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The manga's influence was not limited to the offices of the Kage.
While village leaders filled their files, compared the present to the future, and tried to determine which pieces of information could be trusted… a completely different kind of influence was spreading through the streets.
And for the Ninja Academies, the problem was becoming increasingly obvious.
…
Konohagakure — Ninja Academy:
"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"
A boy shouted from the middle of the training yard, forming the hand seal in front of his chest exactly as he had watched Naruto do countless times.
One second passed.
Then two.
Nothing happened.
The boy standing across from him folded his arms.
"You're doing it wrong."
"And you know how to do it?"
"Of course! Naruto does it like this!"
He adjusted the position of his fingers by the tiniest amount.
The first boy tried again.
"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"
Once again, nothing happened.
The other children burst into laughter.
But before the instructor could stop them, a third boy ran into the middle of the yard wearing an orange jacket several sizes too large for him.
"Move aside."
He placed a hand over a forehead protector he had bought from one of the merchants in the market, then lowered his head, trying to imitate the way Naruto stood.
"I'll show you how Naruto does it!"
The Academy instructor sighed.
For the fifth time that morning.
"None of you know the Shadow Clone Technique."
The children did not particularly care.
A few months ago, most of them wanted to become like the Hokage.
Now?
Some of them wanted to become like Naruto.
…
On the other side of the yard, there was an entirely different group.
Three boys stood in a row, each trying to keep his hands in his pockets while walking as slowly as possible.
One suddenly stopped.
He sighed.
"What a drag…"
The second shook his head.
"No, no. Shikamaru doesn't say it like that."
"Then how does he say it?"
The boy lowered his eyelids until he looked like he was about to fall asleep.
"Whaaat a draaag…"
The third boy stared at them.
"You two are idiots."
Both turned toward him.
He shrugged.
"Shikamaru gave up in the end. So if the instructor asks me to train today, I'm giving up too."
This time, the instructor's voice came from directly behind him.
"You're running ten laps."
The boy froze.
"What?!"
"Consider it part of your training to become Shikamaru."
The entire yard erupted in laughter.
…
Not everyone was imitating Naruto and Shikamaru.
Near one of the walls, two children stood facing each other.
One wore a dark blue shirt with an Uchiha fan badly painted across the back.
The other had wrapped bandages around his arms and legs.
"I'm Sasuke."
The first declared.
"And I'm Rock Lee!"
The second took a fighting stance.
"Then I'll beat you before the Exams even begin!"
"But Sasuke copied him afterward!"
"Because Lee is stronger!"
"Sasuke is faster!"
"Lee is stronger!"
"Sasuke is better!"
Within seconds, the two were rolling across the ground in a real fight that looked nothing like any battle from the manga.
A third child watched them from a distance.
He wore a high collar and kept his hands inside his pockets.
He slowly shook his head.
"Pathetic."
The other two turned toward him at the same time.
"You're copying Sasuke too!"
The boy looked down at his clothes.
Then silently walked away.
…
The phenomenon was not limited to the Academy.
In one of Konoha's streets, merchants had begun noticing something new.
Orange was selling more.
Dark blue shirts with high collars.
White bandages.
Dark glasses resembling Shino's.
Some children had even begun drawing small red markings on their cheeks like Kiba.
One merchant had gone as far as placing a new sign outside his shop:
MANGA HERO OUTFITS!
The clothes were not perfect replicas.
The children did not care.
…
Sunagakure:
"Fwoooosh!"
A little girl swung a huge paper fan she had made herself.
Sand flew almost half a meter in front of her.
Her friend quickly stepped back.
"Stop! You got sand in my eyes!"
The girl smiled proudly.
"That was Temari's technique."
"Temari has a real fan!"
"I'll get one when I become a kunoichi."
She placed the fan behind her back and tried to imitate the confident expression she had seen in the manga.
It lasted less than two seconds.
The paper fan snapped in half.
