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Fanfic / Kitsune no Ken: Fist of the Fox

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Yes, Naruto's outfit is done in reverse-Kenshiro style.note 

Kitsune no Ken: Fist of the Fox is a Naruto fan-fiction written by Neon Majestic (Justice Reaper on this site), the author of Yu-Gi-Oh! Forever. The story is an Alternate Universe Fic, specifically of the High School AU variety, and as such there aren't any ninja elements that are so prevalent in the series canon. The story instead goes for a more realistic feel in a modern setting.

The premise: In the fairly recent past, the nation of Oinari was rocked by bouts of violence for an entire year, from January 1 straight down to December 31, caused by an infamous group known as the "Kyuushingai" ("Nine Terrors") whose acts of destruction caused widescale panic across the country. The Terrors' exploits were subsequently steeped in myth and legend due to the unreliable and widely-varying rumors and testimonies about their rampage in that year of atrocities, known by citizens as "the 365 days," but even after the group's members mysteriously disappeared at the end of that period, they remained highly feared across Oinari's various cities and towns.

Two years after the genesis of that infamous period, Uzumaki Naruto shows up in Konoha Town and stops at the Yamanaka family greengrocery to buy a few gifts for his mother Kushina, with whom he's going to be staying. While there, he runs afoul of members of a local gang, headed by the notorious Mizuki, who is a former member of the Kyuushingai and has been using that to exert dominance and fear over the townspeople...only, as it turns out, Mizuki is a big fraud who's merely taking advantage of the fear generated by the Kyuushingai stories in order to bully the locals and extort store-owners. Not only that, but Naruto himself is a genuine former member of the Kyuushingai, with the old code-name of "Kurama the Fox," and he proceeds to wipe out Mizuki and his entire gang just when they're on the verge of burning down the Yamanaka store, the only store that's resisted paying dues to them. Consequently, Mizuki and his people get arrested, while Naruto learns to adjust to life in Konoha Town with help from the Yamanaka family's daughter Ino, whose life he saved during said beat-down of said gang.

All of that is what's covered in just the first three chapters.

Thereafter, Naruto settles into life as a student of the local Konoha High School, making new friends and a few rivals along the way, including Hinata, who's the daughter of the local Hyuga Corporation's CEO and who develops a crush on the blond whisker-marked boy; Sasuke, the son of the equally wealthy and influential Uchiha family; and Hozuki Suigetsu, a local troublemaker who seeks to get under Naruto's skin from the first time they meet. He also gets to meet some of the other quirky residents of Konoha High School itself, including the perverted math teacher Hatake Kakashi and the sexy English teacher Terumi Mei.

But Naruto's past isn't about to let go of him just like that...

The story is now complete, at 222 chapters which are divided into 14 arcs, listed below:

  • Settlement Arc (1-18)
  • Uchiha Zaibatsu Arc (19-33)
  • Akatsuki Arc (34-49)
  • Abduction Arc (50-62)
  • Haunted Past Arc (63-67)
  • Gold Sand Storm Arc (68-76)
  • Konoha Gangs Arc (77-88)
  • Tribunal Arc (89-114)
  • Underground Fists Arc (115-131)
  • Attack of LOVE Arc (132-152)
  • Spa Inferno Arc (153-157)
  • Spiral Reaper Arc (158-165)
  • Vengeance Arc (166-189)
  • Endgame Arc (190-222)

There are also the "Kitsune no Ken GAIDEN Chronicles," a number of chapters with additional material for the story that is not included in the main tale proper but is still canon to the story's plot and timeline.

Now has a character sheet, including material from both the main story and the Gaiden chapters. Character-specific tropes are to be placed on that page to reduce the clutter here.

Also now has its own Shout-Out page.

And now the Shadow Fox franchise has its own page as well. Shadow Fox's character-specific tropes will be relocated there.

    open/close all folders 

Tropes present in Kitsune no Ken:

