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6 reviews
Naruto
alt title(s): Naruto Shippuden
A new generation, a new destiny. (From right to left: Naruto, Kakashi, and Sakura)

In a world rife with Ninja, one boy seeks to become the greatest ninja there ever was. That boy is Naruto Uzumaki, a twelve-year old ninja-in-training who tries makes up for his lack of talent and intellect with enthusiasm and sheer determination.

However, Naruto's cheerful disposition hides a dark secret: when he was but a baby, his hometown of Konohagakure ("The Village Hidden In the Leaves") was attacked by a monstrous demon fox known as the Kyuubi ("Nine Tails"). The beast was eventually subdued, but not before it had killed many of the strongest ninja of the village. Furthermore, the beast had to be contained in the infant Naruto's body, and the boy has had to grow up with the stigma of basically being a living prison for a demonic monster.

But like any good Shonen protagonist, Naruto doesn't let this slow him down. He continues to pursue his ambition of becoming the next Hokage ("Flame Shadow", a title for the head ninja of his village). The manga Naruto follows the story of his pursuit of greatness, with the help of his teammates (Angst-ridden antihero Sasuke and hot-headed love-interest Sakura), and eventually moves to encompass their struggles against Big Bad Orochimaru, the ruthless leader of the rival village of Otogakure ("Village Hidden in the Sound"), and eventually, the struggle within each other.

On February 8, 2007, the original series ended after 220 episodes, of which 96 were filler and 85 of those were infamously consecutive. The continuation, Naruto: Shippuden, debuted on February 15, 2007. It focuses on the further adventures of the now-15-year-old Naruto.

The English dub ran on Toonami in the US. When the news first spread that Naruto was hitting the States, 4Kids seemed eager to jump on the license, but they lost interest. Fans were relieved, to say the least (see One Piece). Viz scooped up the license and dubbed it for the US audiences. At first, it seemed like it would be marketed as a kiddie show with blood - Never Say Die was in full effect - but the Wave Country arc onwards saw free usage of the words "kill", "die", etc.

Also notable is that as of January 2009, an official English subtitled version of the anime will be available for a subscription fee as little as an hour after the Japanese broadcast on and available subtitled for free on this site which started with the beginning of Shippuden and has since caught up. For American users, the television site Hulu features the episodes for free a week after they're aired, catching up at the same rate. Which is good, considering Cartoon Network stopped airing the show when there was only 11 episodes of filler left (though luckily episodes in either language are still available on iTunes and coming out on DVD). If, like many of us, you don't live in the US you can also watch Naruto for free within an hour of it being broadcast in Japan at Crunchyroll.

Dubbed episodes of Shippuden are now airing on Disney XD as of October 28, 2009. The broadcast dub is about as edited Cartoon Network version. The uncut episodes of the first 13 dubbed are available on iTunes.

For a look at the (many) characters, take a look at the character sheet. In a similar vein to Yugioh The Abridged Series, Naruto The Abridged Series is quite hilarious.

Note: When writing new instances of tropes in fan translations, be careful of using SleepyFans translations, as they have made significant errors in the past. Manga Toshokan provides multiple translations to compare.

This series provides examples of:
  • Acrofatic: Choji
  • Adaptation Distillation: Unlike many of the earlier filler arcs, the recent anime episodes 119 and 120 depicting Kakashi Gaiden were virtually flawless. True to the source material, it really helps drive home how Kakashi became who he is.
  • Adaptation Expansion: The anime often expands on subplots, like Shikamaru's reaction to Asuma's death. It also adds scenes to most of the fights and sometimes adds entire fights (Sasuke vs. Temari).
  • The Abridged Series: Naruto The Abridged Series.
  • A God Am I: Pain.
  • All Of The Other Reindeer: Konoha villagers. Inverted, or perhaps reinforced, in one of the most recent chapters: through flashbacks from a minor character who'd previously adhered to this trope in a big way, it turns out the Konoha villagers have actually been paying attention to Naruto's development from Bratty Half Pint to Heroic Determinator.
  • All Love Is Unrequited: The case with several of the main characters. And Hinata.
  • All There In The Manual: The databooks hold a lot of information never revealed in the anime or manga, like the backstories of Akatsuki members Hidan and Kakuzu and how the former's immortality technique works. Also a recent art book gave names and pictures to the tailed beasts and their hosts who were killed offscreen and only appeared on the splash page for chapter 420.
  • All Your Colors Combined: Rainbow Chakra. Granted, it only appears in The Movie, but it's too good an example to pass up.
  • Aloof Big Brother: Itachi
  • Americans Hate Tingle: The American fanbase is quite divided on Sasuke, while he is more consistently popular in Japan.
  • Anchored Ship: Naruto doesn't believe he can tell Sakura about how he feels as long as he hasn't fulfilled his promise to bring back Sasuke. And then Sai tells Sakura for him, inducing a massive Heroic BSOD. Sakura is so ridden with guilt over what Naruto's gone through because of her that she rushes straight to Naruto to all but perform an unanchoring ceremony, which doesn't end well..
    • More like it doesn't have the desired result. Sakura failed to get Naruto to abandon Sasuke, but Naruto's not doing it for his promise, see Cycle Of Revenge.
  • Angst What Angst: Naruto, who gave up angsting a long time ago. Still, finding out you have what is basically the physical analogue of the devil inside you seems kind of...big to get over in just a few minutes.
  • Anguished Declaration Of Love: Sakura to Sasuke in Part 1. He merely responds that she's annoying, but thanks her before knocking her out to prevent her from trying to stop him from leaving or going with him.
    • Hinata to Naruto during the Pain arc, nearly getting herself killed in the process and setting off a Heroic BSOD and the mother of all UnstoppableRages. Oh, and seriously, seriously tormenting the shippers.
    • Rin to Kakashi near the end of Kakashi Gaiden too. He responds that he doesn't deserve her for abandoning her, but he will protect her as Obito, who secretly loved her, would.
    • Sai gives one of these on Naruto's behalf, to Sakura.
      • And then Sakura gives it to Naruto herself. Except Naruto rejects it because she's being not at all honest (and he's not alone). Even telling her that he hates people who lie to themselves. Sakura then further embarasses herself, claiming that Naruto doesn't know her feelings and gives a long string of reasons why she did what she did. Naruto doesn't buy it, and tells her that she's just making excuses. Sakura then leaves angrily.
  • Animal Motifs: All the Hosts of the Tailed Beasts have them. Plus Choji has butterflies, Kiba has dogs, and Neji has birds.
  • Animation Bump : Some of the fights, notably Sasuke vs. Orochimaru, Naruto vs. Sasuke and some parts of Team 10 vs. Hidan and Kakuzu.
  • Animated Actors: Some of the Omake segments have the characters as these.
  • Armor Piercing Question: Gaara asks one to the council of Kages.
  • Arrogant Kung Fu Guy: Everyone, but even then there are a few exceptional cases. Neji is one to the point of almost being the Trope Namer. In general Konoha's noble clans (Hyuuga and Uchiha) are Ninjier than thou.
  • Art Shift: In the anime, Juugo's initial flashback is drawn in a more abstract, undefined style. Also, the 4 tails Kyuubi may count as it is drawn almost indentically as it was in the Manga, resulting in something which was probably very intentionally surreal.
  • Ascended Extra: The rest of the Konoha 11 outside of Naruto, Sakura and Shikamaru in the anime, who often receive central roles in filler arcs.
  • Assimilation Plot: Madara's master plan: using the moon as a conduit to cast a happy-happy-unity genjutsu on the whole world.
  • Asskicking Equals Authority: The Kages.
  • Ass Shove: The "1,000 Years of Pain" technique.
  • Ax Crazy: Hidan, Gaara before his Heel Face Turn.
  • Badass Bookworm: Shikamaru
  • Badass Normal: Rock Lee
  • Badass Teacher: Iruka, being more of a schoolteacher type, defines this trope.
  • The Bad Guy Wins: The end of Part 1.
  • Balloon Belly: Worked into Choji's fighting style.
  • Base Breaker: Sasuke, as well as Uchihas in general.
  • Battle Butler: Zabuza's apprentice, Haku.
  • Beat Still My Heart: In a Filler episode, a ninja impersonating Kabuto links her heart to Naruto's and then pulls it out still beating.
  • Beast Man: Kiba
  • Berserk Button: A very common feature in this series.
    • Given the right circumstances, Naruto does not take deaths well. He goes ballistic when Haku apparently kills Sasuke, but that's nothing compared to his reaction when Pain apparently kills the first ever person to tell him "I love you". Insinuating that Sasuke is beyond redemption also does not sit well with him; just ask Orochimaru.
