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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 Anti Hero Sasuke and hot-headed love-interest Sakura), and eventually moves to encompass their struggles against Big Bad Orochimaru, ruthless leader of the rival village of Otogakure ("Village Hidden in the Sound"), and the S-Class criminal organisation Akatsuki.

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,despite the fanbase's fears,4Kids had little,if any interest.But Viz had plenty of interest,since they 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. Uncut dubbed episodes are available on iTunes, usually released before the TV broadcast.

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.

Mangaka: Masashi Kishimoto

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.
  • Affectionate Parody - The series' entry on uncyclopedia (or rather, a snapshot of what it used to be; it was later axed on the grounds that anybody who hasn't watched the series wouldn't get it). Among other things it features Naruto as "Whirly Swirlamagig" and discusses the "Katon jutsu vs. ANBU problem", a thought experiment wherein a fire attack that never works is used on fodder-nin who always die upon attack.
  • A God Am I: Pain.
  • Alas Poor Villain: Quite a few. Zabuza, Kimimaro, Sasori, Orochimaru, Itachi (even before The Reveal), and Danzo.
  • All Of The Other Reindeer: Villagers toward the tailed beast hosts. 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: Hinata loves Naruto. Naruto and Lee love Sakura. She, Ino and Karin love Sasuke. While Naruto and Sakura may be reconsidering how they feel about the ones they love and who love them, the status quo is still this trope.
  • 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. More recently the fanbook finally answered what the what the real names and orders of the current Mizukage, Tsuchikage, and Raikage.
  • 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.
  • Angst What Angst: Naruto gave up his angst regarding his being host of the Nine-Tailed Fox before the series began, instead focusing on becoming Hokage. Post Timeskip, however, has him angsting more than ever.
  • Anguished Declaration Of Love: A very common feature in this series.
    • Sakura to Sasuke in Part 1. His response: "You're annoying." and then he knocks her out. Way smooth, but ostensibly this was for her benefit as well as his.
    • Truly epic one from Hinata to Naruto during the Pain arc, which by all measures of the Sorting Algorithm Of Mortality should have instantly killed her. It nearly does. Cue Heroic BSOD and the mother of all Unstoppable Rages.
    • 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. Though, this being Sai, the supposed anguish and the declerative fanfare sort of get lost in the way. Sakura gets the gist all the same and chases down Naruto especially to tell him she loves him and his suffering can now be over; His response: "I hate people who lie to themselves". Ouch burn. To be fair, there's more to it than that, which Sai, now dangerously approaching Shipper On Deck territory, forces Naruto to acknowledge.
  • Animal Motifs: All the Hosts of the Tailed Beasts have them. Plus Choji has butterflies, Sasuke has snakes (even before joining Orochimaru), Itachi has crows, Shikamaru has deer, Neji has birds.
    • Sasuke also has hawks (which is what he renames his team after and which he eventually gained the ability to summon), especially after Itachi's death.
    • Ino, Shikamaru, and Choji's Ino-Shika-Cho formation is based on the Boar-Deer-Butterfly combination from the card game Hanafuda.
    • Many Akatsuki have this (if they don't just look entirely like an animal), as their early character designs had them be an organization of monsters. Briefly: Itachi-crows (name means "Weasel"), Tobi (name means "Kite," as in the bird), Konan-butterflies, origami-style.
  • Animation Bump: Some of the fights, notably Sasuke vs. Orochimaru, Naruto vs. Sasuke and some parts of Team 10 vs. Hidan and Kakuzu. Sasuke vs. Killer Bee. OH GOD Sasuke vs. Killer Bee.
  • Animated Actors: Some of the Omake segments have the characters as these.
  • Anti Villain: Haku is loyal to the evil Zabuza, but has a conscience and does not want to kill his opponents. Itachi, revealed post-mortem.
  • Appendage Assimilation: Juugo has done this a time or two. He can also invert it by giving his flesh to someone else, but they're only likely to be able to accept it if they're compatible with the Cursed Seal.
  • 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) have more pride than they should.
  • 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 Death" technique.
  • Awesome Mc Cool Name: How is Killer Bee not a cool name?
    • Sasori, meaning "Scorpion" also counts.
    • Kisame, meaning "Demon Shark". Kiba, meaning "Fang".
  • Ax Crazy: Hidan, Gaara before his Heel Face Turn, Juugo's alternate personality.
  • Badass Bookworm: Basically any medical ninja with valuable combat skills, i.e. Kabuto and Tsunade. Sakura should theorically qualify but...
  • 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 the Uchiha clan in general.
  • Battle Butler: Zabuza's apprentice, Haku.
  • Beam Me Up Scotty: Tobi didn't say "Tobi is a good boy," Zetsu did. A translation error by Sleepy Fans has Sasuke claiming that he wants to kill all five Kages, instead of just Danzo.
  • 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.
    • Sasuke seems to have developed a fuse-blowing reaction to anyone insulting the Uchiha clan or Itachi since he learned of what currently passes for the truth regarding their massacre. Needless to say the effect is magnified with Danzo, who Sasuke now holds directly responsible for it all; It seems it's enough for the man to just mutter "Uchiha" and Sasuke loses it.
  • 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 Damn Heroes: Happens a few times throughout the series.
    • The most recent example is when Naruto jumps in to save Sakura from Sasuke's attack.
  • 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 it's size, being the size of a small village. The Hyuuga's place is pretty impressive as well, looking more like a palacial estate than a housing complex.
  • BFS: All of the "Seven Swordsmen of the Mist" seem to have their own BFS. Except Raiga.
  • Big Ol Eyebrows: Rock Lee and Maito Gai, to the point of almost being alive. Also Inari's dog Pochi, and master Sab-chan.
  • Bishonen: Depending on your point of view, a good number of the male cast could qualify as Bishonen. Notable examples include Haku (to Dude Looks Like A Lady levels), Sasuke, Itachi, Kakashi, Deidara, Sasori, Neji, Suigetsu, Kimimaro, (arguably) Orochimaru, Kabuto, Sai, Gaara(after the Time Skip), and of course the title character himself.
