Kabuto's Past. [SPOILER]

[Leviathan]

Well, this has been bugging me right from the moment Kishi started to reveal about Kabuto's past in the last two chapters. So here I am discussing about them. Please note it down that Kabuto was 19-20 years old when he was introduced in the Naruto Series.

Up until now we knew that Kabuto was found in the battle field of Battle of Kikyo Pass by some Konoha Captain of the Medic Corps. Now this battle took place almost at the end of the Third Shinobi World War. Note it down that Kabuto was found as an infant in that battle field.

But the info given by Kishi in his last two chapters are totally contradictory with what he revealed before. In the last two chapters it is shown that Kabuto was found by a nun named Nonou and taken into an orphanage. There Kabuto lived for three years and then was recruited by Danzo. Then it is seen that Kabuto is in a covert mission inside the village hidden in the Rocks. Here we can see that Kabuto saying that it had been 5 years since he left the orphanage.

Now let's say Kabuto was 8 years(he couldn't be any younger) old when Nonou found him and took him into the orphanage. Kabuto lived in the Orphanage for 3 years and then left it. That makes him 11 years old when he left the orphanage. During his covert mission in the rock it is revealed that it had been 5 years since he left the orphanage......making him 16 years old. Now according to Narutopedia the battle of Kikyo Pass took place after that.

The Naruto Series started 12 years later after the Kyubi's attack and the Kyubi's attack happened after the end of Third Shinobi World War. Now if you have been following me up until now carefully you must've figured out these things.

1. Kabuto couldn't have been 18 years old at the time of his introduction. He had to be almost 30 by then.

2. Kabuto was said to be an infant when he was found after the battle of Kikyo Pass. We don't call a teenager an infant.

So the conclusion is, Kishi has totally lost it this time, giving us such contradictory data. So if anyone can find any flaw with any data I have given here, please inform me.

[Kida Masaomi]

Seeing as he was a really skilled medic ninja (whatever they call it) maybe he had some abilities like Tsunade to regain his more youth appeal or did little experiments o.o, I'm just taking a wild stab.

Also have they mentioned the age of Kabuto in Naruto Shippuden? o.o?

[Leviathan]

Seeing as he was a really skilled medic ninja (whatever they call it) maybe he had some abilities like Tsunade to regain his more youth appeal or did little experiments o.o, I'm just taking a wild stab.

Also have they mentioned the age of Kabuto in Naruto Shippuden? o.o?

There was no reason for me to think about the fact that Kabuto is in possession of such jutsu. After all it is mentioned that Kabuto was 19-20 years old in the first series. While he is 22-23 years old in the Naruto Shippuden series, this also answers your question, I believe.

[lemmingllama]

Well, Kabuto can manipulate his own cells. As such, couldnt he just mould them to change his appearance? Or to be even more extreme, couldnt he just alter them so that he would lose age? Of course this is all speculation and we will have to wait to see exactly what is happening

[Wizard]

Maybe he just shows off that he is around 20 or somewhat like that. We all know that he is a very skilled medic ninja after all

---------- Post added at 06:51 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:49 PM ----------

Maybe he could have been experimented by orochimaru(as we see orochimaru shows intrest in him

)

[Leviathan]

Well, Kabuto can manipulate his own cells. As such, couldnt he just mould them to change his appearance? Or to be even more extreme, couldnt he just alter them so that he would lose age? Of course this is all speculation and we will have to wait to see exactly what is happening

Maybe he just shows off that he is around 20 or somewhat like that. We all know that he is a very skilled medic ninja after all.

I understand where you guys are coming from. And if Kishi shows something like what you guys are suggesting here then I am surely at fault. But I am talking based on given data.

Now, we have only seen one person in the whole series who is capable of such ability as to change their whole appearance. That person is Tsunade. Tsunade though looks like she is in her mid 20's is actually over 50. So we can see that Kishi revealed her age. Again Kishi didnot reveal the age of certain characters like Tobi or Zetsu. This helped to keep a certain air of mystery around them. But this is not the case with Kabuto. Kishi already himself revealed Kabuto's age.

I myself considered the possibility which you guys mentioned above, and came to this conclusion.

Maybe he could have been experimented by orochimaru(as we see orochimaru shows intrest in him

Good theory, but major flaw. Kabuto was not even affiliated with Orochimaru at that time, so this possibility is out of the question.

