Takigakure was flourishing. The Daimyo had sent vast quantities of supplies, and the underground exchange had brought in substantial funds. As the news spread that Ruri had fought Hashirama to a standstill and severed Tobirama's arm, more and more people acknowledged him as the Sixth Kage, separate from the traditional Five Kage.
The benefits of this reputation were obvious. The villagers' recognition of Ruri reached new heights. After Kōmae Moru learned of Ruri's achievements, his respect for him grew even deeper. Furthermore, numerous rogue ninjas from smaller nations began arriving. After delegating the vetting process to his subordinates, Ruri permitted all ninjas with clean backgrounds to settle in Takigakure.
Once the situation had stabilized on all fronts, Ruri convened Takigakure's second high-level meeting. The attendees included all Elite Jōnin and key core personnel.
As the saying goes, major nations rely on Kekkei Genkai, while minor nations rely on technology. The Land of Takī had only one major bloodline clan and a limited number of powerful shinobi. Their only path was to advance their technological tree to narrow the gap with the great nations. The theme of today's meeting was the implementation of various policies.
A noteworthy attendee was the leader of the Momochi clan, Momochi Tamba—an elderly man in a wheelchair.
His clan was originally a ninja family from the Land of Grass. They had initially planned to join Kusagakure, but due to Tamba's persistent demands, the entire clan relocated to Takigakure.
The Momochi clan specialized in secret techniques, specifically spider-based techniques. They could spit spider silk from their mouths, and their summoning was a giant spider, making their jutsu remarkably similar to Kidōmaru's in the original story.
Ruri suspected the Momochi clan were likely the ancestors of someone like Kidōmaru. In any case, they were a very powerful clan. Apart from lacking a Kage-level powerhouse, they were essentially on the same tier as Konoha's Ino-Shika-Cho.
Aside from Kōmae Moru and Momochi Tamba, an unexpected person was present in the meeting room: the leader of the Fūma clan, Fūma Fūma.
Fūma was a giant of a man, standing two meters tall. After the coup failed and the Fūma clan was wiped out, he surrendered outright to ensure his remaining clansmen's survival. Adopting a "waste not, want not" attitude, Ruri had accepted them. However, because they had attacked the village, aside from their daily training and sleep, they were all assigned to assist the villagers with farming.
This was also an experiment by Ruri. So far, the results were quite good. A shinobi's productivity was several times higher than a civilian's. Even without using ninjutsu, their superior physical conditioning made them highly efficient at farming.
Fūma's presence here, of course, came with no voting power. He was merely a seat-filler; otherwise, the Takigakure high-level meeting would face the embarrassing scenario of having only two Elite Jōnin in attendance. A single Ino-Shika-Cho formation from Konoha could outmatch that, which would look utterly pathetic.
The remaining Jōnin mostly held important positions, such as Takikage Assistant Takenaka Masakata and Katagiri Masateru, who was in charge of vetting the backgrounds of foreign ninjas.
Even including these Jōnin, however, the meeting only had ten attendees—a somewhat paltry number.
Ruri first proposed that all clans and Jōnin publicly disclose all their ninjutsu, excluding their secret techniques. This proposal received unanimous agreement from everyone. Precedent had been set; Konoha and the other four great villages were already doing it.
Furthermore, the sheer volume of jutsu that Ruri and Kakuzu possessed was terrifying. Sharing their ninjutsu would only benefit the others, with no downsides for them, and it would also earn them goodwill. It was a win-win.
This was one advantage of having few major clans in Takigakure; no one stood up to oppose. Even if someone did, with so few people, they wouldn't have much say. In a place like Konoha, with its forest of clans, there were indeed many elite shinobi, but the Hokage's policies were consequently much harder to implement.
It was said that in Konoha, just debating the public ninjutsu disclosure had taken several days, and Madara and Hashirama had nearly come to blows over it.
"With ninjutsu publicly available, the next step is to open up shinobi education," Ruri stated.
