[continued from here. Again, context, strange AU of Dreaming of Sunshine by Silver Queen in which “Team One” of Youbirin Suzu/Nohara, Jiro Watanabe, and Sakura Haruno actually pass. kuipernebula in bold, me in italicized]
With Jiro being from Lightning country (or descended from Lightning natives), putting him on Team Eight with Hinata who had been kidnapped by Kumo ninja would be so interesting. And then having Youbirin on Team Ten would force him to confront three clan heirs who not only accept, but thrive in their clan’s expectations.
Yes, these are both good and make sense. But to play devil’s advocate: Jiro feels like he needs to prove his loyalty, it’s something he craves and wants because of who his family is. This could be juxtaposed nicely with Team Ten, who are the most fiercely loyal team, coming from a long tradition of loyalty- to each other, to their clans, to eachother’s clans, to the village… Youbirin, by contrast, has common ground with Hinata in terms of pressures from the clan.
That said, I actually prefer your suggestions better, since it maximizes drama and, therefore, interest. There’d have to be some in-universe justification, though; Sakura to Team Seven could be because she’s exceptionally talented as a medical-nin (perhaps partly thanks to the “inner sakura” compartmentalization thing) while it’d make sense to add the most strongly tied to a clan to the Ino-Shika-Cho trio. I’m not sure if it’s fair to Jiro or Team Eight to have him default there, but…
Hm… in-universe justification could be… Team Eight is a tracking specialist team, Team Ten either bodyguarding or retrieval/infiltration, Team Seven an all-rounder or high offense. Then you just need to make sure that you can justify each medic’s sub-specialty to the Team.
Sakura’s “inner Sakura”/compartmentalization ability would make her good for Team Seven because if they are a high offense/attack squad she can’t expect someone to be able to protect her–she has to be able to hold her own as well as be a healer. Whereas Youbirin who only knows medical jutsu and not much attacking would have to be bodyguarded while he’s healing and if he does supplement his skills with genjutsu or sealing then he’s even more of a support/long-range nin. Team Ten, or rather, the Ino-Shika-Cho configuration already accounts for the Ino being out of commission while doing the Yamanaka mind jump thing so adding Youbirin wouldn’t be too much difficulty.
Again, it does seem like Jiro is the default but I’m not entirely sure what direction you want to go in for him. If his Lightning Nature allows him to augment his nervous system/senses he would be a good addition to a sensing/tracking team. In addition, that Lightning Nature can also be used offensively which the rest of Team Eight’s clan abilities do as well–Hyuuga’s are known for Byakugan and Gentle Fist, Inuzuka’s canine aspects don’t just augment sense of smell but battle abilities, Aburame insects can be a tiny spy network or a way to drain opponents.
So to justify which medic goes to which team: Team Seven’s medic has to be able to attack as much as heal and hold their own. Team Eight’s medic has to be able to keep up and protect themselves. Team Ten’s medic doesn’t necessarily need to be a high offense, but they have to be adaptable in their support of the main team.
Perhaps Jiro has some slight tracking abilities with his lightning? Stuff like instant compasses, brainwave-sensing (neurons and all that), etc… He could also use brainwave sensing to be a living lie detector, if that route was chosen. I’d like to sideline the compartmentalization thing, though, if only because Sakura’s canon strength has always been her extremely accurate he has maximal chakra efficiency. And if there’s one thing Team 7 needs, it’s chakra efficiency. Youbirin, though…
… Well, Youbirin is going to get left behind no matter what, since he has to deal with being the fourth wheel- fifth, with asma- of Ino-Shika-Cho. Perhaps he was sent there to account for his own faults; he’s not good with team work, so the natural teamwork of that group would account for that weakness? Also, if he’s genjutsu-heavy, he can provide additional stalling power to the team; otherwise, a focus on taijutsu could help provide protection for the more stationary Shikamaru and Ino
Yeah, I see what you mean about the compartmentalization. But her chakra efficiency is a two sided blade as well–it makes her perfect for medic ninjutsu as well as point-blank super-strength.
Youbirin being left behind or the fifth wheel isn’t necessarily something that’s bad. It might actually be interesting to see someone in the Naruto verse who just… doesn’t want to be a ninja, much less a clan kid. Then again, I don’t think that’s the direction you want to go in. Him being the fifth wheel is kind of like what I imagine a traditional field medic is–like, they’re not actually trained to fight so it would be like they are constantly body-guarding him in exchange for his support skills.