  • 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!)
  • Body Horror: Danzo's newly revealed arm is pretty damn creepy, what with there being a human face on his shoulder and Sharingan eyes where there should most definitely NOT be sharingan eyes! Probably helps cement his crossing of the Moral Event Horizon, since he'd have had to take them from the corpses of at least five Uchihas.
    • As of ch. 478 it's been revealed that Danzo had DNA from the first Hokage implanted in his right arm by Orochimaru. Madara realizes Danzo's combining of Uchiha and Senju powers means he wants to control the Kyuubi too. This also confirms that Danzo crossed his MEH as he might have backed Orochimaru's early experiments.
  • Boobs Of Steel: Tsunade
  • 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".
  • 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
  • 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 Maito Gai.
  • 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. With punching.
  • Cant Catch Up: A particularly galling instance in the Pain arc, where apparently the entire village of Konoha can't keep up with Sage Mode-powered Naruto.
    • May be justified, given that Pain is no longer running around confusing people since he blew the village up, and the body that blew the village up was left powerless for several minutes after. Once God Realm is able to fight again, he slaps Naruto around with ease despite being without all his support. Didn't hurt that Naruto showed up with a big honkin' frog army either.
  • Cash Cow Franchise
  • Cast From Lifespan: Tsunade's regenerating technique. At least two of Pain's technique (the giant Shinra Tensei and the "Resurrection no Jutsu") are said to cast from Nagato's lifespan. It's also hinted that the Susanoo technique does the same.
  • Character Entry: Naruto
  • Chekhovs Boomerang: Kakashi's copy of the unreleased Icha Icha Tactics was used by Naruto and Sakura to take the bells from him. You wouldn't expect it to be used again more than one hundred chapters later, when Jiraiya uses it as the key to his coded last words.
    • Jiraiya's first book features a story with a character named Naruto who has a tough battle against a rogue 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, who grew up to become a Woobie Destroyer Of Worlds (Wannabe?) and The Dragon. Naruto later mentions this to Pain as the clincher of his by-now-trademarked Heel Face Turn no jutsu.
    • Another one revolves around Sharingan being able to be transplanted. Not only does it explain where Kakashi got his, and it's how a Mangekyo Sharingan's weakness can be overcome, but now Danzo has not only one for a right eye, but several implanted in his right arm.
    • Orochimaru's experiment that ended up giving Yamato his Wood Release power. Turns out Yamato was not the only one to survive the procedure.
  • Chekhovs Gun: Shisui Uchiha was 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. Shizune, who's 28, drunkenly tells Kurenai she's jealous that she has a boyfriend in one of the omakes a few episodes before Asuma dies.
  • 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.
  • Complete Monster: Surprisingly, averted. Villains always manage to escape this trope, either being Evilly Affable (Deidara, Hidan), or receiving a Freudian Excuse (Orochimaru, Pain), or, er, whatever the case with Madara Uchiha is. This is when they don't outright pick up a "get out of Evil" free card (Gaara, Itachi). Orochimaru stands out in having crossed far too many Moral Event Horizon to be reasonably excused by anything (and unlike Pain lacking the capacity to uncross them). Believe it or not, the only villain to never get an excuse for his wrongdoings was Gatou. Danzou is technically a contender, but you can already see his I Did What I Had To Do speech coming a mile away.
    • As of the latest chapter, Sasuke seems to have met every qualification:
      • Terrible acts, that no attempt to justify was made? Check.
      • A Freudian Excuse that is inadequate to excuse his behavior? Check.
      • No regret or remorse for his actions? Check.
      • Evokes fear and/or hatred from the other characters in the story? Check.
      • Affects the tone of the work? Darker And Edgier to be sure. Check.
      • His defeat a major element of the story? Check.
      • No chance of redemption without being considered a Karma Houdini? Check.
  • Condemned Contestant: The winner of the kill-all in Orochimaru's jail would get the honor of becoming Orochimaru's body.
  • Conservation Of Ninjutsu: Everyone takes it to an insane 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 it's 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.
    • Subverted before either of those two with Asuma vs. Hidan, supporting some burn marks after his fire jutsu backfired.
    • The Fifth Mizukage has a Kekkei Genkai that allows her to use Lava Release jutsus, among which is the ability to spit a huge stream of lava out of her mouth.
  • Contemplate Our Navels: Orochimaru sometimes slips into this when describing why he's seeking immortality.
  • Cool Mask: Kakashi, Danzo, Madara and Ao.
  • Cool Shades: Shino and Killer Bee wear these.
  • Cracking Up: Naruto, over and over. More than any mortal knuckle could really take.
  • Critical Backlash / Hype Aversion / Hype Backlash: With the possibility of going from one to another, in both ways. Can depend on whether you met the Fan Dumb or the Hatedom first.
  • 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 Hebi.
    • Lee and Gai also qualify.
      • Naruto.
      • Tobi is a good boy!
      • Danzo is a cripple reliant on political power who runs at the first sign of trouble... NOT!
  • Crowning Moment Of Awesome: See here.
  • Crowning Moment Of Heartwarming: "Lee... you already are a Great Ninja..." - Guy to an unconscious, but still fighting Rock Lee.
    • Hinata and Naruto conversation at the training ground, just before he fights Neji. She tells him the reason why he really is strong. Even better in the anime as the nice music Morning starts to play at some point.
    • 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.
    • The end of 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.
    • Chouji's whole fight with Jiroubou and the flashbacks to how he and Shikamaru and he became friends. There's just no words to describe that warm, fuzzy feeling when Shikamaru defends him from the other kids and watches him rescue the butterfly, then goes to watch clouds and eat chips with him. Their relationship is one of the sweetest in the whole series, not to mention that they're just adorable as kids.
  • 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 ( Hinata tries to stop Pain from taking Naruto away, declaring her love for him in the process, and is seemingly killed, prompting Naruto to slip further into his 9-tailed fox transformation than ever before. Naruto goes all the way to 8 tails, and the tattoo on Yamato's hand that tells him how many tails Naruto is releasing starts to turn to 9...)
