History Fridge / Naruto

** Ultimately, Madara makes it crystal clear he was merely playing with the Five Kages and all earlier opposition in the War, and once he finally brings out his full strength, the Kages all but admit they ''never'' had a chance from the start. They only survived as long as they did due to Madara being interested in indulging their little games (as he even describes their skirmish well into the fight), testing out his new (but ultimately inferior) abilities, and being weaker than his own prime.

*** Jossed on all counts. Hashirama was able to regularly contest Sharingan Madara in close-quarters. Madara makes it clear his full power was Perfect Susano'o, not any Rinnegan-related abilities, and both Madara and Dan emphasize no one in history could defeat Madara other than the (late) First Hokage. Not only does Hashirama defeat Madara even after the latter combined Perfect Susano'o and Kurama, it is also twice stated that Edo Tensei Hashirama was actually WEAKER than his prime living self; even then, he defeats - or at worst stalemates - Edo Tensei Rinnegan Madara. In fact, even Madara is ultimately stated to be weaker than his prime self even with his ''upgrades'' - Kabuto, the one person who stated otherwise, was ignorant of the man's full power (as he ironically admitted earlier). In addition, the argument Sharingan is countered by Mokuton is odd given that Madara is a Katon user, Mokuton uses wood, and wood is highly flammable (Madara even uses this specific fact against the Kages). Ultimately, Madara makes it crystal clear he was merely playing with the Five Kages and all earlier opposition in the War, and once he finally brings out his full strength, the Kages all but admit they never had a chance from the start.

** Conversely, when he thought Pain killed Hinata in the Invasion of Pain arc, Naruto ''instantly'' went to his Six-Tailed state, and the manga even highlighted this as Naruto feeling "seethed with the worst emotions he'd ever felt." Essentially, he got his worst HeroicBSOD ''ever'', and this was ''only his first one'' (out of a total of four -- see that entry in his character page). Even in his Six-Tailed state, even after he destroyed the First Hokage's necklace, even after [[UpToEleven he entered his Eight-Tailed state]], Naruto managed to not harm Hinata, let alone nearly kill her or even outright kill her. He also crossed the DespairEventHorizon so badly that [[DarkestHour he completely lost his will to live]], to the point where [[FromBadToWorse he was ready to release the Kyuubi]]. When Minato stopped him from ripping off the seal at the last second and then they talked, Minato strengthened the seal again, and Naruto reverted to normal, Katsuyu told him what happened when he was still in Kyuubi mode. Naruto immediately thought about Hinata and became worried that he might have killed her (and the other villagers) when he went berserk, and then he cried {{Manly|Tears}} TearsOfJoy when he found out that Hinata was still alive. Later on in Chapter 490, he explicitly states [[http://www.mangapanda.com/naruto/490/14 here]] that being ForcedToWatch Pain attack Hinata was what caused him to go berserk -- clearly showing that he remembered what happened to be the trigger of his UnstoppableRage (Hinata), even though he was in two higher Kyuubi-states. The deaths of Jiraiya, Kakashi, and his frog-sensei, and the destruction of Konoha, had nothing to do with Naruto's UnstoppableRage; Hinata alone was the trigger. Her near-death established herself as Naruto's LivingEmotionalCrutch.

* Pain taunts Naruto, who is in the [[SuperPoweredEvilSide Six-Tailed state]], asking if Naruto hates him and if he still believes that people can be able to truly understand one another. Only that Naruto, while indeed furious, is under a HeroicBSOD and Kurama's at the reins. However, given later developments, it turns out Kurama is ''legitimately'' pissed as Pain is mocking the ideals of Kurama's creator and father figure, the Sage of the Six Paths. To which he reacts by forcing more chakra through the failing seal to go into the [[UpToEleven Eight-Tailed state]].

### Both are considered very beautiful by their husbands partly because of their long flowing hair. [[HeroesWantRedheads Minato boldly complimented Kushina's long red hair]] when he rescued her from the Kumo ninja, and her hair reaches down to ''[[UpToEleven her ankles]]'' in the manga (only to her waist in the anime). As pointed out in several entries throughout these Fridge folders, Naruto, without realizing it, '''did''' show signs of [[UnresolvedSexualTension reciprocating Hinata's feelings]] in Part II, beginning in the [[WarArc Fourth Shinobi World War Arc]] (specifically, Chapter 558), when her hair reaches down to her lower back, and then he wholeheartedly reciprocates her feelings in ''The Last'', when her hair reaches down to her hips.

** When it seems that Pain killed Hinata, [[BerserkButton Naruto flies into]] [[UnstoppableRage a rage of]] [[UpToEleven epic proportions]]. To give you some measure: every other time he used the Kyuubi's power, he grew the tails gradually, up to a maximum of four. This time, he went from zero to six tails [[DespairEventHorizon in a blink]]. Then, he grows [[DarkestHour two more tails]] and [[FromBadToWorse almost releases the Kyuubi]]. Although Pain killed [[BadassTeacher Jiraiya and Kakashi]], destroyed Konoha, and then killed his frog-sensei, Naruto explicitly states [[http://www.mangapanda.com/naruto/490/14 here]] that he lost it only after he was ForcedToWatch Pain attack Hinata.

*** It was necessary but he went '''[[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill OVERBOARD]]''' not once but [[UpToELEVEN Twice]]!

* Madara is the reincarnation of Indra and he became the embodiment of Sage by injecting himself with the cells of the First Hokage, right? This mixes the two chakras together. Naruto is the reincarnation of Asura, like the First Hokage before him. And Sasuke is the reincarnation of Indra like Madara. If Boruto and Sarada were to become a couple... Does that mean that their children will be the reincarnation of Sage himself?

### Both are considered very beautiful by their husbands partly because of [[RapunzelHair their long flowing hair]]. [[HeroesWantRedheads Minato boldly complimented Kushina's long red hair]] when he rescued her from the Kumo ninja, and her hair reaches down to ''[[UpToEleven her ankles]]'' in the manga (only to her waist in the anime). As pointed out in several entries throughout these Fridge folders, Naruto, without realizing it, '''did''' show signs of [[UnresolvedSexualTension reciprocating Hinata's feelings]] in Part II, beginning in the [[WarArc Fourth Shinobi World War Arc]] (specifically, Chapter 558), when her hair reaches down to her lower back, and then he wholeheartedly reciprocates her feelings in ''The Last'', when her hair reaches down to her hips.

* Minato's existence has become the living definition of AdultFear. As a teacher he lost two of his students because he was busy with other missions and on the day his son is born his wife is kidnapped and put on a timed death sentece because a masked lunatic ripped a spiritual behemoth out of her and used it to try and destroy his son, his wife and his village forcing him to sacrifice himself and his dying wife so that their son could use the half of that behemoth placed on him to stop the masked man and bring peace, that sucks right? Cue 17 years later when he is revived on his son's birthday only to discover the masked lunatic was one of the students he failed to save who went evil because of the other one who died, then the son he and his wife sacrificed themselves to protect and empower is brought to him on a timed death sentence because said half of the spiritual behemoth he had sealed in him got ripped off by the [[ManBehindTheMan man behind]] his student turned masked lunatic and when he tries to save him the way he couldn't with his wife his only chance is stolen by an evil minion who had previously hijacked the body of his student turned evil for the sake of forcing him to fight and keep Minato busy while his loved ones again died away, [[ShootTheShaggyDogStory shoot the shaggy dog much?]] How much more Minato can take before snapping into a HeroicBSOD?

### Both have unique hair colors that match their respective personalities. Kushina has [[HeroesWantRedheads red hair]] and is a FieryRedhead. Hinata has [[YouGottaHaveBlueHair dark blue hair]] and is a ShyBlueHairedGirl.

* Road to Ninja: Jiraya is killed by the masked man at the beggining of the movie after retrieving the Red Moon Scroll. We later find out said masked man is actually Menma, who is Naruto's AU counterpart, which means that even in the world of dreams Jiraya still ends up [[MentorOccupationHazard killed by one of his own students]].

* Danzo and Orochimaru were correct for seeing the third Hokage as power-hungry and using the fourth as his puppet. He was probably Hokage for over 30 years before retiring, and the Hokage that he picked to replace him was so young and inexperienced that Hiruzen would be able to manipulate him easily. After Minato died, Hiruzen should have only returned for a short time to pick a new leader but instead he stayed until his death 12 years later. He should have retired again due to his failure in the third shinobi world war. Fugaku or Tsunade would have made great Hokage but they were both old and wise enough to break away from his control.

* Shizune mentioned that Tsunade's necklace only acknowledged her and that anyone else who wore it would die within a day. Naruto has not died yet and has had it for about three years. He is still alive. And guess who else had the necklace for a long time? HASHIRAMA! So the first two people to survive the necklace became Hokage. So, this is Kishi's way of saying that Naruto will definitely become Hokage! This is reinforced by the fact that two other people who wanted to be Hokage wore it and died within 24 hours.

** Additionally, it's was revealed that Itachi's "visit" to the Leaf was directly related to the 3rd's death. As his boss was dead, and as Itachi still dearly loved Konoha and his brother, his visit was his way of telling Danzo "Don't forget, I'm still watching. Try ANYTHING, and I'm going to make you regret it". Considering Danzo didn't do anything major during part one, Tsunade was able to take the Hokage seat peacefully, and Naruto wasn't as heavily restricted as he was during Part II, it's obvious that Itachi's visit did exactly what it needed to do.

* Sasuke's Chidori was able to punch clean through Gaara's hardened sand shield, which proved impervious to his fists. In Part II, it's revealed that Earth style jutsu is weak against lightning chakra.

*** Actually, ''"Hi, we're the bad guys, tell us where the [=MacGuffin=] is; if you don't' we'll either kill you or beat the crap out of you to show how strong we are"'' is a fairly classic way of introducing new villains. It was acknowledged in-universe that Itachi was well meaning but just made a horrible mess of things.

* From a lot of people in the fandom, they say that Shikamaru killing Hidan created a BrokenAesop in the story; however I feel that not’s quiet true at all. To start with, Asuma never asked Shikamaru, Choji and Ino to get revenge for him, he asked them to “protect the next generation” aka protect Kurenai and her child but that saying could be easily misinterpreted by Shikamaru, Ino and Choji. Secondly in the battle with Hidan, we discovered that even with his head cut of Hidan could still talk and function without a body which means that Hidan could've been easily captured and interrogated, and in that case, Hidan really isn’t that much of threat in comparison to Kakuzu. Thirdly, Kakashi was only there so that he could protect them from doing something stupid, Shikamaru was the one ultimately in charge and he was the one that left Ino, Choji, and Kakashi alone with Kakuzu (who was arguably more dangerous than his partner) which was kinda reckless in some sense. Fourthly, I also find it weird that Asuma's ghost showed up when Shikamaru was about to kill Hidan, but it’s possible that this ghost was in ShikamarShikamaru was what Shikamaru “believed” Asuma wanted (much like how Sasuke believed that killing everyone in Konoha is what the Uchiha Clan wanted). Anyway, my major point that the Hidan and Kakuzu arc is one of the important arcs in the series and the reason is that if Shikamaru had captured Hidan (through decapitation) and gained information from him, every tragic event that happened afterwards could been avoided or stop for example

*** Also, [=NaruSaku=] [[ShipSinking officially ended]] in Chapter 469, when Sakura gave her [[NeverLiveItDown infamous]] [[FalseConfession fake love confession]] to Naruto. Naruto easily saw right through it, [[WhatTheHellHero called her out for lying]] because he knew that she still loved Sasuke and would never love him romantically -- which he confirmed to Sai in Chapter 474 -- and then rejected her outright by telling her that he '''hates''' people who lie to themselves. Not once did he ever show any romantic feelings for her afterwards ([[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment do not refer to any anime filler]]; they don't count because they're not canon). Conversely, [[OfficialCouple NaruHina]] started having [[UnresolvedSexualTension more significant]] ShipTease together beginning in the [[WarArc Fourth Shinobi World War Arc]]. Such moments include the "[[EyesNeverLie I can see it in your eyes]]" comment to each other in Chapter 559, Naruto '''not''' denying nor poking fun at Kiba's statement that he's [[InsecureLoveInterest "acting tough" in front of Hinata]] in Chapter 611, the HoldingHands moment (which is an incredibly romantic gesture in Japan) in Chapter 615, [[MindlinkMates Naruto hearing Hinata mentally call out his name in despair]] when she's caught in the Infinite Tsukuyomi and immediately trying to rush to her aid in Chapter 677, and then Naruto standing by Hinata's side during Neji's funeral in Chapter 699.

* Kaguya and the first Infinite Tsukyomi in retrospect explain a great deal of oddities about the Naruto world, such as how small the human population seems to be. By casting the first Infinite Tsukyomi, she turned most of humanity into food for the Divine Tree, only freeing enough of them to keep humans from going extinct and enabling them to continue a few, relatively small societies. Said societies initially worshiped her as a goddess, but would come to fear her as a demon and face her destructive wrath on various ocassions. Not much is known of humanity before the first Infinite Tsukyomi, but having reduced humanity to only a fragment of its former population and having them settle near where she lived may explain why even a thousand years later the Naruto world's civilizations seem relatively geographically near to and similar to each other (all speaking mostly the same language for instance), as well as why there are never any mentions of societies outside of the ninja nations and samurai even existing in the current world (no talk of humans on distant continents for instance). The constant wars and very low life expectancy that characterized much of the history of the world Kaguya left behind would further stifle the low starting populations from growing and expanding. Thus even in the present humanity seems to live on only a small portion of the planet and consist of a mere five large nations (and various small ones) that can be reached within at most a few weeks of travel on foot (though admittedly ninja do travel faster than regular humans can on foot).

** Jossed, he is basically WalkingTheEarth without any repercussions, as Kakashi pulled some strings to absolve Sasuke using his and Sasuke's war hero status. Also, it is highly unlikely that the Five Nations will war again on the regards of a single war criminal, after everything is said and done.

* Orochimaru's curse seal has a 9 in 10 mortality rate. Sasuke is lucky because of "PlotArmor", but when he defected from Orochimaru and went to free the originator of the seal, he finds hundreds of young people who also have the seal. Considering 90 percent of people die from the procedure, the people we see is only a fraction of the people Orochimaru experimented on, the rest being dead. Try painting Orochimaru in a positive light now.

