Naruto/WMG/Open One

=== This is a list of Wild Mass Guesses which are still possibly true. Just for Fun and silly guesses go on the silly page. If a WMG is Jossed, please move it to the jossed page, if it is Confirmed, please move it to the confirmed page. ===

Please add new entries to the bottom of the page.

The current Tsuchikage is somehow related to both Might Guy and Rock Lee.
We all know that both Might Guy and Rock Lee have Very Thick Eyebrows, and the current Tsuchikage has them too, only his are white. My theory is that Might Guy is (one of) the grandsons of the Tsuchikage, and that Rock Lee is somehow Might Guy's nephew or something with a chakra-based birth defect.
 * Perhaps he's the son of Onoki's daughter, and Yagura the Mizukage. Why else would he sprout all these nonsense about "eternal youth" (Yagura) and have a turtle summon (Yagura)? Now if he were also related to the kages of the 3 other villages...

Henge no Jutsu transforms the user entirely. Fill in the following plot hole: Why ninjas never exploit this.
You mean the lack of Shapeshifter Weapons? Because they probably have other tequniques that do the same thing but better, meaning Transformation Technique would serve as a basis for other, more advanced techniques.
 * Naruto transformed the Boss Toad into a giant fox, while fighting Shukaku specifically because they needed something with huge claws.

Naruto will be the final villain.
The Nine Tails will finally take complete control and threaten Konoha. This will lead to Sasuke finally being redeemed, as he fights to save his friend. JOSSED as of the latest chapters. Naruto has bonded with the Kyuubi so that he can control it fully.
 * Given that Sasuke has Mangekyo, and knows the secret of controlling Kyuubi with it, it may be that SASUKE will be the final villain, with Naruto as his mindslave dragon.
 * May not be that far off. Naruto went all the way to eight tails against Pain, and was just a few seconds off from gaining the ninth tail
 * This troper always assumed Sasuke would be the final villain, but the story would steadily build up to Naruto finally being forced to kill his first, best friend for the sake of the world.
 * Most likely he will be the woobie destroyer of worlds if that happens.
 * Either that, or something will cause him to go into the Well-Intentioned Extremist route, which seems a far more likely outcome considering Naruto's character. In fact I'm calling it now, even with the Juubi defeated, its chakra would still break havoc in the world and leave enough negative effects to begin a decaying world situation a la Golden Sun.

Whether or not "Tobi" is full of bull shit depends on fan reaction
Either is lying and, or he's not and. Which is true will be decided later. The reason for the two-week break between chapters was listed as "research" to see how the people reacted, and which will be proven or disproven later.
 * I doubt it. I mean, Sasuke's repressed flashbacks (Itachi ) make it pretty clear what is what. Besides, if they go and , it will be nothing less than the biggest asspull Naruto ever performed.
 * Second biggest. The biggest was
 * No, the biggest was really
 * Not really. Just two words explain everything:
 * But how does that explain Sasuke's flashback of the end of his fight with Itachi? With Sasuke out of chakra, back against the wall, Itachi slowly walking towards him with an all-but-invincible defensive technique in full force, the fight all but finished, only to have Itachi  before he collapses. If   then why did he seemingly throw the fight when his ultimate goal was his for the taking?
 * Sasuke's flashback? False memory. I think the Big Bad may have the power to literally screw with people's heads to a small degree. Sasuke believed it because he WANTED to believe it...pun not intended. As for Itachi...he wasn't telling the whole truth eithier.
 * Given that the internal damage of using Susanoo and the disease eating Itachi up from the inside means he's basically a walking corpse by the time he reaches Sasuke, I think of the "Tobi is lying" interpretation of that scene as Itachi knowing he's done for, and as his life flashes before his eyes, he takes pity on Sasuke and decides to use his last words to pretend to be a caring older brother one last time...while setting up a posthumous deathtrap for Madara.

Kankuro will use the Ten Puppets of Chikamatsu.
Why do I guess this? Because it's a darn shame to let ten ancient and powerful puppets rot in pieces in the rubble of some destroyed Akatsuki base. At some point, Kankuro will go there, pick up those poor dolls, fix them, learn to use them, and finally wield them against the main bad guys. It'd be pretty awesome.
 * If there's another timeskip, that's more than possible.
 * Oddly enough, Kankuro reappeared and it appears that his new puppet is Sasori himself.

Orochimaru knew about the True Origins of Konoha, and was plotting to take out Madara
He tried to do this by attempting to get a child with Mokuton. When this failed, he went insane with fear and guilt over what he had done to accomplish it, and became the homicidal loonie we all know and love. Everything he did after was a Plan to get the Sharingan in a desperate attempt to be in a position to be of some help against Madara.
 * Or, Orochimaru was working for Madara; As above but replace each instance of "fight" with "assist".
 * Or Orochimaru was being manipulated the whole time. Would be funny.
 * Or, Orichimaru knew about the True Origins of both the Senju and Uchia families, and was planning to create himself a body with both the Sharingan and the Mokuton bloodlines so that he can unlock whatever powers beside the Rinnen'gan that the Six Path Sage had.

Naruto will become the sage of six paths!
1. The original sage split his power between the Uchiha and Senju, if both elements were to be recombined it could produce the Rinnegan (Nagato's being a random occurrence) Naruto is supposedly of Senju blood, so if he got the Sharingan it would become the Rinnegan. 2. It is shown by Danzo and Kakashi that you can get the Sharingan without being Uchiha. 3. Naruto could get the Sharingan from Itachi's "gift" or, failing that, Itachi's corpse 4. Naruto's fighting could be divvied up into 5 styles, Shadow clones, summoning, Rasengan, Kyuubi power, and Sage mode. Rinnegan would make this 6 styles or 6 PATHS
 * This troper respectfully disagrees with ideas. I think that given blood relations between Nagato Uzumaki and Naruto Uzumaki, it's possible that Naruto simply inherted Blood Line Limit Rinnegan from Sage. However, it's possible that Nine-tails somehow surpressing Limit. Otherwise it's possible that Naruto indeed become that sort of badass.
 * Yahiko is the one related to Naruto. Nagato is not.
 * According to Madara, Nagato's Rinnegan isn't a random occurrence - the former somehow "gave" the eyes to the latter. Secondly, Sasuke already took Itachi's eyes to complete his Mangekyo. If we hypothetically allow that #1 is true (that giving Naruto the Sharingan would lead to the Rinnegan), the only way it'll ever happen is if Madara becomes the Final Boss one way or another. Sasuke will have a face-heel turn after confronting Naruto for the last time, and give his eyes to Naruto to aid him against Madara. Or something of that nature, seeing as how there are no other Uchihas left (Madara sure isn't going to donate his eyes to Naruto, and given the significance of his eye, Kakashi most likely won't either).

Konoha is far more economically diverse than we see in the series, and physically exists at least partly in Hammerspace.
From what we see, Konoha is the classic one-company town; everyone either works for the Ninja organization or a small business in the retail/service sector. But; there are only a hundred or so named shinobi, tops, and the city is far too large to be sustained by that.
 * The second point; approaching Konoha's walls from the outside, the area inside the walls is maybe a quarter-mile across; from inside, you can see miles of city from the top of Hokage Rock. Either the city is built partly into an alternate dimension or a standing genjutsu is used to make it smaller on the approach.
 * OR, the city is a gigantic Tardis that cannot be moved, because the owner, the 1st Hokage, had died, and he was the only one who knew how to use it. To answer the problem about his regenerations, he used them all up before he came there.
 * Genre Savvy may also be involved in keeping our view limited. Well-developed fictional cities tend to be Crapsack Worlds; the main characters have to live there, and would you look at Springfield or Ankh-Morpork and say, "I want that for MY town!"?
 * While we're at it, what does the Troper Hive Mind think of the generally hit-or-miss attitude towards military discipline being justified by the Leaf shinobi being unionized?
 * Come to think of it, the ninja organization is more like a guild than an army or even a corporation.
 * We'll never really know now, will we?!
 * Notice that, as Kakashi notes, only 1/3 of the teams who take the Genin Exam become Chunin (the Rookie 9 are the only Genin from Naruto's year). Since it sounds unlikely for the other two thirds to remain in the academy every year, it seems as though the less talented ninja candidates would drop out and work various jobs in the city.
 * It's also indicated in the fan book that not everyone can even get into the academy.

At the end of the series, Naruto will not become the Hokage
Instead the series will end with him being a popular candidate for Hokage. Also, the final chapter will have Naruto re-taking the Chunnin Exam so he can finally get Chunnin rank, and the final fight will be Naruto vs. Konohamaru, who has taken a considerable level in badass.
 * Or alternatively, Naruto will stop wanting to be Hokage as a way to get respect from the village when he realizes he already has it.
 * Under either of the above scenarios, he would then resign from the ninja corps and take over Ichiraku Ramen from the retiring Teuchi.
 * He will then, presumably, eat himself out of business. It's like hiring an alcoholic to be your bartender.
 * If memory serves, that worked out rather well on Cheers
 * This troper is holding out for him opting to teach at the ninja academy; he's good with kids, and he of all people knows what it's like to be failed by the school system.
 * Here's a crazy one: What if Sakura becomes Hokage, and Naruto marries her? Okay, I know it's a little far-fetched.... but come on. There's also the idea that Rock Lee could suddenly learn ninjutsu, become unstoppable, and then become Hokage.
 * Finally, someone else who sees Sakura's potential as Hokage! It's not really all that implausible (unless you take into account that this is shounen so of course the hero is going to fulfill his dream) considering she was trained by the current Hokage herself and she's a lot smarter than Naruto. Granted, the Hokage is supposed to be the strongest ninja in the village, but seriously, Naruto's lack of knowledge about even the most basic mechanics of the ninja is astounding. And yet there isn't a single fan fic out there where she becomes Hokage.
 * The problem with these two is that if we look at both the Kages as a whole and the governments of the villages it doesn't seem like inteligence and wisdom are really all that important to being Hokage. Even if you accept that Danzo didn't exist pre-time skip the two top candidates for Hokage were a wandering pervert and a wandering alcoholic problem gambler? These were the people who were best suited to lead? With Kakashi sitting right there? Pretty much every Jonin sans Might Guy is better suited to lead if leadership is inteligence based and not ass kicking equals authority. More than that lets look at the others. There is no way that a sixteen year old until very recently axcrazy Gaara is the most inteligent, wisest, best strategist in his village. Off the top of my head Konkuro has shown more maturity and strategic thought. If the Raikage and Mizukage are even in the top ten most mature/inteligent people in their respective villages then I weep for their people as both have been shown to be mostly emotional. When you factor in the councils and the fact that the Kage clearly are not as much in charge as they are figure heads it kinda comes together. Naruto is a great candidate. He's clearly the strongest in the village and at this point by a considerable margin as he was able to defeat Pein who had pretty much curb stomped the village at that point. He loves his village more than anything (why you would want your leader to be someone who wanders the land and can't be bothered to be home is beyond me) and just by being him he's effectively formed, as a genin no less, an alliance with two separate villages.  He's also world famous and for both his strength and compassion. Who's going to attack a village that's gaurded by or allied to Naruto?
 * Wrong. See Garden of Sanctuary (already recommended on this site, no less, though Sakura isn't mentioned in the rec) and its companion Medusa Javelin. This troper admittedly hadn't thought about it before, but these stories only prove you right about her.
 * If you look at their mentors, it makes sense. Jiraiya admits he's not really hokage material and suggests Tsunade in his place. (after she works on her issues) I think the analogy to Sakura and Naruto holds.
 * In Episode 10, when Team 7 is doing the tree climbing, Kakashi suggests that Sakura, based on her chakra control, is better fit to be Hokage than Naruto is. Then again, he was probably just trying to get a reaction out of Naruto. Jiraiya also notes that part of the reason why he didn't want to become Hokage is because of his need to investigate Orochimaru and the Akatsuki, so when the time comes that Naruto could be considered for Hokage, not only will his current issues with Sasuke most likely have been resolved, but he may well be mentally ready (Orochimaru claims that Jiraiya is stupid, and he is shown acting like Naruto did in the bell training exercise).
 * My theory is that Naruto will become Hokage in a Distant Finale that takes place 10-20 years after the end of the story, with his wife (in my potentially controversial opinion, ) and possibly children, and looking among the many friends he has in attendance, will make one last remark about how he didn't need to be Hokage to be accepted, but achieved that on the way to his goal.
 * If so, would the kids possess small parts of the Kyuubi? Or will they be normal kids with the Byakugan and little whisker marks? (Well, about as normal as you can get with those traits.)
 * Another option is that he's going to become something more, redefining what being a Ninja is about for everyone, and instead becoming something like "The Sage of Eight/Nine Paths"

