History EarlyInstallmentWeirdness / Naruto

* The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zRDjnMct8s original plan]] of Akatsuki appeared to be [[TakeOverTheWorld world domination]] through the creation and subsequent monopoly of a war economy. Like something out of ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'', the Akatsuki would use the Tailed Beasts to cause wars and then take contracts to supply mercenaries to ninja villages and other settlements to fight in these wars. Interestingly this was only slightly reworked into the Akatsuki doing mercenary work to finance their true goal of world peace through the "Eye of the Moon" plan.

* In the dub, Zetsu's white side and black side had two separate voice actors (Creator/BrianBeacock and Michael Sorich respectively), presumably to make it easier to tell which side was speaking. Come ''Shippuden,'' Zetsu has only one voice actor (Creator/TravisWillingham) using two distinct tones like in Japanese.

* After beating Tenten, Temari is attacked by an enraged Rock Lee, but she blocks his attack easily with her closed fan and looks perfectly confident about fighting him at close quarters and at the beginning of her match with Shikamaru she's tries taking him out with a close-range physical attack and planned on trying it again near the conclusion. It's later established that Temari is a long-range specialist, who fights mostly with her wind jutsu and her summon beast Kamatari, and rarely uses any physical strikes or parries.

* After beating Tenten, Temari is attacked by an enraged Rock Lee, but she blocks his attack easily with her closed fan and looks perfectly confident about fighting him at close quarters and at the beginning of her match with Shikamaru she's tries taking him out with a physical blow and planned on doing it again near the conclusion. It's later established that Temari is a long-range specialist, who fights mostly with her wind jutsu and her summon beast Kamatari, and rarely uses any physical strikes or parries.

* After beating Tenten, Temari is attacked by an enraged Rock Lee, but she blocks his attack easily with her closed fan and looks perfectly confident about fighting him at close quarters and at beginning of her match with Shikamaru she's tries taking him out with a physical attack and planned on doing the same near the conclusion. It's later established that Temari is a long-range specialist, who fights mostly with her wind jutsu and her summon beast Kamatari, and rarely uses any physical strikes or parries.

* After beating Tenten, Temari is attacked by an enraged Rock Lee, but she blocks his attack easily with her closed fan and looks perfectly confident about fighting him at close quarters. It's later established that Temari is a long-range specialist, who fights mostly with her wind jutsu and her summon beast Kamatari, and rarely uses any physical strikes or parries.

* Technology in the early series was actually quite versatile, varying from televisions, security cameras and portable radios, to power lines all across Konoha distinctly, creating something of a fantasy setting with modern urban elements. Naruto even has a working modern fridge in his apartment, something that crops up repeatedly as a background element in filler with the numerous retreads and ClipShow bits of the early series. By ''Shippuden'', the vast majority of this technology was completely excised from the series, with notable exceptions like [[MadScientist Orochimaru]] keeping some tech around, and even that was toned down. Most non-filler tech would become more magical and Ninjutsu-related, like a highly elaborate telepathic setup during the Fourth Shinobi World War arc, and the technological angle would only be picked up again in ''{{Manga/Boruto}}'' -- albeit with far more modern leaps than the turn of the millennium style the early series had thanks to the peace causing a technological revolution.

* The rank of Chunin was initially presented as an advanced rank for ninja that not many would achieve, especially in the Chunin Exam arc. Characters would often refer to "Chunin squad leaders" and the tests in the exam emphasized leadership and big picture strategic thinking. The exam had 153 candidates and 21 of them reaching the final round to even have a chance at becoming Chunin was considered an abnormally large pool that needed to be narrowed down. It was to the point Shikamaru was the lone Genin selected as Chunin just because of his strategic prowess ans ability to sense danger. Later in the series, while still being acknowledged as the rank that enables someone to be a squad leader, Chunin is treated as a standard rank for ninja, to the point that one middle-aged adult was mocked as a disgrace for still being a Genin, and everyone (except Naruto and Sasuke) became Chunin with Neji getting a double promotion to Jonin.

* Temari and Tenten both expressed attraction towards Sasuke in their first appearances, but neither have been referenced since. Temari beicomes firmly cemented as Shikamaru's LoveInterest and eventual wife, and Tenten is later even implied to have had a crush on Neji.
* After beating Tenten, Temari is attacked by an enraged Rock Lee, but she blocks easily his attack with her closed fan and looks perfectly confident about fighting him at close quarters. It's later established that Temari is a long-range specialist, which fights solely with her wind jutsu and her familiar beast Kamatari, and who doesn't even use any kind of physical strike or parry.