* When you see Tobi has all those Sharingan in his possession, you wonder if he somehow managed to make genetic clones of the eyes and [[{{Squick}} grow them from scratch...]] or did he pilfer them in the aftermath of the Uchiha Massacre somehow?
* With the power of Edo Tensei, there is a high chance that Kabuto could revive Fugaku and Mikoto Uchiha and pit them against Sasuke in hopes of breaking him, as in "I can't hurt my loved ones." Worse, he could ''torture'' either one of them and destroy Sasuke's resolve -- especially if he attacked his mother. However... if the jutsu fails to bring them back... [[FridgeBrilliance guess who's still alive?]] Which means Itachi spared his family and cast a genjutsu to fool Sasuke so long ago. But is this idea just an idea that's been overlooked? Time will tell...
* Way back in Episode 3, Sakura telling Sasuke that Naruto is a jerk because he never had [[KickTheDog parents.]] Bad enough that Sasuke heard this, but if Naruto, who was impersonating him at the time, heard this, [[FridgeHorror who knows what that would do to him?]]

* The reason the leaders of the villages allowed the cruelty to the jinchūriki when they should have been trying to ensure their loyalty? They probably decided that the Tailed Beasts were more trouble than they were worth and tried to goad the jinchūriki into suicide, also killing the Beast.

* It's fairly obvious that Itachi set everything up so Sasuke would get the Mangekyo, then kill him and take his eyes to get the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan so that he could kill Tobi. When that failed due to Sasuke not having the Mangekyo and being on the verge of passing out, Itachi sealed an Amaterasu into Sasuke that would be activated upon seeing Tobi's Sharingan in the hopes of killing him. Knowing what we now know about Tobi, it raises concerns about what would have happened if the Konoha ninja (namely Kakashi) had found Sasuke before Tobi did.
* About midway through Part I, we're told that the [[SealedEvilInACan Seal]] that keeps [[EldritchAbomination the Kyuubi/Kurama]] contained inside Naruto is constantly siphoning off a small amount of it's chakra and is mixing it with Naruto's all the time, granting him accelerated healing and larger chakra reserves. Flash forward to Part II, look at what [[HeroicRROD using too much]] does [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_vlcsnap-827140_9879.jpg to him.]] Imagine what that stuff's been doing to him for his entire life.

* Remember that Tobi had the Gedo Mazou eat the Amber Purifying Pot and Crimson Gourd with Ginkaku and Kinkaku sealed inside since they possessed Kurama's chakra? [[TheStoic Samui]] and [[HotBlooded Atsui]] were [[FateWorseThanDeath still sealed inside from their battle against the Gold Silver Brothers when the Crimson Gourd was fed to the Gedo Mazou]]...
* Obito is able to bypass Edo Tensei immortality. Two chapters before Tobirama figured it out, Obito blew up Hiruzen's whole upper half. Meaning Hiruzen was killed again, in a pretty brutal fashion.

* Even if we take in consideration how strong Naruto and Sasuke is, they are mortal men and will eventually grow old and die, while Orochimaru can keep jumping from body to body indefinitely. Sasuke now has descendants. What prevents Orochimaru from hiding for decades until he can acquire a new Uchiha body and cause more chaos when our heroes have grown weaker and their descendants have no experience of war? Afterwards, he can hide and then reemerge over and over.
* Naruto is noted to be a very busy man with little time to spend with his children. But he has the ability to make literally thousands of clones of himself. An ability he has had since the beginning of the series, and which he has used as a solution to mundane tasks far more trivial than raising his own children. Makes you wonder if he's not neglecting them just because he wants to.

*** Let's follow up on that: could Tobi be a ''direct'' descendant of the Sage? One of the sons could be alive. FridgeLogic if it's the bad son, FridgeHorror if it's the ''good'' son.
*** Tobi most likely will be revealed to have been a clone like Zetsu combining the genes of Madara and Hashirama. Or at least a Zetsu with Madara's body and chakra nature impressed upon it. Remember how he summoned Kurama in Kushina's flashback? We've heard multiple assertions that only Madara could summon the Kyuubi. Is it much of a stretch that Tobi could have somehow imprinted Kushina's "unique" chakra if he is somehow a Zetsu-style clone created by Madara? It might explain why that unnatural white goo oozes out of the stump when Tobi rips off an arm and why he claimed to have lost most of his powers as Madara to the Kage. It would definitely explain Tobi's assertion that he's "no one". Before Naruto's influence, most shinobi had the unfortunate tendency to view themselves as tools, which would in a symbolic way make Tobi the final, ultimate obstacle between the old, grim ninja world and Naruto's plucky new one. We still know regrettably little about the nature of Black Zetsu or whether Tobi's initial "alter ego" was indeed an act and not a split personality of some sort. ~ Syrus

* Why does Naruto's bijuu transformations comprise of pure energy rather than a flesh-and-blood form like the rest? Kurama is only one half of what he was originally, since Minato sealed away the other half.

** It's been mentioned that the techniques used by Guy and Lee require a different type of energy force to chakra. Presumably Madara's defences are only resistant to chakra-based attacks but have relatively weak defense when it comes to pure adrenaline.

* Naruto explicitly states that he believes in Majority Rules (I.e. The solution the most people believe in is the right/best one). Expanding on this, if one person must die to save ten or a hundred then by majority rules Naruto would believe it right and just to kill that one person. Sound familiar? It should because this point of view justifies his becoming a jinchūriki, if Naruto didn't believe in majority rules he would have no way of justifying all the pain and suffering he has experienced and, therefore, no way to forgive Konoha!

* Pain brought them all back to life in the center of what is essentially ground zero of nuke. While some of them were killed out in the open, how many citizens do you think were killed simply from having their houses collapsed on them... only to be brought back to life while still crushed, and causing them to die all over again?

* To many, [[spoiler:Obito managing to use kamui to return from the afterlife]] to help Kakashi may seem like an asspull given that [[spoiler:his entire body was destroyed.]] However, chakra is composed of SPIRITUAL and physical energies. And given the fact that he now lives on as a spirit, he may be able to utilize that spiritual energy to kamui his way back into the mortal realm as a spirit, which can partly compensate as to how he could return from the afterlife and given. Still can't explain how he was able to manifest it in Kakashi though.

* FridgeBrilliance: The revelation that the [[spoiler:Rinnegan is an evolution of the Sharingan]] is something Kishimoto has been setting up since, well, [[DiskOneFinalBoss Orochimaru]] was introduced. The [[spoiler:Rinnegan]], not the Sharingan, is Orochimaru's [[spoiler:and Kabuto's]] "truth behind ninjutsu". Why else would Orochimaru want both Sasuke's Uchiha bloodline and be experimenting with [[spoiler:Hashirama Senju's]] cells? Everyone thought Orochimaru was after the Sharingan for its copying abilities, but [[spoiler:he was actually after the Rinnegan, which grants control over all of the [[ElementalPowers elemental chakra transformations]], among [[ComboPlatterPowers numerous other abilities]]]], or why wouldn't he just kill Sasuke and take his eyes? Orochimaru said Yamato resulted from an experiment to see if Hashirama's cells could be implanted into others, and that he wanted to run further experiments on him. Danzo showed that [[spoiler:combining the Sharingan with Hashirama's cells could unlock power beyond either bloodline: the reality-warping Izanagi]], the Sage of Six Path's trademark power, but in order to get the Rinnegan this troper thinks one needs to [[spoiler:combine the Uchiha bloodline with that of the Senju]], hence Orochimaru trying to possess Sasuke rather than just taking his eyes. Kabuto said he wanted [[spoiler:a Zetsu]], which are [[spoiler:cloned from Hashirama]], to run tests on, and even said to [[spoiler:the real]] Madara that he and Orochimaru had come up with the theory [[spoiler:that the Mangekyo could evolve into the Rinnegan provided the user's body had certain modifications (hinted to be the addition of Senju cells taken from either Tobi's clone of Hashirama, from Yamato, or from said Zetsu clone)]], and that Madara had validated it. Working from the fact that [[spoiler:Madara unlocked the Rinnegan]], it's more than likely Nagato's Rinnegan were [[spoiler:Madara's, seeing as how he initially thought he'd been resurrected using Rinne Tensei rather than Edo Tensei]].
** Fridge Brilliance: The Byakugan is meant to work together with the Sharingan. It is stated that the best way to defeat a Sharingan is to get behind them. That doesn't work on the Byakugan. The difficulty in striking pressure points is that the enemy is constantly moving. The Sharingan fixes that.
** It seems likely that this is the secret of the scroll Suigetsu found.
** If this is true, since Karin is an Uzumaki and thus a branch of the Senju, Sasuke must be kicking himself now! He could have bred the Rinnegan into his entire clan if he chose to restore it with her. And she was throwing herself right at him!
*** Becomes FridgeHorror if you consider he is probably not above rape at this point. Although neither is she...
** This could be exactly how Nagato came to be, His mother had the red hair of an Uzumaki but his father had the black hair of an Uchiha.
* FridgeBrilliance: Itachi is the proof that the sage might have chosen poorly, he used power to prevent a civil war, yet the love for his little brother is going to cause a lot of headaches in the Shinobi world.
** Alternatively, it could also mean that there can be no compromise between the two paths. You gotta go for one or the other.
*** With the recent revelation of the 2nd Hokage's beliefs, we see that people don't necessarily have to follow their clan's values. Specifically, Itachi and Tobirama are in some ways opposites of each other.
* FridgeBrilliance: [[spoiler: As corny as it may be, it makes a some sense why Kishimoto had Naruto, a ninja, wear an orange jumpsuit. His father was well known as the Yellow Flash and his mother was known for her Fiery Red Hair. The two colors together make Orange, the color Naruto is most known for wearing]].
** A lesser one was [[spoiler: revealed during his battle with Kyuubi. Remember in the final part of Naruto vs Pain, when he had tossed two Rasenshurikens at Pain...and then all the questions on how he created all those clones ''while still in Sage Mode''? Well he's only limited to two clones when he has other clones gathering Natural Energy. When he ran out of those...that limit is gone and he could create as many clones as he wanted.]]
** [[spoiler: Naruto is using clones in his Nine-Tailed Chakra Mode when the Ox warned him not to. Well beforehand... he DID pin the Fox to the ground with his Torii to prevent him from swallowing anymore of his chakra. So, he won't have anymore drawbacks for a while.]]
** [[spoiler: Actually, the Eight-Tails later reveals that the reason Naruto survived making all those clones is because the Nine-Tails was going easy on him.]]
* The third mentioned place where you can learn Sage Mode, Shikkotsurin is likely the home of the Slug Sage. Now, besides Katsuyu, which other slug is well-known in the series? you guessed it, [[spoiler: Saiken]] the Rokubi. During the [[{{Filler}} Tsuchigumo Kinjutsu arc]], what kind of jutsu did the villain use to try destroy a chunk of a large country? that's right, a Nature Chakra-powered jutsu. Who stopped it? Rokubi. By seemingly absorbing it. Coincidence? maybe, maybe not.

** Also, keep this in mind: Madara did NOT have [[spoiler:the Rinnegan, Mokuton, or an indestructible body with infinite chakra, so the kages aren't fighting the Madara who fought Hashirama, they're fighting a significantly more powerful Madara. It seems that nobody has thought of this fact yet... until you realise that none of them were there when he fought Hashirama, say they wouldn't know he didn't have those powers at that point.]]
** Before Madara began using the [[spoiler: Rinnegan and Wood Style]], he would have been defeated by a combination of Gaara, Onoki, and one of Naruto's shadow clones. Madara as he was before "dying" would have also at one point been taken out by Tsunade all by herself. He only survived this due to [[spoiler: having a Wood clone, which even he admitted]]. Finally, [[spoiler: Rock Lee was powered up by Kurama's chakra recently and kicked Madara in half, which would have killed him if he weren't an Edo Tensei zombie]].
* Later it hit me as to why the Uchiha were so angry that the village was treating them horribly after the Kyuubi attacked. Not just because they suspected the uchiha but because of the third shinobi world war. Who do you think we're sent to the front lines? The most powerful clan the village had. After probably help win this war for the village then to be suspected of harming it, it's not hard to see why they were so angry.
* Why does [[BigBad Tobi]] [[BerserkButton hate being betrayed?]] [[spoiler:Because Kakashi failed to protect Rin, which is the last promise Obito made with him. This equals betrayal to Obito, as Kakashi "betrayed" his '''last''' promise. That's why.]]
* Another related to Tobi. In Chapter 602, it is revealed that the [[spoiler: massive chamber which contains both the Gedo Mazo and the Hashirama tree is a creation of Real!Madara. While Obito may have expanded his hideout from there, it is still the place where he fell after being crushed by the rocks. In other words, he has been ''unable to move past that incident mentally or physically after all this time''.]]
* [[spoiler: Why didn't Kakashi use the Mangekyo Sharingan if he had it since he was a kid? Because it probably would have killed him just using it once and he had no idea what it was. Think about during the Wave Arc how it wiped him out to use the Sharigan for a few minutes. The drain from Mangekyo would have certainly killed him if he tried to use it in combat without the proper reserves. Plus since Mangekyo is a dark secret of the Uchiha clan, it is very likely that Kakashi didn't know WHY his Sharigan had a second form until he fought Itachi Pre-Time Skip. Once he knew what it was he spent the next years getting to a place where it wouldnt' be dangerous to him to use it and figure out what the heck it did in the first place.]]

* [[spoiler: Obito Uchiha's]] goals have gone through MotiveDecay ever since he became Tobi. At first, he wanted to bring everybody into a perfect world, but over the years, he seems to talk more and more about wiping the world out entirely. Remember how Naruto used to go through personality changes whenever the Kyuubi's chakra took over? What if Tobi's MotiveDecay is a result of his contact with Ten-Tails chakra? We know for a fact that he can't control that thing perfectly. Plus, even before the Ten-Tails was reborn, he was still in contact with its chakra via the Heretic Statue.
* For those of you who believe that Kishimoto ''was'' intending on Hinata being Naruto's main love interest from the beginning -- [[WordOfGod which he has confirmed in several post-series interviews]] -- there is one interesting point that ''does'' support this. At the start of the series, Naruto was loud, brash, obnoxious, full of himself, not nearly as good as he thought he was, and honestly rather dumb -- a perfect example of an IdiotHero. As a result, almost no one in Konoha thought anything of him or his abilities, Kyuubi aside. But he was still the protagonist of the series so we the readers got to see his good points -- his courage, determination, loyalty, perseverance, stubbornness, and refusal to quit in the face of adversity. ''These are the very same traits that Hinata has always admired him for.'' In a sense, [[WiseBeyondTheirYears Hinata]] was the ''only'' character in the entire series perceptive enough to [[WartsAndAll accept Naruto's flaws]] [[FanOfUnderdog and appreciate]] [[NoHeroToHisValet his good points]], ''the same way the reader is meant to''. This is why she's the ''only'' character in the Konoha 11 who accepts and acknowledges him from the beginning.

