A long line of medic nins *Spoilers*

[Captain Verd]

Tsunade tells us that being medic nin requires a degree of chakra control that most ninja don't have. During her flashback, she mentions to Sandaime that not enough of them are being trained. In TimeSkipland, we see not only Sakura, but Ino has become a medic.

Unlike Sakura though, Ino had useful jutsu before the TS. So my question is, why did she become a medic? Inoichi uses the same techniques she does and he's a jounin, so obviously they're not useless. It seems like a cop-out to me, to have the girls be medics. Almost like he can't think of anything else for them to do. I can only hope Hinata sticks to her jyuuken.

Thoughts on the whole medic thing?  

[Syndactyly]

She might not necessarily be a medic. There is having the skill and then there is being a master. Ino's skill, however, was only slightly useful. It's very limited. She can take over a body, but if that body is harmed, she is harmed. All she can do is trick people, but anyone with a brain knows her jutsu has a catch.

Inoichi is a dude, and I think it's safe to assume he doesn't ONLY use that technique. Shikamaru's dad had his uniqueness as did Chouji's. They're not limited to ninjutsu.

Guys can be medics. Naruto loses a fight to Sasuke. Kakashi retrieves him. They meet up with two male medics.  

[Captain Verd]

I think it's more likely for her to be a medic with side abilities, considering the amount of training it takes to learn healing jutsu.

This is true. Like Shikaku and Shikamaru, I assume he has variations of his technique. Maybe Ino didn't or couldn't learn them for some reason.

I didn't say they couldn't be. However, so far he hasn't made any male characters from the genin squad be medics.  

[CrabappleRed]

Hmm. I have to agree. It seems a cop out, and a disservice to Ino's character to make her nothing more than another 'Obligatory female on the team/medic chick' Not all women have 'white mage' printed on their butts.

On the other hand, it seems to be only Konoha that suffers from this. . . and then, only the youngest of the genins. Tenten, for example, sure isn't a medic. Nor is Temari.

I think the real problem lies in the three main girls we have kicking around. Sakura, Ino and Hinata struck me as having become ninjas for reasons that arn't entierly in tune with what a ninja trully is. Ino was probably put into it since it's family tradition, and Hinata as well. Though Ino showed good potential as a ninja from the begining, all her skills were in the non-combat front. Espionage and infiltration, with the occasional clever use in combat. Hinata was terribly unsuited for it. And Sakura. . . we have no idea why Sakura became a ninja. So it's hard to say. But her original personality (before all that character growth) was totaly focused on boys and on the scholarly aspect. The killing/hitting aspect never really registered for her. You can tell that by how she did in school (fantastic on the written stuff, terrible on the physical) and how she reacted to Sasuke's 'death'.

So, our three main chicks arn't the confrontational fighter types like Temari and Tenten. And we don't see enough of Ino to really be able to tell what her battle style has evolved into, nor Hinata for that matter. End result: it seems like all the chicks we see the most of are medics.

Of course, we don't know if Ino really has become a healer nin. As mentioned above, it's possible that she only has a few of the basic medic skills, just in case.  

[Captain Verd]

CrabappleRed

Hmm. I have to agree. It seems a cop out, and a disservice to Ino's character to make her nothing more than another 'Obligatory female on the team/medic chick' Not all women have 'white mage' printed on their butts.

On the other hand, it seems to be only Konoha that suffers from this. . . and then, only the youngest of the genins. Tenten, for example, sure isn't a medic. Nor is Temari.

I think the real problem lies in the three main girls we have kicking around. Sakura, Ino and Hinata struck me as having become ninjas for reasons that arn't entierly in tune with what a ninja trully is. Ino was probably put into it since it's family tradition, and Hinata as well. Though Ino showed good potential as a ninja from the begining, all her skills were in the non-combat front. Espionage and infiltration, with the occasional clever use in combat.

That's what I was thinking. Shikamaru was sent on the Asuma mission despite having non-combatant jutsu, so I fail to see why Ino can't do the same thing.  

[Syndactyly]

I see your point. Though, who said it take ridiculous amounts of training to learn, say, a simple healing, "spell"? I'm not sure what they call it. Effect. Move. If we were to give everything in Naruto numbers, and say Sakura is level 5, Ino level one, does it take Sakura more training to use a level 3 move than Ino a given skill? I'm not attacking your idea; I'm just curious. I want to know if it says any healing is hard... I should probably just go read it.

Ino... has always been a rather stubborn girl. She's also rather closed-minded. It's hard to handle those techniques with such a mindset. I'm also certain her priorities haven't been straight...

That is true. I think it would be really cool if a guy did take on medical ninjutsu. Each generation has it's catch; they may lack in medics later on and there will be an explosion of medical ninja. xd Just a thought.  

