Set Ups That Were Never Paid Off In Naruto

[@DygoKnight]

What was Madara's trump card?

[@cypherbrittainnethegodofsl4988]

Getting stabbed in the back and died thrice

[@SpammytheHedgehog]

Madara's Trump card was Hashirama's face on his chest.

[@dux5525]

The Boruto Ending.

[@SaraphDarklaw]

@@dux5525 You’re right, the ultimate revenge.

[@robertlee9602]

He had a gun. Nobody saw he was strapping the whole time.

[@diegoaristizabal6594]

To sum it up: anything and anyone not named Naruto or Sasuke was a setup that never paid off.

[@Komix777]

To be fair, Sasuke was a huge disappointment too.

[@diegoaristizabal6594]

@@Komix777 how so?

[@langadube9611]

​@@diegoaristizabal6594I think they mean the way Sasuke's story was going even if he helped saved the world he should never have been pardoned for his crimes. He left his Village basically going awol, and if you know the Military no matter what your reasons are that is a court marshall, killing someone during war or a mission is one thing but he lead an attack on world leaders and killed several people to do it without cause, joined a terrorist group and was planning to murder the world leaders again anyway after defeating Kaguya. Basically his freedom really doesn't seem deserved. The only reason he's not rotting in a cell is because he's the best friend of the hero of the war. Nepotism at its best.

[@Baphomane]

@@langadube9611 Yeah that’s perfectly shows how dictatorial the villages are. Everyone is the Owner of his Life. Leaving the Village is everyone’s right. The Village, the Government, the Military doesnt own you & your life. You do. Every justification or Law that says otherwise is dictatorial & slavery on some Level. Theres a Place in the real world were people are punished for leaving just like you suggest the villages should do bc the military in our world does that to. Its called North Korea. Btw. Oh so yeah there were the world leaders and? Almost all of them & their Villages commited Atrocities. Im talking all Kage/ leaders here. Ofc some didn’t commit Wars etc, but most. Why arent they punished for it? Ah yes bc they are the respected Authority so they can decide whom should he punished for what & takin Revenge on them therfore makes one a criminal. And why is killing for an Autthority (State/Village/Military) okay but killing from an individual based on own Views not? Because a Authority says so? If a State decided that killing for its interest is okay, it is? Thats fucking hypocrisy. You have the mindset of a fucking authoritarian drone.

[@langadube9611]

@@Baphomane Okay man chill, these are fictional characters and I'm telling you about and what they would do based on the established Naruto world not my own personal beliefs. Second, Yes nobody at that summit was innocent except maybe for the Mizukage and the Samurai, don't know what they did, I know the Mizukage was trying to pull the mist from the nightmares that was Yagura's run, but that's neither here no there I must point out that because they are technically world leaders unless you would want a war on your hands you have to handle things differently than one rouge ninja. It's a sad truth but still the truth. And stopping being a ninja or leaving the village are allowed at least where the leaf is concerned, it's just Sasuke left the village to join up with Orochimaru a well known Terrorist, then he joined the Akatsuki another terrorist group, and from there he tried to kidnap Killer Bee and from there attacks the world leaders of the five strongest nations around, kills the sitting Hokage(Yes I know it's Danzo and he very much deserved to be killed), then planned to kill the rest of the world leaders. He's notorious internationally wanted criminal wanted for multiple crimes before even turning 18. Sasuke was a very dangerous and unstable person. And in all honesty, he's only walking free because Naruto has a lot of sway and his teacher became the acting Hokage. It's even stated in the show.

[@Pentarax]

I think the reason Sakura's whole Genjutsu specialty got dropped is because Kishi kinda went a bit bonkers with the Sharingan. Its sole purpose was to copy any jutsu its user sees. It wasn't even supposed to be as powerful as the Byakugan in terms of perceptive ability. And by the end of the series it was basically the reality-altering godhax eye.

[@marhawkman303]

Yeah, there were HUNDREDS of them at one point! Then a massacre happens and all but 3 die, and we have Kakashi. the rest of them barely had any actual power at all, so... that was true of the majority of them.

[@johnnyboi5268]

True, back when ninjas actually were ninjas but then it all became like Dragon Ball Z with all these god-like moves.

[@MiguelGonzalez-du8de]

YEAH, I remember they even mentioned that the Sharingan was just a variation of the Byakugan, and that the Byakugan was the original and most powerful eye technique, but then they just got obsessed with the Sharingan and it became the deus ex machina of Naruto

[@chaos4654]

From what i understand, a lot of Japanese readers hated Sakura to to the point that no developements Kishi wanted to try for her would ever satisfy the fans or be allowed by his Editor in response to the complaints.

[@RPGNoZero]

@@MiguelGonzalez-du8de Well, Kishi tried to went back on that with Kaguya having Byakugan lol. But it was too late for regular Hyuga to become relevant.

[@eletronicplayers9564]

I think the whole thing about "Sakura being a genjutsu genius" being forgot is more related to the fact genjutsu IN GENERAL (except for sharingan genjustu) was put aside in the series.

[@frankwest5388]

Probably because they realized just how busted perception manipulation is and how hard it would be to write around it

[@calloo7843]

Yeah, at some point the only relevant genjutsus were Itachi's. Any other characters use it, and doesn't make sense because genjutsu is mentioned as one of the 3 principal ninja abilities

[@inxine]

also the fact that he creator hated Sakura. haha.

[@DaDualityofMan]

This is really exemplified by the fact that there’s two separate times where genjutsu users get stomped by Sharingan users, Kurenai vs. Itachi and Cee vs. Sasuke

[@ShinehexX]

​@@inxinelòva B

[@vaarka7534]

One sad part about Lee having nothing from Shippuden is that, after his surgery, I was very excited to see where his progress went. The idea of him being so incredibly good at Taijutsu because he couldnt do ninjutsu or genjutsu was super cool. I always thought it'd be so cool to see Lee become the fastest human ever due to his dedication. Imagine how badass it couldve been to see someone like Itachi, who is known for his hand sign speed, get stopped by Lee before he can finish the first form of the sign because of how fast and specialized Lee is. Imagine having someone so good at Taijutsu that they become one of the only ninjas to ever outspeed a mastered sharingan's sight.

[@yourneighborhoodfbi7518]

That would have been AWESOME. Sadly my man got the short end of the stick 😔

[@MisaelMatute76]

So I'm imagining Guy or Minato? Lol

[@SIPEROTH]

Is something similar that happened with Bleach as well although not as bad. They built too many interesting characters and then have trouble keeping them relevant as the story unfolds and the events that they come with don't have enough space for them.

[@MisaelMatute76]

@@SIPEROTH Idk about Bleach, but in cases like this, it's not about the space. If the author wanted them to be relevant, he could have. It's about them moving on to other characters...

[@SIPEROTH]

@@MisaelMatute76 Authors should realize that people always connect more with the initial characters. You can't go "forget those guys, look at this new cool guys". No you are killing your own world and character building. That is just bad writing. Especially when you have characters that are still supposed to be there but for some reason they just don't appear even in things that they should appear(example TenTen doing something with those weapons). In the end though the two biggest mistakes Naruto series has(i don't count that Boruto abomination) is first putting that Kaguya woman as the final villain. No one knew her, you can't have some unknown character as you big bad final boss. The other was reducing Orochimaru from a scary threat to nothing. He was the big bad guy that the audience connected with as the big scary threat. Putting that well built character away for some whatever woman out of nowhere was just insanity. If i wrote the thing Madara will have been the big war villain but behind the curtains Orochimaru will have plotted for everything so he can take over a rebirthed Madara body to finally become unmatchable and become the truly ultimate threat.

[@Zac_Frost]

The "Hard Work beating Natural Talent" lost all meaning when you learned that Naruto and Sasuke were the reincarnations of people who were basically demigods and were always set to acquire godlike powers themselves.

[@Johnwillson-n7v]

Good thing Neji didn't live to see that Naruto was born special, rendering the point of their fight completely worthless! OG bird cage Neji was right, being born with the fate to succeed is all that matters =/

[@Zac_Frost]

@user-kx1mb9qq4z Yeah. I liked the idea that Naruto had Kurama because he still had to learn how to control that power and really focus it. Same with Sage Mode. But when Hagoromo basically just popped up and went, "You're the reincarnation of a demigod, here's half my power. Have fun." It just sucked...

[@monkeybone1080]

Being reincarnations didn't mean inheriting god powers, it meant inheriting a cycle. Naruto was a failure of a ninja and Sasuke was the Naruto of the Uchiha who struggled to even do fireball Jutsu. Their hardwork and hardships aren't suddenly null and void because a mystic old fart shared his power with them. It only added an extra dimension to the relationship and depth to Naruto's conviction over Sasuke, as in another life, they were brothers.

[@Zac_Frost]

@@monkeybone1080 Nah. Obito was the Naruto of the Uchiha. They even looked and acted the same. Sasuke was only "bad" because he was always being compared to Itachi, which is like comparing an average guy to Einstein. Having difficulty learning a Nature Transformation when Sasuke did is normal, as it's extremely difficult even for full grown adults to do.

[@monkeybone1080]

@@Zac_Frost He also struggled with chakra control to the point where even Sakura beat him in the tree climbing.

[@vnmystery5390]

It feels like Kurenai was meant to eventually train Sakura in genjutsu. It would have made two of these set-ups pay off.

[@zeppelincraft1443]

They could have made her able to use Genjustu to actually support Naruto, or able to seal him when he goes berserk. That would have actually made her a heroine that actually saved the protagonist. That is how Schierke in berserk is relevant. The problem with her being a "healer" is that she can only heal people after they are injured. For a supporting character to be vital to a story focused on combat they need to have their abilities take effect immediately. Or else, you would just have someone healing others off screen all the time.

[@rezxbeatz8034]

hell call me dumb but i think itachi should've let her put him in genjustu (because it was weak and using genjustu against an uchiha is still dumb) but gave him a line something like : "wow this is the strongest genjustu anyone has ever used on me" *easily breaks and reverses it* "but still... weak" i believe that would have given itachi and kurenai their flowers respectively while keeping the story consistent but also giving kurenai the drive to be better I feel like that wouldve been a perfect little arc for her. developing her genjutsu to rival the uchihas while also training sakura in it as well. like how fucking awesome would it be if sakura came between them in the last fight (like old times in part 1) and actually manage to put sasuke under a genjustu he struggles to break due to alot of his chakra being depleted from fighting actually managing to stop the fight and take sasuke in for his trial. maybe thats just me tho i feel like kishimoto doesnt give his side characters love especially the females.

[@taylorhillard4868]

I think so too, but also, imagine for a moment if Sakura specifically created the Izanami to best Sasukes sharingan. Have Kurenia and Sakura work together using what they know and can find out about the sharingan and genjutsu to develop the perfect counter to the Uchiha s magic nonsense. The sharingan is honestly, imo, one of the worst written things to have entered the narutoverse. Early on it was fine; speeds up perception, sees through genjutsu, and can cast genjutsu without handsigns. All very good and strong abilities. Clearly already pretty OP.....but then they gave it the power to summon the fires of hell, giant flaming ghost mecha suits, other random superpowers like tearing trough spacetime, the ability to be used like USB flash drives, and literal time travel......like it's just awful awful writing. I think making Sakura more proficient with genjutsu would have been an excellent way to give Sakura more hype and also do some more creative things with genjutsu since, my God, genjutsu is about as neglected of a concept as all female characters in naruto. The only ones who seem to ever use genjutsu are Uchiha, and they use it in the most banal ways you can imagine.

[@blackoutamvs6550]

@@taylorhillard4868 yeah it would have been amazing if say she kept training her genjutsu to be able to withstand the sharingan hacks and it couldn't work against mangakyu sharingan users but at the 4th great shonobi war, madara lands is about to land a fetal blow on Sasuke or naruto and he does but it ends up being a genjutsu from sakura that saved sasuke or naruto's life. You know to show everyone that through hard work they can overcome any obstacles. She could still be a Healer and have super strength but they should have let her have genjutsu as a part of her arsenal.

[@harrybudgeiv349]

Her being trained by both her and Tsunade would have been dope

[@The_Fluffy_One]

Naruto never finds out that Nagato and Karin are related to him through the Uzumaki Clan. I know it wouldn't amount to much due them all being enemies at the time, but Naruto finding out he has living family members (regardless of how distant) would have been nice to see.

[@ineedmoresleep3728]

It’s weird because they don’t touch on this in Boruto, Naruto knowing full well Karin’s name and everything

[@milkmatcha3698]

​@Kindbreeze1991 at least he knows he still has a relative out there, he grew up alone and always wished he has his own.

[@lavellelee5734]

@@milkmatcha3698 he could've had a Sasuke moment about the uzumaki clan. Sasuke could've been the one to bring it up, making him a more credible Obito style anti hero, and imagine Naruto with all the crazy op stuff the uzumaki had on hand

[@emismpunk]

The whole Uzumaki clan thing was a huge let down. Hyped up and sounded cool af but didn’t really go anywhere. Here’s a strong/ancient clan that have their own island/nation and history, amazing jutsus and bloodline (strong enough other nations banded together to destroy them since they posed that much of a threat). Connections to the founding of Konoha, sibling or off shoot clan to the Senju, the first hokage married an Uzumaki! Making Tsunade and Naruto related, albeit probably distantly but the point still stand. But I don’t think that’s mentioned at all either. I don’t think we ever went to uzushiogakure in either the main series or Boruto. No one really mentions them. They seemed so important and then nothing. Why couldn’t the falls of truth be located here? Why not expand on the rabbit goddess plot and have black zetsu behind their destruction. Maybe since their sealing jutsu could be seen as the biggest threat to his “mother”. Just seems like they said: Hey, here’s a really awesome clan that’s related to the MC. Watch as we absolutely waste their potential and instead focus on the Uchiha to the point the show should be named Sasuke (not trying to hate but let’s be honest here, Uchiha got a megaton of screen time😂).

