Basic Ninja OPSEC
Some of this is backstory that has not had cause to come up before this, but it should illustrate the importance of the OPSEC rules:
The Warring States period was several hundred years of war with few to no actual states involved. "Hill daimyos", meaning small freeholding lords (sometimes ninja, sometimes not) who wanted to carve out and protect a territory, would set up and usually be knocked down pretty quickly. The modern states that you see on the map have been there for a while, but for most of their existence they were more a name than a reality.
During this period, ninja organized into clans for mutual protection. Clanless ninja were generally either outcasts from a clan or the children of outcasts. They were contemptible, untrustworthy, and probably cowards -- they were usually killed on sight.
The oldest ninja village (Leaf) is only ~70 years old. There are probably living people who grew up during the Warring States period. Clans have been the dominant paradigm for hundreds of years and that is only slowly changing. Leaf and the other villages should be looked at as something like the United States: a group of sovereign entities (the clans) who have agreed to federate and are mostly but not entirely subordinate to a federal government (the Kage). It's been working out pretty well and everyone is mostly onboard with it, but there's always tension and the possibility of one clan splintering away from the village is taken seriously. Clanless ninja are accepted into Leaf and possibly into other villages (you don't know) but that is a major social innovation and the clanless are still subtly discriminated against. Ninja who go missing in this day and age are reviled. You know of no other case of missing-nin being rehabilitated; what Jiraiya and Nara did is, so far as you are aware, unprecedented.
Ninja are special operations warriors and assassins. Because of all this, most ninja are paranoid and heavily PTSD. Every time two ninja come together, even the best of friends, there is an ingrained sense of "if I had to kill him, how would I do it?"
In this environment:
- Everyone has at least one ace up their sleeve that they don't talk about.
- When you have to show a technique, or when you choose to show one in order to build your rep, you keep the details secret. Everyone knows that Naruto has the Multiple Shadow Clone, but no one knows what tricks he's come up with to munchkin it. Everyone knows that Gaara controls sand, but no one knows exactly what he can do with it. It was not an accident that the battle between Naruto and Gaara at the Chūnin Exams was obscured by dust and smoke.
- Reputation is critically important to a ninja, and sometimes that means bending the above rules. Having a big rep is how you get high-paying jobs, desirable assignments, and status within the ninja world. "Keiko is the Pangolin summoner" is an example of this: she revealed it to those ninja in Sarubetsu so clearly she's okay with it being talked about, but you wouldn't disclose the details of how often she can summon and exactly what. Likewise "Akane has a secret jutsu that makes her invulnerable" is a brag with no details, although it's pushing the line and Noburi probably shouldn't have said it.
- Just as every individual has secret techniques, every clan has secret techniques and secret knowledge. The first rule of clan secrets is that you don't talk about clan secrets. This is literally codified in village law, and if the Hokage attempted to ferret out clan secrets it would almost certainly lead to (at best) that clan leaving Leaf or (at worst) civil war. In general, clans do not reveal their secret techniques even to their own members until said members are old enough to keep them secret.
- "We can drain through mist" is a secret technique of the Wakahisa clan. The fact that Noburi shared it with you is an example of his incredible trust in you. (As well as his ego, but that's another story.)
- You were never taught the secret techniques of the Kurosawa clan because you were forced to go missing before you were old enough. To say that differently: clan secrets are so important that even after 'divorcing' her clan Hana did not immediately teach those secrets to you. You can only speculate on why she wasn't killed when she was thrown out -- probably it had something to do with personal affection and something to do with the rule shared by all ninja villages that "ninja from our village don't kill ninja from our village."
In
Chapter 127 you did not come right out and say the words "Oh, by the way, Minami, you should probably know that Noburi can drain through mist." You made the fact abundantly clear with the plans that you proposed, to the point where any reasonably smart person could figure it out. Furthermore, the plan made clear that you were discussing it with the entire team as well as Minami, without any mention of discussing it with the others first. In short: you blurted it out before anyone could stop you. Hence why the rest of the team was so angry.
EDIT: Removed a snip about sending scrubs after jōnin. It was a momentary thought that I let onto the page, not part of the group-approved worldbuilding, and it made no sense.