"Madara" isn't actually a physical being.
The final secret of the Sharingan is that anyone who possesses the Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan can be possessed by some spirit, possibly related to the Kyuubi. The spirit named itself after Madara, the first person it possessed. Since Obito's eye was transferred to Kakashi, he technically gained the Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan, so the spirit was able to take over his body. However, Obito's body is too weak, so "Madara" wants a stronger host. That's why he wants Sasuke.
 * Alternatively, Tobi is the ghost of the real Madara (and Obito is in no way involved), who actally did die at the Valley of the End, but remains earthbound due to the power of the Eternal Mangekyo. This would explain why attacks just phased through him (that time/space jutsu explanation sounded awfully fishy) and his reason for capturing the bijuu: he's building himself a new body out of the most powerful beings in the world.
 * I would like to add to this. I feel that Tobi is Madara's chakra and soul, and as he consists of chakra, he can use jutsu. Having an advanced sharingan, he can also modify his chakra to take on various chakra types. He could have at leased added earth to his collection, and seems to have some physical interaction (the catching of Zabuza's sword) because he uses a small bit of earth chakra to make a surface for contact. He's a ghost that wants his body back, based on his comment about the Rinne Tensei.
 * Him being some sort of ghost is tinted to be true by Madara stating  when asking why he wants the tailed beasts, and earlier when he said he was planning on.
 * This is also supported by him saying that
 * Even better, what if Tobi is actually the spirit of the Sage of Six Paths son? (The one who founded Uchiha) and is the true big bad behind Madara?
 * Considering the hints given that Tobi, and the frequency with which fan theories have called revelations ahead of time with this series, this may actually turn out to be good as canon!!
 * There are more hints of him being a ghost, but at the same time more hints of him being a living being during his fight against Danzo's bodyguards. He can phase through solid objects instead of just letting them pass through him, but at the same time, he can't be both tangible and intangible at the same time- and it's quite possibly linked to his Sharigan, seeing as he's tangible during his OHKO jutsu, and is affected by an Aburame jutsu when he uses it once to the point that he can't just warp out of it. And it's not a matter of him willing himself to be tangible-

Tobi? More like no-bi
Tobi isn't the Mizukage or Danzo or Madara or anything silly like that. That's like saying Osama Bin Laden was secretly Vladimir Putin, Dick Cheney and Hitler, and nobody ever noticed. Tobi is a nonentity who impersonates famous ninja for kicks. Sharigan? Contact lens.
 * Tobi's a... cosplayer?
 * ^ Made of Win.
 * Er... Jossed. Tobi/Madara/ used the power of the Sharingan and the   to survive his fight with Konan.
 * Not Jossed at all. Kakashi is living proof that you don't have to be an Uchiha to have a Sharingan. And given the recent revelation that, this is looking more likely all the time.

Tsunade will be killed by the Shinigami
Think about it. Out of the four previous hokages, 100% have been killed by the Shinigami. Either Orochimaru pulled some serious Voldemort style cursing, or the curse on the position was preexisting, he Gambit Roulette-ed himself out of the position, but wasn't able to back out of the line of succession fast enough to avoid losing his arms.
 * Tsunade will probably die in the final battle, leaving the Hokage job open for Naruto to fill at the end of the series. Meanwhile, Kurenai is pregnant. My build on the theory: Tsunade will sacrifice herself to the Shinigami in order to seal whatever super-beast Akatsuki have been making into the newborn. This makes the series come full-circle, though Naruto will make sure the villagers aren't complete pricks this time around.
 * You know she might just resign before she dies like the Third did.
 * The Third didn't resign. He intended to keep playing Hokage for a number of years longer... then Orochimaru got his ass owned to him with the Shinigami. This was a heavily relevant plot point everyone knows, man.
 * You might want to read again, buster. Hiruzen Sarutobi has already retired and appointed Minato Namikaze (Naruto's father) as the Fourth Hokage. He was only forced to come out of retirement because he's alive, and the position of Hokage is held permanently even if one is not active (a la The Chronicles of Narnia). THIS IS A MORE HEAVILY-RELEVANT PLOT POINT EVERYONE KNOWS, MAN.

After the series ends, a spin-off will be released that deals with the stories of the side characters like Shikamaru and Hinata.
The main reason the series has shifted away from the much more interesting supporting cast and on to Naruto is because the series has always been about Naruto. Since the series is well on its way to becoming a Franchise Zombie, this seems the best way to deal with demand for more stories about the supporting cast and more Naruto merchandise stuff being sold.

Katsuyu isn't an individual, but a Hive Mind capable of combining into a huge combined creature.
Notice that unlike Jiraiya and Orochimaru can summon a variety of different individual toads and snakes, but Tsunade only ever summons Katsuyu, whose ability to break apart and reform easily seems to be unique to her. Therefore it stands to reason that Katsuyu is the entire slug summon population rolled all into one.

Madara is partly telling the truth and partly lying
Some of what Madara has said has been confirmed, some of seems to be lies, and some may well be him deluding himself. Here's a rundown of his claims
 * His younger brother let him take his eyes: Most Likely False. When he first confirms that he "killed his friend and his brother", Sasuke gets angry, and Madara notes that he managed to obtain a perfect Mangekyo and use the Sharingan without trying to justify it. When he mentions that his clan turned against him for killing his brother to save himself, his claim that his younger brother sacrificed himself for the sake of the clan is highly suspicious, since he had not mentioned anything like it before, and he does not mention the blindness at any point (which would suggest that one of the two would have to sacrifice his life, or else they both would have gone blind and partly justify taking his brother's eyes). After all, if using the Mangekyou too much makes you need your sibling's eyes, why wouldn't Madara and Izuna just trade eyes if Madara was trying to strengthen the clan? Isn't TWO Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan's better than one?
 * It seems most likely that an Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan can only be obtained by one of the siblings, or else there isn't any reason they wouldn't do that in the first place.
 * Konoha under the Second Hokage actively discriminated against the Uchiha because of resentment over what Madara did: Partly False. Given that Madara was the only Uchiha to oppose the treaty with the Senju, it seems illogical for the Second Hokage would punish the rest of the clan for what one of the members did. While there were dissidents, it's unclear that the Second Hokage did anything to give them the indicating that he was keeping them under suspicion.
 * Madara did not summon the Nine-Tailed Fox to attack Konoha when the Fourth Hokage sealed it away: Most Likely False. The Fourth Hokage saw him with the fox, and the events are a bit too convenient for him (especially since the Uchiha were blamed, and Madara wanted to kill the rest of the Uchiha clan along with Konoha). It's possible that he did this as part of a Xanatos Gambit, knowing that if it succeeded, he could have his revenge on "Senju and Uchiha," and if not, he could force the Uchiha into conflict with the rest of Konoha and have them destroy each other. He most likely omits his responsibility to make the elders' discrimination against Uchiha seem unjustified.
 * Madara didn't summon the fox. He did, however, take control of it and use its hate to make it attack Konoha. So, its partly false/a half-truth.
 * The Uchiha were plotting against the village: Most Likely True. Notice that at one point during Sasuke's flashbacks toward the end of Part I, one of the Uchiha members tells Itachi that their agent in the ANBU would know if Itachi destroyed Shisui's suicide note, and threatens Itachi over his potentially betraying the clan rather than the village. However, Madara is unclear about how much the village's decisions provoked this.
 * Itachi was acting on Konoha's orders and wanted to protect Sasuke above all else: Most Likely True. Notice that Itachi is reluctant to fight the Jonin sensei shortly after his introduction (and Asuma's immediate reaction that this is uncharacteristic of someone who killed his family is Truth in Television), and he doesn't seem to seriously try to capture Naruto. Madara also mentions that Itachi was a potential problem for him when speaking with Zetsu, whom he would not need to deceive about the Uchihas, suggesting that this is not a lie.

Many of the times when he's lying are times when it would lead Sasuke to side with him (in the case of Itachi being ordered to kill his clan, though, Sasuke earlier tells Itachi that once he kills him, he's going after his accomplice- soon revealed to be Madara- next). It's rare for things characters say in Naruto to be proven entirely false (like with Jiraiya and the Fourth Hokage's suggestions that Madara used the nine-tailed fox to attack Konoha), but usually, they're missing some detail that changes the reality significantly, but doesn't go against what they said (in Neji's flashback, he didn't realize that his father 'chose to sacrifice himself). Madara is thus partly telling the truth, partly lying to get Sasuke to turn against the village, and partly telling what he thinks is true, but is actually not- he seems to have wanted to protect his clan, but lost sight of it in his hatred for the Senju.

Shouton is formed through the simultaneous use of Earth and Ice Elements.
Shouton AKA the Crystal Element is the result of Earth and Ice. Think about it, the Ice element can form crystaline forms while the Earth element can provides the materials the Crystal element would need. The careful combination results with Crystals.
 * Considering that ice itself is a combination of wind and water which can only apparently be made using the bloodline limit Haku had, I'd think it'd be easier to just say it's a special kind of earth release.
 * Here's what we know about it as far as Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors goes.
 * Naruto's Wind/Water combo jutsu is effective
 * Yamato's Wood jutsu (Earth/water) is ineffective
 * Kakashi's Lightning Blade (Lightning) is effective
 * Based on that evidence, I'd suggest it's a hybrid of Earth(since Lightning works well against it) and Lightning (since Naruto's Wind/Water jutsu worked well but Yamato's Earth/Water one did not). Hybrid jutsus tend to have one nature take dominance over the other when determining vulnerability; Sasuke's fire jutsus were useless against Haku's wind/water Ice jutsus, and Naruto and Yamato's wind/water combo defeated Kakuzu's wind-strengthened fire, even though it seemed as though Naruto's wind might make Kakuzu's fire even stronger (Yamato's Earth/Water jutsu is weak against both of the Crystal element's natures).

Itachi knew and greatly admired the Fourth Hokage:
Itachi called Naruto "The Fourth Hokage's legacy" meaning that he was aware of Naruto's parentage since the beginning (taking into consideration that very few people knew of the Fourth's son, after all Minato said that there would be trouble it such thing was public), his attitude towards Naruto and the facts that he constantly delayed his capture, he was also smiling when Naruto defeated his fake body and that all of these was before Itachi fully realized of the bond Naruto had with Sasuke. Could it mean that all of it was out of respect of a person? Madara also mentioned that Itachi witnessed war when he was 4, most likely he means the Third Ninja War, in which Minato was a hero. Could the young Itachi met Minato there? Did Minato save his life? If so then it would not be surprising that he grew looking up to him, inspired by his talent and his devotion to the village. The Fourth's death must have also affected him profoundly, so he became determined to excel in everything and protect the village at all costs.
 * It's highly possible that he knew the Minato, as Kushina was friends with his mother (as shown in chapter 500). Of course doing the Math, Itachi was only 5 when Minato died, so he couldn't have known him that well.

Pain's Gedo Rinne Tensei no Jutsu uses stored life energy
Chiyo used life energy to heal Sakura's wounds and bring Gaara back to life; the former brought her close to death, and the latter killed her. Ordinarily, Pain would only be able to revive one person at the cost of his own life, but he could use the life energy from the people whose souls he stole with the Jigokudo and Ningendo bodies, as well as with the King of Hell statue to bring everyone back to life. This may also explain how he revives his bodies (the only time we see him having to replace one is in the first Chikushodo, which Jiraiya sent back to Konoha).

Sasuke wants a world with only him and Berzerker Rage Naruto
He's committed to the "destroy your loved ones" approach to vengence/leadership/ChaoticEvil-ness. Now that they've switched places in the eyes of the village (see below) Naruto officially has a "family" to lose and Sasuke's going to be the one to destroy that family. Now that they've both lost their families they can fight on truly equal terms, which is what Sasuke really wants.

