Naruto Shippuuden Episode 13

[DB_Hunter]

Agreed on the Neji part. Kurenai was leading a team of Genin soon after becomming a Jounin, there is no reason why Neji shouldn't be doing it either. Having two Jounin on one team should make it really powerful, and I hope they don't ruin Gai's team by having Neji just learn two or three more techniques and nothing else.

The only reason could be is that Neji could be on some sort of list to become a team leader, its just that there are other Jounin ahead of him who may be teaching. That or he has recently become a Jounin and its not the right time of the year to be assigning Jounin's to Genin teams.

[Assertn]

Not all jounins have genin students. Hyuuga Hiashi, for example, is a Jounin and pretty much just does whatever...

[animus]

Neji's still pretty damn young. What is he 16-17? Teenagers probably as of yet do not have the ability or how should I say, the mentality of that of a mentor or a tutor.

[RyougaZell]

According to the Chuunin exams... Chuunins are team leaders.
Yes, they do not lead Genins, but being Chuunin makes them worth being a team leader.
Thus... every Jounin, despite how young/old/new should be capable of directing a Genin team.

Aoba, Shizune, Genma, Anko, Ibiki, Shikato, Chouza, Inochi, Kiba's mom. All are Jounins as well and don't have genins under them.

Ebisu didn't had them for years before Konohamaru Corps.

Thus... Neji is capable of having his team, but hasn't been asigned one. So if the Hokage sends him with his old team she can if she wants to.

[Assassin]

Also, the same applies to gai. It's never been said that once you're team graduates, you get a new team rite away. He could just be a "free" jounin like neji and the others, doing missions (which is what thier real job is).

Not to mention that he could have a team, and still have been sent on this mission because he's uniquely qualified. He's one of the strongest jounin in konoha, he knows his team mates and thier strenghts/weakneses really well, he has experience facing akatsuki members before, as well as experience fighting against the sharingan.

[Mizuchi]

after watching this ep, i felt like rewatching some of the old naruto eps. i watched episodes 49 and 50 which were part of the lee vs gaara chuunin prelims. That's when i realized how bad naruto has become. Sure the story line is good, but the reason i liked it before was because so much happened and it had so much meaning. Now all it is, is whenever naruto hears the word sasuke, he runs off and goes into a DBZ fight, which goes SOO slowly. In eps 49 and 50, the fights were sooo exciting. The creaters of this show have gotten so caught up in not getting back into fillers that without realizing it, they dropped the regular show's quality almost down to filler level. It's like this isn't even naruto anymore.

Like there was so much meaning before. I loved the part in lee vs gaara when they showed young lee training so hard to beat neji. There was like a good story and meaning behind everything. Now its just pointless fights.

P.S. I wonder how sakura became chuunin when both of her teammates were missing...

[DB_Hunter]

I agree, there is something missing in these fights that was there in the orignal Naruto fights. There seemed to be a lot more emotion and meaning behind each fight, and there were twists and turns in the plot. Remember the Zabuza arc? That was gold. Despite the genin involved not having uber-ultra-hardcore-one-hit-instant-death moves, the fights were more entertaining and drew you in to the story. I remember even when Itachi first turned up everyone was like 'wow!'

It all just seems a bit anti-climatic now. The only bit that evoked the same sort of feelings in Shippuden was the very first teaser trailer of the forthcoming Naruto Vs Sasuke fight.

[Assertn]

Also, the same applies to gai. It's never been said that once you're team graduates, you get a new team rite away. He could just be a "free" jounin like neji and the others, doing missions (which is what thier real job is).

Not to mention that he could have a team, and still have been sent on this mission because he's uniquely qualified. He's one of the strongest jounin in konoha, he knows his team mates and thier strenghts/weakneses really well, he has experience facing akatsuki members before, as well as experience fighting against the sharingan.

You can also compare it to team Kakashi...where it's not a team of teacher and pupils, but equally respected shinobi.

[AngryGumball]

You can also compare it to team Kakashi...where it's not a team of teacher and pupils, but equally respected shinobi.

I'm sorry but I don't see it as equally respected Shinobi, its Kakashi leading Sakura and Naruto still.

Its still Gai leading the team, even look at how they stand in the Episode its Gai standing forefront others arrayed to the sides of him, its Kakashi in front.

While everyone is making reasons why Neji and Gai are working in same team, the fact that your making reasons means the storytelling simply is not good enough at this extended lifespan of the entire series.

Are we to assume in the time jump that there haven't been graduating classes, are we to assume that the village only has these ninja that we can all name, and the village really depends on them for security. If so then the story fails by having the same teams exist or same people out together on the same mission.

Don't get me wrong they get very small parts/scenes right, the part where kakashi says blind itachi, then the camera switches to where we see Itachi blink as if in reflective thought was perfect, and well drawn to express the unwritten emotion in Itachi's eyes......however we still should reasonably believe Itachi is gonna open multiple cans of whoopass