Those who still had not chosen to stand with the Third Raikage by this point were, in truth, the ones whose interests were too deeply bound to the two old advisers to let go.
So the Jonin Council approved the Third Raikage's proposal with almost insulting ease. Two more advisory seats were added, and two of his trusted subordinates were promoted into them without the slightest resistance worth mentioning.
With that, the number of people at the top of Kumogakure rose from four to six. More importantly, the balance of power changed completely. What had once been an even split between the two sides became a lopsided four-to-two advantage in the Third Raikage's favor.
At the Jonin meeting, Chiba Shun did nothing remarkable. He said nothing. He merely raised his hand three times.
Once, to agree to expanding the number of advisers. Twice more, to approve the men nominated by the Third Raikage.
By the way, one of those two new advisers was someone Shun vaguely remembered. He had originally been part of the delegation that went to Konoha.
The day after the meeting, officials across Kumogakure began to change with startling speed. Desks remained where they were. Offices remained where they were. The names on paper might even have remained the same for a short while.
But power had already moved.
The Third Raikage did not kill anyone. He did not publicly strip the two old advisers of rank, either. To preserve the appearance of calm, they would announce their retirement a year later.
In reality, whether they announced it or not no longer mattered.
Since the day of that meeting, neither of them had stepped into the Cloud Ninja headquarters again. Their offices still existed, but their authority was gone. Everyone understood it without needing to say it aloud.
Most of the village's Jonin would no longer treat their words as orders from the top.
It was a cleansing without blood.
No rebellion broke out. No one defected. Since neither of the two advisers had died, the Jonin who had once stood behind them had even less reason to throw their lives away. Though they had lost the pillars that backed them, they still chose, one after another, to bow their heads to the Third Raikage.
The Third Raikage had reduced the internal damage to the Hidden Cloud Village to the absolute minimum.
For a village already short on manpower, that was more valuable than any dramatic purge. His restraint won the approval of nearly all the Jonin.
This reshuffling at the highest level did not directly affect Chiba Shun.
He and Aoki Yuu had both been considered part of the Raikage's side from the beginning. Neither of them was moved. Shun did not pry into the affairs of other departments, either.
He was only a little disappointed that he had failed to personally drag down Adviser Yukio, the man who had always found ways to trouble him.
Ever since the last time he left the village and was hunted by bounty ninjas almost the moment he stepped beyond the Land of Lightning, Shun had suspected Yukio and those tied to him were involved.
Still, before he could bury himself in the Yin Release training method Danzo had sent over, a new order swept through the entire Hidden Cloud Village.
All ninja and apprentice ninja aged eight and under were to return to the Ninja Academy for retraining.
Even more shocking, the decree specifically stated that the children of ninja clans were no exception.
With one order, the Third Raikage abolished the old apprenticeship-based training system and established the Ninja Academy as the only official institution in the village responsible for cultivating the next generation of ninja.
It was a huge step.
But because it was the very first major decree issued after he had fully consolidated power, no one dared oppose it openly.
At least, not yet.
Those who hated it could only swallow their anger for the time being. Going against the Third Raikage now, when his prestige was at its highest, was no different from asking to be crushed.
Everyone knew what kind of temper the Third Raikage had. The fact that he had seized power so gently this time had already shocked the village.
No one was willing to gamble that he would be just as patient next time.
They could only wait. Wait for the future. Wait for a chance to slowly influence the village again from beneath the surface.
When Aoki Yuu received the news, he was finally able to breathe easy.
The expansion of the Ninja Academy did not just mean greater authority and more funding. More than anything, it erased the fear he had been carrying this whole time.
No wonder the Third Raikage had allowed two Jonin to remain buried in the Ninja Academy even while the village lacked manpower everywhere else.
If the academy was about to expand on this scale, then housing two Jonin there was not excessive at all. If anything, it was only the beginning.
And sure enough, the Third Raikage increased the academy's staff.
For example, Yotsuki Ai was appointed vice principal of the Ninja Academy.
Of course, Yotsuki Ai would not be handling the academy's daily operations personally. The position was more symbolic than practical. It was the Third Raikage's way of showing the whole village just how determined he was to push this reform through.
Chiba Shun had no choice but to postpone his Yin Release training.
With such a flood of students pouring into the academy, there was no chance he would be allowed any leisure.
These new students were not like the previous ones.
They came from ninja families. Many had already seen combat. Most had completed missions. A few geniuses had even mastered ninjutsu already.
So Aoki Yuu, Yotsuki Ai, Chiba Shun, and the newly transferred female Jonin Ichikawa Yuka gathered together to discuss how to reorganize the academy.
Aoki Yuu looked at Shun first.
In situations like this, it was always best to hear Chiba Shun's thoughts before anyone else spoke.
Yotsuki Ai had no objection. He also believed that among the people in the room, only Chiba Shun's head was strange enough to untangle a mess like this.
Ichikawa Yuka looked from one man to the other, realized exactly what sort of meeting she had walked into, and wisely chose to keep quiet.