     A - B 
  • Abandoned Warehouse: Where Akatsuki takes Utakata to kill him.
  • Accidental Kiss: Naruto and Hinata have a moment of this in Chapter 9, when she runs to get a teacher following Sai's bloody beat-down of four bullies in the art room—she rounds a corner and barrels right into him, knocking him down and falling on top of him with their lips locking together. Made all the more significant because it's the First Kiss for both of them.
  • Actually Pretty Funny:
    • In Chapter 37, when Naruto and Hanabi first meet, Hanabi responds to Naruto addressing her a "pip-squeak" by angrily calling him "straw-head." Neji immediately orders her to behave herself...while quietly stifling his own amusement at the comeback.
    • During the Tribunal Arc, when he's giving his testimony before the titular court sitting that's being held to determine whether he'll be made to go before an official trial, Naruto almost openly calls Jiraiya a pervert—but he catches himself in time. While Jiraiya (sitting in the spectators' seats) scowls at him, and Dan (the lawyer representing Naruto) keeps a straight face, Yugao (the lawyer for the prosecution against Naruto) quietly chuckles with her fist over her mouth.
    • During their fight at the Samsara Hotel, when Matsuri warns that she's not a simple scrapper, Hinata asks if Matsuri is an acupuncturist (referring to Matsuri's combat needles) or a cannibal (Matsuri bit her on the shoulder earlier in the fight). Matsuri can't help laughing in spite of herself, saying she should write that down for later.
    • During his lecture to Matsuri for her unauthorized attack on the Hyuga family at the Samsara Hotel, Gaara recounts how the hotel's security cameras recorded her calling Hinata a "pampered little princess," a "naive little girl," and an "upper-class schmuck"...and he admits he got a chuckle out of that last one.
  • Adaptational Heroism: The Uchiha Clan gets a pretty good rap here compared to canon and most other fics. Sasuke is much nicer than in canon (though still something of a dick) and after the tournament strikes up a friendship with Naruto, while Fugaku is shown to be a caring parent and overall good man (his canon self was plotting to revolt against the Third Hokage, which led to his death), and Itachi is part of a government black ops group led by Naruto's father instead of being a member of Akatsuki.
  • Adaptational Job Change: While the story's High School AU setting means that the various characters' occupations are different from their usual jobs in the regular Naruto universe, some changes are more blatant than others. Among other changes, Hiashi, Fugaku, Kira and Yashamaru are all business CEOs, Jiraiya and Sarutobi are politicians, Orochimaru is a lawyer, and Mei is a teacher. Other characters' jobs are at least somewhat similar in scope to their canon professions, such as Kakashi and Anko being teachers, the Yamanakas running a greengrocery (in canon, they ran a flower shop), and Tsunade being Konoha Town's mayor (similar to her canon position as Hokage).
  • Adaptational Mundanity: This trope, together with the Transplanted Character Fic trope further down, is part-and-parcel of several of the adaptational changes made for this story. In a nutshell, the Naruto characters are placed in a fic that's set in a modern-day world (including a few influences of modern-day Japan), with the various ninjas reimagined as delinquents, gangsters, business owners, and political figures in suits. Several elements of the manga have also been changed to fit this setting, such as Gaara's Gold Sand being a drug instead of chakra-infused sand, Deidara using actual bombs instead of his familiar clay-bomb jutsu, and Hidan's main weapon being changed from his familiar three-bladed scythe to a set of kama blades (though the scythe shows up as the Spiral Reaper's weapon later on).
  • Adaptational Personality Change: While the characters are still recognizable and similar to their canon counterparts for the most part personality-wise, some of them are significantly tweaked or outright flipped to fit the tone of this story. Fuu is the most obvious example, going from happy-go-lucky and almost Naruto-like in canon to brooding and bitter here, but others whose personalities are adjusted include Yukata (a ditzy romantic in canon, a surly cynic here) and Omoi (from a cautious worrywart to a Blood Knight).
  • Adaptational Villainy:
    • Kira Ay is hostile toward Naruto for being a Kyuushingai, due to the death of his brother and is also Akatsuki's backer, whereas in canon his original counterpart (the Raikage) was well-intentioned, if still slightly antagonistic to Naruto and company at first. Taken a step further once it's revealed that he's actually Killer Bee using the deceased Ay's identity; in canon, Bee was a definite good guy and mentor to Naruto.
    • Jiraiya in this fic is considerably more dickish toward Naruto, wanting to see him put before a tribunal for his actions as a Kyuushingai, and being relentless in ensuring that that got done. This is even before the revelation that he was complicit in framing Gaara's parents for treason to cover up his own (admittedly accidental) act of blowing them up with a missile.
    • As detailed on the Character page, all the members of the Council of the Dawn were good guys in the canon series (although Gaara and his siblings started out as antagonists but later became allies following Gaara's defeat by Naruto).
  • Adaptational Wimp: Due to the real world setting, every canon character gets this treatment in some form.
  • Adapted Out: Given the "real-world" feel the story is going for, the Biju aren't going to show up at all (so no snarky Nine-tails Fox, for instance). Word of God also confirms that Madara will not make an appearance in the story (although he is briefly mentioned as the founder of the Uchiha Zaibatsu in this universe), and other characters who the author declared wouldn't show up in the story include Zetsu, Konohamaru, Asuma, and Sasori. Narrowly averted with Yamato, who was included in that list in Chapter 72 but eventually got introduced as a minor character anyway (in his case, as vice-principal of Konoha High School), and with Nagato and Karin, who were also on the list before eventually being introduced as Naruto's maternal relatives in the thirty-ninth Gaiden. In Chapter 89 the author added Kisame, the Sound Four, Obito and the Sage of Six Paths (along with anyone in his family) to the list of characters who would not be appearing in the story, and in the twenty-fifth Gaiden he's blacklisted any of the characters specific to the Boruto spin-off due to having an undisguised distaste toward Boruto himself.
  • Age-Gap Romance: Between minor characters Guren and Sagi in the eleventh and twelfth Gaiden chapters; she's 37 and he's 22. Guren actually worries that, even though Sagi is legal, she'll still be perceived as robbing the cradle, but Sagi himself isn't bothered by it, and the only other person to comment on it is his father, who nonetheless acknowledges that times have changed from when he was young.
  • Age Lift: Happens to quite a few characters in this story.
    • Lee, Neji and Tenten all provide a downplayed example. In canon, they're approximately a year older than the rest of the Konoha 12; here, they're roughly three years older, being seniors at Konoha High School while the others are second-year students (except for Sai, who's a third-year student).
    • In canon, Tsunade is in her 50s, but uses a variation of the Transformation Technique to appear in her late 20s to early 30s. Here, although her actual age isn't specified, Tsunade is young enough to have attended college with Mei seven years earlier (and Mei is stated in the forty-fifth Gaiden to be 31 during the present day), while still being old enough to serve as Konoha Town's mayor.
    • In canon, Rin died when she was in her early teens at the latest (according to the Naruto Wiki page, she became a Chunin at age 11). Here, she's been Spared by the Adaptation and is around the same age as Kakashi, at least old enough for her to be a TV news reporter.
    • Naruto's aunt Mito, in this story, is Kushina's older sister. In canon, she was Kushina's predecessor as Kurama's jinchuriki and was an old woman when Kushina, a preteen, was selected to be the next jinchuriki.
  • All Abusers Are Male: Averted, as abusers in this story are shown to be both male and female. Karui's and Yukata's mothers are both shown to be emotional abusers, Matsuri's aunt proved to be both physically and emotionally abusive when Matsuri tried to report her rape by the aunt's husband, and one unnamed man in the fourth Gaiden is claimed by his lawyer to have been physically battered by his wife.
  • All There in the Manual:
    • During a time when the author was having a personal conflict concerning whether to continue writing the story, he put most of his story notes into journal format on his DeviantArt account (the link provided in the opening paragraphs above), with many of the tropes that occur in those drafts also being described on this page.
    • Four of LOVE's field agents, whose real names were never given in the story proper, were confirmed as not being original characters in the author's post-chapter commentary for Chapter 221; instead, they were all established characters from the original series (Ise, Tatami Iwashi, Urushi, and Shizuka) who were subjected to Adaptational Villainy.
  • All Your Base Are Belong to Us: LOVE takes over Parliament in the final arc, with help from cops on LOVE's payroll.
  • Anachronic Order: The Gaiden chapters are not listed in the order in which they're chronologically supposed to happen. Also, the rough story notes on the author's DeviantArt account are not written or listed in the order they would have come in the story proper.
  • And This Is for...: Roshi pulls this in Chapter 45 while laying a smack-down on Deidara.
    Roshi: This one's for wrecking my museum! (punches Deidara in the face) And this is for endangering our patrons! (kick to the balls) This is for hurting my comrade! (uppercut to the chin, then breaks Deidara's arm) And this...is for ME. (stuffs grenade into Deidara's pants)
  • And Your Little Dog, Too!: During their dinner meeting at Gaara's mansion, the Council of the Dawn elects to pull a psychological attack on Naruto by targeting his friends and other loved ones. Separately from this, Naruto, Yugito and Han are lured into participating in the final arc's tournament with the threat of harm to their loved ones (Naruto's family, Hinata for Yugito, and Han's soup-kitchen supporters in Yu City) if they refuse.
  • Anger Born of Worry: After Kiba risks his life rescuing Naruto from Mizuki's gang and Akatsuki's Monjin, Tsume slaps him and snaps at him for being so reckless...and then tightly embraces him moments later. A couple of chapters afterward, when a hospitalized Kabuto cheerfully greets the Hyuga family, Hanabi chastises him for being so flippant about his injuries, even while she's holding back her own tears.
  • Armor-Piercing Question:
    • In Chapter 11, Naruto gets Kiba to stand down from fighting for Hinata's supposedly endangered honor by asking him what Hinata has to say on the subject (the chapter itself is actually named after this trope).
    Naruto: WHAT WAS HINATA'S OPINION?
    • Later, in Chapter 20, Hinata asks one of Ino, who at this time is angry with Naruto for chasing after Sakura (with whom Ino shares a heated rivalry) instead of Hinata (who Ino is trying to set Naruto up with).
    Hinata: Are you angry solely because Naruto-kun has shown a crush on someone other than me...or is it because the someone in question is Sakura-san?
    • Tenten's response to Fuu's Motive Rant in Chapter 76: "What have you done for your country that you haven't been honored for, Fuu?" It counts as this trope because, up to now, Tenten still doesn't know that Fuu is one of the Kyuushingai, but she's just revealed how much she herself suffered during the 365 days. In order to answer the question, Fuu will have to admit that she's a former Kyuushingai and specifically the one most directly responsible, albeit accidentally, for the deaths of Tenten's parents.
    • In Chapter 137, Naruto meets Gaara's uncle Yashamaru, who tries to explain Gaara's motivation for his role in the 365 days. Naruto dismissively says it was because Gaara is a psychopath. While admitting that he expected that kind of response, Yashamaru then turns it around on Naruto with one question:
    Yashamaru: Your response wasn't unexpected, Naruto-kun. But how many people do you think would have the exact same explanation for your actions during the 365 days?
    • Han gives a rather pointed one of these to Kira in Chapter 208, when he stops the latter from killing a helpless Yagura and gets accused of avoiding justice for his own past actions as a Kyuushingai: "And you haven't?" He's referencing how Bee switched identities with his slain twin in order to form Akatsuki.
    • In the thirty-second Gaiden, Kaiza is brought before an Internal Affairs panel for his actions during the main story's Vengeance arc. The I.A. officers call him out for allowing his hatred of the Kyuushingai to cloud his judgment, and when he denies this, insisting that their claim of him hating the Kyuushingai more than he loves his daughter isn't true, one of them asks him a very pertinent question that he can't answer:
    I.A. officer: If your daughter was a Kyuushingai, what would you do?
  • Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking:
    • Hidan's list of crimes as outlined in Chapter 67: two counts of attempted murder, stalking and terrorizing a woman for whom he's had an unhealthy obsession, and damaging one target's copy of Icha Icha Paradise.
    • During a town hall meeting in Chapter 98, Orochimaru notes that among Mizuki's list of crimes for which the latter was arrested and charged are—in order—murder, malicious destruction of property, extortion, disorderly conduct, resisting arrest, and creating public mischief.
  • Asleep in Class: Naruto takes a snooze during a particularly boring science class and gets detention for it; it's this incident that causes Hiashi to not have a very high opinion of the boy once he finds out about it. In a separate incident, Tenten is caught taking a nap during class, this as a result of her spending most of her nights beating up punks in back-alleys as part of her self-imposed training.
  • Ass Shove: Four different examples under different applications of the trope.
    • The first example is, of course, the infamous "Thousand Years of Pain" as performed by Kakashi on Hidan, with Hidan's own knife that was earlier used to try and kill Kakashi in Chapter 67.
    • The second example is done by Hana to Tsunade as part of the older woman's annual gynecological physical in Chapter 107, and it's done gently with a gloved and lubed-up finger (though Tsunade still finds it really uncomfortable).
    • The third example is done in the thirteenth Gaiden by Hana to her husband Idate as part of their sex-play.
    • The fourth happens in the forty-first Gaiden, where a group of women who were conned into sexual slavery take revenge on the lead slaver after Han storms the man's base of operations and beats up his gang of thugs; when Han leaves the leader for the women to take their own justice, their retribution starts with them pinning the guy down, yanking down his pants and introducing a hockey stick to his ass.
  • At Least I Admit It:
    • During their first meeting in Chapter 62, Yagura approaches Aoi and offers him a chance to join forces with LOVE in selling Gaara's Gold Sand drug in Konoha Town. Aoi's hesitant to take up the offer, pointing out that Yagura himself is not a nice guy, but Yagura responds that he's not trying to hide that fact.
    Aoi: Well, you're no angel yourself.
    Yagura: I know. But at least I don't try to pretend I have standards of any sort.
    Gaara: Try criticizing child molesters, corrupt figureheads, and greedy power-brokers before you criticize my distribution of Gold Sand. They were doing far more damage to society long before I was BORN. At least in my situation, I admit to doing the things I do.
  • Attempted Rape: Two incidents of this, both times by the same offender. Aoi and a couple of his buddies corner Mei in an alley and hold her at knife-point with this in mind, but fortunately she's rescued by Naruto and Itachi. Later, Aoi attacks Ino at home (after having previously knocked out her parents), but Sai comes to her rescue and beats the ever-loving crap out of Aoi.
  • Babies Ever After: Four couples among the main cast are married with children in the Distant Finale.
  • The Bad Guy Wins: Discussed in the fourteenth Gaiden between Naruto and Gaara concerning the latter's actions at Parliament in the main story's final arc. While the ostensible plot to hold the senators hostage was stopped, Naruto points out that Gaara still succeeded in broadcasting the truth about his parents' deaths, which in turn led to public trust in the government taking a battering both locally and internationally; and even though he's in solitary confinement in prison, Gaara still has access to several luxuries in his cell, including books, fine furniture, a flat-screen TV, and air-conditioning. Gaara, for his part, sees it as a consolation prize, since he still didn't get to be the country's new ruler even with all that.
  • Badass Boast:
    • When Sai comes on the scene just in time to stop Aoi's Attempted Rape of Ino, Aoi argues that Sai (along with Suigetsu and Jugo) were force-fed Gold Sand pills sometime earlier and should therefore be dead. Sai's response:
    Sai: Death knows better than to touch me. (Curb-Stomp Battle ensues)
    • After Naruto knocks out three of Sumaru's thugs who've been guarding the captive Hana, while he's untying her, she informs him that Sumaru's armed with a pistol. Naruto's not concerned.
    Naruto: Oh, is that all? Well, then he's not nearly ready to face me.
  • Battle in the Rain: Sai's fight with Aoi (or rather, his extremely one-sided beating of Aoi), as revenge for previously force-feeding Sai an overdose of Gold Sand pills and almost raping Ino, takes place on a rainy night. Much later, part of the final confrontation between Naruto and Gaara takes place during a steadily-increasing drizzle.
  • "Be Quiet!" Nudge: Jugo gives Suigetsu the traditional elbow to the midsection variant to stop him from criticizing Hanabi's (admittedly bad) first-time attempt at making and selling lemonade in Chapter 107.
  • Because You Were Nice to Me: In Chapter 138, Zabuza gives this as the reason he's going to cooperate with Naruto's group when they come to interrogate him—specifically because Hinata, who's with them, had previously begged for his life even though he had physically hurt her.
  • Bed Trick: Deconstructed in one Gaiden chapter (saying which one would be spoiler-iffic) where a supporting character confides to another about having pulled this on a college roommate seven years earlier. The perpetrator was drunk, saw the victim in bed with blindfolds and limb-straps on in anticipation of kinky sex with someone else, and then pretended to be the expected party while making no sound that would give away the actual facts. However, the perpetrator's guilt after sobering up the next morning led to the two's friendship eroding into a years-long estrangement, with the victim never finding out why. Further deconstructed when the end of the chapter reveals that the victim had, in fact, realized early on who the sex partner actually was but never let on about that knowledge (and was embarrassed about being aroused), and has since harbored some resentment that the perpetrator never fessed up and let their friendship end instead.
  • Bedroom Adultery Scene: In the eleventh Gaiden, Guren confides to Sagi that she walked in on her husband doing the nasty with her best friend. It led to the couple divorcing.
  • Big Bad Ensemble: The two major antagonist forces in the story are the terrorist group Akatsuki, which wants to kill the Kyuushingai for the events of the 365 days and doesn't care what it has to do to achieve it, and the criminal syndicate LOVE, led by Naruto's Arch-Enemy Gaara. Both groups are also antagonistic to each other.
  • Big Ball of Violence: Naruto and Kushina get into one of these at the end of Chapter 17, after Kushina's humiliated Naruto at video games. Naruto gets into one again in Chapter 157, this time with Sasuke, after the two go on their usual round of insults to each other.
  • Big Damn Heroes: Sasuke and Kushina lead a group of Naruto's schoolmates to rescue Naruto when he's taken captive by Mizuki's gang and Akatsuki. In a later arc, Sai comes just in time to rescue Ino from being raped by Aoi.
  • Big Fancy House: The Hyuga and Uchiha families each have one, both being the richest families in Konoha Town.
    • The Hyuga mansion, described in Chapter 8, is a two-story, 10-bedroom structure on 300 acres of land atop a hill overlooking the town.
    • The Uchiha mansion, visited by the characters in Chapter 32, is said to be half a mile wide and three stories high, with the road from the front gate to the front door being a mile long with multiple small gardens, gazebos, water fountains and trees in between, and the whole property is surrounded by a perimeter wall.
  • "Blackmail" Is Such an Ugly Word: Jiraiya says this word-for-word to Tsume in Chapter 94 when he subtly hints that he'll renege on his promise to provide the police funding to repair their precinct if they don't cooperate with his drive to see the Kyuushingai, including Naruto, get prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
  • Blunt "Yes":
    • In Chapter 82, when the Hawk gang is laying siege to the Konoha precinct in an attempt to get to Fuu, who's there in police custody.
    Ibiki: You think you're going to get away with shooting up a precinct?
    Shiore: Yes.
    • Then in Chapter 138, after Sasuke complains about how he's had to bribe a prison official in order to get information for Naruto:
    Sasuke: Ugh, is that all you think I'm here for?
    Naruto: Yes.
  • Bond One-Liner:
    • Itachi pulls one of these after putting four rounds into Kyusuke's torso during their fight in Chapter 86. Unfortunately, Kyusuke is simply Playing Possum.
    Itachi: The gun is always mightier than the sword.
    • Hotaru mutters one of these in Chapter 206 after blowing up Menma's chopper with a rocket launcher.
    Hotaru: Out with a bang.
  • Bottomless Magazines:
    • Subverted and lampshaded when Fuu does run out of ammunition during her firefight with Kakuzu in Chapter 84. She resorts to using her machine gun guitar as a bludgeoning tool.
    • Also subverted during Itachi's gun vs. sword duel with Kyusuke, as Itachi is mentally counting the number of bullets he's got left throughout the fight.
  • Boxed Crook: Naruto and Yugito and Han by story's end are technically this, since the Kyuushingai are classed as criminals for their part in the 365 days; specifically, Naruto is working under National Security Minister Byakuren as his penance for that year of destruction, while Yugito is working as a member of Minato's black-ops team and Han is eventually appointed as Dr. Haruno's bodyguard. Konan, Kyusuke, Zabuza and Darui eventually become this as well, as members of Minato's group.
  • Brain Bleach:
    • While Kakuzu and Hidan are staking out the latter's ex-girlfriend's home, Hidan mentions that he's been inside the place already and knows it like the back of his hand. Kakuzu wonders aloud if Hidan has gone as far as to lie down on the girlfriend's bed and pleasure himself...then realizes that this is Hidan he's talking to and immediately regrets asking the question.
    Kakuzu: Damn it, now I'll have to drink drain cleaner to get that imagery out of my head.
    • Naruto needs some of this after he walks in on his parents getting, ahem, "acrobatic" on the living room carpet.
    Naruto: MY EYES! GIMME DETERGENT FOR MY EYES! I'VE GONE BLIND! BLIND, I TELL YOU! AAAAUUUGH!
  • Brains and Bondage: Applies to Naruto and Hinata during the 15-year period between the final arc and the Grand Finale, during which they've gotten married. He's a successful author; she's a company CEO and trained concert pianist; both of them are motivational speakers; and in the twenty-third Gaiden there's a scene where he chains and whips her (with a Safe Word supplied for her to use as needed).