* Just before the TimeSkip, Jiraiya informs Naruto that he is safe from the Akatsuki for about three years, but with no reason why. [[spoiler: In the latest chapter, it is revealed that when Kakashi killed Rin, she was the jinchūriki for Sanbi, the Three-Tails.]] It's been stated before that when a jinchūriki dies, the Tailed Beast within dies too but will be revived after a long period of time. [[spoiler: Sanbi]] may not have been revived until near the end of the TimeSkip, so there was no point for the Akatsuki to risk capturing the other Tailed Beasts yet when they would still be one short.
** Then how do you explain Tobi manipulating Yagura who possessed the Three-Tails?
*** Sure, and Yagura was dead before the story started. The Bloody Mist was no longer bloody during the Land of Waves Arc.
*** There's a really great Fridge Brilliance up higher on the page for this. It's because he holds [[spoiler: the Sanbi]] responsible for Rin's death.
* Why are there personality swaps in Road to Ninja? Because it's a test-run of the Infinite Tsukuyomi, and [[spoiler: Obito wants to swap Rin's personality with one more to his liking.]]

* Nagato's ''poor'' reaction to Yahiko's death always seemed a bit over-dramatic to me, but then Kishi revealed two important facts and suddenly it all made sense. The Rinnegan is [[spoiler: a natural evolution of the Sharingan]] and that the Uchiha clan suffers from a [[spoiler: [[LoveMakesYouCrazy Love Makes You Crazy]] syndrome]]. Almost all of the Uchiha we've seen went insane because they lost a loved one. Nagato lost Yahiko and his Rinnegan responded to that loss just like a Sharingan.

* The words of [[spoiler: The Sage of Six Paths]] regarding one with no power relying on friends vs one with power standing alone reflects on Gaara and Tobi just as much as on Sasuke. The real difference between Naruto and Gaara in the beginning was their power levels. Gaara's invincibility and power made others afraid of him which is why he was alone. Because of his sand powers, he could take out his rage and frustration on people around him. Naruto on the other hand, had no real power back then. People hated him, but didn't fear him and he couldn't do anything about it but to keep on struggling to get acceptance. Because he had no power, he had no choice but to keep looking for friends. As for Obito, he was only able to pull his one man attempt to subjugate the world because of his new abilities. Without them, his Moon's Eye Plan would have been impossible and in fact he still needed the help of the Akatsuki to get most of the bijuu.

* For quite a while after certain revelations regarding the fate of Rin, I was baffled and trying to reconcile how [[spoiler: the Three-Tails could have been sealed inside of her]]. ConservationOfDetail would tell us that, since we see [[spoiler: Rin die in Obito and Kakashi's flashbacks]], the [[spoiler: Sanbi]] must have been roaming free because [[spoiler: it had regenerated from dying with Rin]].
** Therefore one would be forced to assume that [[spoiler: Yagura, the Fourth Mizukage, died before Naruto was even born.]] But, then... ''when did Mei become Mizukage?'' We know that she's the Fifth, and she doesn't look like she's much older than Guy or Kakashi, so it seemed to me like this revelation shot the timeline all to hell...
** ... until, just recently, I remembered what Haku said about his homeland being wracked by civil war before he was even born. And then it hit me: Mei did ''not'' directly succeed Yagura. His death left a power vacuum in the Hidden Mist, and presumably two or more different people tried to lay claim on the Mizukage title, leading to the civil wars in which shinobi with kekkei genkai were used to such an extent by the varying sides that the citizens of the Land of Water began to hate and fear bloodline-bearing shinobi as monsters or living weapons.
** Which also adds an extra layer of awesome to Mei's character when you think about it -- a woman with ''two distinct bloodline limits'' presumably played a big enough part in '''ending''' the civil wars as to be accepted by the people/council/ninja of the Mist as the Fifth Mizukage. The same civil wars that caused ninja with kekkei genkai to be feared to such an extent that people would try to ''lynch a small child just for being born with one''
** There's one big problem though. Yagura was still Fourth Mizukage by the time Obito became Tobi (he was mind-controlling the Fourth Mizukage, remember?) So the Sanbi must have been sealed elsewhere before being sealed into Rin andthen it regenerated before being sealed into Yagura.

* Some might be left scratching their heads as to [[spoiler: how Boruto and Himawari inherit Naruto's whiskers when they're not jinchūriki and their grandmother and Mito Uzumaki never had them. Like their father, they've been exposed to Kurama's chakra since birth as opposed to later in life. Also the fact that they only have two makes sense considering how their exposure was weaker than Naruto's as Hinata is not Kurama's jinchūriki.]]
* To the great disappointment of [[ShipToShipCombat Naruto/Sasuke and Naruto/Sakura]] [[DieForOurShip shippers]], [[OfficialCouple Naruto/Hinata]] did not come out of the blue, and it really ''had'' been planned since the early stages of the manga, as [[WordOfGod Kishimoto has stated in several post-series interviews]]. Hinata's feelings became [[EveryoneCanSeeIt painfully obvious to everyone]] after the Invasion of Pain arc; [[ObliviousToLove Naruto]], however, had some emotional growing up to do before he finally caught on. Here are some notable examples:
** All of the kids in Konoha -- including [[{{Jerkass}} Sasuke]] and [[{{Tsundere}} Sakura]] -- treat Naruto as a nuisance at best, a part of the scenery at worst. Not [[NiceGirl Hinata]]: she's always polite and friendly to him. In turn, Naruto [[BecauseYouWereNiceToMe wholeheartedly reciprocates the friendship]], openly cheering for her during [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown her "fight" against Neji]] in the Chunin Exams preliminaries, [[BloodOath vowing on her blood]] to defeat Neji in the finals, and even confiding in her that [[BeneathTheMask he's not sure he's not the failure everyone thinks he is]]. Note that this is the ''only'' time he ever willingly lets his guard down and expresses his self-doubt to anyone[[note]]See LivingEmotionalCrutch in their character pages, and TheConfidant in Hinata's character page[[/note]].
** When it seems that Pain killed Hinata, [[BerserkButton Naruto flies into]] [[UnstoppableRage a rage of]] [[UpToEleven epic proportions]]. To give you some measure: every other time he used the Kyuubi's power, he grew the tails gradually, up to a maximum of four. This time, he went from zero to six tails ''[[DespairEventHorizon in a blink]]''. Then, he grows [[DarkestHour two more tails]] and [[FromBadToWorse almost releases the Kyuubi]]. Although Pain killed [[BadassTeacher Jiraiya and Kakashi]], destroyed Konoha, and then killed his frog-sensei, Naruto explicitly states [[http://www.mangapanda.com/naruto/490/14 here]] that he lost it only after he was ForcedToWatch Pain attack Hinata.

** This may also explain how [[spoiler:Boruto and Himawari got their whiskers.]]
* Itachi is paired with Kisame. Now, what do we know about these two? [[spoiler: Itachi is a spy/spanner in the works against Atatsuki (and it's pretty much stated that Tobi/Obito knew about this)]] and Kisame is loyal to Atastuki to the point of [[spoiler: dying for them at the beginning of the war]]. Kisame was almost certainly paired with Itachi [[spoiler:to keep an eye on him!]]
* Naruto and Sasuke both get {{Foreshadowing}} to [[spoiler:being reincarnations of Asura and Indra the sons of the Sage of Six Paths.]]
** Due to his Uzumaki lineage, Naruto possesses a powerful life-force and physical energy, giving him an extreme longevity, stamina, and vitality. From this, he could survive the extraction of a Tailed Beast (albeit he was rendered unconscious and in a critical state). Naruto is also known for his greatly accelerated healing. Naruto has always demonstrated large chakra reserves, creating hundreds of multiple shadow clones at the age of 12, something not even common for high jounin level ninja. His lineage is part of the reason why he could synchronise with Kurama's chakra, this answers Yamato's thought as to why Naruto could enter the Four-Tailed Chakra Cloak and not die instantly. Being a [[spoiler:reincarnation of Asura]] further reinforces his chakra prowess and physical energy.
** During the Kage Summit, Karin remarked Sasuke's chakra had grown much darker than when using his cursed seal. When Sasuke met Kurama inside Naruto for the first time, the Nine-Tailed Fox told Sasuke he had a much darker chakra than his own just like Madara Uchiha, [[spoiler:the previous reincarnation of Indra.]]

* Despite much of the flak given toward [[spoiler: Kaguya and her status as a FlatCharacter]], it makes sense when you recall what happened. [[spoiler: She consumed a fruit that more or less had the lifeforce of the planet and became a literal force of nature. Hell, she could be considered the embodiment of Mother Nature, especially in the aspect of ruthlessness. She lost her humanity, becoming more like a storm or force of nature with only remnants of her want for power left. [[NoManShouldHaveThisPower Kaguya is one massive warning in regards to having power. She lost all empathy and connection to the people she was supposed to protect; she is DrunkWithPower taking to the extreme and horrifying conclusion.]]]]
* It has been mentioned time and again that but for a twist of fate Naruto and Sasuke could have easily switched places. While I wanted to believe it, Sasuke was my favorite character, I wasn't quite sure how. Then it hit me. As previously shown both Naruto and Sasuke had lonely childhoods with only a mentor figure, Iruka and Itachi respectively, given them anything akin to real acknowledgement.However there is one key difference in the two's backstory. How said mentor figure responded to their mentee at their most emotionally unstable.
** In the case of Naruto he was emotionally shocked after he learned that he was the demon fox that terrorized the village and even killed Iruka's parents,as a result he is left wondering if it was just a lie. But what happens afterwards? He overhears Iruka telling Mizuki that while it might be possible for him to hate hate the fox he could NEVER hate the boy. The fact that Iruka didn't know that Naruto was nearby just reinforces the truth of his statement to Naruto.
** Now let's review Sasuke's case. He comes home to find his entire family slaughtered and his brother having just finished the act of killing his parents. As a result Sasuke, like Naruto is left wondering if it was all a lie. Unlike Iruka however, Itachi says it WAS all a lie. Then to drive the point home he mind rapes Sasuke by showing him his murder of the entire clan over and over again.
*** So in case it wasn't clear already, I'll finish up my point. Imagine if Itachi had told Sasuke that he loved him while Naruto heard that Iruka hated him? Their positions probably WOULD end up being reversed. It also helps to underscore just what kind of long-term psychological damage can be done to an emotionally vulnerable child if they are deprived of love and affection.

** Naruto admits that he "never knew Hinata was this incredible" when he finds out that she adopted his nindō and he sees that [[{{Determinator}} she refuses to give up]] in [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown her "fight" with Neji]] in Chapter 80, he reassures her that she is strong when she doubts herself and has a proud smile when he recalls how she defended him from Pain in Chapter 559, he sports another proud smile when he sees that [[YouShallNotPass she's leading his defense]] in Chapter 629, and he comments on her strength twice in ''[[Anime/TheLastNarutoTheMovie The Last]]'' -- first was when he's confused over [[ShipperOnDeck Sakura's]] request to have him walk Hinata home, with his reasoning being that [[ComicallyMissingThePoint he feels no one in the village would dare mess with Hinata]] because she's "really strong"; second was in TheStinger, [[spoiler:where he playfully warns Boruto and Himawari during their snowball fight that their mother is "super strong" when she gets serious]].
** In Chapter 632, Sasuke gives a rather ''[[https://31.media.tumblr.com/85051a84ec0a23d61ea6a1cb05953cf8/tumblr_inline_mnjxs4bx3x1qz4rgp.png flirty smirk]]'' when Sakura first shows the power of her Yin Seal by demolishing a bunch of Ten-Tail clones in the WarArc. [[spoiler:Later, when their daughter Sarada demonstrates a chakra-enhanced punch like her mother, Sasuke sports that same proud smirk]].
*** Notice that while Sasuke has that smirk on his face in that picture, Naruto has an ''absolutely terrified expression on his face''. He's an AmazonChaser towards Hinata, but he's a NoGuyWantsAnAmazon type towards Sakura!
* We all knew that [[spoiler:Sasuke received the Rinnegan from accepting Indra's power from Hagoromo. But there was another factor contributing to this: Kabuto administered Hashirama's cells into Sasuke when the latter was severely wounded. Madara gained the Rinnegan after transplanting a sample of Hashirama's flesh into him. Therefore, Sasuke got the Rinnegan the same method as Madara!]]

** If he's in a drunken state, he probably wouldn't care.
** Orochimaru has not been revived by Kabuto, implying his soul is in fact still sealed away.
*** Of course, [[spoiler:Kabuto has already enslaved a large part of Orochimaru's chakra]], so it may not be the best idea to bring him back, especially considering what happened with [[spoiler: Itachi]].
** The sword still exists within Itachi's Mangekyou. He used it to seal Nagato after being revived.
** Subverted now that [[spoiler:Sasuke has pulled a revived Orochimaru out of Anko's Curse Seal.]]
* This entire show is an example of FridgeHorror. Its a story about a group of secretive military villages that indoctrinate and train children to kill each other in a ForeverWar, [[MoodWhiplash with fart jokes]].
** Cue FridgeBrilliance. Naruto's quest for peace will involve ending this cycle by teaching the villages and nations that hate and war doesn't work. For that reason, not only will [[BigBadDuumvirate Kabuchimaru and Madara]] both lose out in the end as {{Big Bad}}s typically do, but, here's the part that isn't already guaranteed canon -- Naruto '''''will inevitably save Sasuke''''' and prove the second son of the sage right as part of the GrandFinale of the Fourth Shinobi World War. The WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue will for this reason see a much more stable relationship between the nations, and ninja traditions will keep strong initially but end up phasing out over time as a period of harmony envelops the world.
*** With fart jokes, hopefully.
* ''Naruto'' can go into this occasionally, but one of the best examples happened [[spoiler: when Danzo loses control of the 1st Hokage's cells in his arm that were letting him use wood releases, his arm grows into a tree and nearly absorbs him into it before he rips it off to get away. Now consider how the fifty infants Orochimaru did the same thing to probably died. It'd only be worse if there was a small grove of little trees somewhere in Orochimaru's lab.]]
** Well yeah, it was explicitly shown that there were 59 little trees sprouting from beds in Orochimaru's lab. The only one to succeed was Yamato.
* Akatsuki wants to [[GottaCatchEmAll get]] the [[EnergyBeings Tailed Beasts]], [[SealedInsideAPersonShapedCan most of which are sealed in human hosts]]. They need to be sealed in order (or at least have the Nine-Tails sealed last), but they may still end up capturing a host/beast long before they're supposed to be sealed. When Kisame and Itachi nearly captured Naruto, Kisame mentions cutting off Naruto's limbs so he can't get away and they hadn't sealed any of the beasts by then, which implies that if Jiraiya hadn't saved him, Naruto would have spent ''years'' suffering in holding before being killed ([[spoiler:and this ''may have happened'' to some of the other hosts]]).
** Objection: when the Akatsuki of to seal Gaara (One-Tail) there are already two beasts sealed away. But it's not until after Shukaku is sealed that we see Two-, Three-, and Four-Tails captured, so at the minimum Akatsuki would have already sealed Five- and Six-Tails before anything else.
** Objection: The Six-Tails was the last to be captured -- as Utakata was captured by Pain/Nagato right before the invasion. The Seven-Tails was the one sealed along with the Five-Tails.

