After memorizing the contents of the remaining scrolls, Chiba Shun stayed behind to give a few pointers to the children still practicing how to climb the wall.
Only when night had fully fallen did he finally dismiss them. Before sending them off to eat, he told them the Raikage himself had noticed their hard work and decided to reward them with extra food. The children burst into cheers at once.
Chiba Shun handed part of the money over to the logistics officer, instructing them to prepare better meals for the children, then left the Ninja Academy himself.
He had burned through far too much chakra today. The kind of training he had done was no different from going through a major battle, and that level of exhaustion could not be patched over with ordinary food. If he wanted his body to recover properly, he needed a meal rich enough to replenish what he had lost.
And now that he had a little money in hand, he no longer needed to pinch every coin until it squealed.
With long strides, Chiba Shun headed for one of the village's barbecue restaurants.
Kumogakure was packed with broad-shouldered, musclebound men, so places like this always did excellent business. By the time Chiba Shun stepped inside, the restaurant was already roaring with noise and heat. Most of the customers were shinobi, and more than a few of them were jonin.
Just as he was about to find an empty seat for himself, someone called out from one side. "Chiba Shun! Over here, over here!"
He turned and saw a slightly older boy waving at him, a chunin flak jacket draped over his shoulders just like his own. Chiba Shun stared for several seconds before finally matching the face to a name.
Matsuda San.
He had run into him a few times during missions, but only in passing. They were nowhere near close enough for this level of enthusiasm. Even so, Chiba Shun still walked over.
Since the other side had gone out of his way to greet him so warmly, refusing would only create unnecessary friction.
Matsuda San cheerfully ushered him into his group. There were seven people at the table in total, all roughly the same age, but Matsuda was the only chunin among them. The other six were still genin.
They looked at Chiba Shun's vest with undisguised envy and a trace of unease. In their eyes, both he and Matsuda San were already geniuses—people who, in theory, belonged to a different world from theirs.
The only reason they could relax around Matsuda was because he was usually so easygoing. As for Chiba Shun, they had no idea what kind of person he really was.
Chiba Shun did not put on any airs. He greeted them one by one and even nodded politely when they introduced themselves. He simply did not say much unless Matsuda San addressed him directly.
A little while later, after listening to Matsuda's seemingly casual small talk and half-hidden probing, Chiba Shun finally pieced together his real purpose.
He wants to get into the Ninja Academy, Chiba Shun thought.
But why? Why would someone like him—a shinobi ordinary people would already call a genius—choose a place that still looked like it had no future? If it were one of those genin hoping to become a teacher there and slowly grind their way toward promotion to chunin, that would make sense. But what exactly was Matsuda San after?
He cannot seriously want to reform the academy the same way I do... can he?
Even with those thoughts in mind, Chiba Shun remained calm. He spoke smoothly with Matsuda San the whole meal and even told him that, if he wanted, he could recommend him to Aoki Yuu-senpai.
Matsuda San was visibly delighted. Not only did he insist on treating Chiba Shun to the meal, he even produced a long sword and pushed it into Chiba Shun's hands.
"I heard your longsword was destroyed in battle, Shun-kun," Matsuda San said enthusiastically. "Take this one instead."
Chiba Shun's wariness immediately deepened.
Even they know about something like that?
It was true that he had lost a sword. But he had also taken the Konoha chunin's sword afterward, even if that weapon was in poor condition. Logically, outsiders should never have learned such a specific detail.
On the surface, though, Chiba Shun accepted it with visible pleasure. His attitude even grew several degrees warmer than before, and he promised that the moment he returned, he would speak to Aoki Yuu about Matsuda San.
The meal ended with both host and guest seemingly delighted. Matsuda San had achieved what he wanted, and Chiba Shun had saved himself a considerable amount of money.
Since someone else was paying, Chiba Shun ate with no restraint at all. That one meal was equal to at least five ordinary meals for him and must have cost no less than five hundred taels—enough to buy one or even two kunai. On top of that, he had gotten a longsword for free.
The blade was almost the same kind as the one he had broken before, the very sort he had once bought for three thousand ryo. Receiving several thousand taels' worth of value without spending a single coin left him in an excellent mood.
This time, Chiba Shun truly did not deceive Matsuda San.
The moment he returned to the Ninja Academy, he went straight to find Aoki Yuu.
"Aoki-senpai, is the academy planning to recruit teachers?" he asked.
Aoki Yuu nodded. "Yes. Do you have someone in mind?"
"There should be an interview, right? I have one question I'd like you to include."
Chiba Shun handed over a prepared note. Aoki Yuu glanced at it, then gave him a somewhat strange look. After a brief hesitation, he still nodded in agreement.
Several days later, the Ninja Academy officially began recruiting teachers, with chunin as the minimum requirement. Quite a few chunin actually came to apply.
Most of them, however, were older men. A few had even been crippled during the Second Shinobi World War and could no longer remain active on the front lines. In that crowd, Matsuda San stood out as a complete anomaly.
As Aoki Yuu's assistant, Chiba Shun was naturally expected to help with the interviews.
He escorted the previous applicant—a middle-aged man—out of Aoki Yuu's office, then turned and invited Matsuda San inside. Matsuda San wore the same bright smile as ever.
He had deliberately asked Chiba Shun to place him last. His reasoning had been simple: after so many ordinary applicants, his own excellence would stand out even more sharply. He had been extremely confident in himself.
And, at first, that confidence seemed justified.
The interview went very smoothly. Matsuda San did not just answer questions well—he even raised a number of genuinely constructive proposals.
