The popular shonen series Naruto is all about ninja who can perform all kinds of fantastic and advanced jutsu, which is what defined the combat system. The hero, Naruto Uzumaki, is determined to become the best ninja of the Hidden Leaf Village, and he can't wait to embark on his grand adventure.
But once Naruto gets a taste of the ninja's life while on the road, he makes a sobering realization: that the life of a shinobi is difficult, dangerous, and emotionally taxing. Ninja are the sole defenders of their villages, but they sometimes fall short, and failure is always a possibility. What else might go wrong for a ninja, and how is this lifestyle less than savory?
10 Ninja May Be Tortured For Information
During the Chunin Exams arc, Naruto and his squadmates are tasked with completing an ultra-difficult written test, and they have to cheat to get a passing grade. Being a ninja is all about obtaining, transporting, and hiding vital secrets, and the enemy will do anything to seize those secrets.
The exam proctor, Ibiki, revealed his torture-scarred head and explained that a true ninja may be captured and interrogated harshly to gain intel. Even if the ninja doesn't give up the secrets, they'll gain some new scars, physical and otherwise.
9 Ninja Can't Have Any Other Life
If someone is going to be a ninja, then he or she will begin training at a rather young age, meaning the child won't have much time to decide what they want to do with their lives (and it might not even be up to them anyway).
Once a cadet begins training, he or she has no second option for their life, or at least, not typically. Not many ninja retire, since many die in the line of duty, and this will be the only career they ever have. And if a village is shorthanded on ninja, the current shinobi can't just retire. They are urgently needed.
8 Ninja Must Survive Off The Land Sometimes
A ninja may be sent to faraway lands to carry out a mission with their team, and as of the original Naruto series, there are no advanced vehicles, even though this world has power lines and VCRs. Ninja have to travel on foot, and that means they have to live off the land during their trek.
Ninja do bring along basic supplies, including food and medicine, but they may need to steal fresh supplies from towns or villages along the way or forage in the wild. This may be especially true if the ninja get trapped behind enemy lines or have their supplies lost or stolen.
7 Ninja Can't Make Many Non-Ninja Friends
A ninja had better hope that his or her teammates or bosses are easy to get along with because a ninja will be far too busy to just hang around the local bars or nightclubs to make friends and goof off. Ninja are the furthest thing from common folk.
Ninja spend a lot of time out in the field, and they will only have their teammates for company. Some ninja do marry and start families, but these are often arranged marriages, and many other ninja probably never marry at all or have friends outside of work.
6 Young Ninja Must Grind, RPG-Style
This isn't the worst part of being a ninja, but some impatient ninja may still be less than thrilled about it. When a ninja graduates from the academy at age 12, he or she will typically be assigned D-rank missions to build up experience with their teammates.
D-rank missions may feel downright humiliating to more prideful ninja, since D-rank missions are little more than errands, such as helping clients with their vegetable gardens, grocery shopping, pet sitting, and more. Imagine training to throw a shuriken, only to end up walking someone's poodle instead.
5 Some Bloodline Traits Are Targets For Theft
Some esteemed ninja families, such as the Uchiha Clan and the Hyuga Clan, feature unique jutsu that rival ninja clans may fear or envy. More than once, ninja from foreign lands tried to steal samples of the Byakugan eyes or the Sharingan eyes, and sometimes, they succeeded.
A ninja who has such desirable bloodline traits may have a target on his or her back and be paranoid about anyone who takes an interest in their gifts. This is just one more thing for the ninja to worry about.
4 Summoned Animals Might Not Cooperate
Naruto is one of several animated series to feature a summoning system, and in this case, it's called the kuchiyose summoning jutsu. The ninja will make a blood contract on a special scroll, and use their chakra to summon a living being, from toads and snakes to eagles and even dogs.
However, the ninja is merely summoning these creatures, not creating them, and summoned animals might disobey orders or even turn on the ninja if they see fit. A powerful, prideful animal might scorn a weak summoner, and that could cause problems during battle.
3 Ninja Might Have To Act Against Their Own Code Of Ethics
Ninja are sometimes sent on bloodless missions, such as to spy on the enemy and gather intel, or steal a scroll and escape before anyone notices. Other times, ninja may be asked to perform violent or morally gray deeds if their client demands it.
Some ninja may be ordered to capture or murder children or even babies, interrogate a friend who may be turning traitor, or in Itachi's case, slaughter their entire family. And it doesn't matter if the ninja in question doesn't have the stomach for this kind of work; as duty demands, they must do it.
2 Cycles Of Hatred Are Easily Started & Perpetrated
One of the themes that developed later in the series was the cycle of hatred and revenge, and whether something can be done about it. For generations, many ninja clans have feuded bitterly, often sending their children to do their dirty work. Madara Uchiha and the first Hokage clearly remember those days.
A ninja may be born into a notorious clan, and thus inherit bitter and bloody feuds and hatred that may lead to that ninja's early death. Before the Leaf Village's founding, many young ninja died this way, and even now, the cycle of hatred continues.
1 No One Else Understands A Ninja's Hardships
Not only do many shinobi have to face all of these harsh realities, but there's also the fact that no one else outside the ninja world could possibly understand a ninja's grief, guilt, or frustration in the line of duty. Who else could know what it's like to walk in those open-toed shoes?
Ninja are expected to hide their emotions and never act upon them, as Sakura Haruno mentioned during the final battle against Zabuza and Haku, and if ninja shouldn't turn to each other for comfort, then they must bear their pain and burdens totally alone.