  • Breast Attack: In the climax of the Underground Fists arc, Yura is about to break Kakashi's neck when Karui, who he'd taken along as an unwilling passenger in his getaway car, wraps her arms around his neck and threatens to twist if he kills her teacher. Yura proceeds to carefully release his grip on Kakashi...so that his hands can then be free to reach backward and wrench Karui's nipples. The shock from the resulting pain is enough to distract Karui so as to cause her to lose her grip on Yura's neck, and he in turn proceeds to slug her in the gut and almost strangle her to death before a recovered Kakashi intervenes.
  • Breather Episode: Chapter 153, the beginning of the Spa Inferno arc, is identified in the post-chapter commentary as a breather chapter. To put it in perspective, the preceding Attack of LOVE arc included Gaara's LOVE syndicate fighting the machinations of Akatsuki, the revelation of Gaara's motivation for his actions, Sakura suffering a breakdown after almost getting killed by Akatsuki's leader, several of Naruto's friends getting into fights with LOVE's Council of the Dawn members, the revelation of Kira Ay's enduring grudge against the Kyuushingai for his brother's death, and the revelation that Killer Bee is both Not Quite Dead and a major antagonist. By contrast, Chapter 153 introduces Sasuke's mom Mikoto and features her and Yugao going to their high school classmate Mabui's spa, with Fanservice all around.
  • Broken Bird: Yukata, Konan, Fuu, Matsuri, and to a slightly lesser extent Hokuto in the main story. The Gaiden chapters give us Maki (who covers it up by being a Stepford Smiler) and Ahmya.
  • Broken Tears: Tenten in Chapter 16, even while strangling Naruto during their fight over her parents' deaths.
    • Many a chapter later, Tenten herself bears witness to Fuu suffering this after the latter's past finally catches up with her and she confesses to being unwittingly responsible for the deaths of Tenten's parents.
  • Bulletproof Human Shield: Idate uses a dead body this way to shield Naruto from a revolver bullet fired by Kimimaro in Chapter 121. This gives Naruto the opportunity to take out Kimimaro by kicking the body in question onto him, knocking him down and making him vulnerable to a further Curb-Stomp Battle.
  • Bullying a Dragon / Mugging the Monster:
    • Mizuki's gangsters pick a fight with Naruto in the first chapter. Naruto's a Kyuushingai. Guess how well that turns out.
    • Mizuki's gang faces Naruto again in Chapters 2 and 3. Naruto decimates the whole gang save Mizuki, then reveals he's a Kyuushingai. Mizuki decides to fight him anyway. Guess who doesn't win.
    • Naruto beats up Aoi's entire gang except for Aoi himself (notice a pattern here?). Aoi, having seen all this, still decides to take on Naruto. Cue Curb-Stomp Battle.
    • The Hawks gang attempts to attack Fuu, another Kyuushingai, and they get gunned down for their trouble.
  • But for Me, It Was Tuesday:
    • In Chapter 132, during Yahiko's pre-recorded "The Reason You Suck" Speech to Gaara after luring him and his family into a trap, he declares that while he could explain his motive for leading Akatsuki and hunting the Kyuushingai, he won't bother to "bore" Gaara with the story since he's certain that Gaara, having taken part in the 365 days' violence with the other Terrors, likely wouldn't remember Yahiko's specific situation.
    Yahiko: For me, the day of my suffering was the most intense day of my life...but for you and your peers, Gaara, it was probably just another day to kill, right?
    • The trope is later discussed between Gaara and Hinata during their encounter in Chapter 189. Gaara doesn't deny that, for his past victims, each act of atrocity he's pulled would have made a major impact on each specific victim...but he doesn't see it as anything more than him doing his thing as usual.
    Hinata: Everything you’ve done since you started this campaign of yours...for the victims you’ve left behind, every act you’ve committed against them was a significant event in their lives.
    Gaara: For them, perhaps it was. But for me...it was just another day on the go.
    • A heroic version is done with Naruto, in reference to an incident in Chapters 4 and 5 that later gets recounted in Chapter 215. For Naruto, him beating up Aoi to help Ino rescue a random woman from Aoi's sleazy clutches was just another instance of him being the hero...but for the woman in question, the incident was significant and memorable to the point that she references it in order to convince her mother, the ex-ambassador at the heart of the Deceased Fall-Guy Gambit, to come clean about that scandal since Naruto's mother Kushina is just then trying to save the legislators at Parliament from LOVE's bomb-threat, which was planned to expose the scandal in the first place.
    Woman: Uzumaki-kun...considering you were one of the Kyuushingai, I expect that you would've spent so many occasions fighting with thugs and gangsters that your beating of my attacker that day likely wouldn't have registered for very long in your mind. For you, perhaps, that fight would have been just one more among many...but for me, that fight helped to liberate me from the clutches of a would-be rapist. I may never get to meet you in person, now...but if you're hearing my voice, I just want to say...even if that day wasn't memorable for you, it was for me. Thank you.
    • Played straight in Chapter 217, when Chi confronts Kankuro for providing equipment to the Spiral Reaper, who killed one of Chi's gangsters. Kankuro coolly responds that he was just carrying out a transaction and whatever happened afterward is of no concern to him.
  • Bystander Syndrome:
    • Minato warns Han against falling prey to this in Chapter 167, in the context of rendering assistance against Gaara's Gold Sand trade.
    Minato: The only thing needed for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.
    • This trope played a significant role in the flashback sequence in Chapter 184. After running away from home, Matsuri was snatched off the street-side by three toughs who intended to "warm her up" despite her protests. Several passersby saw what was happening, but not a one did a thing to help her, and the narrative says it was due to them "perhaps not wanting to get involved since it wasn't their problem." Luckily for her, though, Gaara, Kankuro and Temari happened to be passing by at that point and defied the trope by kicking the would-be rapists' asses.
     C - D 
  • Calling Parents by Their Name: Naruto occasionally addresses Kushina by her first name, usually during snarky moments, and it's generally played for comedy. Minor character Yukata likewise calls her mother Yui by her first name, but that's as a mark of disrespect because the two are estranged from each other.
  • Calling the Old Man Out:
    • Minato has been called out by three different individuals for how his hands-off parenting, in relation to Naruto's post-365-days experience, does not paint him in a good light and that it was totally irresponsible of him to do so. Minato, for his part, doesn't try to deny the criticism.
    • Dr. Haruno gets on the receiving end of scathing criticism from his daughter Sakura after she finds out he was heavily involved in the Kyuushingai training programme prior to the 365 days. To be fair, said info had almost gotten Sakura killed less than an hour prior.
    Sakura: I'm ashamed to call you my father!
    • In Chapter 161, Kushina gives Suigetsu's father Gengetsu a very physical calling-out over his drunken neglect of his family and Suigetsu's near-murder at the Spiral Reaper's hand resulting from said neglect.
  • Calling Your Attacks: Some of the fights include characters who call the names of certain maneuvers they execute on their opponents. These moves are shown in bold-type print to indicate when it's supposed to be a signature move.
  • Can't Kill You, Still Need You: The reason Gaara stops Temari and Kurotsuchi from using the latter's forces to ambush and kill Yahiko; Gaara thinks it would be better to use Yahiko to kill Kira instead, by furnishing him with information that Kira's been withholding from Yahiko, which had it been known would have resulted in Yahiko turning on him—namely, that Kira's been doing a Dead Person Impersonation all along.
  • Caught on Tape: Minato, Itachi and Yugito attempt this in order to trick Akatsuki's suspected financial backer into self-incrimination by using a tape recorder disguised as a tampon (which Yugito naturally has to wear in a certain obvious place, much to her disgust). However, the trope is subverted in that, while the suspect doesn't realize Yugito is recording their conversation, what is recorded winds up not being helpful because the suspect smoothly denies any criminal activity or any involvement of any sort with Akatsuki, before then deciding to lawyer up. Double subverted when Yugito later replays the tape of that conversation to Akatsuki's leader Yahiko, proving to him that Kira was always planning to disavow his involvement with Akatsuki; this convinces Yahiko to turn against Kira and become a state witness against him.
  • Character Development: The story deals with several characters undergoing this for different reasons. The most prominent ones include:
  • Chekhov's Gag: Anko is established as having good throwing aim in Chapter 7, when she flings a volleyball hard enough to bounce off Sakura's head and hit Ino in the face to get the girls to stop arguing with each other. She demonstrates that throwing aim again in Chapter 199, this time conking the Blood Mist gang's Ameyuri with a potted plant before the latter can shoot Hana and two other nurses.
  • Chekhov's Gun:
    • The bottle of wine Naruto brings as a gift for his first visit to the Hyuga mansion in Chapter 37. After Kabuto puts it away, it doesn't show up again until Chapter 146, in which Lee gets drunk from its contents, overwhelms the invading Chojuro with his resulting Drunken Master style, and then uses the bottle itself to kneecap Chojuro and knock him out.
    • The waterfall next to the statue of Konoha Town's first mayor, which forms part of the background together with the river it feeds into during Naruto's fight with Tenten in Chapter 16. Naruto utilizes both the river and the waterfall proper to short-circuit the mechanical hunter-animals Kankuro sets on him 169 chapters later.
    • Done with a literal gun, in this case Hiashi's heirloom rifle. It's first mentioned (but not seen) when Hiashi gives Naruto a veiled threat to be on his Ps and Qs while associating with Hinata; then it's seen for the first time in a comical scene where Hiashi, learning about Hanabi's not-boyfriend Udon, brings out the rifle and reveals himself to be a Boyfriend-Blocking Dad in the process. Then the rifle comes up again in a much more serious context during the final arc, when Hiashi uses it to capture Matsuri after she and Kankuro have infiltrated the Hyuga mansion.
    • The paintings of Hiashi's father and Lady Hyuga, seen in the same space in the Hyuga mansion's hallway when Naruto goes there to visit for the first time. The painting of Hiashi's father is later shown to hide the entrance to a panic room, while the painting of Lady Hyuga is shown to be all the family has left of her, and damaging it is a Berserk Button for both Hinata and Hiashi.
    • Yugito's recording device commissioned for her by Minato, disguised as a tampon. It's first fully described in Chapter 111, then used in Chapter 119 to record a conversation with Akatsuki's suspected benefactor, though that fails to get the team the evidence they want. Then the device isn't mentioned in the story again until Chapter 207, where Yugito replays that same conversation in Yahiko's presence, revealing Kira to have been preparing to disavow Akatsuki and prompting Yahiko to turn against him.
  • Chekhov's Gunman:
    • In Chapter 1, one of the rumors surrounding the impact the Kyuushingai had on society tells of a waiter being driven to madness by the stress of dealing with the fear the Nine Terrors caused, when he accidentally spilled soup he was serving to a guest at a restaurant and panicked that he might have unwittingly offended one of the Terrors. Chapter 85 reveals that person to be Kyusuke, The Dragon of the Akatsuki group, driven crazy and institutionalized due to a gang pretending to be the Kyuushingai at the restaurant where he worked.
    • The young lady who Ino saves from being harassed by Aoi in Chapter 4. Turns out she's the daughter of the country's former ambassador, and after seeing the newscast about LOVE's take-over of Parliament in the final arc, she convinces her mother to come out and confirm the allegations of the government's attempted Deceased Fall-Guy Gambit, while herself thanking Naruto via televised phone-call for his part in getting Aoi arrested.
  • Chekhov's Skill: During her fight with Kin in Chapter 16, Ino demonstrates that she's got an extremely painful Groin Attack that she learned in order to deal with any perverted men who'd try to hit on her while shopping at her father's store; said attack consists of grabbing the victim's privates and twisting. That tactic proves extremely useful 68 chapters later when Ino uses it to thwart Aoi's attempt to rape her.
  • Children Forced to Kill: Byakuren, the Minister of National Security, sees Naruto as this due to the events of the 365 days. See also Troubling Unchildlike Behavior below.
  • The City Narrows: Mist City has an area called Seppuku Society (with "seppuku" being the Japanese word for "suicide"), and that area in turn has a very specific neighborhood known as "the Valley of the Shadow of Death." It's suffered urban decay over the years, and is used by criminals as a hiding place when they need to lie low and avoid the law. According to the narrative, strangers who go there unawares run the risk of being robbed, shot and stabbed by its residents, and even the cops avoid the place, unless, as the narrative states, they feel suicidal.
  • Class Trip: Kurenai takes several of her history students, including a few of the main cast members, to Iwa City's museum of natural history in Chapter 44. Unfortunately, that's the exact same day Deidara chooses to attack the curator...
  • Cleanup Crew: The twenty-seventh Gaiden reveals that Akatsuki's mysterious backer has employees who clear away any and all evidence that would link Akatsuki to the backer.
  • Combat Haircomb: The hairpin variant is shown in the fifty-seventh Gaiden chapter, where Yamato is attacked by a woman who wielded her iron hairpin as a stabbing weapon. The attacker was the mother of a student Yamato had murdered during his time as the Spiral Reaper.
  • Combat Pragmatist: Just about every fight shown so far has had the combatants being this, in accordance with the story's direction toward realism.
  • Combination Attack: The Ino-Shika-Cho trio specializes in pulling these off, most notably during their fight with Darui.
  • Comical Angry Face: Since this fan-fic isn't a visual-animation medium, the author invokes this trope by describing affected characters as having fangs in their mouths.
  • Converse with the Unconscious: Sai and Ino do this to each other at different points. During the Uchiha Zaibatsu Invitational, when Ino is unconscious following her brutal beating at Aoi's hands, Sai sits by her bedside and admits he likes her as more than a friend. Much later, Ino gets to return the favor when she talks to an unconscious Sai following his having been force-fed Gold Sand pills.
  • Convicted by Public Opinion: The people of Whirl City subjected Naruto to this because of the damage which was done at Uzushio High School when he fought off Sumaru's entire gang while not sustaining an injury himself, this stemming from the city's traumatic memories of the 365 days...but it's conveniently left out that Sumaru was the one who started the fight with Naruto. On a wider scale, the entire Kyuushingai group is blamed by the public for the 365 days' carnage...even though most of the damage and body count was because of already-established criminals taking advantage of the chaos and confusion to carry out their own dirty deeds.
  • Cookie Cutter Fic: The author's most recent commentary notes on Fanfiction.net indicate that this is what he wants to do with this fic in an effort to end it more quickly, by taking sections of past works of his and tailoring them to fit the story-line for this one; this, in addition to having other persons ghost-write segments for him. As a consequence, readers familiar with Neon Majestic's earlier writings will note similarities between those works and the writings in his draft-notes on his DeviantArt account.note 
  • Cool Car: The Hyuga family has a white limousine, which Naruto can't help but admire when he sees it in Chapter 8. Several individuals throughout the story also have their own cool cars, such as Neji's dark-blue Porsche Boxter.
  • Cover Innocent Eyes and Ears: Kurenai turns Ino's face away shortly after the fight between Roshi and Deidara when the latter is torn in half by one of his own exploding grenades and the top half is impaled on a statue's spear.
  • Covered in Scars:
    • As a result of Training from Hell, Sasuke has sustained slash-scars over the chest and abdomen, three stab wounds, several stitches on one shoulder, and a burn-mark in the middle of the back, in addition to having sustained two broken ribs and a fractured jaw during the first month of training alone.
    • Naruto winds up having scars all over the torso and arms thanks to the machinations of Akatsuki.
  • Crash-Into Hello: How Naruto first meets Choji and Hinata. He runs into Choji while running away from Ino (who's chasing him for snagging the last pudding from the cafeteria), but unfortunately the crash results in Choji's burger being spilled. A little while later, Naruto rounds a corner and bumps full-tilt into Hinata, spilling her books onto the ground (he apologizes and helps her pick them back up).
  • Creator's Culture Carryover: Zig-zagged. While the setting holds mostly Japanese influences just as Naruto canon does (characters being identified with the family name before the personal name, use of honorifics like "-san" and "-sama," removal of shoes before entering a dwelling, use of the "Itadakimasu" phrase before eating, etc.), the currency used in the fic is the dollar (as opposed to the manga canon's ryō or the real-life Japanese yen), the local governmental structure has a Prime Minister at its head (as opposed to the Daimyō) with laws being debated in the local Parliament, and the cuisine is a mix-and-mash of dishes from different cultures. One of the biggest examples of this trope is in the high school structure as shown with Konoha High, which has five grade-levels from first-year through to fifth-year (Japanese high school goes for three years) and students sharing different classes with different schoolmates, but it still retains certain Japanese elements such as students having lockers to store their street shoes and not being allowed to hold part-time jobs after school (although here, an exception is made if the owner of the business where the student works is a relative, such as the Ino-Shika-Cho working at their respective families' business-places). The author himself is from Jamaica, which has its local dollar-currency and Parliament and where the high school duration is typically five years.
  • Cry into Chest: Kushina does this with Minato, moments after slapping him and pounding on his chest while unleashing pent-up rage and frustration following Naruto's hospitalization by Akatsuki.
  • Cue the Sun: Happens at the end of the penultimate chapter when Naruto's returning home by helicopter and his friends have all gathered to meet him. The post-chapter commentary even notes that the scene will have a greater impact if the reader listens to "Victory" from the Naruto music soundtrack while reading that scene.
  • Curb-Stomp Battle: Happens quite often.
    • The first two fights Naruto's shown getting into result in this. Both have entire gangs as his opponents. Guess who wins in each case. Hint: It's not the gangsters.
    • Shikamaru vs. Aoi. One punch, and Aoi was out like a light.
    • Yugito vs. Monjin. Monjin doesn't even get to land one blow on Yugito, who ends up tearing his neck out.
    • Aoi, armed with a knife, versus an unarmed Itachi. One punch from Itachi finishes Aoi off.
    • Naruto defeats Kurotsuchi with a well-placed blow to the back of the skull after having dodged the latter's attacks numerous times.
    • Naruto defeats Kira Hachi by ducking to avoid his opponent's attack, dropping onto his hands, and kicking out the attacker's kneecaps, ending the fight in a few seconds. To add insult to injury, he turned his back on his opponent prior to said ducking maneuver, goading the opponent to attack him out of anger.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Several members of the cast get a shot at this here and there, but one of the main ones is Shikamaru, usually in response to Ino's nutty antics or Choji's appetite. There's also Jugo, regarding anything Suigetsu does, or Kushina, who never fails to take the occasional pot-shot at her own son.
  • Death by Despair: Fuu dies of a broken heart after learning that Kira is not Ay, but rather Bee pretending to be Ay. It's exacerbated by the injuries she sustained when Bee, who she'd always loved and looked up to prior to his supposed death in the 365 days, brutalized her and then threw her off a rooftop hours earlier. Then eventually subverted when the Gaiden chapters revealthat she was actually resuscitated by her medical overseers, albeit barely, having been technically dead on the operating table.
  • Death by Irony: Aoi attempts to rape Ino, while Sumaru makes some comments tacitly supporting the idea of his goons sexually assaulting Hana. Both of them (and Sumaru's goons) are killed on orders from or directly by Matsuri, herself a past rape victim.
  • Death Faked for You: The twenty-sixth and twenty-seventh Gaidens reveal that Kira's own subordinates saved Utakata from being killed by Akatsuki, as their way of spiting Kira himself.
  • Deceased Fall-Guy Gambit: The entire back-story and the overall plot came about because Jiraiya and other government representatives attempted to pull this. Jiraiya and the country's ambassador to a foreign power got into a drunken tryst inside a missile control-room, during which Jiraiya accidentally launched a rocket that killed several of their own soldiers, including Gaara's parents; then, in order to save face with other nations and preserve economic deals the country was set to receive, Jiraiya and the other government reps decided to cook up a story stating that the dead soldiers were terrorism-sympathizers who got blown up by a weapon they were trafficking. However, there were a few problems with the arrangement—the ambassador in question refused to run with the lie and subsequently resigned her post in protest and went into seclusion, and Yashamaru repeatedly sought to open inquests to prove his relatives were not national traitors. The government's insistence on sticking to this strategy resulted in Gaara, once he got wind of the truth years later, developing his plot to murder selected members of government and take over the country.
  • Delivery Guy Infiltration: How Naruto rescues Hana in Chapter 172, by pretending to be delivering sandwiches to Sumaru's Star-Boys gang—moments after, conveniently enough, some of their members had just left to go get food (only to run into Naruto himself and get knocked out).
    Naruto: Yep—knuckle sandwiches.
  • Desecrating the Dead: Two examples, committed by Akatsuki and LOVE.
    • The first example has Yahiko, leader of Akatsuki, breaking into Gaara's parents' mausoleum to rig explosives in there, trapping Gaara and his siblings and uncle inside the tomb in the process. The trap consists of all four of them being strategically placed on top of pressure-switches that will trigger the explosives if any of them steps off their respective switches. While the actual remains of Gaara's parents are intact, Temari still swears she'll torture Yahiko for disturbing the mausoleum.
    • The second example has Temari, with help from Kurotsuchi and her Blackstone Mafia, locate and dig up Yahiko's family's remains to lure their intended target into a trap. But while their plan was originally to just ambush and kill their target, Gaara instead proposes that they provide information concerning the target's boss, as it'll be more beneficial to them that way. As a show of good faith, Temari even provides fresh caskets for the remains that were dug up.