    • Also calling Chouji "fat", taking his last potato chip, or mocking Shikamaru in front of him. As shown by his fight with Jirobo, he considers the third of those to be by far the worst.
    • Never call Tsunade an old hag.
    • Recently we've learned that it's a bad idea to mention marriage, engagements or needing a man to the current Mizukage. It's also inadvisable to use any words that might possibly be confused with the words "marriage" or "engagement". Which is a lot more than you might think.
    • Question Pain's ideals and he'll nuke your city. While keeping a completely straight face.
  • Big Bad: Currently Madara Uchiha, but the series seems to drift through them and often it seems that villains just end up on top of the villain pile by coincidence rather than design. The series' first and only proper, archetypal Big Bad was probably Orochimaru.
  • Big Eater: Naruto can eat several bowls of ramen for dinner without gaining weight, and Anko often eats dozens of sticks of dumplings for lunch- and several days' worth of calories. Chouji and his whole clan are like this, as they use the extra body mass for their fighting style.
  • Big Fancy House: The Uchiha extended-family compound stands out particularly for its size and the Hyuugas is the most frequently seen, but most of the established ninja clans have pretty impressive spreads.
  • BFS: All of the "Seven Swordsmen of the Mist" seem to have their own BFS. Except Raiga.
  • Big Ol Eyebrows: Rock Lee and Might Guy, to the point of almost being alive. Also Inari's dog Pochi and master Sab-chan.
  • Bishonen: Kakashi, if Ayame's reaction is to be believed. We don't get to see it, though.
  • Bizarrchitecture: The Land of Iron is located around the "Three Wolves"; three "mountains" which are shaped like canine mouths◊. How the hell does that happen?
  • Blood Magic: Summoning
  • Blood Upgrade: Gaara (It's my BLOOOD!)
  • Boobs Of Steel: Tsunade, of course.
  • Bowdlerise: Jetix UK, RTL 2, and maybe where it's airing in Australia. In short, any Anglophone country that airs this except for America is/has going to make/made a mess of it.
    • On the upside, Manga is doing good stuff by providing the uncut version for a paltry £20 for 13 episodes.
    • The manga's English release that censored... drinking (accidentally) and smoking. In two pivotal scenes. OTL
    • Sasuke pulling out his sword on Naruto was cut out on the Disney XD broadcast of the first Shippuden episode, and the first few episodes didn't say "die" or "kill".
      • True, but it could be worse. It could be like the German dub.
  • Boring Immortal Hero: Sasuke Retrieval Arc, where all five bad guys (not counting Sasuke) died, but all five good guys survived (including two that really looked like they were dying)
  • Brilliant But Lazy: Shikamaru
  • Broken Pedestal: Aside from Sasuke's first childhood view of his brother being destroyed in his background story, Part 2 has revealed that after Madara's attack, the Second Hokage placed the Uchiha in the military police to keep them away from a political position and to have ANBU keep watch over them. This policy was maintained until the Uchiha clan was on the verge of rebellion against Konoha, which might have led to a fourth ninja war. This is followed with the revelation that most of Konoha's leaders, sans Hokage, ordered Itachi to kill his family. Granted the Big Bad delivered this, so the info is dubious, so this may just be an Invoked Trope, but it does cast a rather uncaring light on two of the Hokages.
  • Brother Chuck: Characters may disappear for several years before showing up again(Anko, the Sand Village), but they rarely fade away completely. Iruka, for example, showed up literally hundreds of chapters since we last saw him, to comfort Naruto after Jiraya's death.
  • Bruce Lee Clone: Again, Rock Lee and Might Guy.
  • Butt Monkey: Naruto and Sakura before the start of the series. In early chapters Naruto still had shades of this, but generally this has faded.
  • Cain And Abel: Sasuke and Itachi.
  • Calling The Old Man Out: Naruto does this when he meets his father in his mindscape.
  • Cant Catch Up: A particularly galling instance in the Pain arc, where apparently the entire village of Konoha can't keep up with Naruto.
  • Cat Fight: The Chunin Exams suspiciously pair most of the girls against each other.
  • Character Entry: Naruto
  • Chekhovs Boomerang: Jiraiya's first book features a story with a character named Naruto who has a tough battle against a rouge ninja; at first Naruto thinks the story is dedicated to him, But it turns out it was actually dedicated to Nagato a.k.a Pain, Jiraya's first pupil. When Naruto mentions this to him when declaring his answer, it is enough to make Pain realize that people may understand each other after all.
  • Chekhovs Gun: Kakashi's copy of the unreleased Icha Icha Tactics becomes important later on when Jiraiya uses it as the key to his coded last words. Also Shisui Uchiha - introduced as a skilled member of the clan to build Itachi up and now it's been revealed that not only does Danzo have Shisui's right eye and arm, but Shisui's powers let him control people's minds.
    • Whatever Itachi did to Naruto involving the crow before he fought Sasuke. You know it's going to show up at some major point.
    • The latest ones to become important: the Uchiha shrine and the moon itself, though we only learned about it recently anyways. Turns out the origin of the Tailed Beasts is down in the shrine, which is tied to the origins of the moon, and can only be completely read by the Rinnegan.
  • Chekhovs Lecture: Kakashi's pre time skip lecture to Sasuke about revenge. Guess what becomes one of the major themes of the entire manga (and not just Sasuke)?
  • Child Soldiers: The main cast of teenagers (including Konohamaru and his friends) became ninja at twelve. Kakashi became one at six.
  • Christmas Cake: The Fifth Mizukage is rather... sensitive about her love life.
  • City With No Name: The city in the Land of Fire where the movie studio is in the first movie, although the theater owner gives the only indication that it's not just part of Konoha we haven't seen before or since.
  • The Clan: The Hyuuga and Uchiha clans
  • Clingy Jealous Girl: Sakura and Ino before the Time Skip, directed towards Sasuke. Later, in Part II we have Karin being clingy over Sasuke.;
  • Completely Missing The Point: We all know how Naruto's perseverance makes him oh so charismatic, causing one Heel Face Turn after another... then Kabuto does this after Orochimaru is killed: he decides he needs to give himself some sort of identity crisis to overcome and better define himself. So he fuses the remains of Orochimaru's body with his own, figuring that if he can overcome it he'll become and even greater being!
  • Complete Monster: Hidan.
  • Condemned Contestant: The winner of the kill-all in Orochimaru's jail would get the honor becoming Orochimaru's body.
  • Conservation Of Ninjutsu: Everyone takes it to a whole other level
  • Convection Schmonvection: In theory, Fire-element jutsu are among the most powerful attacks in the world. In practice, they are useless, as even a fireball so hot it makes the bedrock glow red will simply not burn a human being for no discernable reason. The worst offender is probably the jutsu 'Amaterasu', which produces a flame which is supposedly as hot as the sun... and therefore seems as though it should kill everyone within a ten mile radius. And yet, this stupendously hot fire only seems to be dangerous if you touch it, and despite its presented heat it can be extinguished with no ill effects.
    • Finally subverted with the younger Nagato being permanently injured by a crapload of explosives placed by Hanzou.
    • Now subverted with actual katon jutsus. Amaterasu burns the Raikage's arm even through his forcefield/aura thingy so badly that he has to remove it.
      • Granted, Amaterasu should probably kill everyone in the room, including the ninja using it, every time it's cast. But it is nice to finally see it burn something.
  • Contemplate Our Navels: Orochimaru sometimes slips into this when describing why he's seeking immortality.
  • Cool Shades: Shino and Killer Bee wear these.
  • Cracking Up: Naruto, over and over. More than any mortal knuckle could really take.
  • Crouching Moron Hidden Badass: Kakashi reads Makeout Paradise while fighting his prospective squad and is perpetually late. He also acts very calm and somewhat scatterbrained, but he turns out to be one of the most powerful ninja in the world. Also, the host of the Eight-Tailed Bull seems to fit the bill, rapping and writing his lyrics while fighting Sasuke and the rest of Hawk.
    • Lee and Guy also qualify.
      • Naruto.
      • Tobi is a good boy!
  • Crowning Moment Of Awesome: See here.
  • Crowning Momentof Funny: The three Cloud-nin bickering in the forest in 450. One throws a rock at another. "Hey, what if that rock had hit a boulder, and that boulder hit another boulder, and that landslide buried Konoha?" "You're overthinking things!" All three emerge find Konoha in ruins. "I didn't mean it!" "Karui, what have you done..."
    • Raikage's reaction on learning his brother is alive and on "vacation".
  • Crowning Moment Of Heartwarming: When Gaara apologizes to his siblings after Naruto defeated him. Things will turn out OK for him after all.
