The True Hunter Always Appears as Prey

The left wing of the Hidden Cloud forces was commanded by Special Jonin Nobuhiko. Of the three commanders, he was probably the weakest.

Unless this Special Jonin was like Uchiha Mai and possessed strength beyond his rank.

But given that Nobuhiko was around thirty, that seemed unlikely. If they ran into a monster like that, they could only blame their luck.

Special Jonin was an unusual ninja rank. In terms of raw strength, they were slightly weaker than Jonin.

To become a Jonin, a ninja had to meet the standards for ninjutsu, Taijutsu, and genjutsu, and complete enough missions.

Meeting all three standards did not mean excelling at everything. If a ninja was particularly strong in ninjutsu, the requirements for Taijutsu and genjutsu would be lowered accordingly.

If that ninja's ninjutsu far surpassed the average Jonin's, the requirements for the other two would drop further.

Every ninja village had its own weighted system for evaluating ninja, ensuring that those promoted had earned it.

Take Uchiha Mai: his Taijutsu was exceptional and his ninjutsu excellent, but his genjutsu lagged behind the other two.

Even so, his ninjutsu and Taijutsu were strong enough for him to be considered Jonin-level rather than Special Jonin.

Special Jonin came in two types. The first matched ordinary Jonin in one area but had obvious weaknesses elsewhere.

The second fell just short of Jonin standards across the board but had a specialty, such as intelligence gathering, interrogation, teaching, or research.

Since Nobuhiko could take the field and command a force of a dozen or so, Uchiha Mai assumed he belonged to the first type.

That kind of ninja was still troublesome.

Once he and Hyuuga Kagetora engaged Toroi and Chiba Shin'i, Nobuhiko might suddenly join the fight.

The three enemies would have more room for error working