* The rank of Chunin was initially presented as an advanced rank for ninja that not many would achieve, especially in the Chunin Exam arc. Characters would often refer to "Chunin squad leaders" and the tests in the exam emphasized leadership and big picture strategic thinking. The exam had 153 candidates and 21 of them reaching the final round to even have a chance at becoming Chunin was considered an abnormally large pool that needed to be narrowed down. Later in the series, while still being acknowledged as the rank that enables someone to be a squad leader, Chunin is treated as a standard rank for ninja, to the point that one middle-aged adult was mocked as a disgrace for still being a Genin.

* Might Guy summons Ningame, a ninja turtle, in his first appearance. This is odd because Guy would pretty quickly establish he fights purely with taijutsu, and nothing else outside the databooks would indicate he was even capable of either ninjutsu or genjutsu. Ningame does get summoned once again years later in a rather funny scene that lampshades the whole bit. Guy specializes in taijutsu, but is capable of at least ninjutsu as well (though he is not good at it). The reason we rarely see him do otherwise is likely because he continues to only use taijutsu to inspire Lee, who is quite literally incapable of performing the other types.
* Temari and Tenten both expressed attraction towards Sasuke in their first appearances, but neither have been referenced since, with Temari being firmly cemented as Shikamaru's LoveInterest and eventual wife. It's even later implied that Tenten had a crush on Neji.

* During the Chuunin exam, the series seems to treat Kankuro's puppet Karasu as if it was a sentient being or an intelligent automaton, despite ninja puppets are later established to be entirely inanimate tools that the user has to move around. In the manga, Karasu's exact method to get the answers of the exam for Kankuro is not shown, and when Kankuro and it reunite in the bathroom, the human just seems to ''ask'' the puppet verbally to tell him the gathered information. The anime fixes it a bit by showing an eye scope in Karasu's masked face, implying the puppet was equipped with a camera or some kind of [[RequiredSecondaryPowers secondary jutsu]] for the user to collect visual information through it, but again, the human mutters he "trusts" Karasu, and the scene cuts to the puppet writing on its examinator clipboard seemingly by its own will. For extra weirdness, the anime still doesn't show how Karasu would have got the answers visually, as it was sitting away from the desks for the entire exam and never had a good angle to watch any sheet.

!!!Plot and Worldbuilding Weirdness

* At the start of the Chunin Exam arc, there are bunch of intimidating adult ninja taking the exam. This fits the early idea that being a genin was just a type of ninja. Later on, however, being a genin is treated as being a "beginner" ninja. It's highly embarrassing to be a genin as an adult.

!!!Character Weirdness
* Early in the series, Naruto was also a minor case of EyesAlwaysShut to play into his fox-like appearance. This trait gets dropped over time.

!!!Jutsu Weirdness

!!!Other

* The whole Land of Waves Arc itself. The atmosphere is quite grittier than the rest of the manga, the main villain is a NonActionBigBad and the main physical threat is just a mercenary doing his job, and neither villain has any connections to Akatsuki, not to mention that this is the first and ''only time'' in which Naruto (or any Konoha ninja for that matter) is seen doing missions for money (if one doesn't count the various basic missions within the village like catching lost animals), since after the Chunin Exams, Naruto and co. spend the rest of the manga fighting against villains who are a threat to either the village, the country or the world at large, basically making them superheroes in all but name. Course it's mentioned repeatedly that missions for money are still happening as they are major source of income for the village, but they don't get much of any focus.

* Hidan had a few discrepancies before his formal debut, plus a little into his introduction. During Gaara's sealing ritual, he notably had bangs (supported by his concept art in a guidebook) and was somewhat apologetic about not finding his assigned jinchuuriki (Yugito) to the point he voluntarily wanted to stall Team Guy from finding an Akatsuki hideout. His proper appearance has his hair slicked back and later he expresses no idea, let alone caring, about the organization's larger goal to the point he threatens Pain's life for a perceived insult to the Jashin Religion. He was also depicted as more level-headed slightly laid-back during the fight with Yugito in comparison to the petulant [[AxCrazy ax crazy]], [[PsychopathicManchild psychopathic manchild]] most would know him as afterward. It’s noticeable in his gesticulations from when Zetsu arrives to collect Yugito after the fight that Hidan begins acting like how most tend to remember him.