* Both fridge horror and kind of sad: [[spoiler:the Greatest Puppeteer's life ended. And he became a puppet himself, controlled by another puppeteer. He started out a great puppeteer, and ended up another's puppet (literally).]]

* The Sharingan itself. The idea is that when using it, you can instantly memorize pretty much anything, such as jutsus in the middle of a fight. Most likely, you'd only use the Sharingan in battle. It stands to reason that at some point, a veteran Uchiha would have seen a friend or close relative die in combat. That Uchiha would remember how that person died, '''in perfect detail''', [[PhotographicMemory for the rest of his or her life]]. As you age, some memories start to fade. Instead of remembering when let's say, Cousin Ichijou managed to paint the cat pink, you'd recall the moment a kunai split her head in two. At some point in old age, all you would remember is violence and the deaths of your loved ones. Now consider just how many battles Madara had fought in...
** {{Fridge Brilliance}}: ''That's why Itachi never turns off the Sharingan after the Uchiha massacre.'' That way, all memories are once again equal. Not that he has many nice ones after that point...
** More Sharingan FridgeHorror as of Chapter 619. According to [[spoiler: the revived Tobirama, the moment an Uchiha begins to know friendship and positive emotions, they also begin to suffer from hatred so powerful that it drives them to literal insanity. It is so severe that he likens it to a genetic disease, and the first symptom of it is the basic Sharingan. All those Uchiha who were so excited about awakening their Sharingan (looking at you, Obito) were simply in the grip of the disease's first stage...]]
** On a side note, no fully matured Sharingan wielder had ever lost a fight outside a flashback.

* [[spoiler:Kabuto has brought about a low level ZombieApocalypse by using a technique that allows him to sacrifice a living person to revive a dead one.]] Recent chapters reveal that he has done this dozens, if not ''hundreds'' of times...

* [[spoiler:Orochimaru's curse seal has a 9 in 10 mortality rate. Sasuke is lucky because of "PlotArmor", but when he defected from Orochimaru and went to free the originator of the seal, he finds hundreds of young people who also have the seal. Considering 90 percent of people die from the procedure, the people we see is only a fraction of the people Orochimaru experimented on, the rest being dead. Try painting Orochimaru in a positive light now.]]
** Challenge accepted: [[spoiler: Orochimaru may have developed the Cursed Seal by doing experiments on war prisoners (he was still in Konoha during the Third War, so there were plenty) and brigands (who in the past were usually killed on the spot or executed in some creative ways. In this case, the creative way would have been Orochimaru's experiments to dope all Konoha shinobi better than the Akimichi did to themselves), and determined that only ten percent of the population have the right whatever it takes to survive. Knowing what said whatever was, it's easy to implant it ''only'' on selected people who he ''knows'' can survive, like Anko, Sasuke and all those hundreds of young people...]]
* When [[spoiler: Konoha]] is destroyed by Pain's Almighty Push, he later [[RedemptionEqualsDeath revives]] [[AssPull everyone]] [[DeusExMachina who]] [[BackFromTheDead died]], but [[spoiler: Konoha]] is still destroyed. This means thousands of people are living in a crater with a population density of a city, but with no running water, electricity or any other kind of infrastructure. It's like Hurricane Katrina [[PlotArmor without the deaths]].
** However, it was shown that Yamato can quickly build a house using Mokuton (although it does exhaust him). Add to that all other things ninja can do with ninjutsu (for example, providing said water/electricity), and while Konoha still needs reconstruction, at least it is possible to live here.
** More horror: Pain brought them all back to life in the center of what is essentially ground zero of nuke. While some of them were killed out in the open, how many citizens do you think were killed simply from having their houses collapsed on them... only to be brought back to life while still crushed, and causing them to die all over again?
* If you think carefully, the Sharingan might have been born from [[spoiler: The Ten-Tails, a demon monster.]] That means [[spoiler: Uchiha might have inherited demon blood and are more sensitive to negative feelings.]]
* Kishimoto's favorite female characters are Tenten and Anko. Plot importance, well Anko's curse seal was used [[spoiler:to bring back Orochimaru]]. Manga panels, Anko disappeared for nearly six years and Tenten has never had an onscreen battle.

** If he could grow them, he wouldn't have bothered amassing so many. . . They are almost certainly "authentic".

** What this troper finds odd, however, is that since Kishimoto [[TearJerker played]] on important character's deaths knowing that Nagato would [[spoiler:[[ResetButton bring them all back to life]],]] why didn't she simply kill Hinata there too. Hinata's death would've been an excellent opportunity for making this arc even more emotional and thus [[spoiler:the [[AssPull revival of the entire village]]]] wouldn't have seemed so mundane. The fact that Kishimoto only killed off characters that weren't necessarily vital or largely important [[spoiler: with the exception of Kakashi]] made it seem that much more pointless.
*** Probably because, regardless of whether Nagato revived everyone or not, there would have been an ''epic'' reader revolt if Naruto had been perceived as forgiving Nagato for Hinata's ''murder.'' Given that Hinata is Naruto's LivingEmotionalCrutch, and given [[UnstoppableRage how berserk he went]] when he thought Nagato killed her, there is no way in hell he would have EasilyForgiven Nagato if she really ''was'' murdered [[ForcedToWatch right in front of him]].
*** Despite Pain being referred to already as being able to raise the dead, Kishimoto probably didn't want us to predict that Nagato would really [[spoiler: revive everyone]]. If Hinata had been killed, everyone would have been seeing that coming miles away.
*** Many people were already predicting some kind of revival because Kakashi died. (Though this was partly due to denial as well.) I think Kishi was just saving the younger deaths for the actual WarArc...

* [[spoiler:[[BrokenPedestal The fact that Tobi is Obito in the first place:]]]]
** First off, that means that [[spoiler:Minato's own student [[strike:attempted to]] kill him, his wife, and [[SealedEvilInACan UTTERLY]] [[AllOfTheOtherReindeer RUINED]] his child's life. What's more, everything bad that Tobi caused was all rooted from Obito saving Kakashi from that boulder.]] In short, everything is Kakashi's fault!
** [[spoiler:And one of the reasons why he's doing all of this? Because Kakashi ''killed'' Rin. Combined with Obito saving Kakashi from that boulder]], it's safe to say that this is all Kakashi's fault! [[spoiler:[[MemeticMutation You. Had. One. Job. KAKASHI.]] To make up what you've caused!]]
** Actually, it's [[spoiler: Obito's own fault. Kakashi lost his eye protecting ''him'' earlier on, which is why he didn't see the boulder and needed saving in the first place. All of which happened because Obito broke the shinobi code. Morally, he was right to do that of course, but that makes no difference since Rin was doomed, anyways. And we don't know exactly ''why'' Kakashi killed her,]] so it's pretty harsh to say it's all his fault.
*** TheReveal points out it's neither's fault, [[spoiler: and while it seems to be Rin's at first glance (for forcing Kakashi to kill her), all the "real blame" can be placed squarely on the enemy ninja who put the three of them through all of those hardships in the first place]].
*** And then ''another'' [[TheReveal reveal]] shows that [[spoiler: [[HateSink like everything else in the series, it's all Madara's fault.]] He's the one who sent the Mist ninja after Rin, and placed a curse seal on her heart that forced her to only be able to kill herself by Kakashi's hand.]]
** Remember, out of EVERYONE who relates to Naruto (Haku, Gaara, Nagato, Sasuke, and Obito) Obito Uchiha is the STRONGEST parallel to Naruto Uzumaki. WHAT DO YOU THINK WOULD HAPPEN IF ''[[MessianicArchetype HE]]'' PULLS A '''[[FaceHeelTurn FACE HEEL TURN]]'''!?
** Taking how Tobi became... well... [[WellIntentionedExtremist Tobi]] into considering, it becomes really scary when you recall the Invasion of Pain arc... Had Pain actually killed Hinata and not faked it or even did it with the plan of bringing her back, or if Minato didn't snap Naruto out of his rage, we would have had Naruto become ''just like'' '''''Tobi'''''! Why is this important? Because Rin was Obito's LivingEmotionalCrutch, ''which is exactly what Hinata is to Naruto throughout the series''.
** It very nearly did happen, and almost in the exact same scenario. Remember when Team 7 briefly reunited/confronted each other after Sasuke killed Danzou? Sasuke (parallel to Kakashi) was about to kill Sakura (Rin) with a Chidori no less mere moments before Naruto (Obito) arrived and saved her. Think how eerily similar it would've been to Obito's start of darkness had Naruto just been a moment too late and saw Sakura, his crush, be killed by his best friend. For added bonus, both Kakashi and Tobi/Obito were watching the whole thing play out and MUST have felt the parallel, too.
*** Re-read the Five Kage Summit arc again. This happened in Chapters 484 and 485. By that point, Chapter 469 already happened. To elaborate, Sakura already pulled off her [[NeverLiveItDown infamous]] [[FalseConfession fake love confession]] to Naruto, who immediately saw right through it, [[WhatTheHellHero called her out for lying to him and to herself]], and then [[ShipSinking rejected her outright]] by telling her that he '''hates''' people who lie to themselves. He also stated that his promise to her, to bring back Sasuke for her, was no longer the reason why he wanted to save Sasuke; [[TrueCompanions he has his own reasons for doing so now]]. Naruto stopped having a crush on her after that chapter. Plus, take a good look at his reaction when he berates Sasuke for almost killing Sakura: [[http://www.mangapanda.com/naruto/485/3 he's very calm]]. That is a '''''vastly''''' different reaction in comparison to [[UnstoppableRage how berserk Naruto went]] when he thought Pain killed Hinata, or even [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge how enraged he was]] when Neji nearly killed Hinata in the Chunin Exams preliminaries in Part I, [[http://www.mangapanda.com/naruto/81/2 as shown here onward]] -- keep in mind that Naruto and Hinata weren't close at the time of her fight with Neji; they developed their friendship afterwards, just before Naruto's fight with Neji (specifically, Chapter 98). Yes, Naruto did have a one-sided crush on Sakura, just like Obito did for Rin, but as stated above, Rin was also Obito's LivingEmotionalCrutch, and Hinata is Naruto's LivingEmotionalCrutch, not Sakura. Yes, Naruto would have been upset if Sakura was killed, because [[LikeBrotherAndSister they're teammates]], no question about it. However, he would not have gone down the path of darkness if it happened, partly because of the events of Chapter 469, partly because Naruto does not rely on Sakura for his emotional stability, and partly because, let's be honest, [[HoYay Sasuke has always been higher up on Naruto's priority list]] than Sakura ever was, [[FoeYay and vice versa]]. Naruto almost ''did'' go down that path after he was ForcedToWatch Pain stab Hinata, by [[SuperpoweredEvilSide going straight to Six-Tails and then Eight-Tails]] and then [[DespairEventHorizon nearly releasing the Kyuubi]] until Minato stopped him, because he relies on Hinata for his emotional stability. He even reacted rather strongly when Neji [[HeroicSacrifice died to protect him and Hinata]] in Chapter 614, to the point where he had a HeroicBSOD and even hesitated after Obito's BreakingLecture, until Hinata [[GetAHoldOfYourselfMan snapped him out of it]]. Both times, when he thought Hinata was killed and then when Neji died, Naruto crossed the DespairEventHorizon. Not once did Naruto ever come close to losing it whenever Sakura got hurt. Hell, even after Four-Tailed Kyuubi-Naruto ''smacked Sakura hard enough that he almost killed her'' in Chapter 296, he ''barely reacted'' when Yamato told him what happened three chapters later. Even when Naruto still had a one-sided crush on Sakura and even though they will always be teammates, he ''never'' suffered a HeroicBSOD or crossed the DespairEventHorizon whenever she got hurt, unlike Obito, who ''did'' cross it when Rin was killed. So it was not the exact same scenario, and it would not have had the exact same outcome. Therefore, it was not a complete parallel. Close, yes, but not 100%.
* Naruto's childhood. For as long as he can remember, he's been not only alone, but actively isolated and ostracized by the people of Konoha, and never being told why. Imagine being ostracized and isolated by everyone around you for as long as you can remember, and worse never knowing WHY you're treated this way.
** It's made even more horrifying in ''Road To Ninja''. When Sakura was in the same situation and is regarded as the child of a hero. This leads you to question, Was it because of Naruto status as a jinchūriki kept his parents' name, a secret.
* In the latest chapter, we learn [[spoiler: Madara implanted his real eyes into Nagato without him knowing.]] Thus confirming what Tobi told Konan. But that begs the question, WHERE DID HE GET THOSE NEW EYES?!
** What about the fact that he basically performed eye surgery on a little kid without anyone noticing?

* About midway through Part I, we're told that the [[SealedEvilInACan Seal]] that keeps [[spoiler: [[EldritchAbomination the Kyuubi/Kurama]]]] contained inside Naruto is constantly siphoning off a small amount of it's chakra and is mixing it with Naruto's ''all the time'', granting him accelerated healing and larger chakra reserves. Flash forward to Part II, look at what [[HeroicRROD using too much]] does [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_vlcsnap-827140_9879.jpg to him.]] Stop. [[FridgeHorror Think about it.]] Imagine what that stuff's been doing to him ''for his entire life''.

* Road to Ninja: [[spoiler: Jiraya]] is killed by the masked man at the beggining of the movie after retrieving [[spoiler: the Red Moon Scroll]]. We later find out said masked man is actually [[spoiler: Menma, who is Naruto's AU counterpart,]] which means that [[spoiler: even in the world of dreams Jiraya still ends up killed by one of his own students]]. [[MentorOccupationalHazard Poor man never gets it right...]]

