History Naruto / TropesLToZ

* SenpaiKohai:
** Kakashi is Yamato's sempai in Part II. Sakura also sees Shizune as her sempai.
** Tobi calls Deidara "sempai".
** Nagato considers himself Naruto's sempaï as a fellow student of Jiraiya, but later admits that it's not entirely serious.
** O'onoki, the third Tsuchikage, who is the oldest and most likely longest-serving living Kage, calls himself Gaara's "senpai" as a Kage as a way of being condescending.

* SpiritualSuccessor: The main character of ''Manga/{{Ninku}}'', Fuusuke, is a wind ninja who wears orange and uses a move similar to the Rasengan. It's set in a universe where ninja are highly militarised and wear flak jackets, there are supernatural entities who can possess humans and bestow great but dangerous powers; it deals with themes of war and hate, often with interpersonal stories where even the villains may have faced tragedy. Sounds familiar? WordOfGod explains, indirectly, how the similarity came to be. ''Naruto'' was originally not supposed to be about ninjas at all; when the author made up his mind he was going to turn it into a story about ninjas, he recalls that
-->''[...] the samurai story didn't work out, so I figured I was gonna try ninjas. But in Jump, we had "Ninku" already. That wasn't really the best moment to create a ninja story. "Ninku" already created something quite original by fusing Ninja Arts and Karate. I had to find something else, something new to add on. That was quite the challenge. But that challenge is exactly was motivated me. I felt that, of the multiple japanese themes, ninjas was the right one to choose. I tried my luck with that.''

* ProbabilityPileup: Sasuke is said to be the last living member of the Uchiha Clan, with all the rest having perished in a targeted massacre five years ago. Then, Sasuke reveals that the perpetrator of the genocide is, in fact, Itachi Uchiha, Sasuke's older brother. From then on, the characters keep stumbling on more Uchihas --namely, [[spoiler:Obito Uchiha (Kakashi's thought-dead teammate) and Madara Uchiha (former Clan head and co-founder of Konoha)]]--, even if they don't know that during most of the plot. Something similar happens with people with the Sharingan. First, it's just said that Sasuke one day will awaken his Clan's bloodline ability (which he does later). Then, we discover Kakashi has one Sharingan eye implanted. Next, it's Itachi. Next is a mysterious masked man. Then, it's one of Konoha's elders [[spoiler:Danzo Shimura having several of them implanted on his left arm]]. Then, even the [[GreaterScopeVillain Greater-Scope Villains]] have it.

* OfficialCouple: Asuma and Kurenai, Minato and Kushina, Dan and Tsunade, Hayate and Yuugao, and Konan and Yahiko. In the epilogue, the official pairings for the original teenagers in the series are revealed to be [[spoiler:Shikamaru and Temari, Sai and Ino, [[ShipsThatPassInTheNight Choji and Karui]], Kiba and Tamaki, and for the main characters, Naruto and Hinata, and Sasuke and Sakura]]. You can read more about the twists and turns that eventually led to those under "Shipping Rollercoaster" in the [[{{Analysis/Naruto}} Analysis page]].

* SwordfishSabre: The Giant Marlin has a ''literal'' double-edged sword as his rostrum, and is quite apt at using it.

* MesACrowd: The various Clone Jutsu: Shadow, Water, Lightning, etc. Also seen to a smaller scale with Replacement and Substitution Jutsu. Then you have Zetsu, whose white half can be cultivated like a plant. The BigBad grows one-hundred-thousand copies of him to fight in the fourth ninja world war.

*** [[http://uzumakibabies.tumblr.com/post/115104310321/throughout-that-mission-naruto-realized-that This quote]] from ''[[LightNovel/SakuraHidenThoughtsOfLoveRidingUponASpringBreeze Sakura Hiden]]'' explicitly states just how important Hinata is to Naruto:

* PairTheSpares: In an odd, non-romantic example, Sakura and Tsunade. It feels like the former asked the latter to train her so [[GenerationXerox every Sannin could have a member of Team 7 as their student]]. But while Jiraiya and Orochimaru had plenty of reasons to train Naruto and Sasuke, respectively, there's no good reason as for why Tsunade would agree to train Sakura, since not only is Tsunade a very busy woman, being both the Hokage and the village's foremost Medic-nin; Part I Sakura was a rather subpar ninja with no obvious strengths other than academics, meaning that Tsunade would have very little incentive to spend what little spare time she had training a ninja that hadn't shown much potential. On top of that, at no point before that moment did Sakura ever show any interest in learning Medical Jutsu or talent for it. It is noted early in the series that Sakura has better chakra control than Sasuke and Naruto, and chakra control is key to both Tsunade's strength and medical ninjutsu, but it is not until she trains under Tsunade that Sakura exhibits any extraordinary levels of chakra control.

