Chapter 53: The Bingo Book
Kaito continued his thoughts.
"The unfortunate reality is that secrecy is absolutely necessary. I hope I can reach jonin rank as soon as possible, because after that point, I won't need to worry as much about Danzo trying to recruit me forcibly. By that stage, it would be far too late to brainwash me into Root."
Kaito had originally planned to invite his teammates to Ichiraku Ramen for a meal together. However, he'd had enough social interaction for one day, and they soon bid each other farewell and parted ways.
Kaito headed directly to the Ninja Academy Library. Now that he was officially a genin, he could access the C-rank section of the collection.
However, that wasn't his primary reason for coming. As a registered shinobi, he could now examine a very specific document.
He approached the librarian, showed his new forehead protector as credentials, and asked, "May I see the Bingo Book?"
She looked quite surprised that a 10-year-old child was requesting this particular document. However, since he was now an official ninja, she nodded and asked, "Do you want the condensed version or the comprehensive one?"
Now it was Kaito's turn to look surprised. He asked curiously, "What's the difference between them?"
She explained, "The condensed version contains only names, bounties, village affiliations, and basic information, while the comprehensive one includes much more detailed intelligence."
As soon as Kaito heard this, he immediately asked her to bring out the comprehensive version. She nodded and retrieved the massive tome from a secure shelf.
Kaito was genuinely stunned when he saw the book! His first thought was, "It's absolutely enormous!"
He opened it carefully and discovered that each page contained detailed information about only one shinobi.
The book contained 2,197 pages total! Kaito analyzed this and thought, "Well, that actually makes sense. There are over a hundred thousand active shinobi throughout the world."
He silently thanked whoever had created such an excellent indexing system.
Everything was properly organized alphabetically by village and name.
There were also supplementary lists of shinobi sorted by their official rank within their village, and by bounty amount in descending order.
After several minutes of careful searching, he found the name he was looking for—Senju Renjiro.
He began flipping through the pages, but as he did so, a thought suddenly struck him: "It's fascinating. I think my biggest advantage in this world is meta-knowledge from the series. But considering how vast this world actually is, I doubt I possess information on even one percent of all active shinobi. Hell, besides Tsunade, I don't even know any other living members of the Senju clan."
"Anyway, this intelligence is incredibly detailed. I'm surprised we can access it for free, but I suppose it makes sense. This information was compiled by the creators of the Bingo Book network, and since it's already publicly available intelligence, why not let all friendly shinobi read it without charge?"
He opened to Renjiro's page and began reading carefully, and he was thoroughly impressed by what he discovered.
Renjiro's bounty was 45 million ryo! That was even higher than Asuma's bounty during the events Kaito remembered, and this bounty had been issued by Kirigakure. He thought with satisfaction, "Excellent. It seems the Hokage really did appoint an extremely capable shinobi as my instructor."
He continued reading the detailed entry.
The intelligence Kaito received was:
Senju Renjiro, A-rank threat, age thirty-nine. Became genin at age 8, chunin at 10, jonin at 16, and elite jonin at 28.
Highly proficient in Water Release and Earth Release techniques, but can utilize jutsu of other elements as well. Exceptionally skilled swordsman who received formal training from Land of Iron samurai. Participated in both the Second and Third Shinobi World Wars.
During the Third Shinobi World War, he served as Orochimaru's second-in-command on the Kirigakure front. Later, when Orochimaru had to relocate to different battlefields, Renjiro became Konoha's battlefield commander against Kirigakure forces.
Due to his masterful swordsmanship, advanced Water Release techniques, and his summoning contract with sloths, he proved devastatingly effective against Kirigakure shinobi.
Confirmed kills include 13 Kirigakure jonin and over 50 Kirigakure chunin during the war.
His greatest achievement was killing a member of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist during that conflict.
Although his forces were defeated by a surprise attack from Kirigakure's main army, he successfully led most of his troops in an organized retreat and held off Kirigakure's advance until Konoha's Yellow Flash reinforced his position and drove the Mist forces back to the sea.
After Kaito finished reading, he thought with amazement, "My goodness! He's incredibly strong. Although not quite at Sannin level, he's remarkably close. However, the entry confirms he was trained by samurai, so I suppose the Hokage specifically arranged him as my mentor for that reason. I'm genuinely curious about his summoning animal. This is the first time I've heard of combat sloths as summons. Well, I'll research that later."
He then checked the information on shinobi he recognized from the original series.
He breathed a sigh of relief, confirming that it closely matched what he already knew. He also gained a much better understanding of the current shinobi world's power structure. He thought analytically, "Actually, Konoha is significantly stronger than what was shown in the original series. The fathers of Shikaku Nara, Inoichi Yamanaka, and Shibi Aburame are all still alive and actively leading their respective clans. Each of them holds elite jonin rank, with power levels approaching S-rank."
"Though I assume their strength will decline with advancing age. Konoha currently has only 3 officially recognized S-rank shinobi total. However, Jiraiya rarely stays in the village, and Tsunade can barely function in combat due to her hemophobia. Interestingly though, Danzo wasn't mentioned anywhere in the Bingo Book. Also, Fugaku Uchiha very likely concealed his Mangekyo Sharingan, just like Shisui Uchiha did."
"I don't know how many of the Eight Inner Gates Might Guy can currently open, but if absolutely necessary, he could probably force himself to a level where he could compete with S-rank threats temporarily. Also, it's surprising to see that Koharu and Homura are both listed as A-rank shinobi. I don't remember them actually fighting in the original series at all."
"A total of 22 elite jonin from Konoha were mentioned in the Bingo Book. It's highly likely that some weren't listed here, such as Danzo and other Root operatives who operate in complete secrecy. There are also several A-rank shinobi who haven't achieved elite jonin classification yet, such as Kakashi and Might Guy."
He sighed heavily, "I didn't expect Konoha to possess so many elite jonin even now. Despite this considerable strength, Hiruzen still chose to sacrifice Hizashi Hyuga to avoid war with Kumogakure. This makes me wonder exactly how severe Konoha's losses were among lower-ranked shinobi due to the Third War and the Nine-Tails attack. As for the other hidden villages, Kumogakure and Iwagakure are also quite powerful, but at least in terms of Kage-level and elite jonin-level combat power, they don't match Konoha's current strength."
"Kirigakure is actually extremely powerful as well—or would be, if so many of their top shinobi hadn't been branded as missing-nin and fled the village. I think Obito has systematically destroyed Kirigakure from within through the Bloody Mist policies. On the other hand, Sunagakure is performing very poorly right now. Their Kazekage is clearly the weakest among the current Five Kage. Although they still have two S-rank shinobi on their roster, both are retired and extremely elderly. Their number of A-rank shinobi is also remarkably small compared to the other major villages."
He closed the massive book carefully and thought, "Alright, that's sufficient information for now. I'll return when I need more specific intelligence."
He returned the Bingo Book to the librarian with a polite nod of thanks, and then headed home to prepare for tomorrow's test.
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