i have 65k power and pretty high initiative. ealier today i switched out mei for chojuri for seal and never switched back, when i went to kill a red-plunder at idk 33-35k power i was FKED UP. Like right away when i saw danzos barriare up and me not having my mei i knew this was gonne be tuff with danzo chaosing and immobile. and my sailor and watermain did survive till the end of the fight (till when danzos barriare was out) "tactic" plays A LOT bigger role. (and luck, i always role a barriare ninja)

anyway about the initiative barriare part. it is there to give the one with higher initiative an upper hand. If you have 2 irukas on place 1 the one with highest initative goes first, If you have 2 danzos, the one with highest initative will have barriare up first. i do agree on the complexity on why some ninjas way different fields do their moves faster then others. Bit then its again our job to learn which one is fastest. there is a list or guide out there somewhere telling which elementskills goes first i dont remember them but ye it is a bit complex.

so it goes from 1 to -10 hm idk