History Headscratchers / Naruto

* HeadScratchers/NarutoMisc

* HeadScratchers/NarutoUzuMaki

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[[folder:Naruto in General]]
!!Naruto in General

* Naruto's life has been saved several times by the Nine-Tails giving him extra chakra. Originally it was assumed that this was because if Naruto died then the Kyuubi would die too, with no definite answer either way. Much, much later it was revealed that the Ninetails WOULDN'T die, he would be revived. So why would the Ninetails save Naruto so many times? Wouldn't Naruto dying benefit him more? You can't say that the Ninetails cared about Naruto all along, or that he thought being free was pointless, because he has tried to break out of his seal many times before. And you can't say that the Ninetails didn't know he'd be revived, because there's no way that that Kushina and the 4th Hokage could know he'd be revived and yet at the same time have the Ninetails himself not know that information. It's also doubtful that there's some kind of drawback, like that he'd be severely weakened, or that it takes a really long time, because the Ninetails reviving without another host prepared was such a serious situation to Minato that he had no choice but to give up his life to prevent it. If there is a logical answer as to why the Ninetails wouldn't just let Naruto die, it has yet to be explained and can only be guessed.
** [[WatsonianVersusDoylist To provide the Doylist explanation,]] it's a simple RetCon that Kishimoto never bothered clearing up. Original Kurama ''would'' have died if Naruto did, to justify Naruto extorting chakra from him. Once the bijuu were written into the story (something that didn't happen until after the timeskip) it became apparent that it would be almost impossible for all 9 of them to still be around if they'd always die with their hosts, so this element simply got changed.
*** I thought that it had to do with the specific seal used on Naruto, obviously the other bijuu don't die when their hosts die (Hachibi had hosts before Bee, the previous Mizukage had the Sanbi if I remember correctly) so it could be possible that it was a part of his seal.
** The fact Kurama's chakra was divided in two, with only one half going to Naruto, might be the reason. Maybe if Naruto died, that half of Kurama would just join the other half (and thus be stuck in the shinigami's stomach, effectively being dead) or just dissolve into nothingness as it can't exist in that incomplete form. This is not a perfect answer, though, as it makes one wonder what would happen if the seal '''did''' break without Naruto dying.
** He would die, though he would eventually regenerate. Still, I seriously doubt he finds that outcome pleasant.
* Naruto's backstory has generally stopped making sense. After his mother's revelations, we know that the Uzumaki clan basically had their own village, were key allies of the Hidden Leaf, and were probably well known due to their kekkai genkai connected to controlling Tailed Beasts. Furthermore, they were in existence as late as what? 16 years ago? Even assuming Kushina was literally the last of the clan, her flamboyant red hair and attitude would have made her as recognizable as, say, Naruto or Sakura. Furthermore, all the adults of the series were alive and well during the time of Minato's reign, during which she was active as a ninja. Even setting aside the Leaf's citizens knowing about the Uzumaki clan's abilities and whatnot, they would have been apparent to any enemies whom they were fighting, including the other Big Five villages. Considering how huge of a deal Tailed Beasts are in terms of raw power and deterrent ability in the Naruto world, it makes sense that abilities relating to their control were highly sought-after. So regardless, there should have been many attempts similar to the one carried out on Kushina to secure those abilities for other villages, something probably connected to her blood, and, by extension, her family name. Anyways, the Third decided to give this kid the last name of his mother, for his own protection...what? How does that make sense? If anything, that last name should have made him more of a target to foreign powers. So that reason is thrown out. Furthermore, how did everyone in the village magically find out this kid was the Jinchuuriki? The implication is that Minato sealed the Nine-Tails, just didn't just scream out "HEY ERRYBODY ITS IN MY SON THXBAI!" while doing so. If anything, the village elders, the Hokage, and (maybe) the ANBU would have known. So why all the public paranoia about Naruto?
*** I've read at least one theory, which since became fanon, that as far as the majority of the public are concerned, a Jinchuuriki's soul is either destroyed or erased the instant the Bijuu is sealed within them-in essence, they cease being human and actually do become the Bijuu. Stemming from this is a line I've seen in at least one fic, along the lines of, "No. That...thing is NOT the Yondaime's son. As far as this village is concerned, the Yondaime's son died the day of his birth." Fanon, as I said, but considering how little most people would actually know or care about the actual details of exactly what a Jinchuuriki is, much less how little is actually known about the Bijuu themselves, it makes a bit of sense.
*** Minato wanted Naruto to be seen as a hero, but either way it probably would had been best to just keep the entire matter quiet. If you think about it, that was an error all the villages made. There are different ways to seal a bijuu and as far as we know the Uzumaki seal is the only one that leaves physical evidence (a tattoo) so why was it always made a public or partially public deal? you could say that it helps the host know and try to learn to use the bijuu's power and control it, specially since it helps the military purpose that's the main intention, but then why wasn't Naruto told he was a Jinchuriki? (12 years of not telling him)how did they know that in 13 years (until Itachi and Kisame came) no one would had tried to kidnap the orphan vessel of the most powerful military power in the world, heir of a presumably extinct clan and son of the last leader of the nation? that no one never captured, used genjutsu or torture on at least one ninja or even civilian to give them the information that everyone over the age of 5 at the time of his birth on the village knew was a VERY lucky shot.
** Name change to Uzumaki because of protection is {{Fanon}}. The name Uzumaki is linked with Kyuubi Jinchuriki, so that wouldn't give him protection either.
*** Then again, for Naruto (who lacked education at the time) the name "Uzumaki" didn't mean anything, and thus he behaved as if there wasn't anything. And if someone looking for a survivor member of the Uzumaki clan saw an orphan who had no idea whatsoever about seals, had no talent as a ninja, and didn't think he was related to any clan, he would just assume that the name was randomly given and that the child really has no relation to the Uzumakis (especially that other than the verbal tick, which only people who were around him would notice, if they actually paid attention to him, Naruto wasn't that similar to his mother, nor to any other member of his clan). If his last name was Namikaze, on the other hand, people (from other villages at least, but it's those people who should not know about his relation to Minato) would quickly notice the similarity between him and his father, and that left Hiruzen afraid for his life. Granted, people would notice in this case, but whether they would notice that he isn't the nine-tailed fox personified, or that he is the descendant of Minato (which wouldn't be that good, since then they would only see him as the shadow of his father, and not as himself), is another matter entirely. ''So basically, Hiruzen chose the option which carried the least risk for Naruto that still allowed him to take the name of one of his parents.''
*** To the troper above. There is no way that Hiruzen would know that Naruto would grow up without talent. Plus he has an Uzumaki seal on his stomach, that along with his last name is a dead give away of his relation to the clan.
*** Interestingly enough, I think it was mentioned at some point that Minato and Kushina marriage was a secret to the rest of the leaf village. As for the alliance with the Uzumaki clan, I'm ''fairly'' certain that was a secret from most of the people of Konaha. Though I'll admit I'm not a hundred percent certain.
*** It was once a fairly common practice in Japan for children to take their mothers surname name if she was from a family of greater status then their father. Minato's family wasn't one of great standing but we know Kushina's was even if their heyday was over.
*** A fanfic this troper has read suggested it was because after her village got wiped out, Kushina became really determined to keep knowledge of her people alive. Minato offered to give Naruto his mother's surname to keep the name around.
*** In Japan, if a woman's family has no sons, the man will often times take his wife's name after marriage as long as he has male relatives so that her name will live on as well. Perhaps there were other people with the Namikaze name in the village before the Kyuubi killed them, and had their marriage eventually become public, Minato would have become an Uzumaki as well.
** The Uzumaki clan was allied with Konoha, and their village was destroyed. There are probably a bunch of Uzumaki refugees and orphans living in Konoha, so giving Naruto that name wouldn't make him stand out at all and he gets to keep an important connection to his mother. There's no reason for Hiruzen to change it.
*** There were no other Uzumaki in the village otherwise Naruto would have had some kind of family. It was stated that there were only a few of the Uzumaki left and they scattered across the world. Plus he looks like the 4th Hokage so Naruto would have definitely stood out.
* Just because they shared a clan name doesn't mean any Uzumaki refugees in Konoha would have taken him in because he was still the host of the kyubi and considering most of the villagers didn't distinguish between the Fox and the boy originally they probably thought it was mocking them by making its host look like their beloved former leader.
* All important discussions seem to get dropped. For instance: in the Naruto vs Orochimaru fight, Sakura sees Naruto in his 4 tailed form and is horrified. He wakes up to find her crying over him and doesn't understand why. The matter quickly gets dropped as she hits him for accidentally insulting her. Just a bit later, Naruto finds out that it was him who hurt her, and freaks out as well. That seems to get dropped as well. Hinata's confession happens and then is unresolved. And so on, and so on. Everybody seems to have a huge pile of things to discuss with each other, but nobody ever seems to really try. Heck, Sai of all people seems to think more about that kind of thing than the others.
* How does Naruto afford that apartment before he starts taking missions? He didn't seem to have a source of income until then.
** His parents might have left him money that, even if he doesn't know who they are, could take care of it or there might be provisions made for orphans. And you know that even if there wasn't any money at all, the Hokage isn't about to let the son of the Yondaime and their precious Jinchuuriki live and maybe die on the street.
** He may have been in a "ward-of-the-state" situation.
*** He most probably was - for all we know, there is an orphanage when children are taken care of, but when they join the ninja academy they simply have to move out of it (for whatever reasons, and it's not difficult to see why keeping a group of children with pseudo-military training in the orphanage with "normal" kids is a bad idea, since they are all just kids, and are likely to try showing off) and, in case they aren't able to live with any of their relatives, are given a place to live for free (for as long as they are still in the academy - when they start taking missions they can afford to pay for it).
* Chapter 549: Itachi confirms to Naruto that the whole Uchiha Massacre Story is true. Naruto's reaction? "So Madara was telling the truth! The Uchiha clan was plenning a coup d'etat!". My question is: why is Naruto more concerned about this part of the story, instead of, you know, the fact that his beloved Konoha was not a land of saints? It was the Konoha elders who ghettoized the Uchihas, and it was the Konoha elders who ordered the massacre, ruining Itachi's and Sasuke's lives in the process. Is Naruto really okay with Konoha's modus operandi?
** Naruto was already familiar with Konoha's darker side because of his treatment (and status) as Jinchuuriki. And a coup is a pretty big deal, especially when all information about it has been suppressed.
** And the Uchiha weren't 'ghettoized'. They lived in opulent mansions, could continue to be ninja and ninja police, even a few being a Hokage Candidate's student. Hell even Madara's story falls apart when we realize there WAS a Hokage Candidate who was a Uchiha in Hiruzen's time.
*** Actually, while they weren't exactly "ghettoized", they were still in a pretty similar situation, because of the fact that Tobi was supposedly an Uchiha. And that was the reason for their coup - they didn't want to be treated as potential criminals any longer. Getting back to the point, though - Naruto is the kind of person who hid his feelings behind a [[StepfordSmiler cheerful facade]] precisely because he wanted to believe that while things can be dark, people shouldn't succumb to the darkness; add to that the fact that Sasuke only "lived" since the massacre, and Naruto's primary objective is centred on Sasuke, and thus this is the part he is going to care the most about.
*** There was probably a really good reason why the Uchiha were suspected of being involved in the Kyuubi Attack. On the day when Kushina was supposed to give birth she was walking with Sarutobi's wife to the secret location where she was to give birth. They run into Mikoto and Baby-Sasuke and talk about childbirth. Biwako, Sarutobi's wife rudely drags Kushina away, which would be suspicious to anyone especially a jonin-level Kunoichi like Mikoto. Later we see Itachi babysitting Sasuke and learn that their parents have suddenly left. At the same time Tobi suddenly learns of the exact time and place when Kushina is supposed to give birth. Also remember that the Uchiha-clan did not participate in the fight against Kyuubi, when even the Hyuuga were there. Considering the security measures over the birth Kushina's movements were probably heavily monitored along with the people she talked to. To any investigator those events would be too suspicious and could only be connected. The only reason why they didn't immediately charge the Uchiha with treason was probably the fact they did not have concrete evidence that the Uchiha had leaked information. But the fact that the Uchiha did not help in the defense of the village was already close to treason and would actually warrant the accusations, being confined to their clan compound and slowly having their control over the military police stripped from them. What ever they were doing it cost them a lot of the trust they used to have. Traitors or cowards, they did bring it on themselves.
*** And furthermore, emotions were running very high. Not only was the casualty rate from the attack very high, but all of the noble clan heads had either pregnant wives or newborns at home. Put yourself in Hiashi or Shikaku's position- you're out there on something close to a suicide mission as the last line of defense even though your powers are pretty much useless against the Nine Tailed Fox, but you're out there anyway because it gives your pregnant wife a marginally better chance of surviving the night. Meanwhile, the clan whose powers would be most useful is nowhere to be found. At the very least, you'd regard them as deserters and demand something be done, because their actions endangered not only the village as a whole, but the wives and children of the clan heads raising the issue as well.
*** And don't forget that at least Danzo knew about the fact that one needs a Sharingan to control the Kyuubi. Everyone would suspect the Uchiha, since it is ''their'' bloodline limit, and I think the village knew about Kushina being the jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi. I don't think the higher-ups' first thought was to blame Minato for being lousy at maintaining the seal. This might as well be the reason for the Uchiha massacre, meaning that Sasuke should have his revenge on Tobi as well...
**** It probably helps that it was in fact a Uchia who caused the attack. One everybody thought was dead doing the work of another they thought was dead (and may have been by this point) but they weren't wrong.
* When aiming for a vital point to instantly kill an enemy, why do most ninjas go for the heart instead of the head?
** Same reason police officers and soldiers are taught to shoot a man in the chest instead of the head or limbs: the head is a small, mobile and very hard to hit target.
* We learn in Chapter 16 and it's repeated later that the bodies of dead ninja are valueble because you can dissect them and learn the secrets of a village and in the case of people with special eyes you can implant those eyes. It kinda bugs me that despite that [[spoiler: Obito/Tobi/Madara]]'s body was left intact enough for [[spoiler: Real Madara]] to get him back on his feet. Same way I don't understand why Konan didn't destroy Nagato's body. What's really annoying is we have multiple cases to prove that it's true, you can learn from the dead, and there was a mechanic put in place early on to deal with it bodies, there doesn't seem to be any evidence that people are actually in the habit of destroying corpses.
** For the former, his allies weren't in any position to dispose of his body due to [[spoiler:a ton of rock falling onto it.]] The latter just isn't really someone who displayed a great deal of initiative (her role in the story is basically doing whatever Nagato/Yahiko says) and she had no reason to desecrate her fiends corpse because of her [[BlatantLies foolproof plan]] to kill the only person who knew where it was and wanted to get it.
* Is the world supposed to be SchizoTech or not? I've never got that. I thought it was a modern day AlternateUniverse that just lacks certain technologies like cars and guns.
** Its an AfterTheEnd ScavengerWorld from the looks of things, or at least used to be (still being scavenger for more advanced stuff, like videoconferencing equipment). Most notably, at one point Sasuke goes to retrieve stuff from some ancient ruins that he says the Uchiha hid weapons at... and the ancient ruins look just like a modern-day city.
* Why are ninjas always surprised when another ninja pulls the body replacement technique (kawarimi)? I mean, it's an academy-level technique which every ninja knows. Don't they have it drummed into their heads that someone who looks defeated might be right behind them?'
** Because the technique is rather easy to see through. Early on, Dosu sees Sakura doing the hand seals for it and knows to keep watch for a substitute. It takes people by surprise when the ninja doing it manages to hide the fact that they're doing it, just like any other technique in this series.
* Don't the masks ANBU wear give them zero peripheral vision? How can they fight effectively like that?
** I remember seeing in the Anime an ANBU using an Oral-based fire-tecnique while wearing his mask, without the mask being damaged, so its obvious they aren't normal masks. My guess would be that there see through from the perspective of the wearer.
** Given their track record as {{Red Shirt}}s, you could argue that they ''don't'' fight effectively.
* How are we to believe that nobody in the village put two and two together and figured out that the blonde child who mysteriously appeared in the village on the day Minato, the blonde Hokage, died fighting the Nine Tails? You'd think given not only her rank in the city and the previous attitude towards the Jinchuuriki that the citizens of Kohonoha would be tripping over each other to adopt this kid and show him the kind of love that would have changed the story a lot.
** Specifically how did her best friend Mikato Uchia, Sasuke's mother, who specifically wanted Naruto and Sasuke to be friends growing up not recognize the kid and get to the front of what should have been a line around the city.
** Well, given Kushina says Naruto got her looks, when it comes to facial features, and the anime shows Minato's hair is a darker shade than Naruto's, it seems Naruto doesn't actually look a ton like Minato. Not enough that anyone who sees Naruto is immediately going to make the connection. As for Mikoto, that's another story. She at least knew Naruto was Kushina's son, why she didn't have more of a role in his life is unclear, especially since from a doylist perspective that would have only likely resulted in a stronger relationship between Naruto and Sasuke.
*** A big part of it is probably due to Danzo's influence and fear of a coup from the Uchiha. Mikoto might have known and might have offered, and the Third Hokage might have said something like "I don't want Naruto to be targeted for being Minato's son, let's treat him like a normal orphan" when the real reason would be, well, if you suspect that a group of people might try and overthrow your government, maybe leaving a superweapon that nearly wiped out your village in their hands isn't the best idea, especially when that superweapon is in the body of an impressionable baby that would imprint on the Uchiha and could grow to be sympathetic to their cause. The Uchiha were a big enough threat without giving them a nine-tails sized nuke to drop on Konoha once he'd been properly indoctrinated, and considering his treatment by the other villagers, he would have been all the more likely to listen to the only people who showed him affection when they say "hey, Naruto, let's go wipe out all those people who were mean to you."
* How abused was Naruto in reality? The flashbacks all seem to show Naruto had at least some level of friendship with Choji and Shikamaru prior to the series starting. When he shows up at the academy far from being scorned it seems that most of the children at least have no clue who he is. He's taken care of with his own apartment and food. We don't see a lot of adults reaction to him but Iruka and the elder Hyuuga seem to be the most negative. One blames him for the death of his parents (he gets over it) and the other is just a JerkAss who believes in his clans superiority over street trash. It doesn't seem to be personal, anybody other than Sasuke (and maybe even him) would probably have gotten similar disdain.
** Shunned by most adults and children. That's pretty much it. It does have to be noted, though, that not having anyone to rely one constantly can affect children really badly (it is due to that constancy that children learn to feel emotions properly and that reliability which teaches them how to deal with people), so those fanfiction authors who don't realise that and write how there were people hunting him and trying to set him on fire and stuff are just being stupid.
* When Naruto loses his arm in the finale, why does he need to have a replacement made for him? He ends up with both halves of Kurama in him, which should mean his HealingFactor is stronger than ever. That would be like giving ComicBook/{{Wolverine}} an artificial limb.
** Naruto is never seen outright regrowing limbs or any sort of healing the body couldn't do naturally given enough time.
* Who took care of Naruto as an infant and as a small child?
** Given the rate at which ninja die, there is almost certainly some sort of orphan raising system in ninja villages.
** An orphan raising system where the orphans are left alone to live by themselves?
[[/folder]]


[[folder:Naruto's Social Life]]
!! Naruto's Social Life
* Does anyone else think that Naruto’s whole tragic back story could have been avoided if at least someone involved hadn’t acted like a complete jerkass/idiot. You would expect, that the son of the greatest ninja the village ever produced, get a private teacher like Konohamaru before he enters the academy, thus ensuring that his talent isn’t wasted. Just think about how much time Naruto lost because he didn’t have appropriate training, his lack of training is the only reason he was weaker than Sasuke. Moreover, why didn’t the third Hokage give someone he trusted the mission to adopt Naruto and watch over him, because you know, having a father/mother figure can be very important for a little child, especially if the child is the container of the most powerful and evil creature on earth. And why on earth did Hiruzen make a secret of Narutos family background? Yes his father was very famous, but Hiruzen isn’t that unpopular either, everybody knows that Konohamaru is the grandchild of the legendary third Hokage and nobody is trying to kill him. Furthermore, Naruto’s family didn’t have blood limits, so there wouldn’t have been kidnap attempts on him just to get a special ability as it happened with Hinata. If the Hokage had told everybody that Naruto is the son of the most popular man of the village, don’t you agree many people would have changed their judgement about Naruto? And if that didn’t worked, Hiruzen could have added “By the way, did I mention that if he ever gets angry or becomes too depressed, he might break the seal and let the fox bring havoc to the world? Maybe you should give him free ramen as much as he wants, and instead of avoiding him you should tell your children to play with him and become friends with him, just to make sure that in case the seal breaks, Naruto has an actual reason to not kill us all”. And where the hell was Jiraiya? Why didn’t he ever bother to look after his godchild? Or Kakashi, yes he was rather young when his sensei died, but he could have visited Naruto from time to time, just like Shikamaru does with Kurenai. Well there were probably more pressing matters they had to deal with, than the fate of the world which depends entirely on the well-being of one lonely, emotional abused little boy.
** The Third pulled a batman gambit to get Iruka-sensei to care for Naruto. Forcing someone to be Naruto's foster parents probably wasn't an option since there wasn't anyone in the village that wasn't too scared or angry at the 9-tails to take him in.
** Seems like some of the secrecy comes from his mothers side of the family. Remember Kushina's special Chakra was considered important enough for their to be at least one attempt to kidnap her. And if they made it public that he had the fox inside him, that's also a reason for other villages to target him for kidnapping. As for keeping it secret from the children of Konoha, Look at what happened with Killer Bee. One of his best friends tried to kill him as a kid because he hated the 8 tails.
** Ok, in order to protect him from other villages, which might try to kidnap him because of his family background, they just tell nobody about his parents but give him the surname Uzumaki? Yeah, that's going to mislead even the toughest assassin. Moreover this doesn't excuse the bahaviour of Jiraiya and Kakashi.
*** Well Jiraiya is a Kage level ninja he had more important things to do (getting info on another Kage level ninja Orochimaru and a Kage level "group" Akatsuki), it's only when Akatsuki starts going directly after Naruto that he decides to train him (before Naruto annoying him into teaching him how to walk on water, then he thought him summoning jutsu to defend himself a little since he was the Kyubi vessel) and Kakashi doesn't teach anyone who doesn't pass his test of approval.
*** Actually Jiraiya was Konoha's spymaster. He was too important to be chained to Konoha and raise a kid. He was needed on the field not only to keep an eye on Orochimaru and eventually Akatsuki, but against all other potential threats as well. Kakashi on the other hand doesn't really have an excuse as he could have been there and would have had help looking after Naruto if he had to go on a mission. Heck, Sarutobi himself could have adopted Naruto as he would have had help from not only Asuma, but Konohamaru's parents as well. Leaving Naruto to fend for himself is one of the biggest face palm -moments in the series.
*** I agree that leaving baby Naruto alone with no parental guidance/family etc was a bad move, but in the case of why Kakashi did not look after him, he does have a small excuse. When Naruto was born, Kakashi would have only been 14-16 years old, and there is the chance that he was at the time, a bit of an emotional basket case (what with the memories of his father and Obito's death, and the recent death of his sensei). He may not have been capable of looking after Naruto full time, however he could have at least fostered some sort of relationship with him (as a friend or older brother figure even!)
**** Kakashi also entered into the ANBU sometime after Obito's death. Between his emotional state just after said fact and then becoming an ANBU, he has well enough of an excuse to not have been looking after a child.
** It's not as if the excuse of 'we don't want people to know he's the son of the Fourth' covers this lapse either. Naruto is the Nine-Tails jinchiruuki, -- which is a fact publicly known even to most Konoha civilians, which means that every ninja village on the continent should know about it if they have any remote competence at spying at all. The Third Hokage has every visible reason to take him aside at an early age and set him up with special training even if Naruto really ''was'' a nameless orphan. One can only imagine the incredulous expressions on the faces of the Raikage and similar people when their intel people told them that Konoha had basically thrown its demon container into a shitty apartment, left him alone without adult guidance, and were letting him repeatedly flunk even the Academy basic exams without giving him any remedial tutoring.
*** While we only have three villages to judge by it seems the Raikage and his village were the only village in the world that came up with the rational idea of not being a dick to the jail keeper of the super demon monster who could destroy everything for miles.
*** The Raikage kept sticking the 8 tails into people and killing them when they failed to contain the tailed beast and even Killer Bee was hated to begin with, Konoha's track record with Jinchuriki is much better in terms of them not being hated, mostly due to the fact that most people never knew that there was a jinchuriki.
* Why has it occurred to no-one to tell Naruto who his father is? Don't they think he might want to know - hell the kid was seriously depressed and acting out half his life - what's wrong with giving him someone to look up to?
** Also, why did everyone hate the kid so much if he's the flesh and blood of the guy who saved your skin? That's gratitude for you.
*** Maybe they didn't know ''that'' bit of information. Maybe their hatred and fear is bigger than any gratitude they can have.
*** It's been confirmed in flashback that the existence of Minato's son is of the highest level of secrecy, known only to the Hokage, advisors, and select members of the ANBU (i.e. Kakashi). They probably said something like "Minato's wife and child were both killed by the Kyuubi" in order to keep people from asking questions.
*** He resembles the former leader of the village, has the last name of the leader's wife, is an orphan, should be pretty obvious who he is, and has Jiraaya as his godfather, shouldn't that get them to be a bit nicer to him.
*** The common fanfic explanation is that the information is clasified to protect Naruto life, as being the son of the yellow flash would surely put him on the to-kill list of at least Iwa. And even considering his similarities to the fourth (which in this tropers opinion is little more than eye and hair colour), a bit of sealing jargon by the third could easily make most ignore the similarities.
*** It's the human nature obscuring their vision - his name was not Namikaze, and thus any potential relations to Minato were instantly outed because "how could a daemon be related to one of the greatest ninjas ever". Yes, HumansAreBastards, but that's hardly different from real life (other than the fact we don't have daemons and such), and it's proven that people are less inclined to search for additional information on someone they hate (even if they have no justification for that), because that would mean caring about the existence of the hated thing.
*** Actually the similarities to his father probably made it worse, in the minds of the villagers it was probably the Kyuubi mocking their saviour.
*** And besides, considering Naruto's personality in part 1, he would've taken the time to obviously blab this out to everyone he knew just to rub it in their faces considering how everyone treated him like dirt back then. If they'd told him, he would've outted that secret instantly, so that's another reason that no one ever told him.
* How are the villagers able to just subtly hate him at all? Either they view him as the Kyuubi itself or it's container. If he's just the container there's no reason to hate the kid. If they view him as the Kyuubi itself their actions make no sense at all. Look at Gaara who actually matches this view, the village is TERRIFIED of him and avoid him at all costs. The Kazekage acknowledges this and goes through measures to test Gaara's self control and keeps someone looking over him closely. Naruto's position is the exact opposite... SOMEHOW. The villagers think he's just the Kyuubi, but rather than be terrified of being near the monster that smashed their village, they just kick at it by trying to shun and backtalk him. The Hokage evidently did NOTHING about this, leaving Naruto almost completely unattended until graduation and made no attempt to help him learn or understand his power even if he wasn't told specifics. Because that's what you want even if you ignore everything else, the small child whom everyone knows has demon powers to some extent to be the student with the least control over his abilities in the whole class. And this evidently caused no friction at all between the two, no villagers complained to the Hokage about how dangerous they thought the situation was and the Hokage assuring them that it was perfectly safe and that he was just a normal child used as a vessel?
** Gaara was clearly unstable and could very easily kill everybody within a 5-mile radius. The 5-mile radius thing holds true for Naruto, aside from that it's probably a 10-mile with the Kyuubi, but when you've got a smiling blond idiot it's very easy to forget he could turn you into chopped liver in three seconds flat. As for the Hokage thing, either he didn't know- very unlikely- or he couldn't do anything about it, or the Hokage's more concerned about Konoha than the wellfare of the Jinchuuriki. Despite being Hokage, snapping your fingers and magically undoing hate is just not done.
* Still, consider this. Nobody apparently made the plans to tell him at some point. Its like all those who did know were just sitting on their asses talking and reminiscing about Minato and Kushina without even thinking; "Hey wait a minute, we need to tell their son about them."
** Look no further than Tsunade and Jiraiya's last meeting before Jiraiya leaves for Amegakure. Jiraiya knew he might not come back, and as a last request he could have said: "Tell Naruto the truth," or even Tsunade or Kakashi could have taken the initiative on their own, (Remember that at this particular point its essentially common knowledge that Naruto has the Kyuubi, and that Akatsuki is after him, and he's now able to take care of himself).
** Couple this with the events that happened during Pain's attack. With Sarutobi, Jiraiya and Kakashi (temporarily) dead, and Tsunade comatose, this meant there was nobody left who could reveal the truth, (Unless Danzo or Orochimaru figured it out, and speculatively speaking, they probably did. Good luck getting Naruto to ask them though.)
** So lets say that one of the villages many "geniuses" like Shikamaru, Shino, etc. figured it out. Good luck getting anybody not of their generation to believe them, never mind those who survived the Kyuubi attack.
** Also, its one thing to not tell Naruto the direct truth,its another not to at least say something along the lines of; "Yes, you did have parents, they loved you, and though I can't tell you right away, I can tell you everything at (random age). Its better than letting the kid believe that he's an unloved orphan.
** Truth be told, to me its a bigger surprise that Naruto didn't flip out when Kakashi outright confirmed he knew all along.
** Here's an alternate theory- Has it ever been definitively shown that Naruto '''does not''' know?
*** It's never outright stated that he doesn't know, but there's plenty of circumstantial evidence that he doesn't know. First of all, Naruto is probably the least subtle person ever. He'd probably be shouting from the rooftops, "My dad was the Yondaime and you guys better start respecting me!" Then there's the whole Tsunade deal where she basically insulted the Sandaime and Yondaime. Naruto never said anything about not disrespecting his father.]
**** That falls flat though considering how its common knowledge that Konohamaru practically runs around screaming "I'm the Hokage's" grandson, and yet nobody goes around chastising him for it.
***** Naruto didn't want to be chastised, he wanted to be acknowledged. If he'd been running around claiming that he was the son of the Fourth Hokage and presumably been able to prove it he likely would have gotten much different treatment. Of course nobody chastised Konohamaru, he's the equivalent of the President's son and everybody (except Naruto) is terrified to upset him for that reason. It's fairly safe to say that Naruto didn't know who his father was until at the earliest his training with the Elder Toads.
** Well considering how recently Naruto put on a longcoat very reminiscent of the Fourth's I wouldn't be surprised if Jiraiya told during the timeskip. Naruto had by then matured enough not to go on about it. He'd probably just feel sad from never knowing him...
** Moot point as of [[http://read.homeunix.com/onlinereading/index.php?image=Naruto/Naruto%20c439/17.png=nas.html Chapter 439.]]
*** It had been etsablished that Naruto kind of looked up to the fourth anyway, even after finding out the fourth sealed the kyuubi within him.
** I think the reason why he wasn't told he's the Yondaime's son was to avoid awkward questions about how the Yondaime got rid of the Kyuubi, which I'm sure Naruto would have been eager to know had he known he's the hokage's son. They couldn't have refused to answer, either, since he could say that as his son, he has a right to know.
* How about this? How exactly does Naruto grow to be mostly alright, morally, when no one seems to be guiding him or, heh, even keeping him alive through his toddler ages? If there was someone doing it then that someone should at least get a bit attached to him, no? Not even Iruka is shown to be fond of him until the end of chapter one.
** My theory is that Rin, Kakashi and Obito's teammate and the Fourth's student, took care of Naruto while he was very little, and then she died, in the course of life as a ninja, before he would remember her.
** Actually, later on it is revealed that (In Kakashi Gaiden/Kakashi's sidestory) Kakashi had to shove a chidori through Rin's chest because she went mad from having the three-tails sealed inside of her with an inadequate seal (similar to Gaara's, only worse) meaning she was dead before Naruto was even ''born''.
** Hang on, you're assuming. Naruto had a mother (Kushina Uzumaki), and it's never mentioned when she died. It could have been just a year or two before the story started, and even after she died, the Third Hokage kept an eye on Naruto to make sure he didn't get into too much trouble.
*** Well, we now know she died right when he was born, just like his father. Most likely the Third took care of him for the most part. At any rate, while he was treated like dirt by most of the village, the Third's plan of not letting the parents tell the kids about the Kyuubi seemed to have partially worked in that in the flashbacks Naruto seemed to be friendly enough with Shikamaru, Kiba, and Chouji at the very least. He also had his half acknowledged rivalry with Sasuke from a very young age. Iruka was the first to acknowledge him and make him feel wanted, but he had always had some level of friendly interaction with his peers, unlike Gaara who was shunned even by the other children.
*** Actually the people of Suna had some justification in fearing Gaara before he went all homicidal. Sure they feared him because he was a Jinchuuriki, but his seal was also so poor and he did not have the needed control, which allowed Shukaku to harm bystanders even though Gaara did not want that. Just look at the flashback where Gaara tries to use his sand to stop kids from running from him and drags them back hurting one girl. This may have been due to Gaara's lack of control or Shukaku's influence without Gaara's knowledge.
**** Which turns out to ''not quite'' be the case, as the sand was actually Gaara's mother Karura's spirit manifesting to protect him, not Shukaku. This suggests that ''part'' of the reason Gaara went homicidal was he was even ''more'' obviously different, and his peers fearing him for something even he didn't understand (let alone them) probably didn't help. On top of that, Gaara's TraumaCongaLine in childhood involved having a "precious person" who confessed to have secretly hated him as part of the Kazakage's orders and trying to kill him. Naruto even admits under different circumstances he might have ended up a lot like Gaara (who, remember, became a deeply moral person post-HeelFaceTurn).
** He doesn't need anyone to "guide him" to have his own moral codex. It's difficult for people to think that someone can create his own one (that can't be summed by "burn everything", since many people think that not being taught the "common moral code" makes people incapable of having any morals, but let's face it - while creating your own code is difficult, it is your system then, and thus one you agree with. It's pretty similar to a RealLife example of "how can atheists be moral if they don't believe in God who gave us moral codex", while there are people even amongst the believers who break the codex. ''So basically, it's a WhatAreYouInTheDark that stretches over one's whole live instead of just one situation - there are people who would still be moral, and there are people who would not be.'' As to the fact that not even Iruka acknowledges him, it's more about Naruto's pranks than about himself, and Iruka was shown to still be fairly sympathetic towards the kid, only scolding him when he did something obnoxious.
*** It's not that he came up with a moral codex, everybody does that with or without guidance. What's a miracle is that his moral code came out so good considering how horribly the village treated him. Probably the only reason he didn't turn out like Gaara is that that his seal kept the Kyuubi completely in check instead of giving him access to any power. Though it does often times seem like how poorly Naruto was treated by the village growing up has more to do with him being a kid and exaggerating things than anything else.
* We're told repeatedly that Naruto has no friends. The village is supposed to hate him, parents keep their kids away, that sort of thing. We're told this over and over, right? But then you get flashbacks in later chapters, with Naruto playing with Chouji, Kiba, and Shikamaru at a park, and even getting in trouble together. You would think this implies friendship or some sort of familarity. However, when the series starts, they all act like they've only seen him from afar.
** It's possible they only hung out with him when their parents weren't around, but when push came to shove they abandoned him like anyone else. Sort of like that kid at school who is so cool because your parents tell you to stay away from him. Also, that was all years before the start of the series, so they've probably grown apart a lot since then, explaining why they acted like they had only seen him from afar.
*** That makes sense. But it raises the question of why all the teacher he runs into over the series don't seem to hate him. And from what I've heard Iruka didn't start caring for him until the end of the first chapter? I got the impression that he'd been one of the ones caring for him.
**** The first chaper of the manga seems to imply that Iruka pitied him and sort of related to him prior to the whole Mizuki deal and therefore took him under his wing a little, but he didn't really respect him until after it. Or something like that.
*** One possibility is that the kids from the academy don't outright ''hate'' him as a result of being influenced by their parents' treatment of him, but they (with the exception of [[FanOfUnderdog Hinata]]) don't necessarily ''like'' him either, because of his annoying and immature personality. One possibility is that he latched onto the Choji-Shikamaru-Kiba group, and while they didn't necessarily push him away, they didn't see him as one of them.
*** It is an explanation, true, but there is a hole in it still. Kiba wouldn't really care about Naruto for real because they were only ditching classes together, and his family's training would probably incline him not to associate with Naruto seriously because of his low strength. Shikamaru would be too lazy to care, too. But wasn't the Akimichi clan supposed to really care about their acquaintances, even if they weren't exactly friends? Unless that was an anime-only thing, that is (it was a long time since I've read the early chapters of the manga, and anime added a lot of things that don't exactly make sense).
*** I'm pretty sure that at the very least Shikaku was fine with Naruto and I'd guess that most of the named adult characters don't really dislike Naruto so my guess is that the kids had just outgrown being so reckless and nuts while Naruto never did so while he may have been a good friend at age 8 he was just annoying at age 13.
* Alright I'm not sure, but how many of Naruto's peers know he's Kurama's jinchuriki now? I mean Sakura, Sasuke, Sai, and maybe Gaara know but I forget if it's been revealed to everyone else, whether it was told or his transformation has given him away, because if in the current battle he uses his Kyubi form, there's going to be quite a few shocked expressions.
** Everybody knows. The Shinobi Alliance is explicitly formed to protect the eight and nine tailed beasts from Madara Uchia so everybody in the alliance knows.
* In the bell test, it's fairly easy to see that none of the three want to be the one to have to go back to the academy. Sasuke and Sakura's priorities are fairly easy to understand- Sasuke doesn't trust or care about anyone other than himself, hence his attempt to get the bells alone, and Sakura wants to stay with Sasuke, hence her trying to save him from Kakashi and last-minute attempt to cooperate with him. But why doesn't Naruto, who is in love with Sakura, even try to offer to get the bells with her, or even consider her in his plans? Granted, his grasp of teamwork at this point is lacking, but if you read his thoughts, it's clear that even though it's much more likely that he'd give the other bell to Sakura, the girl he likes, rather than Sasuke, who is getting on his nerves, he seems only concerned about himself, and one has to wonder whether getting Sakura to fall for him is all that important to him.
** You answered your own question really. His team work skills didn't exist and they all thought they could do it by themselves. They were young and very very stupid and they paid for it and it's ultimately dumb luck that Sasuke passed the secret test of character there. It's clear he didn't pass it out of compassion for his team mates, he passed because he was pragmatic and didn't want a weak link on his team. I have no doubt that Sasuke would happily have abandoned Naruto if he'd thought for a second that his changes were better without him.
* Despite never going back on his word, I've always wondered why Naruto hasn't, in his quest to save Sasuke, had a SweetAndSourGrapes moment and just told himself to just enjoy the company of his TrueCompanions rather than repeatedly go after one person who has tried to kill him multiple times. Is it because, being the emotionally abused orphan he is, he's trying to get back someone who at least acknowledged his existence without willing to face reality of Sasuke's betrayal? Or has he become somewhat emotionally dependent with Sasuke? It wouldn't be that hard to give up on the one person who's causing him the most pain and trouble in life and enjoying time with the precious people he has now. So why does he persist?
** My theory is that he has 3 main reasons. First of all, he still thinks of Sasuke as his best friend, and he can't bear to let him go. Second, Sakura wants him back, plain and simple, and there is no way he is going to let down the girl he loves. Finally, its pretty clear that Naruto has a HUGE hero complex and feels the need to save everyone, all the time. Letting someone die unredeemed, especially if that someone is a close friend of his own is simply unthinkable for him.
* Okay so even if the host of Kurama wasn't made public. Kushina was the fourth's wife. Even if they didn't know the Fourth was married it was still public knowledge she was a ninja as she went to the academy and was in the same year as Minato. Even then Mito, being the grandmother of Tsunade and the First Hokage's wife should be fairly well remembered. Yet NO ONE makes the connection between Naruto Uzamaki and the famous Uzamaki clan, The one that inspired the Leaf's spiral like symbol. Why?
** Just because Kushina and Mito were the wifes of Hokage doesnt make them famous, people have to do something worth remembering to become famous in the ninja world, besides Kushina being remembered just because she went to school with people doesnt make sense, there would be maybe 20-30 people who recognise her from school and you dont tend to remember everyone that you go to school with, less people if most of them died during the war and demon fox's attack. People might've made the connection between Naruto and the Uzumaki but that just means he's a orphan of a mostly dead clan, nothing to get excited about.
*** Kushina was effectively the First Wife. The idea that people in her village wouldn't recognize her is absurd. The village doesn't even look like it has that many people, if I had to estimate I'd guess they come in at no more than twenty thousand citizens, probably less than half that given that as big a blast as Pein used it wasn't THAT big and it nuked the entire city. In addition Naruto (Where did he GET his outfit in the first place?!) wears the symbol of the Uzamaki Clan, it would be like if an American's family Crest was thirteen alternating white and red stripes and nobody put together that his family dated back to the founders.
**** It's possible that they simply assumed Naruto was yet another surviving Uzumaki, I mean, Nagato, Karin, and of course Kushina were all Uzumaki, it's not too unreasonable to think they'd just assume Naruto was the child of one of the other survivors.
*** To the troper above, Naruto looks like 4th Hokage, has Kushina's eyes, and Kushina walked in public with a pregnant belly. For no one to realize that he was Kushina's son is utterly unreasonable.
[[/folder]]


[[folder:Naruto's Techniques and Abilities]]
!!Naruto's Techniques and Abilities
* Naruto and how he learnt the mass shadow clone technique. Let's see, Naruto is presented to have low intellect, the jutsu requires a lot of chakra, and its forbidden (with the connotation of being [[StoryBreakerPower lethal/godly/powerful]]). What intrigues me is Naruto just learnt this technique by simply reading a big scroll. So would all the forbidden techniques can be learnt at Matrix-download-speed just from a fricken' scroll??
** The jutsu is probably forbidden because it requires too much chakra. Though it doesn't make it any more logical...
*** Not the question. How easy is it to learn forbidden techniques from a scroll?
**** Forbidden doesn't mean difficult, it means inhumane ([[CameBackWrong Impure World Resurrection]]) or potentially deathly to the user, the point was that someone with anything but a high chakra control (hence why Kakashi knows the technique) would die by accidentally summoning a fifty clones when their limit would be around twenty, in fact it means it's easy to learn, a genin could learn it but since it doesn't require that much technique, experience or training to learn it they could end up making the mistake I stated, it's like this, opening a person with a scapel doesn't require technique or experience, opening without seriously injuring or killing them on the other hand.
** Actually, the Shadow Clone Jutsu is not a forbidden technique. Which is why a bunch of other people are shown using shadow clones. The Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu, on the other hand, is a forbidden jutsu because it's incredibly easy to kill yourself using it, and it's the second one that Naruto learns from the scroll. I think the answer here is that Naruto (as is clearly shown later in the series) has a lot of talent and potential as a ninja, it's just that his learning style (he's a very kinesthetic learner) is much different than the methods used in the Ninja Academy. His best subject in school was taijutsu, as in the subject that required the most hands-on learning. Note that he's shown mostly goofing off in Ninja school, but he only uses the Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu when Iruka is almost dead. Naruto learns by doing, and he probably only paid attention to the scroll because it was forbidden, therefore it was exciting and interesting for him to read it. Once he's actually paid attention and someone he loves is threatened, he does the jutsu and it works because he's fired up.
** The Shadow Clone Technique splits the chakra equally, and it's pretty easy to misuse it, losing most of one's chakra in a few moments. On the battlefield, that would be equivalent to a suicide, and thus it's better to spend the time teaching ninjas anything other than this technique. Granted, it can be useful, but no people other than daemon containers or members of the Uzumaki clan (increased stamina, and thus chakra reserves) is capable of creating clones in numbers that truly matter. Other than that, it's very possible (though not confirmed) that the clones aren't "ideal ninjas", but rather shadows of the user's personality, and thus if one only learned to use it because he was afraid to fight, the clone wouldn't fight at all (most genin are like that, and by the time anyone hits chuunin level, they are required to start thinking tactically, and thus have tools that offer better effectiveness to chakra usage ratio).
** There might also be a different reason. We know that the user gets memories from the clone, and most clones destroyed in combat are eliminated with lethal hits. That means the user practically experiences his own death, with everything but the effect of dying, on a daily basis. How many people would stay sane or longer than a week of fighting using this technique? How many would still be sane after a month? A year?
** Kinjutsu in the Naruto universe means that it may kill the user. While most people agree that accidentally making more clones than your limit is lethal, this does not take the manga's ninjutsu system into consideration, especially regarding chakra control. Suppose five clones require 20-20% splits, but you mould 90 per cent chakra instead of 80%. My guess is that in order for the chakra to be evenly distributed, you only use 10-10 per cent chakra for the clones, using 50% of chakra, and wasting 40% on nothing, with 10% remaining in your body. Not only might it kill you, since you can't really perform jutsu with 10% chakra, the amount wasted is so huge it's impractical for inexperienced genin to use the technique, or anyone without precise chakra control for that matter. Naruto can use it since he has enormous stamina even though he has awful chakra control. By the way, Edo Tensei is kinjutsu because the summoned person can break free and kill the inexperienced user, so kinjutsu is basically a jutsu that may kill its user. To answer the original question, since kinjutsu is not difficult in and of itself but potentially lethal to the user, it is no more difficult to learn forbidden techniques than henge no jutsu, for instance.
** Arguably Edo Tensei is also a Kinjutsu because resurrecting the dead and brainwashing them is so morally repugnant that to do so essentially makes you an enemy of mankind - they just adapted an existing law and applied it to this one. Kind of like how the Forbidden Spells in Harry Potter are simple enough for a seventh year student to use but, generally speaking, knowing spells that kill, torture and brainwash essentially makes you a irredeemable.
*** A justsu becomes forbidden if it meets one or more of 3 criteria:
1.The collateral damage it causes is too large to control effectively (An example is Deidara's explosive jutsu)

2.The risk to the user is equal to or greater than the damage to the target (an example is Naruto's Rasenshuriken, it caused massive damage to his arm before he learned how to throw it, and repeated use would have cost him the use of said arm)

3.It is seen as morally wrong or it violates "the laws of nature" (an example is the Edo Tensei, which revives the dead and forces them to do the summoner's bidding).
*** This line of thought seems to have gotten off the track of the original question: How is Naruto able to spend as much time as he has (remember he supposedly trains legitimately when no one is looking) and still fail making a regular clone, which is basically movie projection made of chakra, but one night is enough time for him to learn how to make a clone with a physical body, organs, thoughts, memory links, and not only that, to the precision that no one can identify it as a fake. It even requires constant concentration since Naruto himself can't be hit or they ALL fade.
** Because its easier to split himself rather than draw a copy. Its like taking a ball of clay and cutting it in half to make two balls of equal size. It's easier than drawing the same exact ball of clay by shaping it like a shell.
*** As to the forbiddeness, the Shadow Clones are basically the single worst move he could have learned in the early series. His massive chakra reserves cover the GLARING flaw in the technique which ignores the fact that he has massive chakra reserves. So fights tend to go, Naruto uses up a REDICULOUS amount of chakra to make lots of clones that 9 times out of 10 will all be destroied without wining the fight when instead imagine what he could have done if he bothered to learn any other ability in the series and put that much chakra into it. Sure it has uses in training and if you need to hide from bloodline eyes, but what we get is that he uses massive amounts of energy to make clones that are only good for getting punched when every other ninja in the series just learns to not get punched so much.

