The ninja academy had changed so much.
Madara stood at the entrance of the ninja academy, looking around at everything. It had expanded quite a bit compared to when he had left the Leaf.
There were statues here too?
Haru, I'm liking you more and more.
Madara looked at the entrance of the ninja academy, where statues of Hashirama and Madara were still placed, and the corners of his mouth could not help rising.
In order to promote the legitimacy of the Uchiha, reverse the secret suppression of the Uchiha during Tobirama's rule, and raise the Uchiha clan's status in the hearts of the Leaf villagers, Haru had put in a great deal of effort. Not only had he made a movie to clear Madara's name, but he had also placed statues of the Leaf's founders, Madara and Hashirama, in various important places throughout the Leaf, slowly raising the Uchiha clan's status from the source.
One of the major shareholders who founded the Leaf had directly defected. This stain truly needed time to slowly wash clean. In a few more years, Haru felt he could even play around with history and slightly revise the textbooks. Madara had simply left the village to travel. As for the Valley of the End...
Cough, cough. It was just a sparring match.
Madara was admiring his own statue, then looked at Hashirama's statue beside it, and skillfully fell into memories again.
The last time he had come to the ninja academy with Hashirama, he seemed to have frightened a little girl into crying.
Damn it!
Why had that bastard Hashirama been able to cheer her up with just a flower?
Ring, ring, ring!
While Madara was still reminiscing about the past, the school bell rang. A moment later, the ninja academy students cheerfully rushed out of the classrooms. The instant school ended at noon was always the happiest time.
How wonderful.
A smile appeared on Madara's originally cold face. These were the Leaf's new sprouts.
So many ordinary children.
Madara observed the students. Now, in the Leaf's ninja academy, children of villagers and ordinary people already made up the majority.
Was this what they called the popularization of education?
Before Madara had left the Leaf, the Leaf's ninja academy had been very small. At first, it had basically been made up of children from the Uchiha and Senju clans. Later, as the Leaf expanded and ninja clans of all sizes from the Land of Fire joined the Leaf seeking protection, the ninja academy's scale also expanded.
It was only during Tobirama's rule, because of the First Ninja World War and its long duration and gradually escalating intensity, that the front lines urgently needed cannon fodder to fill the gaps. That was when the proportion of ordinary children in the ninja academy slowly began to rise.
Now, in Haru's era, it had soared. He had poured money wildly into education, and ordinary people now made up the overwhelming majority. After all, ordinary people had a large base population, and they did not need elite combat training.
"It really is lively."
The noise of thousands of students pouring out of the ninja academy did not give Madara much time to think. He still needed to find Sosuke Ito, the boy who had lent him the book yesterday. He, Madara, would not break a promise made to a child.
Madara's eyes swept through the crowd. He quickly locked onto Sosuke's position, crossed through the crowd, and grabbed Sosuke's arm.
"I came to return the book."
"G-Grandpa, you scared me."
"You are a ninja. Staying alert at all times is the most basic requirement. If you go to the battlefield like this, it will be very easy for you to..."
"Grandpa, I'm not in the combat-type ninja track. I'm a multifunctional support type."
Haru had given these weak ninja a very nice-sounding name: multifunctional support-type ninja. They were like bricks, moved wherever they were needed.
"Mm... I forgot. But no matter what, maintaining vigilance is essential for ninja."
"I know, Grandpa. Have you eaten?"
"No."
Sosuke took back the book and walked with Madara through the crowd, chatting along the way. After learning that Madara had not eaten, he took the initiative to bring Madara to the ninja academy cafeteria.
"You all eat here?"
"Yeah. The Hokage specially built a cafeteria for us. Students can eat here for free with meal tickets. The food is even better than what my mom gets at the factory cafeteria. I have saved tickets, so I'll treat you today. Judging by how you look, you probably fled to the Leaf like I did."
Not long after, Madara stood outside the cafeteria waiting for Sosuke to bring food. Watching the students come and go, he saw that the food was truly good.
There was even meat.
Madara understood life in the ninja world very well. Being able to eat meat was already enough to show the level of this ninja academy.
Haru had done well!
