Originally Posted by Punxx

Island, your numbers sound right all things considered. But I believe the flaw is that in ancient times with armies of over 100,000 those are just regular soldiers not higher class Shinobi. I'm seeing it as though shinobi are the elite, the special forces. Those countries would still have a regular standing army and only call upon the villages for high ranking missions like assassinations and such. The ninja wars were mostly done in house for the different villages vying for power and were not necessarily contracted by the feudal lords.

That's how I see it anyways...