Torrent City stood beside Amegakure, but covered a hundred times the village's area, rivaling the capital of a great nation in scale.
Ten years earlier, when the Grand Martial Arts Tournament system was established, Amegakure, as its host, had invested ten billion and spent a year building this city as a dedicated venue for the tournament!
Each year, the Five Great Shinobi Villages and Amegakure selected a combined total of one hundred outstanding ninja to participate in the Grand Martial Arts Tournament.
Later, however, to encourage the relatively underdeveloped small nations and villages outside Amegakure to join the wider community, fifty places were opened to smaller villages as well. The actual number of competitors hovered around 150. After the first round's written exam, one hundred advanced to the second round-the survival battle!
Those who qualified in the second round could participate in the third round's arena battles, where that year's Earth Shinobi were selected based on their rankings and actual performances.
At this point, some might wonder: could those promoted to Earth Shinobi through previous Grand Martial Arts Tournaments compete again?
The answer was yes.
If repeat participation were forbidden, the Grand Martial Arts Tournament would be reduced to an Earth Shinobi Exam, unworthy of being the Shinobi World's greatest event!
The Grand Martial Arts Tournament rules!
Over the course of a ninja's career, only those who earned the Earth Shinobi title for five consecutive tournaments, or seven tournaments in total, could gain Eternal Earth Shinobi status!
Only Eternal Earth Shinobi were eligible to advance to Heaven Shinobi!
Even Naruto, universally acknowledged as the strongest in the Shinobi World, had risen step by step through the Grand Martial Arts Tournament. Four years earlier, at the fifth Grand Martial Arts Tournament, he had earned Eternal Earth Shinobi status and duly advanced