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Naruto in General
Naruto in General
- Naruto's life has been saved several times by the Nine-Tails giving him extra chakra. Originally it was assumed that this was because if Naruto died then the Nine-Tails would die too, with no definite answer either way. Much, much later it was revealed that the Nine-Tails WOULDN'T die, he would be revived. So why would the Nine-Tails save Naruto so many times? Wouldn't Naruto dying benefit him more? You can't say that the Nine-Tails cared about Naruto all along, or that he thought being free was pointless, because he has tried to break out of his seal many times before. And you can't say that the Nine-Tails didn't know he'd be revived, because there's no way that Kushina and the Fourth Hokage could know he'd be revived and yet at the same time have the Nine-Tails himself not know that information. It's also doubtful that there's some kind of drawback, like that he'd be severely weakened, or that it takes a really long time, because the Nine-Tails reviving without another host prepared was such a serious situation to Minato that he had no choice but to give up his life to prevent it. If there is a logical answer as to why the Nine-Tails wouldn't just let Naruto die, it has yet to be explained and can only be guessed.
- To provide the Doylist explanation, it's a simple Retcon that Kishimoto never bothered clearing up. Original Kurama would have died if Naruto did, to justify Naruto extorting chakra from him. Once the bijuu were written into the story (something that didn't happen until after the timeskip) it became apparent that it would be almost impossible for all nine of them to still be around if they'd always die with their hosts, so this element simply got changed.
- I thought that it had to do with the specific seal used on Naruto. Obviously the other bijuu don't die when their hosts die (Eight-Tails had hosts before Bee, the previous Mizukage had the Sanbi if I remember correctly) so it could be possible that it was a part of his seal.
- The fact Kurama's chakra was divided in two, with only one half going to Naruto, might be the reason. Maybe if Naruto died, that half of Kurama would just join the other half (and thus be stuck in the Shinigami's stomach, effectively being dead) or just dissolve into nothingness as it can't exist in that incomplete form. This is not a perfect answer, though, as it makes one wonder what would happen if the seal did break without Naruto dying.
- He would die, though he would eventually regenerate. Still, I seriously doubt he finds that outcome pleasant.
- In relation to the above, bijuu do indeed all "die" when the host dies, hence why Akaksuki has to be so careful to not kill jinchuruki in battle. Then at some point in the future the bijuu regenerates in a (perhaps) random location. That bijuu still act to protect their hosts suggests that they find even this temporary death to be quite unpleasant. One could even speculate that regenerating is also unpleasant. One possible caveat to Kurama's reasoning when he first tells Naruto "if you die, I die" is that he was not being entirely truthful about his motivations. We know Kurama observed Naruto throughout his life, and even in their first meeting he decides to "reward" Naruto with chakra for making it to the point where they could meet in his mind. Even when he tries to break free against Pain, he speaks of it as a means to erase what is making Naruto suffer. Perhaps even before his redemption Kurama's reasons for not letting Naruto die were more complicated than simply wanting to avoid experiencing death himself.
- I agree that Kurama's early relationship with Naruto is probably more complex than it looks, but at least in terms of his words during the Pain fight, I'mn pretty sure that had little to do to caring about Naruto's pain and a lot to do with tempting Naruto into not resisting the Nine-Tails taking control.
- To provide the Doylist explanation, it's a simple Retcon that Kishimoto never bothered clearing up. Original Kurama would have died if Naruto did, to justify Naruto extorting chakra from him. Once the bijuu were written into the story (something that didn't happen until after the timeskip) it became apparent that it would be almost impossible for all nine of them to still be around if they'd always die with their hosts, so this element simply got changed.
- Naruto's backstory has generally stopped making sense. After his mother's revelations, we know that the Uzumaki clan basically had their own village, were key allies of the Hidden Leaf, and were probably well known due to their kekkei kenkai connected to controlling Tailed Beasts. Furthermore, they were in existence as late as what? 16 years ago? Even assuming Kushina was literally the last of the clan, her flamboyant red hair and attitude would have made her as recognizable as, say, Naruto or Sakura. Furthermore, all the adults of the series were alive and well during the time of Minato's reign, during which she was active as a ninja. Even setting aside the Leaf's citizens knowing about the Uzumaki clan's abilities and whatnot, they would have been apparent to any enemies whom they were fighting, including the other Big Five villages. Considering how huge of a deal Tailed Beasts are in terms of raw power and deterrent ability in the Naruto world, it makes sense that abilities relating to their control were highly sought-after. So regardless, there should have been many attempts similar to the one carried out on Kushina to secure those abilities for other villages, something probably connected to her blood, and, by extension, her family name. Anyways, the Third decided to give this kid the last name of his mother, for his own protection...what? How does that make sense? If anything, that last name should have made him more of a target to foreign powers. So that reason is thrown out. Furthermore, how did everyone in the village magically find out this kid was the Jinchuuriki? The implication is that Minato sealed the Nine-Tails, didn't just scream out "HEY EVERYBODY IT’S IN MY SON THXBAI!" while doing so. If anything, the village elders, the Hokage, and (maybe) the ANBU would have known. So why all the public paranoia about Naruto?
- I've read at least one theory, which since became fanon, that as far as the majority of the public are concerned, a Jinchuriki's soul is either destroyed or erased the instant the Bijuu is sealed within them-in essence, they cease being human and actually do become the Bijuu. Stemming from this is a line I've seen in at least one fic, along the lines of, "No. That...thing is NOT the Fourth's son. As far as this village is concerned, the Fourth’s son died the day of his birth." Fanon, as I said, but considering how little most people would actually know or care about the actual details of exactly what a Jinchuriki is, much less how little is actually known about the Bijuu themselves, it makes a bit of sense.
- Minato wanted Naruto to be seen as a hero, but either way, it probably would have been best to just keep the entire matter quiet. If you think about it, that was an error all the villages made. There are different ways to seal a bijuu, and as far as we know, the Uzumaki seal is the only one that leaves physical evidence (a tattoo) so why was it always made a public or partially public deal? You could say that it helps the host know and try to learn to use the bijuu's power and control it, especially since it helps the military purpose and that's the main intention, but then why wasn't Naruto told he was a Jinchuriki (12 years of not telling him)? How did they know that in 13 years (until Itachi and Kisame came) no one would have tried to kidnap the orphan vessel of the most powerful military power in the world, heir of a presumably extinct clan and son of the last leader of the nation? That no one never captured, used genjutsu or torture on at least one ninja or even civilian to give them the information that everyone over the age of 5 at the time of his birth on the village knew was a VERY lucky shot.
- Name change to Uzumaki because of protection is Fanon. The name Uzumaki is linked with Nine-Tails Jinchuriki, so that wouldn't give him protection either.
- Then again, for Naruto (who lacked education at the time) the name "Uzumaki" didn't mean anything, and thus he behaved as if there wasn't anything. And if someone looking for a surviving member of the Uzumaki clan saw an orphan who had no idea whatsoever about seals, had no talent as a ninja and didn't think he was related to any clan, he would just assume that the name was randomly given and that the child really has no relation to the Uzumakis (especially that, other than the verbal tick, which only people who were around him would notice, if they actually paid attention to him, Naruto wasn't that similar to his mother, nor to any other member of his clan). If his last name was Namikaze, on the other hand, people (from other villages at least, but it's those people who should not know about his relation to Minato) would quickly notice the similarity between him and his father, and that left Hiruzen afraid for his life. Granted, people would notice in this case, but whether they would notice that he isn't the nine-tailed fox personified, or that he is the descendant of Minato (which wouldn't be that good, since then they would only see him as the shadow of his father, and not as himself), is another matter entirely. So basically, Hiruzen chose the option which carried the least risk for Naruto that still allowed him to take the name of one of his parents.
- To the troper above. There is no way that Hiruzen would know that Naruto would grow up without talent. Plus he has an Uzumaki seal on his stomach, that along with his last name is a dead give away of his relation to the clan.
- Interestingly enough, I think it was mentioned at some point that Minato and Kushina marriage was a secret to the rest of Konoha. As for the alliance with the Uzumaki clan, I'm fairly certain that was a secret from most of the people of Konaha. Though I'll admit I'm not a hundred percent certain.
- It was once a fairly common practice in Japan for children to take their mothers surname name if she was from a family of greater status then their father. Minato's family wasn't one of great standing but we know Kushina's was even if their heyday was over.
- ^What that one said. I remember reading something to that effect.
- A fanfic this troper has read suggested it was because after her village got wiped out, Kushina became really determined to keep knowledge of her people alive. Minato offered to give Naruto his mother's surname to keep the name around.
- In Japan, if a woman's family has no sons, the man will often times take his wife's name after marriage as long as he has male relatives so that her name will live on as well. Perhaps there were other people with the Namikaze name in the village before the Kyuubi killed them, and had their marriage eventually become public, Minato would have become an Uzumaki as well.
- The Uzumaki clan was allied with Konoha, and their village was destroyed. There are probably a bunch of Uzumaki refugees and orphans living in Konoha, so giving Naruto that name wouldn't make him stand out at all and he gets to keep an important connection to his mother. There's no reason for Hiruzen to change it.
- There were no other Uzumaki in the village; otherwise, Naruto would have had some kind of family. It was stated that there were only a few of the Uzumaki left, and they scattered across the world. Plus, he looks like the Fourth Hokage, so Naruto would have definitely stood out.
- That is something that confused me greatly. Why wouldn't the survivors go to a place that is (ostensibly) an ally instead of scattering?
- I don't think they became allies until after the fact. However, it's possible that they're scattered because a good many of them were killed when their village fell, so what you see in the village is really what's left of them.
- Back to the points of the first set of questions, there seem to be some misunderstandings they are based on. The Uzumaki had no bloodline ability connected to controlling bijuu, indeed Naruto was the only successful jinchuruki we know of among them (his mother and Mito contained the nine tials and Mito had the "malice sense" but they do not appear to have fought with jinchuruki powers). Uzumaki were known for having strong life forces and knowledge of sealing jutsus, neither of which an orphan like Naruto would have been able to give out if he were kidnapped. That said, it is indicated that at least as a jinchuruki he was indeed at risk from other villages. It's why he was not allowed to ever leave Konoha until he became a genin. We are just never shown any attempts to get him. As for how word got out about him being a jinchuruki, it seems a novel eventually revealed it was Danzo who did so out of some twisted desire to unite the people in hatred, believing it would make them stronger if they had someone to rally their anger at the nine tail's attack against rather than stewing in their grief with no outlet. Obviously Sarutobi tried to run damage control by making it illegal to talk about Naruto being a jinchuruki, but by that point the initial damage was done and all the adults knew.
- Just because they shared a clan name doesn't mean any Uzumaki refugees in Konoha would have taken him in because he was still the host of the Kyuubi. And considering most of the villagers didn't distinguish between the Fox and the boy originally, they probably thought it was mocking them by making its host look like their beloved former leader.
- All important discussions seem to get dropped. For instance: in the Naruto vs Orochimaru fight, Sakura sees Naruto in his 4 tailed form and is horrified. He wakes up to find her crying over him and doesn't understand why. The matter quickly gets dropped as she hits him for accidentally insulting her. Just a bit later, Naruto finds out that it was him who hurt her, and freaks out as well. That seems to get dropped as well. Hinata's confession happens and then is unresolved. And so on, and so on. Everybody seems to have a huge pile of things to discuss with each other, but nobody ever seems to really try. Heck, Sai of all people seems to think more about that kind of thing than the others.
- Regarding the first point, what was there to discuss? Naruto resolves to not enter the 4 tailed state again and rely on his own powers whenever possible. Sakura clearly doesn't want to talk about it and doesn't hold a grudge so he doesn't have a need to talk about it with her. As for Hinata's confession, that's eventually explained as Naruto not understanding she meant romantic love. Even so, he's clearly closer to Hinata after it than he was before, as shown in some of their dialog during the war.
- How does Naruto afford that apartment before he starts taking missions? He didn't seem to have a source of income until then.
- His parents might have left him money that, even if he doesn't know who they are, could take care of it or there might be provisions made for orphans. And you know that even if there wasn't any money at all, the Hokage isn't about to let the son of the Yondaime and their precious Jinchuuriki live and maybe die on the street.
- He may have been in a "ward-of-the-state" situation.
- He most probably was - for all we know, there is an orphanage when children are taken care of, but when they join the ninja academy they simply have to move out of it (for whatever reasons, and it's not difficult to see why keeping a group of children with pseudo-military training in the orphanage with "normal" kids is a bad idea, since they are all just kids, and are likely to try showing off) and, in case they aren't able to live with any of their relatives, are given a place to live for free (for as long as they are still in the academy - when they start taking missions they can afford to pay for it).
- One ep of Shipuuden shows that Sarutobi was giving him money and he was shown in apartment even in that flashback, whether it's from an inheritance IDK.
- Chapter 549: Itachi confirms to Naruto that the whole Uchiha Massacre Story is true. Naruto's reaction? "So Madara was telling the truth! The Uchiha clan was planning a coup d'etat!". My question is: why is Naruto more concerned about this part of the story, instead of, you know, the fact that his beloved Konoha was not a land of saints? It was the Konoha elders who ghettoized the Uchihas, and it was the Konoha elders who ordered the massacre, ruining Itachi's and Sasuke's lives in the process. Is Naruto really okay with Konoha's modus operandi?
- Naruto was already familiar with Konoha's darker side because of his treatment (and status) as Jinchuuriki. And a coup is a pretty big deal, especially when all information about it has been suppressed.
- And the Uchiha weren't 'ghettoized'. They lived in opulent mansions, could continue to be ninja and ninja police, even a few being a Hokage Candidate's student. Hell even Madara's story falls apart when we realize there WAS a Hokage Candidate who was an Uchiha in Hiruzen's time.
- Actually, while they weren't exactly "ghettoized", they were still in a pretty similar situation, because of the fact that Tobi was supposedly an Uchiha. And that was the reason for their coup - they didn't want to be treated as potential criminals any longer. Getting back to the point, though - Naruto is the kind of person who hid his feelings behind a cheerful facade precisely because he wanted to believe that while things can be dark, people shouldn't succumb to the darkness; add to that the fact that Sasuke only "lived" since the massacre, and Naruto's primary objective is centered on Sasuke, and thus this is the part he is going to care the most about.
- There was probably a really good reason why the Uchiha were suspected of being involved in the Kyuubi Attack. On the day when Kushina was supposed to give birth she was walking with Sarutobi's wife to the secret location where she was to give birth. They run into Mikoto and Baby-Sasuke and talk about childbirth. Biwako, Sarutobi's wife rudely drags Kushina away, which would be suspicious to anyone especially a jonin-level Kunoichi like Mikoto. Later we see Itachi babysitting Sasuke and learn that their parents have suddenly left. At the same time Tobi suddenly learns of the exact time and place when Kushina is supposed to give birth. Also remember that the Uchiha-clan did not participate in the fight against Kyuubi, when even the Hyuuga were there. Considering the security measures over the birth Kushina's movements were probably heavily monitored along with the people she talked to. To any investigator those events would be too suspicious and could only be connected. The only reason why they didn't immediately charge the Uchiha with treason was probably the fact they did not have concrete evidence that the Uchiha had leaked information. But the fact that the Uchiha did not help in the defense of the village was already close to treason and would actually warrant the accusations, being confined to their clan compound and slowly having their control over the military police stripped from them. What ever they were doing it cost them a lot of the trust they used to have. Traitors or cowards, they did bring it on themselves.
- And furthermore, emotions were running very high. Not only was the casualty rate from the attack very high, but all of the noble clan heads had either pregnant wives or newborns at home. Put yourself in Hiashi or Shikaku's position- you're out there on something close to a suicide mission as the last line of defense even though your powers are pretty much useless against the Nine Tailed Fox, but you're out there anyway because it gives your pregnant wife a marginally better chance of surviving the night. Meanwhile, the clan whose powers would be most useful is nowhere to be found. At the very least, you'd regard them as deserters and demand something be done, because their actions endangered not only the village as a whole, but the wives and children of the clan heads raising the issue as well.
- And don't forget that at least Danzo knew about the fact that one needs a Sharingan to control the Kyuubi. Everyone would suspect the Uchiha, since it is their bloodline limit, and I think the village knew about Kushina being the jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi. I don't think the higher-ups' first thought was to blame Minato for being lousy at maintaining the seal. This might as well be the reason for the Uchiha massacre, meaning that Sasuke should have his revenge on Tobi as well...
- It probably helps that it was in fact an Uchiha who caused the attack. One everybody thought was dead doing the work of another they thought was dead (and may have been by this point) but they weren't wrong.
- When aiming for a vital point to instantly kill an enemy, why do most ninjas go for the heart instead of the head?
- Same reason police officers and soldiers are taught to shoot a man in the chest instead of the head or limbs: the head is a small, mobile and very hard to hit target.
- We learn in Chapter 16 and it's repeated later that the bodies of dead ninja are valuable because you can dissect them and learn the secrets of a village and in the case of people with special eyes you can implant those eyes. It kinda bugs me that despite that Obito/Tobi/Madara's body was left intact enough for Real Madara to get him back on his feet. Same way I don't understand why Konan didn't destroy Nagato's body. What's really annoying is we have multiple cases to prove that it's true, you can learn from the dead, and there was a mechanic put in place early on to deal with it bodies, there doesn't seem to be any evidence that people are actually in the habit of destroying corpses.