  • Didn't See That Coming:
    • Had it not been for Darui, Zabuza and the Tiger Dragon gang defecting from LOVE's plan to massacre Naruto's friends in Konoha Town in the final arc, the plan would have gone off without a single hitch and none of the intended victims would have even known it was coming. Neither the heroes nor the villains expected such a move, and on the villains' side there's a lot of uncertainty for a while as to who's responsible for the plan failing.
    • Gaara isn't too surprised at the likelihood that Minato would have figured out the purpose of the four mini-orbs Kankuro built and distributed to four specified targets as beacons for the homing missiles Gaara would later launch to kill them, or that Minato would have then taken steps to collect the orbs and get them out of harm's way. However, he IS surprised to learn where the orbs have ended up after Minato has indeed taken action: in Yashamaru's custody. The realization sparks a Villainous Breakdown.
  • Diner Brawl: In Chapter 41, the Blood Mist Gang attacks Naruto and his friends while they're out having a group-date at Burger Castle, resulting in this kind of fight between the two sides.
  • Disproportionate Retribution: In Chapter 4, Ino recounts that a member of Aoi's Hall Monitors Guild tried to flirt with a girl at their school, but was rebuffed for his effort. In retaliation, the group made up a charge that the girl had stolen a cell-phone, brought her before the school's disciplinary committee, and forced her to pay for the phone. Notably, this revelation comes shortly after Aoi himself has forced Udon, a first-year student, to kiss his feet—and then kicks him aside—for the crime of accidentally bumping into him.
  • Distant Finale: Chapter 222, the final chapter, titled "15 Years Later."
  • Distracted by the Sexy: Invoked by Naruto in Chapter 6, when he distracts Ino from potentially pulverizing him for being unable to buy a cup of pudding to replace one he spilled, by telling her that Sasuke is naked behind her. Ino's resulting distraction is enough to give Naruto time to sneak away.
  • Do with Him as You Will: After Naruto's beating down of Mizuki's thugs in Chapter 3, a number of neighboring residents come out to witness the aftermath. When Inoichi informs him that these new arrivals include the other store-owners who've been extorted by Mizuki's gang for the past three months, Naruto tells the residents to call the police...and while they wait, he adds, they can make the gangsters repay them for all the valuables that have been stolen from them. Naturally, the residents swiftly jump on the suggestion.
    Naruto: They've been stealing your hard-earned cash these past couple of months. What say you make them pay it back, eh?
    Residents: [grinning] Gladly. [some pick up the gangsters' dropped weapons]
    Gangsters: Oh, no...! [they get mobbed by the residents]
  • The Dog Bites Back: A very literal case happens with Kiba's dog Akamaru in Chapter 121. After having been captured and locked in a car trunk by Mangetsu (who intends to use him in dog-fighting), Akamaru is freed by Jugo and proceeds to attack Mangetsu, biting his arm.
  • Doorstopper: 222 chapters long, with 1,065,754 words. That's not counting the Gaiden chapters.
  • Dope Slap: Ino usually does this to Naruto when he's doing something totally stupid. Neji once does this to Lee with a sandwich.
  • Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male: The subject of the trial that is being prosecuted by Kaneko Zeshin in the fourth Gaiden. According to the defense attorney's closing arguments, the defendant killed his wife because she'd had a history of assaulting him, including one instance where she tried to run her husband over with her car, and on the night he killed her, it was during a fight. During his closing arguments, however, while acknowledging that spousal abuse is a bad thing no matter which gender is the aggressor, Zeshin declares that that doesn't excuse the defendant for killing his wife, since the man had stabbed her twenty-seven times with a kitchen knife, eleven of which were deep enough to be fatal, and burying the blade in to the hilt each time. The defendant's eventual fate from the jury, whether he was found guilty of murder, guilty of manslaughter, or acquitted, is deliberately not revealed, as the author states in the post-chapter commentary that he wanted readers to draw their own conclusions based on the lawyers' arguments.
  • Drowning My Sorrows: Non-alcoholic example—in Chapter 10, after Kiba's had his love confession rejected by Hinata and then overheard Naruto talking about his earlier Accidental Kiss with Hinata, he gets despondent and chugs bottle after bottle of root beer. Neji counts twenty-two bottles when he finds Kiba in that state.
  • Duct Tape for Everything: In the twenty-fourth Gaiden, Naruto and Kushina use it to tie up Tsuchinoe, along with dousing her in hot sauce and hanging her from a lamp-post in the town square, as punishment for breaking into their house and trying to kill them.
  • Duel to the Death: In their fight in the draft notes, Naruto and Gaara recognize that only one of them can come out of the battle alive.
  • Dynamic Entry: Lee pulls this on a couple of convenience-store robbers while shouting the trope name; in fact, it's actually a named technique for him. Used much later by Hinata to save Neji from being killed by Yagura.
  • Dysfunctional Family: Suigetsu's family, as it turns out. His father Gengetsu is a drunken bum who got fired from his job due to his alcoholism, his brother Mangetsu is an ex-con who had previously been put away for armed robbery, and Suigetsu himself is constantly pulling pranks and get-rich-quick schemes and has also had gang affiliations in the past. His mother Ryuzetsu, the only seemingly stable one in the family, works long hours at a low-paying job.
     E - F 
  • Eating Lunch Alone: Going off Sakura's dialogue in Chapter 2, Ino was apparently doing this regularly at school.
  • El Spanish "-o": In Chapter 117, Mangetsu goes to the local pound and tries to buy a dog from one of the attendants (as part of his scheme to get a dog for the underground dog-fighting competition he's trying to break into). After he refuses to pay the $20,000 the other guy's asking, Mangetsu asks how much he'd have to pay to get a net instead; the attendant, in turn, snarkily says that that depends on how much "El Cheapo" is willing to pay.
  • Enemy Mine: Naruto, Sasuke and Ibiki go undercover alongside Mangetsu and Kimimaro during the Underground Fists arc to aid the police in busting Yura's illegal fighting scheme. Later, during the Vengeance arc, Naruto has to team up with Chief Kaiza to rescue the latter's daughter Hokuto and Tsume's daughter Hana from Sumaru, Naruto's old enemy and Hokuto's ex-boyfriend from their Uzushio High School days.
  • Every Scar Has a Story: Naruto and Gaara have this in common, with both of them having inflicted their scars on each other during their fight right before the 365 days began. Naruto grabbed Gaara by the hair and slammed his head down on a drinking glass Gaara had just put down, and the glass-splinters cut the side of Gaara's forehead in such a way as to form his familiar "love" kanji; in turn, Gaara slashed Naruto across the face with his fingernails, resulting in Naruto's familiar whisker-marks (which in the canon series are birth-marks). Yagura's familiar facial scar also has its origin from that same night, when he knocked Gaara out of the way of a meat cleaver Naruto had thrown and wound up getting the blade in his own face instead.
  • Everyone Went to School Together: Jiraiya, Tsunade and Orochimaru were batch-mates together at law school, and Judge Utatane was one of Jiraiya's teachers during that same period. Also, Mikoto, Yugao and Mabui were high school friends. The Gaiden chapters reveal that Tsunade and Mei were college roommates, though their friendship eventually soured.
  • Evil Lawyer Joke: Orochimaru is a defense attorney. An honest one, but still...Humor aside, though, this trope is largely averted, as every lawyer shown in this story, whether prosecutors or defense attorneys, are portrayed as just doing their jobs, and doing so fairly and according to the law.
  • Evil Overlooker: Gaara serves as this on the story's cover art, as shown at the top of this page.
  • Exact Words: When Minato asks Tsume to tell him where she's holding Mizuki captive following Mizuki's getting arrested for his latest antics, Tsume makes him promise that he won't lay a finger on Mizuki. He lets Itachi do it instead.
  • Expecting Someone Taller: The reaction of Shikamaru's father Shikaku to seeing Naruto for the first time in Chapter 133, after hearing from Inoichi about how Naruto beat up Mizuki's gang single-handedly.
  • Eye Scream:
    • When Jinpachi of the Blood Mist gang threatens Naruto and his friends at Burger Castle, Naruto's response is to punch the man square in the eye, resulting in it bleeding afterward. To add insult to injury shortly afterward, Jinpachi's got Ino in a choke-hold, but Ino manages to free herself by jamming her fingers into the same injured eye.
    • Deidara lost one of his eyes during a Kyuushingai attack in the midst of the 365 days.
    • During their fight in Chapter 48, Gaara flings a rock into Han's face, wounding his eye in the process.
    • Zaku gets his eyes splashed with hot ramen when he and Dosu break into Kushina's house to attack her.
  • Facepalm: This is Sakura's response to Naruto mouthing off to their Science teacher in Chapter 7. As well, this is Yahiko's response when he sees Hidan crushing obsessively on the TV news reporter Nohara Rin.
    Yahiko: Ugh, not this again.
  • Fan Disservice:
    • At one point during the Konoha Gangs Arc, Ino is clad only in her nightgown, barefoot, and is soaking wet all over from being out in the rain while fleeing Aoi's attempt to rape her.
    • On separate occasions, Naruto and Sasuke have both gone shirtless (and in the latter case, Tenten comments on how it must be the fantasy of every girl at Konoha High School). In both cases, they've got scars on their bodies that are graphically described.
  • Fantastic Drug: Gold Sand. According to Gaara's description, it's made from ingredients found in various legal medications, but it has the high and addictiveness of heroin without the bodily decay. The actual effects as shown in-story vary—Arashi of the Purple Storm gang has used it as a type of steroid which speeds up his reaction time and allows him to dodge attacks much faster; three forced overdoses have put the victims on the brink of death so as to necessitate stomach-pumping to save their lives; and Gaara himself swallows a single pill to demonstrate its effect to Yagura, resulting in him experiencing a buzz but nothing else.
  • Female Groin Invincibility: Averted. The Groin Attack, which sees frequent use by different people throughout the story, is just as painfully effective on women as it is on men, as Ino shows Kin first-hand with her "grab and twist" technique.
  • Fictional Document:
    • The Shadow Fox comic book series, which is highly popular not only in Konoha Town, but across the region; in Konoha Town itself, it's revealed that even Principal Danzo is a regular reader, and in one chapter Kushina and Shino argue about which of the titular character's Rogues Gallery is the best villain, while in another chapter Hinata is reading a copy of the comic, including a scene that's actually described in detail in the chapter itself. Also, during his radio broadcasts, Gai mentions that there's to be a movie adaptation of the comic released in theaters soon, and Sasuke gets Shikamaru and Choji to fight in his tournament by promising them tickets to see the film.
    • There's also the infamous Icha-Icha Paradise book series, of course.
  • Fight Magnet: Police chief Inuzuka Tsume anticipates that Naruto will turn out to be this, once she learns of his past identity.
    Tsume: Characters like Uzumaki Naruto have a tendency to attract trouble to themselves, whether they like it or not; if anyone seeks him out knowing he's actually Kurama the Fox, it'll only cause a headache for us as the police and collateral damage for anyone else who's drawn into the mix.
  • Final Battle: The Endgame arc sets the stage for a final confrontation between Naruto and Gaara, to settle the animosity between them. The actual fight lasts several chapters, beginning at Chapter 213 and ending at Chapter 220 (with the latter chapter actually being titled "Final Fight"), but there is also a moment where Gaara takes a break to revel in what he believes is LOVE's defining victory moment following LOVE's hostage takeover at Parliament and its subsequent exposing of the Government Conspiracy, and there are also some scenes in-between where the reader gets to see what's happening in Kumo City, including a chapter-long fight between Sakura and Temari.
  • Flat "What": During Naruto's meeting with Hiashi in Chapter 38, Hiashi stipulates that in order to qualify for entry to the Hyuga social party, one of Naruto's challenges to complete will include him being required to be in two separate geographical locations at the same time; cue this trope from Naruto in response.
  • Foil: The Hyuga Corporation and the Uchiha Zaibatsu. Hyuga Corp comes from old money, having been a part of Konoha Town's founding, while the Uchiha Zaibatsu's fortune was made more recently. This juxtaposition was most likely intentional, as it characterizes the conflict between the two.
  • Food End: The Uchiha Zaibatsu Invitational tournament ends with all the participants (sans Aoi) being treated to a lavish dinner held at the Uchiha mansion. The meal is preceded by a huge tray of sandwiches, and the main course consists of a joint of roasted beef, toasted rolls, potato salad, vegetable salad, and spaghetti.
  • Food Porn: Mealtimes are described in quite loving detail. As just one example, aside from the above-described Food End scene, there's the meal that the Council of the Dawn has when its members are first introduced, described in lavish and mouth-watering detail in Chapter 102.
    There on the table was a gorgeous, colorful spread: a large bowl with white rice and red beans; another bowl with green peas; one with buttered corn; a tray of glistening garlic bread; another tray with dinner rolls and pats of butter; yet another tray with crisp, fresh lettuce and slices of tomato and cucumber; a large bowl with coleslaw; an even bigger bowl with potato salad, with pieces of ice and white beans showing inside; a plate with large slices of boiled pumpkin and potatoes; another tray with slices of watermelon, apple, pineapple, and sections of papaya and orange; a large plate with slices of avocado; a large tray with slices of fried tofu; a huge glass pitcher with dark red beverage...and closer to the middle of the table there was a huge roasted chicken, a bowl of accompanying steaming gravy, a plate of sliced roasted fish...and right there in the very center of the table, surrounded by everything else, there was the same heavy giant platter from before, now revealed to contain a barbecued calf stuffed onto an iron bar.
  • Footsie Under the Table: Naruto gets on the receiving end of this on two different occasions, both times during the Gaiden chapters. In the seventeenth Gaiden, Tanzaku Susuki attempts this while having him undergo her "Juice Roulette" challenge, though she backs down and apologizes when he informs her that he's already got someone who's expressed interest in him (that being Hinata). Then, in the twenty-third Gaiden, Hinata pulls it on Naruto while they're out having dinner together.
  • Forbidden Friendship: Hiashi initially forbids Hinata to have anything to do with Naruto after being told by Neji that Naruto was put in detention for sleeping in class; as an Education Papa, he feels Naruto will be a bad influence on Hinata's academic growth. Then, after finding out about Naruto's history as a Kyuushingai, Hiashi gets even more opposed to Naruto and Hinata having anything to do with each other. To his credit, though, he manages to loosen up a bit after meeting Naruto for himself, and after Kabuto warns him that restraining Hinata too tightly will cause her to become a Rebellious Princess.
  • Foreshadowing: In Chapter 103, Kira Enterprises' logo is revealed to be a gray bull-head inside a circle. In Chapter 150, we learn that the person everyone thinks is company CEO Kira Ay is actually his twin brother Hachi, otherwise known as Killer Bee or Gyuki the Bull, pretending to be the long-dead Ay.
  • Freak Out: Sakura suffers a particularly traumatic one of these in Chapter 109 after her family's house and her father's car are vandalized while they're sleeping. To her credit, she manages to hold it together until her mother inadvertently voices how much worse the situation could have been.
  • Fridge Logic: In-Universe examples are given by Naruto in Chapter 95 to counter Jiraiya's declaration that the Kyuushingai should be held accountable for the events of the 365 days and the subsequent criminal activities of Akatsuki. Naruto notes that, as their training was overseen by the government, that makes the Kyuushingai just as much servants of the government as Jiraiya is, which would mean that the 365 days' carnage is ultimately the responsibility of the government. Also, he questions why none of the Kyuushingai were ever arrested immediately after the initial outbreak of violence during that time, if the government knows the identities of the Nine Terrors; why none of the persons responsible for the Nine's training has been arrested; why the Nine's identities were never revealed by the government to better aid in their being captured and brought to justice; and indeed why the government didn't take more strident measures to prevent the 365 days to begin with. Lampshaded by Orochimaru:
    Orochimaru: As a defense lawyer, if I were representing any of the Kyuushingai, those are certainly questions I would ask before the court.
    • Tsunade raises another question along the same lines moments afterward: why the government hadn't done anything to address the deaths of the doctors killed in Utakata's murder spree especially since all of them were involved in the Nine Terrors' Super-Soldier training.
  • Frying Pan of Doom: Kushina wields her ramen pot as a bludgeoning tool and a shield against Dosu and Zaku when they attack her in her kitchen. Later, Hinata dual-wields two frying pans as clubs, shields and throwing weapons while fighting Yagura during the latter's invasion of the Hyuga mansion.
  • Funbag Airbag: How Naruto first meets Kurenai. Kurenai herself takes it in stride at first, but later gets comically unhinged when Kakashi teases her about it.
     G - H 
  • Gilded Cage: Kushina expressedly identifies the Hyuga mansion as this. For context, moments earlier Hinata had just admitted to Kushina that she (Hinata) had been a Lonely Rich Kid who didn't have any real friends at school prior to meeting Naruto.
    Kushina: [to Hinata] Any time you want to be free of this gilded cage you call a house, my front door is always open.
  • Girls Behind Bars: Shimo City Women's Prison averts the trope's standard depiction, as when Yugito and the kids go there to visit the temporarily-incarcerated Fuu, the warden informs them that the inmates include husband-killers, boyfriend-beaters, child abusers, thieves, white-collar crooks, and perverts, "and not in the way late-night soft-core TV would lead you to think."
    Warden: I have two teenage boys and a cable subscription at home. I've seen what they watch. And what I see here on a weekly basis is nothing like what porn claims.
  • Glass Smack and Slide: Happens to Naruto when Sasuke picks him up to go compete in the annual Hyuga-Uchiha match. While in the car, Naruto makes a crack about Sasuke having Sakura (who's dolled up very nicely for the event) as his date; in response, Sakura smacks him so his face goes into the car door's window this way.
  • Government Conspiracy: Chapter 137 reveals that one of these came into play in the backstory in order to conceal a military error—a convoy was accidentally blown up when one of their own missiles was fired on them. But the government was reluctant to admit to the mistake, as doing so would have publicly embarrassed them before foreign powers, so to save face they made up a story that the convoy's members were smuggling weapons to terrorists and got blown up by one of their own faulty explosives. Unfortunately for the government, two of said convoy's members happened to be Gaara's parents, and the Frame-Up led to him developing a plan to assassinate several key officials, then take over the government and rebuild it in his image; joining the Kyuushingai training program was just a step for him to fulfill that aim.
  • Grand Staircase Entrance: Hinata makes her entrance at the Hyuga family's annual social party this way, dressed in a silver sleeveless-and-strapless dress.
  • Grave Robbing: In Chapter 142, under commission from Temari, Kurotsuchi and her men dig up Yahiko's family's remains at the Ame Town cemetery specifically because they know it's the easiest way to get Yahiko's attention so they can carry out certain specific objectives. They do give back the bodies afterward, though, with new coffins to boot.
  • Grievous Bottley Harm: During his fight with Mizuki's gang in Chapters 2 and 3, Naruto uses a soda bottle to beat the daylights out of several of them; amazingly, the bottle itself is durable enough to survive the fight. Much later, in Chapter 146, Lee wields a wine bottle during his fight with Chojuro.
  • Groin Attack: Happens A LOT. Just a few examples are listed below.
    • During their confrontation in Chapter 3, Mizuki kicks high at Naruto's head. Naruto, who's using a soda bottle as a weapon, ducks down and does exactly what you'd expect...and this after he's hit at least two of Mizuki's gangsters in the crotch with said bottle.
    • Suigetsu suffers one of these after Naruto knocks a baseball—which, incidentally, Suigetsu had deliberately thrown at his head—straight into his nuts.
    Suigetsu: [in pain] I can't feel my mini-me...
    • Ino later pulls it on Kin by grabbing her between her thighs and twisting her grip. Yes, it's as painful as it sounds.
    • Deidara is reduced to Ludicrous Gibs after getting a grenade stuffed into his pants.
    • Zaku gets two variants of this in Chapter 52, during the same incident, no less. Kushina punches him in the balls, then minutes later stabs him between his thighs with a knife.
    • Aoi gets two during the same incident, between Chapters 84 and 85. Ino wrenches his balls when he tries to rape her; then a little while after, Sai grabs and squeezes his nuts right before slamming him through a fence.
    • Moments after Naruto knocks out three of Sumaru's Star-Boys goons, Hana goes up to one of them and kicks him in the crotch with brutality, causing Naruto to flinch and protest that the guy's already out cold. It was revenge for that particular goon's near-molestation of Hana moments before Naruto's arrival.
    • While at the Samsara Hotel in Chapter 183, Matsuri deters a drunk patron who's trying to get a little too friendly with her by grabbing his crotch and threatening to "squeeze until it pops like an overripe orange." The man sobers up fast and is swift to get away from her when she relents and lets him go.
    • A flashback in Chapter 184 reveals that Matsuri did this to her step-uncle as revenge for raping her. We're not told what exactly she did, but given that the flashback shows the step-uncle curled up in a ball while holding his crotch in pain, and Matsuri holding her signature ice-pick-sized needles, one can take a pretty good guess how she inflicted the pain on him.
    • Minato threatens to use a blowtorch on Temari's vagina this way if he doesn't get certain information he's seeking. The information is coughed up fast.
    • During their fight on Kira's island, Yugito gets several shots into Yagura's crotch, much to his growing aggravation. Naruto later exploits this when he intercepts Yagura's murder attempt on Yugito.
    • Gato suffers a brutal two-shot version in the fifty-first Gaiden as part of a Cold-Blooded Torture session by the Kira-Killers—he gets a chain slammed on his crotch, then gets stabbed in one of his balls. Ooooowwwww.
  • Guns vs. Swords: The subject of the main fight in Chapter 86, "Sword vs. Gun," between Kyusuke (sword) and Itachi (gun). The gun wins.