* Naruto developed a new technique, the rasen shuriken, but he can't use it because it damages him. However, it's shown that a shadow clone can also perform the technique, and it has been shown numerous times that if a shadow clone is damaged, this does not affect Naruto himself in any way. So what stops Naruto from using the technique using a shadow clone?
** When he makes a shadow clone, he puts a specific amount of chakra in for it to use. The Rasen Shuriken takes up so much chakra and so much CONTROL that a clone made to use it would consume more chakra than he can safely give.
*** Yes, it was established that the technique consumes enormous amounts of chakra, making it impractical for long fights. However, that's not the ''main'' reason why Naruto was heavily warned against using it. The main reason was that using the technique is extremely dangerous and can cripple him so badly that he may not be able to use any chakra techniques at all anymore. However, if a shadow clone performs the technique, wouldn't the damage happen to the clone and not to Naruto himself? If that's the case, the technique becomes very usable because it's awesomely powerful, even if it consumes all your chakra in one or two uses. The series does not deal with this at all, and simply states that Naruto cannot use the technique because it's so dangerous (rather than simply impractical because of the amount of chakra consumed).
*** The way I took it was: he can't use it himself because of the damage it does to his body, and he can't have a clone use it because it takes so much chakra that his average clones just aren't powerful enough to pull it off. I suppose if he wanted to do something like put half his chakra into a single clone, he might be able to get around that, but considering that clones disappear after being hit once, that has some serious potential to backfire. In the end the move is probably just AwesomeButImpractical no matter how he goes about it.
**** He was shown to perform the technique using a clone without problems. And this was after he had performed the technique once already. And he still had enough chakra to perform it a third time.
**** Well... maybe the one the clone was holding was just a convincing-looking facsimile? It was supposed to be a decoy, after all. Because otherwise, yeah, the original comment above is completely right, and there's no reason for him to ever use the move himself.
**** I reckon he probably would have started using it with clones if he hadn't figured out how to -throw- them at people instead. Much better.
**** Notice that its only when he actually lands the Rasen Shuriken that it does damage to Naruto. A clone could create and hold a Rasen Shuriken but if it tried to land it, the clone would be destroyed the moment it landed the technique, causing it to fizzle and do a fraction of the damage, while still wasting a ton of chakra. Once he gains the ability to throw them, it becomes a non-issue, as both clones and the actual Naruto can deploy it successfully without being injured.
**** Just another thought: It's been established in the series that Naruto gains the experiences and chakra fatigue of the shadow clones when he releases them. That's how he learned it so fast in the first place. Also, note that the Rasen Shuriken does not cause physical damage - it severs his chakra "veins" such that too many times would make him unable to mold chakra. Physical damage cancels out the clone, but it's unknown what chakra-network damage would do to a clone. So it's possible that if he used it with a clone he would just take on the damage when he recombined with that clone.
*** So in other news, he fixed it so it doesn't cut him up anymore, made it explode and also be a thrown weapon. GG.
** Naruto wasn't capable of using Rasenshuriken through one of his clones because without access to the natural energy (which allowed him to throw it instead) it would dissipate in the exact moment the technique connected, thus not achieving its full power and being much worse than an ordinary Rasengan.
* Better question why doesn't Naruto ever summon after the Gaara fight during the first part? "Sasuke come back with me or I crush you with a giant toad" would've been a lot easier.
** Because then Sasuke would lose, and then not allow all the energy and physical energy, the first one coming from concentration and the second one from stamina. And since his clones oSasuke-wanking going on in part two of the manga... Besides, that's not 'good guy' behavior. And the 'good guy' ninja seem to want to be samurai without using the title.
*** So it's okay to shove chakra balls of death at people and start using a demons power to survive but summoning a giant toad isn't? I call BS. Sasuke love aside that battle should have gone differently!
** It was established following Sasuke's defection that bringing Sasuke back to Konoha was an extremely personal matter for Naruto, hence why he puts so much effort into trying to bring Sasuke back alive and well instead of trying to kill him for his outright treachery. In this line of thinking, summoning Gamabunta would have been an intrusion of sorts that would have defiled the highly personal nature of Naruto's quest.
** Plus Naruto wanted to prove that he was stronger and using a third party just wouldn't be satisfying.
*** Which brings the wallbanger, why did he stop the rasengan? he talked on and on about beating him half to death if he had to, he was more surprised than injured at the fact that Sasuke almost killed him by blazing him and all of the clones, so why not continue with the attack? it would had proven he was stronger if he did win, he would had been able to retrieve Sasuke even if he lost (doubt Sasuke would had been able to stand before Kakashi got back).
** To actually answer your question instead of using it as an excuse to whine, a giant toad isn't fit for fighting all enemies on all terrain. The Sannin all used their big summons in an open field and Naruto fought with Gamabunta against the one tailed. I doubt Sasuke could have beaten Gamabunta, but he probably could have run away. Anyway, for Naruto this was to person to let it be handled by or with anyone else (though if he ''knew'' that he would lose by himself, he might have otherwise).
*** Alright that explains the battle away but why didn't they use one of the toads as transport? Not Gamabunta of course but one of the bigger ones that can move fast seems like it'd be a good idea.
**** Are they really faster than a regular shinobi jumping through the trees/running? Plus, remember Sasuke had that speed upgrade from the Gaara match and the cursed seal.
**** At that time he didn't have very good control over who he was summoning. He would probably either end up using his regular chakra to get a toad that was too small to ride, or using the fox chakra to get one that was too big to travel through trees.
**** There's also little chance of Gamabunta actually listening to Naruto anyway; he only helped him against Shukaku because Gama-whatever said Shukaku was being mean to him. He'd have just sat there and smoked his pipe. 'Fight for me, ya little brats!'
** As well as the above, SquareCubeLaw + [[CombatClairvoyance Sharingan]] = Gamabunta doesn't hit jack and Naruto wastes his [[SuperpoweredEvilSide Kyuubi boost]]. Let's take a look at where summons were used so far. To fight [[{{Kaiju}} the village-sized Nine-Tailed Fox.]] When Jiraiya was showing off. When Naruto was being taught to summon. The Hydra Orochimaru summoned to attack the Hidden Leaf. The summon fight between the Sannin (to fight each others' summons). Then in the Filler versus, you guessed it, another summon. SquareCubeLaw says that the largest summons have to be used right to be any use against ninjas. Most of the time they're just [[FantasticNuke WMDs]] to let [[PersonOfMassDestruction sannin-level ninjas actually threaten large targets like buildings]].
** For a number of reasons. Firstly, his fight with Sasuke was a big case of ItsPersonal, what with Sasuke finally agreeing to acknowledge him and all. Secondly, summoning has been really hit or miss for Naruto. The vast majority of the toads he had summoned at that point were all completely useless in battle. And finally, the only exception to that rule was Gamabunta. The first time Naruto summoned him they had a fight for dominance and the second time Bunta was going to leave him until he got a more personal reason to fight.
* How did Naruto's summoning of some clones,then dispelling them,give him some chakra back? It's explicitly stated at the very start that any energy used in creating the clones is ''lost''. Oh, and the first poster's very negative views of the main character and his rival just bug me. Most of the serious hardcore yaoi is timed in Shippuuden, whereas fluffy PG crap is pre-timeskip. She would also like to direct the poster to chapter 431. Yes, the impulsive retard taught Konohamaru the Rasengan, and is badass enough to earn his right to scream [[TengenToppaGurrenLagann GATTAI!]]
** Naruto didn't actually teach Konohamaru the Rasangen, just some striptease or something with the Sexy no Jutsu, that Konohamaru used to teach himself the Rasangen, in less than a minute.
*** Yes he did. Konohamaru has a flashback where he remembers Naruto tells him he's going to teach him a jutsu and begins describing the various stages of the Rasengan training and Konohamaru, having only learned the sexy jutsu from Naruto assumes that it's a variation of that. It's explicitly stated ('I wonder what kind of pervy technique it is http://www.onemanga.com/Naruto/428/04/ )and starts imagining what it is. Naruto thinks he's being weird and says 'What are you talking about, this is a difficult A rank attack jutsu' or something like that.
**** Okay rereading that I'll withdraw my last statement.
** My understanding with Naruto's clones is that he divides his chakra out evenly among them when he creates them. If he manually dispels them, he can reobtain that chakra. If the clone is killed, he does not reobtain this chakra. But, knowledge/experience is transferred to Naruto from a clone in either situation. As to Naruto losing chakra during clone creation, he (the original) naturally regains it with time/rest, like stamina. So creating clone "chakra batteries" is plausible.
*** A variation on the argument: Sage Mode is just that, a mode. It requires concentration, not a storage of chakra/energy. Naruto going Sage Mode should NOT be likened to Goku going Super Saiyan. Therefore, creating a clone in this meditative state, then dispelling it to obtain said state, is also plausible.
**** Incorrect. It is a storage of chakra/energy specifically Natural Energy which should double (or triple, they don't explain AT ALL what happens with the Nine Tails Chakra in this mode even when it becomes relevant) the concentration is simply because it's difficult/impossible to gather the natural energy on the move. Jirayai gets around that flaw in the technique by having the elder toads gather the energy while he fights, Naruto (during the Pein battle, after that the flaw seems to vanish for the most part) does it by leaving clones behind to gather the energy. This is clearly demonstrated when he fights Pein and is grabbed by chakra absorber and he starts gathering natural chakra which is in turn absorbed by the Pein who turns to stone because he's unable to reach the appropriate balance.
*** Naruto does not gain any chakra back from the creation of the clone. But Sage mode is based off natural chakra taken from the environment. The chakra used to make the clone goes, but the absorbed chakra goes to Naruto.
** There is a pretty simple answer to that - chakra comes from spiritual nly keep themselves together by using chakra, they lose it when they are hit, and a strong enough hit causes them to lose it all and thus be unable to hold themselves together. By that point, since the clones used their whole chakra to "defend", there is none Naruto can get back. If he dispelled them himself before that, on the other hand, he would keep all the left-over chakra (minus the part used to transfer memories, that is).
* Sexy Harem knocking over trained warriors bugs me. We see people who can and do stand up to all sorts of horrors fall over because of what they percieve as a bunch of naked girls. I am officially confused. And bugged.
** It happens simply because of RuleOfFunny. And because AllMenArePerverts.
** The Third explains that it is so crass and unexpected to seasoned warriors who would never even considering using something like it that they can't help but fall for it.
** I want to know why this move isn't given more credibility in the series. I mean, of course its crass but that's precisely why it would be effective. Who wouldn't be stunned by someone turning into an army of naked people. It's the ultimate distraction move. For a ninja who depends on misdirection (i.e. every character in this series) that means everything.
** It's pretty much RuleOfFunny. It the author tried to use it in a serious way, Naruto would be using this technique to transform into clothed women and gather information, but that probably wouldn't be interesting to read, not in a shounen manga at least (I challenge you here, fan-fiction authors). Moreover, it's influenced by Japanese culture - if such a thing was drawn by an American or European (I'm generalizing here, I know that there are many cultures in Europe), the reactions of those hit by this technique would be very different.
* If finding out your attuned element was as easy as touching a piece of paper, why didn't Naruto do this sooner?
** It's special paper, so it's probably not readily accessible to everyone and Naruto didn't know about before he began training to make his own jutsu. Plus Kishi probably didn't come up with it until Part 2.
** Even so, that kind of knowledge would logically be fairly well known. Of course, there's a flashback in the manga that gives me the impression that Naruto probably slept through a great many important lectures or skipped out with Kiba. (It's during the search for Tsunade, when Jiraiya leaves him alone to practice the Rasengan.)
** It is likely that the paper used for the test is extremly rare and expensive. Konoha is a military unit, and like any military unit, it won't waste money on outfitting the regular grunts (Genin) with the best equipment there is.
** Also, knowing what your attuned element is doesn't seem to do much! Naruto can't use wind jutsu in combat right after he uses the paper to identify his wind-attunement, it takes substantial additional training. Likewise, Sasuke knows his elemental affinity from birth (fire, because he's an Uchiha), but it takes him considerable practice to master his first fire jutsu. I always presumed the reason Kakashi and Jiraiya didn't bother until that point is that it wouldn't have done Naruto much good, anyways, because he still would have needed to master nature manipulation itself.
*** Well Jiraiya could had found out and thought him at least basic wind level techniques, which also brings the question as to why didn't he thought him any "new" jutsus and not just improvements of the rasengan, shadow clone and summoning jutsus.
** I doubt the paper is that expensive. Naruto just hadn't reached that point in his training. As for why he didn't know about the paper, he hasn't been shown to particularly bright or to have payed any attention in school, so...
** While I am aware that this is still a plot hole (falling under "why didn't Jiraiya teach Naruto much during their training trip", but that's a whole another matter), there is an explanation for that. Most of the young ninja we see getting stronger are still children or teens, and for them "awesome moves" are pretty important. Adults, with experience in battle, on the other hand, know that what matters is not what techniques you have (to a certain degree at least), but how you use them, and whether they match your combat style. If anyone gave that paper to Naruto before his apprenticeship under Jiraiya had started, he probably wouldn't have given it much thought and lost time trying to learn techniques he would have no use for in combat because those would be incompatible with his style. On the other hand, if one only learned about his element after he got a solid outline of his own style, he would know which techniques he'll have any use for, and which he shouldn't care about.
* While this is a detail that doesn't necessarily bug me, it's a question that I have for the rest of you: Would Naruto gain the most character development out of realizing that he doesn't need to become Hokage to get the Leaf Village's respect (along with knowing all of the limitations of being Hokage), or would it be from knowing that the position has its limits and striving for it anyway?
** ''Both'' of these seem pretty likely: he'll probably realize (if he hasn't already) that he doesn't need it to earn everyone's respect, but aim for it because he wants to help people while acknowledging (and getting past) the position's limitation.
*** Personally, I hope the entire series ends with Naruto making a comment about becoming Hokage, and then someone makes a crack about him still being a genin, and then everyone laughs, like at the end of an episode of Thundercats.
** I personally think that Naruto's reasons for Hokage are shifting over time, especially since his goal shifted from getting respect to protecting his friends. He may well indicate at the end of this current arc that he wants to become Hokage to work for world peace, especially if it's after he hears about how people see him.
*** They are. On the beginning, he thought that he'll get acknowledgement if he becomes a hokage and thus sought it for that. Later, he had realised that he'll become a hokage if he gets acknowledged and not the other way around, and realized that he didn't really care about the position for the position itself, but because it will allow him to protect the people he holds dear. And personally, I hope that at the end of the manga he'll die, and we'll be given one more chapter without him; not because I don't like him (heck, he's my favourite character in the manga), but because the whole "nobody got hurt and they lived a long and happy life" is so clichéd I'm starting to dislike it.
* There's something that bugs me about Naruto's chakra, we know that naturaly he has huge chakra reserves as determined at birth,I think Jiraya gave us some info on this but I don't remember exactly where, but having the worlds greatest chakra source inside him didn't act like a buff or debuff his chakra reserves just grew naturally didn't he sublimaly commit some chakra to keeping it sealed or didn't the extra source help his chakra increase?
** And while I'm here if chakra is physical stamina + spiritual energy why is only stamina mentioned as a cap when using jutsus is spiritual energy infinite and to be a litle more specifical for D&D is is Inteligence Wysdom Charisma?
** For your first question, I think the answer is both. The fox helped, but Naruto naturally had high chakra reserves. Comes from being the Fourth's son and all. For the second question: The Naruto d20 system that I use actually bases it off of Constitution.
*** As stated below, his high reserves are less to do with daddy and more to do with mummy - the Uzumaki's chakra reserves granted them impressive longevity, among other things.
*** This casting from Con alone intrigues me but in the area of jutsus are the mental stats really not necesary for added damage or something?
** It's a skill-based system. Each jutsu or technique fits into one of four categories- Chakra Control, Ninjutsu, Genjutsu, and Taijutsu. Each one has a perform DC that you need to beat in order to properly use the technique. So you put skill points into the appropriate four skills as above. You get the standard ability score bonus to each skill- Wisdom for Chakra control, Intelligence for Ninjutsu, Charimsa for Genjutsu, and Strength for Taijutsu, plus your stats are relevant when learning the techniques. Constitution just determines how much chakra you have. In fact, just check out the (free!) PDF [[http://www.narutod20.com/ here]]
*** It's not exactly "skill-based" (since that's only how they chose to represent it in a d20 system). But using a little d20 analogy, total chakra capacity is dependant on one's stamina (Constitution score) and ability to focus, aka. mind (Wisdom score, partially at least), but stamina determines base amount and mind only a multiplier. Thus, those with high stamina but low ability to focus have more chakra than those with low stamina but high concentration (though knowing more and being able to focus also increase one's chakra control, acting like another multiplier). And now getting to the original topic, Naruto's high chakra capacity was mostly a result of his higher than average stamina, boosted even further by his Uzumaki blood (because let's be honest, the stamina boost of Uzumaki clan members was pretty much a bloodline limit), though there is a small bonus from the seal. ''And now there's a tricky part, because from this point it's all speculation:'' For all we know, Naruto's chakra is automatically holding the nine-tailed fox's chakra leaking from the seal on a level that would either be used up to power the seal, or that would be unnoticeable. Because of that, his chakra control is a little lower than what it should be (because he's constantly performing chakra manipulation and thus any additional chakra usage leaves his mind multi-tasking) and it means he is capable of using the fox's chakra when he's either very angry/confused (diminished ability to manipulate chakra meaning the daemon's own leaks from the seal) or when he concentrates really hard on it (turning off a function he was performing constantly and automatically, similar to controlling one's breath or pulse). That also explains why using the sage mode was so "easy" for him - with his body and mind balancing two kinds of energy (his own two types of chakra, and the nine-tailed fox's one), he was used to it already, even if the type of energy changed.
**** The fox seal power source is probably independent from Naruto, given that the seal worked when Naruto was a baby, and at that point his chakra reserves would not have been enough to keep the fox sealed, and also, if it where tied to his chakra reserves then whenever he fainted from exhaustion the fox would break free. We can go with one of two things, that the seal has it's own chakra reserve, which considering that Minato put both his and Kushina's chakra inside the seal, it's plausible or more likely, seals don't need constant chakra to work, to use an analogy, to keep a box closed one can keep pushing the lid down or one can just nail the damn thing once, the fox seal would work as a nail, takes at lot of force to put it first, but then you just leave it there.
* How does the power scaling go with Naruto's Tailed Forms? The two most likely I've come up with are either: A) type where, say, 1-Tailed Form is 1/3rd as powerful as 3-Tailed Form, 1/6th that of 6-Tails, 3-Tails is 1/2 as powerful as 6-Tails, etc., or: B) power doubles with each tail (2-Tails is 2x power of 1-Tail; 3-Tails is 2x power of 2-Tails; 4-Tails is 2x power of 3-Tails, 6-Tails is 4x power of 4-Tails, etc). Which, going by what is shown in the series, seems more accurate?
** Actually, it's been shown that the Kyuubi's chakra can be split in half, as well as dispersed among 2000 shadow clones, but still be stronger than the Hachibi's. Therefore, a more plausible theory would be that the Factorial, x! (x being the number of tails), would be better for a tailed beast's chakra amount (compared to the tailed beast below it); e.g. the Kyuubi has 9! ([[OhCrap 362,880]]) times more chakra than the Hachibi, while the Niibi has a measly 2! times (twice) as much as Shukaku.
*** If that would be the case, Hagoromo really did quite a poor job at splitting the ten-tails chakra into 9 parts. This would make the creation of the 1-3 tails basically pointless. Wouldn't it make more sense that the clones just act as proxy for the nine-tails? In the sense that they all are linked back to the same source, basically making the number of clones irrelevant? Also, such an immense disparity in the amount of chakra should be easily picked up by the protagonists.
* How come Naruto learned so little from Jiraya in the timeskip whereas as Sasuke learned so much under Orochimaru? All Naruto learned was a bigger rasengan varient and how to dispell genjutsu. Other then a little extra physical training it seems like they were just messing about. Does Jirata want Naruto to die if he's teacghin him so very little?
** Naruto did not have an eye that could instantly copy any technique it viewed. Sasuke likely got much more out of his training because he didn't have to waste time learning new jutsu-Sasuke could have focused on speed, chakra control, and other abilities.
** It should be noted that the fight was when Naruto was injured from overuse of the Fox's power and Naruto was unwilling to fight with Sasuke and wanted to reason with him. The fight still would have been in Sasuke's favor however it wouldn't have been so one-sided if Naruto was in full strength and had actually tried. Also according to Sakura, Sasuke most likely took drugs to improve his combat ability. Plus the rest of Konoha 12 and pretty much improved at the same or even less rate accoding to the databooks books that theory up. The question however is why Jiraya didn't teach Naruto Sage Mode?
*** Well everyone didn't had one of the legendary Sannin as their teacher. Sasuke learned snake summoning, developed the chidori (on his own since Orochimaru can't use it) gained a better control over his cursed mark than Kimimaru, learned a teletransportation technique, and some genjutsu (Madara said he's not even the genjutsu type) and further learned to use the sharingan (entering Naruto's inner world, defeating Orochimaru's possession technique and his microscopic view and chakra detection). Sakura learned healing jutsu, and extreme chakra control. All Naruto learned was how to escape from normal level genjutsu (something Sakura knew 2 years ago) and how to make either 2 rasengans or a bigger one.
*** That doesn't really excuse why during two years when Sasuke was learning all sorts that Naruto learned so damn little. We all see that Naruto can learn high-level jutsu quickly so two years with just Jiraiya and no distractions should have made him better than jonin. Heck it that crappy 3-tails filler, Jiraiya breifly pops up and teaches Naruto syncho jutsu. Naruto learned that quite easily. But after two years with Jirairya it's just bigger rasengan variant and dispell genjutsu, what an utter joke.
**** They didn't even found out his nature affinity. Jiraiya was shown to be able to teach Nagato, Konan and Yahiko jutsus that weren't of his affinity, so he should had been able to teach Naruto at least basic Wind style jutsus.
**** It isn't at all noticeable compared to Sasuke's SuperSpeed and Sakura's SuperStrength but Naruto's taijutsu improved a lot skill-wise. Compared to part 1 where he easily got overpowered by Kakashi to his performance again in Part 2 where he actually was able to hold his own against Kakashi. From what I figured Jiarya noticed Naruto's crappy Taijutsu and figured that since Naruto already had two strong offensive jutsu's he might as well improve his Taijutsu.
**** But two years to improve just Taijutsu? Okay, first, Naruto has huge chakra reserves, so it should make sense that Jiraiya should have trained him in ninjutsu more. Second, Naruto has been shown to be a quick learner when given the right motivation and teacher. Why didn't he improve all three jutsu aspects, instead of a barely noticeable just-one?
**** He did go from a crappy barely graduated genin taijutsu level to being capable of fighting on somewhat equal grounds with Kakashi taijutsu level. It's pretty noticable. He's just OverShadowedByAwesome because Sasuke and Sakura improved so much.
**** Still, considering he learned Shadow Clones in a single night and Rasengan on the go, there has to be some easy to use technique he could have learned that would have been more useful. Naruto has MASSIVE amounts of chakra but can't capitalize on it well. Yes he can use Shadow Clones but they're still fragile and extremely inefficient. Rasengan similarly has bad range and is limited by his control. Compare those two techniques to something like the Summoning where he can actually put his reserves to use, and it lets him reach Sannin levels of power. Sasuke had less chakra than Kakashi pre-time skip but was able to fill a roof top with flames (eliminating all but one clone) so imagine what Naruto would be able to do with a similar technique that actually allows him to ramp up the scale when he wants to.
** He learned A LOT with regards to using his [[OneWingedAngel Kyubbi powers]]. He can now go up to 4 tails, while before he could only use 1. Also at 3 tails he is still partially in control - compare this with Sora, who was a mindless beserker it at 1 tail. I know [[SuperpoweredEvilSide his 4 tailed form wasn't meant to happen]], but at 1 tail he was equal to Cursed Seal Level 2 Sasuke - factoring in Sasuke's improvement Naruto might then equal him with 3 tails. Also, it's subtle, but he uses the Rasengan more often - in part 1 he usually only used it once per fight, while in say, his fight against Itachi he uses it 3 times, and one was a uberpowered version. And as for his larger Rasengan, it's insanely powerful, and it's not Jiraiya's fault he only uses it once (or just found no relevent situations to use it in). Overall, he actually improved to about the same extent as Sasuke and Sakura.
** He did learn quite a lot, but the problem is that it was a misplaced training. Naruto learned something that was useful for him, but quickly became obsolete/too dangerous to use/something Naruto didn't want to use/whatever. Granted, what Naruto had learned was still too little, seeing as there were things he should've been taught then, but maybe Jiraiya decided that instead of teaching Naruto subtlety, it's better to give him a training that will reinforce his current, pure-power-based style of combat (which would be still a mistake, but understandable at least).
** I think the answer here is that Naruto is the equivalent of those people who made it through high school without being able to read. Simply put, the system set up at the Ninja Academy failed him. Compare any of Naruto's Part I fights to the fight with Kakashi at the beginning of Part II. In Part I, Naruto pretty much just stumbled through his fights on sheer talent (his incredible amounts of chakra) and luck. He clearly never mastered the basics of fighting as a ninja; in Part I, he's easily the least polished fighter of the main cast. During the timeskip, Jiraiya basically retaught Naruto the basics of ninjutsu and taijutsu, and it clearly shows in Part II: Naruto's movements and attacks have the same level of polish and skill as any other fighter in the series. What Jiraiya did was give Naruto a strong base to build off of, leading to his vast improvements in strength over the course of Part II. That strong base is something that every ninja is supposed to get from the Ninja Academy, but Naruto never got that, which is why he needed that extra one-on-one training with Jiraiya.
* Why does the Eight-Tail have octopus tentacles? I thought he was supposed to be a Bull. Plus, people keep calling him the Eight-Tailed Bee; I can understand the mistake, but he's a bull! And Sasuke seems to have depowered by several levels. A single blow slicing his neck and chest open? A counter to his Sharingan that Naruto could possibly use in the future? Yowza.
** That counter to illusions has been around since forever. Naruto tried to use it when he faced Itachi during the Gaara rescue arc: it just didn't work then.
*** And regarding the strength gap, remember Sasuke doesn't have the Curse Seal anymore, not to mention us having zero knowledge of the Eight-Tailed beast's strength, so who are we to say he won't kick Sasuke's ass any day?
**** It's not a surprice that Killer Bee was able to beat Sasuke with ease seeing how he's a shinobi veteran. It doesn't matter that Sasuke has the sharingan, is an Uchiha etc. He's still only 16 years old. Bee has got way more experience than Sasuke and is the Hachibi's host aswell.
** It has octopus tentacles because it is an [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ushi-oni Ushi-Oni]], a creature of Japanese folklore that is basically a bull with sea creature parts.
*** Huh... you know, that would explain why it happens to be the ''Eight''-Tailed Beast, too.
*** Alternatively, it's just another [[Manga/RanmaOneHalf very tragic story]].
* How come Naruto used Kagebunshin - and not just any Kagebunshin, but Tajuu Kagebunshin - while in frilling Chakra Mode? Me thinks it was expressedly stated by the Hachibi that he shouldn't do that because the Kyuubi would suck his chakra dry in absolutely no time?
** Correction, what the Hachibi said is that Kage Bushins increase the rate the chakra can be consumed by the Kyubi. However, Naruto spent several hours training to see the limits of his mode, remember. And when he did Tayjuu Kage Bushin, he created what 12 clones. When he normally makes a hundred or a thousand.
*** And according to the Hachibi, that was still enough clones to screw him over. Leading to the inference that the Kyuubi was going easy on him.
* What makes Kurama special among the Tailed Beasts? All of the other ones we've seen have some themed ability they grant to their hosts: Shukaku and Gaara can manipulate sand, that Three-Tailed water thing and Utakata can manipulate bubbles, Gyuki and Killer B can manipulate ink, and so forth. But Kurama and Naruto don't seem to have anything special to manipulate. If it's fire, hasn't that been taken by the cat and Yugito Nii?
** Raw chakra - its as simple as that. Fact is that all of those other creatures need the fancy tricks to keep up with something that can grant a child the ability to create 1000 Shadow Clones at will. To put it another way the Nine Tails is to Naruto what Super Saiyan is to [[DragonballZ Goku]] or Bankai is to Ichigo Kurosaki from Manga/{{Bleach}}. No special abilities, tricks, techniques or spells. Just overwhelming destructive power.
*** Except that doesn't work. The OP is asking what is special about the nine tails that sets it apart from the other eight. Nothing about Super Saiyan separates Goku from Vegeta or Gohan at least. It might be like Ichigo's Bankai where it's super power is simply whoop ass. We don't really know enough about the tailed beasts to make a good guess. It's likely that the sand manipulation came from Gaaras mother not the Shikaku and we've seen enough clans with odd abilities and Naruto knows so little that Kurama's special gift could be anything.
*** My original point still stands regardless; the Nine Tails special ability is raw chakra. It doesn't need special techniques because it is strong enough to overwhelm the first eight beasts without them - and even if, for arguments sake it wasn't, Naruto is no longer that little kid who was completely overwhelmed by the monster. He's a highly experienced combat veteran who now has unprecedented control over his beast thanks to Killer Bee's training - ''he would know by now.''
*** This troper always assumed that one of two things happened: 1) Naruto's Healing factor is the special power or 2) when the 4th hokage sealed the yin chakra it took away the kyubi's special power since the yin chakra is what gives chakra its "shape"
*** The ability of the Kyuubi is to sense ''darkness.'' It's a relatively lame power, but it goes beyond that. [[WildMassGuessing If the]] [[SuperMode Kyuubi Chakra Mode's]] [[WildMassGuessing bright, glowing aura and markings suggest anything]], the Kyuubi's pure chakra may actually be [[spoiler: the final path of the Sage of the Six Paths!]]
*** Not darkness, but negativity and negative emotions. This is actually a lot more useful than it sounds. For example: in one scene, Naruto and Bee are blinded while fighting the reanimated jinchuuriki, but he was still able to block an attack with his vision impaired because he could "sense their killing intent". This ability is also what helped him sense Kisame hiding in the Samehada, because of his malice. It also helped him tell his friends apart from Zetsu clones disguised as members of the alliance, because his friends radiated "positive" emotions, while the Zetsu clones radiated "killing intent" and "negative" emotions. That's the Kyuubi's special power.
* Normally Naruto still seems to need his clones to produce both the Rasengan and Rasen-shiriken technique but he doesn't need to do that in Sage Mode or in Kyuubi Mode even though both should make the technique easier not harder (especially Sage Mode with it's third kind of Chakra in the mix). Remember Naruto's problem isn't a lack of the raw power, it's his inability to focus his mind on the multiple tasks of gather, shape and element mixing. I don't recall anything about Sage Mode that would suggest it gave him a clearer mind, just more raw power since he's drawing from nature. Kyuubi mode at least makes some sense if we trust Killer Bee and Haachibi that the Tailed Beast Bomb is similar enough to the Rasengan that the Nine Tails knows the move and he's providing the extra mind power necessary for these techniques. Otherwise it doesn't make a lot of sense, the solution to a lack of control over your awesome power isn't even more power!
** From what I understand, the chakra cloak of the kyuubi (which can move on its own, remember) acts as a shell for it, meaning he doesn't need to concentrate on the third step and can just focus on putting power and rotation into it. he can form a rasen-shuriken on his own in nine-tails chakra mode using chakra arms. (I liked how he made a miniature one over his fingertip using tiny chakra arms) also, to use sage mode, he needed to learn to add natural energy to his mix of chakra. it's quite possible that, like water-walking and running up trees, it increased his control.
** As for Sage Mode, he still seems to need his clones then. At least in the battle against Pain. Later on (which I haven't seen yet), maybe they stopped caring to add clones, and it will all be [[HandWave hand waved]] later?
** I don't think it is the Sage Mode itself that increases concentration or that it clears his mind, but the training that was needed to be able to enter the state completely without turning into a stone frog. This would also explain why he was able to use rasengan one handed a few times during the fight with Pein. The inability to focus was probably fixed by having to sit perfectly still on a stone slab balancing on a spike. He had to concentrate on not moving at all and after all that time his mind probably wasn't just focused on balancing and he had lots of time to think making him able to multi task (Hope that came out how like how it sounded in my head). The training could also fix/fine tune his chakra control as he had to keep his chakra and stamina balanced with the natural energy he was absorbing. That takes a high amount of control to do correctly it would seem and with his life being on the line during the balancing act he had more pressure to improve whereas before he didn't worry about anything other than winning the fight. Most ninja probably just worry about keeping their stamina and chakra in line as if they convert too much stamina into chakra they will die, but that isn't as much of a worry. That's my theory anyway. As to why he has used clones later on, maybe he just prefers to do it like that? After all, this is Naruto we're talking about. He doesn't like to think, he likes to fight.
* At one point, Jiraiya told Naruto he'd only promise to train Naruto if he kept the Sexy Jutsu form. While I'm sure it was just him joking and being a perv as normal, wouldn't that actually be pretty useful training for Naruto at that point? Maintaining Sexy Jutsu for extended periods of time would allow Naruto to practice careful and continuous expenditure of chakra as well as chakra-multitasking (using other techniques, like the Rasengan, under Sexy Jutsu), and in a way, provide Jiraiya with additional motivation. Then again, it's been mentioned a few times above already how Sexy Jutsu is a lot more useful than the one-note joke as used in the manga.
* So, during the Invasion of Pain arc, Naruto can't use Sage Mode while he's moving... except, how did he do the training then? He entered Sage Mode, practiced the Rasen-Shuriken and Frog Kumite, did all sorts of things, but once he goes into battle it's of no use? What's with this?
** You're mistaken. Naruto could not and seemingly cannot [[spoiler: without Kurama's aid]] enter Sage Mode while moving. The elder Toad could have helped him but the Nine Tails is a prick the same was true for Jiraya. He needs time to stand still gather the energy and then he can move around just fine until he exhausts the energy limits of Sage Mode which after the Invasion of Pain Arc seem to be nearly unlimited. This is specifically why he had to make clones to gather the energy and remain in reserve until he needed their jolt of energy.
* In all the filler episodes and films that show Kushina alive with Naruto being Kurama's jinchuriki... how is this possible? Transferring it would have killed Kushina and in the main canon was only done as a last resort so Naruto could stop Obito. But if Obito never attacked Konoha or Minato succeeded in repelling him before he unleashed Kurama, then there would have been no reason to seal Kurama into Naruto at all and Kushina would've remained its jinchuriki. So... did they split it and leave one half with Kushina and the other with Naruto?
[[/folder]]


[[folder:Naruto's clothing style]]
!!Naruto's Clothing Style
* Why the ''orange''? Correct me iI'm f wrong, but orange ain't the most stealthy of colours.
** Magic ninjas man, this show has far bigger problems than a ninja in an orange jumpsuit. It bothers me as well but this is probably due to Main/RummageSaleReject reasons, a plain black ninjitsu gi just isn't a good cosplay and doesn't stand out enough (Kinda the point) for the protagonist of a shonen fight series.
** Well, the jumpsuit is just his normal clothing, what he wears everyday anyway. Would you change your entire wardrobe just because you graduated middle-school? And the genin all wear casual clothing anyway, versus the higher ranked shinobi that wear the full uniform(with the vest and all.)
** Genin ninja and lower are not even suppose to go out on C missions and even if they did for exceptional reasons (post war crisis) they are accompanied by a Jonin (who could do a mission of that level alone). Chunin and Jonin do have to wear a uniform that blends with their regional surrounding (green for leaf village, white and light brown for the sand village, dark and bluish for the mist(water) village) then there are people like Jiraiya, Minato and Akatsuki who are so strong they don't need to worry about hiding and that in fact wear clothing that reveals their identity to others, most who stand back. That's also why I don't like the fillers sending Genin (youth) on dangerous missions who only survived due to plotjutsu.
** It's also a ShoutOut to {{Dragonball}}.
** Three common {{Fanon}} explanations: 1. He likes the orange. Canon Naruto doesn't seem like the type to worry about stealth, does he? 2. Shopkeepers hate him, he can't get anything else 3. If he can evade ANBU in orange, he can do it in anything else
** There's also the fact that the nine-tailed fox is orange, so perhaps his mind is just naturally attracted to it
** The real question is, why do any of them dress distinguishably at all? Not only does the orange make him easy to spot, but it makes him easy to identify. In a world where every shinobi seems to have their own special ability, why would any famous ninja (i.e. Kakashi, or Minato) want their opponents to be able to identify them and thus be prepared for their attacks? Every ninja should be wearing the exact same hooded, masked uniform.
*** Being recognized might be a good thing in that you build up your reputation enough, you get people scared of you. Which might or might not be a good thing, but... well.
** Originally, all ninjas were supposed to wear masks, but Kishimoto found it too hard to draw expressions that way and it became only a few characters' (example: Kakashi) main feature.
*** Well, reputation can be a valuable first line of defense. It may be better to be fighting enemies prepared for you than to face the far greater number of enemies who, not knowing who you are, think they ''might'' be able to take you (status seems to deter casual attacks, unlike with, say, Western gunslingers). Kakashi may be getting the best of both worlds, in that he's utterly unrecognizable without his distinctive uniform... and it's not impossible that other distinctive appearances can grant the same advantage.
*** One word to that, Yellow Flash: flee upon sight.
** Uh, we let other ninjas of pop culture get away with wearing bright colors. Why are you making a big deal out of Naruto's outfit when there were other high visible ninjas before Naruto? Get over it!
** This debate often forgets all Ninja from the Academy know the transformation jutsu, with that what's the point in dressing sneaky like.
** I think that Naruto is actualy fairly smart...don't look at me like that just think of this. If you can get you stealth skills so well that you can hide in plain sight with ''orange'' just think of how stealthy he would be when he dones black.
** Because if you saw a ninja dressed in bright orange you'd waste valuable moments wondering how he managed to survive. And then, just as his foot was closing in on your head, you'd realize "Oh. ''That's'' how." But it would be too late by then.
** Yeah, how insane of [[CompletelyMissingThePoint Naruto to dress absolutely nothing like a Ninja to the point that other Ninjas would be incredulous you are one]], [[SarcasmMode after all, everyone knows that spies had a dress code for a reason]]. Also, camouflage clothing is really not that good, in say, a city or a different woods, or a meadow or Grassland and I think doing clothes that are mean to make you invisible would make other people, like guards, soldiers and enemy Ninjas kind of notice you outside said blending. Besides, with the supernatural abilities Ninja posses, just blending with the enviroment wouldn't really help you much and say, why if you don't have the time or the opportunity to get your "equipment" to be all Ninja-like stealthy and had to rely in good old tricks, movement and timing? Besides, who in Naruto world ''actually'' dress stealthy anyway?
** Technically the stereotypcial "black ninja gear" sprung from Japanese portrayals of ninja in theatre. Ninja usually just wore normal clothing, which was what made them so terrifying - unlike the obvious samurai, the ninja could be ANYONE. So naturally, whenever Japanese plays portrayed ninjas... they dressed like the stagehands. Now, you'll notice that just about everyone dresses garishly in Naruto-land. So they're blending in just fine! ...and they can always stealth it up with, like, magic, I guess.
*** Actually ninjas did wear black, on night related missions, but they also wore whatever color or color pattern blended more with their environment, black got more popularize by the media because after all, black is cool, but imagine being on a snow field or a sandy field or in plain daylight wearing black, black is not an all time cover color, I'm looking at you Kankuro of the "sand" village (at least his puppets have the correct color).
** Naruto's main techniques consist of creating multiple copies of himself (bad for stealth), making a bright swriling energy ball (very bad for stealth), and summoning a toad the size of a mountain (the exact opposite of stealth). I think it's safe to say he's abandoned the idea entirely.
** Also, orangutans are orange as well, and they are actually pretty well camouflaged in jungle terrain. And [[FridgeBrilliance where]] is the village hidden in the leaves again?
** Er...this is an orangutan http://tinyurl.com/yc9sm3c , and this is Naruto - http://tinyurl.com/y9t7qon . It's safe to say that Naruto isn't gunning for stealth. Besides, the entire series is about confrontation. We see stealth only once in a while. ANBU is a good example.
** Bright orange is stealthier than you give it credit for. It has to do with how light works and the colors higher in sht spectrum (red and orange for example) becoming effectively black once things start to get dark. If you don't believe me take something red outside at night. Also not that his outfit does a great job of breaking up his outline camoflauge as often as not is not about making you harder to see it's about making you harder to aim at. For example look at the current military cammies that look like they were spat out of an Atari.
** Read [[FridgeBrilliance Chapter 498.]] Kishimoto knew what he was doing the whole time.
*** What do you get when you mix Konaha's Yellow Flash with the Bloody Red Habanero? Konoha's Orange Hokage! This moment is more than worth all the Fridge Logic behind the color.
** Honestly, most "ninja" battles involve shooting giant fireballs, creating massive water dragons, growing to the size of Godzilla, or summoning giant animals, so much so that whenever any real stealth gets used, the opponents lose their shit. So why is everyone complaining about his jumpsuit?
** Well leafs do become bright orange and red during early fall, his outfit wouldn't be too bad during that period. Plus the standard uniform and headband wouldn't be good on a recon mission with normal people since it is a known uniform of the ninja population. Naruto's outfit likely wouldn't draw too much attention day to day since most teenagers are goofing around with fashion anyway. I've seen 12 year olds wear worse stuff then what Naruto's got on. Plus stealth is situational, you wouldn't wear a pink dress when you're trying to infiltrate a company where a suit and tie are the norm but if you were trying to blend in with a group of young women a pink dress might be perfect. That and establishing a usual mode of dress could be beneficial. If everyone's expecting a blonde haired kid in bright orange he could easily dress in anything else and have a better chance of remaining unnoticed.
* Naruto's new coat bugs me. Specifically, why red rather than his usual orange?
** Most likely a tribute to Jiraiya, who's clothing was red.
** That's a coat in the exact same style as ''Yondaime-sama.'' More pointing at the fact that Naruto is really his kid.
* What's that cord in Naruto's orange and blue jacket's left shoulder for?
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Naruto's Relationship With Sasuke]]
!! Naruto's Relationship With Sasuke
* Other than the fact that Masashi Kishimoto loves Sasuke for some reason, why exactly does Naruto want to save Sasuke? I know if the person I thought was my best friend betrayed my country (village, whatever) to its greatest enemy and then almost killed me I would want to kill him or at least catch him for him to face punishment from the authorities.
** He's part of his TrueCompanions, and even if Naruto didn't want to save him, they still feel doing whatever with him is their responsibility.
** This troper wonders how Naruto can conceive Sasuke coming back after all he has done. RedemptionEqualsDeath is the only option for Sasuke.
*** So what HAS Sasuke actually done? Helped destroy the guy who lead the latest full scale invasion of Konoha? Fulfilled his brother's dying ambition? Infiltrated the evil organization? The absolute worst thing you can accuse him of is fighting another country's jinchuriki and even then his target survived (whether by intention or fluke is still up for grabs). He hasn't even killed a single person yet. He HAS rather indirectly caused a couple of his opponents' deaths, but I think it is not a coincidence that he still doesn't have blood on his hands.
*** While a great many fans (including me) would like this, it seems really doubtful considering how sympathetically Kishi treats Sasuke, even after a big part of the fan base has come to dislike him. After all, Kishi has said that he's devoting this whole year to Sasuke. While this isn't {{WMG}}, I'd have to say it's much more likely Sasuke will just do a regular [[Main/HeelFaceTurn Heel Turn Face]].
*** Sasuke sought asylum with a traitor who tried to actively destroy the village, aimed to kill Naruto, invaded a village to kidnap one of its members to kill later, openly assaulted and attempted to murder the leaders of the five major ninja villages (later succeeding in killing Danzou), and is now working for an enemy organization hell-bent on taking over the world.
*** Sasuke probably spent the whole timeskip studying how to defeat Orochimaru, so he cannot be considered evil at least till he learns the truth about Itachi from Tobi. Even after that, Kumogakure wasn't an ally of Konoha, and Sasuke technically isn't in the Akatsuki. He didn't even kill Bee, he just wanted to test his powers. And, more importantly, he didn't want to kill any of the kages beside Danzou, but he had to battle him anyway sooner or later, because Danzou wanted him dead ever since the Uchiha Massacre, that is when Sasuke was still completely innocent. While he almost lost himself there, I don't believe Sasuke became completely evil, seeing how he's fighting alongside Itachi against Kabuto, who joined forces with Akatsuki. This means Sasuke is basically fighting Akatsuki now, so we can definitely conclude that he is nowhere near being a member of the Akatsuki. And it's also important to know that Sasuke holds nothing against any of the villages except for Konoha, and that's because what they had done to Itachi. Even if it's not justified, which it may be, or may not be, Sasuke's actions are understandable, and if the series was called Sasuke, and not Naruto, he would be the hero (except he wouldn't pierce through Karin and the like then). Even Naruto says he understands why Sasuke did what he did, so I think that so should the readers.
** Sasuke still attacked Bee for Akatsuki, he could've waited to attack Danzo like his teammates suggested, instead he attacked a international summit in a neutral country, which made 3 more villages and the samurai want him dead as well, he's just recently turned on Tobi simply because he had gotten Itachi's eyes working. Just because his reason to attack Konoha and Danzo makes sense doesn't make his methods any less evil or stupid.
*** Sasuke never said anything about being allies with Tobi, and he turned against him because he wanted to capture Naruto when he promised that Sasuke can fight him, not because he awakened his eyes, not to mention that Sasuke wants to destroy Konoha himself and the fact that Itachi is raised from the dead and is on the good side. He can't have waited before attacking Danzou, because he wanted to go to Konoha immediately, but Tobi held him back. Sasuke went through him with the Chidori, remember? Tobi could've killed him if he resisted, and Sasuke isn't stupid enough to fight if he has no chance. Sasuke may be rash and do some things that are possibly evil (though in a shinobi world, the definition of evil is a tricky one), he is the victim of the circumstances just as much. Had Tobi arrived later to kidnap the Sasuke who just defeated Itachi, things would have been very different.
*** What? Sasuke is definitely stupid enough to think he could win against Tobi in a fight. He is SUICIDALLY overconfident. He breaks into the Kage sumit and thinks he is Badass enough to defeat all five of them, or at would be able to fight them off well enough to get at Danzou. He refused to belief Kakashi could ever hope to fight evenly with him and spammed his Mangekyo so much it blinded him in a matter of days. He similarly thought his Team Hawk would just walk into Kumagakure and take Killer Bee no problem (and we all know how well [[CurbstompBattle that turned out]]). Similarly when facing Kabuto he honestly doesn’t believe that there is anyone who is capable of defeating the tag team of him and Itachi. Sasuke could see see the freaking Sage of Six Paths and expect the fight to be a cakewalk. The big problem is that Sasuke thinks he is much stronger and smarter than he actually is. He THINKS he is manipulating Tobi but in reality he is not. Tobi wants Sasuke to be a revenged obsessed monster and that is what Sasuke is. Tobi knew Sasuke would betray him and it is pretty clear that this is within his plans. And yes you are right that Tobi (who is a ManipulativeBastard) manipulated Sasuke, but that doesn’t change how stupid he is for falling for it so easily. He knows everything that happened, why things were done, and what his brother wanted, but he chooses to go after selfish revenge anyway. Tobi doesn’t hide anything from Sasuke so while he ws manipulative you can’t even say he tricked Sasuke with half-truths. Yes things could have been very different under different circumstances (we have been told that plenty of times about a lot of different situations) but the situation that is presented is not of Sasuke beinga woobie who was tricked by the evil BigBad but instead of a guy making very stupid and completely nonsensical decisions. Being an idiot should not earn our, or the character’s, sympathies.
*** Sasuke is at this point is obviously Insane, thanks to Itachi [[SarcasmMode brilliant idea]] to Tsukyomi him into insanity.
*** If Naruto and Sasuke fail to bring Sasuke back, it would be an extremely depressing ending, and would still be a DownerEnding even if it had the RedemptionEqualsDeath ending. Naruto's quest to bring Sasuke back is hardly the bleakest "friend redemption" plot I have ever seen; a similar situation in Muhyo and Roji in which Muhyo's main goal is to bring Enchu back, even though Enchu seems to have fallen to evil and is actively trying to kill Muhyo.
** HoYay.
** In the fight against Haku, back before Naruto had the village's regard, Sasuke took half a dozen needles to the throat for him. This comes soon after Haku's speech about becoming strong to protect people, and echoes Iruka defending Naruto in the fight against Mizuki. Naruto isn't going to be convinced that Sasuke is irreedemably evil any more than if Iruka defected.
*** Just try to call Iruka not evil if he also attempted to stab Naruto through the heart. Keeping in mind, Sasuke gave him a Chidori straight through the chest, only missed his heart because Naruto diverted it at the last second, and was surprised that Naruto started regenerating (so he still thought it would be lethal until he saw that).
**** This isn't about good or evil, this specifically about Naruto's relationship with Sasuke and the bottom line is quite simply that Naruto believes that had his life been just a little different he could very easily have become Sasuke, Gaara, or Itachi. He has a special relationship with Sasuke because he wanted Sasuke to acknowledge him, and he did. During the Battle at the Valley of End Sasuke acknowledged him and there is probably nothing Sasuke could ever do that would would ever change how Naruto feels because Naruto feels it's not his fault.
* Why was it that Naruto didn't seem very concerned when it was getting within weeks until the three years since Orochimaru last changed passed even though they had no leads on finding him and Sasuke?
** He had the more pressing goal of becoming strong enough to defeat him; if he can't do that, finding Sasuke is pointless.
** In a recent chapter, it has been explained (or at least suggested) that Naruto's vast chakra comes from his mother.
* Ok, something that bugs me is that at the Valley of the End, Naruto refers to Sasuke as his best friend, and vice-versa. I was like "what?" at that part. From what I've seen of their relationship in Part 1, it's involved them accidentally kissing, Naruto trying to outdo Sasuke on missions and in training, Sasuke telling Naruto to surpass him if he doesn't want to keep getting humiliated by him, Sasuke acknowledging him as a WorthyOpponent at the Chunin Exams, and Sasuke getting into a fight with him over Naruto's sudden growth of power. Aside from that, they rarely seem to hang out, outside of missions and training, and I don't think they've ever had an actual conversation together. How on earth can they consider themselves to be best friends?
** This is the main problem with Naruto and Sasuke's arc to begin with. We're expected to buy that they were close friends as kids and that's why Naruto keeps trying to redeem him. The problem is Sasuke has been pretty unsympathetic and stand-offish from day 1 and never treated anyone with much respect, so Naruto and Sakura's feelings don't make a lot of sense. If he had been a nicer or more compassionate person (like say Obito was shown to be as a kid) the whole thing would be a lot easier to swallow, but his very first line is "I hate a lot of things, and I don't particularly like anything, and my goal is to kill.....a certain someone." and he only gets worse from there. Frankly, it's a bigger surprise no one saw his betrayal coming.
** Actually, it says a lot about the sheer lonliness the two of them are going through. Naruto spent his childhood without any friends: Hinata was too shy to talk to him, Shikamaru barely tolerated him, and everybody else actively avoided him. Sasuke lived alone in the Uchiha district since the rest of the clan was massacred. He was popular with the girls, but he found them obnoxious. The fact that Sakura, who is supposed to be the smartest girl in their class, didn't realize that knocking orphans would anger Sasuke rather than help win him over, shows how distant Sasuke's admirers actually were from him. To wit, Hinata knew Naruto better than any of Sasuke's admirers knew Sasuke. In conclusion, they consider each other best friends because at this point, they are pretty much each other's only friend.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Naruto and the Ninja Academy]]
!!Naruto and the Ninja Academy
* At the start of the manga (and anime) they state that Naruto failed the graduation exam twice before, so how is it that he is the same age as the rest of the cast? Shouldn't he be two years older at least?
** He probably started two years earlier, what with the dream of being Hokage he's always had.
*** Which doesn't explain how he didn't know Neji, Lee, or Tenten when they would have passed the exam at the time of his second failure.
**** Multiple classes. Konoha's pretty big and Naruto's class only seems to have thirty or so students, even if most kids don't go to the academy it'd make sense that there's more ninja's than we see. The 'rookie nine' being teams seven eight and ten reinforces this idea.
** The Chuunin exam is held twice a year so the Genin could have been the same or they could take it when they felt they were ready. The Genin exam is much simpler and only involves the ninjas from the academy. My view of this is that Naruto failed the exam once and then he retook it some months later but still failed. I think that doesn't sound too silly.
*** Given that Naruto seems to think he'll have to wait ages to retake the exam and the fact it seems to be a big production, I don't think they have a 'take it whenever' policy. It's possible that they have multiple graduations a year but I think the way that they show all the students who graduated with Naruto and then jump up to Gai and his students who have been training for a year without once mentioning any in-between teams points against that. You would think that, for example, the argument about whether or not it was right for Kakashi to enter his students into the Chuunin Exam so early would be a perfect time to bring up an in-between team. Gai could bring any of those teams up as an example of more precedence for waiting to take the exam or, if they took it sooner than Gai's students did, Kakashi could point out that not everybody waits as long to test his students as Gai does.
*** Well, there's such a thing as repeat exams. He could have simply used the time leading up to the graduation ceremony to retake the exam. Schools in Japan (and other countries besides) have a policy to have make-up exams for students who fail a term exam just so they don't fall behind their peers. Likely this is where Kishimoto got that system.
**** In a situation where the majority of the graduates are doomed to fail just as part of the system no matter how talented they may be, I can't believe that they would let people who couldn't pass the exam on the first try get another chance. This isn't like in real-life schools. Naruto failing shows that he's probably not ready to be a ninja and will therefore probably die and get his teammates killed if he is passed. He challenged this belief when he learned the Kage Bunshin on his own with very little time but most people who fail the exam just aren't ready and it won't do them any good to give them extra chances to get lucky.
*** Naruto was also very impatient at the start of the series, which may have been the reason why he thought it would take ages to take the next test. He was also more arrogant about his skills back then, thinking that they were better than they actually were. He might have tried to graduate early because of his own arrogance thinking that he was better than he was in reality.
** In Japanese schools, which the ninja academy was based on, there aren't two semesters but rather three trimesters, each of them with their own exam the score for which is a part of the final grade. So the fact that Naruto had failed the last two exams doesn't mean that he repeated the year twice or tried to graduate early twice and failed; rather, it means that he totally bombed the first two of the three exams in the final year and thus his grades right now, in the graduating year, are worse than shit. But he is the same age as his peers, and always was.