- For the former, his allies weren't in any position to dispose of his body due to a ton of rock falling onto it. The latter just isn't really someone who displayed a great deal of initiative (her role in the story is basically doing whatever Nagato/Yahiko says) and she had no reason to desecrate her fiends corpse because of her foolproof plan to kill the only person who knew where it was and wanted to get it.
- Is the world supposed to be Schizo Tech or not? I've never got that. I thought it was a modern day Alternate Universe that just lacks certain technologies like cars and guns.
- Its an After the End Scavenger World from the looks of things, or at least used to be (still being scavenger for more advanced stuff, like videoconferencing equipment). Most notably, at one point Sasuke goes to retrieve stuff from some ancient ruins that he says the Uchiha hid weapons at... and the ancient ruins look just like a modern-day city.
- I theorized that the world of Naruto is actually a far flung future era, where Chakra, summons, Jutsu and bloodline powers are all just gentic engineering, or super advanced tech, that sort of Clarke's Third Law stuff, most Jutsus are actually nanomachines and the hand signs are actually activation codes, but because of how less advanced the world is after some apocalyptic war they see it as some form of magic, the summoned beasts are just engineered intelligent weapons and the "contract" isn't made of paper, but of a super thin DNA locked teleportation pad.
- Schizo Tech most likely. There was advanced technology and had been for some time, but the frequent wars and secrecy meant that a lot of it was restricted to certain small regions or was in general not widely available. The Naruto world was only about eighty or so years removed from an era when the average lifespan of a person was 30 years. We see in the sequel series that once the various countries became not just more peaceful but more cooperative that technology spread and advanced rapidly, with one of the novels explaining that the different natiosn sharing formerly restricted knowledge helped enable this.
- According to Jin no Sho, it is because of Kumogakure's experience using lightning that it has been able to pioneer so much technology that runs on electricity.
- Why are ninjas always surprised when another ninja pulls the body replacement technique (kawarimi)? I mean, it's an academy-level technique which every ninja knows. Don't they have it drummed into their heads that someone who looks defeated might be right behind them?'
- Because the technique is rather easy to see through. Early on, Dosu sees Sakura doing the hand seals for it and knows to keep watch for a substitute. It takes people by surprise when the ninja doing it manages to hide the fact that they're doing it, just like any other technique in this series.
- Don't the masks ANBU wear give them zero peripheral vision? How can they fight effectively like that?
- I remember seeing in the Anime an ANBU using an Oral-based fire-tecnique while wearing his mask, without the mask being damaged, so its obvious they aren't normal masks. My guess would be that there see through from the perspective of the wearer.
- Given their track record as Red Shirts, you could argue that they don't fight effectively.
- How are we to believe that nobody in the village put two and two together and figured out that the blonde child who mysteriously appeared in the village on the day Minato, the blonde Hokage, died fighting the Nine Tails? You'd think given not only her rank in the city and the previous attitude towards the Jinchuuriki that the citizens of Konoha would be tripping over each other to adopt this kid and show him the kind of love that would have changed the story a lot.
- Specifically how did her best friend Mikoto Uchiha, Sasuke's mother, who specifically wanted Naruto and Sasuke to be friends growing up not recognize the kid and get to the front of what should have been a line around the city.
- Well, given Kushina says Naruto got her looks, when it comes to facial features, and the anime shows Minato's hair is a darker shade than Naruto's, it seems Naruto doesn't actually look a ton like Minato. Not enough that anyone who sees Naruto is immediately going to make the connection. As for Mikoto, that's another story. She at least knew Naruto was Kushina's son, why she didn't have more of a role in his life is unclear, especially since from a doylist perspective that would have only likely resulted in a stronger relationship between Naruto and Sasuke.
- A big part of it is probably due to Danzo's influence and fear of a coup from the Uchiha. Mikoto might have known and might have offered, and the Third Hokage might have said something like "I don't want Naruto to be targeted for being Minato's son, let's treat him like a normal orphan" when the real reason would be, well, if you suspect that a group of people might try and overthrow your government, maybe leaving a superweapon that nearly wiped out your village in their hands isn't the best idea, especially when that superweapon is in the body of an impressionable baby that would imprint on the Uchiha and could grow to be sympathetic to their cause. The Uchiha were a big enough threat without giving them a nine-tails sized nuke to drop on Konoha once he'd been properly indoctrinated, and considering his treatment by the other villagers, he would have been all the more likely to listen to the only people who showed him affection when they say "hey, Naruto, let's go wipe out all those people who were mean to you."
- How abused was Naruto in reality? The flashbacks all seem to show Naruto had at least some level of friendship with Choji and Shikamaru prior to the series starting. When he shows up at the academy far from being scorned it seems that most of the children at least have no clue who he is. He's taken care of with his own apartment and food. We don't see a lot of adults reaction to him but Iruka and the elder Hyuuga seem to be the most negative. One blames him for the death of his parents (he gets over it) and the other is just a Jerkass who believes in his clans superiority over street trash. It doesn't seem to be personal, anybody other than Sasuke (and maybe even him) would probably have gotten similar disdain.
- Shunned by most adults and children. That's pretty much it. It does have to be noted, though, that not having anyone to rely one constantly can affect children really badly (it is due to that constancy that children learn to feel emotions properly and that reliability which teaches them how to deal with people), so those fanfiction authors who don't realize that and write how there were people hunting him and trying to set him on fire and stuff are just being stupid.
- Indeed, the series makes it plain that being ignored out of hatred was horrible for Naruto in and of itself. He didn't need to be physically abused to be effected by it.
- The other kids probably just tolerated him being around but they weren't exactly friends. With his antics, they probably found him annoying.
- When Naruto loses his arm in the finale, why does he need to have a replacement made for him? He ends up with both halves of Kurama in him, which should mean his Healing Factor is stronger than ever. That would be like giving Wolverine an artificial limb.
- Naruto is never seen outright regrowing limbs or any sort of healing the body couldn't do naturally given enough time.
- Naruto manages to regrow Kakashi a brand-spanking-new eye in the final battle after Madara rips his Sharingan out, so his ability to heal himself and others has certainly bypassed normal human recovery limits. Whether this extends to being able to regrow a full arm from the elbow down, however, is unknown.
- He loses that Hagoromo-gifted healing ability when he loses the arm that bore the mark he used to cast said healing. Also, note that he states he didn't heal Kakashi's eye so much as copied the one he still had onto the other eye socket. One might speculate that even if he still had the healing ability he would have ended up with a left arm on the right side of his body.
- Naruto is never seen outright regrowing limbs or any sort of healing the body couldn't do naturally given enough time.
- Who took care of Naruto as an infant and as a small child?
- Given the rate at which ninja die, there is almost certainly some sort of orphan raising system in ninja villages.
- An orphan raising system where the orphans are left alone to live by themselves?
- Being the nine tailed fox, the orphanage probably didn't want him any more than the rest of the village. The Third Hokage/his wife probably took care of him in infancy and then left him with a stipend to raise himself.
- We see him by himself even at the age of 3, so whoever took care of him when he was a newborn, that person/group is a massive asshole, but I think it's not entirely unreasonable for such a thing to happen, I don't know at what point people started 'fearing' him because of the fox, but if it happened when he was a baby, then whoever was taking care of him started feeling the same way as everyone else, as weird as it might sound, I don't know, just fan guesswork, but it becomes strange when you see that some adults at this time are shown to be good people after, like Shikaku or Inoichi, it's strange to think that these same people refused to take care of him, all of them, what's it? Not enough money? More like not enough compassion. Another possibility is that ANBU was taking care of him (just give him some milk stored/bought from wherever, not strictly necessary to have a lactating woman at disposal), since they're very busy, at some point they would think it's better to leave him alone (but not at 3 dammit), I think this one makes more sense actually.
Naruto's Social Life
Naruto's Social Life
- Does anyone else think that Naruto’s whole tragic back story could have been avoided if at least someone involved hadn’t acted like a complete jerkass/idiot. You would expect, that the son of the greatest ninja the village ever produced, get a private teacher like Konohamaru before he enters the academy, thus ensuring that his talent isn’t wasted. Just think about how much time Naruto lost because he didn’t have appropriate training, his lack of training is the only reason he was weaker than Sasuke. Moreover, why didn’t the third Hokage give someone he trusted the mission to adopt Naruto and watch over him, because you know, having a father/mother figure can be very important for a little child, especially if the child is the container of the most powerful and evil creature on earth. And why on earth did Hiruzen make a secret of Narutos family background? Yes his father was very famous, but Hiruzen isn’t that unpopular either, everybody knows that Konohamaru is the grandchild of the legendary third Hokage and nobody is trying to kill him. Furthermore, Naruto’s family didn’t have blood limits, so there wouldn’t have been kidnap attempts on him just to get a special ability as it happened with Hinata. If the Hokage had told everybody that Naruto is the son of the most popular man of the village, don’t you agree many people would have changed their judgement about Naruto? And if that didn’t worked, Hiruzen could have added “By the way, did I mention that if he ever gets angry or becomes too depressed, he might break the seal and let the fox bring havoc to the world? Maybe you should give him free ramen as much as he wants, and instead of avoiding him you should tell your children to play with him and become friends with him, just to make sure that in case the seal breaks, Naruto has an actual reason to not kill us all”. And where the hell was Jiraiya? Why didn’t he ever bother to look after his godchild? Or Kakashi, yes he was rather young when his sensei died, but he could have visited Naruto from time to time, just like Shikamaru does with Kurenai. Well there were probably more pressing matters they had to deal with, than the fate of the world which depends entirely on the well-being of one lonely, emotional abused little boy.
- The Third pulled a batman gambit to get Iruka-sensei to care for Naruto. Forcing someone to be Naruto's foster parents probably wasn't an option since there wasn't anyone in the village that wasn't too scared or angry at the 9-tails to take him in.
- Seems like some of the secrecy comes from his mothers side of the family. Remember Kushina's special Chakra was considered important enough for their to be at least one attempt to kidnap her. And if they made it public that he had the fox inside him, that's also a reason for other villages to target him for kidnapping. As for keeping it secret from the children of Konoha, Look at what happened with Killer Bee. One of his best friends tried to kill him as a kid because he hated the 8 tails.
- Ok, in order to protect him from other villages, which might try to kidnap him because of his family background, they just tell nobody about his parents but give him the surname Uzumaki? Yeah, that's going to mislead even the toughest assassin. Moreover this doesn't excuse the bahaviour of Jiraiya and Kakashi.
- Well Jiraiya is a Kage level ninja he had more important things to do (getting info on another Kage level ninja Orochimaru and a Kage level "group" Akatsuki), it's only when Akatsuki starts going directly after Naruto that he decides to train him (before Naruto annoying him into teaching him how to walk on water, then he thought him summoning jutsu to defend himself a little since he was the Kyubi vessel) and Kakashi doesn't teach anyone who doesn't pass his test of approval.
- Actually Jiraiya was Konoha's spymaster. He was too important to be chained to Konoha and raise a kid. He was needed on the field not only to keep an eye on Orochimaru and eventually Akatsuki, but against all other potential threats as well. Kakashi on the other hand doesn't really have an excuse as he could have been there and would have had help looking after Naruto if he had to go on a mission. Heck, Sarutobi himself could have adopted Naruto as he would have had help from not only Asuma, but Konohamaru's parents as well. Leaving Naruto to fend for himself is one of the biggest face palm -moments in the series.
- I agree that leaving baby Naruto alone with no parental guidance/family etc was a bad move, but in the case of why Kakashi did not look after him, he does have a small excuse. When Naruto was born, Kakashi would have only been 14-16 years old, and there is the chance that he was at the time, a bit of an emotional basket case (what with the memories of his father and Obito's death, and the recent death of his sensei). He may not have been capable of looking after Naruto full time, however he could have at least fostered some sort of relationship with him (as a friend or older brother figure even!)
- Kakashi also entered into the ANBU sometime after Obito's death. Between his emotional state just after said fact and then becoming an ANBU, he has well enough of an excuse to not have been looking after a child.
- It's not as if the excuse of 'we don't want people to know he's the son of the Fourth' covers this lapse either. Naruto is the Nine-Tails jinchiruuki, — which is a fact publicly known even to most Konoha civilians, which means that every ninja village on the continent should know about it if they have any remote competence at spying at all. The Third Hokage has every visible reason to take him aside at an early age and set him up with special training, even if Naruto really was a nameless orphan. One can only imagine the incredulous expressions on the faces of the Raikage and similar people when their intel people told them that Konoha had basically thrown its demon container into a shitty apartment, left him alone without adult guidance, and were letting him repeatedly flunk. Even the Academy basic exams without giving him any remedial tutoring.
- While we only have three villages to judge by it seems the Raikage and his village were the only village in the world that came up with the rational idea of not being a dick to the jail keeper of the super demon monster who could destroy everything for miles.
- The Raikage kept sticking the 8 tails into people and killing them when they failed to contain the tailed beast and even Killer Bee was hated to begin with, Konoha's track record with Jinchuriki is much better in terms of them not being hated, mostly due to the fact that most people never knew that there was a jinchuriki.
- Why has it occurred to no-one to tell Naruto who his father is? Don't they think he might want to know - hell the kid was seriously depressed and acting out half his life - what's wrong with giving him someone to look up to?
- Also, why did everyone hate the kid so much if he's the flesh and blood of the guy who saved your skin? That's gratitude for you.
- Maybe they didn't know that bit of information. Maybe their hatred and fear is bigger than any gratitude they can have.
- It's been confirmed in flashback that the existence of Minato's son is of the highest level of secrecy, known only to the Hokage, advisors, and select members of the ANBU (i.e. Kakashi). They probably said something like "Minato's wife and child were both killed by the Kyuubi" in order to keep people from asking questions.
- He resembles the former leader of the village, has the last name of the leader's wife, is an orphan, should be pretty obvious who he is, and has Jiraiya as his godfather, shouldn't that get them to be a bit nicer to him.
- The common fanfic explanation is that the information is clasified to protect Naruto life, as being the son of the yellow flash would surely put him on the to-kill list of at least Iwa. And even considering his similarities to the fourth (which in this tropers opinion is little more than eye and hair colour), a bit of sealing jargon by the third could easily make most ignore the similarities.
- It's the human nature obscuring their vision - his name was not Namikaze, and thus any potential relations to Minato were instantly outed because "how could a daemon be related to one of the greatest ninjas ever". Yes, Humans Are Bastards, but that's hardly different from real life (other than the fact we don't have daemons and such), and it's proven that people are less inclined to search for additional information on someone they hate (even if they have no justification for that), because that would mean caring about the existence of the hated thing.
- Actually the similarities to his father probably made it worse, in the minds of the villagers it was probably the Kyuubi mocking their saviour.
- And besides, considering Naruto's personality in part 1, he would've taken the time to obviously blab this out to everyone he knew just to rub it in their faces considering how everyone treated him like dirt back then. If they'd told him, he would've outted that secret instantly, so that's another reason that no one ever told him.
- Also, why did everyone hate the kid so much if he's the flesh and blood of the guy who saved your skin? That's gratitude for you.
- How are the villagers able to just subtly hate him at all? Either they view him as the Kyuubi itself or it's container. If he's just the container there's no reason to hate the kid. If they view him as the Kyuubi itself their actions make no sense at all. Look at Gaara who actually matches this view, the village is TERRIFIED of him and avoid him at all costs. The Kazekage acknowledges this and goes through measures to test Gaara's self control and keeps someone looking over him closely. Naruto's position is the exact opposite... SOMEHOW. The villagers think he's just the Kyuubi, but rather than be terrified of being near the monster that smashed their village, they just kick at it by trying to shun and backtalk him. The Hokage evidently did NOTHING about this, leaving Naruto almost completely unattended until graduation and made no attempt to help him learn or understand his power even if he wasn't told specifics. Because that's what you want even if you ignore everything else, the small child whom everyone knows has demon powers to some extent to be the student with the least control over his abilities in the whole class. And this evidently caused no friction at all between the two, no villagers complained to the Hokage about how dangerous they thought the situation was and the Hokage assuring them that it was perfectly safe and that he was just a normal child used as a vessel?
- Gaara was clearly unstable and could very easily kill everybody within a 5-mile radius. The 5-mile radius thing holds true for Naruto, aside from that it's probably a 10-mile with the Kyuubi, but when you've got a smiling blond idiot it's very easy to forget he could turn you into chopped liver in three seconds flat. As for the Hokage thing, either he didn't know- very unlikely- or he couldn't do anything about it, or the Hokage's more concerned about Konoha than the wellfare of the Jinchuuriki. Despite being Hokage, snapping your fingers and magically undoing hate is just not done.
- To explain some of the hatred part, it was misplaced, as a lot of the villagers became several loved ones short in the Kyuubi attack and it's not like they can take it out on Kurama (not that it'd go well anyways), so a kid that's serving as a vessel is an easier scapegoat, and it's not like the Third could do anything, unless someone made a direct attempt on Naruto's life. To cite something with Gaara, in Gaara's debut arc, they showed that Naruto had more good influences than Gaara did, so that's why Naruto didn't go off the deep end. While we're at it, the jinchuuriki didn't really utilize their tailed beasts' powers/chakra unless they were really pushed, so, while he was picked on, ignored, or what have you, Naruot wasn't pushed to that degree, while Gaara prolly didn't really have a lot of control over the Shukaku to start with.
