Quote:Yyeeeeaaaah... Um, I've got a scene written where N. is explaining a lot of this to the kids (because Naruto at least doesn't know it, and because he - and I - like to lecture), but it's longhand and I don't have the energy to type it in at the moment. The way I've worked it is that the term Elite only comes into use to distinguish from Special - ie, a Special Jounin has a Jounin's authority and psychological/leadership qualifications and at least one field of ninja practice at that level. Elite, or full, Jounin are Jounin-ranked in all four skill categories, but tend to have taken longer to get there, are much less likely to have noteworthy non-combat skills, and typically fall just barely short of full mastery of their fields.
Next question: kakashi and Gai and probably the new guy who's with Naruto, Sakura, and Sai are "Elite Jounin" - Shizune and Kabuto are likely at this level as well, though I don't think Shizune has an official rank and of course Kabuto is hiding his ability. I'm guessing that they're probably it in terms of Elites from your numbers, or at most a handful more, does that sound about right?
So, overall, I'd say that there are more Elites than you'd seem to guess, but they're not as overwhelmingly powerful as the title would first suggest.
Special Jounin as a whole will be assigned to specific missions as needed, and tend to handle most everything that calls for a command-level ninja that doesn't involve straight-out asskicking. Elite Jounin tend to handle the heaviest missions and mission loads, and, since their grasp of theory tends to be better rounded, get tapped to handle the Genin teams - ie, all of the canon Jounin-sensei are Elites.
ANBU service, btw, is a requirement for promotion to Jounin - a test of sorts, and trial of passage. This means that most ANBU are Chuunin, and their teams are led by Jounin because, well, the last time one wasn't was bloody Uchiha Itachi. (Since I have no clue if it'll come up, I'll let slip here that Neshan and Itachi have known and violently disliked each other since they were in the Academy, and that N. was actually in I.'s ANBU team - which greatly thrilled everybody concerned, let me tell you.)
RE: Maito and Aburame - sounds good!
RE: Haruno - argh. Actually, the real problem, which slipped my mind earlier, is that we've actually gone and created entirely different characters to fill out Sakura's family, particularly her mother. I mean, kickass Jounin vs. fluttery socialite, that's a big gap. Her father isn't nearly so problematic, and since I don't think either of us has ever formally pinned down how many kids there are we can just use all of them, but...
*shrug* Within her limits, Asuna's a good enough person, and she's genuinely devoted to her family, but Sakura came by her over-concern for societal pressures honestly - she thinks that what people think is a vital part of what matters in life, or at least a neccessity thereto - when Sakura realises how much her home life differs from her teammates and invites them to join in, Asuna's main issue with Naruto will basically boil down to, 'But what will people think?'
There's another minor point, which can be discarded easily enough given the original divergence but might be cool to resolve - see, fandom tradition says that all Haruno have pink hair. My take was, maybe not. Maybe it's that Sakura has cherry-blossom pink hair, and her sister Katakuri has lavender, and their father, Saffuron has saffron-yellow, and so on... which kind of sucks for the boys in the family, but that's life.
Ja, -n
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"V, did you do something foolish?"
"Yes, and it was glorious."