Genin, Chunin, and Jonin are skill rankings that are earned. Chunin are chosen by their ability to come up with strategies and tactics, and are called on to lead genin teams. Some ninja never gain the rank of chunin; there are genin who are 30 years old or older. D through S are class rankings used to describe a threat or difficulty level, and are applied to jobs, ninja skills, and to describe the skill level of a ninja. For example, jonin are the highest rank of ninja short of kage, but they aren't all equally dangerous (and the same applies to the other ranks) so they get threat levels using the letter system to classify them.
Ah, gotcha--so you could (even in the ideal course of things, extraordinary circumstances aside) naturally end up with an A-rank jonin leading a bunch of S-rank genin on an S-ranked mission, if I understand correctly?
I'm not sure if there is a corresponding scene in the manga but in the anime there is a scene where we see Hinata's father talking to a half dozen or so other members of the Main House and that's impossible to achieve if all non-successors are made members of the Branch House.
My personal theory is that while Children of Branch House members are automatically made members of the Branch House but but in the Main House but the reason that Neiji's father was made a member of the Branch House becuase identical twins screw up the normal rules of primogeniture (inheritance in order of birth) while with Hinata and Hanabi there's a three (or more?) year age gap so that the line of succession is clear cut, even if Hinata hasn't lived up to her father's expectations.
Makes sense. Thanks!
lwf58 wrote:The reason why Naruto failed to become a chunin despite having all but won the tournament is because he didn't use much strategy, while Shikamaru, who gave up, did, and was the only one who became a Konoha chunin despite his loss. The examiners look for signs of desirable traits and ability to be a leader; winning or losing has nothing to do with it.
Huh? IIRC, he used strategy as a lynchpin of winning
all his fights--first getting a bite in on Kiba by impersonating Akamaru, then by tricking Kiba into taking out Akamaru, then by using his doppleganger formation to manuver Neji exactly where he wanted him, and finally by using his doppleganger as both a trick to get Neji to let down his guard
and a camouflage to disguise his burrow-hole. Sure, his strategies might not have been quite as elaborate as Shikimaru's final gambit. But is it
really supposed to be a mark of distinction to use a more elaborate strategy to accomplish your goals--when a simpler strategy would work just as well?
Which is starting to get to the crux of what actually annoys me about it: my issue
isn't with the fact that becoming a chunin requires strategy/tactics, rather than just the ability to whup everyone else. I get that. What annoys me is that in terms of determining the degree to which the applicants actually
have "desirable traits and ability to be a leader", the
tests they level against the candidates all range from poor to useless.
I mean, the way the system is set up currently, the only way to become a chunin is if you're either A) weak enough, relatively speaking, in other respects that you
need incredibly elaborate strategies to win against your opponents in the final round, or B) the kind of person who makes his strategies more elaborate than they need to be (in flagrant violation of K.I.S.S.).
Well in the sense that leadership skills that Kishimoto are reffering to seem to be tactical and strategic skills, the choices make a lot of sense. Naruto ninja (with a couple of exceptions) are already trained to obey orders from the academy so the higher ranks don't need to demonstrate command skills (which is what most people think of when discussing leadership skills) but the tactical and strategic know how to correctly employ the forces placed under their command in the field.
Perhaps, but even so, employing and directing
other people in the middle of a combat situation is an entirely different kettle of fish from solely personal battle tactics. And paradoxically enough, solely personal battle tactics/strategy are (at very best!) the
only kind that passing the chunin exams demonstrates.
In the end, my gripe summed up in one sentence is: "How on earth did they figure that a
one-on-one arena fight was the best possible way to test suitability for being the field commander of a four-person team?"