- Gaara was clearly unstable and could very easily kill everybody within a 5-mile radius. The 5-mile radius thing holds true for Naruto, aside from that it's probably a 10-mile with the Kyuubi, but when you've got a smiling blond idiot it's very easy to forget he could turn you into chopped liver in three seconds flat. As for the Hokage thing, either he didn't know- very unlikely- or he couldn't do anything about it, or the Hokage's more concerned about Konoha than the wellfare of the Jinchuuriki. Despite being Hokage, snapping your fingers and magically undoing hate is just not done.
- Still, consider this. Nobody apparently made the plans to tell him at some point. Its like all those who did know were just sitting on their asses talking and reminiscing about Minato and Kushina without even thinking; "Hey wait a minute, we need to tell their son about them."
- Look no further than Tsunade and Jiraiya's last meeting before Jiraiya leaves for Amegakure. Jiraiya knew he might not come back, and as a last request he could have said: "Tell Naruto the truth," or even Tsunade or Kakashi could have taken the initiative on their own, (Remember that at this particular point its essentially common knowledge that Naruto has the Kyuubi, and that Akatsuki is after him, and he's now able to take care of himself).
- Couple this with the events that happened during Pain's attack. With Sarutobi, Jiraiya and Kakashi (temporarily) dead, and Tsunade comatose, this meant there was nobody left who could reveal the truth, (Unless Danzo or Orochimaru figured it out, and speculatively speaking, they probably did. Good luck getting Naruto to ask them though.)
- So lets say that one of the villages many "geniuses" like Shikamaru, Shino, etc. figured it out. Good luck getting anybody not of their generation to believe them, never mind those who survived the Kyuubi attack.
- Also, its one thing to not tell Naruto the direct truth,its another not to at least say something along the lines of; "Yes, you did have parents, they loved you, and though I can't tell you right away, I can tell you everything at (random age). Its better than letting the kid believe that he's an unloved orphan.
- Truth be told, to me its a bigger surprise that Naruto didn't flip out when Kakashi outright confirmed he knew all along.
- Here's an alternate theory- Has it ever been definitively shown that Naruto does not know?
- It's never outright stated that he doesn't know, but there's plenty of circumstantial evidence that he doesn't know. First of all, Naruto is probably the least subtle person ever. He'd probably be shouting from the rooftops, "My dad was the Yondaime and you guys better start respecting me!" Then there's the whole Tsunade deal where she basically insulted the Sandaime and Yondaime. Naruto never said anything about not disrespecting his father.]
- That falls flat though considering how its common knowledge that Konohamaru practically runs around screaming "I'm the Hokage's" grandson, and yet nobody goes around chastising him for it.
- Naruto didn't want to be chastised, he wanted to be acknowledged. If he'd been running around claiming that he was the son of the Fourth Hokage and presumably been able to prove it he likely would have gotten much different treatment. Of course nobody chastised Konohamaru, he's the equivalent of the President's son and everybody (except Naruto) is terrified to upset him for that reason. It's fairly safe to say that Naruto didn't know who his father was until at the earliest his training with the Elder Toads.
- Well considering how recently Naruto put on a longcoat very reminiscent of the Fourth's I wouldn't be surprised if Jiraiya told during the timeskip. Naruto had by then matured enough not to go on about it. He'd probably just feel sad from never knowing him...
- Moot point as of Chapter 439.
- It had been established that Naruto kind of looked up to the fourth anyway, even after finding out the fourth sealed the kyuubi within him.
- I think the reason why he wasn't told he's the Yondaime's son was to avoid awkward questions about how the Yondaime got rid of the Kyuubi, which I'm sure Naruto would have been eager to know had he known he's the hokage's son. They couldn't have refused to answer, either, since he could say that as his son, he has a right to know.
- Honestly it's very hard to come up with a good explanation to this, it's not to "protect his life", because even if it were, how is being the fourth's son a requirement to be a target? Being a Jinchuuriki is the only reason why anyone would go after him, and everybody knows that. The only reasonable explanation is so that the audience won't discover this too soon, in order to set up a huge "Oh my god he's the Yellow Flash's son" response from the audience, and a good emotional episode 168 from Shippuden where he meets his dad. I don't know I think it's a bit cruel to not tell him who his parents were, I try to put myself in his situation and I would probably feel like shit that no one cares about.
- It's not a requirement to be a target, but Minato stating that if people knew Naruto was his son he would have been in "constant danger" I took to be a reference to how many enemies Minato must have had after his accomplishments in the last great war (keep in mind just how many people Minato killed during the war). There would, at least in the first few years, be a ton of people who might want to kill Naruto as replacement for their vengeance simply because Minato himself was no longer around to try to kill. That said, Minato also indicates it was simply Sarutobi being very cautious and trying to keep everything he could regarding Naruto's birth and the nine tails secret.
- Not convincing enough, no one tries to go after him after his relation to the Fourth becomes common knowledge,or since he's so strong now, going after any of his loved ones to go back at him to go back at Minato. No one mentions any Minato's enemies, he himself doesn't ask anyone why would them keep this a secret from him, and I don't remember anyone even mentioning if this was a secret or not, they simply didn't tell him. The only people who ask this question are the fans, in-universe it seems completely irrelevant whether he knows or not who his parents were, in a filler episode he asks the third who were his parents but he just glosses over it, giving fuel to the theory that not even the show's writers are able to come up with a good explanation. There are simply too many questions that come to mind: why hide the fact he is minato's son and not hide the fact that he's the bijuu's host? or even if that info was leaked by someone, why not try to suppress it, pass it off as a rumor etc? That way they can hope to avoid the akatsuki, which are a bigger threat. Why not simply tell him "you were Minato's son, but don't go around advertising about it because there are people who might go after you" in secret? Why does Jiraiya seem unaware of him after he meets him for the first time? Never mind the fact that his name comes from a novel character he created, godfather and all that. Why does Minato himself took too damn long to reveal himself to Naruto? Since Naruto almost went crazy a few times before due to Kyuubi's chackra, or why even not reveal himself from the get-go? To educate him about the seal and all that, to be a close loving father. Why would people keep from him that he is the kyuubi's host now that everybody else knows? And how would they do that? Preventing this info from reaching him must require some effort. How can anyone in this universe think "let's not tell him anything and that's for his own well-being, maybe some assassins will go after him, but let's not give anyone to teach him ninja skills in case he has to protect himself against those same assassins, let's turn a blind eye to people's mistreatment against him because that totally will not make him mentally scarred, let's keep treating him as an annoying prankster in front him to give him the illusion that no one cares about him, maybe that will make him tough"?
- How about this? How exactly does Naruto grow to be mostly alright, morally, when no one seems to be guiding him or, heh, even keeping him alive through his toddler ages? If there was someone doing it then that someone should at least get a bit attached to him, no? Not even Iruka is shown to be fond of him until the end of chapter one.
- My theory is that Rin, Kakashi and Obito's teammate and the Fourth's student, took care of Naruto while he was very little, and then she died, in the course of life as a ninja, before he would remember her.
- Actually, later on it is revealed that (In Kakashi Gaiden/Kakashi's sidestory) Kakashi had to shove a chidori through Rin's chest because she went mad from having the three-tails sealed inside of her with an inadequate seal (similar to Gaara's, only worse) meaning she was dead before Naruto was even born.
- Hang on, you're assuming. Naruto had a mother (Kushina Uzumaki), and it's never mentioned when she died. It could have been just a year or two before the story started, and even after she died, the Third Hokage kept an eye on Naruto to make sure he didn't get into too much trouble.
- Well, we now know she died right when he was born, just like his father. Most likely the Third took care of him for the most part. At any rate, while he was treated like dirt by most of the village, the Third's plan of not letting the parents tell the kids about the Kyuubi seemed to have partially worked in that in the flashbacks Naruto seemed to be friendly enough with Shikamaru, Kiba, and Chouji at the very least. He also had his half acknowledged rivalry with Sasuke from a very young age. Iruka was the first to acknowledge him and make him feel wanted, but he had always had some level of friendly interaction with his peers, unlike Gaara who was shunned even by the other children.
- Actually the people of Suna had some justification in fearing Gaara before he went all homicidal. Sure they feared him because he was a Jinchuuriki, but his seal was also so poor and he did not have the needed control, which allowed Shukaku to harm bystanders even though Gaara did not want that. Just look at the flashback where Gaara tries to use his sand to stop kids from running from him and drags them back hurting one girl. This may have been due to Gaara's lack of control or Shukaku's influence without Gaara's knowledge.
- Which turns out to not quite be the case, as the sand was actually Gaara's mother Karura's spirit manifesting to protect him, not Shukaku. This suggests that part of the reason Gaara went homicidal was he was even more obviously different, and his peers fearing him for something even he didn't understand (let alone them) probably didn't help. On top of that, Gaara's Trauma Conga Line in childhood involved having a "precious person" who confessed to have secretly hated him as part of the Kazakage's orders and trying to kill him. Naruto even admits under different circumstances he might have ended up a lot like Gaara (who, remember, became a deeply moral person post-Heel–Face Turn).
- He doesn't need anyone to "guide him" to have his own moral codex. It's difficult for people to think that someone can create his own one (that can't be summed by "burn everything", since many people think that not being taught the "common moral code" makes people incapable of having any morals, but let's face it - while creating your own code is difficult, it is your system then, and thus one you agree with. It's pretty similar to a Real Life example of "how can atheists be moral if they don't believe in God who gave us moral codex", while there are people even amongst the believers who break the codex. So basically, it's a What Are You In The Dark that stretches over one's whole live instead of just one situation - there are people who would still be moral, and there are people who would not be. As to the fact that not even Iruka acknowledges him, it's more about Naruto's pranks than about himself, and Iruka was shown to still be fairly sympathetic towards the kid, only scolding him when he did something obnoxious.
- It's not that he came up with a moral codex, everybody does that with or without guidance. What's a miracle is that his moral code came out so good considering how horribly the village treated him. Probably the only reason he didn't turn out like Gaara is that his seal kept the Kyuubi completely in check instead of giving him access to any power. Though it does often times seem like how poorly Naruto was treated by the village growing up has more to do with him being a kid and exaggerating things than anything else.
- We're told repeatedly that Naruto has no friends. The village is supposed to hate him, parents keep their kids away, that sort of thing. We're told this over and over, right? But then you get flashbacks in later chapters, with Naruto playing with Chouji, Kiba, and Shikamaru at a park, and even getting in trouble together. You would think this implies friendship or some sort of familarity. However, when the series starts, they all act like they've only seen him from afar.
- It's possible they only hung out with him when their parents weren't around, but when push came to shove they abandoned him like anyone else. Sort of like that kid at school who is so cool because your parents tell you to stay away from him. Also, that was all years before the start of the series, so they've probably grown apart a lot since then, explaining why they acted like they had only seen him from afar.
- That makes sense. But it raises the question of why all the teacher he runs into over the series don't seem to hate him. And from what I've heard Iruka didn't start caring for him until the end of the first chapter? I got the impression that he'd been one of the ones caring for him.
- The first chaper of the manga seems to imply that Iruka pitied him and sort of related to him prior to the whole Mizuki deal and therefore took him under his wing a little, but he didn't really respect him until after it. Or something like that.
- One possibility is that the kids from the academy don't outright hate him as a result of being influenced by their parents' treatment of him, but they (with the exception of Hinata) don't necessarily like him either, because of his annoying and immature personality. One possibility is that he latched onto the Choji-Shikamaru-Kiba group, and while they didn't necessarily push him away, they didn't see him as one of them.
- It is an explanation, true, but there is a hole in it still. Kiba wouldn't really care about Naruto for real because they were only ditching classes together, and his family's training would probably incline him not to associate with Naruto seriously because of his low strength. Shikamaru would be too lazy to care, too. But wasn't the Akimichi clan supposed to really care about their acquaintances, even if they weren't exactly friends? Unless that was an anime-only thing, that is (it was a long time since I've read the early chapters of the manga, and anime added a lot of things that don't exactly make sense).
- I'm pretty sure that at the very least Shikaku was fine with Naruto and I'd guess that most of the named adult characters don't really dislike Naruto so my guess is that the kids had just outgrown being so reckless and nuts while Naruto never did so while he may have been a good friend at age 8 he was just annoying at age 13.
- It's possible they only hung out with him when their parents weren't around, but when push came to shove they abandoned him like anyone else. Sort of like that kid at school who is so cool because your parents tell you to stay away from him. Also, that was all years before the start of the series, so they've probably grown apart a lot since then, explaining why they acted like they had only seen him from afar.
- Alright I'm not sure, but how many of Naruto's peers know he's Kurama's jinchuriki now? I mean Sakura, Sasuke, Sai, and maybe Gaara know but I forget if it's been revealed to everyone else, whether it was told or his transformation has given him away, because if in the current battle he uses his Kyubi form, there's going to be quite a few shocked expressions.
- Everybody knows. The Shinobi Alliance is explicitly formed to protect the eight and nine tailed beasts from Madara Uchiha so everybody in the alliance knows.
- In the bell test, it's fairly easy to see that none of the three want to be the one to have to go back to the academy. Sasuke and Sakura's priorities are fairly easy to understand- Sasuke doesn't trust or care about anyone other than himself, hence his attempt to get the bells alone, and Sakura wants to stay with Sasuke, hence her trying to save him from Kakashi and last-minute attempt to cooperate with him. But why doesn't Naruto, who is in love with Sakura, even try to offer to get the bells with her, or even consider her in his plans? Granted, his grasp of teamwork at this point is lacking, but if you read his thoughts, it's clear that even though it's much more likely that he'd give the other bell to Sakura, the girl he likes, rather than Sasuke, who is getting on his nerves, he seems only concerned about himself, and one has to wonder whether getting Sakura to fall for him is all that important to him.
- You answered your own question really. His team work skills didn't exist and they all thought they could do it by themselves. They were young and very very stupid and they paid for it and it's ultimately dumb luck that Sasuke passed the secret test of character there. It's clear he didn't pass it out of compassion for his team mates, he passed because he was pragmatic and didn't want a weak link on his team. I have no doubt that Sasuke would happily have abandoned Naruto if he'd thought for a second that his chances were better without him.
- Despite never going back on his word, I've always wondered why Naruto hasn't, in his quest to save Sasuke, had a Sweet and Sour Grapes moment and just told himself to just enjoy the company of his True Companions rather than repeatedly go after one person who has tried to kill him multiple times. Is it because, being the emotionally abused orphan he is, he's trying to get back someone who at least acknowledged his existence without willing to face reality of Sasuke's betrayal? Or has he become somewhat emotionally dependent with Sasuke? It wouldn't be that hard to give up on the one person who's causing him the most pain and trouble in life and enjoying time with the precious people he has now. So why does he persist?
- My theory is that he has 3 main reasons. First of all, he still thinks of Sasuke as his best friend, and he can't bear to let him go. Second, Sakura wants him back, plain and simple, and there is no way he is going to let down the girl he loves. Finally, its pretty clear that Naruto has a HUGE hero complex and feels the need to save everyone, all the time. Letting someone die unredeemed, especially if that someone is a close friend of his own is simply unthinkable for him.
- Okay so even if the host of Kurama wasn't made public. Kushina was the fourth's wife. Even if they didn't know the Fourth was married it was still public knowledge she was a ninja as she went to the academy and was in the same year as Minato. Even then Mito, being the grandmother of Tsunade and the First Hokage's wife should be fairly well remembered. Yet NO ONE makes the connection between Naruto Uzamaki and the famous Uzamaki clan, The one that inspired the Leaf's spiral like symbol. Why?
- Just because Kushina and Mito were the wifes of Hokage doesnt make them famous, people have to do something worth remembering to become famous in the ninja world, besides Kushina being remembered just because she went to school with people doesnt make sense, there would be maybe 20-30 people who recognise her from school and you dont tend to remember everyone that you go to school with, less people if most of them died during the war and demon fox's attack. People might've made the connection between Naruto and the Uzumaki but that just means he's a orphan of a mostly dead clan, nothing to get excited about.
- Kushina was effectively the First Wife. The idea that people in her village wouldn't recognize her is absurd. The village doesn't even look like it has that many people, if I had to estimate I'd guess they come in at no more than twenty thousand citizens, probably less than half that given that as big a blast as Pein used it wasn't THAT big and it nuked the entire city. In addition Naruto (Where did he GET his outfit in the first place?!) wears the symbol of the Uzamaki Clan, it would be like if an American's family Crest was thirteen alternating white and red stripes and nobody put together that his family dated back to the founders.
- It's possible that they simply assumed Naruto was yet another surviving Uzumaki, I mean, Nagato, Karin, and of course Kushina were all Uzumaki, it's not too unreasonable to think they'd just assume Naruto was the child of one of the other survivors.
- To the troper above, Naruto looks like 4th Hokage, has Kushina's eyes, and Kushina walked in public with a pregnant belly. For no one to realize that he was Kushina's son is utterly unreasonable.
- ^Yeah, that's cool and all but you're ignoring the fact that a lot of the ones who knew Kushina would have been killed by the Ninetails (a lot of people did die on that night). In that vein, if they weren't killed, it's very possible that the ones who knew the connection were made to shut up (how they were is anyone's guess), as saying that Naruto is the Ninetails or anything to do with that was forbidden.
- Long story short, Naruto didn't become a sociopath because the writers said so.