[@lavellelee5734]

@@emismpunk brooooo that's what I'm saying!!!. Nice rabbit goddess idea though, imagine if that actually happened 🤣

[@golddoesgames123]

Honestly, Kishimoto is a master of writing himself into a corner, only to either ignore the plot point, or bullshit a way out of it

[@diodelvino3048]

ngl, at the time the whole Double sharingan Kakashi part when they fought Kaguya, to me that was hard as hell and cool af so i never questioned it, but that was some complete bs. There was alot of Mickey mouse moments in that whole arc though.

[@therealJodan]

loll.. I think Tite Kubo is worse

[@TheMetastasia]

​@therealJodan How does Kubo make Kishimoto any less lazy as a writer? There are clear idea-cuts in the Timeskip and later Arcs. Why is Obito fooling around with Zetzu at the old hideout when clearly both of them know who Obito is? For the reader? Manda dies and gets Teleported with Sasuke inside him? Why would the Animal Kingdoms need the Carcass of a died Aoldier in their realms.

[@therealJodan]

@@TheMetastasia I am not saying Naruto doesn't have a lot of plot holes.. it does. I just think that Kubo is worse, in my opinion. I have watched both series extensively and Naruto has better developed storylines than Bleach, again in my opinion.

[@mightymoeish]

@@diodelvino3048 Look up videos on it. There's some mild explanations

[@fadedneonzzz9259]

It’s really sad to realize that Konan basically died for nothing, Naruto didn’t keep his promise, and it really stings because according to Boruto the rain village got worse over time. It’s a shame too, Konan was a very underrated character.

[@MrShamooga]

Poor Konan 😭

[@laurocoman]

She still had one of the most badass deaths you can have. She tried to solo Tobi when we still believed he was Madara. Girl had some guts.

[@MrShamooga]

@@laurocoman almost anyone else, and she would’ve got them too.

[@galahadwolf5818]

Lmao literally who actually believed he was Madara

[@shizachan8421]

@@galahadwolf5818 It was actually quite the common believe at that time.

[@Alitacyan]

Totally agree with you on Anko. She was shaping up to be a super interesting character but Kishi really did her dirty.

[@liabstrait8306]

Especially in boruto 💀

[@nataliawashington872]

Can someone just rewrite Naruto while writing in these forgotten concepts

[@EvyDevy]

​@@nataliawashington872If Naruto gets a live action in the same vein as One Piece, possibly

[@elektra8535]

I would have love if at early Shippuden we got some interactions between Sasuke and Anko, she Even could be a semi mentor to him

[@VITAS874]

​@@EvyDevy there is old live action fan fight naruto vs rock lee i remember...

[@senyurra]

Tsunade vs Kabuto showed how medical ninjas fight. It was really unique, we saw they were capable of cutting muscles, striking the intercoastal and scrambling nerves (my favourite part of the fight). It was so cool, I wish they showed moves like these later in Shippuden

[@lectorj]

Yes. Tsunade in general using her medical ninjutsu in fight. Also at least 1 good fight with her as the hokage in a 1v1 fight. Kabuto doesn't count, she didn't fight pain and the 5v1 Madera fight doesn't count. So should have shown more of her abilities and 1 good 1v1 fight as hokage.

[@alexzero3736]

@@lectorj Pain operated dead bodies, medical jutsu won't work.

[@senyurra]

@@lectorj true, Tsunade should’ve gotten more important fights as hokage. She was underused

[@abobanger9054]

Sakura actually used those when giving naruto life support after kuramas extraction Also hyugas basically use those technics

[@deviousj5868]

Alot of the tactical fights flew by the wayside in order to sling big power attack after Kamehameha.

[@TheSolbird]

I had a theory that Kurenai (when Kishimoto was planning the start of the series and creating the basic outlines for the teams and characters) was designed to be an Uchiha, prominent red eyes with defined rings in them, genjutsu specialist, etc. But then that idea was scrapped after he developed Sasuke's backstory, so he kept the character design and just had her be a random jounin instead of another Uchiha, letting her keep the red eyes as a nod to her original concept. Would have been interesting if she was another survivor and then fought Itachi, or if she was a bastard child and didn't know she was an Uchiha until she awakened her own Sharingan.

[@nataliawashington872]

Could’ve been cool to have her be like Shisui’s little sister or smth, would’ve given us more backstory on Shisui while also giving us more kurenai, could’ve also given her his eyes as well and would explain why she survived the massacre because Shisui had Itachi promise him to take care of her

[@Some_guy_passing_by]

She could've been a bastard aunt of Sasuke for all we know and it could be really cool:(

[@scorchingstarbhaskar7011]

Shisui was younger than Kakashi....how could kurenai be his little sister ​@@nataliawashington872

[@virgoproxy]

The Hyuga being the strongest clan with the best visual prowess never really paid off

[@santiagomedinahyb2292]

It is tho the avarage hyuga would beat the avarage uchiha and byakugo > sharingan tenseigan > ems

[@virgoproxy]

@@santiagomedinahyb2292 Where are you getting this? also the prodigy of the Hyuga clan, the best they have to offer Neji Hyuga couldn't hope to beat any of their notable members. the truth is the Hyuga clan was completely left behind by power scaling and the Tenseigan doesn't even count because you need to be an Otsutsuki to awaken it

[@santiagomedinahyb2292]

@@virgoproxy sure you need to be an otsuski to be able to awaken tenseigan but it still is the continuation and like i said the avarage hyuga could curve stomp the avarage uchiha and neji begining of the series could definetely one up sasuke not to mention 8 trigrams technique has a great match up into a sharingan it is stated that the sharigan is awakened and utlized when chakra rushes to the eyes being able to block chakra path ways with byakugan plus 8 trigrams invalidates the activation of the sharigan temporarily so if a byakugan user lands his moves first he just wins

[@virgoproxy]

also lets not forget that canonically every uchiha that has awakened their sharingan can use izanagi and izanami regardless of whether or not they have awakened a mangekyo, which concretely supplants them as above the average hyuga. I dont want this to be the case the hyuga are my favorite clan in naruto and I dont really like the uchiha but the facts are the facts

[@awesomeerr8765]

Hyuga clan is not the strongest clan. It's Senju and Uchiha.

[@darknaventuredelbarrio6771]

The fact that the Rain Village was totally forgotten is the most upsetting thing in the story for me bc it could literally have been the reason why shinobis start a war in the first place instead of random gods fighting in another dimensions

[@darknaventuredelbarrio6771]

@Lee the thing is, giving it a more important role would have been super interesting because we would have so many interesting things brought up like Nagato's past, the forgotten non-ninja people caught up in wars, maybe new Justus instead of unlimited chakra and gods' battles... It would also make sense having Madara and Obito using the hatred of those people so they would actually have an army of NINJAS instead of Zetsu (who completely ruined the principle of a war)

[@SunsetAssassin]

​@Lee If the Rain Village isn't important then all Kishimoto would have to do is write that the Rain Village was destroyed due to the war. He could say that the villagers decided to make a new village somewhere else, and since then they have prospered due to investment from the Land of Fire/Leaf Village thanks to Naruto's promise.

[@supergamergrill7734]

@Lee They could have made the Rain village basically the balkans but with the resources of Africa. So even though it was very weak when fragmented. Could have been the big baddy when united

[@oldmanlogan9616]

Yes rain village had a very cool set up and is completely forgotten after Nagato dies.

[@azraeldusk2154]

@@supergamergrill7734 That's plain Balkans. The resources Balkans have that remain untapped are ridiculous. From agriculture to precious metals.

[@thedumpingground305]

The biggest problem with Naruto and Kishimoto’s writing is that the man didn’t plan out the series much. He had basic plot points and story beats he wanted to include, yeah, but from what I’ve read about him and from the story itself, he just kinda came up with it as he went along. Now this isn’t inherently a bad thing; the author of Berserk, Kentaro Miura, didn’t have a big story planned out when he began writing, but he connected the dots as he went along so well that it seemed pre-planned. This is where Kishimoto failed, and why his series jumped the shark so hard as it went along. It’s honestly a bit baffling to me that his editors went along with it, considering there are enough dropped plot points or characters to constitute a 20 minute video lol. I will forever have a love-hate relationship with Naruto, as it was a big part of my childhood, one of my first anime, and a big inspiration for getting me into writing and worldbuilding seriously, but after having consumed better-structured media I can 100% say Kishimoto isn’t as good a writer as people love making him out to be.

[@VITAS874]

Ippo have good writing, kishi should have lesson from him.

[@awesomestuff2496]

What has better writing than Naruto? Any recommendations please?

[@eightaquafina5968]

If we’re talking about the plot, it’s not the best. But, personally, I was only interested and invested in the emotional impacts, which this series accomplished for me on levels other have not.

[@cupcakemcsparklebutt9051]

I love this comment

[@xxnekonekox]

​@@awesomestuff2496dorohedoro, Attack on titan, dungeon meshi, heavenly delusion, demon slayer, chainsaw man

[@corywilkins9648]

A good addition to the list is Rock Lee dropping the weights. If he entered the 6th gate dropped the weights and drank some sake in the war he would’ve decimated enemy squadrons

[@dregrant8262]

The thought of this alone is funny

[@samuelcosta8189]

Ain´t that the truth😄

[@ICTON123]

I mean, for the weights it's mainly cause he never uses them in conjunction with higher gates(obviously, there'd be no point, the gates harm you immensely already). So if he uses the gates, he likely just doesn't have them on already. They're also for training, so it likely just didn't matter anymore(Guy himself doesn't wear them). So there is an explanation for why he doesn't do this. But I do absolutely agree with the sake. Lee should have gotten drunk more... no, actually, Lee should have had more scenes *in general.* It sucks

[@sgt.cupcakes8423]

@@ICTON123 if he never wore them again, it would mean hed always have the speed he had against gaara ir even faster because of more years of training, but hes never as fast or strong again, lee was a wasted naruto/dasuke power level character

[@sirbruno95]

Didn't he do that in the First or Second Shippunden movie? Ate a chocolate filled with licor while he had the fourth or fith door opened, and then proceeded to kick-drill a rock person. Edit: it was the first kzbin.info/www/bejne/rmelmIR5jKuGn9k

[@jivf4743]

Being a "genjutsu specialist" for a non Uchiha in Naruto is basically just a meme. Not a single non Uchiha has ever really shown anything that even comes close to competing with the prowess of Sharingan users. It's super unfortunate that Kishimoto never fleshed out those older ideas

[@austindeluca1025]

Toad sound genjutsu > sound 4 flute genjutsu > basic uchiha genjutsu

[@kleatise52]

@@austindeluca1025 yeah shikamaru makes a point in saying that auditory genjutsu is the most troublesome, which makes sense, and the toad song is sage jutsu infused. It’s the one exception

[@rsync9490]

Honestly the only people that would have been able to even compete in that field with sharingan users are full blooded senju which shows that the whole point of rock Lee fight with Gaara was pointless and you are only really strong if you come from a strong family or you use a suicidal technique. Edit: There are amazing geniuses with vast chakra reserves though. Jiraiya and Minato are two examples.

[@flamestorm31]

The only one i could think of is the 2nd mizukage and his mirage technique

[@austindeluca1025]

@@rsync9490 minato, jiraiya, kakashi, white fang, Darui, Sasori, Onoki, Hans.. and many more All from non senju or relative important clans without a suicidal Jutus

[@Ikiguy777]

The fact that Rock Lee vs Neji never happened will always be utterly insane to me

[@Rakerong]

That and Sasuke vs Neji never happening was criminal

[@saharudin3159]

Need what if story .

[@laurocoman]

@@Rakerong they could have had that one right then and there in the Forest of Death. You know, instead of NEVER.

[@McBeefRod]

It happens in rock Lee and friends

[@ifyoudontworkyoudonteat7644]

Not seeing neji reach his potential is criminal

[@alex-rs6ts]

The sad thing about the rings is that there was a perfect set up to explore them. After Itachi's death, give his ring to Sasuke. Give Deidara's to Juugo, Kakuzu's to Karin and Hidan's to Suigetsu (even their personalities are similar in some ways). Take the opportunity to have Obito explaining to them what the rings mean and why they are important.

[@vladzf9655]

The setup that never payed off that hurts me the most was Rock Lee, he was extremely strong as a kid, never stopped training but he was just irrelevant for the rest of the story. Everyone loved his fight with gaara, the best IMO, and we never see anything like that ever again.

[@nicholashayes5773]

I was extremely disappointed with that. Lee was a badass when he first appeared. But after that he just sort of became a comic relief character with no real purpose. His fight with Kimimaru came close, but after that, nothing.

[@JayceCH.]

Hah. It wasnt even the best in the same arc dude.

[@stevbe1723]

@JayC it absolutely was

[@kyuubinaruto17]

I mean, with Naruto's help he DID cut Madara in half with a single kick. That's basically his claim to fame in shippuden.

[@kyuubinaruto17]

@@JayceCH.If you think there's a better fight than explain what it is and why instead of dismissing someone else's opinion.