* This troper is bothered by how the Academy Exam at the begining of the series based it's final exam around a showing of a single Jutsu. That's like a normal class final exam consisting of only one question and counting for 90% of your total grade.
** As revealed by Kakashi, the Academy Exam doesn't really matter. The test given by the jounin sensei is the only thing that matters and it's doubtful any jounin would pass a genin who wasn't ready.
** The Academy has a bit of ContinuityDrift; there were initially 27 students in the academy, but when Sasuke first attends in the flashback, there are 30. Additionally, Lee somehow passes without being able to do ninjutsu at all (although Neji indicates that he's an unusual case). It's possible that Naruto could have passed without being able to do the clone jutsu if his grades were good enough, but since he wasn't a very good student, he failed.
** This troper always assumed that they tailored the final quesiton to each student's weakness, and were measuring how much they had overcome their earlier inability.
** Canonically Naruto also started the Academy early, but he's the same age as his classmates. Similarly, despite failing multiple times, there are no implications that any of the earlier genin (Like Lee, Tenten, and Neji who ''should'' know him) have any idea who he is.
** The final year has three exams, the one shown is the last one. It is possible (though I do not find it very likely) that the previous exams tested other things. Also, yeah, the academy exams don't really matter outside of weeding out those who are completely incompetent.

* Why doesn't Naruto just ask Tsunade to declare him a chunin? (Especially since he knows her) The Hokage after all, has final say.
** The missions he is being given are Jounin rank no question, everyone knows how powerful he is and Tsunade even strongly considers him as a replacement Hokage if she ever died. What is in a title when he has bigger goals?
*** Yes but I doubt the elders are going to allow a genin to become hokage, it's way too big of a jump.
**** Gaara anyone? (I thought he went through the jounin rank, though. That's the impression I got from Kankorou's flashback in volume 28.)
***** That seems to take place in Part I, and it mainly concerns his decision to part with his siblings and join a regular squad. Unfortunately, the databooks never mention when someone becomes a Jonin; only their graduation and Chunin promotions (12 and 14 for Gaara), so we have no idea when or whether he became one (although it's possible to be promoted quickly; Neji became a Jonin by age 17 after becoming a Chunin at age 15).
** Just because you're the world's best soldier doesn't mean when you join the army you'll become a general. Being a chunin is just as much about maturity, leadership, and cunning as it is about ninja skills.
*** The problem is that clearly the rank of Kage is based MORE on your power than your overall wisdom. (Unless the current batch are just a freak occurance) Neither Jiraya nor Tsuande are shown to be particularly brilliant or wise. Who would want a drunken gambler as the leader of the village or a wandering porn writer? Particularly when you had people as smart as Kakashi around. (I'd add Danzo to the list but I'll accept that he simply didn't exist to be an option.) Gaara can't possibly be the wisest or even in the top ten wise people in his village. If the Mizukage is the wisest person in her village I pity them. Not as much as pity the people who put the Raikage in charge for his maturity but still. A simple look at the current batch (I'll grant you that the historical kage seem to be above average inteligence but even the First Hokage fought Madara for the privelege) so yeah Naruto stopped Pein, something the entire village combined failed at he's the best choice for what is effectively the champion of the village. It's worth noting that we've seen that the Kages aren't actually in charge, there is a council of elders that at the very least has to approve of anything more important than which ninja get sent out on missions.
**** Having a council approve your decisions doesn't mean you're not in charge, it just means there is more of a balance of power. Clearly the Kage has more power than any individual council member and is the one that really sets policy.
**** At the same time, it's fairly clear that charisma and leadership skills are more important than raw power or wisdom. The Kage of any given village may not be the most powerful or skilled, but s/he undoubtedly must have the ability to win over the village. The Kage is the celebrity leader; advisers can take care of the extra stuff.
*** Isn't it also kind of Naruto's fault since there's an exam they're supposed to take? Of course, since part of it has to be taken with a team he'd have to, however briefly, leave Sakura and Kakashi again and deal with two people he doesn't know. (And given his reaction to Sai, he might not do so well dealing with a new "team" for however briefly it lasts.)
**** If Sasuke comes back, he has a second person.
**** Which might also explain why he wants to bring him back (one fiction even had such a thing as a noodle incident, with all genin other than Naruto and Sasuke surrendering their fights out of fear; I'm digressing, though). And while Tsunade can make him into a chuunin, it's possible that him being genin is amusing for her, and it's not like he cares about the rank that much. Besides, he believes in individual effort too much to ask Tsunade to make him into a chuunin.
** Remember, pre - Main/TimeSkip, the only reason Tsunade kept him around is that with all that ramen, at least he's cheap to feed.
** The reason he wants to become Hokage is for acknowledgment, not the rank. Same for the Chuunin rank. He wants to show everyone what he is capable of. If Tsunade simply names him a Chuunin, he won't have earned it. He gained a lot of respect during the Chuunin exam, and he wants the respect he would get if he goes through all the way. Being able to say "Tsunade thinks I'm strong enough" doesn't quite have the impact of kicking butt in front of hundreds of spectators.
** The way Tsunade seems to be [[{{Jerkass}} just plain mean]] to him JustBugsMe. For instance, in ''The Mysterious Curse of the Haunted Castle'', she picks Kiba for his enhanced scenting, Hinata for her sight (Byakugan), and Naruto because "he's available". If it's a search and retrieval mission you're on, wouldn't the ability to make a bunch of clones be a useful skill to have on your team? I'm surprised Hinata didn't mention it, seeing as [[FanOfUnderdog she likes him]]. Though in that case it could be because she's not good [[ShrinkingViolet on the spot]]. What's Tsunade's excuse? Is she trying to [[DrillSergeantNasty toughen him up]]?
*** This is a form of CharacterExaggeration in the anime. In the manga, the only time she gets angry with him is when he complains about getting a C-Ranked mission right after coming back, and otherwise expresses great faith in him, although not always directly to him.
** In Shippuden Movie 2, Neji says Naruto's teamwork is still Genin-level. This is shown when he does a LeeroyJenkins and runs into the attack on Shion's temple, resulting in him getting trapped in the enemy's jutsu (although he does save Shion's life in the process). Then again, Naruto says during the 10th question of the first phase that even if he's a Genin forever, he'll find a way to become Hokage, so being a Genin, Chunin or Jonin matters less to him (although he's a bit hurt that he's still behind his friends).
** Well they've been ignoring procedure, they send our little Genin on S-ranked missions on a regular basis...They've got important things to do then worry about ranks.
*** There's also the rank of S-Rank, which is pretty much ''designed'' for him. It's higher than Jonin but lower than Kage, and you just have to be powerful, there are no tests as far as we know. Jiraiya was one. Why not make Naruto, who by this point is undeniably stronger than him and around as strong as the Kage's, one?
**** I think that's more a comment on power-level than an actual rank to hold. Some Jounin may be S-ranked, some Kages may be not. You can say that Naruto is an S-ranked ninja but not that Naruto is no longer a genin and is now an S-rank.
* If Naruto hadn't graduated, there would have only been 26 academy graduates. How exactly would they form enough three man teams for everyone?
** Maybe they could mix or match them into other teams? Just because Kakashi only threatened the fail his entire squad doesn't mean that other Jonin couldn't have possibly failed only one or two members of their own three-man squads, then plugged those holes with the extra two students. Also, it's of course possible that one or more of the students could have failed alongside Naruto. He doesn't have the monopoly on BookDumb.
** I'm inclided to think that if Iruka didn't pass Naruto team 7 would be a two man team (and likely fail due to Kakashi's strict standards)
** Strangely enough, during Sasuke's first year at the academy (it also bugs me that they don't specify how long people attend, although it seems to be five or six years), there were 30 students in his class and 90 in the academy. Three of the class might have dropped out.
** I like the explanation provided in a fanfic called "Destiny is a Hazy Thing" (which seems to be a "love it or hate it" story) - in it, there are two classes, a normal one and an "elite" one, the second of which is filled with clan heirs, people who got recommendations for entering, and then (if there are enough places left) some of the normal class' best students. After the graduation, everyone who passes is given an exam by one of their assigned "jounin instructors", but only those who got the clan heirs and recommended students (and fillers, such as Sakura, who either got lucky or was supposed to be treated like a clan heir for whatever reason) pass their teams (it does make sense with some exams; Kakashi passed them when they fed Naruto, but he might've passed them just as well when they refused to feed him, citing their ability to follow orders as reason [regardless of his own agenda]), while the rest are sent back into the academy and then graduate into regular duty after some time, without getting their jounin instructor and only being able to get a merit promotion (in said story, chuunin exams are treated like political war-games of sorts, which would make sense seeing as the strongest genin would be those who got their own instructor, and only those [due to the fact that "normal" graduates would lack a team] would be able to enter; thus, all of the major nations could have their fights on the arena instead of the battlefields). Going with this train of thoughts, if Naruto didn't graduate, then one of the fillers would be placed on Kakashi's team, unless Kakashi wanted Naruto as his underling and later did something to make graduation possible for him.
* Here's what is confusing me about the Academy Final Exam. Sakura proved that all it required to pass this test was to transform into Iruka AKA transforming from one person into another. So why does Naruto fail even after using the Sexy Jutsu? He changed gender, managed to hide his clothes and held it for a decent length of time showing that he is capable of the required chakra control. the Sexy Jutsu ''is'' the Transformation Technique, it's just a very inappropriate use of it. The ultimate proof of this is that barely weeks later, after failing this exam for three straight years, he managed a near enough perfect recreation of Akamaru despite the stress and injuries that came from his beating by Kiba.
** Naruto failed not because he didn't know the henge. Sexy Jutsu is after all a good example of it. He failed because he disobeyed orders and more or less showed that he was fooling around instead of being serious. Look at all the other kids, they all transform into Iruka, which was probably the point of the test aka following orders and showing the skill. Naruto did not follow orders and thus failed.
*** It's like drawing a lion when your art teacher tells you to draw a house cat. It's similar, but not what was asked for.
** Naruto didn't fail because of his inappropriate use of the Transformation Technique; the exam required him to perform the Clone Technique. The Transformation Technique task was a regular class exercise, not the exam.
** That wasn't an exam, but rather just practice before it. Nevertheless, here is the reason Iruka was angry at him. In the Naruto continuity, being a ninja is equivalent to being a soldier, and thus one of the most important things for the graduates is to be able to listen to orders. That is why Naruto changing into something differing from the specified form made his teacher angry - it made it clear that Naruto doesn't follow orders, and just one day from the graduation exam that was a problem.

* Is it canon that the two best students are placed with the worse student or was that just the assumption people made to explain why Naruto was with Sasuke and Sakura? Because that would make no sense at all. The reason given for doing this would be to make the teams balanced but what would the point of making them balanced be? A maximum of nine students graduate every year. Why would they want even one, let alone three, crappy students instead of the nine best ones? Wouldn't it make more sense to put together really good teams and not worry about making the teams all about equal by sticking the talented kids with duds? And furthermore, wouldn't promoting a dud just get the dud and possibly the teammates killed?
** The worst students who ''passed''. Not the worst ones in general, and if you pass, you aren't enough of a dud to actually hold back the team. I think the reason for this is that ninjas passing with bad grades on the basis of amazing special talents could be fairly common (Out of the Konoha 12, Naruto and assumedly Rock Lee passed this way, and all the rest of them have some kind of special ability apart from [[TheLoad Sakura]] [[TookALevelInBadass at first]]). Since these sorts of students are far too [[CripplingOverspecialisation overspecialised]], they need to be put with really good all round students so they can use their abilities to their maximum in fights.
** Additionally, it can keep the weaker ninjas from holding each other back. If the top rookies were kept in separate squads from those who barely managed to graduate, the prodigies would get to do all kinds of interesting C-rank missions and the weaker ones would be stuck with the boring D-rank missions. Putting the weaker students with the most talented allows the weaker ones to learn from them and allow them to go on more dangerous/varied/not-incredibly-boring missions so as to gain experience. After all, even though they're technically ninja who sometimes take on possibly-dangerous missions, Genin seem to still be in the role of a learner, like padawans. Additionally, the squads compete with each other, like with the Chunin Exam, so it would be simply unfair not to balance the squads.
* A couple things with Kakashi's apparent Chunin promotion age:
** According to the databooks, Kakashi graduated from the academy at 5 and was promoted to Chunin at 6...I'm sorry...but that means Kakashi went through the Ninja academy in a single year...at 4 years old, I don't think a 4 year olds hands are even big enough to properly hold a Kunai.
** And for the second problem, chapter 599 seems to contradict this, They said Kakashi became chunin when he defeated Guy a year after he graduated (he was 6 years old). This doesn't make sense since they couldn't have done the chunin exams together(Guy only graduated the acadamy at the age of 7 and obito and Rin when they were 9 years old). They all joined the acadamy at the same time so they are likely to be the same age(and according to the Databooks, Kakashi and Guy are the same age) I suppose that tecnically Guy could be a few months older than Kakashi, and Obitos and Rins ages are never mentioned, so it could be technically possible for them to be 3 years older than kakashi, but it implied by the artwork and storyline that there about the same age. So barring Obito and Rin being much older than they look, there is no way they could have taken the chunin exam with Kakashi. And of course the biggest screw up, Anko participated in the same exam, which would make her 4 years old if kakshis promotion age is correct (despite the fact that she didn't graduate until she was 10).
[[/folder]]

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[[folder: Misc]]
!!Misc
* Why do the ninjas wear sandals and not proper shoes/boots/etc. The explanation "so your feet can breathe" is just silly. wouldn't it make more sense to have shoes that afford more protection? On a related note, why do the akutski people have black nail polish? Fashion statement?
** Naruto's initial design had him wearing boots, but it was changed because Kishimoto likes drawing toes. Take that as you will.
** Akatsuki's leader calls himself Pain, that should answer the black nail polish question.
* Why does the Naruto CCG classify Naruto as a Lightning-element ninja? He's been classified in-story as Wind-type.
** Someone's been playing too much ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger''?
** He wasn't classified until long after the CCG came out. They didn't have a clue what his element might be, so the gave him the element that most closely matched his hyper personality.
*** There's also the issue of balancing the elemental natures of the cards and getting them to work well together, in cases when some characters like Sakura have no determined elemental nature, and some elements are more common than others (for example, more than a few characters have Lightning affinity, but hardly any have Earth affinity).
* When Pain asks Naruto what his solution would be to stopping unending hatred and bringing real peace, at first Naruto's speechless, then answers "I don't know". Wouldn't his typical answer be "To become Hokage and change it"? It was his answer to Neji during the Chuunin Arc, and it's what he set out to do after Haku and Zabuza died. How does Pain's situation call for an "I don't know"?
** He's older and more experianced now, and has seen the limitations of a Hokage's power. He has, in the meantime, seen Sarutobi die ultimately a failure, having failed to stop his wayward pupil. He's seen the rise of Tsunade, and how she's been so limited in what she can do. He's spent three years with Jiraya, who has reasons for not wanting to be Hokage, which he's no doubt shared with Naruto. He obviously still wants the job, but he's been long since disillusioned about what he will be able to accomplish when he gets it- he no longer sees it as a be-all end-all "make the world perfect" position.
** Also as Hokage, he only would have the power to change Konoha, and the clans that reside in it, Pain's question was basically "how are you going to bring about world peace?" and just like the answer of "becoming US presedent" is not a vallid answer,because, as your influence ultimately stops at the boarders so does the influence of Hokage, stopes at the Konoha gate
** I've always wondered why do they keep on the Hokage motive still. In the beggining he said he wanted to be the Hokage so everyone would respect him and acknowledge him and look up to him, doesn't a lot of people even outside Konoha already do that? he keeps striving after a title even when he has achieved all the reasons he wanted it in the first place.
* Just before the Third Hokage sentences the First, Second and Orochimaru's arms into the gut of the Death God he states that it is an eternity of pain. Seeing as the Death God is supposedly impossible to escape, how does he know that being sealed with this jutsu is agony? obviously it wouldn't be pleasant; but there is simply no way for anyone to know that it inflicts an eternity of pain or an eternity of mild annoyance.
** Can you honestly tell people that you think the interior of Death's stomach would be a GOOD place to be? It's like Hell- We might not have been there, but past references seem to think it's a bad place.
** For that matter, how does he know that your soul actually stays in the Death God's stomach? It's not as if anybody has come back from it to explain the details. And it's not as if the Death God itself talks to anybody.
* Why does Naruto suddenly decide that he has to single-handedly fight and win the entire war all by himself and no one else is allowed to do anything? He's been told that this won't work because not even he has that much energy and he's already visiting all the battlefields at once. I get that he wants to protect people but that still doesn't explain the extremism. When the already dead Itachi says that he knows how to stop Kabuto and Naruto has no plan, why demand to be allowed to face Kabuto alone on top of everything else he has to deal with?
** Made worst when you remember how he was telling everyone that no one was taking into consideration how he felt staying on the sidelines while everyone else fought. So now he's trying to turn the tables, doing the opposite.....to the military population of the 5 biggest nations in the world plus the samurais. So he's really taking thing to a new level by being a hypocrite to 80,000 people
*** I don't think Naruto's a hypocrite. People really are dying and Naruto acquired pretty huge power so why would it be hypocrisy to try to save everyone when he already saw what happened to people affected by war (i. e. Nagato and Konan). He just wants to protect everyone from becoming that and it doesn't matter to him if he's injured because his friends are more important to him. However, Itachi is also justified in saying that if you take too much responsibility, you could in fact end up as an evil person, although it was a bit of a stretch to me to compare him to Madara (alright, he acted selfish, which he shouldn't have done, but I think Naruto was closer to becoming Sasuke than ever to becoming Madara... although Itachi thinks the world of Sasuke, so he wouldn't warn Naruto against becoming Sasuke...)
**** The key word is fighting ''with'' everyone. Everyone wanted to protect Naruto, be it to protect a dear friend and so Madara doesn't achieve his goal, or just for the later. In Naruto's mind, it was, they mean good but I can't stand in the sidelines not doing anything while everyone else is fighting, but now he wants to do everything and put everyone else in the sidelines, not thinking, hey they might feel just the way I felt not a moment ago. His intentions are still good but he's still a hypocrite because of his earlier complains about depriving someone of a battle to protect, friends, family, nation, etc.
***** But he also knows that a war means tons of people dying. I don't think he would have any problem with someone wanting to protect him in times of danger, but he hates the thought of people being in war and dying. He wants to end the war quickly so no one has to fight. He also had Nagato tell him that maybe he can end the cycle of revenge, and he knows from him that wars are not really just about friends protecting each other but involves a lot of random killing without any reason whatsoever so Naruto wanting to hurry to end the war is understandable. Also, if he's the only one fighting, no one has to die. This is not necessarily true, but that's how Naruto thinks (at least in my interpretation).
*** You can be a hypocrite with good intentions.
**** Yes, you can, only he's not doing the same thing as the others. Everyone is pretty much okay with fighting a war because they want to protect Naruto, but Naruto hates the very thought of fighting a war, so he wants to do everything himself, because fighting alone doesn't count as a war. He wants to stop the war, only he needs to fight it to end it. Still, what he wants is pretty much impossible, so I would say that he's pretty desperate and it just ''looks'' like he's a hypocrite. You know, Itachi even compares him to Madara, which I thought was a bit of a stretch, but I think now Naruto is sort of okay with everyone helping him in the war, so if I was wrong, and he was really ''being'' a hypocrite, he ''isn't'' now.
*** Read what I said again again, you '''can'' be a hypocrite with good intentions. This thread started when the latest chapter was the end of their fight with Nagato, where Itachi told Naruto that, hey there's other people in this war and I'm technically already dead, don't try to do everything yourself (which he's doing, he's fighting "with" everyone now). And I think Itachi wasn't comparing him to Madara, he was just telling him that that was how Madara started.
**** But he told him how Madara started for a reason. I thin that he did compare Naruto to Madara not because he really thought that Naruto was at risk of turning into Madara but because Naruto was behaving irrationally and he's not easy to talk down when he's like that. Itachi's Madara comparison shut him down with just a few sentences.

* What exactly do the toads and other intelligent summon beasts get out of the contracts? [[TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot Why hasn't Naruto ever been reverse summoned to help THEM in combat?]]
** Jiraya once saved a toad from a snake, then he studied under the toads. The summoning contract with the toads was his reward, and since he had the contract, he could also invite others to sign it. Who knows what the backstory is on the other contracts.

* Why has Obito continued working on Madara's plan? Madara made it pretty clear that he would be in control of the eternal illusion, there's still the obvious problems of everyone affected just freezing in place until they die of starvation or thirst and how is it supposed to have an effect on people if they avoid looking at the moon.
** The last chapter made it clear, he gets Rin in the dream world, alive, happy, smiling.
*** Basically, as long as it's got brown, short hair, and it's name is Rin. Obito will go for it. TRUE LOVE, FOLKS!
*** My problem wasn't with what Obito wants, it's that he seems to trust that Madara is actually going to use the 10 tails to cast the eternal illusion and that Madara won't just put everyone into Madara's idea of a perfect world.
*** He honestly could care less if it's Madara's idea of a perfect world so long as it has Rin in it, because that's HIS idea of a perfect world
*** My problem has been solved by the fact that Obito had no intention of reviving Madara or allowing him to be the one to cast the illusion.
** Considering the fact that "common" Tsukiyomi is capble of doing 3 days in 3 seconds, you get 86400 days per day (about 230 years), i think that is enough, on the "not looking at the moon" thing, well, the izanami doesn't need eye contact, why would illusion fueled by EldritchAbomination / HumanoidAbomination need that?
*** Because Tsukuyomi does require eye contact, it wouldn't matter how strong it is, if you don't look at it, you aren't going to be affected.

* This isn't a criticism, it's a genuine question that I haven't been able to find an answer to. What is the deal with the crossed out headbands on rogue ninjas? The obvious answer (which I think comes directly from the source material) is that it signifies that the ninja is no longer loyal to his particular village. Couldn't you accomplish the same thing by simply not wearing your headband any more? Logic would dictate that if you successfully defect to another village and are accepted, you start wearing that villages headband. If for some reason you want to visibly demonstrate that you aren't loyal to any village couldn't you just wear no headband at all? Pain's background makes it more complicated, in that it suggests that he did it to show that he was not only no longer loyal to his village but also actively sought it's ruin, which makes sense given the circumstances. But not everyone with the crossed out headband feels that way. So the only purpose the crossed out headband seems to serve is to inform everyone you meet of precisely who is responsible for you being inflicted upon the world, sort of like how the Hidden Cloud knew to blame the Hidden Leaf when they identified the Uchia crest. And on that subject, Sasuke Uchiha, who has the exact same reasons to wear a crossed out headband as Pain does, wears no headband at all.
** It's only Akatsuki members that have done that and it was to show that they aren't part of their former village, with the exception of konan and Pain.
** I always saw it as a spit in the face to their former villages.
* Exactly how small IS this continent they're all on? In the span of about 3 days running-time, you can go from a forest, to a desert, to some sort of dried up riverbed, to an ocean. The Leaf and Sand villages are specifically noted to not be that far apart from one another. That's 4 different ecosystems in what I'm just going to assume is a 50 mile radius.
** Probably quite large, remember that the preferred travel method is more or less outright sprinting by our standards (if not faster than that). Assuming a speed of 30 kph (about 19 mph) and a daily downtime of 10 hours to rest and recuperate, then a three day trip for a ninja is about 1260 kilometers (783 miles) or the distance from New York to Chicago. I personally think this is a conservative estimate, but even then the combined landmass of the elemental nations is at least continent sized.
** I don't recall each of the locations mentioned here so correct me if any of my assumptions are wrong. The Forest is around The Village Hidden in the Leaves, the Desert is around the Village Hidden in the Sand, the Riverbed is where the Rescue Gaara Arc ends and I'm not sure where the Ocean is. First, those aren't ecosystems by any stretch of the immagination. A dried or dryish riverbed in a desert or a desert near the ocean (Middle East anybody?) isn't even contradictory to each other. The only one that's at all out of place is the forest and that's not a huge stretch. Even if it was more radical you can travel parts of America or Asia where it changes just as rapidly from actually different kinds of terrain. That's not a great gauge of size one way or another. It's hard to gauge distance by ninja speed anyway, the above poster has given them a top speed of 20 mph which while it can't be maintained is a human speed. Nobody in real life can move so fast that you lose track of them and if what we've seen is any example of "normal" any ninja who isn't faster than the average human eye is no ninja at all. It wouldn't shock me to find out that ninja are capable of getting up past 40 mph with bursts in the low to mid hundreds. Rock Lee is fast enough to play ping pong without letting his opponent touch the ground in Part One and it might not be stated but it's heavily implied that the 4th Hokage, 3rd and 4th Raikage and Naruto are all MUCH faster than that.
* Why is Haku put over as such a powerful ninja? Kakashi and Zabuza sell the kid like he's a lot more powerful than he is. First it's mentioned that he can perform jutsus one handed. Well Kakashi knows the rasengon which if you're not Naruto can be done basically without hands. Then we're told that even the most talented Jonin fear Haku. Given how Shippuden/Part II plays out it's difficult to see Haku proving more than a speed bump to any but the weakest or most over specialized Jonin. At that point in the story it wasn't even necessary. Just claiming Haku was a standard run of the mill Jonin would still have put Naruto and Sasuke in a fight where they were in well over their heads.
** It's just power creep playing out, which was a thing even before the Fourth Shinobi War came out and made it run away like a train.
*** Also Haku would be a major threat to anyone that doesn't have super speed like Lee and Guy or a Sharingan if he actually aimed to kill people, his one handed jutsu was impressive because everyone else needs two hands for seals to control their chakra to fire off most jutsu. It's not that he's overhyped in universe, if he actually fought properly then he'd live up to the hyping, being a pacifist means we never see him fight properly.
* Why do none of the Tailed Beasts even attempt right out the gate to be on good terms with their jinchuriki? At the beginning of the series it made sense because they were presented as mindless demons who could not be reasoned with but now we know otherwise. It seems like that would be the logical thing to do, Naruto would almost definitely have freed Kurama multiple times especially if he could trust him not to destroy his home.
** The way I saw it, each Tailed Beasts had already seen the "true" nature of human beings long before they were sealed within their Jinchuriki and so they weren't willing to cooperate with them. Its shown however that they ''can'' be persuaded over with enough conviction and sincerity, unfortunately no other hosts other than Bee, Naruto, and Yagura (and possibly Yugito) took it upon themselves to befriend their beasts most likely because of their harsh treatment from their villages.
* On a related note why not brain wash the host? Even if the jinchuriki were treated well in their villages having someone stuck in your head twenty four seven telling you that they are your friend and you should trust them would eventually get through to most adults, and Gaara and Naruto both had their Tailed Beast at birth and Naruto had no parents and limited friends.
* What precisely is a Combination Transformation Jutsu anyway? As seen when Naruto uses shadow clone in combination with transformation to turn into Sai it in no way prevents him from using the Rasengon so you aren't limited to whatever you turned into can do. When Gamabunta and Naruto do it they are seen speaking mentally to each other. Now in their case they were just trying to grab Shukaku and nothing else. But if Naruto and Sasuke did it would they basically be a fusion having full access to the powers and techniques of both of them?
* Just where were the Sand Trio during the Sasuke retrieval arc? The Village hidden in the Sand is three days away. Assuming Tsunade sent word immediately they wouldn't arrive for three days. Even if they'd been on their way for diplomatic reasons none of them are shown to have any special tracking ability and they each find their targets almost immediately. Meanwhile Kakashi still has to use a hound to find Naruto and takes forever by comparison.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Sasuke]]

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!!Sasuke's Revenge
* Wouldn't killing Sasuke end the cycle of revenge, seeing how there's nobody left who cares about him to avenge him should he ever die?
** Technically, it would, but it would also make the lesson: "A CycleOfRevenge would be bad, [[CompletelyMissingThePoint so make sure your either only take revenge on someone with no loved ones or kill anyone who might avenge them in response.]]"
*** But seeing how Sasuke actively worked to destroy all his ties with other people and is always on "revenge" mode, wouldn't it be kind of like poetic justice/irony if he died with nobody bothering to avenge him? And I don't necessarily mean killing Sasuke in revenge either; some people want him dead simply because he's dangerous, not because they're trying to avenge someone else.
*** The latter is fairly reasonable idea, and is pretty much what Shikamaru suggested. Sort of like how in ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'' one of the major themes is also not letting a desire for revenge overcome you, but since most of the villains are to dangerous to let live and/or to horrible to forgive they usually are just killed by ''someone else''.
*** Naruto is planning to kill Sasuke (granted, he's got the stupid idea that he'd die in the process, but we'll forgive him his lack of confidence), so technically that is how he's going to end the cycle of revenge. Sasuke dies and he die, and no one wants revenge either way.
*** Yeah, that part just kind of bugs me because the cycle can end with Sasuke's death alone and that he doesn't really deserve having someone die for his sake.
*** He doesn't have to, but he wants to because if he can't keep his promise, he doesn't think that he deserves to live.
*** Naruto isn't planning to kill Sasuke, he said that he would keep stopping Sasuke every time he wants to try his revenge, and that cycle would probably lead to a mutual kill. Naruto plans to stop the cycle from moving.
*** All of the above certainly factors into it, but most importantly it seems that Naruto ''knows'' something that Kishi hasn't revealed to us yet. The frog-prophet-thingy (whatever his name is) alluded to it, and so did Naruto in his conversation with the Konoha 11. Something epic (probably) is going to result from that final confrontation which will lead to their deaths. Now whether that 'death' is to be taken literally or metaphorically remains to be seen. Unless, of course, Naruto manages to evade that confrontation as my predecessor suggested.
** The implication is that if Sasuke were killed by someone other than Naruto, he and possibly Sakura would kill his killer, thereby perpetuating the cycle, despite Naruto's harping otherwise.
* Why doesn't Sasuke realize that for the Uchiha to have been discriminated against enough to justify a coup and possibly starting a war, he shouldn't have to have been ''told'' it was happening in the first place? He should have been well aware of it as it was!
** The reason why he went off the deep end Sasuke has officially been dubbed a bad guy by In-Universe legal authorities ever since the end of Part 1, when he abandoned his village in order to join Orochimaru. But something to bear in mind is that, while Sasuke did technically betray his village, Part 2 reveals that he was planning how to usurp/assassinate Orochimaru from the moment he joined his organization. Part 2 also gives us scenes where Sasuke, despite spending three years as Orochimaru's pupil, refuses to kill anyone who's not a Complete Monster. Given this, I'd say that, until he met up with Tobi, Sasuke's actions were reckless and irresponsible, but weren't actually immoral.

It's only in the aftermath of Itachi's death that Sasuke truly becomes a villain. Here's how I interpret his mindset at that point:

He's spent most of his life planning to kill Itachi; he refers to this as his "reason for living". Then he finally achieves his goal and . . . he's not happy. He comes face-to-mask with the other man responsible for the Uchiha Massacre, but now all Sasuke's drive and passion is gone; he can't think of anything except to ask to be left alone. I believe that, if Sasuke had been left alone then, he would have killed himself, having found his purpose in life to be empty and unfulfilling.

Then Tobi drops The Reveal about how the Leaf Village ordered the slaughter of the Uchihas and how Itachi, forced to commit such an atrocity against his own family, still loved Sasuke, tried to protect him, and was ultimately driven into suicice-by-proxy. Suddenly Sasuke is given an explanation for why Itachi's death brings him no joy, because, even if he could only guess at the truth through little hints (Itachi's tears after the massacre, his dying words to Sasuke), on some level he knew that Itachi wasn't the person he should be angry at.

Tobi gives him a new target for his anger, an anger that's only intensified after being manipulated into killing his brother. And Sasuke, who had been left with no reason to go on living, jumps at the opportunity to have a purpose for his existence again. And this time he expands the scope of his revenge beyond the people directly responsible for his suffering; he starts targeting everyone remotely connected to them as well. Why? Because deep down he fears that, if he kills Danzo and the other village elders, all that will happen is he'll once again feel the way he did after killing Itachi: empty, joyless, and without the will to live. He swears revenge on the entire Leaf Village, and even on the entire Shinobi world, because he recognizes that this is a goal he'll likely never be able to fulfill, that he can spend the rest of his life on it and never finish. Because if he does succeed, if he kills everyone he's sworn vengeance against, he has nothing but despair waiting for him. Until Naruto can do for Sasuke what he did for Gaara, show him that he can have a purpose in life other than violence, Sasuke's only options are a never-ending crusade of revenge or an emotional emptiness that will drive him to suicide making him like old Gaara.

The trauma from the reveal caused Sasuke to be actually clinically insane, at least in his obsession to kill everyone. There is a mental condition called delusional disorder, and looking at the symptoms, they apply to Sasuke The patient expresses an idea or belief with unusual persistence or force.

That idea appears to exert an undue influence on the patient's life, and the way of life is often altered to an inexplicable extent.

Despite his/her profound conviction, there is often a quality of secretiveness or suspicion when the patient is questioned about it.

The individual tends to be humorless and oversensitive, especially about the belief. There is a quality of centrality: no matter how unlikely it is that these strange things are happening to him, the patient accepts them relatively unquestioningly. An attempt to contradict the belief is likely to arouse an inappropriately strong emotional reaction, often with irritability and hostility.

The belief is, at the least, unlikely, and out of keeping with the patient's social, cultural and religious background. The patient is emotionally over-invested in the idea and it overwhelms other elements of their psyche. The delusion, if acted out, often leads to behaviors which are abnormal and/or out of character, although perhaps understandable in the light of the delusional beliefs. Individuals who know the patient observe that the belief and behavior are uncharacteristic and alien.
----
!!Sasuke's Techniques and Fighting Abilities
* This is something that's bugged me for a while: How can Sasuke have both Fire and Lightning chakra natures? When Kakashi explains the whole concept to Naruto, he definitely implies that each person only has one nature (otherwise, how would that paper test work?). When an enemy ninja like Kakuzu or that filler chick voiced by [[Manga/FullmetalAlchemist Lust]] uses multiple chakra natures, its a sign that they've forced severe changes onto their body to receive that kind of power. The only other way to use two natures seems to be a Kekkai Genkai, like Haku or Yamato, but in those cases the natures are combined to form a brand new chakra nature. Plus, Sasuke has never been mentioned to have a Kekkai Genkai beyond the Sharingan. So how the hell did Kakashi teach a young kid with a Fire nature to use Lightning Style jutsus?
** The paper test figures out which element they are best at, and most ninja can learn more than one element without a Kekkai Genkai.
** It's pretty simple. Let's say that each person has 1 to 10 points in every one of their elements, with 10 being the strongest possible affinity and 1 meaning "feh, don't bother using it" but still not being equal to 0 (and thus meaning that they can use techniques of said element, but it requires far more training and ability to use them as well as someone with 10 points would). Now let's also say that every person can only have one element with affinity of 7 or more; Sasuke's lightning element would probably rate 9 or 10 on that scale. Now let's also say that various bloodlines can add a few points to any of the elements; if that was the case with the Uchiha blood and fire element (which it is), it would allow Sasuke to have two high-score affinities instead of just one, and thus make it possible for the paper to react to them both (either because said elements have the same rating, or because the paper only detects affinities that rate "x or more"). Also, as you had mentioned it yourself, the multiple-element female ninja is a filler character, and fillers in Naruto don't necessarily make a lot of sense (in fact, they most often have more plot holes than Swiss cheese).
** Actually Yamato explained it during Naruto's affinity training a Kekkai Genkai is the mixture of multiple
elements for example Wood Release is the mix of water and earth, the Uchiha Kekkai Genai is Blaze Release(or something) which (if I remember correctlly) is the mix of fire and lightning.
* Are Sasuke and Itachi vulnerable to their own Amaterasu flames?
** Probably.
*** While fighting the Ten-Tails' clones Sasuke fired off several of those Amaterasu magatama like standard shuriken so it is possible that his Kagutsuchi ability protects him from his own Amaterasu flame.

----
!!Misc.

