The way an environment changes people’s thinking is profound.
For example, in a country where more than ninety-six percent of the population is illiterate, it is relatively easy for someone to become a "great thinker," a "literary master," or a "public intellectual."
Such an environment respects intellectuals. People believe what educated people say, and they listen to them.
But when less than one percent of the population is illiterate, becoming a "master" is no longer so easy. Without genuine ability, one can easily be torn apart by public criticism.
The Shinobi World was the same.
Konoha’s shinobi were a scarce resource. For an ordinary family to even have the opportunity to send a child to the Ninja Academy was something extraordinary—practically enough to make one’s ancestors burst into flames in celebration.
Therefore, Konoha’s shinobi were authorities.
And authority could not be challenged.
Naka was different.
Although Naka’s shinobi were also relatively scarce, every citizen of Naka was required to participate in the nine-year compulsory shinobi education program at the Iga Forty-Nine Academy.
Shinobi remained an admired profession, but shinobi themselves had little inherent authority.
After all, once you grew up, weren’t you going to become a shinobi too?
If you had no real ability, why should I listen to you?
Why should I live according to your ideas?
That was the mentality of Naka.
And so, at the beginning, the children of Konoha and Naka could still play together quite happily.
You want to play Hokage? Fine. We’ll play the Uchiha.
Everyone fought back and forth without taking things personally.
The scenario was also satisfying for both sides.
Konoha had more children. Although Naka’s population had become roughly comparable to Konoha’s, it had fewer children and a lower birth rate.
Therefore, Konoha’s side would ultimately win.
But the children who had wandered from place to place before finally settling in Naka would still display their courage and passion to the fullest.
A few months later, however, things changed.
The children of Naka became increasingly unwilling to accept defeat.
Once a clear path to advancement appeared in a society, competition was inevitable.
Students who attended the Iga Forty-Nine Academy would unconsciously teach their younger brothers and sisters what they had learned at school whenever they returned home during breaks.
Gradually, even unaccredited preschools and private tutoring became widespread.
Shinobi who had lost limbs or other body parts could no longer go onto the battlefield, but there was nothing preventing them from teaching.
At the same time, Konoha was pumping huge amounts of money into its economy.
Naka was doing the same.
Naka also controlled important commercial routes into Konoha and had access to enormous quantities of supplies provided by Uchiha Kei.
As a result, "every household becoming comfortably well-off" in Naka was no longer a slogan.
It was reality.
No one could claim that everyone was wealthy, but even one woman like Yakushi Nonō, raising seven children by herself, could live comfortably and still have enough money to buy her children new clothes and toys.
That alone said a great deal.
At the very least, the combat potential of Naka’s new generation was visibly growing.
Good nutrition, abundant resources, and a relaxed environment made it easy for people who had experienced hardship to cherish what they had and grow stronger because of it.
Today, two of the older boys in the Yakushi household were on school vacation.
Yakushi Minagahasu and Yakushi Tsuchihachiman were helping Nono with the farm work.
The five younger boys, meanwhile—Yakushi Yoroi, Yakushi Kanda Mei, Yakushi Ugoe, Yakushi Masakado, and Yakushi Kabuto—had eaten their fill and naturally couldn’t sit still.
Their lives were no longer difficult, so naturally their entertainment had become more varied as well.
Grabbing the wooden swords their mother had just bought for them, the little Yakushi boys were ready for another friendly clash with the children of Konoha.
Propaganda could only work when it was grounded in people’s actual living conditions.
The Third Hokage, who occasionally visited the orphanage to give speeches, had once been an idol to the seven children of the Yakushi family.
But after the mother they adored was driven out of Konoha, and they followed her into a completely different living environment, that former idol became someone they wanted to trample beneath their feet and curse for ten thousand years.
The difference between living like a human being and living like a dog could not be erased by a few slogans.
The little Yakushi boys had become staunch supporters of the Uchiha and equally staunch opponents of Konoha.
Anyone who tried to portray the Uchiha as villains was a heretic.
They deserved to be hung from the street lamps and burned alive.
Today was the day the Uchiha would launch their great campaign against Konoha!
The five neatly dressed boys faced the ever-growing crowd of Konoha children.
They made no attempt to hide their disdain.
Deep inside, they secretly swore that they would display the glory of the Uchiha Shinsengumi.
Five boys faced a crowd.
For once, the little Yakushi children were solemn.
They drew their swords.
Held them horizontally.
Then stepped forward.
"Glory!"
"Justice!"
"Sacrifice!"
"Love!"
"Obedience!"
Facing the aggressively advancing Konoha children, the Yakushi boys wielded their wooden swords with surprising skill, even channeling the little chakra they possessed.
Of course, they were still young, and their chakra reserves were severely limited.
Otherwise, they would have easily qualified as low-level shinobi combatants.
It seemed that these five little ones, just like their elder brothers, Yakushi Minagahasu and Yakushi Tsuchihachiman, were all young prodigies.
"Heretics! Receive the righteous beatdown of the Uchiha!"
The little Yakushi boys considered themselves Uchiha.
That was their dream.
The five of them possessed the momentum of fifty.
The Konoha children were not intimidated either.
Although they had been losing to the Naka children lately, their previous record of victories, combined with their overwhelming numbers, still gave them the confidence to clash with the Naka children.
