"Hokage-sama, isn't that a bit too exaggerated?"
Judging from the complaints of the enrollment teacher just now, this energetic little guy had already been rejected once last year, and now he had been rejected again this year. Clearly, he belonged to the trash-tier category. Even if he barely got admitted, he would only end up as cannon fodder at the level of a genin.
Shikato looked at the utterly ordinary bowl-cut Might Duy before him. Thick eyebrows, a ridiculous dark green training suit. In the future, this guy could kick the First Hokage to death?
What kind of ninja-world joke was that supposed to be?
Wasn't the reason this damned war had started because the First Hokage had suddenly died?
If the First Hokage were still alive, he alone could have crushed the entire ninja world!
"Exaggerated?"
"Well, maybe a little. He would still need help. Like Tobirama as a top-tier support piece. Then Might Duy would be complete. One Hashirama probably wouldn't be enough for him to kick to death. At least two."
"Uh..."
Shikato decisively chose to shut up.
He had realized Haru was getting more outrageous with every sentence. Tobirama as Might Duy's support piece, kicking two Hashiramas to death...
If he kept talking to Haru, who knew what shocking nonsense he would say next.
The only reason he could tolerate this was because the man in front of him was the Third Hokage. If anyone else had said something this absurd in front of him, Shikato would have immediately had them arrested and thrown into Anbu for a few days of interrogation. The Leaf's top powerhouses were not people anyone could casually joke about.
"There really are a tiny handful of completely ordinary people in this world, with no talent at all, who climb step by step to the peak through nothing but passion and persistence. By the time you think of them again, you won't even be able to see their back anymore."
Haru patted Shikato on the shoulder and smoothly delivered another one of his life lectures.
In the Naruto world, the only people who could reach Six Paths-tier combat power purely through hard work were probably this father and son pair.
Everyone else either got hand-delivered power-ups from heaven or just relied on bloodlines.
As for himself, if he ever reached Six Paths-tier, that would probably count as cheat-engine growth.
Yeah, cheating really did suit him better.
Haru sighed inwardly, then slowly walked over toward Might Duy.
At that moment, Might Duy's tears had already turned into fountains, and he was shouting things about youth while hugging the enrollment teacher.
The atmosphere was both ridiculous and awkward. Watching Haru walk toward him step by step, the teacher was panicking hard.
What sin had he committed to be this unlucky, to run into a human wrecking ball like Might Duy while working?
"You really want to become a ninja?"
Haru walked up to Might Duy's side.
Still crying too hard to notice anything else, Might Duy only realized another person had approached when he heard Haru's voice.
"Hokage-sama?!"
Might Duy was shocked and overjoyed. His target immediately changed, and he lunged straight at Haru.
"Hokage-sama, I really want to become a ninja! My youth exists for... aaahhh...!"
His tears shot out in long streams.
"..."
Haru hurriedly pushed the crying, snot-covered Might Duy away. These clothes of his were an absolute nightmare to wash.
"All right, I get it!"
"You've passed the ninja academy selection!"
The moment Might Duy heard Haru's words, the intensity of his tears immediately rose another level, and he tried to throw himself into Haru's arms again.
Haru instantly shot a look at Shikato, making him step in front and take the full brunt of Might Duy's burning youth.
"What the Will of Fire means is that as long as a person works hard enough, anyone can become an excellent ninja. And an excellent ninja needs these qualities..."
"..."
Taking advantage of the moment, Haru launched into an impassioned speech in front of the crowd.
Things like the Will of Fire, how effort could let anyone succeed, that kind of rhetoric rolled off his tongue effortlessly.
His hot-blooded speech only made Might Duy even more excited. The tears of youth surged to a whole new level. With how much water the guy was producing, Haru was starting to wonder whether he'd cry himself into dehydration.
Still, once Might Duy truly grew into his future self, today might become one of those famous historical scenes. Later generations might talk about the great story of Haru recognizing talent like a master judge spotting a legendary horse.
Then Haru quickly ended the speech and waved Shikato along so they could hurry into the academy.
Because he had already noticed that Might Duy no longer seemed satisfied with pouring his youth into Shikato. His target seemed to be shifting back toward Haru again.
"Could there really come a day when time..."
"Goes back to what was yours and mine..."
Back inside the ninja academy, Haru hummed a youthful little tune. The melody was so catchy that even Shikato started unconsciously swaying his head along to it.