  • Deadly Disabling Upgrade: The Mangekyou Sharingan. Continued use quickly renders the user blind, although there's a way around this particular limitation in the form of taking the eyes of another Mangekyo Sharingan user. It's highly suggested that it works only between siblings, though. If you don't have one, you're pretty much doomed.
  • 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. 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.
  • Designated Girl Fight: The Chunin Exams suspiciously pair most of the girls against each other.
  • Determinator: Naruto exemplifies this trope, Rock Lee perfects it.
    • Hinata makes an excellent showing as well when she fights Neji.
    • Danzo fits the bill, too.
  • 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.
    • Also a case of Fridge Brilliance; think about it he considers himself a god and is sitting in a machine making him a literal example of this.
  • 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 singlehandedly defeated the Juubi and sealed it into himself. When he was dying and Juubi would have broken free, the sage created the moon to hold its body. Yes, you read that right: He solved the problem by creating the moon.
  • 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
      • Here you are◊. There's even Moegi...
      • While we're on the subject, there is a well done photoshop of that image floating around for those who dare to dream.
  • Discard And Draw
  • Disney Death: Sasuke, Neji, Choji, and Hinata.
  • 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, it's 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.
  • Doomed Hometown: Konoha for all of ten minutes in the Pain's Invasion arc. It's already being rebuilt.
  • Double Standard: Remember the scene where Konahomaru transformed into Sai and Sasuke in a decidedly Yaoi situation? You know, after he did the same thing except with women? Yeah, that's in the MANGA ONLY.
  • Downer Ending: The current Six-Tails arc ends With the Six-Tails Jinchuriki finally accepting the girl he protected, Hotaru, as his student. Just in time for him to be captured by by Pain and soon killed when the Six-Tails is extracted. Unless they decide to throw more in the arc, it ends with Hotaru dancing happily in a field of flowers, blissfully unaware that Utakata is about to die. Of course, knowing how the manga plays out, a happy ending wasn't really expected.
  • 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.
  • Dressing As The Enemy: Once during a filler, and another time when Juugo and Suigetsu need to leave the enemy base undetected. Not as effective as they'd have liked it to have been.
  • 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 Sasuke, 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 some language version of the manga, the producers mistake him for a woman.
  • Dynamic Entry: Trope namer (albeit indirectly).
  • 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 to seal the tailed beasts and munch on Gaara's soul) qualifies as well.
      • 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.
      • And let's not forget Danzo's right arm, as recently revealed. Lots and Lots of Sharingan in one arm has got to count as Lovecraftian at some level.
  • Elemental Baggage: Water based jutsus require an existing source of water to use, but sufficient levels of skill allow users to bypass this restriction.
  • 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: Lots. It's really inevitable. There's Hayate Gekko, Iruka, Shikamaru, Gaara, Hinata, Anko Mitarashi, Zabuza and Haku and more... Sadly, a major cause of Fan Dumb.
  • Estrogen Brigade
  • Estrogen Brigade Bait: Sasuke, Sai, Gaara, Deidara, Sasori...
    • Don't forget Naruto, especially when he's not wearing his all orange outfit.
  • Every Girl Is Cuter With Hair Decs: Sakura wears her headband as a hairband. She also used to tie her hair with a ribbon when younger. Ino had a hair slide when she was a child, and wears one again after the Time Skip. Konan's is a flower made of paper. Used at least once in fillers, too.
  • Everybody's Dead, Sasuke: The aftermath of the slaughtering of the Uchiha clan.
  • Everythings Worse With Bears: We recently found out that that's how Karin and Sasuke met. He saved her from an attacking bear during the Chuunin Exams.
  • Evil Albino: Hidan, maybe.
  • Evil Counterpart: Gaara in Part I, Pain in Part II for Naruto.
  • Evil Laugh: Sasuke implements this in his absolutely psychotic rant to Kakashi in chapter 483.
  • 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.
    • In addition, Sasuke was created because Kishimoto was told to have a rival character. Plus characters like Hidan and Tsunade got the short end in their most recent fights because the editors wanted to speed those arcs along.
  • 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.
  • Eyes Do Not Belong There: Danzo's arm
  • Eye Scream: Several plot points involve characters who want to, or actually try to, steal eyes that grant special powers, like the Sharingan or Byakugan. (Thank goodness for the Gory Discretion Shot!)
  • 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 Service: Hinata's jacket being pulled open to expose her ample chest 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.
    • How about the infamous Waterfall Dance scene in the filler Bikochou Arc? Hinata, supposedly 12, dancing completely naked on the surface of the water?
  • Fantastic Nuke: Pain's ultimate goal in obtaining all of the Tailed Beasts is so that he can create one of these. Played with regarding how the hosts of the tailed beasts are said to be used in war.
  • 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, most females stated to be powerful 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 it's best, the quality could be considered mediocre. It was usually much worse. Standard formulas were various examples of Defeat Means Friendship, fights against blatant Filler Villains, and several one-shots of slapstick/potty 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 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.
    • The anime is currently on an arc concerning the six-tailed beast's host, discussing what happened to one of the jinchuuriki (Two were captured prior to Shippuden, four were captured in Shippuden, and by the end of the Hunt for Uchiha arc in the manga, only the eight and nine-tailed beasts remain).
  • Flash Step: It's bugging it has not already been mentioned. A standard technique used by many characters (Sasuke, Kakashi, Gaara, Sai, the 4th Hokage...). Except for the latter, no emphasis is put on it though. Most of the time, they leave with some smoke, but some leave with a "signature" (Gaara gets surrounded by sand, while Sai is by ink). Note that Tobi's move is a completely different one.
  • Foe Yay: Gaara was a bit too obsessed with Sasuke before their fight at the Chuunin exam, basically stalking him while he was training, and calling him his "prey". Madara taking the trouble to come and see Naruto in the latter's hotel room just to chat can also be seen this way. Mind you, it seems he watched Naruto sleeping for a while, and he didn't even try to capture him!
  • Four Is Death: The Sound Four.
