Team 8/Awesome
- Team 8 taking down a rogue shinobi right within the village in Chapter 4, after the three of them had been doing only D-rank missions up until then.
- Kurenai tried concealing them with an invisibility genjutsu, but by the time she started it, Naruto & company took off completely on their own.
- Naruto defeating the Kaiten by turning part of the arena into swampy ground and letting Neji screw himself ten feet underground.
- "Neji," "screw." Beautiful.
- Naruto vs. Sasuke during the Chuunin Exam preliminary battles. Naruto just watched Hinata get destroyed by a very spiteful Neji. Sasuke taunts Naruto, hoping he'll fight better than Hinata (this slams down hard on Naruto's Berserk Button). The "fight" lasts as long as it does for Naruto to bullet-punch Sasuke once, sending him rag-dolling away into an unconscious heap.
- Some people have claimed this is Epic Fail rather than awesome- but let us remind them of one fact: during his fight with Neji in the finals, Naruto took him out with a single punch- and that's in canon!
- After having all his tenketsu points closed by Neji's Jyuken strikes, Naruto blows them open with a technique he learned from sparring with Hinata. The resulting chakra pulse bowls over Hayate and sends Neji airborne.
- An unforgettable Pre-Ass-Kicking One-Liner just after the above scene:
Neji: That's impossible. |
- Naruto puts his money where his mouth is and beats the stuffing out of the Hyuuga prodigy in taijutsu.
- Naruto takes out a Missing-Nin who can turn his skin into steel with one punch that goes right through his body, with help from Kyuubi's power. This can also be considered a Curb Stomp Battle.
- Hey, hey, what about Naruto pwning Gaara?
- Shino, after figuring out that the Kyuubi had been sealed inside his teammate, verbally crucifies his clan's elders for their treatment of and attitude towards Naruto.
Shino: I was able to deduce the existence of Naruto's prisoner through sparring and training with him. When Uzumaki-san indirectly broached the topic with me, he merely confirmed my deductions. As I told him at the time, I am neither stupid nor unobservant. Moreover, it is highly likely that, without the Kyuubi's chakra to draw on, our battle with the missing-nin would have had a far less optimal outcome. |
- Kurenai in chapter 20 manages to escape Tsukuyomi.
- Finding out the real reason Naruto ripped Neji's face open at the end of their fight.
- Kakashi and Asuma standing on either side of Hyuuga Hiashi and threatening him to keep him from punishing Hinata for 'breaking decorum' and comforting Naruto during Kurenai's funeral.
- Kakashi accomplishes this by threatening to share his secrets for beating the Byakugan with the entire village while Asuma goes with the direct approach:
Kakashi: I know you have no wish to do anything that might seem disrespectful to Kurenai-san's memory, so you'll stay right here and leave her team alone to say goodbye as they wish to. |
- Shino versus the snake. Owned.
- Naruto winning his bet with Tsunade by disrupting her genjutsu with the Naruto Majutsu: Chakra Pulse.
- He even uses her Exact Words to his advantage. Naruto vs. Tsunade, with Tsunade boasting she can win by using just one finger against him. Naruto quickly busts out his Shadow Clone Zerg Rush. It's still not enough, exemplified with Tsunade causing a chakra-fueled fissure with her finger to decimate Naruto's clones. That's when Naruto busts out the Chakra Pulse, destroying Tsunade's youthful genjutsu. Naruto points and laughs. Tsunade starts strangling him...which is more than just one finger. Check and mate.
- It's even better when you consider the entire thing is a Batman Gambit. Tsunade could have refused to carry on with the terms of the bet or just flicked him with her finger when Naruto disrupted the genjutsu, which would cause enough harm given her super strength. But Naruto realizes that her age and gambling habits are serious issues for Tsunade and precisely uses them to his advantage.
- Hinata's fight against Temari is great on several levels:
- First, it means that Hinata, a genin technically on sick leave, beat a kunoichi who should have, by all rights, been made a chunin. Second, she beat a ninja who beat one of her seniors (Ten-Ten (stop laughing)) and the smartest ninja of her generation (technically Shikamaru forfeited but it still counts). Third, despite being the least threatening person in the cast, it showed off how swift and cunning she could be if pressed (evading Gaara's sand claw with a backflip, using a downed clone to draw Temari in for an attack...). And... when the Sands surrender and it's all said and done, she goes back to being quiet, gentle Hinata. Awesome.
- Hinata's reaction to Naruto being told by a school doctor that he's a monster in regards to making his first kill
Naruto: Well, he told me he didn't think I'd have any problems at all... like I'm some monster that would probably enjoy killing. |
- Sakura actually does something useful during the fight against Orochimaru. When he summons a snake to capture Sasuke while he fights Naruto, Sakura manages to taunt and distract the snake from squeezing Sasuke into unconsciousness. She does this long enough to drive a kunai straight through its head. Ouch.
- Back to Team 8