#all my digital shit MUST be rendered the way I would render a full scale oil painting and so I think I might just b using the medium wrong

[rosieofcorona]

lately i am so into making the most preposterous fairytale-type illustrations and then i get fussy bc of how much work they are but!!! it’s my own doing!!! what hath mine own hands wrought, etc.

[asksythe]

How were Utatane Koharu and Mitokado Homura important enough to be placed on a team headed by Senju Tobirama? How are Ninja Teams decided? By tracker teams, Ino-Shika-Chou, Taijutsu Specialists, etc.? What made the two advisers so important that they, who were probably civilians, got placed on a team with important Clan member and brother of the Hokage?

I.

According to canon, there are at least some levels of intention behind genin team composition and design. We have seen that with the Ino-Shika-Cho team (a team created based on clan history and synergy) and Hinata-Kiba-Shino team (obvious tracker team). On the other hand, canon is also notorious for showing us only the exceptions to the Naruto world and not the actual statistical average. Why do I say that? Well, according to numbers during the 4th ninja world war, the allied ninja force numbered at 80 000 ninja and samurai combined. If we disregard unequal force contribution between villages and assume that they all contribute the same number of soldiers, then each village has roughly 13 333 ninja/samurai at the time of the 4th ninja war. 

So… 13 thousand active duty ninja per village. It’s not that much as far as army sizes go, but it is indicative of the number of academy students and genin hopefuls that the ninja academy has to put out per graduating class. Simple calculation utilizing turnover rate. Assuming the average shinobi stays active duty until 30 years old (which we were often told is a very good age for ninja since they tend to die young or be rendered unfit for combat. This number is even lower during war time), and the average starting age is 12 years old, then the average ninja has about 18 years of active duty as a soldier. Which means that every 18 years, the ninja academy has to produce enough actual genins (and not just genin hopefuls who get past the academy test but not the actual test from their jounin master) to replace the ninja population going into either retirement or KIA. That’s 740 genins per graduating class. 

Which again means that the number of ninja kids who get past the academy test and are assigned a team (but have not yet taken the actual genin test from the jounin master) must be above that 740 number. Maybe 800, maybe 1000. We don’t know. Canon hasn’t given us anything solid on that front.

And out of those dubious 740+ number, how many genins were shown to us? a measly 9, all of whom are either clan heirs or have some special relevance to the plot (8 clan heirs including Naruto who is both the son of the previous Hokage and the previous Jinchuriki, and Sakura). 

So that’s what I meant about canon being shit at showing us the actual average ninja child’s experience. We were shown the cream of the crops, the clan heirs and kids who won the superpower lottery, the exceptions and not the norms. We then see that these clan heirs are all grouped up in their own elite teams full of heirs and special snowflake kids. What about the other 731+ average ninja kids? How were they grouped up and what was their experience in the ninja world? Nobody has a fucking clue. Canon certainly did not give us anything regarding that. But considering all the special kids were already separated into their own little niche groups, my guess is that the plebe kids had to hang with other plebe kids. 

So from that observation, I’m extrapolating that just like our real world, the ninja verse group its own kids using two different standards: kids from the rich, influential families, and kids who don’t got shit going for them.

For the rich clan kids, they are grouped into specially designed teams with good synergy that compliments their skill set and promotes their growth (i.e. Ino-Shika-Cho). I imagine there would be some politicking behind the scene too. Parents pushing for their kids to be put on the same team together or getting this or that jounin master, or certain team placements acting as wordless statements from one party to another. Sure we don’t see any of that actually happening in canon, but clans are a thing in Konoha and we know they each holds power and influence (i.e. the fall of the Uchiha clan showed us that there are politicking among ninja, clans, and the village management. Tobirama specifically pushed the Uchiha into a position where they couldn’t jockey for more political power and influence, and their fall depicted how they gradually lost their sway over important village administrative decisions), so various forms of politicking both discreet and not are only logical. 

For the poor kids, the kids who don’t have big clan names backing them up, kids with no special power to speak of, who may stay a genin for the entity of their career, I imagine their placement comes with fewer frills. Because the village is still interested in efficiency and producing quality soldiers and workers, they probably have some forms or formulas for placement, but unlike the rich kid’s custom designed team composition, theirs is a more mass production style format.     

II.

Going from the reasoning above, I think that there is a definite intention behind Koharu and Homura’s placement in team Tobirama. The reason for that? Because their jounin master is Tobirama. 

