Sitting on a bench outside an administrative office wasn't how Takuma thought he would start his shinobi career, but the reality of the situation was more different than anything he had imagined. He leaned against the bench and thought about how all of his expectations had been subverted by a single line on a slip of paper.

It had been a week since his convocation ceremony. He didn't know how to feel when he didn't see the names of two of his classmates, and instead, his assignment had said two words: Genin Corps. Takuma had no idea what that meant— something like that didn't exist in the manga he had read, or at least, he didn't remember reading about it.

What he knew was that his two fails were the reason he was assigned to the Genin Corps.

'—It's not as good as being assigned under a Jonin team leader, but if you want, it can be as good, even better—'

Maruboshi's words had been contradictory. How could it be not as good but still better? There was a flash of regret on Maruboshi's face that he wasn't part of a three-man cell led by a jonin, but that look had quickly turned into an expression of seriousness. The old shinobi had told him that as long as he put his nose down and put in the work, his efforts would be rewarded.

Those words had only served to confuse Takuma more because he still didn't know what the Genin Corps was. Maruboshi had simply defined it as the general pool of Leaf genins. But Takuma knew he was holding back something... something Takuma hadn't been able to draw out of him. So, he went to search on his own.

He couldn't whip out his phone and pull up a search engine to get the information he wanted, so he could turn to the next best source— a library. His official shinobi documentation had yet to be issued, so he could only go to the civilian library for answers. Fortunately for him, he found information about the shinobi military organization in case the civilians wanted to know more about their shinobi counterparts. Unfortunately for him, the records told him the same thing as Maruboshi and were directly led by the Leaf Genin Resource Command.

The first break had come from an unexpected source.

———

.

Takuma sat outside an administrative office with an application for his official shinobi documentation and a folder of required documents in his hands, waiting to be called in, when he felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned his head to see a familiar face standing beside him.

"Taro..."

Oishi Taro was a classmate of his. Takuma didn't think he had talked to him in the past year. They had sparred numerous times, and Taro had beaten Takuma every time, but they had no contact other than that.

"Yo," Taro raised his hand in greeting. "I heard you got directly shipped to Genin Corps."

"How did you know that?" Takuma hadn't told anyone, and he doubted Maruboshi was talking to any of his classmates.

"You weren't there when the Jonin sensei came to fetch us," said the boy with a man bun. "Everyone except you was there. Hiji laughed that they must've failed you, but Kibe-sensei shut him down and told us that you were somewhere else. My mom told me later that you must've been directly assigned to the Genin Corps."

"Ah..." Taro's parents were shinobi; they weren't from shinobi clans. From what Takuma remembered, his mother was a Chunin. He didn't know about the father.

"I guess we are in the same boat then," said Taro, sitting beside him.

"You're in the Genin Corps?" Takuma shifted to face Taro, surprise spreading on his face.

Taro slumped against the bench like he was sitting on a couch in front of his TV. "Uh-huh, the Jonin-sensei failed me."

Takuma frowned. "Aren't they supposed to send you back to the academy; why did they send you to Genin Corps."

"That's something they tell to scare us," Taro scoffed. "If you fail your jonin sensei test, you get sent to the Genin Corps. Our year had twelve teams— eight of them were failed by their jonin."

"Eight!" Takuma breathed in sharply— that was a two-thirds fail rate.

"It's normal, mom told me," Taro shrugged. "Elite jonin don't grow on trees, and taking a three-genin team is a four-year commitment from the jonin's side. They don't just accept anyone."

Takuma's mouth turned into an O-ring. He didn't know much of that. But just after a moment's thought, it made sense that the failure rate would be so high.

He wet his lips before asking, "Hey, what do you think about the Genin Corps? I heard it's not a good place."

Taro hummed in thought as he sunk even lower into the wood bench. "It's not the best place to be. The best place would be training under a jonin sensei in a three-man cell. Those guys have personalized training, fast-track on missions, and better pay. And most importantly, they have the backing of a jonin— a jonin's word means a lot in the village. In the Genin Corps, you have no choice for your mission, the training isn't that good, the pay is lower— and of course, we don't have the backing of jonin... So yeah, not a great place."

"...You don't seem to be stressed about being in the Genin Corps, though," asked Takuma doubtfully.

"My mom said this: Genin Corps is the place where the shinobi career went to die..." That didn't sound ominous at all, Takuma gulped. "... that is if you stay there."

"W-What do you mean?"

"Eight out of twelve teams failed, which means twenty-four out of thirty-six of us failed— twenty-five if we count you. More failed than passed, so ending up in Genin Corps is more common than ending up in a three-man cell. Even those who passed might end up in Genin Corps if they don't get promoted by the end of the four-year commitment by the jonin. So, most genin end up in the Genin Corps one way or another. It's the norm. The problem is when you stay in the Genin Corps for too long. You either—"

Taro was interrupted by the sudden sharp ring of a desk bell from inside the administrative office, followed by a shrill: "Next!" Then a person pushed the salon doors and walked out of the office.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

"It's your turn," said Taro.

'What was this timing?!' Takuma yelled to himself as he got up and went into the office to face an annoyed shinobi who snatched the document out of his hands when he tried to offer them. Then the shinobi complained about the application and documents for ten minutes before accepting them and sending Takuma out of the office. The entire time, Takuma's mind was on the conversation he was having with Taro.

