While Kaida and Yomi were at the Uzumaki residence, Shisui left the house to start the new task given to him, and that was present in the form of 50 ninjas or children standing in front of him. All of them had expressionless faces like they were not real people but mannequins.
Luckily, all of them were around 6-7 years old, meaning too young to complete the full training of the Root and, in other words, not becoming mindless killing machines.
Though they were close to becoming very close to that, but at least they would not be becoming mindless at least.
'This is for the village,' Shisui said to himself one last time. Since he was playing with Naruto and Kimimaro for the past whole week and listening to stories of Kimimaro, he knew how much a good childhood was important for children.
And the ninjas standing in front of him were the same. They didn't deserve training till they drop unconscious like they did in Root, nor lose their childhood.
Alas, if millions of people get peace at the cost of childhood of few, that trade is worth it.
"Hey everyone, I am your new instructor for the next three months, so let's get to know each other. I am Shisui Uchiha, a new member of Root just like you guys. Now, how about you introduce yourself one by one," Shisui said, maintaining a smile on his face. Since they were just children, Hiruzen was not hoping to make them trained killers in three months; what he really wanted was to remove the deep shadow of Root from these children, otherwise they would never reach their full potential at all.
That's why he chose Shisui for the job, one of the few people in Konoha who were truly loyal to the village and would not think of personal agenda during such tasks. He could also help in actually making them ninjas rather than killing machines without emotion who would just follow the orders without considering the consequences of their actions.
Since their new instructor had given a task to them, they started speaking in order.
"I am Hisato," the first boy spoke up, his voice robotic. "I specialize in silent assassination using senbon and wire traps."
Shisui blinked, forcing the smile to remain on his face.
"I am Rei. I'm trained in taijutsu—breaking bones is the most efficient method to neutralize a target."
Shisui rubbed the back of his neck.
"I'm Hana. I use poisons... slow ones are better, less noisy."
Another kid added, "Kenjutsu. Quick slashes. I've been taught to target the throat first."
One by one, they introduced themselves, and with each name came a skill—killing in various forms. Shisui could feel his stomach twist. These were kids—six, maybe seven years old—and yet they spoke like they were reading off mission reports.
"Alright!" Shisui clapped his hands suddenly, cutting off the next child mid-sentence. "That's enough of that."
They all paused, heads tilting slightly in confusion.
"I appreciate your... honesty, but that's not what I asked," he said gently. "We'll get to skills later. But first—let's try again."
He knelt down slightly, trying to meet them at eye level.
"This time, I want you to introduce yourself with your name… and tell me something you like. Not what you're trained in. Not how you can hurt someone. Tell me what makes you smile. Something fun—like, I like onigiri and playing tag. Got it?"
The kids stared at him like he'd spoken a foreign language.
Silence stretched for a moment.
Then, slowly, one girl raised her hand. "I… like drawing cats."
Shisui's smile widened. "Perfect. That's what I want to hear."
Another boy mumbled, "I like reading books with pictures in them… especially the ones with animals."
"Good! That's two," Shisui said, giving him a thumbs-up. "Who's next?"
"...I like watermelon."
"I like sleeping."
"I like it when it rains," a quiet girl whispered.
Shisui listened to each of them patiently, nodding along, encouraging the quieter ones, cracking a few jokes to ease the tension. With every child who spoke, the room felt a little less cold.
"I am Sai, and I like drawing."
"Oh, I also like drawing too. Maybe we should give partner drawing a try sometime," Shisui said to the boy.
…
When Shisui was getting to know the children better, Kaida was learning another lesson of his life.
"This doesn't make sense. Why do we have to use every type of connection with every seal and note down how they interact? I mean, I kind of understand the reason, but wouldn't it be more effective to just teach us how they interact?" Karin cried, while making the nth pattern on the fuinjutsu paper in front of her.
Both Kaida and Yomi had similar thoughts in their minds, but they knew better than speaking their minds out in such a situation, but they understood why Karin couldn't hold back.
It was like rewiring every wire of your house, with wires made up of different metals and checking which work well for which appliance, how it affects other appliances.
This would no doubt increase the effectiveness of the electricity consumption, but how many people would do the work themselves rather than just learning it from the experts?
But Reina didn't even give them an explanation and just asked them to continue practicing.
After one week of constant practice as well as sharing their findings, three of them were finally able to complete the task, and the result was a mountain of fuinjutsu paper covered in seals connected to each other in various different ways, some with straight lines, some with curves, some in circles, some in polygons.
And the one present in front of them had something very close to perfection—different types of seals connected to each other in a way that made them look like a well-oiled machine, something that would work for decades before fading away.
"Good job everyone. With this, you know how you have to connect various seals to each other, though this is the second best choice. Rather than a triangle, an... oval will do better here," Reina said.
"But wouldn't it reduce the output of the chakra... but increase the stability... I see," Kaida said, while Yomi and Karin made notes of the teaching Reina finally started.
Reina then continued to explain why some of the structures they chose were good while others were slightly misplaced and needed some tweaking.
In just a few hours they had learned more than what they did in the last 7 days, or at least that's how Karin and Yomi thought. Because of learning from so many teachers, Kaida had an extensive understanding of the difference between an average teacher and a great teacher.
An average teacher teaches you things and makes you understand and learn them, while a great teacher makes you learn how to think so that you can handle bigger problems in the future on your own.
And Reina was trying to do something very close to that... very, very close.