    • "You will be a fine Hokage." Tsunade to Naruto.
    • And again after the arc to rescue Gaara. Things really do turn out okay. He even has fangirls!
    • Chapter 437: I'm not afraid to die protecting you... because I love you.
    • Chapter 440. We knew that Naruto would eventually find out who his father was, but Naruto's expression when they finally meet is what makes it heartwarming. He doesn't freak out like he is prone to do. He just smiles.
      • and then punches him in the gut.
    • Kakashi telling his father that he thinks he did the right thing in putting his teammates first, which enables him to move on to his final rest.
    • Chapter 450: A full two-page pan shot of the entire village cheering Naruto after he returns from defeating Pain, especially when contrasted with flashbacks from the very early issues with Naruto sitting alone and apart from others. Later on, Sakura makes her way from the crowd and gives Naruto a thwack on the head because of his recklessness, but gives him a hug like you've never seen her do before.
  • Cycle Of Revenge: Naruto's been made aware of this concept in the Pain arc, and is now trying to prevent one involving Sasuke being formed, thinking that it could turn into war. Part 2 has also revealed that a lot of the grief Naruto and Sasuke went through was because one of these existed between the Uchiha and Senju clans, the latter succeeded by the governing body of Konoha. One of Madara's goals is to have Naruto and Sasuke fight to end this cycle and prove Uchiha superiority, with Naruto symbolically representing the Senju clan.
    • Also motivates characters' decisions with regards to Sasuke; Naruto asks the Raikage not to take vengeance on Sasuke to avert this, while Shikamaru believes Konoha should kill Sasuke to prevent the Cloud village from having to.
  • Dangerous Forbidden Technique: Several jutsus are classified as forbidden, either for great risk to the user or being inherently evil.
  • Dark Action Girl: Tayuya
  • Darkest Hour: Chapter 437
  • Deadpan Snarker: Kakashi, Shikamaru, Sai
  • Death Glare: Captain Yamato, Itachi, Sasuke, Shikamaru, Gaara.
  • Death Is Cheap: Despite earlier indications to the contrary, the Pain invasion arc ended up this way as well.
  • Defeat Means Friendship: Successful attempts include Neji, Gaara, Sai, and possibly Haku and Zabuza. Failed attempts include Sasuke. Tsunade's a partial subversion, as while she defeated Naruto easily during their two matches, his resolve changed her outlook on life, and he won the bet by mastering the Rasengan.
    • Don't forget Kiba, who constantly mocked Naruto during their match and openly cheered for him in the finals after Naruto kicked his (Kiba's) ass.
    • Recently, Nagato/Pain and Konan, of all people.
  • Determinator: Naruto exemplifies this trope, Rock Lee perfects it.
    • Hinata makes an excellent showing as well when she fights Neji.
  • Deus Ex Machina: Chapter 449: Pain pulls a case of Redemption Equals Death and revives everyone that he'd killed in the last thirty chapters or so.
  • Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu: Naruto defeating the Shukaku may qualify, as well as Minato and earlier Hashirama(the First Hokage) defeating the Kyuubi.
    • Then there is The Sage Of Six Paths who single handedly defeated the Juubi, sealed it into himself, and then when he was dying and it would have broken free, he created a moon to hold its body, while he split its chakra into the other Bjuu.
  • Die For Our Ship: Oh God, the shipping fandom.
  • Dirty Old Man: Jiraiya, and the Third Hokage. Naruto, on the other hand, is a part time Dirty Young Man.
    • More like him using their weak points.
    • He has a fair bit of perversion on his own, like when he considers peeping on Sakura in Part II and only stops when Yamato suggests that she might attack him with her enhanced strength if she found out.
      • Leading to a nightmare involving most of the non-filler female cast (including one of Gaara's Fangirls).
      • link to that scene please
  • Discard And Draw
  • Disney Death: Sasuke, Neji, Choji and Gaara(although in the latter case, Chiyo dies for real to bring him back).
  • Distracted By The Sexy (Naruto's Sexy Technique, as well as Konohamaru's. Ebisu and Jiraiya's reactions fall under this trope.)
  • Does This Remind You Of Anything: Pain's plan involves the creation of a weapon that causes instant destruction to a large area, its use the first time will end the wars and people will be afraid to use it again, until time passes and people forget about it and use it again, only this time everybody will have access to it, and the resulting mass pain, death and destruction will bring peace to the world.
    • Heroes..?
  • Doomed Hometown: Konoha in the Pain arc, though it is quickly rebuilt.
  • Double Standard: Remember the scene where Konahomaru transformed into Sai and Sasuke in a decidedly Yaoi situation? You know, after Naruto did the same thing except with women? Yeah, that's in the MANGA ONLY.
    • To some parts of the fandom, Naruto constantly asking Sakura out on dates and getting rejected is an example of enduring, selfless love, while Sakura and Ino's pursuit of Sasuke's affection (and to a lesser degree, Hinata's attempts to prove herself to Naruto) are Fangirling.
      • This Troper has a hard time seeing how even the above mentioned can put Hinata into this category of fangirling, but can actually see it happening with Sakura and Ino and Karin...
      • This troper has seen moments where people call Sakura's fangirling over Sasuke in Part I as such, but Karin's actions in Part II as true love.
  • Draco In Leather Pants: Sasuke Uchiha, and to some extent, Orochimaru. In the case of Sasuke, virtually every girl in the series has a crush on him, probably some pre-emptive Truth In Television.
    • Itachi Uchiha since day one. Even before The Reveal.
    • Most of the Akatsuki.
  • Dramatic Wind: Almost always accompanied by leaves, referencing the village the main characters are from.
  • Dropped A Bridge On Him: Orochimaru's had this done to him twice, in an incredibly awkward manner both times. The first time, shortly into Shippuden, Sasuke attacks him, deciding he's not useful anymore. Orochimaru tries to use his Grand Theft Me no Jutsu on the Sauce only for Sasuke to randomly turn it back on him. Much later, during Sasuke's fight with Itachi, Sasuke runs out of chakra, which somehow frees Orochimaru...only for Itachi to seal him in a permanent, inescapable genjutsu before he can do anything.
  • Dropped A Bridget On Him: Happens to Naruto regarding Haku. (See next entry) It even happened to the fans with Haku, Deidara and Sai.
  • Dude Looks Like A Lady: Haku, and how.
    • If it weren't for the fact that names ending in -maru indicate that they're male, Gaara's uncle Yashamaru would have most people fooled as well.
      • Still managed to.
      • In one of the dubs, the producers mistake him for a woman.
  • Dynamic Entry: Trope namer.
  • Eldritch Abomination: Juubi qualifies. A ten tailed entity that was all the tailed beasts fused together, has one huge eye that has both the Rinnegan and a triple Sharingan, and was stated to be a direct threat to the world as a whole. It couldn't be defeated, only sealed.
    • The Demonic Statue of the Outer Path, the thing that Nagato summoned that became the statue the beasts were sealed in, and which is both apparently alive but can eat people's souls qualifies as well. They appear to be related
      • Kisame's sword seems to be less a sword and more an eldritch abomination on a stick. It eats bijuu chakra like candy and will sell you up the river if it has too much.
  • Elemental Baggage: Averted, mostly.
  • Empathic Weapon: Kisame's Samehada is one of these, along with being a Shape Shifter Weapon and a Living Weapon. It's not very loyal though...
  • Ensemble Darkhorse: Iruka
    • And Hayate. He has more fans than the Fourth Hokage.
    • The three-tailed beast, which is either a turtle, a shark or something entirely different according to fandom
    • Shikamaru and Gaara are arguably the best examples considering their actual plot relevance.
  • Estrogen Brigade
  • Estrogen Brigade Bait: Sasuke, Sai, Gaara, Deidara, Sasori...
    • Don't forget Naruto, especially when he's not wearing his all orange outfit.
  • Evil Albino: Hidan, maybe.
  • Evil Counterpart: Gaara
  • The Evils Of Free Will: Madara's plan has recently been revealed to be based on this.
  • Executive Meddling:: If it wasn't for a mandate by his publisher, the author would have never shown Suigetsu or Juugo fighting on-screen.
  • Extraordinarily Empowered Girl: Sakura and Tsunade, the former much more so after receiving several years worth of training by the latter. Both are Medical Ninja, which makes them anatomy experts and thus dangerous. They also have Super Strength, even by the standards of the already inhumanly strong ninja of series.
  • Eyepatch Of Power: Kakashi constantly covers his Sharingan eye with his headband as he cannot turn the Sharingan off.
    • Two others are doing this. Danzo's bandages cover up a Sharingan taken from Uchiha Shisui, and Ao has a Byakugan. He doesn't even need to take the eyepatch off to utilize it.