    • The fourth Kages of the respective villages have a tendency to die early as well. Inverted with the current Raikage in that he's so badass that he's probably the character who came the closest to killing Sasuke.
  • 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...), as well as how some of the orphaned characters took care of themselves, to say nothing of why they were allowed/forced to take care of themselves.
  • 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.
      • He reads Jiraiya's books but he says he finds them boring, which seems to suggest he's missing the whole point of their appeal.
  • 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. This is also a major part of the Yamanaka clan's techniques, though theirs is only temporary.
  • Gratuitous English: "Dynamic Entry" among a few of Guy's other lines. A filler character often speaks in English.
    • English phrases pop up from time to time in the opening and ending themes, and the German opening, strangely enough, is entirely in it.
  • 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.
    • Naruto's also currently in another one after Sai informs him of Sakura's intention of tracking down and killing Sasuke herself, which Kakashi suggests might result in her death followed immediately by another one which causes him to hyperventilate when he realizes there is no way the situation with Sasuke will have a happy ending.
  • Heroic RROD: Kakashi can need to rest for extended periods of time if he overuses his Sharingan. He apparently dies once, but gets better.
    • Choji during the Sasuke Retrieval Arc as well.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: Third and Fourth Hokage.
  • Hero Killer: Many. Many. The villains here know their stuff.
  • Hes Back: Happens often, but Naruto does it best.
  • He Who Fights Monsters: Sasuke and Nagato.
  • Hey Its That Voice: Considering the size of the cast, it's no surprise that just about every English VA you can name has probably been in the dub at some point or another.
    • 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.
      • Also Mikuru from Haruhi who has a crush on either, or possible both, of the main characters (Haruhi and Kyon).
  • Hidden Purpose Test: Naruto loves doing this.
    • Kakashi sets up a test where three fresh ninja recruits have to steal bells from him... which is totally impossible. He tells them to skip breakfast so they'll be hungry during the test and then busts one of them trying to sneak food. The game is actually to see whether they will break the rules and feed their starving team mate, since ninjas who fail missions are trash, but ninja who don't look out for each other are "lower than that!".
    • The first stage of the chuunin exam is just finding the room for it by seeing through an illusion technique. The final question is given at the end with the condition that once you've heard the question, if you get it wrong you instantly fail and can never take the exam again, or you can quit and try again next year. There is no question, it's just a test to see if you'll gamble your future on the mission.
    • During a filler episode, its revealed that the dreaded "final question" in the chuunin exam one year was subtly different. In this version, if you get the question wrong, you're still fine but your teammates are stuck as genin forever. Agreeing to continue means you fail. Apparently, ninjas should be willing to gamble with their own future, but not their teammates' future.
    • The first nine questions are themselves a hidden purpose test of skill. They're too difficult for most Genin to know, but there are two "ringers" inserted with the candidates who know the answers. There are proctors watching the candidates, and any genin caught cheating three times is automatically failed, along with their team. The key to passing the test then, is to figure out how to cheat efficiently, as a test of the ninja's information-gathering skills. The proctors pretend not to notice some of the cheating (Ibiki notices Kankurou cheating), but presumably give penalties for what they consider to be poorly done information gathering.
  • High Heel Face Turn: Guren and Konan.
  • High Octane Nightmare Fuel: Oh so much.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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: Many of the ninja grab this when they show off a jutsu for the first time or trick their opponent and take a time out to explain it and their life story, in detail, many times allowing their opponent to recover, think up a plan, counter the ability let time pass for reinforcements. After Itachi dies, the characters play hot potato or catch with it.
  • I Gave My Word: Naruto's ninja way is to never go back on his word.
  • I Have The High Ground
  • I Have Two Kidneys: A feature more common than in others series. Naruto, Neji, Kiba, Suigetsu all do it at different points of the story.
    • Happens in a very odd way when the Raikage chooses to attack Sasuke, who surrounded himself in Amaterasu flames while shielding himself with Susanoo, perfectly willing to lose his arm (and eventually leg) to get in the finishing blow, though he apparently wouldn't be OK with dying, so he decides to cut his losses and backs off to have his injury treated.
  • I Just Want To Be Normal: Nara Shikamaru. Not so much wanting to be a non-ninja, but rather just a normal ninja.
  • If Youre So Evil Eat This Kitten: Chapter 483 Sasuke tells Sakura that if she wants to join him, she'll have to kill Karin...
  • Important Haircut: Sakura cuts her long hair with a kunai to escape from a Sound Ninja's grip.
  • Inaction Sequence
  • Ineffectual Loner: Sasuke Uchiha.
  • 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 Awesome Just Add Dragons: There seems to be a "Dragon Missile" technique for every element, which forms the element into a dragon shape appropriate to the element and then blasts the opponent. Turned Up To Eleven with the tenth anniversary game Ryujinki- compared to the main series, the entire game is this. In game, while the bosses being dragons and Naruto's new Cool Sword are understandable given the theme, Naruto can use a dragon-shaped Rasengan.
  • Instant Expert: Naruto learned Shadow Clone Jutsu in one evening, and perfected his Sage powers in less than a month.
    • Justified in later cases, when it's revealed that he can use shadow clones to accelerate his training.
  • Internal Reveal: It was long suspected and eventually revealed that Naruto's father was the Fourth Hokage. Naruto himself didn't discover it until a Journey To The Center Of The Mind nearly 80 chapters after it was revealed to the audience in a conversation between Tsunade and Jiraiya.
  • Internet Backdraft:
    Step 1: Go to any Naruto forum.
    Step 2: Assert anything that has to do with Shipping (e.g. Claim that there's an Official Couple).
    Step 3: Watch as the thread erupts into flames.
  • Invisible Parents: Perhaps most notably, Sakura and Lee's (assuming he even has parents), but many parents (such as Hinata and Neji's mothers, etc) are also absent.
  • Ironic Echo: In Chapter 482, when Karin flashes back to when she met Sasuke during the Chunin Exams, she remembers the last words he said to her when he saved her life: "See ya." Guess what he's saying to her as he's about to kill her? (Just to twist the knife, the Chunin Exam and present-day panel are drawn side by side.)