…
At Suna's Academy, another influence was even more obvious.
"Don't come closer."
A young boy warned.
He stood before three classmates with a small gourd tied to his back with rope.
One of the children looked at it.
"That's a water gourd."
"It's a sand gourd."
"I saw your mother putting water in it this morning."
The boy's face turned red.
"Shut up!"
He raised his arms.
"The sand will protect me automatically!"
His friend threw a small ball at him.
It struck him directly in the forehead.
The boy fell onto his backside.
Silence lasted for a moment.
Then someone said:
"The sand doesn't like you."
Everyone burst into laughter.
…
Yet even amid all the laughter, the Academy instructors noticed something interesting.
The children were asking more questions.
How could Gaara control sand?
How did Kankurō's puppets work?
Could Wind Release really be used the way Temari used it?
And what was the difference between a technique that looked powerful… and one that actually was powerful?
The manga was no longer merely making them want to imitate its characters.
It was making them curious about ninjutsu itself.
…
Kumogakure:
At Kumo's Academy, the problem was slightly different.
"Haaaa!"
A boy lunged forward, extending two fingers toward his classmate's chest.
The other barely dodged.
"Stop!"
"Eight Trigrams!"
"You're not a Hyūga!"
"Thirty-Two Palms!"
"I said stop!"
The boy began rapidly striking the air, trying to imitate Neji.
The instructor arrived just in time and grabbed him by the back of his shirt.
His feet stopped touching the ground.
"How many times have I told you?"
The boy squirmed in the air.
"But Neji—"
"You don't have the Byakugan."
"I can train!"
"You don't know the Gentle Fist either."
"I can learn it!"
"From whom?"
The boy opened his mouth.
Then closed it.
From behind them, one of his classmates answered:
"From the manga."
The instructor closed his eyes.
He could feel a headache coming.
…
At the edge of the training yard, another boy had wrapped a scarf around his neck and tried to make his hair stand up.
He looked at his friends.
"I'm Naruto."
One of them immediately objected.
"You can't be Naruto."
"Why?"
"You're from Kumo."
The boy frowned.
"So what?"
The other child had no answer.
The boy proudly raised his arms.
"Then I'll become stronger than him!"
There was a second of silence.
Then another child shouted:
"And I'll become stronger than Sasuke!"
"I'll be stronger than Neji!"
Within moments, it became a shouting competition.
The instructor, still holding the Neji imitator by his shirt, looked toward the sky.
Perhaps this was the true punishment the Art Stores had unleashed upon the shinobi world.
…
Iwagakure:
"No."
The Academy instructor said.
The boy lowered his hands.
"But I haven't done anything yet!"
"I know."
The instructor pointed at the stance he had taken.
"And I'm saying no before you do."
The boy glanced at his classmates.
They were all waiting.
He raised his hands again.
"Katon—"
"You don't know Fire Release."
"Sasuke knew it when he was little!"
"You're not Sasuke."
"I can become like him."
"You're not an Uchiha either."
The boy thought for a moment.
Then raised a finger.
"Rock Lee doesn't use ninjutsu!"
The instructor's expression changed.
He immediately knew where this was going.
"No."
The boy began removing the small weights he had tied around his legs.
"But—"
"No."
"What if—"
"I said no."
The children around him laughed.
…
Away from the training yard, two boys sat on a low rooftop, each holding a small wooden sword.
"I'm Zabuza."
The first declared.
He lifted the wooden sword over his shoulder.
The second frowned.
"Zabuza is from Kiri."
"So?"
"We're from Iwa."
The first boy thought for a moment.
"Then I'm Zabuza from Iwa."
The other shook his head.
"That's stupid."
"Who are you, then?"
The second boy raised his little sword in front of his face.
"Kakashi."
"Kakashi is from Konoha!"
Silence fell between them.
A few moments later, they both burst into laughter.
…
Kirigakure:
Some of the imitations here carried a different meaning.