[blank sentiment]

Well, this has been bugging me right from the moment Kishi started to reveal about Kabuto's past in the last two chapters. So here I am discussing about them. Please note it down that Kabuto was 19-20 years old when he was introduced in the Naruto Series.

Up until now we knew that Kabuto was found in the battle field of Battle of Kikyo Pass by some Konoha Captain of the Medic Corps. Now this battle took place almost at the end of the Third Shinobi World War. Note it down that Kabuto was found as an infant in that battle field.

But the info given by Kishi in his last two chapters are totally contradictory with what he revealed before. In the last two chapters it is shown that Kabuto was found by a nun named Nonou and taken into an orphanage. There Kabuto lived for three years and then was recruited by Danzo. Then it is seen that Kabuto is in a covert mission inside the village hidden in the Rocks. Here we can see that Kabuto saying that it had been 5 years since he left the orphanage.

Now let's say Kabuto was 8 years(he couldn't be any younger) old when Nonou found him and took him into the orphanage. Kabuto lived in the Orphanage for 3 years and then left it. That makes him 11 years old when he left the orphanage. During his covert mission in the rock it is revealed that it had been 5 years since he left the orphanage......making him 16 years old. Now according to Narutopedia the battle of Kikyo Pass took place after that.

The Naruto Series started 12 years later after the Kyubi's attack and the Kyubi's attack happened after the end of Third Shinobi World War. Now if you have been following me up until now carefully you must've figured out these things.

1. Kabuto couldn't have been 18 years old at the time of his introduction. He had to be almost 30 by then.

2. Kabuto was said to be an infant when he was found after the battle of Kikyo Pass. We don't call a teenager an infant.

So the conclusion is, Kishi has totally lost it this time, giving us such contradictory data. So if anyone can find any flaw with any data I have given here, please inform me.

I have a few bones to pick with this theory.

First, Konohamaru was 8 in pt 1, and young Kabuto looks younger than him. Given that one of the Matrons considered that kabuto wasn't old enough to know how to tell time, there's a good chance that he was younger than 8. However, I'm not seeing anything that makes any statements that "he couldn't be any younger than that" valid.

Second, we know that Kabuto kept being fed new "life stories" that he had to know and live by. His official past in Konoha could easily have been installed by Danzou. Danzou probably ordered or blackmailed the head of the Medical Corps into telling that cover story, in order to cover up Kabuto's status as a Covert Agent. His time with Sasori was probably in that time he was working missions for Danzou, and Orochimaru broke the Manchurian Agent no Jutsu that Sasori used in that time, as well as winning Kabuto over by being the only one to bother to remember him or show him sympathy. The issue with characters like Kabuto is that while they're surrounded by lies and deception, we only get chunks of each story and try to reconcile them assuming all are true. In reality, most of what we "know" about Kabuto's past is told by other people. The parts that we know that are corroborated between different tellers are the "adopted by captain of medical corps" part, "servant of Orochimaru" part and the "former servant of Sasori" part. We don't know how long the latter lasted for, but it was presumably during the mission phase in the 5 year time under Danzou.

Actually, I have an idea on when he was a servant of Sasori. It could have been during his time as a spy in Kirigakure, which for a time was secretly ruled by Tobi, who was connected to Sasori. We just don't know when Yagura died.

As for WHEN he was found, Kabuto was found in a war zone, and was raised by a medic. 3 years later, there was STILL a war going on. So the only part that was wrong there was the "being found by the captain of the Medic Corps" part, which as I mentioned earlier, was likely just a cover story that Danzou fabricated.

[Leviathan]

Before I start, let me clarify this, that what I have written up until now and is going to write are all based on the given data. I have avoided any type of assumptions or theories which might be based on variable data.

First, Konohamaru was 8 in pt 1, and young Kabuto looks younger than him. Given that one of the Matrons considered that kabuto wasn't old enough to know how to tell time, there's a good chance that he was younger than 8. However, I'm not seeing anything that makes any statements that "he couldn't be any younger than that" valid.

Well it's actually up to you to consider his age that time. I considered him to be 8. Yet considering him to be younger than won't change anything. Let's say he was 6 years old that time(Come on, he couldn't have been younger than that). A reduction in two years won't change anything here.