  • Handshake Refusal: When Naruto meets Sakura for the first time in Chapter 2, he introduces himself and offers his hand for her to shake. Instead of reciprocating, Sakura pulls this trope on him while coolly warning him to stay away from anyone who has anything to do with Mizuki (who everyone at this time believes is a Kyuushingai), as a subtle insult to Ino.
  • Happy-Ending Massage: The twenty-first Gaiden gives an example of the "massage itself having the effect" variant, when Mabui's employee Okyo gives Sumire, a married mother of two, a foot massage during the overall massage therapy session. Because her feet are sensitive, Sumire feels the effect much more strongly when Okyo starts applying the spa's signature Pressure Point technique, and she winds up experiencing a quiet orgasm (for which she tips Okyo generously afterward).
  • Hate at First Sight: According to Yugito, from the first time they met during the initial training period for the Kyuushingai, Naruto and Gaara never got along very well...although it didn't stop Gaara from trying to offer Naruto a place in his intended regime.
  • Her Boyfriend's Jacket: The first sign of Sasuke and Sakura getting a Relationship Upgrade is when he gives her his jacket to wear, ostensibly to protect her from the cold wind...then after she leaves, still wearing the jacket, he doesn't bother to call her back to retrieve it.
  • Heroic BSoD:
    • Naruto falls into one at the end of Chapter 41 after the Blood Mist gang attacks him and his friends at Burger Castle, and specifically after realizing that, in the midst of his berserker rage, he hadn't been willing to heed Hinata's pleas to spare Zabuza and not kill him; the BSOD lasts right into the next chapter.
    • Naruto gets another, shorter one in Chapter 46 after Roshi's death at Akatsuki's hands.
    • Kushina suffers a BSOD in Chapter 56 after seeing how Akatsuki tortured Naruto.
    • Nohara Rin breaks down crying in Chapter 63 when she receives and reads a letter that's been slipped under her door. The letter is from her abusive ex, Akatsuki member Hidan, who's managed to track her down despite her having stabbed him and left him for dead during the 365 days.
    • Ino has a brief one at the start of Chapter 140 when she thinks Sakura has been killed.
    • Sakura gets a moment in Chapter 140, complete with a Thousand-Yard Stare, after discovering her father was involved in the Kyuushingai training program, something over which Akatsuki leader Yahiko sought to commit Revenge by Proxy less than an hour prior to the revelation.
  • Heroic Bystander: Early in the story, several townspeople are swift to intervene when Aoi and his gang attempt to harass a young woman, and then again when the gang attacks Ino for foiling that effort. Both times, although some of the bystanders put up a fair fight, the thugs prove to be too brutal for them...then Naruto steps in.
  • Hey, You!: Happens to Yagura in Chapter 136 when he's infiltrating a prison to kill Aoi on Matsuri's orders. He snaps a guards neck to steal his uniform, enters the holding area...and suddenly gets called by another guard manning the area. Yagura naturally thinks he got found out—but it turns out the guy just wants to give extra criticism for his "coworker's" persistent smoking habit (the dead guard had gone for a smoke break and then to take a leak when Yagura killed him). Yagura manages to maintain his cover by mimicking the dead guard's voice and keeping his face low with his collar turned up to better hide his features.
  • High School AU: The specific type of Alternate Universe Fic this story is, as indicated above, though the ninja elements and other fantastical aspects of the canon series' plot are removed; otherwise, most of the characters remain largely the same as they were in canon, but some have their good/evil allegiance and level of importance shifted for the sake of the plot (the most obvious is Orochimaru, a bad guy and major recurring antagonist in canon, being a law-abiding citizen and a mostly minor character here).
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: Deidara is killed by one of his own grenades, which Roshi stuffs into Deidara's pants. Later, Hidan gets stabbed in the rectum by Kakashi, with the same knife he'd used moments earlier in an attempt to kill Kakashi.
  • Holding Out for a Hero: Near the end of the Abduction Arc, when Minato proposes taking Naruto away to train for the next three months, Itachi notes that Naruto's friends will likewise need to undergo training of their own, specifically to avert this trope.
    Itachi: ...those who Naruto-kun would protect should also become strong enough that they won't need to rely solely on him.
     I - M 
  • I Did What I Had to Do: Deconstructed with regards to Naruto's attitude concerning his actions during the 365 days. While Naruto certainly feels this way for a good chunk of the story, he also has to come face-to-face with the fact that a lot of people, especially those who were directly impacted by the events of that year, will not see it the way he does, but rather they'll see it as him avoiding responsibility for his role in perpetrating havoc and fear among the populace.
  • I Hit You, You Hit The Ground: Aoi suffers this twice, from Shikamaru and later from Itachi.
  • I Need a Freaking Drink: Tsume says this word-for-word after she stumbles across Itachi thrashing Mizuki inside the police interrogation room, with Minato and Orochimaru standing outside and casually ignoring this.
  • I Take Offense to That Last One: Naruto lays out Ino's less desirable traits in Chapter 5. Guess what Ino's most upset by.
    Naruto: You're rude, you're bossy, you're impulsive, you're violent, and you drool over a guy who doesn't even give you the time of day!
    Ino: Hey, don't go insulting Sasuke-kun!
  • Idealized Sex: Averted for the most part in the eleventh Gaiden, with the characters of Guren and Sagi. While Guren herself is quite attractive for a thirty-something, Sagi has enough girth to impress her, and the sex itself goes off without a hitch, they do use a condom for the act; and while neither of them is a virgin (Guren is a divorcee who lost her virginity to her then-husband on their wedding night, and Sagi had his first time with a girl during his final year of high school), Sagi is still somewhat nervous even during the sex act, and they have to spend a little time finding a good mutual rhythm.
  • Identification by Dental Records: It's revealed late into the story that, following his death at the hands of a vengeance-crazed mob, this was the only way they could identify Killer Bee's otherwise badly-mangled body. Or what everyone thought was Bee's body before the Wham Episode.
  • If I Can't Have You…: Akatsuki member Hidan matter-of-factly states that if he can't convince his ex-girlfriend to come back to him, then he'll just kill her (never mind that his Domestic Abuse of her was what caused her to flee in the first place). Kakuzu's reaction says it all.
    Kakuzu: You are seriously screwed up and need professional help.
  • If I Wanted You Dead...: Gaara outlines this to Naruto when they meet in Sound City for the first time since the 365 days, in Chapter 115, while explaining why he hasn't moved to prevent Naruto from acting against LOVE's activities.
    Gaara: If I was truly convinced that you posed any threat to me or my organization, I could’ve had one of my contacts stop you before you even left the bus station at Konoha Town this morning. In fact, if Temari had had her way, you’d have been dead at any time between the end of the 365 days and now.
  • If You Ever Do Anything to Hurt Her...: The thirteenth Gaiden reveals that Tsume did this to Hana's husband Idate after the two got married. And she did it with a Psychotic Smirk for good measure.
    Tsume: I’m a standing member of the local gun club, and will still be even after I resign as chief of police. So if I ever hear one complaint from Hana about you—just one—then I’m gonna make you my newest live target. And remember that now that I’m your mother-in-law, that means Hana and I will be talking very regularly. You got me?
    Idate: (swallows audibly) Yes, ma’am, I got you...just like I got you the last three times you said it during the wedding reception...
    Tsume: [cheerfully] Just making sure you don’t forget it! Now come on! The steaks aren’t going to grill themselves, you know!
  • Impossible Task: Prior to the Hyuga family's annual ball, Hiashi gives Naruto a set of challenges he needs to complete in order to gain entry to the party; among these is the clearly impossible stipulation of being in two different places at the same time, with evidence that the task was done. Naruto accomplishes this by going to the border of Fire and Lightning Counties and standing with one foot on each side of the border-line—the two counties are geographically separate despite neighboring each other—and he records the act on his phone as proof.
  • In the Hood: Shino wears a red hooded jacket during the Uchiha Zaibatsu Invitational Tournament. The Akatsuki members wear hooded coats during their debut as a group.
  • Innocent Inaccurate: Played for laughs in Chapter 135. Kabuto briefly mentions a Noodle Incident concerning the manager of the arena where they're watching a basketball game, which involved a limo belonging to an opposing team's manager, two cheerleaders, and a lot of cola. Hanabi, in turn, thinks Kabuto means that the manager sneaked cola out of the limo alongside the cheerleaders and wound up spilling the cola onto the car's upholstery.
    Kabuto: Eeeehhh...sure, let's go with that. (everyone else sweat-drops)
  • Insignia Rip-Off Ritual: Yugito reveals to Hinata that she did this back when she was a cop, immediately in the aftermath of the 365 days, as a show of protest against her city's mayor when he sought to conceal the true number of people who died in the year of catastrophe, including some of Yugito's fellow police officers. In response, Yugito recalls, she flung down her badge and quit the force.
  • Instant Humiliation Just Add Youtube: Naruto subjects Yagura to this, with some help from several household servants, after catching the unfortunate target in a painful Groin Attack that the servants promptly take cell-phone footage of.
    Naruto: Somehow I predict that your pain-filled face is going to be the subject of a lot of crazy internet memes before the month is out...
  • Insult of Endearment: During their first meeting, Naruto and Hanabi had some fairly unflattering nicknames for each other, "straw-head" for Naruto and "pipsqueak" for Hanabi. Since that time, though, those nicknames have evolved into this trope (helped by the fact that during their second meeting, Naruto was able to recognize how much Hanabi missed her dead mother and conversed with her about it).
  • Insult to Rocks: In Chapter 70, at the start of the Gold Sand Storm Arc, Suigetsu swipes food from off Sakura's and Jugo's lunch trays and scarfs them down; seeing this, Ino disgustedly declares that to say Suigetsu eats like a pig would be an insult to pigs.
  • Internal Affairs: One arc in the Gaiden chapters, set shortly after the events of the main story's final arc, shows Kaiza being brought before the Whirl City Police Department's Internal Affairs Division to answer for his actions during the main story's Vengeance Arc (working briefly with the Star-Boys Gang to kill Naruto because they were holding his daughter Hokuto hostage), and he's suspended without pay for a month. While one of the suits heading the meeting clearly has a chip on his shoulder for Kaiza, they all point out that, even considering the extenuating circumstances, Kaiza violated his duty to uphold law and order no matter the cost. Later, when Kaiza visits his old academy batch-mate Oishi Taiseki and tells him the whole story, Taiseki makes it clear that he himself has no favorable opinions of Internal Affairs agents.
    Taiseki: Hey, that's Internal Affairs for you; you get stuck making the tough calls while risking your life, and all they do is bitch on you from behind the safety of their office desks.
  • The Internet Is for Porn: At one point, the Ino-Shika-Cho speculate about what Vice-Principal Yamato does when he's locked up in his office, being as antisocial as he is; Shikamaru and Choji suggest that Yamato must be indulging in this, citing the trope-naming song in the process (and getting conked by the annoyed Ino for it).
  • Interrupted Intimacy: Kushina and Minato are having a moment in the living room in Chapter 174...only to get walked in on by Naruto. The poor kid is screaming for Brain Bleach afterward.
  • Invisible Parents: Some of the main and supporting characters do have parents who are at least present, but just don't make any appearances. Just for a few examples, Jugo once mentions that his mother is going to be late coming home as she's working the graveyard shift at her job, and Haku's parents show up to meet him at the police station shortly after his bail's been paid. Shikamaru's and Choji's mothers are likewise around and have been mentioned, but haven't made any appearances, unlike the fathers. This even applies on the villains' side—at one point it's mentioned that Aoi's father is often on the road and his mother works late-shifts.
  • Invulnerable Knuckles: Averted. Gaara punches through a solid oak door to free himself and his family from a trap...but while he does make a hole in the door, he also ends up with lots of cuts along the length of his arm.
  • Ironic Echo: In the space of three minutes in Chapter 7, during Suigetsu and Naruto's hidden confrontation in their baseball practice.
    [Suigetsu throws the ball so that it just narrowly misses Naruto's head]
    Suigetsu: [insincerely] Sorry about that; my aim must've been bad.
    (moments later, Naruto hits Suigetsu's next pitch back at him and into his nuts)
    Naruto: [insincerely] Sorry about that; my aim must've been bad.
  • Jizzed in My Pants: In Chapter 68, Ino teases Sai about this happening to him while she's flirting with him. Poor Sai's sweating bullets all throughout at the idea, despite the day being cool and he soon heads to get a cold shower while trying not to think about Ino.
    Ino: This isn't the part where you accidentally "explode" while you're still clothed, is it? (licks her lips suggestively)
    Sai: I-Ino-san...I think y-you've m-m-made your p-point.
  • Killing in Self-Defense: Naruto's excuse for the killings he committed during the 365 days is that those deaths were this trope in action, either to protect himself or other people. Yugao and Judge Utatane aren't about to let him off the hook for that, however.
  • Knee Capping: Chojuro suffers this during his fight with Lee, via an empty wine-bottle. Menma gets a more brutal injury when Han blows out his knee with a shotgun.
  • Last-Second Word Swap: Naruto pulls this when he meets Mikoto for the first time, prompted by a Death Glare from Sasuke.
    Naruto: Sasuke didn't tell me you were so ho— [sees Sasuke's glare] —ooospitable.
  • Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Done with Tsume in Chapter 12, during her first meeting with Naruto. After discovering that Naruto, instead of hitting Kiba or letting Kiba beat him up during their confrontation, Took a Third Option and let Kiba beat himself up because Tsume would otherwise have gone Mama Bear on Naruto, Tsume mentally muses that Naruto "wasn't as stupid as certain anime fillers would have portrayed him to be." This is a subtle dig at the canon anime's filler arcs, which made Naruto far dumber than he actually was in the manga.
  • Lemonade Stand Plot: In a minor sub-plot, Hanabi decides that she wants to make her own money by running a lemonade stand, even though she's already from a rich family; her reasoning is that it'll help her to develop a proper sense of business strategy. Unfortunately, her first outing in running her lemonade stand goes poorly because, while she gets the basics of mixing lemons with water correct, she forgets to add the sugar; Lee is the only one who can drink the concoction with no issue, whereas Suigetsu and Jugo take one mouthful and spew it right back out a second later. Luckily, the boys help Hanabi to come up with a better product—a lemon-grass drink sweetened with honey (which Hanabi thinks will go over well with customers going organic).
  • Let Them Die Happy: Yahiko pulled this on his dying wife in the backstory, after their family got caught in a stampede triggered by a Kyuushingai attack. When his wife asked about their children, he couldn't bring himself to tell her that the kids had died from their injuries moments earlier, so instead he told her that the kids weren't in any pain. This ended in the wife dying with a little smile on her face.
  • Local Hangout: Burger Castle, a fairly popular Greasy Spoon in Konoha Town.
  • Locked Out of the Fight: Happens in the Endgame Arc when Naruto and his allies go to Kira's island on invitation to participate in the businessman's tournament. During the first round, Han and Yugito are both seriously injured by their respective opponents and Fuu is killed by hers, leaving Naruto to take on the remaining opposition by himself in the subsequent rounds.
  • Lost Food Grievance: Ino and Choji are ready to butcher Naruto in Chapter 6 after he accidentally spills (respectively) a cup of pudding and a burger. (And the pudding wasn't even Ino's, but Naruto's—she's that serious about her Trademark Favorite Food.)
  • Love Makes You Evil: The loss of his brother during the 365 days turned Kira into a man filled with a grudge against the Kyuushingai. This also applies to several members of Akatsuki, who lost family members during the 365 days and want revenge on the Kyuushingai because of it. This also proves to be Gaara's motivation for masterminding his intended murder-plot prior to the 365 days, as his parents were framed for treason.
  • Madness Mantra: In his back-story, Kyusuke wound up screaming one when he fell victim to the belief that a couple of thuggish customers he was serving were members of the Nine Terrors, after they pulled a prank on him to try and get free service—"DON'T KILL ME, KYUUSHINGAI! DON'T KILL ME, KYUUSHINGAI! DON'T KILL ME, KYUUSHINGAI!" over and over and over.
  • Meat Versus Veggies: One of the many topics of debate between Guren and Sagi in the eleventh Gaiden, as Guren is a vegetarian and Sagi is a meat-eater. However, in recounting the general conversation, Guren recalls that they were both able to articulate their respective points clearly, calmly and respectfully.
  • MegaCorp: Konoha Town has two of them, the Uchiha Zaibatsu and the Hyuga Corporation (or Hyuga Corp for short), as explained by Shino in Chapter 8. According to him, the Uchiha Zaibatsu owns most of the businesses in Konoha Town, including supermarkets, hardware stores, boutiques, and at least one bank; on the other hand, Hyuga Corp specializes in shipping imports and exports, electronic technology, and local transportation maintenance (meaning they have control over the local bus and taxi service); and both companies are rivals to each other, and are in a race to see who can land the country's biggest military contract first. Shino adds that his father is a telecommunications engineer for a mobile-phone company whose parent company is Hyuga Corp, and that any of Ino's family's greengrocery customers could be earning money from either of the two groups.
  • Miscarriage of Justice: Kato Dan, by his own confession, became a defense attorney specifically to prevent this from happening to innocent defendants. According to him, while he was studying for the legal bar, he read of too many cases where defendants only got exonerated after having spent disproportionate periods of time in prison, or after they had already died in prison with their names smeared in the public eye.
  • Misplaced Retribution: A rather complicated case with Kira, who blames the Kyuushingai for his brother's death at the hands of a rage-crazed mob near the end of the 365 days, by virtue of the fact that said mob (and several similar other mobs across the country at the time) was formed in response to the collateral damage left behind by the Kyuushingai. The problem with his reasoning? A flashback reveals that his brother actually sacrificed himself to the mob to save Kira himself; Naruto's own flashback to the same event reveals that he arrived on the scene just when the mob was bearing down on Kira's brother and was thus unable to do anything to stop it, plus the brother's death came as a surprise to the rest of the Kyuushingai, who weren't even present at the scene; much of the devastation that happened during the 365 days was actually caused by gangsters taking advantage of the initial carnage to perpetuate their own feuds; and in the present day, Kira is completely unwilling to acknowledge Naruto's desire to atone for his atrocities during that year or that both Naruto and Yugito are currently cooperating with the government to that end.
  • Missing Backblast: Averted when the Akatsuki members are preparing to assault the Suna City Prison with a rocket launcher—Hidan, manning the weapon, warns Monjin to step from behind him or else he'll be roasted by the back-blast.
  • Mistaken for Gay: Lee thinks Sakura and Ino might be in a relationship, based on how they word their conversation to each other in Chapter 22 (in reference to their previous fight in Sasuke's tournament, that is). Their reaction to that is...well...
    Sakura: I haven't forgotten how you pulled my hair the other night... it still hurts, you know!
    Ino: Aww, wasn't I rough enough for you? Maybe you'd like me to spank you again so you'll be put in your proper position...
    Lee: Um...
    Both girls: What?
    Lee: (with a very evident nose-bleed) Hair-pulling...roughness...spanking...the two of you...could it be that...that you, Sakura-san...and your blond friend here...
    Both girls: [simultaneous Megaton Punch] GET OUT OF HERE, PERVERT!
    Lee: [in a messy heap on the ground] Imagery... worth it...
  • Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: It doesn't matter how loyal your lackeys or servants are to you, if you mistreat them or betray their trust too severely or too often, they will eventually turn on you. Kira finds this out the hard way when he threatens bodily harm to any of his servants who try to interfere with his savagery of Fuu and when it comes out that he was prepared to disavow Akatsuki even before Yahiko found out his true identity.
  • Modesty Towel: Mikoto and Yugao wear towels during their visit to Mabui's spa. They use them for the massages but do take off the towels when actually getting into the hot springs.
  • Morton's Fork: During his question-and-answer session with Naruto in Chapter 92, Danzo utilizes this in the very final question he asks, to force Naruto to admit that he was one of the Nine Terrors. He asks Naruto directly if he, Naruto, was one of the Kyuushingai during the 365 days; if Naruto says yes, that will give Danzo, the head of Konoha High School, enough grounds to expel the boy, since Naruto will have effectively confessed to being a criminal; but if Naruto says no, Danzo will be able to catch him in a lie by utilizing witness testimony from Tenten, who knows the truth about Naruto (admittedly, information gained secondhand through Neji). Furthermore, according to the rules of the question-and-answer session, Naruto cannot opt to simply keep silent, or else he'll automatically lose 15 points from the session's point-scoring arrangement, and at the moment he needs to get that amount to achieve the total number of points he needs to actually be eligible to take his official school exams. Naruto answers in the affirmative, but manages to stay at the school anyway after he points out that, if he's expelled for being a former Kyuushingai who isn't publicly known to have broken any laws, Danzo will open himself to questions about why he didn't likewise and previously expel other students whose criminal actions were much more open and blatant, such as Suigetsu, Arashi and Aoi.
  • Motive Rant: During her fight with Tenten in Chapter 76, Fuu gets more and more agitated to the point that, when Tenten wonders aloud what exactly she (Fuu) had to endure during the 365 days, she blurts out that after everything she went through and everything she did for the sake of her country, the least she could get is a little thanks.
