Unlike Tsunade and Jiraiya, who lit up at the mere mention of food, Orochimaru was not so pleased. It was not that he disliked those delicious treats; he simply wanted to learn some real skills more.
At only three years old, Orochimaru was extraordinarily precocious, so mature that he hardly seemed like a child. While Tsunade and Jiraiya, both his age, were still busy playing, the little boy had already begun teaching himself all sorts of things.
Seeing how clever their son was, Orochimaru's parents gritted their teeth, tightened their belts, and signed him up for a whole slew of extracurricular classes.
And so, little Orochimaru now spent every day traveling between the territories of the village's various shinobi clans, since most of the instructors were middle-aged or elderly members of those clans.
Of course, the instructors could not teach their clans' closely guarded secrets, but teaching shinobi fundamentals and commonplace ninjutsu, such as shuriken throwing, the Chakra Extraction Technique, and the Three Body Technique, was perfectly acceptable.
This was another rather peculiar sight that had emerged in Konoha lately: the younger generation of the shinobi clans had little interest in becoming shinobi and preferred to make big money in business, while ordinary people were scrambling to become shinobi, especially combat shinobi.
For Konoha's ordinary civilians, a position as a combat shinobi was the ultimate secure job.
Not only did the village assign them work and provide food, housing, and medical care, but there were also all sorts of benefits. Barring accidents, they could even hold the job for life, and their everyday duties were easier than those of civilian shinobi. The only drawback was that the selection tests for combat shinobi were incredibly difficult!
The placement exam at age six was the first hurdle to becoming a combat shinobi.