'Back to the talk,' he thought as he pushed past the salon doors. But then he heard a bell ring with: "Next!"

Taro stood up from the bench and walked inside the office, leaving Takuma alone to sit on the bench, feeling restless to resume the conversation with Taro.

"Let's get out of here," said Taro. They left the building, and Taro led them to a tea shop where he ordered a plate of dango sticks. "Do you want some?" he asked.

"No, thank you," said Takuma. He could now afford to splurge a little as the base salary of a Leaf genin was higher than the allowance he got from the state. That was not counting the per-mission pay he would earn upon completing missions. An average Leaf genin could live an above-average lavish life as a single person with no other commitments; they could even support an additional person if they live a smart affordable lifestyle. Moreover, there were concessions for various commodities provided to shinobi, making the cost of living even cheaper.

He just didn't want to spend money.

"The man in the office, he was a genin from the Genin Corps," Taro said after eating a couple dango. "Every clerk, pen-pusher, desk jockey, and building guard who's old— like twenty— is from the Genin Corps. That's a fact."

Takuma sweatdropped. Twenty was barely an 'adult' adult. The worldview of a genuine eleven year old was frightening.

"If you stay in the Genin Corps for long without progress, there's an opportunity to get into clerical positions and get off active duty— but it also means you'll never go anywhere else," Taro continued as he bit off another dango.

"A non-combatant position doesn't sound bad, though," Takuma said. Shinobi was a dangerous occupation, and getting away from the field must sound great to many people.

"But you don't have to be in the Genin Corps to avoid field duty," Taro said as he licked the dango stick.

"What do you mean? If you can't get promoted to chunin, you can't go anywhere else," Takuma asked in confusion.

"There are more ways to get out of Genin Corps, you know.... Oh, you don't know," Taro said after looking at Takuma's expression. Takuma really didn't know. "You can test for the Engineer's exam to join the Engineering school and later join one of the Engineering Divisions. Similarly, you can join the Medical Corps by becoming an Iryo-nin(medical shinobi)— it's tough, though, dad failed the interviews three times before they let him in. Then there are intelligence analysts, lawyers, boring research... my uncle is a beu-beuri-beauricrut?"

"Bureaucrat?"

"Yeah, that! Whatever that is. You can do a lot after spending the thirty months of mandatory active duty. Why stay in the Genin Corps?" Taro shrugged, "Or you can retire when you're old."

Takuma did know the last part. A Leaf shinobi could leave after ten years of duty and return to their civilian status and choose to pursue something else. You had to put in twenty years at least to get the minimum amount pension, though. And again, the early twenties weren't old.

"What about you? What do you want to do?" Takuma asked Taro.

Taro shrugged. "I wanted to get on the jonin team, but that's not happening now. My dad wants me to study for the Medical Corps, and my mom wants me to become a lawyer. I don't know what I want to do. Not thinking about it, will think about it later. My mum's a chunin, so I'll be fine... so whatever."

'Having connections like that close to you is definitely useful,' thought Takuma. Could he consider Maruboshi as his connection? Yeah, he could. What was Maruboshi's shinobi rank?

"You're pretty smart, huh, Taro," said Takuma in praise.

"Hmm? Na, you just stupid for not knowing it."

Takuma's eye twitched at the blunt insult. He said, "Did Hiji pass?"

"He did. With Aimi and Sho."

"So you must be stupider than the mutt."

That made a hit. Takuma could tell from the way Taro's eyes narrowed that he had made a hit.

"I'm just a... what do they say... a late bloomer," said Taro.

Kids these days were quicker than he was at their age, Takuma thought as he said: "I could be a late bloomer as well."

"Na, you just stupid."

"Does your insult vocabulary only have stupid in it?"

"My mom says not to use curse words."

———

.

Takuma sighed, remembering his conversation with Taro a couple of days back. It wasn't the best place, but it wasn't the dead ditch he had initially feared. Maruboshi's words about putting in the effort made sense after hearing that genins could get away from Genin Corps and get into other divisions to improve their career.

But did he want that? Takuma furrowed his brows. The reason he had been aiming to become a shinobi wasn't that he wanted career progression and better pay— yes, those perks were great— but the main reason had been something else.

"Next!"

Takuma stepped into the office and faced another desk genin. He handed her a slip and told his name. The woman got up from her desk and walked to a cabinet before returning to him and giving him a sealed envelope. She asked him to check it and then sign a collection form.

He tore the envelope and tilted it to drop a laminated id-card onto his palm.

— Leaf Shinobi Identification Card —

Name: Takuma

Shinobi Registration: 055-0037

Rank: Genin

Status: Active

Pay Grade: GN1

Takuma stared at his picture on the card. It was a bad picture, on the level of a driving license ugly. He knew it would stick until the id-card's expiration date before he would need to renew it or when there was a need for a change.

He hadn't chosen to become a shinobi to have a career progression and nice pay. He had chosen because he knew what was waiting for him out there— he didn't even need to cross the village walls— the dangers lurked in the supposed safe village.

He had chosen to become a shinobi because he didn't have a choice.

He had chosen it because it was essential.

Takuma gripped the card harder. He was going to see to it that the rank of the card would someday say jonin on it— the elite, someone harder to kill off.

Because it was essential for his survival.