The Uchiha clan was dying out anyway
We never see any Uchiha children younger then Sasuke or Itachi, either just running around the compound or at the academy inaugration thing. Is the ? Maybe inbreeding (and let's face it, it was probably a common practise in all the clans) lead to a sort of genetic dead end, and the pressure shoved onto Itachi was a result of the clan and his father thinking he may be the last Uchiha ever to be born. Sasuke was an accident :D
 * Hang on, more fanon has erupted. For the fun of it, the Sharingan is matrilinial. Since Sasuke bears absolutely no resemblence to his father, we can assume that he gets most of his good looks from his mother. With the clan's fertility levels dropping out the wazoo, Mikoto gets permission to have a child from someone outside the clan. This explains the large age gap between Itachi and Sasuke (before they figured out this plan), and also why Fugaku is a little distant towards Sasuke, even if he's secretly proud of him.
 * Five years is a large age gap? I'm five years younger then my sister, and five older then my brother. Same parents. Doesn't sound all that weird to me.

Naruto and Sasuke will switch roles as the village outcast and the village favorite
If and when Sasuke returns to Konoha after finally getting sense beaten into him by Naruto, it's doubtful that he'll get a warm welcome from the village he and his clan betrayed several times over. Meanwhile, it's been shown over and over again in the recent arc how much Konoha has come to accept Naruto and even admire him. So Sasuke will have to adjust to being an outcast after being the beloved prodigy while Naruto will adjust to life as the new golden boy of Konoha, perhaps facing some not-so-nice people in the process. Hopefully through Character Development both should come out the stronger for these changes.
 * It would also be keeping with the history of strained relations between the Uchiha clan and the rest of the village, and with Naruto's desire to break the vicious cycles of the world.

Naruto will end in a Kakashi/Obito style, and the cycle will continue.
The final fight of the series will be Naruto and Sasuke vs. Madara. Towards the end, both sides heavily injured, Sasuke will suddenly leap forward to protect Naruto as he notices Madara firing off a fatal jutsu in Naruto's direction, and he himself will become fatally wounded. Lying in Naruto's arms, Naruto, eyes full of tears, will cry out, "You know I can heal! Why did you do that!" And in a moment of glorious nostalgia and redemption, Sasuke will mutter, "Idiot... my body... just moved on its own." Naruto will then bust out the Seal given to him by the Great Seal Frog and, much in the same manner that Obito gave Kakashi the Sharingan, Naruto will use the seal to give Sasuke the Nine-tails Fox within him. Sasuke will stand up completely healed, and being an Uchiha, will have full control over the powers of the Nine-tails within him.
 * I think this is very likely, based on the pattern established throughout the generations. I read here that the team template is based off of a Toad-Slug-Snake pattern, where the toad is The Hero with a relatively lighthearted personality, the slug is The Heart who keeps the team together, and the snake is the Anti-Hero who seeks power. We see this pattern with the Sannin (Toad = Jiraiya, Slug = Tsunade, Snake = Orochimaru), Kakashi's team (Toad = Obito, Slug = Rin, Snake = Kakashi),  and we don't know anything about Yondaime's team but Yondy is definitely Toad-like. In every single one of these instances the toad-type ends up dying in some sort of Heroic Sacrifice. The parallels between Team 7 and the Sannin are very obvious. But maybe Team 7 will be the Combo Breaker.

Kabuchimaru will be the ultimate Big Bad after the Akatsuki is defeated.
Let's face it, Orochimaru has been set up as the Big Bad from early in Part I. Then we get to Part II, and he gets easily taken out, twice, by two different Uchihas. That's it? Surely not. Kabutimaru's long absence is too conspicuous to be insignificant. It's likely that he's gaining power to take out his two greatest enemies: Konoha and the Akatsuki. The only question is, who will be controlling the body, Kabuto or Orochimaru?
 * However, since he ignored Rule 34 ( no, not that one - the one on the Evil Overlord list), he will be executed in a Humiliation Conga.

Kiba will gain a new version of Beast Mimicy jutsu
Mostly cause I think that he should be mentioned here somewhere and I think its a logical progression from simply becoming slightly beastial to becoming a werewolf/dog like creature, wit Akamaru being a slightly more beastly version. Also it would be pretty cool.

This troper believes that he will learn a bunshin technique, and combine that with his Beast Mimicry Jutsu to create a new jutsu: Cerberus no jutsu (or some translation thereof. Proof: Cerberus was (in Greek and Roman mythology) a three headed dog. If Kiba and Akamaru alone were able to form that Two-Headed Wolf, a clone added to the mix would create a three headed wolf.

The series will have a bitter sweet ending.
Naruto will eventally gain his ambition, he will gain a girl that loves him but he will lose some one important probally sasuke, who is likely to die in some heroic sacerfise or a last battle. With Sasukes death one era will end and a new one will start.

The will of fire is the product of social engineering
Despite a few tragic mistakes, the changes in culture of young ninja upbringing implemented in Konoha during the last decade have had a positive effect on ninja motivation. Where previously ninja's were handed a kunai at the age of twelve and shoved off to war. They are now being educated in a sheltered and stable environment prior to undertaking low-risk missions under close supervision of a jounin. This has had a positive effect on the natural bonding process of children to their peers, parents and home town. When exposed to threats to these they will invariably respond by forming a will of fire and defend them to the death. Competing experiments in the Hidden Mist Village which focused on desensetization- and obedience training did not end as favourable.

Orochimaru kept Karin around for breeding purposes.
The major flaw in Orochimaru's immortality jutsu is that he has to move to a new body every three years. Three years with the Sharingan would not be enough time for him. He could theoretically transplant the Sharingan into his new bodies, but as we've seen with Kakashi, it's not as effective in non-Uchihas. So the solution is simple: produce more Uchihas. To do so he has brainwashed Karin (and possibly others at his various bases) to have an intense desire to have sex with Sasuke. He gets a new generation of Uchihas and the bonus of her enhanced chakra sensing power (assuming it's hereditary). This also helps explain her behavior when it comes to Sasuke.
 * Three years is the minimum time between moving for bodies, although the illness that forces Orochimaru to try to take Sasuke's body is unexplained. Orochimaru had two bodies in the ten years after his defection, making an average of five years for each body, although it could be that like of the Fullmetal Alchemist anime, his soul can't keep on switching bodies forever, and he must switch bodies sooner and sooner as time goes on.
 * The illness wasn't unexplained. It's because Sandaime pulled his soul's arms off c: It hurts to have your soul bleed. Although I'll admit I have no clue how switching bodies helped, but soul science isn't ThisTropers field.
 * They had to brainwash her?
 * With the revelations that Karin is an Uzumaki (itself a branch of the Senju) and that the Rinnegan can be obtained by combining the powers of Senju and Uchiha this theory gains new weight.
 * On the other hand we already had multiple examples of Senju/Uzumaki powers being obtained simply by injecting their cells.

Danzo & the advisers saw the Madara/1st Hokage fight and know something important
Since  it's clear Madara's lying to manipulate Sasuke. It's possible that the segregation of the Uchiha clan, it's revolt, and Itachi's involvement in the massacre were all made up as well and Itachi merely took the blame for something Madara did all by himself. But what seems weird is that when Madara told his "story" to Sasuke he seemed to single out Danzo and the two advisers as the evil ones, while the 3rd was still labeled as the good natured, father-like man he always was. Given that the 3rd and the advisers were trained by the 1st, I believe they tried to help him fight Madara and learned some key piece of info about Madara, like a weakness. To kill off the three elders, he's turned Sasuke into his personal assassin and will stand back while Sasuke does the dirty work. It would explain why Madara never just teleported into Konoha and grabbed Naruto.

The newly introduced Swordsman of the Mist, Chojuro's Weapon is in fact Sword-chucks, yo!
Well, he's one of the seven ninja swordsmen of the Mist, and though most of his weapon is wrapped up in clothe we can see it has two handles that are tethered together. Additionally, group silhouette for the swordsmen has a figure on the far right which is probably Chojuro (short spiky hair, headphones) holding two blades in his hands closely together.
 * Twenty to one he's going to have red hair if he does have Swordchucks.
 * No, he has blue-gray hair.

Tobi is simulataneously everyone who has ever lived and died in the Narutoverse and just pretends to be different people for the lulz.
It makes perfect sense.

Konoha will be destroyed, but a new Konoha will be built when Naruto & Sasuke reconcile.
Madara will make enough progress in his plans to destroy the village he hates. This would be symbollic of the Uchiha finally defeating the Senju clan that dominated them when Konoha was made and that the Senju's ideals, while noble, were flawed. Once Naruto and Sasuke are friends again and Madara is killed, they'll build upon the ideals of the old Konoha and build a new village where the power of Hokage is broken down into a group of people who share the power as equals, with Sasuke as a military leader and Naruto as the political leader. For bonus points, the new Konoha might be built in the remains of the Whirlpool country, to symbolize how the people are coming together to a common point.

Sakura is being set up for a nervous breakdown of sorts regarding her inability to help Naruto
In Chapter 297, Sakura regrets not being able to do more to help Naruto, and Yamato's suggestion that the strength of her feelings is what counts doesn't seem to have helped that much, which may be one reason why she appears sad while thinking about how much Hinata loves Naruto (possibly because she believes her own feelings seem inadequate by comparison- although it's unclear whether she heard Hinata say Naruto made her the person she is today and that she's willing to die for him). Add in the recent traumatic developments of her mentor Tsunade going into a coma (Sakura wants to cheer Naruto up, but realizes that she's the one who needs it), hearing about Sasuke being part of the Akatsuki, and currently being left out of Naruto's escort to the Kage summit may well cause some sort of crisis for her, possibly brought to a climax if she finds out that Naruto now loves Hinata.
 * ... Er, Naruto doesn't love Hinata. Her confessing =/= instant OMFGLOVEYOUTOO from Naruto. Sure, he'll be thinking about the confession, but I doubt he'll return her feelings for a while, leaving time for Sakura to pull herself together and kick reason to the curb!
 * I meant that the possible scenario I proposed would hinge upon Naruto loving Hinata, too, although I do think that Naruto will ultimately accept Hinata's love.
 * Chapter 458:

The Demon King Statue that the Akatsuki has been placing Biju in won't do what people expect it to.
Seriously, every time an evil person or organization has to collect things to power a weapon, it NEVER does what it's supposed to. It works fine right up until the last item is added, at which point it promptly changes from Kill Sat to Class 5 Apocalypse or greater. It'll either begin to explode, come to life and try to kill them, or set free an Eldritch Abomination to try to kill them.
 * It will try to kill them all, and the warning sign will be a seemingly random list of powers called off from within the statue ending with Heart from The Kyuubi, causing a mysterious new voice to call out "By your powers combined I am Captain Apocolypse"

The Land of Iron is just east of the Land of Wind and west of the Land of Fire
This might explain why:
 * Gaara's group's at the summit already
 * Naruto's group is in the country
 * The Tsuchikage's group appears to be camping out somewhere. Under this scenario, they'd be close, but not close enough to make it there in a night.
 * The Mizukage's group (starting out the furthest away) is stopping at an inn for the night.

It's probably in the eastern part of the country, which explains how everyone got there so quickly. I suspect it will be at least another day in-universe time before the summit starts.
 * That border region, if I recall, is entirely taken up by River Country, the mostly-forested and temperate land where the Akatsuki extracted the Ichibi; also, there were no mountains shown in that arc, so I doubt that this is the case.
 * Here's a map, and if it's not the one between the Lands of Fire and Wind (what does that symbol mean?), then I would think it's the one between Earth and Wind, but that begs the question of why it's taking longer for the Iwa team to get there than the Konoha team.
 * On second examination, that placement seems to be accurate. Most of the other scenarios I can think of have the Stone and Cloud ninjas too close, or the Sand ninjas too far away.

Sasuke has been possessed by the ghost of Izuna Uchiha, possibly since the massacre
This accounts for both interpretations of Madara's truthfulness.
 * If he's lying, Izuna wants revenge on his eye-stealing brother and chooses the nearest acceptable vessel (in terms of strength and mentality) possible; in this case, post-massacre Sasuke who would be likely to encounter him.
 * If he's telling the truth, Izuna could be influencing Sasuke to follow his big brothers orders, since he was unable to support him against the Senju takeover. This accounts for Sasuke's compliance with Madara's commands despite his hand in the massacre and being the root (sorry) cause of it. Also, if Izuna had actually taken over at some point, it would explain his bad tactics against Killer Bee - unused to having a physical state, and rusting of skills. Plus they look so damn similar...