    Fuu: What does it matter? You're already judging me because I worked together with Yagura during that time! When I was fighting for my life every single day of that year, I had no time to think of the right or wrong of my actions! And I wound up saving more people than I killed! And what thanks did I get? To become a pariah! Hated! Feared! Forced to hide in obscurity instead of becoming the big name I always wanted to be! I don't deserve that—not after all I've done for my country!
  • Mugged for Disguise:
    • More like Murdered for Disguise in Chapter 136, as while infiltrating a prison, Yagura snaps the neck of a guard and steals his uniform, keeping the brim of the cap low and turning up the shirt's collar to better hide his face.
    • In Chapter 151, it's revealed that a rather tragic version of this happened in the back-story. Bee was going to surrender himself to an angry mob to give his brother Ay time to escape, but Ay knocked him out and then switched their clothes, masquerading as Bee and offering up his own life to save his brother.
  • My Master, Right or Wrong: Kira's servants, knowing his real identity, were prepared to stay loyal to him even despite the atrocities he was committing through Akatsuki. However, they object vocally to his readiness to kill Fuu after having already curb-stomped her, and when he threatens to treat them likewise if they interfere, that proves to be the last straw and they turn on him.
  • Mythology Gag:
    • The code-names that the Kyuushingai use to identify each other are references to the Bijuu each of them hold in the main series—more specifically, their actual names. For example, Naruto is known as "Kurama the Fox"; in the canon series, Kurama is the name of the Kyuubi, whose form is that of a fox.
    • There's a brief reference to the ninja elements of the actual series in Chapter 9, when Kakashi startles the boys by apparently appearing out of nowhere from behind a tree.
    Naruto: What the hell are you, a ninja or something?
    Kakashi: Hmm, perhaps in another universe, I might be.
    • The Uchiha Zaibatsu's logo is a red circle with a black dot in the center and three black marks surrounding the black dot. In canon, that's what the Uchiha clan's Sharingan looks like.
    • Ino refers to herself, Shikamaru and Choji as the Ino-Shika-Cho trio, starting in in Chapter 16 when they confront Dosu, Zaku and Kin. In the canon series, that's the same nickname given for the trio as a team (and which was used by their fathers before them).
    • During a lesson on adjectives in her English class, Mei gives the sentence "Senju Tsunade is the fifth mayor of Konoha Town" as an example of adjectives in action. In canon, Tsunade is the fifth Hokage of Konoha.
    • In speaking about the upcoming Shadow Fox movie, radio commentator Maito Guy comments that it will star the famous actress Fujikaze Yukie. In canon, Fujikaze Yukie is the stage name of actress Kazahana Koyuki, who is also the princess of the Land of Snow which is featured in the first Naruto movie.
    • The members of Yagura's Blood Mist gang are some of the members of the actual series' Seven Swordsmen of the Mist. The specific ones used in this fic are Momochi Zabuza, Munashi Jinpachi, Akebino Jinin, Kuriarare Kushimaru, Suikazan Fuguki, Ringo Ameyuri, and Kurosuki Raiga.
    • Gaara is the chief manufacturer and supplier of a drug-pill that he calls "Gold Sand." In the actual series, the Fourth Kazekage (Gaara's father) was renowned for utilizing gold sand as part of his arsenal.
    • The Samsara Hotel, which Hinata visits in Chapter 43, has as its logo a series of circles inside circles, colored purple. In the canon series, this is the exact appearance of the Rinnegan.note 
    • "Forgive me, Sasuke. Next time." In canon, Itachi's catch-phrase to Sasuke during their childhood, as a way to get out of teaching Sasuke any of his ninja techniques; here, spoken only once by Itachi to get out of having to tell Sasuke where he's been in the years following the 365 days.
    • When Kakashi proposes to approach his students to help Rin deal with her problem concerning her Stalker with a Crush, Rin is opposed to the idea, asking if Kakashi's next going to tell her that he's training his students to fight wars for him. In the canon series, most of the ninja protagonists are, in fact, basically Child Soldiers, with Kakashi himself having taken the Chuunin exam at age six.
    • "A THOUSAND YEARS OF PAIN!" In this case it's non-comical, on a villain, with his own knife.
    • In Chapter 69, Sasuke's and Itachi's mother is revealed to be an actress who's starred in a movie titled "Tobi Is a Good Boy." For those who don't know, that's the famous phrase that's been taken to memetic levels, where Tobi himself constantly insists on this as a reason to get something in his favor.note 
    • Starting with the Attack of LOVE arc, Yahiko takes to wearing a black jacket with a red cloud on the back. In canon, members of Akatsuki wear long black cloaks covered in red clouds.
    • In Chapter 124, while trying on different outfits to wear to Yura's underground fighting tournament, Naruto puts on a neon-orange jumpsuit, which is what he's best known for in canon. Here, though, he quickly ditches it after Ino threatens to break his neck if he doesn't.
    • As of the sixty-eighth Gaiden chapter, the country where the story is set is identified by the name Oinari (and to accommodate this, the Naruto setting's canonical countries—Fire Country, Wind Country, etc.—are downgraded into being counties of the overall nation (Fire County, Wind County, etc.). The name Oinari comes from the Naruto pilot chapter, where Naruto was the Nine-tailed Fox's son and the setting was more of an Urban Fantasy than what canon would eventually be; in that version, Mt. Oinari was the name of Naruto's home village (what would later come to be known as Konoha in the final product).
     N - O 
  • Naked First Impression: A female-female variant happens in Chapter 43 when Hinata, going to meet with Yugito at the Samsara Hotel, accidentally sees the older woman in a Waterfall Shower on the outside patio of her suite. It's not their first overall meeting, as they've interacted once before (briefly introduced to each other by Naruto at the Hyuga family ball in Chapter 39, and at the time Yugito was primarily there to warn him about Akatsuki), but it does give Hinata some insight into the kind of woman Yugito is. For her part, Yugito reacts quite casually to Hinata seeing her naked.
  • Never Bring a Knife to a Fist Fight: Somebody should've told this to Aoi before he decided it'd be a good idea to take on an unarmed Itachi with a knife. His intended target flattens him with one punch.
  • Next Thing They Knew: Happens during the eleventh Gaiden, between focus characters Guren and Sagi. After having held conversations on a regular basis for two weeks, Sagi offhandedly asks Guren what she'll be doing for the rest of the evening; Guren invites him back to her flat, expecting there to be nothing more than casual social talk...and then a paragraph later, she's preparing to ride him. Lampshaded by Guren herself at the very start of the chapter, a little while after the sex has already happened.
    Guren: How did it get to this point?
  • No One Should Survive That!: As revealed in Chapter 57 by Hana concerning Naruto's injuries sustained following the violent antics of Mizuki's gang and Akatsuki. The patient in question has gotten 30 slash wounds all over his body, with some of those being deep enough to have caused significant blood loss, and also got a beating that resulted in much bruising and two fractured ribs.
    Hana: So, let me ask this as professionally as I can...how the hell is he still alive?
  • No Sympathy for Grudgeholders: During their confrontation near the end of the story, Naruto lambastes Gaara for holding on to his grudge against the government due to them framing his parents for treason to cover up Jiraiya's accidentally blowing them up with a missile. Naruto contends that, yes, what happened was tragic and unfair, but Gaara still had his siblings and his uncle Yashamaru to lean on for support, plus he was raised with Yashamaru's wealth and connections, and following his training as a Kyuushingai he'd developed skills that could have been put to legitimate use for the benefit of others, so it wasn't as if Gaara had been left with nothing and nobody on his side.
  • Noodle Incident: Several of them so far.
    • The 365 days' rampage itself was this for a good chunk of the story. It was known initially that a lot of people died (the official body count is around 247, but urban legends insist and Yugito confirms that it's much higher than that), that it was a region-wide event, and that the Kyuushingai were at the center of it all...but there was no mention of what started it in the first place, or what exactly happened during that time period aside from Tenten's parents' deaths. Yugito eventually tells Hinata what she knows about how the chaos initially started, in Chapter 43, and it's revealed that it started because of a fight between Naruto and Gaara that spilled over into a nearby New Year's Eve celebration.
    • Naruto's transfer from Uzushio High School in Whirl City also used to be one of these. What was known was that he got into a fight with a gang, caused some serious property damage at the school, and was given the choice of either transferring or getting expelled and then arrested on suspicion of being a Kyuushingai (this being a time when the Nine Terrors' exploits were still fresh in people's minds). However, what wasn't known was what caused the gang-fight in the first place, or even whether Naruto or the gangsters were the aggressors...until Chapter 94, in which a flashback revealed that the gang leader was the aggressor, due to jealousy over Naruto complementing his girlfriend.
    • In Chapter 13, the bartender at Tenten's usual hangout—after witnessing her beat up a patron—casually remarks that at least she didn't destroy the whole bar this time, although he doesn't elaborate on what exactly Tenten did the last time.
    Tenten: You're never gonna let that go, are you? I SAID I was sorry, didn't I?
    • In Chapter 41, Sakura references a time when Ino was threatened with expulsion over an incident involving a plunger and 100 rubber bands. In retaliation, though, Ino references a time when Sakura got publicly grounded by her parents as punishment for an undisclosed incident involving a baggage girl at a supermarket.
    Sakura: Wha—hey, it wasn't my fault, she started it!
    • In Chapter 45, Naruto mentions to Roshi that he's met with Yugito. Roshi's eyes light up, prompting Naruto to ask if he remembers what happened "the last time" Roshi tried to grope Yugito.
    Roshi: (thumbs-up and grin) Worth it.
    • Sasuke and Itachi rib each other in Chapter 88 over cooking-related incidents that happened in their pasts...moments after Itachi has just badmouthed their mother's poor cooking.
    Sasuke: At least Mom cooks better than you do. Or have you forgotten that incident with the cod fish and soy sauce from five years ago?
    Itachi: This from the kid who's still forbidden to combine milk with tomato juice ten years later.
    • In Chapter 114, Byakuren mentions the "National Chamber of Commerce Skirt-Staining Incident." All that we learn about it is that it involved Jiraiya, it made national headlines, and it almost caused a ruckus in Parliament the following day.
    • In Chapter 115, Jugo recalls that Suigetsu was involved in an undisclosed incident at Ichiraku Ramen the previous Christmas, which resulted in him not being allowed back at the restaurant without an adult accompanying him. Suigetsu retorts that the incident in question happened because he lost a bet, to which Jugo responds that Suigetsu should be glad he's not in jail for it.
    • In Chapter 135, after explaining that he's gotten VIP seats for the protagonists to watch a local basketball game because the arena manager owes him a favor, Kabuto is about to elaborate, then remembers Hanabi's there with them, and will only say that the favor in question concerned two cheerleaders, re-carpeting of the opposing team's manager's limo, and a lot of cola.
  • Not Just a Tournament: As it turns out, the Uchiha Zaibatsu Invitational was geared toward selecting a worthy candidate to represent the Zaibatsu in its annual competition for financial rulership over Konoha Town, against the Hyuga Corporation, whose representative, Neji, is their strongest fighter and has won the past two years' battles on behalf of Hyuga Corp.
  • Not Quite the Right Thing: The crux of Yugao's and Judge Utatane's criticisms of Naruto's actions in the 365 days, during the Tribunal Arc. They basically tell Naruto that his actions on the night the 365 days started, while intended to stop Gaara from carrying out his as-yet-unrevealed murder plot, ended up causing the year of terror in which hundreds of people died instead.
  • "Not So Different" Remark: Although Tenten and Fuu start out on an antagonistic note, to the point that their differing viewpoints on how to approach Arashi's gang hideout leads to them coming to blows, Tenten soon realizes—from how Fuu talks hostilely about how others perceive her after her actions during the 365 days—that the both of them have in fact been dealing with their issues from that time period in much the same way, both having developed an It's All About Me attitude that says they're entitled to sympathy for the trauma they suffered from that time.
    Tenten: This whole time I'm fighting you, I'm realizing more and more than I'm just fighting a representation of what I used to be like.
  • Obstructive Bureaucrat: Over the course of the story, it's revealed that Yashamaru ran into several of these while trying to clear his relatives' names concerning a weapons-smuggling charge they'd been posthumously slapped with. It's also revealed that Jiraiya was one of four particular people who stonewalled Yashamaru's efforts, preferring to stick with the government's official story concerning the deceased relatives.
  • Odd Friendship:
    • Suigetsu and Jugo. While their being friends kinda makes sense considering they're teammates in the canon series, here Suigetsu is loud, boisterous and has a criminal record, while Jugo is calm, polite and civil to others. Still, they get along great, Jugo's occasional verbal pot-shots at Suigetsu's antics notwithstanding.
    • Naruto and Shino. Naruto's a Kyuushingai, Shino's a bug collector. They bond over comic books.
    • Hinata and Sasuke. Their fathers are business rivals who often take verbal pot-shots at each other, but the two kids get along just fine. It becomes a bit more odd if you remember that their canon counterparts have had almost no direct interaction with each other.
  • Off with His Head!: Utakata's fate at the hands of Akatsuki's Kyusuke, via katana...at least until the twenty-sixth and twenty-seventh Gaidens reveal he's Not Quite Dead after all.
  • Oh, Crap!: Several examples throughout the story.
    • Mizuki's gangsters get this reaction in Chapter 3 when Naruto reveals to them that he's a Kyuushingai...then again when, seconds after Mizuki's defeat, the neighboring residents come out and take up Naruto's offer to punish them for their criminality.
    • Aoi has this reaction in Chapter 25 when he sees Naruto wrench an iron bar off the side of an electrified metal arena with his bare hands and without flinching with the express intent of using it to smash Aoi's head for brutalizing Ino moments earlier.
    • Utakata gives this expression in Chapter 36 before Akatsuki's Kyusuke makes to behead him.
    • Tsume gives a horrified reaction in Chapter 82 when gang boss Shiore fires a rocket into the Konoha precinct.
    Tsume: Oh, hell—!
    • Mangetsu gives a very short but meaningful reaction in Chapter 121 on seeing that Akamaru, who he'd abducted after knocking Kiba out to steal the dog, has been freed from his prison by Jugo and is ready to strike.
    Mangetsu: Crap.
    • Temari gets her turn in Chapter 137, when she finds Yahiko's house and breaks in to find out any information she can about him, only to get a shock when Yahiko himself calls and leaves a message on his admittedly outdated answering machine. The message being that the whole house is going to explode in the next 20 seconds.
    Temari: Aw HELL NO. [runs for her life]
    • Kushina has just such a reaction in Chapter 191 when, after some consideration and a "Eureka!" Moment involving the noise of a van's engine ignition turning over outside, she realizes what LOVE's Council of the Dawn membership medallions might be for: triggers for a bomb.
    • Mitokado Homura and Sanjiro share one in the twenty-ninth Gaiden when Minato holds them and the other members of the Rogues Gallery at gunpoint moments after he's prevented them from disrupting Naruto's wedding. Considering that Sanjiro's previous encounter with Minato resulted in him nearly being set on fire and Homura had previously learned Minato could have killed him if so desired at an earlier point in the story, in both cases for the same offense of taking part in attacks on Naruto, their reactions are quite understandable. Kimimaro likewise starts trembling in further terror when Minato reveals that he's Kushina's husband and that he knows Kimimaro had previously shot and injured Kushina.
  • Only Bad Guys Call Their Lawyers: Discussed in Chapter 119, when Kira Ay is presented with a body of evidence to suggest involvement with Akatsuki and then expresses the desire to secure legal advice; he points out that he didn't study law, so naturally he'll need legal representation to address the charges he'd be faced with coming out of such accusations, whether or not he's actually guilty of said accusations.
  • Only One Name: Most characters who appear in this fanfic have both first names and surnames, and some who only had one revealed name in canon are given surnames specifically for this story...and yet you still have a good number of characters showing up in this universe who are only ever identified by one name. Most of the Kyuushingai (including Yagura, Roshi, Han, Fuu, Utakata), a few minor characters who attend Konoha High School (including Haku, Haruna, Emiru), just about everyone in Akatsuki (Yahiko, Deidara, Konan, etc.), and even some members of Gaara's Council of the Dawn (Chojuro, Darui, Kurotsuchi, Sumaru, etc.) are only ever identified by their first names; and in a variation, Whirl City's police chief Kaiza is only referred to by his surname (in canon, that was his given name), though his daughter Kaiza Hokuto is referred to by her full name.
  • Out-of-Context Eavesdropping: What influences Kiba's desire to fight Naruto in Chapter 10. After having had his love confession to Hinata rejected earlier that morning, Kiba overhears Naruto talking to Shikamaru and Choji about his Accidental Kiss with Hinata; from the way the conversation is worded, Kiba comes to the (wrong) conclusion that Naruto and Hinata must have done...more than just kiss. This sets him up to be persuaded by Neji to deliver a challenge to Naruto, ostensibly for Hinata's honor.
  • Outdoor Bath Peeping: Hinata accidentally comes across Yugito bathing in an artificial Waterfall Shower outside the latter's hotel suite. Despite her initial surprise and some moments of blushing at Yugito's daring, Hinata winds up watching for a good few minutes, even briefly and unconsciously comparing her own chest size to Yugito's. For her part, Yugito doesn't mind the audience and doesn't embarrass Hinata about it (much).
  • Outliving One's Offspring: Yahiko experienced this as a result of the 365 days. As told to Naruto, "My children were supposed to bury me—not the other way around!"
     P - R 
  • Passing Notes in Class: Mei catches Sai and Ino doing this at one point, and has Sai read the note out loud in front of everybody. Turns out the note includes a very accurate sketch of Ino at her desk, and the content of the back-and-forth chat pertains to Sai planning to give Ino a completed sketch later; Sai then asks if Mei expected the note to be...less innocent in nature, resulting in Mei being the one to suffer embarrassment.
  • Pay Evil unto Evil:
    • Utakata claims to be doing this with his murders of the doctors who created the Kyuushingai, but Naruto calls him on this, pointing out that Utakata was always a Blood Knight anyway (which Utakata doesn't deny).
    • Yahiko attempts to pull this on Gaara and his siblings in Chapter 132. He traps them and their uncle Yashamaru inside their family mausoleum on top of trigger-switches for bombs that will go off if they step off the switches, and locks the airtight mausoleum for good measure, so they'll die of oxygen deprivation even if they don't get blown up. Bear in mind, Gaara was one of the Kyuushingai, was heavily involved in the 365 days, and is the leader of the criminal syndicate LOVE.
    • Yagura does this in Chapter 136 when he infiltrates a prison to murder one of his Gold Sand contacts. The victim's previous crimes up to that point include two instances of Attempted Rape, force-feeding Gold Sand to three characters to the extent that they're hospitalized, rampant bullying of other characters, and assaulting women. Quoth the post-chapter commentary, "I don't think anyone will be shedding any tears over his demise."
  • Persona Non Grata: Whirl City as a whole has imposed this on Naruto, in part because the city was among the hardest hit during the 365 days; that Naruto was seen by some as a Karma Houdini who got away with destroying Uzushio High School (while defending himself against Sumaru's gang, and doing so without sustaining a single scratch) instead of being locked up on suspicion of being a Kyuushingai due to the specific details of that incident, only served to strengthen the citywide prejudice against him. When Naruto comes there aboard Sasuke's Mizukage cruise ship in the Vengeance arc, he has to stay on the ship so as to avoid antagonizing the locals; his friends get to browse around Whirl City, but several local thugs take advantage of this trope's power to harass some of them for being associated with Naruto, while Chief Kaiza makes a couple of veiled threats to Sasuke and Sakura for the same ostensible reason. This trope is also the reason why, during the same trip, Yugito keeps her own status as a Kyuushingai under wraps.
  • Platonic Life-Partners: The author has made it clear several times that, while Naruto and Ino are quite close, they're not the Official Couple. Naruto himself sees Ino as a bratty sister who you can't do without.
  • Police Are Useless: Rin believes this, due to the fact that in her back-story, the police failed to adequately or satisfactorily give her a solution for dealing with her abusive boyfriend. Kakuzu and Konan also hold this view, as the authorities have yet to arrest any of the Kyuushingai for the events of the 365 days. In practice, though, it's largely averted with the Konoha Town police, who get a few instances to show that they're competent at what they do, most recently and notably in Chapter 110.
  • Porn Stash: Naruto hints that Kushina has one, and it's confirmed by Chapter 21's post-chapter commentary.
  • Pre Ass Kicking One Liner: Naruto gives a rather epic one to Aoi's gang of hall monitors in Chapter 4. The subsequent beat-down follows right into the next chapter.
    Naruto: Those of you who want to have their bones broken, come and get me.
  • Primal Scene: Near the end of Chapter 174, Naruto wakes up, hears strange noises in the living room, goes to check it out...and sees his parents getting, ahem, acrobatic. His response is to demand detergent for his eyes.
  • Prison Rape: The trope is twice cited, though never actually depicted:
    • As part of his "bad cop" role during his and Iruka's interrogation of Konan in Chapter 49, Ibiki references this in an effort to intimidate her into giving up information.
    Ibiki: I'm sure the broads in the jail you'll wind up in will love to get to know a pretty girl like you.
    • In Chapter 117, when Ibiki tells Kiba about how Suigetsu's brother Mangetsu got sent to prison for armed robbery, Suigetsu dryly quips that Ibiki should be glad his brother Idate, one of Mangetsu's accomplices in that incident, was spared a prison sentence, because "they probably would've raped him on the first night." It very nearly gets him beaten up by Ibiki.
  • Protect This House: In Chapter 199, Kurotsuchi and her thugs storm the grounds of the Uchiha mansion and fire numerous rounds at the front of the building. Unfortunately for them, the Uchiha staff is more than adequately equipped to fight back.