  • Its All About Me: Sasuke's mindset can pretty much be summed up as this. Only his feelings are worthwhile, he doesn't care (anymore) about how the others feel or the outcome of his deeds.
  • Jerk Ass: Sai when he's introduced, Neji before his Heel Face Turn.
  • Jumping Off The Slippery Slope: Sasuke finds out the brass of Konoha were behind the death of the Uchiha clan, and decides to kill everyone in the 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 like this as well.
  • Leitmotif
  • Lets You And Him Fight: Madara may be doing this to Sasuke and Danzo.
  • Life Or Limb Decision: The Raikage willingly steps into one of these when attacking Sasuke to get his revenge. He has to cut off his arm, or be consumed by Amaterasu. He also would have sacrificed his leg in order to finish Sasuke off, had Gaara not 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 Jiraiya eating a bowl of ramen, while thinking up a name for the main character of his book.
  • Loads And Loads Of Characters
  • Local Hangout: Ichiraku's ramen bar.
  • Look What I Can Do Now: Naruto practically uses this as his standard way of fighting. Heck, he does it in the first episode/volume when he first busts out what will become his signature move, not to mention twice more recently, first when he shows up against a nigh-immortal opponent to backstab him with a newly-developed technique that seems to function like a blender crossed with an artillery shell, and second when he is summoned back to the village and starts wiping the floor with the seemingly-invincible Pain using his newly-learned "Sage Mode".
  • Losing Your Head: Twice. First, we have Hidan, who, being immortal, yells curses at his beheader until such a time his head can be reattached. Then there's Kisame, who actually compliments his opponents on their victory as his head is flying through the air.
  • Lovable Sex Maniac: Kakashi and Jiraiya, among others.
  • Love Freak: 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.
    • A much more minor version is that Danzo's bodyguard Fu and Torune are actually members of the Yamanaka and Aburame clans.
  • 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: Gai and Rock Lee
    • Although Gai 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.
    • 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: Gai and Lee
  • Martial Pacifist: Maito Gai and Rock Lee.
  • 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
  • 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).
    • HATRED!!
    • DYNAMIC ENTRY!!
    • The "Fag Eagle"
  • Mes A Crowd - How did it go so long without anyone adding this to the page?
  • 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.
  • Missed Moment Of Awesome: We don't see most of the fights between the tailed beasts and Akatsuki (except in some filler episodes).
    • Chapter 480. Holy Shit, Sasuke's gone off the deep end... again! Kakashi's got his own Mangekyo active and used it to nullify Sasuke's best attack! Sasuke's Susano'o just turned into a huge, evil version of Itachi's! Sasuke... just... ran out of chakra... causing his... Susano'o to... fade away... leaving him weak, drained, and nearly blind... Hm. Good for Kakashi; not good for those of us viewers expecting a Teacher-Versus-Student, Mangekyo-Versus-Mangekyo fight. And now Sasuke's up against a not-exhausted, not-vision-impaired, fully-charged Naruto.
  • Missing Mom: So, what happened to Kushina Uzumaki?
  • Mobile Shrubbery: Konohamaru, pre-Shippuuden.
  • Moral Event Horizon: Orochimaru probably crossed this in his fight with the Third Hokage in the series, but in-universe, he crossed it long before that.
    • Constantly played with regarding Sasuke since the end of the part I. Basically, for many, many, viewers, he has crossed it - but they disagree about when. In this very case, it's probably more useful to wonder when Redemption Equals Death will become the one and only option left, rather than if Sasuke is beyond redemption or not.
  • 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 believe 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 Live It Down: After being told by the rest of the Rookie 9(including Sakura) that they plan on killing Sasuke, Naruto begins to hyperventilate and passes out. This is already turning into a fandom joke, where Naruto passes out at the merest mention of Sasuke.
  • 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
  • Nice Job Fixing It Villain: Pain in chapter 437.
  • Ninja: Just about everyone.
  • Ninja Log: Used in a surprising number of variations, including several that explode.
  • No Export For You: Narutimate Accel 2, what would have been known as Ultimate Ninja 5, has been confirmed to be out in the UK, but will not be coming out in the USA (or so says tens of thousands of forum-ers and a semi-official statement, versus a scant few hundred clinging to false hope)
  • No Mouth: Kakashi keeps his mouth concealed behind a mask at all times.
  • The Nose Bleed: The inevitable result of Naruto's Sexy Jutsu.
  • The Nose Knows: Mainly the Inuzuka clan, but Kakashi and the Third Hokage also display this.
  • Nothing Is The Same Anymore: Done at the end of part 1, and once more when Konoha is destroyed.
  • Not So Different: Naruto and Gaara
    • Also Naruto and Iruka, and Naruto with most of the characters he befriends in the fillers and movies.
    • Naruto and Hinata. Lampshaded by Lee and Sakura during her fight against Neji.
    • As of chapter 485, Naruto realized that his own anger from Konoha's hatred towards him means he could've been the threat to Konoha and Sasuke the one defending it. The panel shows Naruto using chidori and Sasuke using Rasengan to drive it home.
  • Not So Harmless: Danzo has this written all over him. When first introduced he was well past his prime (being about the same age as the Third Hokage was)- with one eye, a missing arm and a walking cane. Cut to the Kage Summit arc where it is revealed that he's got a friggin Sharingan and effortlessly wipes out a unit of mooks that attacks him, sheathing his sword in one of their heads to free up his hand so he can use jutsu. Later at the meeting we find out he has Mind Control powers, and then that he's not missing an arm, he just has an arm full of Sharingan eyes that allows him to shamelessly respawn as if the Naruto universe were some multiplayer first person shooter. Huh.
  • Obfuscating Stupidity: Lots of people. Notably Kakashi seems to cultivate friggin layers of this shit. First introduction as goofy teacher who falls for Naruto's prank. Soon reveals himself to be Bad Ass in an extreme way. His enemies know he's dangerous, and treat him as such... right up until the point he reveals that he's FAR more dangerous than he originally let them believe and Curb Stomps them.
