Naruto : Chapter 87

The exams have given us a good number of talented young shinobi to choose from. I think the best way is going by the order of their fights and discuss if the candidate has proven the qualification for the rank."

"That sounds logical," Shibi Aburame agreed.

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Thankfully for the chunin promotions only the shinobi council and the judges for the exams were required, otherwise the civilians would have tried to make a nuisance of themselves. They had tried insisting that they had a right to decide as well, but Kakashi had shot that down, claiming a purely ninja-related decision.

"With that approach the first fight was the one between Sakura Haruno and Kiba Inuzuka. Let's start with my observations about Kiba. While he was clearly aware that he didn't have an easy opponent and was on guard, he needs to first overcome his weaknesses better.

Those being his overly heightened senses and the dependence on his ninja dog partner. While both can also be strengths, if not protected they can be turned against him as Sakura proved well," Shikaku stated.

"He needs to work more on guarding his partner from surprise attacks like the poisoned needles that Sakura used. Otherwise he didn't get to show much and lost his temper after seeing his dog unconscious. He needs more time and training before being ready for being a chunin."

"I have to agree with your observations. He needs more time, even if he might have some techniques he couldn't show thanks to Sakura being very fast in using her strategy," Tsunade agreed.

"From the things I read in the reports of the response teams in the invasion, he did well in his given mission, so my suggestion is we put a positive recommendation into his file for his performance in the invasion, but don't promote him."

The others all nodded, so no formal voting was required.

"Next would be Sakura and we have two fights to judge from next to her actions during the invasion," Kakashi said.

"I was very impressed with her strategy against Kiba. She knew about the weakness of her opponent and while it normally is seen as a strength, she turned it against him.

And after having taken Kiba's dog out of the fight with a simply technique like poisoned senbons, she pressed her advantage and drugged Kiba without falling to her own plan.

That's always a risk with young poison users," Shibi commented.

"True, she planned that fight properly and had the complete control from the start. That's very important for a chunin," the Sandaime commented. "It also showed in her second match against Shikamaru that she has a very sharp mind if she could outthink and trick a Nara."

"Yes, Shikamaru was operating on wrong information she let him believe. Not revealing all your tricks too early on is a very good tactic for a ninja and chunin material. I definitely think she has the qualifications for the promotion," Hiashi Hyuga agreed.

"Anybody against Sakura's promotion?" There were no raised hands. "Any abstentions?" No arms as well.

"Then we'll note that the first chunin promotion for this year goes to Sakura Haruno," Kakashi stated and wrote it down in her file with the number of votes like it was necessary.

They continued with all the other fights of the first round and decided that Ino needed more time and wasn't ready for promotion, but that Hinata had shown great performance in both her fights, even showing off self-created jutsus based on her clan's taijutsu style, and deserved her promotion.

The same held true for Sasuke with an additional positive commendation for his taking up leadership in the invasion and successfully protecting the academy. That made three promotions so far.

Choji would get a positive recommendation for his part in the invasion and acknowledgement of not being able to take down an opponent far superior to his level, but it wasn't enough to promote him. Shino was praised for his strategy and skills in the fight against Naruto, who had clearly been the stronger of the two.

Combined with his performance in protecting the academy, he was granted his promotion as well. It wouldn't make sense to leave him a genin. Especially as he had found a new way to use his clan's jutsu in combination with elemental jutsus.

Naruto's comment was pushed to be discussed last as there were some things Kakashi wanted to add to his shown abilities in the exams. Shikamaru was judged positively for great strategy in both his fights and using unusual tactics to capture and force his opponents to submit.

He wouldn't make the mistake of going by assumed information again after Sakura used that to drug him. He would be on the lookout for any kind of tricks and he had done well in defending the hospital from the attackers. He was also promoted.

"Now our last candidate is Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze," Kakashi said and the clan heads listened intensively. "His shown abilities in the finals, especially his capture of an enemy jinchuriki for the village go far beyond the level we look for in our chunin."

"True, I've never seen that level of fuinjutsu. You were the one to train him during the preparation month, Jiraiya Sama, am I correct?" Inoichi asked.