- Just because Kushina and Mito were the wifes of Hokage doesnt make them famous, people have to do something worth remembering to become famous in the ninja world, besides Kushina being remembered just because she went to school with people doesnt make sense, there would be maybe 20-30 people who recognise her from school and you dont tend to remember everyone that you go to school with, less people if most of them died during the war and demon fox's attack. People might've made the connection between Naruto and the Uzumaki but that just means he's a orphan of a mostly dead clan, nothing to get excited about.
- What about Minato himself? Didn't he appear to Naruto during the Pain Fight? Why didn't he appear before when his son was feeling lonely?
- Minato specifically says the seal was designed so that he would only appear if the ninth tail was about to emerge from the seal weakening. It was a one time failsafe so Minato could repair the seal, and since he had so little chakra left after everything that happened after Naruto was born, he could only appear and speak to Naruto for a few minutes. There was no chakra to spare for him to appear for a non-emergency pep talk.
Naruto's Techniques and Abilities
Naruto's Techniques and Abilities
- Naruto and how he learnt the mass shadow clone technique. Let's see, Naruto is presented to have low intellect, the jutsu requires a lot of chakra, and its forbidden (with the connotation of being lethal/godly/powerful). What intrigues me is Naruto just learnt this technique by simply reading a big scroll. So would all the forbidden techniques can be learnt at Matrix-download-speed just from a fricken' scroll??
- The jutsu is probably forbidden because it requires too much chakra. Though it doesn't make it any more logical...
- Not the question. How easy is it to learn forbidden techniques from a scroll?
- Forbidden doesn't mean difficult, it means inhumane (Impure World Resurrection) or potentially deathly to the user, the point was that someone with anything but a high chakra control (hence why Kakashi knows the technique) would die by accidentally summoning a fifty clones when their limit would be around twenty, in fact it means it's easy to learn, a genin could learn it but since it doesn't require that much technique, experience or training to learn it they could end up making the mistake I stated, it's like this, opening a person with a scapel doesn't require technique or experience, opening without seriously injuring or killing them on the other hand.
- Actually, the Shadow Clone Jutsu is not a forbidden technique. Which is why a bunch of other people are shown using shadow clones. The Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu, on the other hand, is a forbidden jutsu because it's incredibly easy to kill yourself using it, and it's the second one that Naruto learns from the scroll. I think the answer here is that Naruto (as is clearly shown later in the series) has a lot of talent and potential as a ninja, it's just that his learning style (he's a very kinesthetic learner) is much different than the methods used in the Ninja Academy. His best subject in school was taijutsu, as in the subject that required the most hands-on learning. Note that he's shown mostly goofing off in Ninja school, but he only uses the Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu when Iruka is almost dead. Naruto learns by doing, and he probably only paid attention to the scroll because it was forbidden, therefore it was exciting and interesting for him to read it. Once he's actually paid attention and someone he loves is threatened, he does the jutsu and it works because he's fired up.
- The Shadow Clone Technique splits the chakra equally, and it's pretty easy to misuse it, losing most of one's chakra in a few moments. On the battlefield, that would be equivalent to a suicide, and thus it's better to spend the time teaching ninjas anything other than this technique. Granted, it can be useful, but no people other than daemon containers or members of the Uzumaki clan (increased stamina, and thus chakra reserves) is capable of creating clones in numbers that truly matter. Other than that, it's very possible (though not confirmed) that the clones aren't "ideal ninjas", but rather shadows of the user's personality, and thus if one only learned to use it because he was afraid to fight, the clone wouldn't fight at all (most genin are like that, and by the time anyone hits chuunin level, they are required to start thinking tactically, and thus have tools that offer better effectiveness to chakra usage ratio).
- There might also be a different reason. We know that the user gets memories from the clone, and most clones destroyed in combat are eliminated with lethal hits. That means the user practically experiences his own death, with everything but the effect of dying, on a daily basis. How many people would stay sane or longer than a week of fighting using this technique? How many would still be sane after a month? A year?
- Kinjutsu in the Naruto universe means that it may kill the user. While most people agree that accidentally making more clones than your limit is lethal, this does not take the manga's ninjutsu system into consideration, especially regarding chakra control. Suppose five clones require 20-20% splits, but you mould 90 per cent chakra instead of 80%. My guess is that in order for the chakra to be evenly distributed, you only use 10-10 per cent chakra for the clones, using 50% of chakra, and wasting 40% on nothing, with 10% remaining in your body. Not only might it kill you, since you can't really perform jutsu with 10% chakra, the amount wasted is so huge it's impractical for inexperienced genin to use the technique, or anyone without precise chakra control for that matter. Naruto can use it since he has enormous stamina even though he has awful chakra control. By the way, Edo Tensei is kinjutsu because the summoned person can break free and kill the inexperienced user, so kinjutsu is basically a jutsu that may kill its user. To answer the original question, since kinjutsu is not difficult in and of itself but potentially lethal to the user, it is no more difficult to learn forbidden techniques than henge no jutsu, for instance.
- Arguably Edo Tensei is also a Kinjutsu because resurrecting the dead and brainwashing them is so morally repugnant that to do so essentially makes you an enemy of mankind - they just adapted an existing law and applied it to this one. Kind of like how the Forbidden Spells in Harry Potter are simple enough for a seventh year student to use but, generally speaking, knowing spells that kill, torture and brainwash essentially makes you a irredeemable.
- A justsu becomes forbidden if it meets one or more of 3 criteria:
- The jutsu is probably forbidden because it requires too much chakra. Though it doesn't make it any more logical...
2.The risk to the user is equal to or greater than the damage to the target (an example is Naruto's Rasenshuriken, it caused massive damage to his arm before he learned how to throw it, and repeated use would have cost him the use of said arm)
3.It is seen as morally wrong or it violates "the laws of nature" (an example is the Edo Tensei, which revives the dead and forces them to do the summoner's bidding).
- This line of thought seems to have gotten off the track of the original question: How is Naruto able to spend as much time as he has (remember he supposedly trains legitimately when no one is looking) and still fail at making a regular clone, which is basically a movie projection made of chakra, but one night is enough time for him to learn how to make a clone with a physical body, organs, thoughts, memory links, and not only that, to the precision that no one can identify it as a fake. It even requires constant concentration since Naruto himself can't be hit or they ALL fade.
- Because its easier to split himself rather than draw a copy. It's like taking a ball of clay and cutting it in half to make two balls of equal size. It's easier than drawing the same exact ball of clay by shaping it like a shell.
- As to the forbiddeness, the Shadow Clones are basically the single worst move he could have learned in the early series. His massive chakra reserves cover the GLARING flaw in the technique which ignores the fact that he has massive chakra reserves. So fights tend to go, Naruto uses up a RIDICULOUS amount of chakra to make lots of clones that 9 times out of 10 will all be destroyed without wining the fight when instead imagine what he could have done if he bothered to learn any other ability in the series and put that much chakra into it. Sure it has uses in training and if you need to hide from bloodline eyes, but what we get is that he uses massive amounts of energy to make clones that are only good for getting punched when every other ninja in the series just learns to not get punched so much.
- Maybe a stupid and obvious question but...when was it ever stated in the series that Kage-bunshin *specifically* was a forbidden jutsu? Yes, Naruto read about it out of that scroll, but all we are told is that the scroll contains dangerous forbidden jutsu, not specifically that Kage-bunshin was the dangerous jutsu in question. Just because the scroll was sealed and forbidden doesn't mean that EVERYTHING in it was equally dangerous and off limits, just that it contained some dangerous and off-limits information. It seems unlikely that Mizuki was after that scroll because of Kage-bunshin, and its never said anywhere else in the series that Kage-bunshin is forbidden; we see multiple other ninjas use it and rarely does anyone act shocked that Naruto can use the technique, except to marvel at the *scale* with which he can use it, and to state it is a "kage-level" technique (not a "forbidden" technique). If it really was a forbidden technique you would think more people would act surprised and concerned that he uses it, but they don't. Seems most likely to me that kage-bunshin was just one of many pieces of information written in that forbidden scroll, but not specifically the reason for it being forbidden.
- This seems to be most likely, as the Shadow Clone Jutsu was created by the Second Hokage, who we know created the explicitly Forbidden Edo Tensei. It's possible that the scroll was a collection of various jutsu created by him and while it had forbidden techiniques in it, not all of them were such.
- The Shaodw Clone Jutsu is a jonin-level technique because the user's chakra is evenly divided between themselves and their clones: creating one clone will give it half the user's chakra, creating two clones will give each a third of the user's chakra, and so on. Depending on how much chakra the user has and how many clones they make, this rapid depletion of their reserves can be dangerous. The Scroll of Seals is a book of both High-level and Forbidden Jutsus.
- Naruto developed a new technique, the Wind: Release: Rasenshuriken, but he can't use it because it damages him. However, it's shown that a shadow clone can also perform the technique, and it has been shown numerous times that if a shadow clone is damaged, this does not affect Naruto himself in any way. So what stops Naruto from using the technique using a shadow clone?
- When he makes a shadow clone, he puts a specific amount of chakra in for it to use. The Rasenshuriken takes up so much chakra and so much CONTROL that a clone made to use it would consume more chakra than he can safely give.
- Yes, it was established that the technique consumes enormous amounts of chakra, making it impractical for long fights. However, that's not the main reason why Naruto was heavily warned against using it. The main reason was that using the technique is extremely dangerous and can cripple him so badly that he may not be able to use any chakra techniques at all anymore. However, if a shadow clone performs the technique, wouldn't the damage happen to the clone and not to Naruto himself? If that's the case, the technique becomes very usable because it's awesomely powerful, even if it consumes all your chakra in one or two uses. The series does not deal with this at all, and simply states that Naruto cannot use the technique because it's so dangerous (rather than simply impractical because of the amount of chakra consumed).
- The way I took it was: he can't use it himself because of the damage it does to his body, and he can't have a clone use it because it takes so much chakra that his average clones just aren't powerful enough to pull it off. I suppose if he wanted to do something like put half his chakra into a single clone, he might be able to get around that, but considering that clones disappear after being hit once, that has some serious potential to backfire. In the end the move is probably just Awesome, but Impractical no matter how he goes about it.
- He was shown to perform the technique using a clone without problems. And this was after he had performed the technique once already. And he still had enough chakra to perform it a third time.
- Well... maybe the one the clone was holding was just a convincing-looking facsimile? It was supposed to be a decoy, after all. Because otherwise, yeah, the original comment above is completely right, and there's no reason for him to ever use the move himself.
- I reckon he probably would have started using it with clones if he hadn't figured out how to -throw- them at people instead. Much better.
- Notice that its only when he actually lands the Rasen Shuriken that it does damage to Naruto. A clone could create and hold a Rasen Shuriken but if it tried to land it, the clone would be destroyed the moment it landed the technique, causing it to fizzle and do a fraction of the damage, while still wasting a ton of chakra. Once he gains the ability to throw them, it becomes a non-issue, as both clones and the actual Naruto can deploy it successfully without being injured.
- Just another thought: It's been established in the series that Naruto gains the experiences and chakra fatigue of the shadow clones when he releases them. That's how he learned it so fast in the first place. Also, note that the Rasen Shuriken does not cause physical damage - it severs his chakra "veins" such that too many times would make him unable to mold chakra. Physical damage cancels out the clone, but it's unknown what chakra-network damage would do to a clone. So it's possible that if he used it with a clone he would just take on the damage when he recombined with that clone.
- So in other news, he fixed it so it doesn't cut him up anymore, made it explode and also be a thrown weapon. GG.
- Naruto wasn't capable of using Rasenshuriken through one of his clones because without access to the natural energy (which allowed him to throw it instead) it would dissipate in the exact moment the technique connected, thus not achieving its full power and being much worse than an ordinary Rasengan.
- When he makes a shadow clone, he puts a specific amount of chakra in for it to use. The Rasenshuriken takes up so much chakra and so much CONTROL that a clone made to use it would consume more chakra than he can safely give.
- Better question why doesn't Naruto ever summon after the Gaara fight during the first part? "Sasuke come back with me or I crush you with a giant toad" would've been a lot easier.
- Because then Sasuke would lose, and then not allow all the energy and physical energy, the first one coming from concentration and the second one from stamina. And since his clones oSasuke-wanking going on in part two of the manga... Besides, that's not 'good guy' behavior. And the 'good guy' ninja seem to want to be samurai without using the title.
- So it's okay to shove chakra balls of death at people and start using a demons power to survive but summoning a giant toad isn't? I call BS. Sasuke love aside that battle should have gone differently!
- It was established following Sasuke's defection that bringing Sasuke back to Konoha was an extremely personal matter for Naruto, hence why he puts so much effort into trying to bring Sasuke back alive and well instead of trying to kill him for his outright treachery. In this line of thinking, summoning Gamabunta would have been an intrusion of sorts that would have defiled the highly personal nature of Naruto's quest.
- Plus Naruto wanted to prove that he was stronger and using a third party just wouldn't be satisfying.
- Which brings the wallbanger, why did he stop the rasengan? he talked on and on about beating him half to death if he had to, he was more surprised than injured at the fact that Sasuke almost killed him by blazing him and all of the clones, so why not continue with the attack? it would had proven he was stronger if he did win, he would had been able to retrieve Sasuke even if he lost (doubt Sasuke would had been able to stand before Kakashi got back).
- To actually answer your question instead of using it as an excuse to whine, a giant toad isn't fit for fighting all enemies on all terrain. The Sannin all used their big summons in an open field and Naruto fought with Gamabunta against the one tailed. I doubt Sasuke could have beaten Gamabunta, but he probably could have run away. Anyway, for Naruto this was to person to let it be handled by or with anyone else (though if he knew that he would lose by himself, he might have otherwise).
- Alright that explains the battle away but why didn't they use one of the toads as transport? Not Gamabunta of course but one of the bigger ones that can move fast seems like it'd be a good idea.
- Are they really faster than a regular shinobi jumping through the trees/running? Plus, remember Sasuke had that speed upgrade from the Gaara match and the cursed seal.
- At that time he didn't have very good control over who he was summoning. He would probably either end up using his regular chakra to get a toad that was too small to ride, or using the fox chakra to get one that was too big to travel through trees.
- There's also little chance of Gamabunta actually listening to Naruto anyway; he only helped him against Shukaku because Gama-whatever said Shukaku was being mean to him. He'd have just sat there and smoked his pipe. 'Fight for me, ya little brats!'
- As well as the above, Square-Cube Law + Sharingan = Gamabunta doesn't hit jack and Naruto wastes his Kyuubi boost. Let's take a look at where summons were used so far. To fight the village-sized Nine-Tailed Fox. When Jiraiya was showing off. When Naruto was being taught to summon. The Hydra Orochimaru summoned to attack the Hidden Leaf. The summon fight between the Sannin (to fight each others' summons). Then in the Filler versus, you guessed it, another summon. Square-Cube Law says that the largest summons have to be used right to be any use against ninjas. Most of the time they're just WMDs to let sannin-level ninjas actually threaten large targets like buildings.
- For a number of reasons. Firstly, his fight with Sasuke was a big case of It's Personal, what with Sasuke finally agreeing to acknowledge him and all. Secondly, summoning has been really hit or miss for Naruto. The vast majority of the toads he had summoned at that point were all completely useless in battle. And finally, the only exception to that rule was Gamabunta. The first time Naruto summoned him they had a fight for dominance and the second time Bunta was going to leave him until he got a more personal reason to fight.
- Because then Sasuke would lose, and then not allow all the energy and physical energy, the first one coming from concentration and the second one from stamina. And since his clones oSasuke-wanking going on in part two of the manga... Besides, that's not 'good guy' behavior. And the 'good guy' ninja seem to want to be samurai without using the title.
- How did Naruto's summoning of some clones, then dispelling them, give him some chakra back? It's explicitly stated at the very start that any energy used in creating the clones is lost. Oh, and the first poster's very negative views of the main character and his rival just bugs me. Most of the serious hardcore yaoi is timed in Shippuuden, whereas fluffy PG crap is pre-timeskip. She would also like to direct the poster to chapter 431. Yes, the impulsive retard taught Konohamaru the Rasengan, and is badass enough to earn his right to scream GATTAI!
- Naruto didn't actually teach Konohamaru the Rasengan, just some striptease or something with the Sexy no Jutsu, that Konohamaru used to teach himself the Rasengen, in less than a minute.
- Yes he did. Konohamaru has a flashback where he remembers Naruto tells him he's going to teach him a jutsu and begins describing the various stages of the Rasengan training and Konohamaru, having only learned the sexy jutsu from Naruto assumes that it's a variation of that. It's explicitly stated ('I wonder what kind of pervy technique it is http://www.onemanga.com/Naruto/428/04/ )and starts imagining what it is. Naruto thinks he's being weird and says 'What are you talking about, this is a difficult A rank attack jutsu' or something like that.
- Okay rereading that I'll withdraw my last statement.
- Yes he did. Konohamaru has a flashback where he remembers Naruto tells him he's going to teach him a jutsu and begins describing the various stages of the Rasengan training and Konohamaru, having only learned the sexy jutsu from Naruto assumes that it's a variation of that. It's explicitly stated ('I wonder what kind of pervy technique it is http://www.onemanga.com/Naruto/428/04/
- My understanding with Naruto's clones is that he divides his chakra out evenly among them when he creates them. If he manually dispels them, he can reobtain that chakra. If the clone is killed, he does not reobtain this chakra. But, knowledge/experience is transferred to Naruto from a clone in either situation. As to Naruto losing chakra during clone creation, he (the original) naturally regains it with time/rest, like stamina. So creating clone "chakra batteries" is plausible.
