Nope.
Kurenai was elite jounin, entrusted with the care of two clan heirs including an unsealed Hyuga.
She isn't minimum anything.
1. Actually, yep. Asuma outright says that Kurenai is a newly-minted jounin.
2. "Elite jounin" is redundant; the word jounin literally means "elite ninja."
3. Hinata isn't the heiress; Hiashi has specifically labeled her a disappointment and is focusing on Hanabi.
So, yes, Kurenai
is an elite ninja of Konoha who is trusted with the protection and further education of some very promising students, because that's what literally
every jounin is. But there's no indication that Kurenai is among the best jounin Konoha has to offer except that she's remarked on as an expert in genjutsu. After all, Ebisu was entrusted with the Hokage's own grandson and is "just" a tokubetsu jounin whose "jounin-level" specialty is stated to be teaching.
Neji had a point total of 27 points when he was jounin; Kurenai was 29 points when we first see her.
He's the current lower limit I'm aware of for jonin.
For comparison, Baki, Gaara's jonin and the guy trusted with running herd on a jinch, has a point total of 29.5.
The points in the databooks are kinda bullsh*t. And considering Baki was moments away from sh*tting himself when Gaara started to go full bijuu, I doubt he was assigned because they thought he could take Gaara out, which is the only situation in which their choosing him relates at all to his point total.
That is true, but the Kekkei Genkai that falls under the Combined Chakra Transformation category, are not determined by genetics so much (we have seen lava users in 3 different villages) but from Chakra nature, we already have wind, and we have an affinity for fire as an Uchiha (In canon Sasuke had 2 elemental affinities, lighting and fire and the chakra paper on this quest only showed one).
There are a
lot of ways that a bunch of ruthless ninja can get their hands on a particular bloodline, and not every clan is going to be as successful in protecting it as the Hyuuga. The fact that three different villages have Scorch Release users means nothing.
My understanding is that Dust Release is just an incredibly advanced set of techniques, not a bloodline thing.
The literal definition of a kekkei genkai is that is it as an ability based in genetics and passed on through the bloodline of its users. The word kekkei means "
bloodline." If it's just something you can
learn then the distinction between kekkei genkai and hiden (clan-specific hidden techniques) doesn't exist.
Also, Kakashi specifically stated that the Sharingan doesn't do sh*t for copying kekkei genkai, and he said this in reference to an
elemental bloodline, Haku's Ice Release.
My understanding is that Dust Release is just an incredibly advanced set of techniques, not a bloodline thing. In chapter 525, Onoki says Mu passed the secrets on to him, which sounds a lot more like teaching obscure techniques than something restricted by inheritance.
This also implies (since it's a "kekkei tota", which is supposed to be an advanced kekkei genkai) that other combination elements can be used without being born into it; this is further supported by Ninja Clash in the Land of Snow, where the Land of Snow ninja (and Kakashi) use Hyoton*. If that's the case, given that almost nobody does that, my conclusion is that the genetic part of elemental kekkei genkai basically handles the elemental transformation for them, and using the techniques without that requires effectively doing three or more transformations (the two base elements and the combination element) at once - which is impractical for almost anyone else.
* The Snow ninja may or may not be using a different form of Hyoton, because they use pre-existing ice instead of generating it, but Tobirama generates his water to use the same Suiton techniques as everyone else so I'm pretty sure they're either conserving chakra or just worse at it than a genetic user.
Or, you know, the movie isn't canon and is about as authoritative a source of information as crappy anime filler.
i'd assume Mu deliberately searched for someone with his affinities specifically to take them as an apprentice
Onoki is the grandson of Ishikawa, the First Tsuchikage, so I doubt he had to actually do any "searching."
(Snow appears in the movie and two novels, but AFAIK not the manga.)
The fact that
some of the filler exists here is not a case that
all of it exists or is all equally
likely to exist. Ninja Clash in the Land of Snow also had a Ninja Train (TM), really powerful chakra-absorbing armor that was never used again, and a f*cking chakra-powered terraforming device that was able to bring spring to an entire country's worth of icy tundra (which incidentally should have been absolutely catastrophic to the ecosystem).
Seeing the state in which Gai was left after opening the 8 gates (he was literally burning from inside out), only Tsunade level regeneration could give us a small chance to open the 8 gates without dying...
Gai was crippled for life even though Naruto used Sage of Six Paths bullsh*t to heal him. I sincerely doubt Hisana can do better than the kid running on the powers of the Father of Ninshu.
I don't think that Hisana can pull off a full usage of all Eight Gates without sinking an absolutely prohibitive amount of effort into that skill tree.
In regards to this, note that canonically, Gai tried to teach all three of his students how to open the Eight Gates. But by the time of the Chuunin Exams, only Lee had the sheer perseverance to unlock even the
First Gate. In other words, super-prodigy Hyuuga Neji couldn't do it with a year's time to work at it. Even Kakashi has only ever been shown to open the First Gate.
(It's been awhile, so take this with a grain of salt) As far as I can tell there are two reasons that the Eight Gates hurt the user. One is that it overheats the body. Two is that it creates more force than the body can handle, causing it to tear itself apart. We can almost certainly solve the body heat issue with a storage seal of some sort, though the 'tear yourself apart' issue is probably harder. Maybe some sort of autohealing seal if the injuries are usually the same?
The Eight Gates are 8 specific tenketsu (the breakers on your Chakra Pathways that regulate the flow of chakra through the chakra circulatory system) which are responsible for setting the hard limits on your chakra flow to keep it safe. Opening/Releasing the Eight Gates means temporarily lifting these restrictions to flood your body with more chakra than it can safely, which gets worse with each one you open. I should note, BTW, that the Chakra Pathways are stated specifically to touch every part of the body, including muscles, bones and vital organs.
They don't just affect chakra, BTW, and are stated to release
all of the body's normal limits that are there to protect the body from itself. Opening the Gate of Pain (the 4th Gate), for instance, is noted to cause muscles to tear upon use. The Gate of Wonder (the 7th Gate)
rips the muscle fibers to shreds. This, as you can imagine, causes incredible pain and long-term damage.
Opening the final Gate, the Gate of Death, is specifically noted to
cook the user from the inside out. If Naruto hadn't saved him, Gai would have
literally burnt to ash as his own blood turned into steam and cooked him alive. Even before that point, with every attack Gai made, he was pulverizing his own bones to dust from the strain.
There are limits to even the best regenerative techniques; we'd have to be as good at medical stuff as Tsunade or Kabuto to even hope of making a seal that could offset the effects of anything beyond the first 4 Gates, and I'm being optimistic with that.
Taijustsu genius Lee, who focused on physical combat to the exclusion of all else, could open...the 5th Gate by the Chuunin Exams.
And Kakashi was
flabbergasted to hear that he could do that much. Rock Lee elicited more of a "holy sh*t" reaction than every other competitor in the Chuunin Exams until Gaara unleashed
Shukaku.
Yep, that sounds about right. That's the level Kakashi was able to reach himself, after all.
It's possible he can do more, but canonically Kakashi has only ever been shown or stated to open the First Gate, the Gate of Opening.
So next time we get a chance, we ask Kakashi or Rock Lee to teach us how to open the gates?
Short answer: lots of grueling training that you can't just shortcut with talent, because there's no way to be "talented" at breaking your own body's safety locks.