    • Tobi. Harmless comic relief or Big Bad Incognito? You get three guesses. The first two don't count.
  • 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: The first time Gaara is ever injured. The 8-Tailed Fox emerging from Pain's gravity well.
    • Danzo's face when he saw "Itachi" in the latest chapter.
  • Ominous Latin Chanting: Akatsuki's musical motif in Shippuuden.
  • Omniscient Morality License: Uchiha Itachi plans to protect his brother and the village involve following an order to destroy the clan, joining Akatsuki, and inflicting a tremendous amount of suffering on Sasuke, ultimately resulting in him defecting from Konoha.
  • Ondo
  • One Winged Angel: Anyone using Curse mark level 2, Jugo, and anyone with a tailed beast.
  • Only A Flesh Wound: Having arms ripped off does little to slow some characters down:
    • Deidara manages to fight pretty well despite having lost both of his arms.
    • The Raikage only seems annoyed that he's having to cut off his own arm because it's postponing his beating the crap out of Sasuke.
    • Madara doesn't even bother looking for medical aid. He just sits down and watches the fight he just set up.
  • The Only One: Danzo believes he's the only person who can change the world for the better. I guess someone forgot to hell him he was in a shonen series.
  • 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.
  • Overshadowed By Awesome: Too many characters to tell, but Tsunade and above all Sakura are badly affected by this trope, despite being Extraordinarily Empowered Girls.
  • 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: Jinchuuriki. Pain. Hoshigake Kisame.
  • 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: It's never given any explanation how Hinata survived Pain smashing her into the ground and stabbing her at his own convenience and she isn't killed by Naruto's Unstoppable Rage destroying a large chunk of the village just because .
  • Plot Driven Breakdown: 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 - The past of the Uchiha clan went from being the background of one major character to a crux upon which most of the plot was connected.
  • Pointless Band Aids: Rin
  • Possession Sue: Due to the belief that main characters should be awesome, the fans love doing this to Naruto.
  • Power Gives You Wings: Sasuke when using level 2 of his cursed mark. Until one was severed and the other one burnt.
    • Choji when using the red pill.
  • Power Makes Your Hair Grow: The level 2 of the cursed seal. Averted for Juugo, even though he's the source of it.
  • The Power Of Friendship
  • The Power Of Love: ...is apparently a distant second behind the power to repel things with gravity.
  • Power Trio: Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke
  • Powers As Programs
  • 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.
  • Reality Warper: Danzo's recently revealed technique, Izanagi, allows him to break the barrier between reality and illusion (genjutsu) for one minute at the cost of a Sharingan, effecively giving him small scale reality-warping powers for a short time.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • Religion Of Evil: The Jashin Religion.
  • Rescued From The Scrappy Heap: Sakura, as a result of getting stronger and more mature over the timeskip.
    • And then possibly subverted due to Word Of God that she was always supposed to be an unpleasant character. Total Mind Screw.
    • Naruto himself, due to his growing maturity.
  • The Reveal: Staggering amounts, especially recently.
  • 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: Gai sees even this as Serious Business(albeit with some convincing from Kakashi), 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.
  • Sadistic Choice: Invoked when Kakashi is giving Team 7 their Secret Test Of Character. He asks Sakura what she would do if he threatened to kill Sasuke unless she kills Naruto. Much later we find out this actually happened to Nagato after Hanzo attacked his group out of paranoia: he had to kill Yahiko or else Hanzo would kill Konan. When Nagato freezes up at the thought of hurting one of his friends, Yahiko grabs the arm Nagato was holding a kunai in and stabs himself with it.
    • Also, due due to Sasuke's recent activities: joining Akatsuki, attacking the Raikage's brother, and attacking all the other Kage at the summit, he's now an enemy of the whole ninja world. Even Naruto's friends have decided to kill him, leaving Naruto stuck between breaking his word or pissing off the whole ninja world.
  • Sailor Earth: It turns out Filler character Utakata is the 6-tailed Jinchuriki.
  • Sanity Slippage: Itachi displayed this during his fight against Sasuke, while claiming that his true plan was to get Sasuke to awaken his Mangekyo Sharingan so he could use his eyes to replace his own, and suggests this is his true self. It actually isn't, as Sasuke later discovers.
    • Played straight with Sasuke. Chapters 480 to 484 show just how freaking crazy he's become. Especially apparent in 484, where he completely loses it.
  • Sarutobi Sasuke: Sasuke Uchiha and the Third Hokage and his relatives (Sarutobi family) take part of their names from him.
  • Say My Name: In their first fight on the hospital roof:
    Sasuke: Narutoooooooo!!!!!!!!
    Naruto: Sasukeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!
  • 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 Nagato's mobile throne thing, and Cyborg!Pain.
    • A filler villain has a smoke bomb launcher with revolving chambers.
  • The Scrappy: Sakura has had varying shades of this throughout the series. Out of Team 7 she's had by far the least characterization drive plotted into her (Naruto wants to become Hokage; Sasuke wants to avenge his clan; Sakura wants... What?). But generally the rule of thumb is that short-term fulctuations aside, as the manga progresses she gets better.
  • Scream Discretion Shot: Happens when a filler villain beats up Hinata in the Three-Tails arc.
  • Sealed Evil In A Can: The Tailed-Beasts (see below), the Jubi (in the Moon!!). The One-Tailed Beast (Shukaku) was sealed in a kettle before it was put in a host. Arguably, Orochimaru.
  • Sealed Inside A Person Shaped Can: Applies to the Tailed-Beasts. There's also at least two instances in fillers. Kurenai's eyes are said to be red because some part of one of her student powers was sealed into them. In the filler arc about Rokubi, the Tsuchigumo's forbidden jutsu is sealed inside Hotaru's back.
  • Sempai Kohai: Kakashi is Yamato's senpai in Part II.
  • Shadow Archetype: Naruto and Gaara in Part 1, Naruto and Pain 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, 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 jury is still out on the latter two, since Naruto now knows the real reason behind Sakura's (apparently insincere) confession.