As you yourself pointed out, Tobirama is important. Not only was he the brother of the first Hokage and the second in command in their newborn village, he himself was a powerful ninja with a bloodline and who would go on to become the second Hokage. Anything regarding him had an incredibly high chance of being political in nature, especially something as important as genin teams under his tutelage. 

The way I see it, there are 2 possible explanations for Koharu and Homura being placed on Tobirama’s team along with Hiruzen who was both a clan kid (small clan) and whose clan was apparently allied with clan Senju. 

1/ Koharu and Homura were also clan kids albeit from very minor clans that weren’t explicitly mentioned in canon. Just because canon did not explicitly state that they were clan kids does not necessarily mean that they weren’t. They could very well be but Kishimoto simply didn’t deign to tell us about it. This wouldn’t be strange at all considering canon Naruto’s tendency for ass pull stuff with no explanation nor forewarning whatsoever (for example, that whole sensor thing. It just appeared out of nowhere in the middle of Shippuden. No forewarning, no nothing. Just one day, pop, it’s there. Deal with it).

In this case, then their being there is similar to Sarutobi. They were there because of clan alliance and to foster a bond between the clans and the village. 

2/ They were actual civilian kids from families with no prior experience in the ninja world. Which means that their placement in team Tobirama is likely a political statement. What sort of statement you say? Well, one of inclusion of course and that even civilian born ninja are important to the village. A sort of ‘even if you are the baker’s son and the maid’s daughter, you may still be taught by the Hokage’s brother!!! So join the army today and contribute to the course!’ political statement. 

Think about it for a second. Out of a graduating class of upward of 740 children, you get maybe double digit number of clan kids and kids with special powers. The rest of them are either civilians or ninjas from small families with nothing special going on for them. Narrative wise, they are nameless cannon fodder, especially in a universe where superpowers are the prerequisite to your having any sort of voice or influence whatsoever. However, logistically speaking, these clanless ninja are the actual meat of the village. They are the people at the ground level, the foot soldiers, the ones doing the million nameless jobs that keep the village running. A ninja village is a pseudo military organization, an army of specialized soldiers and operatives so to say. Regardless of how powerful some individuals are, you can’t run an army with only a double digit number of people. War can be a game of attrition, and in games of attrition, you need numbers. Especially during that tender time when the village was newborn. The ninja were enterring a new era then, one in which their wars would be in much larger scale as they were no longer between clans but between villages. Battlefields and territories would be larger which in turn makes supply chains and logistics that much more complicated and manpower intensive. Death toll and attrition rate would also be far higher than the days of clan to clan fighting. More than ever, they needed numbers. They needed new blood to hold up the clans which had taken a toll after all the years of fighting. 

More than that, there are also social factors to consider. Back in the days of its founding, Konoha was made up of a lot of clans with histories with each others. Some of them were allies. Some were enemies who had laid down the war axe under the new banner. In some ways, the ninja world is a small place. People ran into each other. People knew each other. People had history, had things to settle. That they belonged to the same village now doesn’t make all that go away. So civilian born ninjas and clanless families should also serve as social buffer to gently and gradually ease the clans into living with each other. 

There’s also genetic factors. Despite the fact that Naruto verse seems to function on lego genetics, my guess is that not all bloodlines play nice with each other. The fact that the more influencial clans tend to maintain bloodline purity instead of opting for breeding powerful hybrids (i.e. Hyuga and Uchiha all looking the same and placing heacy emphasis on purity at least in the case of Hyuga. Also, the fact that apparently pure Senju DNA is too much for normal folks as Hashirama’s DNA implanted in 60+ embryos killed all of the fetuses bar one who eventually grew up to become Yamato). Close proximity and the comraderie of fighting for the same side tend to breed passion though. Eventually, you are going to have people from differeny bloodlines bonking each other and probably producing children whose genetics don’t play nice. Best case scenario, maybe they have some health issues growing up. Worst case scenario, they die or are born with horrific birth defects. Neither of those cases are good for a newborn village. So again, they needed the genetic buffer provided by ninjas coming from civilian or clanless families. 

Civilian born ninja maybe weak compared to clan ninja on an individual level. However, on a village or national level, they are vital to the village’s existence. Without them, Konoha would literally cease to be. 

Tobirama, smart guy that he is, should be able to see that from a mile away. With this sort of reasoning, Koharu and Homura, two civilian kids, being placed in the team taught by the Hokage’s brother and second in command of Konoha is an obvious political statement meant to court more civilian families and ninjas.