After all this time Shisui lived life once again, no longer completely submersed in training, suffering and bloodlust. He had just existed before, life having lost all its luster. He could live this kind of life, but there was no fun, exhilaration or any other positive feeling except the rush of adrenaline in a fight (preferably to the death).
It felt nice to smile genuinely once again and all of the things he did in the past were slowly reaching an equilibrium with which he could live. He had finally eliminated his bloodlust problem, had found a person to tentatively call a friend and no longer jumped at every shadow or wrong movement, though his vigilance was still there.
This achievement also brought with it new challenges, as it was high time to return to his job or search a new one. The latter he had nether considered while the former had the damocles sword of the hokages machinations hanging over his neck.
While he had formulated it as an optional opportunity where he could theoretically refuse, Minato was still the highest superior of Shisui. So could he even refuse? What ramifications would follow or would he be forced to retire early? Shisui was pretty sure that he would not loose his head at least, but he still stepped into the renovated office of the hokage with a lot of trepidation.
„So, are you fit again?", a smiling face with yellow hair questioned him, before shaking his head while smiling lightly: „Obviously or you would not be here as you have evaded every single opportunity to come near me. Anyone else would try to get into my good books, while you seem to shirk this possibility at every available opportunity", he got serious once again, continuing with his assessment: „You are also only here because you know for a fact that you were shadowed by an agent ever since we met and you yourself probably realized that you should not strain your leash too much unless it snaps and backfires. While you probably do understand why I let somebody monitor you, you probably still think that it was a waste of resources where you would be correct but I do need to keep an eye on such a previously unstable variable inside my own village. Especially, as we both know that you just got faster since our last meeting. That reminds me that I do need to recalibrate those weights and seals as you are reaching their limits.", he said, holding a finger straight into the air, before disappearing once again.
Shisui did not see him, did not even notice him, before the weights on his body suddenly felt a lot heavier than before, a smiling yellow headed figure reappearing before him: „All done. Now, about my proposal. First let us make it official, here is your updated headband and vest. I can present you three very different possibilities. You take up normal chunin responsibilities, where we both know that you would be very bored. Then, I could recruit you into either anbu, root or the hokage guard to be further trained for these positions and as we both know, you would excel at each one of those, though I think you do not want to be trained solely as a killing machine. Last is, that you teach a course at the academy", he calmly said, no doubt analyzing each of my movements, breathing, blinking patterns and probably even body temperature and chakra fluctuations.
Shisui sighed, answering slowly, weighing each of his words: „Is there anything you do not know over me? The first is obviously boring, as I would be restricted or even hindered by my mostly random composited teams. My skill set does not place me in any of the established teams either as most would be slow to at least somewhat work with me. The following option though has the same problem, except you pair me with a jonin or even elite jonin squad which would be disrupted by me even more, though we could still manage and get better with time. Of those three I would personally be most interested in the guard as that brings with it more new knowledge and responsibilities but I could no longer avoid you. That problem persists with becoming at teacher as you do oversee the school more heavily than most other departments as it is one of the most important things in konoha. As I see, I do not have a chance to refuse and I would be ok with either or even all of those options, except just doing menial and normal chunin missions, though that would bring me the most freedom", Shisui said, before smiling lightly: „How about I let you decide? You will already have analyzed and foreseen most of this conversation either way and I do not think that I will choose anything different than you have prepared for me, which is also the reason why I avoid you, as your position is notorious for brimming with mind games and politics, which you do enjoy way too much. Maybe just retire and join the torture and interrogation squad if you enjoy the person opposite you to squirm so much".
Shisui's joke at the end was … ambitious, to say the least, but he did not get penalized for it. Minato did not laugh though and just said: „And why do you think that most of their new techniques hold such stupid monikers?" Now Minato laughed lightly due to the face of shoke which Shisui did not conceal.
„Now, while this was all fun and games, you are somewhat right. The best thing is that I would be pleased as long as you did not become a boring chunin, as it would be a waste of talent. The second option was, well I only offered because I did have multiple squad leaders request you as a rookie and the last was my original idea. As much as I like seeing people squirm, I do have noticed that people work a lot better if they at least have the illusion of choice or, making everything simpler, are given that choice as long as their qualifications are right for the job. I do try to go for the last of those as it makes all of it so much easier, though the chance of spies getting into their required position does spike due to that, which has the council talking my ears off about it. Especially Jiraiya is annoyed about all the extra work I hand to the root due to this decision of mine, though he still roots out most of them in less than a day. As eccentric as that man is he does his job spectacular and is of the same sort as you. He is excited by challenges, which was the only reason I could talk him into taking that job in the first place. Now as you have voluntarily given up on the choice, I will assign you to the academy to teach a preliminary class on survivability in regards to battlefields and spionage which is, as we both know, one of the many fields you are good at.