** Naruto's obsession with redeeming a traitor and would-be mass murderer just because they happen to have an abrasive WorthyOpponent dynamic (which the audience is repeatedly told is friendship) is treated, at worst, as idealistic to a fault. When ''bad guys'' are loyal to villains who showed them kindness, it's tragic and destructive (Haku, Zaku, Kimimaro). To be fair, there ''are'' exceptions where it is portrayed as a redeeming characteristic for a villain, such as with Kisame.

* ProtagonistJourneyToVillain: Sasuke's takes such a big share of the story that for a while [[SpotlightStealingSquad he effectively serves as the main character]].

* TriangRelations: Several Type 3s and Type 5s.

* WeirdMoon: The Moon of the ''Naruto'' world is not a natural moon, [[spoiler:having been created by Kaguya Ōtsutsuki's twin sons to seal her away.]] It's considerably smaller and closer to the planet than our Moon, and since it's technically in the Earth's atmosphere, you can even live on it. [[spoiler: Homura, one of the twin sons, did exactly that, taking his family to settle there. They transformed it into a perfectly livable and Earth-like environment, until a civil war made the Moon as barren as ours. A millenium later, a descendant of that clan planned to [[ColonyDrop drop the Moon on the Earth]] to cleanse it of all life.]] The Moon is also the key to [[spoiler:Madara Uchiha's grand plan: casting an Tsukuyomi on the moon so that its moonlight reflects everywhere on Earth, trapping everyone in an infinite dream-like state.]]

* WeirdMoon: The Moon of the ''Naruto'' world is not a natural moon, [[spoiler:having been created by Kaguya Ōtsutsuki's twin sons to seal her away.]] It's considerably smaller and closer to the planet than our Moon, and since it's technically in the Earth's atmosphere, you can even live on the moon. [[spoiler: Homura, one of the two sons, did exactly that, taking his family to settle on the moon. A millenium later, a descendent of that clan planned to [[ColonyDrop drop the Moon on the Earth]] to cleanse it of all life.]] The Moon is also the key to [[spoiler:Madara Uchiha's grand plan: casting an Tsukuyomi on the moon so that its moonlight reflects everywhere on Earth, trapping everyone in an infinite dream-like state.]]

* SortingAlgorithmOfEvil:
** Played straight during Part II, where Naruto has to deal first with the Akatsuki, then with their [[AuthorityEqualsAsskicking godly-powerful leader Pain]], then eventually with Tobi, who was initially a moderate threat but accumulated power so rapidly that by the end of his arc he was even ''more'' godly-powerful than Pain, and was able to single-handedly be a match for every other living Ninja ''combined''. This pattern repeats itself with [[spoiler:Madara and Kaguya, who each come out of the woodworks in turn in increasing order of "what the fuck we cannot possibly handle someone this powerful"]].

* MenGetOldWomenGetReplaced: Most kunoichi from older generations managed to somehow stay young, particularly Tsunade, whose youth is a spell, and she has never been seen on-camera in her withered old form. Mei Terumi is a kunoichi from an older era who is [[ChristmasCake worried about getting married at her age]], although she is still in her thirties and gorgeous. The only female BigBad [[spoiler:Kaguya]], is an immortal, unkillable goddess. The single exception to this, Elder Chiyo, is used mostly as a {{Foil}} for her evil grandson, Sasori, and after he dies, she does too not long after.

* SempaiKohai:

* {{Retcon}}: Though Gaara is [[MirrorCharacter a SIMILAR character to Naruto thanks to the monsters sealed within them]], Shukaku is openly stated at first to be a completely different manner of being to the Nine-Tailed Fox (an incarnation of sand, living spirit of a Sunagakure priest stored in a kettle), let alone them both being members of a "series" of tailed beasts. This can be explained because Shukaku was inspired by the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bunbuku_Chagama Japanese folktale Bunbuku Chagama]].

** Going further back, in the first chapter (not just the pilot, which is in a different continuity and has this as its premise, but also the first chapter of the actual series), it's treated as if Naruto ''is'' the Nine-Tailed Fox in human form, rather than simply having it sealed inside him. The Hokage worries that he might regain his old form, and Naruto gets a brief HeroicBSOD on being told that he's literally the Nine-Tailed Fox. In current continuity, where jinchūriki are a major cultural institution, it's impossible to imagine anyone making that mistake. Note, though, that it's ''Mizuki'' telling him he is literally said beast, and anything that guy ever says should be taken with a grain of salt.
*** Furthermore, Chapter 438 demonstrates that their fear was pretty close to being right. Though the jinchūriki is not the beast itself, the jinchūriki can be swallowed by the beast's will and release the beast, which is effectively the same thing as what they were afraid of.

