13 Ninjas….are kind of lame?

After the past few weeks of training Ren and the two future Sannin had slowly reached the borders of the Land of Fire.

A trip that was meant to be much longer was shortened considerably when I started using the body flicker technique.

"Haiz….kid you're a genius you know that? With such pitiful chakra reserves I never thought you'd be able to perform the way you have. If there was ever a ranking of chakra control masters your probably at the top…."

"He's a medical-nin and a Hyuga not to mention my student. His chakra control should only have equals among jonin. If it wasn't for his chakra reserve and lack of experience I'd ask to make him a special jonin."

" If I'm a genius you two are monsters. I've seen your reserves. Wife's I could a accept as she is a Senju and Uzumaki. Aniki on the other hand…. are you some kages secret love child or something? "

After some deep chuckles they continued walking and chatting without seemingly a care in the world.

While Tsunade and Jiraya seemed to have endless praise for me, such praises went right over my head. They may sound like they're kissing my ass for my awesomeness but in reality I wasn't all that incredible. I had been practicing gentle fist daily since I was two years old, had some of the best medical training since 4 years old, and had a super cheat that let me practice my chakra control almost endlessly. Still I had barely attained jonin level chakra control. My reserves were even less than that of a generic genin.

Naturally with my studies I knew the problem was my mind. Physically I was at genin level, mentally though well you know my life.

Honestly though getting my body in balance to reach my chakra potential would be a tall order even without my issues. While my memories of it were fading more by the day, I was born on a normal Earth, not this one that had super powered people running around. Quite frankly the whole chakra mumbo jumbo was easy in theory but hard to accept in practice. Putting that mental roadblock aside, I had to deal with that woman afterwards…without the gentle fist training my body I'd probably be useless.

My answer to this issue of mine has been trying to open the Eight Gates. While it should be simple in theory, I was struggling to find the correct tenketsu for it. There were 361 tenketsu and the method of "opening" wasn't really opening, seeing as I could emit chakra from all my tenketsu and I wasn't suddenly throwing night guy kicks all over the place. I may go back to the tailed beast plan at this rate, it should be easier if you forget the whole super duper psychopathic Uchiha planning to kill me if I do get my hands on one….

As I was mulling my plans over, Jiraya knocked me out of my thoughts.

"Alright you two this is where I leave you. I have to go back to the village, I delayed seeing Sensei long enough. I'm sure I have missions piling up as we speak."

"Ohh I can send you back Aniki, I have a mark in the old scammers office."

" Uhh can you really sense your mark from this far away?"

" Yeah but just the mark, I'm not a proper sensor-nin without the Byakugan active."

[Even the second couldn't do that perfectly from this far away, does this kid just have an affinity for Fuinjutsu? How do we even test that?]

" Then thank you in advance. Right, before I leave kid let me test your chakra affinity."

[handing over a piece of chakra induction paper]

"Just channel your chakra into it."

As the chakra flowed into the paper it became damp.

" Water affinity… maybe you're the reincarnation of the second Hokage kid. At some point it's too much to just call it a coincidence. If you make your own jutsu in the future make sure to teach me, ok?"

" Understood Aniki, I'll teach you right after I teach my wife."

" Haha fair enough. Now send me on my way, I hope to see you soon."

"See you soon aniki!"

With a hand shake Jiraya vanished.

As Jiraya appeared in the Third Hokages empty office, he immediately summoned Fukasaku.

"What do you want kid?"

"Tell the Great Toad sage I think I've found the child of prophecy. Ask him if the kid known as Hyuga Ren could sign a summoning contract like mine."

" Is the kid so special for the elder to make a move and check the future?"

" Yes , he's really something special. He mastered flying thunder god at 5 years old, he could be considered a chakra control master at 4 years old, and he's only improving."

Meanwhile back on the border, Ren turned to Tsunade.

" I've been meaning to ask this for a while wife but are trips out of the village always so peaceful?"

" Right you've never left the village before…Do you know why ninja wear their forehead protectors all the time?"

" Village pride, team spirit, and all that. Seems dumb if you're off assassinating someone though, wouldn't everyone know what village did it?"

" Umm sometimes I wonder if you're really a genius or not ….

If you're assassinating someone it should be silent and unnoticed while under a transformation jutsu, so the protector shouldn't matter.

The point is though the real reason we wear our forehead protectors is a little bit about more than pride. It's about protection. Not physical, but when bandits or other ninja see our protectors they tend to keep away. Remember fighting other ninja is not ideal and if it can be avoided it will be."

" Umm isn't the whole point of being a ninja, to fight other ninja?"

" No! As a medical-nin your job is to run away and stay safe, so don't be a battle crazed idiot.

The whole point of ninja training is for you to be stealthy, ideally you shouldn't have to use any large jutsu in your entire ninja career. If you do, it usually means you were caught and have to fight your way out for being an idiot.

Remember unless the mission demands it you should always avoid major combat."

I think my entire world view had been crushed, shattered, obliterated then spit on in a matter of a few sentences. The manga, the anime, the movies everything they taught me was nonsense. I should of noticed a real life version wouldn't be very much like Naruto, but still it's not what I was expecting.

Is it possible that being a ninja was kind of lame?