I don’t think he’ll ever bond with any of the teams as much as Sakura would Team Seven or even Jiro has the potential to (a sort of, discovering that true loyalty is to individual people not just an idea or a country) with whichever team. He must just discover that he doesn’t want to be a battle/field medic–he’s on a team with an Akimichi who have unique food pills and the Nara and Yamanaka clans supply the raw materials/research into it. He may end up just wanting to be more of a pharmacist than a badass. Which, again, is not necessarily a bad thing. You could probably get some drama about him not wanting to let his sensei down after all the battle training.
If anything, though, you could use him to focus on the weird Obito/Kakashi/Rin backstory drama if you don’t want to get too narrowed down into reallocation. Maybe he was the closest to Kabuto-senpai and it’s like a Sasuke-Orochimaru with far less pedophilic undertones, so it’s a surprise to everyone that the clan kid turns out to be the traitor over the Lightning descendant or the tether-less civilian. How far would you want to go with this? If you end up writing, it could be interesting to start at the “end” in which a traitor Youbirin is finally tracked down and captured by Team Seven and he’s being interrogated by Jiro (due to living lie detector).
With Youbirin, though, it was mostly going to be a plot of “I don’t mind the job, but I don’t want to be forced into it” kind of deal. So he doesn’t actually mind being a field medic- in fact, he prefers it over being a normal medic, since that’s most of the clan.
Although… It would be interesting to see the Youbirin/Kabuto mentorship thing, particularly since it’d change a lot, and it’d be particularly alarming to Shikako, who might blame herself for it. (Youbirin’s being anywhere close to Kabuto being directly caused by his passing with Sakura’s team, which was itself due to Shikako’s presence.) In fact, it might be really interesting if he is the only Team One medic who doesn’t bond with his team; could also lead to some Team Ten self-blaming drama.
Ooh, that would be good, though. Shikako may not like him, but they’re practically teammate-in-laws and Kabuto is evil, she probably should have remembered that he was a medic nin and Team medic would be at risk of interacting with him. Also remember that Youbirin was the instigator for a lot of bullying towards Chouji in particular.
If Youbirin does get mentored by Kabuto, I kinda would prefer if he was manipulated/used rather than straight-up converted; I mean, I don’t think he’s a total jerk, just a little bitter. Plus DRAMA.
I’m not too keen on Youbirin going full bad either, it was just an idea I was throwing around. I guess it depends on what your endgame is for Team Medic as a whole and Konoha Twelve/Fifteen.
While Youbirin falling behind everyone else because he was shoehorned into a role he didn’t necessarily want is interesting and does give a lot to work with, at some point we have to reverse it. Even canon Sakura was fangirl being left behind by Naruto and Sasuke before then becoming Tsunade’s apprentice and basically Tsunade 2.0. With Jiro you have not many people trusting him, or him thinking no one trusts him due to his heritage, but ultimately he becomes the loyal immigrant when he does make friends with people and connects loyalty with individuals. So with Youbirin, I suppose it would be…
He peaked at the Academy–that was when he was the big fish in a little pond–but suddenly he’s a little fish in a big pond and he’s not growing anywhere near as fast as the other genin. Which especially stings considering his teammates are a civilian-born and a (second-generation?) immigrant and he was practically bred for being a medic ninja. So that does explain why he’s the one that goes to Kabuto for mentorship, and ultimately gets manipulated then betrayed. He then has to pick himself back up somehow, and I think that’s what is so difficult with Youbirin in comparison to Sakura and Jiro: because he was once at a high then he sank as opposed to his teammates who started from nothing (or less than that) and their stories are just upwards growth. In a way, that makes his character development almost delayed in comparison to everyone else’s because as we are currently brainstorming him, we are pushing him backwards.
And while from Youbirin’s point of view it makes sense for him to get mentoring from Kabuto we would then have to justify it from Kabuto’s point of view. Like, why would he bother with a comparatively unskilled genin? Kabuto’s adopted dad is already head of the Hospital so it’s not like the Suzu/Nohara medical clan would have more political/social connections than that. Unless there is a Suzu/Nohara clan secret technique/ability which is valuable to Kabuto or Orochimaru. Or maybe it’s something that Team One’s jounin sensei has and Kabuto is using Youbirin to get it–either technique, item, information.