** The premise of the series revolves around the fact that the title character, Naruto, is [[AllTheOtherReindeer hated and shunned]] by the rest of Konohagure because he holds within his body the [[{{Kaiju}} Nine-Tailed Fox]] that destroyed their village and killed many people--including the [[OneHundredPercentAdorationRating beloved Fourth Hokage]]. It's revealed that Naruto is the son of both the beloved Fourth Hokage as well as a member of the esteemed and respected Uzumaki family... who ''for generations'' have acted as the vessel for the fox to protect the people. This raises the question of why ''no one'', including members of the Konohagure leadership who should know better, told the people who Naruto's parents were. The reason is {{Hand Wave}}d as "because the Hokage's enemies would have targeted Naruto", but this still makes little sense because Naruto himself came very close multiple times to going down the same path as many of the series' villains due to the treatment he received. Further, ''every'' clan in Naruto has enemies, and if people knew who Naruto was, they would have more inclination to protect him. That said, it's also noted by Minato that in addition to fear of what Minato's enemies would do, it was Hiruzen's policy to keep everything regarding the Nine-Tails as secret as possible, including Naruto's bloodline and said bloodline's relationship with the beast.

** Orchimaru's students follow his lead in their own ways:

* WiseSerpent: The White Snake Sage is a gigantic albino Japanese rat snake that Orochimaru and later Kabuto studied under in an attempt to learn senjutsu (translated as sage arts), with only the latter being successful. In the sequel series ''Manga/{{Boruto}}'', she's shown to be a master of [[MasterOfIllusion gengetsu]] capable of disguising herself as an old woman.

* WizardDuel: Ninjutsu being [[MagicByAnyOtherName what it is]], the battles become more arcane as time goes on. By the final arc, all the relevant fights are essentially fights with pure chakra, summons, shapeshifting, sealing and reality warping; there's little if any hand to hand combat, and even that is often enhanced with chakra.

* SchizoTech: When the plot calls for it, suddenly there's a fridge. And walkie-talkies, security cameras, full-color movie theaters, and so on. Towards the beginning of the Fourth ninja war, the five feudal lords communicate using video conferencing; just a few months back, the Suna village had to send a ''messenger bird'' asking Konoha for help when their Kazekage was abducted. Modern Weaponry is pretty much nowhere to be seen, which is obviously a NecessaryWeasel (To quote WordOfGod: "If we allowed that, this story would not be about Ninjas."). One of Pain's bodies has rocket launchers due to the RuleOfCool, but that's about it.

** Karui and Samui of Kumogakure are a female Red Oni[=/=]Blue Oni pair. Karui is a hot-tempered DarkSkinnedRedhead, while pale blonde Samui is level-headed and calm -- hell, her [[MeaningfulName name even means "cold."]] She also serves as the BlueOni to her Red Oni brother, Atsui (though they look similar in appearance and hinted they are twins). Unsurprisingly, his [[MeaningfulName name means "hot."]]

* SuperSpecialMove: Naruto has multiple stronger variants of his SignatureMove, the "Rasengan". Examples include "Big Ball Rasengan, which is literally just a bigger, stronger Rasengan. But more varied twists include techniques like "Rasenshuriken", a projectile variant that grants Naruto greater range, power, and has the added benefit of sharp edges that can cut through hard surfaces.

* MindScrew: The sequence where we get treated to a visualization of the effect Naruto's words are having on Obito. First, illusory versions of Minato, Kakashi and Rin appear. Next, Minato and Kakashi start messing with Obito's head. Then things get really weird: Rin starts speaking seductively to Obito, except she's entered the UncannyValley, and then she, Minato and Kakashi start transforming into tailed beasts. Then Naruto turns into young Obito and runs off with Rin. You still something perceive? [[VillainousBSOD Obito not very.]]

** Sasuke in Part II, who is lean but moderately muscular, wears a long-sleeved white shirt open all the way to his waist, [[AbsoluteCleavage exposing his torso]]. He actually has a functional reason for his not-shirt: it's so his Cursed Seal form's wings don't rip his clothes every time he uses them as they erupt from his back. When Itachi removes this ability, Sasuke reverts to more standard clothing.