Second, we know that Kabuto kept being fed new "life stories" that he had to know and live by. His official past in Konoha could easily have been installed by Danzou. Danzou probably ordered or blackmailed the head of the Medical Corps into telling that cover story, in order to cover up Kabuto's status as a Covert Agent. His time with Sasori was probably in that time he was working missions for Danzou, and Orochimaru broke the Manchurian Agent no Jutsu that Sasori used in that time, as well as winning Kabuto over by being the only one to bother to remember him or show him sympathy. The issue with characters like Kabuto is that while they're surrounded by lies and deception, we only get chunks of each story and try to reconcile them assuming all are true. In reality, most of what we "know" about Kabuto's past is told by other people. The parts that we know that are corroborated between different tellers are the "adopted by captain of medical corps" part, "servant of Orochimaru" part and the "former servant of Sasori" part. We don't know how long the latter lasted for, but it was presumably during the mission phase in the 5 year time under Danzou.

So let me see what you are suggesting here:

1. The fact that Kabuto was found by a Konoha captain of the Medic Corps in the Battle of Kikyo Pass is nothing but a lie created by Danzo to cover Kabuto's covert missions. Kabuto got recruited by Danzo and later on took part in the Third Shinobi World War as a covert operative.

2. Sasori took control over Kabuto between the time he left the orphanage and saw the nun again inside the Tsuchigakure. That means Sasori could've taken over Kabuto between those five years.

Are these the two points you are suggesting?

Actually, I have an idea on when he was a servant of Sasori. It could have been during his time as a spy in Kirigakure, which for a time was secretly ruled by Tobi, who was connected to Sasori. We just don't know when Yagura died.

First of all there's no record that Kabuto was a spy inside Kirigakure. So I cannot agree with you here. Though a possible theory, this is pure assumption.

As for WHEN he was found, Kabuto was found in a war zone, and was raised by a medic. 3 years later, there was STILL a war going on. So the only part that was wrong there was the "being found by the captain of the Medic Corps" part, which as I mentioned earlier, was likely just a cover story that Danzou fabricated.

Kabuto was found by a nun named Nonou from a certain battlefield during the war. Three years later he was recruited by Danzo. He then took part in the war. Later on he was found by a Konoha captain of the Medic Corp from the Battle of Kikyo Pass which took place almost at the end of the Third Shinobi World War.

[blank sentiment]

So let me see what you are suggesting here:

1. The fact that Kabuto was found by a Konoha captain of the Medic Corps in the Battle of Kikyo Pass is nothing but a lie created by Danzo to cover Kabuto's covert missions. Kabuto got recruited by Danzo and later on took part in the Third Shinobi World War as a covert operative.

I wouldn't go so far as to call it a COMPLETE lie. Danzo would have ordered the captain of the Medical corps to care for him and help him improve medical ninjutsu so he'd be of more use on missions, and stick to that story about finding Kabuto among corpses, since that's a conveniently unverifiable background. The idea is that any snarls in Kabuto's history have between what we see and what we get second or third hand can be chalked up to getting a mix of pieces of truths and lies. As

2. Sasori took control over Kabuto between the time he left the orphanage and saw the nun again inside the Tsuchigakure. That means Sasori could've taken over Kabuto between those five years.

Yes, that is one way it could have happened, since he was most likely hit with Manchurian Agent no Jutsu some time BEFORE Orochimaru picked him up.

First of all there's no record that Kabuto was a spy inside Kirigakure. So I cannot agree with you here. Though a possible theory, this is pure assumption.

http://www.mangahere.com/manga/naruto/v60/c583/10.html

What assumption are you talking about? We have a CLEAR record of that happening.

Kabuto was found by a nun named Nonou from a certain battlefield during the war. Three years later he was recruited by Danzo. He then took part in the war. Later on he was found by a Konoha captain of the Medic Corp from the Battle of Kikyo Pass which took place almost at the end of the Third Shinobi World War.

I did actually look back and it didn't say infant. It said that he was found and raised as a son. Still a bit murky. For now, I'm defaulting to a partly true cover story put in place by Douchebag McAsshole.

[Leviathan]

>http://www.mangahere.com/manga/naruto/v60/c583/10.html

What assumption are you talking about? We have a CLEAR record of that happening.

First of all I apologize for calling this a pure assumption. It seems I was not observant enough. Now, accepting your theory here will probably give light to the topic "how Sasori took control over Kabuto". However we do not sufficient data here. So neither can I agree nor disagree with you in this matter.

