūga clan had no real excuse I could think of for pulling their kids from the genjutsu other than the fact that it was me doing it. Most people in the village had forgotten that I spoke out against the Hyūga clan family branch system, but it appears that the clan elders' memory was not as short as Hirzen had hoped. I stood there stealthily casting the genjutsu while the parents collected their offspring. A slight tap and a pulse of chakra were all that it took to break my hold, and the gas effect was a mild one. Ten minutes in fresh air and all traces of the effect would be gone.
About a dozen kids were taken from the hall, but I still had to focus on the over one hundred students remaining. From the perspective of the Academy students, the rest of the world should have faded away, and all their focus would be on me. My speech transitioned from the wonderful opportunities they had in front of them and how great the Leaf Village was to a history lesson that acted as a review of things the kids had already been taught during their previous four years of study.
With the help of the smoke and my genjutsu, I was able to cover a month's worth of history reviewing in just over an hour. My method would not help with traditional ninja studies, but for academia, it was practically rocket fuel. By the end of the year, no matter what else happens, this year's fifth-year class will be the best academically taught class this school has ever had.
Hirzen, along with most of the other parents, had left before I was done. The civilian parents had work, and at the end of the day, the children’s lives were out of their hands the moment they signed up to join the academy. The clan-backed ninja would go and complain to their clan heads if they wished to lodge a complaint against me, which left the clan-less shinobies who were worried about their children.
The students were asleep on the ground, and I was pretty tired myself, but I forced myself to go and talk with the concerned parents. “Thank you for waiting,” I whispered to the group. It was a cheap trick, the kids where so out of it, a marching band could stomp around them playing at full blast and the kids would barely notice but if I whispered towards the parents they would naturally whisper back and it was difficult to be angry at someone and whisper at the same time.
“Next time, warn us before you decide to ruphy our kids.” One of the parents whispered angrily through gritted teeth.
“Okay, first, I did the exact opposite of Rohypnol. Rohypnol makes it difficult to remember what happened under its effects. My Jutsu has made it so your kids will not only remember today's lesson but learn and grow from it. Second, the moment you signed your kids up to the academy, you lost your right to dictate the school's curriculum. Honestly, I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to do a mass genjutsu like that for as long as I did.”
“You didn’t know you were going to cast a mass genjutsu?” One of the parents asked curiously.
“The gas I used is not that hard to make, but the components are prioritized for medical aid instead of a study aid,” I answered, and the man nodded his head in understanding. The kids will remain asleep for the next hour after they have lunch and do physical education.”
“Physical education? Can’t you teach everything like you just did to them?”
“I can, in a way, but the reasons why I shouldn’t are numerous, and I’m too tired to get into all of them. Long explanation short, it’s a bad idea. ”
“Any other surprises waiting for us? You going to start chopping off limbs?” One of the tougher-looking parents grunted. “You are already shorting their training. Maybe we should skip to the part where they turn into walking kunai.”
“We prefer to say accelerating their training and giving students more opportunities to demonstrate their readiness.”
“You're throwing kunai fresh from the forge. How many of our children are going to die because they were given a headband before they were ready.”
“Zero,” I answered curtly. “No one is giving a headband; you don’t win one in a pachinko machine or get one as a prize with a box of cereal. I will be training the fifth years to get them ready to graduate along with the sixths. Not a handful of overworked chunin who use teaching duty as a vacation, but me, a jonin who is a former member of the guarding twelve and ambassador to the hidden sand.”
I took a few steps back to ensure I could look at all the parents and spoke. “I have protected the ruler of this country, I have fought alongside Shinobi, who will go down as legends in the history books, and I have been the end of other legendary enemy Shinobi. I know the skills needed to not just survive in the ninja world but to thrive in it. I promise you, the fifth-year students will not be lacking anything and will grow better and shine brighter than you could have ever imagined”.