* Remember that Tobi had the Gedo Mazou eat the Amber Purifying Pot and Crimson Gourd with Ginkaku and Kinkaku sealed inside since they possessed [[spoiler: Kurama]]'s chakra? [[TheStoic Samui]] and [[HotBlooded Atsui]] were [[FateWorseThanDeath still sealed inside from their battle against the Gold Silver Brothers when the Crimson Gourd was fed to the Gedo Mazou]]...
* [[spoiler: Obito]] is able to bypass Edo Tensei immortality. Two chapters before Tobirama figured it out, [[spoiler: Obito]] blew up Hiruzen's whole upper half. Meaning Hiruzen was killed again, in a pretty brutal fashion. Ouch...
** He only displayed that when he regained conscious control over his own body. The [semi]mindless Obito plowed through Tobirama and a wood clone with the same weapons -- and Sasuke's Susanoo wasn't quite destroyed by it either. So Hizruzen has a better chance of regenerating as the ninjutsu nullifying was only in that second [conscious] state so far, albeit taking that much longer.
** Annotation to the above point of the delayed regeneration! [[spoiler:Hiruzen pulls a BigDamnHeroes moment to save Naruto from the God Tree]]
* In the ''Road to Ninja'' movie, one had to wonder why Sakura's parents were dead. Sure, you could say that Obito caught onto her childish wish and decided to throw in that detail, but if the episode building up to this it is anything to go off of, it was also a desire of Naruto's. Although Naruto did not want to admit it, deep down he wanted Sakura to learn just how painful being alone like he was truly was. As much as he cares about Sakura, he *wanted* her to suffer.
** Then explain Stupid!Shikamaru and Cat Boy!Kiba.
*** Naruto views Shikamaru's genius and Kiba's love of dogs to be a bit obnoxious. Basically, he wanted Shikamaru and Kiba to be toned down a bit. Additionally, he wanted Choji to be a bit smarter and less of a [[BigEater pig]], [[ShrinkingViolet Hinata]] to be more confident, [[OnlySaneMan Neji]] to lighten up a little. Given this is the genjutsu world, all of what Naruto wanted got pushed to their logical extremes. Hence Stupid!Shikamaru, Cat Boy!Kiba, Fit!Choji, Perv!Neji, and Agressive!Hinata.
* Minato's existence has become the living definition of AdultFear.[[spoiler:As a teacher he lost two of his students because he was busy with other missions and on the day his son is born his wife is kidnapped and put on a timed death sentece because a masked lunatic ripped a spiritual behemoth out of her and used it to try and destroy his son, his wife and his village forcing him to sacrifice himself and his dying wife so that their son could use the half of that behemoth placed on him to stop the masked man and bring peace, that sucks right?]][[spoiler: Cue 17 years later when he is revived on his son's birthday only to discover the masked lunatic was one of the students he failed to save who went evil because of the other one who died, then the son he and his wife sacrificed themselves to protect and empower is brought to him on a timed death sentence because said half of the spiritual behemoth he had sealed in him got ripped off by the [[ManBehindTheMan man behind]] his student turned masked lunatic and when he tries to save him the way he couldn't with his wife his only chance is stolen by an evil minion who had previously hijacked the body of his student turned evil for the sake of forcing him to fight and keep Minato busy while his loved ones again died away, [[ShootTheShaggyDogStory shoot the shaggy dog much?]]]] How much more Minato can take before snapping into a HeroicBSOD?

* Even if we take in consideration how strong Naruto and Sasuke is, they are mortal men and will eventually grow old and die, while Orochimaru can keep jumping from body to body indefinitely.[[spoiler:And Sasuke now has descendants. What prevents Orochimaru from hiding for decades until he can acquire a new Uchiha body and cause more chaos when our heroes have grown weaker and their descendants have no experience of war? And then he can hide and then reemerge again, and again, and again...]]
* Naruto is noted to be a very busy man with little time to spend [[spoiler:with his children. But he has the ability to make literally thousands of clones of himself. An ability he has had since the beginning of the series, and which he has used as a solution to mundane tasks far more trivial than raising his own children. Makes you wonder if he's not neglecting them just because he wants to.]]
** Of course, there is the other side of the argument: is it right to use shadow clones to deal with important stuff in your life? Training is one thing, [[spoiler:child-rearing and governing a village are totally different.]] An example: [[Film/IronMan3 Tony Stark]] uses his newest PowerArmor to spend time with Pepper while he's in his workshop, working; needless to say, Pepper is outraged when she finds out.\\
Naruto simply needs to learn how to multitask better.
** As it turns out in the ''Naruto Gaiden'' chapters, Naruto ''has'' been using shadow clones to help take care of his kids; it's just that Boruto is upset that his "real" father tends to never be around.
* Kaguya's Zetsu Army was meant to fight [[spoiler:Momoshiki and Kinshiki, and any other clan members who sought to come after her]], which sounds like a bad idea at first due to how most of the army fared against the Shinobi Alliance. However, the Zetsu that possessed [[spoiler:Yamato]] was insanely strong and managed to hold the Alliance at bay by itself, which implies the Zetsus actually have a lot more potential than most would expect. If Kaguya had more time, she could have researched more and built an army of Kage level or higher Zetsus, giving her enough military power to not only push back [[spoiler:Momoshiki]], but to conquer the rest of the universe as well.

*** Solved. [[spoiler:Tobi is Obito, an Uchiha, so technically he is, in fact, a descendant of the Sage, just not a direct one. Then there was the fact that the other half of his body was grafted with Hashima's cloned cell, which in itself already makes half of him the descendant of the the Sage's good son -- then you found out that having both Senju and Uchiha's cells is what needed to receive the Sage's power.]]

* Learning the full extent of Nagato's abilities causes a massive case of FridgeLogic. Namely, why couldn't he have simply brought Yahiko back to life?
** Not really acknowledged, but it does sort of get explained. [[spoiler: When Yahiko died, Nagato barely had any knowledge or control of his powers, certainly not to the extent of raising the dead. Remember, Nagato said that he could bring the people who died in Konoha back to life because he acted fast enough. He couldn't bring back Jiraiya, however, because he'd been dead for too long (and it had only been a few weeks or so) So it's believable that by the time Nagato had mastered his powers to the extent of being able to raise the dead, Yahiko had already crossed the point of no return.]]
** This actually sort of brings up another plothole though . [[spoiler:The original plan was for Nagato to eventually revive real!Madara. This would be after he had been dead for 16+ years, yet Obito and Madara still expected that he'd be able to do it.]]
*** The specific condition is if a soul has not yet crossed the threshold between life and death. Kakashi and Sakumo were on the threshold the entire time -- talking to each other. When Kakashi was being revived, Sakumo was finally able to move on. With Madara's body kept in a safe spot, which was why Obito freaked out when Kabuto revealed he got to it, Madara's soul never moved on -- he never accepted death and remained in limbo. Yahiko would have died happy knowing (or believing) that Nagato and Konan would get out of there alive, thus he'd move on.
*** Yahiko's [[spoiler:suicide/murder]] convinced Nagato that [[spoiler:there could be no lasting peace in this world, because of the innate hate and cruelty in human nature]]. He knew Yahiko would be greatly distressed by his friend's change of heart and the destruction of their dream, and simply decided to spare him this pain.

** Because Hiruzen would have used the Reaper Death Seal against him, rather than let Naruto fall into his hands. That's one thing he couldn't regenerate from, and it's unclear whether he'd be capable of dodging it either.
*** Sure, but he could have just waited until Naruto was outside the village and then snatched him where Sarutobi couldn't interfere. And during the second part of the manga, before he learned Sage Mode, there were several times when Naruto was outside the village without Tsunade or Jiraiya to protect him. Why didn't Tobi grab him then?
*** Because without the other eight Tailed Beasts, capturing Naruto is useless to the Akatsuki, and there's plenty of stuff that could go wrong in the interim. There's no way he didn't know Nagato had his own agenda, and why risk a scenario where Nagato could use Naruto to help him overthrow Tobi? As it turns out, Tobi would have been in serious trouble if he had to fight Nagato, Konan, and Naruto in short succession, and Nagato would be quite happy to pull a LetsYouAndHimFight between Naruto and Tobi.
*** He could have just hid Naruto at a remote location.
** I thought that it was strange as well, but then I realized that Tobi's master plan was actually to use Naruto to make Sasuke stronger! If he had just kidnapped Naruto when he was just a kid, then Sasuke would never have felt the pressure of Naruto as his rival, which would have never triggered his insecurity complex. Coupled with the fact that Itachi wouldn't have returned to the village looking for him, Sasuke would have never realized how powerless he was. He would have continued to train to surpass Itachi, and have enough faith in his abilities to not have to rely on Orochimaru. Sasuke would have eventually reached the level he did without having to dirty his hands and might have actually managed to take on Naruto's role and be viewed as a hero by Konoha, causing Tobi's plan to have Naruto and Sasuke fight each other to go straight to hell. So he probably decided to leave Naruto in the village as just another part of his XanatosGambit without realizing that Naruto might actually become strong enough to be a threat to him.
** [[spoiler: Now that he's revealed to be Obito, there are two possibilities: One, he wants Naruto to suffer from his one-sided crush on Sakura like he had for Rin. All so that he can make a point to him that a dream world where he can live his dream life with Sakura is the best option for him. Two, Obito had already unlocked Kamui at the time, but he wouldn't have taken any chances at Kakashi having unlocked it as well. If they fought, Kakashi may have very well figured out his jutsu]].
*** A huge hole in your first possibility: How would Obito know who Naruto had a one-sided crush on, unless he kept tabs on the poor kid his whole life? Also, Naruto stopped having a crush on Sakura by the time Tobi was finally revealed to be Obito, due to [[ShipSinking the events of Chapter 469]] and due to him outright admitting to Sai that he ''knew'' [[SingleTargetSexuality Sakura always loved Sasuke]] in Chapter 474. His dream life would not have included her at all. Your first possibility is actually rendered moot.
*** There's a couple other things to take into account. 1) The last time he tried to take the Kyuubi, half his body got blown up by the Hokage. I don't think it's out of the question that some of the intervening time has been spent recuperating. 2) The second episode of ''Shippuden'' is titled "The Akatsuki Makes Its Move." Presumably to avoid setting off red flags all over the world, the members of the Akatsuki were planning what essentially amounts to a coup. If you take one jinchūriki several years before you take the rest, there's a decent chance that someone will figure out what you're up to. Take them all at once and you stand an excellent chance of getting most or all of them before the villages have a chance to get their act together and do something about it.
** The most obvious answer is that there would be no story if he had. There is literally no reason whatsoever for him to have not grabbed Naruto before the events of the series started. He can teleport anywhere, with anyone, at any time and literally no one can stop him.
*** The main reason could be he did not want a rampaging jinjuriki in the one place where he can't just phase though attacks and where he sends his body when he does and he does not know how much or little Naruto has over the Kyuubi until the Chunin exams if not later since Naruto only used a little of it against Haku and regained control so it looked like he could use it at will.
** Or, like as is stated in the series by Minato and Kakashi, Obito didn't grab Naruto because he wasn't sure if he wanted to go through with the plan just yet.

** It was my interpretation that Academy students, outside of war time, are able to graduate at age 9, except if there are extenuating circumstances, like Naruto and Lee failing due to being the dead lasts, or Sasuke and Neji being held back because they weren't stable enough to become Ninjas at those times. As for the others, well lets have a look at who else is in the Konoha 12 for a moment, shall we. First, there is Sakura and Ino, both of whom are apart of a large number of girls in the Sasuke Fan-Club, you honestly don't think that they'd pass on graduating in some way or another for a chance to be on Sasuke's team. Then you have Hinata, who is pretty much the same way for Naruto as the others are for Sasuke, plus she may have failed one of the exams, due to her clan's specialisation. Next up you have Kiba, Choji, and Shikamaru, both of whom were apart of the slacker quartet, a group that had the lowest grades in the class, to varying degrees, so it's no stretch to assume that they would have failed their exams as well, coupled with the fact that as the children of the heads of their clans, Ino, Shikamaru, and Choji would only have graduated together, so if one of them was held back, then all three of them would be held back. Now, while this theory doesn't explain Tenten or Shino, let me ask, has there been any mention of any other kind of school in the Naruto world? This would mean that civilian children would've also gone to the academy as well, and, unless Lee's condition is a pseudo-Kekkei Genkai [[spoiler: as it was shown that both Guy and his dad also have this condition]] then it could be that civilians have poor chakra control/etc just like Lee, and is why they don't become ninja. But then you get those stubborn few that still try even when they, realistically, shouldn't. However, instead of focusing on Taijutsu like Lee, [[spoiler: Guy, and Dai]], Tenten honed her weapons skills and had better control than Lee. Now if this is the case, then she may not have been dead last, ie her grades were spectacular, it was just that final exam that kept her from progressing until she did. Which just leaves Shino, to which I present exhibit A): Torune. Ignoring the filler arc that showed Shino and Torune friends when they were growing up, BEFORE he worked for ROOT, Torune is still one of the most prized members of the Aburame clan, and yet NONE of the clan members wondered where the hell he had gone during his ROOT training? I just find it impossible that he wasn't put on guard 24/7 not only because of how rare the bugs he carries are, but also how dangerous, as only his dad has the bugs necessary to counter-act Torune's ones effects. I put it to you dear Tropers that the Aburame clan not only knows of, but is a big supporter of ROOT, because think about it... who, outside an Aburame, nor someone whom has a specific Aburame on their team, would notice the disappearance of an Aburame? Which would mean that Shino was placed in that class by Danzo, so as to not only keep an eye on Naruto, but also an eye on each of the clan children there as well, because that boy is a genius, and if it merely required a clone technique, and not necessarily THE clone technique to pass, then Shino could've just used a bug clone and be done with it, but no he was held back, until all but Naruto would've most likely passed, and then Danzo could've either took Naruto as a new operative, or just planted another ROOT member to keep an eye on the jinchūriki, which is why Shino wasn't on Naruto's team, because neither he nor Danzo predicted that the jinchūriki would pass that year. (either that or Shino was a selective genius, and had piss poor grades/couldn't get the necessary passing grade to advance)
* Itachi's desire to "protect" Sasuke falls '''''REALLY''''' short when you realize that he did the most damage with his shoving hatred and revenge down Sasuke's throat...

