Multi-reply time!
firethorn wrote:
That's certainly my view of the picture. It's also possible they have more
graduations per year, prefering to keep the ceremonies down to a level where
it can feel individually special to each student. It'd fit in with the idea
of having primarily one teacher per class.
This is perhaps possible, but doesn't particularly fit well with the
statements made around the time of Team Gai's introduction.
In 100 Days, another group of nine genin has graduated and gotten enough
missions to be eligible to participate in the Chuunin Exam - the
implication is that they graduated around the time of the previous
Chuunin Exam. I leave it up to the reader whether:
1) This is standard procedure, with classes graduating every half-year.
(Doesn't play terribly well with canon, as mentioned above.)
2) Due to the circumstances surrounding the last exam, the current
academy class graduated early.
3) Either as a standard measure or as a special exception due to the
circumstances, the next-best nine from the Rookie Nine's year got bumped
up to full active duty.
The real reason is of course 4) I wanted to have a set of rookie teams
in this Chuunin Exam to help make clear how exceptional the success of
the Rookie Nine was, and was willing to play fast and loose with
relatively minor canon to do it, though if I had to pick an "in-world"
reason it would probably be 3.
Since nobody's complained to date, I figure either my plan to avoid
offending people's sense of canon worked or nobody even noticed the
potential discrepancy. :)
Then you have Chunin exams which are only held every so many years, but it
looks to me as though they might be more a shortcut for potential 'elite'
ninja rather than the more ordinary levels. You might be able to make
Chunin without passing the trials, but only after 10 years experience,
review, etc...
On the one hand, this makes sense to produce the number of chuunin
necessary. (Given what we've seen, most of the time single digits of
chuunin would be promoted per year across _all_ the villages
participating in the Chuunin Exams.) On the other hand, all the
characters certainly act like taking the exams is the only route to
becoming chuunin, and any alternate route to becoming chuunin should
probably be _at least_ as difficult as passing the examination.
I'd suggest that it is possible to get a "field promotion" to chuunin,
particularly during times of war, but that doing it would require some
combination of:
a) You previously took and made it to the finals of the formal exams.
b) You pass some set of less elaborate, but just as if not more
difficult, tests.
and c) You happen to be obviously and substantially over-qualified for
the promotion.
To become a genin is easy, Chunin is more difficult. Jonin is extremely
tough, and probably awarded by board review. ANBU and such are specialized
fields.
The definition of the special jounin rank implies that there are a
number of fields in which some sort of examination can be taken to
achieve jounin ranking in that field, of which passing one makes you a
special jounin and passing some critical number and/or subset of them
makes you a full jounin.
William Little wrote:
Well, forgetting entirely about all other techniques, how many genin do
you estimate it would take to deal with a great summons?
That depends. Am I allowed to have the genin be Akimichi willing to use
the suicide pill? :)
The primary problem with fighting the great summons isn't power so much
as scale. We haven't really seen much in the way of human-sized ninja
versus giant monster fights in canon, so its tough to say what sort of
specialized techniques exist for that situation. We have seen at least
one large-scale technique used by a genin; Temari's Kirikirimai (the
summoning attack that defeated Tayuya) would probably at least hurt one
of the big summons.
At the very beginning of the series, we see a large mass of lower-ranked
ninja managing to slow down the Kyuubi in its full manifestation (or at
least attempting to do so without believing it to be pointlessly
futile), so it must be possible, even if we haven't seen much sign of
such ability.
I might be
convinced that the Rookie 9 + Team Gai could barely deal with Gamabunta.
Maybe. Veeery maybe.
I'd give the edge to Gamabunta, but it wouldn't be a trivial victory for
him, assuming we use the R9+TG from immediately pre-timeskip. The
Rookie Nine are/were pretty exceptional for genin, though, and 12
generic genin probably wouldn't stand a chance.
Really, I doubt the raid will be half as effective as the Mist hoped. I
forsee mucho powerups for the leaf supporting cast in the near future.
The laws of action-ninja narrative demands it!
The laws of action-ninja narrative also state that nameless, faceless
characters are incapable of doing anything that substantially impacts
the course of events, though... :)