    • On the other hand, Kishimoto stating that the story would not explore Shikamaru's love life sinks any chance of him getting together with Ino, Temari or Shiho in canon.
    • The Sasuke/Karin ship is officially sunk after Karin realizes what kind of person Sasuke truly is when he nearly kills her so he can kill Danzo.
  • Ship To Ship Combat: Goes on endlessly in western fandom between fans of the Official Couple-esque, Will They Or Won't They-riffic Naruto/Sakura and the Fan Preferred Couple-ish Naruto/Hinata. Any manga panel involving Sakura or Hinata as much as contemplating the possibility of having a thought that might be connected to Naruto's fifth cousin thrice removed is guaranteed to be viewed through Shipping Goggles. Everyone making Anguished Declarations Of Love to everyone else recently in manga really didn't help things.
    • It's gotten to the point where a good chunk of the fandom has become deeply disgusted with the fighting shippers and the canon portrayal of the potential ships that they've had to create separate sections of fandom to discuss their thoughts. Otherwise, they'd get flamed by angry shippers. It's THAT BAD.
  • Shocking Swerve: Itachi being a Fake Defector.
  • Shoot The Dog: Naruto's classmates have decided the Sasuke is a global theat, that needs to be put down like a mad dog.
  • Shoot The Hostage: Sasuke shoots through Karin to get Danzo.
  • 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.
    • On top of that there is the four tailed Beast that references Dragonball. Its design is partially based off of the Oozaru, the host's name is Roshi and its number of tails is the same as Goku's favorite Dragonball. It's horns are also apparently modelled after the diadem worn by Sun Wukong from Journey to the West, who is himself one of the original inspirations for Goku.
  • 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, where she punches him for making her worry then hugs him.
  • Smug Snake: 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.
    • Kinda justified with Gaara, in that they kinda wanted him dead anyway.
  • 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.
    • In what has to be the most bizzare application of this trope ever, there has been some controversy over whether to Raikage's name is A or E. Yes, really.
  • Spiritual Successor: of Ninku. The main character Fuusuke who wears orange, is a wind ninja and uses a move simlar to the rasengan. Or the fact that its set in a universe where ninja are highly militarised wearing flack jackets. The fact they both have supernatural entities who can posses humans and bestow great but dangerous powers. Both talk about the problems of war and hate, often with interpersonal stories where even the villains may have faced tragedy.
  • Split Personality: Zetsu can talk and even argue with himself.
  • Spotlight Stealing Squad: Despite not being the main character, a disproportionately large number of plot-developments are centered on Sasuke.
  • Spot The Imposter: Two different characters (a Rain Genin and the not yet introduced Orochimaru) use ninjutsu to disguise themselves as Naruto in the Forest of Death arc.
  • Spy Catsuit: The female teachers.
    • The male teachers wear them as well.
  • 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
  • Start X To Stop X: Pain wants to end all wars by giving people the ultimate weapon of mass destruction.
  • Stealth Mentor: Itachi in the most messed-up way possible.
  • The Stoic: Shino and Neji, as well as Yamato and Kakashi.
  • Straight Arrow: Kidomaru can make one out of webbing and much later Sasuke's full Susanoo weapon.
  • 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 of Danzou's brand political solutions of the past being partially to blame for this whole mess in the first place notwithstanding).
  • Stripperiffic: The female teachers, several of the students.
  • Women In Refrigerators: At least both Played with and Inverted. To show how evil Sasuke has become, he Impales Karin With Extreme Prejudice, with an obnoxious comment to ice the cake. While her two others male Nakama were simply left behind. If she doesn't die, the trope will still be there, just in a toned down/milder version.
    • In the latest chapter, this also happens to Sakura when Sasuke almost kills her while Sakura considers killing Sasuke.
  • Stupid Statement Dance Mix: Kabuto, with his... ninja info cards.
  • Super Powered Evil Side: Naruto's Kyuubi, Gaara's Ichibi, Juugo's alternate personality.
  • 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, Sasuke, Chouza (Chouji's father) and Kakashi.
  • Talking Is A Free Action: Naruto and Lee are the worst offenders, but it's common enough to make you wonder 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.
    • In the confrontation between Naruto and Sasuke, they manage to have a (possibly telepathic) conversation just before their attacks collide. It... doesn't make much sense.
  • 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.
  • Tear Jerker: There are a few, particularly during the first arc As annoying as Sakura normally is, even I was moved to tears by Sakura's reaction to Sasuke's apparent death.
  • 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 Are No Therapists: Sweet Ninja Jesus, the number of problems in this series that could have been solved by a therapist is staggering.
  • There Was A Door: The Raikage believes doors only slow you down.
  • The Tease: Naruto's Sexy Jutsu.
  • The Thing That Goes Doink: Usually heard but not seen in scenes featuring the Hyuuga and Uchiha homes.
    • Leads to Fridge Logic when considering that the Nara clan has one even though they RAISE DEER.
  • Those Two Guys: Two pairs; Kotetsu and Izumo, Genma and Raido
  • Throwing The Fight: Gaara refused to take a dive in his match with Sasuke and proceeded to kill the two Kusagakure Shinobis who threatened him to do so.
  • 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.
    • Sakura seems to believe she has what it takes to fight and kill Sasuke alone, despite the fact he has become one of the strongest ninja in the world, and she Cant Catch Up. Her behavior may be justified because she hasn't seen him since their encounter in Orochimaru's lair. It still sorta fits the trope... Or does it?
  • Too Powerful To Live: Nagato. Also, Shisui's eye ability is so broken that Danzou destroys it few chapters after its powers are revealed. Orochimaru has shades of this.
  • Took A Level In Badass: Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke, Shikamaru, Konohamaru, Hinata.
  • Tournament Arc: The Chuunin examination arc.
  • Training The Peaceful Villagers: Land of Waves Arc
  • Trademark Favorite Food: Ramen for Naruto, while Choji's seldom seen without his bag of chips.
    • Dango for Anko, which provide the inspiration for her name.
  • Trash Talk
  • Trickster Archetype: Naruto, when he doesn't play The Messiah. Madara Uchiha likes to act like this.