- A variation on the argument: Sage Mode is just that, a mode. It requires concentration, not a storage of chakra/energy. Naruto going Sage Mode should NOT be likened to Goku going Super Saiyan. Therefore, creating a clone in this meditative state, then dispelling it to obtain said state, is also plausible.
- Incorrect. It is a storage of chakra/energy specifically Natural Energy which should double (or triple, they don't explain AT ALL what happens with the Nine Tails Chakra in this mode even when it becomes relevant) the concentration is simply because it's difficult/impossible to gather the natural energy on the move. Jirayai gets around that flaw in the technique by having the elder toads gather the energy while he fights, Naruto (during the Pein battle, after that the flaw seems to vanish for the most part) does it by leaving clones behind to gather the energy. This is clearly demonstrated when he fights Pein and is grabbed by chakra absorber and he starts gathering natural chakra which is in turn absorbed by the Pein who turns to stone because he's unable to reach the appropriate balance.
- Naruto does not gain any chakra back from the creation of the clone. But Sage mode is based off natural chakra taken from the environment. The chakra used to make the clone goes, but the absorbed chakra goes to Naruto.
- There is a pretty simple answer to that - chakra comes from spiritual nly keep themselves together by using chakra, they lose it when they are hit, and a strong enough hit causes them to lose it all and thus be unable to hold themselves together. By that point, since the clones used their whole chakra to "defend", there is none Naruto can get back. If he dispelled them himself before that, on the other hand, he would keep all the left-over chakra (minus the part used to transfer memories, that is).
- Naruto didn't actually teach Konohamaru the Rasengan, just some striptease or something with the Sexy no Jutsu, that Konohamaru used to teach himself the Rasengen, in less than a minute.
- Sexy Harem knocking over trained warriors bugs me. We see people who can and do stand up to all sorts of horrors fall over because of what they percieve as a bunch of naked girls. I am officially confused. And bugged.
- It happens simply because of Rule of Funny. And because All Men Are Perverts.
- The Third explains that it is so crass and unexpected to seasoned warriors who would never even considering using something like it that they can't help but fall for it.
- I want to know why this move isn't given more credibility in the series. I mean, of course its crass but that's precisely why it would be effective. Who wouldn't be stunned by someone turning into an army of naked people. It's the ultimate distraction move. For a ninja who depends on misdirection (i.e. every character in this series) that means everything.
- It's pretty much Rule of Funny. It the author tried to use it in a serious way, Naruto would be using this technique to transform into clothed women and gather information, but that probably wouldn't be interesting to read, not in a shounen manga at least (I challenge you here, fan-fiction authors). Moreover, it's influenced by Japanese culture - if such a thing was drawn by an American or European (I'm generalizing here, I know that there are many cultures in Europe), the reactions of those hit by this technique would be very different.
- If finding out your attuned element was as easy as touching a piece of paper, why didn't Naruto do this sooner?
- It's special paper, so it's probably not readily accessible to everyone and Naruto didn't know about before he began training to make his own jutsu. Plus Kishi probably didn't come up with it until Part 2.
- Even so, that kind of knowledge would logically be fairly well known. Of course, there's a flashback in the manga that gives me the impression that Naruto probably slept through a great many important lectures or skipped out with Kiba. (It's during the search for Tsunade, when Jiraiya leaves him alone to practice the Rasengan.)
- It is likely that the paper used for the test is extremly rare and expensive. Konoha is a military unit, and like any military unit, it won't waste money on outfitting the regular grunts (Genin) with the best equipment there is.
- Also, knowing what your attuned element is doesn't seem to do much! Naruto can't use wind jutsu in combat right after he uses the paper to identify his wind-attunement, it takes substantial additional training. Likewise, Sasuke knows his elemental affinity from birth (fire, because he's an Uchiha), but it takes him considerable practice to master his first fire jutsu. I always presumed the reason Kakashi and Jiraiya didn't bother until that point is that it wouldn't have done Naruto much good, anyways, because he still would have needed to master nature manipulation itself.
- Well Jiraiya could had found out and thought him at least basic wind level techniques, which also brings the question as to why didn't he thought him any "new" jutsus and not just improvements of the rasengan, shadow clone and summoning jutsus.
- Except for the anime where its Lightning Release, its never actually stated what Sasuke's affinity is. Fire Release is just what the Uchiha clan is known for.
- I doubt the paper is that expensive. Naruto just hadn't reached that point in his training. As for why he didn't know about the paper, he hasn't been shown to particularly bright or to have payed any attention in school, so...
- While I am aware that this is still a plot hole (falling under "why didn't Jiraiya teach Naruto much during their training trip", but that's a whole another matter), there is an explanation for that. Most of the young ninja we see getting stronger are still children or teens, and for them "awesome moves" are pretty important. Adults, with experience in battle, on the other hand, know that what matters is not what techniques you have (to a certain degree at least), but how you use them, and whether they match your combat style. If anyone gave that paper to Naruto before his apprenticeship under Jiraiya had started, he probably wouldn't have given it much thought and lost time trying to learn techniques he would have no use for in combat because those would be incompatible with his style. On the other hand, if one only learned about his element after he got a solid outline of his own style, he would know which techniques he'll have any use for, and which he shouldn't care about.
- While this is a detail that doesn't necessarily bug me, it's a question that I have for the rest of you: Would Naruto gain the most character development out of realizing that he doesn't need to become Hokage to get the Leaf Village's respect (along with knowing all of the limitations of being Hokage), or would it be from knowing that the position has its limits and striving for it anyway?
- Both of these seem pretty likely: he'll probably realize (if he hasn't already) that he doesn't need it to earn everyone's respect, but aim for it because he wants to help people while acknowledging (and getting past) the position's limitation.
- Personally, I hope the entire series ends with Naruto making a comment about becoming Hokage, and then someone makes a crack about him still being a genin, and then everyone laughs, like at the end of an episode of Thundercats.
- I personally think that Naruto's reasons for Hokage are shifting over time, especially since his goal shifted from getting respect to protecting his friends. He may well indicate at the end of this current arc that he wants to become Hokage to work for world peace, especially if it's after he hears about how people see him.
- They are. On the beginning, he thought that he'll get acknowledgement if he becomes a hokage and thus sought it for that. Later, he had realised that he'll become a hokage if he gets acknowledged and not the other way around, and realized that he didn't really care about the position for the position itself, but because it will allow him to protect the people he holds dear. And personally, I hope that at the end of the manga he'll die, and we'll be given one more chapter without him; not because I don't like him (heck, he's my favourite character in the manga), but because the whole "nobody got hurt and they lived a long and happy life" is so clichéd I'm starting to dislike it.
- Both of these seem pretty likely: he'll probably realize (if he hasn't already) that he doesn't need it to earn everyone's respect, but aim for it because he wants to help people while acknowledging (and getting past) the position's limitation.
- There's something that bugs me about Naruto's chakra. We know that he has naturally huge chakra reserves as determined at birth, I think Jiraiya gave us some info on this but I don't remember exactly where, but having the worlds greatest chakra source inside him didn't act like a buff or debuff his chakra reserves just grew naturally. Didn't he subliminally commit some chakra to keeping it sealed or didn't the extra source help his chakra increase?
- And while I'm here if chakra is physical stamina + spiritual energy why is only stamina mentioned as a cap when using jutsus is spiritual energy infinite and to be a litle more specifical for D&D is is Inteligence Wysdom Charisma?
- For your first question, I think the answer is both. The fox helped, but Naruto naturally had high chakra reserves. Comes from being the Fourth's son and all. For the second question: The Naruto d20 system that I use actually bases it off of Constitution.
- As stated below, his high reserves are less to do with daddy and more to do with mummy - the Uzumaki's chakra reserves granted them impressive longevity, among other things.
- This casting from Con alone intrigues me but in the area of jutsus are the mental stats really not necesary for added damage or something?
- It's a skill-based system. Each jutsu or technique fits into one of four categories- Chakra Control, Ninjutsu, Genjutsu, and Taijutsu. Each one has a perform DC that you need to beat in order to properly use the technique. So you put skill points into the appropriate four skills as above. You get the standard ability score bonus to each skill- Wisdom for Chakra control, Intelligence for Ninjutsu, Charimsa for Genjutsu, and Strength for Taijutsu, plus your stats are relevant when learning the techniques. Constitution just determines how much chakra you have. In fact, just check out the (free!) PDF here
- It's not exactly "skill-based" (since that's only how they chose to represent it in a d20 system). But using a little d20 analogy, total chakra capacity is dependant on one's stamina (Constitution score) and ability to focus, aka. mind (Wisdom score, partially at least), but stamina determines base amount and mind only a multiplier. Thus, those with high stamina but low ability to focus have more chakra than those with low stamina but high concentration (though knowing more and being able to focus also increase one's chakra control, acting like another multiplier). And now getting to the original topic, Naruto's high chakra capacity was mostly a result of his higher than average stamina, boosted even further by his Uzumaki blood (because let's be honest, the stamina boost of Uzumaki clan members was pretty much a bloodline limit), though there is a small bonus from the seal. And now there's a tricky part, because from this point it's all speculation: For all we know, Naruto's chakra is automatically holding the nine-tailed fox's chakra leaking from the seal on a level that would either be used up to power the seal, or that would be unnoticeable. Because of that, his chakra control is a little lower than what it should be (because he's constantly performing chakra manipulation and thus any additional chakra usage leaves his mind multi-tasking) and it means he is capable of using the fox's chakra when he's either very angry/confused (diminished ability to manipulate chakra meaning the daemon's own leaks from the seal) or when he concentrates really hard on it (turning off a function he was performing constantly and automatically, similar to controlling one's breath or pulse). That also explains why using the sage mode was so "easy" for him - with his body and mind balancing two kinds of energy (his own two types of chakra, and the nine-tailed fox's one), he was used to it already, even if the type of energy changed.
- The fox seal power source is probably independent from Naruto, given that the seal worked when Naruto was a baby, and at that point his chakra reserves would not have been enough to keep the fox sealed, and also, if it where tied to his chakra reserves then whenever he fainted from exhaustion the fox would break free. We can go with one of two things, that the seal has it's own chakra reserve, which considering that Minato put both his and Kushina's chakra inside the seal, it's plausible or more likely, seals don't need constant chakra to work, to use an analogy, to keep a box closed one can keep pushing the lid down or one can just nail the damn thing once, the fox seal would work as a nail, takes at lot of force to put it first, but then you just leave it there.
- How does the power scaling go with Naruto's Tailed Forms? The two most likely I've come up with are either: A) type where, say, 1-Tailed Form is 1/3rd as powerful as 3-Tailed Form, 1/6th that of 6-Tails, 3-Tails is 1/2 as powerful as 6-Tails, etc., or: B) power doubles with each tail (2-Tails is 2x power of 1-Tail; 3-Tails is 2x power of 2-Tails; 4-Tails is 2x power of 3-Tails, 6-Tails is 4x power of 4-Tails, etc). Which, going by what is shown in the series, seems more accurate?
- Actually, it's been shown that the Kyuubi's chakra can be split in half, as well as dispersed among 2000 shadow clones, but still be stronger than the Hachibi's. Therefore, a more plausible theory would be that the Factorial, x! (x being the number of tails), would be better for a tailed beast's chakra amount (compared to the tailed beast below it); e.g. the Kyuubi has 9! (362,880) times more chakra than the Hachibi, while the Niibi has a measly 2! times (twice) as much as Shukaku.
- If that would be the case, Hagoromo really did quite a poor job at splitting the ten-tails chakra into 9 parts. This would make the creation of the 1-3 tails basically pointless. Wouldn't it make more sense that the clones just act as proxy for the nine-tails? In the sense that they all are linked back to the same source, basically making the number of clones irrelevant? Also, such an immense disparity in the amount of chakra should be easily picked up by the protagonists.
- Actually, it's been shown that the Kyuubi's chakra can be split in half, as well as dispersed among 2000 shadow clones, but still be stronger than the Hachibi's. Therefore, a more plausible theory would be that the Factorial, x! (x being the number of tails), would be better for a tailed beast's chakra amount (compared to the tailed beast below it); e.g. the Kyuubi has 9! (362,880) times more chakra than the Hachibi, while the Niibi has a measly 2! times (twice) as much as Shukaku.
- How come Naruto learned so little from Jiraya in the timeskip whereas as Sasuke learned so much under Orochimaru? All Naruto learned was a bigger rasengan varient and how to dispell genjutsu. Other than a little extra physical training it seems like they were just messing about. Does Jirata want Naruto to die if he's teaching him so very little?
- Naruto did not have an eye that could instantly copy any technique it viewed. Sasuke likely got much more out of his training because he didn't have to waste time learning new jutsu-Sasuke could have focused on speed, chakra control, and other abilities.
- It should be noted that the fight was when Naruto was injured from overuse of the Fox's power and Naruto was unwilling to fight with Sasuke and wanted to reason with him. The fight still would have been in Sasuke's favor however it wouldn't have been so one-sided if Naruto was in full strength and had actually tried. Also according to Sakura, Sasuke most likely took drugs to improve his combat ability. Plus the rest of Konoha 12 and pretty much improved at the same or even less rate accoding to the databooks books that theory up. The question however is why Jiraya didn't teach Naruto Sage Mode?
- Well everyone didn't had one of the legendary Sannin as their teacher. Sasuke learned snake summoning, developed the chidori (on his own since Orochimaru can't use it) gained a better control over his cursed mark than Kimimaru, learned a teletransportation technique, and some genjutsu (Madara said he's not even the genjutsu type) and further learned to use the sharingan (entering Naruto's inner world, defeating Orochimaru's possession technique and his microscopic view and chakra detection). Sakura learned healing jutsu, and extreme chakra control. All Naruto learned was how to escape from normal level genjutsu (something Sakura knew 2 years ago) and how to make either 2 rasengans or a bigger one.
- That doesn't really excuse why during two years when Sasuke was learning all sorts that Naruto learned so damn little. We all see that Naruto can learn high-level jutsu quickly so two years with just Jiraiya and no distractions should have made him better than jonin. Heck it that crappy 3-tails filler, Jiraiya breifly pops up and teaches Naruto syncho jutsu. Naruto learned that quite easily. But after two years with Jirairya it's just bigger rasengan variant and dispell genjutsu, what an utter joke.
- They didn't even found out his nature affinity. Jiraiya was shown to be able to teach Nagato, Konan and Yahiko jutsus that weren't of his affinity, so he should had been able to teach Naruto at least basic Wind style jutsus.
- It isn't at all noticeable compared to Sasuke's Super-Speed and Sakura's Super-Strength but Naruto's taijutsu improved a lot skill-wise. Compared to part 1 where he easily got overpowered by Kakashi to his performance again in Part 2 where he actually was able to hold his own against Kakashi. From what I figured Jiarya noticed Naruto's crappy Taijutsu and figured that since Naruto already had two strong offensive jutsu's he might as well improve his Taijutsu.
- But two years to improve just Taijutsu? Okay, first, Naruto has huge chakra reserves, so it should make sense that Jiraiya should have trained him in ninjutsu more. Second, Naruto has been shown to be a quick learner when given the right motivation and teacher. Why didn't he improve all three jutsu aspects, instead of a barely noticeable just-one?
- He did go from a crappy barely graduated genin taijutsu level to being capable of fighting on somewhat equal grounds with Kakashi taijutsu level. It's pretty noticable. He's just Over Shadowed By Awesome because Sasuke and Sakura improved so much.
- Still, considering he learned Shadow Clones in a single night and Rasengan on the go, there has to be some easy to use technique he could have learned that would have been more useful. Naruto has MASSIVE amounts of chakra but can't capitalize on it well. Yes he can use Shadow Clones but they're still fragile and extremely inefficient. Rasengan similarly has bad range and is limited by his control. Compare those two techniques to something like the Summoning where he can actually put his reserves to use, and it lets him reach Sannin levels of power. Sasuke had less chakra than Kakashi pre-time skip but was able to fill a roof top with flames (eliminating all but one clone) so imagine what Naruto would be able to do with a similar technique that actually allows him to ramp up the scale when he wants to.
- He learned A LOT with regards to using his Kyubbi powers. He can now go up to 4 tails, while before he could only use 1. Also at 3 tails he is still partially in control - compare this with Sora, who was a mindless beserker it at 1 tail. I know his 4 tailed form wasn't meant to happen, but at 1 tail he was equal to Cursed Seal Level 2 Sasuke - factoring in Sasuke's improvement Naruto might then equal him with 3 tails. Also, it's subtle, but he uses the Rasengan more often - in part 1 he usually only used it once per fight, while in say, his fight against Itachi he uses it 3 times, and one was a uberpowered version. And as for his larger Rasengan, it's insanely powerful, and it's not Jiraiya's fault he only uses it once (or just found no relevent situations to use it in). Overall, he actually improved to about the same extent as Sasuke and Sakura.