* The Road to Ninja trailer: most of the weirdness can be explained by ForWantOfANail. There was no Kyuubi attack, and so Minato and Kushina are still alive, and [[spoiler:Kushina is still the jinchūriki of Kurama.]] That in turn means that Naruto was neither an orphan, nor a jinchūriki, so he'd have a normal childhood with normal social interaction. This, in turn, means Kumo either didn't start a war three years later, or Minato and Kushina [[CurbStompBattle utterly destroy them.]] This means there was either no kidnapping attempt on Hinata or it was quickly put down and led to Kumo's unconditional surrender because Kushina has had quite enough of Kumo kidnapping Konoha citizens and threatens to wipe them out if they don't. As a result, Hinata and Neji don't have traumatic childhoods and so Hinata doesn't become a ShrinkingViolet and Neji doesn't become a NietzscheWannabe. Some crisis happens when the Konoha 12 are about six (possibly Tobi/Akatsuki related), and Sakura's parents are among the casualties, and maybe Shikamaru suffers a head injury, which explains those two. Orochimaru is either dealt with swiftly by Minato or doesn't dare attempt anything, so Sasuke never turns evil. But how does any of that explain Kiba using cats or Shino having Venus Fly Traps? Their clans shouldn't be any different.
** Wherever you got that first bit of information....It is wrong. [[spoiler: It is not stated how it happens, but Kushina is NOT the Kyuubi jinchūriki, Naruto's counterpart, Menma, is. And Sakura's father died sealing the Kyuubi in Menma.]]
*** As for the rest of that, it's just personality quirks making them opposite to their counterparts in the original world.
*** Shows what happens when you make assumptions based on limited information.
* A double dose for Tobi/[[spoiler:Obito]]. First, he managed to go head to head against Minato when [[spoiler: he was only 14 or 15 and had been a chunin that had half his body crushed only a year or two prior.]] Second, he's been spamming [[spoiler: Kamui]] for his characters entire existence, how is he not blind yet?
** A year or two nothing, this is months after his death. The series starts with Kakashi at 26 and the Kurama's attack having been 12 years ago when Kakashi was 14. Kakashi became a Jounin at 13 and Obito's eye was his gift to Kakashi for his promotion. That means Obito had a year max to get to where we see him against Minato.
** [[spoiler: Considering how it's been said that one needs Senju and Uchiha blood/genes/cells to unlock both full potential, and Tobi having half his body as a synthetic version of Mokuton probably compensates in a way. Or, maybe, it's less taxing to teleport himself, rather than others]].
** [[spoiler: A close look at the Obito/Minato fight reveals that Minato had him on the ropes anyway, with Obito unable to lay a finger on his sensei. Minato dodged all of Tobi's Kamui warp attempts and fairly easily planted a rasengan into Obito's back, which the latter only survived by virtue of the stricken part being composed of Senju DNA. With little difficulty, Minato then made Obito relinquish his control over Kurama, after which retreating was the Uchiha's only option. Minato's death eventually occured as a result of Kurama's presence in Konoha. Obito himself had no direct hand in his sensei's death, for the former couldn't hold a candle to him in a direct confrontation, as shown.]]
** [[spoiler: Actually, neither fighter used their full strength against each other. While Minato's brilliance and combat experience put a dent to Obito's raw power, he was distracted by his family being in danger. Obito, for his part, never used Mokuton or Enton against his former teacher.]]
*** [[spoiler: It comes as a massive dose of FridgeBrilliance later when we realize that, until his fight with Minato, Obito was still struggling with his broken dreams and new world views. Becomes a TearJerker when you realize he wasn't aiming to kill Minato in that fight but rather capture him alive to avoid dealing with the feelings of murdering his former loved ones.]]
* [[spoiler: It comes as an even bigger TearJerker when you consider that, through all of his years as Tobi and his grudge towards Kakashi, he never managed to bring himself to take revenge and kill the latter until being forced to do so for the sake of the Moon Eye Plan. Deep inside, Obito still cares for his former comrades and does everything he can to avoid facing his true feelings.]]

** Think of it as comparable to birthrates and child mortality rates in the preindustrial world: lots of kids may die, but enough are born to at least maintain the population, at least within the ninja clans.
*** Well, for one thing, there have consistently been more male than female ninja. If sending children to battle at the age of twelve instead of seven was a revolutionary concept to them, I doubt the clans were shy about marrying the non-ninja girls off the moment they were "old enough" and otherwise actively working to ensure there were enough children. Your fiance died in battle? Too bad. Here, take this forty-year-old, his wife just died giving birth for the sixth time.

* Why would [[spoiler: Rin]] think it was a better idea to [[spoiler: kill herself and get rid of the Sanbi so as to not risk it being unleashed on Konoha when Minato, Kushina, Jiraiya, and the Third Hokage are all still alive and among the best seal masters around? The Kyuubi is far stronger than the Three-Tails, so suppressing or resealing it would be incredibly easy for Minato, and they would gain another bijuu in the middle of a war giving them a boost in power. Instead it ends up going right back to the people who sealed it in her after her death. Even worse ''Minato'' was on his way to back her and Kakashi up so it wouldn't have even made it into the village in the first place.]]
** [[spoiler: I have a theory for that. Rin didn't want to take any chances, as Kushina had not displayed the ability to summon/unleash Kurama and use him against Isobu -- and I don't think Rin even knew that Kurama was so close at hand. She may be the medic of the team, but she is not omniscient. For all we know -- she had no way of knowing ''any'' of the stuff you brought up. Besides, if Isobu went to the Hidden Leaf, it would disrupt the balance of power and the Hidden Cloud would wage war with Gyuki and Matatabi at their disposal -- which would be even worse than letting the mist get back their bijuu.]]
*** [[spoiler: Minato was in a mission somewhere else at the time and even if Kushina could control Kurama to an extent, having two Kaiju-sized beasts throwing it down inside a population center would still cause massive death and destruction. Not only this but the Mist could be planning to launch an all out invasion of the Leaf once the latter is in tatters and their ninja exhausted from putting down a rampaging bijuu, just look at what Orochimaru did with just snakes and Sand ninja, Konoha could have been gone from the earth before [[OneManArmy Minato]] even discovered his village had been attacked.]]
*** [[spoiler: That mission Minato was on?? I'm betting ten to one that Kumo and Kiri was in cahoots. The Cloud would act as a decoy to get Minato away from his students, while the Mist would kidnap Rin. Guess who was sent to intercept Minato?? yep, Bee and Ei.]]
** FridgeLogic: However, it should be noted, that Kushina is also a seal specialist.
*** [[WorfHadTheFlu Kushina was also]] [[LongestPregnancyEver ten months pregnant]] when this went down.
*** [[RealityIsUnrealistic 40 weeks is considered full term for human pregnancy.]] If four weeks equals one month, that makes ten months.
** Depends on how good she was. Judging from what's been implied, Minato and Jiraiya were the better specialists. Kushina may have known some advanced seals, but not to the extent Minato could, despite her being the one who taught Minato. In fact, we don't even know if Kushina could use something like the Eight Trigrams Seal. She may have known it from theory alone, but it depends if she can actually pull it off. Another possibility is that she would need to know what kind of seal the Mist used. If she doesn't know the formula, she can't reverse the unsealing. It's like hacking or jailbreaking. If you don't know the code that makes up the software, you can't hack it.
** Given the crap Naruto had to put up with for being the host of the Kyuubi, I doubt the village as a whole was even aware they had Kurama, let alone that it was inside Kushina. Remember, Rin was merely a Chunin medic, and she might not have known much about the Tailed Beasts, save that they were feared as terrible, unstoppable monsters. This Troper also assumes that the seal for Isobu was rigged to break after a precalculated amount of time.
** [[spoiler:I don't know where you can find a reference for this, but I could swear that this was mentioned at some point in the manga -- there's a reason why the Tailed Beasts are all sealed inside children. The Tailed Beast's chakra significantly alters and affects a person's chakra network. When sealed inside a child, the Tailed Beast is mixed with that child's chakra network, and the child's chakra network adapts to the large amount of chakra that comes from the Tailed Beast as they grow older. This is the reason why the host dies if the Tailed Beast is ever ripped out of the jinchūriki's body -- the core of their chakra networks is essentially being ripped out (except for anyone from the Uzumaki clan, who all have a great amount of their own chakra to still draw from). That said, the older a host initially is, the less capable that person is of adapting to the Tailed Beast's chakra in their system, meaning Rin was far from being capable of taking in Isobu the same way that Naruto, Gaara, and Bee were able to with their respective Tailed Beasts. Not to mention the sealing work done by the Mist Ninja was already intentionally shoddy to account for the time it would take Rin and Kakashi to reach Konoha, so her fate was sealed the moment they put the Three-Tails inside of her -- she was either going die from the seal's failure and Isobu forcing its way out, or by Isobu ripping her chakra system apart and destroying her internally, that is if the Mist Ninja didn't kill Kakashi during the chase and use some other means of delivering her to Konoha. If I'm completely mistaken about something mentioning the age of the host at the time of implantation being important in the manga... well, it makes for a great theory.]] That said, to completely answer the original troper's question of why [[spoiler:Rin]] would want to kill herself in that particular situation, [[spoiler:Rin making it to Konoha would have been playing in to the Mist Village's entire plan in the first place. Kirigakure's entire plan revolved around taking a Konoha ninja and turning him/her into a literal TykeBomb that would destroy Konoha upon arrival, and Rin didn't want that to happen]]. And really, regardless of whatever arguments can be made for her actions, [[spoiler:Rin]] ''didn't have time to think about any and all of this while being chased down by Mist ninja''.
** As far as Minato being away on a mission goes -- let's remember we are talking about the king of TeleportSpam here, and both Kakashi and Rin know he's capable of zapping over at a moment's notice had they had one of those marked kunai. And he's definitely capable of porting to Kushina, that was established. That said, the balance of power point holds up. Konoha winding up with two bijuu would have been seen by the other villages as a seriously aggressive move, to the point that they might conclude that they deliberately sealed it inside Rin for transport back to the village -- something the Mist would be in no hurry to deny.
** [[spoiler:Solved. It is not that Rin didn't seek Minato, Kushina or Jiraiya's help, rather than she couldn't. Madara was the one pulling the strings the whole time while Mist danced with him. Madara used a Contract Jutsu on Rin and brainwashed The Mist with a great idea to 'capture her and suicide bomb Hidden Leaf with the Three-Tails' using Rin. The Jutsu could NOT disobey Madara's instructions at all, as it would have ruined a certain plan of Madara, and Madara's real intention was to have her killed by the Mist. Hence, Rin unknowingly helped Madara by jumping in front of Kakashi. The certain plan of Madara? Corrupt Obito. To say that it went flawlessly will be an understatement.]]
* Something that always bugged me for a while -- why does Naruto's bijuu transformations comprise of pure energy rather than a flesh-and-blood form like the rest? At first I thought it was to represent Naruto being one of a kind, but then it hit me! Kurama is only one half of what he was originally, since Minato sealed away the other half.
** The irony here is that it's Kurama's Yang half sealed in Naruto, rather than his Yin half.
*** Considering a yin seal is used to speed up cell division a physical thing the flesh and blood of Kurama should come from his yin half
*** Turns out Kurama's yin half has a variant of the same power, and that the complete version of this power was originally used by Asura, the son of the Sage of the Six Paths. There is no real explanation as to the source of the power, but a possible explanation is either Hagoromo or Asura gave Kurama some of their power because they knew the "Child of Prophecy" (Naruto) would befriend Kurama.

* They probably didn't plan this far ahead, but it seemed to me that Kakashi took the Zabuza/Haku battle much more seriously after Haku jumped in front of his Lightning Cutter, basically committing suicide to protect Zabuza. Compare this to the earlier (but more recently revealed) [[spoiler:death of Rin]]: suicide by Kakashi's Lightning Cutter in order to protect [[spoiler:Konoha from the Tailed Beast inside her]]. Maybe the parallels shook the poor guy up.
* Zabuza and the Demon brothers were failed heroes of the Mist Ninja. [[spoiler: In Zabuza's bingo book entry he was stated to be a dangerous killer who tried to assassinate the Mizukage. We find out later that the fourth Mizukage was controlled by Obito and possibly Madara Uchiha. Seeing that Kisame recognized Obito as the Mizukage and that he even revealed himself to kisame. We can tell first the Fourth Mizukage didn't start out as a controlled kage and that every attempt to kill the Mizukage was an attempt to free the village hidden in the mist from Obito's control. Meaning Kisame's master Zabuza the demon brothers all tried to save the village.]]

* The Shukaku, and presumably the other Tailed Beasts tend to get antsy when a full moon rises. [[spoiler:Guess where their chimera body is located.]]

* Gaara was ''completely fixated'' on killing Sasuke to prove his existence, claiming him the only worthy person worth fighting, ignoring [[IAmNotLeftHanded Kabuto]] and Neji as well as [[SealedInAPersonShapedCan Naruto]]. [[spoiler: We later find out that Uchiha Madara helped subdue and enslave all of the Tailed Beasts, Uchiha Indra cared more for power than he did his own step-siblings (said aforementioned Tailed Beasts), and that Sasuke is the reincarnation of ''both'' those people. Shukaku likely had a hand in Gaara focusing on Sasuke.]]

* Shizune mentioned that Tsunade's necklace only acknowledged her and that anyone else who wore it would die within a day. Naruto has not died yet and has had it for about three years. He is still alive. And guess who else had the necklace for a long time? HASHIRAMA! So the first two people to survive the necklace became Hokage. So, this is Kishi's way of saying that Naruto will definitely become Hokage!
** This is reinforced by the fact that two other people who wanted to be Hokage wore it and died within 24 hours.
*** Pretty much confirmed in Chapter 671. [[spoiler: Hashirama and Naruto are both reincarnations of Asura, the Senju/Uzumaki ancestor son of the Rikudo Sennin.]]

* When Naruto finally catches up with Sasuke, they are both standing on the statues of two important shinobi: Naruto is standing on the statue of the First Hokage, Hashirama Senju, and Sasuke is standing on the statue of the man who helped the First build the Leaf Village (who at that point was unnamed) Madara Uchiha. [[spoiler: Naruto and Sasuke are reincarnations of Hashirama and Madara, and are standing on the statues of their previous incarnations.]]

* During the confrontation with Sasuke, Naruto mentally talks to the Kyuubi, before Sasuke invades this -- the Kyuubi has this to say: "''-snip-'' and a chakra more ominous than my own." At first, you might interpret this as a statement that Sasuke's hatred outclasses even the Kyuubi, a malevolent mass of hatred... but then, after the reveal that [[spoiler: Kurama is not malevolent, merely misunderstood]], the line almost borders on {{Foreshadowing}} in hindsight.

* Asuma's last words to Ino are an encouragement to keep being the TeamMom he knows she can be to Shikamaru and Choji, and to never lose to Sakura in either ninjutsu or romance. At first, it seems that Ino only achieves the first part but, depending on your point of view, she actually achieves both goals. She doesn't become a top medical ninja, but she becomes ''the'' foremost expert in the Yamanaka clan's ninjutsu. Furthermore, the ''Epilogue'' shows her [[spoiler: HappilyMarried to Sai]]. Sure, she [[spoiler: DidNotGetTheGuy she (initially) wanted, but considering that Sasuke spent most of his life as a married man away from his wife and child]], it's debatable whether [[spoiler:Sakura actually "won" at romance]].

