Hiruzen looked at Fujin with a smile on his face. Fujin's answer had impressed him. So, instead of letting Danzo keep arguing, Hiruzen decided to see what solution Fujin would come up with.
Fujin thought for half a minute and answered, "I can understand exhaustion hitting the teachers. In the four years I was in the academy, every teacher enthusiastically helped us. Even if they weren't our assigned teachers, they still guided us if we asked them to. In addition, the exams were held in a way that promoted competition among us.
Though doing that isn't sustainable for a long time, we can just work around it. For starters, since our village is in a stable situation, the teachers don't need to pester the students and keep checking their progress frequently. Instead, we can just create a curriculum that the students will find cool and would want to learn by themselves and even compete without the interference of a teacher.
Though there will still be some who would slack off and not give their best, it will give an opportunity for the rest to improve during their basics and lay a foundation for them to get stronger in the future. Perhaps a few will get engrossed in the training and keep exploring it further.
This will allow us to see which students are serious and determined about becoming strong ninjas and check how talented they are. We could focus on such students. Even if they don't show sufficient talent to be included in the Elite batch, we could form another batch that is made of such students. The teachers guiding this batch should be as good as the Elite batches and training intensity should be kept high."
Fujin's words made the experienced ninjas in the room think. However, within a few seconds, everyone was a bit disappointed. Shibi thought, 'His previous answer was just too good. Though this answer isn't bad, it doesn't live up to the expectations.'
Danzo voiced what everyone was thinking. He said in a taunting tone, "If only we could create such a curriculum that students would enjoy and follow voluntarily instead of being forced to do so."
Fujin waved his hand dismissively and replied, "It has been nearly a century since you were in the academy. So, it is normal that you don't remember. Or perhaps those were different times."
Fujin's words amused the council. Only Danzo, Homura and Koharu cursed internally while Hiruzen felt a bit awkward as he was of the same age as them. Fujin ignored everyone and continued, "Regardless, there is no need to change the curriculum. After all, a curriculum where students would enjoy everything in it simply doesn't exist. Even if someone makes it, students will eventually find that tiresome as well.
What we need to do is just stick with the current curriculum and just add a few things that students would enjoy far more than the normal curriculum and take an interest in doing it.
For instance, there is likely no student in the academy who wouldn't like to walk up a tree or to walk and run on water. A teacher just has to introduce these to the students one by one and let them learn them by themselves without bothering to monitor or grade them. Their chakra control will improve far quicker than by only doing the Leaf Concentration exercise.
We could introduce Tree Climbing in the second year and Water Walking at the start of the third year. At the start of the fourth year, we could introduce Nature manipulation. Though the training for nature manipulation is boring, the jutsus themselves are fun. Rank E and D jutsus can be performed without needing to train in nature manipulation.
So by the time students reach their final year, the majority will have good chakra control and some basic jutsus of one or two elements. A few will work hard on nature manipulation and show good results in it. If that ignites competition among the rest, then there is a chance that even the classroom I recommended earlier might produce stronger ninjas than an Elite classroom."
Fujin's words made the ninjas in the room think. After a couple of minutes, everyone nodded. Shikaku commented, "That's a good suggestion. With minimal work from the teachers, the students would build a strong foundation for themselves."
Choza added, "True. Even though it will only make most students slightly stronger, there is a chance of a few promising talents being found who can become much stronger in the future. Even if it doesn't work, we won't lose out on anything considering how little effort we have to put in."
Everyone agreed with their words. Hiruzen looked at everyone's reaction and said, "Alright. The academy will follow these suggestions. Though we won't be able to apply it perfectly to students who are about to graduate, we will begin introducing these three steps in phases. In addition, I will also restart the mentorship program where retired ninjas and ninjas who aren't extremely active will have to mentor 5 students in their free time once a month. Does anyone have anything else to add?"
Danzo immediately said, "This isn't enough. The chances of someone becoming a Jounin through these methods are almost nil. Having stronger genins won't make any difference for Konoha in the war. To make an impact, we will need a large number of Chunins to appear out of the ninjas from normal classrooms."
Danzo looked at Fujin and said, "Though your methods seem good, just leaving it to students and hoping that they take training seriously isn't the way to train ninjas."
Fujin replied, "Forcing kids is never the way to teach children. The children will be resentful and will slack off the first chance they get. Unless you want to employ torture, but I'm afraid I can't support that.
For the best results, the two main factors are motivation and interest. No one forced me to train as much as I could. I just did so because I wanted to ensure that my village stayed safe and because there are so many fascinating techniques that intrigued me."
Danzo shook his head and said, "Just because it worked for you doesn't mean it would work for everyone else."
Fujin smiled and said, "The fact that it worked for me makes your argument void. If you want to insist on it, arrange for any of your current or former Root ninjas who were trained by Root to face me in a one-on-one spar. I wouldn't even insist that they be the same age as me. As long as your chosen ninja defeats me, I will accept that your method is better."
Fujin's words once again caught everyone's attention. Koharu thought, 'What a devious brat! To openly say that Root still exist and challenge Danzo and the Root when Danzo can't fight back. If Danzo did, it would be admitting openly that Root still exists and everyone would be forced to dismantle the Root for good.
Besides, Root doesn't have any rank S ninja. Even though a Root ninja might have the benefit of his skills being a secret, Fujin's skills aren't known to anyone other than Hiruzen either. So, that advantage also doesn't lie with them.'
Everyone realized the trap Fujin casually set for Danzo. Obviously, Danzo wouldn't step into it. He snorted and stopped arguing.
Fujin broke the silence and said, "It's true that my 3 basic steps won't guarantee a high number of Chunins. However, that is because my idea is based on minimal efforts from the academy so that the workload doesn't become too high. If we make some changes to the academy, then we might see better results without the teachers having to overexert themselves."
Fujin thought, 'Though this world is far more devious and cunning than my previous world, it is also ravaged by wars. As such, the school system hasn't had centuries to improve slowly. Until Tobirama started the academy in Konoha and other villages replicated it, a proper school system was basically non-existent in this world.
Even after the academies were created, the world has been through several wars. So the academies have been solely focused on producing more ninjas to fill in the numbers. It hasn't evolved like in my previous life. I can easily apply some basic knowledge from my past life to revolutionize the academy here.'
Fujin's words intrigued the council once again. Hiruzen asked, "What changes do you suggest?"
[A/N : Bonus chapter on next Sunday if the fic gets 1000 Power Stones. Bonus chapter on next week's Saturday if the fic gets 2000 Power Stones.]
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