- He did learn quite a lot, but the problem is that it was a misplaced training. Naruto learned something that was useful for him, but quickly became obsolete/too dangerous to use/something Naruto didn't want to use/whatever. Granted, what Naruto had learned was still too little, seeing as there were things he should've been taught then, but maybe Jiraiya decided that instead of teaching Naruto subtlety, it's better to give him a training that will reinforce his current, pure-power-based style of combat (which would be still a mistake, but understandable at least).
- I think the answer here is that Naruto is the equivalent of those people who made it through high school without being able to read. Simply put, the system set up at the Ninja Academy failed him. Compare any of Naruto's Part I fights to the fight with Kakashi at the beginning of Part II. In Part I, Naruto pretty much just stumbled through his fights on sheer talent (his incredible amounts of chakra) and luck. He clearly never mastered the basics of fighting as a ninja; in Part I, he's easily the least polished fighter of the main cast. During the timeskip, Jiraiya basically retaught Naruto the basics of ninjutsu and taijutsu, and it clearly shows in Part II: Naruto's movements and attacks have the same level of polish and skill as any other fighter in the series. What Jiraiya did was give Naruto a strong base to build off of, leading to his vast improvements in strength over the course of Part II. That strong base is something that every ninja is supposed to get from the Ninja Academy, but Naruto never got that, which is why he needed that extra one-on-one training with Jiraiya.
- Indeed, I would agree. We're talking about Naruto here and most of us failed to include his past behaviours along with personality during part 1 into account when talking about the results of his growth. To say that Naruto didn't improve at all is an understatement. Naruto is indeed more of a kinesthetic learner, meaning practice before understanding theory or action before thought kind of guy. No doubt about that. However, given that he slack off from/sleep in class during academy years, his basics on taijutsu, ninjutsu and genjutsu were too weak, to be blunt. Include his immature personality alongisde rashful habit of acts before thoughts at Part 1 (watch/read all of that canon segment to confirm it), it's very easy for people to think he's no more than just one of the grunts/low ranking soldier. So, Jiraiya had to use all those times to make sure Naruto gets a good grip on all his basics, improving his fighting style with taijutsu and ninjutsu and learning to dispel genjutsu. Not to mention, Naruto had yet to fully grasp the importance of having a comrade that supports him in a fight that is too much to handle on his own. He didn't even know the benefits of using kage bunshin to shorten his training time. He is still simple minded and only thinks of himself more than he thinks about others like Shikamaru. He tried to do everything himself after having powers until in the war where edo tensei Itachi had to remind him that was wrong. Without guidance and support from other people, you cannot grow stronger. Determination is fine, he passed with flying colours for that but giving in to his emotions and rejecting to see things from other angles is his weakness and that is where he differs from Shikamaru, even more when it comes to Sasuke. Naruto was too impatient when trying to retrieve Gaara's corpse from Deidara that he forgot Kakashi was there to help him. He only began to realise such thing during the reunion with Sasuke when he goes on a rampage and hurt Sakura and feeling helpless in front of Sasuke. Okay, the bottom line is this, even if Naruto has physically become stronger than or as strong as Sasuke in their first reunion in Part 2, the result is still no different if his mind is mentally as weak just like himself from part 1 or weaker.
- Why does the Eight-Tail have octopus tentacles? I thought he was supposed to be a Bull. Plus, people keep calling him the Eight-Tailed Bee; I can understand the mistake, but he's a bull! And Sasuke seems to have depowered by several levels. A single blow slicing his neck and chest open? A counter to his Sharingan that Naruto could possibly use in the future? Yowza.
- That counter to illusions has been around since forever. Naruto tried to use it when he faced Itachi during the Gaara rescue arc: it just didn't work then.
- And regarding the strength gap, remember Sasuke doesn't have the Curse Seal anymore, not to mention us having zero knowledge of the Eight-Tailed beast's strength, so who are we to say he won't kick Sasuke's ass any day?
- It's not a surprise that Killer Bee was able to beat Sasuke with ease seeing how he's a shinobi veteran. It doesn't matter that Sasuke has the sharingan, is an Uchiha etc. He's still only 16 years old. Bee has got way more experience than Sasuke and is the Hachibi's host aswell.
- It has octopus tentacles because it is an Ushi-Oni, a creature of Japanese folklore that is basically a bull with sea creature parts.
- Huh... you know, that would explain why it happens to be the Eight-Tailed Beast, too.
- Alternatively, it's just another very tragic story.
- Bee being able to blow Sasuke's chest open makes plenty of sense when you take into account that he's a high level ninja who is more than twice Sasuke's age, who is stated to be the partner of the Raikage, a man known for his his speed and physical strength, and who is also having his strength boosted by the second most powerful Bijuu in the entire world. Not really surprising that Sasuke, who while very skilled is still just a regular ninja in terms of durability at this point, would receive such heavy damage. We can also throw into the ring the facts that 1)Sasuke was still recovering from the fight with Itachi and 2)Bee's attack caught him entirely off guard.
- That counter to illusions has been around since forever. Naruto tried to use it when he faced Itachi during the Gaara rescue arc: it just didn't work then.
- How come Naruto used Kagebunshin - and not just any Kagebunshin, but Tajuu Kagebunshin - while in frilling Chakra Mode? Me thinks it was expressedly stated by the Hachibi that he shouldn't do that because the Kyuubi would suck his chakra dry in absolutely no time?
- Correction, what the Hachibi said is that Kage Bushins increase the rate the chakra can be consumed by the Kyubi. However, Naruto spent several hours training to see the limits of his mode, remember. And when he did Tayjuu Kage Bushin, he created what 12 clones. When he normally makes a hundred or a thousand.
- And according to the Hachibi, that was still enough clones to screw him over. Leading to the inference that the Kyuubi was going easy on him.
- Correction, what the Hachibi said is that Kage Bushins increase the rate the chakra can be consumed by the Kyubi. However, Naruto spent several hours training to see the limits of his mode, remember. And when he did Tayjuu Kage Bushin, he created what 12 clones. When he normally makes a hundred or a thousand.
- What makes Kurama special among the Tailed Beasts? All of the other ones we've seen have some themed ability they grant to their hosts: Shukaku and Gaara can manipulate sand, that Three-Tailed water thing and Utakata can manipulate bubbles, Gyuki and Killer B can manipulate ink, and so forth. But Kurama and Naruto don't seem to have anything special to manipulate. If it's fire, hasn't that been taken by the cat and Yugito Nii?
- Raw chakra - its as simple as that. Fact is that all of those other creatures need the fancy tricks to keep up with something that can grant a child the ability to create 1000 Shadow Clones at will. To put it another way the Nine Tails is to Naruto what Super Saiyan is to Goku or Bankai is to Ichigo Kurosaki from Bleach. No special abilities, tricks, techniques or spells. Just overwhelming destructive power.
- Except that doesn't work. The OP is asking what is special about the nine tails that sets it apart from the other eight. Nothing about Super Saiyan separates Goku from Vegeta or Gohan at least. It might be like Ichigo's Bankai where it's super power is simply whoop ass. We don't really know enough about the tailed beasts to make a good guess. It's likely that the sand manipulation came from Gaaras mother not the Shikaku and we've seen enough clans with odd abilities and Naruto knows so little that Kurama's special gift could be anything.
- My original point still stands regardless; the Nine Tails special ability is raw chakra. It doesn't need special techniques because it is strong enough to overwhelm the first eight beasts without them - and even if, for arguments sake it wasn't, Naruto is no longer that little kid who was completely overwhelmed by the monster. He's a highly experienced combat veteran who now has unprecedented control over his beast thanks to Killer Bee's training - he would know by now.
- This troper always assumed that one of two things happened: 1) Naruto's Healing factor is the special power or 2) when the 4th hokage sealed the yin chakra it took away the kyubi's special power since the yin chakra is what gives chakra its "shape"
- The ability of the Kyuubi is to sense darkness. It's a relatively lame power, but it goes beyond that. If the Kyuubi Chakra Mode's bright, glowing aura and markings suggest anything, the Kyuubi's pure chakra may actually be the final path of the Sage of the Six Paths!
- Not darkness, but negativity and negative emotions. This is actually a lot more useful than it sounds. For example: in one scene, Naruto and Bee are blinded while fighting the reanimated jinchuuriki, but he was still able to block an attack with his vision impaired because he could "sense their killing intent". This ability is also what helped him sense Kisame hiding in the Samehada, because of his malice. It also helped him tell his friends apart from Zetsu clones disguised as members of the alliance, because his friends radiated "positive" emotions, while the Zetsu clones radiated "killing intent" and "negative" emotions. That's the Kyuubi's special power.
- Raw chakra - its as simple as that. Fact is that all of those other creatures need the fancy tricks to keep up with something that can grant a child the ability to create 1000 Shadow Clones at will. To put it another way the Nine Tails is to Naruto what Super Saiyan is to Goku or Bankai is to Ichigo Kurosaki from Bleach. No special abilities, tricks, techniques or spells. Just overwhelming destructive power.
- Normally Naruto still seems to need his clones to produce both the Rasengan and Rasen-shiriken technique but he doesn't need to do that in Sage Mode or in Kyuubi Mode even though both should make the technique easier not harder (especially Sage Mode with it's third kind of Chakra in the mix). Remember Naruto's problem isn't a lack of the raw power, it's his inability to focus his mind on the multiple tasks of gather, shape and element mixing. I don't recall anything about Sage Mode that would suggest it gave him a clearer mind, just more raw power since he's drawing from nature. Kyuubi mode at least makes some sense if we trust Killer Bee and Haachibi that the Tailed Beast Bomb is similar enough to the Rasengan that the Nine Tails knows the move and he's providing the extra mind power necessary for these techniques. Otherwise it doesn't make a lot of sense, the solution to a lack of control over your awesome power isn't even more power!
- From what I understand, the chakra cloak of the kyuubi (which can move on its own, remember) acts as a shell for it, meaning he doesn't need to concentrate on the third step and can just focus on putting power and rotation into it. he can form a rasen-shuriken on his own in nine-tails chakra mode using chakra arms. (I liked how he made a miniature one over his fingertip using tiny chakra arms) also, to use sage mode, he needed to learn to add natural energy to his mix of chakra. it's quite possible that, like water-walking and running up trees, it increased his control.
- As for Sage Mode, he still seems to need his clones then. At least in the battle against Pain. Later on (which I haven't seen yet), maybe they stopped caring to add clones, and it will all be hand waved later?
- I don't think it is the Sage Mode itself that increases concentration or that it clears his mind, but the training that was needed to be able to enter the state completely without turning into a stone frog. This would also explain why he was able to use rasengan one handed a few times during the fight with Pein. The inability to focus was probably fixed by having to sit perfectly still on a stone slab balancing on a spike. He had to concentrate on not moving at all and after all that time his mind probably wasn't just focused on balancing and he had lots of time to think making him able to multi task (Hope that came out how like how it sounded in my head). The training could also fix/fine tune his chakra control as he had to keep his chakra and stamina balanced with the natural energy he was absorbing. That takes a high amount of control to do correctly it would seem and with his life being on the line during the balancing act he had more pressure to improve whereas before he didn't worry about anything other than winning the fight. Most ninja probably just worry about keeping their stamina and chakra in line as if they convert too much stamina into chakra they will die, but that isn't as much of a worry. That's my theory anyway. As to why he has used clones later on, maybe he just prefers to do it like that? After all, this is Naruto we're talking about. He doesn't like to think, he likes to fight.
- At one point, Jiraiya told Naruto he'd only promise to train Naruto if he kept the Sexy Jutsu form. While I'm sure it was just him joking and being a perv as normal, wouldn't that actually be pretty useful training for Naruto at that point? Maintaining Sexy Jutsu for extended periods of time would allow Naruto to practice careful and continuous expenditure of chakra as well as chakra-multitasking (using other techniques, like the Rasengan, under Sexy Jutsu), and in a way, provide Jiraiya with additional motivation. Then again, it's been mentioned a few times above already how Sexy Jutsu is a lot more useful than the one-note joke as used in the manga.
- So, during the Invasion of Pain arc, Naruto can't use Sage Mode while he's moving... except, how did he do the training then? He entered Sage Mode, practiced the Rasen-Shuriken and Frog Kumite, did all sorts of things, but once he goes into battle it's of no use? What's with this?
- You're mistaken. Naruto could not and seemingly cannot without Kurama's aid enter Sage Mode while moving. The elder Toad could have helped him but the Nine Tails is a prick the same was true for Jiraya. He needs time to stand still gather the energy and then he can move around just fine until he exhausts the energy limits of Sage Mode which after the Invasion of Pain Arc seem to be nearly unlimited. This is specifically why he had to make clones to gather the energy and remain in reserve until he needed their jolt of energy.
- In all the filler episodes and films that show Kushina alive with Naruto being Kurama's jinchuriki... how is this possible? Transferring it would have killed Kushina and in the main canon was only done as a last resort so Naruto could stop Obito. But if Obito never attacked Konoha or Minato succeeded in repelling him before he unleashed Kurama, then there would have been no reason to seal Kurama into Naruto at all and Kushina would've remained its jinchuriki. So... did they split it and leave one half with Kushina and the other with Naruto?
- That's why it's called fillers. It's not part of the true continuity that developed from the manga. Bottom line, it's the anime studios creating their own assumption that contradicts the assumptions that the author of the manga had in mind.
- Where does Naruto's consciousness go when he talks to Kurama inside him during battles? or in any situation that he should be able to be alert "outside of the kurama room"? Does he have an autopilot?
- Time passes very differently in that mental realm. Recall Naruto's first conversation with Kurama happened while he was falling from a cliff, and he still had plenty of time to summon Gamabunta when the meeting was over. It's not clear if minutes in the mind equals a second in the physical world or if time essentially stops from Naruto's perspective while in that mental/spiritual plane, but either way it happens in a way that doesn't interfere with him in a fight.
Naruto's clothing style
Naruto's Clothing Style
- Why the orange? Correct me if I'm wrong, but orange ain't the most stealthy of colors.
- Magic ninjas man, this show has far bigger problems than a ninja in an orange jumpsuit. It bothers me as well but this is probably due to Rummage Sale Reject reasons, a plain black ninjitsu gi just isn't a good cosplay and doesn't stand out enough (Kinda the point) for the protagonist of a shonen fight series.
- Well, the jumpsuit is just his normal clothing, what he wears everyday anyway. Would you change your entire wardrobe just because you graduated middle-school? And the genin all wear casual clothing anyway, versus the higher ranked shinobi that wear the full uniform(with the vest and all.)
- Genin ninja and lower are not even suppose to go out on C missions and even if they did for exceptional reasons (post war crisis) they are accompanied by a Jonin (who could do a mission of that level alone). Chunin and Jonin do have to wear a uniform that blends with their regional surrounding (green for leaf village, white and light brown for the sand village, dark and bluish for the mist(water) village) then there are people like Jiraiya, Minato and Akatsuki who are so strong they don't need to worry about hiding and that in fact wear clothing that reveals their identity to others, most who stand back. That's also why I don't like the fillers sending Genin (youth) on dangerous missions who only survived due to plotjutsu.
- It's also a Shout-Out to Dragon Ball.
- Three common Fanon explanations: 1. He likes the orange. Canon Naruto doesn't seem like the type to worry about stealth, does he? 2. Shopkeepers hate him, he can't get anything else 3. If he can evade ANBU in orange, he can do it in anything else.
- There's also the fact that the nine-tailed fox is orange, so perhaps his mind is just naturally attracted to it.
- The real question is, why do any of them dress distinguishably at all? Not only does the orange make him easy to spot, but it makes him easy to identify. In a world where every shinobi seems to have their own special ability, why would any famous ninja (i.e. Kakashi, or Minato) want their opponents to be able to identify them and thus be prepared for their attacks? Every ninja should be wearing the exact same hooded, masked uniform.
- Being recognized might be a good thing in that you build up your reputation enough, you get people scared of you. Which might or might not be a good thing, but... well.
- Originally, all ninjas were supposed to wear masks, but Kishimoto found it too hard to draw expressions that way and it became only a few characters' (example: Kakashi) main feature.
- Well, reputation can be a valuable first line of defense. It may be better to be fighting enemies prepared for you than to face the far greater number of enemies who, not knowing who you are, think they might be able to take you (status seems to deter casual attacks, unlike with, say, Western gunslingers). Kakashi may be getting the best of both worlds, in that he's utterly unrecognizable without his distinctive uniform...and it's not impossible that other distinctive appearances can grant the same advantage.
- One word to that, Yellow Flash: flee upon sight.
- Uh, we let other ninjas of pop culture get away with wearing bright colors. Why are you making a big deal out of Naruto's outfit when there were other high visible ninjas before Naruto? Get over it!
- This debate often forgets all Ninja from the Academy know the transformation jutsu, with that what's the point in dressing sneaky like.
- I think that Naruto is actually fairly smart...don't look at me like that just think of this. If you can get you stealth skills so well that you can hide in plain sight with orange just think of how stealthy he would be when he dones black.
- Because if you saw a ninja dressed in bright orange you'd waste valuable moments wondering how he managed to survive. And then, just as his foot was closing in on your head, you'd realize "Oh. That's how." But it would be too late by then.
- Yeah, how insane of Naruto to dress absolutely nothing like a Ninja to the point that other Ninjas would be incredulous you are one, after all, everyone knows that spies had a dress code for a reason. Also, camouflage clothing is really not that good, in say, a city or a different woods, or a meadow or Grassland and I think doing clothes that are mean to make you invisible would make other people, like guards, soldiers and enemy Ninjas kind of notice you outside said blending. Besides, with the supernatural abilities Ninja posses, just blending with the enviroment wouldn't really help you much and say, why if you don't have the time or the opportunity to get your "equipment" to be all Ninja-like stealthy and had to rely in good old tricks, movement and timing? Besides, who in Naruto world actually dress stealthy anyway?
