Chapter 485: Structure and Ranks

Fujin answered, "Yes, I'm a Grandmaster in Fuinjutsu. It is why I dare to make a base in such a place. I don't specialize in anything else, but I do know a little bit of everything. I can use all five nature manipulations, Samurai Saber Techniques, Genjutsu, Taijutsu, Medical Ninjutsu and Sensing. Of course, they aren't comparable to my Fuinjutsu. Overall, I can be considered as a rank S ninja."

When Fujin had thought about how to answer this question, he had expected Shigeki to be awed. However, the sudden change in Shigeki's attitude made his speculation incorrect. There was no awe on Shigeki's face. Instead, there was pride!

Learning all 5 elements was an extremely rare feat. Very few ninjas could claim to have done that in history. And, very few of them could claim to be Grandmasters in Fuinjutsu. Not to mention, Fujin had mentioned that he had some expertise in nearly every other field. To have such a person as the leader was something to be proud of. Shigeki immediately felt much more confident in achieving the goals of the Phantom Haven Society.

Fujin felt uncomfortable on seeing Shigeki's passionate stare. The hair on his body stood as he felt goosebumps from the gaze. He muttered to himself, 'If I ever decide to take off the mask, I need to disguise myself as an old man. Maybe I shouldn't have bluffed about the five elements.'

Though Fujin said he could use all 5 elements, his ability in the Water element was extremely lousy. Fujin had only managed to learn some rank E and D jutsus which were more or less useless in battle. In fact, his most effective way of using water in a fight was unleashing a large amount of water that he kept in a few storage seals and speeding it up with wind. Of course, he wasn't particularly concerned about it being exposed as he never planned on fighting much with this identity.

Ignoring Shigeki's passionate stare, Fujin was very satisfied with his reaction. He had to think extremely hard to come up with the philosophy of the Phantom Will. Though the goal of the Phantom Haven Society was something people would support and would want to be a part of, in Fujin's perspective, the Phantom Will was even more important.

Looking at the history of the ninja world, there was no doubt that the most successful organizations were the major villages. Each of them had their own Will and passed it on to the next generation who firmly believed in it. If Fujin wasn't a transmigrator and had directly been born in Konoha or didn't have the memories of his past life, he didn't doubt that he would have been a staunch believer in the Will of Fire too.

By comparison, Akatsuki had terrifying power and a noble goal as well. However, they didn't have any such Will to believe in. With none of their members believing in a common Will, they lacked the same cohesiveness as a ninja village. Most of their members had their own goals. Even the loyalty of most members was questionable. Despite having so many top-tier ninjas, the fact that they didn't even bother trying to avenge a fallen comrade said a lot about the nature of their organization.

For Fujin, the strength of his organization wasn't very important. Instead, he needed loyalty and diligence. As long as they created and maintained a good information network and provided real information to Fujin, he didn't care as to whether they actually did anything else. As a result, having a Will that united everyone became very important for Fujin. Seeing Shigeki's reaction, Fujin became confident that the Phantom Will would be good enough to keep his organization united for a long time.

He thought, 'I guess I need to be thankful to Hiruzen. Without his frequent attempts to influence me with the Will of Fire, I might not have been able to create this.'

Fujin took out a scroll and said, "I'll explain to you the structure of the Phantom Haven Society. Of course, these are just the guidelines. If you want to make some changes to improve the efficiency, feel free to do so."

Shigeki accepted the scroll and opened it as Fujin explained, "While I'm the Leader, I won't be here very frequently. In my absence, you will be handling all the activities here. Hence, your rank will be the second highest, that is, the Vice Leader.

The lowest rank will be of the young kids you recruit. They will be the students and the future of the Phantom Haven Society. We won't be accepting anyone who can't become a ninja here, so there won't be any ordinary civilians here. The students will be trained until they can be considered as a Chunin in minor villages."

Shigeki interrupted Fujin and asked in confusion, "Chunins?"

Fujin nodded and explained, "Yes, Chunins. In a fight between ninjas, the fatality of Genins is very high. I don't want to see young kids meeting their death meaninglessly."

Shigeki's respect for Fujin increased once again. Fujin continued, "Unlike the hidden villages, the academy here will continue training kids until the age of 15. If they reach the Chunin level earlier, they'll be allowed to graduate early. If they fail to reach that rank, then they can be developed as spies or informants or they can be given non-combative miscellaneous roles within this base depending on their talents. If their strength improves in the future, they can be promoted to Field Agents.

As for the ones who manage to pass, they will become Field Agents immediately and can participate in our rescue missions. They will likely make the bulk of our forces. They will be divided into smaller teams and be led by Captains.

A captain will have to be as strong as an Elite Chunin or a Special Jounin from the major villages. Your strength when we met the first time was probably at this level.

If someone manages to become strong enough to be considered as a Jounin in major villages, they'll be promoted to the Commander rank. They will be the ones commanding any operation. Every promotion to this rank will have to be approved by me.

Apart from these ranks, I'll also label a few members as Special Elites. This will be for members who develop one skill to an extreme, like say becoming Grandmaster in Fuinjutsu or becoming one of the best medical ninjas or developing a Kekkei Genkai beyond a certain limit and so on. Of course, if anyone manages to reach the Elite Jounin level, they'll also be included here. We will decide their duties when we have anyone at this rank."

Shigeki took a couple of minutes to digest all the information. While he was in thought, Fujin added, "Of course, this will only work properly once we have sufficient members at each rank. For the time being, you'll need to make do with what you have. You'll have to command the missions yourself and appoint others depending on their skills and your needs."

Shigeki nodded. It was a tough task. Fujin was asking a lot. Fortunately, Shigeki was willing to make the efforts needed to make the goal of the Phantom Haven Society a reality. He said, "If a day comes when we have thousands of field agents, hundreds of captains, dozens of commanders and several Special Elites, we might be able to make this dream a reality."

Fujin nodded. If the Phantom Haven Society reached such a level, then it might truly become a reality. Unfortunately, the chances of that happening before the Fourth Great Ninja War started were more or less nil.

Despite having good guidance in the academy and an amazing sensei after Graduation, Fujin still needed almost 6 years to reach the Jounin level. Though he managed to reach the level of Elite Jounin soon after, it would have taken a lot longer if Hiruzen hadn't taught him the Wind Vacuum Technique as a reward for beating the record in the second stage of the Chunin exams.

Similarly, to become a rank S ninja, Fujin was extremely overdependent on using Shadow Clones to become a Fuinjutsu Grandmaster and developing a few extremely stealthy seals. Without either of those factors, Fujin's route to becoming a rank S would have been much more difficult and time-consuming.

That is why, Fujin wasn't counting on any young kid the organization recruited to have the ability to reach rank S in the next 5-6 years. Even reaching the Elite Jounin level would be only possible if Fujin or Shigeki managed to directly recruit a promising young Genin or Chunin. The only possible exceptions would be if Fujin managed to recruit someone who was already a rank S ninja or an Elite Jounin. Unfortunately, the chances of someone that strong joining and willingly accepting the Phantom Seal were extremely low.

Shigeki followed up by asking several questions that were important for running the base successfully. Fujin had already thought of all the questions and patiently answered every question properly.