  • Face Heel Turn: Sasuke
  • Faceless Goons: Comes in three flavors. The Sand/Sound ninjas from Orochimaru's first invasion and the samurai from the Land of Iron. ANBU probably count as well, but at least they have different masks.
  • Facial Markings: Naruto, Jiraiya and Tsunade, the Inuzuka, Akimichi and Kaguya clans.
  • Fake Defector: Itachi is/was one according to Madara.
  • Fake Boss: In the part one it's Orochimaru who later is replaced by Akatsuki. Also in the Konoha Invasion arc, Pain plays this role for Uchiha Madara.
  • Fan Of Underdog: Hinata
  • Fan Preferred Couple: Don't even start.
    • Well, there's Did You and Seriously and Highlight This? and...
  • Fan Service: Hinata's jacket being pulled open to expose her ample chest (for a 12 year old, no less) to take her pulse in the anime (revealing she also wears a kunoichi Spy Catsuit underneath) was added especially to the anime. The trick is repeated almost exactly in chapter 442 of the manga, revealing the full extent of her character growth over the 3 year timeskip.
    • Don't forget the Sexy and Harem Jutsu.
      • And Konohamaru's variants "Double Knockout Girls" and "Double Knockout Guys" Techniques. The latter may be Fan Disservice unless you're a Yaoi Fangirl.
    • How about the (in)famous Waterfall Dance scene in the filler Bikochou Arc? Hinata, supposedly 12, dancing completely naked on the surface of the water?
  • Faux Action Girl: Sakura, but she recognizes this. It's partly the reason for her transformation into an Extraordinarily Empowered Girl after the Time Skip.
    • In fact, nearly every female in the series suffers from this. Tsunade does become Hokage, though. Some of it is due to the fact that, though they do have their skills, they inevitably get paired up against enemies who are much more powerful. A good example would be Konan, the only female member of Akatsuki, has her sole major battle be against Jiraiya, a hokage level legendary sannin who is so powerful that the brokenly capable Itachi-Kisame Akatsuki pair run away rather than fight him. Others, however, have no such excuse.
    • In Tenten's two fights her opponents were able to either perfectly match her moves or completely negate them, so she alone has the dubious distinction of being one of the few justified applications of the trope.
  • Female Success Is Family: Konan
  • Fence Painting
  • Fighting Series
  • Filler: Before the Time Skip, filler made up 38% of the entire series, including 85 episodes in a row! At its best, the quality could be considered mediocre though it was usually much worse than that. Standard formulas were various examples of Defeat Means Friendship, fights against blatant Filler Villains, and several one-shots of slapstick humor and no plot relevance.
    • Post-Time Skip, Shippuuden has begun taking a completely different approach to their filler arcs. Rather than use up several canon story arcs in a row and burn through their source material, they have prudently inserted a filler story arc in between every one or two canon arcs. Each has been a full storyline of 10-15 episodes, completely cutting out the single episode pointlessness of the previous series. Thus far there have been two filler arcs. The first, the Ninja Guardians arc, featured an expanded backstory for a character who probably wasn't going to get another chance to have one, along with an Early Bird Cameo in the form of the Fire Temple... errr, Fire Nation Temple and it's leader Chiriku. The next story goes even further; the Three Tails arc has possibly perfected the filler formula for anime everywhere after decades of trying, moving away from complete filler towards Adaptation Expansion, creating a full-on story arc of 22 episodes for an event that took all of half an issue in the manga. It is also possibly the first filler story arc ever to feature constant and relevant appearances by canon antagonists and managed to be very interesting.
  • Four Is Death: The Sound Four.
    • The fourth Kages of the respective villages have a tendency to die early as well.
  • Freudian Excuse: Pain.
    • Neji also comes to hate the main branch and think that destiny is unchangeable because he thinks that they forced his father to sacrifice his life for his twin brother.
    • Heck, most of the cast. It doesn't help that There Are No Therapists.
  • Fridge Logic: Plenty of it, much because of the Schizo Tech (Electronic communication exists, but only for relatively minor stuff...)
    • How did Naruto and Sasuke take care of themselves when they were younger?
  • Gainaxing: Similar to R.O.D., Temari becomes unusually bouncy in one episode despite her breasts being perfectly stable in the rest of the series.
  • Gender Bender: "Oiroke No Jutsu" aka "Sexy Jutsu". Inevitably creates The Nose Bleed.
  • Germans Love David Hasselhoff: While the anime is moderately popular in Japan, it's even bigger in America (and the manga is comparitively more popular, though as with all manga sales they are much lower in foreign markets).
  • Geodesic Cast - the "two males that are of contrasting personality, one female" group, repeated again and again.
    • It's explicitly stated that Sasuke and Naruto were both assigned to Team 7 because Sasuke was first-ranked in their Academy class and Naruto was last, and its tradition to put first and last on the same team to balance out its capabilities. That same reasoning, if applied more generally, would explain why all the various genin teams are roughly-balanced power trios. This also indirectly explains why none of the teams doubled up on girls — only one girl in Naruto's rookie year had any major hand-to-hand combat power, and she was put in as the close-quarters specialist for Team 8, the recon squad. So they can't double up on girls for any other team without leaving them critically lacking on muscle.
  • Girl Of The Week - more like Girl of the 'Movie' (and or certain filler). Naruto gets one of these in the first, fourth, and fifth movies. While the first, Kazahana Koyuki, could arguably be a Jerk Ass Big Sis role (the actress in the first movie is definitely subject of a one-sided crush), the same is not true for Shion (fourth movie) or Amaru (fifth movie). As noted elsewhere, the writers are taking full advantage of Naruto hitting puberty over the time skip.
    • Shion asks him to let her 'bear his children'. The funny bit is that he happily agrees. We know he's read Jiraiya's books. The line is worth it just for the shocked look on Sakura's face.
  • Gonk: Rock Lee, Konohamaru's first attempts at the Sexy Jutsu, Akatsuchi
  • Gory Discretion Shot: What happens when Pain stabs Hinata and when Zabuza tries to attack Sakura and Tazuna, but ends up being blocked by Kakashi.
  • Grand Theft Me: Orochimaru is intent on becoming immortal by transferring his mind to other bodies. Ino's main technique also allows her to do this temporarily.
  • Gratuitous English: "Dynamic Entry" among a few of Guy's other lines. A filler character often speaks in English.
  • Hair Colors
  • Hannibal Lecture: Commonly used by antagonists, especially Neji and Pain.
  • Hard Work Hardly Works: Ridiculously hard training-Rock Lee just Cant Catch Up to Naruto or Sasuke. On the other hand, he's quite far from where he would be otherwise.
  • Hatedom
  • Heel Face Turn: Neji and Gaara.
  • Heir To The Dojo: Sasuke is treated like this by pretty much everyone in Part I; Neji is an important subversion, especially since while he has many of these traits, much of his inner conflict comes from the fact that he is not allowed to inherit the Hyuga clan.
  • Henohenomoheji: Kakashi Hatake's face is the subject of an entire episode (no. 101), in which his students try to remove his mask. Against one of them he uses a decoy (scarecrow) of himself, with the Henohenomoheji drawn on the face. Also, Kakashi is able to summon eight dogs, all of which have the Henohenomoheji on their backs.
  • Heroic BSOD: Tsunade after seeing Konoha destroyed, Naruto after Jiraiya's death, Pain's Hannibal Lecture, and Hinata's apparent death.
  • Heroic RROD: Kakashi can need to rest for extended periods of time if he overuses his Sharingan. He apparently dies once, but gets better.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: Third and Fourth Hokage.
  • Hes Back: Happens often, but Naruto does it best.
  • Hey Its That Voice:Sasuke's Japanese voice actor plays another pale, dark-haired rival in Bleach as Ishida.
    • As well as his English voice actor voicing Suzaku in Code Geass
    • Hinata's English VA also voices Orihime in Bleach, who also has a crush on the main character.
  • High Heel Face Turn: Guren and Konan.
  • High School AU: The second ending of Shippuden, and Konoha Gakuen Den, which is based off of it.
  • Highly Visible Ninja: The titular character wears BRIGHT ORANGE, and is quite possibly the first character to use ninjutsu as a bully pulpit - almost Bond Villain Stupidity in reverse.
    • Mildly subverted by the fact that usually Jounins get missions where stealth is a real factor and they tend to wear clothes that are a tad more practical for such a situation, and the people that do the stuff that ninjas could reasonably be expected to do (such as perform assassinations) are the ANBU black ops, who wear black and grey.