* Okay, this is going to require bringing in some logic from ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender''. In ''Avatar'', Iroh describes Lightning as being a part of Fire, instead of a separate element, referring to it as the cold-blooded fire. As of this arc, we have the Fire Style Jutsu-using Itachi ([[spoiler:who is revealed to be loyal to the Leaf]]) fighting Sasuke ([[spoiler:who has betrayed the Leaf, and does so even further after this arc]]), who now prefers to use its [[IncrediblyLamePun cold-blooded sibling]], Lightning Style Jutsu.

* I haven't actually read the most recent chapters, but all the talk surrounding it made me come to a revelation about the backstory of Pain/Nagato. The biggest complaints involved the idea that he hadn't gone through enough to justify the kind of heartless murderer he became. While this made sense, another point was made a few chapters later: [[spoiler:he can perform what amounts to Mass Raise Dead, and it's implied somewhere that he could possibly do it without dying]]. After thinking it over, Pain's character suddenly made a lot more sense. [[spoiler:He knew he could bring back the people he killed in his attacks (whether or not he actually did), and [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity knowing this led to him becoming disillusioned with life and death, caring less and less about his own murders.]] This was only compounded by his already-pretty-traumatic childhood.]] -- @/ShotgunNinja
** [[spoiler: The massive property damage]] was ''what Pain was aiming for in the first place''. He was basically [[spoiler: shoving them all aside so he could break all their stuff.]] He doesn't really "get" people, but it's in a much more sympathetic way than other "KillEmAll, [[KnifeNut choppy choppy chop]]!" villains since he was just being petty, and [[spoiler: didn't do anything he might see as permanent]]. This makes it even better if you've already had the initial FridgeBrilliance[=/=]FridgeLogic [[NowWhat one-two punch]] a lot of fans seem to have had. -@/JET73L
*** Except that's not true. The only reason why most of the people survived Pain's wrath was because of Katsuyu and Tsunade counteracting most of the damage he's inflicted thus far. Chou Shinra Tensei (the giant one) only had survivors because of Katsuyu. Pain also killed many people regardless and, while he did later revive them all [[FridgeHorror he only had enough to revive those that he killed]]. If Tsunade didn't put herself in a coma, then chances are the death toll would be in the ''thousands''.
** After re-reading the Pain fight, I finally understood how Naruto convinced him. It was mainly because Pain ''wasn't sure himself.'' His plan was a self admitted short-term solution that would just repeat endlessly. So, every time he fought someone who said they were fighting for peace, he asked, "What's your plan?" When no one could answer, he continued on his way. Naruto reminded him of who he was, and just how far he had fallen in his efforts for peace. He saw in Naruto that maybe this is the one who could continue on and find a better way to peace than his own. This was someone who's belief was unshakeable and who would keep going. A fellow pupil who could continue on, even considering all the pain he had suffered till now. So, he did the best he could to help his fellow pupil by [[spoiler: bringing the people of Konoha back to life.]]
* Not only did Naruto give Pain the same speech the main character of Jiraiya's book gave his opponent, but he also did so with a modified version of the character's tactic (the character used a smoke bomb, tricked the enemy into attacking a clone, then took him by surprise. Naruto's plan involved more layers of deception) -- @/{{Rampulus}}

* Two more came to mean about the end of the "Hunt for the Eight-Tails" Arc.\\
First, I wondered how Killer Bee [[spoiler:avoided having his fake body discovered as a disguised tentacle]] and I remembered [[spoiler:Karin (the team sensor) was knocked unconscious... ''by Killer Bee'']]. So basically, he [[spoiler:ensured his KansasCityShuffle by deliberately trying to kill/disable the one he knew was most likely to see through it (him knowing about her abilities [[ChekhovsGun was demonstrated in a scene where he identified her as a "sensor-type"]]) and the attack itself would also distract them as he switched places with the tentacle]].\\
The second was about how Sasuke stated [[spoiler:he didn't need the Eight-Tails to destroy the Leaf Village because he had "a new power" that would be enough]]. This was confused me as I though he meant something yet introduced, until I realized he was just talking about [[spoiler:Amaterasu, the power he just used. He was trying to destroy a village that had wooden buildings and he had ''inextinguishable fire that burns continuously for a week'']]. His "[[KillItWithFire plan]]" became so much clearer, and if it weren't for [[spoiler:the village already being destroyed and Madara stopping him]] he could have [[spoiler:killed an ''assload'' of people]]. --@/{{thatother1dude}}
** I don't think this would have actually worked though, considering [[spoiler: the Amaterasu fire can be captured and sealed.]] Not that Sasuke necessarily knew that.
** Susanoo is the "new power" he unlocked at the end of that fight since its knowledge appears to the Mangekyo Sharingan bearer when he awakens the power in both his eyes, as Sasuke later confirmed in his fight versus the Raikage and his team. Another hint was that he mentioned after the Bee fight that had "something he wanted to try", which turned out to be combining Amaterasu to Susanoo's rib cage.
* When Kakashi attempts to use Kamui on Tobi, the latter declares that this jutsu wouldn't affect him. [[spoiler: It turns out that the dimension Tobi and Kakashi send things to with their respective sharingan are the same, which means Tobi could simply escape the dimension anyway.]]
** Why do Kakashi and Tobi use the same dimension with their sharingan powers? Because Kakashi received his sharingan from [[spoiler:Tobi, aka Obito]], so of course they would use the same one!
* The 2 main principles that Danzo enforced in his Root organization were, "a shinobi should never succumb to emotions" and "a shinobi should keep their mission above all else, including safety of comrades." [[spoiler:Sasuke gave him a doze of his own medicine.]]

** Third, there's Naruto's promise to Sasuke: either he'll save him from revenge and bring him back to the Leaf or they'll both die; there's no middle ground. And Naruto always keeps his word. Therefore, unless Sasuke pulls a RedemptionEqualsDeath ([[spoiler:he doesn't]]), his fate is pretty much a ForegoneConclusion.

* Just prior to the Kyuubi's attack on Konoha, Kakashi notes that he feels "something strange". This is certainly to show that he is far more observant and just generally awesome than most other people... but it quickly becomes FridgeBrilliance when you remember that [[spoiler: Kakashi has Obito's eye, and while he can't see through it -- at least not yet -- he certainly had to have felt Obito's immense effort controlling the bijuu with his remaining eye, especially since they were in such close proximity to one another that night.]]

* After Tobi is revealed to be [[spoiler: Obito Uchiha, the latter attacks Naruto, Gai, and Kakashi with a powerful fire-breathing jutsu, further enhanced by his use of Kamui. This prompted fans to question why Obito never used such powerful fire jutsu in his other battles. However, what they forget is that as Tobi, Obito was practically always masked. Since the vast majority of Uchiha fire jutsu are launched from the mouth, this would have been quite impossible for Obito to do without unmasking himself in the process.]]
** Related to this: one finally understands why Tobi was able to keep up using his Sharingan very effortlessly and why he can spam his "teleportation" and "intangibility" jutsu: [[spoiler: it is a Mangekyo Sharingan skill, the other, more powerful aspect of '''''Kamui''''', Kakashi's "borrowed" Mangekyo Sharingan ability. The most likely reason why Obito has not experienced deteriorating eyesight and similar problems is that for one, he already shares Hashirama Senju's DNA via the modifications he got from Madara treating his damaged body. And we all know what [[GodModeSue crazy invincible attributes]] one gets from intermingling Uchiha and Senju DNA.]]
** [[spoiler: "Those who break the rules are trash, but those who abandon their comrades are worse than trash!"]] And Tobi says he is no-one, or in other words [[spoiler: less than trash.]]

* For a while, I was wondering exactly why Tobi trained Sasuke, when no aspect of the Moon's Eye plan really required Sasuke's participation. Then, after Tobi and Madara's conversation in 614, in which it is explained to the audience, that, while the two of them work together, they are ''not'' friends, it finally makes sense. [[spoiler: Obito was never planning on reviving Madara in the first place! He was going to use ''Sasuke'' as the Juubi Jinchūriki instead, so that he wouldn't have to sacrifice himself to use Rinne Tensei, and so that he could control the Moon's Eye Plan without Madara's interference.]]
** Well, seeing as how much trouble Tobi was having with Sasuke, that doesn't really work. Why would Obito hand Sasuke godhood? The way they were talking, it sounds like only [[spoiler: Madara is really powerful enough to be capable of being the host of the Ten-Tails. Otherwise, Obito could just do it himself. That being said, thanks to Obito, Sasuke has the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan. Give him an infusion of Senju DNA, which Obito has an abundance of, and Sasuke would have the Rinnegan as well. It's possible that Obito was planning to manipulate Sasuke, who really knows nothing about what is going on, into unknowingly sacrificing himself to revive Madara. Yes, there would be risks to Sasuke getting the Rinnegan, which he wouldn't know anything about, but there are even more risks to giving him infinite raw chakra, which any ninja could figure out what to do with]]. Not a bad idea, really.
*** Sasuke being used as the sacrifice to bring back Madara explains why Tobi was so pissed about Danzo destroying Shisui's eye as it deprived him of a more reliable genjutsu to control Sasuke and why he only used one of Nagato's Rinnegan while trying to keep Sasuke safe during the war.
* One thing that really bugged me was how [[spoiler: Obito is doing all of this to be with Rin. Now, Obito knew her several years ago, and he never got close enough that they were even romantically involved, despite his wishes to the contrary. How could Obito possibly think that he knew Rin well enough, everything that shaped who she was, to the point that he could create an exact clone of her in his infinite Tsukiyomi? Throw in the fact that Madara is the one to become the caster of the infinite Tsukiyomi, and it gets even less logical.]] Then it hit me: he has the Rinnegan! He wouldn't even ''need'' to create a "clone" of [[spoiler: Rin]] in his illusion: he could just summon the real person from the afterlife. True, reviving someone with the Rinnegan costs the user's own life, but if the user were drawing on the power of the EldritchAbomination who created the universe.... they might be able to bend that rule a litte. For that matter, [[spoiler: Obito]] wouldn't even need to revive [[spoiler: Rin]] properly; simply channelling her soul via Hell Path would work. He only needs her mind to be drawn into the Tsukiyomi; it probably doesn't matter if that mind is stuck inside a living vessel or not.
* Back when details about the Uzumaki clan were first being revealed, it bothered me that they were wiped out because people were afraid of their sealing techniques. I mean come on, why the hell would people be afraid of ''sealing'' of all things? Then Chapter 618 comes out and you find out that the Uzumaki clan has somehow managed to bind the freaking [[spoiler: GOD OF DEATH]] to a mask for their summoning convenience... Suddenly the idea that people were afraid of these guys makes ''perfect'' sense.

* I always wondered why Tobi went and manipulated the Hidden Mist into becoming the Bloody Mist. In Chapter 629 we find out that [[spoiler: Rin was turned into a host for the Three-Tails to be use to destroy Konoha by having the seal break as soon as she was within it, which caused her to commit Suicide by Cop to avoid such a fate.]] Suddenly it was clear that Tobi didn't run Mist straight into the ground because it was helpful to his plans but to get back at them for putting [[spoiler:Rin]] in that position.

* Why didn't Sasuke [[spoiler:use Izanagi to negate Madara stabbing him in the heart?]] Because he knew it would be pointless since [[spoiler:Madara would just negate it with Izanami, leaving Sasuke in just as grave condition and short an eye, an eye that he'll need in order to win this battle if someone does manage to heal him, or that his allies could use if he dies.]]
* [[spoiler: Obito manages to steal pieces of the Shukaku and Eight-Tails' chakra from Madara.]] The two Tailed Beasts whose chakra that Naruto ''doesn't'' have.
* [[spoiler: In Chapter 670, it was revealed that Kaguya Otsutsuki had both the Byakugan and the Sharingan. This is very fitting given her characterization as someone who maintains world peace through the use of force. [[BigBrotherIsWatching With the Byakugan, Kaguya can likely see across absurd distances beyond what any Hyuuga in the present time is capable of, possibly anywhere in the world. The Sharingan was also noted by Kakashi (in the second bell test after the time-skip) to be able to read lips, meaning she'll also know what people say despite not being able to hear them]]. In addition, one panel in Chapter 670 also shows Kaguya creating huge lightning storms while standing from a distance within the safety of her palace, which implies that she is capable of creating such storms and/or other forms of natural disasters anywhere in the world. All of this put together and she then becomes the ultimate oppressive overlord, using her two Dojutsu to oversee the world for any threats to peace and then bringing down natural disasters to crush them before they can start.]]
* Naruto and Sasuke both come back to life [[spoiler:and now sport the power of Rikudo. While it may seem like and AssPull so that the story can finish faster, it all makes sense when you consider the two men who revived them. Naruto knows Senjutsu and was revived by Obito, who has Dojutsu. Sasuke has Dojutsu and was revived by Kabuto, who has Senjutsu. By tapping into the life forces of beings that have all the powers they lack, Naruto and Sasuke were able to awaken the power of the Rikudo Sennin.]]
* Looking back on the pre-TimeSkip series, one thing always bugged me was that when Sasuke and Naruto fought, Sasuke gained the third pinwheel when he told Naruto he would severing the bond between them. Years later it hit me:[[spoiler:Since the Sharingan gives the person power the more traumatic of a experience they go through, Sasuke's sharingan advancing makes sense because he's declaring he's going to '''kill''' Naruto, the person he sees as his best friend and a brother like person.]] This means [[spoiler: Tobirama's]] words about the Sharingan were true.

* Sarada Uchiha. She's basically Kishimoto's way of saying "better luck this time" to [[spoiler:the disappointed [=NaruSasu=] and [=NaruSaku=] shippers]]. Boruto being similar to his father makes sense in this regard too then.

* Madara [[spoiler: is the reincarnation of Indra]] and [[spoiler: he became the embodiment of Sage]] by injecting himself with the cells of the First Hokage, right? This mixes the two chakras together. Naruto [[spoiler: is the reincarnation of Asura]], like the First Hokage before him. And Sasuke [[spoiler: is the reincarnation of Indra]] like Madara. If Boruto and Sarada were to become a couple... Does that mean that their children will be [[spoiler: the reincarnation of Sage himself?]]
** Also, maybe a stretch, but would [[spoiler: Himawari be sort of like an incomplete reincarnation of Kaguya?]] We see in ''The Last'' that [[spoiler: her mother Hinata]] has [[spoiler: Hamura's]] chakra, and [[spoiler: her father Naruto]] has [[spoiler: Hagoromo's]].