[@jordanmanley9172]

How about the set up of Shino's character in OG Naruto? He was the silent dark horse of the Konoha 12, with intelligence approaching Shikamaru's, ruthlessness similar to Sasuke (he blew Zaku's arm clean off and THEN laid him out on the floor), and abilities as creepy and broken as Garra's. The in universe reason he wasn't on the Sasuke retrieval mission was due to him going on a mission with his father, a Jounin and Clan head. If he was able to keep up with Shibi at that age, we know that he was supposed to be elite for his age, yet purposely hid in the background and only showed his abilities when necessary. With such a hype buildup of his character, what did we get in Shippuden? We got a mopey teen who, while still powerful, became a vessel for the Meta joke that kishimoto always forgets about Shino. That transformation was such a huge letdown for me, but it's nothing compared to the absolutely atrocious disgrace Boruto did to his character... The loser academy teacher that talks to stuffed animals and didn't even make Jounin. Why? Why did Kishimoto inflict such a disservice to a character with such potential?

[@wisequigon]

sad indeed...

[@orianefaton1885]

To be fair, Kishimoto wasn't the one writing Boruto at first, if I remember right.

[@alexzero3736]

Same with Konohamaru.

[@ianmckee4726]

When i was reading the Manga, i somehow built this head canon that Shino had some Uchiha in him, and the sunglasses were to help hide his Sharingan triggering in moments of struggle. And all this was building to a moment of him coming out to Saskue that he wasnt as alone as he thoight. Then the retrieval arc happened and i forgot Shino existed

[@paha4209]

Shino is the Tenshinhan of Naruto.

[@LightDestruction]

One big set up was the rasenshuriken. When Naruto first used it it was set up as this absolute destruction ability that cut to such a level that it destroyed chakra networks and couldn't be healed... And then after that those things were never mentioned again and it basically just became a bigger rasengan

[@verguco6051]

forget that, it was supposed to be strongest wind jutsu and naruto never could beat anyone with it, yes kakuzu but he didnt died, had to be kakashi, then he killed a body of pain and then notihng, no one else was beated with such powerfull jutsu. the normal rasengan was more powerfull, with one hit he could eat anyone

[@maxime5067]

Yeah, I get your point, but I don't think it is a forgotten concept that you're talking about. This is just what happened with Shounen anime in general with their asinine power-scaling "Oh my god, there is a powerful technique/transformation/strong enemy that no one can withstand/beat !!" and then it become almost irrelevant or mundane because we have to constantly raise up the stakes. In the stupidest way that is. This is why we started, with Dragon Ball for instance, with martials arts tournaments and ended up with PARALLEL UNIVERSES GOD FIGHTS Like, this is insane. Who genuinely believe, while reading a couple of chapters from Dragon Ball or Dragon Ball Z, that fighting multidimensionals God-like figures was where this manga should have been headed ? But this what you got when you are an overworked manga artist that want to make you care about the next month chapter without doing too much.

[@Yodah97]

It's been a while. Did it ever work like that against a villain? I remember Yamato explaining the concept of the air needles destroying cells. But I don't remember it ever working like that in practice. Which is a big disappointment, but it's less of an "forgotten concept", and more of an instant retcon because Kishimoto realized the ability would be too OP if left like that.

[@senny-]

@@Yodah97 It did. It destroyed all Kakuzu's hearts in an instant, except one. It tore his flesh bit by bit, too.

[@resdraon]

Thank you! I bring that up all the time and people have no idea what i'm talking about because after about 4 pages its never mentioned again

[@TheTriple2000]

Remember when Chiyo and Sakura had that epic fight with Sasori and throughout the fight she was so good at dodging all of his poison attacks and we were given flashbacks about how Tsunade trained her to always prioritize dodging attacks because as a medical nin, she was the most important member in a party? Yeah after that whole thing, she constantly got kicked/slapped in the face many times by multiple villains, got wacked in the face by naruto's fourtails and got used as a selfie-stick by Madara 😂

[@AlenStandpoint]

Fr, the fact that kakashi just trained naruto and sasuke and let sakura in her own ? bruh, kishimoto really didn't like the girl with pink hair 🤣🤣

[@zoromax10]

The core problem in my opinion of most of those is that the series was always written with villains first, and the heroes reacting to them. Instead of following the ideas he gives his characters, kishimoto develops new cool villains, and force the story to follow them, warping whatever happened before to draw a line from where they are to the conflict with the villain. That's why, for example, you have Sakura as a genjutsu prodigy, until suddenly now it's sasuke. It's because instead of thinking where could he bring these characters, he created Itachi, and now the story have to go to where Itachi is pulling it, being a conflict with sasuke.

[@specterknight430]

Hey Sakura was so good at genjutsu, that she thought she had caught up with Naruto and Sasuke

[@senny-]

You nailed it. The main cast are passive characters. They have no goals, and are just reacting to whatever the events of the story currently are. Except Naruto and Sasuke of course, but not by much. Like, for the first half of Shippuden, Naruto's just sitting around waiting for something to happen.

[@azidahaka8543]

​@@senny-Yeah, in the first half of shippuden, Sakura & Shikamaru seemed more of a main character than Naruto. But tbh, i liked it the way it was, not everything has to be about Naruto in the war arc, literally the arc which had most potential to develop every single character kishi knew he just focused on Naruto and Sasuke. No one except Naruto and Sasuke recieved even a single page of screentime except for Kakashi and the two big villains of course.

[@tom97009]

I believe one of the main points of Naruto (if not the main) is to show how easily one’s circumstances could turn one to the “dark side” even the akatsuki (besides Zetsu and Hidan) all the members had a logical reason why they turned the other way. Wether kisame being told to kill his comrades or Pain and Konan poor life in the village. I mean shit even Madara had a reason behind his path. That is why when pain questioned Naruto for questioning him Naruto had no answer because he understood that he could’ve went down the same path. So it was good to have a show that went into soo much great depth to show people that not everything is as black and white as it seems. Shit remember everyone HATED Itachi….and what happen after we all learned the truth? TEAM ITACHI!!!

[@felipeguerrino1341]

@@tom97009 you can do this without the mess that Naruto is (for example, in Demon Slayer it shows the stories of the demons, and why they became that way)

[@oldmanlogan9616]

The most frustrating thing about Sakura is that she just became Tsunade 2. Sasuke and Naruto's abilities do resemble Orochimaru and Jiraya, but them both have an identity of their own. Sakura is a medical ninja,super strong, and summons slugs *exactly* like Tsunade, she even has the exact same symbol in her forehead to act as a chakra reserve, couldnt she have even her own forehead symbol?!?

[@netero1682]

If Kishimoto did what you mention, Sakura did not go far or to the level that was seen. Naruto and Sasuke's advantage was in their genes or one of the advantages, Kishimoto gave Sakura advantages by camouflaging them with Chakra control because it was what benefited her the most. I also didn't like that Sakura was a replica of Tsunade, I think it made the image she had even worse, however with Tsunade it wasn't like that. If Sakura became a master in Genjutsu, the maximum level she achieved was that of Kurenai. Kishimoto tried to do something for Sakura, I don't know what he saw in that character, but he failed miserably.

[@VITAS874]

​@@netero1682 i think kishi once said he hate her. I think she reminds him someone 😂

[@ncard00]

And Shikamaru saying in “the last” movie that Sakura is resistant to genjutsu is stupid, cause nobody can resist the infinite tsukuyomi, as well as Shisui and Itachi’s genjutsu powers.

[@OneWingedRose]

She should've had a forehead symbol that read "Inner" to reference her old Inner Self!

[@ShourjoTS]

​@@VITAS874 I heard Sakura reminded kishi of his ex wife 💀. But Idk

[@DankSouls37]

Sakura being a genjutsu prodigy opens so many opportunities for narrative foils and parallels. Sakura, the innocent and kind (and privileged in some aspects) beinf the ultimate counter to one of the strongest genjutsu users in the entire ninja world....her lover. Not only does she suffer a heavy emotional turmoil over seeing her friend and romantic interest lose himself to darkness and hatred. She is the key to bringing him down. Ultimately giving her reason to confront him in part 2 instead of "im gonna do it alone this time. Ill kill Sasuke". She becomes also the thematic key to bring Sasuke back to the good side. Sasuke casts illusions and is lying to himself, wants power and control over people. Sakura in return dispels his illusions, figuratively and literally. Genjutsu doesn't work on her and calls him out on his idiocy. Also ties Naruto's friendship with both of them. Naruto being the good in the world Sasuke needs, and Sakura being the one to make him see that. The persom with the most powerful eye has been blind after all.... But what we got was lackluster character because kishimoto can't think things through

[@bananaman-mp3]

sasusaku if it didn’t fucking suck. mostly, i dont really think sasuke actually was lying to himself, he just wanted revenge despite the means, but if sakura was more important in his story (having more of an impact on him) it wouldve made sense for both of them to end up together

[@netero1682]

But that was not going to work taking into account the bases of the Sharingan, if we apply the concept that we saw at the beginning of the Sharingan, no Genjutsu of Sakura was going to work even if she mastered the Genjutsu. Of the three ninja arts, Ninjutsu, genjutsu and Taijutsu, Genjutsu is the one that loses the most against the Sharingan. By giving Kishimoto that ability the Shringan makes Genjutsu very useless against that eye. The other problem was in genetics, Kishimoto gave a lot of importance to genes from the beginning, and Sakura, being normal, was not going to have the strongest genjutsus and she was not going to counteract the most powerful genjutsus either. Kishimoto did try to do something for Sakura, more than people believe, because the character was never up to the level that was seen, but Kishimoto gave her benefits that Sakura did not deserve. If he left her in Genjutsu, maximum she reached Kurenai's level.

[@mrnarason]

it's because sakura go medical ninjustu and taijutsu strength, there is no more need for her to genjutsu. Plus the sharigan makes other genjutsu users useless

[@Some_guy_passing_by]

​@@bananaman-mp3 Sasuke thought if he took power , everything would be peaceful. Really?? People may not wage war , yet they will kill and torment each other no matter what , he should've known from the Land of the waves arc . He knew it deep down but wasn't willing to accept it because it felt like his brother's sacrifice would go to waste .

[@Lorettefromchaos]

This!!

[@GggfSddd]

I'm just imagining Naruto making the promise to bring peace to Amegakure and forgetting about it. Then like 10 years later when he's Hokage he's just signing papers and goes "Oh shit, the rain village."

[@brainrot8802]

Correct me if I’m wrong, but Kurenai’s also the youngest of the Jonin team leaders (Guy, Kakashi, Asunma) and is supposed to actually be very formidable with her genjutsu. It sucks that we only see her use it once and it’s against Itachi

[@rngmade6050]

Kurenai was the most recent to be promoted to jonin. The youngest is Kakashi who is roughly three years younger than most of his generation with second youngest(youthful) being Guy who is somewhere around a year older than Kakashi.

[@brainrot8802]

@@rngmade6050 According to different sources, Kakashi was about 26 during Part 1 and Kurenai's roughly 26-27. Regardless, it would have been nice to see more of her, especially since each other sensai is fleshed out in some way, especially ability and combat wise. Seeing more of her growth as a teacher would have been cool, though I definitely recognize that it wouldn't have made much sense to give her more spotlight considering the large cast in part 1

[@MujisTavern]

@@brainrot8802 they did a dragon ball and put a baby in her

[@vannieuwenbergwilliam7792]

Kakashi and Gai were 26-27 in OG Naruto (over the span of around 8 months), Anko was 21 during the chûnin exams, Kurenai and Shizune were 29, yeah Shizune is older than Kakashi...weird, isn't it? Not even mentioning the fact that Shizune was acting like a maid who had to manage Tsunade's life on top of serving her and never really stepped out of her shadow, as if she was a teenager in OG and still young in shippuden. She never took her independence. Kurenai was actually old when she had a baby for Konoha's standards, the only moms who had kids that old were the parents of Ino-Shika-Cho and Kiba, and they had been fighting in the 3rd war so it's okay that they didn't stop to make babies in the middle of it, unsure of their future. Kiba even had an older sister in ANBU, which proves that it's more of a war reason than a peace time reason to wait before having children. Asuma should have been pressured to make kids and so should Kurenai, considering there had been a period of 13+ years of peace. If Kurenai had been a mom before OG, she could have contributed more to Shippuden.

[@patrickwhipple3097]

This is one of the few time filer arcs are cool sometimes. There's a whole filer about kurenais clan and her genjutsu powers

[@kumbi8368]

One forgotten concept I will never get over, is how back in the Chuunin saga while explaining chakra points and the Byakugan, they talk about how there are points in the chakra network that if you hit, can block the flow of chakra, but ALSO there are points that you can hit to boost the flow of chakra! That idea is never used or brought up ever again.

[@GrandAdmiralFart]

Isn't this the opening of the gates? I'm rusty in Naruto lore, so this might be a stupid question

[@MaxIronsThird]

@Witi the effect could be similar to opening gates or taking the Akimichi pills.

[@justiron2999]

Or how if you run out of Chakra you can basically die but always use everything or just immediately and pointlessly. Has anyone ever died after running out? Naruto and Sasuke do but they just lose their arms and have no other consequences.

