The Structure of Konoha

"Shuichi-kun, you're the first genius like you I've ever encountered. What a pleasant surprise! You guessed it was my Earth Clone, didn't you?" Orochimaru was quite satisfied with his disciple's rate of growth.

"I thought the odds were fifty-fifty. After all, Teacher, you're so powerful. You definitely have more than one way to deal with me."

"I already gave it my all today. I spent a long time devising this strategy, yet defeating even one of Teacher's Shadow Clones was so difficult." Shuichi was somewhat astonished by the strength of Kage-level experts.

At the same time, he felt a little embarrassed. His tactical arrangements today had drawn heavily on many classic battles from the original work. He still had much to learn in the future.

"Even so, I now know that you're different from those mediocrities." The way Orochimaru looked at him now made Shuichi feel as though he were looking at the Uchiha brothers in the original work.

Orochimaru then began discussing his arrangements for him. "I'm very satisfied with your performance today. A ninja must be prepared to handle different situations at any time, and you did that very well today."

"Now, let's discuss your placement. Although your performance has far surpassed that of an ordinary Genin, I have no intention of changing the village's usual practices for the time being."

"You'll first be assigned to a Genin squad and begin accumulating D-rank mission completions. This has nothing to do with strength. The purpose of the process is to let Genin begin understanding how Konoha operates."

"Seeing your learning progress, I believe I can teach you a few more things. That way, you can arrange your own time outside of missions."

"It will probably take several months to half a year. I don't think you enjoy being buried in frequent missions either. The village's cleanup of the postwar chaos in the Land of Fire is nearly finished. Once it ends, I'll have time to spare."

After today's lesson ended, Shuichi quietly breathed a sigh of relief. Although he would have to carry out some tedious low-rank missions in the future, he would still have plenty of free time.

Shuichi also discovered why so few people graduated early. It was simply too difficult to arrange these Genin.

The Ninja Academy's desks were arranged in rows of three, which showed that Konoha had a fixed process for placing academy graduates.

After several years of teaching and observation, groups of three who graduated in the same year, whether from the Elite Class or ordinary classes, had extremely similar strength and potential.

Genin generally carried out D-rank missions with no danger to their lives. If they unfortunately encountered a C-rank mission or higher and suffered casualties, the three of them would most likely die together.

Therefore, many Genin currently in squads were grouped together for additional reasons, such as conflicts between teammates or injuries and disabilities.

That made things a little awkward for Shuichi. Konoha currently had no one close to his age with potential comparable to his.

That was also why even Namikaze Minato had graduated normally. Only people like Kakashi and Uchiha Itachi, whose families had made arrangements for them, graduated early.

A teacher with a good personality like Jiraiya would at least make some rough arrangements. Orochimaru, on the other hand, simply would not bother with people who lacked talent.

He had already told Shuichi that, barring any accidents, it would only be the two of them on missions from now on. C-rank missions would be the minimum, and there would probably be quite a few B-rank missions as well.

It was easy to imagine that the teammates who would be tagging along with Shuichi for the next few months were probably people with no prospects in Konoha, destined to drift between Genin and Chunin for the rest of their lives.

Shuichi had no choice but to honestly put in a few months of work and arrange his own training plan properly.

The next day, Shuichi arrived on time at the mission assignment room near the Hokage's office building, following the time Orochimaru had told him.

The Third Hokage happened to be in the mission assignment room at the time. Beside him stood someone dressed like an ordinary Chunin, who seemed to be waiting for Shuichi.

"Good morning, Third Lord. You look quite well today." Shuichi thought that saying a few nice words cost nothing. If the Third Hokage happened to be in a good mood and casually gave him a few ninjutsu, wouldn't that be perfect?

"Haha, you're quite the smooth talker, kid." The Third Hokage was visibly much friendlier toward Shuichi now. After all, Shuichi was officially his grand-disciple. "Don't blame me for assigning you these missions. Every Genin has to go through this."

"How could I? As a Genin who just graduated, I definitely need to first gain some understanding of how Konoha operates. Don't worry, I'll cooperate properly with my mission companions." Shuichi made it clear that he was a good child who would not cause trouble for others. Besides, he had long understood the purpose of D-rank missions.

The Third Hokage was somewhat gratified. This grand-disciple of his was clever and quick-witted, and he was also very mature. Handing him over to Orochimaru had indeed been the right choice.

"I'm relieved to hear that. Niino, I'll have to trouble you to look after this child from now on." The Third Hokage spoke to the Chunin beside him.

Watanabe Shin'ya was the mentor who would lead Shuichi on D-rank missions. He had a gentle appearance, a small scar on the left side of his face, and looked utterly unremarkable from head to toe.