* When Sasuke meets Itachi the first time since the anime/manga started, he gives that speech. "In order to defeat you..." after which he charges up his Chidori. After charging up, though, he looks at Itachi, screams the last line of his speech, and his left hand ''[[http://www.onemanga.com/Naruto/146/12/ pulls the collar of his shirt down]]''. WHAT. THE. FREAK. That just took much of the awesomeness out of their meeting, since there is no reason why he'd want to do that. If it's to show his curse seal, that's on the back. This is just... odd.
** I figured it was either so he would be easier to hear or to keep the collar out of his face when he's charging.
** Fanservice? (I get the feeling that if it ''had'' been the curse seal, Itachi would have been really, really pissed off with Orochimaru. Like, 'I know you lack hatred, but I'm still killing whoever molested my foolish little brother.')
* Sasuke's family died when he was like seven, right? So where did he live? I'm under the impression that he lived alone but that's odd even by [[SocialServicesDoesNotExist Naruto]] [[ChildSoldier standards]].
** Not that odd, Naruto seems to have lived alone for most of his life, obviously only after a certain age, so Sasuke would be a similar case.
** Sasuke was eight at the time, and in ninja villages 12 year old genin are considered adult soldiers.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Sakura]]
* This just occured to me: how the hell did Sakura not ''HEAR'' the '''Chidori'''? It was not 3 feet away from her head, and yet somehow she didn't hear the sound of "1000 birds". What the fuck?
** Probably because it was just a lightning charged hand, as opposed to the annoying ball of lightning chakra in the hand that is Chidori. Not that the former wouldn't make noise, mind you, but he could do it on the fly before she had a chance to hear it and dodge.
* Why is it that we know absolutely nothing about [[MissingMom Sakura's]] [[DisappearedDad parents]], or the Haruno family in general? I mean, Sakura is the main female.
** Because they only go into families as they are plot relevant and Sakura's presumably civilian parents haven't impacted the plot at all.
*** Or one of them is Tobi(or both). Don't say I'm the only one with that idea
** Well, Kishi designed and pretty much wrote the new movie Road to Ninja, and in it it shows Sakura's parents. There was an episode of the anime that featured them in it as a teaser for the movie as well. YMMV on how cannon they are.
* After Sasuke and Naruto pretty much declare they're going to off each other, why does Sakura say that this scene makes her believe there's a chance for Team 7 to get a happy ending with all of them together? I'd figure someone would go into an AngstComa if her old friends declare they're going to kill each other and leave her alone. T
** She's saying she believes Naruto can do it ''without'' them both dying. And saying "I'll let Naruto do ''this thing'' becuase he actually has a plan that doesn't conflict with how he feels" not "I'll never try and do anything myself again".
*** One of Sakura's flaws is that she has a tendency to make decisions on the behalf of others that they don't want out of the belief that it's for their own good, which can be patronizing at best and often leads to mistakes. For example, she was going to forfeit before the 10th question so that Naruto wouldn't try to answer it, almost certainly get it wrong, and stay a Genin forever. In this case, she realizes that she can't kill Sasuke, and should instead trust Naruto to find a solution.
* Okay, I can't believe this hasn't been asked before, but why in the FUCK is Sakura still 'in love' with Sasuke? Pretimeskip, she was nothing but a pestering fangirl to him the entire time. True, he grew to care for her to an extent, but at no point did he ever make any show that he returns her feelings. Sakura has a crush, and that's fine for a 12 year old girl, whatever. Near the end of Part I, she begins to see the flaws in Sasuke, with how aggressive he can be with his inferiority complex, and then he plans on leaving Konoha. Then she want to abandon Konoha with him, abandon her entire life, everyone she knows and loves to join fucking OROCHIMARU of all people with him, and become part of his terrorist organization...Why?! Because he's hot?! But that's still nothing compared to the time skip. Apparently, for 3 years, she has dated no one, thought of no one else romantically besides Sasuke. As Sasuke descends further into madness, and explicitely tells her that he wants to kill everyone in Konoha, she can't bring herself to end his life, not even to defend her own. What bugs me is that I don't understand what in the fuck Sasuke did for her that is so worthy of her loyalty and affection. The only time he showed any ounce of affection toward her was when she thought he complimented her on her beauty, and that was Naruto in disguise. Yet many trope pages maintain that Sakura grew out of her crush and learned to love Sasuke for the flawed individual that he is. But I don't think it's true, because she was just made more aware of his flaws, and disregards them. Which would be fine, except there are no good things he has done to outweigh his flaws. Since the beginning, he has shown nothing but callous indifference to her at best, and has only gone down into murderous psychopath as the tale went on. Why the fuck does she 'love' him?! What in hell makes him worth so much pain and heartbreak?
** Love is not logical. I don't like Sakura or Sasuke, but I think that for Sakura, it doesn't matter if he doesn't reciprocate her feelings. Same way for Hinata to Naruto. Truth is, Sakura came to care for Sasuke for real, instead of shallowly fangirling over him. I agree with you though, that Sakura did disregard many of Sasuke's flaws in the beginning and excused him for it, and never did anything to stand up to him. Now, she passionately defends Naruto from Sasuke's bullcrap, even going so far as to get angry with him for the first time ever. I wondered the same thoughts, though.
*** I agree with the OP. WHY did she develop feelings for him? that is the question, she liked him because he was cool and hot, that's ok she was only a fangirl then, but then she loves him despite all his flaws? why? I had a crush on him when I only thought of him as hot and cool, now I love him because he's hot and has anger management, would sell his village and all his friends even ME for his selfish reasons. Where are the positive points? the question is what did Sasuke do to be "loved" by her. I always considered her to be a representation of a crush taken to the extreme and she telling herself that she loves him, but apparently Kishimoto is trying to say she's really in love.
**** Like the first response to the OP said: love isn't logical. People fall for and remain loyal to bad people all the time. I think Sakura has just been fond of him for so long that her fangirl admiration just kind of evolved in genuine love as she matured. Also, it's easy to forget amidst all the Sasuke hate that even though he's been a prick from the moment we first saw him, he at least had admirable qualities (despite what the haters claim): At one point he did genuinely care about Naruto and Sakura, at least enough to be willing to risk his life for them and state out loud that he considers them "precious" and will not let them die. Even when he defected and fought Naruto, he was willing to acknowledge Naruto as an equal and fight him as such, showing some humility (and this is someone who is generally anal about people being stronger than him). He was the type of person that, despite appearances, did care about people and was capable of doing the right thing. That's the Sasuke that Sakura fell in love with: The one that was flawed (not evil) but did have good, even admirable qualities underneath those flaws. The shallow fangirl obsession she had for him based on his looks and popularity evolved over time into genuine love for the flawed, yet decent person he was. As was said earlier, it doesn't matter to her that he never reciprocated her feelings (which may not be entirely true anyway. It was hinted during their confrontation as he was leaving the village that he at least appreciated her affection on some level). She can't let go of him because the memories of that person he used to be are just too strong.
**** I call BS on the "love isn't logical" part. And apparently, you do too because if it was, then everything you just said that logically supported why she'd love him is meaningless. Love is can be strange and ironic, sometimes funny, and it's definitely complex, but it's certainly logical. Now, as for your argument itself, you are confusing what we, as the audience, see with what Sakura sees. I never tried to say that Sasuke was an evil asshole from the beginning (I actually really like Sasuke from Part 1), but that doesn't matter because he never showed her any part of his good side. Ever. He acknowledged Naruto as his equal (Though why would acknowledging Naruto instead of her be a major plus in her book is beyond me), but that was at the valley of the end. She only saw was him at the hospital, being an insecure jerk over the idea that his friend could be stronger than him. The one time he risked his life for her in a way that went beyond standard duties was during the Gaara incident, which is also when he acknowledged that Sakura was precious to him...except she was unconcious during this, so she never heard him say it. Given her ignorance during the aftermath, where she presumed Sasuke saved her when Naruto did, I assume she only got the general story but remains ignorant of details like what Sasuke said. Other than that, he has never shown an ounce of affection for her except telling her that she was annoying (ironically, but how would she know that?). After the timeskip, his behavior just gets worse and worse, culminating now in an attempted assassination, and there is STILL no indication that her feelings have changed for Sasuke in the slightest. The way I see it, it's not love, a sick obsession that she has (and Naruto does too, for that matter).
**** To the above troper who says that Sasuke never showed Sakura any affection. While you might think that Sasuke was nothing but a jerk to her, she could have seen things differently. Remember in the bell test when she was knocked out by genjutsu, and Sasuke is standing over her when she recovers and then confides in her? She could have taken that as him warming up to her. Or during the Land of Waves arc, when the Demon Brothers were about to kill Tazuna and Sakura jumps in front of him? Sasuke then jumps in front of Sakura. Could be seen as to protect Tazuna as well, but to a 12 year old girl crushing hard, it might be taken as something else. In the Forest of Death, Sasuke bailed her out of many problems, and grabbed her hand in comfort after the curse seal came into affect. After she gets beaten by the sound trio, Sasuke wakes up and demands to know who did that to her, and wants to make them pay. For the rest of the phase of the exam, you can see Sakura helping Sasuke out and him letting her help him, and also asking her not to tell the examiners about the Curse. That, and his last words to her before he left, "Thank you." I'm sure lots of that can be seen in a different light to a 12 year old girl. So, I personally think Sasuke showed enough good in part 1 to her that she did end up falling in love with him instead of blind fangirling. That, and those last words before he left the village could be seen as something else, and could have made her think they meant something more than they actually did.
**** She's sixteen.
*** To the above troper, I am pretty sure he was discussing her during Part 1. However all of those examples just show that Sakura is delusional. All you can say is how Sakura misinterpreted events. That is fine for a 12-year-old girl. However it has been three years since then. You would thing at some point in that time she would stop and reflect on what happened with Sasuke (considering how he rules her life this should happen). She should have been able to look back and realize that those examples, IF she thought of them as proof and not a ninja looking out for his comrades like he is suppose to, meant nothing. Three years is a long time and people can change a lot over it, especially at her age. She is obsessed because we are past the 12-year-old naïve girl stage and she still thinks the same way. Sasuke did enough to justify her crush. He did not do anything that would make Sakura’s undying love for him anything but an unhealthy obsession.
** One could say the same about Naruto.
*** Not really. If you mean Naruto’s feelings for Sakura than those never went past the innocent crush phase. If you mean his desire to save Sasuke than it is true that is is similarly obsessive and stupid but happens for very different reasons. Naruto sees Sasuke as a brother due to their similar backstories and Sasuke did a lot more that showed he cared about Naruto than he did about Sakura. Plus Naruto is a MessianicArchetype. It is in his character to want to help those he cares about. He wants to atone for his mistake, not chase after a delusional romance.
* FridgeLogic moment: Discounting the vicious cycle angle, considering Sakura was bullied in her youth, why on earth is she so abusive of Naruto (at least earlier on; she is--for the most part--getting better, though she's still dismissive and downright manipulative--or so she ''attempts'' to be--at times)?! You'd think she'd have more empathy.
** People often like to bully the people they consider below them. It sucks, but they just take it as the natural way of life. I knew plenty of people in my school who were bullied by someone, only to turn and bully the kid that has an even more noticable flaw (for example, like stuttering) and considered below them. Also, keep in mind that Sakura was constantly trying to be one of the cool kids so Sasuke would like her (or did she like Sasuke because it was considered cool?), so since Naruto was the pariah, that made him a target for her.
** It is a Japanese thing. Sakura thumping Naruto is played for laughs. Notice she rarely does any serious damage to him. Moreover, she gets Flanderized in the anime and punches Naruto far, far more than she does in the manga. As for her behaviour towards him in Part 1, she's grown up a bit since then and is beginning to understand him.
* There is a significant amount of time developing Sakura as a proficient medic ninja- so why doesn't she use the amazing battle med jutsu that we see Tsunade and Kabuto use? Instead of just punching people out, she could cut their tendons with a touch in battle. Kishimoto isn't taking advantage of all the character development he's done with her, chickifying her, really.
** Also remember that the maneuver you mentioned was only used by Kabuto, and Tsunade is far from being that subtle. Her fighting style consists mainly in smashing her foes with her fists and sometimes use her medical knowledge to cripple her enemy, but even then it isn't as subtle and precise as Kabuto's attacks. Sakura is just fighting like her master taught her to.
** The point is, everyone has his own style of combat (look at Naruto with his Rasengan-centred attacks), and it's possible that she does know those tricks, but simply doesn't like using them. And people usually don't use things they don't like using, because they prefer to feel comfortable than to be efficient. That, and she was taught to defend herself with chakra-empowered strikes, and not by cutting tendons (which Kabuto is the only person in the entire manga to do, and he is the kind of person who had to hide his combat abilities as medical abilities for quite a long time).
** Sakura does know the abilities Kabuto uses, but she only displays them for their intended purpose-medicine. She also abides by the rules Tsunade set down for medics by not entering combat unless absolutely necessary, unlike Kabuto, which may be why she hasn't polished those skills for combat the way Kabuto (who ignores those rules, obviously) has. There's also the matter of ethics; as a dedicated medic, Sakura would probably feel wrong using her healing techniques in such a twisted way, so she opts for brute force instead.
* So Sakura forgives Sasuke... and then what? They have makeup sex right away and he abandons her when she's pregnant? Wow, Kishi... Wow.
** Considering that their daughter is the same age as most of the other kids and that it is unlikely they all got pregnant right after the war (Kurenai's kid seems to be 2–3 years older), he is probably wandering around Tsunade-style and visiting the village from time to time. And besides, the whole "forgiveness" bit is mostly about us (readers) rather than Sasuke; if you take a look at it from the viewpoint of eastern tradition, Sasuke's quest was honourable (filial piety) and humble (his attempt to sacrifice himself as “hokage” for peace) and it is only his methods that were wrong, which is why he travels, the same way a hermit would travel, not for others to forgive him but for himself to atone for his methods. I'll add that I don't particularly like Sasuke as a character, but way too often he is vilified more than he deserves.
* So, Salad asks Sakura whether Sasuke wore glasses.._andSakura doesn't know.._she's known him for basically her whole life. Went to the same schools as him. Stalked him obsessively...and she doesn't know whether he wore glasses...What?
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Other Leaf Village Characters]]
[[AC: Characters outside the main cast.]]
!! Jiraiya
* It really bothers me that Jiriya was able to memorize EVERY SINGLE WORD of his books, in order to write that code on the back of that frog. Most people don't have that kind of crazy memory.
** It was his last book, he wrote it in a strategic way just because of that, who knows if he did that with all his books, but since he always won he didn't needed to use them.
** Why did he encode the message in the first place? Why did he write it in such a cryptic way, instead of writing: "The akatsuki leader is just a puppet", or a similar much clearer message? (You can't argue that he had no time to think, since he had enough mental power left to encode a whole message). Or hell... why didn't he just say it instead of writing it down? The whole 'encoded message' bit was sort of pointless.
* Why didn't Jiraiya use Naruto's multi-clone training thing during the Chuunin exam arc? He has the key to clamp down on the fox afterall. Only thing I can figure is that he wanted more time to ogle women.
** He didn't think of it. Kakashi's pretty much a genius you know.
** He also might not have known just HOW proficient Naruto was at the clone jutsu. He only trained him for a month before hand, where Naruto never used any clones, and he didn't even know him before. Since then, he's only seen Naruto fight once, and then Naruto only used like one clone (for the Rasengan) On the other hand, Kakashi has watched Naruto fight multiple times, and seen his strategy being "throw more clones at the problem" so he knew just how many clones Naruto could make and just how useful it would be.
*** Is there any evidence that Jiraya even knew the Shadow Clone technique? It is a forbidden technique and while most ninja know a clone technique and they all SEEM to be fairly interchangible they probably aren't. People occasionally forget that Kakashi even by comparison to better, stronger ninjas has a freakish amount of jutsu available to him. The better question really is why Naruto never casually noticed in all the times that he used dozens upon dozens of clones that he was able to absorb their knowledge you'd think that even if it was as simple as realizing getting stabbed sucks he would have figured that out almost immediately.
* What the hell was Jiraiya doing while Naruto was growing up? Did it never occur to him that he should train and take care of his most brilliant student's son so that he doesn't end up becoming a sociopathic monster (like Gaara) or being killed by a villager? Or what about Kakashi? I mean Naruto is his sensei's son. I can understand that he would be busy with missions, but he never occasionally checked to make sure he was okay? For that matter, you'd think the Third Hokage could find someone to take care of him! There had to be someone who would be willing to do it. In fact, you'd think protecting the son of the former leader and most powerful ninja produced by Konoha who just happens to have the MOST POWERFUL BEING IN THE WORLD sealed inside him would rank as an S-rank mission. I bet if Konohamaru had Kyuubi inside of him he certainly wouldn't have been treated like that.
** No kidding, they just threw him into the acadamy as young as possible (he's referred to as "the kid" by some of the other Konoha 11 however he had already failed the final year twice (which doesn't stop him from not having ever have seen Rock Lee, Neji or Ten Ten before by the way).
*** Nowhere is it ever stated that the final exam can only be taken once per year, and it can apparently be taken early seeing as how Kakashi graduated when he was only 5. For all we know he kept trying to graduate early or all 3 attempts took place within a month.
** Maybe the whole village was having a giant, collective, 12 years long Main/WhatAnIdiot moment.
** Kakashi was like 14 when Minato died, and between Obito and whatever happened to Rin, musta had one hell of a complex about how everyone he got close to died, and would be afraid.
** Jiraya was Walking the Earth as per the Old Toad's prophesy, and didn't want Naruto to grow up on the road. He probably never checked in due to doing recon on Akatsuki in his spare time, and not wanting to lead them to Naruto.
** The series never really goes into any detail about Naruto growing up, except for his mischief-making and constant loneliness. One interesting fanfic I read suggests that Naruto lives on a stipend from the Hokage (but not much, which is why he's always eating ramen like a poor college student), and another mentioned that he lived at an orphanage for some time, but the operators aparently kicked him out at some point.
*** Well considering Konoha's a military community they'd have provisions for orphaned children of Shinobi. Also I don't think Jiraiya wants to be in Konoha much if he can avoid it. He'd have had Minato's memory haunting him and the Third pleading with him to become the Fifth.
*** Don't forget, Naruto actually ''likes'' ramen; he doesn't really care that it's cheap college student food.
**** Also the ramen he eats is likely miles ahead of instant ramen. As it's actually cooked and prepared traditionally.
** Maybe the fact that Naruto is the Fourth's son is only known to the Third and maybe the elders. He may have wanted to keep Naruto's existence low key, to prevent potential enemies for kidnaping him to obtain the Kyubi's power. Is not necessary to make Naruto famous by revealing this fact, as he was not created as a weapon. Without that, Naruto is just a kid with a serious potential of becoming a demented psychopath, so it is not surprising he was shunned.
*** Naruto being the 4th's son could only be a secret if the people of Kohona are very stupid. He looks exactly like his father, his parents were the Hokage and the Hokage's wife and her pregnancy was presumably well known. Her precise time of labor was a tightly kept secret but not the pregnancy. Also it's clear that him being Kurama's prison isn't a secret, at least not from the adults. Anybody from the city should have been able to put two and two together without any difficulty. In addition Naruto WAS explicitly created as a weapon/hero what not. The Fourth knew that the man who would defeat Madara would need the power of the Ninetails to do it. If they weren't painfully stupid he would have had the best tutors in the land from day one.
*** The people of Konoha being very stupid is the only way to explain how they've apparently been cool with having a Jinchuuriki in their midst since the founding of the village and understood that the people hosting the Nine Tails isn't the Nine Tails itself until one day it gets loose and goes on a rampage. Being upset makes sense and suddenly believing that the Nine Tails isn't as secure as thought is understandable but at the beginning of the series people seem to really not understand that Naruto is just the (questionably secure) container for the Nine Tails.
**** There is no indication that Kushina was anything but a beloved member of the village. She was the Hokage's wife and was brought specifically because it was believed (probably correctly) that the best way to keep a Jinchuuriki from going crazy is for them to know they are loved and to love others. I suspect when the Ninetails broke out it had a much higher body count than is generally depicted. We know that the ninjas who were teaching Naruto at the acadamy were children when the attack happened but they seem to be the "adult" generation with very few elders.
** And how do you know that the Third Hokage didn't have him taken care of? For all you know he had a caretaker until just before the start of the manga. I like to think that he had a bunch of them and he kept driving them all away with his pranks and bad attitude, and the Hokage finally threw his hands in the air and said "Fine! You're old to take care of yourself now,and besides I can't find anyone else willing to take the job of watching you. Here's the key to your new apartment."
*** It seems obvious that the Third didn't take much care of Naruto. He got an apartment and food but we also know the only reason he's such a trouble maker is because he craves attention and recognition. Naruto doesn't even really want to be Hokage until later, he wants to acknowledged and respected and everybody respects the Hokage. Young Naruto would probably have been perfectly content if the Third had simply assigned a random chunin to play tag with him once a week.
** I don't know if it was in the manga or not, but they did at one point show the Third showing up in Naruto's apartment and dropping off money, I believe he said something to the effect of "Here is your rent and food money for the month", he acted pretty dickish about it too, not gonna lie (I get that Naruto is a trouble maker, not to mention the nine-tails, but still the Third could show a little compassion) and just walked away without saying anything when Naruto asked him who his father was. You'd think he'd say "Naruto, I can't tell you now, but your parents were great people who loved you" or something. That would probably help with his abandonment issues.
** Jiraiya was spending his time tracking some of the most dangerous criminals in the world. It was a job pretty much no one other than him could do, and he could hardly bring a newborn child with him. Kakashi was a teenager with a bad case of PTSD when his mentor died, he'd be in no condition to raise a child.
* If Jiraiya is so strong, how come he's only been shown using a handful of techniques? Actually, the same could go for Kakashi. The "master of a thousand techniques" prefers a few water-based attacks and Raikiri, and that's it.
** Lack of imagination on the artist's part
** Could just be advertising; it is sort of fitting that Jiraiya would encourage rumours and speculation, especially if it would make his job easier. Plus, he's shown to have been like Naruto when he was younger e.g. naturally strong, but not good at learning, like [[Main/MahouSenseiNegima Negi's]] father being called 'The Thousand Master' when,"...it's more like 5 to 6 techniques,tops," but still strong enough to level a mountain.
** Kakashi's natural elements may be water and lightning, so it'd make sense to use the Sharingan as little as possible, to avoid tiring himself out.
*** Also, just because he can copy most techniques right after seeing them performed by others doesn't mean he actually remembers them for very long. Copying isn't the same as actually learning and practicing said techniques.
**** Additionally, he probably can't use them as well as the original user could (like with Shikamaru's Shadow Possession Jutsu; Kakashi is quite intelligent, but without specializing in the jutsu, he probably couldn't know all the nuances like stretching his shadow or moving it from one shadow to another).
**** Don't remember if it was stated in the manga, but I'm pretty sure the Sharingan can't copy secret clan techniques.
** Third option: as the saying goes, "There's old pilots, and there's bold pilots, but there ain't no old, bold pilots." They're old soldiers; they know their limits and what will get the job done.
*** Most of the fighting we've seen has shown the situational nature of any jutsu. Even if Kakashi remembers every technique he's seen, can use all of them, and has the understanding to apply them sensibly, he hasn't lived long enough to have experienced the kind of fight each one ''leads'' to. It could be the same reasoning which leads chess players to specialize in two or three opening combinations, even if they've studied a couple dozen. Kakashi's style is effective, and he does use his knowledge to predict what an opponent is likely to know for strategic or intimidation value (such as that copy-the-jutsu-before-it-starts trick he used on Zabuza). Given how intellectual his combat tactics really are, it might be very difficult to integrate random jutsu into his style... and certainly not a thousand of them.
** Keep in mind that Jiraiya has ''never'' been seen fighting at his true potential, against an opponent who seriously threatens him. His appearance during Destruction of Konoha is extremely brief, he's drugged by Tsunade at the end of Search for Tsunade, and Itachi and Kisame try deceptions and flee rather than directly fighting him, and he's off gathering intelligence about the Akatsuki for almost the entirety of part two. Itachi -- who is no pushover -- points out that if he and Kisame had tried to go toe-to-toe with Jiraiya, there would have been no doubt about the outcome. The Akatsuki leader, Pein, is supposedly going to attack Jiraiya soon in the manga, so we'll probably see the true extent of his abilities then.
*** That was what i was about to point out, we will be able to see his power soon. What worries me is that this is going to be [[Main/TheWorfEffect a worf situation]] since he has already set up plans in case of failure and he doesn't know they know he is in the country. At the very least he can't ''win'' this battle.
*** He puts up a pretty damn good fight, and apparently manages to kill one? of Pain's 6 forms. We still have no idea what on earth those freaky eyes do, but Jiraya apparently knew something before his death, and sent off a messanger. Count me as confused.
**** Actually he managed to kill three of them and I bet it would've been a pretty close fight with all of them if he had known that there were six of them total and he had conserved his energy.
** The techniques are typically used out of tactical necessity, and since conserving chakra is a large part of most of the series' fights, the ninjas only use their best and most effective moves at the right moments.
** If Jiraiya had known there were six of them and known their powers, cus lets be honest "Hey didn't I already kill you?" is a pretty big surprise mid battle. That coupled with Pein was trained by Jiraiya so one guy went into the fight pretty much blind while the other had at least a basic knowledge of who he was fighting and what they might try.
** Jiraya is one of the secondary character we've seen the most jutsus of...
* Why didn't Jiraya tell Naruto about his parents and how proud of him they would be? Even if you assume that nobody ever bothered telling Jiraya the details around Minato and Kushina's deaths he still personally knew them. I can get strategically leaving out the whole "I'm your Godfather but decided it was more fun wandering and boozing it up to coming back to raise you." part but telling him that his father was Hokage would have been massive.
** He may have felt it wasn't his place to do so. After all, Naruto's heritage was kept secret for a reason.
* Jiraiya as Naruto's godfather. Was Jiraiya the wandering spy master of Konoha before Naruto was born, or did he become it after? The difference is that either Kushina and Minato were idiots for naming him as godfather if it was before, or that Jiraiya is a horrible prick if it was after.
** Jiraiya was godfather only in that Naruto was named after the main character in his book. Wasn't there a scene where Kushina and Minato tell him the baby's name, and Jiraiya's like 'Wouldn't that make me the godfather' or something... Doesn't seem to mean that much that he was, and there certainly seemed to be no expectations for him to raise Naruto in case the parents died (what with one being Hogake and the other a Jinchuriki they must have realised it was a possibility). Also Jiraiya is definitely NOT the kind of person that could raise a child well - hell, Sarutobi might not have wanted a drunken pervert around Naruto while he was at his most impressionable. And how many Kage-level ninjas (minus Sarutobi himself, for obvious reasons) did they have who could spy on Orochimaru and Akatsuki? Especially considering probably the best guy to spy on a Kage-level ninja is his former teammate who knows something about him (and is also conveniently a Kage-level ninja himself).

----
!!Jonin
* After watching Shippuden 120-121, I wonder WHY didn't Kakashi use his Chidori to crush the stones that landed on Obito, instead of just punching?..
** Well, it was too late to do anything for Obito at that point. His entire right side had already been completely crushed. And even though Kakashi is a jonin a this point, he still seemed rather immature and impulsive. It's perfectly likely that he wasn't thinking clearly while one of his teammates slowly died in front of him.
** Keep in mind Chidori was still a relatively new technique at the time, and he didn't know its limits yet, even then, Sasuke, who was arguably more talented and stronger then Kakashi when he was his age, never actually managed to break the bolders he used chidori on, and they weren't even the same size of the one that crushed Obito
* What's up with Kurenai's eyes?
** What specifically? That they are red, or that they superficially resemble the Rinnegan in Black and white?
*** I was referring to the fact that they look like Sharingan without the tomoe, so the redness.
*** The Rinnegan thing bothered this troper. It wasn't until we finally got a color picture of Pain's eyes that it was clear Kurenai ''didn't'' have the Rinnegan. And every ''other'' character with such unusual eyes has them because of a kekkei genkai.
*** Well Kisame(white on black) and Kakuzu(red on green) had pretty weird for eyes for no really reason too.
**** Kisame and Kakuzu are both character designs left over from when every Akatsuki member was going to be freakishly inhuman (You can also see this in Zetsu, Sasori and sort of Deidara). So their eye colors are probably supposed to make them look weird.
*** And Hanzo also has weird eyes (something light on black, though only in the manga) and unlike Kisame or Kakuzu there isn't even anything weird about his body.
* Why are Kurenai and Choza seemingly the only two Jonin that don't have to wear the normal body armor that every other Jonin wears? A small detail, but it bugs me so badly. At least with the Hokage it makes some sense, since they're above that, or with the genin and chunin, since they aren't at that level yet, but with Jonin there's a certain sense of unity... and then these two.
** Shibi Aburame never wears the standard body armour despite being a Jonin, it might be because Choza and him are clan leaders or just because the standard one doesn't work well with their techniques. Kurenai, I guess because she's a woman, she's always drawn with that weird bandage outfit for fanservice or something.
** As of the Great Ninja War it seems the normal body armor is more akin to official battle armor. Everybody is wearing it and the majority of them are just Chunin at this point. Additionally armor isn't really useful. Guy and Rock are both special in that they primarily use taijutsu but I assume most ninjustu would pass through armor not really stopped by armor much and genjutsu obviously not at all.
----
!!Rock Lee
* Okay, so Rock Lee can't use Ninja Arts or Illusions because he has a stunted Chakra coil, correct? Then how can he generate the chakra necessary to unlock his Inner Gates?
** I always took it that he can generate chakra just fine and that is problem is getting it outside of his body, hence why he can't use ninjutsu or genjutsu. He is, however, able to use it to affect the stuff on the inside, such as the Gates.
** I always thought about it as you didnt need to use chakra to actually open them, just training and a shit ton of concentration, hence the DBZ stance and the ocational "scream of rising power"
** I also thought that it wasn't necessarily a defect of some sort, he just wasn't smart enough or interested enough in ninjutsu or genjutsu to learn it.
*** Nope. Lee's chakra coils (as far as I can tell, the 'lines' that Byakugan users can see) are malformed. He still produces chakra, but he can't externalize it in any way.
*** Theres even a defect in the Naruto D20 about the whole chakra coil defect...thingy
*** There's... nothing wrong with Lee's chakra coils. I don't know why people must keep bringing it up, but Gai specifically says, during Lee's fight with Gaara, that he has no talent for Genjutsu and Ninjutsu. He can walk on water and walls, and even gets a BattleAura when unleashing the gates. That's chakra, folks. Not sweat.
**** When did he ever walk on water or walls? Granted, it '''is''' only ever said he "had no talent" for ninjutsu or genjutsu (reflected by his listing in those skills for the databooks being very low instead of zero and him making a ''very'' minor improvement in genjutsu over the TimeSkip, likely reflecting his ability to counter genjutsu), but it's just odd that it's always spoken of as if him learning them was physically impossible instead of just too difficult to bother with.
***** He walked on water in the early episodes of Shippuuden, the rescue Gaara arc.
****** Walking on water and walls means focusing chakra at your feet. So, like the Gates, he can do it just fine.
** OK, Rock Lee's power goes like this: think of Chakra in the same way you would think of Mathematics. Everyone on Earth has the capability to be good at maths; we all have brains, eyes and the ability to learn... but so very, very few of us could be considered anything beyond above average and even less are brilliant - this is because even though, on paper, all thing ae equal many of us simply don't have a talent for it. Chakra is the same thing; everyone in the Narutoverse has a chakra network and the ability to learn or go to the Academy, but many like Rock Lee simply have no aptitude for it. Remember how many powerless civilians we've seen? given how ''everyone'' would learn how to use it if they could... Rock Lee would have been one of these faceless mooks who work as shopkeepers if it wasn't for his determination and for the training of Might Guy. Rock Lee has been shown to open his chakra gates, walk up walls and across water and use his chakra to amplify his speed and strength; the chakra coil idea is simply incorrect.
* If Rock Lee has weights on his feet that weigh a ton, how come he doesn't liquify people's heads when he kicks them in the face? If he can move that much mass that quickly, it should be fairly detrimental to the target's health.
** Logically, yes. But would that be as fun to watch? He probably has remarkable self-control (since he can easily move around, he'd probably be good at making sure the weights were kept under control too), and he seems the type to enjoy the fight as long as he can without letting hell break loose.
** I can accept that he's good enough to not splatter opponents, or when he's going all out that the opponent(s?) are good enough not to be splattered, but how does he keep from breaking whatever he's standing on/lands on?
** That was what [[FridgeLogic caught me a bit off-guard]] before the Chuunin Exam. He launches a weighted kick at Temari, and is surprised when she stops it easily (and she herself notes that it was "nothing special"). I mean, his kicks certainly ''would'' lose power compared to unweighted - you get more kinetic energy from velocity than from mass - but considering how much those things weigh, it should still have been a pretty hefty shot to be called "nothing special."
** Looking at the weights, they have writing on them very similar to that found on explosive tags. It's highly probable that they're not ordinary weights. In other words, [[AWizardDidIt A Ninja Did It]].
******* Lee was introduced as someone that attacks Sasuke for reason other then his clan and that he's not stronger then him like Neji is. After completely wiping the floor with someone that's three momths out of the Academy he gets on his high horse about how hard work is better then natural genius, which might appease the Sasuke haters but coming from someone that never met Sasuke in his life it doesn't come off as nice at all.
******* Neji is not stronger than Sasuke, even in the Chuunin Exam phase. At no time did Neji rival Sasuke or Naruto in terms of brute strength, and I doubt he even rivaled Lee in brute strength. What Neji had on his side was the force-multiplying effects of the Byakugan and the Gentle-Fist style. [[WeakButSkilled Skill, not strength.]] Without that advantage, Neji wouldn't have simply lost to Naruto; it wouldn't have even been a contest.
******* Lee heard about the supposedly most talented ninja at the academy, and decided to test his skills against him, Lee had the disadvantage of not being able to use anything but taijutsu, so its understandable that he was happy to see that hard work pay off.
******** Okay one thing has always bothered me, in the chunin exam arc Rock Lee is put against Gaara who was built up to the point we all sort of knew he didn't have a chance even before watching. That's not what bothers me, infact I'd say the this fight remains possibly one of the best fights in the show, either the original and shippoden. What has always peeved me off to no end is other characters reactions to the fight naruto even stating in the dub (I kid you not) "he beat bushy brow (Rock Lee) without even breaking a sweat!" Okay I'll grant you that the match ended abruptly because Garra broke an arm and leg and even tried to murder him,forcing Guy to intervene. but WITHOUT A SWEAT!? Gaara was in control during the start of the match and he did end the fight, but Rock Lee controlled the middle of the fight, in fact he dominated it, Lee was in control until the end. Gaara who seemed to switch between stoicism and homicidal mania expressed one clear emotion. fear.the look in his eyes was clearly fearful, and Rock Lee was the first character on screen shown to hit Gaara(Sauske was later the first to make him bleed on screen) So basically, in what universe is that "without a sweat"?
*** Two words for you: blind translators.
* Here's one related to the above. Rock Lee has several hundred pounds of weight strapped to each leg, he fights with these weights on more often than not. When Rock Lee performs one of his spin kicks, how does he stop? The momentum generated by his weights should send him spinning out of control. Ignoring that, if he follows through properly with his kicks, his leg should be torn from his body, or at the very least dislocated. How does Rock Lee keep all his limbs attached?
* Why is Rock Lee not just constantly blitzed for the entirety of the 4th Shinobi World War? Yes, he is technically still a minor, but you'd think exceptions would be made. The only objections that Tsunade and Guy had pre-timeskip was that he had just gotten out of the hospital so his body wouldn't support his actions forever, but that's obviously not a problem anymore. It seems like his status as a DrunkenMaster has been completely forgotten since he fought (pretty impressively) against Kimimaro.
** Because he sees everyone as an enemy when he's drunk, he passes out after a few minutes and sobers up if he gets hit, it's not really useful for any kind of battle.
** In addition to the above most people in Naruto still hold their best technique in reserve.
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!!Shikamaru
* This doesn't bug me per say, as Shikamaru's my favorite character by far, but it was immensely amusing to watch the latest filler episodes: "We're in trouble! We need a plan! Where's Shikamaru?!" I'm sure that would bug people who don't like him, but honestly, who doesn't like Shikamaru? It seems that ninja are incapable of coming up with a plan on their own, and they need the resident super-genius to bail them out.
** People ''want'' to be around Shika? [[Main/TakeThat He must've quit smoking then]].
*** He only smoked for a short time while [[YouKilledMyFather avenging his mentor.]]
**** It just bugs me that he stopped smoking now. But that probably would scare the kids away, right? Right...
***** They ''could'' show him [[Main/TruthInTelevision trying to quit]] and [[Main/SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped struggling with it]] in the anime, all it would take is more Main/{{Filler}} screen time than he's had in the whole series so far...
****** It's physically impossible to get addicted to nicotine after a few smokes. Nicotine addiction takes years to develop.
****** I don't like Shikamaru. In part 2 he just comes across as a douche to me. Ninja war or not, he was an asshole in telling Naruto just to 'get over' the death of Jiraiya.
****** And how'd he do that? By telling Naruto that he understood what he was going through, but they've got a responsibility to step up and do something about all the crap that's been going on in the world so that it'll be better than they left it. Naruto's a nice guy, and it hit just where it needed to.
****** Urm, the smoking part comes after the filler arc. My beef is that after hyping Shikamaru's brilliant planning he just comes up with "We'll let Naruto handle it." Anyway, maybe in part 2 Shikamaru acts like a jerk but he, Hinata and Chouji were the only three originally nice people in the Konoha 12.
* This Has been bugging this troper for a while but why was Shikamaru promoted?
** He didn't win the battle but you don't have to. He proved what a brilliant strategist he was by planning out every move and dominating the battle. He also sensibly quit when he knew he couldn't win instead of recklessly going ahead which, in real situations, would just get him or his teammates killed which was probably why Naruto wasn't promoted. Plus can you imagine getting him to enter another exam?
*** Yeah but it's more because of what the third stated at the beginning of the preliminaries, that the exams were a substitute for war, call me a nitpicker but would you want a guy who gives up in charge of troops? Since in a ninja war I'm assuming that the enemy would torture and interrogate him for information on their troop placements and such.
*** He didn't just quit because he was scared or sick of the fight. He quit when he had no more chakra left and, knowing his limits, knew that nothing good would come in continuing. The real-life equivalent to that isn't surrendering but rather retreating and trying the mission again later when you might actually succeed. What would be gained by a ninja in war charging ahead recklessly like Naruto always does but who isn't as overpowered as Naruto is? That's a far better way to end up killed or captured than retreating is.
*** You're looking at it the wrong way, if Temari was hurting him over and over until he gave up, and then he quit, then it applies, but that wasn't the situation. ''"A good leader knows when to retreat"'', He showed that if he were leading a squad, he is capable of coming to the conclusion that they are incapable of completing the mission successfully, where the best solution is to flee, possibly getting as much information as possible before leaving. As in no being suicidal hoping your mayor character powers save you.
*** Furthermore, the fight was one-on-one, which is not realistic for a Chuunin being deployed. In a real mission, he'd have teammates to back him up, most likely Ino and Choji, given the experience and clan relations. So while he was unable to keep Temari under his control for very long, in a real battle he wouldn't have to, because Ino would take advantage of the enemy being caught in Shadow Possession to execute a Mind Transfer and seize control of the target. Thus, not only has he shown good judgment, but also good field tactics. They were okay with him losing without backup, because he proved he would win with backup that would be provided to him in the field.
*** In a real battle, Temari would have her brothers as backup and Team Asuma would be dead .00003 seconds into the fight, and 90% of the fights in the Naruto universe are one on one.
**** Not a fair comparison since Gaara could take Team Asuma in half the time you suggest. That said the fights in Naruto don't seem to be normal for what fights are supposed to be in the Narutoverse. I doubt the 4th Ninja War is the first time they've fought in large groups and it's flat out stated that each team is supposed to have a healer. I doubt that's because normal fights are 1 on 1. Further more a lot of the fights that are one on one happen that way because one side simply chose to do it that way for reasons we'll never know.
***** I have to take issue with your statement that ''every team is meant to have a healer'' because (in anime anyway - it may be different in the book) part of Tsunade's reluctance to return to the Leaf Village and become the Fifth Hokage is because her brother Nawaki was, many years before, killed explicitly ''because'' his team never had a Medical-Nin. Sarutobi afterwards directly tells her that it would be a waste of resources and I see no evidence that this rule had changed by the time of Naruto's graduation from the academy. Why? because it would have been a compulsory subject. It makes absolutely no sense to decree a rule to have every team feature a Healer if you haven't taught them the raw basics either during basic training or immediately after - in real world Special Forces Teams each member is trained in field medicine to ''prevent'' the need to include a true Medic. Sakura only became a White Mage because she felt useless compared to her team mates.
***** Standing corrected. She did get put down on this issue, she only started the official Medical-Nin program. I'd teach it as a compulsory subject however. Medical Nin aren't nurses their tiny miracles. In a real life situation for Special Forces you get a major wound you likely aren't surviving without a fair bit of luck, certainly nobody is bringing you back from the dead or regenerating your body parts on the fly. Which doesn't change the fact that I'm skeptical that what we've seen as far as singles combat being the norm and not the exception. It seems when a war breaks out (as opposed to what ultimately are escort or retrieval missions remember protecting a Bridge Builder from gangsters was an A-Rank mission and seems like S-Rank mission is almost code for we don't expect you back) that suddenly we see mass combat. I'll grant that some of it is it would be difficult to depict organized teams in the 4th Great Ninja War.
*** There is another interpretation of Shikamaru's fight with Temari. He essentially won, trapping her in a jutsu that she can't escape from and from which he could easily kill her. He basically was the only ninja who showed any kind of long term strategy and planning (Shino and Sasuke couldn't. Neji and Naruto didn't). He had enough chakra to take her down, shown when he trapped 8 Sound ninja later on in the invasion. He just didn't want to. He showed that he knew exactly what it took to win and become chunnin without putting himself in any more danger. He showed strategy, astute knowledge of his goal and efficiency. That's why he became chunnin.
* What was the point of Shikamaru's water scroll in the anime?. While it was useful against Kakuzu to a limited extent,he had no clue that Kakuzu could produce those thread beasts so what the point of bringing it.
** Many ninjas use at least one elemental power, maybe he always has scrolls with him to counter every element [[CrazyPrepared just in case]]?
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!!Konohamaru
* Konohamaru's scarf. It's quite long, how is he supposed to go on missions? It can get tangled easily and the enemy can grab it (as Naruto did in one of the endings).
** Because it's part of his look. There are plenty of characters with clothing items that would be a hinderance in the real world, but aren't one in the [[RuleOfCool Shonen world]]. Neji's long sleeves, the Akatsuki cloaks, Bee's belt strands, etc.

----
!!Tenten
* exactly where are Tenten, Lee's, and Sakura's parents? With all the other characters we've seen at least one parent or we know that both parents are dead, the exception being Shikamaru who has both. Yet those three are never shown to have onscreen parents and there's really nothing to indicate they've died. In fact, in all three of their cases it appears they don't belong to shinobi lineages at all given that all the other characters have either a bloodline limit or a secret technique passed down through their clan.
** Kishimoto actually states that Tenten was just created as a filler character so that he could have the 2 boys, 1 girl pattern complete.
*** That being said, is there an internal justification for the 2:1 gender ratio pretty much throughout the ninja corps?
*** MostFanficWritersAreGirls lets them do MMF threesome shipping.
**** Other than aesthetic reasons, probably not, unless it just happens that kunoichi are better at medical ninjutsu and all the teams have to have a medic nin. As to why teams always have more males than females, I'd say chalk it up to [[Main/MostWritersAreMale good old fashioned sexism.]]
**** To quote [[Anime/GhostInTheShell a certain other action anime]], "A system in which all the parts react the same way is a system with a fatal flaw." Sexist or not, the fact remains that most girls are still raised differently than most boys, so a lot of them end up with a thought process that's totally different. And as much as the two twelve-year-old males on a kunoichi's team may grumble about the "stupid girl who doesn't 'get it' or make any sense", the fact that she's on the team at all means that the administration takes into consideration the fact that successful brainstorming in a group is a hell of a lot easier when there's three people who think nothing alike in the first place; you've got the ColdSniper guy, the HotBlooded guy, and a girl, who no matter what her personality seems to be able to keep the other two focused on the task at hand simply by telling them in various ways to get a grip. As for the reason we never see the reverse, if Naruto's class is anything to go by, a lot fewer girls attend the Ninja Academy than boys (probably due to over-protective parents - and considering what these kids get up to, can you blame 'em?). Plus, y'know... consider the personalities of the young lady genin. Can you imagine a productive team in the first season with both Ino and Sakura on it? Or Hinata and Ino? Or Sakura and Hinata?
***** Sakura and Hinata is plausible to this troper, especially with Sakura post-time skip. They could have some nice bonding scenes together.
***** You just know someone stole that line and used it to write a fanfic.
***** Seems like any of the girls could work together as part of a team, although it probably wouldn't happen since they seem to have been picked for potential skills to fill a certain role in their groups.
***** Before everyone jumps to the sexism accusations, you gotta remember that there are a lot more male soldiers, firefighters and cops than female ones, this doesn't mean that women aren't equally good or at times better than men at these jobs, simply that those are jobs that interest a greater number of men than women, some girls will want to be policewomen, but almost all boys wanted to be a cop at some point in their lives. I always figured that there were simply more male leaf ninjas than female ones and that's why the pair was made that way, since as seen by Kabuto's group among others, there can be a 3 male squad, and even 2 females and 1 male squad like [[http://naruto.wikia.com/wiki/Team_Samui Team Samui]], which shows that they try to have at least one female in every team.
** Even without her just being a filler character, with so many characters it was bound to happen that someone got shafted. Still, one can hope that eventually she'll get some development, since the series is already a long runner and seems to have the potential to turn out incredibly long. Plus, she uses a freakin' knife bomb! There's just so much potential kickassery in that character.
*** and what about shino no one seems to remember him.
**** Maybe not, but we've at least seen one of his parents and we know he comes from a pretty good clan.
** Sakura has at least a mother; her voice is heard off-screen in a few episodes. I figure her parents are civilians, which is why they haven't shown up much.
*** That makes sense; we don't see much of Ino's parents either and they're quite explicitly civilians (operating a flower shop that's only open between ninja missions being pretty much impossible).
**** Actually it's Ino's mom who owns the flower shop, her dad is shown to be a ninja. He forms another trio with Choji and Shikamaru's dads.
** I just thought it was because of the war and stuff that a lot of characters are orphans. I can also imagine that it'd be kind of awkward to put in some mention/appearance of parents, particularly of so many supporting characters.
* I think it was Tenten during the Chunin exams that used an elaborate system of mirrors to cheat off the others(mighta been anime only). How in the name of Oprah could she have A: Set up and B: used those mirrors without anyone noticing? Especially not the professional espionage agent proctoring the bloody test?
** It's likely said professional espionage agrents ''did'' notice, they just didn't care. Remember, the goal of that exam was to creatively cheat.
*** Also, her battle technique has her turning symbols on a scroll into weapons. She may have simply done something similar, substituting mirrors for weapons and paper tags for the scroll, which she could have thrown into position.
*** I think it's quite blatant that the officials were only told to check for ''conventional'' cheating. Lets look at the other methods of highly obvious cheating they missed: Gaara's large and very visible floating eye, Neji near enough shouting the word ''Byakugan'' to spy on someone else's work, Sasuke with large red eyes hungrily staring forward as he copies pencil movements, Akamaru noisily barking the answers to Kiba... realistically speaking, if this wasn't the case we should seriously consider buying the shinobi of Konoha some glasses.
**** It was about the ability to gather and transmit information. Gaara I'll grant you should probably have failed but Neji and Sasuke could have been doing anything. Same with Akamaru. If I'm the locking my safe and I hear a yappy dog I think yappy dog, not he's telling someone the combination to my safe.
*** Looking back and knowing what we know about the incredible observational powers of most seasoned ninja, it seems likely that the instructors were going easy on the genin. It's more than a little ridiculous to ask rookie ninja to completely fool multiple seasoned jonin, especially in that setting, where the jonin know to look for something fishy.
*** The point of the exam is not to cheat creatively, it's to cheat without getting CAUGHT. And the Jounin are most likely holding back but the problem is by how much. It's reasonable to assume they're holding back enough to not care about say Sasuke activating his sharingan or how Kiba can get away with it because like the above, a yapping dog could be anything to an average person. But even an average person could notice that 2 people keep glancing at the ceiling and see some very obvious mirrors and obviously know something's up. Likewise, Gaara first distracts the person he targets by getting sand in their eyes...which is very noticeable on it's own. It's saying that in a dead silent classroom, when one guy suddenly starts rubbing his eyes very openly, no one glanced over and noticed a floating sand eyeball and the one person, who's power is sand, happens to be covering one of his eyes. Creativity is pointless if it fails to do the job correctly.
** There's also the other problem of the exam, Team 7 outright failed the whole point of it. The point of the exam being the threefold 'Covertly gather information, Covertly convey it to teammates, and be brave enough to take a life or death mission'. Now think about it, of the team only Sasuke was able to successfully cheat on his test, Sakura was lucky enough to actually know the answers but she was still incapable of gathering any intel (so she would have failed if any of them required information she doesn't know like an actual intel gathering mission), and Naruto couldn't get answers that were literally 3 inches away from him without getting caught. Then the second step, Sakura and Sasuke make no attempt to convey their answers to Naruto and are otherwise unable to, unlike Ino, ten-ten, and Kankuro. Finally, the last question is supposed to be a complete all or nothing that you have to bravely face, but the problem is Naruto has no reason to think he can answer it at all. It's one thing if he stays because he doesn't want to hold his teammates behind, but being brash enough to take the risk just for himself is basically suicide. It's nice being brave enough to take a dangerous mission is nice and all, but this is the equivalent of Naruto choosing to take a high risk espionage mission but being to gung-ho to realize he would definitely fail because there's no question that if he actually had to write something down for the final question he would have failed completely.
** The exam also has a glaring loophole on quantity vs quality. You get deducted 1/5th of the total whenever you're caught cheating, but it's a flat amount. Kankuro was blatantly caught for cheating but since it was a single instance and his attempt got him all 10 answers it didn't matter at all. By that reasoning, one person could stand up in full view, grab the test next to him and memorize all 10 answers, get marked -2 for cheating, then sit down and fill out his sheet. And really THAT is still putting more effort than necessary, you only need to grab three answers to offset the points lost from cheating and you'll still pass with a positive score.
----
!!Guy
* Whatever happened to Guy's tortoise summon?
** It probably only existed because the author hadn't decided Mighy Guy would almost exclusively use taijutsu yet.
** Summons don't seem to be universally practical, as apart from Kakashi's dogs (which are summoned to track scents), most summoned creatures are brought in when someone else summons creatures. Unless Guy faces an opponent with a summoning jutsu, he probably won't use it again.
** That tortoise didn't really look to useful, anyway.
** It actually reappears in Shippuden in Guy's final fight against Kisame. The tortoise is deservedly pissed that Guy hasn't summoned him in years.
* Question regarding Team Guy as a whole: when the Leaf genin were originally divided up into teams, Iruka answered Naruto's complaints by claiming that they had put each person on each team to ensure that the teams were all balanced and capable of handling any situation. For the most part, it seems like they did a good job (Kiba's team may specialize in tracking, but they're pretty diverse when it comes to combat). Until we meet Team Guy: Three incredibly strong taijutsu users and a weapon expert (so really, another form of taijutsu). None of them appear to be capable of using traditional ninjutsu or genjutsu at all. Why would you put the village's three best taijutsu users on the same team? How the hell is that balanced?
** It's a team specialised in taijutsu that is well-rounded in that aspect, with Lee being a short-ranged warrior, Ten-Ten capable of providing heavy firepower at mid and long distances, and Neji being able to hit whatever would be protected well enough to resist their attacks. So instead of being just a balanced team, they are a balanced strike team. They don't need ninjutsu because their wide repertoire of taijutsu is a viable substitute, and they do have protection from basic genjutsu in form of Neji (add to that the fact that the only form of genjutsu they surely wouldn't be able to resist comes from the Mangekyou Sharingan, which they can defend against by not looking their opponent into his eyes [which is made easier because they can throw strikes/weapons blindly, but wouldn't be able to do so with most techniques]).
*** Except they're still highly vulnerable at range since ten-ten has sub-par abilities. Ten-Ten loses to anyone able to dodge(everyone) or block(most ninjutsu users) regular arms. Neji also had no ranged abilities early on (he would have lost if Kidomaru bothered to cut his spider thread after firing at him since he'd never be able to close the distance otherwise). Which leaves Lee who can close distances but has shown time and again that even at close range his straightforward attacks are vulnerable to rounded ninja with ninjutsu.
*** Tenten doesn't have sub-par abilities. Her strongest attack pre-timeskip cannot be dodged (by most people), as she can throw and control the thrown weapons with chakra strings. The only way to dodge is to practically use the 8 gates, and most people don't actually have a blocking ninjutsu (pre timeskip only Neji, Gaara and Kidomaru which is 3 out of a lot).
**** Not blocking ninjutsu, blocking ANYTHING. If a ninja has any form of wide defense AT ALL the ability is useless. All 3 of the sand ninja, that sound ninja with the air blasts, most rain ninja carry those needle umbrellas that also can block weapons, any ninja with earth element, any ninja fighting near any form of cover (which rules out both inside town and outside town in the surrounding forest), any ninja with a moderately forceful wide spread blast (so any water or wind ninja), and the list goes on. Likewise it takes up her hands for the sizeable windup so she's vulnerable to any attack at all with range while using it. Also saying that Hokage level power is required to dodge is a gross extradition. Without using any gates at all Lee could easily out pace the technique, yes he's an outlier but it's only hard to dodge if the whole thing is allowed to fire. Ten-Ten never uses it in the future because there's just no situation where an enemy would idlely sit by and let her summon every one of those weapons then raise them into the air then fire them.
** Iruka never says anything about balancing the teams for any given combat situation. He says that the lowest and highest scoring students are put on the same team to balance the competency of all the teams as a whole. Which is what happened; the ninjutsu and genjutsu-less Rock Lee was on the same team as the genius Neji.
* On the subject of Afternoon Tiger...how the hell does it contain no chakra whatsoever? Punching really hard can't produce a blast of air in the shape of a giant attacking cat...
* In the flashback to Guy's childhood, his father talks about how Guy, at the time five years old, cannot use ninjutsu or genjutsu at all. On the surface, this sounds identical to Rock Lee's situation, but as an adult Guy has been shown (at least) using summoning ninjutsu and dispelling genjutsu. So... was Guy's inability not absolute like Lee's is, or are we to assume that Lee too ''could'' learn some nin/genjutsu? Or did Kishimoto just forget he'd already shown Guy using techniques other than taijutsu?
** Guy was never physiologically incapable of using genjutsu and taijutsu. He just sucked at them. Eventually he overcame that, otherwise he'd surely be a Special Jounin instead of full Jounin.