[@lordbiscuitthetossable5352]

In all fairness, most Ninja techniques are about tapping into Charka flow to produce an immediate result. Just the 8 Gates is the most spectacular physical use of it, and most bloodlines are basically mutants, for lack of a better word for having a different structure, having specialised organs or locations that can produce really strong effects. So it's not that chakra points are forgotten, but rather it's the next fundamental step in how the power system works. e.g. Extreme incest produces superpowers. XD

[@stevbe1723]

@Just Iron ubless I misunderstood the scene, Kakashi dies from lack of chakra when he uses the Kamui twice in a short time span during the pain arc

[@MMAli-rq8kd]

The best moment to Have *Sauske vs Neji* fight was at the beginning of Shippuden when Sasuke decimated team 7 at Orochimaro's hideout. Team Guy could've showed up to back Yamato to hold off Sasuke, and we get *Neji and Lee fighting Sasuke.* This accomplishes the goal of showcasing *Sasuke's progress* (fighting two characters that stomped him two years ago at once), while showing Neji's genius and Lee's hard work, *instead of that weird fight where they were fighting themselves.*

[@MMAli-rq8kd]

I was expecting someone to say "but Orochimaro was there blah blah blah" *He doesn't have to be there after fighting Sasuri, then Yamato, then Naruto, then Naruto 4 tails Kyubi, Orochimaro doesn't need to be there for this fight.*

[@TheStoso2]

Neji was supposed to have died against Kidoumaru, but didn't because he was a very popular character, Kishimoto wouldn't be able to find anything for him to fit in the story untill the day of his death.

[@e-davidi.7354]

​@@TheStoso2 So basically, Kishi planned to kill off both Neji (Kidomaru fight) and Lee (Kimimaro fight, with Gaara) in the same arc just before the timeskip, even despite TenTen having very little screentime?? Damn... That would explain why he made their team so useless and almost non-existent in the entirety of Shippuden (except Might Guy of course)

[@MagillanicaLouM]

@@e-davidi.7354 Yeah really makes ya think. What was man cooking originally?

[@dakila101]

Demn, I agree. Sasuke was supposedly OP compared to Naruto at the beginning of Shippuden and Neji was the only Jounin in their batch. That would've been the perfect match to scale Sasuke's new level.

[@abcdoooabcd]

the fact that the writer had so many good ideas and alot of intersting characters to the point he couldnt utilize them all is mind-blowing iam so sad about how naruto ended it could have been much better but the arcs were great and iam thankful to that

[@alexas.5287]

So many amazing characters were totally neglected and even killed off early because I'm convinced MK couldn't figure out how to use them to their full potential, it sucks. Like Sasori and Deidara for ex. Just two of many.

[@Sadpotatoirl2010]

He f***ked Shippuden series so hard. But I give it 7 out of 10 at it's best for respect.

[@matijasostojic4288]

I don't mean to be too disrespectfull or mean to Kishimoto but a world such as Naruto really didn't deserve to be made up and used by such an avarage writer. Like the dude is a solid 6/10 while the concept deserved at the very least an 8/10.

[@matijasostojic4288]

@@ayhamahmad2277 Yes he made the world and all and yes he is held back by it being a weekly manga BUT other Authors have the same issue and they make all around amazing pieces of work that you can say are an objective 8+/10 manga in many ways. I mean how can you make such a pretty detailed world with so much potential (And unless he thought it up and decided to go through with it within like a month) and then not think the entire thing through in detail? If I had enough creativity to make something like Naruto, I bet both of my balls that I would have brainstormed the fuck out of it over a good period until I was like "Yea this is good" and even then I probably would have consulted many different people and friends to see if they had any cool ideas or better excecutions of mine. The problem with Naruto is that if Kishimoto had like 3-4 other people working on the project with him it would have been better thought out but it being only him and like 1-2 editors isn't enough . I love Naruto but come on. It deserve better then what Kishi did. Did he make something good? Yes Did many people fall in love with it and it may have even changed their life? Yes Does it deserve its fame and impact on manga/Anime? Yes But it alos could have been better. Kishimoto is an above avarage writer but simply making a cool world isn't enough to call him great.

[@Haggis-Giggles4692]

Agreed, and clearly Naruto basically ended at 5 Kage summit. Show felt like just DBZ after that.

[@celswolf]

TenTen never did nothing in the main story. However in fillers she was a badass. In a world where you can summon a** meteorite only with hand signals she specialized in throwing things to the opponent.

[@Gu3ssWhatsN3XT]

kishi even gave her the sage of six paths weapons and completely ignored her after that

[@DemonMankeyMan]

She was unfortunately a low magic ninja in a HIGH magic world

[@azidahaka8543]

​@@Gu3ssWhatsN3XTKishi just couldn't fit TenTen anywhere, it's sad because kishi said that tenten was his favourite among the Konoha 11, yet her specialization was very weak and basic that she couldn't compete anywhere in the Ninja world.

[@felipeguerrino1341]

That's why Boku no Hero and One Punch Man are great: in a world of magic powers, there are people who are badass and resort to the sheer force of MUSCLES

[@Nightshadeniggadead]

​@@felipeguerrino1341boku no hero is abigger trash bro one punch man is great though but boku no hero would come very low on list of good shonens

[@Meekmillan]

8:30 I always felt like it made wayyyy more sense for Kurenai to fight edo-Asuma instead of Ino Shiks Cho. I mean Shikamaru even tells Asuma that they already had their goodbye, essentially saying his book was closed thematically with them. But you know who it wasn’t closed for? Kurenai

[@orianefaton1885]

Yes. Plus, when they would have been fighting, they could have been talking and saying their final goodbye, and just like Sasori did, Asuma could have simply departed in peace, apologizing for leaving Kurenai and Mirai (I think it was the name of their daughter). ... Plus, Asuma didn't even know he was going to be a father, did he ?

[@DanielKhuu]

Heartbreaking! That would have been amazing. I think the Ino/Shika/Cho way was nice, but that would have been so much better

[@Rakerong]

@@orianefaton1885 I agree. I think there wouldn't even need to be any fighting at all. Just Asuma wiping the battlefield of random Shinobi, the trio then showing up to try and fight him only to have Kurenai appear and have a moment with Asume. That could have been emotionally impactful for Asuma to resist the edo tensei and return his soul to the afterlife.

[@anonymouss1270]

I thought kurenai was still pregnant at that time

[@kmgyening]

@@anonymouss1270 Yea, I don't remember her giving birth before the war. And I don't think the Leaf would go out of their way to make a pregnant ninja fight.

[@dereklewis8914]

I wanted Sakura to become the anti-genjutsu ninja of the group, using her inner self to always breakout. It would've put her genjutsu skills to use and allow her to neutralize Sasuke a bit.

[@maxsisters3793]

Sakura had Immunity to genjutsu Itachi unlike Sasuke and Kakashi. Her immunity to genjutsu the strongest than everyone

[@illumiil2723]

that would’ve been so cool

[@danielz-v4083]

@@maxsisters3793and then Sasuke puts her ass on a coma Genjutsu at the end.

[@netero1682]

Sakura's interior was not going to rival the highest level Genjtsus, whether from the Uchihas or other characters. The thing is that if Sakura mastered Genjutsu, the most she could achieve was Kurenai's level.

[@Jpx0999]

​@@netero1682it wouod make sense The reason naruto is immune to genjutsu is because he has aways someone else to break him out(kurama) Ino calls sakura inner a second soul soo she most likely count as a separate person capable of breaking sakura out

[@arthurmorgan3180]

Don’t forget Deidaras “final art” when he was under Kabuto’s edo jutso, collected clay and then proceeded to get trapped inside Kankuros puppet, we’ll never know what deidaras final art was

[@Jesus-q1u]

I like to think his final art was just a bluff

[@matijasostojic4288]

I like to imagine it was just a comedic pop as if he were a human firecracker. People would definetly remember that more than a big explosion that would get overshadowed by a tailed beast bomb.

[@Haggis-Giggles4692]

Deidara's final art was just a huge suicide explosion; no secret there

[@vincentclark5739]

I feel like women from the leaf village just weren’t written to be as good as they could have been. Kunoichi from the other villages were pretty badass

[@marhawkman303]

I think it's the power of page-time. too many Leaf Village characters, so some of them get relegated to BG.

[@youare5907]

@marhawkman303 that's to be expected but what the op is talking about is it happening to female characters predominantly which I think is true

[@aprinnyonbreak1290]

Remember that time the main characters of Naruto were Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke? I'm sure a show would treat all three of its leads relatively similarly, right,

[@ChargeQM]

I'm personally a fan of Magma Milf, but even she is sort of one-dimensional.

[@killeryhiltons8499]

Um, Tsunade is a leaf ninja and she’s fully developed character. We know her clan name, her history and family, her lover, her team, and her inner conflicts etc . She’s well rounded and powerful shinobi on her own accord . Anko was badass too so, there’s that .

[@logicalfallacy4156]

I believe the akatsuki rings were not just symbols, but they allowed its wearer to connect with the others telepathically with that ghost thing when they assembled.

[@saitougin7210]

Yeah, it was never said explicitly, but the Akatsuki rings could either (1) be used for the long range communication with those Akatsuki holograms, (2) be used to seal the tailed beasts (which seems the most likely because every member stands on a finger of the Gedou Mazou statue) or (3) be used as a key to their hideouts, such that they don't have to fight doppelgangers as strong as themselves (also makes a lot of sense, I mean, there mus be a way get into hideouts just like that). These reasons would also explain, why the Akatsuki don't like that Orochimaru still has his one, but they don't really care of getting it back either. These are enough reasons for me. Even if it was never "officially" revealed. Sometimes it's enough to just imply things.

[@nicolas._.2294]

I always wondered what they use was, back I felt they were so important but they weren't

[@Mike.N.]

Now in hindsight, after watching the series several times, it occurred to me that it was perhaps even hinted at earlier because of the rings that everyone was wearing. Pain had the ring where Kanj stood which means 0 which symbolized the beginning because Akatsuki was founded by Yahiko which is Pain's body and the color is a pale purple, purple means royal in Japan but is a faded purple which means he is not the real one leader but the old leader is what the faded violet also symbolizes. Obito got the ring when Sasori died, the ring has 2 meanings interestingly. We had eternity and the Black King in Shogi, which went very well with Tobi, who turned out to be Obito, and fits the story well. Ring's color was also not faded compared to Pain's, which also shows that he is the true king or leader pulling the strings in the background, which also fits the meaning with the Black King in shogi. Kishimoto didn't miss out on anything, it's just that there aren't enough people who know about the symbols on the rings and what the colors mean.

[@RYUZAKILL117]

We actually get to see the Rain Village in Boruto, and it’s completely destroyed, nice way to keep a promise, Naruto.

[@Kaldin0203]

Boruto's not even written by Kishimoto...and I hope you mean the Manga there, because the Anime is LITERALLY 99% fillers...it ran for far over a year when the Manga was still rehashing and slightly modifying the Boruto movie to fit a story continuation...

[@nicolas._.2294]

CA I hate Boruto!

[@scizorbullet8185]

Good thing boruto is all filler and not canon at all

[@Arrowz_88]

The one episode where Kabuto and Orochimaru were talking during the Chunin Exams, it looked like Kabuto was trying to sabotage Orochimaru by attempting to kill Sasuke. This whole thing was completely dropped right afterwards. Kabuto is a 100% loyal to Orochimaru

[@denonvilliers]

Fr, they even create a tension moment where Kabuto thinks Orochimaru found out about his plans, they show him healing Hinata as if showing he has a good side and some depth to his motivativations and then... 100% Orochimaru's right hand and normal villain.

[@no.1spidey-fan182]

Tenten was on a team of the greatest taijutsu users in the village and sparred and learned from them. And from what we see unlike Sakura she was never an anchor for her team so its implied that she could keep up. Thats actually so INSANE. Not to mention the IMMENSE lhysical strenght she showcases by lifting comically large weapons with EASE. Even her attack against Temari She also wanted to live up to Tsunade so CLEARLY she had potential. She's quite literally a walking ARMORY the fact Kishi did nothing with that concept alone is SAD😭 Her arsenal alone could solo a WHOLE PLATOON of WHITE ZETSUS because she is basically the archers from wa of old

[@DirtyBobBojangles]

That's what I'm saying. Imo tenten was one of Kishis greatest failures.

[@senny-]

She could've fought Kakuzu, Dan Kato or Neji's dad in the war and maybe beat one of them as her character development. But nope, Kishi decided that Choji solos the three for some reason.

[@lnsflare1]

A neat dynamic that could have been explored is how Rock could defeat Ten Ten through sheer stat differences letting him bumrush her faster than she can handle, Neji being able to defeat Rock through Gentle Fist and Kaiten letting him keep up with Rock's speed and power at close range, and Ten Ten being able to theoretically overwhelm/exhaust Neji's Byakugan by spamming hails of weapons that he can't specifically prepare for because Byakugan probably can't see what is stored in sealed scrolls and then taking advantage of his blindspot while staying well out of Gentle Fist range.

[@no.1spidey-fan182]

@@senny- lol facts😭. I like my boy choji cause tbh he and neji were the ONLY people that won their sound 4 fights. Physically I dont see many character above Choji and even his form of jutsu can be considered a unique taijutsu...but they never did much with him But OTHER characters still need shine💀

[@boi8328]

She literally could've done a Gate of Babylon but with ninja weapons.

[@ponchito97]

I’m 100% sure that they never showed the Hidden rain village ever again because it was probably too much to draw.

