Author's Note: Now that I've finally finished Klepto'd (shameless plug: go read it) and my semester's almost over, I started digging through some notebooks and found a ton of gobbly-gook that I can finally put up. Since I'm waiting for Geology to start, figured I'd get this one up real fast. Just a short little essay on the nature of chuunin.

Disclaimer: Not mine.

There are ranks of ninja; even the most naïve of civilian children know that.

Pre-genin Academy brats.

Genin.

Chuunin.

Tokubetsu jounin – masters of their chosen specialty.

Jounin.

ANBU.

Kage…

Plus more, depending on what nation you were talking about.

The older members of the civilian community knew the truth about shinobi ranks though.

Pre-genin and genin weren't true ninja, not really. They hadn't been blooded yet; being a ninja was all just theory to them. Sure, they knew the proper angle to hold a kunai at silently slit a throat, but they had never experienced the sudden gush of hot, sticky blood across their hands. They hadn't been through the wringer yet – they were still whole.

Tokubetsu jounin on up the ranks – they had seen the dark side of the world. They were not cracked by it – no, they were completely shattered. Their sanity was a very finite, fragile thing – thinner and more fragile than dried rice paper. Death was their constant companion – not hovering in the wings, but ever by their sides.

That was where common civilian knowledge ended. Most civilians idolize the ANBU and the jounin ranks above all, placing them on gilded pedestals in their minds. What most civilians don't know is that they are not the true shinobi.

That title goes to the chuunin. They are the true ninja. They know how to kill; indeed, they are masters of it… but yet they remember what it is to be free of the constant bloodshed… they remember how to smile, how to laugh… how to feel.

Often, civilians will look at the older chuunin, wrongly thinking that they do not advance in rank because they can't.

They couldn't be more wrong.

They choose not to, each for their own reason.

Tonbo chooses not to because he has seen what it is to be more… and still wakes up in cold sweats, screaming as he "sees" the jutsu that blinded him.

Kotetsu chooses not to because he'd have to give up his weaponsmithing. Jounin are always needed on missions or as sensei – he feels he can be a greater asset to the village by forging his weapons.

Izumo chooses not to, not because he is soft-spoken and innocuous. He chooses not to because, as a tracker, it's very hard to do your job well if your face is plastered in every nation's bingo book. It's much easier to work from the shadows as an unknown.

Iwashi chooses not to because very few jounin make it as mednin. Their mortality rate is obscenely high, even for the ninja community, and their burnout rate isn't far behind. Mednins have to care. Jounin, by definition, can't.

Iruka chooses to remain a chuunin because he cares. He has already been tempered – first by Kyuubi, then as a field-nin, then as a teacher. He feels it would be better to share his knowledge with the future generations of chuunin. Any scrap of information he can give his students that could make a difference… that more than justifies his decision, in his mind.

Hana chooses because she is needed in the village. Not just a vet to the Inuzaka, she also aides the Aburame clan with their bugs and their poisons – as well as any ninja with a summoning contract with an animal. Kakashi had never been happier she had made her decision the night he appeared on his doorstep, covered in mission slime, a limp and bleeding Pakkun in his arms. His tearing eyes – both his tearing eyes – had told the Inuzaka heir all she needed to know and had wordlessly set to work. Her skill far surpasses her age, and she had actually been assigned by the late Hokage directly to the village.

And the group of chuunin often discusses this knowledge of their choosing amongst themselves periodically. While the civilians cluck their tongues and pity them unknowingly for their choice… they in turn pity the civilians, because they really don't know anything.

The other, higher-ranked nin often jibe the chuunin about their status, but in truth, it's mostly in good humor. They too know the truth... while the Academy kids and genin are the future of the village, and the higher-ranks the face... the chuunin are the heart and soul.