Madara is Sasuke's real father
At some point, Madara snuck into the Uchiha compound and knocked up Sasuke's mom while Fugaku Uchiha was away. Fugaku suspects something happened, but could never be sure. It would explain why Fugaku didn't take well to Sasuke in the flashback, why they don't resemble each other, and why Sasuke has the same chakra as Madara.
 * I once read a fanfic with the exact same premise, all except Fugaku agreed to it due to being sterilised after having Itachi. It was an epic fic. Srsly. Like, over 30 chapters long, and has a sequel.
 * Can I ask you to post the name of the fanfic?
 * The Pit of Voles has some gems after all; turns out it's actually sixty six chapters long, and the sequel is in the twenties: Link.

Danzo is the Long Forgotten Twin Brother of Izuna Uchiha
He was erased from the history books because he never awakened the Mangekyo Sharingan,and the Uchiha clan as a whole alienated him because his extremist veiws would endanger their plans of taking back Konoha. He wants to kill Sasuke because he wants revenge on what he believes is the remainder of his clan for shunning him, and because he is jealous of Sasuke's Mangekyo Sharingan.

The newest arc will culminate in a follow-up Rescue Arc for Sasuke
Sasuke will fail epically in his attempt on Danzou's life and will consequently be captured and put on trial for his crimes. Naruto, Sakura, Sai, Kakashi, and Yamato will form a team and race to stop Sasuke's execution.
 * I suspect so, too, and believe that it will happen after Naruto gets through to Sasuke. Danzo, never having been one to spare Sasuke even before his plans for revenge turned darker, will most likely step in at the end of their battle to capture Sasuke while Naruto is unable to overcome him.

None of the ships involving Team 7 will be resolved until Sasuke gets back
Let's consider what we know about each of the people involved
 * Sasuke: He's out of the village right now, and he considers any Leaf ninja he could be paired with an enemy. He could wind up with Karin, but that's extremely unlikely.
 * Sakura: It's highly unlikely that she'll get over Sasuke just because he left without one last realization putting her feelings to rest, even if she does have romantic feelings for Naruto. Since she also seems to know about Hinata's feelings for Naruto, it's highly unlikely that she'll get together with him without taking Hinata into consideration, regardless of what the Die for Our Ship crowd thinks.
 * Events in chapter 458 suggest that she might want to reevaluate her feelings both for Sasuke and Naruto, it's probable that the next chapters will be crucial for this, Sakura being told  So it might come to this: a) Sai might tell her next that he has noticed that she loves him too and suggest to let go of Sasuke that has done nothing but hurting them and be happy together (if this happens and Sakura agrees then she will lose a great part (if not all) of her motivation for wanting Sasuke back). b) Sakura will ask Naruto to stop looking for Sasuke for her sake and that he doesn't need to fulfill his promise to her anymore, Sakura will then either continue to love Sasuke in secret or move on entirely. Naruto still will have a motivation for wanting Sasuke back but it will be personal only. c) Sakura will remember Hinata's sacrifice and think that Hinata has done far more for Naruto than her, as such Sakura will consider herself unworthy of being with either Sasuke or Naruto.
 * Naruto: He said that he can't tell Sakura how he feels as long as he hasn't fulfilled his promise to bring Sasuke back (which was before he found out that Hinata loves him). He's thus unlikely to confess to Sakura before then for that reason. Then again, it also seems somewhat unlikely that he will reciprocate Hinata's love at this stage, unless she somehow convinces him that even if he hasn't fulfilled his promise, he's stayed faithful to it without giving up and that's what matters.
 * Chapter 450 works as evidence against Naru Saku simply because Values Dissonence Hugs Are So Much More Significant In Japanese Culture. Sakura hugs Naruto, and what does Naruto do? He just stands there, arms at his side, which is a rather awkward position. Embracing her would be easy to do, not to mention more comfortable, but he doesn't. So basically, Sakura made an overtly romantic gesture and Naruto ignored it.
 * Not to mention Sasuke/Naruto . . . don't look at me like that!
 * Not to mention Sasuke/Naruto . . . don't look at me like that!

From what we know, Sasuke is not only a missing part of the Love Dodecahedron, but Naruto and Sakura have unresolved issues with him that they will most likely have to deal with even if they decide to look elsewhere for love.

Kurenai is an Uchiha.
Her eyes are bright red, it might mean it's pre-activated all the time. If she knew the necessary technique, she could use them. What? Lately, everybody seems to be Uchihas, or have transplanted eyes, so, it's not that farfetched. And it'd sorta explain how she's the only one in the entire franchise to have natural scarlet eyes. The reason on why she's Yuuhi instead of Uchiha is just because her mom preferred to take her husband's surname instead of still being from a rebellious clan. Uchihas didn't kill them because they could be useful in the future.

Hand-signs are extraneous to controlling Chakra
Haku at a young age was able to control water without handsigns, though his kekkei genkai was admittedly water-based, and was able to use "one-handed" signs. Hand-signs are a form of mental control that allow the shinobi to focus on the exact chakra channels used for ninjutsu. Very skilled shinobi should be able to control chakra without hand-signs, much like powerful wizards in Harry Potter are able use wordless and even wandless magic.
 * There are actually a lot of signs that point to this being true. The best example that comes to mind right now would be Sasuke, whose first technique after the timeskip was a variant of the Chidori which used no signs, and several times after that he used Chidori (which he used with signs in Part 1) and a number of other variants without signs. Another example would be Kakashi who can use his lighting Blade without signs when needed, as well as cutting the number of signs of a certain water technique, which used originally forty-two, to two. Unlike Harry Potter, however, this probably stems from someone being very familiar with a certain technique (and by extension, element) than it does with learning a universal method to "jump" over the requirements displayed by the abilities (in Harry Potter, spells). Basically, however, using signs makes things easier.
 * This troper always just figured the handsigns weren't needed for consecutive uses of the same jutsu. Kinda like how you can always just hit the power button on a computer to turn it on, so long as you still have a power cable plugged in.

The Team 7 Triangle will be reversed
Sakura seems to be beginning to see how much she means to Naruto and exploring the possibility of how much Naruto in turn means to her. However, she also sees how much Hinata cares for Naruto and will therefore step off to the side if Naruto chooses to pursue Hinata. Meanwhile, if Sasuke ever gets redeemed, he might come to understand how much his team, particularly Sakura, meant to him. However, Kishimoto explicitly stated that Sakura's feelings for Sasuke were a shallow crush and her dedication to him seems to be as a friend and former comrade rather than romantic. Therefore the very emotionally stunted and socially awkward Sasuke who has always been fawned over by women will be at a disadvantage in both his feelings and pursuit of Sakura. This Love Dodecahedron most likely will be resolved offscreen a la Dragonball.
 * Kishimoto said her constantly stalking Sasuke was a weakness she had that was part of her being human. I think by the time Sasuke left Konoha, she had started to truly care for him rather than having a shallow crush on him, which possibly shows that while her feelings were still for Sasuke, she was starting to overcome her weakness. Whether she still has feelings for him, he does for her or ever will, or if the two get together are separate matters, though.
 * Kishimoto didn't say that Sakura's crush was shallow. He said her love for Sasuke was true and genuine, while Ino's was the shallow crush.
 * But but but... you're not accounting for the largest side at all. SasuNaruSasu.
 * Seriously, how come Sasunaru never shows up in these discussions? It plasible that it could happen.
 * Because Naruto pretty clearly isn't gay, and the two and a half years with Jiraiya didn't help matters. In Sasuke's case, when has he ever shown interest in anyone?

Neji's going to awaken the Daibyakugan.
Or something along those lines. Too many people have been getting Sharingan-related powerups, and this would do wonders to bring Neji back up to the point of being a credible threat to Sasuke when the Sasuke Retrieval Arc II comes along. It's going to be an eleventh hour superpower, too. Sasuke's going to own the living shit out of Kiba, Neji, Shikamaru and Shino. Then, Neji's going to get back up and go to town.
 * Alternatively, Neji will just kick the shit out of Sasuke. With his eyes closed. Then make some smart ass comment like Zetsu did way back during the Uchiha brothers' fight.
 * Doubtful. Sasuke was a credible threat to Itachi. Not better than him, but a credible threat. Neji's last combat appearance had him, Lee, and Tenten having trouble dealing with an inferior version of Kisame which Guy had to defeat. Neji is good, yeah... but just like Naruto, Sasuke got the benefit of three years of training under one of the Sannin. While this isn't Dragonball and tactics play a much larger role in a fight than "power levels", Sasuke's probably still got a fair edge on Neji.

Naruto will become a traveling hermit at the end of the series.
He will follow in the footsteps of Jiraiya, albeit for possibly different reasons. Whereas Jiraiya left to track Orochimaru and Akatsuki, Naruto left after a depressing results of the Sasuke hunt, and to improve the social status and traditions of other lands. He will also, in his teacher's memory, continue writing the Icha Icha novels. Meanwhile, a year after his departure, Sakura and Hinata begin a long and happy lesbian relationship. This troper does not claim ownership of the two ideas presented, as they came from another fan.

Sasuke will make a resolve to become Hokage.
This troper believes that after learning about Madara Uchia's deceptions, he will atone for causing so much trouble among the hidden villages by seeking to take down the one responsible for a large part of the Uchiha's downtrodden reputation. He will desire to become the Hokage as a way to wipe the slate clean from the Uchiha's dark past; these actions may prompt him to let go of his hatred, have a reason to fight other than revenge, and possibly become a happier person.
 * This troper sees it similar to the plan given in Nugar's fanfic People Lie - Sasuke will be the Hokage, while Naruto will rule all the Shinobi villages; in other words, Naruto will be Kage, and Sasuke will be his Ho :-)
 * Made of Win!

Near the end Naruto will die for the world's sins.

 * No really, since Naruto is The Messiah it is only natural that he will be the sacrificial lamb and offer himself to die in other to end the cycle of hatred, after all, it has been implied by Yamato that the only way to end it is that one side to "give in" and swallow its tears. Oh and to complete the messianic attibutes he will then be resurrected from the dead. Naruto, the savior of the world!
 * Alternatively, in a subversion of this, the Fox will be the thing that allows him to be ressurected. Are you a savior if you've been ressurected by one of the settings ultimate evils?

The Byakugan is an offshoot of the Sharingan.
When the Byakugan was first introduced, it was stated that the Sharingan was believed to have come from it. We now know that the Sharingan actually came from the Rinnegan, but it seems strange that two of the great doujutsu would be related and the third not. So perhaps the truth is the reverse of the common belief, the Byakugan actually comes from the Sharingan.
 * Alternatively, they both came from the Rinnegan.
 * That could be the case, and be something like this; before either Byakugan or Sharingan, two siblings of the Uchiha descent; one female and one male, could have had a falling out. While the sister grew tired of the constant war, her brother still desired to fight against the Senju, which the sister didn't want. Eventually, they split apart, and went their separate ways. The sister would meet a male ninja, and conceive a child, whose name she decided would be when she looked "towards the sun": Hyuuga. In other words, that child would develop the byakugan, while later down the male's line, the Sharingan would appear.
 * Alternatively, Byakugan generated Rinnegan, that generated Sharingan. It doesn't exclude the fact that Byakugan could, somehow or another, generate the Sharingan, and it could be a nice evolutive line.
 * The Rinnegan couldn't have come from the Byakugan. The Sage of the Six Paths was the first ninja specifically because he had the Rinnegan. If the Byakugan had come first, the first person to have it would have been the first ninja.

Madara/Tobi made his teleportation by copying the Fourth's Flying Thunder God Technique

 * Kakashi even compares the two techniques and it's likely that the Fourth used this technique when he beat both Madara and the Nine-Tails. So probably used his Sharingan to find out how it worked, and some time in the 15 years between his defeat and when we first saw him using it, he found a way to make it work without the seals and even applying it to only parts of his body.