[@StarKushExoticGalaxy]

Amegakure

[@akaanimegamer9324]

They actually mentioned that one of the things they hated drawing was the hidden rain😂😂😂 both in anime and manga

[@justyouandme4ever]

Yes and why they killed off konan cause she was hard to animate

[@ElMarlish]

@@akaanimegamer9324 Just another proof that naruto is widely overrated. Kishimoto could have made it a master piece but he was just too lazy and confused to do so. don't get me wrong i loved it as a kid but it's just not that good

[@aprinnyonbreak1290]

I'm pretty sure Cell rents an apartment in the too difficult to draw part of Hidden Rain village.

[@sarah2cold377]

about the Anko thing, I'm actually fairly confident that Anko was supposed to become Sasuke's teacher during the second phase of the exam instead of Kakashi. What with her having the curse mark and all, along side Sasuke getting it as well, it was the perfect set up for Anko to become his new teacher in controlling the curse mark. If i'm not mistaken she was also confirmed to have a fire nature as well which would have made much more sense for Sasuke then the lightning nature he got suddenly during the finals for the exam. My long time theory was that Kakashi wouldn't have been allowed to or refused to help either Naruto or Sasuke during the finals (so he wouldn't show favoritism since they both made it though) and would have sent Sasuke to Anko and Naruto to Ebisu and then Jiraiya. They both would have (basically) received teachings from a Sannin but Sasuke would have fallen behind since Anko was a failed student leading him to approach the master, Orochimaru, later.

[@dalebarrs297]

This is a really well thought out idea. The fact that Kakashi played Sasuke as his favorite seemed weird to me in the Chunin Exam when that was not the case before. Anko being his teacher and that leading him to Orochimaru also makes Sasuke's fall from grace far more realistic and compelling.

[@pitchblacknext]

I have to agree that would've been a really good arc, like Anko teaches him everything she can, besides the more dangerous stuff, but he's sees that as not unlocking hus full potential. That level of potential being a possibly forbidden or frowned upon level of power. Therefore the path towards Orochimaru grows more tempting.

[@ChazzLuck]

totally agree on your idea and i love it. but i also love the official version. because (for me) it was so tragic seeing sasuke lose himself while kakashi tried to remind him to resist the hate and anger. the tragedy of sasuke having people caring for him and then turn his back on them made me feel... ugh. your vision for anko is cool though, i can also see it tbh!

[@DestroyEvilCo]

This is actually a very intelligent comment, good stuff

[@MegaBosskill]

I guess kishi wanted to input sasuke getting the chidori for Naruto rasengan someway and just didn’t have time to fit it in

[@Itsgay2read]

Tenten getting the weapons of the Sage of Six Paths, and us never seeing her use them effectively, pissed me off to no end! Kishimoto really said "Only my sons can be special, because they have magic blood"

[@josiahjacke2650]

Yessir kishimoto has once again contradicted him self as he has shown: Good genes plus training > average dude who worked hard since he was 5

[@Itsgay2read]

@Kindbreeze1991 I'm more upset no other ninja is given a chance to shine unless they're an Uchiha or a Uzumaki. He builds up so much potentially strong ninjas, and just does nothing with them. Even when he hints at more with giving Tenten the weapons, he doesn't actually commit to showing us more.

[@liamcollinson5695]

Because they use way to much chakra for her to use it's explained when she used them

[@richhomiesvm742]

@Kindbreeze1991 plenty of characters received spotlight in part 1 naruto, what are you talking about

[@richhomiesvm742]

@Kindbreeze1991 my fault, I overlooked that part

[@MochiLBR]

I feel like that’s why in the anime they squeezed in all the fillers-it was a way to showcase some of the side characters and expand their backstory. At least, in the Naruto Fillers.

[@Chraan]

Can't recall that ever happening, the fillers were for adding in new characters and expanding their stories, only to never include them again.

[@mentalist7772]

You forgot the Hyuuga thing where Hinata and Nejii were wanting to remove the Caged Bird Seal and removing the barrier between the main family and the branch family and how the elders of the Hyugga wanted to keep the Seal on the branch family members.

[@stevbe1723]

The whole fact that the "branch family" is just a twin being born slightly later already makes the whole thing so incredibly stupid and ridiculous, but the fact that it's never resolved... Kishimoto has a real problem of having good ideas but theb deciding to not follow through and just introduce the next thing, repeat

[@whatismyadjectiveiconfused]

This is why I dropped the manga when neji died. I was looking forward for hyuuga clan barrier being resolved. But then I knew it won't happen if neji died. Not to mention I was very pissed off when I found out kishi's reason to kill neji is for naruhina development. He didn't need to do that to develop naruhina. Plus neji was right all along. People are determined by fate. Neji's fate was to protect the main family. While naruto is ashura reincarnation, he was meant to be a hero

[@AnonymousEnigma19]

​@@whatismyadjectiveiconfused it's why I hate the whole NaruHina thing, because can a girl just admire guy without it being in love? I hate it not just because they killed Neji for it, but they had to make that terrible movie where Naruto was the antagonist, if you believed Toneri was the main villain you're wrong, they made Naruto looks like a bad guy from not reciprocating Shippuden Hinata's feelings, 😡 not to mention they destroyed Hinata's character and Sakura's, and the only one who didn't have his character messed with is the one I hate the most, Sasuke Uchiha.

[@lordcthulhu8472]

​@@stevbe1723 Yeep, it's was kinda stupid they where that closely related. And was probably just stuffed in to make motivating of the whole twin exchange with Kumo possible, narrative wise. But it was poorly executed, i always saw it as prehaps a way to avoid a succession crisis within the family, or prehaps with the ideology of meritocracy taken to the extreme, with the hokage supposily being the strongest shinobi. So it reflexed in clans, that the children of the clan head compete against each other, and loser end up with bird cage seal to guantree the best suited become the clanhead based on merit, while weaker get put into potion where they are no threat to the succesion. Then you can use that to give Hinata a bit more debt, that her reason for losing against Hanabi is to protect her form the cage bird seal, instead of just not wanting to hurt others. But yeep, Kishimoto have issues with leaving so much stuff unresolved, so many wasted characters and moment set up, that never happens. But i suppose it also a large part of why we keep talking about Naruto and keep returning to it.

[@lordcthulhu8472]

@Lee We get told, not shown. We don't even have any named branch members around, who still behave more like servants then family to the named hyuga's. the seal disappeared because it did it's job, sealing the eyes of the wearer to render them useless, showing that Neji was truly death. It might have symbolized he found freedom in death, if he hadn't died to save Hinata.

[@SpammytheHedgehog]

If Sakura had used her Genjutsu skills to beat Ino, then people would take her more serious.

[@nani4249]

How could Sakura beat ino with her genjutsu skills if she wasn't taught genjutsu, it's kakashi fault that she never explored that route, how is she suppose to be a genjutsu master if kakashi never taught her.

[@ZedRaptor]

Would have been cool if she learnt Genjutsu in the timeskip and when Naruto fought pain she could have been a useful character later in the story

[@uvr4402]

@@nani4249 kishimoto fault

[@nani4249]

@@ZedRaptor I don't know about the time skip she learned so much, becoming the 2nd best healer in practically the world basically, then got cha and become just so much more physically stronger, if she became a genjutsu master on top of that during only 2 and a half years that'll be super unbelievable.

[@namikwcii]

that would be cool tbh but her improvement in shippuden, especially the last arc should have made people taking her seriously. tho her having a genjutsu would be so cool since that would set her apart from tsunade.

[@seere3rd]

I really think they should have developed Sakura into a character who could resist and compete with the ginjutsu abilities of the sharingan. Instantly incredibly relevant and also gives her a strong place in the narrative because when it comes to dealing with Sasuke when he goes rogue it makes sense for her to be there

[@marhawkman303]

I like the idea of her being able to negate genjutsu in her vicinity, even if she doesn't necessarily USE genjutsu herself.

[@luluzin5022]

@Lee Well, Sasuke and Naruto became god tier at the age of 16, so why can't Sakura? 😂 Oh right, she wasn't born from a long lineage of OP ninjas nor is she the reincarnation of an alien's grandchild. Of course she could never become super strong due to her own merit. Natural talent is better than hardwork after all, and Lee was a fool for believing otherwise. /sarcasm

[@CELTIC_WARRIOR-3889]

Guess her daughter got something similar but without major buildup like her

[@no.1spidey-fan182]

She would still become irrelevant cause genjutsu stopped being important until it was used as a plot device and not a skill

[@seere3rd]

@@no.1spidey-fan182 I think that would be super tragic. Especially because it would have made her relatively unique and that would have been a very easy way to give her more plot hooks and more obvious ways to contribute to the story. Like the main bad of the series wants to put the world into a genjutsu. then you have Sakura who has a chance to break out of genjutsu no matter how advanced it is. It doesn't mean she can suddenly fight Madara but it does mean that there's all kinds of scenarios where she gets to have a big moment because when everybody else gets taken off the board she's still in the field. It would even play into the support/healer, "avoid getting taken down so you can help your teammates" dynamic they moved her to

[@just_a_rebel8261]

Thing is about Sakura is that it's not because of the fact she's apart of team seven is why everyone expected/hoped she would become stronger it was bc she has so much potential and build up with her chakra control

[@NessSuccess]

I always interpreted inner Sakura disappearing in Shippuden symbolic of her maturation. Like she doesn’t need to hide behind her inner thoughts anymore

[@ItsEdboy]

Always assumed that was the reason, that she just speaks her mind at all times.

[@alsamil6716]

but what about her family? She had inner Sakura because she was pissed off at her mother, and her mother never treats her any better.

[@NessSuccess]

@@alsamil6716 lmao that’s not true they literally never say that, her mom didn’t even exist in part 1

[@OND30]

Yeah that's why she is more brutal now. She wasn't that brutal in the og naruto

[@rtertgrrtgwrtzwt]

@@NessSuccess in chapter 3 she literally envys naruto for being an orphan. Her parents are terrible and it would be better to have no parents than bad ones.

[@flight_knight_]

I forgot Sakura was supposed to be good at genjutsu. What if she helped him defeat Itachi somehow with a genjutsu or showed him how to break out of Tsukuyomi. That’s a Kishimoto thing to do and would make their ship actually much better and set up an actual good romance

[@Nikuthebigboss]

Or at least have something she could use in a fight against Sasuke. Like, a reason for him to become stronger and actually seeing Sakura as a threat.

[@justinarzola4584]

Having Sakura, Naruto, sasuke and jiraya take on itachi and kisame would have been cool but we know kishimoto wouldn't let her actually contribute to a fight so her potential to learn genjutsu was removed.

[@alexzero3736]

Sasuke tries to leave Konoha Sakura: " No, you will stay with me" Sasuke " No, I ll stay with you ".

[@TheGoldenAlchemist86]

Given how Inner Sakura was able to push Ino’s psyche out I’ve always been fascinated with fics that had her placed in Tsukuyomi and Inner appears to either rip it apart or be transformed to a more concrete entity in her head instead of her hidden feelings/bad girl thoughts

[@marhawkman303]

Yeah Sakura as an anti-genjutsu character would be great.

[@VanLe-gk3ie]

Would’ve been nice to see Anko using her Curse Mark form, but she was used as a plot device to revive Orochimaru who later reanimated the 4 Hokages for the war.

[@wisequigon]

yeah, weird... i wouldv like that Kabuto makes his body as similar as Orochimaru's with his snake remains and then he performs some variant of Edo Tensei on his body...then Orochimaru does what Kaboto did (further complex plot can be developed if Kabuto is still alive in Orochimaru's mind, or the other way around)

[@LightYagami-ik1cg]

Anko didn’t have the same body type/ stamina that they built up for sasuke. I really think they were trying to show how much damage one takes from using it, regardless of the fact you get a massive power boost

[@jackgonahieu4999]

I mean, the sound 4 at curse mark v2 were stated to be equal to 2 jounins of the leaf that happened to be the guards of the Hokage, i can only imagine that an actual jounin while on curse mark v2 would be like Sannin level or low kage level. Still, wanted to see more of her tho.

[@jackgonahieu4999]

@@abdullahazzama2570 na, he said it was because of the chakra consumption but the amp was never in question.

[@SusieBlup]

Anko was a plot device for another plot device 😂😂😂

[@Alliecatastrophe]

the whole kunoichi aspect in general was forgotten about, the skills to blend in and be deadly which implied more spy type information gathering skills unique to kunoichi we saw in pasts with ino and sakura and how ino excelled at it hinted that ino would specialize in something like that which was hinted at even more with her specific ninjutsu. Would have been cool to see but at the same time might have been too mature for the ages they were going for.

[@laurainathunderstorm]

I still firmly believe that some of the Konoha 11 would be perfect for ANBU but with the whole villages alliance there isn't much point to that anymore

[@7heus]

Another set up that never paid off was Shino, he was such a promising character in the Chunin Exam's arc. But instead we just get a fight against Kankuro and that was it. He never appears in part 1 again and in Shippuden he's just a running gag for "Oh, nobody remembers me..." almost as if Kishimoto was mocking himself

[@hunterblacc4336]

And in Boruto he’s the head teacher.

[@laurainathunderstorm]

​@@hunterblacc4336 I can get behind Shino being a teacher, but it's the fact that they made him a joke of a teacher that irks me.

[@Reza-uw2lr]

​@@hunterblacc4336Your point?