  • Hime Cut: Hinata Hyuga
  • Ho Yay: Naruto and Sasuke are probably meant to come across as being like brothers, not a couple. Probably. It really doesn't help that when Sasuke leaves the village to join Orochimaru, Naruto responds like a jealous boyfriend who just found out his significant other is leaving him for another man... and on that note, don't even get started on Orochimaru himself, for all our sakes.
    • Not to mention them "kissing" in chapter 3.
      • That doesn't really count(as much) given the humorous nature of the scene.
      • Didn't Kishimoto say he included that deliberately, to save slashers the effort?
      • In one Shonen Jump interview, Kishimoto mentions that he doesn't think there has ever been a manga where two rivals kissed and, curiously enough, "Sakura, who had intended to be the first one to kiss Sasuke, has it stolen by her rival Naruto".
  • Hufflepuff House - The ninja villages besides Leaf, Sand, and Sound.
    • This begins to change late in the manga.
  • I Am Big Boned - Choji.
  • I Am Your Opponent
  • Idiot Ball: The Daimyo of the Land of Fire picking up this thing caused Danzo's appointment as Hokage.
    • This may have well have had something to do with the fact that Danzo has some sort of mental manipulation ability.
    • Possible mind manipulation aside, the choice of appointing Danzou wasn't that illogical when you consider he is a former canditate for the Hokage position from the 3rd's time, has been the government's number 2 for decades and that he is a political hardliner (as opposed to the last few hokages and Kakashi, the other young candidate) at a time where the village has just been leveled by a terrorist attack.
  • I Gave My Word: Naruto, concerning his promise to bring back Sasuke.
    • Well, Naruto concerning pretty much any promise he makes.
  • I Have The High Ground
  • I Just Want To Be Normal: Nara Shikamaru. Not so much wanting to be a non-ninja, but rather just a normal ninja.
  • I Knew It: Naruto's paternal parentage and the apparent truth behind the Uchiha massacre. Not to mention Tobi's true identity.
  • Important Haircut: Sakura cuts her long hair with a kunai to escape from a Sound Ninja's grip.
  • Inaction Sequence
  • Ineffectual Loner: Uchiha Sasuke
  • Informed Ability: Loads and loads of characters introduced in the story. The most obvious example is the ANBU.
  • Instant Armor: Gaara's sand-armor.
  • Instant Expert: Naruto with shadow clones (especially considering Sage chakra. Naruto trained for a month using only two or three shadow clones, but by the end of that month he had completely mastered it, a feat Jiraiya couldn't manage in thirty years.
  • Internet Backdraft:
    • Step 1: Go to any Naruto forum.
    • Step 2: Claim that either Naruto/Hinata or Naruto/Sakura is the Official Couple.
    • Step 3: Watch as the thread erupts into flames.
      • Hinata confessing her feelings to Naruto and then seemingly dying in Chapter 437 sparked quite a few heated debates. Sakura's confession, and Naruto's very unambiguous rejection of it, in Chapter 469 is sure to do the same.
    • Hell, just admitting you like Naruto, or defending Naruto even if you don't like it, are considered mortal sins in certain parts of the anime fandom.
  • Invisible Parents: Perhaps most notably, Sakura and Lee's (assuming he even has parents), but many parents (such as Hinata and Neji's mothers, Kiba's father, etc) are also absent.
    • Kiba explained that his dad got scared by his mom and made a break for it.
  • Jerk Ass: Sai in his introduction.
  • Jumping Off The Slippery Slope: Sasuke when he finds out the brass at Konoha were behind the death of the Uchiha clan, and decided to kill the entire village.
  • Just Between You And Me: Subverted by Pain, who tells Jiraiya about his plan and then proceeds to kill him.
    • Played straight when Pain describes his plan to Naruto.
  • Kabuki Sounds
  • Karmic Death (loads)
  • Katanas Are Just Better: Subverted, the only character who wields one dies in the only fight he's in.
  • Killed Off For Real: Usually varies from this and Boring Immortal Hero from time to time.
  • Kissing Cousins: Despite of the fact that Hinata addresses Neji as she would to an older brother, this still didn't stop the jokes featuring Neji, the perv, "who constantly tries to grope Hinata" during their combat.
  • Knight Templar Big Brother: Kankuro, in Shippuuden.
  • Kryptonite Is Everywhere: Once Sasuke learns how to cast Genjutsu on people, all his major opponents are able to resist Genjutsu in one way or another.
    • The Sharingan is quite powerful, but most of the people who fight characters who have it know at least one counter-measure.
  • Large And In Charge: The Raikage.
  • Large Ham: Guy and Lee, although they can be serious.
    • Jiraiya can be one of these sometimes.
  • Leaked Experience: This is how Naruto's "train with a hundred doppelgangers" Instant Expert method works - he gains all the experience(s) of the clones when they're dismissed, like a reverse EXP Share.
  • Leeroy Jenkins : Naruto, Kiba and Lee. Killer Bee is mentioned to be like this as well.
    • Zabuza's "I have 1 HP left, dammit!" might fit here too.
  • Leitmotif
  • Life Or Limb Decision: The Raikage willingly steps into one of these where attacking Sasuke to get his revenge would mean needing to cut off his arm or burn to death. He also would have sacrificed his leg in order to finish Sasuke off had not Gaara stopped him.
  • Lightning Bruiser: Despite his enormous size, the Raikage is blindingly fast and capable of catching Zetsu off guard.
  • Limited Wardrobe: Most characters have one outfit for before or after the timeskip, but may wear casual clothes while off-duty. By contrast, the Sand Siblings change outfits in each of their major appearances.
  • Line Of Sight Name: Not directly, but Naruto's first name came from someone eating a bowl of ramen. Namely Jiraiya when thinking up a name for the main character of his book, who Naruto's parents named him after.
  • Loads And Loads Of Characters
  • Local Hangout: Ichiraku's ramen bar, when they're in town.
  • Lovable Sex Maniac: Kakashi and Jiraiya, among others.
  • Love Freak: both Might Guy and Rock Lee.
  • Love Hurts: After informing her that Naruto is in love with her, Sai flat out says to Sakura's face that his feelings for Sakura (and Sasuke) are what's causing Naruto pain.
  • Luke I Am Your Father: Naruto's father is the fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze. Naruto himself was not made aware of this fact until recently.
  • Macekre: The German dub.
  • Mad Artist: Deidara and Sasori
  • Mad Bomber: Deidara
  • The Man Behind The Curtain: Pain, or rather Nagato, the "real" Pain
  • Manly Tears: Guy and Rock Lee
    • Although Guy and Lee win top prize, an honorable mention should go to Zabuza. His crying over the death of Haku was exceptionally manly.
    • Naruto too, when he learns that Hinata is alive.
    • Gaara after deciding that he has to kill Sasuke when he won't listen to his urging him to come to his senses.
    • This troper found Naruto crying in 227 after he realizes Sasuke's really fucking serious about killing him to be quite manly.
    • Iruka deserves special mention, since he was the first to pull this off in Chapter 1.
    • Why has no one mentioned Itachi yet?
  • Marathon Man
  • Martial Pacifist: Might Guy and Rock Lee.
  • Mask Power: Hatake Kakashi and several others.
  • Master Apprentice Chain: The First & Second Hokage > The Third Hokage > Jiraiya > The Fourth Hokage > Kakashi > Naruto
    • The Third Hokage > Orochimaru & Tsunade > Sasuke & Sakura
  • Meaningful Funeral
  • Meaningful Name: Naruto means "Spiral," which is apt considering in the Pain arc that his mission now is to break the spiral of hatred and pain caused by the ninja system.
  • Memetic Badass - Aoba can defeat anyone with a single door slam and can even cause the Akatsuki to flee in terror of his Murder of Crows no Jutsu.
    • Don't forget Iruka!
    • The Raikage is quickly evolving into this. Snapping Zetsu's neck, breaking Zabuza's sword which cannot be beat, and piledriving Sasuke like some Super Saiyan Zangief and grabbing him despite the fact that he was on fire will certainly add to this. Not to mention the fact that, upon noticing that his arm is on fire from Amaterasu, he treats it like an annoyance, and immediately cuts it off with an expression like he's just being inconvenienced rather than losing his arm.
  • Memetic Molester - Orochimaru, for his tendency to lust over the bodies of teenage boys.
    • Also the new Mizukage, for her tendency to coddle her teenage bodyguard and making some rather interesting comments about Gaara and Sasuke...
  • Memetic Mutation - Kabuto's Ninja info cards, "Good Naruto, you look kind of cool", and recently: NINJA TANK (from fake spoilers saying that in Chapter 465, Madara and Zetsu turn up to Sasuke's rescue with a tank containing Itachi's Eyes. You can figure out why).