Minato was just as bad with hand signs as Naruto

 * Or he at least hated using them, thus explaining why he went to the trouble of inventing two powerful techniques that didn't need any (the Rasengan and the Flying Thunder God technique).

Minato was a pervert.
Think about it. The Third Hokage was a pervert. Jiraiya was a pervert. Both Kakashi and Naruto are perverts. It just makes sense...
 * This Doujinshi by BotanofSpiritWorld shows Kushina as the pervert instead of Minato. This makes more sense based on the fact that Naruto gets his personality from his mother.

There's an additional step to the Sharingan.
Basically confirmed in the latest chatper (464), when Sasuke calls his the Double Sharingan.
 * No, he just means he got the Mangekyo Sharingan working for both eyes and thus can use Susanoo at full power, as oppose to a minute ago where he had only Amaterasu and a partial power Susanoo.

Follow up from the above. The more powerful a Sharingan gets, the more bound their are to 'Susanoo' and 'The Darkness.'
What's more, The Darkness is the Statue that the Akatsuki are sealing the Biju into. The Darkness/Susanoo is something like Ruin from Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn: It's a massively powerful creature that was bound long, long ago. It's power was divided into the Bijuu and its consciousness was what the Sage of the Sixth Paths found that allowed him to understand how Chakra Works and create Ninja. The Spirit then possessed his younger son, explaning why the Uchiha are so insane. When Madara unlocked the Eternal Mangekyo, he became fully possessed by the Spirit, explaining his odd powers like Intangibility, his 'Sinister Eyes', and his ability to control the Bijou. He manipulated Pein and the Akatsuki into using the Statue with the promise of a powerful weapon, but instead is rebuilding his body. Sasuke, while being manipulated by The Darkness/Susanoo, is not fully possesed by it because does not have the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan, but the most recent changes in his character stem by unlocking the Double Mangekyo. His Chakra is 'darker' because he's being more heavily influenced, and he's weirder/has new powers for the same reason.

Sasuke will end up releasing Orochimaru. AGAIN
Although his Susanoo looks different than Itachi, since Itachi transferred his powers into him it seems quite possible that the blade thing Sasuke's made was also the Sword of Totsuka/Sakenagi Longsword/whatever it's call. Orochimaru had his mind sealed by it and since it sucked in most of his body his mind was probably put into it, so it seems the illusion may only last while he is in contact with the blade. Sasuke using it may end up accidently releasing a piece of his body that Orochimaru puts his mind in by trying to use it (wouldn't be the first time he's made such a mistake) and it could combine back with Kabuchimaru Kabuto to give him a functional (though probably temporary) body.

Roushi fathered the Mizukage while on a mission in the Water Country.
It seems a bit too coincidental that two red haired characters would possess the same ability yet be totally unrelated to each other. While their abilities do stem from different sources, itâ€™s possible that tailed beasts can change the genes of their jinchuriki, creating new bloodline limits in their descendants.
 * Well, she also uses steam, so does that mean she's also related to Han?
 * Maybe Roushi ran away with Han's daughter to the Water Country, but had to abandon them due hunter-nins tracking him.
 * Or maybe the other way around, because Roshi looks older than Han.

Naruto will end up with Sakura in the manga, and with Hinata in the anime.
This is most likely the only way for Kishimoto to resolve this shipping issue with both sides (relatively) happy. It makes sense as well, due to the anime putting plenty of focus on Hinata compared to the anime.
 * episode 129 omake is evidence against this. But you never know.
 * How so, exactly? I heard that it was Naru/Saku, but I don't know any details. It isn't uncommon to see anime-exclusive Naru/Saku Ship Tease; they changed Naruto and Sakura talking about Sasuke's curse mark and Orochimaru on a bench to Sakura offering Naruto "that date (he's) always wanted". Similarly, the Naru/Hina ship tease in the anime is mainly the result of her getting more screentime as a secondary character; most of her canon appearances involve her feelings for Naruto in some way, so the anime seems to be taking it to its natural conclusion than necessarily favoring Naru/Hina.

Tobi's plan will backfire spectacularly and Naruto will have to become the Juubi jinchuriki in order to save the world.
The Big Bad trying to take power from Sealed Evil in A Can? That always works! It seems much more likely that the Juubi will take over Madara and it will fall to the Chosen One to act as its prison.

Tobi will succeed in his plan, but lose to Naruto.
Specifically because Kakashi mentions Naruto's chakra would be a hundred times his own if he didn't have to surpress the Kyuubi. Why mention something so specific and ridiculously broken for no reason? Thus, Naruto loses the nine tails, then kicks ass.
 * While it's obvious that Naruto will defeat Madara the line you're refering to,I have just read it again on Binktopia and I think Kakashi is talking about the total of Kyubi+ Naruto could have that insane quantity of chakra,not that Naruto doesn't have a huge amount but I really can't imagine 100x chakra to come naturaly.
 * Agreed, Kakashi must've meant "if you let yourself use the Kyuubi's chakra, it'd grant you a hundred times more chakra"

The place Madara sent Karin and Sasuke is a dimension within his own eye
When he sends both of them in there is looks like they're sucked into a vortex centered around his eye. So it's like Kamui but it doesn't rip whatever it touches apart (or tire out the user). This might mean that the one way to attack without him phasing through it to Go for The Eye!

Madara IS the Juubi.
Not only is he planning to unleash the super-evil Juubi, but told Kakashi and company that he's planning to make himself a new body. The real answer is, he found the Juubi long ago and it told him how to get the Mangekyo, and then ate his mind when he did. It's also why he's still alive: He's the Juubi's consciousness.
 * . Considering his weird powers, his goals and the fact he always covers his face, one can theorize he is not exactly human. Also, if you consider the Juubi's Sharingan-mixed-Rinnegan massive eye, and the fact Tobi's mask now resembles Juubi's freaking eye, what does that tell you?
 * Perhaps Tobi is a manifestation of the Juubi seeking to re-unify itself

A part of Naruto's Kyuubi chakra replaced, and transformed into Shukaku's, preserving Gaara's sand powers
Since the Kyuubi and Shukaku are both parts of the Juubi, I can see Shukaku being created out of the Kyuubi's chakra, given an appropriate mold. Extracting a bijuu doesn't just kill from shock: it ALWAYS kills. This implies that once you're a Jinchuuriki, you need a bijuu's chakra to survive(perhaps you die from lack of chakra when your own chakra flows into the spot where you formerly had a huge ball of demon chakra?). Naruto offered his chakra when Chiyo ran out. Gaara is still an insomniac, and still a superpowered sand user, in short, still has the characteristics of a Shukaku host. Stands to reason that Gaara filled up the hole where Shukaku used to be in his chakra system with Kyuubi's chakra, allowing him to be revived like a normal person, and the Kyuubi's chakra adapted to the form that best fitted. Since they were originally the same thing, it changed into a new Ichibi smoothly. Now the question is: why isn't the Kyuubi(and Naruto) greatly weakened at least? Kyuubi is probably just a lot more kickass and has way more chakra than Shukaku ever had, allowing enough for shukaku to be siphoned off without it even noticing. Or at least caring. Reasons? Let's see, Naruto without tails but drawing on Kyuubi chakra beats Gaara in full Shukaku form. Naruto with 4 tails against Orochimaru uses attacks that would summarily rip Shukaku apart. And every single thing the Kyuubi does is by force of chakra alone. Characters in the series comment on it: "No way! He deflected them using chakra?". On top of that, foxes in Japanese get stronger with every tail, capped at nine. And of course, it's hard to imagine the main protagonist's "hidden power" to be anything but the very strongest. By a fair margin.

Madara is going to pluck Sasuke's eyes out
He says he stockpiles good eyes, he's plucked out a relative's eyes before, and we don't know what happened to Itachi's eyes (along with the rest of his body). It's so obvious!
 * The "stockpiles good eyes" part was yet more SleepyFans craps. Every other translation say something like "I won't let such a power fall out of my hands". Also, while Word of God has stated an Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan doesn't require a sibling's eyes, it's not likely to work unless their close relatives, and the closest Madara could be is a great-grandfather. However, it is possible he has Itachi's body/eyes in storage, but it would probably be because Sasuke (who can use them) turned down Itachi's eyes and he wants to be able to make his tool stronger if needs be.
 * Well, if the WMG about Sasuke being Madara's son is right, than maybe he's trying to make Sasuke switch eyes so he can take Sasuke's eyes for himself. We've only seen one eye on Madara.
 * "I won't let such a power fall out of my hands"? It still could mean mean that he will steal Sasuke's eyes. He might clump a bunch of sharingan eyes including Sasuke's into one big eye for the juubi, who's eye looks like an utra sharingan. A BIG one.
 * Given his more recent statement about taking Shisui's eye from Danzo's corpse, this seems like it might be true after all.
 * Given even more recent development, I don't think he's got Itachi's eyes anymore... since he gave Sasuke them. Which also begs the question of what, if anything, is sitting in the skull of that corpse Kabuto's carrying around.

"Sab-chan" is Rock Lee's father
Seriously, just look at the guy. Plus, he seems to be old enough and has a similar personality (and is just as over the top as Lee).
 * Alternatively, He's Might Guy's. Same things apply for this one.

Udon will be trained as a puppeteer
Think about it; Udon loves math. Math leads to engineering. The only real jutsu in the Naruto verse that can be described as "engineering" is the Puppet Master Jutsu. See where I'm going with this? Being a puppeteer would allow Udon to put all his mathy skills to good use and devise new and creative ways to kill people with creepy puppets.
 * This troper is getting so many ideas from this WMG it's not even funny. * Beggins doodling teen!Udon w/ creepy puppet.*

The following characters are going to kick the bucket:

 * Neji
 * Might Guy (probably from opening all Eight Gates)
 * Tsunade (already effectively dead)
 * Gaara (for real this time)
 * All of Team Hawk (except for Sasuke, of course)
 * Funnily enough, if we follow the "removing Akatsuki cloak=death" that would mean Sasuke and Jugo would die, but Suigetsu and Karin would live (although they might not "count", since they probably aren't considered full members).
 * One of the parents of the Konoha 12; Shikaku Nara and Chozu Akimichi seem the most likely candidates.
 * Baki (which of course will be subject of a mini-arc and make the Sand Village characters important afterwards, though they've had their moments in the past few chapters
 * Lots of other people

Zetsu will fight Kabuto
Just looking at Kabuto now, and Zetsu, they would be a perfect match-up.

Konan's specific wording regarding Naruto is going to be a significant factor at some point.
Konan (as leader of Amegakure) hasn't actually allied with Konoha... Though the perception is most definitely there. No, Konan swore specifically to help Naruto fulfill his dreams. This could come into play a few ways:
 * Konan could shoot down negotions with Danzo's group based on their treatment of Naruto. In fact, she might make Naruto leading Konoha be a specific condition of creating a treaty.
 * Konan might provide a safe-haven for Naruto after he does his best to talk to Sasuke. Like it or not, going against Danzo could get him labelled a missing-nin. Given that one of Naruto's stated dreams is making sure Sasuke is no longer driven by revenge, Amegakure might be the place he has to take him in order to keep him safe from the legions of hunter-nin who WILL be gunning for him.
 * Naruto might finally wake the hell up to politics and point out that at least two' ninja villages (before we go into the few filler arcs) have a good relationship with Konoha solely based on his word: Amegakure and Sunagakure, one of which has an actual Kage and the other of which has a kunoichi leading it who can probably fight near that level. While it's doubtful Naruto would actually go this route (not enough fighting, explosions, and hot-bloodedness) it would make for a very simple path for him to replace Danzo as Hokage. "Yo, Fire Lord! Gimme another five years and I'll have a treaty with every village!"

Madara was the first Mizukage and founded Kirigakure.
The symbolism fits at least. He founded a village in the Land of Water full of water users to oppose a village in the Land of Fire with many fire users (especially his own clan). The â€œMistâ€� name is also meaningful, as his true agenda is hidden. The reason Kisame recognized him was because he was such an important historical figure for his village.