There was nothing else to be done. This was a habit Haru had brought from his previous life. No matter how poor one was, education could not be poor. No matter how hungry one was, children could not be starved. Education was a luxury no matter what world one was in. The popularization of education and literacy rate in the ninja world were no different from a pile of filth.
Ordinary people, especially refugees, who came to the Leaf would rather have their children work in factories than send them to school, because they had no money to pay tuition and no money to support a child who was not working. Sending them to the factory earlier to earn more money was the true path. Better yet, they should marry and have children early, then raise the children for four or five years before sending them to the factory to earn money too.
In that case, Haru could only use the advantage of the Leaf's finances.
As long as one qualified to enter the ninja academy as a student, and after review, their family was confirmed as poor, tuition would be waived, and three meals a day would be provided.
They immediately and decisively responded to the great Hokage's call, sending their children to the ninja academy to study.
Who did not know that reading and writing were good? If you could not read, you could even be tricked when writing an IOU. In any case, a large portion of factory workers had only symbolically glanced at the mortgage contract before signing. They simply could not read, and they also did not believe the Leaf would cheat them. Their rotten lives had only survived because the Leaf gave them food. There was nothing worth the Leaf coveting.
Unfortunately, what Haru coveted was precisely their lives.
In other words, their labor power, and the labor power of their next generation.
"The food is here!"
Sosuke carried two plates in both hands and walked toward Madara somewhat unsteadily. Madara took a few steps forward and took the plates from him. The two found a place to sit and eat.
Sosuke wolfed his food down. After a whole morning of classes, he was indeed very tired. Although students like them would not need to participate in combat-type missions in the future, their ninja physical training had not decreased at all. Every day, they had to run laps around the field and train hard.
Madara's table manners were much better. After all, he was born into a noble bloodline clan, so he understood dining etiquette. But they were not that much better. After spending ten years in a dark underground cave, he had not eaten much good food. Usually, he just ate soldier pills, focusing on filling his stomach and replenishing chakra.
"What do you think of Haru?"
Madara wiped the grease from his mouth, somewhat curious about Haru's status in the hearts of the children. Although Madara already had an answer in his heart, there were some things he still wanted to hear personally.
"Grandpa, that's the Hokage. You can't call him directly by name!"
Sosuke took a sip of water and corrected Madara, leaving Madara stunned.
He, Madara, the founder of the Leaf and the ancestor of the Uchiha, had to respectfully call Haru "Hokage"?
Even with Hashirama, he had never called him that!
However, looking at Sosuke's unhappy expression, and considering that he had eaten a meal from this child for free, Madara decided to go along with him this time.
That brat Haru got lucky.
"Then, Sosuke, what do you think of the Hokage?"
"The Hokage is the greatest person in the world. Before my mom and I came to the Leaf, we once went two or three days without eating. That hateful landlord... and Dad, to protect us, he eventually starved to death."
"But my mom and I were very lucky. We walked for a long time. I don't remember how long. Along the way, we ate tree bark, dirt, and insects, holding on with one last breath until we reached the Leaf."
"The Hokage is..."
When Sosuke talked about the days before coming to the Leaf, his expression became sad. But when he spoke about arriving in the Leaf, his entire spirit changed.
Madara silently listened to Sosuke's words, no one knew what he was thinking.
"Let's go. I'll take you back to school."
After listening for a while, Madara planned to take Sosuke back to school. However, Sosuke decisively rejected the suggestion. A child's nature was to play. Going back to school right after lunch would truly be super disappointing.
"Come on, Grandpa. You don't seem to have anywhere to go. I'll take you somewhere interesting!"
Sosuke signaled Madara with his eyes to follow. Before long, they arrived at a street not far from the ninja academy. This area could be considered one of the best shop locations in the Leaf. With the ninja academy behind it, the shops here were extremely popular, especially after school.
"Where is this?"
Madara was brought by Sosuke to the entrance of a shop. The shop was filled with ninja academy students.
"Boss, give me another pack!"
"I must draw something good today!"
"Again, the First Hokage?"
"Again!"
Sosuke excitedly watched his classmates draw cards.
This shop had been opened under Haru's instructions. Students' money was very easy to earn, especially money from the children of ninja clans. They were not short of money at all.
Haru had slightly modified the card-drawing games from his previous life and directly pushed them into the Leaf.
