Chapter no.119

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Jiraiya was sitting at his usual spot on the windowsill as he glanced at all of the occupants in the room, a neutral expression on his face. He was worried, very worried in fact, about the prophecy and how things would turn out if the child of prophecy really was Naruto. He would fix everything as soon as he possibly could, the entire world was at stake, he had no time to waste.

Tsunade stood beside Jiraiya, she really had no idea why she were even here. People were still wounded from their involvement in fighting off the invasion, they needed to be at the hospital. Sure there were plenty of capable medical-nins there, but Tsunade was the best in the village, perhaps even in all the Elemental Nations. Currently, Shizune was running things at the hospital, so her mind was a little more relaxed knowing it was in capable hands.

Standing beside the Hokage's desk was the Yondaime Mizukage, Yagura. His wounds had healed quite quickly due to the fact he was a jinchūriki, so he was out of the hospital only a day or two after the invasion. He was looking at Haku with a proud smile on his face.

Off to the side stood Momochi Zabuza, Hōzuki Suigetsu, and Chōjuro. They were here due to the fact that they were members of Haku's team and were here to support her.

In total, there were sixteen occupants within the confines of this small room, not counting the ANBU in hiding of course. This made it quite crowded and a bit uncomfortable for the four genin standing in the middle of it all.

They had a pretty good idea of why they were here, but nothing was certain just yet.

Minato looked at the four genin before him with an appraising eye. They had all done excellent during both the preliminaries, the finals, and the invasion. It was rare to find such talented and well-balanced shinobi at such a young age. Naruto, Hana, and Satsuki had only been genin for a few months and yet they were already at this level, it was truly impressive. Most genin had to take the exam two or three times before being promoted, while others received field promotions after taking these exams several times.

"First of all I would like to personally congratulate the four of you for your performance throughout the chūnin exams and for your efforts during the invasion. You have greatly benefitted Konoha during its time of need and for that, I offer my utmost gratitude." Minato spoke with a smile on his pace. "I will let Mizukage-dono start off this ceremony since there is only one Kiri shinobi who is being considered for promotion, then I will speak to each of you individually, the genin who are both being considered for promotion and those who are not."

It had been a week since the chūnin exam finals, and although they were interrupted before the final round, the judges and the Kage had seen more than enough of the matches to determine whether or not the genin participating were worthy of the title of chūnin.

It seemed that only the genin who had been decided were ready for a promotion, along with the rest of their team, were summoned to the Hokage's office.

The Yondaime Mizukage stepped forward until he was in front of the genin from Kirigakure.

"I'd like each of the three of you to know that I am proud of you and that you showed strength and skill befitting of shinobi and kunoichi from Kirigakure. However, I'm afraid only one of you has shown the necessary qualities of a chūnin."

Yagura move to the side in front of Chōjuro to address the boy's performance. The goal of this was to address the strengths and weaknesses of only the genin that were being promoted, but doing so for all of the shinobi would benefit them in the end.

"Chōjuro, while you did show considerable skill in wielding Hiramekarei, your speed and reaction time began to slow down halfway through the match, giving your opponent several openings that they exploited, due to how much chakra Hiramekarei consumed. You must increase your reserves considerably if you wish to wield it correctly. You were also quickly overwhelmed and let your opponent control the pace of the match. If you continue to progress at the rate you are growing, I have no doubt that you will become chūnin during these exams next time."

Chōjuro's eyes widened at the Mizukage's words, and he nodded vigorously at the praise towards the end. For a boy with low self-esteem, encouragement would do the boy well rather than pointing out all of his faults. With those words said, Yagura moved over in front of Suigetsu.

"Suigetsu, while you did show great skill in your clan's nature transformation, you showed relatively little strategy and were quickly overwhelmed by your opponent. Had you not been hydrated at the time, you wouldn't have been able to liquify to survive the Suna jinchūriki's sand jutsu. You will need more training and experience before you are ready to become a chūnin.

Suigetsu nodded and stepped back as Yagura made his way to the middle of the room and stood in front of the only Kiri kunoichi in the room.

"Haku, you showed exceptional skill with your kekkei genkai, far more than you had when you left Kiri and far more than any Yuki has had in generations. You were able to quickly overwhelm even a jinchūriki, an impressive feat in its own right. I see no reason not to promote you." Yagura said with a smile, while handing a chūnin flak jacket that had been on the Hokage's desk to the girl. This earned a charming smile from the newly named chūnin as she put on the flak jacket.

Yagura, having finished his involvement with the advancement of the genin, stepped back behind the Hokage's desk.

This time, it was Minato to step forward. His signature haori a bit uneven due to the absence of a left arm, but otherwise looked as strong and imposing as ever. He glanced at the three Konoha genin that were standing in the middle of the room before his eyes traveled to his daughters who were sitting on the couch.

"I had originally only planned to address the three members of Team 11, but Mizukage-dono made an excellent point. It would benefit all the genin here to understand their strengths and weaknesses and why they were or were not promoted this time around." Minato spoke as he paced around just in front of his desk. "Natsuki, Narumi! Stand up, you are present at an official ceremony and will treat it as such."

The two girls quickly jumped to their feet, a bit surprised at the tone that their father had used. Though they chalked it up to still being concerned that his two sons and their brothers had just tried to kill each other the past week as well as him having to deal with the stress of the invasion and almost dying.

"I shall start with the two of you since you were judged to not be ready for the responsibilities of a chūnin." Minato announced as he stepped a few feet in front of his two daughters.

The two sisters squirmed uncomfortably under their father's gaze. They had known that they wouldn't receive a promotion with their performance, but to hear it from their own father still hurt.

"Narumi, while you did show skill with two different forms of nature transformation, which is quite impressive for a genin, you showed a lack of forethought in your moves along with little to no strategy." The girl nodded her head solemnly as Minato continued to speak. "You charged into battle recklessly, and because of that you fell into several of your opponents traps one after another. Continue to work hard to improve and add some strategy to your fighting style, and I have no doubt you'll earn a promotion."

"Natsuki, while you also showed proficiency with two different forms of nature transformation, as well as improving your kenjutsu leaps and bounds, you rushed into both of your matches without showing the higher-level thinking and strategy necessary for a chūnin. Had you put more thought into how to deal with the opponent you were facing and adjusting your fighting style accordingly, you may have ended up defeating Temari in the first round and possibly winning your second match. You have shown massive amounts of improvement since you became a genin, but you still have much more room to improve. You will not be promoted just yet." Natsuki only nodded and took a step back beside her sister.

Minato swiftly turned around on his heel and made his way to the center of the room to address the remaining three Konoha genin. His frown was immediately replaced with a small smile upon remembering each of their performances.

While he was glad that three of his genin showed so much promise, the same could not be said for the rest of their graduating class. Minato was rather disappointed that so few of this year's graduating class made it pass the second round of the exams. Most of them were clan heirs and heiresses, which only made their performance that much more sad. Their jōnin-senseis had either been slacking off or babying them, either way something needed to be done about it or they wouldn't last much longer in the shinobi world.