System points poured in the moment the Fire Daimyo's seal dried.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━⭐ System NotificationMajor Political Success — Sustained InfluenceReward: +1,200 System PointsMonthly Income Increased━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
I didn't celebrate.
I invested.
My first orders went out within the hour.
Low-level shinobi — reliable, disciplined, and unnoticed — were dispatched across the Fire Country. Not to fight. Not to intimidate.
To observe.
To test.
Every village, every town, every isolated hamlet was screened for children with chakra sensitivity. The system helped quietly — a subtle overlay marking potential in faint glows only I could see.
They came back with names.
Hundreds of them.
Some brilliant.Most average.All moldable.
I approved recruitment immediately.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━🏯 Project InitiatedKonoha Ninja Academy — Foundational ProgramCost: 300 System Points━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
The academy rose quickly — simple buildings, wide training grounds, and classrooms built for repetition, not glory.
No statues.No legends.
Just function.
I promoted a handful of experienced chūnin to instructors.
Not the strongest.
The most disciplined.
"You aren't here to create heroes," I told them during the briefing."You're here to create ninjas who survive."
I handed them the schedule personally.
Foundational Academy Curriculum
Morning
Chakra Control Theory
Physical Conditioning
Meditation & Focus Training
Midday
Taijutsu Fundamentals
Team Coordination Drills
Afternoon
Basic Academy Jutsu:
Transformation Technique
Substitution Technique
Clone Technique
Evening
Tactical Thinking (Age-Appropriate)
Mission Ethics & Loyalty
No flashy techniques.
No bloodlines.
Just fundamentals drilled until they became instinct.
The system chimed approvingly.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━📈 Village Development ProgressAcademy Efficiency: HighFuture Shinobi Quality: Projected Above Average━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Good.
That was the point.
Recruitment didn't stop.
With open access to the Fire Country's population, the village grew rapidly. Civilians relocated. Craftsmen followed. Shops opened.
Economy stabilized.
Population surged.
Every new building, every successful class, every completed D-rank mission added to the score.
System points accumulated steadily.
And then the monthly evaluation arrived.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━⭐ Monthly Ranking — Village Performance1️⃣ Hidden Leaf — Rapid Growth2️⃣ Hidden Cloud — Military Focus3️⃣ Hidden Mist — Intelligence Network4️⃣ Hidden Sand — Resource Control5️⃣ Hidden Stone — Defensive Development━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
I wasn't surprised.
The chat exploded.
Callum: YOU'RE FIRST ALREADY?!Lily: I hate that I'm impressed.Elijah: This feels like watching a snowball turn into an avalanche.Shaden: Just be careful… attention brings danger.
He was right.
The system issued another alert.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━⚠️ WarningVillage growth exceeding expected baselineDivine Interference Probability: Increasing━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
I closed the window slowly.
The God was watching now.
Good.
I stood at the academy balcony as dozens of children trained below — sweating, failing, standing back up.
No Naruto.No Sasuke.
Yet.
But these children would become something different.
Something designed.
And when they were ready…
That's when I would buy the first clan seed.
Or open a portal to Marvel.
Or both.
I turned back toward the Hokage office, cloak snapping in the wind.
"This is only the beginning."