The Right Way to Save the Ninja World

1.

The number one law of the shinobi world:

[My pain is greater than yours!]

That is, I can only understand you if I’ve suffered as much as you have. I can only convince you if I’ve suffered more than you.

The number two law of the shinobi world:

[Being on the brink of death helps you win with Talk no Jutsu!]

That is, before you try to convince your opponent, if you can beat them up first, you’re more likely to succeed.

2.

So how did Zenin Rina learn all this?

Ha!

When she first transmigrated with a manga forum, and the forum told her to save the shinobi world by earning popularity points, Zenin Rina tried her best.

Even though she landed right in the middle of a battlefield, she could use manga readers’ perceptions to influence reality in the manga world. With one earth-shattering claim, “I’m a descendant of Uchiha Madara,” she gave herself a stylish Uchiha identity.

Saving the shinobi world seemed just around the corner.

Then she ended up living with Orochimaru and Shimura Danzo eyeing her from the front, and Black Zetsu and Obito scheming against her from behind...

All while the Uchiha clan’s extermination countdown kept ticking along!

No one! Would! Listen! To her!!

Because she hadn’t suffered enough!

Because she was just an unremarkable Uchiha orphan who’d been abandoned far from home. She had neither the hatred of someone whose country and family had been destroyed, nor the loss of a beloved, a close friend, or a dream!

3.

Then one day, Uchiha Rina finally understood:

What was all that about not wanting to invent a fake past to manipulate people’s feelings? Not wanting to be a tragic white moonlight or a delicate, sorrowful flower? Wanting to save the shinobi world with honor and integrity?

In this godforsaken shinobi world where you can’t even play games, beautiful, strong, and tragic is the way to go!

And she wasn’t aiming to be just any beautiful, strong, and tragic person.

Her backstory had to be more tragic than everyone else’s, and she had to be stronger than everyone else.

Because only then could she beat her enemies up and successfully Talk-no-Jutsu them, and then she could get those shinobi to help her save the world!

4.

There was just one thing Rina forgot:

Too much of anything can have the opposite effect.

One embroidered shoe suddenly appearing in your bedroom makes for a horror story. A hundred embroidered shoes appearing means some shoe factory’s warehouse has exploded.

As Rina raced toward becoming beautiful, strong, and tragic, the shinobi and readers first felt sympathy, empathized with her, and worried for her. They began thinking about what she said and what she wanted to do.

But as her backstory was peeled away layer by layer, from an Uchiha abandoned far from home to a forbidden child of the Senju and Uchiha, from a war orphan to a survivor of the already-destroyed Uzumaki Country...

They were numb.

Could anyone really have a backstory like that?

Could anyone really go through all those things and still remain mentally sound?

Give it a rest, Rina!

At last, one day, the shinobi, utterly overwhelmed, realized that “understanding isn’t about comparing suffering. People don’t all have to suffer equally to work together for peace.”

Trembling, the shinobi made a suggestion to Uchiha Rina, who had united the entire shinobi world:

“You said the shinobi world will be destroyed by aliens, right? Why don’t we go fight the aliens? Forget about all that stuff from the past!!”

Content warnings:

1.

An alternate scenario where Rina transmigrates into the shinobi world with a manga forum. The two Rinas have somewhat different personalities, and this is a brand-new story. You can understand it even if you haven’t read Dying... yet.

Pairing undecided.

2.

Yes, in this story Rina really is Madara and Hashirama’s kid. The manga readers are pulling the strings.

But there’s no MadaHashi or HashiMada romance. They’re just close friends from Konoha.

3.

This story doesn’t bash Konoha or the Uchiha, but you could also say it bashes them both.

Rina slaps Konoha once, the Uchiha once, and hits the nobles with the Eighteen Dragon-Subduing Palms.

4.

Inspired by a humorous observation from StellaaQ that opened up a whole new world:

The reason the shinobi world is full of unreasonable people is that Kishimoto needs the main characters to suffer more than most of the other characters, so they can successfully win with Talk no Jutsu!

Theme: Suffering cannot be compared