* Temari and Tenten both expressed attraction towards Sasuke in their first appearances, but neither have been referenced since. It's even later implied that Tenten had a crush on Neji.
* Hidan had a few discrepancies before his formal debut, plus a little into his introduction. During Gaara's sealing ritual, he notably had bangs (supported by his concept art in a guidebook) and was somewhat apologetic about not finding his assigned jinchuuriki (Yugito) to the point he voluntarily wanted to stall Team Guy from finding an Akatsuki hideout. His proper appearance has his hair slicked back and later he expresses no idea, let alone caring, about the organization's larger goal to the point he threatens Pain's life for a perceived insult to the Jashin Religion. He was also depicted as more level-headed slightly laid-back during the fight with Yugito in comparison to the petulant [[AxCrazy ax crazy]], PsychopathicManchild psychopathic manchild]] most would know him as afterward. It’s noticeable in his gesticulations from when Zetsu arrives to collect Yugito after the fight that Hidan begins acting like how most tend to remember him.

* The whole Land of Waves Arc itself. The atmosphere is quite grittier than the rest of the manga, the main villain is a NonActionBigBad and the main physical threat is just a mercenary doing his job, and neither villain has any connections to Akatsuki, not to mention that this is the first and ''only time'' in which Naruto (or any Konoha ninja for that matter) is seen doing missions for money, since after the Chunin Exams, Naruto and co. spend the rest of the manga fighting against villains who are a threat to either the village, the country or the world at large, basically making them superheroes in all but name.

* At the start of the Chunin Exam arc, there are bunch of intimidating adult ninja taking the exam. This fits the early idea that being a genin was just a type of ninja. Later on, however, being a genin is treated as being a "beginner" ninja. It's highly embarrassing to be a genin as an adult. The plot where Orochimaru and Kabuto manage to sneak into the village as chunin candidates would therefore likely not work as well as it did.

* The Hyuga Clan being an important high house is mentioned sometime during the Chunin Exams, with the implication that there are other high houses in the village, something confirmed in the fanbook, and it factors into why the jonin anticipate the Neji vs Hinata fight much more than Naruto's or Sasuke's fights. This is never mentioned again (though the Hyuga do own a large residence and there are some scattered comments about them being rich, implying their highborn status) and the Hyuga more or less act like other clans in the village.
** In fact, the Hyuga being important at all. Kakashi comments during the Neji vs Hinata fight, upon seeing the two activate their Byakugan, that there is a rumor the Sharingan was evolved from the Byakugan. While Neji and Hinata continue to serve as recurring characters in the series, the clan's importance essentially disappears in its entirety after the Invasion of Konoha arc, with the focus being put in place more and more into the Uchiha and their Sharingan, the Rinnegan, the Senju and their Wood Release, and the Uzumaki. The Hyuga wasn't even part of the group of clans who founded Konohagakure, as shown in Hashirama's flashbacks, making their supposed "noble clan" claim even more bizarre.
* At the start of the Chunin Exam arc, there are bunch of intimidating adult ninja taking the exam. This fits the early idea that being a genin was just a type of ninja. Later on, however, being a genin is treated as being a "beginner" ninja. It's highly embarrassing to be a genin as an adult. The plot where Orochimaru and Kabuto manage to sneak into the village as chunin candidates would therefore not work.
* The rank of Chunin was initially presented as an advanced rank for ninja that not many would achieve, especially in the Chunin Exam arc. Characters would often refer to "Chunin squad leaders" and the tests in the exam emphasized leadership and big picture strategic thinking. The exam had 153 candidates and 21 of them reaching the final round to even have a chance at becoming Chunin was considered an abnormally large pool that needed to be narrowed down. Later in the series, Chunin is treated as a standard rank for ninja, to the point that one adult was mocked as a disgrace for still being a Genin.

* The concept of Tailed Beasts was introduced during the Kazekage Rescue Arc. In Part I, there was no indication that ninja villages used to control tailed beasts as weapons of war, much less that there are nine of them. The treatment of hosts is seen to vary widely between the nations that have them as well. Shukaku is explained as not being recognized as a tailed beast because a previous host of his got so confused with him that people thought he was the host's angry spirit, which is the reason as for why Shukaku was for the longest time the only tailed beast known by name. The Eight Tails burned through hosts fairly quickly until Killer B, who was seen as a hero by his village. Naruto's treatment is especially unusual since the first host already knew, and told others in the village, that the way to control the demon was love. Treatment like Naruto and Gaara received is quite literally the worst way to go about things.

* Might Guy summons Ningame, a ninja turtle, in his first appearance. This is odd because Guy would pretty quickly establish he fights purely with taijutsu, and nothing else outside the databooks would indicate he was even capable of either ninjutsu or genjutsu. Ningame does get summoned once again years later in a rather funny scene that lampshades the whole bit. Guy specializes in taijutsu, but is capable of the other two. The reason we never see him do otherwise is because he continues to only use taijutsu to inspire Lee, who is quite literally incapable of performing the other types.