  • Messianic Archetype: Hinted and danced around for quite some time, but recent manga chapters have seen Naruto truly embrace it.
  • Meteor Move
  • Milky White Eyes: The Hyuugas.
  • Mind Rape - Various genjutsu can border on this, with Itachi's Tsukiyomi being the most extreme.
    • The first time you see Tsukuyomi used against Kakashi is pretty creepy, as well.
  • Missing Mom: So, what happened to Kushina Uzumaki?
  • Mobile Shrubbery: Konohamaru, pre-Shippuuden.
  • More Than Mind Control: The ease with which Sasuke can be manipulated is astonishing.
  • The Movie (currently six)
  • Mr Exposition - Kabuto in the chuunin exams.
  • Mundane Utility - One of the hallmarks of Naruto filler is the characters turning their fantastic ninja powers to boring everyday tasks — the titular character using his absurdly powerful Rasengan jutsu to mix noodles, for example.
    • In canon, Naruto jumps into a creek with shadow clones to force some fish to the surface, which Sasuke catches with kunai and cooks with his fire jutsu.
  • My God What Have I Done: Sasuke after he learns the truth behind the Uchiha Massacre after killing Itachi. Sakura when Sai confronts her about Naruto's feelings and makes her realize Naruto had enslaved himself to his promise to her to bring Sasuke back.
  • Nakama: Naruto has this for the first time in his life, which is why he's so reluctant to give up on Sasuke.
  • Nerd Glasses: Karin and Shiho. Somewhat subverted with Kabuto. After he turns out to be with Orochimaru, these turn into Scary Shiny Glasses.
  • Never Say Die: The first few episodes of theNaruto CN dub and the early Shippuden Disney XD dub.
  • New Powers As The Plot Demands
  • Nice Job Breaking It Hero: Itachi
  • Nightmare Fuel: Dear god, so much.
  • Ninja: Just about everyone.
  • Ninja Log: Used in a surprising number of variations, including several that explode.
  • No Mouth: Kakashi keeps his mouth concealed behind a mask at all times.
  • The Nose Bleed: the inevitable result of Naruto's Sexy no Jutsu.
  • Not So Different: Naruto and Gaara
    • Also Naruto and Iruka, and Naruto with most of the characters he befriends in the fillers and movies.
  • Obfuscating Stupidity: Tobi. Just Tobi.
  • OC Stand In: Hanabi (Hinata's younger sister) is often prominently featured in Hyuga-centric fanfiction and her personality widely varies from story to story, given her lack of characterization.
  • Oddly Named Sequel: The anime adaptation of Part II, Naruto Shippuden.
  • Oh Crap: Notably, the first time Gaara is ever injured.
  • Ominous Latin Chanting: Akatsuki's musical motif in Shippuuden.
  • Omniscient Morality License: Itachi, though so far he has failed to achieve his goal, but he has one more contingency plan. Prepare for an enormous Internet Backdraft if you discuss this online.
  • Ondo
  • The Only One Allowed To Defeat You: Uchiha Itachi basically says that the only one allowed to defeat him is his younger brother, Uchiha Sasuke. But he has his reasons for saying that. Also, Naruto and Sasuke, mutually. Gaara also used this before his Heel Face Turn by saying Sasuke was 'his prey.'
  • Orochi
  • Out Of Focus: So many characters. In fact, whenever the focus shifts to any of the secondary characters with the notable exception of Shikamaru (to the point that Shikamaru is almost a main character himself now), you can say with certainty that something bad is about to happen to them.
  • Overtook The Manga: Results in Filler Hell, obviously.
    • Got better once they hit Part 2, as the manga way out in front now thanks to said Filler Hell, and they cautiously have filler more spread out.
  • Paper Master: Konan.
  • Parental Abandonment: many orphans due to 1)being ninja, 2)Kyuubi, who was the reason for the end of 3)The Ninja War.
    • Some ninja parents aren't even brought up. Like, who are Lee's parents? Neji's mom? Asuma's mother, essentially the Third Hokage's wife? Konohamaru's parents? It's one thing to be orphaned, but they are just flat out ignoring the parents of the ninja.
  • Personality Blood Types: In Shippuden. Kabuto is AB, despite Orochimaru's asking if he is A based on his compulsive desire to keep corpses sealed in a scroll in a certain order.
    • So is Danzo.
  • Person Of Mass Destruction: Jinchuurikis. And Pain.
  • Playing With Fire: Sasuke has a variety of fire-elemental jutsus at his disposal and, like the goggles, they do nothing.
  • Please Dont Leave Me: Sakura to Sasuke before his Face Heel Turn.
  • Plot Armor: Sasuke is a major offender, but Hinata's armor really stands out as it allowed her to survive Pain's attack despite him having every reason to kill her, standing right over her and presumably possessing enough knowledge of Human anatomy to locate the heart. This was after he flattened her to the ground with the same move he'd just used to flatten all of Konoha and launch three giant ass frogs into the next zipcode.
    • And also considering that she wasn't blown to smithereens by the berzerk kn6, despite being right in the way between Pain and Naruto, by sheer luck. Or was it really luck?
  • Plot Driven Breakdown: Chakra always convienently runs out when it's necessary for the plot.
    • Shikamaru's Shadow Possession jutsu seems to get weaker each time he uses it in a fight, regardless of how much chakra he has at the moment.
  • Plot Tumor/Spotlight Stealing Squad - The the Uchiha clan, to the point where many fans think the series should've been called Sasuke.
  • Possession Sue: Maybe it's due to the belief that main characters have to be awesome instead of overlooked, but regardless, the fans love doing this to Naruto.
  • The Power Of Friendship
  • The Power Of Love: ...is apparently a distant second behind the power to repel things with gravity. Poor Hinata.
  • The Untwist: The 4th is Naruto's dad. Didn't see THAT one coming.
  • Powers As Programs
  • Power Trio: Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke
  • Punny Name: UZUMAKI Naruto= "Spiralling whirlpool", HARUNO Sakura= "Cherry blossoms of spring", HATAKE Kakashi= "Farmer's scarecrow", UMINO Iruka= "Sea dolphin"...
    • HYUUGA Hinata: Hyuuga and Hinata can be written with the same Kanji. Hyuuga means towards the sun, while Hinata means sunny place.
  • Random Power Ranking: Uses S, A, B, C and D ranks for the missions, though they at least serve a purpose. There's also an E rank for the most basic jutsus.
    • The letters are based on the Japanese school grading system. S = "Shin", aka "Perfect", and is seen in several other Japanese exports. However, it wouldn't be a Shonen Combat series without drama, and just about every "C" mission shown turns out to be a "A" or above mission.
  • Rape Of The Lock: Sakura, being forced to cut her own hair.
  • Reality Is Unrealistic: During Kisame's fight with Killer Bee the latter makes the statement that octopuses eat sharks. Many found this statement to be idiotic, but there's actually quite a bit of truth to it.
  • Redemption Equals Death: Several times. Most recently with Pain, who sacrifices himself to resurrect everyone he killed.
  • Red Shirt Army: The Samurai.
  • Red Oni Blue Oni: Naruto and Sasuke, respectively. And the guys on most of the other ninja teams.
  • Red Sky Take Warning: Invoked by the cloaks worn by Akatsuki members.
  • Replacement Scrappy: Some fans and even the main characters (at first) hated Sai for replacing Sasuke on Team 7.
  • Rescued From The Scrappy Heap: Sakura, as a result of getting stronger and more mature over the timeskip.
  • Right Makes Might: subverted with Rock Lee, who often actually loses; averted with Naruto, as it's generally a combination of some wit and being Made Of Iron.
  • Rock Paper Scissors: Guy sees even this as Serious Business, and believes that if he punishes himself for losing, he not only has incentive to win the next time, but becomes stronger in the process.
  • Roofhopping
  • Rummage Sale Reject
  • Ryu And Ken: Iruka/Mizuki, Zabuza/Kisame in the Clash of Ninja games.
    • Also Hinata and Neji.
  • Sarutobi Sasuke: Sasuke Uchiha and the Third Hokage and his relatives (Sarutobi family) take part of their names from him.
  • Schizo Tech: When the plot called for it, suddenly there's a refrigerator. And walkie-talkies, security cameras, video game consoles, cell phones, full-color movie theaters, and so on. Absolutely no modern weaponry though. This was justified in an interview in which the author explained that allowing the existence of modern weapons into the story would make the story pointless.
    • Absolutely except for Pain
    • A filler villain has a smoke bomb launcher with revolving chambers.
  • The Scrappy: Sakura was once one but has gotten better in the time skip.
    • As of chapter 469, It Got Worse. A LOT worse.
    • Sasuke has quite a bit of hatedom, especially now that he wants to destroy Konoha.