A pack of cards might contain Hashirama, Madara, Tobirama, or...
As for himself, since he had not yet stepped down from the Hokage position, he would temporarily leave himself out.
There were also the One-Tail, Two-Tails, all the way to the Nine-Tails.
When the initial cards were produced, there were quantity limits to ensure rarity. The card with the largest number was naturally Hashirama, followed by Tobirama. As for the tailed beasts, naturally, the more tails they had, the fewer cards there were.
As for Madara, Haru made the fewest of him.
This indirectly raised the Uchiha's value!
Haru had also specially taken measures to guarantee fairness, such as with the Hyuga clan. The technical support naturally came from Tobirama. Haru remembered that when this happened, Tobirama had cursed him quite filthily. Could this kind of thing really need his help?
Combined with the movie during the New Year period, the card-drawing game quickly became popular throughout the ninja academy. The excitement of drawing cards, the scarcity of the cards, and the desire to compare among students. Haru's card-drawing game grasped the ninja academy students very accurately.
Now, whenever school ended, a large group of students visited this shop, taking out their pocket money and spending it all on the cards Haru had designed.
The price was not cheap either. One pack contained only one card. But children's money truly was easy to earn. Based on the current popularity, it could earn several hundred thousand ryo a year.
The children of ninja clans were all squeezing money from the old men in their families and had plenty of pocket money. The shop also promised that as long as one collected every card, they could receive the Hokage's personal signature. This alone was enough to attract people.
To satisfy their collecting desire, competitiveness, and comparison, they did not blink while drawing cards.
"This is the good place you mentioned?"
Madara, an old man from the previous era, naturally could not understand why students would spend money on these useless cards.
"This is the hottest card-drawing game in school. The boss said that as long as you collect all the cards, you can bring them to him, and he'll take you to see the Hokage and get a personal signature. That means you can meet the Hokage!"
"The card packs have the First Hokage, the Second Hokage, and the tailed beasts."
Sosuke excitedly introduced the card-drawing game. Although he did not have the money to draw cards himself, just watching his classmates draw cards was already very interesting. The excitement of tearing open the package in that instant was incredibly thrilling!
"Boring."
Madara gave his evaluation expressionlessly.
But he would stay here for a while.
Consider it accompanying a child to play. In any case, he had nothing else to do right now. Spending more time around children made his mood better.
As for trying to awaken the Rinnegan?
What Rinnegan?
He had already tried for so long without any movement. This bit of time made no difference.
"Please don't be Lord Hashirama. My entire week's pocket money is almost gone. I'll use ten years of luck to wish for the rarest card!"
"I want the Nine-Tails! I want the Nine-Tails!"
"Why is it Lord Hashirama again? Ahhh!"
"Me too!"
"I drew the Six-Tails!"
"What? Awesome!"
"..."
The noisy sound of card drawing continued without pause. For a moment, Madara could not understand what the children now were thinking, wasting time and money on these boring cards.
Back when he was young, he had lived by licking blood from the edge of a blade. How could children now be like this? They were simply neglecting proper learning.
Haru, why do you not manage this?
Would the children not lose their ambition by playing with things?
Sosuke watched the card drawing from the side. Although he was not the one tearing open the packaging, his mood still rose and fell the instant the cards appeared.
"Grandpa, after watching for a while, don't you think it's interesting?"
"Boring. These children are happier drawing Tobirama's card than drawing Hashirama's card."
After watching for a while, Madara discovered that the card that appeared the most was Hashirama. Every one of them looked dejected, as if drawing Hashirama's card was something very unlucky.
This truly made Madara angry.
And when they drew Tobirama's card, they could actually smile. How unlucky.
Was his Hashirama somehow worse than Tobirama?
Which bastard designed these cards?
"Grandpa, there's nothing that can be done about it. Lord Hashirama's card has the largest quantity and is the most common. Lord Tobirama's card is rarer."
"The rarer the card, the better."
"Then whose card is the rarest?"
"Of course it's Lord Madara's!"
Madara froze for a moment after hearing that. Then he revealed a pleased smile.
"This card-drawing game isn't as boring as I imagined!"
"The person who designed these cards truly has good taste!"
(End of Chapter)
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