Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
The Old Ninja
"A ninja is old at the age of forty," they say. The stress, the hardship, the constant fighting—they all take their toll, too fast, indeed.
Have you ever considered the plight of this old ninja?
The one thing he has spent a lifetime learning, practicing, doing, he can do no longer. Where he was once a great strength, he is a failure. A weakness.
This old ninja cannot stay.
He is given a pension, and returns home, to find himself no longer needed. No longer wanted, even, as the kids and grandkids follow in his footsteps, growing old twice as fast, becoming the heroes of their generation in the blink of an eye clouded with cataracts. He stays alone in his empty nest, until it becomes his cage, and then his tomb.
And all this, at the age of forty.
I repeat—have you ever considered the plight of this old ninja?
Crack. Utter crack.