I don’t remember Kabuto’s motivations very well, so I can’t help much on that front. Maybe he wanted a plant near the Rookie 9(12?) because he knew they’d be important? After all, spies are always handy to have. (I mean, he is one, he should know…) Meanwhile, perhaps he finally gets the courage to confront his family and friends about the pressure he feels? And he just… quits being a ninja for a while? This kind of plot could work without the Kabuto/Evil thing, in a way that still creates tension with Team Ten, as they realize just how much they’ve alienated this person who’s entire job is to keep them alive. Or something. They all have big hearts, even if only Choji shows it; in fact, it’d probably break Choji’s heart to realize how alone the poor kid feels… And after Youbirin realizes that, yes, he WANTS to be a field medic (not a normal medic, but one the field, helping the way only he can) he starts getting even better, perhaps developing a new technique.
I’m not too sure about Kabuto’s motivation either, but it seems like the kind of thing that would have to be justified. Like, he has so much stuff on his plate what with being a spy for three different people and pretending to be an incompetent genin that any additional projects would have to be worth it. But that spy within the Rookies is a good idea–it could be that Kabuto even emphasized and played up on Youbirin’s insecurities such that he’d be more willing to trust Kabuto. Whereas the other Rookies are more staunchly loyal to Konoha/connected to Shikako/mistrustful of Kabuto, Youbirin is still somewhat innocent(? naive?) in comparison to Jiro and Sakura who have been through bullying/discrimination… mostly because he’s usually on the other side, but that means he has no defense against Kabuto’s manipulations.
I guess it depends on the timing of things–I just assumed any major changes would have to be after the Chuunin Exams. But if you have Sakura and Jiro improving right off the bat, then you can already start Youbirin’s inadequacy issues right after graduation. (Like, maybe they catch on to jounin sensei’s lessons faster, or they’re already beginning to innovate and invent their own techniques, whereas Youbirin is mostly relying on all the clan training he received just to keep up).
Then you can throw in a C-rank adventure of some sort which stands in place of canon Wave arc. Some kind of major event which shakes up the dynamic, makes it very obvious that Youbirin is falling behind, which makes him doubt if he even wants to be a ninja. Then when he’s at his most vulnerable, Kabuto sidles in and casually tosses out an offer to mentor him. Youbirin improves for a while, up until the betrayal of the Sand Sound invasion (and Kabuto’s role in it) is revealed… or maybe… I don’t think it’s actually stated whether or not Kabuto was a known traitor or just went missing… hm…
I think a C-rank mission is required; IIRC, a team needs to have participated in at least seven missions, with at least one above D-rank, in order to take the Chuunin exams. I just imagined that their missions would be necessarily somewhat focused on medical training in the field; in fact, their Jounin was likely there for the express purpose of training a squad to become combat medics, otherwise the “distribute the medics” plan can’t happen. And it’s one of the best parts of this AU, so…
Otherwise, it’s possible that Youbirin was how Kabuto obtained his information on the other members of the Rookie 12, something that wasn’t really elaborated on otherwise; Shikako mentioned that he shouldn’t have that information, but I don’t think it’s ever gone into detail, even in canon. All this said, I think there should be some elaboration on what the Suzu clan techniques actually are. Does Rin do anything particularly worthy of being either a Kekkei Genkai or a Hiden technique?
Youbirin being able to know all of that would imply a level of interaction with the other genin which kind of conflicts with the whole he’s being shunted to the side trend which would push him to being Kabuto’s spy in the first place.
As for Rin and the Suzu/Nohara clan, she was ridiculously good at being a medic (eye transplant surgery at around 13 years old?) but I don’t know if it was a specific technique. It may just be that their clan just indoctrinates their kids in medical knowledge. According to Naruto wiki, she’s one of very few people to have more than one chakra natures (she’s Fire and Water) but seeing as how she doesn’t actually do anything with it… And also it might upstage Jiro’s own Lightning nature plot point.
Good point. But I can’t imagine what else he could possibly be telling Kabuto. After all, Kabuto would be expecting something back from this kid in order to put up with him… But just being a generic medical clan makes sense; he relies on clan training, and it comes back to bite him when he realizes that the others are learning beyond that while he’s still relying on his (higher) base knowledge. Then he starts supplementing it with combat knowledge, giving him more options, like Shikako.
When it comes to specific points, I imagine at least most of their D-rank missions are volunteering at the hospital in some way. Not sure about the C-rank; it probably involves transporting medicine from inside the village, but I’m not sure if I want it to get exciting (and thus encourage Youbirin’s personal questioning) or if it’s more subdued (because Team Seven’s the trouble magnet; then again, Sakura was originally Team Seven, so it could rub off…) I guess it depends mostly on story pacing.
[But wait, there’s more here]
JackSGreyson Says 