Shun thought for a moment before speaking.
"First, we need to determine the actual level of every student and compare them to the students already in the academy."
"The number of people doing actual work in the village has already dropped. With all these children pushed back into the academy, we're going to be even more short-handed."
"We don't have time to drag this out. We need to train a batch who can graduate as quickly as possible."
He paused, then continued, "So I propose a quantitative evaluation system."
The other three stared at him, waiting.
Shun leaned forward slightly.
"We write down every important attribute a ninja can have."
"Hand seals. Taijutsu. Ninjutsu. Genjutsu. Swordsmanship. Hidden weapons. Actual combat. Chakra control. Medical talent. Sealing talent. Sensory talent. Intelligence."
His mind drifted for one bizarre instant. Intelligence was like 'virtue' in those old rating systems from his previous life. He wondered, absurdly, whether some child somewhere was already old enough to help old women cross the street and earn points for moral character.
He dragged his thoughts back immediately.
"For exceptional students, we should also record elemental affinity and elemental talent," he said. "For example, I'm earth-aligned. Aoki-senpai is lightning-aligned."
"Each category should be scored out of ten. Since some prodigies may already be frighteningly strong in one area, let's set the standard of a full ten at Jonin level."
No one interrupted, so he continued.
"We conduct a single comprehensive examination, assign everyone scores, and then reassign them by both age and score."
"Because these incoming students are, on average, more talented, we should establish elite classes for each grade. It doesn't matter if those classes are smaller. Fewer people means we can teach more advanced material."
"Then we build specialized remedial courses around weakness. That's the academy's strength - breadth. We can train across fields. With the village fully supporting reform, we can bring in more specialists as instructors."
Yotsuki Ai crossed his arms and listened in silence. Aoki Yuu's expression grew more and more thoughtful.
Shun went on.
"For the older students especially, remedial training matters. They're closest to graduation. They can't be allowed to carry obvious weaknesses."
"And the village recently acquired many new ninjutsu. In the past, when we encountered a genius with a non-lightning affinity, we'd more or less give up. Now we don't have to."
At that, he turned toward Yotsuki Ai.
Ai caught the meaning immediately and gave a short nod.
"I'll discuss the matter of academy-accessible ninjutsu with Lord Raikage," he said.
Because this was official business, he did not say father. He said Lord Raikage.
Shun nodded and continued, "The last issue is squad structure."
"Can the academy take responsibility for pre-grouping teams?"
Aoki Yuu and Yotsuki Ai exchanged a look before Aoki finally asked, "Tell us what you're thinking. If it's suitable, I'll report it to Lord Raikage."
Shun did not hesitate.
"In the past, our ninjutsu options were too narrow, so squad composition was simple. But now we have access to more elemental ninjutsu and even genjutsu. Team combinations can become much more sophisticated."
"We should start assigning students into provisional squads inside the academy, then let supervising teachers confirm whether the composition is workable."
"Close-range fighters and long-range fighters. Taijutsu specialists and ninjutsu specialists."
"We can also build specialized reconnaissance squads, fire support squads, rapid response squads, and intelligence analysis squads."
"For the most gifted teams, we might even consider assigning an apprentice medical ninja from the start."
He went on and on, building structure after structure, until the other three could no longer wedge a word into the discussion.
They simply listened.
None of them could understand how Chiba Shun's head was capable of producing so many ideas one after another without stopping.
Once the general direction had been settled, the four divided the work and dispersed.
Shun's own task sounded both simple and maddening.
He had to design an assessment framework for the entire academy.
That meant practical metrics for everything.
Hand seals were easy enough. Anyone who could already use ninjutsu would perform one, and their seal speed would be recorded.
Taijutsu was easy as well - strength, speed, coordination, and combat sense could all be evaluated by assigning a handful of Chunin instructors to observe and score them.
Ninjutsu was trickier. Most of the students had never even formally tested their elemental affinity.
Shun solved that problem the ruthless way.
Any student whose chakra reserves had not yet reached the basic threshold would receive a ninjutsu score of zero for the time being.
There was no need to waste effort pretending otherwise.
The ones who qualified could be grouped by likely affinity, taught a basic C-rank technique, and observed from there.
After all, even if Chiba Shun handed a student a jutsu, it did not mean they would actually be able to learn it.
Genjutsu was simpler to test than people might expect.
Find someone capable of casting a broad illusion over a group, then record who noticed it first, who broke free first, and who never noticed at all.
Swordsmanship, hidden weapons, and practical combat could be folded together with the taijutsu assessment.
Chakra control could be tested through wall-climbing and water-walking, though the scoring standard would need to be carefully calibrated.
As for support talents such as medicine and sealing, interest mattered first.
Those with interest would be prioritized. Those without it would be set aside for the moment.
It would take time to organize electives and special instruction anyway, and none of those results would appear overnight. For now, theoretical assessments in medicine and sealing would have to be enough.
And that was only the beginning.