Konoha Notes

Chapter 198 Let Tianzang Go
Shuuji was reporting the situation in Sunagakure and Kumogakure to Tsunade.

The Hidden Cloud Village is very insistent on the venue issue. The first event should be held in the Hidden Cloud Village, but they are willing to give up a portion of the ticket revenue to the Hidden Leaf Village.

However, the proportions did not meet Konoha's expectations, which is why Shuji made this trip today.

After all, it was Yunyin's idea to come up with the idea, and to say directly that they planned to abandon you and fight with other factions was a bit too shameless.

The only option is to find another way to raise the price.

Ultimately, we will still choose Yunyin, since they are the most proactive, and the issue of money is not the core point of contention between the two sides.

However, if Konoha makes too many concessions on key interests in the first cooperation, it will be very difficult and passive in subsequent negotiations.

Therefore, this tug-of-war is necessary; the other party must understand Konoha's bottom line.

In any case, this new type of practical exchange competition requires a considerable amount of time, from framework building and rule refinement to publicity and preparation, and it certainly can't be completed this year. Both sides have enough time to discuss things slowly.

His report had just ended when Kakashi arrived to report on the follow-up to the Root investigation.

When Kakashi confirmed that Shimura Danzo had indeed retained the secrets and power of the Root core, neither Shuji nor Tsunade showed much surprise.

After all, that was Danzo.

However, without his status as an advisor and elder, continuing to dig deeper into the roots is relatively less complicated for him.

It costs money to support people, and it also costs money to maintain the base.

Tsunade tapped her fingers on the table, pondering, "The Shimura clan owns a considerable amount of business in Konoha. Theoretically, it's not entirely impossible to trace their finances..."

However, she immediately shook her head: "But it's not the right time yet."

Koharu Utatane had recently mentioned whether or not to temporarily reinstate Danzo Shimura, who had retired, to assist with some of the security work during the Chunin Exams.

When the village faced complex situations, the two advisors placed more trust in Danzo's ability to solve problems.

"Let's wait a bit longer, finish dealing with this year's Chunin Exams first, and then continue exploring."

"Yes." Kakashi began to report on another matter, "The teenagers and children in the training phase within Root."

"Although most of these children have been implanted with the Root of Trouble Seal to restrict their ability to leak confidential information about the Root, apart from that, after preliminary physical examinations and psychological assessments, they do not have any other serious problems."

"Going forward, could we consider allowing these children to leave the original closed environment of Root and enter the Konoha Ninja Academy to receive formal ninja education and try to integrate into the normal life of the village?"

Tsunade didn't hesitate much about this: "Okay, verify the specific background and current situation of each child, and compile and report the final list. I will inform the Ninja Academy so that they can prepare to receive them in advance."

"Yes!" Kakashi answered with much more force this time, and there seemed to be a bit more spirit in his exposed right eye.

Even though Danzo still hid most of the darkness when investigating the root of the problem, the part that had already been exposed was enough to make people feel heavy-hearted.

The fact that these children were given a chance to escape the darkness and move towards the light was one of the few things that brought Kakashi genuine comfort during this horrific mission.

The silver-haired Jonin went to make arrangements for the children to transfer to the Ninja Academy.

The office fell silent for a moment. Tsunade leaned back wearily in her large chair, almost slumping into it.

"So, we still need to get back to the Chunin Exams."

"Originally, we planned to hold only one survival test in the Forest of Death to select the village's genin."

"But there are no suitable candidates this year." "And without a collective survival assessment in a complex environment like the Forest of Death, it would be difficult for us to effectively observe and assess the strength of the genin teams sent by the other three major ninja villages in the early stages."

"The first test of this Chunin Exams will probably still be the Death Forest test."

"The joint exam with Sunagakure, which was originally planned, hasn't caused such a big stir."

"But this time it's the four great ninja villages... Who knows, in order to ensure that Konoha's results aren't too bad, we really have to let Maruboshi Kosuke make an appearance this time."

The joint exam of the four great ninja villages is a prestigious event, especially since it's being held on Konoha's home turf. It would be incredibly embarrassing if Konoha's representatives performed poorly or were eliminated early.

However, Kosuke Maruboshi was too old. What made Tsunade hesitate the most was that someone of his age and strength was still a genin, and his appearance would only make people laugh at Konoha's decay and the failure of its promotion mechanism.

“Perhaps we could consider sending Tenzo,” Shuji said from the side. He had only thought of this possibility when Kakashi mentioned the children being trained by Root earlier.

“Tenzo? He is…” Tsunade sat up straight immediately.

Shuji explained, "He was raised directly by Root in his early years and later transferred to the Anbu. His career has never gone through the formal ninja academy graduation process, nor has he ever participated in any public Chunin selection exams."

"His ninja rank promotion was directly completed through mission assessments within Root and Anbu, and with the Hokage's special permission."

"Therefore, from the perspective of the official ninja registration process, he currently does not have an official record of 'Chunin' or 'Jonin' rank. Allowing him to participate in the Chunin Exams does not present any procedural issues of 'a high-ranking ninja participating in a low-ranking competition'."

Upon hearing this, Tsunade's eyes lit up, and she slammed her hand on the table: "That's right! Come to think of it, it really is true! His rank has always been in the Anbu, and it was specially approved. The official records are indeed missing the Chunin Exams section!"

"Alright, it's decided then. Tenzo will go for the Chunin Exams this time!"

As she spoke, she seemed to have thought of something and began to calculate quickly: "Wait, it seems that there are still many ninjas from Root who came out of there, and their situations are similar to Tenzo's."

"They were all promoted to ninja rank without going through a formal unified examination. They were directly trained by Root and then approved by the Hokage."

Now that Root has been officially taken back and is being integrated by Kakashi, it has become a necessary task to provide these special ninjas with a proper Chunin Exam process.

This is both a formal confirmation of their identities and an important step in fully integrating the remaining forces of the village into the normal management system.

Thinking of this, Tsunade, who was originally worried about the strong candidates for the Chunin Exams in the next few years, immediately felt much more relaxed.

Unexpectedly, Danzo's self-contained approach in the past has inadvertently solved a problem for Konoha.
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Tsunade's problem is solved, but Onoki's is not.

He was mentally prepared for the fact that Sunagakure and Kumogakure would participate in Konoha's exams, since it had happened last year.

This year, considering the potential benefits of the Chunin Exams, even if the Hidden Cloud Village were to turn against them due to conflicting interests, they would have to wait and see how things develop.

But when Wuyin got involved, the situation suddenly became awkward.

He hadn't even done anything yet, so how come it seemed like in an instant, Iwagakure was subtly isolated from the other four great nations of the ninja world?

However, the news that he would be holding the Chunin Exams in September had already been announced.

"Are we going to cancel it...?"

"no……"

"Then Iwagakure will become a joke."

For the first time since becoming the Kage, Onoki, who had been weighing two scales, was in such a predicament.

(End of this chapter)