Using his status as Naruto, Jin brought Konoha's young rising stars to the castle to watch the various matches, hoping they could learn more from them. The ninja villages of the other four great nations had thought of the same thing and sent their most talented genin to the tournament grounds. Quite a few ninja from every nation had come as well, some to compete and gain real combat experience, others to gather intelligence on ninja from other countries. Naturally, plenty of ordinary people had come too. Many merchants were there to watch the excitement and gamble. Merchants pursued profit, and anything connected to profit drew their involvement. Gambling was an even greater hobby among the wealthy. By watching the matches, merchants could also learn the strength of the major ninja villages, making it easier to find reliable ninja for valuable deliveries or hire powerful ninja as bodyguards in the future.
Early that morning, more than a hundred thousand people had gathered around the hundred arenas. With the sound of a gong, the host of this tournament, the Third Naruto, began a long and tedious speech. Half an hour later, he finally said something useful: "The first World Ninja Tournament now begins. Contestants, please enter your respective arenas, await the referees' calls, and compete in order."
There were three thousand contestants in total. The early stage used a challenge format, and any contestant who lost immediately forfeited their qualification. In other words, three hundred ninja would determine a winner on each arena. During the middle stage, the final hundred contestants would compete in a round-robin tournament, with points determining the top twenty. The final challenge matches would then determine the rankings of those twenty. Using his privileges, Jin separated all the Kage-level powerhouses he knew of, preventing the audience from