History Naruto / TropesLtoZ

* MartialArtsHeadband: Everyone who is either attending their village's ninja academy or is a fully graduated shinobi wears one of a standard style, a strip of black or dark blue cloth with a metal plate riveted onto it. The plates each bear a symbol denoting which shinobi village a particular ninja is from and it is generally expected that ninja in the field will wear theirs visibly to show both the sanction of their mission and to identify their village to passersby or enemy combatants. Wearing the headband in an atypical fashion is generally allowed (such as Sakura using hers like a hairband, Shikimaru tying his to his bicep, and Hinata wearing hers around her neck), and striking out the symbol on the plate is a sign that one has betrayed or forsaken their village and is a rogue ninja (like all members of the Akatsuki have done).

** In Episode 499, the penultimate episode of ''Shippuden'' (the arc of the preparations for [[spoiler:[[OfficialCouple Naruto and Hinata's]] wedding]]), after learning of the rest of cast's mission to get the perfect wedding gift for them, Hinata innocently says "I never thought [[spoiler:our wedding]] would cause so much trouble." Considering the amount of shipping wars that [[BrokenBase split the fanbase]] through the course of the series, despite [[spoiler:Naruto/Hinata]] being one of the ''biggest'' {{Fan Preferred Couple}}s in anime and manga for the last fifteen years with the manga's entire run, this is perfectly fitting.

** The Uchiha clan, and Sasuke in particular, have done nothing but become more prominent in the story as time passes. It's gotten to the point where the Uchiha clan is responsible for the entire plot of the manga. Sasuke started out as merely TheRival to Naruto (though he clearly had greater story importance than other such rivals due to also being Naruto's teammate) who wanted to avenge his clan, but as the Uchiha presence expanded, so has his. He's arguably had more face time in the manga than the actual protagonist (he hasn't, though he's had more than every other character despite being largely absent for the first three arcs of Part II), and in the arc that's shaping up to be the climax of the series, it's mainly Uchihas who accomplish anything of importance [[spoiler:since two of them are the main villains, and a third single-handedly negates the mass revival technique that nobody else could stop]]. [[BrokenBase It's a sore spot between fans whether this is a good thing, a bad thing, or something in between.]]

* LastConfessionWins: {{Subverted|Trope}} with Sakura's [[NeverLiveItDown infamous]] [[FalseConfession fake love confession]] to Naruto in Chapter 469, which came after Hinata's sincere AnguishedDeclarationOfLove in Chapter 437. Not only does Sakura's fake confession spectacularly ''fail'' to win, it explicitly ''loses'' -- it is rejected outright, rightfully accused of not being emotionally honest because it was genuinely ''not'' an honest confession, and in retrospect, serves as the '''definitive''' ShipSinking for [=NaruSaku=].

** [[spoiler:Tsuande learned about the death of her brother Nawaki during a rainstorm.]]

* WelcomeBackTraitor: {{Justified}} with Sasuke and Orochimaru, who are clever enough to execute their HazyFeelTurn when the good guys are really in no situation to reject their help.

** In the Death Forest after the fight against the Sound Genins, Shikamaru and Choji comment how Naruto is too much an IdiotHero to be a good Shonen manga main protagonist.

** The PostScriptSeason, ''Manga/NarutoGaiden'' makes a [[TrollingCreator very pointed jab]] to the people that both disliked the [[spoiler:Sasuke/Sakura]] pairing and actually suggested that [[spoiler:Karin was Sarada's mother instead of Sakura]] by dealing with[[spoiler:the real possibility of Sarada being Karin's daughter]], even using a [=DNA=] test to confirm this. But in the end [[spoiler:it turns out Sakura is indeed Sarada's mother]], and not only that, but [[spoiler:Karin]] mentions also being good friends with Sakura.

** Naruto's own parents recognize each other as this as well. His mother Kushina was bullied as a child for being an outsider and for her long flowing red hair in particular, which caused her to resent it. She also initially didn't think much of his father Minato, believing him to be "flaky", [[GenerationXerox similar to how Naruto initially thought of Hinata as "weird"]]. One day, though, Kushina was kidnapped by Kumo ninja for being the Kyuubi jinchūriki. She made a TrailOfBreadCrumbs using strands of her hair, and just when it seemed no one had caught on, [[RescueRomance Minato appeared and rescued her]]. He was the only one to catch on to what she was doing, and even admitted that the first thing he noticed about her when they first met was [[HeroesWantRedheads her beautiful long red hair]]. That was the moment that Kushina realized that the hair she hated so much had become her RedStringOfFate that led her to her soulmate.

* PleaseDontLeaveMe: Sakura to Sasuke before he leaves the Leaf, in an absolutely heartbreaking scene. Naruto’s entire fight with Sasuke at the Valley of the End consists of this, eventually turning into “I’ll break every bone in your body and drag you all the way back if that’s what it takes!” “I won’t let you be taken by someone like Orochimaru!” ''Subverted'' by Naruto when he just wants to talk with Sasuke, even going so far as to tell Sasuke that they will [[TakingYouWithMe die together]] if they fight each other, then allows him to go freely on his way once he’s finished.

* MassiveMultiplayerScam: In a filler arc, Gennou sets paper bombs throughout all of Konoha, supposedly to detonate them to destroy the village, but it is later revealed that many of the original paper bombs were replaced with fakes in order to let Naruto and his friends have a scavenger hunt like the ones his son used to enjoy.

* RedShirtArmy: The ANBU (how ironic, given that they're supposed to be EliteMooks) and the Samurai.
* RedStringOfFate: Someone's ''hair'' gets used as this. ItMakesSenseInContext.

** Pain kills Jiraiya, then Kakashi and a buttload of other named characters. ''Then'' he lays waste to Konoha and turns it into a smoking crater. ''Then'' he almost kills [[LivingEmotionalCrutch Hinata]], [[BerserkButton which causes Naruto]] [[UnstoppableRage to nearly completely release the Nine-Tails]], which is supposed to be an irreversible, cataclysmic, RocksFallEveryoneDies event.

** The jutsu Amaterasu gets this. Initially introduced as black flames that burn to ashes anything they make contact with (even fire is consumed by them) and can't be dodged unless you can move/react faster than the user's eye can focus on you (since in its base usage the flames are not shot out but actually directly appear on the body of the target), the vast majority of the time it is used simply to showcase how the target ''can't'' be beaten by it (typically by them being able to absorb the chakra powering the flames). Over the course of the series Sasuke often uses it for defense or as an actual projectile to more practical means than the instant-win use it was originally introduced for.