  • Punch! Punch! Punch! Uh Oh...: During the match between Fuu and Kira in Chapter 196, Kira allows Fuu one minute to try and topple him, during which he doesn't try to dodge, block, counter or do any other form of fighting back against her. Fuu spends the whole minute punching and kicking him, even going for the throat, the eyes and the balls...but other than bruising here and there and a briefly raspy voice due to the throat-strike she lands on him, Kira isn't affected in the slightest. Then he fights back, and she doesn't stand a chance, ultimately ending with him throwing her off the roof of his mansion.
  • Put Down Your Gun and Step Away: Subverted in Chapter 83, during the Crossbones Crew's break-in of the Uzumaki household; Kushina manages to get hold of Kimimaro's gun and points it at the criminals—who by this time have the visiting Mei in a choke-hold. One of the thugs demands that Kushina drop the gun or he'll kill Mei, but Kushina's not biting.
    Kushina: She dies—you all die. Simple as that.
  • Questionable Consent: The trope is played with in a few different ways in one Gaiden chapter where a minor supporting character admits to having pulled a Bed Trick (while drunk) on a housemate during college days, pretending to be the housemate's anticipated sex partner while the other person was blindfolded and strapped to a bed. Under such circumstances, it's not certain that the housemate would have consented if the sex partner's true identity was known from the start. Plus there's the reveal that the housemate had in fact figured out the perpetrator's identity at the start but didn't try to put a stop to things (despite being able to get free from the straps in case of an emergency and not being gagged) because of a combination of startled fright and wanting to see what would happen next, then having physical sensations, only to end up sitting in the Troubled Fetal Position after all was said and done. Their friendship ended up being damaged, in large part (from the housemate's POV) because the perpetrator didn't have the guts to come clean even after sobering up and looking back on the act the next morning.
  • Rape as Backstory: As revealed in an extended flashback, Matsuri suffered this at the hands of her step-uncle, shortly after having moved in with him and her aunt following the deaths of her parents in a car crash. She later took cold-blooded revenge on them and her aunt's lover, and the incident led to her having a very low opinion of sex offenders.
  • Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs:
    • Naruto's "Nine-Point Fox Blow" technique.
    • Han has a variant dubbed "Mustang Stampede," which ends with a double roundhouse kick.
    • There's also Lee's "Dynamic Fist," which the author-notes admit is a deliberate Shout-Out to Fist of the North Star, complete with "ATATATATATA" sound-effects from Lee.
    • As revealed in Chapter 195, Gaara has his own variant, the "Tanuki Tirade," nine punches to the midsection and a tenth right in the gut.
  • A Rare Sentence: Done by Naruto in the fortieth Gaiden. "I'm going to keep my Math teacher and my P.E. teacher from getting into trouble at a brothel in Suigetsu's neck of the woods!"
  • "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
    • Sasuke gives a pointed one to Sakura after she scoffs at Naruto and Hinata dancing together during the Hyuga ball, noting that she (Sakura) has so much potential for growth but ignores every chance given to her to grow beyond what she is now.
    Sasuke: You know what your problem is? You refuse to admit when someone has a quality you lack, yet you obsess over it when you think they do. You don't hesitate to put such people down, and make enemies out of them. You do it all the time with Yamanaka Ino, and now you're doing it with Naruto. You're alone and bitter about it, so when two people like Naruto and Hinata find happiness in each other, like this, (gestures to the couple) you scoff at it, you find some way to convince yourself that it's worthless. You'd sing a different tune about your own relationship...if you even had one. And you obsess over me like the other deranged fan-girls—but you’ve yet to show me what I should find appealing about you, considering your attitude just now.
    Sai: Do you know what I call a guy who gets trounced by someone who was only recently bedridden in hospital? I call that guy 'pathetic'. Do you know what I call a guy who beats on people he knows are weaker than him? I call that guy 'worthless'. Do you know what I call a guy who attacks people who have no way of defending themselves? I call that guy 'scum'. Do you know what I call a guy who helps to make narcotics available to an unsuspecting populace? I call that guy 'evil'. And as for a guy who tries to rape a defenseless girl...That guy doesn't deserve to be called a man. He doesn't even deserve to be called an animal. That guy...is FILTH.
  • Recruiting the Criminal: Technically, while Naruto and Yugito are on the good guys' side, they would be considered criminals for their contribution to the Kyuushingai's antics during the 365 days. Jiraiya certainly has this mindset about Yugito having surrendered herself to the government following that period and her subsequent servitude to them as an agent to atone for her actions, and Judge Utatane's assigning Naruto to work for the government to bring down LOVE instead of sending him to an official court trial for his Kyuushingai actions has this flavor as well. And the epilogue reveals that Konan, Kyusuke, Zabuza and Darui have all become members of Minato's black-ops group in exchange for getting reduced prison sentences.
  • Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated: Said word-for-word in the twenty-seventh Gaiden by Utakata, who'd been thought to have been killed by Akatsuki in the main story.
  • Relationship Upgrade: Ino and Sai have their First Kiss in Chapter 68, cementing their relationship. Itachi/Yugito and Naruto/Hinata get theirs in Chapter 149, the former with a First Kiss, the latter with two back-to-back big damn kisses.
  • Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated: Utakata says this word-for-word in the twenty-seventh Gaiden before then explaining how that supposed death was in fact escaped.
  • Rescue Romance: Discussed in Chapter 68, when Ino is explaining to Sai why she doesn't want to be more than Just Friends with Naruto, despite the number of times he's come to save her from different adversities; as it turns out, she doesn't believe people should enter relationships just because of this trope.
  • Revenge by Proxy:
    • Yahiko attempts to pull this on Dr. Haruno for his part in the making of the Kyuushingai by way of a sniper bullet directed toward the man's daughter. Luckily for the intended target, the attempt fails because Yahiko mistakes another girl for his target.
    • Hanabi gets nabbed from school, and one of the abductors is an ex-Hyuga Corp employee who was fired by Hiashi prior to the abduction.
  • Riddle Me This: Gaara targets Hinata with this in Chapter 189, with a time limit of five minutes; if she can give him the right answer within that time, he'll give her his Council of the Dawn medallion to give Kushina, but if she gives the wrong answer, can't answer, or fails to answer within the time limit, he'll use his hidden contacts in Hyuga Corporation to give him full control of the company. The riddle in question: "Alone, I am number 24; paired with a companion, I am number 20; add a second companion, and I become dirty; what am I?" After seeing a cross-junction outside the window, Hinata correctly guesses that the answer is the letter X. It's the 24th letter of the alphabet; two of them together serve as the Roman symbol for the number 20; three of them together serve as the universal symbol for porn (i.e. dirty books or movies).
  • Ring Out: During the Uchiha Zaibatsu Invitational's main set of matches, one of Sasuke's arenas has this as a win-condition. The arena is a raised platform set over a pool of water; knocking an opponent off the platform and into the water counts as an automatic round-winner.
  • Rogues Gallery:
  • Room Disservice: When he goes to the Samsara Hotel to attack Yugito, Kyusuke poses as a room-service bearer, with his katana hidden beneath the food-cart's cloth. Conveniently enough for him, Hinata had just ordered room service from Yugito's room moments earlier...
  • Rubik's Cube: International Genius Symbol: When Hiashi invites Naruto to the Hyuga mansion for the first time, he tells the young man that he'll have to pass a series of tests to gain Hiashi's respect. The first test is for Naruto to solve a Rubik's cube in the time it'll take Hiashi to say the alphabet (and for clarity, Hiashi agrees not to rush through the alphabet, but instead says it at a normal pace). Naruto then proves he's actually Brilliant, but Lazy.
    Hiashi: A. B. C. D. E. F.
    Naruto: [has solved cube] Gee, that was easy!
  • Run the Gauntlet: Not in the the main fic itself, but in the comic-within-a-fanfic Shadow Fox, as discussed by Lee and Tenten in Chapter 200. In the comic, the titular heroine has been forced to go 72 hours without adequate sleep to round up several members of her Rogues Gallery, to the point that she actually falls asleep while on her way back to her hideout. Unfortunately for Shadow Fox, though, her Arch-Enemy Ghost Wolf orchestrated the other villains' crime spree in order to wear her down so that he himself would be able to fight her afterward while being fresh on energy.
  • Running Gag: Aoi being beaten up and treated like a Butt-Monkey despite his douchiness, Suigetsu being humiliated when his own antics are turned back on him, Kushina trading waspish remarks with Naruto, Ino denying that she has any romantic interest in Naruto...
     S - T 
  • Sadistic Choice: In the thirty-fourth Gaiden, Kaiza's police academy batch-mate Oishi Taiseki tells him a story from during the 365 days, in which Taiseki met a woman who was forced into an especially cruel one of these by a gang of rapists. After trapping her and her young daughter, the thugs told the woman that either the daughter could watch while they raped her mother, or the mother could watch while they raped the daughter. The mother chose the former.
    Taiseki: I'll just say that by the time my wife's paramedic team got to the spot, the lady was on the ground with way too much trauma and the daughter was bawling so much she didn't have any facial fluids left to cry out.
  • Sarcastic Clapping: In Chapter 216, Sakura encounters Matsuri and warns the brunette to get out of her way or else the pink-haired girl will physically demonstrate how much of a Badass Bookworm she is. Matsuri's response is this, combined with sarcastically saying how moved she is by the threat. Too bad for her Sakura can actually back up her declaration.
  • Save the Villain: The focus of the Kira-Killers Arc in the Gaiden chapters, where Naruto and company have to intervene and protect Kira from the titular antagonists despite everything he's done against Naruto up to that point.
  • Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
    • Haku attempts this in Chapter 74, when Arashi tells him the Purple Storm gang is gearing up to take out the remnants of the earlier-massacred Hawk gang. Unfortunately, Arashi isn't about to let Haku go because He Knows Too Much...fortunately, Neji's there to back Haku up.
    • When the Crossbones Crew invades Kushina's house, taking Mei hostage and shooting Kushina in the process, Kushina lets them know her son Naruto is one of the Nine Terrors. The gang's mooks get very uncomfortable on hearing that. Then Kushina goes further, warning them that if she or Mei are hurt or killed by them and Naruto finds out, they won't survive the rest of the month. The gang ends up apologizing for the break-in and fleeing (much to leader Kimimaro's displeasure).
    • The Ice-Eyes Gang breaks into Shikamaru's house. He's outnumbered fifteen to one. He proves to be an utterly merciless and strategic Combat Pragmatist, taking out ten of them. Watching this, the remaining gangsters don't bother to stick around.
    Gangster 1: To hell with this—I'm outta here! [runs for the window and dives out]
    Gangster 2: Hey, wait for us! [the rest of the gang bolts]
  • Secret-Keeper: Played with and played straight.
    • Played with in that Ino and her father Inoichi were Secret Keepers for Naruto, initially, concerning his past as one of the Kyuushingai, and his mother Kushina also knows about it. Over time, though, others (an increasingly long list that includes Naruto's friends) have found out, whether from Naruto himself revealing it to them or from finding out secondhand.
    Naruto: With the number of people who know my secret by now, I guess it's not so much of a secret anymore...
    • Played straight in that Naruto himself, as well as Tsume, Tsunade, Ibiki and Iruka are Secret Keepers regarding Dr. Haruno's role in the creation of the Kyuushingai. Among the other Kyuushingai, it's confirmed that Yugito also knows, Roshi at least remembered Dr. Haruno, and Utakata was targeting the doctor specifically because of that past connection.
    • Secret Secret-Keeper: Shino was this for a long time regarding Naruto's history as a Kyuushingai, but eventually copped to the knowledge.
  • Share the Male Pain: Two examples so far.
    Lee: Ooohhh...that took fifty years off his youthfulness...
    Neji: [cradling his own manhood] Uh...right...what you said.
    • Naruto cringes and holds his own crotch after seeing Hana deliver an extremely violent kick to the crotch of one of Sumaru's Star-Boys gangsters. In fairness, said gangster had come very close to sexually assaulting Hana before Naruto showed up just in time.
  • Shared Family Quirks: Apparently, everyone in the Uchiha family is a Lethal Chef, if Sasuke's and Itachi's remarks about each other and Itachi's comments about their mother are any indication.
  • Shower Scene: Tenten gets one in Chapter 13, which the author admits was inspired by the famous scene from Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie. Yugito also gets one in Chapter 43, in her case with a miniature waterfall.
  • Shown Their Work: The story showcases three examples of this, with the details of Tsunade's gynecological examination under Hana's care, Yugao's body massage at Mabui's spa, and Suigetsu's knowledge of how cane juice is processed into sugar. In the first two cases, the author notes that the research was done specifically to downplay or erase any potential titillation to the readers.
  • Skinship Grope: In Chapter 167, on realizing Hinata's quite...busty, Ino slips behind her and grabs her breasts as though weighing them, while demanding to know her secret. At the same time, Sakura pokes one of Yugito's breasts while wondering whether they're not silicone implants...and she gets her ankle twisted by Yugito for even considering that thought.
  • Skyward Scream:
    • Ino does a comical variant of this in Chapter 6, after Naruto has gotten her to think Sasuke's naked behind her just so he himself can escape from her clutches over spilled pudding.
    Ino: I'LL GET YOU FOR THIS, UZUMAKI NARUTO! [other students inch away from her]
  • Sneeze Cut: A humorous example in Chapter 21, when Shino informs Naruto that most persons at Konoha High School read the Shadow Fox comic book series—even Principal Danzo. Cut to Danzo himself letting out a loud sneeze and then wondering who's talking about him...while he's reading the latest Shadow Fox comic.
  • Snow Means Death: As it turns out, at the time of Bee's death (except not really), it was snowing.
  • Sorting Algorithm of Evil: Averted with the order in which the protagonists face the different members of LOVE's Council of the Dawn. According to the author's post-chapter commentary for the fourth Gaiden, Menma is the weakest member of the Council, but he is not the first one to be confronted by any of the heroes; that would be Yura, who is roughly mid-tier among the Council's eleven members. Darui, who's exactly in the middle of the Council's power-level totem pole, is the second member fought, while the next two opponents are Chojuro and Kurotsuchi (fourth-weakest and second-weakest, respectively). Of course, as the leader of the Council, Gaara is the strongest member and is the one fought last, while Temari and Kankuro, who are roughly tied in terms of their level of power, are fought before him, with Kankuro being fought before Temari—though, in an additional aversion, Temari, the second-strongest by virtue of officially being The Dragon, is fought twice, once by Tsume and Naruto in a gun-battle, and later by Sakura in a hand-to-hand duel.
  • Steel Eardrums: Averted on two occasions—once, when Choji yells into Shikamaru's ear with a bullhorn in an effort to wake him up, Shikamaru complains afterward how he could've been deafened by such an antic; and in a later chapter, during the fight between Itachi and Kyusuke, Itachi discharges his gun quite close to Kyusuke's ear, and Kyusuke's reaction is to flinch in pain, rub his ear and comment that he's lucky to still have his hearing.
  • Super Window Jump: In the draft-notes, Itachi does this as a quick method of escape from a high-story building floor, to avoid getting shot by gun-toting mooks.note 
  • Superhero Paradox: Discussed between Tsume and Tsunade in Chapter 87, in relation to Naruto. Tsume vents frustration at the view that, since Naruto's arrival in Konoha Town, criminal activity has gone up past what the police would have previously considered acceptable levels, especially with Akatsuki's activities ramping up. Tsunade, in turn, points out that even if Naruto hadn't come to Konoha Town, a lot of what the city's experienced up to that point would likely have happened anyway, and in some cases the outcome would have been worse if he hadn't been there; she specifically cites Mizuki terrorizing the residents while pretending to be a Kyuushingai, the Gold Sand trade which has crept into the area, and the presence of gangs like the Crossbones Crew and the Purple Storm Gang which were already established independent of Naruto. Tsunade also references the poem that named the For Want Of A Nail trope to cement her point.
    Tsunade: Ever hear the poem about a kingdom being lost because of one missing horseshoe nail? Well...in this case...with all that I've mentioned...Naruto is the nail.
  • Superhero Trophy Shelf: In the forty-sixth Gaiden, Sasuke reveals that he's created an entire museum at his home, dedicated to Naruto's exploits, that mostly consists of displays of the blond boy's Rogues Gallery up to that point. There are wax figures of Mizuki, Yagura, Gaara and his siblings Kankuro and Temari, Kurotsuchi (who Sasuke admits he commissioned a wax image of out of personal dislike due to her actions that have affected the Uchiha family directly and indirectly), Kira, Mitokado Homura, Yoshida Sanjiro representing the Hall Monitors' Guild, Rokusho Aoi, and Yahiko representing all of Akatsuki, along with jackets from the Purple Storm and Tiger Dragon gangs. The best part about it all? Sasuke paid for everything out of his own pocket money.
    Sasuke: I thought I’d take it up as a hobby to make a sort of museum dedicated to Naruto’s adventures since he settled here in our town. Specifically, dedicated to the gallery of whackos he’s had to deal with, who’ve tried to kill him or otherwise opposed him in some way.
    Sakura: Ooohh…just like Shadow Fox and her lair where she keeps memorabilia of her various cases! But—wait—are you calling Naruto some kind of superhero?
    Sasuke: Well, why not?
    Naruto: You are way too rich and idle for your own damn good...
  • Suspiciously Specific Denial:
    • Kakashi accidentally outs himself as a Covert Pervert with this in Chapter 9.
    Choji: Oi, Kakashi-sensei, what's that book you've got there?
    Kakashi: Oh, this? Just a little bit of advanced literature I brought from home. Not a porno, nope, not at all...
    [he sees the students giving him weird looks]
    Kakashi: I said that out loud, didn't I?
    Shikamaru: Very out loud.
    • Much later, in Chapter 111, Naruto accuses Jiraiya of having picked Uzuki Yugao to be the prosecutor in his tribunal because Jiraiya's fantasized about her. Jiraiya's response: "No, I haven't today!"
    Yugao: ..."Today"?
  • SWAT Team: Yahiko is revealed to have been a member of Ame Town's local SWAT unit prior to the 365 days, before losing his wife and children in a Kyuushingai-caused stampede resulted in the former cop becoming a Lawman Gone Bad.
  • Take a Third Option: In Chapter 12, after Kiba's "fight" with Naruto at the youth center, Chief Inuzuka realizes that Naruto pulled this—instead of beating up Kiba, or letting Kiba beat him up, Naruto simply evaded Kiba's attacks and let the other boy run himself ragged. Naruto admits that it helped that he was warned in advance just whose son Kiba was, otherwise Tsume might've had her cops use Naruto as target practice.
  • Take That!: Several throughout the story.
    • There's one given in Chapter 84 to Scandal, which Hinata, while flipping through TV channels, quickly switches away from when she realizes what it is.
    Hinata: I thought I promised myself never to watch this garbage.
    • Another comes moments later, this time directed at 4Kids, which Hinata quietly denigrates even as she praises Ultimate Muscle's intro theme.
    Hinata: Well, that song was one of the few things THAT network got right.
    • Chapter 122 is one long stab at The Twilight Saga, with Naruto using the movies as a method of torture.
    • Chapter 136 takes a jab at One More Day, in the form of a safe-word system Temari uses with a Dirty Cop who's giving her info incognito.
    Cop: How do you deal with fans of One More Day?
    Temari: What fans?
  • Talking Is a Free Action: In Chapter 86, Kyusuke learns the hard way that talking is very much not a free action when going up against Itachi. He gets a bullet to the thigh and a lampshading for his troubles.
    Itachi: Just so you know, talking is NOT a free action in a life-or-death situation, especially when guns are involved.
  • Tap on the Head: The usual effects of this trope are both played straight and averted.
    • Played straight when Itachi pistol-whips Konan in order to rescue Naruto and Tsunade. The next time we see Konan a few chapters later, she's none the worse for the blow.
    • Averted in one arc when Aoi surprises Inoichi from behind and hits him in the back of the head to knock him out. When Ino finds him a short while later just as he's regaining consciousness, he's feeling dizzy and nauseous to the point that he can't stand up straight without her help.
    • Averted again in a later arc when Mangetsu sneaks up behind Kiba and hits him over the head with a rock in order to then steal Akamaru. Kiba's knocked unconscious, is in serious pain when he regains consciousness, and has to be taken to the hospital where he's kept overnight for observation and rest. Hana even notes that, based on the doctor's report, the only reason Kiba's skull wasn't smashed was because he turned his head right at the point of impact.
    • Averted yet again after Hotaru is attacked and knocked out while she's guarding Matsuri in the hospital. She winds up bedridden with an ice-pack applied to her head, and complains of a headache when Iruka and Ibiki engage in a noisy argument right next to her.
  • Targeted to Hurt the Hero: Attempted by the LOVE syndicate during the Endgame arc, as several of their agents converge on Konoha Town to target specific people known to Naruto while he's busy on Kira's private island. It only fails because Darui, Zabuza, and the Tiger Dragon gangsters go against the plan for their own reasons.
  • Teach Me How To Fight: After the confrontation with the Blood Mist Gang at Burger Castle, during which she could do little more than frantically thump Zabuza on the arm in an effort to make him release Neji from a painful arm-twisting and then get knocked senseless for her trouble, Hinata goes to visit Yugito—who she'd previously met at the annual Hyuga ball—and, after getting a bit into the history of the Kyuushingai and the 365 days, she asks Yugito to train her so she can become strong enough to be of better help to Naruto in future. Yugito warns Hinata that such training will not be a cakewalk, but Hinata assures her she's up to the challenge. Then, following the Time Skip, Hinata's become skilled enough to beat Sasuke in a spar—keep in mind that Sasuke had previously fought Naruto on even terms in a serious duel.