Now, it will not exactly be a normal class as I will allow you to hand pick every single one your pupils and even make your very own curriculum, which is to say that I will not step in except you violate any laws or rules. My predecessor offered the same to Ibiki Morino, though he lost that privilege after torturing three of his pupils into madness, with one resulting death. To be fair, at that point in time it was a fairly moderate style of teaching and he was not even the worst of that time, but influential parents do have some pull even in a military village like ours, so please do spare us such a headache will you?"
„Yes", Shisui said, promptly getting stopped from speaking any more. „Perfect! Now before I dismiss you, one last thing. Try to not keep your class to one sided with their specialities as I do not want one trick ponies but properly educated and trained graduates. One last warning, as my son will join the academy in a few years: As the hokage I will not meddle in his education, so you are free to do whatever you do. But as a dad I will tell you a single time: One wrong move and I will slit your throat without a single ounce of mercy and remorse. Dismissed".
Shisui, while not fleeing, did leave more quickly than he came, as the expression on the hokages face was quite intense at the end with a lot of killing intent flooding the room. Shisui did not know though, that the hokage started laughing the second he left the room with even some of his guards joining in. Minato knew exactly what he did and why he did it and nothing, literally not a single action of the man, was done without a plan and dozens of contingencies.
Shisui was as unremarkable as monsters came, but Minato knew that Shisui very well might be one of the most monstrous monsters out there and he did not question for one second that he could give most jonins a run for their money without even using his sharingan.
The one problem Shisui realized was that the school year had already started a week ago, so he once again retreated to the various libraries in konoha and even some outside of it to rapidly learn more about teaching. Then, he returned to Minato's office once again with a simple request: „I would like to change the goal of my course. I do not want to just teach a single subject, I want to assemble the most elite class and subsequent squads there are, would that be ok?"
The wide grin forming on Minato's face was all the confirmation Shisui needed, promptly vanishing in a puff of smoke, which only let the grin stretch even wider. The balls to send a shadow clone for such a request were immeasurable. To even flaunt it, Shisui had certainly seen behind the petty schemes involved in this.
Minato did not want him to teach a single class, no he wanted to show the council of elders that their teaching methods were archaic and needed to be updated to a new, higher standard. The bets running in the background were astronomical to say the least and even the hokage had joined in on them.
Then, Shisui became a worse stalker than Jiraiya ever was, hounding behind unsuspecting kids and even parents. He first made a preliminary scouting, identifying pupils with potential, before slowly stalking them into oblivion until they were either eliminated or accepted. He did it two times though, as the first time his standards were too high.
Shisui only knew the wartime academy curriculum, whereas the current peacetime policies were laughable to say the least. In his time, they joined the academy, their chakra was forcefully unlocked and then they spent every single minute of sunshine and sometimes even moonshine learning, fighting and more. Now, the first year classes were mostly used to teach the kids common subject in a timeframe tenfold of the one in the past, as chakra apparently made the difference.
Forceful chakra unlocking did not even have any negative side effects except a lot of itching and a smidgen of pain, but with the right regime you could let them unlock it in the span of a week by themselves, which was done in the third year of the academy to „lessen the dependencies" on chakra and jutsu, which was not very effective in any way.
Oh he now knew and saw why Minato went to such a drastic length for a reform, though he no longer meddled in those politics and just concentrated on delivering his invites to his future course.
With a little twist, as every single one of those had the moral dilemma written in them:
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Dear xyz,
I, Shisui Uchiha, hereby invite you as a newly appointed teacher to attend my class. If you do decide to accept, you will loose a lot, gain even more.
First task, moral dilemma: This is a suggestion of one of your superiors. Can you even refuse? What are the ramifications if you do? What could happen if you accept or refuse?
You are required to bring a one page essay on that next Monday and assemble in classroom 007 at 0600 for further instructions.
Do not be late.
With the power of the hogake
Shisui Uchicha
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