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This could be a redemption arc for both the Rats and Rei.
Probably because from the description and in-story name, it's an outright reference.That last move by Gai reminds me of the the Buddha's Palm technique in the last fight of Kung Fu Hustle.
Prepare to be disappointed. That being said, Rei's reasons for leaving are fine, I wouldn't even really call it an obsession so much as a (somewhat twisted) goal. It's the Need to get strong enough to not be forced back that has become an obsession, and subsequently twisted a lot of her better qualities... not helped by being forced into an interrogation cell when she was sick, injured, and somewhat delirious, all at the age of, like, 6 iirc. That obsession is made worse by the fact that she knows the future, and so she's not incorrect in believing that she needs a certain level of strength to survive. Likely, she'll have another breakdown soon, and hopefully that'll finally give someone a chance to get her head on a little straighter, so that once she leaves, she can actually enjoy her freedom.NGL I'm totally down for a redemption arc. I'm not 100% up to date in remembering everything about the story (Probably need to do a re-read) but IIRC Rei's obsession w/ ditching the village was a bit much. I also absolutely hated the entire treatment of Sasuke, literally to the point I would endorse the absolutely trashiest of fanfic if Sauske's behavior wasn't excused away.
Hell Kiba ended up being one of my favorite characters in cannon, JUST because when Sauske comes back after literally betraying everyone, and being an abosolute shitlord, and then is like "I'm done being a shitlord elsewhere. Time to be your Hokage shitlord" he just outright is like "Are you for real? You fucking betrayed us!" And I really appreciated that. (Sauske did in fact rejoin the village, but Naruto is the retarded forgiveness jesus, so yeah kinda expected. )
Anyways, hopping that Rei isn't actually going to follow through on the whole betraying the village thing.
This technique requires such a deep connection with one own's chakra, that only someone like her, that didn't sleep so much as meditated on her chakra pathways, can do. Also, because of how finicky this process is, she needs a couple seconds doing nothing but concentrating even with her chakra control, and only when she is going on an empty tank, as she needs to be able to focus on the 'making chakra from the Yin and Yang' process, and if there is already chakra in her systems, then it gets harder to focus on that.
Beyond that however, their REAL strength is the same as the real world rats. A few rats? a total joke. Unleash a few hundred or more on a place you want to completely f***, like say, a rival ninja village? Good luck keeping all your valuables, soft targets, secrets, weaker ninja, and even your buildings and walls intact and protected in any way shape or form. So yeah, the Rat summons can be very strong, just in more unconventional ways.
The rats would probably befriend the Slugs if it looked like the Snakes were picking a fight.
I imagine the "castle" they live in to almost be like a funhouse. Like two different sized, and styled homes rammed together. You have main rooms/guest rooms that are opulent and absolutely huge, but in places where guests don't go, the rooms and hallways are tiny and plain just past the "open" areas so that a guest who looked in would see they do not live in opulence themselves. Past those linking corridors, everything is kept dark and forboding. To look down would feel like they could swallow you up, and for the unwelcome, they can. Where guests see the best face of the rat, and only enemies who press further in, the Rats themselves learn first to navigate the harsh darkness, to trade in secrets and poison, and only once they pass their tests, are they shown the higher arts of diplomacy, and wisdom. Taught to live in the gutter, before learning how to live like a feudal lords (Most summons kind of act like japanese feudal lords as depicted. Living in castles, etc) Rats understand both the poor and the wealthy, giving them good insight into people in general. This means where they trade words with diplomats, they tend to like the low lives and scum who must get buy on much terser terms. They would also tend to be fairly wise, if rough around the edges.
If this was a real battle, he would probably just bust out gate 5 and punch her out while the steam exploding from his skin stops any poison from touching him.
NGL I'm totally down for a redemption arc. I'm not 100% up to date in remembering everything about the story (Probably need to do a re-read) but IIRC Rei's obsession w/ ditching the village was a bit much.
The technique also carries a moderate risk of death since the user is required to empty thier physical energy into their spiritual energy, thus temporarily leaving Rei without any chakra at all.