[churrlo]

I recall in the anime it mentioned a little about medical jitsus. It mentioned first of all, that the user must have excellent chakra control. This is because, not only does it take a long time to become a medical ninja (I must assume this is because it is difficult to some extent), but also because medical techniques consume large amounts of chakra. The user has to be good at controlling chakra so when they perform these techniques their chakra is not all used up and what not.  

[CrabappleRed]

To use RPG terms:

I think that Sakura, as a professional medic nin, would find it easier to cast healing spells, and to learn new and more powerful ones. She has all the medical training needed to understand the higher level techniques.

Ino, if she is indeed only learning a few healing techniques in case of emergencies, probably can't learn the higher level healing techniques simply because she doesn't have the medical knowledge.

So, to continue the RPG analogy, Sakura can cast "heal", and "full heal", and it costs her less "Mana"(ie, chakra) because she knows how to do it properly. Ino can only cast "heal", and it costs her more "Mana", because she doesn't know the techniques as well.


It should also be noted that there is at least one male medic nin running around and kicking butt: Kabuto! Kabuto is a male medic nin, and good enough to go up against Tsunade.  

[Captain Verd]

Shikalee

I see your point. Though, who said it take ridiculous amounts of training to learn, say, a simple healing, "spell"? I'm not sure what they call it. Effect. Move. If we were to give everything in Naruto numbers, and say Sakura is level 5, Ino level one, does it take Sakura more training to use a level 3 move than Ino a given skill? I'm not attacking your idea; I'm just curious. I want to know if it says any healing is hard... I should probably just go read it.

Ino... has always been a rather stubborn girl. She's also rather closed-minded. It's hard to handle those techniques with such a mindset. I'm also certain her priorities haven't been straight...

That is true. I think it would be really cool if a guy did take on medical ninjutsu. Each generation has it's catch; they may lack in medics later on and there will be an explosion of medical ninja. xd Just a thought.

When Sakura first started training, Tsunade said she was moving at remarkable speed. Also, Sandaime said it took too long to train them, instead of making them regular ninja.

I'd agree with that. She probably jumped on medics when she heard Sakura was doing it or something.

Me too, dammit. The only ones I could see doing it are ones without much detail, like Izumo.  

[CrabappleRed]

Kabuto! Kabuto, darn you all! He's male AND he's a medic nin! *laugh* seriously. He's obnoxious, but he still counts!  

[Nephite Warrior]

I honestly, think its absolutely stupid for Ino to have even the slightest bit of Medical abilities.....I think that her and Sakura should have their own style...Sakura is more of the Medical/Genjutsu type stuff, since she's really good at recognizing and escaping Genjutsu, whereas like one of you said, Ino is more suited for Espianage/infiltration type stuff. They should just have Ino continue working on her jutsus which would be quite good(and even might be, not shown yet).....but they just keep making Sakura and Ino keep doing almost similar stuff....  

[Syndactyly]

Captain Verd

When Sakura first started training, Tsunade said she was moving at remarkable speed. Also, Sandaime said it took too long to train them, instead of making them regular ninja.

I'd agree with that. She probably jumped on medics when she heard Sakura was doing it or something.

Me too, dammit. The only ones I could see doing it are ones without much detail, like Izumo.

That is true.

Definately. She joined the bandwagon.

Maybe Kiba? :O Ahahah.  

[Syndactyly]

@ Crabapplered: Kabuto is 1. An enemy and 2. Not a certified medical nin.  

[Nephite Warrior]

CrabappleRed

and good enough to go up against Tsunade.

I hafta dissagree......If he was good enough to go up against tsunade, then Orochimaru wouldnt have needed her help, he woulda gone to Kabuto first...overall fighting skill and stuff, he wouldnt come close....Kabuto said earlier in the series that he's as strong as Kakashi, so he wouldnt come close to Sannin level  

[CrabappleRed]

It doesn't matter if he's an enemy or not. We were discussing the existance of male medic nins. There are plenty of background ones, and there's one in particular with lots of screen time and detail put into him: Kabuto.

Also, who says Kabuto's not certified? He might not be certified in Konoha, but he's Orochimaru's right hand man, and the guy who takes care of almost all the medical aspects of Orochimaru's work. You can bet he's certified in the village of Sound. While it's true they said he was still a genin in the Chunin exam, that's bewcause he was a spy in disguise at the time!

And what I meant about Kabuto being good enough to go up against Tsunade is simply that they actualy do fight each other, and Kabuto holds his own. He can fight at Tsunade's level, and when she scrambles his nervous system, he figures it out (and how to counter it) in seconds. She even comments that Kabuto's sense of jutsu and sharpness surpassed her own in her prime. He might not have as much knowledge as she does yet, but that seems to be simply a lack of experience, not a lack of ability or talent.