- Technically the stereotypcial "black ninja gear" sprung from Japanese portrayals of ninja in theatre. Ninja usually just wore normal clothing, which was what made them so terrifying - unlike the obvious samurai, the ninja could be ANYONE. So naturally, whenever Japanese plays portrayed ninjas... they dressed like the stagehands. Now, you'll notice that just about everyone dresses garishly in Naruto-land. So they're blending in just fine! ...and they can always stealth it up with, like, magic, I guess.
- Actually ninjas did wear black, on night related missions, but they also wore whatever color or color pattern blended more with their environment, black got more popularize by the media because after all, black is cool, but imagine being on a snow field or a sandy field or in plain daylight wearing black, black is not an all time cover color, I'm looking at you Kankuro of the "sand" village (at least his puppets have the correct color).
- Actually Ninja wore dark blue during night missions due to it blending into the night sky better than black.
- Black is actually a very bad colour for night camo, sure if you were somewhere pitch black, like a cave or anywhere without windows or light, but pure black actually shows up really well in a nighttime setting, you'd show up as solid mass of black like a shadow, a dusty black, bordering on very dark grey would work, but as the above said, midnight blue works the best.
- Naruto's main techniques consist of creating multiple copies of himself (bad for stealth), making a bright swriling energy ball (very bad for stealth), and summoning a toad the size of a mountain (the exact opposite of stealth). I think it's safe to say he's abandoned the idea entirely.
- Also, orangutans are orange as well, and they are actually pretty well camouflaged in jungle terrain. And where is the village hidden in the leaves again?
- Er...this is an orangutan http://tinyurl.com/yc9sm3c , and this is Naruto - http://tinyurl.com/y9t7qon . It's safe to say that Naruto isn't gunning for stealth. Besides, the entire series is about confrontation. We see stealth only once in a while. ANBU is a good example.
- Bright orange is stealthier than you give it credit for. It has to do with how light works and the colors higher in sht spectrum (red and orange for example) becoming effectively black once things start to get dark. If you don't believe me take something red outside at night. Also not that his outfit does a great job of breaking up his outline camoflauge as often as not is not about making you harder to see it's about making you harder to aim at. For example look at the current military cammies that look like they were spat out of an Atari.
- Read Chapter 498. Kishimoto knew what he was doing the whole time.
- What do you get when you mix Konaha's Yellow Flash with the Bloody Red Habanero? Konoha's Orange Hokage! This moment is more than worth all the Fridge Logic behind the color.
- Honestly, most "ninja" battles involve shooting giant fireballs, creating massive water dragons, growing to the size of Godzilla, or summoning giant animals, so much so that whenever any real stealth gets used, the opponents lose their shit. So why is everyone complaining about his jumpsuit?
- Well leaves do become bright orange and red during early fall, his outfit wouldn't be too bad during that period. Plus the standard uniform and headband wouldn't be good on a recon mission with normal people since it is a known uniform of the ninja population. Naruto's outfit likely wouldn't draw too much attention day to day since most teenagers are goofing around with fashion anyway. I've seen 12 year olds wear worse stuff than what Naruto's got on. Plus stealth is situational, you wouldn't wear a pink dress when you're trying to infiltrate a company where a suit and tie are the norm but if you were trying to blend in with a group of young women a pink dress might be perfect. That and establishing a usual mode of dress could be beneficial. If everyone's expecting a blonde haired kid in bright orange he could easily dress in anything else and have a better chance of remaining unnoticed.
- Naruto's new coat bugs me. Specifically, why red rather than his usual orange?
- Most likely a tribute to Jiraiya, who's clothing was red.
- That's a coat in the exact same style as Yondaime-sama. More pointing at the fact that Naruto is really his kid.
- What's that cord in Naruto's orange and blue jacket's left shoulder for?
- I figured it was just some spare fuse and a striker for igniting fuse, as they tend to throw their explosives with their right over their left, so they drag the fuse over the cord thing and it lights it?
Naruto's Relationship With Sasuke
Naruto's Relationship With Sasuke
- Other than the fact that Masashi Kishimoto loves Sasuke for some reason, why exactly does Naruto want to save Sasuke? I know if the person I thought was my best friend betrayed my country (village, whatever) to its greatest enemy and then almost killed me I would want to kill him or at least catch him for him to face punishment from the authorities.
- He's part of his True Companions, and even if Naruto didn't want to save him, they still feel doing whatever with him is their responsibility.
- This troper wonders how Naruto can conceive Sasuke coming back after all he has done. Redemption Equals Death is the only option for Sasuke.
- So what HAS Sasuke actually done? Helped destroy the guy who lead the latest full scale invasion of Konoha? Fulfilled his brother's dying ambition? Infiltrated the evil organization? The absolute worst thing you can accuse him of is fighting another country's jinchuriki and even then his target survived (whether by intention or fluke is still up for grabs). He hasn't even killed a single person yet. He HAS rather indirectly caused a couple of his opponents' deaths, but I think it is not a coincidence that he still doesn't have blood on his hands.
- While a great many fans (including me) would like this, it seems really doubtful considering how sympathetically Kishi treats Sasuke, even after a big part of the fan base has come to dislike him. After all, Kishi has said that he's devoting this whole year to Sasuke. While this isn't WMG, I'd have to say it's much more likely Sasuke will just do a regular Heel Turn Face.
- Sasuke sought asylum with a traitor who tried to actively destroy the village, aimed to kill Naruto, invaded a village to kidnap one of its members to kill later, openly assaulted and attempted to murder the leaders of the five major ninja villages (later succeeding in killing Danzou), and is now working for an enemy organization hell-bent on taking over the world.
- Sasuke probably spent the whole timeskip studying how to defeat Orochimaru, so he cannot be considered evil at least till he learns the truth about Itachi from Tobi. Even after that, Kumogakure wasn't an ally of Konoha, and Sasuke technically isn't in the Akatsuki. He didn't even kill Bee, he just wanted to test his powers. And, more importantly, he didn't want to kill any of the kages beside Danzou, but he had to battle him anyway sooner or later, because Danzou wanted him dead ever since the Uchiha Massacre, that is when Sasuke was still completely innocent. While he almost lost himself there, I don't believe Sasuke became completely evil, seeing how he's fighting alongside Itachi against Kabuto, who joined forces with Akatsuki. This means Sasuke is basically fighting Akatsuki now, so we can definitely conclude that he is nowhere near being a member of the Akatsuki. And it's also important to know that Sasuke holds nothing against any of the villages except for Konoha, and that's because what they had done to Itachi. Even if it's not justified, which it may be, or may not be, Sasuke's actions are understandable, and if the series was called Sasuke, and not Naruto, he would be the hero (except he wouldn't pierce through Karin and the like then). Even Naruto says he understands why Sasuke did what he did, so I think that so should the readers.
- Sasuke still attacked Bee for Akatsuki, he could've waited to attack Danzo like his teammates suggested, instead he attacked a international summit in a neutral country, which made 3 more villages and the samurai want him dead as well, he's just recently turned on Tobi simply because he had gotten Itachi's eyes working. Just because his reason to attack Konoha and Danzo makes sense doesn't make his methods any less evil or stupid.
- Sasuke never said anything about being allies with Tobi, and he turned against him because he wanted to capture Naruto when he promised that Sasuke can fight him, not because he awakened his eyes, not to mention that Sasuke wants to destroy Konoha himself and the fact that Itachi is raised from the dead and is on the good side. He can't have waited before attacking Danzou, because he wanted to go to Konoha immediately, but Tobi held him back. Sasuke went through him with the Chidori, remember? Tobi could've killed him if he resisted, and Sasuke isn't stupid enough to fight if he has no chance. Sasuke may be rash and do some things that are possibly evil (though in a shinobi world, the definition of evil is a tricky one), he is the victim of the circumstances just as much. Had Tobi arrived later to kidnap the Sasuke who just defeated Itachi, things would have been very different.
- What? Sasuke is definitely stupid enough to think he could win against Tobi in a fight. He is SUICIDALLY overconfident. He breaks into the Kage sumit and thinks he is Badass enough to defeat all five of them, or at would be able to fight them off well enough to get at Danzou. He refused to belief Kakashi could ever hope to fight evenly with him and spammed his Mangekyo so much it blinded him in a matter of days. He similarly thought his Team Hawk would just walk into Kumagakure and take Killer Bee no problem (and we all know how well that turned out). Similarly when facing Kabuto he honestly doesn’t believe that there is anyone who is capable of defeating the tag team of him and Itachi. Sasuke could see the freaking Sage of Six Paths and expect the fight to be a cakewalk. The big problem is that Sasuke thinks he is much stronger and smarter than he actually is. He THINKS he is manipulating Tobi but in reality he is not. Tobi wants Sasuke to be a revenged obsessed monster and that is what Sasuke is. Tobi knew Sasuke would betray him and it is pretty clear that this is within his plans. And yes you are right that Tobi (who is a Manipulative Bastard) manipulated Sasuke, but that doesn’t change how stupid he is for falling for it so easily. He knows everything that happened, why things were done, and what his brother wanted, but he chooses to go after selfish revenge anyway. Tobi doesn’t hide anything from Sasuke so while he ws manipulative you can’t even say he tricked Sasuke with half-truths. Yes things could have been very different under different circumstances (we have been told that plenty of times about a lot of different situations) but the situation that is presented is not of Sasuke being a woobie who was tricked by the evil Big Bad but instead of a guy making very stupid and completely nonsensical decisions. Being an idiot should not earn our, or the character’s, sympathies.
- Sasuke is at this point is obviously Insane, thanks to Itachi brilliant idea to Tsukyomi him into insanity.
- If Naruto and Sasuke fail to bring Sasuke back, it would be an extremely depressing ending, and would still be a Downer Ending even if it had the Redemption Equals Death ending. Naruto's quest to bring Sasuke back is hardly the bleakest "friend redemption" plot I have ever seen; a similar situation in Muhyo and Roji in which Muhyo's main goal is to bring Enchu back, even though Enchu seems to have fallen to evil and is actively trying to kill Muhyo.
- Ho Yay.
- In the fight against Haku, back before Naruto had the village's regard, Sasuke took half a dozen needles to the throat for him. This comes soon after Haku's speech about becoming strong to protect people, and echoes Iruka defending Naruto in the fight against Mizuki. Naruto isn't going to be convinced that Sasuke is irreedemably evil any more than if Iruka defected.
- Just try to call Iruka not evil if he also attempted to stab Naruto through the heart. Keeping in mind, Sasuke gave him a Chidori straight through the chest, only missed his heart because Naruto diverted it at the last second, and was surprised that Naruto started regenerating (so he still thought it would be lethal until he saw that).
- This isn't about good or evil, this specifically about Naruto's relationship with Sasuke and the bottom line is quite simply that Naruto believes that had his life been just a little different he could very easily have become Sasuke, Gaara, or Itachi. He has a special relationship with Sasuke because he wanted Sasuke to acknowledge him, and he did. During the Battle at the Valley of End Sasuke acknowledged him and there is probably nothing Sasuke could ever do that would would ever change how Naruto feels because Naruto feels it's not his fault.
- Why was it that Naruto didn't seem very concerned when it was getting within weeks until the three years since Orochimaru last changed passed even though they had no leads on finding him and Sasuke?
- He had the more pressing goal of becoming strong enough to defeat him; if he can't do that, finding Sasuke is pointless.
- In a recent chapter, it has been explained (or at least suggested) that Naruto's vast chakra comes from his mother.
- Ok, something that bugs me is that at the Valley of the End, Naruto refers to Sasuke as his best friend, and vice-versa. I was like "what?" at that part. From what I've seen of their relationship in Part 1, it's involved them accidentally kissing, Naruto trying to outdo Sasuke on missions and in training, Sasuke telling Naruto to surpass him if he doesn't want to keep getting humiliated by him, Sasuke acknowledging him as a Worthy Opponent at the Chunin Exams, and Sasuke getting into a fight with him over Naruto's sudden growth of power. Aside from that, they rarely seem to hang out, outside of missions and training, and I don't think they've ever had an actual conversation together. How on earth can they consider themselves to be best friends?
- This is the main problem with Naruto and Sasuke's arc to begin with. We're expected to buy that they were close friends as kids and that's why Naruto keeps trying to redeem him. The problem is Sasuke has been pretty unsympathetic and stand-offish from day 1 and never treated anyone with much respect, so Naruto and Sakura's feelings don't make a lot of sense. If he had been a nicer or more compassionate person (like say Obito was shown to be as a kid) the whole thing would be a lot easier to swallow, but his very first line is "I hate a lot of things, and I don't particularly like anything, and my goal is to kill.....a certain someone." and he only gets worse from there. Frankly, it's a bigger surprise no one saw his betrayal coming.
- Actually, it says a lot about the sheer loneliness the two of them are going through. Naruto spent his childhood without any friends: Hinata was too shy to talk to him, Shikamaru barely tolerated him, and everybody else actively avoided him. Sasuke lived alone in the Uchiha district since the rest of the clan was massacred. He was popular with the girls, but he found them obnoxious. The fact that Sakura, who is supposed to be the smartest girl in their class, didn't realize that knocking orphans would anger Sasuke rather than help win him over, shows how distant Sasuke's admirers actually were from him. To wit, Hinata knew Naruto better than any of Sasuke's admirers knew Sasuke. In conclusion, they consider each other best friends because at this point, they are pretty much each other's only friend.
- Naruto calling Sasuke his best friend in their final fight is a mistranslation.
- I've kind of taken that his reasons for wanting to bring him back probably stems from Naruto seeing good in people (well, people like Sasuke, for the most part, but still), in which case, he'd want to bring him back, along with, if you think about it, Team 7 was the closest Naruto probably had a to family or having anyone to relate to, so he'd hate to lose him. I mean, in Boruto, it's mentioned that Naruto thinks of the village as his family, so, it's possible that the same thought processes might factor into why he'd want to bring him back (among other things).
- Naruto is a lonely, love-hungry person, for all his talk about The Power of Friendship, it's clear outside of his overwhelmingly cheery disposition, he hasn't the slightest idea of how friendships and relationships really work, remember he confused Hinatas Love Confession, equating it to how much he loves Ramen, in the real world, someone like Naruto would be considered extremely delusional, hell, most of the people who hear him go on about Sasuke consider him that, in all honesty the first kind of proper friendship he truly strikes up on his own, wasn't Sasuke, it was Gaara, because they bonded over shared history, and their own feelings towards how they have been treated, in all honesty Sasuke has done absolutely nothing to warrant "best friend" status from Naruto, dude's a major douche, but Nakama and all that.
- I'm sorry I don't know if I can ask this here or not, but did Kishimoto really want Naruto and Sasuke to be a couple? I read in the internet that "homophobic editors" got in the way and made them straight.
- That's the first I've heard of it. Unless they have legitimate sources I'd say it's just some fans wishful thinking/conspiracy theories. Some fans I recall claim (as a joke or a critique) that the only way Naruto's dedication to Sasuke made sense was if he was in love with him, but in my view that's not really something for them to decide.
- Yeah I don't get why people cannot see a man having strong sympathy for another man without calling them gay, I agree that his obsession with Sasuke is not healthy, but gay? It's just something I see a lot being brought up in Narusasu discussions, that they were supposed to be canon originally.
- That's the first I've heard of it. Unless they have legitimate sources I'd say it's just some fans wishful thinking/conspiracy theories. Some fans I recall claim (as a joke or a critique) that the only way Naruto's dedication to Sasuke made sense was if he was in love with him, but in my view that's not really something for them to decide.
Naruto and the Ninja Academy
Naruto and the Ninja Academy
- At the start of the manga (and anime) they state that Naruto failed the graduation exam twice before, so how is it that he is the same age as the rest of the cast? Shouldn't he be two years older at least?
- He probably started two years earlier, what with the dream of being Hokage he's always had.
- Which doesn't explain how he didn't know Neji, Lee, or Tenten when they would have passed the exam at the time of his second failure.
- Multiple classes. Konoha's pretty big and Naruto's class only seems to have thirty or so students, even if most kids don't go to the academy it'd make sense that there's more ninja's than we see. The 'rookie nine' being teams seven eight and ten reinforces this idea.
- The Chuunin exam is held twice a year so the Genin could have been the same or they could take it when they felt they were ready. The Genin exam is much simpler and only involves the ninjas from the academy. My view of this is that Naruto failed the exam once and then he retook it some months later but still failed. I think that doesn't sound too silly.
- Given that Naruto seems to think he'll have to wait ages to retake the exam and the fact it seems to be a big production, I don't think they have a 'take it whenever' policy. It's possible that they have multiple graduations a year but I think the way that they show all the students who graduated with Naruto and then jump up to Gai and his students who have been training for a year without once mentioning any in-between teams points against that. You would think that, for example, the argument about whether or not it was right for Kakashi to enter his students into the Chuunin Exam so early would be a perfect time to bring up an in-between team. Gai could bring any of those teams up as an example of more precedence for waiting to take the exam or, if they took it sooner than Gai's students did, Kakashi could point out that not everybody waits as long to test his students as Gai does.