Madara Uchiha was not a Mizukage...
...because his Sharingan fooled Kisame to believe he was one. Remember, the basic technique of the Sharingan is that it can read minds. Whenever he takes his mask off to anybody, he puts him in a genjutsu that makes his head look like the head of someone he knows. When Kakashi faces Madara, he will take off his mask and make him believe he is Obito. He will probably make Naruto believe he is Danzo, Sasuke, or the Fourth Hokage. (In other words, Kishi will troll everyone by semi-proving that Tobi is Madara, Obito, Danzo, and Yondaime).
 * What? The Sharingan can't read minds at all, and the hypnosis thing doesn't really work like that (it can't plant suggestions in people's heads, but I don't think it can project a false image so exact). And if he wanted to lie about who he was to Kisame, wouldn't he just keep pretending to be Tobi since Pain was still around then?

The ninja system will not be abolished
Because how can you make a guy hokage if you get rid of his ninjas?
 * If the ninja system does get abolished, Naruto and thousads of other shinobi would be put out of work. And most ninja (especially Naruto) have no civilian skills and no more than a 6th grade education (assuming they graduated from the acadamy at age 12). Just what are you going to do with thousands of unemployed trained killers?
 * I do not think Naruto is planning to abolish the system entirely. Given that it appear that all but the most elite ninja spend their times on odd jobs ranging from gardening to acting as bodyguards against bandits it's safe to assume they can do things besides kill people. Besides, there are plenty of other applications for those kinds of superhuman abilities.
 * Their education doesn't end with graduating from the academy, as demonstrated by the Chuunin Exams. The questions on the written exam were high school level at least (Sakura read a physics problem to the audience); if there wasn't some degree of continuing education, then the dummy chuunin wouldn't have been able to answer those questions.

Sakura will end up alone in terms of romance
Some events will happen that will end with Naruto either choosing someone else or sacrificing himself to save the world, and with Sasuke either ending up with Karin or Ino or, more likely, dead. Sakura will never be able to get over either of them and will end up single and alone. (Note that I am NOT a Sakura hater; I like the girl, especially with her development in Shippuuden. And while I am a Naru-Hina shipper,I am quick to disassociate myself from my more rabid brethren. This theory instead comes from the fact that I am by nature a pessimistic person who looks for and expects the worst possibilities in every situation. Plus it would make for some drama and might make Sakura into a Woobie)

However, this WMG may not be relevant if my next one happens instead:


 * Two words: Rock Lee
 * One more: Ino.

Sakura will die in battle
This could turn out three ways: one is if Sakura engages Sasuke in battle and is killed by him. How Sasuke reacts to this will be very telling about his true character.

Alternatively, Sakura will die at 's hands. This may lead to Naruto and Sasuke going all RAGE and double-teaming.

Lastly, she may be felled by friendly fire. Imagine how tragic it would be if Sakura were accidentally killed by a stray attack from an ally, maybe even Naruto himself; and how Naruto would react if he accidentally killed his ex-crush.

No matter how it would happen, it would be done in a way that leaves even Sakura-haters (well, most of them) shocked and/or saddened and be played for all it's worth.
 * Kishi has stated (Somewhere; It's mentioned on the wiki) That he hates killing his main child characters. I don't see him killing Sakura.
 * Actually, she may be in trouble soon, seeing that . This can't end well...

We've yet to see irrefutable 100-percent-confirmed evidence that they were. My theory is thus:
 * Possibly tied into this,

The swords used by the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist are a reflection of rank
We've seen three of their swords so far: Zabuza's, Chojuro's, and Kisame's. Zabuza's was a large sword with nothing special about it. Chojuro's can produce constructs, greatly increasing its range. Kisame's is a sentient monster that gives him as much chakra as a tailed beast. That's a pretty big difference in quality. My idea is that each sword represents a rank within their group: Zabuza's being the lowest and Kisame's being the highest. If a member of the group dies or retires, the others each get to move up a rank, and get the correspnding sword. That this would encourage them kill each other for a better rank would fit with the village's old philosophy.
 * Alternatively all the swords have magic powers, and Zabuza was to dense to figure that out/didn't believe in that mystical mumbo-jumbo (and yes, I'm aware of how stupid that thought is). Kisame has fully unlocked his swords potential.

It will end with Naruto Walking the Earth
Solving conflicts between clans/countries wherever he may go. And to keep the shippers happy, he leaves Sakura and/or Hinata Someone to Remember Him By

The Jubi has been sealed before. The After the End aspects of Naruto are a result of it being freed.
If the Jubi is as powerful and evil as has been implied, it can't have been wandering around. It had to have already been sealed before the Sage of Six Paths split and sealed it. The After the End/Anachronistic Technology things we run into are the fall out of the last time it was free.

Samehada is the avatar of a cosmic horror.
Everything about it is just wrong. Its existence mocks the idea of life as we know it. It's also so insanely powerful it's been compared to the tailed beasts, which are parts of a cosmic horror.

Samehada is literally a "bijuu without a tail"
Just... look at that thing. It can fuse with its wielder for crying out loud! It just happened to be sealed in Kisame's sword, rather than Kisame himself.
 * It naturally follows that it, too, was a part of the Juubi. The fact that it wasn't put into the statue before Shukaku despite 0 coming before 1 (and Kisame being a part of the very group looking for biju) implies that, like on a keyboard, zero goes last.
 * And if it's the 0 tail, it could imply something rather sinister about it's chakra absorption... Perhaps it wants to be whole again?
 * ... Can Bijuu fall in love with eachother?
 * Considering that they're fragments of the same being, it'd be narcissism, but yes.

Madara was rejected by the First Hokage, and went a little Yandere.
Come on, his actions just scream, "AND THAT SENJU BASTARD WILL NEVER IGNORE ME AGAAAAAAAAAIN".
 * And when he sees the new generational Senju representative of the conflict, Naruto, obsessing over the trying-to-ignore-him next generation Uchiha, he loves the irony hence his treating Sasuke reasonably well.

Ino will fall for Naruto now.
Since Naruto has just proven how Badass he is, he's going to get a lot more fangirls, and Ino is no exception. Once she gets wind of Sakura's confession, Ino will of course move in on him just to keep their rivalry going. Naruto will probably respond to it the same way Sasuke did.

The swords of the Seven Swordsmen were "pokeballs" for biju
Look at the battle page between Shodaime Hokage and Madara. Madara with the Kyubi. Shodaime has seven swords and a giant shuriken. Two swords could be Zabuza's sword and Kiseme's hilt pre-becoming whatever it is now. Sometime after that battle the biju got split up and sealed into people instead. Madara, for whatever reason whether spite, pride or just personal gloating, collected the seven swords to hand out as rank during his reign as Mizukage.
 * Samehada's thirst for chakra is a by product of this. A mutated or corrupted version of what allowed it to seal it's biju. This is why it defected to Killerbee.
 * This theory could be related to how Shukaku was sealed in a tea pot before being in Gaara.

If the Seven Swords Pokeball theory is true, Samehada was the "poke-sword" of either Hachibi or a biju that had a crush on Hachibi.
It remembers Hachibi, and longs for it again.
 * Supported by Samehada loving the Hachibi chakra so much it refuses to cut off Killer Bee's legs and gives him back some of his chakra before Kisame kicked it. See if Samehada will ever work for him again...
 * Seeing as Kisame's kinda lost his head, that's kinda likely...

Sasuke will survive, and either go into hiding or have his death faked
While he has committed quite a few crimes, it's unlikely that the series is going to kill him off, at least not without a Redemption Equals Death scene or one last part in which he acknowledges Naruto as a friend, without rendering most of Naruto's efforts after the timeskip pointless. It's possible that he would go into hiding until the day comes when- and if- Konoha can ensure his safe return, leaving a Bittersweet Ending that leaves open the possibility of his return. Another possiblity is that they might somehow create a fake Uchiha corpse and hand it over to the Cloud Village while somehow enabling him to remain in the village, similar to what happened with Hiashi, whom the Cloud Village wanted dead after his (albeit justified) murder of a high-ranking diplomat during peace negotiations. While some fans, especially Sasuke's haters, might call either possibility a Karma Houdini, this would most likely also include him becoming The Atoner and wanting to do as much good as he can, including restoring the Uchiha Clan and mending its ties with the village.

Naruto's own Determinator trope will be subverted real soon
Naruto is about to learn the painful lesson that there are times when you just can't win. Sasuke does not want to reintegrate into Konoha's ranks, he has made his intention to destroy Konoha clear, and the rest of the village doesn't want him back. Now every one in the ninja world is telling him Sasuke is a lost cause. Even if Sasuke does make a Heel Face Turn, what then? He's still the most wanted man kid in world. Once Naruto realizes that Sasuke has no hope of redeeming himself with The 5 villages, he will - for the first time ever - give up on his own word. And it would definitely not be Awesome

Tobi can detect other eyes that can use Sharingan with his Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan.
Madara stated that he had some way to track Sasuke when he blocked him going towards the Leaf Village because he failed to capture the 8-Tails, which explains how he's able to teleport without running into objects and always show up where other people are. However, as this thread shows, any time he showed up in an area he hadn't been to before or wouldn't know someone was there a Sharingan user was nearby. This would also explain why he couldn't have found the hosts personally: he had no idea where they were and Zetsu scouts more effectively than random teleporting. Going with the names of the other Mangekyo Sharingan techniques, such an ability is likely to be called "Izanagi".

If the Jinchūriki dies, the Tailed Beast doesn't die
It is often said that if the host container (Jinchūriki) dies, the Tailed Beast (Bijuu) dies too. How do they know this? So far all nine of them are still alive (in some form), which means none of them have died yet. For all we know killing the host could set the beast free. In fact the Three-tails may have been released as a result of the Fourth Mizukage dying or killing himself. The Nine-tails has no way of knowing either, but to play it safe he keeps Naruto alive.
 * I don't think we've ever heard of any Jinchuuriki dying without having the the Bijuu extracted (such as Yagura, the two Suna Jinchuuriki prior to Gaara, and the hosts the Akatsuki killed) so for all we know it's not even possible for Jinchuuriki to die without an extraction.
 * The Kyuubi expressed no uncertainty about this. It was "if you die, I die." Nothing like "I'll save you just in case this kills me too." Moreover, back when Gaara was still a jinchuriki, it was stated that the sand acted independently of his will to protect him. Look at the scene where Yashamaru tried to kill him. He never saw that attack coming and was surprised when the sand came up to protect him. This indicates that Shukaku is well aware that if Gaara died then he would too, and he should know as he has had two jinchuriki before Gaara. And in regards to the Sanbi, there are two distinct possibilities as I see it. Either whoever was manipulating him (most likely Madara) released it when Yagura had outlived his usefulness or the seal broke on its own. I mention the latter only because Naruto's own seal is weakening, so who's to say the same couldn't happen to other jinchuriki?
 * So in other words, we only have their word for it. What exactly makes the Kyuubi certain? Besides, if you want to show the person you're stuck with how tough you are, never openly express doubt. He also warned Sasuke not to kill Naruto, because he will make him regret it.
 * No, the Nine-Tails was also starting to fade when Kabuto cut some of Naruto's heart muscles and parts of his chakra circulatory system to keep his Healing Factor from kicking in.
 * Yeah, but we also know that the 4ths seal is quite different from other seals, and that he split the Kyuubi's chakra in half without creating another tailed beast. Any of those might explain what was happening without expanding it to impact all Jinchuriki ever.

All of the shippers are wrong.
If this is true, Kishi played the fandom like instruments.
 * The recent Jump Festa interview all but outright confirms this.
 * The gist of what he was saying wasn't "none of the characters are ever going to be in romantic relationships with each other", it was "the story isn't suddenly going to BE ABOUT those relationships".
 * When was it ever about the relationships?

The Uchiha are a bunch of familicidal psychos and Itachi knew it.
Itachi was crazy too. He had to be in order to to kill his entire clan with that professional proficiencies, even if it was getting to him in the end. He knew his family were a bunch of nutbags prone to killing everyone for power, including each other. Especially or at least the more powerful ones, like Madara, Itachi and Sasuke. Itachi had delusions of becoming the only Uchiha near the end of his life, and really did want to take his brother's eyes. Then he'd go retire in the Wave Country or something, leaving everyone the hell alone. However, at the end of that fight, he realized "Well fuck me, I'm dying. Well, may as well help my brother." Voila, super Sharingan.