[@anonymousxiii4780]

I remember in Part 1 Naruto Anko did have a story arc to flesh her out more but unfortunately it was only filler. Sad because that was honestly pretty interesting to see Anko's story

[@orianefaton1885]

Yeah, to be honest, that arc was pretty good. I liked it a lot. (which is rare with Naruto's filler) On that note, literally some of the things we could have seen in the stories could have been some other mission team 7 got that had nothing to do with the main plot. Because, you know... this is how they get their salary and all and I doubt every mission has to be linked (at least at first glance) to the plot. This is why the filler in the anime were not too weird for me. It felt like "yeah, it makes sense that Naruto is sometimes forced to go do a mission which has nothing to do with Sasuke and all." And it can give room to flesh out the side characters more too.

[@jaybronx98]

Facts one of my fav filler and also kurenai had a filler story arc that fleshed her out. The one where the girls paintings come to life and she uses them as genjutsu too. Then we learn she was kurenais former student.

[@justinarzola4584]

It's a shame that the only thing anko does after the Chunin Exams is getting kidnapped by Kabuto and being used a device to bring orochimaru back through her curse mark in the war and I don't want even to talk about her in Boruto, yikes.

[@moistbreadstick5625]

@@orianefaton1885people hate majority of naruto filler but i can’t remember a single one that was bad, almost all naruto filler was really good

[@bg8561]

​@@moistbreadstick5625 even the ostrich one?

[@mrkam3441]

Growing up naruto was my favorite piece of media, and it’s hard to see so many flaws in its storytelling now. I can’t even watch it without getting annoyed knowing how everything worked out in the end.

[@nonoy6340]

Same for me, I remember it fondly as well. It was my first ever anime. I'll never watch it again through, too much characters / scenaristic flaws and messed up power scale. It's simply disappointing if you like secondary characters and you're not a huge fan of naruto /sasuke.

[@tvbuu]

Boruto Is pretty ass too

[@Impeldown77]

Bro back in middle school Naruto was my shit, it was fr my biggest interest. I don’t watch that much anime anymore, but decided to watch some random episodes from the war arc for some nostalgia, & it was honestly kinda unwatchable 😂 How am I supposed to believe that there’s a super dangerous 10 tailed beast killing everyone when every single character’s standing around doing nothing except talking to themselves about the same shit they’ve said 500 times. I will always love Naruto but it definitely doesn’t hit the same 😂

[@ittorasetsuxx8077]

I just hate how half assed shit seems in the show. Especially Neji. He was a main character in Naruto and just completely forgotten in Shipuden and then dies such a stupid death. Don’t get me wrong him dying isn’t the problem even though he was one of my favorite characters. But the way he died was just so lame and throughout the whole series we never seen anything new from him meanwhile every other character is gaining hax and power. The show eventually stopped spreading out show time and just became a romance novel about Naruto and Sasuke.

[@Yodah97]

This is yet another reason why "Oh it's a story for kids, it doesn't have to be good" is a terrible argument. The stuff we see in our childhood sticks with us forever. And it's always heartbreaking to go back and see that the writers weren't even trying. This isn't the case with Naruto. Kishimoto was clearly doing his best. But still, yeah, kid's media should be treated with more reverence, not less.

[@badman_iiixiii]

The whole 'Neji vs Lee' as 'Talent vs Hard work' doesn't work if you think about it. While Lee worked hard, Neji was also constantly working his ass off and constantly pushing himself to show he was better than a member of the main family. (Hiashi even says Neji was able to master the technique that was only reserved for the main clan members). The only person who didn't train hard enough and solely relied on 'natural' talent without any want/need to improve himself was Gaara, and Lee ended up losing miserably to him.

[@folechno]

My head cannon is that the Akatsuki rings were for communication purposes, allowing the projections and knowing when/where to appear for meetings. Thus Needing to find and keep them was a sign of current membership, and also maintaining the ring indicated maintained power/status as a ninja.

[@EclipseHedgehog]

this wins. makes the most sense.

[@justinarzola4584]

I thought the rings were just pledges of alliance to pain, I don't think they had any power.

[@alexzero3736]

@@justinarzola4584 they had. Itachi put enemies under genjutsu with it.

[@thegreatfusili4673]

@@alexzero3736 that was his finger. It was never even implied that genjutsu had anything to do with the ring

[@marctm7614]

@@alexzero3736 Bruh, what? The rings have nothing to do with anything.

[@huehue5286]

One big thing that most people seems to forget, when Naruto was learning the rasen shuriken, Kakashi mentions how Sasuke mastered fire jutsu and how it countered naruto's wind style and Yamato recommended naruto to learn water style jutsus. I always thought Naruto would master some sort of water style technique in order to counter Sasuke but for some reason it was forgotten, probably because naruto already had too much powers later on.

[@Al-Johar]

Didn't he say he didn't want that because his wind compliments Sasuke's fire 🤔

[@aztechrex5275]

Yeh.. the strongest power of all, PLOT ARMOR😂

[@punusername3445]

Cool and epic heroes use fire and water is for pussies - Kishimoto Probably

[@danielsnoopeh1807]

Atleast we got in the fillers the one frog who could use the Water jutsu. Wait, wasn't he also forgotten?

[@fantasyrose3903]

naruto only uses rasengan and shadow clones. sure theres varied rasengans - but THEY'RE STILL RASENGANS-------

[@Toothache42]

The opportunity to use both Sakura and Kurenai would be for Sakura to seek special training from Kurenai, and develop some genjutsu skills that way. It makes no sense that both Sasuke and Naruto would take some time for special training and Sakura who's supposed to be smart wouldn't do the same thing, especially as she recognises the power gap between them early on

[@orianefaton1885]

Plus, like this, she would improve, sure, she may go with still a bit of the childlish mentality of "I wanna impress Sasuke-kun" but at least, now she is also working on her skills. And back then, what the team needed, were : a genjustu user (to hide the team when emergencies comes) and a medic. (if she had either of those skill set back in the forest, she could have hidden Naruto and Sasuke or healed them. (she does end up learning medical ninjust because Naruto spend his time getting injured and she recognizes, "I need this skill or he is going t kill himself at this rate")

[@infinitedreamer9359]

Yeah,and considering that Kakashi mentioned her genjustsu potential,after she had her realization in FoD that she was lagging behind her teammates, its not like the motivation for her to learn it wasn't there. And her learning genjutsu doesn't have to replace her learning how to be a med nin later on,since as NCHammer's video about rewriting Sakura shows there's potential overlap between the two. What a waste. Goes to show how little Kishi cared about Sakura as a character. If Naruto/Sasuke could get special training or get recommended other teachers there's NO reason why Sakura couldn't. Even in Shippuden where's there's a time skip where everyone trained,there's still no mention of her learning about genjustu.Really!?

[@Taytexas]

@@infinitedreamer9359 sakura literally had tsunade. Sasuke only had kakashi and orochimaru who was definitely not recommended by the village. Her learning genjutsu would be redundant given sasukes progression to fight itachi. Her developing medical ninjutsu to the point of the seal better suits her temperament and role in the team.

[@bassgx1459]

It's wild how the Sakura in the forest of death and the Sakura after that are like 2 different characters. After she had that draw match with Ino, she just lost all motivation to do anything.

[@Taytexas]

@@bassgx1459 huh? After that draw she literally trained harder than she ever had before with tsunade, chakra control out the ass to perfect miotic regen on the front lines, she trained her way into the ultimate support character…. Like i understand the sakura hate but people just be spewing nonsense because shes a bad character lol

[@georgekumar2035]

Totally forgot about Tenten acuring those weapons. I often think Konan as a character was also overlooked. She was the only person to really land a blow on Obito besides Minato in over 20 years.

[@dgtallgamer]

If I remember correctly, in the first Naruto fighting game on the PS2, Sakura's inner self was one of the strongest attacks in the game and singlehandedly made her the strongest character in the game

[@grimmerjxcts2206]

Ultimate Ninja 2 ?

[@DanaOtken]

I love that the games eventually let Kakashi copy that move.

[@ikki133]

@@grimmerjxcts2206ultimate ninja 1 had Sakura inner

[@BKXIX]

@@DanaOtken I liked those too, I liked using Sasuke and Kakashi to copy the Sexy Jutsu.

[@BKXIX]

In some of the early games, fighting Sakura's AI was one of the hardest battles for me. Hers and Itachi's seemed to be the toughest in almost every game early on for me.

[@AarenYASS]

Honestly, if Sakura combined her Inner Sakura and her medical knowledge with her genjutsu ability she would've been a powerhouse! She could use her medical knowledge to study the brain and find how to use that to her advantage when casting genjutsu or where to cast it. Her inner Sakura could also serve as a backup Incase someone tries to capture her in a powerful one (sharingan) or escape from hers and hunt them down MrX style. Honestly her having two souls is never explained and slowly fades out of existence, never used to it's potential. -

[@jerlaine1638]

I wouldn't say "2 souls" and use more of an inner monologue, that said her inner thoughts or monologue would have been fantastic at catching that she was in a genjutsu allowing her to break free easily

[@alexmartin6561]

How beautiful would it have been if sakura herself was the perfect counter to sasuke's genjutsu. I thought that was the whole purpose of her inner self. Way to miss an easy setup.

[@Homodemon]

I always saw it as her having a "strong will" more than her having two souls. Her inner Sakura is the ideal she wishes she could exteriorize but that keeps hidden due to her own insecurity and once she grew up she kind of did just that, she became more outspoken and daring and less self-conscious about her own will to keep fighting. Did it do anything? Not really.

[@alexmartin6561]

@Lee Kishimoto could have easily just changed it to be two souls. If he can ass pull kaguya out of nowhere, he can give Sakura a lil unique trait no one else has. Also Sakura is not unique, she is literally just Tsunade 2.0 with practically the same skill set. Naruto and Sasuke both differ greatly from their sanin teachers. The problem with Sakura is that the story constantly pushes the narrative that Sakura is trying to "catch up" to Naruto and Sasuke. Leading to that tone death line where she says she caught up while being nowhere near in the same league. Even her sole saving grace of being a good healer becomes second fiddle when Naruto magic heals Guy. She should have been a minor character like Lee or Hinata if she was never gonna be used properly. Too much screen time for a wasted character.

[@no.1spidey-fan182]

Her "inner self" is just her Ego given form tbh💀

[@TylerJ0412]

Sasuke vs Neji is like Vegeta vs Piccolo. Would be awesome af but never happens.

[@wisequigon]

well, if I was Sasuke, seeing Naruto beating Neji, it would be logic to beat Naruto first :))

[@orianefaton1885]

@@wisequigon Or you beat Neiji, try to not have as much of a struggle as Naruto (though he didn't even watched the match, so...) and then you go with Naruto, because you got a first boost of ego "yeah, that guy wasn't as big of a deal as he pretended to be"... or you get recked by Neiji and have existancial crisis about how you lost to someone Naruto managed to defeat.

[@fadumomohamed2342]

@@wisequigon let’s be honest though that fight was so bad it was obvious neji could have beaten Naruto at any time but he kept messing around and of course Naruto uses his tailed beast chakra when his own chakra gets shut off. Like genin Naruto SUCKED at taijutsu, which is why his clone jutsu is so in effective

[@wisequigon]

@@fadumomohamed2342 I stopped judging the show or their fights logic\coreography a long time ago, I just accept it as it is and make in my own head a 'better' variant... Naruto had to win, the plot demanded it, but what I really still find stupid is the hole he dug with a knife... come one, that sort of thing should be done via earth style jutsu not by digging...

[@balsasjekloca9308]

Sasuke: Wow, so we've never actually fought? That's so weird! Isn't that weird black and white man? Zetsu: Yeah! Almost as weird as what's gonna happen if you call me that again! Sasuke: (internally) What is he?

[@GggfSddd]

Would have been pretty funny if Sakura's pure emotion from her inner self just made her essentially impervious to mental attacks or Genjutsu. It would be funny and also work well with the idea of her being a genjutsu prodigy with her mind so strong that it just forces it's way out no matter what. Maybe even giving her a jutsu where she turns into that massive inner version of herself like Kid Sakura's Storm 4 ultimate. You could even make that a genjutsu she uses while she uses her real body and strength she got from Tsunade to strike. Literally any of those ideas would have been a decent payoff for Sakura's abandoned character concepts

[@jayb8934]

I think that the idea of the Inner Sakura not coming up anymore was intentional character development. Sakura gained the confidence to no longer hide her thoughts and feelings on the inside. You could say that Inner and Outer Sakura fused into one.

[@Tjelder33]

Yea. I like to think it’s because she became more mature and less insecure in general.

[@PlanetZoidstar]

If that was the case it should have been made more explicit in the story. Like have Sakura confirm to herself that she doesn't have to wear a mask to her true feelings anymore.

[@jayb8934]

@@PlanetZoidstar Does everything in a story have to be explicitly spelled out to the audience? I think sometimes authors like people to fill in some gaps on their own.

[@PlanetZoidstar]

@@jayb8934 That's called doing the author's work for them. It would have made for some good character development for Sakura and better emphasise how she's grown.

[@jayb8934]

@@PlanetZoidstar Only children's stories literally spell out every bit of the characters' development. The character development and growth is there. That's my point. The author just doesn't have to be like, "see? Sakura has matured now because I did this! See?!?!" The reader is supposed to pick up on it because of how the character changes in subtle ways, such as no longer needing to internalize and repress their confident side.

[@rightmunted7538]

Side characters getting anything to do, fights being tactical and grounded, peace being hard to obtain and the Nine Tails actually being a cool threat.

