Chapter 248: Plans for a Ninja Academy

Muyue arrived at the designated spot ten minutes early as usual and waited.

However, to his slight surprise, Kushina was already standing there when he arrived.

"Heh heh, I got here first this time, didn't I?" Kushina said, hands on her hips, her fair chin slightly raised, smiling smugly.

Muyue didn't expect Kushina to have such a competitive streak over something so trivial, but arriving early was good—it meant they could spend a little more time learning sealing techniques later.

"Mmm, Teacher Kushina, you're really diligent," Muyue praised with a smile.

"Haha, I'm Konoha's top sealing ninja, so of course it's only natural," Kushina laughed, accepting Muyue's compliment.

"Hurry up, I can't wait to see the photo you said would definitely make me laugh," Kushina said, eyes sparkling, urging Muyue.

Muyue didn't dawdle; he took out all the photos he'd brought and placed the one of Minato being forced to smile on top.

"Ha ha ha..."

Seeing that familiar face make such a funny expression, Kushina burst into unrestrained laughter.

"Did you use some kind of jutsu to control Minato? How did you get him to make that face? It looks like he wants to laugh but can't quite manage it," Kushina asked curiously after laughing for a while.

"Probably because he had a big battle during the day and was really tired, but since the photo was for you, he had to look energetic and smile, and this is what happened," Muyue speculated.

"This is so rare—I'm going to frame this photo and keep it properly," Kushina said seriously.

She had seen Minato's normal smile many times, but this one she had never seen before—it was worth treasuring.

Kushina continued flipping through the remaining photos. There were pictures of Minato looking serious, and others showing his helpless expression at some unknown event. She looked through each one carefully.

"War... it's really a detestable thing," Kushina said, putting the photos away, unable to help looking up at the sky and sighing.

Kushina was a very lively and passionate person who didn't like sighing, but war was one of the few things that could make her sigh if she thought about it too much.

Kushina wasn't born in Konoha; she was born in the Land of Whirlpools, a small country consisting only of the Uzumaki clan.

The Land of Whirlpools was tiny—it was called a small country, but actually the whole nation was just a small island, not even as large as a big city in the Land of Fire.

Even though it was small, the Land of Whirlpools had no intention of expansion and never attacked other countries.

Because the Uzumaki clan was distantly related to the Senju clan, they had a good relationship with Konoha and signed a friendship treaty. It could be said that Konoha's sealing techniques were developed on the basis of Uzumaki sealing techniques. To commemorate this friendly relationship, the uniforms of Konoha ninja incorporated the Uzumaki clan's emblem.

In Kushina's memory, the scenery of the Land of Whirlpools was no worse than that of the Land of Fire. The Land of Whirlpools was also lush with trees, hot in summer, but not cold in winter.

She loved the Land of Whirlpools, but because her chakra was special, she was chosen as the second Nine-Tails jinchūriki at a very young age, and when she reached school age, she was sent directly to Konoha.

After that, she learned from Mito Uzumaki that the Land of Whirlpools had been destroyed.

Not just one or two—many nations joined forces to annihilate the Land of Whirlpools, and so the Land of Whirlpools became history.

Since then, Kushina had come to hate war. If there were no war, her country would not have perished.

Although Minato had no obvious injuries, Kushina noticed some stubborn stains on his clothes, and his face wasn't as clean as usual at home—after all, on the battlefield you couldn't wash your face twice a day.

"Minato asked me to tell you: 'I'm fine. Take care of yourself. Don't stay up late, and eat your meals on time,'" Muyue relayed Minato's message to Kushina.

"Honestly, does he see me as some kid who can't take care of herself?" Kushina was taken aback for a moment, then complained, but an uncontrollable happy smile spread across her face.

Then the two walked to the place where they had previously taught sealing techniques.

Kushina cleared her throat twice, put back on her lively smile, and said, "Kushina's sealing class is now officially in session. Student Muyue, report on your progress."

Muyue thought for a moment, decided to hide a bit of his progress, recalled what he had been like when he was almost a beginner, and then reported.

It wasn't that he didn't trust Kushina, but his performance couldn't differ too much from before—the Anbu were still watching. He had already shown a greater talent for sealing techniques than at the very beginning, so he had to progress step by step, not take too big a stride all at once.

"I see. So you're learning pretty fast. After just two lessons from me, you're almost mastering the Four Symbols Seal. You must have done a lot of self-study on your own," Kushina said, pleased with Muyue's diligence.

Under her teaching, Minato had become an excellent sealing ninja. If Muyue could become just as good, then she would have taught two outstanding disciples.

