I wonder if the parents had a say in it. I mean, the ones that HAD parents would likely impress upon them the importance and seriousness of it.
> Child soldiers only exist in the worst shitholes on the planet
Like the entirety of the Narutoverse before Boruto, basically.
> they'd never be viable as any kind of long-term program
I guess space magic changes that, especially when you have anomalies like Kakashi, Itachi, Zabuza, Madara, Sasuke, Naruto, Gaara, the list goes on.
> They have no idea what the fuck they're doing.
Which is why it's up to the Jounin to put their name up. If the Jounin doesn't think they're ready, they can't even enter.
> But the Forest of Death was just fucking dumb.
The only dumb part was putting people like Gaara in with the group, and also somehow completely missing Orochimaru.
> After causing that much senseless death he deserved to be put down.
Reminder that Gaara was literally a tool and a weapon that was being ordered around by someone who wasn't even his dad, and he couldn't sleep for more than a few hours a night, every night of his life, because if he did he'd go ballistic and murder everything. If you're going to blame anyone, blame Rasa.
Anyway, it's not like the series has a history of punishing people because they do bad things
> Hashirama just let Madara walk away after he explicitly states he's going to work against Konoha
> Orochimaru is free
> Kabuto runs an orphanage
> Itachi was apparently never a bad guy at all
> Sasuke. Enough said.
> Obito
> Nagato
> Tsunade was a drunken gambler at the time, I dunno where Jiraiya was and Gai was busy in the actual village.
I didn't think you meant at the EXACT point Naruto beat Gaara. I thought you mean just after the Invasion after everything had calmed down.