"Rest assured, Lord Hokage. Takeda Shuichi, please follow me." After Sarutobi Hiruzen's reminder, Watanabe Shin'ya knew that this was Orochimaru's direct disciple.

Shuichi followed Watanabe Shin'ya outside the mission assignment room. After taking only a few steps, he saw two teenage boys.

Both boys were Genin, and they should be Shuichi's teammates for the near future. One wore his forehead protector on his head, while the other had his tied around his arm.

"Let me introduce you. This is Yujin, and this is Takuya." Yujin was a gray-haired boy with an ordinary face. Takuya, on the other hand, was a boy with a somewhat large mouth. Neither of them looked particularly expressive.

"The one beside me is Takeda Shuichi. He's your new teammate. From now on, you'll all be carrying out missions together." Watanabe Shin'ya introduced Shuichi to them. He was already used to the reactions of these two.

"Hello, my name is Takeda Shuichi. Please take care of me from now on." Although the atmosphere was somewhat awkward, Shuichi still took the initiative to greet them.

Once everyone knew each other's names, Watanabe Shin'ya directly assigned the day's tasks. "There are slightly more missions today. First, we'll clean the sewers in the Third District. After that, we'll go near the Forest of Death to look for some animals that escaped recently..."

Since he felt that the two were somewhat cold toward him, Shuichi did not say much on the first day. He honestly followed along and worked, focusing on completing his own tasks.

The dull and boring life continued for more than a month. Shuichi still practiced ninjutsu every day as usual, while personally guiding his friends' training whenever he had time.

Only after indirectly sounding out Watanabe Shin'ya did he understand why those two Genin seemed so indifferent.

Watanabe Shin'ya told Shuichi that they had been Genin for nearly three years. During those three years, both had changed teammates many times because they were unofficial Genin.

People of this type basically had no future. They might spend many years repeatedly carrying out low-rank missions, exchanging vast amounts of time for low-level ninjutsu, with barely any improvement in strength.

Watanabe Shin'ya told Shuichi that he would have three to five such squads under him. In other words, one Chunin was responsible for five teams.

Because Watanabe Shin'ya knew that Shuichi held a high status, he did not hide anything when answering Shuichi's questions.

Combined with Shuichi's constant observations over the past month, as well as a question he had found time to ask Orochimaru, he now had a clear understanding of Konoha's overall structure.

The first issue was ninja numbers. Shuichi remembered that even by Naruto's era, the number assigned to ninjas had not exceeded 13,000.

Each person had a unique lifelong number, counted from the first graduating class of the Ninja Academy. Even if they died, no one would replace them.

Yet by the Fourth Shinobi War, after major events such as the Konoha Crush Plan and the Six Paths of Pain destroying the village, Konoha could still field an army of roughly twenty thousand people. No matter how one looked at it, that was unreasonable.

Now he understood. Konoha's system was somewhat similar to the elite-soldier systems of certain ancient dynasties from his previous life. Since the Second Hokage founded the academy, only qualified Ninja Academy graduates with ninja numbers had access to official promotion channels.

This official path went from Genin to Chunin to Jonin, and even to becoming Hokage. Meanwhile, all ninjas possessed another kind of Combat Number, and those numbers could be replaced after death. This was used to assess Konoha's total mobilization capacity.

After the academy had existed for twenty or thirty years, and even by the end of the original story, this system had become fully mature.

Ninjas with Official Ninja Numbers possessed several special rights compared with those without them:

First, Genin who passed after graduation would definitely be assigned to Chunin or higher-ranked mentors who also possessed ninja numbers, and those mentors were allowed to teach ninjutsu to their students.

Second, only Jonin or Special Jonin with Official Ninja Numbers had the right to cast a vote of confidence in the Hokage.

Third, only the descendants of Chunin and above who possessed Official Ninja Numbers could receive Konoha's bereavement subsidies and priority in choosing the Ninja Academy.

Fourth, during wartime, only ninjas with ninja numbers could serve as captains, while those without them could only serve as team members.

This was a system for cultivating elites while rapidly expanding troops during wartime. Ninja Academy graduates with numbers were trained as Chunin with leadership ability. They were a small minority, amounting to roughly 12,000 people over sixty years.

The greater number of ninjas belonged to another category. They came from many sources: family private soldiers, people who failed to graduate normally from the Ninja Academy, civilian practitioners who funded themselves, Genin specially recruited during wartime, outsiders who joined the village, and so on.