----
!!Kakashi
* How does Kakashi accurately throw shuriken, jump from tree limb to tree limb, etc, with no depth perception?
** Considering that most of those actions defy the laws of physics, I'm going to go ahead and say chakra, just like any other ninja.
** He does it the same way that [[{{WesternAnimation/Futurama}} Leela]] manages to pilot a spaceship. How ''she'' does it is still a mystery.
** Let's just say that Main/MaskPower lets just putting his headband over the Sharingan eye act as a seal that makes it function like an uncovered normal eye.
** He's the Copy Ninja - upon realizing his lack of depth perception, he carefully observes with the Sharingan other ninja doing these activities, and then uses those muscle patterns to fall back on.
** There's also the fact that when people lose an eye the other has to develop stronger sight in order to compensate. It takes time, obviously, but it happens or one eyed people all over the world would still be running into things. Don't forget it's been near a decade since he lost his eye. Plenty of time to adjust in a world where people seem to have stronger senses anyway.
** Previous poster is right. Depth perception is a subject you should look up on The Other Wiki (or Schlock Mercenary)ViviFizgig. It's done in more ways than just use of two eyes. What I'm saying is that depth perception is too particular for this problem. Try "How does Kakashi accurately throw shuriken, jump from tree limb to tree limb, etc, without the use of both of his eyes?"
** I blame the Sharingan. It's capable of seeing chakra through solid objects. Since's Kakashi's normal sight with that eye is obstructed with the headband most of the time, this would cause some "aura sight" as the view of Chakra is super-imposed over the actual image he sees with his good eye providing some form of depth perception.
*** Yeah, there really has never been any proof that Kakashi's headband blocks EVERYTHING the Sharingan can do. It blocks most of it sure, but when you consider how stupidly powerful both he and it is, there is probably some form of ''Chakra Aura'' perception he is capable of. Also, pure WMG territory here, but maybe he has punctured a small hole into the headband that allows him a small amount of vision but isn't enough to drain his vast reserves of chakra.
** speaking as someone with only one eye, two eyes is not the end all of ranged ability, I can throw, drive, and even shoot just fine, you learn to judge distance in other ways, two eyes just makes it easier.
*** I agree with this one (though I still have both eyes) - it's possible to learn how to perceive depth with just one eye, it's just a little bit more difficult because we have less data to process. It's the same thing as basic echolocation used by people who are blind, or lip-reading done by those who are deaf; not impossible, but most people just don't bother. ''And if one really wants to ask how is Kakashi able to perceive depth with just one eye, he should ask a sniper, for none of them uses two eyes when looking through the scope.''
* There's one other thing that bugs me. When Kakashi had the chance of ambushing Kakuzu with a well-timed Raikiri, why aiming for his heart? Kakuzu has five of 'em! [[BoomHeadshot You gotta shoot 'em in the head!]] Go for his brain, dammit, it's not like Kakuzu can replace his own head!
** If you're talking about the Raikiri he used to take out the first heart, he did that before he was aware that he had more than one heart. And anyway, given how strange Kakuzu's biology is, there's no guarantee that taking out his brain would kill him, or for that matter whether his brain is actually in his head or somewhere else. His hearts, on the other hand, are big targets that are guaranteed to kill him if he loses them all.
* Deidara's arms. Specifically, how the hell he managed to find, fix and ''reattach'' his left arm after his battle with Gaara, after getting it crushed and torn off by sand. Also his right elbow, it looks like it's decaying or something. But I suppose a dramatic battle with Sasuke wouldn't be as dramatic if the enemy only had one arm. (On a side note, this troper now harbours a strong dislike for Sasuke for killing both her favourite character and her favourite summon, Manda.)
** I don't think he reattached it, I think he ''regrew it''. Something like putting special clay on the stump and it turning into his new arm.
*** It's explicitly stated that Kakuzu used his thread to reattach Deidara's arms the same way he managed to reattach Hidan's head. That still leaves the question of how he managed to recover his crushed left arm from the Sand Village, though.
**** The left arm never got detached in the first place.
***** Which doesn't do much to explain the stitches there...
****** It was ''crushed''.
**** Maybe it was actually someone else's arm, with the same modifications?
**** Since Kakashi used Kamui on it, it probably landed in the other dimension. Which, of course, means that Obito found it and handed it back.

* Kakashi's dad killed himself when he was six and mom was dead before that, so who took care of Kakashi when he was a child? Even if he was the genius he is, Unlike Naruto, the village had no reason to let him live alone.
** Kakashi probably lived alone like Naruto and Sasuke after the Uchiha Massacre. I don't think being a genius comes with privileges regarding caring for orphans. The Third Hokage seemed to be the one who spent most of the time with the orphaned ninjas as seen from the flashbacks during his funeral, however. Even so, Kakashi didn't have a very happy childhood, even if the village had no reason to let him live alone. I think he was similar to Sasuke when he was a kid, only he probably didn't betray his village. He also had very few friends, maybe just Obito, and he died too (and they only became friends before that). So, bottom line is that I don't think anyone made much of a fuss about raising Kakashi Konoha being a military village and all.
** At the age of six, Kakashi was already an active-duty ninja. It stands to reason that he did indeed live alone.
* Did Kakashi, by proxy, face or recieve any kind of bullying, prejudice, or abuse from people because of the villages feelings toward his father? It could explain why he never talked about Sakumo after his death.
** Not sure about bullying, but it seems like Kakashi was embarassed by him and put missions before teammates, and apparently Sakumo was still well respected and feared by a lot of people.
* If Kakashi is such a powerful ninja that he's notorious everywhere and considered a Hokage candidate, why did they send him out on a bunch of C and D-rank missions in Part 1? Even in peacetime I find it really unbelievable that his skill wouldn't be better used elsewhere, say spying on enemies like Jiraiya was doing or training ANBU instead of genin.
** His skills probably could've been put to better use, but his skills were recognised enough to be handpicked to train a team that included a Hokage's son and the last Uchiha in the village, the missions are just part of their training.
** I could buy that, it does sound like a good explanation. But the dialog in his debut episode outright says that he'd been doing the bell test thing for a while and Team 7 was the first to pass his test. He wasn't lying about that either, Sarutobi also says this to Iruka in a different scene. So either he was being assigned to random schmucks, or he was assigned to the most important graduating students and all of them were even worse than Team 7.
** It's normal for Jonin to lead a team of rookies, I'd guess Kakashi was allowed to reject the other teams that failed the bell test because of his skills being respected, the other teams were most likely random nobodies, it doesn't seem likely that there were that many important students around.
*** First, it's not really clear if Kakashi was really in the running for Hokage in any serious way. Even when it happens it's more of an emergency provision than a case of he was being considered. Unfortunately in fiction sometimes things aren't thought up until they are, otherwise Danzo would have made a much better choice than Jiraya the wandering porn writer or Tsunade the wandering alcoholic problem gambler. That said maybe he's on similar level, politically, to those two. He simply does what he wants. It's also possible he wasn't so much trusted to train the son of a Hokage and the last of the Uchiha as it was hoped that he would fail them. A Jinchuriki and the last of the Uchiha are easier to protect inside the village than outside it and frankly them passing was equal parts Sasuke being really smart and dumb luck.
** One of the best things Kakashi can do for the village is pass on his skills to new ninja, especially if there is no pressing need for a man of his skills elsewhere, which there wasn't at the time. Anime {{filler}} also indicates the Third thought having students would help to break Kakashi of the PTSD he developed from losing Sakumo, Obito, Rin, and Minato.
** There's no reason that a Jounin who's been assigned a Genin team can't also be sent on missions without them as needed. That's precisely what happened in the aftermath of Orochimaru's attack on the village, for example, hence the only people being available to send after Sasuke at short notice being a Chunin and a few Genin. Had Kakashi been needed for Jonin-level mission prior to the Chunin Exam Arc, Team 7 would've just been left behind in the village to either train on their own or do D-ranks without him.
----
!!Minato
* Why did Minato put Kyuubi in Naruto, anyway? There are tons of ninja who would've made better candidates. Did he foresee the future?
** yeah he did, plus its a nice way to annoy Madara by making kicking Madara's ass a family trait
** It's not like you can ask somebody else for ''their'' kid. I bet the Fourth's mindset is that he won't do to somebody else what he's not willing to do to his own flesh and blood...
*** I also think they're about to give an explaination
*** And Now I'm having horrific flashbacks about Gaara and the reasons why his parents end sealing Shukaku into him...
*** "Hey, wanna lend me your newborn baby so I can turn it into a container for the Kyuubi?" Not gonna go over well.
** Naruto's umbilical cord had just been cut... I don't suppose there are enough babies being born every minute to give Minato a whole lot of choices.
*** Gaara's case was bad because they already had the Shukaku sealed, and they just wanted him as a weapon, not to save the entire village.
*** There probally wasn't a large group of babies to chose from. Konoha probally has around a hundred births a year, which is about fitting to keep a decent fighting force when looking at Konoha's grading system, and the child had to be young enough to not have fully formed chakra coils yet, which is hinted happens shortly after birth.
*** Jiraiya suggests that Minato was preparing for something, and also to make Naruto more powerful (for all the drawbacks, the fox's chakra proved useful on several occasions in Part I).
*** Later chapters confirm that Minato was aware Madara sent the fox against the village and sealed the Kyuubi into Naruto in order to combat Madara. Minato assumed that Naruto as his heir would have the skill to eventually control the fox.
** Naruto's mother had special "Kyuubi-suppressing" chakra and he hoped Naruto would have it too. Also, Naruto's having just been born was not a coincidence.
*** In more detail, the Kyuubi was locked down by his dying wife outside the village where the only people around were himself, said dying wife, and the newborn Naruto. Since the seal he was using was going to kill him, and putting the Kyuubi in Kushina would unbalance the nations when she died and the Kyuubi was released into the world, Naruto was the only option. Minato also had hope his son would be able to master the Kyuubi.
* Okay, how in the HELL did Minato gain control of the Nine-Tails Chakra mode so easily? He's been dead for years, he's had no time to learn how to use it effectively, as I sincerely doubt he just learned it on the way to Naruto... Does some one wish to explain this? It's kind of a gigantic plot hole.
** Nine tails kinda implied that he'd used it before when Naruto started handing out chakra cloaks to everyone.
*** That's a bit of a stretch. Naruto says "My father really is incredible" and Kurama replies "I should know, he used the 10 seal on me years ago!" That doesn't sound like he's implying that Minato had mastered his power in the past but rather that Minato was incredibly powerful and [[spoiler: the Hokage are all stupid strong. Best we can tell the Third was the "weakest" and that might just be because he lived long enough to get old seeing as the Third used to be called [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast the God of Shinobi]] when he was younger.]]
**** The version I read had Kurama saying that even Minato wasn't as good at adapting Kurama's chakra for other people.
** I always figured he spent part of his sixteen years being sealed with his Kurama half chatting him up, and they eventually reached the same sort of understanding Naruto and his Kurama did.
* Why exactly did Minato know the Reaper Death Seal? You don't just learn a AllOrNothing attack like that for the sake of knowledge. So what exactly was he planning on using it for? Or did he originally plan to seal the Kyuubi in Naruto in case things went south?
** What was he planning on using it for? Pretty much exactly what happened. Shit hit the fan out of nowhere and he needed a powerful seal. The thing with an AllOrNothing attack is you still need to know how to use it and if you don't know it when the unexpected happens, you're screwed.
** Given that the Uzumaki clan had means of reversing the soul-sealing aspect, it stands to reason that the Reaper Death Seal was their jutsu and Minato learned it from Kushina.

----
!!Kushina
* Okay, Kushina gets kidnapped by Kumo and she [[IdiotBall waits for Minato to rescue her?]] Does she not know how to transform into the one-tailed form in order to break free? Now one could argue that she did it on purpose in order to hook up with him, but that would mean that she knew he was coming, which she didn't.
** perhaps they put some kind of seal on her to prevent exactly that
** she didn't have Kurama in her yet A, B, it would have been horrible if she went one tail because she wouldn't be able to control, remember Naruto the first time some of Kurama's chakra enveloped him? C, anger is the trigger not fear.

----
!!Tsunade
* Why isn't Tsunade, with her world renowned medical abilities, actually doing something useful like, say, healing people. Instead she's just sitting around snarking at the Raikage when he decides he wants to contribute unlike Tsunade.
** A couple of points:
*** 1) Tsunade's status: You have to remember that she's the ''Hokage'' now. As in the leader of the whole Leaf Village, not only it's strongest/best ninja. The role is as much political as it is military wise, so she can't just run into any old fight. If she died on the battlefield then the Leaf Village would be without it's leader. Remember when the Third Hokage died and what a hassle it was to find Tsunade to replace him? That would happen again. Sure they could just make Kakashi the Hokage, but that probably wouldn't be preferabbble, since he isn't exactly as ''legendary'' as one of the Sannin and he probably still has a couple of haters of the Hatake family. Not to mention the morale of the whole Leaf faction of the army would drop if they learned Tsunade had died. They wouldn't be able to fous on the battle properly and the army's tactics could faulter.
*** 2) The other Kages: Sure, Gaara is out on the battlefield, but he is the youngest, fittest member and since he is a 'Regimental Commander', he should be doing more commanding than actual fighting. The Mizukage is currently protecting some Daimyo (which is not the main focus of Madara's army) with elite ninja on her side - not very dangerous. The Tsuchikage is on his way to fight the Second Tsuchikage, only because he is the only one who has moves to counter the Second Tsuchikage's, whereas there are many medical ninjas that may not be as particularly great as Tsunade, but are still good enough to provide treatment. The Raikage is with her, obviously. - As you can see the other Kages are not needlessly thrusting themselves into danger either.
*** 3) What she is actually doing: You say that she's just 'sitting around'. Correct, when she is on panel she is mostly sitting and/or talking, but it would hardly be worth showing her devising military plans or checking on the status of the teams or getting information. We can't say whether or not she is actually doing these things but as she is a Kage we can only assume she is.
*** Overall, Tsunade doesn't need to go on to the field and shouldn't go onto it anyway.
*** Also, she might still be recovering from being in a coma, and thus unable to take the field.
* Why was Tsunade not hunted down for desertion/treason after she abandoned Konoha or not marked as a missing nin? Or Shizune for that matter? Konoha is not a coddle home where you can just up and leave if things don't go your way. What makes it more unbelievable is that Tsunade left after the Second Great Ninja War and did not set her foot in Konoha until Naruto won their bet. It gets worse because she was absent during the Third Ninja War and that alone would be high treason as someone of her skills would have been vital. I don't think the Elders or Danzo would have just sat by without doing anything and I don't think even Sarutobi would sit by idly and let such a powerful ninja desert/abandon their village even if she was a Senju -descendant. It's really unbelievable Tsunade and Shizune were still considered loyal enough that Tsunade was considered for Hokage position. And then there's the whole hemophobia-issue, which seems to be wildly known, why would they consider someone like that to be suitable to be a Hokage?
** The reason for not hunting down Tsunade may have been for the same reason as why all of those gambling debt collectors couldn't find her: she just kept changing her appearance. Jiraiya has mentioned that he hasn't seen her in twenty years, and keep in mind that Jiraiya is one of the greatest trackers and spies of all time. Also, Tsunade never officially declared herself as a missing-nin and relinquished Konoha citizenship. Instead, she just upped the village and left for a long period of time. Jiraiya did something similar. After this, the Elders and Danzo may have realized that she wanted nothing to do with the ninja life and left her alone and Sarutobi seems like a softie anyways if we go by his interactions with Orochimaru. No one considered her for the position of kage except Jiraiya who made a pretty convincing case. With her fear of blood, Jiraiya mentions her unbending will several times, so maybe he figured that if she took up the position she'd get over it. It's also not a very well known thing. Only Orochimaru and Jiraiya seemed to know about it, though maybe Hiruzen knew about it as well. Finally, they didn't have much of a choice. Jiraiya seemed adamant on her becoming Hokage and there were no other candidates aside from Danzo, which very few people would like if he became Hokage.
** Maybe she had officially resigned as a shinobi or her hemophobia left her considered mentally unfit for duty. As for being suitable for Hokage, her skill and intelligence is obvious, but why they'd choose her despite her hemophobia...well, with Jiraiya refusing they didn't have much choice, did they?
----
!!Konoha In General
* What kinda crappy Ninja Academy does Konoha have? Aside from throwing kunai, shurikens, physical training and a couple of odd justu like subsitite and clone, it doesn't seem like they learn an awful lot. Why the heck don't they bother teaching them elemental jutsus and stuff?
** Because you have to learn the basics first if you wish to learn the more advanced techniques. If your name is not Naruto or Sasuke, it takes years of practice to master just one element, being able to use 2 elements is considered to be one requirement for becoming a jonin.
*** Yeah that's two elements but how bout teaching just one element first? At least the Uchiha had the sense to try teach their kids fire style at a young age. A lot of ninja from outside Konoha of all ages happen to be proficient with elemental jutsu and yet the Konoha 12 are ridiculously lacking in widely used elemental styles. What excuse does the village academy have?
*** Kakashi said that Sasuke shouldn't have enough Chakra to perform the fire technique he's known since he was seven. Presumably Sasukes very above average, if the academy tried to teach elemental jutsu to everyone that age they would probably get several people dieing of Chakra exhaustion.
*** Most of the K12 use secret clan techniques and thus don’t need elemental jutsus. Moreover as far as I remember, there were actually very few shinobi in the chunin exam who could use elemental jutsus to a certain extent and all of them (like Temari) were older than the K12, which means they had far more time to master their elements.
*** The Chunin exam was open to any genin so technically you could have a 30 year old epic ninja who was just really lazy in it so thats not a great example. I think that Kishimoto was more interested in the life of naruto after the academy so he didnt bother elaborating on the workings inside the school. I'm sure they learn much more then that.
** They only "bother" to teach the basics because that's how much schooling they can get in before the students graduate into genin. Don't forget genin only mostly do D-rank missions, which are basically chores and errands. The jonin instructors are meant to provide specialized instruction to their genin, that's the whole point of the 3 genin to a jonin system.
----
!!The Third Hokage
* Was the Third Hokage stupid or something? Why didn't he just banish the Uchiha clan? Or publicly expose them? Or publicly execute them? And wouldn't their loss weaken Konoha seeing as how they're losing a lot of powerful police force? And if Itachi is such a nice guy, why did he stand by and let Gaara and other innocent people die? And why couldn't he have just killed his father (as he was the ring leader) and leave it at that? And why would he get help from a person (Tobi) who was so evil? And why did Tobi want the Uchiha clan dead seeing as how they were planning an attack and he could have ''helped'' them? I thought the clan abandonded his ideas? WTF?!?!?!?!?!
** The Third was against slaughtering them, but Danzo and the other Elders out voted him. If he had just banished them, they would be able to join with one of Konoha's enemies and be an even bigger threat. Publicly exposing them might've forced them to do something desperate that could hurt innocent people. A public execution of an entire clan might have made the other clans (especially the powerful ones like the Hyuuga) nervous, possibly leading to another situation like the plannned Uchiha coup. The loss of the police force wasn't a big deal because it was just a sham created by the Second Hokage to appease the Uchiha, Konoha didn't really need it. Itachi let innocent people die because it suited his needs. Also, calling him a good guy is a bit of a stretch, I wouldn't say he's completely evil, but he's pretty far from being a good guy. Just killing the ring leader wouldn't have been enough to stop them. Think about it, would killing Hitler have stopped the Nazi Party? I doubt it, someone else would've come along and taken his place. Plus if Konoha had made Itachi kill just his own father, the clan would've been even more pissed off. He got Tobi's help because Tobi was strong enough to get it done. Tobi hated the Uchiha for turning against him and allowing themselves to be put in their current position.
*** As far as Itachi goes, he's definitely a "good guy" in the sense that (despite his long list of epic screw ups) he's on the Naruto's side and is now trying desperately to make up for said screw ups. Why he allowed Gaara (and the other hosts) to die was probably because he was so deep undercover there was nothing he could do. Same thing tragically happens in real life, he just couldn't risk blowing his cover.
**** I have to take issue with you there. You don't automatically become ''the good guy'' because you're on the hero's side. You become ''the good guy'' by not doing bad things. He committed the mass murder of the Uchiha (It absolutely stretches credulity that they were ''all'' guilty), mind raped Sasuke at least twice and joined an organization dedicated to killing other people in order to extract their demons. Your explanation as to why he joined doesn't make any sense whatsoever in crediting him because he didn't just help them capture the hosts - he was an active and willing participant. Do you ''honestly'' believe that, in real life, a CIA agent could murder US citizens in the name of ''being undercover'' in an Al Qaeda terrorist cell and still be considered by everyone as ''the good guy?''
***** Personally I think that your good guy/bad guy point is a bit too black and white, but that's just me. I have no trouble at all believing that everyone in the Uchiha clan (save of course Sasuke and Shisui, who we know actually helped Itachi out) was guilty. I've seen enough of cults in my life to understand that people are disturbingly easy to control. He didn't help capture the hosts, in fact he deliberately avoided capturing Naruto when he had the chance. Yes, he delayed them from rescuing Gaara but A) he could've put even more effort than he did into it and B) it was plot relevant. And in the real world there's only one rule for those undercover: don't blow your cover. Whether or not everyone could still call them "good" is irrelevant; they do what needs to be done, no matter how difficult it is.
***** I agree that it's asinine to think that EVERYONE in the clan was evil. It's shown that Fugaku didn't let Sasuke participate in the meetings when he was a kid, so it would be a reasonable assumption that other members did the same, and wouldn't tell their kids about the coup until they reached a certain age (Itachi notwithstanding, being a prodigy) Unless what, was Sasuke the ONLY child in the entire clan born in the last 12 years? No matter how "good" Itachi's intentions might have been, he undoubtedly had to massacre children and possibly even infants.
*** Well, it's more like Madara, who was clearly biased and had left the village by that point anyway, was under the impression that the police force was a sham. The Uchiha had clearly been fine with it for decades and weren't exactly ''forced'' to join it. And, of course, Madara has no particular reason to be honest if the truth won't help convince Sasuke. Also, since when can the advisory council outvote the Hokage? The Third wasn't happy about the massacre, but he did sign off on it. No one went behind his back.
**** People should stop with the BlackandWhiteMorality, there was a group of people who were gonna start a civil war and giving that it was the 3rd who came to the decision, they probably were not up for negotiations, so it was either, go into a more leveled civil war (the Uchihas had already lost the element of surprise) which would damage the village greatly as does any civil war since it's an we vs us battle, or do a reverse sneak attack and kill them all discretely and quietly avoid all the issues with the public knowing the government had something to do with it.
**** Alright, how about, "Why didn't Hiruzen just make Itachi the Hokage in order to head off the coup?"
***** Because Itachi was freaking 13!!! He may have been good enough to be an anbu but not wise or experienced enough to be Hokage.
****** Right, but he's wise and experienced enough to be given a long term mission to assassinate his entire clan and become a rogue ninja, then infiltrate the Akatsuki and act as a double agent, all while keeping his allegiance to the Leaf under wraps. Sounds legit.
****** But Hiruzen DID say Itachi had the wisdom of a Kage at the age of 7.
****** He had the mindset, which in this context is "the village comes first". That is not sufficient to put a 13 year old in charge of the village.
*** Why did Hiruzen ''let'' the Elders and Danzo "outvote" him? Konoha isn't a democracy. Why not just be more forceful and say "we're doing it my way, and you'll obey my orders or be dismissed."
* Iruka said Naruto is like a "little brother" to him.. Huh? I thought they had a father-son relationship.
** Iruka was 11 or 12 when the Kyuubi attacked. Even though the father/son relationship may be accurate, he's too young to be admitting to it.
----
!!Danzo
Danzo is desperate for power and control of Konoha. Okay. He's struggled for years, hidden out of sight, to develop the power and resources to take control when the time comes. Pretty standard fare so far. Except...he has a mind control eye. He has had a mind control eye for something like ''seven years'' by the start of the series. In all that time, did he never realize he could just walk up to the third Hokage and say "Sup, dude? You should totally work to make my the Hokage from now on."
** It would be terribly inconsistent with the Third's known personality or what have you. He suddenly decides to elect Asshole McDouchebag as his replacement, even though he's passed the guy over ''twice'', first in favor of Orochimaru, then Minato. His jonin would say "Gee, that's sorta weird. Let's check to make sure he's not being genjutsued or anything. Plus, Shisui's eye jutsu isn't permanent, so Hiruzen would realize the second it was over that Danzo had put the wammy on him.
*** If Danzo could have gained the Hokage's seat at any point in time through his mind-control jutsu (even to the extent of fooling all the Kages) and the only reason anyone ever found out was because someone with a Byakugan had fought Shisui before and the fact that Danzo had a Sharingan was a secret, why didn't Danzo become the Godaime in the weeks it took for Naruto and Jiraiya to go on what was thought to be a wild goose chase to find Tsunade?
**** Because Ao found out only because he had a Byakugan eye implanted, and the Hyuga's are from the Leaf, he probably would had been found out, plus he was probably still making preparations with the Senju DNA since that's what made it possible to be used once a day instead of once every decade.
***** Why would there be a Hyuuga present when Danzo was influencing Homura and Koharu into making him Hokage? It only had to be done once and it's not like the Byuukagen allowed Ao to be check after the fact to see if someone had been manipulated by the Sharingan...which no one knows Danzo even has.
***** Even if he had everything set up 3 years ago, he still can only use the technique once a day on one person, he would need to use it on Homura, Koharu (who had years of experience and would probably notice something odd in the other's change of mind) and possibly the fire daimyo, all of which showed preference to choosing Jiraiya (who was offered the position of 4th, 5th and the fire daimyo even said he would had liked him to be 6th if he weren't dead) not to mention that they only elect the Hokage, he still needs to be approved by the Jonins who probably would had notice the shadiness if it got to that point.
***** Simply put, Danzo never shows that level of ability using Shisui's eye. Shisui or Itachi might have been able to pull off something like that (if they could use it as often as Danzo), but the Sasuke vs. Danzo fight explicitly established out that Danzo wasn't even as good as Sasuke with his Sharingan, much less Itachi. Danzo was only able to subtly manipulate Mifune (who was leaning toward picking Danzo anyway), and the effect wore off as soon as it was pointed out to him. Danzo had to wait until the conditions were right to use Shisui's eye effectively.
** There is a pretty simple explanation for that - as much as Danzo wanted to be a Hokage, he didn't want to trample on Hiruzen, who was his "rival" (we can assume that they were friends when they were younger). Heck, he even went as far as to create ROOT, which he used not to take over the village, but to support Hiruzen's rule. And to be honest, their relationship kind of reminds me of the relationship Naruto and Sasuke had about the time of their chuunin exam.
** Also, when Danzo uses the eye, he has solid arguing positions both times. That's why we didn't catch on when he used it, he had a point when getting people to do what he wanted. If there was never a chance for Danzo to have a decent reason to shoot for Hokage that he could use the eye in, he'd be stuck.
* What type of name is "Rock" Lee? It sounds like a title but I'm guessing that's his legal name. "Rock"'s his first name? Likewise with "Might Guy".
** Rock and Might are their last names. Technically his name in the West would be Lee Rock, but it wasn't translated that way because it sounds stupid. The same goes for Guy.
!!Rin
* What even happened to her? Why did Kakashi kill her?
** From her HeroicSacrifice section: She deliberately took a Lightning Cutter from Kakashi, as she had the Sanbi sealed inside her and was intended as a TrojanHorse for Konoha. Once they had "rescued" her and taken her back, the seal would break and the Sanbi would run wild.
*** Goes into SenselessSacrifice considering if she knows this she could just say "Kakashi, I've been made into a village destroying trap, take me to a secure but remote location then call help"
**** Particularly given that their sensei was ''a seal master who could teleport''. Kakashi could've summoned Pakkun and had him run back to the village to get Minato's help.

!!Aoba Yamashiro
* Aoba is an intelligence officer with the ability to read minds. He would be a great asset in interrogations. He surely knows the value of discretion and yet he bursts into a room asking if it's true Itachi is back, '''right''' in front of Sasuke. How could he do something that stupid!?
** Because everyone always should expect the one worst person to hear something is listening when you say it? He was clearly emotional and not thinking in pure, cold logic there.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Other Characters]]
!!Nagato, Konan and Yahiko
* In chapter 446, where was the gang that Yahiko formed when him and Nagato went to the assigned place? What kind of a leader would go to a negotiation without their gang to back them up? And as a matter of fact, how or when did Konan get taken away? Was it before or after they got to the assigned place? And would it have been that hard for Kishimoto to add some panels showing any of this?
** Maybe they all got killed/kidnapped on the way to the negotiation point and Konan was the only one spared, because it be even more of a DeusAngstMachina. There probably was a fight, Yahiko and Nagato were standing in a giant crater. Konan could have gotten taken then too. What bugs me is if Nagato had that Rinnegan thing and trained to use it properly, why didn't he just kill everybody. Like how he saved Yahiko the first time.
*** If all of what you typed is true, they why didn't Kishimoto just add a couple of panels to show it? Or at least have Nagato SAY that the rest of the gang got killed, and him and Yahiko found out that Konan was taken away? It wouldn't have been that hard to put that in the chapter. It just jumped from "Yahiko forming a gang with Konan and Nagato and discussing some future peace negotiations" to "Yahiko and Nagato arrive at the assigned place without the gang for no reason whatsoever and Konan was somehow captured" all within 3-4 pages.
*** Because it's Nagato telling us this, and the narration was likely too lengthy for his weakened (dying?) form.
*** So two sentences like "Our gang suddenly got attacked, and in the middle of the scuffle, Konan was captured. We searched for her but found a note telling us to meet them at the assigned place if we wanted to see her alive again." would've been too lengthy, but him going on for about 5 pages talking about how Jiraiya was teaching them to fight and him talking to Nagato about protecting his friends and how he wants peace in the world isn't?
**** Well, after reading chapter 447, Nagato says that he took over the gang after that huge fight. Which means that the gang didn't die. Which now means that Yahiko not bringing his gang with him to the assigned place pretty much makes this a wall banger moment because '' HE WOULD HAVE HAD A BETTER CHANCE AT SURVIVAL HAD HE BEEN A COMPETENT LEADER AND JUST BROUGHT THE GANG WITH HIM.''
** Given that Konan was held captive by being attached to a fairly complicated looking paper bomb, it's seems more like she was caught earlier and Hanzo told them to come alone to get her... but Nagato just said that was when Hanzo called them for a meeting. Given that the first thing we see of this "meeting" was Nagato and Yahiko meeting the enemy party with Konan, it seems as if Nagato skipped something with his narration that lead to that situation.
** That still doesn't answer the question, because this all leads back to the question of why Kishimoto didn't just add this in Nagato's narration? You'd think that he would seeing how he had Nagato be so in detail with everything else he was telling Naruto. This isn't one of those things where a writer can just show something and have people assume what happened. He literally made Yahiko stupid on purpose by not bringing the gang he formed with him just so that Yahiko could die. AND HE DOESN'T EVER EXPLAIN WHY THEY'RE NOT WITH HIM WHEN HE LEAVES. It's not like he couldn't add a little part in the flashback showing why Yahiko left his gang or even have them find a note telling them what to do if they want to see Konan alive (Like I typed earlier up there). Do you see how easily you assumed and typed what happened? Do you see how easily everyone up there (Including myself) made some assumptions and typed it up there? Now tell me, why couldn't Kishimoto just do that; something as easy as explaining why the gang wasn't there and how Konan was captured in just one or two sentences?
** Actually, it is fairly obvious why Yahiko didn't being his gang to a ''peace negotiation''. The answer being, of course, that it was supposed to be a peace negotiation.
** Well, if that's true, then he'd go to the negotiation by himself, instead of bringing Nagato along seeing how it was a peace negotiation and that he was the only one that was needed to go there. Besides, this is ''Naruto''. There have been tons of times where someone would meet someone else at a place for a simple discussion, and still bring backup as something to fall back on because they know that ''anything'' could happen (Like Yamato bringing Naruto, Sakura, and Sai when he was disguised as Sasori and was meeting with Kabuto). Then there's the fact that we'll never know what happened to the gang, seeing how the only time they were mentioned was when Nagato told Naruto how Yahiko quickly formed one, and how Nagato himself took over it after he finished raging. They could've been attacked and were too injured to come along, or Kishimoto could have made Yahiko too stupid by having him trust Hanzou too much, thus making him decide to not bring the gang with him. Kishimoto could have shown at least ''one'' of them in a panel.
*** How about this? Kishimoto didn't feel like it. Yahiko's death was important to the plot HE wanted. He doesn't care about how you wanted the story to go. Get over it, man.
*** In the meeting with Sasori's spy, Yamato brought Naruto, Sakura and Sai to capture the spy, while Orochimaru came to kill Sasori, so both sides had devious intentions. The problem is that Yahiko's group didn't realize that Hanzo wasn't being honest.
* Is anyone else bothered by the recent manga? We know the ''real'' identity of Pain now, but the fact that Jiraiya also had it figured out (chapters ago) but couldn't write it on the frog's back is ridiculous. The entire world (unless I'm mistaken) runs on some kind of OneSteveLimit, so "Pain is Nagato" would've made worlds more sense than simply "The real one isn't here" (the latter of which lead to chapters on chapters (until now) of people trying to figure out what the hell that meant). What gives?
** No one but Tsunade would know who the hell Nagato is and even she only knew of Nagato, Yahiko, and Konan as "those kids from the Rain Country that Jiraiya trained for a while" so she might not have known which one was which and assumed that Deva Realm/Yahiko was the real one.
*** Also that according to recent chapters, she and Oro didn't give two shakes about war orphans. Only Jiraiya was even willing to give them half a chance.
** It also wouldn't say anything about the NATURE of the powers, which is more important than the name of the person when you're trying to defeat them. Plus I think Jiraiya didn't want Pain to realize he'd figured it out/was sharing the secret.

* Nagato has the Rinnegan, which makes him the most powerful person on the planet and probably the destined child. So why does Jiraiya leave him behind, unsupervised, in the middle of what is essentially a war torn third world country? Instead, after 3 years of training, he leaves Nagato and the others, then doesn't tell anyone about Nagato, not even the frog sages or Tsunade.
** Just because Nagato has the Rinnegan doesn't mean he's the most powerful person on the planet. To quote Zetsu "The Sharingan" [or any other bloodline] "is just another tool that a ninja can use. A tool is only as powerful as the shinobi who uses it. An expert with a stone can still beat a novice with a shuriken. All he needs is more skill and power."
*** Still, the only other person with the Rinnegan founded the ninja world and made the moon and somesuch. That might be a hint that he's the destined child, and at least worthy of long term observation.
**** The Rikudo Sennin is ''said'' to have done all of that, just as it is ''said'' that the Sharingan mutated from the Byakugan. It may be true and it may not be. Konoha was in the middle of war and Jiraiya, being as valuable to Konoha as he was, probably spent as much time as he possibly could with the kids and didn't have time to worry about unconfirmed legends.
** Nagato gave every indication, at least on the surface, of being reluctant to kill, even to save his friends. He and Konan were assumed to have died at some point in the past (and Yahiko really died), so Jiraiya may well have assumed it was no longer important and decided to forget about it.
** It may also be another set up for Naruto, as it's revealed that Nagato was a member of the Uzumaki Clan.
* Is there any reason Kakashi didn't just Black Hole the Deva Pain? He ends up using it twice anyways, once to block a nail, and another to take out a small projectile, both of which seemed like a waste of an incredibly deadly ability. Two times wouldn't even disable him if he hadn't used other powers as well.
** Because it takes time to work, something Pain would not be giving them.
*** Given that he can Black Hole a nail being thrown at him, a moving target that he is chasing, and an explosion, that isn't entirely convincing. Granted, Pain might just wise up and Shinra Tensei him into paste.
*** Besides, Pain controls gravity. Trying to use a black hole against someone who controls gravity is a very bad idea, and far more likely to blow up in your face than to actually work. Imagine, Kakashi uses his black hole technique, and Pain turns it around to suck up the entire village and crush it into a singularity.
**** His technique isn't a "black hole." It has nothing to do with gravity. What Kakashi does with KAMUI is create a rip in space where he transports his target into another dimension. He has stated that it's easier to perform on smaller objects and trying it on the Deva Path would have been a horrible idea. He wouldn't have time to focus on him without getting pushed away. At least now, thanks to Naruto's ability to lend Kurama's chakra to other people, Kakashi would have no problem doing that. He did it with Killer Bee while he was in his full tailed beast form to attack the Ten Tails. Enjoy my spoilers.
* Why was Yahiko so sure that Nagato could have been "the bridge to true peace" instead of himself? Just because Nagato had the Rinnegan?
** No, I also think he thought Nagato was a better person, who, with his strong desire to protect his friends, could lead them to peace, probably. I don't think Yahiko thought too highly of himself, to be honest. And his goal to acquire world domination in order to change his country and the world for the better wasn't exactly a good way to bring about world peace, either. That doesn't mean that Nagato would stay on that road, though: he was easily corrupted when Yahiko died, but Yahiko couldn't have foreseen this, of course. On the other hand, the Rinnegan gave Nagato huge power that, along with his dedication to his friends, was more than enough to convince Yahiko that Nagato was (or could have been) "the bridge to true peace".
** Dueling HeroicSelfDeprecation. Yahiko thinks Nagato's Rinnegan and good nature make him a better man than himself. Nagato thinks Yahiko being TheLeader with a vision makes him the better man.
* After Nagato is ressurected by Kabuto, and after his CurbStompBattle against Naruto, Killer Bee, and Itachi, Nagato is defeated and impaled by Itachi's Sword of Totsuka; as we learn earlier during Sasuke's fight against Itachi when the latter uses the sword to defeat Orochimaru, that whoever is impaled by the blade is entrapped within an inescapable jutsu for eternity. However, within Nagato's final moments, he mentions that he will ''join Jiraiya in the afterlife''. Maybe Kishi simply forgot, or maybe Nagato wasn't aware of the sword's properties, but this could have been explained a little more.
* Why didn't Konan destroy Nagato's body? It was the only way to ensure that Tobi/Madara/whoever he is from getting the Rinnegan. She claims she knew he was coming (Issue 508) and he would have come anyway. What's more is it would have ever so slightly improved her chances of living since he might have spared her once he found out there was no more Rinnegan for him to steal. Probably not but he's been shown to be if not generous terribly random. The important part being stopping him from getting something she knew he wanted very badly.
** She had a pretty airtight plan to kill Tobi lined up. The man had to [[RealityWarper do the impossible]] to survive it and all. She probably felt there was no need to desecrate her friend's corpse since the enemy who wanted it would be dead.
* If Madara implanted his eyes into Nagato then shouldn't Nagato have had the Sharingan, Mangekyo Sharingan and Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan as well as the Rinnegan?
** Yep, but similar to Kakashi, either he didn't know he had those, he needed to unlock them so he could use them similar to how he didn't have the ability to use the Rinnegan at first or as a Senju, Madara's eyes locked to him only being able to use the Rinnegan.
* Where exactly did Kabuto and Oorochimaru hide their prisoners and who's feeding them? It's important because the Edo Tensai is described as needing a sacrifice to be made. It's easy to believe that between the Sound Four and the entire Sand Village that someone picked up a pair of Sacrifices on the way to the Invasion of Konoha arc but by my count Kabuto revives at least two dozen (9 dead Akatski, several kage, Demon Brothers, Zabuza and Haku, Madara, Granny Chiyo and some assorted others) and Oorochimaru adds on the four former Hokage as well. Sasuke has gone to (at least the bases he was aware of) and cleaned them all out. I know it's unimportant from a story standpoint these were a bunch of RedShirts but from a mechanical standpoint I want to know where they kept these sacrifices. Kabuto seemed to be traveling pretty light and Oorochimaru wasn't even traveling light, he was dead(ish) locked in his students or something similar!
** Kabuto only revived about 30-40 people at the most, he could've picked them up from any village including civilian towns and he can create all the Edos and then summon them as needed, he doesn't have to move them with him, they can be summoned to any place by him or any Edo he takes control of.
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!!Kages
* Okay, I admit, I haven't read the actual chapter itself, but I read somewhere else on this site that Minato considered the village over his family, and thus, sealing Kyuubi into baby Naruto and condemning himself and Kushina to death. Fine. But I wondered why it bugged me so much, I mean, yeah, the thought's uncomfortable, but sometimes, you gotta do what you gotta do, right? Then I realized, why the fuck did this man decide to ''have'' a family in the first place if he was so willing to give it up? Especially considering that he was the frickin' Yellow Flash and would have numerous enemies coming after his loved ones. He obviously wasn't ready or responsible enough to start a family.
** Not even close, he sealed Kyuubi into Naruto specifically to ''give Naruto a weapon to use against Madara''. He said that ''sixty chapters'' before the flashback even started. And he was responsible, he brought Kushina to a secret location guarded by ANBU so she could give birth. This measure would have worked perfectly had they not been attacked by one of the ''most powerful ninja who ever lived'', a man he had ''absolutely no possible way of knowing was a threat'', since, you know, '''everyone thought the man was dead'''. Not to mention how he had [[CrazyPrepared worked his Flying Thunder God seal into the seal keeping the Kyuubi inside Kushina]], it's not exactly unreasonable to assume he'd figure out a similar way of getting to his son. [[WhatTheHellHero What the hell man? how can it bug you if YOU HAVEN'T READ IT?]]
* When I was reading Kushina's account of Minato telling her his plan, he seemed to be telling her that he could use her life to seal the Kyuubi in Naruto (and since she was dying anyway, it wasn't a moral issue) but that if he did that then Naruto would only grow up having a loving legendary father who could protect him and care for him but never meet his dead mother and so instead it was better to get them both killed so that Naruto grows up alone but can have one single conversation with both dead parents. I get that mothers are important and whatnot but it really doesn't seem like one conversation with Kushina was worth ''forever'' without Minato.
** Could just be BS Minato was telling Kushina to comfort her about himself needing to die to seal the Kyuubi. If the Kyuubi died it A. Would have upset the balance of power between biju, weakened Konoha B. The thing would have resurrected even if it died, meaning another disaster was likely, Madara could make another grab for it, and this way they were able to contain it again C. This is all he could do for Kushina as he didn't save her in the first place.
*** But we know that the sealer doesn't have to die. Gaara's mother didn't seal Shukaku inside of him and yet she was the sacrifice. Why couldn't Minato have just used Kushina as the sacrifice? Under ordinary circumstances, I can absolutely understand why he wouldn't sacrifice his wife but since she wasn't going to survive ''anyway''...Can you just not use a dying sacrifice?
**** Normally, you would be right about the sealer not necessarily dying, but I believe the Shiki Fuujin, the jutsu Minato used requires the user to offer his/her soul in order to seal something away. Minato didn't die because he sealed the Kyuubi into Naruto. He died because he sealed half of it into ''himself'' using Shiki Fuujin. Of course, he used another jutsu on Naruto, that's why he didn't die. This way, half of the Kyuubi could never, ever return, so in the long run it is better than the whole Kyuubi returning at a later date, and Naruto has to deal with a weaker Kyuubi as a Jinchuuriki. Still, the greatest shinobi died, but Minato believed that Naruto would surpass him.
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!!Gaara
* There is one man who is (mostly) single-handedly responsible for Gaara growing up a murderous psychopath like he is. Yashamaru. Okay, so Gaara's birth killed his sister. Whom he loved. WAS IT GAARA'S CHOICE?? NO!! Why doesn't he go and hate the Kazekage, who made the choice to seal the Shukaku inside his son? Moreover, if he just hated Gaara to the point that he would agree to assassinate him, fine. He should have told Gaara that it was the Kazekage's orders, pulled out his exploding tags, and died. What is the POINT of traumatizing the poor six-year-old even further by telling him that he hated him all along? Didn't Yashamaru even consider the fact that it has no function except to make this already suicidal kid even more dangerous? People really shouldn't burden young children with such disturbing facts. This is further proved by Naruto, who grew up isolated and not knowing the truth but kind in general, as opposed to Gaara knowing everything and going psycho because of it.
** The way this lurker sees it, Yashamaru also hated the Kazekage for it, but wouldn't dare attack him because he's the Kazekage. So, he aims to cause as much trouble for the man as possible, along with displaying his sister's hatred of the village in possibly destroying it via her son, since Karura hated Suna too. Plus Gaara wasn't exactly stable from the beginning with the insomnia and all - you ever tried keeping a toddler awake? He'd have snapped pretty soon anyway, be it from the rest of the village, or his father telling him what Yashamaru said afterwards.
** Gaara: Daddy, why did Yashamaru just try to blow me up?!
** Kaze-Daddy: Because he hated you, I hate you, your mother hated you and so does Suna, and you mean nothing to anyone. I told him to btw. Bye bye!
** Actually Yashamaru was ''forced'' by Gaara's father to say those horrible things. He made him do it to see if Gaara could handle the trama and control the Shukaku. He sure ain't gonna win the father of the year award!
** Yashamaru clearly wasn't actually supposed to succeed in killing Gaara. Gaara was powerful, but even years later at the Chunin Exams he was far from invincible. Note how when Guy jumped in to protect Lee, he casually swatted Gaara's sand away as if it were as dangerous as a gnat. If the Kazekage had really wanted Gaara dead, he would've sent Baki or just done it himself.
* In the explain-Gaara's-background-in-mid-fight-flashbacks during the Chuunin Exam arc, a big deal was made of Gaara not knowing what pain was (because the sand protected him from injury). So did he never think to bite his tongue? It HURTS. One hopes the sand doesn't get inside his mouth, too. And even if it does, what about stomach-ache? He's six, for crying out loud!
** Gaara never saw his own blood, it was never about pain, even though he won Lee beat him up pretty good, but that brings the question as to what the hell is the love for oneself kanji on his forehead? I thought it was a scar, is it made of sand or what?
* Gaara oddly underuses his own powers. He bizarrely uses his sand as a bludgeoning tools of sorts, instead of taking advantage of that it flowing and abrasive. For instance, he shouldn't have had all that trouble with Kimimaro. He might have been a tough nut to crack, but all Gaara had to do was to stuff sand into every orifice and wait for him to suffocate. He never thinks of using it for blinding his opponents or hurting them with the friction.
** Most likely the way he uses his powers was simply the first thing that came to mind and he saw little reason to change it over the years. Gaara is heavily implied in Part 1 to be completely untouchable with Rock Lee being the first person to push him and he ultimately won that fight. He eventually lost to Naruto (and came damn close with Kimmimaru) but presumably he had to go through some extra fights on his way to becoming Kage since all the Kage are the most powerful ninja in their respective villages save Tsunade and possibly the Raikage. He only lost to Deidera because he was focused on protecting the villagers. If he'd been trying to kill Deidera and ignoring the collateral damage that fight would have gone differently. I think it's a case of if it ain't broke and it ain't broke.
* I know that Gaara's mother said that he was really small but the picture of baby Gaara being maybe a fourth the size of her ''head'' is absolutely ridiculous.
** It's mentioned (or at least heavily implied) in the chapter that Gaara was a premature birth. Premature births really can be that small, though I imagine the perspective makes baby Gaara look even smaller than he should be.
* Regarding the Ret-con if both The Yondaime and Kurara loved Gaara why would they name a child a self loving carnage?. I could see the KazeKage doing it in a fit of rage at having lost his wife but if so it's never mentioned that he did so
----
!!Raikage
* Sorry if this has been answered already but the current Raikage,is he the one who was in office when Cloud tried to kidnap Hinata for the byakugan,I know that they guy who was killed was a leader but I thought that hat meant a general for the ninja on the field not kage, and I remember Yamato said something about Kohona's sacrifices for you when talking to the current Raikage but I couldn't tell if it was you as in Cloud or specifically him?
** This Trpoer thinks it's the same one, but isn't sure.
** Really, it's never been addressed. Certain statements imply that he was Raikage at the time, but it's never been outright stated. Ultimately, it's probably not going to be addressed within the story itself, but I wouldn't be surprised if it shows up [[AllThereInTheManual in a databook or something]] eventually.
** It's possible, because he seems to remember it, and the Tsuchikage calls him out for amassing jutsus in peacetime (which might explain the attempt to get the Byakugan).
** The trailer for the next episode says that he was in charge when it occured, but whether thats canon or not is unkown, my guess is yes
*** Well even so, the Raikage before him was his father.
**** Pretty much confirmed now, since we've seen Minato fought him and referred to him as the Raikage
* Raikage cut off his hand. Doesn't that mean he can't perform ninjutsu anymore? He's more of a Taijutsu person, but he doesn't seem to care in the least. Then again, he is the only one Killer Bee ever listens to. But it still bugs me.
** There have been instances where people could manage without having their hands free. Jiraiya can make barriers, for instance. He could always get a new arm grafted onto the stump.
** Haku did most of his jutsus with one hand.
*** The Raikage uses a lightning punch on some falling debris after losing his arm, so his lightning technique is not dependent on handsigns.
* Chapter 451: I am going to ignore the major plot points and pick this little quirk; why the hell did the Raikage send "two" messages? What was the point of sending Samui and co, when an eagle could (and did) also deliver the message? And why the hell did the two messages reach at the same time? I thought the birds were much faster, otherwise, what's the point of using them?
** The bird's message was about the emergency meeting of the Kages. The team's message was about Sasuke. Incidentally, the bird was probably confused by the obliteration of his destination. Either that, or the Konoha birdmen only just check their b-mail.
*** The team was also sent to retrieve information about Sasuke and bring it back to the Raikage, which would necessitate sending ninjas out.



