Pain: "...maybe we shouldn't have shot the ninetails into outer space after all."
No more Eldritch HAX Naruto, yay!
And this is what I was looking for. This kind of stuff that does, in fact, ground things into the reality given. Now, how far the authors actually stay within the rules is another thing, but on the whole, we do have some guidelines which should conduct what Naruto should have access to, and none 0f this 174 years of skills or character sheets riddled with so many dots for skills, it might as well be subjected to a shotgun blast to save time filling them all in.
...
...
Your jonin instructor is Itachi Uchiha. You know, the guy that would be totally executing his entire clan in two years, max! If nothing else, perhaps you should be concerned about just how and why you got him of all people. To assume nothing would happen to you in the next six years just because that's how it was the first time is not only monumentally stupid when you dramatically changed things the way you have, but... it's completely INSANE!
Think, man, THINK!
.....
Anyway, most of this chapter is enriched history, complete with some fudging of numbers, more notably, Itachi's age. He's currently 14 now, instead of 12, which got him a pass into the closing of the Third Ninja War. Can't honesty imagine doing what for a freshly green genin, but still...
And to add, I'm not entirely cool about (knowingly) altering a select person's age in order to make a fanfic story work. I mean sure, you could write about an older or younger character for certain reasons, just as long as they're not for reasons like "Oh, I like Asuma x Hanabi, but here Asuma/Hanabi is 7/26." If you're screwing with a key character's age just for the sake of your story, maybe you need to rethink your story.
And that was the entire meeting.
Short and to the point. Can't say it was sweet though, just... well, it beats this:
:sisi: Much better option... much better...
And that's the end of the chapter. Not really all that impressed or feeling super-eager to read the next chapter. I'm not sold on the need for Itachi Uchiha to be Naruto's instructor, and not even a full time one -- he only sees him like two day a week and has carte blanche on all his D rank missions.
What the hell kind of sense does that make, especially given that Naruto is SIX YEARS OLD? Why not just skip all this D rank bullshit and give the tyke solo assassination missions on missing-nin? It'd be just about as responsible as what we're doing here.
It's just flat-out stupid and patently irresponsible from an outsider's perspective.
"Oh, wow, he's so brilliant; he won't need much supervision. Let's let the equally super young genius give him two minutes of his time each week."
Are you a moron? He's six. Doesn't matter how brilliant he might be, he hasn't developed common fucking sense and will get himself seriously injured, if not killed because no one was watching him and making certain he does things right. And if this kid fucks up D rank missions, you lose money. Word gets around, and you lose customers. You lose customers, the Fire Lord is going to start looking elsewhere for business, and monetary support goes down. Lack of money means less you can spend on training, educating, and feeding your troops, which, in turn, reduces morale, lowers the number of qualified candidates, and forces those in command to demand better results, which will churn out weaker, unready, unqualified troops forced through the system to meet quota who cannot properly complete their missions, and thus lose you more customers, and the vicious cycle begins anew.
In short, Konoha will fast become a weak, obsolete Hidden Village because of your incompetence.
Geez, think of these things, will you? This isn't a kakistocracy, at least, I hope it isn't -- otherwise, screw everything, let's make the six year old Hokage now and watch the village go down in flames.
There's only so much suspension of disbelief can support, and ths is breaking that suspension system.
Next chapter.