For Shuichi's generation, the student quality over the past two years had been very good, and the village urgently needed middle-level strength after the war. Of the three or four hundred Ninja Academy students, more than a hundred could eventually graduate successfully and receive numbers.

By Naruto's time, however, only nine people from a class of several hundred became numbered Genin. Everyone else naturally became unnumbered personnel.

After so many years of accumulation, the number of Genin of this type was considerable. They were the cannon fodder Shuichi remembered, those who could only throw ninja tools and did not even count as minor characters.

Most of them had roughly the same combat power as adults. They possessed competent Shurikenjutsu and could use chakra.

The better ones were proficient with several special weapons. The even better ones knew some low-level ninjutsu and could handle more than ten ordinary people without any problem.

During wartime, one ordinary numbered Chunin and three stronger Genin of this type formed a four-person squad.

By the same logic, a numbered Special Jonin would form a squad with three such Chunin. Stronger Chunin led numbered Genin, while stronger Jonin led numbered Chunin.

Since every village used this kind of formation, as long as the gap in strength was not too great in an unexpected encounter, the captain's chances of survival after battle began were quite high.

As for losses among such Genin, they would simply return to the forward base and reorganize the squad with replacements.

Judging from the scale of the Fourth Shinobi War, in the upcoming Third Shinobi War, Konoha might need at least five thousand people on a single front.

Among them, the official elites who graduated from the Ninja Academy would determine the course of victory or defeat. Jonin, Chunin, and Genin combined might number fewer than fifteen hundred. The remaining unnumbered personnel were responsible for provisions and replenishing reserve troops.

This mechanism also explained why Konoha could raise more than twenty thousand in Combat Power. The true foundation of a ninja village's strength was the several thousand elites of each era. Everyone else belonged to the cannon fodder category.

Because Orochimaru was considered part of Konoha High Command, Shuichi, as his disciple, also learned what Konoha's upper structure looked like.

Within Konoha's "company," the several hundred Jonin, including Special Jonin, were Konoha's shareholders. All other ninjas were merely employees.

The Hokage was the CEO, while the advisers, elders, and Jonin commander were members of the board of directors. Only they could nominate the next Hokage.

Konoha's "company" did not use a system where the result was determined by vote totals. The shareholders merely expressed approval or disapproval.

Shuichi still did not know what proportion was required, but at least two-thirds had to approve for someone to become Hokage.

Finally, Konoha's largest clan, the Hyuga Clan, could be used as an example to explain this system and those unnumbered family private soldiers.

Every year, Konoha granted each clan a limited number of Ninja Academy slots. The probability that students from major clans would receive Official Ninja Numbers at the academy was basically one hundred percent.

Within the Hyuga Clan, every generation of the main family would definitely attend the Ninja Academy. The branch family would select several outstanding members to attend as well, while the many remaining Hyuga clansmen became the clan's private soldiers.

Because of the Byakugan's special nature, Hyuga clansmen were among the easiest groups to advance on the battlefield. Even those with slightly weaker strength could become Special Jonin with scouting specialties by relying on the Byakugan.

Therefore, the Hyuga Clan currently held the most Konoha "shares" among all clans, and that would probably remain true in the future.

During the Jonin confidence vote in every Hokage selection, as long as no time traveler emerged from the branch family to sing a different tune (^-^), the main family head would generally just say, "I represent the Hyuga Clan in approving—or disapproving."

The other major clans followed much the same pattern. Their clan heads basically represented all clan members. Under such circumstances, the number of Jonin a clan possessed was an important measure of its power.

When the situation became tense, the private soldiers raised by the Hyuga Clan itself would be assigned according to their strength to Jonin or Chunin squads as members and temporarily granted Combat Numbers.

Although they were also considered Chunin or Jonin, they could not enjoy certain rights associated with normal promotion to Jonin. For example, they were not counted in Hokage confidence votes.

Konoha also tried to avoid allowing any one clan to have too many numbered Jonin, so it controlled the matter at its source through the Ninja Academy.

After figuring out Konoha's composition, Shuichi also understood what ninja village politics truly looked like. If anything major happened in Konoha in the future, he could compare it with the original work and infer the full course of events.

Because there were simply too many unnumbered Genin, there existed a group of Chunin like Watanabe Shin'ya.

They could not teach ninjutsu to these Genin. They could be said to be tools for accepting D-rank missions on their behalf, with one person responsible for assigning and reviewing missions for multiple Genin squads.

After Shuichi learned that these two teammates were Konoha's bottom-tier cannon fodder, he no longer had any interest in arguing or communicating with them.

The road was wide, and everyone could go their separate way. Each person only needed to do his own job well. It would not be long before they parted ways.