[@Eliedeoo]

Anko could have been Sasuke's mentor for a while, being the first survivor of Orochimaru's cursed seal and having control over it, she could have taught him how to deal with it and use its power.

[@manny57]

would have been cool to see kid sasuke using snake jutsu's in part 1 naruto.

[@IIIISai]

@@manny57 yup

[@chiyo-chanholocaust8143]

Sakura climbing that tree first try was such a cool moment, she had kinda like this Hermione thing going on where she could learn easier than the boys. A shame they did nothing with that concept and fed her shit

[@rodellfutch6442]

I feel like Kishimoto's tendency to change plot elements has always worked against the story. Not just that it leaves glaring plot holes and retcons but the initial idea always seemed better than the route Kishimoto ended up taking. The idea of their being multiple related tailed-beast, the constant revision of Akatsuki's motives, the decision to not cover any of the events that transpired while Sasuke was with Orochimaru. And a lot of characters got sidelined for Sasuke's sake too. I kinda wish they had at least extended the Shinobi War arc to be as big as Shippuden was to give those other characters the space to tell their stories. But the war was literally ended in a few weeks.

[@miadebbas6593]

The war arc was probably introduced just to be done with the series… rushed emding because either kishimoto was being pressured by his editor or he is burnt out and just wants to end it reminded me of the rushed ending in katekyo hitman reborn,

[@IIIISai]

True

[@mikeoxlong3676]

​@@miadebbas6593Except the war lasted like 200 chapters. It wasn't rushed at all.

[@ayhamahmad2277]

​@@mikeoxlong3676it was look how many problems it had and he was told to end at chapter 700

[@ayhamahmad2277]

@@rodellfutch6442 he didn't plan the entire story that why and he was forced to change things like the chunin examp and hinata ending with Naruto and many things and the weekly manga didn't help either

[@BrendanishLeo]

I feel like "hard work > talent" was definitely a theme kishimoto WANTED, but messed up so hard. Early on naruto was basically considered a complete failure with no skills and he was pit up against and wanted to compete against sasuke, who was branded as a prodigy. Meaning naruto had to rely on hardcore training and innovation through unique talents (essentially infinite chakra) to compare. This falls apart for 2 big reasons 1) its shown that Sasuke basically trained just as hard 2) after all the shit about naruto being a waste with no talent (ignoring kurama) we find out he was born from two insanely skilled people with incredible inherent talents. The author used pompous neji as a kid to combat the message that "inborn talent is all that matters" and then made his main character literally a human weapon born with incredible talents and literally the reincarnation of a godlike being. Kishi fucking sucks at telling a story.

[@juststranger7200]

Same with rock lee

[@Yodah97]

Naruto had insane parents, the series focused way too much on how strong parents and clans make strong kids, Kurama was by itself a crazy advantage that stopped having a cost as time went on, and Naruto himself was born with an insane chakra reserve as a result of being an Uzumaki. And that's even before getting into him being a God reborn or whatever. Look. He is the protag, we all knew he was going to succeed. But that went from being a Meta truth to being an in-universe truth. He wasn't born an underdog and had to work to get stronger. He was born with hacks and had to work to unlock them. Which is literally what every other "genius" in the story had to do. Even Gaara was at least creative about how he used his sand.

[@f0kes32]

Shippuden is more about "friendship is power"

[@Woody2Times]

Yup

[@joshkrishna]

He lacked storytelling talent lol

[@betterlatethannever4529]

Imagine if the rings actually were made from the same material as the rods from the Rinnegan and were a means of both focusing chakra into the statue and a way to track each member

[@orianefaton1885]

Possibly they could have also been what allow the members, no matter how far they are, to be contacted by Pain for any information and helped them doing that hologram thingy they do when sealing the tailed beast. (we don't see anyone else doing it, so thinking there may be something about it isn't wrong)

[@richmaxmchalliwchester1984]

@@orianefaton1885 yes, these are my exact thoughts, i really thought that these rings have same power as Pain sticks and only because of them they can contact each other whenever and wherever they are and that they also allow them to seal Bijuu into Gedou Mazo. It felt kinda sad when i learned that they only jewelry and have no meaning.

[@EssUchiha]

@@orianefaton1885 they actually are if you don’t have a ring on you can’t extract the tailed beast chakra into the gedo mazo in fact you can’t interact with it at all without the ring that’s why the rings are so special that’s why you see pein asking someone to go recover sasoris ring and that’s also the reason it was bad for the akatsuki for orochimaru to get away because he was allowed to get away he could research into the ring that’s why he kept the ring

[@LightYagami-ik1cg]

@@EssUchiha this is literally the reason😂 I don’t see why people don’t remember them being their connection to the statue

[@EssUchiha]

@@LightYagami-ik1cg people don’t know the reason that’s why

[@danielz-v4083]

The Rain Village situation just reminds me how the Naruto world is probably one of the weakest world building examples in big shonnen. It had A LOT of information when it comes to characters talking about said world but it’s all so… disconnected. I really loved that sequence post pain arc when they are in the snow(before Sakura comes to bs Naruto), but besides that it felt so disconnected. Like the dragonball world is so basic and pretty much the real world, yet I can visualize it and it’s planet way better than I can Naruto’s. Like how big are the lands? How does the weather change so abruptly between them. How big is the ocean? Can you just go WALKING to any of the damn villages just like that? It’s hard to explain, but it all feels so dependent on information rather than proper building

[@nicolas._.2294]

Yea ikr, that's why I have my own headcannons to make the world easy for myself to imagine and fix the disconnected things 😅

[@laurainathunderstorm]

Whenever I want to revisit Naruto (in my mind, I'm never going to rewatch it) I just headcanon my way through the inconsistencies bc there quite literally is no other way.

[@wuffymcwuff]

Another example of bad world building is the difference between the "ninja" world and the regular civilian world. The first arc establishes that ninjas and the hidden villages are basically just mercenaries hired by the daimyos aka the actual political leaders of the Naruto world, as well as rich people like the guy that hired zabuza in that arc. That never really gets explored beyond that arc, and the rest of the story basically makes it seem like the whole world revolves around ninjas, and the hidden villages may as well be the major nations themselves

[@danielz-v4083]

@@wuffymcwuff tbh that one you can tell the author just gave up on it and it was an early draft idea. The series DEFINITELY doesn’t care much about the “ninja” thing , so much so, somehow we end up as super powered army soldiers by the end of the series . Actually I always thought it was kinda hilarious how during Infinity Tsukuyomi, it briefly shows those “rich people that command the world” in a castle or some shit getting hypnotized and a dog or theirs or something. It felt EXTREMELY random and out of place lmao

[@lucaslaurentino2843]

Anko could be the leader of team 7 in the finding sasuke mission in shippuuden. It would be better than pull off yamato. She was already a known character and her connection with orochimaru could be explored in this arc, maybe trying to show to sasuke the danger that orochimaru represents.

[@MattAnd]

This is an excellent point - Kishimoto kept having this obsession with introducing new characters rather than using ones that were already there

[@hamothemagnif8529]

I would’ve enjoyed that.

[@blairecarlino46]

Honestly, Anko and Sasuke never interacting in the way of the Curse Seal never made sense to me. She was a student of Orochimaru - what a wealth of information and help she would have been for Sasuke.

[@no.1spidey-fan182]

​@Lee wasn't Yamato a LITERAL human experiment and a CLONE. He is WAAAAY less trustworthy than Anko, the person who broke away from Orochimaru and had enough will power to control her curse mark and supress it

[@animeluverprincess]

That idea sounds kinda good, but Yamato was chosen for a reason. His blood and usage of the wood style was necessary to wield in Naruto and the tailed beast that was getting more and more out of control.

[@whatismyadjectiveiconfused]

The strength and weakness of kishimoto is he has so many great ideas. He introduced a meticulous magic system, possible side plot, and different fighting style for each characters he made. But sometimes the new ideas he introduced scrapped the older ideas that already being solidly established (hand seals, the idea of hardwork beats talent) That's why a lot of older fans like me, who started from OG naruto, dropped the series. We can't stand a lot of plotholes, unbalance power scale, and inconsistent lores he made

[@azraeldusk2154]

Meticulous magic system? All it ever was, at its height as a system, was a variation of how elements interact in chinese alchemy just with a couple more elements included. As the series progressed it kept degenerating and degenerating, becoming increasingly dragonball-esque with each episode. In the end all it was was a "its in my blood" or "its in the blood of the dude whose blood I stole" or "magic monster inside me". The height if the magic system in naruto was literally taking a photo anyone can find on the internet, or a book cause let's admit back then the internet wasn't what it is now, and adding a couple words to it. Were there promises of an actually detailed, structured magic system hinted at? For sure. Were they *ever* expanded upon? Nope. Hell, chakra constructs and shape transformation were supposed to be big things, yet they only were there to point out that Jiraiya and Naruto had troubles with perfecting a rasengan. Remember rashenshuriken supposedly reducing Naruto's lifespan every time he used it? Neither does Kishi. Hell, haki in OP is way more structured and that's a magic system that, in-story, is admitted to being "well, we got lifeforce inside us and if we will things they happen, we ain't 100% how or why it works, but we have found those ways to train in it even if we do not completely understand the deets behind it".

[@Some_guy_passing_by]

Naruto ( OG ) and first two arcs of Shippuden were pure genius, original. Then it started resembling DB more and more . After pain arc it all went downhill and from war arc it became DBZ.2 . Only thing I enjoyed in the war arc would be Madara ( and his interaction with Hashirama), but it became frustrating toon, there wasn't much point in introducing him other than looking badass and delivering saucy dialogues. The only thing that kept me going till the end was the impending Naruto vs Sasuke, it saved the ending of Shippuden. Even that fight became a power-ball throwing fest like DBZ, the first Naruto vs Sasuke was incredibly cool.

[@peanutbuttachelly3544]

Exactly! I was a fan when the original Naruto first aired and enjoyed the manga even more. Seeing so many of concepts and characters abandoned was such a bummer. I tried giving Boruto a shot, but all those concepts that originally drew me in are obsolete at this point.

[@ashtar3876]

​@@azraeldusk2154LMAOOOO oh yeah rasenshuriken was supposed to do that wtf

[@IIIISai]

mhmm

[@teotoon3310]

Hey, man. Great video. But Kurunai not fighting in the war makes sense to me. Probably maternity leave, plus she's one of the few strong jonin who stayed back in the village in case something happens. I'll also add she couldn't afford to abandon her daughter, since she won't have anyone other than Shikamaru, which is sad, given Asuma is already dead.

[@nik700]

Regarding the rings, Orochimaru (at least in the anime) keeps his hand from when he was an Akatsuki, further showing their importance

[@Ize19]

Am I crazy? They explained this right? Akatsuki needed the rings in order to seal the Bijuu inside of the statue, it's part of the ritual. The reason they never replaced Orochimaru was because he took his ring with him, so his replacement wouldn't have been able to help with sealing, and that's also why they were so desperate not to lose another, as the fewer people they had help seal, the longer it would take.

[@rainbowskin3379]

Specifically Orochimaru mentions having to inhabit a new body to seperate himself from the ring. Implying that the rings hold some level of control, or curse to the people that have them.

[@Ize19]

@RainbowSkin I don't recall that. I'm pretty sure Itachi severed the hand that had the ring on it,and he kept it even though he left to hinder them slightly, since without a tenth member sealing Bijuu would take longer.

[@rainbowskin3379]

@@Ize19 I'd need to rewatch the scenes

[@JustH.100]

Just a reminder that the rain village never recovered from the damage caused by Jiraya and Pain's fight, followed by Kara using it as a base for their operations and blowing it the fuck up, and the lack/ absence of any prominent or strong leaders or ninja force for that village after the death of Konan(the last Kage). The OG Akatsuki (Yahiko, Nagato and Konan) are rolling in their graves right now.

[@erikdavis1646]

A couple that always bothered me - elemental jutsu strength/weakness. It was stated that wind > electricity, but the final battle between Naruto and Sasuke completely ignored that. The other was literally all of Sakura's character/emotional development being retconned 180 degrees in the last like 5 panels.

[@MaxIronsThird]

Also, lightning winning against Earth for some reason.

[@verguco6051]

it was just a stupid excuse to add the gay comentary of naruto saying "so naruto have fire and i have wind, we are compatibles" appart from that and suigetsu weaknes the elemental shit never mattered

[@random.3665]

@@MaxIronsThird I think the idea of that is that you have to be grounded in order for electricity to flow through you (even though there would be exceptions when talking about so much power as a lightning bolt). Or perhaps its that - from peoples perspektive - lightning always seem to move towards the ground (even though it actually doesnt.)

[@MaxIronsThird]

@@random.3665 Lightning does go from cloud to ground sometimes

[@OTLUzumaki]

just based on sakura’s personality you can tell her chakra natures are water or earth. so when i looked it up and saw that she has both natures with the copy ninja as her sensei, her arsenal could’ve been crazy and i hate that she never learns jutsu from kakashi

[@nicolas._.2294]

Wait she has the same nature as Kakashi? So she has 4 elements and the writer never did anything with it? I feel bad for Sakura

[@Some_guy_passing_by]

Kakashi straight up neglected Sakura, and would've done the exact same thing with Naruto had Tsunade not commanded him to train Naruto in wind nature . Even then , he just told him to " make clones , cut leaves , cut the waterfall , mix with Rasengan and don't disturb my porn session " . Naruto did most of the learning himself.

[@RaftFx]

​@@nicolas._.2294As I grew older, I started questioning Kishimoto instead of hating Sakura..