I did actually look back and it didn't say infant.

Here's a link: http://naruto.wikia.com/wiki/Battle_of_Kiky%C5%8D_Pass. I took this data from here. Though I cannot say that the source of data is 100% accurate, however this is the most reliable source.

I wouldn't go so far as to call it a COMPLETE lie. Danzo would have ordered the captain of the Medical corps to care for him and help him improve medical ninjutsu so he'd be of more use on missions, and stick to that story about finding Kabuto among corpses, since that's a conveniently unverifiable background. The idea is that any snarls in Kabuto's history have between what we see and what we get second or third hand can be chalked up to getting a mix of pieces of truths and lies.

From this statement of yours I believe that you have accepted the fact that Danzo blackmailed that certain Captain to tell lies about Kabuto's past to certain extent. However this doesn't change a thing. Here's what I wrote while starting this thread: ( i changed the age from 8 to 6 here, as you didn't accept him as an 8 year old at that time).

Now let's say Kabuto was 6 years old when Nonou found him and took him into the orphanage. Kabuto lived in the Orphanage for 3 years and then left it. That makes him 9 years old when he left the orphanage. During his covert mission in the rock it is revealed that it had been 5 years since he left the orphanage......making him 14 years old. Now according to Narutopedia the battle of Kikyo Pass took place after that. The battle of Kikyo pass took place at the end of the Third Shinobi World War.

The Naruto Series started 12 years later after the Kyubi's attack and the Kyubi's attack happened after the end of Third Shinobi World War.

You see what I am trying to say here, don't you? No matter how we look at it.....the ages don't match up. Kabuto was said to be 19-20 years old in the first series. But as we see it here Kabuto had to be older than that. Even if we say that Danzo tricked the Medic Captain, it still won't change a thing.

Yes, that is one way it could have happened, since he was most likely hit with Manchurian Agent no Jutsu some time BEFORE Orochimaru picked him up.

A possible theory with a high accuracy of being correct. Since I do not have sufficient data regarding this topic, I cannot show any argument against it. However, "Sasori taking control over Kabuto" was not a topic I included in my original discussion.

[RikuoAmero]

The one thing I don't like about this whole new facet of Kabuto's "past"? It completely ignores the fact he spent seven years as a Genin!

In Part I, when Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura make it to the room for the written test of the Chuunin Exams, Kabuto introduces himself to them and says he's been taking the test for seven years (or has taken the test seven times, I can't remember which). This is corrorborated at the preliminaries, when Kabuto backs down, and the Third Hokage talks with the sick Jonin.

Now, we know that Kabuto was ordered to purposely fail his Chuunin exams, so as to spy on the Leaf village (although one would think that with a higher rank, he would have had access to more sensitive data and thus have been more useful to Orochimaru). During this time, he would have been stuck doing D and C ranked missions. He WOULD NOT have been given training by Leaf ninja to act as a deep cover spy: why train someone to do such a thing if he repeatedly fails his exams?

However, what I wrote above does fall apart if Kabuto's official Leaf jonin-sensei was also an agent of Orochimaru's. We know his two team-mates were IIRC, so why not the sensei?

[Leviathan]

The one thing I don't like about this whole new facet of Kabuto's "past"? It completely ignores the fact he spent seven years as a Genin!

In Part I, when Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura make it to the room for the written test of the Chuunin Exams, Kabuto introduces himself to them and says he's been taking the test for seven years (or has taken the test seven times, I can't remember which). This is corrorborated at the preliminaries, when Kabuto backs down, and the Third Hokage talks with the sick Jonin.

Now, we know that Kabuto was ordered to purposely fail his Chuunin exams, so as to spy on the Leaf village (although one would think that with a higher rank, he would have had access to more sensitive data and thus have been more useful to Orochimaru). During this time, he would have been stuck doing D and C ranked missions. He WOULD NOT have been given training by Leaf ninja to act as a deep cover spy: why train someone to do such a thing if he repeatedly fails his exams?

Couldn't have agreed more with you here. I mean he is shown to be recruited Danzo at a really young age and then they show Kabuto carrying out high class covert missions in all the great ninja villages. That is just absurd! I mean who sends a 12-13 year old kid for such missions?!

However, what I wrote above does fall apart if Kabuto's official Leaf jonin-sensei was also an agent of Orochimaru's. We know his two team-mates were IIRC, so why not the sensei?

