Am I even being paired up against level 20's? Is it normal for someone to have the glowing orange sage-mode Naruto this early?

I keep trying but I've never won a single match.

Finally won one! But now I'm not getting credit for the daily practice rewards. The description for the training battle says participation counts for daily rewards but that doesn't seem to be the case.

Hello!

Regarding the "speed" stat that you are talking about, it is called the "Initiative" in the game. In the arena, the only stat counted is Initiative and that is the one you have to boost or upgrade for you to attack first versus your opponent and this is by upgrading your Treasured Tools which you will have to set according to your ninja position or preference. The arena also gives a base stat of level 100 for all the players so everyone has the same stats and levels except the Initiative part. For the Daily Practice or Mission, you have to accomplish the missions (at least 2 Missions) that were given on the left side of your screen, accomplish 2 of it will give you the credit for the Daily Practice (for example, "Win a battle using 2 Earth Attribute Ninja")

Additional info, If your server is already beyond 50 days upon opening then your arena is already a cross-server which means, you may possibly end up being matched with a player who plays in older or newer server. That being said makes it clear that you are being paired with someone who has a Ninja of that kind. Hope my explanation gives you an idea about your inquiries. Thank you.

Since the initiative question got adressed i'll not answer that.

About the hinata, i'd suggest you apply CC to her. If you can't be fast enough to combo first then interfere in the enemy combo before he launches it, this can be done applying paralysis, chaos or inmobile to someone. You can target whoever will trigger hinata's chase or target hinata herself.

Everyone does it...because it is too good. It's pretty much the day2+ meta.

Main pos 1 (unless you have earth main in which case you are fked) hinata pos 2... link her chase into his mystery and tada. Now, most of the times you are gonna be up against bots, not human players. Which should make this easily beatable.

Glowing orange naruto you get from buying the jonin medal. And he is an awful ninja in arena too xD.