    • Naruto has a fair number of highly vocal detractors who criticize him for 1) being a ninja who wears orange 2) having a limited number of jutsus compared to other ninjas and little knowledge of strategy or teamwork (which gets better over time), 3) still trying to bring Sasuke back, after some of the above developments and 4) some of his recent Messiah tendencies, especially with regards to 3.
  • Scream Discretion Shot: Happens when a filler villain beats up Hinata in the Three-Tails arc.
  • Sealed Evil In A Can: The Can in question is Naruto himself (and the other hosts). It works out fairly well for him, though. Mostly.
  • Sempai Kohai: Kakashi is Yamato's senpai in Part II.
  • Shadow Archetype: Naruto and Gaara in Part 1, Naruto and Pein in Part 2
  • Shadow Pin: The Nara clan.
  • Shaggy Dog Story: If you read the manga, you know that neither Konoha nor Orochimaru will get the Three-Tailed Beast in the recently completed Three-Tails arc.
  • She Is Not My Girlfriend: Asuma and Kurenai before we find out that they were in a relationship, Shikamaru and Temari.
  • Ship Sinking: Repeatedly done and then amazingly shrugged off. Sasuke ignores Sakura's Anguished Declaration Of Love then knocks her out and goes on to betray everything they believed in, and then Hinata confesses her love to Naruto and promptly gets whacked with a human Wave Motion Gun and stabbed apparently to death, and then Sakura spends half a chapter telling Naruto she's changed her mind and she wants to be with him and forget Sasuke- except Naruto blows her off, insisting that she's telling herself a great big lie. Each of these looks like a defining, cathartic, end-of-ship torpedo, and then given enough recovery time the ship just floats back up again. The last one still hasn't had its recovery time, so the jury is still out on that.
  • Ship To Ship Combat: Naruto/Sakura vs. Naruto/Hinata vs. Sasuke/Sakura vs. Naruto/Sasuke. It's not pretty. It's not pretty at all.
    • Even less so now that Hinata's confessing her love to Naruto, potentially putting the two closer to ending up together, unless he says he's still in love with Sakura threatens to sink at least one of these ships, depending on what happens.
      • The shippers aren't even waiting to see what happens. The fact something finally moved forward is apparently reason enough.
      • Sakura's possibly developing feelings for Naruto in Part II is another controversial issue, since many of those incidents are ambiguous enough to be read as romantic or merely platonic.
      • And then Sai telling Sakura how Naruto feels further heated up the debate. And now Sakura has made her own confession to Naruto. Who, once he's convinced that she's not joking, immediately rejects her. Cue an even bigger Flame War.
  • Shipping Goggles: Hinata and Sakura can barely look at each other or Naruto without their every action being analyzed by the shippers, especially in the wake of Hinata telling Naruto how she feels about him.
  • Shocking Swerve: Itachi being a Fake Defector.
  • Shout Out: Plenty, some of the most obvious ones are the striking resemblance of the Hokage Mountain to Mt. Rushmore and the Valley of the End to the Argonath.
    • The anime has also used Star Wars stock sounds like the lightsaber humming and TIE Fighter laser sounds.
  • Shout Out Theme Naming: All of Kakuzu's signature techniques are named after (and pronounced very similarly to in Japanese) mobile suits used by Zeon in the One Year War; Jiongu, Domu, Zukokku, Atsugai, Gian, = Zeong, Dom, Z'Gok, Acguy, Gyan.
  • Skeleton Government: To the point of Fridge Logic...
  • Slap Slap Kiss: Sakura towards Naruto in 450. Either she's just happy she's alive or she needs to up her game to counter Hinata so that their Love Triangle can remain viable.
  • Smug Snake: Danzo. Has been trying to slyly con his way into the Hokage seat for years, but none of his plans have actually worked, until now.
    • And at the Summit of the Five Kages, he ends up wasting all his credibility.
    • Gato is quite arrogant, and tends to berate the rogue ninja he hired for their failures when they, even heavily wounded, could kill him and his bodyguards in seconds- which Zabuza ends up doing.
  • The Smurfette Principle: Most teams have a single token female member if they have any at all. Also applies to the Akatsuki. Inverted with a three-man team of Cloud ninja that has two female ninja and one male ninja.
  • Sneezing
  • Social Services Does Not Exist: There's the unanswered question of who looked after the more troubled and often orphaned members of the cast, especially Naruto, Sasuke and Gaara.
  • Something Completely Different: Shippuuden episode 82's mature and soulful examination of Shikamaru's character in the wake of Asuma's death was a temporary but dramatic departure in tone and style from the series norm.
    • Partially the result of Adaptation Expansion, since what Shikamaru's doing is shown as a montage with no dialogue in the manga.
  • Sorting Algorithm Of Evil: Subverted, as the first major enemy, Zabuza, is too strong for the Genin to take on alone, and the first Big Bad Orochimaru shows up around episode 30.
    • Mostly played straight with the enemies that Naruto's age group faces, although Akatsuki has little in the way of official power rankings.
  • The Spartan Way: The things young ninja have to do and endure in order to advance in rank are pretty hellish, when you think about it. Even moreso for some of the villages other than the main characters'. The Village Hidden in the Mist, for example, was known as "Bloody Mist" for its brutal "graduation exam". To become a ninja there, you had to kill a fellow student in a duel. Zabuza, the series' first major enemy, was infamous for having killed all of the students in this "exam", and he wasn't even in it.
  • Spell My Name With An S (Might Guy, whose name has a number of other unofficial romanizations that fans like to use)
    • Also Pein vs. Pain vs. Paine in the early chapters after he was first named.
  • Split Personality: Zetsu can talk and even argue with himself.
  • Spot The Imposter: Two different characters use ninjutsu to disguise themselves as Naruto in the same arc.
  • Spy Catsuit: The female teachers.
  • Squick: The reaction you have when you realize the sheer number of ephebophilic relationships in the series.
    • Justified by the fact that most of them involve the Big Bad, while the good guys tend to exhibit healthy mentoring. (When you think it through, Iruka-sensei is literally the one teacher who saved the world - Naruto could've turned out like Gaara.)
    • And there's Orochimaru and Sasuke, which is made easier to read as ephebophilic, because Orochimaru (literally) wants Sasuke's body. In Konoha Gakuen Den, "Orochimaruko" is portrayed as a transvestite ephebophile who's after Sasuke, Squicking most of the cast.
  • The Starscream: One of the most recent filler villains, Rinji (The guy who uses bats) becomes this.
    • Played with, but averted with Kabuto, who seems to be planning to betray Orochimaru on three occasions (and Orochimaru even muses that he's not sure which way Kabuto will go), but remains loyal to him.
  • Start Of Darkness: Sasuke
  • Stealth Mentor: Itachi... in the most messed-up way possible.
  • The Stoic: Shino and Neji, as well as Yamato and Kakashi.
  • Strawman Has A Point: Danzou does have a point. Konoha has been completely destroyed. Sasuke is a missing-nin who is a threat.
    • The irony with Sasuke is that, unless something's revealed in the future, Danzo's partially to blame for the Uchiha massacre.
      • Though to be fair, The options at the time seemed to be either have the Uchiha's massacred, or allow them to start a civil war that would result in death and destruction similar in scale to Pain's attack.
      • This troper would say that there was some middle ground available. Such as, say, not massacring the innocent civilians and children of the clan, just because their leaders were traitorous scum.
      • Except it's been stated Sasuke was the only Uchiha not in on it.
  • Stripperiffic: The female teachers, several of the students.
  • Stupid Statement Dance Mix: Kabuto, with his... ninja info cards.
  • Super Powered Evil Side: Naruto's Kyuubi.
    • Also Gaara's Shukkaku. Basically all jinchuuriki who aren't properly trained in controlling and cooperating with their Bijuu.
  • Superpowerful Genetics: Some ninja abilities are passed down through family genes, though most are just clan secrets. True genetic powers (known as Kekkai Genkai) are quite rare.
  • Taking The Bullet: Iruka, Haku, Chouza (Chouji's father) and Kakashi.
  • Talking Is A Free Action: Naruto and Lee are the worst offenders, but it's common enough that this troper wonders if Talk You To Death No Jutsu is part of the ninja academy curriculum.
    • In one of the worse chases, Lee manages to have a brief exchange with Sasuke while the two are flying through the air in Lee's Dancing Leaf Shadow jutsu.
    • If you don't get a whole dramatic scene as part of an important character's death, you can tell the next few seconds probably involve a log appearing (substitution technique) or a clone going poof.
  • Talk To The Fist: The Raikage tries to do this to Madara but he just phases through his attack like everyone elses'. Then he tries again and the guy just dodges it and keeps talking like nothing happened.
