Suspicion

The assessments continued until the end of the morning. Only six Ninja had failed because of mistakes in their performance.

More than half of the two thousand Genin had been assessed, and nearly all of Konoha's young Genin had finished.

That afternoon, under the blazing sun, the Ninja gathered at the Training Ground were noticeably older than those assessed earlier.

Years of war had taken a heavy toll on their generation. Few of their peers remained, and many had already become Chunin or Jonin. As a result, a group of four hundred often spanned several age brackets, with a much wider age gap than before.

The afternoon assessments began. Fugaku and the other two watched the entire field throughout.

The Ninja performed reasonably well. Most of them were already over twenty.

In Fugaku's view, unless they were deliberately hiding their abilities, those who were still Genin at twenty generally lacked ambition.

Even a Ninja with little natural talent could become a capable Chunin by training hard every day for ten years after graduating from the Ninja Academy.

Unless there were special circumstances, if a Genin over twenty failed the assessment, Fugaku had reason to suspect a deliberate attempt to conceal their strength.

Concealing one's strength was common in the Shinobi World. The strongest fighters tended to keep something in reserve: once their full abilities were exposed, opponents could study them and devise counters.

But someone hiding among the Genin had only a few possible reasons.

Some feared death or were lazy by nature. They had no wish to become Chunin; Genin assignments were easy and paid enough to live on.

Others might have suffered a terrible blow and could not face their past. And then there were spies from other nations. Hidden among the Genin, they attracted little notice and