A possible theory, yet it misses something. If Kabuto really had a Leaf jonin-sensei who acted as an agent for Orochimaru, then we would expect his sensei to teach Kabuto to follow in Orochimaru's steps. But that is not what we saw. Kishi told us that Sasori took control over Kabuto and sent him to Orochimaru's layer to spy on him. It was Orochimaru who freed Kabuto of this genjutsu and convinced Kabuto to work for him. Of course, what I just said are based on available data and can be nullified if one of the factors are proven to be wrong in the future.

[blank sentiment]

Couldn't have agreed more with you here. I mean he is shown to be recruited Danzo at a really young age and then they show Kabuto carrying out high class covert missions in all the great ninja villages. That is just absurd! I mean who sends a 12-13 year old kid for such missions?!

I'll tell you who does that. Douchebag McAsshole of the Shimura clan does. The same jackass who:

Preached about "self-sacrifice" while sitting on the sidelines pretending to be a crippled old man and sending other indoctrinated and possible brainwashed agents to their deaths instead

Likely "helped" with the Uchiha negotiations with the motivation of harvesting eyes from corpses

Treated said eyes as little more than batteries after harvesting them

Blackmailed an orphanage to get a FORMER agent un-retired

Immediately proceeded to demand an orphan as a new agent, recycling his exact threat from two minutes ago, then justified it with "well, for all you know, one of them wants to become a shinobi anyway." The man just ran a mafia-grade protection scam.

Didn't help defend Konoha during the invasion of Pain

Tried to use mind control to boost his standings at an international summit

Used Tobi-Yagura's "graduation test" on pre-genin.

Using Kabuto, an at least semi-willing volunteer, for such missions is sadly one of the LEAST damning examples of him being a bastard-coated bastard donut with bastard sprinkles and bastard filling after all the other ones we got.

[Leviathan]

It seems I made a mistake when I said "who sends a 12-13 year old kid for such missions". What I really wanted to say was "why send a 12-13 year old kid for such missions".

Kabuto was nothing more than a simple genin. It is an absurd idea to think that a child of 12-13 years would be sent to the multiple ninja villages to spy on them. From your writing I can say that you dislike Danzo to certain extent, but no matter what we say, we cannot deny the fact that Danzo is one of the most intelligent characters of the whole series. But then, why should he send Kabuto, a genin, to such high class missions? That is the question I want an answer to.

All the members of the Root who were sent for missions by Danzo are older than 20 and surely had experience on such matters. The youngest active member of the Root is Sai. Danzo assigned Sai for two missions:

1. Infiltrating Orochimaru's Hideout.

2. Observing Naruto.

The missions assigned to Kabuto were far more dangerous than the ones above.

[blank sentiment]

It is an absurd idea to think that a child of 12-13 years would be sent to the multiple ninja villages to spy on them.

Ah, here we are. The age old question "who would be that stupid?" People ask that question then find out just who was so "stupid" as to do something they didn't expect on account of it not being "smart". You're not the only one who thinks it "absurd" to use people Kabuto's age, which is EXACTLY why it works. Keep in mind though, that Kakashi made Jonin in his early teens. Age isn't always indicative of ability, and Kabuto had the perfect past for infiltration missions: no past at all.

From your writing I can say that you dislike Danzo to certain extent, but no matter what we say, we cannot deny the fact that Danzo is one of the most intelligent characters of the whole series.[\B]

There are a few points of contention here, like attempting to mind control a mediator in a meeting that was ALREADY going the way he wanted. The trope "Dick Dastardly Stops to Cheat" doesn't exactly scream intelligence. Or, how about insulting Itachi in front of Sasuke, then thinking that holding Karin hostage would save him? Or even dismissing Sasuke's illusions for not being as good as Itachi's? The man may have been fairly capable at scheming, but he was still a smug snake, and that's what got him killed. He tried to backstab or control too many people, someone caught on, he got isolated, then in his arrogance, made too many mistakes. He was intelligent, yes. But in the end, he proved to be too clever by half, and failed for it. And given his "resume" that I posted, the harshness is warranted. As far as whether or not I like or dislike him, it's not that simple. He's a huge asshole, yes. But he's of a much different flavor than Tobi, Madara, or Orochimaru, though he has a couple similarities with each of those varieties. I liked having him around while we had him, and enjoyed compiling just what made him a douchebag, but I wasn't sorry to see him die.

