Before Orion could even react, Kakashi smiled and said,
"I also think Orion should be promoted to chūnin."
Not every chūnin needed to pass the Chūnin Exams.
In reality, within every major shinobi village, most chūnin and jōnin were promoted without ever participating in those exams.
After all, considering the Chūnin Exams' elimination system, it would've been impossible for every village to maintain enough shinobi during the Fourth Great Ninja War if promotions relied solely on that method.
So, many chūnin and jōnin were promoted after completing enough missions and demonstrating sufficient strength and capability.
Of course, Orion himself had only completed a handful of missions so far.
And most of them were low-level missions.
Even counting the Land of Waves mission, he had still only completed a single B-rank mission.
His mission record clearly didn't meet the normal promotion requirements.
However, the Hokage possessed the authority to directly promote any shinobi to chūnin or jōnin.
After all, the Hokage was one of the strongest individuals in Konoha.
No one understood a shinobi's true abilities better than the Hokage.
Naturally, if the Hokage personally promoted someone, nobody would question whether that shinobi possessed the necessary strength or qualifications.
Or rather, being personally promoted by the Hokage was considered a tremendous honor.
It represented the Hokage's recognition and trust.
At the same time, it also signaled to the village's various factions exactly whose support stood behind you.
Minato Namikaze had been the perfect example of this back then.
A civilian shinobi who managed to marry Kushina Uzumaki, become Jiraiya's disciple, and eventually be selected by the Third Hokage as the Fourth Hokage.
Besides his incredible talent, another important reason was that Minato had always belonged to the Third Hokage's faction.
Of course, neither Orion nor Kakashi cared much about such political alignments.
Orion didn't particularly care who considered him "one of their own."
And Kakashi didn't care whether the Third Hokage viewed Orion as part of his faction.
After all, Kakashi himself already belonged to the Third Hokage's side.
As Minato's student, he had always been part of that faction from the very beginning.
So naturally, Kakashi strongly approved of the Third Hokage drawing Orion closer.
Originally, the Third Hokage had intended to cultivate Orion as a second Minato Namikaze.
After all, Orion's situation resembled Minato's in many ways.
He possessed extraordinary talent, a clean background, and was also Kakashi's disciple.
But Orion's growth had far exceeded even the Third Hokage's expectations.
Now he was beginning to feel troubled over how exactly to position Orion in the future.
After much thought, he concluded that the first step should be promoting Orion to chūnin.
That would make it easier for him to gradually become involved in Konoha's affairs.
The Third Hokage was already over sixty years old.
By the time Orion turned twenty, he himself would be over seventy.
At that point, even if he didn't wish to retire, his body simply wouldn't allow him to continue.
Unlike members of the Senju Clan, Hiruzen didn't possess extraordinary physical vitality.
No matter how powerful he had once been in his prime, old age had still greatly weakened him.
In truth, he had already considered stepping down long ago.
The problem was that Konoha simply lacked a suitable successor.
Jiraiya refused the position, and his personality wasn't suited for leadership anyway.
Tsunade had countless personal issues.
Originally, Orochimaru had been the most suitable candidate.
But after the Third Hokage chose Minato instead, Orochimaru had effectively been abandoned.
And now Orochimaru had already defected from the village.
As for Danzō?
Setting aside the fact that Danzō was nearly the same age as him, the Third Hokage would never allow someone with Danzō's ideology to become Hokage.
The two village elders were even less qualified.
If not for the fact they had once been fellow disciples under the Second Hokage, they would never have become advisors in the first place.
Their strength simply didn't meet the standards.
That only left one remaining possibility.
Kakashi.
But after Kakashi fell into emotional despair following Minato's death, his strength had stagnated for years.
His seniority was already lacking to begin with.
Without overwhelming strength to support his position, very few people would willingly accept him as Hokage.
This was the Third Hokage's current predicament.
Even if he wished to retire, he had no proper successor.
But now, when he looked at Orion, it felt like seeing Minato Namikaze all over again.
Of course, Orion's experience and seniority were still far too shallow.
Even Kakashi possessed significantly more qualifications than him.
Since seniority couldn't be improved quickly, then there was only one solution:
Orion's strength needed to become overwhelming enough to suppress all opposition.
And the first step toward that future was promoting his shinobi rank.
Only then could Orion begin participating in village affairs.
Naturally, Orion had no idea what the Third Hokage was thinking.
He merely assumed the old man wanted to put him to work as early as possible.
Still, Orion was actually quite happy about the promotion.
He had already planned to raise his rank eventually anyway.
That way, he could accept higher-level missions, earn more money, and gain more real combat experience.
If the Third Hokage knew Orion's thoughts, he'd probably cough up blood from frustration.
After spending so much effort deciding to cultivate Orion as his successor, Orion's only concern was making more money as a chūnin.
After spacing out for a moment, Orion noticed the Third Hokage looking at him.
So he asked,
"But I've only completed a few missions so far. I shouldn't really qualify for promotion yet, right?"
The Third Hokage smiled.
"That's true."
"But you already possess the leadership abilities and strength expected of a chūnin."
"So naturally, you can be promoted."
Orion no longer questioned it and nodded.
"Thank you, Lord Hokage."
Seeing Orion accept the promotion so calmly, the Third Hokage looked very satisfied.
"What are you thanking me for?"
"You should've become a chūnin already."
"In fact, if you hadn't graduated from the Academy less than a year ago, I would've promoted you directly to jōnin."
Orion hurriedly waved his hands.
"That's definitely unnecessary. Becoming a chūnin is already more than enough."
The Third Hokage looked toward Kakashi and said,
"Your teacher became a chūnin at age six. You should learn from him."
Kakashi immediately replied,
"That was during wartime. The circumstances were special."
"But you were still the only one who achieved it."
"The talent both you and your student possess as shinobi is truly exceptional."
"I'm very reassured leaving Orion in your hands."
"And Konoha's future will depend on you all eventually."
After hearing those words, Orion felt rather uncomfortable.
That statement carried far too much weight.
Orion assumed the Third Hokage was simply speaking politely, but the words still felt excessive to him.
So he responded,
"You're overestimating me, Lord Hokage. I only intend to do what's within my responsibilities."
And this statement genuinely reflected Orion's true thoughts.
Once promoted to chūnin, he simply planned to do the work required of him, earn the money he could earn, and live the life he wanted.
As for Konoha's internal affairs and politics?
He wanted absolutely no involvement.
But Kakashi understood something Orion did not.
The Third Hokage would never allow Orion to remain completely uninvolved anymore.
Kakashi had already heard the hidden meaning behind those words.
Although he felt happy for Orion, he also felt worried.
Orion was still far too young.
Dragging him into Konoha's high-level political struggles would bring him no benefits at all.
Even Kakashi himself had always avoided involvement in such matters.
But he also understood that Orion was different now.
He had fully entered the Third Hokage's line of sight.
And in Kakashi's opinion, Orion's strength had already reached Hokage-level.
Even if Orion wished to stay uninvolved, it would no longer be possible.
Kakashi sighed inwardly.
"Looks like I won't have a choice but to get involved as well."
If this were before, Kakashi naturally would've continued avoiding Konoha's political conflicts.
But now that the Third Hokage had pulled Orion into the center of things, Kakashi could only follow him in.
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