Hokage-sama actually sang pretty well.
"Shikato, which class is Tsunade in?"
A sudden wave of interest had hit Haru, and he wanted to see what the future Sannin were like in school at this point in time. Shikato led him to a classroom.
In class,
The teacher up front was lecturing passionately, chalk scraping across the blackboard.
Jiraiya was nodding off, on the verge of falling asleep.
Orochimaru was the perfect student, sitting there listening seriously.
As for Tsunade, she was staring at some unknown book and making motions with her hands. At first Haru thought she was practicing hand signs for some ninjutsu.
Then Tsunade pulled out a set of dice from her desk.
The three of them fit Haru's mental stereotypes perfectly.
"Ahem."
Shikato looked a little awkward. He had heard long ago that the First Hokage's granddaughter was obsessed with gambling, but he hadn't expected her to study it during class. That was somehow even worse than sleeping in class.
"The one sleeping, and the one playing with dice, both of you stand in the back and listen!"
Haru's playful side kicked in, and he immediately walked into the classroom and shouted.
Tsunade jolted upright in an instant.
Jiraiya was still asleep.
A few unlucky kids who had also been dozing like Jiraiya stood up instead.
"Hokage-sama?!"
Haru's sudden appearance instantly set the previously dull classroom on fire.
For Leaf children, the most common dream was becoming Hokage.
Class immediately turned into an idol meet-and-greet. After happily signing a few autographs for some of the kids, the situation started slipping out of control.
Fortunately, the teacher stepped in. One command for silence and self-study was enough to suppress the room again.
Not wanting to disrupt class any further, Haru took Shikato and left the academy, returning to the Hokage building to continue work.
In the Hokage's office,
"For Might Duy, all future training resources should be specially allocated, especially on the taijutsu side. Medicinal baths and recovery medicines tailored for taijutsu training should be delivered to him every month."
Haru cared a great deal about Might Duy. After all, this was a seed with the potential to grow into Six Paths-tier combat power.
Later, he still needed to ask Tobirama about the Eight Gates. Right now, Might Duy definitely did not know it yet. The inventor of that technique had always been a mystery, and the two most popular theories were obvious.
One was that Might Duy invented it himself.
The other, naturally, was the usual ninja-inventor genius, Tobirama.
"Understood, Hokage-sama."
Shikato nodded. Since Haru cared so much about that bowl-cut boy from earlier, he would have to keep a closer eye on him in the future too.
Could Might Duy really one day kick the First Hokage to death?
An absurd thought rose in Shikato's mind.
Impossible. Absolutely impossible.
The very next second, he threw that ridiculous thought away. Hokage-sama had to be messing with him.
While Shikato's mind wandered, Haru was flipping through the system missions, trying to see whether there were any suitable ones to do lately.
His daily life of slacking off was comfortable, but it really had started getting a little boring.
He skipped all combat-type missions right away.
There wasn't a single one he could beat.
He also ignored the absurd life-type missions.
A measly ten draws wasn't enough to buy him. He already felt his moral bottom line had dropped pretty far. If it went much lower, he'd become something close to humanoid excrement.
Straight to achievement-type missions.
[Long-Term Mission: I Have a Leaf Dream]
[Long-Term Mission: Entertain to Death]
[Long-Term Mission: Master of Grain]
[Long-Term Mission: Hearts of Steel]
Let's see...
I Have a Leaf Dream was clearly a very late-game mission and connected with several others, so it could be ignored for now.
As for Hearts of Steel, wiping out a small country would be easy. The hard part would be building a modernized military force.
Express delivery. Guaranteed arrival.
That phrase suddenly popped into Haru's head.
If the modernized force meant something at that level, then the difficulty would be outrageous.
Massed heavy artillery to bombard ninja?
That would be way too exciting.
Though it didn't really fit the vibe of the ninja world. A tailed beast still had to charge up before firing a Tailed Beast Bomb, but something like that kind of express delivery would be at least as powerful and could be launched by the hundreds from the other side of the ocean at the same time. Even Madara in his prime would be blasted into dust.
The technology gap there was simply too huge, and the cost would also be astronomical.
Though, he could always dump more work onto Tobirama and have him start researching black powder, bombs, and the like first. That mission could also be set aside for later.
Haru's focus landed on Entertain to Death and Master of Grain.
Those two could probably be started first.