In one of the Academy training yards, three children had acquired long pieces of wood and strapped them across their backs like swords.
"We're the Seven Ninja Swordsmen!"
One of them shouted.
The other looked at him.
"There are three of us."
The boy stopped.
"The Three Ninja Swordsmen!"
"That's not their name."
"When we find four more, we'll change it."
They ran across the yard, swinging their wooden weapons while one of the instructors watched from a distance.
Since Zabuza's appearance in the manga, the name of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen had become more exciting to children than ever before.
But Zabuza himself had become something else as well.
A character.
A story.
And a name known by children who had never even met him.
…
On another street in Kiri, a young boy had wrapped a piece of cloth around the lower half of his face.
On his back, he carried a large wooden board carved into the shape of a sword.
He walked slowly, trying to make his footsteps look heavy.
Another child stopped in front of him.
"Who are you?"
The boy looked at him over the cloth.
"The Demon of the Hidden Mist."
The other child raised an eyebrow.
"You?"
"Yes."
"You cried last week when you fell into the water."
The "demon" froze.
"The water was cold."
The other child laughed and ran away.
…
But inside another house in Kiri, there was someone who did not laugh.
Young Zabuza sat near the window while Genma stood behind him.
On the street below, a child walked past carrying an enormous wooden sword.
"I'm Momochi Zabuza!"
The child shouted.
Another boy ran behind him.
"Wait for me, Haku!"
Zabuza stopped moving.
Genma had heard them too.
The two remained silent for several seconds.
Then Zabuza spoke.
"He's holding the sword wrong."
Genma looked at his son.
He could not decide whether to laugh or worry that this was the first thing Zabuza had chosen to point out.
…
Konohagakure:
As the sun began to set, a small field near the Academy was still filled with children.
There was Naruto.
Five of them, actually.
Three Sasukes.
Two Rock Lees.
One Neji without a Byakugan.
A girl carrying a paper fan who insisted she was Temari despite being from Konoha.
And one boy lying beneath a tree who refused to participate in anything.
His friend approached him.
"Who are you pretending to be?"
The boy opened one eye.
"Shikamaru."
"But your clothes don't look like his."
He closed his eye again.
"Dressing up is a drag."
His friend thought about it.
He could not argue with that logic.
…
From a distance, two Konoha shinobi passed near the field.
One of them stopped when he saw dozens of children arguing over who got to be Naruto and who got to be Sasuke.
"Remember when they all wanted to become the Hokage?"
The second shinobi watched a child in an orange jacket running around the field, shouting that he would defeat Neji.
He smiled faintly.
"They still want to become something."
"What?"
The shinobi looked toward the field.
"The person who made them want to become shinobi."
…
The manga was not only changing politics.
It was not merely revealing the villages' secrets, nor was it only giving the Kage information about wars, people, and events that had yet to happen.
In other places, its influence was far simpler.
In Konoha, a child was trying to learn the Shadow Clone Technique because he liked Naruto.
In Suna, a girl carried a fan larger than her own body because she wanted to become like Temari.
In Kumo, a boy tried to imitate the Gentle Fist without possessing the Byakugan.
In Iwa, two children argued over who was better, Kakashi or Zabuza.
And in Kiri, children carried wooden swords and called themselves the Seven Ninja Swordsmen.
None of them knew whether the future they had read would truly happen.
They did not care.
To the Kage, the manga was a source of information about the future.
To shinobi, it was a source of techniques, enemies, and secrets.
But to the children…
It was the first time they could see their heroes before those heroes ever became legends.
And perhaps, somewhere among the orange jackets, paper fans, and wooden swords, there was a child who had only just begun dreaming that one day, their own name might appear in the pages of the Art Store.
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Upcoming chapter titles (spoilers):
____________
Chapter 237: Episode 50 of the Anime!
Chapter 238: Volume Thirteen!
Chapter 239: From Young Gai's Perspective!
Chapter 240: Sasuke's Teacher.
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