  • Triang Relations: Several Type 3 and Type 5s.
  • 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: Inevitable, considering how large and diverse the fanbase is.
  • Unspoken Plan Guarantee: The ultimate test on this trope has begun in a recent chapter, with Ao and Torune explaining all the details of the two possible outcomes between their encounter. The Mizukage showing up didn't factor into either of their planning, it would seem
  • Unrequited Love Switcheroo: Possibly in Chapter 469, when Sakura confesses to Naruto that she loves him and doesn't care about Sasuke anymore, but he doesn't believe her and it's not entirely clear to what extent we should believe her, either.
    • And more recently, with Sakura making a second Face Heel Turn offer to Sasuke, it's bordering on Mind Screw territory.
    • Actually that was a Batman Gambit to get her close enough to kill Sasuke, which failed miserably hen she she was Out Gambitted by Sasuke now within reach to stab her with Chidori. If Kakashi didn't do a Big Damn Heroes moment, she'd have ended up like Karin. Shoot. if not for Karin giving a What The Hell Hero moment, Sakura wouldn't have realised she was about to be stabbed.
  • Unstoppable Rage: A surefire catalyst of Naruto drawing on Kyuubi's power, much to the former's Chagrin and medical detriment. Cue earnest attempts to not go on Unstoppable Rages anymore, which promptly all goes to hell in a handbasket come chapters 437-438 (see under "berserk button"). Also the Raikage fighting against Sasuke, to an idiotic level.
  • Used To Be A Sweet Kid: Used several times with (arguably) Gaara, Sasuke, Sasori, Pain. Heck, even Orochimaru used to be a sweet kid to a limited degree, as the Third Hokage always suspected something wasn't quite right with him, but didn't want to believe it because of how talented he was.
  • The Untwist: the Fourth is Naruto's father. Didn't see THAT one coming.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • Variable Length Chain: Lee's weapon in the third movie.
  • 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.
  • Warrior Therapist: Neji perfectly fitted this trope before his Heel Face Turn. Gaara was like this exclusively towards Sasuke. Interestingly, they still have this dynamic when they meet again at the 5 Kages' Summit. Save that they switched their positions: Gaara is now "the good guy with a reason to fight", while Sasuke is the evil guy who claims that "[his] goal is in darkness". Naruto has his moments, too.
  • Wave Motion Gun: The closest term that can even begin to describe Pain's village-busting Chou Shinra Tensei.
    • It's arguably an even better description for Kyuubi-Naruto's ultimate attack.
  • Well Done Son Guy: Sasuke and Hinata (towards their fathers), Rock Lee (towards Might Guy), Naruto and Sakura (towards Sasuke), played with for Kakashi (towards his friend Obito, but after the latter's death)... Acknowledgement is a major theme.
  • Well Intentioned Extremist: Danzo. Although now that recent chapters have revealed that he robbed the corpses of several Uchiha for their Sharingan eyes, and had the First Hokage's DNA implanted in him (possibly funding Orochimaru's experiments with the stuff, which caused the deaths of numerous infants) all so he can control the Kyuubi, it's clear he's very much on the "extremist" side.
    • This is debatable, as upon his death, it was revealed that a lot of what he'd done was a result of him not being picked for Hokage. He probably wouldn't have done half the things he'd done if not for being so gung-ho in getting his way.
    • 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, It's Not Symbolic?: The Uchihas and Shinto mythology; Pain and Buddhist beliefs.
  • What Happened To The Mouse?: The Akatsuki rings. Great pain was taken to draw attention to their significance, it being the main reason Akatsuki was after Orochimaru and Deidara was falling all over himself to get his back. A few dozen chapters later, not a single mention of them is made and with multiple other members killed without their rings being recovered, their singificance will probably never be explored.
  • What The Hell Hero: FINALLY delivered to Sasuke by (of all people) Danzo, who tells him that his attempts to avenge Itachi are a rejection of Itachi's will and cause. It also carries a Reason You Suck Speech vibe as Danzo is calling Sasuke out for causing so much chaos just so he can lash out in his desire for revenge. It doesn't take.
    • Sasuke gets to fire a minor one back when Danzo, despite his talk of self sacrifice, takes Karin as a hostage.
  • When All You Have Is A Hammer: Naruto's Kage Bunshin and Rasengan, but averted later on.
    • Now his hammers are the Sage Mode and the Rasen-Shuriken. With Shadow Clones/Kage Bunshin. Though he does get creative in exactly how he uses them.
  • The Woobie: Gaara, oddly enough, post Not So Different moment with Naruto. This started happening even before his Heel Face Turn.
    • Naruto strays into this every so often.
  • Woobie Destroyer Of Worlds: Gaara starts out as this.
    • The Kyuubi almost succeeded in turning Naruto into one. Minato prevented it.
  • The Worf Effect: Everyone. Almost literally. Name a character and odds are he or she has either invoked or experienced The Worf Effect. Lee tends to get the worst of it, though.
  • Worf Had The Flu: Two big factors in the Pain vs. Naruto fight that prevent Pain from killing Naruto in one thousand and one ways within fifteen seconds of them meeting are 1. Pain needs Naruto alive for his master plan and 2. the easily strongest Path of Pain, Deva Realm, is out of order when Naruto shows up.
    • Danzo had used Shisui's eye at the Kage summit and couldn't use it when fighting Sasuke until the end of the fight.
  • World Of Card Board Speech: Naruto vs. Gaara, Tsunade vs. Orochimaru
  • Willfully Weak: Inevitably. This is shonen after all.
  • World Domination: The stated goal of the Akatsuki organization.
  • X-Ray Vision: Anyone with the Byakugan Bloodline Limit.
  • Xanatos Gambit / Xanatos Roulette - Everything Uchiha Itachi did was apparently one of these, and so far it hasn't worked. Some of it, such as the power he shared with Naruto, still haven't come up.
  • 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.
  • Your Mind Makes It Real: Danzo's power is the inversion of this. Rather than an illusory attack having real consequences, it causes a real attack to have illusory consequences.

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