Sora turned around.
Then his expression immediately became strange.
More than a dozen people were approaching from behind him.
Most were adults accompanied by children.
A few were young shinobi who had come alone.
And almost every group belonged to a clan Sora recognized.
Tobirama Senju was there, accompanied by a pretty young girl.
A middle-aged man from the Sarutobi clan had brought Hiruzen.
Representatives from the Nara, Akimichi, and Yamanaka clans were present.
The Inuzuka had come as well.
And several other famous clans from Konoha.
There was one thing they all had in common.
Every single person was carrying gifts.
Sora stared at the crowd.
There goes my peaceful life again.
Quite a few of the children looked only four or five years old.
He could already guess why everyone had come.
Before anyone even had the chance to speak, Sora put down his fishing rod.
“I’m old.”
“I can’t handle this much noise.”
“I’m not accepting any more students.”
“You can all go home.”
“…”
The crowd immediately became awkward.
They hadn’t even explained why they were here yet.
And Sora had already thrown them out.
Wasn’t this old man a little too direct?
Tobirama, however, remained perfectly calm.
“Elder Hatake.”
He gestured toward the young girl beside him.
“This is my brother’s daughter, Senju Oto.”
Sora looked at her.
Tobirama continued,
“My brother said that if you agree to accept her as a student, a residence he owns in the Land of Whirlpools will become yours.”
“He rarely uses it anymore.”
“But it should still be worth a considerable amount.”
Senju Oto immediately became anxious.
“Uncle!”
“That residence cost more than eight million ryō!”
Sora’s expression changed.
Eight million ryō.
For someone like him—
someone with practically no stable income and absolutely no interest in going out to earn money—
eight million ryō could fund his lazy lifestyle for a very long time.
Sora immediately looked toward the girl.
“Senju Oto.”
“From today onward, you’re my student.”
“…”
Oto stared at him.
For some reason…
she suddenly felt that this supposedly unfathomable old master might not be entirely reliable.
The middle-aged Sarutobi beside Hiruzen immediately smiled.
“In that case, I also own a courtyard inside Konoha.”
“It’s currently worth around three million ryō.”
“The location is convenient.”
“If Elder Hatake ever wishes to stay inside the village again, living there would make traveling anywhere much easier.”
Hiruzen turned toward his father in confusion.
“Dad.”
He lowered his voice.
“Since when do we own a place like that?”
SMACK!
Hiruzen received a slap to the back of the head.
His father calmly replied,
“We do now.”
“…”
Sora looked at Hiruzen and chuckled.
“Sarutobi kid.”
“We’ve already met once.”
“That means we have some fate between us.”
“You don’t need to pay tuition.”
“Keep the courtyard.”
Hiruzen immediately grinned.
Then—
the Nara clan representative stepped forward.
The Akimichi followed.
Then the Yamanaka.
One after another, representatives from Konoha’s major clans began offering property, money, valuables, and other gifts in exchange for Sora accepting their children as students.
“Wait!”
Sora suddenly raised his hand.
Everyone stopped.
His head was already starting to hurt.
He looked around at the crowd.
“I’m one old man.”
“What am I supposed to do with so many houses?”
He sighed.
“If all of you are so desperate to spend money…”
“Why don’t we do something simpler?”
Everyone looked at him.
Sora casually continued,
“Each of you contributes some money.”
“And we use it to establish a school for shinobi.”
Silence.
Then—
“A shinobi school?”
“A school…
specifically for ninjas?”
Some looked confused.
Others immediately became hesitant.
But one person reacted completely differently.
Tobirama’s eyes lit up.
For years, although Hashirama had served as Hokage and handled Konoha’s overall direction, most of the village’s everyday administration had fallen to Tobirama.
Naturally, he had spent a great deal of time thinking about institutions that could strengthen Konoha.
And among those ideas—
was a school for shinobi.
The problem had never simply been money.
It was teachers.
The major clans had their own secret techniques and inherited knowledge.
None of them wanted to teach those abilities to outsiders.
At present, roughly eighty percent of Konoha’s shinobi came from established clans.
Even among the remaining twenty percent, several powerful civilian-born shinobi had already begun forming clans of their own.
And once they possessed techniques worth protecting…
they developed exactly the same mindset.
No one wanted to become a teacher and hand their most valuable knowledge to someone else.
They didn’t have the time.
They didn’t have the motivation.
And most importantly—
no one powerful enough had been willing to take the first step.
Even Tobirama himself had never found the right opportunity to force the project forward.
But now—
Sora had just given him one.
“That’s right!”
Tobirama suddenly spoke loudly.
Everyone turned toward him.
“I, Tobirama Senju, will personally contribute one million ryō to support the shinobi school founded by Elder Hatake.”
Sora’s eyebrow twitched.
Founded by me?
Tobirama continued without giving him time to object.
“Furthermore, any clan willing to contribute at least five hundred thousand ryō today will receive a permanent benefit.”
“The descendants of that clan will be exempt from tuition when attending this school.”
Then Tobirama looked toward Sora.
“With Elder Hatake personally teaching them…”
“I believe every child here will have the opportunity to accomplish something extraordinary.”
Sora stared at him.
Then—
the realization struck.
Wait.
Did I just do something huge?
In the original story, Tobirama Senju had founded Konoha’s Ninja Academy.
But now…
because Sora had casually thrown out one suggestion—
I’m becoming the founder instead?!
His eyes narrowed slightly.
Then another realization followed.
Tobirama is using me.
Sora had lived for more than a hundred years.
He wasn’t some naïve child.
One look at the reactions around him was enough to understand what Tobirama was doing.
The creation of the Elder Council had already weakened the authority of individual clans.
Civilian elite shinobi had been given formal voting power and were beginning to rise politically.
And if a centralized shinobi school was established—
more civilian-born shinobi would inevitably emerge.
That would further dilute the influence of Konoha’s traditional clans.
This was clearly something Tobirama had wanted for a long time.
Then—
Tobirama’s voice suddenly sounded directly inside Sora’s mind.
No one else reacted.
A private transmission.
If you agree to this, I’ll give you one forbidden technique.
Sora calmly looked at Tobirama.
Then raised two fingers.
Tobirama frowned.
Sora kept the two fingers raised.
Two.
For a few seconds, Tobirama said nothing.
Then he nodded.
Compared with Konoha’s future—
two forbidden techniques suddenly didn’t seem so valuable.
Of course, even if Tobirama had refused to pay him anything, Sora had already reached the point where backing out would be difficult.
Besides…
there was another reason.
Founder of the Konoha Ninja Academy.
That title sounded ridiculously impressive.
Sora cleared his throat.
“Fine.”
Everyone focused on him.
“I’m usually free anyway.”
“Teaching these children by myself shouldn’t be much of a problem.”
Then his tone became more serious.
“But there are several things I’ll make clear now.”
“No clan will be forced to hand over its secret techniques.”
“No one will be forced to reveal inherited clan knowledge.”
“And no one will be forced to become a teacher.”
“If you want your children to attend, send them.”
“If you don’t…”
Sora shrugged.
“No one will force you.”
The hesitation among several clan representatives visibly eased.
They exchanged glances.
Then—
after noticing Tobirama’s expression—
the middle-aged Sarutobi representative stepped forward first.
“My Sarutobi clan will contribute one million ryō.”
He smiled.
“To support Elder Hatake in founding the Konoha Ninja Academy.”
Enjoying the story?
Don’t leave before the next twist.
Add it to your Collection Stay updated and be ready the moment the next chapter drops.
Collect it.
Vote for it.
And stay close—things are about to get interesting.
Thank you for reading and supporting the story.