** Or Tamaki. [[spoiler: Ironic for the epilogue, huh?]]
* It was [[{{Foreshadowing}} foreshadowed]] that Naruto, being the ChosenOne, would bring about a radical change that would usher in peace in the ninja world. During the [[spoiler:Kaguya fight, Black Zetsu reveals he's been manipulating the ninja world since Kaguya's sealing just to bring her back. When she was sealed again, Naruto threw BZ into the Chibaku Tensei, sealing him in a dimension only a few can access]]. That was the change that Naruto would bring, and possibly why the [[spoiler:Kaguya fight]] happened at all.

* Why did Tobi infiltrated Akatsuki as a goof when he was in fact its leader? [[spoiler: Because he feared Orochimaru knew about Madara's death and used {{obfuscating stupidity}} to keep the later from having a bargaining chip against Akatsuki. By pretending not to be an important member and leaving the leadership role to Pain, Tobi could continue with his plans without the threat of Orochimaru exposing him if he came out openly as Akatsuki's leader.]] Once Orochimaru kicked the bucket [[spoiler:(at least temporarily)]], Tobi no longer had to worry about the later exposing his secret and could resume his role as Madara Uchiha.

* This troper always wondered why removing a Tailed Beast automatically kills its human container, and then one day it occurred to me. In Part I, there's a [[FreezeFrameBonus blink-and-you'll-miss-it]] scene (in the Naruto vs. Neji battle) where Naruto's chakra network is viewed. Naruto's standard blue human chakra circulates throughout his body, but the Kyuubi shows up as a bright orange ball in the center, which then sends itself through the 'lines' of his chakra network when he calls upon it. The extraction ritual is [[FridgeHorror basically tearing that chakra right out of the center of the host's body]], basically ripping their chakra network to shreds. With this in mind, it makes it all that more impressive that [[spoiler: Kushina was not only able to survive having this happen to her, but actually maintain consciousness and even fire off a barrier jutsu or two afterwards.]]

*** Subverted by Obito, which may be fridge humor when you think about his goggles -- a case of the {{Goggles Do Nothing}}. [[spoiler: Then double subverted as he then became TOBI.]]
*** The color here is more likely a physical expression of how different he is from the rest of the Uchiha.
** Guess who else has orange facewear?
*** Maybe this is just paranoia, but it's not a long jump from orange goggles to an orange mask.
*** [[spoiler: Not only a short jump, but a correct one!]]

* In the fourth or fifth chapter, Kakashi mentions that "Ninja who defy orders are scum, but ninja who abandon their comrades are even worse scum." Hundreds of chapters later, it is revealed that his father sacrificed the mission to save his friends.
** Not only that: the sentence above was first pronounced years before by [[spoiler:Obito, when he was trying to convince Kakashi to come to Rin's rescue. Kakashi dismissed it at first, and this resulted in Obito's death.]]
* The idea presented during Naruto and Sasuke's famous clash that "high level ninja can read each other's minds when their fists collide." Not only is this referenced again in their meeting after [[spoiler:Sasuke kills Danzo]], but it goes back as far as the ''very first opening,'' where Naruto and Sasuke bump fists after they take down a group of bandits.

* Yet another bit was with the idea of the Byakugan having a blind-spot. The basic idea of the Byakugan is just human vision of a much greater ability, including panoramic vision. The blind spot is behind the neck and extends at a low angle -- the exact spot where it's practically impossible for a regular person to see by turning their head. So it's not vision in every direction as once it's vision in ''every direction you can already look'' at once. -- @/{{thatother1dude}}
* A lot of people are upset at how absurd [[spoiler:Madara's instumentality plan]] is, but for me that was the point: Madara is dangerous because he is completely insane a la The Joker, but is aware of it enough to hide it until it no longer matters!
* The first Hokage has the power to manipulate wood and trees... and the village where most of the characters are from is the Hidden Leaf Village. Of course, it is surrounded by a forest, but ''still'' the name bothered me, especially when most of the other villages specialized in jutsus related to their village locations. -- @/{{Gallows}}
** If it helps any, the technical translation of "Konohagakure no Sato" is, actually, "Village Hidden in the ''Tree'' Leaves". As for the village not specialising... well, do recall that the First Hokage was the only one in whom the Wood Release bloodline actually functioned. -- Tropers/CaellachTigerEye
** Your analysis of the village names and their relation to shinobi strengths seems a bit faulty. The village names as a whole do not have direct correlation with the distribution of chakra natures in their shinobi. For example, certainly not everyone in Sunagakure can use sand, and we haven't even seen anyone in Kumogakure use clouds. Rather, village names are related to environments in which the chakra natures of their ''nations'' are particularly visible. For example, a land with heavy mist is rich with water. As for the name "Konohagakure", note that fire exists in nature neither in sand, nor in waves, nor in stone, nor in clouds, but in ''forests and leaves''. In addition, the name fire may be a reference to the Uchiha, with its signature fire-nature jutsus, which was one of the two founding clans of the village. -- Tropers/{{dokuro}}
*** I think it's because Hashirama was the one who made the trees surrounding Konoha. You'd think; where did all those trees come from? Plus Hashirama was the First Hokage.
*** {{Jossed}}. The forest was already there when Madara and Hashirama found the spot as kids.
* The emphasis on teamwork and D-Rank missions make absolutely no sense given that ninja seem entirely oriented toward one on one combat. However, then I realized that the ninja system is actually a Super Registration Act, and those things are meant to STOP them from becoming mindless soldiers by giving them a strong sense of loyalty, civic duty, and balance with civilian life. Also, despite what is seen, excluding prodigies, most ninja are NOT likely to be child soldiers, as they probably stick to D\C missions for most of their life, meaning that they are less "super-soldier" and more "social worker/militia". If this system wasn't used, the Naruto world would be like the Marvel universe, except even a weak super would be able to terrorize non-supers. -- {{@/Wodan46}}
** In Chapter 622, it's pretty much confirmed canon, we are shown just how '''''bad''''' Hashirama and Madara had it in their childhoods. So, the D/C rank missions are no doubt the solutions Hashirama created to solve the problems from the previous era, and prevent anymore needless deaths.
*** "And now they are able to live long enough to enoy the wonders and horrors of alcohol."
* I get why Konoha was scared to fight the Uchiha because they were scared that other villages would take advantage of the civil war. But that's probably not just the only reason. The village would have lost the war. Think about it, a devastating war just ended and thousands of Uchiha probably awakened the Mangekyo sharingan. Think about it. an army of susano attacking the village.
* I was initially pissed as hell when Sasuke apparently [[spoiler:throws his newly found-and-bonded-with team Taka to the wolves for the sake of persuing Danzo]], and it seemed a bit too much like his situation with Team 7. But then I did a little research -- Sasuke is trapped in his own cycle; he's mirroring the patterns seen in some abused/traumatised children. Long story short, they make friends but then seem to do everything possible to drive them away, and then hate themselves for it, then eventually make new friends and do the same again! I wasn't expecting something like that from Naruto, of all manga -- Shiruvi
** Helps emphasize the idea of it being a cycle when you realize Taka is really similar to Team 7. There's the oddball maverick in Naruto/Suigetsu, the obsessive fangirl who beats up the quirky one (Sakura/Karin), and the strange but also logical one (Kakashi/Jugo). He's not only in the cycle mentoned by the previous troper, he's trying to give himself another chance with the same kind of friends he ditched before.
** Sasuke's new team also reflects how much he's fallen after leaving team 7 since most of Hebi/Taka embodies the worst traits of his previous comrades turned UpToEleven: Suigetsu has the same sort of dream as Naruto but to accomplish it he [[TheUnfettered can and would do just about anything to achive it]] from grave robbing to murder, Karin is a lot like pre-time skip Sakura but is also so obsessed with Sasuke she once planned to [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil take advantage of him]] while he was weak after knocking everyone else out, and while Juugo acts as the strange, powerful, and mostly good-natured elder of the group he would [[SuperPoweredEvilSide happily kill all of them]] if he ever really lost control. In the case of the Suigetsu and Naruto parallels the ElementalRockPaperScissors also reflect this: Sasuke's elements are fire (for the hidden leaf) and lightning (for his Uchiha heritage) and while Naruto's wind is strong against lightning it also makes fire more powerful, Suigetsu's water does the exact opposite.
* I initially thought Danzo's downfall was overly quick, but realized later that it was essentially inevitable considering who Danzo is. He started out as the leader of a covert operations unit whose followers considered themselves to be his tools, and [[spoiler:had a mind control eye]]. While these are considerable resources at his disposal, he's also used to getting his way rather than having to negotiate or gain approval, which is especially noteworthy in that he states that even if Mifune might have made him head of the alliance if [[spoiler:he hadn't used mind control]], he couldn't take that chance. The scene where he kills the Hannya-masked assassins initially seemed to merely be a way to show off his powers, but it also showed that he's made quite a few enemies, and [[spoiler:his role in the Uchiha massacre leads to his death at Sasuke's hands]]. Say what you will about some of the decisions Naruto has made recently, but he's certainly far better at [[MagneticHero swaying people to his side]], [[DefeatMeansFriendship even former enemies]], and this shows that Danzo's pragmatic (and thus typically assumed to be more effective) approach actually doesn't work when trying to unite the world or maintain peace. -@/{{Rampulus}}
* Naruto always seemed to put a massive emphasis on the idea of the prodigy or genius. Characters like Neji and Sasuke were considered geniuses, while other characters like Lee, Hinata, and Naruto were labeled as failures and were even called as such by both Neji (pre-CharacterDevelopment) and Sasuke. At first I thought it was just sort of a DumbIsGood situation, until Lee was called a genius by Kakashi for being able to open the Gates. It was then that I realized that one of Naruto's morals is that everyone is a genius or very talented at something. They just have to figure out what it is and how to use it to its full potential. -{{@/Wind Weaver19}}
* People always like to point out that [[HighlyVisibleNinja Naruto's stupid for wearing bright orange]]. He certainly appears to have an unexplained attraction to the colour. Turns out, as pointed out in Chapter 498, [[spoiler: he's the child of Konoha's "Yellow Flash" and "The Bloody Habanero"; red and yellow makes orange.]]
** Why would an aspiring ninja wear orange in the first place? Because Naruto isn't concerned with being invisible, but with being ''seen'', or in other words acknowledged by the villagers who shun him. What better way to be noticed than to wear traffic-cone orange? -- koolkame
** Also, the manga and anime never seem to cover much in the way of seasons, but wouldn't Naruto blend in pretty well during Autumn, when the leaves turn red, orange, and yellow?
** A note on that. Most if not all of the ninja wear fairly bright colored (orange, pink, etc) or "normal" clothing for their area. People keep complaining, wondering "what kind of ninja wears bright colors?" Answer: a good one. Being able to conceal yourself and move stealthily REGARDLESS of what you're wearing is part of what makes them good ninja. Like girls that normally fight crime in high heels. It seems ridiculous, but it's a sign of how good they are at what they do.
** Another bit of brilliance regarding Naruto being his parents' son -- Minato's techniques all employ melee and previously prepared transportation markings, whereas Naruto's mother, Kushina fully admits that she sucked at ninjutsu (besides the Uzumaki clan sealing techniques) right before she and Minato seal the Kyuubi inside Naruto. In short, neither of Naruto's parents were especially well-versed in ninjutsu, and this coupled with the fact that nobody wanted to personally train Naruto when he was younger kind of gives Naruto a really good reason for sucking at ninjutsu as a kid.
** The reason 'normal' ninja garb is all black is that in Japanese theater, the stagehands would wear all black as an indicator that they should be ignored. Thus, it was a surprise when a 'stagehand' would pull a knife and start stabbing people. Naruto is probably the best character in the series at having something seemingly harmless or unimportant be the thing that puts his enemy down.

* When it was revealed that [[spoiler:Tobi (or whoever the hell he is) was not Madara,]] I first thought it was another ShockingSwerve, but there was actually a fairly significant clue that becomes much more obvious in retrospect. Namely, [[spoiler:he never uses the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan, which the real Madara would have.]]

* The "change" Sasuke undergoes back during the 5 Kage Summit arc in retrospect becomes more meaningful and nightmarish once all is revealed toward the end of the series. Rather than just the usual Uchiha curse, it is heavily implied that this is where Indra's malevolence took Sasuke over fully for the first time. Karin (usually enamored by the feel of Sasuke's chakra) notably becomes fearful and recognizes that Sasuke's chakra has suddenly changed into something terrible that she doesn't recognize, and for the first time we see the chakra that Kurama noted had malevolence that exceeded his own, as Sasuke proceeds to abandon the principles he had until then adhered fairly strongly to. It is in the aftermath of this arc that Naruto encounters Sasuke and we eventually find out that in this encounter Naruto realized that Sasuke also had "something" using him as a host just as Naruto realized he had a different chakra soul (Ashura) clinging to him within him (Naruto later comparing it to having a ghost possessing you).[[/folder]]

* Remember how Orochimaru said that he'd start a war just to disturb the peace? Well, [[spoiler: since he disappeared after the war, he and the remainder of the Sound Ninja might just be planning something from the shadows, all for the thrill of it.]] Sasuke's moment of paranoia makes much more sense in this regard.

** Albeit the situation is much less extreme than implied above. The nations in general seem to have agreed to pardon Orochimaru, who considerably mellowed after resurrection and did help save the world, nor is there any sign he is allowed to continue capturing people for experiments (he does create a couple people, but he seems to treat them well). Further he now must use his abilities in the service of others when required (and indeed this was another motivation for sparing him).[[/folder]]

* It was [[{{Foreshadowing}} foreshadowed]] that Naruto, being the ChosenOne, would bring about a radical change that would usher in peace in the ninja world. During the [[spoiler:Kaguya fight, Black Zetsu reveals he's been manipulating the ninja world since Kaguya's sealing just to bring her back. When she was sealed again, Naruto threw BZ into the Chibaku Tensei, sealing him in a dimension only Kaguya can access]]. That was the change that Naruto would bring, and possibly why the [[spoiler:Kaguya fight]] happened at all.

* Kaguya's Zetsu Army was meant to fight [[spoiler:Momoshiki and Kinshiki]], which sounds like a bad idea at first due to how most of the army fared against the Shinobi Alliance. However, the Zetsu that possessed [[spoiler:Yamato]] was insanely strong and managed to hold the Alliance at bay by itself, which implies the Zetsus actually have a lot more potential than most would expect. If Kaguya had more time, she could have researched more and built an army of Kage level or higher Zetsus, giving her enough military power to not only push back [[spoiler:Momoshiki]], but to conquer the rest of the universe as well.