- Well, there's such a thing as repeat exams. He could have simply used the time leading up to the graduation ceremony to retake the exam. Schools in Japan (and other countries besides) have a policy to have make-up exams for students who fail a term exam just so they don't fall behind their peers. Likely this is where Kishimoto got that system.
- In a situation where the majority of the graduates are doomed to fail just as part of the system no matter how talented they may be, I can't believe that they would let people who couldn't pass the exam on the first try get another chance. This isn't like in real-life schools. Naruto failing shows that he's probably not ready to be a ninja and will therefore probably die and get his teammates killed if he is passed. He challenged this belief when he learned the Kage Bunshin on his own with very little time but most people who fail the exam just aren't ready and it won't do them any good to give them extra chances to get lucky.
- Naruto was also very impatient at the start of the series, which may have been the reason why he thought it would take ages to take the next test. He was also more arrogant about his skills back then, thinking that they were better than they actually were. He might have tried to graduate early because of his own arrogance thinking that he was better than he was in reality.
- In Japanese schools, which the ninja academy was based on, there aren't two semesters but rather three trimesters, each of them with their own exam the score for which is a part of the final grade. So the fact that Naruto had failed the last two exams doesn't mean that he repeated the year twice or tried to graduate early twice and failed; rather, it means that he totally bombed the first two of the three exams in the final year and thus his grades right now, in the graduating year, are worse than shit. But he is the same age as his peers, and always was.
- He probably started two years earlier, what with the dream of being Hokage he's always had.
- This troper is bothered by how the Academy Exam at the begining of the series based it's final exam around a showing of a single Jutsu. That's like a normal class final exam consisting of only one question and counting for 90% of your total grade.
- As revealed by Kakashi, the Academy Exam doesn't really matter. The test given by the jounin sensei is the only thing that matters and it's doubtful any jounin would pass a genin who wasn't ready.
- The Academy has a bit of Continuity Drift; there were initially 27 students in the academy, but when Sasuke first attends in the flashback, there are 30. Additionally, Lee somehow passes without being able to do ninjutsu at all (although Neji indicates that he's an unusual case). It's possible that Naruto could have passed without being able to do the clone jutsu if his grades were good enough, but since he wasn't a very good student, he failed.
- This troper always assumed that they tailored the final quesiton to each student's weakness, and were measuring how much they had overcome their earlier inability.
- Canonically Naruto also started the Academy early, but he's the same age as his classmates. Similarly, despite failing multiple times, there are no implications that any of the earlier genin (Like Lee, Tenten, and Neji who should know him) have any idea who he is.
- The final year has three exams, the one shown is the last one. It is possible (though I do not find it very likely) that the previous exams tested other things. Also, yeah, the academy exams don't really matter outside of weeding out those who are completely incompetent.
- Why doesn't Naruto just ask Tsunade to declare him a chunin? (Especially since he knows her) The Hokage after all, has final say.
- The missions he is being given are Jounin rank no question, everyone knows how powerful he is and Tsunade even strongly considers him as a replacement Hokage if she ever died. What is in a title when he has bigger goals?
- Yes but I doubt the elders are going to allow a genin to become hokage, it's way too big of a jump.
- Gaara anyone? (I thought he went through the jounin rank, though. That's the impression I got from Kankorou's flashback in volume 28.)
- That seems to take place in Part I, and it mainly concerns his decision to part with his siblings and join a regular squad. Unfortunately, the databooks never mention when someone becomes a Jonin; only their graduation and Chunin promotions (12 and 14 for Gaara), so we have no idea when or whether he became one (although it's possible to be promoted quickly; Neji became a Jonin by age 17 after becoming a Chunin at age 15).
- Just because you're the world's best soldier doesn't mean when you join the army you'll become a general. Being a chunin is just as much about maturity, leadership, and cunning as it is about ninja skills.
- The problem is that clearly the rank of Kage is based MORE on your power than your overall wisdom. (Unless the current batch are just a freak occurance) Neither Jiraya nor Tsunade are shown to be particularly brilliant or wise. Who would want a drunken gambler as the leader of the village or a wandering porn writer? Particularly when you had people as smart as Kakashi around. (I'd add Danzo to the list but I'll accept that he simply didn't exist to be an option.) Gaara can't possibly be the wisest or even in the top ten wise people in his village. If the Mizukage is the wisest person in her village I pity them. Not as much as pity the people who put the Raikage in charge for his maturity but still. A simple look at the current batch (I'll grant you that the historical kage seem to be above average inteligence but even the First Hokage fought Madara for the privilege) so yeah Naruto stopped Pein, something the entire village combined failed at he's the best choice for what is effectively the champion of the village. It's worth noting that we've seen that the Kages aren't actually in charge, there is a council of elders that at the very least has to approve of anything more important than which ninja get sent out on missions.
- It isn't just about power (though that is part of it) and "overall" wisdom isn't as essential as situational wisdom. While Tsunade might have seemed an odd choice, when she actually gets the position we're given nothing to show that she isn't exemplary at it. Similarly with Gaara; you might be discounting his wisdom due to youth, but this is the same universe where Sarutobi says Itachi had the wisdom of a Hokage at age 7. And while we haven't seen the Raikage in the best light, most of his rash decisions are a result of being directly involved on issues of his brother (who's also the clan's WMD) being kidnapped by a terrorist organization. It makes sense (and is even directly addressed) that he's not in the most rational frame of mind, and when that issue is resolved he displays much more restraint and wisdom. You're putting too high of a premium on wisdom while discounting other factors. Yes, Kakashi might be smarter than Tsunade, but he's also an emotional basket-case with a severe amount of self-loathing due to having everyone he's ever cared about die (self-loathing is a horrible thing to have in a leader) and he knows it, which is why he turned down the position over Danzo in the first place. With his baggage he knew he wouldn't be a good Hokage and wouldn't be able to make the hard decisions when it really mattered, and it wasn't until he confronted those problems during the war that he actually became emotionally stable enough to be responsible for the wellbeing of the entire village. All the kage of the present era have been entirely willing to put the wellbeing of the village ahead of their own wellbeing, and make decisions that were most beneficial to the village as a whole. Being a kage isn't just about being the biggest badass around, otherwise there wouldn't be an election, it would be a free-for-all tournament with the kage title as the prize. Being a kage isn't about strength or wisdom but a mixture of both along with innumerable other qualities. The real issue is that until the great war we didn't get a good look at any of the international relations (other than being told they were negative) so we don't actually get to see the kage make any political decisions with implications for the other villages and don't have a good gauge to judge whether or not they have any political savvy. We only see them just prior to a war, in which case politics take a backburner to military tactics, which is what military tacticians are for, not leaders of villages.
- Having a council approve your decisions doesn't mean you're not in charge, it just means there is more of a balance of power. Clearly the Kage has more power than any individual council member and is the one that really sets policy.
- At the same time, it's fairly clear that charisma and leadership skills are more important than raw power or wisdom. The Kage of any given village may not be the most powerful or skilled, but s/he undoubtedly must have the ability to win over the village. The Kage is the celebrity leader; advisers can take care of the extra stuff.
- Isn't it also kind of Naruto's fault since there's an exam they're supposed to take? Of course, since part of it has to be taken with a team he'd have to, however briefly, leave Sakura and Kakashi again and deal with two people he doesn't know. (And given his reaction to Sai, he might not do so well dealing with a new "team" for however briefly it lasts.)
- If Sasuke comes back, he has a second person.
- Which might also explain why he wants to bring him back (one fiction even had such a thing as a noodle incident, with all genin other than Naruto and Sasuke surrendering their fights out of fear; I'm digressing, though). And while Tsunade can make him into a chuunin, it's possible that him being genin is amusing for her, and it's not like he cares about the rank that much. Besides, he believes in individual effort too much to ask Tsunade to make him into a chuunin.
- Remember, pre - Time Skip, the only reason Tsunade kept him around is that with all that ramen, at least he's cheap to feed.
- The reason he wants to become Hokage is for acknowledgment, not the rank. Same for the Chuunin rank. He wants to show everyone what he is capable of. If Tsunade simply names him a Chuunin, he won't have earned it. He gained a lot of respect during the Chuunin exam, and he wants the respect he would get if he goes through all the way. Being able to say "Tsunade thinks I'm strong enough" doesn't quite have the impact of kicking butt in front of hundreds of spectators.
- The way Tsunade seems to be just plain mean to him. For instance, in The Mysterious Curse of the Haunted Castle, she picks Kiba for his enhanced scenting, Hinata for her sight (Byakugan), and Naruto because "he's available". If it's a search and retrieval mission you're on, wouldn't the ability to make a bunch of clones be a useful skill to have on your team? I'm surprised Hinata didn't mention it, seeing as she likes him. Though in that case it could be because she's not good on the spot. What's Tsunade's excuse? Is she trying to toughen him up?
- This is a form of Character Exaggeration in the anime. In the manga, the only time she gets angry with him is when he complains about getting a C-Ranked mission right after coming back, and otherwise expresses great faith in him, although not always directly to him.
- In Shippuden Movie 2, Neji says Naruto's teamwork is still Genin-level. This is shown when he does a Leeroy Jenkins and runs into the attack on Shion's temple, resulting in him getting trapped in the enemy's jutsu (although he does save Shion's life in the process). Then again, Naruto says during the 10th question of the first phase that even if he's a Genin forever, he'll find a way to become Hokage, so being a Genin, Chunin or Jonin matters less to him (although he's a bit hurt that he's still behind his friends).
- Well they've been ignoring procedure, they send our little Genin on S-ranked missions on a regular basis...They've got important things to do than worry about ranks.
- There's also the rank of S-Rank, which is pretty much designed for him. It's higher than Jonin but lower than Kage, and you just have to be powerful, there are no tests as far as we know. Jiraiya was one. Why not make Naruto, who by this point is undeniably stronger than him and around as strong as the Kage's, one?
- I think that's more a comment on power-level than an actual rank to hold. Some Jounin may be S-ranked, some Kages may be not. You can say that Naruto is an S-ranked ninja but not that Naruto is no longer a genin and is now an S-rank.
- I'm pretty sure Higher than Jonin but lower than Kage is Sennin in Naruto-verse, so in order to take S-Rank missions you have to be at least on par with people like Jiraya, Tsunade and Orochimaru, Their nickname is the Legendary Sannin, not the Only Sannin.
- As it turns out. Sannin is not a rank. It was a title that was given to them by Hanzo the Salamander as a way to honor their power since they put up a good fight against him. He literally dubbed them the Legendary 3 Ninja. Sennin (Sage) or Sannin are not ranks. Just titles.
- The missions he is being given are Jounin rank no question, everyone knows how powerful he is and Tsunade even strongly considers him as a replacement Hokage if she ever died. What is in a title when he has bigger goals?
- If Naruto hadn't graduated, there would have only been 26 academy graduates. How exactly would they form enough three man teams for everyone?
- Maybe they could mix or match them into other teams? Just because Kakashi only threatened to fail his entire squad doesn't mean that other Jonin couldn't have possibly failed only one or two members of their own three-man squads, then plugged those holes with the extra two students. Also, it's of course possible that one or more of the students could have failed alongside Naruto. He doesn't have the monopoly on Book Dumb.
- I'm inclided to think that if Iruka didn't pass Naruto team 7 would be a two man team (and likely fail due to Kakashi's strict standards)
- Strangely enough, during Sasuke's first year at the academy (it also bugs me that they don't specify how long people attend, although it seems to be five or six years), there were 30 students in his class and 90 in the academy. Three of the class might have dropped out.
- I like the explanation provided in a fanfic called "Destiny is a Hazy Thing" (which seems to be a "love it or hate it" story) - in it, there are two classes, a normal one and an "elite" one, the second of which is filled with clan heirs, people who got recommendations for entering, and then (if there are enough places left) some of the normal class' best students. After the graduation, everyone who passes is given an exam by one of their assigned "jounin instructors", but only those who got the clan heirs and recommended students (and fillers, such as Sakura, who either got lucky or was supposed to be treated like a clan heir for whatever reason) pass their teams (it does make sense with some exams; Kakashi passed them when they fed Naruto, but he might've passed them just as well when they refused to feed him, citing their ability to follow orders as reason [regardless of his own agenda]), while the rest are sent back into the academy and then graduate into regular duty after some time, without getting their jounin instructor and only being able to get a merit promotion (in said story, chuunin exams are treated like political war-games of sorts, which would make sense seeing as the strongest genin would be those who got their own instructor, and only those [due to the fact that "normal" graduates would lack a team] would be able to enter; thus, all of the major nations could have their fights on the arena instead of the battlefields). Going with this train of thoughts, if Naruto didn't graduate, then one of the fillers would be placed on Kakashi's team, unless Kakashi wanted Naruto as his underling and later did something to make graduation possible for him.
- Here's what is confusing me about the Academy Final Exam. Sakura proved that all it required to pass this test was to transform into Iruka AKA transforming from one person into another. So why does Naruto fail even after using the Sexy Jutsu? He changed gender, managed to hide his clothes and held it for a decent length of time showing that he is capable of the required chakra control. the Sexy Jutsu is the Transformation Technique, it's just a very inappropriate use of it. The ultimate proof of this is that barely weeks later, after failing this exam for three straight years, he managed a near enough perfect recreation of Akamaru despite the stress and injuries that came from his beating by Kiba.
- Naruto failed not because he didn't know the henge. Sexy Jutsu is after all a good example of it. He failed because he disobeyed orders and more or less showed that he was fooling around instead of being serious. Look at all the other kids, they all transform into Iruka, which was probably the point of the test aka following orders and showing the skill. Naruto did not follow orders and thus failed.
- It's like drawing a lion when your art teacher tells you to draw a house cat. It's similar, but not what was asked for.
- Naruto didn't fail because of his inappropriate use of the Transformation Technique; the exam required him to perform the Clone Technique. The Transformation Technique task was a regular class exercise, not the exam.
- That wasn't an exam, but rather just practice before it. Nevertheless, here is the reason Iruka was angry at him. In the Naruto continuity, being a ninja is equivalent to being a soldier, and thus one of the most important things for the graduates is to be able to listen to orders. That is why Naruto changing into something differing from the specified form made his teacher angry - it made it clear that Naruto doesn't follow orders, and just one day from the graduation exam that was a problem.
- Naruto failed not because he didn't know the henge. Sexy Jutsu is after all a good example of it. He failed because he disobeyed orders and more or less showed that he was fooling around instead of being serious. Look at all the other kids, they all transform into Iruka, which was probably the point of the test aka following orders and showing the skill. Naruto did not follow orders and thus failed.
- Is it canon that the two best students are placed with the worse student or was that just the assumption people made to explain why Naruto was with Sasuke and Sakura? Because that would make no sense at all. The reason given for doing this would be to make the teams balanced but what would the point of making them balanced be? A maximum of nine students graduate every year. Why would they want even one, let alone three, crappy students instead of the nine best ones? Wouldn't it make more sense to put together really good teams and not worry about making the teams all about equal by sticking the talented kids with duds? And furthermore, wouldn't promoting a dud just get the dud and possibly the teammates killed?
- The worst students who passed. Not the worst ones in general, and if you pass, you aren't enough of a dud to actually hold back the team. I think the reason for this is that ninjas passing with bad grades on the basis of amazing special talents could be fairly common (Out of the Konoha 12, Naruto and assumedly Rock Lee passed this way, and all the rest of them have some kind of special ability apart from Sakura at first). Since these sorts of students are far too overspecialised, they need to be put with really good all round students so they can use their abilities to their maximum in fights.
- Additionally, it can keep the weaker ninjas from holding each other back. If the top rookies were kept in separate squads from those who barely managed to graduate, the prodigies would get to do all kinds of interesting C-rank missions and the weaker ones would be stuck with the boring D-rank missions. Putting the weaker students with the most talented allows the weaker ones to learn from them and allow them to go on more dangerous/varied/not-incredibly-boring missions so as to gain experience. After all, even though they're technically ninja who sometimes take on possibly-dangerous missions, Genin seem to still be in the role of a learner, like padawans. Additionally, the squads compete with each other, like with the Chunin Exam, so it would be simply unfair not to balance the squads.
- A couple things with Kakashi's apparent Chunin promotion age:
- According to the databooks, Kakashi graduated from the academy at 5 and was promoted to Chunin at 6...I'm sorry...but that means Kakashi went through the Ninja academy in a single year...at 4 years old, I don't think a 4 year olds hands are even big enough to properly hold a Kunai.
- And for the second problem, chapter 599 seems to contradict this, They said Kakashi became chunin when he defeated Guy a year after he graduated (he was 6 years old). This doesn't make sense since they couldn't have done the chunin exams together(Guy only graduated the acadamy at the age of 7 and obito and Rin when they were 9 years old). They all joined the acadamy at the same time so they are likely to be the same age(and according to the Databooks, Kakashi and Guy are the same age) I suppose that tecnically Guy could be a few months older than Kakashi, and Obitos and Rins ages are never mentioned, so it could be technically possible for them to be 3 years older than kakashi, but it implied by the artwork and storyline that there about the same age. So barring Obito and Rin being much older than they look, there is no way they could have taken the chunin exam with Kakashi. And of course the biggest screw up, Anko participated in the same exam, which would make her 4 years old if kakshis promotion age is correct (despite the fact that she didn't graduate until she was 10).