  • Thanatos Gambit: The 4th Hokage died turning Naruto into a Jinchuuriki not just because it was the only way to stop the Kyuubi's rampage, but also because he knew the person controlling the Kyuubi during the attack couldn't be defeated without the power of a tailed beast.
  • That's No Moon: Sort of; rather it's not that is isn't "the moon", but what the moon is turns out not to be a naturally existing satellite, but the giant stone prison the Sage of Sixth Paths made and put into orbit that contains the body of the Ten-Tailed beast.
  • The Messiah: Naruto. It has been said that his best power isn't his near limitless chakra, his Superpowered Evil Side, or his growing mastery of the Fourth Hokage's techniques — it's his simple minded charisma.
  • There Was A Door: The Raikage believes doors only slow you down.
  • The Tease: Naruto's Sexy No Jutsu.
  • The Thing That Goes Doink: Usually heard but not seen in scenes featuring the Hyuuga and Uchiha homes.
  • Those Two Guys: Two pairs; Kotetsu and Izumo, Genma and Raido
  • Time Skip: Naruto Shippuuden/Part II.
  • Too Dumb To Live: People might not hate Sasuke as much if he didn't have such horrendously poor judgement.
  • Took A Level In Badass: Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke, Naruto, Shikamaru, Naruto, Konohamaru, Naruto, Hinata, Naruto.
    • The reason for Naruto's multiple entries is that he takes a level in badass several times during the entire series, like as of Chapter 430, where after coming back to Konoha after Pain made Konoha go kaboom; with a stylish new sage coat to boot, Naruto destroyed one of Pein's bodies that took THREE NINJA, including Kakashi, to cripple and not even destroy, Naruto flies in and destroys it in a single blow to protect Tsunade. Holy shit.
  • Tournament Arc: The Chuunin examination arc.
  • Trademark Favorite Food: Ramen for Naruto, while Choji's seldom seen without his bag of chips.
    • Dumplings for Anko, which provide the inspiration for her name.
  • Trash Talk
  • Triang Relations: Mixture of Type 3 and Type 5 with Hinata in love with Naruto, Naruto and Lee in love with Sakura, and Ino and Sakura in love with Sasuke in Part I. Things get considerably more complicated after the timeskip with Naruto, Sakura and Hinata, especially after Hinata confesses to Naruto, Naruto indicates that he can't tell Sakura how he feels if he can't fulfill his promise (before finding out about Hinata), Sai tells Sakura how Naruto feels, and Sakura may be developing feelings for Naruto. Naturally, the fandom is quite divided about which direction the arrows face in that triangle.
    • Type 3 between Hinata and Sakura over Naruto. Naruto isn't willing to accept that Sakura's feelings are genuine, but we don't know how he feels about Hinata
  • Try Not To Die: Anko in the Chuunin tournament: "Just don't die!"
  • Two Scenes One Dialogue: Explanations of various new moves and counters.
  • Unpleasable Fanbase
  • Unspoken Plan Guarantee: The ultimate test on this trope has begun in a recent chapter, with Ao and Danzo's bodyguard explaining all the details of the two possible outcomes between their encounter. The result has yet to be seen.
  • Unrequited Love Switcheroo In Chapter 469, Sakura confesses to Naruto that she loves him and doesn't care about Sasuke anymore, but he's not willing to believe her.
  • Unstoppable Rage: Almost all characters demonstrate this at one point.
  • Utopia Justifies The Means: In the second movie, Legend of the Stone of Gelel, Master Haido's stated reason for seeking the titular Artifact Of Doom is to use its power to create a war-free world.
    • This is Pain's motivation for collecting the tailed beasts.
  • Vain Sorceress: Tsunade, and in a rare male example, Orochimaru (though his body was female for a time).
  • Vein O Vision: Chakra lines are similar to this.
  • Verbal Tic: Naruto -dattebayo.
    • Konohamaru -kore.
    • Jiraiya -daro.
    • Deidara, hn.
  • Vicious Cycle: It turns out that those who inherited the Will of Fire are forever destined to clash with those who possess the Sharingan.
  • Walk On Water: Precise chakra control can result in this ninja technique.
  • Wall Banger: Chapter 449
    • Chapter 450, I'm looking at your last four pages.
      • While this may be a terrible decision, it makes more sense if you consider the daimyo doesn't know about any of the things Danzo has done- and even Shikaku is unaware of Danzo's more heinous deeds.
      • The main issue I've seen brought up involving this is how the council is set to enstate their choice, and then Danzou just basically says "No, he sucks. Pick me." And they do, without any debate or anything, they just go along with him and don't give Kakashi a second thought. Not to mention the fact that Tsunade isn't dead yet. What're they gonna do if she wakes up immediately afterwards? Say, "Sorry, we've decided that you're not Hokage anymore."?
      • At the moment, Danzo is just the Acting Hokage, whether he will be made official remains to be seen. He himself states that whether this will happen depends on how the Summit of the Five Kages goes, although becoming leader of the five-village alliance helps.
      • His appointment in the first place is potentially justified, as it has been revealed that Danzo has mind control abilities and it's implied he's been using it to manipulate the others, though this brings to mind as many questions as it answers.
    • Chapter 453
    Madara: Hey Sasuke, Danzo is Hokage now!
    Sasuke: I'm going to kill him at the Kage Summit, even though he'll be more heavily guarded than ever before.. So far, the results of this have been Danzo exiting stage left, while Sasuke and Co get into a brawl with the 4 other kages and their bodyguards.
  • Wave Motion Gun: The closest term that can even begin to describe Pain's penultimate attack.
    • It's arguably an even better description for Kyuubi-Naruto's ultimate attack.
  • Well Intentioned Extremist: Sai implies that Danzo is this, but the way things are going he'll be Jumping Off The Slippery Slope any day now.
    • Pain/Nagato wants world peace even if it's only for a little while between wars.
  • The Wesley: Many readers dislike Sasuke, although he continues to be a major part of the story.
  • Wham Episode: The Sasuke Retrieval Arc is the first of many.
  • What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic: The Uchihas and Shinto mythology; Pain and Buddhist beliefs.
  • When All You Have Is A Hammer: Naruto's Kage Bunshin and Rasengan, but averted later on.
  • The Woobie: Gaara, oddly enough, post Not So Different moment with Naruto. This started happening even before his Heel Face Turn.
  • Woobie Destroyer Of Worlds: Gaara starts out as this.
    • And the Nine-Tails tried to turn Naruto into one.
  • The Worf Effect: Often happens to Rock Lee, Gaara, and... heck, every single character up to and including the title character at some point of time.
  • Worf Had The Flu: Two big factors in the Pain vs. Naruto fight that prevented Pain from killing Naruto in one thousand and one ways with in fifteen seconds of them meeting are 1. Pain needed Naruto alive for his master plan and 2. the easily strongest Path of Pain Deva Realm was out of order when Naruto shows up.
  • World Of Card Board Speech: Naruto vs. Gaara, Tsunade vs. Orochimaru
  • Willfully Weak
  • World Domination: The stated goal of the Akatsuki organization.
  • X-Ray Vision: Anyone with the Byakugan Bloodline Limit.
  • Xanatos Gambit / Xanatos Roulette - Evidently Itachi's behavior was in order to get Sasuke's eyes powered up so that he could steal them to replace his own dying ones. Or was it? Apparently not: As Tobi/Madara claimed, Itachi was actually trying to protect Sasuke by giving him enough Power of Hate to kill Tobi/Madara.
    • ...which Sasuke promptly turns and pisses all over.
      • Which was planned for! Aaaand sort of creepy in implementation.
      • Naruto himself pulls off a brilliant one in Chapter 442 that kills God Realm Pain. Tricks him into thinking he's done for by deliberately missing both of his unique rasengan shurikens to put him off guard. Reveals his trump card (a whole bunch of shadow clones disguised as rocks which mob up. Pain uses his gravity attack to push them away, but they block it by bracing the real one. Real one then finishes that body off with a Rasengan.
  • Yamato Nadeshiko: Haku is a subversion, he fits this near perfectly,despite being male. He fits the look, the respect of authority, the gentleness and the hint of steel about protecting loved ones parts. He doesn't show it (unless you count nursing Zabuza and flower picking) but I wouldn't bet against domestic ability.
    • Played straight with Hinata.
  • You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Sakura's pink hair. Hinata and Konan have blue hair.
    • To be fair Hinata's hair is more blue-black.
  • You Should Know This Already: Sasuke does a Face Heel Turn, Neji and Gaara do a Heel Face Turn, Kabuto works for Orochimaru. Also, Hayate dies.
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