Master of Grain couldn't begin with the Land of Fire. It had to start with small countries first, then slowly expand to larger nations.
Entertain to Death, on the other hand, required setting up an entertainment company, and that was something he could begin immediately.
And of course, an entertainment company needed excellent artists who could sing, dance, and rap.
Idol economics really could make a lot of money, but that was still way too far ahead of the ninja world's current version.
Back in Naruto's era, if Haru remembered correctly, the princess of the Land of Snow, Koyuki, had become a major superstar.
Selling her private photo books would definitely make a fortune. One copy for a hundred thousand, and Haru believed there would still be buyers.
That was just how fans worked.
But meals had to be eaten one bite at a time, and steps had to be taken little by little. If you spread your legs too wide, something would get torn. Haru decided it was better to start with films.
The film industry had actually appeared very early in this world. It already existed. It had been invented by bored nobles purely for fun and to kill time. It was just technologically backward, still limited to black-and-white films.
"Shikato, what do you think about the Leaf making movies?"
"Huh?!"
"Ninja disguising themselves and stealing intelligence is basic skill level. Acting has always been part of the job!"
"Those nobles don't know the first thing about movies. What they make is crude, and the technology's backward. It's all black-and-white. The Leaf should become the leader of the entire industry. Not only should we dominate in film technology, we should dominate in content too!"
"And besides, now that the war's over, mission volume hasn't recovered yet. Right now, Leaf ninja still have to fight each other for jobs just to earn money and support their families."
"This would also solve part of the Leaf ninja employment problem!"
Haru's words left Shikato completely at sea.
He had been able to accept doing futures trading to make money.
That had been to repair the financial losses left behind by the war.
But making movies?
Was that really ninja work?
Still, as Haru's external brain, Shikato seriously thought it over, recalled what kinds of films were selling well on the market right now, and then cautiously said:
"Hokage-sama... then what kind of films would we make? The erotic kind?"
That single sentence made even Haru's eyes widen.
Uh... actually, that wasn't impossible.
Shadow Clone plus Transformation Technique. A single ninja could film the whole thing alone. The Leaf's production cost for adult films would be low to an outrageous degree.
Still, Haru had at least a little shame left.
If his first film was an adult one, his moral integrity would drop to a brand-new low.
But this wasn't really Shikato's fault. In recent years, the ninja world had been stuck in war, and all other kinds of films had sold terribly. Only adult films could reliably sell.
People's lives were already miserable enough.
If they weren't even allowed to enjoy themselves in private, then this world would be too much of a hellhole.
"Uh, of course not. But if you want to make that kind of film, I can sponsor you!"
After thinking it over, Haru felt he still ought to encourage Shikato's thinking a little. After all, that really would make money. Once he got Tobirama to upgrade black-and-white film into color, the profit from adult films would probably explode.
Better the money stay within the family than flow outside.
He didn't have to make that kind of film himself. He could let the Nara Clan do it while he quietly held shares in the background.
"No, no."
Shikato shook his head over and over.
His dignity was still intact. If the great Leaf advisor went into adult films, there'd be no place left for him in the Leaf clan circle.
"Then we'll make war films!"
"Films that belong to ninja, telling ninja war from a ninja's perspective!"
Haru had already decided on the lane.
The flashy and handsome ninjutsu, the earth-shaking destructive power, they didn't even need special effects. Ninja were born to eat from the war-film bowl.
The heat from the recent ninja war was still there too, so this was the perfect time to exploit the trend.
In a way, Haru was also cashing in on ninja blood and suffering.
"Hokage-sama, then what about the script?"
Once again, Shikato chose to go along with Haru.
Ever since Haru had taken power, he had barely done a single thing that fit Shikato's normal understanding of the world, yet the results had all been excellent. The Leaf was now recovering faster than any of the Five Great Ninja Villages.
The only thing it still lacked was time.
Ninja needed time to be trained.
Clans needed time to have children and strengthen themselves.
Meanwhile, the other villages were still sinking in the mud of financial ruin.
Money could solve ninety-nine percent of problems in the world.
If it couldn't, that only meant you didn't have enough money.
That saying might have been somewhat exaggerated, but it was painfully realistic.
The Leaf was recovering so quickly because its accounts were full of money.
"I've already thought of the rough script!"
Haru thought of Obito's first half of life.
Strip out the pathetic lovesick-dog elements, and didn't that leave a pretty good script?
(End of Chapter)
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