----
!!Orochimaru
* Is Orochimaru really dead?
** Given how we're not definitely told whether Sasuke managed to kill him before he completed the soul transfer, just given strong hints, the possibility of an "Orochimaru all along" reveal is strong.
** There's also Kabuto, whose body is being taken over by the piece of Orochimaru he implanted into himself. Not quite the same -- you'd be left with a copy with Kabuto's memories of ol' Snakey; natural ability only; none of the thousands of jutsus he's supposed to have learned.
*** And yeah,I thought that was strange and out of character for Kabuto too.
** The way i see it, Orohimaru is dead, his power and personality are infecting Kabuto, his abilities have been absorbed by Sauske.
*** I'm betting on alive. Look at the fifth panel [[http://www.onemanga.com/Naruto/393/ here]] to see the snake slithering away.
**** And then [[http://www.onemanga.com/Naruto/394/03/ burning alive]]...
*** While there hasn't been an update on Kabuto!Maru, Sasuke!Maru is definitely dead. At least he died by one of the few techniques that he couldn't master.
**** As of the Shinobi World War arc Orochimaru is now indeed alive and well and supposedly stronger than ever. ''Perhaps'' we will finally see him return to being the main Big Bad again although from what we've seen of him over the years it is highly doubtful he would be able to fight either Tobi or Naruto at this point unless he finally achieves his dream of obtaining a powerful Kekkai Genkai.
* Why didn't Orochimaru just have his arms amputated after Tsunade refused to heal them? They were causing him intense pain and he couldn't use them anyways.
** Better question. Why'd his arms start working when he got a new body? His arms weren't broken or decayed like his body, they were spirit sealed by the Third Hokage.
*** Good question; in my opinion a new body gives Orochimaru the ability to hijack the chakra network of his victim's arms in a similar way to Sasori's human puppets allowing him to use jutsu even with his arms sealed inside the Shinigami. We see in the Shinobi World War arc however that now he has been returned to his original body he has lost the use of his arms again - until he murdered the Shinigami and got them back of course.
* Why did Orochimaru train Sasuke instead of just taking over straight away? he didn't need to have a body that can control the curse seal completely and the few extra techniques he would've obtained are just ranged versions of the chidori, doesn't seem worth it.
** He couldn't take over straight away, not anymore. Living Corpse Reincarnation can only be used once every three years and Orochimaru's decaying body forced him to perform the technique before Sasuke's late arrival, so he had no choice other than wait three more years and Sasuke would rebel if he didn't train him during said time.
* What exactly is Orochimaru's end goal? What is he trying to accomplish by learning every jutsu? His motives and goals have never been clearly defined. When he was the big bad we only got vague statements like "I want to learn all the world's secrets" and "I want to become the ultimate being". Imagine if all Tobi said about his goals was "I want to achieve a complete form" and we never received any elaboration for what that means. That's how ill-defined Orochimaru's goals have been. After he was written out of the big bad role in part 2 he was given a freudian excuse of wanting to see his dead parents again but it's implied that he lost sight of that a while ago. So what was Orochimaru planning to do with all that knowledge and power once he obtained it? (Even taking into account his recent revival and the fact that his plans seem to have changed, we've still only gotten vague statements about what he intends to do.)

----
!!Kabuto
* What the hell is going on with Kabuto anyway? Who is he loyal to, if anyone?
** Kabuto is a villageless assassin who became loyal to Sasori of the red sands, Sasori is shown to have a number of mind control Jitsu so that's how he did that. He was placed as a mole within Orohimaru's sound village and quickly fell into the same thrall most of Orochimaru's servants are. At some point Sasori's mind control technique was discovered and removed leaving him loyal to Orochimaru, but more of a man loyal to his god than a military sense. When Orochimaru died (who Kabuto sees as a god) he went a little [[Main/FreakOut skits]] and absorbed what was left of him, initially to try and revive/preserve him he then (as he told Naruto) found himself (to his own surprise) wanting to preserve his own personality rather than roll over and let Orochimaru come back. In short he was loyal to Orochimaru until the point where his own personality was at stake, and his survival instincts kicked in. Combine 1- a parasitic entity of pure malice and power 2- having lost the only man he was ever loyal to and worshipped as a god and 3- years and years of performing really messed up human experiments Kabuto is now utterly nuts and loyal to no-one.
*** Yeah, but in the first series Orochimaru implies that Kabuto isn't completely loyal to him (when he sends him to retrieve Sasuke after the chunin exam preliminaries). As far as I know, this occurs after Orochimaru breaks Sasori's mind-control, so...
**** When Orochimaru's arms were paralyzed after the fight with the Third Hokage, ''someone'' had to wipe his rear for him. Chances are it was Kabuto. ''That'' certainly could've strained his loyalty...
***** The suspicion was due to him initially being a spy for Sasori, and a villageless spy who had no home and thus no true loyalties, and while it was unfounded, Orochimaru did know of a reason why Kabuto might betray him.
***** Incorrect. Kabuto was under the control of Sasori. The same jutsu he used at Gaara's village to get in. Once the jutsu was broken there was no reason to suspect him of being anything but loyal.

* Kabuto does a mass summoning of dead people which irritates my suspenion of disbelief. There should be some drawback behind jutsu violating the laws of nature.
** Um...it does have at least three drawbacks. The first is that the target has to be dead first, the second being the target's soul has to be accessible, and the third is that it kills whomever gets turned into the formerly dead person. Also, Kabuto mentioned he was more skilled with the jutsu than Orochimaru (Possibly because he's a Medic-nin) and that may relate to being able to summon more. Honestly, I had been complaining that Orochimaru hadn't done just this. $5 says Jiraiya will appear for Naruto to angst over.
** Well they just spent a chapter explaining it, and it seems like the only drawback is the amount of chakra needed to fully control someone. Seems like Kabuto just skipped over that with some handy-dandy brain control talismans though. On the other hand, Sasori and Sai's brother died again when their souls were at peace, so I guess there's some drawback even Kabuto doesn't know. Also, they discussed bringinf Jiraiya back and noted it was unlikely (unless we assume Pain's paths never bothered cleaning).
*** The problem with the explanation given is that Kabuto is demonstably smarter than that. He needs their DNA not their body. If you read chapter 520 where the edo tensai is described he's heavily insinuating that the DNA from the weapons of the Peins have enough DNA to bring back Danzo. Unless the first step cannot be taken until the person is dead he should have one of those contracts for every worthwhile ninja he ever fought. On the flip side if he didn't collect the majority of his DNA like this then his collection makes no sense.
**** Of course they need to be dead first. Their soul is summoned from wherever it is once they die (including inside of a Shinigami it looks like as Sarutobi had to actively work to stop Minato returning, he wasn't ruled out because he was stuck somewhere) and it can't be summoned from their living bodies.
***** Why would they need to be dead before you collected the DNA? That's like saying someone needs to be dead before they write a will because you can't execute a will while the person is alive. If they have to be dead before you can get the DNA then some like Deidera make NO sense at all. Nor does Sasori.
** Also, all of this is assuming that Kabuto was telling Madara the truth, and seeing how he knows that Madara is probably planning on backstabbing him and using the jutsu himself, Kabuto probably just neglected to mention a drawback or two in the hopes that those drawbacks would get Madara killed if his own double cross was unsuccessful.
** There is a very major drawback: Itachi. Or, to be more precise, if someone is able to override Kabuto's control over one of the summons, and turn them against him by genjutsu, Kabuto's screwed.
* When Kabuto finds himself in a confrontation with Sasuke and Itachi why doesn't he simply unsummon Itachi? It seems to me that even if you are the baddest man on the planet (and he very well may be) going two on one when all it takes is a snap of your fingers to make it one on one is stupid.
** Either Kabuto cannot unsummon Itachi because he cannot control him anymore, but that would mean that it is unclear how Itachi would finally be able to return to the afterlife, or he's summoned too many ninjas and if he unsummoned one, all the others would disappear, but this is just speculation on my part. I believe Kabuto's not stupid enough to let Itachi be summoned if he can unsummon him. Personally though, I'd prefer the first solution.
** Given how badly Kabuto is showing them up, unsummoning Itachi really wasn't necessary.
** When Kabuto does finally undo the jutsu, all the Edo Tensai vanish. Most likely, he couldn't unsummon just one.
* What stopped Kabuto from resurrecting Yahiko? If he could get Nagato, then it means he knew where Nagato was buried. Yahiko is right next to Nagato. I'd imagine that someone able to fight Hanzo and decimate his forces, and the founder of the Akatsuki, would be notable enough to bring back. Did he just not feel like it?
** He already had Nagato before Obito went to retrieve the Rinnegan so he probably found DNA from near Konoha, and Nagato was the one who killed Hanzo and his forces so reviving Yahiko didn't serve any purpose.
*** Good point. I'm impressed anyone noticed this question at all too.
* While it's always possible that Oorichimaru was lying to Kabuto his claim that ROOT wanted to kill Kabuto and Mother jives well with what we know about Danzo's behavior. So I believe Oorochimaru's claim. Kabuto also claims to have been a member of a Leaf Village orphanage and well known spy which sounds accurate. How exactly did someone of his level of notoriety infiltrate the Chunin Exams under his "real" name no less?! Are we really supposed to believe that none of the Sarutobi and all the Jonin and ANBU present couldn't recognize him on the spot?! I assume Oorochimaru reported him dead back while he was still loyal but that doesn't explain how nobody questioned a kid with the same name, similar appearance and age unless we're to believe he reported to nobody.
** He was working directly for Root, there's no reason that any regular ANBU would recognise him by appearance and the only people that would expect him to be dead would be Root, everyone else would have to go off official records which would show that he's alive and the adopted son of Nono. It seems like he only became an official ninja of Konoha after Orochimaru recruited him.
*** It's said at the Chunin Exams that Kabuto has taken the exams an unspecified number of times. Enough times that when he drops out before the prelims that a few of the Jonin act like they expect it. Which is fine like the above says if he worked directly for ROOT then it's plausible regular ANBU wouldn't recognize him. However where is Danzo? I also agree with the original question that it seems a little far fetched that only Danzo and Orochimaru would be able to identify Kabuto on sight.
**** It does seem a bit weird that nobody would be able to identify him but it is a big village and he probably would try to keep hidden as much as possible since he was a spy for Orochimaru, Danzo and ROOT might've had good reason to leave him alone, Danzo still had some sort of working arrangement with Orochimaru even after Orochimaru had to flee the village as he received Hashirama's cells at some point despite Orochimaru being a traitor, Kabuto being left alone being one of the conditions.
----
!!Tobi (Obito)
* When Tobi and Naruto talk, Naruto says that Tobi doesn't really care about peace. Tobi confirms this and says he's right, his real goal is a complete body. Which makes sense because half his body was crushed. But after that it's never mentioned again and it's revealed that Tobi's real goal, is, actually, a (fake) peace. What happened to the body thing?
** He just doesn't care anymore.
** Tobi is a filthy liar who lies, repeatedly, for years at a time. He may have never wanted a whole body, or perhaps he considers the illusory one he'll have in the Eternal Tsukiyomi to be good enough.
* WHO THE HECK IS TOBI?!
** Obito
* So Obito has basically been spamming his MS throughout the entire series up to this point. How has he not gone blind since that is his only visible eye before the rinnegan?
** Senju DNA, probably. Itachi mentioned that Senju DNA would allow someone to use Kotoamatsukami on a regular basis (even though it can usually only be used once every 10 years) so it's not surprising that it would also let Obito use Kamui often without going blind.
** His Mangekyo is different from the others. Kakashi hasn't gone blind either, so Kamui likely doesn't have that drawback.
* How did Shikaku (Shikamaru's dad, not the One-Tailed Beast) know Obito's intangibility only lasted five minutes in Chapter 612 if Konan was the first and only person to figure it out?
** Like his son, Shikaku is very smart and good at observing people in combat. I suspect that the intangibility Jutsu doesn't actually last for five solid minutes normally, it's probably similar to Deva Pein's rejection attraction jutsu where it's x amount of time for done in short bursts and x amount after a large burst and somehow Shikaku did the math. It doesn't really make sense that Konan figured it out either seeing how they don't seem to have traveled much together and judging by the damage that was done to Obito if Konan had simply decided to play things safe and make enough paper bombs for six minutes we wouldn't be having this problem right now.
* If Obito's main goal is to bring Rin back at any cost, couldn't he have forced Kabuto to go find any remains of Rin and revive her using Edotensei? If it proved impossible even for Kabuto (and the man's a master at finding ninja remains), there ought to have been some mention of it. It would be an order of magnitude or two easier, at the very least, than casting a planet-wide genjutsu, and this Rin would be an actual physical person with her own sentience rather than an illusion. Then again, Kabuto DID have that trump card of [[spoiler:Madara]]. Actually, [[spoiler:as the Three-Tails's most recent jinchuriki, shouldn't Kabuto have chosen Rin to resurrect back instead of Yagura]]?
** Yagura was the more recent jinchuriki, as he was under Obito's control while he was Mizukage.
*** You are absolutely right. It doesn't explain why someone can't just bring back Rin using Edotensei though. (With Kabuto incapacitated, it's up to Tobirama.) The best possible explanation I can think of is that Edotensei Rin is not a living, breathing being, but a zombie, but she would still look just like Rin (only with the weird eyes) and have Rin's soul, memories, and abilities. We ought to at least have had some mention by Obito of not being satisfied with this Rin, or that it doesn't change the fact that Kakashi killed Rin, or something.
** Obito's goal isn't to have Rin back. It's to live in a perfect world with Rin. There is an important difference here. The Edo Tensai in addition to bringing people back visibly wrong (and it wouldn't shock me at all to find out there are other physical differences that you'd notice if you tried to. . .become involved the former Hokage seem be the only people who aren't royally pissed about being brought back from the dead. While it would have been nice to have it confirmed it wouldn't shock me to find out that Obito did just that (or had Oorochimaru do it) and Rin was less than pleased with being a monster. Or alternatively he's just smart enough to know that's how she'd react. Or a final possibility, he hadn't heard of the Edo Tensai at that point and by the time he was aware of that technique there wasn't enough of her left to revive which admittedly sounds unlikely.
** It's like this...Obito is completely convinced that the world is shit. He does not want to bring Rin back into a shit world where she could very easily be killed again. He wants to live with Rin in a world that isn't shit, hence the MEP. Obito's problem isn't just that Rin is dead, it's with the world that led to her being killed.
** Also wasn't Obito at least a little disgusted by Kabuto's use of the Edo Tensei? Not to the point of him rejecting it for the sake of the war of course, but I'm certain he would of probably abandoned the plan all together rather then defile Rins body and soul, and even if he was okay with Rin being brought back in such a way, how in the seven hells would he be able to explain that to Kabuto? "Bring this random Chunin back that is not exceptional in any way so she can keep me company during the war." Because even if Kabuto knew who Rin was and her connection to Kakashi, he'd probably be smart enough to ask about bringing Obito back, which Obito wouldn't be able to explain how and why it's impossible to do without letting Kabuto know exactly who he was.
----
!!The Demon Brothers
* Am I seriously supposed to believe that the Demon Brothers were good enough to make Chuunin, and Kirigakure Chuunin at that? They got shamed by ''pre-Sharingan'' Sasuke, and they were idiot enough to use a puddle for disguise on a hot day. Have Kirigakure's standards dropped since Zabuza left?
** Well, considering that Zabuza killed all the other potential kids, they were probably short staffed and had to keep up with lower ranked missions somehow - would you put ANBU on C-Ranks? As a result, ninja who shouldn't make the cut do. That or the Chunin exam for their year group was much easier then usual.
** Keep in mind that the Chuunin Exams we saw had the toughest batch of candidates in the last 4 years (at least) and of these we focused on the top 21. And among these particapats Sasuke was baffling everyone with his skill without the use of Sharingan or any Ninjutsu. Sasuke was already at the top of the Rookie Nine before Sharingan so relatively it's not so bad.
** The Brothers recovered from Sasuke "shaming" them like bosses, and would have accomplished their goal with very little trouble were it not for Kakashi stepping in again.
* Is it just me, or is the Fourth appearing in Naruto's mind remind this troper of Peter's battle against the Symbiode in The Spectacular Spiderman, when Uncle Ben appears in his mind?
** This kind of thing is pretty common in a JourneyToTheCenterOfTheMind. The key difference though, is that that Ben was a manifestation of Peter's memories, but the Minato that is appearing her is some remnant of his mind/soul the actual person left behind as Naruto has no memory of him and he's stated that he was always there as part of the seal and was happy to meet his son.
*** This troper is pretty sure that the Minato seen there is the real one, and that his soul was sealed with the Kyuubi's.
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!!Madara Uchiha
* Madara Uchiha...is it a guy's name, or is it just a title given to the most fearsome Uchiha?
** If I remeber correctly it was the first Uchihas name so its a guys name.
* What exactly are the rules for the transplant of a siblings Sharingan work? Does it have to be a Mangekyo Sharingan to restore your vision? Also why did Izuna need to go blind to save Madara's eyesight? Couldn't they just swap eyes?
** They wouldn't have known about the Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan until Madara recovered enough to notice a difference. From Izuna's point of view, they would have just been useless, blind eyes. By the time they figured it out, Madara's eyes might have already rotted.
** Maybe they did!
** I always assumed that transplanting another Mangekyo gave you immortality/powers like Madara's, but transplanting a regular Sharingan just made your own Mangekyo permanent.
** They couldn't have swapped eyes, because it seems that the two pairs of eyes are somehow fused when transplanted or something like that seeing as the Eternal Mangekyou's pattern is a mixture of the siblings' sharingan pattern, which means only one of the siblings end up with the new, "combined" sharingan, the other is left without eyes. I think that Izuna didn't lose his ''sight''; he lost his ''eyes''. So it's not as much restoring sight than creating new eyes with better sight, I think. I also think that it has to be a Mangekyou Sharingan, because a regular sharingan wouldn't change the pattern, and stopping the Mangekyou's sealing itself has something to do with the new pattern in my opinion, and it has to be a sibling's, because I think the others are incompatible.
** As it turns out, Izuna died prior to Madara taking his eyes, much like Itachi, so the issue of dual transplants hasn't come up yet.
----
!!Kisame
* Manga Chapter #522: The Seven Swordsman of The Mist. Where is Kisame?
** Kisame died within the past few hours. and Kabuto wouldn't have had time or know about his death to do anything about it. also These are the previous SSS of the mist,probably from the Yondaime Kazekage's rule before Kisame had taken his predecessor's position.
* Woah-kay. So Kisame and Zabuza are of different generations? Regardless, why does Zabuza have his sword...while Samehada is nowhere to be seen? Plus, it's not some mystic soul-copy of Zabuza's sword...it's missing the half that got sliced off by whoever when Suigetsu was using it.
** Yes, Kisame and Zabuza are of different generations in the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist, it has nothing to do with age. Given the apparent [[KlingonPromotion way a member is promoted to the group]], all this means is that Zabuza probably killed his predecessor before Kisame offed his. Also Samehada is currently with Killer Bee, while Suigetsu lost track of Zabuza's sword when the samurai took it from him.
** Does anyone else think that some of the sword designs are hilarious? I mean, a needle and thread? A bunch of explosives on a stick?
** This troper thinks that Nuibari is one of Kishi's best ideas.
*** You know how long the NightmareFuel page for Naruto is? This troper can honestly say that throughout the entire series, the Nuibari is the ''only'' thing he has found genuiely scary.
----
!!Kyuubi
* Wow, in recent chapters, compared to the other Tailed Beasts, the Kyuubi is friggin' weak. He's been defeated and sealed away ''three'' times, he can't handle a couple of measly rouge ninja, and his chakra has been split in half, more of it being spread throughout the air or implanted into other people, and even more taken away by Naruto when he defeated him, nearly reducing him to his 8-tailed state.
** Well, literally ''all the other beasts'' were imprisoned too, implying that they've gotten their asses kicked just as much as Kyuubi. Hachibi in particular was taken down multiple times by a bunch of ordinary shinobi using ''chains''. And i'm sorry, but Kyuubi went down '''easily?''' When?
** Also, the whole "Getting his chakra stolen" thing might be connected to him being weaker than he should be... And at any rate, it's possible that, as the strongest bijuu, the Kyuubi merely attracted more opponents strong enough to defeat him than any of the other tailed beasts did.
* When you look at the size of Kyuubi's paw print and the size of its paw during Kushina's flash back, after Minato uses the Dead Demon -seal Kyuubi's paw is actually over five times smaller than the print. That is a lot of power lost. And it is lost permanently, which is what Minato says. The Death God -summoning seems to be used to permanently consume things and make them unrecoverable, nothing more. Minato then sealed what remained with an 8-point seal and a 4 -element seal into Naruto. That fact alone should actually prove the undoing of Tobi's plan to revive the Juubi since the Kyuubi is incomplete and a large part of it can't be recovered. Unless of course the Kyuubi has somehow siphoned Naruto's own power to rebuild its reserves, but that seems unlikely as it is still so small.
** It is actually implied he doesn't need the Kyuubi as a whole. When he retrieved Kinkaku and Ginkaku he said he was going to use them to fuel his plan, only for Kabuto to say he had so few of Hachibi's reserves for his plan. I presume he can revive the Juubi with only a fraction of the Bijuus, but the Hachibi portion he has (only one tentacle) is just that small for it to work properly. By the way, feeding himself with Naruto's chakra reserves could really replinish its powers, it recovered quickly from the drained state Naruto left his body this way, so it may not be lost forever, Tobi could find a way to buff it again.
* About the sealed away Chakra: So, is Kyuubi now twice less strong than he used to be? Half of his chakra is just gone? I didn't quite get it. Only half was sealed in Naruto, and Kyuubi is still much stronger than the other tailed beasts, is that right? Oh, and about Naruto's vast chakra reserves: are they just the leaked chakra from kyuubi, a small part of the halved kyuubi chakra, or does he have his own, big(for a human) reserves of it?
** Not sure if the nine tails is weaker, but naruto's chakra reserves are mostly his, but some of the nine tail's chakra leaks out of the seal and has been expanding his chakra reserves since he was born, which is why he had so much energy before even graduating the ninja academy and expanding his chakra reserves even more by training like everyone else has to.

----
!!Kakuzu

* How is Kakuzu still the same person after replacing his heart? Wasn't the whole idea of Sasori's puppet body that his heart was the center of his consciousness?
** Sasori's technique is different from Kakuzu's, so it also works differently. Sasori didn't have a heart in a sense Kakuzu had many, since Kakuzu's hearts are the pumping kind of heart real people have which has absolutely no impact on his personality whatsoever, while Sasori had something that was more of a bundle containing his personality or essence or whatever in the same place where one's heart should be. It also looked nothing like a heart, so I think we should assume it didn't really work like a heart; remember, he was no longer a living person, so he didn't need to have a heart to pump his nonexistent blood. Kakuzu's personality, on the other hand, was stored in his mind, since he was still something considered a living being, just with the ability to assimilate multiple hearts in his body. It's not the "bundle" Sasori made out of his "essence" or whatever.
* There's one thing I never understood about Kakuzu's power. When he absorbs the heart, is it turned into the mask, and then reverts back when it becomes his main heart, or is it stored in the mask and the mask provides an outlet for the chakra?
* So Kakuzu had 5 hearts, and to kill him, you needed to kill each one... why was that the only option? Wouldn't have been smarter to kill him some other way, instead of attempting it in the only way that would require them to pull it off successfully 5 times? Why didn't they just lop off his head and call it a day, for example?
** Judging by the fact that he was completely capable of detaching his hand to remove Shikamaru's chakra blade (iirc), I'd guess that he probably could find a way to do the same thing with his head. Also, they needed an excuse for Naruto to jump in with Rasenshuriken.
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!!Hidan
* Is it ever explained how or why Hidan can't seem to be killed? Or if he can be killed? This troper recalls several times in the series it is said there is no true immortality, but unless missing something, Hidan defies that. The only explanation I've seen was his religion gave him the power, which seemed like an obvious lie by Hidan.
** Not really, seems more like some sort of super-secret jutsu from his weird evil cult. It's probably not known outside of said cult and may not prevent death by disease or old age, only from wound.
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!!Pain/Pein
* Why does Pain feel the need to collect the tailed beasts for WMD purposes if he already has the power to destroy a several-mile area on his own?
** It shortens his lifespan.
** And because he want's people to nuke themselves after he's gone so there can be long periods of peace.
** He's also stated that the weapon he plans to make with the tailed beasts is much, much bigger; like capable of devastating a ''country'' with one shot. I guess 'just' destroying one city at a time wouldn't frighten people enough.
*** It's possible that he can use more chakra from the tailed beasts, and thus make a stronger jutsu, or maybe make some variant of the beam that the Kyuubi and Hachibi use.
*** It has been shown that a Combined Tailed Beast Bomb is capable of destroying an area the size of a large city (chapter 572), or even the size of Rhode Island (chapter 609), without severely crippling the tailed beasts making it. The Juubi, on the other hand, is an entirely different level of power, greater than what Pain predicted.
* Chapter 407- Dammit, how did Pain get all six bodies back? The code obviously has something to do with "the six faces of Pain" or whatever, but it looks like they won't get a chance to really use it. I must say I'm pleased that Shikamaru's back. His presence has actually made me look forward to reading this again.
** Maybe he has several reserve bodies, but he can only control six of them at a time.
** It's explicitly shown that one of his bodies has the ability to resurrect the others. Which, in retrospect, we probably should have taken as foreshadowing.

* Okay... so Pain relies on Naruto to complete his plan on making a WMD. If that's the case, why did he enrage him by hurting Hinata? To prove a point? Okay, but he can't really accomplish his plans if he's dead. He's going to let himself be killed by the key component to his plan just to prove a point?
** Did Pein realize that Naruto would freak out that badly when he attacked Hinata?
** A tailed beast is easier to catch than a Jinchuuriki, though Pain probably didn't have it on his mind when Naruto was already pinned down.
** Yes, Pain wanted to prove a point. He wanted to teach Naruto pain like he had the rest of the Leaf. After being basically untouchable since winning the SuperpowerLottery, he just didn't consider that the Kyuubi would be a problem.
----
!!Deidara
* If Deidara tried to eat M&M's with his hand-mouths, would they melt?
** OK, wow. I just got a mental image of a one man Lady and the Tramp Spaghetti Scene.
*** I don't think Deidara can eat with his hand-mouths. Two reasons - that would mean throats in his arms, which if nothing else would make moving them and reattaching them more difficult, and it's been shown at least twice that he has to chew and swallow clay with his actual mouth (or the other one) to absorb the propeties of the exploding chakra into his body. And M&Ms melt in your mouth anyway, so isn't that kinda moot?
*** Guys, [[NightmareFuel Accidental Nightmare Fuel]] much?
** It would be like dividing by zero and everything would expl- wait... !?
* Is Deidara still alive? I mean, he wasn't killed in the Black Ant/Black Crow Puppet Dance of Death Iron Maiden thing, but Sasori was .. disentegrated from the event (due to his soul finally resting in peace and blah blah blah). He didn't die right? But where is he?
** Probably trapped like most of the other zombies who haven't been mentioned in a while.
----
!! The Tailed Beasts
Is there any explanation for the way they acted historically? Now that we've seen all nine in the past were an adorable family who loved the Sage of Six Paths very much and they've also shown that they are sentient beings not wild animals spirits I don't understand what started the negative relationship between the various villages and the beasts. They're so insanely powerful that aside from one family (that we know of, the other 8 beasts were wrangled somehow) that the idea that this started with human aggression sounds off. I simply don't buy that Son Goku was just walking around minding his own business and then BAM a bunch of humans thought it was a good idea to pick a fight with him. Since they have the ability to communicate it makes more sense that the ancient ninjas would have treated the 9 beasts the same way they treat the Toads or the Snakes. If the tailed beasts were the ones that started it then the question is why? Did they just get bored? Did they accidentally destroy something? The way the Nine Tails is depicted I can easily see how he might be walking through the forest and wreck a small settlement without even seeing it.
* People fear power, and these tailed beasts had enormous amounts of power. Not only was there fear and hatred of them, but certain people tried to use their power for personal gain. After all the abuse, it's likely that they (''especially'' Kurama) believe that the Sage's efforts to save the world from the Juubi was in vain, and in turn, despise humans in general. Without a doubt, Kurama's largest source of hatred and anger is Madara, since he used the Sharingan to control Kurama and use him as a weapon. It's also likely that the reason that the tailed beasts befriended Naruto is that he restored their faith in humanity, that he most resembled the Six Paths himself, in terms of his pure heart and relentless determination.

----
!! More Tobi and Akatsuki
* So Obito was pretending to be Madara and secretly led Akatsuki while pretending to be Tobi the new Akatsuki recruit. His plan is also to cast a genjutsu with the moon or some other such non-sense while pretending that the plan is to create a nukejutsu and intimidate everyone into peace while pretending that the plan is to create another mercenary organisation and secretly start war. Why the pointlessly complex ruse? The pretending to be Tobi part is especially confusing since all he did after openly joining Akatsuki was somewhat assist Deidara in capturing a tailed beast and troll him a bunch.
** Well, to ease things a little, the "nukejutsu" part was actually ''Pain's'' idea, not Tobi's, and the "mercenary organization" bit was the plan that Pain presented to the other members.
** Kakashi guesses that Obito spent much of that time trying to decide if he really wanted to go through with the plan while still laying the groundwork in case he decided he did. Him acting as Tobi lets him openly interact with Akatsuki, who are needed for capturing and sealing the tailed beasts.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Specific Clans or Villages]]
!!The Uchiha Clan
* Didn't it state early on in the series that the Sharingan was an offshoot of the byakugan? Now it's the main offshoot of the Renegan? Was the dub mistranslated or was it retconned?
** That was an in-universe belief that Kakashi mentioned which he didn't seem particularly convinced about it, it was not confirmed by WordOfGod and isn't a Retcon.
** It has since been revealed that the Sage of Six Path's mother had the Byakugan, as did his younger brother(who is presumably the original ancestor of the Hyuugas) . So the Rinnegan is an offshoot of the Byakugan, and the Sharingan is an offshoot/laval state of the Rinnegan. It could be speculated that the Sage's Rinnegan was in fact a mutation of his Byakugan caused by the Ten Tails' chakra, either due to his mothers status as it's jinchuriki during pregnancy or because of his own time as it's Jinchuriki.
*** It's still not an offshoot as it's been made clear that the Rinnegan is a diluted version of Kaguya's third eye, while the Byakugan eyes were passed down to his brother.
* When the Uchiha clan was massacred, how come none of the other clans seemed particularly concerned about it? I mean, this is a major event and yet no one seemed to want to do any investigation on it and it's not even really mentioned by anyone but Sasuke?'
** The Uchiha clan was respected, but it was never very politically loved. There was a reason it was segregated, after all. The other clans probably shrugged it off, besides which everybody thought Itachi did it.
*** In a scene after the massacre, two classmates are seen talking about it. It's likely that the clans were concerned about it, but there wasn't anyone able to go up against an S-class criminal.
* Why did only three members of the clan think Shisui's death wasn't a suicide? His corpse was missing an arm and both eyes!
** The scene in which the three men confront Itachi is set right after Shisui dies, so it's likely that they came straight to the suspect before anyone else even knew. And, as Itachi didn't seem to be very popular with his clan before the massacre, it's very likely that more people would suspect him once the word got out.
* The Izanami, or the reason behind its existence. It was created to deter Uchiha members from abusing the jutsu Izanagi (which can only be used once). Just how would the average Uchiha abuse Izanagi? Even if one were to ignore the prerequisite of having both Senju DNA and the Sharingan, the average Uchiha only has two eyes.
** Itachi said that Uchiha have been killing their siblings to obtain the Mangekyo ever since Madara unlocked his, so thats at least 2 times they could use Izanagi, more depending on how many siblings they had. Also Senju DNA isn't a prerequisite for Izanagi, Danzo needed it to support the chakra drain of having so many Sharingan implanted, not to use Izanagi.
* I've never followed Naruto and all I know about the series comes second hand, so clear something up for me. I've heard about how Uchihas are supposed to be prone to evil because they feel emotion more strongly than most people, and how most fans find that ridiculous. Tell me, if Uchihas are supposed to love so much and tragedy hits them particularly hard, then why are they so willing to turn on their friends? Shouldn't they value their companions more than the average person? Am I misunderstanding how that's supposed to work, or is that one of the reasons so many people think it's a badly written plot point?
** They don't explain it particularly well but given the evidence we have from the four Uchia we know much about Sasuke, Itachi, Obito and Madara it seems they take the death of those loved ones much deeper than most people. When they lose someone they care about they snap and snap hard. In fairness some of them aren't entirely irrational. In the case of Sasuke I can't pretend that if my government wiped out my family I wouldn't join a terrorist organization bent on destroying said government. Also given that you need to lose a loved one (metaphorically anyway) to activate the Sharingon and Sharingons were apparently quite common it's not like they all go nuts and attack their families. They are basically kinda bi-polar is how it seems to be described. The highs are supposed to be real high and the lows super low.

----
!!The Senju Clan
* Whatever happened to the Senju clan? From what we've seen, it most likely consists of a grand total of three people. The Shodaime, the Nidaime, and one of Tsunade's parent. I doubt they managed to completely die off in less than three generations, and you'd think that Tsunade would remember the murder of her entire clan. Which means that, essentially, that the Uchiha clan's greatest nemesis was three guys. And only one of them could use mokuton jutsu.
** [[http://www.onemanga.com/Naruto/399/06/ There were more than three guys.]] But yeah, it doesn't make sense that such a powerful and important clan would disappear in less than 80 years. Maybe Kishi will tell us what happened to them later.
** I thought what happened to the Senju clan was that after the village was founded they split apart and are the ancestors of Konoha's current clans besides the Uchiha (and probably most of the village, unless they allow immigration). Though you're 80 years is a pretty short time for that to happen. Perhaps they disbanded as a formal clan at some point for some as of yet unknown reason to simply become the citizens of the village (non-clan members like Sakura, Rock Lee, Tenten, and Naruto), and the non-Uchiha clans were pre-existing and choose to join the village for stabler lives. Or may some combination of the two.
*** Perhaps adding support to this we know that the Uzumaki clan was an offshoot of the Senju clan (the manga just says that they are related, but it also clearly calls Naruto a Senju, which could mean a few things, but probably means that the original Uzumakis and the Senju interbred to the point that all Uzumakis share Senju blood, though not the reverse).
** This troper always thought it was fairly obvious what happened to the Senju clan. The Senju and the Uchiha went to war over which was the greatest clan. Even though the Senju won, both sides probably suffered a great deal of casualties on both sides which lead to an extremely small remaining population. Couple this with the dangerous missions that shinobi are sent on and the fact that the Senju (being the strongest in the village) would be sent first to deal with the worst problems, means that the remaining clan members probably died in incredibly dangerous missions and in the various wars between the different countries. For another example just look at the Uchiha, they were also considered a great clan but there weren't that many left by the time Itachi comes around.
*** Which made his job that much easier.
** Alternately, if you take into account Tobi's assertion that the Senju clan started with the son of the Rikudo sage and he can see that the fire of the Senju clan dwells within Naruto (yet Naruto goes by Uzumaki Naruto rather than Senju Naruto), it's possible that the Senju clan is so numerous (due to being started so long ago) that there are so many Senju descendants that the name becomes fairly useless in differentiating families.
*** Wasn't it stated that somewhere that a lot of other clans actually joined up with the Senju? It's possible that the Senju clan was originally quite small, and was just joined by other clans that made it the massive force that it was, and when the village was established, the Clan seperated into it's smaller versions once more, like the Nara's and Inuzukas.
----
!!Hyuugas
* Is it ever explained why Neji keeps his right arm bandaged pre-timeskip?
* Does it seem odd that Hinata is the only Konoha 11 member besides Choji who has never spoken about the order to kill Sasuke? It might be interesting to see what her opinion is, as while she's not especially attached to Sasuke, she could have doubts about it due to it interfering with Naruto's personal quests, support it to take the burden off his shoulders (she intervenes against Pain despite his personally ordering everyone to stay out), or merely unconditionally support him and trust him to do what's best, and I wonder if her opinion on it is being saved for a future scene with Naruto.
** Well, I doubt she intends to just let Naruto get himself killed.
* Does it bother anyone else that 15-year-old Hinata has approximately half to one-fourth the power and skill of 13-year-old Neji? Of course, Neji is a genius, but this power gap is just ridiculous.
** Hinata lacks confidence and therefore has trouble progressing. Plus her dad appears to be exclusively training Neji and Hanabi, leaving her to Kurenai. Kurenai is a genjutsu specialist and the Hyuuga seem to solely use their own taijutsu, so that could explain some of the disconnect. And don't forget, Neji is outright stated to be one of the most naturally talented Hyuuga ever.
*** But... Eight Trigrams ''Thirty Two'' Palms... It's just ridiculous.
**** Wasn't that a filler jutsu?
**** I think they wanted to have her use the technique without going so far as to suggest that she learned it herself or was taught it by her father (which would mean he recognized her as heir, something that has not been officially stated in the manga yet, as Kou calls both her and Hanabi "-sama.")
*** Neji is THE most naturally talented Hyuuga, period. Also the official databooks have Hinata as ~4/5 of 14 year-old Neji's level whatever the fillers have to say about it.
*** According to the third databook, Hinata's skills grew significantly faster than Neji's did over the timeskip, to the point where she's smarter than he is and better at genjutsu (which could be because of Kurenai's training), compared to her unimpressive growth between "pre-chunin exam" and pre-timeskip, showing that she believes in herself and her hard work is paying off. There's also the issue that we don't have any "normal" Hyugas besides the "genius" Neji and the "failure" Hinata with whom to compare the two.
**** More than likely, the 4/5th part refers to skill and techniques, not total power. The Heavenly Spin and the Sixty-Four Palms are the epitome of the Hyuga Clan's techniques, and Neji taught himself these techniques. While Hinata has indeed grown faster than Neji, it is possible that she has not fully mastered the Main Clan's secret techniques.
* How does the whole Hyuga main/branch family thing work exactly? Neji's dad was a branch family member because he was born second. Okay, by that logic Hanabi should be a branch family member and there should be only a handful of main family members. Even if there are multiple nuclear families that make up the main branch, there could only be at most four, maybe five people (one from each generation) from each of those who are actually main brach. Also, if we assume that Hiashi and Hizashi were a special case because one of them would be the heir, either Hinata or Hanabi should be branch family members. So what's the deal?
** Maybe Hizashi was branded to prevent fighting between twins over the position of head (similiar to the Man in the Ironmask), as well as provide a perfect decoy in case of assassination attempts on the next head.
** Of course, everything falls into place if you assume that the branch family members aren't branded until the new clan leader is selected. Thus, Hizashi would not have been branded until Hiashi assumed the post. At that point, any of Hizashi's children (i.e., Neji) would also receive the seal. As for Hinata and Hanabi, both are still main family members until such time as Hiashi steps down and a new leader chosen from his descendants. At that point, assuming Hinata was chosen to become the new leader, Hanabi and any of her hypothetical children would be sealed, while any of Hinata's similarly hypothetical children would be left alone. This partially solves the issue directly below of main branch family members exposing themselves to danger. True, under this system there would only be a handful at any given time, but there would remain room for flexibility in choosing the next clan leader from the current leader's offspring; thus, main house descendants would not be ''quite'' as irreplaceable. This also solves the dialogue issue during the Chunin Exams, where Hiashi tells Hanabi that he believes that she is stronger than her older sister. Therefore, the line of descent is not strictly limited to the eldest sibling, but whomever the clan leader feels would do the best job in his stead. As for how this would effect Hiashi and Hizashi's selection way back when, all things and factors being equal (and they being twins, they probably were), then age was probably used as a kind of tiebreaker. Hizashi would then have been doubly pissed; not only had his brother been chosen above him because of a few seconds, but there was every possibility that he would have been chosen instead. And down the line, Neji would also be doubly pissed for being in the branch family not only because of his younger-sibling father, but because of his younger-sibling-but-equally-qualified father..
*** This is assuming that whole bit about Hiashi being the first born is even actually TRUE. Remember, the only one who ever mentioned that being the case is Neji, who only had his father's word to go on. For all we know, the story is a lie designed to help Hizashi cope with being the Esau to Hiashi's Jacob.
** It's possible that Hanabi was not branded so that in case Hinata died on a mission, they would still have an heir (The only person we see being branded is Neji, and we know that his branding would be inevitable because he was born to a branch house member, and the reason why he would be branded when Hinata turned 3 is unclear).
*** On the Naruto Wiki, one proposed theory is that Hinata and Hanabi, being female, cannot start a branch family, and thus, neither would get the curse mark at any point, regardless of who inherited the clan.
*** As for why Neji wasn't branded right away, they probably don't brand young Branch family members immediately for fear that the head family would not produce an heir. Although the Naruto world seems to have fairly advanced medicine, the age of 3 might be a leftover from a time similar to our own world's past where most children died at a very young age. Once the head family heir turns 3 they can be fairly certain she will succeed the clan. That actually would explain Neji's flashback where his father suddenly expresses murderous intent for a young Hinata, if the head family produced no heir Neji wouldn't have to be part of the Branch family.
* If the branch house of the Hyuga are supposed to protect the Main House and the secrets of the Byakugan, then why is Hinata allowed to go off, separate from any branch members? Given that the seal on the branch members is supposed to do something to the eyes (the whole reason the elders wanted to send Hizashi's body instead of Hiashi's) isn't Hinata being by herself, without other Hyugas, and without the seal, a cause for concern? She was almost kidnapped once, so one could assume that without the seal the eyes remain intact after death. Or is the whole branch house thing just the elders continuing to be massive dicks? (Which is what it seems like. Didn't seem like Hiashi actually had a whole lot of power over his family. He didn't want to send his brother to die in his place.)
** This has never been adequately addressed in the series. My theory is that Hiashi decided that the eye skills weren't worth a whole bucket of spit, certainly not worth his brother's life, and since then he's disregarded all the limits and worries about main family lives. We even see him fighting alone during Oro's invasion of Konoha, which he wouldn't do if he was worried about the secrets getting out. So if he doesn't care about Hinata, and he doesn't care about the eye jutsus, then it makes sense that he would let her go off on dangerous missions by herself.
*** Come to think of it Neji doesn't seem to worried about Byakugan secrets leaking when Hinata gets decimated against Pein. They've all probably realized that the rest of the world doesn't give a fig about Byakugan any more. It has its uses, but for sheer damage you can't beat Sharingan.
**** Then again, she is lying there in the middle of the giant Konoha crater, while the typical fear is that if ninjas die on a mission, the enemy will retrieve their corpses and study them for details on village secrets, as well as their bloodline traits. Since Pain flees six-tailed Naruto shortly afterward, and is mainly concerned with capturing him, there's far less risk of Hinata's body being taken.
**** If pain had won, he would've just made 6 paths again and had the ability to see from multiple viewpoints, which makes the byakugan kind of useless to him, plus most of his abilities seem to come from Rinnegan which means he probably can't swap one eye for something else.
**** Exactly, Hinata's body would have been more valuable to him as a replacement body than for her eyes.
** And now that we know some guy from another village (Ao) ''did'' get a Byakugan from one of their memebers this all seems even more pointless and ineffective.
*** As Madara has displayed there is nothing stopping you from having eyes from different sets. It's true that shared vision is great but as both Naruto and Jiraya displayed that just means I have to get you away from your friends.
**** Is it ever expressly stated that the Rinnegan's POWER is shared sight? Cus that just doesn't sound likely since the Sage of Six Paths (to the best of our knowledge) wasn't called that because he had six bodies and Nagato figuring out that if he animated corpses it would let him use his funny eyes doesn't sound plausible either. It makes as much or more sense that whatever jutsu he used to create the Peins simply shared the vision amonst them all.
***** Shared sight is one of the abilities, the six paths are the powers that Nagato used through the dead bodies, not the bodies themselves.

* Something that occurred to me while planning a fanfic: since part of the Cage Bird seal's function includes being able to cause pain, could it be finely tuned enough to [[PowerPerversionPotential cause pleasure]]?
** It appears to work specifically ''on'' the head physically, not in the head, so it would probably range from a mild throbbing sensation to head-splitting agony. Could someone get off on it? Probably. Is that a likely use? Probably not.