* In Chapter/Episode 3, Naruto manages to tie up Sasuke, and the latter escapes with the "Escape Jutsu," which is implied to be a common level Jutsu everyone (but Naruto) knows how to do. The Escape Jutsu never, ever made another appearance in the franchise again, with ninja being bound and gagged rendered completely helpless most of the time.

* Sasuke's use of the Fireball Jutsu being "beyond any Genin" because it takes too much chakra... and then comes the Chunin Exams arc, where all the Genin characters use much stronger jutsu with much higher chakra costs. The story does at least imply that this is supposed to mean average Genin, which Sasuke is definitely not, and the other characters are all noted to be above average, but it still fits here considering the basic Clone Jutsu is considered good enough to be a passing grade in the Academy.
* The initial explanation of the Sharingan being that it's entirely a trick that allows for genjutsu hypnosis and that you're not actually copying techniques so much as tricking your opponent into tipping what jutsu they're going to use and then using it first. It's never brought up, or even used as a limit for the Sharingan's abilities again, and we later see Sasuke and Kakashi copy moves they haven't seen before, with the Genjutsu applications being changed later into being just strong illusions that aren't the same thing as tricking the enemy into using the same Jutsu as you..
* The Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet has 44 hand seals, which is way higher than any other ninjutsu requires in the series. Other ninjutsus only require a single-digit number of hand seals. The aforementioned Fireball Jutsu also has a rather high number of hand seals of 8, whereas many more powerful jutsus need even less hand seals by comparison. In fact, the hand seals were early on such an important part of the story that one of the reasons Naruto wanted to learn the Rasengan was ''because'' it didn't need any. By the timeskip, some characters might be able to use things like the Fireball Jutsu without hand seals (it could also be the artist simply skips showing the hand seals, as no one says the character uses the jutsu without hand seals).
* The Byakugan "in terms of insight, surpasses even the Sharingan". While this technically remained true (to this day the Byakugan can see further, with more detail and in more directions than the Sharingan), the implication that the Byakugan would be comparable with the Sharingan in overall power did not. Within the next arc the Byakugan mostly became a background ability that usually got used as a support skill rather than a battle skill and never got anywhere near the attention or additional powers the Sharingan got. It did prove to be part of the ninja world's origins as part of Kaguya's power set and her clan's abilities in general, but even then her other abilities were much more important. It did get a powered up form (Tenseigan) in the canon movie ''The Last,'' but said form ended up not lasting and the basic Byakugan's powers still remained the same.
* Naruto's Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu was used in the first chapter to defeat Mizuki, and then vanished for a long time (in the sense of summoning hundreds of clones at the same time), only appearing in specific situations where he had extra Chakra reserves to do so. This is mostly due to Kishimoto, who commented that he made a mistake giving Naruto such a powerful ability early on, and thus had him only use it when he had moments that fit story wise like his fight with Gaara.

* The concept of Tailed Beasts was introduced during the Kazekage Rescue Arc. In Part I, there was no indication that ninja villages used to control tailed beasts as weapons of war, much less that there are nine of them. This is also the reason why Shukaku was for the longest time the only tailed beast known by name. Shukaku in Part I was an entirely different being who was originally an old monk and never referred to as the "One Tail". In Part II, this was retconned to be a misconception; the monk was one of Shukaku's previous hosts, but lived for so long people began to lump him together with the beast.

Naruto/TropesAToK ([[BerserkButton/{{Naruto}} Berserk Button]], [[BigBrotherInstinct/{{Naruto}} Big Brother Instinct]], [[Bowdlerise/{{Naruto}} Bowdlerise]], [[BrokenAesop/{{Naruto}} Broken Aesop]], [[CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass/{{Naruto}} Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass]], [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness/{{Naruto}} Early Installment Weirdness]], [[FamousLastWords/{{Naruto}} Famous Last Words]], [[Hypocrite/{{Naruto}} Hypocrite]], [[Jerkass/{{Naruto}} Jerkass]], [[JerkassHasAPoint/{{Naruto}} Jerkass Has a Point]]) | '''Tropes L to Z''' ([[NiceGuy/{{Naruto}} Nice Guy]], [[ShipTease/{{Naruto}} Ship Tease]], [[ShoutOut/{{Naruto}} Shout-Out]], [[TookALevelInKindness/{{Naruto}} Took a Level in Kindness]], [[WhamEpisode/{{Naruto}} Wham Episode]], [[WhamLine/{{Naruto}} Wham Line]]) | Naruto/AnimeAndOthers]]]]-]