The Shrine

In Naruto, especially at the second part, people's killing power tends to be at least 'capable of destryoing a castle', with some of the more powerful people capable of destroying a nation or bigger things. Obviously, there can't be too many that can destroy a nation or whatever or there wouldn't be many nations left. So let's say you got one of those guys that can destroy a nation on your side, and he gets defeated by some other guy that can also destroy another nation. Well in the world of Naruto, you send back a team of FOUR AVERAGE NINJAS to try to solve this problem. I mean it's one of thing if 1 of those 4 ninjas is Naruto, but sometimes they're just like perfectly average ninjas.

It's even more hilarious when you consider the Akatsuki tends to operate in 2 man teams, and just about every member of that can destroy a nation. But that doesn't stop people from fighting them with four ninjas, because clearly four average ninjas can take out 2 guys that can each take out a nation!

Sometimes it makes me wonder if they only send 4 average ninjas to deal with someone who can destroy a nation, then what the heck does the elite ninjas do?

You're too far head of me. My tears for Jiraiya are still very, very fresh

This is an ongoing thing. A team of ninjas is always 4 ninjas. It doesn't matter if you need to retrieve a cat or fight Pain. They still only send one team of ninja for a job like that. Go back and look at some of the earlier stuff, they always had only 4 ninjas against a 2 man Akatsuki team as well, even though you'd probably want 400 ninjas there.

Zeus wrote:You're too far head of me. My tears for Jiraiya are still very, very fresh

He dies? Shit, I'm still pretty far behind myself. Of course, I haven't picked it up since Shippen got so damn slow. (Well, it was always slow, but I stopped after the encounter with Orochimaru.)

SineSwiper wrote:

Zeus wrote:You're too far head of me. My tears for Jiraiya are still very, very fresh

He dies? Shit, I'm still pretty far behind myself. Of course, I haven't picked it up since Shippen got so damn slow. (Well, it was always slow, but I stopped after the encounter with Orochimaru.)

It (it's spelled Shippuuden :-) picked up HUGE after the original Deidera-Sasori arc with its inner-ep filler and the first two filler arcs that started right after that one ended. It quite honestly is as intense now (not including the second filler arc) as it was back in the Chuunin exam days starting with the Azuma-Shikamaru arc (starts around ep 40 or so I think). You gotta check it out again, it's amazing what's happening now

Don wrote:This is an ongoing thing. A team of ninjas is always 4 ninjas. It doesn't matter if you need to retrieve a cat or fight Pain. They still only send one team of ninja for a job like that. Go back and look at some of the earlier stuff, they always had only 4 ninjas against a 2 man Akatsuki team as well, even though you'd probably want 400 ninjas there.

They sent about 10 ninjas after Hidan and Kakazu and then to go after Team Sasuke

I don't think unnamed cannon fodder counts as people in the world of Naruto.

While we're on the issue of Jiraiya, he died for absolutely nothing. If you have about 20 ninjas, you can beat Pain quite easily. Part of the reason he's tough is because there are 6 Pains.

Don wrote:I don't think unnamed cannon fodder counts as people in the world of Naruto.

While we're on the issue of Jiraiya, he died for absolutely nothing. If you have about 20 ninjas, you can beat Pain quite easily. Part of the reason he's tough is because there are 6 Pains.

Hidan and Kakazu were cannon fodder? They were Akatsuki members for cryin' out loud!

He didn't die for nothing as surprising and sudden as his death was. He likely saved many ninjas (one team at least) from having to face such a surprise as 6 Pain's. Considering a) they don't have a fraction of the infiltration skills of a Saanin and wouldn't even make it into the city and b) they're not nearly as strong as a Saanin, he sacrificed himself for the betterment of not only his country but everyone else too by sending the "secret" info about Pain out before his death, one Pain's main strengths.

Remember, they're trying to wipe out Akatsuki before that group takes over the world.

I think it's funny you're talking about how all this is great when even the kids know that in Naruto they just randomly kill off a major character rather than actually having some kind of plot.

I won't get into too much detail on how they defeated Pain but suffice to say it has nothing to do with whatever Jiraiya found out in any shape or form. He died for absolutely nothing. The message he left behind also played no significance whatsoever. It is also pretty clear Jiraiya plus say, the owner of the ramen shop, could've taken out 6 Pains rather easily. And no, it's not like that guy actually participates in any fights (yet), but if you look at the kind of guys they end up using for Pain, it's pretty clear the owner of the ramen shop would be a far better choice anyway.

Hey, kids are smarter than me I guess. I'm OK with Jiraiya dyin', it worked well

Well character deaths is obviously always a source of tension.

Problem is that after a while you realize all Naruto has is people dying in absence of plot and/or character development. On the Chinese Naruto boards you can find these threads for like 'whose turn is it to die next in Naruto' because people are so used to it happening.

It wouldn't be so bad if death actually served any purpose, but it does not. The coded message played no part in Pain's defeat.

Don, I like to engage you in these conversation but man, you gotta remember that I've only watched the anime. You gotta watch the spoilers, man.

I will have to see for myself exactly what happens there before I can give a final opinion. But so far, the deaths in Naruto have all been significant and important and done well. I have some faith but I'll have to see how it turns out