With the foundation of shared ninjutsu in place, they could focus on the education system. They absolutely had to get ahead of the other villages on this. With few other outsiders left to recruit, Takigakure could only cultivate its core strength internally.
"I agree," Momochi Tamba said. "But how would this be implemented?"
The Momochi clansmen only knew their secret techniques and had pitifully few other ninjutsu. If the next generation could master regular ninjutsu alongside their secret arts, it would undoubtedly be a significant boost to the clan's overall strength.
"A ninja academy," Ruri declared. "We'll establish a school to train shinobi! We'll select ninjas with excellent character and ability from the village to serve as teachers and enroll students from across the entire village."
Not only had Ruri crippled Tobirama's arm, but he was also plagiarizing the Ninja Academy concept that Tobirama was originally supposed to propose. However, unlike Tobirama's version, Takigakure's Ninja Academy wasn't planning to assign highly powerful ninjas as teachers.
First, they lacked sufficient personnel and were short on high-end combat power. Second, the academy would only teach the basics; Chūnin, or even experienced Genin, would be adequate instructors. Character education was the area that truly deserved emphasis; it would be terribly embarrassing if graduates turned into missing-nin.
"This might be... improper," Kōmae Moru said slowly. "Our clan's Kekkei Genkai isn't universal; we have our own teaching methods. I believe the Momochi and Fūma clans are the same. Secret techniques also have their limitations."
Momochi Tamba and Fūma Fūma nodded in agreement.
"That's not the intention," Ruri explained. "The Ninja Academy is for foundational education. Children would enroll at age six and be taught for three to six years, depending on their progress. They would learn ninjutsu theory, the Three Basic Jutsu, general shinobi knowledge... until they graduate as Genin. Beyond that, they could receive additional instruction from their clan elders after school."
"That would be acceptable," Kōmae Moru nodded. If it was just about laying a foundation, it wasn't a big issue. Letting their own children receive extra tutoring at home wouldn't interfere with their bloodline abilities.
"And," Ruri continued, "we can enroll the children of civilians. Our village population is insufficient. As a new shinobi village, we need such policies to stabilize morale and win hearts."
"Children of civilians?" Fūma Fūma frowned and muttered under his breath, but said no more. He was well aware of his lack of standing in this discussion.
Kōmae Moru and Momochi Tamba exchanged a glance. If commoners' children were admitted, their two clans would be the most affected. However, they were confident that their clan children's innate talent would surpass that of commoners, so they also remained silent.
"Correct, the children of civilians," Ruri affirmed. "There may be exceptionally talented individuals among the commoners. I believe some of the Jōnin present here are from civilian backgrounds, or have fathers or grandfathers who were civilians, correct?"
The Jōnin attending the meeting, while competent, mostly hadn't formed clans. Most had become shinobi because they, or their fathers, had fortuitously obtained chakra training methods and ninjutsu.
"I agree," Takenaka Masakata was the first to express support. His own grandfather had been a commoner, so he held no prejudice against them. In truth, during the Warring States period, there were many such civilian-born ninjas, but without the protection of a clan, they also died in great numbers.
To put it bluntly, if the current peace didn't hold and the wars continued for a few more years, the civilian-born ninjas present here might all be dead.
Following Masakata's agreement, the others also successively voiced their support for establishing the Ninja Academy. A small village had its advantages; aside from considering their own situations, Ruri's formidable strength more or less influenced their decisions.
"Good. Since no one has any objections, I will personally oversee the establishment of the Ninja Academy. Masakata, prepare the documents to report this matter to the Daimyo. We will handle the funding ourselves."
Ruri had no intention of entrusting the Ninja Academy to anyone else. He had seen the original story and understood the structure of Konoha's academy. Furthermore, he had some ideas of his own he wanted to implement. His only disciple, that Hatake Masashige with Kage-level talent, would be among the academy's first students. He couldn't afford to delay this.
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