All of the love drama in the manga was never really about who ends up with who
Come on, this is a shonen. Jiraiya stated that being rejected by Tsunade was what made him a man, which means he didn't need to "get" any girl period. In reality, accepting that she didn't want to be with him was what made him grow up and accept reality. We don't pity him for not getting the woman he wanted; instead, we admire how he handled it. It's becoming obvious that dedicating yourself to love or power/vengeance cannot guarantee real happiness. In reality, people have to look within for a meaning in life, and be strong enough to not use other people to give life meaning, whether by loving them or hating them. Naruto became much stronger and more mature when he accepted Sakura's love for Sasuke, and later didn't accept her appealingly fake confession. Hinata nicely illustrates being able to maturely (and powerfully) express one's love without any regrets, and then be able to let go and move on without hinging your sense of self worth on another person's feelings and actions when she maturely handled Naruto not returning her feelings and didn't really sit around waiting for him to do so. Meanwhile, Sakura is walking towards her death because she still loves Sasuke and wants to spare him from a life of darkness. So, Naruto may be the first manga to ever portray All Love Is Unrequited in a life affirming and positive way.
 * Except we haven't really seen Hinata at all since this arc started, so we don't know what her feelings are right now or how Naruto actually reacted to her confession for that matter.
 * Dude, get real. If he actually liked her, he would've shown it by now. Same thing with Sakura towards Naruto and Sasuke towards Sakura. The idea of Naruto liking Hinata back is based purely on wishful thinking as opposed to obvious facts. The obvious facts, provided by explicit canon admission and Word of God, are these: Naruto loves Sakura. Sakura doesn't love Naruto back, and we have no reason to think she ever will; she still loves Sasuke. (who is only getting more evil and doesn't have romantic interest in anyone.) The words we're looking for are All Love Is Unrequited and No Hugging, No Kissing.
 * Naruto has NOT had an opportunity to think about Hinata's confession- he's been real busy ever since, going directly from healing to being out in the field. However, he has had a 'reaction'- going 6-tails when he realizes that Hinata's love will indeed be forever unrequited. When Sakura tells him that she's fallen in love with him, he calls bull and tells her angrily to get out of his sight. A major difference there- he's willing to accept the random girl, but doesn't even think about accepting the girl he actually loves. MY theory is that the next chapter that focuses on him will have him thinking through these things as well as about what to do with Sasuke.
 * Right. Where in the text does it indicate Naruto accepted her feelings? Am I just too lazy and apathetic as a reader to read the fine print that's neccesary to shipping any of three big popular ships? Face it: there's nothing that supports Naruto liking Hinata aside from hopeful speculation. It's no different from arguing that Sakura actually has romantic feelings for Naruto despite the blatant evidence to the contrary or trying to say that Sasuke accepted Sakura's confession because of his "thank you" despite what happens later. Sorry if I'm coming off as an unromantic jerk- I only ship people when it's blindingly obvious both parties like each other and/or it seems inevitable they're going to at least try to be together in a romantic sense.
 * P.S, this is a freaking battle shonen. We're not going to get a beautiful Love Epiphany from Naruto or anyone else. If you want that kind of relationship development, take Oda's advice and read an actual romance manga. (can I suggest Bakuman? The hero ends up with the adorable shy girl with an uncanny resemblance to Hinata, and the development is really touching and satisfying.)
 * Alternatively, Kishimoto is just deliberately creating a topic that automatically results in Internet Backdraft and Ship to Ship Combat whenever it is brought up even tangentally, even in a non-shipping context. As the response to this WMG shows, he succeeded perfectly.
 * One possibility is that, like Fullmetal Alchemist, the couples will be confirmed in the last chapter of the manga but not necessarily given prominence in the plot.
 * Another is that Naruto isn't willing to start something with Hinata until the Sasuke thing is settled, or he's not sure how he feels about her yet. If he was just plain not interested, he could have just said so, and would have thanked her for trying to save him by now.

Kushina was/is connected to Orochimaru and/or the Susanoo technique somehow.
The princess of the Orochi legend (which the name Susanoo also comes from) was named Kushinada. Pretty odd coincidence, don't you think?

Orochimaru being sealed in the Suusano'o is all part of his Gambit Roulette for ultimate power.
Well, according to the original myth Suusano'o encountered the Orochi after he was expelled from heaven, and killed it. Well, now Orochimaru has been sealed inside of the Suusano'o, which we know is connected to the Juubi, which appears to be the Super-Evil of the Naruto verse. And most Super Evil things that show up without any explanation, like the Juubi, turn out to have been expelled from heaven. Now, we know Madara plans to reconstitute the Juubi, and that it seems to require the powers of the Sharingan to do it. Well, when he uses the Susanno in the reconstruction ritual it'll work, but ultimately rather than ending up with Madara in control of the Juubi, it'll be Orochimaru. TLDR: Eventually Orochimaru return in the form of a giant-robot-demon-god-snake by stealing Madara's Juubi reconstruction ritual.
 * Now that...would be EPIC! But he'd be completely restored into his original body, and probably crush Madara and Sasuke like maggots! MASASHI KISHIMOTO!!

Madara copied Kakuzu's Earth Spear technique with his Sharingan
We know from the one technique he used as Tobi that he can use Earth-chakra. That's how he was able to block Suigetsu's sword strike with one hand, and also what's been the source of his sporadic displays of Super Strength. In fact, he may have copied some techniques used by any of his opponents or allies.

Sakura does not love Sasuke anymore.
The people who believe she does are, if memory serves, Naruto, Kakashi Sai, and Yamato. They're not exactly the poster children of balanced relationships.
 * I suspect that Sai's wrong about her planning to kill Sasuke and/or her reasons for doing so, as most characters who attempt to predict a decision a character has not been shown making and the motives have been wrong about at least one (Yamato predicts that Sai was going to assassinate Sasuke, but Sai reveals that while he was ordered to do so, he's actually going to try to help Naruto bring him back). The number of lies and omissions from Sakura makes it hard to judge her by her words alone, but as of Chapter 481, it seems that ].

Itachi's gift to Naruto is actually twofold:
The first part is a way to counter the Sharingan. The second? Well, we can assume that Itachi knew about Kabutimaru when he gave Naruto some of his power... Yeah, I think he gave him the Sussano'o. Think about it: if we assume that Itachi knew Naruto's parentage, and that he likes terrible jokes, wouldn't it fit?

Sasuke will eventually have a Heroic BSOD and speak to Itachi
If Itachi suspected that Sasuke would turn against Konoha when the truth came out about the Uchiha massacre, as shown when he gives Naruto his "crow job" in preparation for this, then he might have also had some way of passing on a final message to Sasuke, much like Minato prepared for Naruto. Sasuke will probably meet Itachi on some kind of spiritual plane where Itachi will apologize to Sasuke for hurting and deceiving him, but will deliver some well-deserved smack down for acting so crazily on his behalf. Hopefully this should resolve Sasuke's vengeance issues and set him back on the right path.
 * If it fails it may show how Sasuke has completely jumped off the and has lost sight of his original goals if he completely ignores it.

Overuse of eye techniques makes an individual capable of syncing with the Gedo Mazo
This is the reason why Madara is letting Sasuke fight Danzo. Karin has been noting how Sasuke's chakra is changing the more he uses said powers. Since the Gedo Mazo is strongly associated with the Tailed Beasts, and Doujutsu is the most effective way of controlling Tailed Beasts, the more you prioritize the Doujutsu, the more it "filters" your chakra to be the kind compatible with the Gedo Mazo. Pain did a similar thing with his Rinnegan, and he also bonded with the Gedo Mazo under highly stressful circumstances.

Naruto has been in love with Hinata the whole time, but he doesn't know it yet.
Think about it: when has Naruto ever interacted with a married couple (or even a couple that had clearly been together for a long time), which would give him the opportunity to see what true love looks like? Normal children learn about love by observing their parents, but Naruto's parents died the day he was born. Indications are the Third's wife died a while ago, and Asuma and Kurenai kept their relationship secret until shortly before Asuma's death. There's no indication Naruto has ever met Teuchi's wife (if she's still alive), and Iruka, Kakashi and Jiraiya are all single. What he has seen is a whole bunch of girls swooning over Sasuke and calling it love. Naruto sees this and notes his similar feelings for Sakura, and he mistakes this for love. Meanwhile, he has feelings for Hinata that he doesn't recognize, but that do cause him to take off his mask in her presence and swear on her blood.
 * This is a terrible idea. It would come off as a giant, contrived Ass Pull to anyone who doesn't obsess over the romance. What would be the point of this? What would Naruto's feelings be based on considering how little he's actually interacted with her, and how he doesn't really make an effort to include her in his life? And, dude, it's Sasuke who Naruto's pretty much Naruto's most important person and who he related to best. Because, durr durr, wow, platonic/brotherly love can be deeper/more important than a romance. It's almost as if this manga were actually aimed at boys and not love-obsessed high school/college age women.

Hiashi has been playing Gambit Roulette to get rid of the Caged Bird Seal
Since everybody else seems to be playing Roulette lately, I posit the following theory: after Hizashi's death, Hiashi decided that protecting the Byakugan wasn't worth the hatred the Caged Bird Seal created. However, noblis oblige prevented him from speaking his mind. He needed a suitable successor to get rid of it. His original plan was to have a son, but that backfired in the worst way possible- his wife conceived another daughter and died giving birth to her. He then has to come up with a new plan to make sure that either Hinata or Hanabi will eliminate the CBS, and if they don't both agree, make sure the one who does takes over for him, all the while keeping his plan secret from the elders. To do this, he needs to make sure the chosen heiress is suitable, lest the elders rebel when she tries to change the system. While training under him, Hinata proves to be an abject failure; Hanabi does better, but she's not good enough to implement the change he needs. So, he turns his focus back to Hinata, but does so by putting her through all manner of emotional abuse to force her to get stronger, while at the same time teaching her to loathe the CBS system. Hiashi is fully aware of Hinata's feelings for Naruto, and not only does he secretly approve of them, but he's counting on Naruto's influence to make Hinata into a suitable successor.
 * Going by the anime, the part about his wife dying in childbirth was Jossed by episode 166- she's shown in a flashback holding Hanabi as an infant. She probably died before the series started, but not giving birth to Hanabi.

There remains an unseen Sharingan power
Its power? I don't want to know... but whatever it is, it is the power Madara will have if he becomes "complete".
 * It's probably something hax, like the ability to cause everything around him to rot and die instantly...
 * Hopefully it's not an old man...

We will see Kakashi use Rasengan in combat
It's been stated that, though he prefers the Chidori, Kakashi does know the Rasengan, taught to him by the 4th Hokage. It wouldn't bee too out there to see Kakashi use it against a future foe. Perhaps Zetsu, or a member of Team Hawk? Or even some random hapless Red Shirt.

Danzo was involved in the kidnapping attempt against Hinata
Think about it- Danzo has been involved in all sorts of shady deals, and he's had a hand in pretty much every conflict we've seen so far. So I think Danzo contacted Kumo off the record and proposed a deal to help them kidnap Hinata in exchange for one of her eyes. This sets up one Xanatos Gambit after another. If the plan works, he gets a Byakugan and makes the Third look like a fool for trying to negotiate. If it fails, his hands are clean, while the Third still looks like a fool for trying to negotiate, and the next Xanatos Gambit is set up. He tells Kumo to demand Hiashi's corpse, and if it works, he gets the Byakugan, while if it fails, the war restarts and makes his case for becoming the next Hokage that much stronger. However, Danzo fully anticipates that they'll try to Take a Third Option and kill Hizashi to make peace without giving up the Byakugan. This creates all kinds of resentment in Neji, making him a perfect candidate for recruitment into ROOT, thus giving Danzo the best recruit since Itachi. This plan fails ONLY because Naruto defeated Neji before Neji was ready to become an ANBU, which would have taken another year or two, which was the one thing Danzo couldn't possibly predict.
 * Aren't most ROOT members recruited long before they become Genin?
 * Given that Fu and Torune are members of clans who's techniques are taught, not inherited, it seems it has both young orphans raised as part of the group (like Sai and Shin) and people Danzo found that were sympathetic to his goals.
 * The Aburame Clan bugs are implanted at brith and have a symbiotic relationship with the user. It's unlikely that this secret would be shared outside of the clan, and someone would have to be born in the clan to use it (although Root could have offered to adopt and train an Aburame orphan).