All the members of the Root who were sent for missions by Danzo are older than 20 and surely had experience on such matters. The youngest active member of the Root is Sai. Danzo assigned Sai for two missions:

1. Infiltrating Orochimaru's Hideout.

2. Observing Naruto.

The missions assigned to Kabuto were far more dangerous than the ones above.

Do we have a source saying that there are no other young members? Unless we have a statement on this, which I would be happy to see, this seems to be a bit of an assumption. And seriously? You categorize sneaking into an enemy village as LESS dangerous than observing a semi-unstable jinchuriki or getting within grabbing distance of Mr. Experimentation himself, Orochimaru? Your priorities, I guess, but still...

[Leviathan]

Ah, here we are. The age old question "who would be that stupid?" People ask that question then find out just who was so "stupid" as to do something they didn't expect on account of it not being "smart". You're not the only one who thinks it "absurd" to use people Kabuto's age, which is EXACTLY why it works. Keep in mind though, that Kakashi made Jonin in his early teens.

So what if Kabuto had no past which made him perfect for an infiltration. We are talking about sending an inexperienced kid to high class covert missions. Kabuto at most had a few years training at the time he was sent to infiltrate enemy lines. Let me ask you a question. Let's say you are a commander of a troop and you have been given a choice. The choice is either send an experienced mid 20 soldier or an inexperienced 12 year old kid to infiltrate the enemy lines. Which one would you pick?

Age isn't always indicative of ability, and Kabuto had the perfect past for infiltration missions: no past at all.

Yes, I agree that age isn't always indicative of ability. But I am not talking about it. No matter how much a kid is talented, there is no reason to send him to high class missions right of the bat.

We have seen talented and powerful rookies all through out the series but none of them were sent to high class missions from the start. And why was that? IT'S BECAUSE OF EXPERIENCE.

There are a few points of contention here, like attempting to mind control a mediator in a meeting that was ALREADY going the way he wanted. The trope "Dick Dastardly Stops to Cheat" doesn't exactly scream intelligence. Or, how about insulting Itachi in front of Sasuke, then thinking that holding Karin hostage would save him? Or even dismissing Sasuke's illusions for not being as good as Itachi's? The man may have been fairly capable at scheming, but he was still a smug snake, and that's what got him killed. He tried to backstab or control too many people, someone caught on, he got isolated, then in his arrogance, made too many mistakes. He was intelligent, yes. But in the end, he proved to be too clever by half, and failed for it. And given his "resume" that I posted, the harshness is warranted. As far as whether or not I like or dislike him, it's not that simple. He's a huge asshole, yes. But he's of a much different flavor than Tobi, Madara, or Orochimaru, though he has a couple similarities with each of those varieties. I liked having him around while we had him, and enjoyed compiling just what made him a douchebag, but I wasn't sorry to see him die.

I can't argue with you here. You are completely right. Though he was intelligent he still was a jerk. He used his intelligence for several activities no matter how evil they were just to satisfy himself.

Do we have a source saying that there are no other young members? Unless we have a statement on this, which I would be happy to see, this seems to be a bit of an assumption. And seriously? You categorize sneaking into an enemy village as LESS dangerous than observing a semi-unstable jinchuriki or getting within grabbing distance of Mr. Experimentation himself, Orochimaru? Your priorities, I guess, but still...

Yes, among all the Root members who have been shown in the series Sai is the youngest. Here's a link: http://naruto.wikia.com/wiki/Root I used this as my source of data here.

OK, it's fine if you consider infiltrating Orochimaru's lair to be harder than infiltrating multiple ninja villages at a time of war. But I can't really consider observing Naruto to be harder than that.

[blank sentiment]

We have seen talented and powerful rookies all through out the series but none of them were sent to high class missions from the start. And why was that? IT'S BECAUSE OF EXPERIENCE. [\B]

My only nitpick with what you said is that none of them, at least above the table, were INTENTIONALLY sent on high-class missions. I seem to remember an incident where a certain Genin managed to bitch his way up a mission class, and it turned out to be a battle against jonin-level opponents in what amounted to a small-scale war over the fate of a country. Yeah, that's kind of a high class mission. I do concede that it was not INTENTIONALLY given to the proper class of shinobi, but occasionally, something like that DOES happen above the table. And considering that nearly all of ROOT's missions amount to S-class, if Danzo believes that you managed to progress far along enough in his "special" training, then he'll send you on whatever mission he sees fit. He's operating off a different system than the standard "village missions" and as such has different training programs. remember that an active ROOT member is a certified ANBU, so Kabuto going on those missions implies that wheter or not Hiruzen knew about it, Kabuto was certified capable by Danzo, who as we have established, despite his many faults, isn't a complete idiot.

