Team Shinku Was Formed

The weeklong graduation exams had finally come to an end, but the results were far from encouraging.

In particular, after the exam accidents involving Nawaki and Touma one after another, many students chose not to take the exams at all, opting to delay graduation by a year and forfeit their chance.

Of the nearly three hundred graduating students across the fifth and sixth grades, only fifty-four had Genin-level skills and were accepted by their instructors.

The school could hardly announce such an embarrassingly low graduation rate, so after consulting the school's honorary principal, the Third, Sarutobi Hiruzen, it decided to hold another exam for each class.

This time, there would be no practical combat test. Instead, students would be tested directly on Taijutsu, the Three Basic Techniques, and Shuriken throwing. Passing any two would be enough to graduate.

Of course, because this was an additional exam, their instructors couldn't be Jonin assigned from the Jonin Squad. They could only be chosen from among the experienced Chunin.

Those who were lucky might be assigned to Chunin like Kizashi Moku, Tobitake Tonbo, Dokuraku, or Seishi Dairyo, who were close to being promoted to Special Jōnin or Jonin.

Those who were unlucky might end up with shinobi who had only barely made Chunin in their thirties or forties. Under them, there would be little chance of a quick promotion.

After all, without the rank of Special Jōnin or Jonin, a shinobi had no authority to recommend their subordinates for the Chunin Exams.

The reason Kizashi Moku was fighting so hard to become a Jonin was that his former teammate was still stuck at Genin rank and had never received a recommendation for the Chunin Exams.

Yes, you read that right. The recommendation letter for the Chunin Exams, an insignificant detail in Naruto Shippuden, was exceptionally valuable in this era. Without one, you couldn't even take the Chunin Exams.

This policy had been established by Senju Tobirama from the beginning. It was meant to give talented civilians a leg up, drawing civilian shinobi to serve under other civilian talents and thereby balancing the power of the shinobi clans.

It was a good idea, but most people didn't follow the plan as intended.

Once the clans learned about this loophole, they began competing to seize the recommendation slots held by civilian Jonin. Those civilian Jonin had no choice but to hand them over; the clans owned so many businesses in the village that they could make life impossible for any civilian Jonin who resisted.

Unless you could somehow tie yourself to the Hokage's faction, directly or indirectly, and use it as your backing, you would have no way to escape the clans' persecution.

According to Orochimaru's estimates, the clans seized nearly sixty percent of the recommendation slots held by civilian Jonin. The remaining forty percent were nowhere near enough for all the other civilian Genin.

For civilian shinobi with mediocre talent, like Kizashi Moku's former teammate, it was unlikely that a clan would take pity on them and grant them a slot.

More importantly, not everyone passed the Chunin Exams on their first attempt. Touma's adoptive father, Dou Huan, had been able to take them three times only because his instructor was a Special Jōnin from the Mitokado Clan.

That Mitokado Jonin thought Dou Huan had potential, so he reserved a slot for him each year. It was a free windfall. If Dou Huan had needed to buy one outright, it would probably have cost at least a million ryo.

Don't think that's too expensive. Even if you really had a million ryo, no one would necessarily sell you a slot. Chunin could take B-Rank Missions and might even get the chance to take on A-Rank Missions, so the increase in their income was substantial.

Shibi's information had been right. He, Touma, and Zhao had all been assigned to Team 9, with Special Jōnin Shinku Yuhi as their instructor.

Special Jōnin weren't necessarily inferior to ordinary Jonin. Most had an exceptional skill and specialized in a particular field, which was why they were given the title "Special."

The real difference lay with the elite Jonin at the core of the Jonin Squad. Their abilities were well-rounded, and they also had solid leadership and management skills.

People like Dan Katō, Hatake Sakumo, and the Sannin of Hiruzen's team could all be considered elite Jonin!

Shinku Yuhi had originally served in the genjutsu unit on the front lines of the border. Orochimaru had personally approved his early discharge so he could return and take on the role of instructor.

Orochimaru had, of course, done it for Touma. But Shinku was also deeply grateful to him. He had been able to return before his daughter was born and see her enter the world. No father would willingly give up that memory.

Strictly speaking, a genjutsu specialist like Shinku should have been assigned subordinates with sensory and genjutsu abilities.

Before assigning them, instructors also investigated their students' backgrounds and had the right to reject one student. But after seeing Touma's family connections, Shinku hadn't objected.

That was because Shinku actually knew Touma's adoptive father, Dou Huan. They were even close. Shinku had personally taught Dou Huan both of the genjutsu techniques he knew.

The two had been comrades-in-arms. They had fought side by side during the Battle of Hot Water after the First Shinobi World War, and each had saved the other's life.

Unfortunately, while Shinku had steadily risen to the rank of Special Jōnin, Dou Huan had failed the Chunin Exams three times in a row and eventually died in an accident during a mission.

Although there was a considerable age gap between them, they interacted like people of the same generation, with no generation gap between them.

Shinku had once wanted to take Dou Huan on missions with him and help him quickly build up his mission quota so he could be promoted directly to Chunin. Dou Huan had refused, though. He felt that if he became a Chunin without passing the Chunin Exams, he would regret it for the rest of his life.

Now that he had the chance to instruct the child left behind by his old friend, Shinku wouldn't turn it down. He would do everything he could to protect him.

However, during Team Shinku's first combat exercise, he realized that with the child's strength and battle sense, he didn't seem to need Shinku's protection at all.

In particular, when Shinku heard from that other child with the pink star-shaped hair that Touma had taken down a Jonin from the Hozuki Clan one-on-one during the graduation exam, he was utterly stunned.

During his years serving on the border, Shinku had taken the lives of plenty of enemy shinobi. But very few of them had been Jonin. Even a weak Jonin from an enemy nation would have some way to escape.

With such a long border to defend, a genjutsu specialist's slower-paced fighting style made it difficult to pursue fleeing shinobi. It was all too easy for the enemy to use a diversion to expose a gap in the defenses.

Of course, there had been plenty of coincidences in Touma's fight.

He had coincidentally discovered that his opponent was from the Hozuki Clan...

He had coincidentally found an opportunity when his opponent's chakra was being used to suppress the barrier core...

He had coincidentally learned about the Hozuki Clan's weakness and possessed the means to counter it...

On top of that, Hozuki Mitsuki had been able to enter Konoha without hindrance and tamper with the Barrier Pillar, then go undiscovered for so long.

At the time, he had been at his most careless. He hadn't believed that a child who had just graduated from the Ninja Academy could pose a lethal threat to him.

It wasn't until after the match, when Touma was giving a statement to the Intelligence Division, that Shinku learned Hozuki Mitsuki had already prepared a "Reverse Summoning Scroll."

If he had activated the scroll beforehand, he could have returned to the Hozuki Clan compound in Kirigakure in an instant. Unfortunately, he had thought there was plenty of time, so he hadn't activated it before the match began.