  • That Came Out Wrong: Happens to Neji in Chapter 13, when he's trying to fend off Lee's speculation that he, Neji, has been having secret "liaisons" with Tenten.
    Lee: Was your meeting yesterday so satisfying that you got her tired enough for two days?
    Neji: What? Our meeting yesterday wasn't so strenuous! (claps a hand over his mouth in horrified realization)
  • Think Unsexy Thoughts: Naruto attempts this in an effort to get rid of his Raging Stiffie, after Mei calls him out on fantasizing about her during class. His efforts fail miserably, though, as he winds up thinking about different girls in all sorts of sensual contexts (including the idea of Tenten attacking him...while dressed in an Amazon-style bikini).
  • This Is for Emphasis, Bitch!: Sai delivers one of these to Aoi after the former's No-Holds-Barred Beatdown of the latter in Chapter 85.
    Sai: Put that in your Gold Sand pill and swallow it, bitch.
  • Time Skip: Three of them. The first one is at the very start of the story, in which two years have passed between the 365 days of terror and the start of the main plot proper; this happens in the first chapter, with the 365 days taking up only a few paragraphs before the main story begins. Much later, a time-skip of approximately nine weeks takes place in between Chapters 88 and 89, during which time Naruto has left Konoha Town to train under Minato. The third time-skip happens in between the last two chapters of the story, and spans 15 years.
  • Title Drop: The name of the technique Naruto uses to defeat Gaara in the final battle.
  • Token Evil Teammate: Gaara, Utakata and Yagura were the three least noble members of the Kyuushingai, and two years later they haven't changed.
  • Token Good Teammate: When Naruto was a part of the Kyuushingai, it was said that he was one of the more benevolent members. In fact, Han even described him as the most "tenderhearted." Han himself counts, desiring to repent for his actions during the 365 days by becoming a pastor at a local church.
  • Too Much Information: "I can last longer than a minute without the little blue pill!"
    Itachi: That's...actually more than I needed to know, thank you.
  • Toplessness from the Back: This is the view Hinata has of Yugito when she catches her taking a Waterfall Shower, although she does eventually turn to face Hinata, causing the younger woman to blush even harder.
  • Tournament Arc: The Uchiha Zaibatsu Invitational Tournament arc, from chapters 19 to 33.
  • A Tragedy of Impulsiveness: This trope has caused significant trouble for different characters throughout the story's timeline.
    • If Naruto had just restrained himself from attacking Gaara the night the 365 days' chaos started, very possibly the 365 days would not have even happened.
    • Because Naruto haphazardly rushed to rescue Hanabi from Mizuki's gang, he himself wound up being held hostage and almost butchered by Akatsuki. Minato actually lampshades this point while preparing to train Naruto.
    • This trope also played a significant role in the back-story, nine years before the present day. While visiting a foreign country to assess a training exercise undertaken by his government's military, Jiraiya and the female ambassador to that country got drunk and decided to do some physical flirting inside a room on the military base. While they were getting hot and heavy, Jiraiya accidentally triggered a missile launch that killed several members of their military group...and in a panic to salvage economic trade agreements with the other government and keep the egg off their own faces, he and his government decided to lie and say the slain soldiers were terrorism-sympathizers who got blown up by a weapon they were supposedly smuggling. Unfortunately, two of the dead soldiers were Gaara's parents, and when he found out the circumstances years later, he set in motion a plan to murder several high-ranking government officials and take over the country in revenge; the beginning of the 365 days merely sidetracked his plans for vengeance, and even then Gaara was still able to use the fear generated from that time to bolster his original plans.
  • Training from Hell:
    • In Chapter 30, Sasuke reveals that he underwent this as part of the Uchiha Zaibatsu's thrust to protect itself and its members from any future Kyuushingai attacks, in the wake of the 365 days. He's got the scars to show for it, too.
    • Chapter 47 reveals that, as part of Hinata's drive to become stronger with Yugito as her trainer, the intention is for her to run 20 laps around Konoha Town's entire perimeter ON A NIGHTLY BASIS. Naruto is stunned when he finds out.
    Naruto: Do you know how big this town is?
    • Following the Time Skip between Chapters 88 and 89, Naruto reveals the extent of the training he had to undergo with Minato: he had to study day in and day out in preparation for the end-of-term exams upon his return to school, and if he got even one question wrong whenever Minato quizzed him, he wouldn't get dinner for that day. In addition to which, when it came time for physical training, if Naruto couldn't land one hit on Minato, he wouldn't get breakfast the next morning—and the brief flashback we're shown of Naruto's first physical training session shows him on the wrong end of a Curb-Stomp Battle from Minato, unable to land even a single hit.
    Ino: You're right. You WERE in hell.
    • Also following the above-mentioned Time Skip, it's revealed that Kushina has put Ino through some of this type of training; what we see involves Ino towing Kushina around on a car tire, with a rope connected to the tire and tied around Ino's waist...and Kushina has a whip to smack Ino with if she complains about it.
  • Transplanted Character Fic: The author states from the very first chapter that this story won't include any jutsu, summoning magic, or tailed beasts. Consequently, the only really outlandish thing in this otherwise fairly normal High School AU story is the 365 days' rampage by the Kyuushingai plus their artificially-gotten intelligence.
  • Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: Anyone who closely inspects the 365 days, the training of the Kyuushingai prior to that, and Naruto's attitude in the years following that year of chaos, will see his current efforts to downplay what he had to do during that time as this. For reference, Naruto is 15 years old in the current day; the 365 days happened when he was approximately 12 years old. Even more troubling is the fact that, by his own testimony, he was quite eager to undergo training to become a government operative despite being told very clearly by the doctor supervising their health during the training period that said training would involve learning to kill people as part of possible assassination missions. This portion of dialogue between Naruto and national security minister Byakuren outlines the issue quite well:
    Byakuren: We were foolish...over-ambitious...we caused you and your peers to fight in a conflict we had no right to put you in.
    Naruto: With all due respect, sir, I volunteered for that project.
    Byakuren: But you were just a boy—and are STILL just a boy!
    • Gaara, one of Naruto's fellow Kyuushingai, is another example. It's revealed that he and his siblings (both older than him, so they themselves don't count for this trope) were using business skills learned from their uncle to perform hostile takeovers of companies and then sell them back to the original owners through blackmail, and that this was taking place before Gaara signed on for the Kyuushingai training regimen. In the present day, Gaara is the leader of a criminal syndicate. The kicker? He's roughly the same age as Naruto in canon, which means they're roughly the same age here as well. And it's revealed that he manipulated the events of the 365 days to his own benefit, at a time when he would've been 12 years old, same as Naruto. None of what he's done or is currently doing is what you would expect of someone who hasn't even reached age 16 yet.
     U - Z 
  • Underestimating Badassery:
    • Shikamaru gets this from his opponents, either because he prefers to dodge and avoid attacks or because he just looks real lazy (and is) anyway. However, you do so at your own peril.
    • Naruto gets this to a lesser degree, mostly because it's not common knowledge that he was one of the Nine Terrors. Suigetsu and Aoi both assumed he'd be a pushover; the result was that Suigetsu got a baseball introduced to his crotch and Aoi got on the wrong end of a Curb-Stomp Battle.
  • Unnecessary Roughness: During their match in the Uchiha Zaibatsu Invitational tournament, Aoi pulls this on Ino at every opportunity, including deliberately flinging her into the electrified bars of their caged ring and continuing to hit her even after their referee has called an end to the fight, out of revenge for her part in getting him arrested for assault in the previous arc. It culminates in Aoi beating Ino bloody and almost unconscious and twisting her ankle, knocking down the referee when he tries to intervene, and only Naruto's arrival prevents Aoi from killing Ino outright.
  • The Villain Knows Where You Live: A couple of examples, both concerning LOVE. When Naruto and Gaara meet for the first time since the end of the 365 days, Gaara clearly points out that if he'd truly considered Naruto a threat to LOVE's plans, he would have let Temari have her way and put a bullet in Naruto from the outset, the only reason for that not having happened being that Gaara is too much of a Pragmatic Villain to allow personal grudges to get in the way of his mission. Later, it's demonstrated that LOVE as a whole is well aware of Naruto's home address with their constant leaving of the Council of the Dawn members' medallions on his doorstep every time he or one of his friends defeats one of their members.
  • Villain Team-Up: Two examples show up in the Gaiden chapters.
    • In the twenty-ninth Gaiden, Mitokado Homura gathers together a group of villains who've all got grudges against Naruto, to include Mizuki, Tsuchinoe, Yoshida Sanjiro and the Hall Monitors' Guild, Kaguya Kimimaro, and Kakuzu of the Akatsuki group, and together they make preparations to attack Naruto during his and Hinata's wedding. Unfortunately for them, Minato isn't having any of that.
    • In the forty-sixth Gaiden, which heralds the start of the Kira-Killers Arc and which chronologically takes place earlier than the above-mentioned Gaiden, five of Naruto's enemies band together for a common cause: the Not Quite Dead Fuu enlists Utakata as The Dragon, then they break Mizuki and Akatsuki's Konan out of their respective prisons, and finally they enlist Mitokado Homura at his home. The set-up is played with, however, as their primary goal isn't to kill Naruto (though it's acknowledged that the group can always target him later); as the arc's name suggests, they've been brought together to target Kira, who they all have a mutual grudge against. The dynamics of the group itself are played with, too, as while some of the members get along well enough, at least one of them makes it clear that it's a case of Teeth-Clenched Teamwork. The group does successfully ambush and beat down Naruto, but only as a warning to him not to interfere with their mission; Naruto has to enlist help from Sasuke, Kushina, Han, and Minato's black-ops crew to stand a chance of stopping their plot.
  • Vitriolic Best Buds:
    • Naruto and Ino. He insults her personality and taste in men; she beats him up over stupid stuff he does. Despite this, though, they're Like Brother and Sister.
    • Neji and Lee. Neji frequently berates Lee for his over-the-top displays and for constantly insisting that Tenten is Neji's girlfriend, and on one occasion beat him up over the latter point. Yet they're still friends.
    • Ino, again, this time with Shikamaru. She's implied to be bossy toward him (and Choji too), and he never fails to call her some very unflattering nicknames at times. Still, he really does consider her his friend, and if anyone hurts her, he will respond with due violence.
  • Wake Up Fighting:
    • In the first Gaiden, when Hinata goes to Yugito's room and sees the older woman sleeping, she's hesitant to just reach out and try to shake Yugito awake because of this trope; specifically, Hinata suspects that, as a Kyuushingai who went through the hell of the 365 days, Yugito might be a Shell-Shocked Veteran who won't take it well if she's touched in her sleep. It's eventually subverted, however, after Hinata gently tickles Yugito's bare feet and calls her name, gradually rousing Yugito awake.
    • Played straight in the twenty-fourth Gaiden, when Tsuchinoe sneaks into Naruto's house and begins her attempted murder of him by putting a hand over his mouth to stifle any noise he might make. As it turns out, trying to wake Naruto, someone who went through hell just to survive the 365 days, by restricting his breathing isn't exactly a good idea, as Tsuchinoe gets a fist to the mouth for her trouble.
    Naruto: I actually thought I was dreaming that some punk was trying to suffocate me. How'd you think I'd react?
  • Waterfall Shower: In Chapter 43, Hinata accidentally comes across Yugito taking one of these in an artificial waterfall on the balcony of her high-rise penthouse suite. However, in Chapter 77, Yugito admits to Itachi that it wasn't quite so accidental on her part.
    Itachi: And here I thought you just wanted to shock her sensibilities as a girl of genteel upbringing.
    Yugito: Well, there was that too, and I think I did a fantastic job of it. (restrains laughter)
  • Waving Signs Around: A group of protesters gathers outside Tsunade's office in Chapter 97, and later at a town hall meeting in Chapter 98, to protest the fact that members of the Kyuushingai—namely Naruto, Yugito and Fuu—have been living in their area without restraint (although in Fuu's case, she's in police custody for unrelated reasons). Some of the protesters are carrying signs with statements including "The Kyuushingai are murderers," "Down with the Kyuushingai," and "Terrors not wanted."
  • We Do Not Know Each Other:
    • Sakura invokes Type 2 with Naruto when she sees him at the annual Hyuga party, since she doesn't think very highly of him on a social level to begin with.
    • Much later, Naruto and Roshi invoke Type 1 when they see each other at the Iwa City Museum during Naruto's field trip there, so as not to give away either party's status as Kyuushingai members (but that pretense gets dropped after Deidara shows up).
    • During the Underground Fists arc, Naruto and Ibiki utilize Type 1 with each other when infiltrating Yura's illegal gambling operation as a bare-knuckle fighter and a dog-fighting trainer, respectively.
    • In Chapter 143, Kira utilizes Type 1 as he acts as though he's just meeting Naruto for the first time, so as not to drive off Hiashi and Fugaku as potential investors in his company's new armor product.
  • Wedding Smashers: Several members of the Rogues Gallery attempt this against Naruto and Hinata's wedding in the twenty-ninth Gaiden, when they join together as a Legion of Doom to crash the wedding and murder the entire bridal party. However, the groom's father is not having any of it.
  • Wham Episode:
    • Chapter 150. Turns out Killer Bee's not so dead after all.
    • Chapter 189. Ibiki is shot in his car by an unknown assailant just before he can reveal to Tsume over the phone who let Matsuri into the precinct to kill Sumaru.
    • Chapter 193. Iruka is LOVE's mole in the Konoha Town PD and was the one who shot Ibiki.
  • What Does She See in Him?:
    • This is Sakura's question while watching Naruto and Hinata dance together at the annual Hyuga party. Sasuke, being Sasuke, has a very ready answer.
    Sakura: What could she possibly see in HIM?
    Sasuke: More than anyone could possibly see in YOU.
    • Later repeated to Hinata by Karui, as she remarks on the former's worry over Naruto in Chapter 90.
    Karui: From what I've witnessed, he's noisy and brash and lazy, and you're...none of that.
    • Karui later asks her father Banna the same question in the eighteenth Gaiden, regarding her mother (who she doesn't get along with and who was the reason Banna walked out on them five years earlier).
  • What the Hell, Hero?: Naruto gets this on four different occasions.
    • The first three times all have to do with the same incident at Burger Castle in Chapter 41 where he goes berserk enough to almost cut Zabuza's throat while practically ignoring Hinata's pleas not to kill the gangster.
      • The first time, which happens during the very incident, has Ino attempt to talk Naruto down. He shoots her a Death Glare. Ino's response is to frown at him and give him a stern admonition:
    Ino: Oi. Naruto. Fight's over.
    • The very next day, while Naruto's in the midst of a Heroic BSoD over what almost happened, he accosts and physically assaults Neji, even after the other boy tells him he needs to cool it. Neji keeps very calm while asking one question of Naruto, in the midst of Naruto's ongoing angry rant which has attracted a crowd of onlookers.
    Neji: How do you think you look right now, Naruto-kun?
    • The third calling-out comes from Shikamaru a couple of days later, in Chapter 44, after he observes Naruto has been making a point of avoiding contact with his friends following the Burger Castle incident. Shikamaru, who knows what happened from Ino, tells Naruto his behavior is not going to cut it.
    Shikamaru: You need to stop being so anal and at least talk to them...just don't push everybody away in some kind of misguided attempt to "protect" us, Naruto.
    • The fourth occasion, unrelated to the above three, sees Naruto being called out during the Tribunal Arc for his actions as a Kyuushingai, specifically in Chapters 112 (by lead prosecutor Uzuki Yugao) and 113 (presiding judge Utatane Koharu).
    Naruto: From what I was able to learn, your honor...cities’ worth of people would have been put at risk with what Gaara was planning.
    Judge Utatane: And yet, by your actions on the night of the New Year’s celebration in Kumo City, isn't that what ended up happening anyway--that cities were subjected to multiple homicides?
  • When You Coming Home, Dad?: As revealed in Chapter 35, Dr. Haruno's work as Konoha Hospital's administrator has kept him away from home so often that Sakura's actually surprised when he's able to come home early to have dinner with the family, for once.
    Sakura: Is it wrong to be surprised that he's not working late again?
  • Why Are You Looking at Me Like That?: Yugito can't help but ask this question in Chapter 104 when Minato and Itachi decide that, in order to get close enough to Akatsuki's suspected backer to get an incriminating confession, they'll have to use someone the person will likely feel comfortable talking to, wearing a wire in a place nobody would think to search...and then the two men slowly turn to look in her direction with suspiciously interested smirks.
    Yugito: Oh, hell, no.
  • Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?:
    • When Naruto is briefly incapacitated following his torture at Akatsuki member Monjin's hands, upon getting word of it Temari urges Gaara to take the opportunity to just kill Naruto right away. However, Gaara brushes her off.
    • Much later during the final arc, Yahiko actually attempts to subvert this by preparing to shoot Naruto on the spot during their scheduled fight on Kira's island. Naruto manages to disarm him, first verbally and then physically.
  • Wingding Eyes: In Chapter 3, during Sasuke's first appearance, Ino's eyes turn into hearts on seeing the Uchiha. It happens again in Chapter 6, when Naruto tricks Ino into thinking Sasuke's naked behind her (as a means to cover his own escape from her wrath for spilling pudding).
  • World of Technicolor Hair: Hair colors run the gamut in this story, with characters (major and minor alike) sporting the same colors their canon counterparts had, from common colors like blond (Naruto, Ino, Menma, Minato, Hotaru), black (Sasuke), and brown (Kiba, Haruna), to rarer but still realistic colors like red (Kushina, Karui, Ajisai) and white (Suigetsu, Darui, Omoi, Kira), to unrealistic colors like orange (Yahiko), purple (Sagi), blue (Guren), and green (Sanjiro), and at no time are the unnatural colors treated as strange or outlandish. Hair color even comes up as a plot point in the main story at one point when Yahiko seeks to kill the pink-haired Sakura via sniper rifle, but erroneously kills local gangster Fubuki, who also has pink hair.
  • Worthy Opponent: During the Uchiha Zaibatsu Invitational, Sasuke wants to fight Naruto for this reason, and also berates him for being Willfully Weak.
    Sasuke: I have been training for just over two years for a fight of this magnitude, and you are probably the best opportunity for me to reap the benefits of that training.
    Naruto: I can't promise that I won't hold back. It's become something of a reflex for me.
    Sasuke: Like when you swung that iron bar at Aoi's head?
  • Would Hit a Girl: None of the guys who've had female opponents so far in this story have held back just because their opponents were women. Special mention should go to Aoi, who'll brutalize any woman who opposes him, and Zabuza, who elbows Hinata in the face during the Blood Mist gang's assault on the protagonists.
  • Writing Lines: In Chapter 8, Naruto reveals that while in detention following his falling asleep in class in the previous chapter, he had to write "I will not fall asleep in class" 200 times on a sheet of paper.
    Naruto: Well, at least my hand didn't fall asleep as a result.
    Ino: Good thing—you'd need it for your bathroom activities later, right? [smirks]
    Naruto: Wh-wh-what the hell is that supposed to mean?
  • Wrong Genre Savvy: When she's tied up and threatened with a blowtorch if she doesn't cough up certain information, Temari recounts a scene from The Punisher (2004) where a similar torture scene consisted of the torturer using a Popsicle on his victim instead of actually applying the blowtorch. Unfortunately, the interrogator's not playing nice—he burns off a section of his captive's hair and threatens to burn the privates. Talking ensues fast.
  • You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Following the attack by the Blood Mist Gang and his subsequent Heroic BSoD over his past coming back to bite him, Naruto gets this from Kushina and Guy later on.
  • You Are Not Alone: Itachi tells Yugito this in Chapter 149 when she admits she's feeling a high degree of vulnerability after she and Naruto have been outed by Kira Ay as Kyuushingai members, and that she's been wrestling with that sense of vulnerability ever since the 365 days following the deaths of several of her fellow cops during that period and the covering-up of the true death statistics of that period by her city's mayor and other officials. Itachi tells her that she doesn't have to try being strong all by herself; she's got the rest of them there to help her.
    Yugito: Just to think about it...to think of how I was weak when I should have been strong...it's humiliating to the point of misery. My strength isn't all it's cracked up to be.
    Itachi: Then don't be strong alone. Let the rest of us share our strength with you.
  • You Didn't Ask: Chi's response to Yukata in Chapter 198, when she expresses amazement that he never told her about his incredible cooking skills.
  • You Killed My Father: Tenten confronts Naruto over the fact that the Kyuushingai's rampage killed her parents. This is also the source of Monjin's grudge against the Kyuushingai, as his mother was a casualty of the 365 days.
  • You Need to Get Laid: Itachi's irritated response to Minato's Shipper on Deck tendencies concerning him and Yugito.
    Itachi: You know what you need? You need to go back to Konoha Town, get into bed with Kushina-san, and romp like jackrabbits.
  • Your Mom: In Chapter 54, Naruto employs this while being interrogated by Akatsuki members Yahiko and Monjin. Unfortunately, since Monjin's mother was one of the first casualties of the 365 days, his reaction is quite volatile.
    Monjin: Tell us what you know. Tell us who this Nii Yugito is that's snooping around...and who the people were who were working with you and your comrades.
    Naruto: Ask your mother. I told her while I was banging her last night.
  • Zipping Up the Bodybag: Happens to Zaku after getting shot in the head by Kimimaro. Also happens to Mikoshi's mother in a flashback in the thirty-first Gaiden chapter.

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