From a story perspective I can see where you're coming from. Our heroes and heroines will rarely ever die due to some dangerous technique or gambit, if anything it actually has a positive effect of toughening them up.In meta, though, we can ignore the 'risk of death' as that won't ever happen. It is still a reason for the character to be afraid of using the technique, but Rei has already shown that she doesn't care about this risk; hence, this doesn't matter.
Personally, I envision Rei to be something more along these lines.SixPerfections There is quite bit of art for your story, consider please adding it to media section.
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At least Gai was smart enough to spot she's got authority issues, even if he lacked the time to work out exactly what they were, so maybe he can help her with them a little later. I doubt he can fix them all the way, but it might be possible to ease them a bit.Wow... This is NOT going to help Rei's issues.
Her 'not strong enough' problem just got confirmed. Gai also confirmed that following orders to the letter does not prevent one from being punished, and it's superiors in chain of command that makes arbitrary decision of that. He meant it as lesson on common sense, but the same words can be understood differently. For Rei? Gai essentially said that her fate and her punishment depends on a whim of senior ninja, and there is not a thing she can do about it. Even following orders exactly is not enough.
Both 'weakness' and 'you are not safe in Konoha' issues were just directly confirmed by Gai.
She never had a chance. Gai is stronger than Kakashi, making him at least Kohohas third most powerful active nin at this point.Haa that was a good chapter. Always sad to see a protagonist fail after working so hard, but its so satisfyingly done.
Yeah understandable if a bit unambitious. The whole ninja system is a massive waste. They're basically all demi-gods and they're wasting that power to murder each other.I have absolutely no problem with Rei's goals and her interpretation of the world. She lives in a military dictatorship, surrounded by people that can do anything they want to her because they are stronger, or because they are backed by those that are stronger. The world economy partially runs on murder. Don't like your neighbour? You can go pay a ninja village to send a teenager around to slit their throat.
The dream of being powerful enough to say "no" to anyone and get away with it is really appealing.
Personally, I envision Rei to be something more along these lines.
Image URL: https://www.deviantart.com/sgcassidy/art/Walk-on-the-Moon-Rei-Naruto-575704872
Well if you want to be very literal with the description of her hair type I suppose you can stick with that image, I'm hardly the arbiter of content here. I just tend to categorize her hair as "wild," "disorderly," or "hard to straighten" as it has been described in the past. It also makes finding expys for an older Rei much easier since there is already very few blond female aggressive charismatic leader types with hair that is explicitly "curly enough." Some of these expys include but are not limited to:
How do you think Rei will improve in the future? She always avoided Genjutsu and medical techniques due to being associated with "kunoichi" but they actually suits her fighting style quite well and despite the stigma, both those were the backbone of kage level shinobi, at the very least her clan seems proficient in them
People normalizing mercenary states running on child soldier labour is really weird.I have absolutely no problem with Rei's goals and her interpretation of the world. She lives in a military dictatorship, surrounded by people that can do anything they want to her because they are stronger, or because they are backed by those that are stronger. The world economy partially runs on murder. Don't like your neighbour? You can go pay a ninja village to send a teenager around to slit their throat.
The dream of being powerful enough to say "no" to anyone and get away with it is really appealing.
Japan claiming to be a pacifist nation when like 90% of their pop culture is dedicated to glorifying child soldiers is even weirder.People normalizing mercenary states running on child soldier labour is really weird.
Modern Japanese culture in general seems to have very mixed feelings about being a pacifist nation.Japan claiming to be a pacifist nation when like 90% of their pop culture is dedicated to glorifying child soldiers is even weirder.![]()
I feel like there's a lot of folks buying into the protagonist-focused morality of Naruto and in-setting propaganda, which I find bizarre.
Rei doesn't have an obligation to fix this setting.
Fixing this setting means wading through a sea of blood, and Rei has zero obligation to become yet another Naruto villain who looks at how shit the setting is, realizes that the only way they know to fix that is to murder everyone making the setting shit, and start planning the massacres.
Rei is not ninja Jesus.
There is a ninja Jesus, and if he manages to follow the canon path* and fix things with pluck, grit, determination (plus a fuckton of plot armor and charisma), that's great, but she only has the first three. Her only realistic options are to murder people in batch lots, become part of a corrupt and evil system, or nope the fuck out of there. Picking the last option is a reasonable and moral choice.