Narutoisan anime that needs no introduction, with the adventures of everyone’s favorite shinobi spanning multiple years — both in the series and real life — and featuring some of the most iconic moments in shonen anime history. Naruto might be a cliched protagonist, but his never-say-never attitude and tomfoolery lead to audiences rooting for this character and cheering him on whenever he managed to take out the many threats plaguing his friends.
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Naruto’s side characters get a ton of time to shine as well, even if the majority of them take a back seat for the longest time during the Fourth Shinobi World War arc. In fact, some characters actually had certain motivations and side plots of their own that were completely forgotten in favor of the main plot, which is a shame.
8Sakura Being Adept At Genjutsu
Sakura is one of the most hard-done characters inNaruto, with Kishimoto pretty much forgetting her to focus on the Naruto-Sasuke conflict. It’s a shame since there’s a case to be made for her having the potential to match both Naruto and Sasuke in power early on!
For starters, she was shown to have a talent for dealing with genjutsu. However, as the series focused more on taijutsu and genjutsu, this part of Sakura’s character was shelved untilone moment inThe Last: Naruto the Movie, where she uses this genjutsu resilience once again.
7Rock Lee’s Rivalry With Neji
Rock Lee was easily a favorite character of many early on inNaruto, with the character’s amazing taijutsu skills being an absolute treat to witness. However, after experiencing his fair share of highlights inNaruto, Rock Lee was pretty much destroyed inShippuden.
Not only did he not get a single moment to shine with his taijutsu, but his rivalry with Neji was also thrown out of the window. Fans of this character were extremely disappointed to see just how badly he’d been shelved after the time skip.
6Naruto Making His Own Destiny
Naruto and Neji had one of the best bouts during the Chunin Exams, with the Byakugan genius talking at length about how people’s destinies are decided from the moment they’re born. This didn’t sit well with Naruto, who believed that people made their own path in life.
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After a massive struggle, Naruto won this bout, and many people assumed that he would continue to forge his own path without relying on talent. All of this was completely destroyed near the final moments of the War arc, withNaruto magically becoming an incarnate of Ashuraand being destined to house great power and engage in a conflict against Sasuke.
5Sakura’s Inner Personality
It was only a given that Sakura would make this list once again. Every time she had something even remotely interesting about her character, later arcs became so much more epic in scale that she was relegated to the sidelines once again.
Even her comedic side was toned down inShippuden, with the pink-haired ninja’s alternate personality barely rearing its head during the second half. It’s not a plot point per se, but her personality definitely played a role during her fight against Ino, so it perhaps could’ve played a role during some genjutsu-heavy battles later on too.
4Itachi And The Nature Of His Illness
Itachi Uchiha isone of the best characters inNaruto, with the true reason behind his culling of the Uchiha clan being one of the biggest plot twists in the series. However, another point of discussion surrounding this character is a mysterious illness that plagues him throughout his life and leads to him being rather weakened in his fight against Sasuke.
The worst part about this illness is that it’s barely mentioned after Itachi’s death. Neither its origin nor its nature is discussed, which is a shame since people would’ve liked to know what kind of virus could take someone as powerful as Itachi down and out for the count.
3The Person Who Killed Hashirama
Hashirama Senju is one of the strongest shinobi of all time. The fact that he could battle and defeatthe strongest member of the Uchiha at the time— a man who took out all five Kage with a weaker Edo Tensei body — proves just how much might he really has.
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However, Hashirama was apparently killed in battle after the First Shinobi World War. This makes absolutely no sense, especially since the person who took his life has never been mentioned, which is odd given how massive an achievement it really is to fight and defeat such a powerful foe.
2Hidan’s Immortality
Hidan is one of the most interesting members of the Akatsuki, who wasted no time in showing just how ruthless he was by killing Asuma in cold blood. It caused Shikamaru a ton of grief and promoted Team 6 to hunt down and take out both Hidan and Kakuzu for good.
Shikamaru took care of Hidan personally, giving him a humiliating burial after blasting him to pieces. However, Hidan’s immortality means that he still isn’t dead, so it’s rather odd that no one decided to find his body and reattach it so that he could play a role in the Fourth Shinobi World War.
1Hinata’s Confession To Naruto
Technically, this moment has been addressed inThe Last: Naruto the Movie, but manga fans will still argue that Naruto pretty much ignored Hinata’s confession of love from the Pain arc. It’s pretty frustrating that Naruto never really acknowledged Hinata’s feelings, with an entire movie coming after a war to address this complaint.
Meanwhile, in the manga, Naruto and Hinata are shipped together without too much explanation or emotional build-up. This didn’t sit well with manga-only fans, who never got to see Naruto react emotionally after Hinata fought for himagainst the might of Pain.