[@Fivehe]

The strangest thing of all is that Kishimoto continued to include new characters and plotpoints even while having several unresolved threads or complete untapped characters. I think letting tenten seal Madara would be fitting given how little time she's given. Same with Sakura, let her beat down some ridiculous enemy, she deserves it. Going back through the series and editing some dialogue would fix a lot of this, I'd take a rewrite as an excuse to re-read. I know some would find it blasphemous to change the original text, but hey, they did it for The Hobbit and many other things.

[@asmodeusguys4472]

Tenten thing would be cool, but wouldnt really make sense given how little time she had in general. This big guy gets sealed away, by a character that hasnt had a proper fight in hundreds of chapters? Wouldn't be right imo.

[@Yodah97]

That's the vicious cycle with background characters. The longer they go ignored, the harder it is to give them time to shine, because they start being "nobodies" in the story. There are ways to avoid this pitfall, but by the time we got to the final war, it was too late to change course. A lot of fan favorite characters stopped appearing in the top 10 of popularity pools as the series went on, just because it'd been forever since they did anything impactful.

[@j.a.hernandez9742]

nah bro, last Kishimoto allowed Sakura to beat up some ridiculous enemy(Sasori) it made very little sense, and everyone just clowned the enemy as being weak. Really it should of been either been the filler episodes that allowed more characters to get involved with relatively strong enemies to give characters outside of Naruto and Sasuke better feats in the general series or they could of just made the main storyline longer with more characters actively involved instead of just them running around the battlefield doing jack.

[@ayhamahmad2277]

@@Fivehe the story wasn't planned that why and he was forced to change things like the chunin examp and hinata ending with Naruto

[@aerrowqueing]

I am really sad about the rain village - I always thought it was an insanely cool location. I love how it feels like an industry desert: it is super empty and creepy landscape, but clearly built by humans and there is some steampunk aesthetic (which might be an overused aesthetic, but one I enjoy greatly). It's similar to Dorohedoro with the hole and all. In any case, super dope village, super dope stuff and one of the most interesting locations in the whole naruto verse that never got what it deserved, as its peace is a central plotpoint

[@JayceCH.]

Its super egregious that Kishimoto just completely ditched the rain village and Naruto's promise. Makes a big hole in Naruto's character.

[@umitencho]

Sakura combining her phyiscal attacks with genjutsu would be awesome. Have your bones broken while also getting knocked in an illusion is op. Especially if they can block her blows, they forgot the infusion of chakra coming their way at the same time.

[@vradeus3438]

I think it would have been really cool if Tenten used the sage of six paths sealing weapons to suck out parts of the tailed beasts from Juubidara and then have Obito transfer the chakra to naruto like how it originally went. It would have Tenten do something really cool and important while also not having her do something too crazy for her character like sealing Madara.

[@marhawkman303]

Tenten was an interesting character as the reason she can use the Weapons of the Sage was because she had an enormous chakra supply. she's the only character who has that sort of MASSIVE chakra but no snazzy elemental powers. In some eps she helps the medic-nins... except.... she can't do medical jutsu. She also helps construct a massive chakra barrier... and is never seen doing that ever again? What? the medic-nin are apparently using Tenten as a chakra battery. Maybe the barrier thing has her just lending power to strengthen it even though she's not building the barrier?

[@no.1spidey-fan182]

Tenten was on a team of the greatest taijutsu users in the village and sparred and learned from them. And from what we see unlike Sakura she was never an anchor for her team so its implied that she could keep up. Thats actually so INSANE. Not to mention the IMMENSE lhysical strenght she showcases by lifting comically large weapons with EASE She also wanted to live up to Tsunade so CLEARLY she had potential. She's quite literally a walking ARMORY the fact Kishi did nothing with that concept alone is SAD😭

[@marhawkman303]

@@no.1spidey-fan182 yeah, Tenten is the ONLY person in Leaf village who could use the Sacred tools.... that alone shows how strong she was.

[@loganstaark9411]

Sakura's inner self was a manifestation of her true identity. At the beginning of The she was trying to appear more cute and fragile to seduce Sasuke, but as the story goes she shows her true self more and more so she doesn't have an inner self any

[@wisequigon]

good take

[@orianefaton1885]

I think it is supposed to be the intention behind it too. At least, this is how I read it (though, it doesn't stop the fact I miss her a bit, because she was funny)

[@Yomi2012]

Inner Sakura was a manifestation of her families tendencies to be very eccentric

[@orianefaton1885]

@@Yomi2012 ... I can see it. (if her family was one of ninja, it could have been a weird heridetary jutsu XD)

[@justinarzola4584]

The inner self thing was a gag that wasn't needed after Sakura got more serious once Sasuke left, wouldn't have made sense in Shippuden.

[@mamayareborn]

Naruto broke me in the sense that pretty much every single female character was relegated to a housewife or was killed because they were a villain. Looking back, as a young one myself, I kept looking up to the female characters that were slowly introduced and saw role models in them, how cool they'd be, and how unique their powers were. All for nothing.

[@Ozzieapologist]

At least there’s Tsunade. Even though her story has some hiccups here and there she was pretty great from start to finish imho.

[@aprinnyonbreak1290]

The tragedy of a female character in a Shounen anime.

[@ittorasetsuxx8077]

There’s plenty of great female Shinobi. The mist Kage is one of them. Not to mention Granny Chio who had one of the greatest deaths in the show.

[@Merilirem]

It is indeed a tragedy that so many stories forget certain characters entirely. Shonen anime is particularly bad about female ones which is a huge mistake because the audience would love it.

[@victoriaanastaciamoreirago4710]

​@@ittorasetsuxx8077theyre terrible

[@son_of_the_heavymetal1142]

"Hard Work > Natural Talent" When the "Hardworking MC" basically bruteforce his way trought the series with his infinite pool of mana and the 2 ninja moves he can do

[@brown_bread_]

😂😂😂

[@shawngallagher8764]

Ever since the Sage of Six Paths was created and Naruto and Sasuke became demigods the idea of hard work overcoming natural talent shouldn’t be thought of as a theme in this series. Like the leads are reincarnations of the sons of the father of shinobi, how can you claim you’re not special with a straight face

[@DygoKnight]

Hardwork vs Natural talent was never the core theme of the series

[@aceclover758]

@@DygoKnight it was A core theme of the series

[@LealFireball]

@@aceclover758 It really wasn't, even for rock lee. Nobody else on his generation can train the way he does, he was always a genius too, just the kind of genius that society didn't value, he just needed a master that could see that and help him realize his potential. That was the theme.

[@aceclover758]

@@LealFireball then guess you and I were watching different shows, especially during the chunin exams

[@orianefaton1885]

I think you both are right, actually... Kakashi said that Lee was a genius. A genius of hard work. Sakura and Naruto were also both supposed to have a theme of hard work. *Supposed*. Sakura was put on the shelves like old shonen female characters always were and Naruto... I agree that yeah... the being the reincarnation of Ashura was... destroying a bit this theme. Like, if when the Sage showed up, he instead said something like "You remind me of my youngest son" but that there was no reincarnation thing in place. Or something like the will of the D in One Piece, where is it a somehow inherited invisible torch and dream shared by people since possibly centuries... sure I guess.

[@chromie6571]

I’m currently watching the War Arc and it’s honestly amazing just how much the author of this series fumbles the bag in so many ways. So many potential theories, story arcs or important character moments that really should’ve happened but just kinda didn’t. I’m absolutely loving Naruto, but this series had potential to be SO MUCH better. Could’ve easily been one of the greatest series of all time but it just didn’t happen for whatever reason

[@ayham418]

Kishimoto wanted to end at the pain and shonan was rushing him

[@SJT9791]

What about Shino? He was said to be third best just behind Naruto and Sasuke but it became a running gag that he was skipped and ignored. Not to mention the sound 5 had a perfect set up with that spider guy. It was absolutely perfect but then Neji was the one that fought him instead.

[@nonoy6340]

And his power is kinda op if you think of it too.

[@datalich]

@@nonoy6340 If you like his power you should read Worm by JC McCray. It expands into a lot of cool things you can do with bug control. Though I wouldn't recommend it to anyone younger than 16.

[@asmodeusguys4472]

Yeah, ironically, naruto was the one who was asking where shino was instead of choji.

[@Koopie-r3q]

I like to think that Inner Sakura is her true self, the side that she hid to appear "pretty" and "graceful", she was timid as a child and she acted kinda fake at the start of Naruro but In shippuden, Inner Sakura disappeared because Sakura embraced that side of her and she was more open about it.. 3:37

[@hellodigitalworld8224]

I really think we need to remember that kishimoto was writing and drawing every week for 15 years… that’s not easy and that’s why I don’t hate him for any plot holes or mistakes he made , if he was given more time and good editors things would have been better

[@BoruSumi1]

Same with Oda , but One piece story better than Naruto ... One piece the greatest story ever told ❤️

[@avinion]

And he was sometimes rushed, I think when he was drawing pain arc, he needed to push for before holidays release, and even like that it was best arc in whole Manga.

[@MaestroAlvis]

I mean... that's one way of looking at it but that just means that there's a better story here, hidden under a layer of editing.

[@onlymyself1234]

While that is true and this heavy workload is what ruins a lot of shonen, that doesn't mean Kishimoto was a hypercompetent perfect writer. Naruto's script and worldbuilding were wonky from day 1. It got worse as it went on but even with all its qualities, Naruto was always somewhat inconsistent. That's not something that applies to my other favorite shonen like One Piece or Hunter x Hunter. Even My Hero, for as garbage as it got, still had incredibly consistent writing in the beginning.

[@orianefaton1885]

@@BoruSumi1 To be fair to Kishi... Oda is one of the only (if not the only one) who can get the Jump to give him one additional week, whether for rest or else, which allows him to likely brainstorm the important part during that time. (but, it is true I think Oda had a clearer idea of what he wants the story to be, the worldbuilding and all, hence why we can find all those forshadowings in One Piece)

[@historyking9984]

The problem was they gave the genjutsu stuff to the sharingan. Like it already had seeing chakra, increased eyesight,copying moves and jutsu, and then adding on the susanoo. They really could’ve just gotten rid of the genjutsu eye thing and kept it a little bit less op

[@kmgyening]

Agreed. Sharingan powerups became totally unbalanced.

[@historyking9984]

@@kmgyening like they didn’t even have to make the susano. They already gave the mangekyo two new abilities for each eye. If anything the hyuga should’ve gotten it. I mean it’s a physical shell body that would allow them to extend their Taijutu’s range and power .

[@heathersmith4042]

@@historyking9984 right? any single manekyou ability is already immediate contender for best in the entire series, but then for some reason each uchiha gets TWO? i'm not sure kishi was aware that people without sharingan were also allowed to do things lol

[@iamcool544]

@@historyking9984 Kishimoto was a huge fan of large monster fights since he was a kid. He escalates to huge monster fights as soon as he can because thats what he is a fan of, so obviously he cant give it to a background character!

[@raven-sf3di]

Personally i think it would have been better to make sharingan users weak to genjutau .they already had their strengths as copy ninja , this could have then been a big twist when Itachi was a genjutsu specialist himself.

[@Hapasan808]

The trump card was assumed to be Sage Mode, that is, stealing Sage Mode from Hashirama. Madara's original plan was to steal Sage Mode, use it to defeat Obito, then become the Juubii Jinchuriki. Later, when he steals Sage Mode after Obito's defeat, he states he did things "out of order."

[@Kovar99YT]

Sakura really went from "Genjustu Prodigty" to "Combat Healer"

[@yolomcswagmuffins6574]

I think it would've been interesting if Sakura Genjutsu Ability tied into her inner-self. Basically locking Genjutsu Users into her own mindscape where they have to contend with her overwhelming will to never relinquish control.

[@joshuasantos8939]

That would be sick 💪

[@Gu3ssWhatsN3XT]

it would've made sense since we see her basically using that against ino with her mind transfer in the chunnin exam prelims

[@dragonbricks7086]

Neji vs Sasuke was (most likely) not intended to happen. The setup was just there as baseline for how strong Neji was in order to show how strong Naruto had become after his special training with Jiraiya. Kind of like how Itachi was used as baseline to measure how strong the other Akatuski members were

[@joj5150]

exactly

[@pocketenix]

We never got a payoff for Hayate's lover avenging his death. Like, she could have fought kabuto, or the sand siblings' jonin (wind blade guy), or something. It just seems weird when they introduced her, I thought she would have purpose but you never see her.

[@StarKushExoticGalaxy]

Yugao

[@sirbruno95]

She did appear in the war filler arc. Pretty sure that stuff you're talking about came about.

[@whiskeyhound]

@@sirbruno95 You think she killed wind blade guy when they're on the same side vs Obito and Kabuto?

[@sirbruno95]

@@whiskeyhound She talked with Hayate about how she was working with the village that killed him for the sake of the world or whatnot if I remember correctly.

[@whiskeyhound]

@@sirbruno95 I guess it's a payoff, but it's not a particularly good one.

[@christoperrobin4389]

Yeah there was so much anticipation about sharinggan vs byakugan

[@hubris_ssb]

I always thought that Sakura's inner self was a huge wasted potential. It could have been evolved to make her immune to genjutsu, thus buffing her substantially in the later seasons since even though she wasn't as kinetic as Naruto and Sasuke she would be able to abuse the fact that she was the only one immune. I also feel like it could have potentially been used to interact with Naruto and Kurama.