In several respects, the level of detail in his ideas even exceeded Chiba Shun's, despite Chiba Shun's knowledge as a transmigrator.
For example, Matsuda San suggested that learning at the Ninja Academy should be divided into stages. The first stage, he said, ought to focus on basic literacy, teaching children to read and write before anything else.
He also proposed publicly promising that chunin and jonin from the village would be allowed to come to the academy and personally select promising students as future subordinates.
"That way," Matsuda San explained, "the quality of students at the academy can gradually rise. Parents who originally wanted their children placed directly under a jonin would be much more willing to send them here first."
Those words made Aoki Yuu inwardly feel as if he had struck gold again.
The Ninja Academy might truly be on the verge of rising. First it had produced Chiba Shun, and now Matsuda San had appeared as well.
And compared with Chiba Shun, Matsuda San even seemed more grounded and upright. At the very least, he looked like the sort of person who genuinely wanted to improve the environment in which the village's younger generation grew up. Chiba Shun, by contrast, talked about interests, costs, and calculations so often that one could practically hear coins rattling whenever he opened his mouth.
Aoki Yuu was more than satisfied. He had already decided to bring Matsuda San into the academy and give him a position no lower than Chiba Shun's.
Then he suddenly remembered there was still one final step left in the interview.
He first glanced at Chiba Shun, who was quietly taking notes off to the side, then personally handed a sheet of paper to Matsuda San. "Read this," he said, "and remember to keep it secret after you leave."
Though somewhat puzzled, Matsuda San still smiled and nodded. He clearly believed the matter was already settled.
But the instant he saw what was written on the paper, his expression froze.
Aoki Yuu did not think much of it at first. Anyone who saw that line for the first time would react strangely. In fact, he almost expected the other party to think he was insane.
Chiba Shun, however, noticed something else entirely.
Matsuda San's hand had unconsciously moved toward his ninja pouch.
He stopped himself in time, and Aoki Yuu never noticed the motion. But Chiba Shun saw it clearly, and at once, the alarm in his heart rang out.
Aoki Yuu waited several seconds. When Matsuda San still did not speak, his expression darkened slightly. Narrowing his eyes, he asked in a far more serious tone, "Matsuda San, is there a problem?"
Matsuda San jerked in surprise, then forced out a smile. "No, Aoki-senpai. It's nothing. It's just... the contents of this paper are a little strange..."
Before he could finish the sentence, the previously relaxed Matsuda San suddenly exploded into motion and lunged toward the door.
Aoki Yuu's face sank. "You dare!" he roared, already chasing after him.
Chiba Shun did not follow them outside.
Instead, he calmly bent down, picked up the paper Matsuda San had dropped, and read the contents under his breath.
"Danzo has a method for controlling his subordinates, and he even conspired with Hiruzen Sarutobi to eliminate the advisory group left behind by the Second Hokage."
That single line was enough.
Root shinobi were marked with the Cursed Tongue Eradication Seal. They were not forbidden from saying Danzo's name, but they were absolutely forbidden from exposing Danzo's true secrets.
And Danzo secretly moving against the former Hokage's advisory faction was exactly the kind of secret that could not be spoken aloud. Matsuda San definitely knew about it—or, at the very least, knew enough to guess the truth. That meant he could neither explain it nor pretend to explain it.
A while later, Aoki Yuu returned with an ugly expression on his face.
"Aoki-senpai, Matsuda San...?" Chiba Shun asked.
Aoki Yuu sat down heavily. "He committed suicide," he said grimly. "And right in front of me, he still managed to send out an intelligence report. After that, he used some special method to set himself on fire."
Chiba Shun was honestly shocked for a moment.
It was not Matsuda San's suicide that surprised him. That, he had already expected the instant Matsuda moved for the door. What shocked him was that Matsuda had still managed to pass information out while standing right in front of a jonin.
Are Root shinobi all monsters like this?
Aoki Yuu, however, did not seem particularly astonished by that part. He sat in silence for a moment, then looked up and asked, "How did you know?"
"I guessed," Chiba Shun replied.
"I'm not talking about him being suspicious," Aoki Yuu interrupted, waving a hand. "I'm talking about Danzo of Konoha." His eyes stayed fixed on Chiba Shun.
He did not suspect Chiba Shun of being a Konoha intelligence agent himself. After all, Chiba Shun had only recently exposed and killed one.
But at that moment, Aoki Yuu suddenly realized there were still things about this assistant of his that he did not understand at all.
Chiba Shun answered calmly, "It was only a guess, based on fragments of information I'd heard here and there. I suspected Danzo might have some method for controlling his subordinates."
"I've heard that Danzo's people are not allowed to reveal any of his secrets to outsiders. What was written on that paper happened to be exactly the kind of secret that should never leave his circle."
Then he paused before adding, "As for Danzo conspiring with Hiruzen Sarutobi, that part is actually easy to infer. After the Second Shinobi World War, Hiruzen Sarutobi's position became stable. The advisors left behind by Tobirama Senju naturally became eyesores. And, unfortunately for them, they all died one after another for various reasons."
Aoki Yuu slowly nodded.
He thought it over, then muttered to himself, "Why have I never heard of this method Danzo uses to control his men...?"
But after a brief silence, he shook his head and forcefully pushed that distracting thought aside. Then he looked back at Chiba Shun and asked, "Matsuda San was a Konoha intelligence ninja. But what do you think about the ideas he proposed for developing the Ninja Academy?"