Konoha's Tatsuya

Early the next morning, Tatsuya got up, got dressed, and left the clan compound. He walked through the bustling streets of Konoha and arrived at the designated meeting place.

Today was the day Tatsuya's genin team was to reassemble.

The message had been delivered three days earlier by Sakawa, a teammate from Tatsuya's Squad 31.

This was Squad 31's first gathering since Tatsuya's recovery.

Tatsuya had a hunch about the purpose of this gathering.

In the past month, Konoha's situation had changed drastically.

A month ago, with the conclusion of the battles at Kannabi Bridge and Mount Kikyo, the main fighting of the Third Shinobi World War had largely subsided, and a large number of Konoha ninja began to return to the village from the front lines.

The returning Konoha ninja brought back more information about the war, and the news of the astonishing performance of Jiraiya's disciple, Minato Namikaze, on the battlefield quickly spread among the villagers.

Suddenly, Minato Namikaze's reputation in the village skyrocketed.

Around the same time, voices of dissent, criticizing the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, began to emerge.

During the Third Shinobi World War, Konoha had lost a significant number of ninja. The families and clans of these ninja, guided by certain individuals, pointed the finger of blame at the village's Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi.

When Tatsuya heard this news, he immediately realized that the time for the Third Hokage to resign from his position was not far off.

After the Third Hokage stepped down, Minato Namikaze, thanks to the enormous prestige he'd gained in the Third War, would soon defeat Orochimaru in the competition and become Konoha's Fourth Hokage.

And subsequent events unfolded exactly as Tatsuya had predicted.

Two weeks later, Konoha successfully concluded a peace treaty with Iwagakure, marking the official end of the Third Shinobi World War.

Although Konoha, with the strength of a single village, had successively withstood the attacks of Kumogakure, Sunagakure, Kirigakure, and Iwagakure during this years-long Shinobi World War, the protracted conflict had also cost Konoha a large number of elite ninja. Someone had to take responsibility for this outcome.

The Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, quickly became the focal point of criticism.

Many ninja and clans who were unwilling to let the matter rest voiced their dissatisfaction with the leadership's decisions, and all sorts of rumors unfavorable to the Third Hokage spread like wildfire.

Under duress, the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, was forced to resign from his position.

Tatsuya didn't need to guess to know that this series of events was orchestrated by Danzo, pulling strings from the shadows.

However, Danzo ultimately didn't gain much benefit.

Danzo's original intention was to have Orochimaru succeed the Hokage position, but unexpectedly, the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, before stepping down, not only didn't support his own disciple, Orochimaru, but instead recommended Jiraiya's disciple, Minato Namikaze.

Although Orochimaru was one of Konoha's Sannin, with an impressive war record, his cold and calculating demeanor was not popular within the village. Many ninja feared him more than they respected him.

Minato Namikaze, on the other hand, with his commoner ninja background, had gained immense prestige through his exceptionally brilliant performance in the war. Many villagers saw him as a hero who had saved the village.

Furthermore, Minato Namikaze's teacher was Jiraiya, also one of the Sannin, and he had always been considered by the latter to be the Child of Prophecy, receiving the full support of the Hokage faction.

Therefore, this contest for the Hokage position between Orochimaru and Minato Namikaze lasted less than ten days, and Minato Namikaze smoothly ascended to the position of Konoha's Fourth Hokage.

With the establishment of the new Hokage, numerous post-war matters were put on the agenda. One of these matters was related to the reassembly of Tatsuya's Squad 31.

During the brutal Third Shinobi World War, the village had been busy resisting the attacks of four ninja villages and had no time to deal with the village's commissioned missions, resulting in a large backlog of tasks.

Now, although the war had ended, the village, having lost a large number of excellent ninja, couldn't spare enough elite ninja to complete these missions. Naturally, genin teams like Tatsuya's, who had graduated early, became the targets for recruitment.

Tatsuya had no objections to this.

After all, ninjas were in a "glorious profession" that revolved around combat and missions.

As long as it wasn't going to participate in the Shinobi World War, where he could lose his head at any moment, Tatsuya was also eager to take the first step in his career and become familiar with this dangerous ninja world.

If he didn't take advantage of the rare period of peace to complete some low-level missions and gain experience, was he really going to wait until a year later, when war broke out again, to venture out?

Tatsuya wasn't that foolish!

This was a training ground located on the west side of Konoha. Although the area wasn't large, it was equipped with various training tools and was specifically used for training some of the village's genin.

"Hey! Tatsuya, over here!"

Just as Tatsuya reached the edge of the training ground, he saw his teammate, Sakawa, waving to him from afar.

Sakawa was a commoner ninja, a year older than Tatsuya, and also a genin who had graduated early during the Shinobi World War.

Tatsuya saw that there were already dozens of people gathered in the area where Sakawa was. All of them were newly graduated Konoha genin, just like the two of them.

It seemed that their team wasn't the only genin squad being called up by the village.

"Sakawa."

Approaching, Tatsuya greeted Sakawa, and then his gaze involuntarily swept over the surrounding crowd.

After scanning the area, Tatsuya realized that he didn't recognize any familiar faces from his memories.

This meant that these dozens of newly graduated Konoha genin were basically all background characters who wouldn't even get a chance to appear on screen.

In his previous life, the story of the Naruto world revolved primarily around the Konoha 12 and other main characters, with little mention of other events at the Ninja Academy.

This led many people to believe that Konoha's Ninja Academy only had a few dozen students each year.

This was not the case!

Konoha, as the head of the Five Great Ninja Villages, occupied the Land of Fire, which had the most advantageous geographical location in the ninja world. The village's standing ninja forces numbered in the thousands.

The village also lost a considerable number of ninja each year in wars and on missions.

Maintaining such a large ninja force would be impossible without a stable source of new recruits.

Even excluding the fact that some clan ninja could bypass training at the Ninja Academy, considering the attrition rate and success rate during a ninja's growth, the number of students enrolled in the Ninja Academy each year wouldn't be less than several hundred.

The class Naruto and the others were in, as depicted in the manga and anime, was just a special class for gifted students at the Ninja Academy!

Being a "failure" there only meant being a failure within that special class.

At the Ninja Academy, the difference in success rates between the special class for gifted students and the regular classes was enormous.

The students admitted to the special class were either exceptionally talented geniuses, descendants of the village's noble clans, or those whose parents had made special contributions.

In short, it was a group of geniuses and those with connections.

Of course, officially, such a special class didn't exist, and a small number of ordinary commoner ninja would also be admitted.

As for the purpose... well, everyone understood.

If Tatsuya's parents had died protecting the clan leader before he entered the academy, he might have had the chance to join such a special class.

The school naturally invested the most resources in this group.

These ninja who emerged from the special class were the backbone of Konoha!

Among the students who entered the Ninja Academy at the same time as Tatsuya, a genius like Kakashi was already a jonin, Guy, Asuma, and others were already chunin, while Tatsuya, Sakawa, and the others had only just become genin.

After graduation, there was also a difference in the treatment they received.