"I feel like if I became a jonin instructor, I'd definitely become Konoha's new sealing technique grandmaster," Kushina couldn't help laughing.

But she could only dream about it. Her status as a jinchūriki destined her to never become a team instructor, because instructors frequently had to lead teams out on missions, and jinchūriki often couldn't leave the village freely for various reasons, which was very inconvenient.

"You don't have to be a jonin instructor to teach students. Maybe in the future the Ninja Academy will increase class hours and teach more advanced ninjutsu knowledge. Then, Kushina, you could just go teach at the Academy," Muyue said with a smile.

He actually had an idea: to transform the Ninja Academy into a school combining elementary, middle, and university levels. The elementary curriculum would be the same as the current ninja training; middle school would start teaching nature transformation techniques; and university would add specializations like sealing, barrier techniques, and medical ninjutsu.

Teaching students who weren't his personal disciples was also an important part of his system. Muyue guessed that if he could teach stronger disciples, he might get better rewards. For example, when he taught Kushina and Minato cooking, even though there were only two students, he still got teaching rewards. Even if it was just one recipe drop, it was still a reward drop.

"That's impossible. If we really did what you said, the better students could become Jonin right after university graduation." Kushina felt that Muyue's idea was somewhat unrealistic.

"Spending over ten years to train ninja – the cycle is too long. Konoha hasn't even been around for several ten-year periods yet."

"Kushina, do you think it's normal to graduate at age twelve and become a ninja?" Muyue thought for a moment and asked.

"Very normal. Usually that's the latest age to graduate. I graduated at twelve, and Minato graduated at ten." Kushina nodded calmly.

Muyue sighed inwardly. This was a difference in perspective. In Muyue's eyes, letting a ten- or twelve-year-old child graduate to become a ninja was equivalent to letting a child who hadn't even finished elementary school become a killer – not normal at all.

However, Muyue had to admit that his ninja university plan was currently not feasible.

This was a time of war. The current situation was still okay without a manpower shortage, but after Konoha gets attacked from all sides, not to mention letting students undergo over a decade of training, they'd be eager to have them graduate in two or three years and go to the battlefield to quickly grow into usable combat power.

Moreover, the current Hokage was Sarutobi Hiruzen. Based on Muyue's understanding of Sarutobi Hiruzen, he wouldn't agree to Muyue making such major changes to the Ninja Academy.

The impact of establishing middle schools, universities, holiday special training, and an intern program in the Ninja Academy was completely different in scale.

Special training and the intern program wouldn't necessarily lengthen the training period – they might even shorten it. Moreover, both special training and interns only affected students and chunin instructors.

But establishing middle schools and universities was different. On one hand, the ninja training period would be greatly extended, and more advanced knowledge required stronger ninja to teach – this would require some specialized jonin to enter the Ninja Academy as professors.

There were too many factors involved, and Sarutobi Hiruzen was a man who liked stability. He would never agree to a proposal that would bring such drastic change to Konoha.

"Although it's hard to achieve now, I think it's hard to say about the future. Anything is possible." Muyue said with a warm smile.

Although it wasn't feasible now, fortunately this was a world where force reigned supreme, and he was someone with a cheat. Once his strength reached a certain level, the impossible would become possible.

"Haha, if the Ninja Academy really became like what you said, Muyue, I would definitely become a sealing technique instructor renowned throughout Konoha." Kushina let her imagination run wild along with Muyue's idea and said with a laugh.

Muyue smiled and didn't talk about the school anymore. He began to seriously study sealing techniques with Kushina.

Under Kushina's witness, Muyue successfully used the Four Symbols Seal.

"Not bad, not bad. From now on you can tell people that I taught you sealing techniques." Kushina said with satisfaction.

Next, Muyue took the opportunity to ask some questions about sealing chakra, and Kushina answered them one by one.

Since it was nearly noon, Muyue and Kushina went to find a restaurant to borrow a kitchen to cook and settle lunch.

Before Kushina left, Muyue handed her the box containing pastries and said with a smile:

"This time, you should be able to take it back."

Kushina opened it and found it was the same fragrant and delicious dessert as before. Her eyes immediately lit up.

"Oh Muyue, you only gave it to me after lunch! Do you think I'm some weakling who can't eat dessert after a meal? Girls have a separate stomach for desserts." Kushina immediately ate an osmanthus cake, revealing a satisfied smile.

But she was also joking. Such delicious food should be eaten after some digestion. By the time they walked back, it would be about time to start eating.

Saying goodbye to Kushina, Muyue went back to train his disciples as usual. The day before yesterday, he had conducted another special training. Shisui and Obito had many dodge attempts now, so he could appropriately increase the intensity.