* Hizashi should not know Kaiten. It was clearly established that that technique is reserved for the clan head and the heir, and that Neji is a genius for figuring out how to do it without being taught. [[PlotHole Either the anime screwed up,]] or somebody is lying about what's really going on. [[EpilepticTrees The idea that Hizashi was actually the first-born and Hiashi supplanted him somehow suddenly makes a lot more sense.]]
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!! The Yamanaka Clan
* Why does the Yamanaka clan own a shop? true it isn't as prominent as the the Hyuga or the Uchiha but it's still a very powerful clan... I guess what I'm really asking is where does all of its Ninja wages go? Ino is a Chunin, Inoichi is a Jonin and Fu is a Root; they should have more than enough money. And yet - this warrior clan have to sell flowers in order to make ends meet. Huh?
** Not all of them are ninjas? Also money might not be shared between family members, so they would all need to have some sort of job.
** I thought it was her mother's- since, you know, it'd be silly to think that all the people in a clan marry their cousins. Inbreeding works with dogs, not with humans.
*** Who says they need the shop to make ends met? My grandfather kept working after he could have retired simply because he didn't want to sit around all day. Even after he retired and went to a rest home, he kept a garden to occupy his time. So the shop could be both money maker and hobby thing.
** There was an interesting bit of headcanon that theorized the shop was initially set up as a front for espionage and the Yamanaka eventually turned it into a legitimate business.
----
!! The Leaf Village
* Why is it that most members of the Leaf village (whether or not they are part of a clan) have surnames, but Tsunade, Orochimaru, Jiraiya, Rock Lee, Tenten, and Shizune (am I missing anyone) don't?
** You're missing Gaara (though you might consider his title a surname) Temari, Kankuro Jirobu, Tayuya, Kidomaru, and Sakon/Ukon (actually Kimimaro is the only one of the sound '5' to have a surname)...but that's just semantics.
** Because they do have surnames? Rock -is- Lee's surname and Tsunade's is Senju for example.
** Tsunade apparently doesn't have Senju as part of her name: even after revealing her grandfather's surname, she's still listed in the databooks as just "Tsunade".
*** Maybe it was Tsunade's mom who was a Senju and she married a surname-less character. Or maybe the shinobi countries have some strange naming conventions...
**** Oddly enough, Kimimaro is from the Kaguya clan, and he's just "Kimimaro" in the databooks.
*** Or maybe it's not mentioned because Kishi-san never invented ones. It's hard enough to make up first names for that many characters, take it from this writer.
*** Well, the reason Tenten doesn't have a last name is because she's quite literally a filler character in canon. Kishimoto said that she was only created because he wanted to keep with the "2 male, 1 female in each group" theme going on in the series. [[SatelliteCharacter It does explain a lot of things...]]
*** For Tsunade, Orochimaru and Jiraiya, it can be argued that, being known all over the (Naruto) world, their surnames (or maybe they're first names?) are enough to know who you're talking about.
**** There's just one problem: ''the readers don't live in the Naruto world'', so that's not a good enough excuse. It just seems like Kishimoto couldn't think of a last name for them and decided to leave it unknown in hopes that no one would realize it. Hell, most of the characters in the story barely have their last names spoken out loud anyway, and some of those we wouldn't even know if it wasn't for the databooks...
**** Yeah, and...? I meant that maybe WE, the readers, don't know the names of these three because they're so well-known in the Naruto world that everyone says "Look, it's Orochimaru!" and not "Look, it's Orochimaru Hebikage!" (for example), like IRL we'd say "Look, a picture of Gandhi/Hitler !" and not always "Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi" or "Adolf Hitler". Of course, the real reason is that Kishimoto couldn't think of a name for them, that's why I said ''it can be argued''.
** If the last names aren't important, why bother naming them.
** This could be a cultural thing; in ancient Japan, commoners (i.e., not part of samurai clans, nobility, etc.) weren't allowed to have surnames. One of the reasons that Naruto is so huge about announcing himself as UZUMAKI Naruto every chance he gets, is that his surname means he's got some sort of social status. By the same token, Kimimaro may have renounced his surname as a sign of his subservience to Orochimaru. And since the Kage title is earned by being the biggest bad-ass in the village, not through status or social connections, the Sand Siblings may be technically commoners, even though their father is Kazekage.
*** It could very well be that the people of Sunagakure simply don't use surnames. There isn't a single character from Suna who's been given a surname, so that would be a very reasonable theory.
*** There's also the possibility that certain surnames haven't been revealed because it might spoil something.
**** As for the idea that some surnames might spoil things if revealed too soon...well, for whatever reason Kishimoto didn't want to say that the Third Hokage was Asuma's father until well after the Third died. And while he didn't hide either character's surname, he did nothing to make it clear that Sarutobi ''was'' the Third's surname. Orochimaru called him "Sarutobi-sensei", and since every other character in the series had referred to their sensei exclusively by their given name, it was widely assumed that was the case for the Third. So Kishimoto didn't so much hide the surname in that case as hide the fact that it ''was'' a surname.
** The series tends to be somewhat inconsistent as to who gets surnames and who does not. (For example, Akamon Manabu, a Chunin examinee who's noteworthy for nothing other than having been stuck at Genin level for a long time at 39, has a surname, as do some minor ninja like Izumo and Kotetsu, while the Sannin, Tenten and everyone from the Sand Village do not). Most of the main characters got their surnames through their association with a clan, and it's possible Sakura and Kakashi got them by virtue of being main characters.
** Isn't it perfectly possible that he didn't think of surnames for those characters because we didn't need one? Case in point: If someone say's "it's Gaara", we don't need to know which Gaara it is. On the other hand, we generally ''do'' need to be told whether someone is an Uchiha, or a Hyuga.
*** When have we ever needed to know if someone was a Haruno?
**** That's an interesting question. Likely answer? given how Sakura is one of the main characters, the Haruno clan was originally meant to be revealed to be something special. But, in exactly the same way the Hyuga were introduced as a badass warrior clan only to be nearly forgotton about by the end of part 1, the Haruno clan were pushed to the side by the author's growing affection for the Uchiha, the Akatsuki and the Tailed beasts. After all, this clan is apparantly ''very'' secretive given how we have only ever seen Sakura and could very well have a dark/interesting past... although given how eclipsed Sakura was in terms of power until she was personally trained by the Fifth Hokage, it's equally likely she is the only Ninja to ever to come from a family of civilians.
**** Judging by the name itself, this troper has always thought that revealing Sakura's surname is purely stylistic. For example, her name is a homonym of "Cherry Blossoms of the Spring" the same way Iruka's is "Dolphin of the Sea". In other words, neither of them belong to high-profile clans; Kishimoto just made the names 'cause he thought they were cool.
* What's with the [[Main/SeparateSimpsonsGeographyThing Springfield]]-like growth of the Hidden Leaf Village? In the sixth season intro it looks like a small ''city''. Getting a bit too big to ''hide'', no?
** I always got the impression that "hidden village" was something of a misnomer. I mean, just look at the damn things. Sunagakure is a gigantic fortress in the middle of the desert. It's not exactly hidden. I think that since people actually need to find the ninjas to hire them, the cities are really just cities with cool names.
** You have to take into account population growth as well. Consider that Suna is surrounded almost entirely by huge cliffs and that Konoha is in a densely forested area those places might well have once been very well hidden. But people, you know, breed, and well protected places tend to attract immigrants and such.
*** That begs the question; if the Hokage is the leader of Konoha, and is only ever seen operating the ninja service, who's in charge of all the BoringButPractical stuff, "getting the water in and the trash out" as Terry Pratchett once said?
**** And while we're at it, how come the Third Hokage was never seen doing any kind of mundane paperwork, while Tsunade's simply ''buried'' in the stuff?
***** [[RuleOfFunny Because it's funny]]. Alternatively, the Third had, by that point, learned to get paperwork out of the way and Tsunade just likes to avoid the boring parts of work when she can. (There's also the fact that we simply see more of Tsunade than Sarutobi.)
**** It's been shown (though I don't think in canon) that the villages have basically the same government system as a non-ninja village, only the military branch and _____kage always outranks the local executive branch.
**** We see the series through Naruto's eyes, so we only see his interaction with Tsunade when she's giving him missions or debriefings on said missions. So its unlikely we'd see anything like that.
**** We have now, after Tsunade's falling into a coma we follow Shikaku, the Head Jounin as he, the ANBU Commander and the Hokage's council attend a meeting with the Fire Country's Daimyo and his own staff. There's your non-ninja government.
----
!! The Sand Village
* So, Gaara's father - the '''fourth''' Kazekage - is killed and impersonated by Orichimaru in the leadup to the Invasion of Konoha. Fair enough, they think that he's still alive since Orochimaru is impersonating him. One or two arcs later, we skip three years and Gaara is the '''fifth''' Kazekage. Even if we're very generous and assume that he went from a genin to Kage within a year (and has thus been Kazekage for two years), who the hell was ruling the Sand Village for that one year? Konoha were anxious to get a new Hokage after the Third died, why wouldn't the Sand be the same? Shouldn't there have been someone in-between Gaara and his father that was the fifth, thus making Gaara the sixth?
** Presumably Suna was in such disarray after being defeated in the war that it took them longer to get things together. There also could have simply been a dearth of suitable candidates. Chiyo and Ebizo would've both refused. Baki might have been a candidate, given his rank on the Suna Council and the fact that he seems to take charge in Gaara's absence, but if so he presumably declined as well.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Arc Specific Issues]]
!!Land of Waves Arc
* At the end of the Land of Waves arc, Kakashi and Naruto conjure shadow dopplegangers to scare off Gato's thugs because they're too weak to do anything else. But wait a second! Kakashi states that he doesn't have enough chakra left to do anything to actually fight the thugs... and then proceeds to use the solid ''kagebunshin'', one of the most chakra-consuming moves in the series, instead of the illusory regular ''bunshin''. Have I been reading the wrong translations or something?
** I was under the impression that Kakashi did just make regular bunshin, but claimed that they were kage bunshin. Or something. It's been a while since I've read that part.
** Yeah, Kakashi was definitely bluffing. Remember, the morons he was up against weren't ninjas. They couldn't tell the difference.
* In Part I, we're told that Sakura is perfectly suited for being a genjutsu user. The Third Databook stats put her genjutsu skills as second only to Sasuke among the Konoha 12. So why have we never seen her use genjutsu '''ever'''?
** Maybe it's just her skill at working around and with genjutsu. Remember how she was one of the only [[strike:two]] three non-jonin to recognize and reverse Kabuto's Temple of Nirvana? (the others being [[BrilliantButLazy Shikamaru]] and [[TheStoic Shino]]) It probably means that if she ever did try and use genjutsu, she'd be incredible at it. However, her training so far has consisted pretty much entirely of chakra control and SuperStrength.
* Why, despite his pretty huge contribution to Itachi's power, have we not seen a single image of Shisui? He's described as Itachi's best friend; surely we'd have had at least one flashback to him by now. On another note, anyone else find it hilarious that the Uchiha Clan owed debt to an old woman who wears ''false cat ears''?
** We probably haven't seen Shisui for the same reason we didn't see all of the jinchuriki until recently, why we still don't know the names of four of them, why we don't know what kinds of animals bijuu 4-7 are, why we only know the identities of three members of the Seven Shinobi Swordsmen of the Mist (not counting Raiga since he was filler so probably isn't canon and his name doesn't even fit the theme naming of the SSSM anyway), why we don't know the names of Minato's teammates from when he was a genin, etc. Either Kishimoto is holding out for a reveal or he just doesn't care.
*** Notice that the entire flashback is viewed from Sasuke's perspective (as a way of showing what he knew about the massacre and how it affected him), and conceals information that Madara and Itachi later mention to him, so maybe Itachi only interacted with Shisui at clan meetings or in places where Sasuke wouldn't have come.
**** Regardless, we've gotten a glimpse of Shisui now.

!!Chunin Exams Arc

* In the anime, Sakura is fighting Zaku, who throws kunai at her midair. Expecting her to have used substitution jutsu, he looks around. However, (despite having used the handseals) Sakura doesn't use it, instead landing on Zaku, stabbing his arm, and biting him. He then begins to punch her to get her off for a pretty sizable amount of time. Here's where I'm confused: While he was punching Sakura, why didn't he just shoot her with Decapitating Airwaves? He could have stabbed her in the head with a kunai, too. His teammates were also there. Why didn't they help, either?
** I was under the impression that Zaku can't use the airwaves at point blank range. Also, to them, it was clear that Sakura was desperately trying to fight back, so Zaku kept punching her t to show how pointless her actions were in the end. His teammates shared the same thought and llet Zaku have his fun.

!!Konoha Crush (Arc)

* Always annoyed me even as a kid how Sasuke never got a clear cut hit to Garra's heart when using the chidori even tho he has the sharingan designed to maneuver thru opposition so i don't see how he couldn't one hit kill garra. I get him not doing it during their official match cuz 1. it was a match not a fight to the death and 2. He couldn't see Garra's chest perfectly cuz of his sand coccoon covering him, but here he's in a obviously in a deathbattle and he can pretty clearly see Garra's chest so what the hell? Chidori can obviously break thru his sand, so why did it look like Sasuke kept going for his protected arm and not his exposed chest for the one hit kill?....plus to add on what happened to the awesome power of the curse mark back in the forest of death?, why did it completely screw him over this time? You mean to tell me that all that awesome power back in the forest of death granting him increased chakra, speed and power = One Chidori? You'd think Kishi would let CurseMark Activated Sasuke vs One Tail Garra play out, even if Sasuke doesn't win, would be fricken epic.

!!Curry of Life Arc
* With the revelation that Mangetsu Hozuki uses the exact same swords as Raiga Kurosuki, doesn't that by default also make the Curry of Life anime filler arc official (manga) canon?
** No, it just makes his swords canon. Raiga is still a non-official character [[IncrediblyLamePun filling]] the black space of Ringo's sucessor, at least until Kishimoto decides to create one.
*** As of the flashback of Guy's father, Raiga is canon. Whether anything about him besides his appearance is canon, who knows.

!!Secret Wars
* During the fight with the second Mizukage, why didn't any of the ninjas try to dispell the genjutsu created by the clam?
** I guess the genjutsu was just too strong to be able to be dispelled. Itachi's Tsukuyomi is too strong to be dispelled, for example, so why wouldn't the mizukage's be that strong, especially since Gaara had a hard time fighting him, even with his "absolute defence", so he must be pretty strong.
** I may be remembering wrong, but the Mizukage stesses that it's all a mirage and not a genjutsu.
* This is one regarding the fillers in the latest arc: Why wasn't ANY previous filler character brought back? Of course I'm referring mainly to the ones who died, but seriously, why bother making a whole bunch of new characters with flimsy connections when you could just use ones that had been previously established?
** Almost all of those characters worked through any issues that they had during their arcs and didn't have particularly strong ties to anybody still alive. Also filler characters are almost always forgotten as quickly as they pop up.
*** I'm not certain that's particularly important. The Edo Tensai seems to function however it wants. For example Granny Chiyo stuck around until she was released even though her children and grandchild were long dead and she died happy having seen the friendship Gaara and Naruto had. She should have dissipated on her own and she's not the only one who falls under that category. Itachi dissipated the same way, when it was released. Not when he'd finished his mission and said everything he wanted to say to Sasuke. Even though they did happen at the same time.
** The real reason is because they don't want any of the crazy snarls that would come from the Manga borrowing from the Anime or leaving out important characters from the Manga to make room for characters from the Anime. I can only imagine the head aches that would be caused by that as to what's cannon and what isn't and why. Just check out DragonballZ if you want to see how nasty the debates can get over what is or isn't cannon.
** I've gone through the list of all the ninja who were resurrected and something is bothering me. Many great and powerful ninja are not revived for battle at all. Some like Jiraya have an excuse of course, but some don't. Like Kakashi's father Sakumo Hatake (a well known and skilled shinobi), the Third Kazekage, Danzo, nor any of Team Dosu's Dosu, Zaku or Kin.
*** The Third Kazekage might have been impossible to find samples for, considering that Sasori killed him a long time ago and turned him into a puppet, though that didn't stop Kabuto from finding dna to revive Sasori, Sakumo was famous during his lifetime but might've been seen as a loser after his death making him undesirable for Kabuto, Danzo died recently similar to Kisame who definitely would've been worth reviving if Kabuto had the time. Team Dosu were genin level mooks, they wouldn't be worth the time needed to revive them, since practically anyone above genin level could take them out with little effort, and all the genin seem to be staying out of the war.
*** Danzo completely obliterated his own body upon death, so getting a sample to revive him would've been even harder than for Jiraiya.
* In the Fourth Great Ninja War why are they relying entirely on the Yamanaka Clan and their psychic Jutsu for organization purposes? We know that two way radios exist in the Narutoverse and aside from the fact that range was never discussed (which is still no excuse for each company not being able to communicate with each other) that seems like it would have all the upsides of communicating via Yamanaka without the nosebleeds, potential death and unnecessary sharing of ninja techniques with other Villages. On that note.
* Is the Yamanaka Clan truly limited to two members because otherwise they seem to be a pretty good way to get around those pesky White Zetsu.
** There are more members, they are just in the field using the mind control jutsus, Inoichi could help with the Zetsu but it would only work for one area and it wouldn't help with detecting them before they start sneak attacking, and would need them to link with a hyuga and stay linked for the whole night.
*** Even if it meant breaking away from their current units to support say the MEDICAL NINS that sounds like a vastly superior plan than what they seem to have settled on which was everybody stand very very still and wait for the plot to save us. If Naruto and Bee had actually followed orders the White Zetsu could easily have if not defeated the Shinobi Alliance definitely fought it to a stand still.
**** To be fair, there isn't much that anyone could do other than subdue any attackers which the Zetsus were picking off isolated people to avoid that, they didn't have the time or ability to set up a mind searching team in every division, and protecting the medical ninja would be pretty difficult because literally anyone could have been a zetsu, standing still was the best option for waiting out the night to prevent the zetsu from pulling sneak attacks.
***** Fair enough. However the White Zetsu plan didn't actually hinge on darkness that was just an extra psychological attack. Ultimately it's probably a matter of conservation of detail but I'm really curious what they would have done had Naruto not shown and not had the ability to sense murderous intent which he'd only discovered shortly before himself.
* It's unclear exactly how much time passed and when (Between two groups of separated characters) during what is presumably the final battle of the series. Is there an actual reason why Kakashi didn't follow Naruto and Sasuke if not immediately a short time later? Sakura was in no danger at all certainly very little if left alone. At this point every single ninja (and in theory person) in the entire world is on one team minus Sasuke and the location they're located has been a battlefield for at least two whole days. I doubt some random animal would find and attack her. So Kakashi really didn't need to stay to keep her safe. Not to mention she's been awake for a few chapters now. Still Sasuke might have stopped him if he'd tried right away but after that he doesn't go to bear witness to that battle? Barring that Naruto and Sasuke were having the kind of battle that literally should have been visible for miles especially the Kyuubi vs Susananoo part so when the world literally stopped shaking Kakashi and Sakura should have gone to the location of the battle to decide the fate of the world. And at this point it's implied that that Sasuke and Naruto have just been lying there for hours. Now for plot reasons it makes some sense because if Kakashi and Sakura came across and unconscious Sasuke and didn't kill him it would be enraging but at this point it seems like two people who due to what was effectively a double knock out could be be the last two people on the planet are sitting on their asses waiting to be told it's over.
** I was under the impression that the recent use of the double Mangekyou Sharingan that Obito temporarily gave Kakashi took its toll on his body, and that prevented him from following Sasuke and Naruto immediately. We have no indication of the distance between the battlefield and the valley where Sasuke and Naruto fought, so maybe it really took half a day to find them after Kakashi recovered from that. Plus he had to release Sakura from the Genjutsu, because she was the only one that could provide medical assistance to Naruto in case Sasuke gravely injures him, which she indeed did.
* So what happened to the remaining bad guys? We know Sasuke had Naruto and Kakashi vouch for them both but neither of them would have done the same for Oorichimaru, Kabuto or the rest of Team Hebi/Taka. Now given they contributed a great deal to saving the world it would make perfect sense if the Kage collectively decided to not pay attention and let them walk off the field with a just this once. Or not knowing the order people woke up in it's possible they just left and nobody that could stop them were in any position to do so. It seems like a strange thing to leave unaddressed.
** They weren't present in the final chapter, so I assume they just did a disappearing act, otherwise they would've been around in the village. Why Yamato is nowhere near the final chapter would be a comparatively interesting question, though. I assumed Kabuto met up with the guy with the stubble from the orphanage, maybe even run an orphanage as a way to redeem himself, because that could be a nice ending for him, but that belongs to WMG and is just my imagination running wild.
!!Invasion of Pain Arc
* Why didn't any of the other ninjas jump in when Hinata was protecting Naruto? IIRC she was only a chunin at that point and not even a particularly powerful one. Yet she landed multiple blows on Pain and her fight must have lasted at least half a minute, given Pain's "once every 5 seconds" limit on his jutsu. Further, since Katsuyu was sharing intel, all the Jounin of the village also knew that limit. Before Hinata stepped in I could see the other ninjas holding back, as Pain had been trashing everybody, but she proved pretty clearly that this final body was vulnerable without the support of the other Paths. Based on that two or three Jounin should have been able to swoop in and turn him into hamburger during one of his five-second windows of vulnerability but instead they all decided to crouch down and watch her and Naruto get killed for no reason.
** I think most everyone else was to weak and exhausted to help. Some, like Shikamaru even wanted to join her in helping, but were suffering injures severe enough to prevent them from going to Naruto.
** Hinata's fight against Pain was dragged out in the anime episode. She was OHKO'ed in the manga, so no one would have had time to jump in and help (except for her speech, but TalkingIsAFreeAction) and nor would they have wanted to after seeing her get one shotted.
[[/folder]]
----

[[folder:Misc]]
* If the Mangekyou Sharingan deteriorates the user's eyesight, why has Kakashi's eye not gone blind by now? He has begun frequently using it in part 2, so shouldn't he be feeling the drawback?
** Its only native Mangekyou Sharingan that deteriorate; transplants work fine. Usually only for brothers, but evidently "close enough at time of transplant to be like brothers" counts for that.
** [[spoiler: Irrelevant now, since he's eventually admitted that the eye went blind in the last few chapters.]]
* Okay, so Tayuya is apparently 38.2 kg. Sasuke is 43.5 kg. Tayuya is able to catch the barrel containing Sasuke in midair and also run through trees with it held in front of her. For just about 8 hours. And she still has enough power in her hands left to play the flute and wrestle with Shikamaru... How's that for superhuman strength?
** Dude, they're magic ninjas and that's hardly the most surprising thing we've ever seen anyone do in the series.
** This troper is really bothered by the heights and weights of all the ninja. Despite the fact that BMI doesn't really take into account fat/muscle mass, the fact remains that almost all of them would be seriously underweight. Considering each person's age against this as well and...I'm surprised they've even got the strength to stand up.
** Alternatively, focusing chakra in ones limbs is a standard technique used by all ninjas explaining the many feats of strength we've seen, Sakura and Tsunade just use it to a much greater degree.
** Surprisingly enough, she only has 1/5 strength in the databook. Then again, Sakura, who can do the same feats of superhuman strength that Tsunade can, has 3/5 strength.
*** I think that's regular strength not counting chrakra enhancement.
** Not to mention before the time-skip Sakura's strenght was a 1/5(0.5 in the first databook), and she still was able to lift that huge log to make a trap during the chunin exam's, so 1/5 is still freakish strong.
*** Considering how book smart she is, she may have made use of some knowledge of physics.
* What bugs this troper is that the sand siblings blood types don't make sense. Kankuro is type B positive, Gaara is type AB positive, and Temari is type O negative.Considering that Gaara is AB, one of the parents would have to be A and the other B, or both AB. In order for Kankuro to exist, at least one of the parents would have to be B. And in order for Temari to exist, at least one of the parents would have to be type O negative, and the other parent some other blood type negative, considering O negative is a ressesive trait. My mind is boggling. Was Temari adopted or something?
** While we know Gaara's mother is Karura, I don't think it is ever stated that she is the mother of Temari and Kankuro. It is not entirely unlikely that Kakura was the former Kazekage's second wife (who he might have married for the sole purpose of impregenating and sacrificing her to produce a super weapon.)
*** Genetics. Fun stuff. It is possible that their parents had A and B blood (one of each), and were both carriers of the recessive 'o' gene (AO and BO). That way, there are four possible blood types for any children of their to have: AO, BO, AB and OO. Because the O gene is recessive, the A or B gene overrides it, so it isn't expressed. So it is possible for Temari to have inherited O type blood from her parents. Not so sure about the inheritabce of positive and negative blood types, though. ((This troper is still in high-school, so feel free to correct this if it's wrong.))
*** Nope, you're spot on, and it even works for positive/negative. That's a separate, independently assorting trait. Standard dominant/recessive- positive is dominant over negative. So their parents' blood types were [A,O][+ ,-] and [B,O][+ ,-].
** Besides, Temari looks too much like Karura. Although it is weird how Kankuro's a carbon copy of his father.
* Doesn't the whole element system seem a little messed up? Shouldn't Earth be strong against Lightning and not weak against it considering rocks don't conduct electricity? Wouldn't it make more sense for Lightning to be strong against Water because it actually does conduct electricity?
** It needs to be that way so Naruto can deliver his line about defeating Sasuke's lightning but not "snuffing out his fire". The elemental system was made just so Naruto can beat Sasuke's lightning jutsus.
*** It still seems more logical to create the character's affinities based on the elemental system and not the other way around. I mean the symbolism is pretty good: lightning Sasuke is evil and fire Sasuke is good(ish) and Naruto needs to "kill" lightning Sasuke to save fire Sasuke, but still...
**** Sorry to restart an old topic but why would fire represent the good in Sasuke and lightning evil case in point, fire is the Uchiha's natural element, access to it seems like the only power they have that doesn't need a sacrifice and Sasuke and lightning is from his good aligned mentor Kakashi,the only difference I see is that his lightning techniques are more powerful and not stereotipicaly Uchiha plus both fire and lightning have an equal reputation as destructive elements.
**** I think I can explain that: at the time, Sasuke's fire jutsu was used when he was fighting alongside his comrades, and thematically fits the 'Will of Fire'. Kakashi taught Sasuke the Chidori and lightning style with the pretense Sasuke would use it to protect the bonds he formed with team-7. Instead, Sasuke used it to sever the bonds and betray the village. Thus, his 'bond cutting' lightning element is considered the 'evil element' while fire's bond forging element is the 'good' element.
**** On that note, I would like to add that wind is the element of creation, associated with life, breath, and spirit.
** They do actually make sense in a lot of ways. Water beats fire and fire beats wind are fairly logical. Wind beating lightning makes sense, as lightning itself only exists because air doesn't conduct electricity, and the electrons in the clouds are trying to get to the ground, which supports lightning over earth. Also, whether or not rocks conduct electricity depends on which rock you're talking about. As far as earth over water, I guess it sort of makes sense, but mostly it just seems to be the last link.
*** From a Earth view the element system of Naruto is pretty messed up, and we should first and formost (in my opinion) consider it a different world that adheres to a different set of rules. That said Lightning>Earth actually makes some sense, giving a physics experiment I once saw. If you have a powerful enough current of electricity it will vaporize anything it comes into contact with, which is more or less what Kakashi's raikiri is shown to, although it should also cauterize the wound. An even better explanation could have been made if Kishi hadn't decided to make magnetism a Bloodline Limit, as a powerful enough magnetic field can rip things apart on the atomic scale (which would explain the blood when people get Raikiri'ed).
**** Umm... An elemental system is supposed to be based on what happens when two elemental bodies/attacks/manipulations of EQUAL STRENGTH interact. I'm pretty sure your "powerful enough" description means it would take the jutsu user in question WAY more power to use the obliterating lightning attack than the one who put the rock/earth object in its path.
**** The Magnetism bloodline limit would have made more sense if he had explained it as being, say, an elemental combination of earth and lightning. Running electricity through metal would create an electromagnet, so it would be fairly logical.
***** Being able to use two or more elements is a [[http://www.onemanga.com/Naruto/316/07/ Kekkei]] [[http://www.onemanga.com/Naruto/316/08/ Genkai]]. And is apparently the most common one.
** I don't get why fantasy seems to think that because something conducts electricity that electric attacks hurt it more. Think about lightning, when lightning strikes a lake the lake doesn't get hurt because it just channels the electricity into the ground, but when lightning strikes a brick the brick F*** ING EXPLODES!, thus supporting the theory that lightning beats earth.
*** The amount of energy it would take to conjure said lightning bolt FAR outclasses what would be required to conjure the brick... Enough to make it more of a case of overpowering the elemental weakness rather than taking advantage of it.
**** Actually, the brick could be more advanced than the lightning bolt. Think about it: a lighning bolt is pretty much the most basic form of lightning you can get, but brick could be seen as a ''very'' advanced form of earth. In this way the scale holds true. If you think of a "blast" of each element the scale holds true e.g. If a blast of water hits a blast of earth, the earth would overpower it easily. Earth v. lightning: the earth would explode, as was said. It actually works for every element (except maybe wind v. lightning, but that's already plausible).
** To be fair, the whole 'Which Element Beats Which' thing is obviously done in order to preserve the balance between them all. Earth features most of the best defensive techniques, so only an element that can straight up overpower it, like Lightning, makes sense to be its counter really, otherwise it'd pretty much be a GameBreaker. Then of course, Water HAS to beat Fire. So you end up with pretty much two possibilities: 1. Fire->Wind->Lightning->Earth->Water~^ (Canon), or 2. Fire->Lightning->Earth->Wind->Water~^ (Not canon). Trouble is though, you don't tend to see anywhere near as many Lightning techniques as Fires ones in the story, so the 'Not canon' option I listed would result in Lightning users getting [[CurbStompBattle Curb Stomped]].
** I myself thought that it's how it's used, take for example [[Pokemon]], water is weak to lightning because Pokemon are not ''made'' or water so they take the amplified lightning to their physical bodies, kinda why lightning was never used against Sloth in ''Anime/FullmetalAlchemist'', or how in ''Manga/ZatchBell'' the lighting protagonist had a hard time fighting against the water enemy because she was savvy enough to never come into contact with the water that was electrified. In the Naruto universe Earth is used mostly as defense and the basic attacks are akin to the ones used by earthbenders in AangTheLastAirbender, so it makes sense that it's weak to lightning, the basic power of which is enhancing its piercing capabilities, a great example being Sasuke with his Chidori, lightning-enhanced blade, lightning spear attack, etc. However, this still balks at the problem of why lightning prevented Deidara from activating his explosions.
*** The idea was that Sasuke's lightning style shorted out Deidara's bombs. While they were earth style, they had charges, thus had a store of energy. When Sasuke pierced them with lightning [raw energy], he canceled it out, much like when you fry electronics, or short circuit a car.

* Okay I keep seeing a theory banded around as fact, the Sharingan "evolved" from the Byakugan. I don't remember that being covered in the Manga at all, so I'm a little confused as to where this came from. Is it an Anime deal, or did I just miss that page in the manga?
** This (that the Sharingan is a genetic off-shoot of the Byakugan) was stated as a possibility/rumor when we first saw the Byakugan. The way it's stated is clearly left open to be untrue, which recent manga chapter seems to support as they state the village was founded by the Uchiha clan and the Senju clan then all current Konoha clans but the Uchiha are derived from the Senju.
** Except that the Sharingan has abilities that are widely different and more general than the Byakugan. It would actually make more sense if the Byakugan was created from the Sharingan by focusing exclusively on its chakra-seeing ability. As for all the clans of Kohona being related to the Senju or Uchiha clans: Uchiha and Senju were the focus of Madara's story, he wouldn't have mentioned others.
*** The implication seems to be that the Uchiha and the Senju were simply the most powerful of the many clans in the Fire Country at the time of Konoha's founding and when they formed an alliance, the others followed suit.
**** Exactly, Madara said that before the formations of the hidden villages, ninjas were divided in clans and often fought each other and that the strongest ones were the Uchiha and Senju. Besides, there are clans that could had existed even before the Sage of Six Paths came and taught the world about chakra, like Kiba's clan with their ninken, Shino's clan with their bugs, clans that could had existed without chakra unlike Ino's clan an the human puppet masters since they need it.
***** This troper would like to point out that the above-mentioned "pre-chakra" clan signature techniques all require chakra manipulation of some kind.
** Lets point out the obvious real world reason why it was claimed that the Sharingan evolved from the Byakugan - its a plot thread that went nowhere. At that point (Neji vs Hinata) there was no Mangekyo Sharingan, no Rinnigan, no Madara, Itachi had only been seen in flashback, we only knew of two Jinchuriki and the only reference points we had for the Sharingan's powers were Kakashi and Sasuke, so as far as we knew at this point all it had was hypnotic and copying powers. Nothing more. Neji, with his vast array of Gentle Fist techniques, x-ray telescopic and Chakra point vision, seemed like and was most likely intended to be, the superior set of eyes. If history had been different I am willing to bet that the Rinnegan would have been the Byakugan's equivalent of the Mangekyo Sharingan.
* On that note, why is it that in the leaf village while the Uchihas had a prominence for fire, it isn't the overall defining element of the village as shown by the hokages, kakashi, etc. yet pretty much all the cloud ninja are so beefed up with lightning attacks, the stone with earth and the mist with water? if you see a stone, mist or cloud headband you have the advantage of knowing what is the element they'll most likely have, but if you were a mist ninja going against Sarutobi thinking you have an advantage with your water jutsus you'll be cough off guard when he uses earth style: earth dragon bullet on you. It just seems like a huge disadvantage specially at war.
** Perhaps that's why Konoha does it and why they are the top village. This can only be an advantage for them.
** I thought the same, that the wide assortment of elements gives them the advantage. And then it hit me, Hashirama and Madara did fight because Madara disagreed with the Senju suddenly being more important, so it's very possible that Konoha would've been more fire-themed if Madara had won and Uchihas ruled the village.
* What exactly are we supposed to take away from the two [[SecretTestOfCharacter Secret Tests of Character]] in the Chuunin Exam and Tea Country arcs? Putting your life at risk for the team is fine, but expecting your teammates to do the same makes you an irredeemable failure? All the more frustrating due to the fact that either test could be interpreted in exactly the opposite way: Morino's group could have [[TakeAThirdOption coordinated their answers to avoid having a "lowest score,"]] while anyone in Naruto's class could have pressured a low-scoring teammate into risking themselves so their team could pass.
** It's actually pretty simply - choosing to risk your life was something you had to do, but you shouldn't force others to risk their lifes, since it's a decision everyone has to make on their own. It's like forcing somebody to become a soldier during a war - it might be justified, but it's not the correct thing to do.
* Question: Why does Manda 2.0 have legs?
** It's a shoutout to the toho kaiju named manda.
* Is it just me, or did those special body-destroying Ninjas mentioned waaay back in the Zabuza-arc suck at their job? If they soley exist to make sure no corpses falls into the enemies hand, how the hell did Kabuto get ''so much'' of his precious DNA? Did they never hear of burning corpses?
** Well the Hunter-nins were exclusive to the Hidden Mist, so that wouldn't stop Kabuto from gathering the corpses of ninjas from other villages. Plus, who said any of the revived were targets of the hunter-nins? They operated as a squad that had to be deployed, so it wasn't like they just went around disposing of whatever corpses they could find.
*** If Hunter-nins were exclusive to the Hidden Mist that's just evidence that the other villages in general and the Hidden Leaf in particular are incredibly stupid. Even if we discount the filler arc that claims you can learn a lot of a ninja's techniques by observing his corpse it's completely cannon that eyes are transferable and the Hidden Leaf has two separate families with advanced eye techniques. Just keeping the Byakugon and Sharingon out of the hands of the enemy is a pretty good reason to destroy at least their heads and as we're finding out with Captain Yamato, Danzo, Madara, [[spoiler: Obito]], and White Zetsu life might have been much easier had the First Hokage been cremated. To the original question it seems to be pure fannon that Orochimaru and Kabuto have to gather the DNA from a dead ninja. Nothing in the manga suggests he couldn't follow people to the barber shop gather their hair and then keep an eye on the obits and not attempt to summon him until after they die. The only flaw with this is Jiraiya would have been incredibly easy to get DNA from if taking from a live body was possible but if it has to be after death both Deidera and Sasori should have been if not entirely impossible very nearly impossible.
**** The Hunter-nin specifically went after rogue ninja to ensure that, should their rogue ninja die, the enemy does not get their hands on secrets such as medicine through stomach contents. They don't completely destroy a corpse, they just remove as much evidence as possible before allowing them to be buried. Kabuto wasn't collecting corpses specifically- he just needed a piece of them. Even a blood smear would work.
* What was with all that sneezing back in the beginning of the Retrieval of Gaara arc? I thought it was {{Foreshadowing}}, but there seems to be no reason behind it.
** Sneezing in East Asian Culture was suspected to mean someone`s talking about you.
* Does the Transformation Technique physically transform you into a duplicate of the person you're copying or is it merely an illusion? I ask because this presents problems on both fronts: if it changes your body physically then this jutsu rates as one of the most horribly underused jutsu's in the entire series. Why would someone who was as weak at part 1 Sakura not go into battle with the physique of someone like Bruce Lee? why wouldn't this be a completely standard method of defense given its many advantages? (makes the entire battle in the Forest of Death during the Chunin Exam laughable as instead of just pathetically plopping to the floor when Kin Tsuchi grabbed her by the hair, she should have given herself a male body and actually ''punched'' Kin Tsuchi in the face). How about age? is Tsunade genuinely reducing her age by using her advanced form of this jutsu? because if she ''is'' what exactly was stopping Hiruzen Sarutobi, who is explicity stated to be as strong as Tsunade and weakened by age, becoming a young man in his fight against Orochimaru? and couldn't we take this concept further and say that someone who was ''truely'' powerful (for the sake of argument the 4th Hokage) couldn't he transform into Kakashi and use his Sharingan? If, on the other hand, it's simply an illusion doesn't that make it nothing more than a simple genjutsu? if Deidara can train his eyes to see through ''Sharingan level'' Genjutsu surely anyone above Genin should be able to see through a technique so simple a ''child'' can perform it.
** Neither. It doesn't just let you transform into a ''person'', it lets you transform into ''anything'',the only limit being the size of what you transform into. In other words, it's [[FromBadToWorse even worse]]. Heck, Naruto transformed into a ''Rasenshuriken'' against Pain. It never actually hit, but still, how hard is jumping onto someone and transforming into an [[AnvilOnHead anvil]]? So the ''entire'' shinobi world is TooDumbToLive, for not using an Academy-Level technique, to its logical, ''beyond''-Kage-Level results.
** Assuming Sakura had turned into Might Guy or something during the Chunin Exams, she wouldn't have had any of his training or techniques, plus having to move around in a body she isn't used to. Not sure how much of an advantage that would have given her.
** It must be a physical transformation; otherwise Sasuke couldn't have thrown shuriken-Naruto like he did in the Wave Country arc (surely Naruto's not that naturally aerodynamic). But then, the fact that he knew it was really Naruto as soon as he grabbed the shuriken is evidence that the transformation does have limitations. Unfortunately, we don't know exactly what they are.
** the transformation technique is the most difficult technique taught at the academy because it requires constant release of chakra, so I guess it's just that they are hardening the chakra into that shape, maybe that's why it's easier to transform GamaBunta into the Demon Fox (since they're both about the same size) than to transform themselves into something bigger, and they can't turn into something smaller than themselves since that would crush them, and as shown by Zetsu they probably don't use it as much because of sensor types.
** Its possible that the Transformation technique taught in the academy is different from what Naruto performs. If it's a low-power jutsu, it stands to reason that Naruto has trouble performing it. And yet, he performs it flawlessly. Also, as it's unlikely (though admittedly possible) that every ninja in the series ever is a total retard to the potential power of the Transformation jutsu, it's more likely that the bog-standard transformation is pure illusion, while Naruto's is a more advanced version that actually causes a transformation.
** I think that it's been mentioned that only the First Hokage (and thus Yamato and Zetsu) is able to copy one's chakra pattern, so while any kind of Transformation jutsu is capable of copying the target's physical appearance completely, any kind of ninja that's specified in sensing chakra (which seems quite common) will see through it unless it's the kind of technique used by the First Hokage. That means that Tranformation techniques are not too practical, and there are more useful techniques in Naruto, e. g. Kage Bunshin, which is really underused, I think. Then again, that technique requires an awful amount of chakra. Not to mention that the hand seal for the Transformation technique (the one the kids from the Academy use) is really obvious, so even if you try to surprise someone by transforming before they can sense your chakra, if you cannot hide, the opponent has time to defend themselves. This means that there are limitations to the technique, and one should only use it against a single opponent and without the opponent seeing it being executed. By the way, Tsunade's technique isn't a Transformation technique, it's a special technique that sacrifices part of one's potential lifespan in order to remain young, I think, since the creation of new cells is accelerated. Tsunade doesn't feel the adverse effects because she probably has an immense amount of chakra, probably since she's the granddaughter of a Senju (First Hokage) and an Uzumaki. However, Hiruzen, since he was old, probably wouldn't have had the necessary amount of chakra to use the technique, and he might not have had enough chakra when he was young, either.
*** Tsunade's appearance is the result of a transformation technique, just an incredibly simple one. The accelerated cell division only comes into play when she releases the seal on her head, and that's meant for accelerated healing, not slowed aging.
** I think the problem is that a) the Transformation Jutsu takes a constant flow of chakra to use, which puts a mental strain on a ninja and b) its probably difficult to have the mental will and capacity to just completely change your physical body into whatever you can imagine. Notice the few people who do use the Transformation Jutsu for combat (Kiba and Akamaru, Gamabunta and Naruto when fighting the Shukaku) transform into things that they intimately know: Akamaru turns into Kiba, the ninja that he's been training with since almost birth, and when Gamabunta asks Naruto to turn him into "something with fangs and claws" (which leaves a huge amount of possibilites) Naruto turns into the Nine-Tailed Fox, the EldritchAbomination he's been carrying with him since he was about six months old. Based on this and the fact that besides these people, we've only seen this jutsu be used to fool others, my theory is that the mental strain of maintaining the Transformation Jutsu only gets tougher when using it in combat or turning into something unfamiliar. Sure, people could use it to become massive monsters or grow CombatTentacles, but that falls under AwesomeButImpractical.
** I always wondered about the episode where they were trying to peek under Kakashi's mask.Why didn't one of them just transform into Kakashi and take off the mask?Or do you have to know what your target looks like before you can transform?
** As for becoming Kakashi or giving yourself muscles or whatever, I think you can only transform into something with the weight (maybe not size, since students were transforming into Iruka in Episode 1) and various powers you already have - you can't transform yourself new ones. So it's not that hard to turn into Kakashi and make it ''look'' like you have the Sharingan (for intimidation), but unless you had one before you transformed, you can't use the power that comes along with it, and you can't use justus he knows that you don't, but you ''can'' use ones you know that he doesn't . Naruto, however, can transform into a Rasenshuriken, because he can use it, but obviously turning your body into a spinning wheel of pure chakra is at least as difficult as creating said chakra normally, if not harder. Jumping on top of someone and transforming into an anvil works, but the anvil will only weigh as much as you.
** Kishi didn't care. Seriously, chakra expenditure/strain can't be an issue considering it's something that academy level students can do and this is before even learning to walk on water or trees. Sensing isn't an issue either because while sensor ninja exist, the fact that Naruto can use transformation to fool Pain is proof enough that it works on even highly skilled ninja. The same thing goes for the regular illusionary clone technique. every single academy graduate knows it but only Sakura ever actually uses it and again, it succeeded against ninja trained by Orochimaru. It's the same reason everyone doesn't make use of explosion tags despite how they seem to have no drawback and are a powerful attack with no chakra cost, the characters are written to have specific move sets and alternatives aren't considered at all. Look at how Shikamaru is handled. He knows going into the preliminaries that best case scenario, he makes his opponent mirror his moves, but he does nothing that actually benefits from this. If he so much as kept a spare kunai in his sleeve he could have drawn it, making his opponent reach for nothing on their side, and be the winner since they're completely at his mercy from there. Instead his load out is identical to the point that just throwing a shuriken is perfectly mirrored and he has to use the terrain to get an advantage.
** I always thought it was like [[DragonBallZ Oolong's]] transformations. You can get bigger, but not stronger or heavier. You can't give yourself attributes your don't have outside a visual change.
* The Tsuchikage tried to erase Sasuke from existence simply because other people want him dead, then Madara shows up carrying Sasuke so he isnt intangible, the Tsuchikage just stands around and doesn't try the attack again?
** He just showed that he can become intangible, so the Tsuchikage has to think of a strategy, and then Madara said he wanted to just talk to them, they're the military leaders of entire countries, even more, said leaders are together, if he went ahead and attack without giving talking it out a chance he would had seem like war monger, specially to the other kages.
* Why do so many people stick to clan techniques even when they're useless in many cases? Some people might have an excuse, like Shino, who feeds his chakra to the bugs (making using anything else be at the bugs' expense). But what about people like say, Ino? Her contribution to the fight against Hidan and Kakuzu amounted to surveillance through a hawk, then standing behind a tree for the rest of it. How do people that are so specialized stay alive in a world that's well populated with monsters like Orochimaru? Why doesn't Shikamaru learn Doton techniques to create extra shadows where needed?
** Well, forgive the length but here's a few things to consider. First, it could be simple pride. If your family has fifteen generations backing up its techniques, a personal honor comes into effect. Second, THEY DO WORK, it's just in a combat oriented series, you don't often see the true utility. Ino's family techniques are information gathering tools. Taking over the body of your target to more or less seamlessly infiltrate organizations, poking around the target's mind, etc. Jutsu like these are extremely useful in the spying these ninja so often do. It's behind the scenes her clan shines. And just to note, Shikamaru has a hard enough time managing his chakra without other techniques. You don't typically see swordmen carry around maces just in case it can help get a better cut in this fight. They would just train themselves to make better use of their blade, which is exactly what he, Ino, and several other characters have been doing to their techniques.
*** But it still makes no sense for Ino. She might be an awesome spy and interrogator, but she's going into a fight she's entirely unsuited for. At that time they know Hidan is a crazy immortal guy who stabs himself (about the worst possible target for Ino), and Kakuzu is a hugely strong and fast guy who can launch his arms (not that great either, he'll kill her before she can do anything). Her only hope to be useful is to heal somebody while everybody else is busy or after the battle. The most reasonable theory I've seen in a fanfic (so not canon) is that villages got paranoid due to people like Orochimaru and fresh genins are supposed to know the bare minimum, and only receive additional training only after doing a few missions and proving that they're not crazy and loyal to the village. So people only get real training when the clan deems necessary, they obviously need it (during the Zabuza mission) or for the Chuunin exams (which need teacher's approval).
*** I talked about this somewhere else but doesn't it seems really inconvenient that almost all of them don't try to learn ''anything'' outside their clans techniques, specially since some, you can identify what clan they belong too just by how they look. Like the battle between Neji and Kidomaru, if all your clans fighting techniques are short range, maybe you should learn at least ''one'' long range attack.
**** This point was made moot when Neji used Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm and it's variations. Also, Hinata during the war.
***** It really wasn't. Being able to overcome a limitation doesn't mean you want your opponent to know your limitation by looking at you. Consider the Uchia clan and the Sharingan work by sight, sure most ninja's do but if you can look across the battle field see a guy spit fire and realize you should send either Neji with a smoke bomb, or Kiba with a smoke bomb. Sure they might over come it but that's just starting the fight with the deck stacked against you. I think the above is probably right though, that as we've seen in the war there is a lot of background stuff we don't normally pay a lot of attention to that these "useless" techs were designed to do.
* How does chakra work? Is it something that the body generates, or is it fixed and non-replentishable? The series generally suggests the former (people run out of chakra, it can be replentished faster by eating), but in that case, how can the Fourth seal half the Kyuubi's charka permanently, as if he physically ripped off a body part? Later in the series, Naruto manages to rip off most of the Kyuubi's chakra, which leaves the Kyuubi heavily weakened. Naruto can reach the resulting ball of chakra and use it. Except that while he does, the Kyuubi takes Naruto's own so that he can recover. So does this mean that now Naruto doesn't take charka directly from the Kyuubi, but from the ball he made earlier, and that it might run out at some point, forcing him to beat the Kyuubi again to get some more?
* Also, since half the Kyuubi's chakra is sealed, does it have any consequences for Madara's plans?
** Chakra is just a natural energy generated by a form of circulatory system in the body - in a sense it makes Chakra far more realistic than Ki from Dragonball for example. This is why eating, drinking, training etc will replenish Chakra and over time will make it stronger; this also is what separates a Ninja from a civilian; a Ninja has trained over many years to utilize it effectively just as a martial artist has trained over many years to utilize their hands and feet effectively. Presumably it would be possible to cut off half of somebody's Chakra by employing a similar technique to the Hyuga Gentle Fist that blocks or diverts energy via the points along the system.
* Ch 545: so apparently Zetsu is a plant guy made up of cells from the First Hokage. WTF?! Plant cells have a different set of DNA from humans: they code for plant growth hormones and chlorophyll, enzymes for stimulating the growth of cell walls and other such proteins needed by plants. Last I checked, the First did not have any leaves growing out of him, and if he had sex and reproduced to create one of Tsunade's parents, he must have been human, otherwise his wife's gametes would never have been fertilised due to genetic incompatibility (unless there was a bit of incest going on). So how did his human cells, with all it's codes for human proteins like those found in friggin hair and bones, turn into a plant cell? Chakra? If you're going to make such a scientifically impossible plot point, Kishimoto, please don't use science to explain it. Unless this somehow makes sense scientifically and I haven't realised it? Anyone?
** Zetsu's debuted 311 chapters ago, he looked like a Venus Flytrap all this time and you didn't find it weird then, so why now? Besides the first Hokage's Kekkei Genkai was the Mokuton (Wood Release) at least the White Zetsu has the Mokuton, that he uses to manipulate his own body and replicate (as seen in the Kage sumit). White Zetsus are sentient plants that were mix with the DNA of the First Hokage to give them the Kekkei Genkai, see PlantPerson.
*** I was wondering (read: getting more and more incredulous) about it for a while, to be honest. Thanks for explaining.
** Would that explain the same thing for Yamato, then? I was always a bit surprised about how most of his Wood Jutsu come out of his arms and such.
* So do you think that if someone told the minor villages, especially Takigakure and Amegakure, they'd immediately join the allied powers to help fight Akatsuki? I imagine that some might have had a bone to pick with them since Fu was from Takigakure, after all. Unless say, nobody from Takigakure cared about Fu despite that she was the seven-tailed beetle host.
* What do the people of the world of Naruto do when they want to listen to music? Do they have music players, or can they only hear music when an actual performance is done? The SchizoTech makes it difficult to figure out.
* Are we ever going to find out why those Akatsuki rings were so important? When Deidara got his arm ripped off by Kakashi's Kamui jutsu, he was more worried about losing the ring rather than his own arm.
** I don't know for sure, but I've had a theory about that for a while: the rings are what allow them to all "meet" for the three-day jutsu that seals the tailed beasts. Notice that each Akatsuki member wears his ring on a different finger, which corresponds to the giant finger he sits on for the jutsu.
* Why is the fact that Kabuto has gotten DNA of some people like Deidara regarded an asspull?, he could have gotten it while they were still alive.
** The assumption many are under is that it had to be obtained after death. It's not stated nor suggested by anything in the manga nor the anime but it does seem to be the only logical reason why Jiraya is absent since a legendary warrior who served with Oorochimaru who was also a bit of a perv should have been insanely easy to get DNA from. Find attractive girl, send to him, extract essense, or you know scratch him or pull his hair.
*** Personally I think they are saving him. Jiraya was Naruto's friend and mentor. He'll either introduce him as a curve ball to shake Naruto's confidence or introduce him just prior to the potential return of Orochimaru - Kishimoto is a BIG fan of the Chekov's Gun, that DNA of Orochimaru in Kabuto will play a part somewhere down the line I guarantee it.
**** Has any other character besides Jiraya and Naruto used Nature Chakra/ Sage-Mode? Could be that it interfers somehow.
***** [[http://narutobase.net/manga/Naruto/579/17 Yeah,Kabuto did]]
***** Series ended and yeah, Kishi just didn't care. He's a big fan of the Chekov's Gun but also a big fan of missing things. And for the Sage Mode thing, Summoned Jiraya would not have been able to use it since it relies on summons but there's no reason at all not to use him both for his regular combat power and for having near Kage level information along with all the info you could want on Naruto.
* When exactly in the Hidden Leaf village did it become vogue to hate on the jinchuriki? There have only been three in history and two of them were the wives of the Hokage. We don't know anything about the first's social life but it's clear that the second was teased for her hair color not outright ostracized like Naruto and all the other signs suggest that if she wasn't outright popular by adulthood she certainly wasn't treated poorly.
** Probably right after Tobi used the 9 tails to attack the Hidden Leaf, and their Hokage died because of it.
* Where are these Summoning scrolls coming from? Where do these animals live? Were these scrolls just scattered by there respective owners? Do these animals give the scrolls to whoever they want? Do you have to find the animals' hideout? Are all of these animals on some different continent or something or are they just very well hidden?
** I presume that the animals live in very hidden and difficult places to get to but on the same continent since Jirayai simply stumbled upon the toads during his journeys. The animals clearly can voluntarily enter into these contracts but I think once the scroll exists they don't have a choice since nothing suggests that Manda even liked Oorochimaru.
* If the Sage of the Six Paths created the moon, how did the world have tides until that point?
** It probably didn't. It would be weird, though, but it might be possible. Or maybe it was the power of the juubi that created the tides, and that's why the moon causes tides...
** Granted this is a world where all sortsof weird stuff might be true I'd taken that particular statement as just a fairy tale.
** The sun causes tides, too. It's just that the Moon's influence is much greater because it's so much closer (tides are proportional to mass and inversely proportional to the cube of the distance.
** No way. The moon is what keeps the Earth at a steady tilt, and without it, the Earth would wobble on its axis however it damned pleased. Life would be unsustainable, and oceans could suddenly become new icecaps, forget about tides. Look at Mars for an example of the terrain that can be found on a moonless planet. The sun plays a very small role on the tides, so much that only in cases of alignment with the moon does it have any noticeable affect. As far as this troper is concerned, the whole creating the moon thing is a myth to make the Sage of Six Paths look cool or an exaggeration. Like maybe he just sealed 10-tails into the already-existing moon.
*** Except that, you know, mars has ''two'' moons. It's hardly a moonless planet, nor has it "wobble on its axis however it damned well pleased".
**** The Earth's Moon is actually more like a small planet than a moon. It's roughly the size of Mercury. Mars's moons, by contrast, are the size of asteroids. As a result, their tidal forces are negligible, and were Mars much larger than it is, its own tidal forces would shred those moons into rings.
* I know Itachi is talented but how did he actually kill of the entire Uchia clan over the course of one night. This requires two things that are improbable. The first is that everybody was in town and nobody was off on some mission. The second is he has to be so much better than everybody in his clan that not only can he defeat them all at once but also that escape was impossible. If you look at the village this doesn't look like he did this quietly one at a time. It looks like a hurricane of Kunai slaughtered them. I just fine it hard to believe that he could accomplish that by himself.
** Tobi was hanging around at that point so he could've lent a hand, tracking down any Uchiha outside the town isn't a challenge for him and the sharingan would be next to useless against someone who can become intangible and teleport at will.
*** Even so Uchiha seem to have that same great weakness as Saiyans. For no apparent reason all of them were in town or easily tracked down. Tobi is good, no doubt, but I find it difficult to believe that he could hunt down a Uchiha that didn't want to be found. The world is sufficiently large that it doesn't really make sense. Unless part of their contract as the police was that none of them could have other professions that took them outside the village.
** Depending on how imminent the coup was, the Uchiha could have been gathering in the village to prepare and not going on any serious missions to avoid losing manpower before the coup. Itachi just chose a night when everyone was in town.
* Why is everybody so impressed with the Rinnegan when it's by far the weakest of the three eye techniques? The Byakugan gives you 360 degrees of vision and the ability to see chakra lines which opens up an entire martial art style that nobody else can use and is difficult to defend against because you don't know what they are aiming at and you've likely never seen anything similar in style. The Sharingan gives you the ability to copy any technique immediately after seeing it and in it's later states seems to let you do whatever the hell you want. The Rinnegan lets you use all five elements. It's not a bad thing to have but I'd rather one of the other two. The shared vision is an aspect of Pein and later Madara/Kabuto's connecting six bodies to one brain with those metal rods. There is nothing in the series so far to suggest you couldn't do the same thing with any body that you stuffed one of those rods into and resurrected. Judging by how most of the experienced ninja fight in Naruto it seems like you're better off being the best at that thing you do than it would be to be decent, or even quite talented in everything.
** It also allows one to resurrect the dead, completely decipher the Sage of the Six Paths Tablet, manipulate gravity to the point you can destroy towns, divide the Ten Tailed Beast into nine parts and is powerful enough to ''create a moon.'' It is in a completely different league to the Byakugan and the regular Sharingan. You could probably make a decent argument that an extremely powerful Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan user such as Sasuke could surpass it; but to say it is the weakest eye technique simply isn't true.
*** Where is it shown or even suggested that any of these powers are directly linked to the Rinnegan? When Tobi and the the six resurrected jinchuriki didn't display any of these abilities during their fight. It seems as likely as not that with the debatable exception dividing the Ten Tails that the rest of those techniques were something anybody with the proper training could have achieved.
**** It was explained when Kakashi noticed that his six paths weren't using the powers and it was revealed because it was too hard to use the powers while controlling the resealed tailed beasts in the jinchuuriki on eye power alone
*** Nagato outright says that the gravitation power is a result of the rinnengan, and when Madara showed his, he hurled two mountain size rocks at the shinobis. Also Tobi focused on increasing the abilities the jichuriki were already famous for, specially against opponents that have already fought with the six path's powers.
**** Nagato says in issue 439 that the Sage of Six Paths created the moon, not that the gravitational power came from the Rinnegan. Naruto Issue 560 has Madara drop a really big rock on them but it's not the gravity technique. It does seem implied however that the jutsu absorption technique might be unique to the Rinnegan as Madara seems to turn it on specifically because he's tired of getting hit. The Sage of Six Paths and Madara can do pretty much whatever they want because the Rinnegan makes it possible to learn any technique (presumably including bloodline limits) but I think you still have to learn them.
*** If it's shown that the [[http://mangafox.me/manga/naruto/v59/c560/15.html absorption technique (preta path)]], the [[http://mangafox.me/manga/naruto/v48/c449/4.html king of hell (naraka path)]], the [[http://mangafox.me/manga/naruto/v48/c447/12.html demonic statue of the outer path (outer path)]] and or gravity techniques are related to the rinnengan, why wouldn't the others be? But to drive the point home, Konan stated they're techniques from the rinnengan on [[http://mangafox.me/manga/naruto/v48/c449/2.html chapter 449]].
**** No it isn't. Issue 449 states that the man with the Rinnegan can walk all six paths and the 7th power, the Outer Path of life and death. However we've already seen multiple techniques that can raise the dead.
***** Raising the dead and bringing the dead back to pre-death life are two very different things in the series.
***** Regardless Gaara was brought back to pre-death. That's still not a unique trick, sure he Pein cast it on an entire village but that seems to be more a matter of scale than it being impossible without special eyes.
***** It was said that the technique used to revive Gaara kills the user, and it also can't revive people long dead or at least restore their decayed body so it's a lot more than a matter of scale.
* Why didn't someone kill Kabuto? Itachi specifically told us that Izanami was a poor technique for combat because it can be countered, it might take forever but sooner or later he's gonna accept the truth and unless those lights mean he can't use the edo tensai again I don't see why we wouldn't be right back where we started. Even if he can't he's still his sage mode makes him easily one of the most powerful ninja on the planet.
** Kabuto can only escape Izanami if he realises that he will not find his identity by waging war and imitating others. That means that he won't pull edo tensei again even if he escapes. Besides, Orochimaru took his sennin chakra fron him, so he's not much of a threat anyway. Maybe he finally realises that he had friends in the orphanage who acknowledged him and sets out to find them, maybe he stays trapped forever.
*** Why wouldn't he used the Edo Tensai again? Orochimaru didn't invent the technique, the 2nd Hokage did and it's implied that not many ninja actually invent their own techniques anyhow. As for his Sennin Chakra that cannot be taken from someone because it's not special chakra, it's a technique. The same thing that Naruto does except with a different animal so even if it could be taken (like say Pein) that doesn't stop Kabuto from turning it right back on at his earliest convenience. Hopefully when/if he breaks free the war is over and he simply wanders away. However to answer the original question Itachi didn't kill him because he wanted Kabuto to have the chance to learn his lesson. Sasuke didn't out of respect for Itachi and nobody else cared for one reason or another. Is it a bit short sighted? Probably. Had the Sharingon not come up with a new BS technique Kabuto would likely have beaten two of the most deadly ninja in the world by himself but that's just life.
**** Kabuto specifically stated [[http://narutobase.net/manga/Naruto/577/16 here]] that if he was killed, the Edo Tensei jutsu will continue on indefinitely, since he is the only one who could stop it.
* How do summoning contracts work in-universe? In the "Tales of a Gutsy Ninja" episodes Sarutobi Hiruzen tells Jiraiya that just like everyone has an individual elemental affinity, everyone has one specific species of animal with whom they can sign a contract. I don't recall if this event happened in the manga too and is therefore canon, but the episodes also contain canon material like Jiraiya finding Mount Myoboku and hearing his prophecy. If we are supposed to believe that this is how it works, how is it possible then for Sasuke to sign contracts with both the snakes and the hawks/eagles? Presumably Nagato was only able to summon all of those other animals because he had the Rinnegan, and even then his creatures seemed different than the other summoned ones we've seen in that they also had the Rinnegan and didn't seem capable of human speech.
** It's not clear how they work from the Manga nor the Anime but it's more than clear that that Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Third Hokage, was mistaken to some degree. Everybody has an element that they can use most easily true but perhaps summons are just like elemental energies. It's not impossible to have more than one. Kakashi informs us that MOST Jonin can use two elements. One affinity is easier than the rest and it's implied to be genetic but we don't have enough examples to prove that it's genetic and not cultural. Uchia having an affinity for fire could be no more genetic than Americans speaking English is. We'll see when/if Sakura learns a summon. If she can summon giant slugs I'll it settled that Sasuke and Kabuto have snakes because they were trained by Orrochimaru, Naruto has toads because of Jiraya and not because they share blood.
* Does Konoha even have child abuse laws? It's amazing how much adults can get away with punching children in this series. Gai punching Lee, and Kushina punching Naruto (in front of Tsunade no less) in ''Road to Ninja'' are the biggest examples. Is beating up kids just okay in Konoha?
** I think it's just an anime thing where the cast beating each other up is supposed to be funny. Sakura punches Naruto all the time and it's never portrayed as leaving serious injuries on him.
** And aside from that, while it's easy to forget sometimes, all these 12-year-olds are highly-trained ninja who could defeat pretty much any non-ninja adult in a fight very easily. Besides which, children of around 12 years seem to be more or less considered adults; some of them live on their own and nobody thinks anything of it, for instance. They do have Jonin supervision when they go out on potentially dangerous missions, but they still face serious danger an awful lot, and in the Chunin Exam their very lives were explicitly in danger on several occasions. Hitting a preteen Genin isn't really hitting a child.
* I know that there are lots of things that don't make sense about the fights, but one thing stands out to me--the Substitution Jutsu. It seems it can be used at any time, even when one's hands can't form signs...so why is any ninja in any danger, ever?
** 1) The substitution jutsu usually needs 5 handseals to perform, its only geniuses like kakashi who can use it without any handseals,2) We just don't know exactly how it works, I read a fanfic that explained that you had to pre-prepare the object by coating it with your chakra, it obviusly has some limitations, for example kakashi never tried to kawarmi with Zabuzas sword.
* Edo-Minato casually mentions that he's Naruto's father, and no one is surprised by this. It's not because they don't have time to be surprised by stuff, because everybody reacted to Sasuke showing up. Did everybody else figure this out? How long have they known?
** Naruto probably told them after he himself found out (sometime after the Pain Arc, when he met Minato's chakra in his subconscious), and with everyone finally trusting him and looking at him as the hero of the village, why wouldn't they believe him?
* Okay, since the Sharingan can ultimately evolve into the Rinnegan by combining Senju and Uchiha, and Madara has shown he can use the powers of both EMS and Rinnegan, even using his Perfect Susano'o plus his Rinnegan to use Heaven Concealed...why did Nagato/Pain never use any Sharingan related abilities with all that time with the Rinnegan? It becomes even stranger when you realize that Nagato had Madara's eyes!! Shouldn't he have let loose Tsukoyomi or unlocked a Susano'o at some point?
** Sharingan eyes seem to kinda do whatever they please at the moment and it's entirely possible that Nagato simply didn't know how to use his various techniques. Sasuke first uses the Black Flames because Itachi had programmed him to, Susano'o seemed to be mostly reflex and knowing ht could be done. Without a Sharingan user to observe (and knowing he effectively had a super Sharingan) Nagato was clearly underutilizing his eyes and for that matter the Madaras seem to be equally unaware of their powers. A little bit of that I reject gravity jutsu would go a LONG way against opponents who have to hit you physically because you're immune to ninjutsu.
* Why is Madara immune to taijutsu? I accept that for whatever crazy reason his Sage of Six Paths technique negates ninjutsu but should lots of kicks to the head eventually remove it from his shoulders?
** Are you talking about Obito or Madara, because Madara can regenerate from taijutsu and Obito's body seems to become strong enough to shrug off any taijutsu similar to the Third Raikage, except to a higher degree. Also with the exception of about 6 people, nobody even comes close to being fast enough to hit Obito at least once with taijutsu.
* Why are there seemingly so few ninja who are remotely ready to become Hokage? Kakashi and his generation in general should have several good candidates but apparently there are none since passing that honor on to him was a desperate move under desperate circumstances. Jirayai, Tsunade and Danzo should all be too old be Hokage. I'm basing this off what we can figure from who trained who. The Third trained the Legendary Sanin. Jirayai trained Minato who became the fourth. Minato in turn trained Obito, Rin and Kakashi. None of those three were ready when Minato died, understandable enough but in the decade or so that passed since then NOBODY stepped up enough in skill not only for the Third to return to retirement but when they chose the fifth they had to backtrack to a generation that history had effectively stepped over previously?
** Being ready has a lot of different meanings. Old age has nothing to do with being a Kage, let alone a Hokage. Sarutobi stepped down because he felt that in his opinion his own old age would get in the way of fulfilling his duties as Hokage and it'd be better to pass it along to someone younger who showed talent, promise, and power. Then there's also the fact that being Hokage isn't just based on fighting ability. All that paperwork Tsunade does? That's more than a running gag, that's her typical day of work when there isn't a war going on. She's a manager of the village who can be a key asset during conflicts if a war were ever to break out.