The last chapter will have a Distant Finale starting about half way through
This allows Kishimoto to write a climactic ending to the final battle, and yet show what happens to everybody afterward. Shipping can be resolved without going into detail about how it gets resolved, we can see Naruto as Hokage, and we can see where everybody else ends up. Alternatively, the final chapter will reveal that the entire series was Naruto telling his story to his children/the children of Konoha. The parts focusing on Sasuke were Sasuke's explanation to Naruto about what happened, probably as Sasuke was dying and wanted Naruto to fulfill his two final wishes: tell his story and carry him back to Konoha before he dies.
 * I suspect that the Distant Finale will happen after an "epilogue" section that discusses the final battle with Sasuke in a double-length chapter. Sasuke will most likely come to his senses, but realize that he needs to atone for his crimes, and leave on a journey of repentance, while other characters discuss his decision. Sakura will accompany him, both out of love and to make sure he doesn't stray from his path, and Naruto will initially be upset to see two of his best friends leave, but accept their decision after Sasuke reassures him he kept his promise. The last four or five pages will probably show Naruto a few years later, accepting the Hokage title while he and everyone else are with their canon or implied partners, and promising to work hard until the day he sees Sasuke and Sakura again.

On characters' genealogies, specifically the Uzumaki clan... And just why Naruto is getting insanely strong
Alright, we all know about whom our main character's parents are, as revealed in chapter, what, 360?

Now, let's think about their parents.

Numerous fanfics (which won't be named, mostly because I can't remember all of them) hypothesize about Minato's parents... Specifically, that when Jiraya said that 'You can send me the love letters later' bit Tsunade decided to take him up on it several years after Dan's death. Some say that she didn't take him up on that, and that she and Dan had... * ahem* before his death, and Minato was the result.

But both of those are unimportant for now. What matters is the other parent's lineage. Yes, who Kushina's family is. And just why Uzu hasn't appeared as well.

Now, ~100 years before the main story starts, Konoha formed. Other villages probably formed around then as well, including Uzukagure no Sato.

Uzu formed from several wandering ninja clans, including several powerful bloodline, with some Kayugas, some of whatever clan Haku's bloodline comes from, and, as some suspected for a while, people with teh ultimate hax that really, more than Madara, hated the Senju (or, alternatively, Izuna's girlfriend ran off after swearing an oath of revenge on Maddy, taking her close family in the Uchiha clan with her).

So they set themselves up, with all of them trying to stay quiet about their bloodlines and locations to keep A) the bloodline haters of Kiri, and B) their original clans, from finding them.

Sixty years pass, and the people of Uzu basically decide that the best leaders are the people who are more hax than the rest, former Uchiha, whose hair now matches their activated bloodline, calling themselves Uzumaki due to their newfound mastery of water techniques.

Then, during the 2nd, or between it and the 3rd, Ninja War, Konoha needs allies and decide to ask a village that they know is pretty damn powerful if they'd consider an alliance. Uzu accepts, and Konoha sends three of their stronger ninja with the treaty.

You should see where this is going, but I'll continue for those of you can't tell. Voldemaru Jackso- Er, Orochimaru manages to get laid by an actual female. Of said Uzumaki clan.

Exactly right.

Then he leaves with the rest of his team, never looking back as he continues on his self destructive path.

Never realizing the fact that said Uzumaki female, ~9 months later, had a baby girl.

Flash forwards fifteen or so years, and the 3rd Ninja War is just starting, with Konoha and their allies fighting Iwa and their allies in all out ninja warfare.

The aforementioned girl, now Genin or Chunin, rises to prominence on the battlefields along with a certain blond speedster, the two racking up some of the higher kill counts and being dispatched to the same places at the same time.

They meet, hit it off, and find themselves in a relationship several years later, during the big part of the war, which destroys Uzu.

After it ends, the girl, now a woman, manages to find 'that snake who...' that her mother told her about and confronts him.

He panics, packs up his ninjutsu developing shops (being caught by his master in one of his last few and bluffing about why he's fleeing), and amscrays rather than having to deal with it.And both her and her mother.

Now we can think about Minato's parentage. With either of the previously mentioned possibilities (Jiraya and Tsunade, Dan and Tsunade), we've Senju blooded person.

With Kushina, we have an Uchiha blooded person. With some snake in the veins, of course.

Now, logically, a child of theirs would be, say, IN-FRICKIN-SANELY STRONG and the closest thing to getting a Senju and Uchiha to have kids together.

Thus, the perfect place to store a ninth of the Juubi, as it should have the body of the Senju and the eyes of the Uchiha... Eventually...

So, the sealing happens before the main story starts, with Minato adding some bloodline suppression seals to the mix (to prevent the Uchiha from trying for his kid), and dying, Kushina following him shortly after or just vanishing.

Now, the reason behind Naruto's strength... Uchiha Blood + Senju Blood + Juubi Part =?

Eventually, the bloodline suppression seals will be broken and then the orange and spiral motif will manifest itself in the appropriate place. In fact, it's entirely possible that Itachi knew all of this and planned for it to occur fairly soon after his demise. Sort of a last mockery of Madara, or an apology to Naruto for completly messing up his best friend.

CORRELARIES
 * Then there are fairly goood odds that someone else with a hax bloodline(s) would find their way to Kiri after the destruction of Uzu. The current Mizukage has red hair and green eyes. My point is now made.

EVIDENCE
 * Despite his ordering Kabuto around, Orochimaru never actually tried to kill Naruto. He just said, to paraphrase, 'this isn't something I want to deal with now' and threw him over his shoulder after making him useless in combat. He even stopped Sasuke from starting a fight. Thus, if this is true, he knows about Naruto's parents.
 * Nothing else for now.
 * I think I've read several fanfics based on this. None of them were very good. This seems to point towards it being true, given the way the manga's going.
 * Yeah... Most of this came to me when I was thinking about the Orochi myth and just who Kushina is/was...

Karin is an Uzumaki.
She has red hair and Orochimaru was interested in her for some reason. Also, she has the ability to fully heal people by having them bite her, no matter how badly they are injured, while seeming to suffer no ill effects beyond having scars for every time she's been bitten. The ability to heal the mortally wounded without suffering any ill effects (and even enjoying it!) sounds like an ability a descendent of the Clan of Longevity would have.
 * Confirmed!

Sasuke has learned Izanagi.
Anyone remember the Sharingan's original power? It let you copy an enemy's technique. Anything you could learn to do normally, you could learn to do by watching someone with the Sharingan. This may also be how Sasuke learned Amaterasu. He may have used it to, though I'm not sure how likely that is, given Sasuke's past decisions.
 * Given Sasuke's past decisions and the fact that Izanagi permanently destroys a Sharingan, this is very likely. A quick review of his decisions, 1) Take on all of Konoha all by myself. 2) Go to the most secure site in the world and kill a Kage. 3) Fight the pissed off big brother of the guy that split my chest cavity open and pulverized all my vital organs. So what are the chances that #4 would be "Sacrifice a Game Breaker to revive a useless character"?
 * Sasuke's approach isn't, "do the stupidest thing possible", it's, "do anything that could possibly get me closer to revenge." He may do something weird like use Izanagi to suppress Danzo'a Izanagi.

Izanagi doesn't work how Madara claims it does.
Seriously, the ability to turn a dream real and reality into a dream, and all they do is un-kill themselves? It's a full blown reality warper power, admittedly that can only be used twice for short periods of time, but still. You really can't dream anything better than 'And now I'm not dead'?. Couldn't Danzo, with his plethora of eyes, at least have used the last eye to dream all his other eyes are still open?
 * True, Danzo was only using them as 1-ups when he could have ended the entire fight by spending one eye and using a genjutsu to simulate cutting Sasuke in half then using Izanagi to make that reality. He may not be able to make Izanagi open his closed sharingan, but he should have really won that battle.

Old Man Tsuchikage didn't retire because Minato killed all the suitable successors.
He needed to wait for another generation of shinobi to grow up before he could consider retiring. I figure, you wouldn't issue a retreat on sight order unless you had already suffered some major losses. People simply wouldn't believe the rumors about Minato being that dangerous until he had killed several elite Rock-nins.

A while ago there was a WMG up here about Madara collecting eyes. People said this was just a bad translation in the Sleepyfans, but...
Well, Madara seems to be making an awfully big deal about getting Shisui's eye. Some how having lots of special Eyes will turn out to be important, and end up with Hinata getting a Plot Relevant Power Up....Which will make her immune to genjutsu, naturally.

Madara will succeed in Instrumenta- Er, his plot.
Sadly (for him, that is), the power that Itachi gave Naruto is two fold:
 * One, it'll keep him alive after the Kyuubi is removed.
 * Two, it'll make him immune to Mangekyou Sharingan genjutsu, possiby all genjutsu.

Now, with everyone except for Sasuke and Naruto under the control of Madara, Sasuke will be told that he's no longer needed, making him decide to take revenge on Madara and ally with Naruto for a final battle against the old Uchiha.


 * Followup on the above. Naruto won't realize what happened at first, and will have a rather mindscrew moment as he triest to figure out why the world changed. Then he'll have to decide if a world that's at peace, his stated goal is worth it, if it means a man like Madara is in charge.

Nagato is Naruto's uncle.
After the destruction of the Uzushiogakure, Kushina's family was thought to be dead, however, her little brother was saved by/handed to an adoptive family from Amegakure. That's why he has the blood of the Uzumaki in his veins.
 * If so, he was a baby when this happened, because he clearly does not remember this. Regardless, this would be good because it connects things even closer than they were before.

How Kakashi obtained his Mangekyou Sharingan
After the Time Skip, it was revealed that Kakashi had somehow gained possession of a Mangekyou Sharingan. The Mangekyou Sharingan is obtained through the death of the person closest to the Sharingan wielder. Since Kakashi obtained his Sharingan from. So therefore  Huh... that made more sense in my head.

Shisui used Kotoamatsukami on Itachi.

 * Think abou it. Itachi doesn't want to go through with his mission. In order to make Itachi mentally capable of killing both himself and the clan, Shisui used Kotoamatsukami (sp?) to FORCE him to go through with it. It explains Itachi's fanaticism in regards to protecting the village

Sasuke is going to die

 * There isn't really any way Kishi can really pull off a satisfying ending for Sasuke without either ending him via heroic sacrifice on the basis that he has the power of plot no jutsu and is Kishi's pet character, or via Naruto. However Kishi chooses to do it, it will portray Sasuke in a somewhat positive light. Even if he goes down by Naruto's hands, he'll get some kind of cheesy montage with a big moral message stapled to the end about how revenge is really, really bad, kids.

Tobi is actually Tobi(Ten tails)

 * He is the original ten tailed beast-or at least its mind...He even says he is just an empty shell of what he used to be-the Sage of six paths split up the Ten tails' chakra and his body was supposed to be sealed in the moon.Tobi is trying to get back all of his power and his body.This would explain him being angry at Nagato for using the Outer path claiming it was meant to be for him, and his claim that he gave the Rinnegan to Nagato in the first place.

The loss of Sasuke allowed Kakashi to unlock his Mangekyō Sharingan
Kakashi was able to unlock his Mangekyō Sharingan after the time skip...after losing Sasuke, his protégé, to the dark side. I know the Uchiha think you can only acquire a Mangekyō Sharingan through the death of your closest person, but they've always had a flair for the melodramatic. Kakashi holds himself personally responsible for Sasuke's defection. He sees himself in Sasuke and was unable to save him. This is why Kakashi can keep using his Mangekyō Sharingan without going blind, because his powers aren't fueled by anger and hate. Kakashi will reveal this fact to Sasuke personally during the epic final showdown, thus proving that not all Mangekyō Sharingans are soaked in blood (which is something most Uchiha mistakenly believe is their curse).

Whirlpool country was destroyed by either Madara or Sasori
Sasori said in his fight against Chiyo and Sakura that his 100 puppet technique was used to destroy a country. The only way I could see Madara dieing, seeing as he survived the fight against Hashirama would be by taking out a whole country, besides, he said he got the rinnegan shortly before he died, he might have invaded whirlpool to test it, or to get Uzumaki DNA to awaken it.