"You evil Uchiha! Face the judgment of Konoha’s shinobi! I am the Third Hokage!"
"I’ll be the Fourth Hokage!"
"The First Hokage!"
"The Second Hokage!"
"We will cast you into the abyss!"
The Konoha children were dressed in ragged clothes, and even their slogans were shouted in complete disorder.
There were twenty or thirty of them, yet more than half claimed to be one Hokage or another.
Then they charged as one, stumbling toward the five members of the Yakushi family.
What followed was a scene of one wooden sword strike knocking down one child after another.
The angles at which the Yakushi children swung their swords, the force behind their attacks, and the places they targeted all demonstrated that they had put considerable effort into swordsmanship.
It also meant that they had at least received basic swordsmanship instruction.
Five future Academy graduates against a group of children who could trip over their own feet while running.
The outcome was obvious.
The battles that had once gone back and forth suddenly became completely one-sided.
Scenes like this had been happening frequently along the border between Naka and Konoha recently.
The adults had grown accustomed to it.
They were just children fighting.
How serious could it possibly be?
"Smack! Smack! Smack!"
Clean and decisive.
In an instant, a group of Konoha children were crying on the ground.
The adults watching from a distance didn’t think much of it.
But the children felt that this fight was different from the previous ones.
Children were sensitive.
And they were direct.
Adults considered children innocent and carefree, but that was largely because children lacked the hypocrisy of adults and simply didn’t know how to be tactful.
Adults considered consequences before acting.
Children generally didn’t think that far ahead.
So this direct, innocent nature wasn’t necessarily a good thing.
Previously, when these children got beaten, they would cry for a while and then go home.
They understood, instinctively, that the Naka children also had parents, relatives, and friends.
Their own powerless parents couldn’t afford to offend them.
When the adults at home spoke behind Naka’s back, their words were filled with envy and jealousy.
But the Yakushi family was different.
There was only one adult in that household—a woman the villagers called a "loose woman"—raising several children without anyone to rely on.
Even their own powerless parents openly looked down on her.
So what was there to fear?
My parents can afford to offend her.
That means she has to back down before me.
That was how a child thought.
The bullied Konoha children began wailing.
Then the insults started.
"You bastards with a mother but no father! How dare you bully me! Konoha’s shinobi won’t let you off! My parents won’t let you off either!"
Once one child started, all the filthy things they had heard the adults say came pouring out.
These were the things the adults had said while discussing that new woman who had moved to Naka.
"Your mother is a whore who’s been used by countless men! You’re all bastards born without fathers to raise you!"
Perhaps being unable to accept defeat was simply part of human nature.
The various "Hokage" who had just lost the Konoha children’s version of the Shinobi World War collapsed into the dirt of Konoha, wailing and rolling around.
It was as though insulting the other side’s origins would somehow force them to submit and make themselves appear superior.
The children hoped that their grievances would bring the adults to their defense.
They wanted those defenseless little Yakushi boys to understand just how wrong it was to fight back against Konoha.
"You lowlifes! Don’t you know who you are? You actually dared to beat us! I’m going to tell the shinobi! You’re rebelling! You’re rebelling against Konoha!"
All kinds of threats and vicious words came out of the Konoha children’s mouths.
They probably didn’t even understand what they were saying.
The adults said these things, after all.
Were the little Yakushi boys really the sort to simply endure being bullied?
Perhaps they had been before.
They were orphans, after all.
Without anyone to rely on, they naturally had to learn to swallow their grievances.
But not anymore.
Their elder brothers had already gained the recognition of the Uchiha Clan.
Before long, they would be accepted into the Uchiha’s inner circle and become true members of the clan.
That was also why rumors had begun circulating that their mother was going to marry into the Uchiha Clan.
Whatever the exact circumstances, one fact remained:
The Yakushi family now had someone powerful backing them.
And once someone who had been bullied gained a powerful backer, their tolerance for bullying could easily become less than zero.
The little Yakushi boys did not argue with the Konoha children.
Perhaps that was simply part of growing up.
Maybe growing up was the process of going from a child who would argue even when they had no reason to a "grown-up" who had every reason in the world but couldn’t be bothered to say a word.
Well...
If you can solve it with your fists, why waste your breath?
Yakushi Kabuto suddenly leaped into the air and swung his sword.
"Aerial Slash!"
He brought the back of his wooden sword down directly toward the mouth of the child who had been crying the loudest.
In midair, teeth and blood flew together.
The five little Yakushi boys swarmed him without saying a word.
They punched and kicked him relentlessly.
Not the face.
The mouth.
This was probably bullying.
But who could really say whether physical bullying or verbal bullying was the worse kind?
The restrained game between the children was completely over.
It had become a genuine brawl.
Even after the Konoha child was beaten to the point that he no longer dared to cry out and could only clutch his head while begging for mercy, the little Yakushi boys still didn’t stop.
They didn’t want to say anything.
But there was one thing they had decided:
This wouldn’t end without an apology.
Any child who tried to run was dragged back and thrown into the muddy field.
The adults watching from afar were intimidated by the ferocity of the five little boys and momentarily had no idea what to do.
Until finally—
"Stop! What are you evil little brats doing?!"
A shinobi from the Sarutobi Clan appeared like a savior.
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