On the streets of Konoha!
"Ninja tool pouch, 20,000 ryo! Comes packed with all kinds of ninja tools and includes a free intel manual with detailed info on examinees from every major ninja village!"
"Guaranteed authentic! Quality assured!"
"Are you still troubled by a lack of ninja tools? Worried because you have no intel on your opponents?"
"Just buy one of these ninja tool pouches, and all your problems are solved!"
…
The loud, booming sales pitch drew tons of attention.
In the crowd, many were examinees — quite a few from small ninja villages — and these people genuinely needed tools, not to mention how desperate they were for any intel.
"I'll take one!"
A small squad huddled together, discussed briefly, then purchased one pouch.
Inside were kunai, shuriken, senbon… all standard ninja gear.
As for the quality?
Sorry, you get what you pay for, depending on where you buy.
High-quality ninja tools start at tens of thousands of ryo — expecting top-grade items for this cheap was just wishful thinking.
Frankly, just getting something at all was already a win. What more could you ask for?
"Here you go!"
Behind the stall, among three Konoha genin, the fattest one deftly took the money and handed over the pouch and manual with a speed that belied his size.
The small-village genin who bought the pouch left satisfied.
He needed the tools, and the intel manual really made it feel like a huge win.
But after watching the buyer leave, the slender, good-looking boy in the snug black top and three-quarter pants finally spoke up.
"Fatty, how'd you come up with this whole business idea of selling ninja tools and bundling intel to make money?"
Hearing this, the chubby boy gave Akira Sato a confused look, as if he didn't understand why he was even asking.
"Didn't you mention this idea before, Akira?"
Another boy — thin, silent, and withdrawn — spoke up.
Yes, the three behind the stall were none other than Akira Sato, Koji Yamakami, and Takashi Honda.
Today, they'd come out just to hang out — but Fatty had pulled off this little stunt.
"I don't remember saying…"
Akira started to protest, then suddenly remembered: he had indeed mentioned this kind of scheme before.
Damn!
The real clown here… was me.
If Fatty's little business kept growing, Akira thought, maybe someday he could end up with the title "Business Godfather of the Ninja World."
"By the way, where'd you get all this intel from?"
Akira pointed at the manual.
Everyone knew how critical intel was for a ninja — if the source was shady, there'd definitely be consequences.
"I gathered it directly from the examinees! Relax!" Takashi Honda said proudly.
Honestly, to boost the credibility of the intel, he'd even called his two friends to stand behind the stall.
Three Konoha genin — that was the real reason these examinees were willing to buy.
If it had been random villagers selling it, no one would've believed a word.
"Alright, that's a relief…"
Akira finally relaxed — as long as it wasn't obtained from some dangerous or forbidden source, it was fine.
Shuffle shuffle!
Koji Yamakami flipped through the manual, his face growing more and more serious.
"What's up?"
Akira curiously grabbed a copy to check.
Soon, he saw the issue.
There were too many strong opponents!
And looking at some of their physiques — are you sure these guys are genin?
Calling them uncles wouldn't be a stretch.
Note: the joint Chunin Exams only required that participants be genin; there was no strict age limit.
Fifteen years old!
As long as you were under that, you were eligible.
Forget what you saw in the anime, where everyone was freshly graduated — that was just fantasy.
Don't assume becoming a chunin was easy.
Besides completing a sufficient number of missions, you also needed real strength. In fact, over half of all ninja would never make chunin before retiring.
So, plenty of under-15 genin out there qualified for the exam.
And the evaluations in the manual?
They followed a rating system Akira had introduced before.
Nin (ninjutsu), Tai (taijutsu), Gen (genjutsu), Sen (battle sense), Str (strength), Spd (speed), Prec (precision), and Hand (hand seals).
This broke a ninja's capabilities into clear categories.
Sure, the ninja world already had some ranking systems, but they were too rough and simplistic compared to Akira's much more intuitive method.
Akira's system rated stats as:
1 point = academy graduate2 points = genin3 points = chunin4 points = special jonin5 points = jonin6 points = elite jonin7 points = near-Kage8 points = Kage-level9 points = Kage peak10 points = beyond Kage ("super-Kage")
Yeah — this scale was much more precise and easy to grasp.
Maybe that's why Koji was staring at the pages so grimly.
He'd heard Akira explain this framework before, but back then, he hadn't taken it too seriously.
Seeing it laid out in this intel manual, though, made it hit home hard.
And based on this manual, you could roughly gauge the examinees' abilities.
There was even an entry for Koji himself.
Koji Yamakami: Nin 3, Tai 2, Gen 1, Sen 3, Str 2, Spd 2, Prec 2, Hand 2.
See?
That was his data.
After comparing in his head, Koji felt the assessment was pretty fair.
Ninjutsu-based! That was his style. Plus, his battle instincts were decent.
Importantly, this intel only included publicly known stats — no mention of what specific techniques they had or what hidden trump cards they carried. Definitely considerate of their privacy.
Meanwhile, Akira flipped to the very end, scanning the "Top 10 Examinees Ranking!" and froze when he saw the first name.
"What? First place isn't Kakashi?"
The name at the top wasn't the super-genius Kakashi like Akira had expected.
Oh, right!
Akira suddenly remembered why.
Kakashi at this point was still under seven years old — practically a little kid.
Even with the ninja world's crazy fast growth rates, that was really young.
Among all the participants, he was the youngest.
Even so, he'd made it into the Top 3 of the Ten Best — truly a genius among geniuses.
If this were Kakashi at age twelve, he'd be #1 without question.
After all, the record of "12-year-old jonin" was his future achievement.
But sadly, no genius could outpace pure cheating.
Later, certain "white-eyed wolves" and "filial sons" (he was definitely referring to famous future prodigies) would hit Kage-level by their teens, breaking the system entirely.
No wonder Danzo was so obsessed with the Sharingan — it really was a super cheat code.
At the very top of the list was a boy named Gangtu.
Fourteen years old — technically an "older" examinee.
But the issue was his track record.
While Konoha's own examinees were only listed with stats and no extra background, the foreign village candidates had much more detailed introductions.
And Gangtu's profile? He was labeled as Iwagakure's "strongest genius," someone who'd even fought jonin head-on.
Blatant cheating!
There was no way he was still a genin.
But Ohnoki, the Third Tsuchikage, had forcibly kept him classified as genin.
Shameless!
After reading through, Akira silently cursed Ohnoki for a good while in his head.
That old bastard really was the type to care only about results, not appearances — far more ruthless than even Konoha's own "strongest Hokage."
Still, Gangtu's age was within limits, and as long as Iwagakure didn't officially recognize him as a chunin, technically he met the eligibility.
Just goes to show — all the big villages were playing dirty.
They wanted both fame and the chance to wipe out other villages' top talents.
Two goals, both pursued aggressively.
Remember: ninja weren't samurai. They didn't care about fair duels — they only cared about completing the mission.
"Excuse me, can I get a ninja tool pouch?"
As Akira kept silently roasting the big villages for their lack of honor, a warm, thick voice made him look up reflexively.
And then he froze.
(End of chapter)