"Yes, I did train him, but that seal is completely his creation. I evaluated him as well as Dark Phoenix a few months ago and both are seal masters. I know for a fact that they have worked together for some projects as well, for example the identification seal we used during the invasion to differentiate between friend and foe.

Team Seven tested the seals during the second part of the chunin exams to get an idea of their reach and their results led us to use them for the chunin and jonin of Konoha during the invasion and it made the fights a lot easier on our side," Jiraiya said.

"Naruto is a genius with fuinjutsu, but being an Uzumaki that isn't that surprising. And his father was also fantastic with them. You could probably say the boy was born to excel in that art."

There was some agreeing mumbling heard from others. Many knew of the reputation of the Uzumaki clan and the Yondaime Hokage had been incredible with fuinjutsu as well.

"Nonetheless, I don't think he has the experience to be promoted to jonin yet," Choza mentioned.

"I have to agree, while he certainly has the skill, he's only been a ninja for a bit over six months. But just promoting him to chunin wouldn't be enough," Shikaku added. "He's far beyond that level and has been for months."

Shikamaru had shared his observations with his father. And to say that Shikaku was impressed would be an understatement. Especially as he had managed to keep it a secret from everybody during his whole time at the academy.

"How about promoting him to special jonin with focus on fuinjutsu and ninjutsu?" The Sandaime proposed. "I've thought about this for a while as Kakashi kept me informed about Naruto's level. We have a high number of newly promoted chunin this year.

In fact of the nine rookies that qualified for the finals, we only have three that didn't get promoted, a feat that hasn't been seen in any previous tournaments.

With the invasion and the two Suna participants and their brother being captured, there won't be any promotions for them. At the moment Suna is in a massively bad position. We have all the trump cards in our hands.

"We could change the rookie teams a little bit around for the next six months. Kiba, Ino and Choji could become a team as their other teammates had been promoted already and will have to take other missions now. If those three continue developing like they did since their graduation, they should have good chance to get promoted the next chunin exams."

"I also would like to take Sakura under my wing for a while. She got glowing reports from Shizune and she would make a great second apprentice as Shizune is good enough to train her own apprentices by now," Tsunade spoke up.

"With the next few months not being normal in any sense as we will have to recover from the invasion, it would make sense to teach her as much as possible right now before she goes onto new missions again.

We also need most jonin for other missions right now, so the training of the new chunin and the remaining genin would suffer anyway. Why not form the four remaining chunin from that group into one squad and make Naruto the temporary leader of the three genin for C-rank and B-rank missions?"

"The idea has merit, Tsunade," Kakashi agreed. "We could send the chunin team on mostly B-rank missions and leading an advanced genin team on missions and helping them with some training would be good for Naruto's development.

With how many missions we have with considerable lesser man power that would work.

We can also let the new chunin work with other genin teams to get them used to leading missions. Of course we'd first start with C-ranks in those cases. We could rotate them around just by seeing which kind of mission it is."

"I think that would be a good solution. Are there any others that you'd recommend for medical training, Tsunade?" Inoichi asked.

"I'm not sure yet. It would depend on who's interested in learning them. I'll initiate a program to get a medic nin onto each squad we have, but it'll take time to get there.

From what I've seen Hinata definitely has the chakra control needed and Ino with her basic knowledge of poisons could also be a candidate. I'll see if I can't coerce Naruto and Sasuke into at least basic classes. They would profit from that, even if so far Sakura took care of their injuries.

Shino wouldn't be able to learn most techniques thanks to his symbiotic bond with his bugs that eat most of his chakra and I don't know if Shikamaru would put in the effort needed," Tsunade listed those that could work out in some ways.

"True. You need to at least want to learn medical jutsus to become efficient in them as it takes a lot of time," Shikaku agreed. "Another thing we need to consider is Tenten Jakonato. She performed really well during the invasion, even if her team didn't qualify for the finals."

"Hm, I think a positive recommendation that will grant her promotion next time around if she makes it into the finals of the chunin exams and can then show that she has the skills would be advisable," Tsunade said.

"I agree," Kakashi said. "Well, then Asuma, you can collect Shikamaru and tell Kurenai to come with Shino and Hinata. I'll call my three students so we can promote them all at once. Meeting adjourned."

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