Yes, among all the Root members who have been shown in the series Sai is the youngest. Here's a link: http://naruto.wikia.com/wiki/Root I used this as my source of data here. [\B]

I'll accept that he was the youngest KNOWN member. As far as other members, we don't know what Danzo had, so I'm not going to assume that Sai was the youngest for sure, given that it's canon that Danzo used younger people.

OK, it's fine if you consider infiltrating Orochimaru's lair to be harder than infiltrating multiple ninja villages at a time of war. But I can't really consider observing Naruto to be harder than that.

You misunderstand me. I'm not calling it "harder", I'm calling it "dangerous". Orochimaru's not even safe to be around if you're one of his minions, let alone a spy. And when assigned to keep observing Naruto, that amounted standing next to the Jinchuriki with the unstable output, who had just had two MAJOR meltdowns in as many weeks and was currently undergoing mass-training that triggered several meltdowns that had to be supressed. That's a different kind of danger, the kind that comes from standing next to a bomb with an unstable detonator.

[Leviathan]

My only nitpick with what you said is that none of them, at least above the table, were INTENTIONALLY sent on high-class missions. I seem to remember an incident where a certain Genin managed to bitch his way up a mission class, and it turned out to be a battle against jonin-level opponents in what amounted to a small-scale war over the fate of a country. Yeah, that's kind of a high class mission. I do concede that it was not INTENTIONALLY given to the proper class of shinobi, but occasionally, something like that DOES happen above the table. And considering that nearly all of ROOT's missions amount to S-class, if Danzo believes that you managed to progress far along enough in his "special" training, then he'll send you on whatever mission he sees fit. He's operating off a different system than the standard "village missions" and as such has different training programs. remember that an active ROOT member is a certified ANBU, so Kabuto going on those missions implies that wheter or not Hiruzen knew about it, Kabuto was certified capable by Danzo, who as we have established, despite his many faults, isn't a complete idiot.

Guess you are right here. The only explanation is this: "Danzo for some reason thought that a 12/13 year old Kabuto was good enough for sending into such dangerous missions". Though troubling, there is nothing more I can say against it. It still troubles me to think that Danzo would consider to send an inexperienced genin to multiple covert missions. But then again we do know how much evil and cruel the Danzo could be.

You misunderstand me. I'm not calling it "harder", I'm calling it "dangerous". Orochimaru's not even safe to be around if you're one of his minions, let alone a spy. And when assigned to keep observing Naruto, that amounted standing next to the Jinchuriki with the unstable output, who had just had two MAJOR meltdowns in as many weeks and was currently undergoing mass-training that triggered several meltdowns that had to be supressed. That's a different kind of danger, the kind that comes from standing next to a bomb with an unstable detonator.

I already said it, didn't I? I can't show any argument on this topic. It's fine if you consider those two missions to be more dangerous than infiltrating enemy villages. We can only give our opinion here, but proving them would be tougher due to lack of data.

[blank sentiment]

Guess you are right here. The only explanation is this: "Danzo for some reason thought that a 12/13 year old Kabuto was good enough for sending into such dangerous missions". Though troubling, there is nothing more I can say against it. It still troubles me to think that Danzo would consider to send an inexperienced genin to multiple covert missions. But then again we do know how much evil and cruel the Danzo could be.

Well, to be fair, Danzo IS pretty good at training his members for missions, even though most of the missions he assigned during the series ultimately failed. If he deemed Kabuto capable of the kinds of missions he was sent on, then Kabuto could do that no problem. I wouldn't go so far as to call Danzo "cruel and evil" though. He was a huge jerk who did a lot of nasty things, yes. But, he definitely believed that he had the best interests of the village at heart at the end of the day, and a lot of the stuff that he has done generally supports the village and if it were to come to light, the actual leadership would save face because Danzo did it independently. He's more "harsh" than "evil and cruel" most of the time. He does lapse more towards those at times though.

[avpai]

frankly....kabuto's past is not as interesting as his future,from the hands of the uchiha bros...