Plus there's other qualifications besides that. One might determine whom is ready by their characteristics. Are they brave enough? Loyal enough? Will they do what is right for the village, or what is right for themselves? Can they withstand all the responsibility without snapping like a twig under the pressure? These are just some of the things that can come into consideration for whom gets to be next Hokage. An example in another village, Gaara as the Kazekage. The Tsuchikage and Raikage brushed him off because of how young he was until he called them out on their own words during their meeting and gaining respect in their eyes as a true Kage. Gaara was ready, he had the attributes needed to lead, the strength to fight, and the intelligence to manage the village.
* Naruto and Sasuke are the current reincarnations of legendary ninjas. Fine. However Naruto is apparently the untalented one? As far back as the Bridge Builder Arc Sasuke acknowledged that Naruto has more natural talent than he does. Given that Sasuke was trained at least in part by his father and brother prior to going to the academy and Naruto's training consisted entirely of pissing off the locals and running like hell it seems obvious that Naruto is the one with the natural talent between those two.
** Hashirama is another incarnation of the untalented one and is widely considered the most gifted shinobi ever. Itachi had to use a super-powerful genjutsu to free himself from the Edo Tensei and Hashirama just sort of did it by being awesome. His very DNA heals people and shortens the recharge time on jutsus and he's the only one to have the Mokuton. Even if he took awhile to come into his potential (which is unlikely as then he'd probably be dead like two of his brothers) he's clearly not untalented. The Sage did outright tell Naruto he wasn't as talented as his parents and sometimes talented people produce untalented children and Naruto agreed though I'd like to think the Sage is just mistaken and Naruto still has some insecurity there. Either way, WHY the Ashura reincarnation favors everyone working together and the Indra one favors seeking power alone doesn't matter so much as the fact that they do and that's been Naruto and Sasuke's MOs for awhile as Sasuke keeps ditching everyone he teams up with.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Naruto Fandom]]


!!Fanfiction

* So, just out of curiosity- I've heard it in Fanon many times that Temari, Gaara, and Kankuro are siblings, to the point where I accept it, but I'd like to know where exactly this was stated?
** You missed all the bits where Kankurou keeps referring to him as his little brother?
*** Evidently. Color me stupid.
**** Maybe not. Konohamaru calls Naruto "big brother" (''niichan'') and ''they'' aren't related.
**** That's because Konohamaru sees Naruto as a big brother figure. I doubt during the Chunin exams Kankuro felt that way about Gaara and Gaara referred to them as his family and he even said he wanted to kill them.
** They are definitely related. Kankuro tells Gaara in the Forest of Death to "do what your big brother tells you!" Gaara replies that he's never thought of Kankuro as a brother. Also, they all appear together as kids in flashback, and Kankuro looks a ''lot'' like their father (to a lesser extent, so does Gaara), while Temari looks more like their mother.
* The common plot device of making Naruto not just not liked, but actively and constantly abused by most of the village up to having people try to kill him and come close on a regular basis. This makes absolutely no sense for at least 3 reasons: 1. The Hokage personally cares for Naruto. He knows him and is probably something of a surrogate father. It makes no sense for him to allow this kind of crap to happen. 2. Naruto's status as Jinchuuriki makes abusing him very dangerous (just look at Gaara) not just for the attacker but for the village itself. He might go on a rampage and do serious damage, or turn against Konoha. Either way, even if nobody likes Naruto, it's a very bad strategic mistake. 3. The promise to the Fourth that Naruto would be seen as a hero. Add that for instance Jiraiya would be expected to be interested in his wellbeing. Occasionally there is a mention of Naruto being expelled from the orphanage and living in the streets. This would make the Hokage into a complete failure. He makes the law in the village, and Naruto ought to be one of his top priorities for the above reasons. Additionally, this doesn't make for a good parallel with Gaara, because when he was little, Gaara was well meaning but with big control problems. He had a tendency to easily and very gorily kill people without meaning to. Naruto never had that kind of problem. </rant>
** Minato wanting Naruto to be seen as a hero seems to be worth nothing. Unless that is the only thing stopping Hiruzen from cheerfully handing Naruto over to Danzo (which is highly unlikely), then what good came out of Minato's wish? His wish that he never actually was able to tell Hiruzen and so he must have just sort of assumed or known that Minato wanted his child to be a hero before the Kyuubi attacked. If anything, Minato's desire might be why everyone knows about the sealing in the first place. The civilians, at least, would have totally bought that the Yondaime killed the Kyuubi and they seem to be the ones with the biggest problem with Naruto.
** The Hokage didn't personally care for Naruto, evidenced by the complete lack of his presence in Naruto's life...for the entirety of it, and his willingness to allow the people of Konoha to emotionally abuse Naruto without doing anything to stop them in spite of Minato's desires.
** It's an easy plot device to use, and fits in large amounts of fanfics to provide some sort of angst. Why wouldn't it be used?
** There's a difference between allowing people to emotionally abuse Naruto and allowing people to not interact with him or want anything to do with him. It's not fair to Naruto that he grows up the way he does while under circumstances he can't really control, but it also wouldn't be fair to force people to be around him and to not have their opinions. To the people of Konoha who remember Kurama's attack, there's a lot more involved here than just "Humans Are Bastards." While terrible to say, Naruto really isn't a normal person-- he's the container of Kurama, that happens to live in the village with Kurama's victims. He's the container of a sentient and intelligent creature that threatened their village, killed their friends and family, and nearly destroyed everything they knew and loved. People don't easily recover from, or forget that kind of devistation. They may go about their daily business, but there are scars left and thoughts in the back of their minds that it happened and could happen again. There's an element of uncertainty when encountering Naruto. You don't know how in-control he is, or if he has ''any control at all''. We, as readers, can trust that Naruto won't harm people, and if he does it's unintentional and the other ninja will quickly get things under control. But the people encountering him don't have that same knowledge and comfort. I know that Kurama is sealed. But seals aren't perfect and for the last 15 years Kurama's been a potential and deadly threat that might one day break out of his host and slaughter everyone in sight. I'm not saying that hating Naruto is right, but that the reaction is understandable and not indicative of whether or not someone is a good or bad person. I feel the same way regarding the situation with Gaara. I honestly think having someone or a small group physically retaliate makes sense, but not necessarily at the frequency that seems to happen in some fanfics. Sometimes, you'd think the entire dang village was out to get him 24/7.
*** Even if they never openly discuss it, it seems rather obvious however that the battle between Kurama and the village was at worst mutually antagonistic and quite possibly a classic case of HumansAreBastards. It's only revealed later but the first Hokage was married to the first Jinchuriki. We're not told of any attack prior to that point. There are two things that we do know that are important. One is that every village wanted a Jinchuriki because they are incredibly powerful and two that the Sharingon can control if not all of them certainly the Nine Tails. It just seems unlikely that the Nine Tails was the aggressor when first contact was made, though he may not have been in a talking mood at the time.
* I understand SturgeonsLaw, but still, why is it that the GrayAndGreyMorality parts in Naruto are often changed into VideoGame/BlackAndWhite morality in fandom? E.g. Itachi is either a monster who killed his family ForTheEvulz or was framed by someone else. As opposed by canon which states that Itachi choose to kill his family on the Hokages order because they were planning a coup.
** Because when people do not like a character, they are often not inclined to be sympathetic to them and so it's easier to just make them a complete monster. Similarly, if they are especially fond of a character then they might not want to face what that character has actually done. Plus, if they want, say, Itachi accepted back into Konoha or to end up in a relationship with a non-missing-nin then it's easier if they were framed.
*** Which is really aggravating, since BlackAndWhiteMorality is rather boring and unrealistic, the middle audience that doesn't love or hate a character think that the grayer the character the better, since it makes them more human.
**** But it's not boring in the least to the fanfic writer. Common to all narrative is that the author is the first judge of the story. If the author has poor judgment, the story becomes poor too.
* The Clan Restoration Act. Let alone the fact that medic-nin should be able to extract the sperms/ova from the potential victim, why would clans even agree to this? Because the last remaining clanmember is far more likely to be a woman.
** If the clans don't want to die out even after they themselves are dead, I doubt it would matter that the last remaining member was a female. I can see that using surrogates might offend some of them because they wouldn't be "real" clan members or even possibly raised by "real" members. Do the clans have to support it? If they did then that would force the sole remaining member's hand even more. And if it's a case of "Why don't the Hyuuga have an issue with Sasuke being forced to restart his clan when they themselves are a clan" then it's important to remember that the only time this would ever affect the Hyuuga is if they were all killed save one person and this isn't very likely to occur, particularly in times of peace.

!! Smokeless Henge/Shunshin
* What the hell is that? No matter how you put it's very hard to picture.
** I think I remember Naruto using smokeless bunshin in his fight with Kakashi in the anime, and you can look at Minato using his Hirishin jutsu in Road to Ninja for what a smokeless sunshin would look like.
* Why not be more specific? Say, like the standard leaf version.

!! Hinata passing out
* Why do people have Hinata willing herself not to faint because she thought of Naruto? Also, why is her fainting problems attributed to her crush on Naruto?
** She fainted once on-screen in the manga. Granted, it was the first time she'd seen Naruto in 2 1/2 years, and he came out of nowhere. Then she fainted again when he popped up in front of her again just after she woke up and said she should be with him (on his team, but he didn't mention that part). Kiba then mentioned she had fainted at least once before off-screen. Anime took her fainting and made it a minor problem. Fanfiction took it and [[UpToEleven ran with it.]]

!! The civilian council
* What is the point of their existence? They're just a bunch {{Flat Character}}s that do nothing but make Naruto's life a living hell. While the Hiruzen and Tsunade do nothing and let them get away with it. Also apparently they're responsible for every thing that is wrong with Konoha.
** The Civilian Council appears to be the real power. Which makes sense, they are the Congress to the Kage's Presidency. Which seems to be a case of authority equals ass kicking position anyway. There are plenty of Ninja, Kakashi, Shikaku and Danzo who are easily smarter than Tsunade or Jirayia but as far as we can tell none that come close to rivaling their strength and that's universal in every village. The five Kage are with the exceptions of the Jinchuriki, the bar none most powerful ninja in their respective villages. If any of them are the smartest though they must have some serious issues.

!! Naruto's exile
* Naruto is the jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi, pretty much [[PersonOfMassDesturction a walking nuke]]. Why would (let alone how) Tsunade let the civilian council exile him?
** According to fanon, the "Civ Council" has more political power than the Hokage, so even if Tsunade doesn't agree with one of their decisions, she can't stop it.
*** According to the Canon the "Civ Council" and not the Third Hokage were primarily responsible for the Uchiha massacre. To the point that Danzo appears to have gone behind the Hokage's back in the end.
**** Koharu, Homura and Danzo aren't the civ council. They're ninjas.
*** I've seen fanfics justify it by saying that they got rid of him so they weren't a target for Akatsuki (an orginisation made up of person of mass destructions.)
**** That doesn't explain why he was exiled AFTER the Sasuke Retrieval Arc.
**** Maybe they knew the Third would never go for it but Tsunade wasn't as well-established and in control yet and the Sasuke retrieval mission is the first pretext they had for exiling him since the Third died.
** Firstly, there is at least one fic where Tsunade put her foot down. Second, it does not make sense for Naruto to be exiled period, no matter how much favoritism is shown towards Sasuke and how much politics are involved. He is a jinchuuriki- even if they're sure he won't just Kyuubi!Rampage on them all, Danzo at least should consider him a weapon for Konoha. In short, kicking him out and possibly alienating him = bad idea. Sure, as civilians the Civilian Council might do that out of ignorance or whatever, but Konoha is a NINJA village.

!! Anko
* Why does fanon assume that Anko was given the [[AllTheOtherReindeer All The Other Reindeer]] treatment for being Orochimaru's student? There's been no evidence of that anywhere in canon as far as I know.
** Of course there's no evidence in canon - its because we barely ever see Anko in Canon, so for fics were shes a main character any author is going to have to make a few assumptions, considering how Naruto is treated its not unreasonble to conclude Anko was treated in a similar way.

!! Wearing Orange
* Why does anyone give Naruto flak for wearing "obviously unstealthy" orange when every ninja in the entire series wears a headband that's basically a badge saying "I'm a ninja from X village." You'd think that would clue people in that hiding who they are isn't a big priority for ninja in this series.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Artwork]]
* Was the manga always supposed to be written the way it was now? Looking at the early artbooks and such, it seems like it was supposed to have a completely different feel and plot. It seems like the manga changed midway when Sasuke left. Or was this all according to Kishi's plans?
** Well, this is Kishimoto's first big work. Everything is very rough in the first ten manga volumes, because as a starting manga artist with a huge storyline, it takes awhile for someone to get the hang of drawing so-and-so and to draw this body pose or movement like this. Looking at the early artwork, it was pretty simple and a little amateurish, but with time, Kishimoto stepped up to the plate and developed his own style. That's what happened; Kishimoto finally grabbed hold of his own style of manga drawing when the story was getting serious. Because it takes skill to properly execute the pages upon pages of future unavoidable skirmishes and plot development. If the art sucks, then the story, no matter how good or well-thought out, will suck.
*** I wouldn't agree with that. Look at ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark''. The only requirement for the artwork is that it can accurately convey what was intended.
* Ino's eye color. blue eyes or green eyes? The anime has her with blue, and originally the manga did too, but in mid Shippuden (manga-wise) they changed to green. [[http://images.wikia.com/naruto/images/3/3f/Ino_Yamanaka_Part_2.png Blue]] to [[http://images.wikia.com/naruto/images/f/fc/Yamanaka_Ino_at_the_war.png weird]], glowy [[YouGottaHaveBlueHair green]].. Why do her eyes have a glow effect now anyway?
** Can't say anything about the glow, but everyone is born with blue eyes, hence "baby blue" and some times eye color can take an while to change, as in cases where it took ~ 20 years.
* I understand that Gai and Lee commonly refer to themselves as "The Green Beast" in the anime, and are often shown to wear green in the colored pictures that come in the manga. So why does Lee call himself "Blue Beast" in the manga? I think Gai does it earlier, too. Is this some strange translation error?
** Green is sometimes referred to as blue in Japanese. In traffic lights, for example.
*** Still, it does seem odd, especially when their jumpsuits are green on the covers. Additionally, Choji's spinach pill is called blue in some fan translations.
** The kanji for green (?) usually means green, but it covers the spectrum from green to blue.
*** I believe it is the opposite. It is the word for ''blue'' that can mean both. Even though it usually means 'blue', sometimes it is 'green'. The confusion comes that although the usual translation would be 'blue beast', Gai's and Lee's usual attire indicates that 'green beast' would be more appropriate.
** Gai's "blue beast" name actually comes from what he looks like when he opens 7 gates. The excessive amount of sweat and heat causes him to glow blue, apparently.
** They refer themselves using the word Aoi. It can mean both blue or green.
* Kishi just can't seem to keep a consistent size for the tailed beasts, and especially Kurama. One minute, they're small enough for a person to cover half their face, and the next, their eyes are larger than a person. While Kurama's situation has some explanation behind it, there are post-seal instances where Kurama appears to be his original size, and pre-seal instances where he appears to be smaller than he actually is. It's not just the tailed beasts that suffer from an apparent size inconsistency, though; several large-scale attacks also are hit by it, especially attacks like the Bijuu-dama and Rasen-shuriken (though in this case, it's more of a size-to-power inconsistency, as an attack's size can be modified, but the destructive power in relation to the size is inconsistent).
** That may be partially intended. The Bijuu are in fact just chakra manifestations and they may very well be as large or small as they feel like being or have a range of sizes or anything else. As for size to power in attacks that may be at least in part just based on how much chakra was pushed into the attack. It might be possible to make a physically large attack that's mostly air. This is partially confirmed when Kurama's four tailed form gathered up all the Light and Dark energy in a fairly large ball and then condensed it down into something the size of a marble. Same energy incredibly dense ball. Same theory just with a Rasengon.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Other]]
* Can anybody and anything in Naruto qualify as a ninja. The term shinobi has been applied to people with such a wide range of abilities from clay puppet bombers to satanistic immortal magic men to people who just punch and kick i.e Rock Lee. There literally seems to be no consensus or parameters for what can and can't make you a ninja. The samurai? Yeah, they're basically ninja too. It seems if someone knows how to nullify someone else in any way at all, they can be considered a ninja. So if I threw my feces at people, that could be my ninja thing. Am I missing something or were the creators just plain out of ideas?
** Yeah, and what would you call that? Monkey Cage no Jutsu?
** Apparently, a ninja in this world is a chakra user. As long as you were using your chakra to throw your feces at people, you would be a ninja.
* [[spoiler: Madara getting his real body again:]] Why does he consider this an improvement? And how come now he says he can fight at full power, when Kabuto [[spoiler: made him better than his prime?]] When you are an Edo tensei, you regenerate, have unlimited chakra, and can be modified to be MORE powerful... so... how does this make sense?
** Given the circumstances I assume there are draw backs to being an Edo Tensai that we are unaware of. It's probable that given time Kabuto could reassert control or summon him again. I doubt they can have children for one and it may be physically unpleasant. I suspect they are numb, Minato basically had to be informed he was missing an arm. There could quite possibly be a time limit on the Edo Tensai as well. If there is no drawback like that though I'd just chalk it up as Madara getting passed the Idiot Ball. It's a whole lot easier to kill someone who's alive than someone who isn't. It's also not completely clear if this new ressurection Jutsu brings you back in your "real" body or if it somehow improves you. It may just be Edo Tensai V.2.
*** Well no, Obito used Rinne Tensei, aka, what Pain used to bring back everyone in the village... and they aren't any stronger, from what we can tell. But fair, enough, the next chapter will show what he means.
** This started bugging me as well, and was and I myself was about to make my own entry under here before I saw yours. Then again, there definitely are limitations and also certain factors that may be reasons why he wanted to be fully alive again. For why he considers it an improvement is specifically mentioned above as the numbness being one. He can't feel any injuries, but then again that's not necessary or even a bad thing. He regenerates so fast it would be distracting to pay attention to pain if he felt it. But there's also probably the fact that the numbness messes with his chakra control. If he can't feel pain, he probably can't feel the flow of chakra through his body and one of the basics is that if you put in too much chakra, or too little, the technique will be considered more of a dud than if the exact necessary amount was used.
*** Given Madara's attitude and blood knight tendencies, it's certainly feasible that, if Edo Tensei does indeed render the resurrected numb, then he would consider that 'less then full power'. He's shown to enjoy battle for it's own sake, deliberately handicapping himself against most enemies and lamenting that only Hashirama was ever able to fight him at his best. For someone like that, the inability to feel pain and feel as if his life is being threatened, and knowing he will just regenerate if killed, could result in him lacking any real motivation and simply going through the motions. Simply put, 'at full power' doesn't just refer to his abilities and tactics, but also his mindset, and without the adrenaline rush, he simply cannot bother to give it everything he's got.
*** It's because Edo Tensei does not bring you back at full power, I imagine it depends on both the person doing the jutsu and the body used as the medium proper. When Orochimaru revived the Hokages, Tobirama stated that it was a mistake to bring him back at almost full power. Madara needed to be both at full power, and with a "real" body in order yo become the Shinju's Jinchūriki in order to enact the Moon's eye plan. The whole not at full power thing also explains just why the third hokage had a fighting chance against both the first and second hokage in the fight at the chuunin exams, if they were at full power there was no chance in hell he could have survived at all.
** I think the only reason why Madara wants to have a mortal body again is because he still wants to be the Juubi's Jinchuuriki, and you have to be alive to be a Jinchuuriki.

Also, for some reason (probably due to the chakra control) he only managed to break the two techniques being used on him by the First Hokage the instant he forced Obito to revive him. So there seem to be unknown specifics behind the technique, specifically that it dulls the power of the reincarnated person's abilities. Probably a failsafe designed by Kabuto to keep the subject from becoming too powerful to put down if they manage to break free like Madara did.

Now we get to the situations that Madara could have feared and thus necessitated him to bring himself back to life RIGHT THAT MOMENT instead of after the battle. Obito was planning on bringing back someone who had the highest chance of being the only person ever to live who could possibly seal Madara (leaving little to the imagination that this person was Jiraiya). He couldn't risk that happening. Then there's also the fact that Obito was still alive and would be the only truly living person capable of reviving him fully. Even if the person he was bringing back couldn't defeat Madara, Obito would still die as a result of bringing them back and thus ruining Madara's chance to live again once and for all. Lastly, it is implied that one must be fully alive to be able to become jinchuriki of the ten tails as Madara wanted to be. Best to do it right then and there while all the bijuu were in one place.

* Madara not instantly becoming old again makes no sense since that's how he was when he died and his Rinnegan crumbled to dust because he didn't have them when he died.
** Kabuto is to blame for that one; he did all sorts of modifications to the corpse to bring it back to its prime [Hence the Hashirama face on his chest. which Madara gave indirect credit to Kabuto for]. Only difference was that Kabuto did not have a pair of Rinnegan eyes to experiment with, thus he [in theory] could not have Madara revived with a pair of eyes due to Gedo Art: Rinne Rebirth.--Dephlogisticate
*** Problem with Kabuto messing around with Madara after creating an Edo version is that any alterations should've disappeared with Madara's resurrection since they weren't present when Madara died. It's obvious that it's an Asspull that Madara needs to keep being a threat to the allied forces, it's still irritating.
*** Presumably, this is why they didn't simply force Nagato to resurrect Madara as soon as handing him the Rinnegan. Resurrecting him from scratch would have resulted in him coming back as an old man, and dying soon afterwards. Madara's plan likely always involved some way around this issue, the only reason Kabuto and Edo Tensei ended up being involved in the process is because Tobi had no intention of actually resurrecting Madara, instead simply using him until he died and then hijacking his plan. Hence his troubled reaction when Kabuto reveals Madara's coffin. Also consider, these are the upgraded version of the eyes that can cast time-warp techniques such as Izanami and Izanagi. It's not unbelievable to assume the user can choose to resurrect the target at any point during their lives, and Pein simply chooses to resurrect everyone at their 'oldest' because he had no reason to bring them all back younger.

* It was mentioned that despite having a constantly regenerating, indestructible body. Madara was still a corpse his body at the time was essentially a construct of dust and ash, and I think that Obito flat out stated you need to be alive with a body of flesh and blood to become the Jubi's jinchuuriki so he needed to become flesh and blood and give up the advantages of Edo Tensei to enact the Moon's Eye Plan.

* They are published by the same manga company and animated by the same studio; between both of these factors, why have Naruto and Bleach never crossed over, or Naruto with any other Shohen medium before it?
** Does this count. ''VideoGame/JumpSuperstars''

* Orochimaru's body takeover jutsu works by devouring the soul of the host body right? so why didn't he use Edo Tensei to summon someone who has most of the abilities he coverts and possess that, like say Madara?
** That's what he wanted to do to Sasuke, and Madara was dead.
*** Hence the Edo Tensei of Madara which would last forever.
** Being an Edo Tensai isn't so great. You're basically made of ash and can be controlled far easier than an ordinary human. It's also implied to be rather uncomfortable, the Hokages all seemed glad with passing on instead of staying alive as zombies.

* So... the Sage of Six Paths stated Madara activated the Rinnegan by mixing Indra's chakra and Asura's chakra. Does this disprove Orochimaru and Kabuto's theory that the Rinnegan was the natural evolution of the Sharingan, if only those who are reincarnations of the two sons have the potential to awaken it?
** It's still technically true that it's the natural evolution, it's just that the requirement is more complex than previously thought, anyone with a Sharingan and the siblings chakra could theoretically awaken the Rinnegan.
*** I think it disproves it in the sense that Kabuto was close, but had it backwards. The Rinnegan is not the evolution of the Sharingan, rather, the Sharingan is the evolution of the Rinnegan. The powers of the Sage were not a normal evolution, but a power inherited from his mother, and his sons each only inherited a part of it for themselves, implying that something of the power is lost with each generation. Madara even states that ninja of his day were far more powerful then the current ones, and as all chakra is a result of descent from the Sage's powers, this backs up the speculation that each generation loses power relative to the previous. Therefore, as the power became more and more diluted over the generations, the eyes adapted a more efficient, but less powerful form, to compensate for the smaller chakra reserves of their users. Mixing Senju cells and Uchiha blood essentially artificially re-creates the Sage's DNA, and therefore, chakra, but on a far more diluted level. Nonetheless, this proves sufficient to allow the eyes to revert to something similar to the original form they were descended from in response to the bolstered life-force and chakra reserves that appear to be traits of the power inherited by the Senju. In other words, the Sharingan is the fantastic ninja equivalent of a species adopting a smaller, less durable form that allows them to run and hide rather then fight in response to a climb in the population of their natural predators.

* According to Black Zetsu in Chapter 679, Kaguya Ōtsutsuki used Mugen Tsukuyomi on mankind before and, as we know, you need to reflect the genjutsu from the moon's surface for it to be able to affect everyone and everything on the planet. So how the hell did Kaguya cast Mugen Tsukuyomi if her son [[http://naruto.wikia.com/wiki/Moon Hagoromo was the person who created the moon]] ???
** Even if we accept that the myth is true which admittedly at this point looks quite plausible we have no idea when Kaguya died. The same chapter has her recognizing not only her two sons but two of her grandsons. The better question here is if Mugen/Infinite Tsukuyomi works as described how is the world even here?
*** The moon being used was to increase the area of effect, not to cast the technique in the first place.
**** She also possess the Byakugan in combination with her Rinne-Sharingan, a combination we haven't seen in anyone else, and can open wormholes. Presumably through the combination of those three techniques, it would be a simple task to say, open an eye-sized wormhole to her target and cast Mugen Tsukuyomi at any range through it, or warp space and open a massive wormhole in orbit that makes her eye appear moon-sized in place of reflecting it off the moon.

* When Madara first came back as an Edo, he mentions that he would've taught Hashirama how to revive himself if he'd known that the quality of Kage would slip so much. It's now been shown that Madara used a Mangekyo Sharingan to revive himself with Izanagi so how the hell did he expect Hashirama to learn it?
** He was certainly aware of the fact Sharingan can be transfered to other people and still maintain their use. Hashirama would probably never do such a thing, but that's besides the point.
*** He was probably just making a point that he'd rather have his greatest enemy/rival be back to life than have to see the weakness of the current generation.

* If Madara used Izanagi to revive himself soon after his battle with Hashirama, forever blinding one of his eyes, how come Nagato later got two functional Rinnegan, which were actually Madara's Sharingan evolved by Senju chakra?
** Considering the massive amount of lies and misinformation so many characters were working with at some point in the series, its seriously bordering on annoying these last few chapters, the easiest answer is that Madara figured out that Senju+E.M. Sharingon=Rinnegan. He likewise had figured out one way or another what Nagato's heritage was and installed the eyes of an exceptionally powerful but unnamed Uchia into young Nagato, they evolved on their own.

* How exactly does the reincarnation work here? You could say that the person who was the reincarnation of someone else has chakra with the exact same properties and that's it, but that isn't quite what is happening in the case with Naruto, Sasuke, Hashirama, Madara, and the other reincarnations of Asura and Indra. All of them had the same kind of chakra properties apparently. Asura and Indra would always end up coming into conflict during each new life. Asura's reincarnations end up with large chakra reserves, great physical energy, a sort of charisma that allowed him to easily obtain many loyal followers and friends with a philosophy that eventually became the Will of Fire, untalented compared to Indra, and an apparent affinity for the tailed beasts. Indra's reincarnations would always be talented compared to Asura, would have powerful chakra if not a very large reserve, possess a dojutsu (Sharingan specifically), and would end up bearing the Curse of Hatred believing that only strength matters and not bonds.

These being the case, this means a straightforward reincarnation is likely. But then, how could Hashirama and Madara be brought back to life while Naruto and Sasuke are still alive? Hashirama and Madara should have been irretrievable since the souls of Asura and Indra would reside inside of Naruto and Sasuke. Wouldn't bringing the former two back by calling their souls result in the latter two dropping dead from having the souls sucked out of them?
* Seems like Hashirama and Naruto have separate souls, Asura's chakra carries a version of his personality, similar to the copy of Minato that was in Naruto despite Minato's soul being sealed in the reaper's belly, which allows Asura's chakra to reincarnate despite his soul not being involved.
* Are opening the chakra gates supposed to be difficult or just dangerous. Granted it's hard to know for sure since it's only discussed a handful of times. When Kakashi and Guy discuss the technique back at the chunin prelims it seems that to be that it's easy. This is supported later by Might Guy's father being a crap shinobi but capable of opening all eight gates. Now if it's incredibly difficult to learn how does a ninja who never made Chunin and a young ninja who can't learn any other genjutsu or ninjutsu us it. If it's dangerous why is it not a fairly wide spread technique amongst adults? I get not teaching it to children. Just like Rock does they might actually use it and over something stupid like an exam you can retake later. But you'd think teaching it to chunin and jonin would be standard. Given how well Guy does against ten tails jinchuriki Madara had the five Kage opened them up it's highly probable they could have defeated him. And given they were all very close to death, Tsunade's hips and torso were separated by several feet at one point it's not like things weren't sufficiently desperate to use a technique that will kill you. And that's if they used all eight.
** Given the strain it places on someone like rock lee, imagine the damage that it would do to a ninja that doesn't train as much as him. Guy didn't even like Rock Lee using it and his dad killed himself using it, so it's both dangerous and a fqamily technique so it's Guy's decision on who learns it.
** Back in the Chunin exam, Lee opening the fourth gate prompts Kakashi to call Lee a genius after all since it takes real skill to open the fourth gate. Guy and Lee extensively train themselves to use it, because it is the best technique for their taijutsu specialization.
* Why is there so little cross training? I get that some techniques are family secrets and others just can't be taught even if you wanted to but having teams capable of using at least a few common techniques would be better able to use disguise jutsu. This specifically comes up when Sai and Naruto are fighting Yamato. Additionally many of them seem to be just knowing the proper signs so you'd expect people who spend a lot of time together to learn some techniques virtually by osmosis.
* What happened/why were Kabuto, Oorichimaru and Team Taka allowed to leave. It's stated that Sasuke is only allowed to go because 6th Hokage Kakashi and the Hero of the war Naruto both vouched for him. Given how those criminals did save the world it's possible everybody collectively closed their eyes and intentionally didn't notice them walking away. Or given the raw power, specifically of Oorichimaru and Kabuto it might have been a simple case of nobody who could stop them was in any position to do so but it's not addressed at all.
* The Tailed Beasts were divied up to maintain a balance of power but why? We don't see a lot of actual Jinchuriki but it seems that in general the best you could hope for was sort of aiming them in a general direction and letting them blow like the Sand with Garra against the Leaf. But the back story of the NineTails attack and various break outs of the Eight Tails suggest that the risk of keeping a nigh-invincible beast locked in your city far outweighs the rewards. In addition the one village that managed to harness theirs was militarily at a huge advantage. We don't see much of anything that would have been able to stop an army with Killer Bee at it's head. Also nine beasts, five villages. It seems the Three Tails was just wandering around but and we know who had Gaara, Naruto and Killer Bee but that leaves five unnacounted for.
** When the next village over has a WMD, you want one for yourself so you aren't completely at their mercy. It's like during the Sand invasion; their jinchuriki was defeated by the Leaf's jinchuriki. The issues with the Eight Tails come from the Cloud trying to contain him with physical means. When it comes to passing the Tailed Beast from host to host things go fairly smoothly. There are risks, sure, but comparatively small ones to the risk that your long time enemies will crush you with a living nuke because you don't have one of your own.
* The entry for "WrapItUp" on the series' trope page says " The movie, Naruto The Last. Due to pressure from the manga's publisher, the author found himself having to tie up the story in way, way less chapters than he had (probably) originally intended". But the final arc was notorious for being really, really drag ass. How did Kishimoto go from having a lot of time and not doing anything with it to suddenly having to rush the ending of the story? How does that work?
** It's difficult to know for certain the politics surrounding the editing and publishing of Naruto, but judging by the fact that Naruto's finale didn't even get a cover page on Weekly Shonen Jump (something other mangaka such as Eiichiro Oda's were dismayed at) suggests some odd things at work.
* How do Rock Lee and Guy manage to see what they are doing when they unlock the gates. For that matter how do any of the high tier non Sharingon users do it? Kakashi specifically mentions when Sasuke uses the chidori for the first time that he's only capable of using it because he has a Sharingon and otherwise to develop tunnel vision when you go that fast. I don't think you can actually work out your eyeballs to see better.
** The gates work by flooding your body with chakra. Presumably that chakra also heightens your vision while it enhances your muscles.
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