At the beginning of the fifth and final year of the Ninja Academy, the S-class students were asked to choose at least one specialization.
Those specializations were the classes in which they would focus most of their time to develop distinct combat styles.
After all, Konoha didn't want the S-class students to be jack-of-all-trades. They wanted them to master one or two specific things and push their limits to the extreme.
This would help students identify their strengths, push their respective talents to their limits, minimize their weaknesses, and become excellent ninjas.
It was like encouraging undergraduate students to pursue postgraduate studies, transforming their broad, mediocre knowledge into practical and specialized skills.
To achieve that, the higher-ups had divided the fifth-year classes into several specializations.
They were:
Anti-Personnel Combat Division:
The goal of this division was to train the soon-to-be-ninjas to face other ninjas, samurai, and intelligent humanoid chakra beasts with utmost efficiency.
To face the humans and the intelligent humanoid chakra beasts, you needed more than just brute force.
To win against such enemies, you must have exceptional battle IQ, combat awareness, perception, situational awareness, the ability to find enemies' weaknesses quickly, talent in deception, the ability to counter deception, efficient tactical prowess, and more.
You must be able to deceive your enemies, strike them at their weakest moments, and get the upper hand in a battle, even if it means playing it dirty.
In anti-personnel combat, the ability to land one successful hit without getting hurt yourself is more important than your overall firepower.
It didn't matter if you didn't possess the firepower to annihilate a large group of enemies at once. But you needed to have the capability to utilize Jutsu with a meager amount of firepower to distract the enemy and drive the kunai right through their hearts.
One solid blow would be all it takes to turn the tide of battle when facing humans and other humanoid enemies.
Even if you had extraordinary firepower and multiple wide-area annihilation Ninjutsu, it wouldn't mean a jackshit if your strike didn't land.
Anti-personnel combat classes would teach the students how to fight against humanoid opponents most efficiently and secure victory.
Many Uchiha ninjas, who were masters of human-to-human combat, were perfect fits for the anti-personnel combat division class.
Anti-Monster Combat Division:
Unlike the ninjas who specialized in anti-personnel combat, the students of the anti-monster combat division needed to possess more explosive firepower and wide-area annihilation techniques.
In simple terms, the chakra beasts had stronger defenses, tougher skin, and more vitality than humans, which meant that ninjas facing them needed more explosive power than those specialized in anti-personnel combat to defeat them.
Most non-humanoid chakra beasts under S-rank danger rating had negligible intelligence anyway.
As for the S-rank or above non-humanoid chakra beasts?
The ones facing them would be S-rank or Kage-level ninjas. And at that level, even the weakest ninjas would have enough firepower to wipe the floor clean.
A basic C-rank Great Fireball Technique cast by a Kage-level ninja would have enough explosive power to contend against the B-rank Jutsu from an experienced full-fledged Jonin-level ninja.
So yeah, the students of the anti-monster combat division just needed to possess two essential traits:
One, the ability to evade chakra beast attacks.
Two, the ability to bash the chakra beasts with Ninjutsu or other techniques powerful enough to break through the thick skin and make them bleed.
Nothing complicated. The requirements were way more straightforward than the requirements of the anti-personnel combat division.
Fortunately, there were many students, such as Seimei, Reina, Keiko, and Haneda, who had enough skills to participate in both anti-personnel and anti-monster division classes.
So, they attended both classes.
Espionage and Assassination Division:
This was exactly what it sounded like. The students of this division were trained to be excellent assassins, elite spies, master-level trap setters, great information extractors, and highly capable trackers.
Needless to say, they received expert-level training in deception, disguise, tracking, trap-setting, and efficient murder methods.
Even as a spy, they were not cannon fodder.
They were more like elite scouts. They sabotage enemy forces, disrupt their supply lines, and take other actions, directly or indirectly, to weaken the enemy nations and ninja villages.
If nothing serious happened, many of them would probably end up working as an ANBU operative.
Anti-Army Combat Division:
This was one of the most important divisions.
Students who entered this division might have relatively lower levels of combat power compared to other S-class students, but the collective power of their military tactics and co-operation Jutsu could be devastatingly effective in large-scale warfare.
Just imagine the combined power of fifty ninjas releasing B-rank Great Flame Technique together at the same time. Even a tailed beast like Nine-Tails would have to run for its life.
The ninjas who trained in anti-army combat tactics were incredibly skilled and united.
Their co-operation or combined Ninjutsu could burn a city down, completely change the surrounding terrains, and create hurricanes far deadlier than natural disasters.
Remember how, in the original Naruto anime, a group of Iwagakure ninjas used the B-rank Jutsu, Moving Earth Core Technique, together to perform the Great Moving Earth Core Technique, which had the effect of an S-rank Jutsu, powerful enough to trap the Ten-Tails?
Yeah, that was one of the anti-army military combat techniques.
In other words, ninjas who were trained in anti-army combat techniques were indispensable in large-scale Shinobi warfare or against a large horde of chakra beasts.
Special Division:
Finally, there was a new special division.
Simply put, any specialized ninja profession training classes that weren't included in the previous four divisions were a part of this special division.
For example:
Students who excelled in Fuinjutsu and wanted to join the Barrier Corps or Fuinjutsu team of Konoha chose to select this class.
Or students who wanted to become medical ninjas and wanted to learn exclusive medical Ninjutsu joined the special division.
After all, Konoha didn't just need combat ninjas. It needed Fuinjutsu experts, medical ninjas, and other non-combat ninjas of various professions, too.
Without them, how could the Hokage build a strong, all-encompassing ninja village while minimizing its weaknesses?
So, ninjas who wanted to explore those professions decided to enroll in the special division.
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Meanwhile, Seimei had already finished his anti-personnel combat class drills and wiped the sweat from his forehead with his right hand.
"Whew!"
Then, he looked at Reina, who had finished her drills for the day as well.
After thinking for a while, Seimei called out, "Hey, Reina, want to have a spar before we head home?"
Hearing this, Reina's abyss-black eyes literally sparkled.
She grinned and replied, "Hehe…Seimei, when have I declined a sparring request? Let's go to the Academy Training Ground No.4."
"Sounds like a plan," said Seimei as he also let out a grin.
But before they could move any further, they heard Kamishiro Kirito calling them.
"Wait, wait right there, you little devils."
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