Naruto/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


WARNING! There are unmarked Spoilers ahead. Beware..

Any thing that has not been aired on the free version[1] of Crunchyroll should be spoiler-tagged.

YMMV

  • Alas, Poor Villain: Quite a few examples. Usually before a villain's death we get a sympathetic flashback that shows them in a more human light.
  • Arc Fatigue:
  • Artistic License: Biology: Transplanting organs is a snap, don't worry about them getting rejected or dying from an infection. On the other hand, averted on the matter of DNA—playing with it has killed plenty.
  • Ass Pull: "Plot no Jutsu" (PNJ). This is an accusation often thrown when a character's abilities are suddenly more powerful, less powerful, function differently than you'd expect or just get made up on the spot as a justification for a character winning a fight the plot needed them to win.
    • Sasuke's Egregious Great Snake Escape. He summoned a giant snake, hypnotized it, jumped in its mouth and teleported it and himself out of harm's way all to avoid a massive 10-kilometer-radius explosion. All of that was done after said explosion had already gone off a few feet away from him, and in spite of both techniques consuming massive amounts of chakra and Sasuke already being essentially out of chakra.
    • Some fans see Itachi's true reasons for killing the entire Uchiha clan in this light, since he had earlier claimed that he committed it for target practice.
    • Hanzô giving Mifune the antidote to his poison at the conclusion of their battle, because from their initially diametric philosophies they seemed to reach some sort of mutual understanding during the course of the battle by a process nobody was able to follow.
    • In chapter 562, it's revealed that three minor characters know the Hiraishin no Jutsu, a secret technique of the Fourth Hokage that he never taught to anyone else, even his own students or teacher.
  • Base Breaker: Each female character has gotten this to some small extent (except for Temari), but Sakura tends to get this the most, mainly for being "useless". She does kill a member of the Akatsuki though.
  • Creator's Pet: The Uchihas. Numerous instances of ridiculous plot twists were created to keep them alive by the second half of the manga, and Naruto was retconned to be part of a clan whose main relevance to the plot is being related indirectly to them. No wonder, detractors of the series mockingly call it Sasuke.
  • Non Sequitur Scene:
    • Episode 101 of the original series. The village idiots conspire to exact revenge upon Kakashi by means of hiccuping, laughing and crying powder. And yes, they're rather comedic.
  • Fanon: The tongue-in-cheek sentiment that Sasuke is "Emo".
  • Foe Yay: Gaara was a bit too obsessed with Sasuke before their fight at the Chuunin exam, basically stalking him while he was training, and calling him his "prey". Madara taking the trouble to come and see Naruto in the latter's hotel room just to chat can also be seen this way. Mind you, it seems he watched Naruto sleeping for a while, and he didn't even try to capture him!
  • Franchise Original Sin: Even in early episodes you could already see that Sasuke was going to be really important and tips about how the Uchiha clan's Myth Arc is key were dropped. Then Sasuke became really important, and the Uchiha clan's Myth Arc swallowed the plot, to the complaints of many.
  • Generic Doomsday Villain: Tobi, who later introduces himself as Madara Uchiha. His motivations for his current actions and the atrocities he commits in the backstory have yet to be explored thoroughly (assuming there's anything there to explore). He claims that he has been wronged and disrespected by his peers, but his primary motivation seems to be the fact that he's a selfish and egotistical bastard. To top it off, his plan looks like it was lifted straight out of the Generic Doomsday Handbook- it just has nothing to do with anything and amounts to "bring about the apocalypse in a vaguely Uchiha-related manner". However, we've only seen part of his character- at least, the man he pretended to be behind a mask. When his own character comes into question, he starts hinting to a much deeper and heinous personality.
  • Growing the Beard: Any moment in part 1 that serves the methodical advancement from crass jokes/filler to epic sacrifices can qualify, but the introduction of Orochimaru and his ambitious plot are probably the turning point.
  • Ho Yay: An entire page for it.
  • Jumping the Shark: It's hard to tell amidst all the noise of fans crying "Ruined FOREVER" if this happened at all, or when. Judging by most of the complaints, though, the most prominent candidates are:
  • Moral Event Horizon:
    • Orochimaru probably crossed it in his fight with the Third Hokage for the viewers. In-universe, that's peanuts compared to the extremely perverse things he had been up to long before that.
    • Toyed with regarding one particular character who seems to constantly teeter on the edge of it. He'll successfully commit his final, irreversible act of abhorrent villainy any second... aaaannny second now... Some argue that it's the thought that counts, and he has already crossed it.
    • One aspiring Big Bad held a newborn baby under the threat of death at the ripe old age of one minute. That's not very nice.
    • Kabuto has the power to resurrect dead ninja. Using that power to zombify the dead Akatsuki makes sense, and they're all villains anyway. It gets worse when he starts resurrecting other fallen ninja, including Zabuza and Haku. Then he has the gall to resurrect the good guys like Asuma, Chiyo, Neji's dad, and the Jinchuriki. All of these ninja gave their lives defending their family and friends, and now they're brought back from the dead as zombies, fully aware of their actions but unable to do anything, for the purpose of killing the people they died to protect.
  • Older Than They Think:
    • Jiraiya, Tsunade and Orochimaru were characters in Japanese mythology long before they showed up in this manga. They show up in the story Jiraiya Gōketsu Monogatari (literally "The Tale of the Gallant Jiraiya"), a Japanese folktale. In it, Jiraiya is a ninja who has the ability to transform into a giant toad. He falls in love with and later marries Tsunade, a beautiful young princess (in contrast to the manga, where she is Older Than She Looks) who is a master of snail magic, and battles his arch-enemy, Orochimaru, a master of snake magic who used to be his follower.
    • Many elements of this series are actually drawn from old Japanese folklore or other fiction. Some of these include: Bunshin, Kagebunshin (including the distinction between the two), using these kagebunshin in a combo, Windmill-Shuriken, Kusanagi, XYZ-Release-techniques (XYZ-ton in Japanese), ninja called Sasuke, Sarutobi, the Element-Kage as ninja leaders, ninjas being able pin shadows to the ground or otherwise manipulate their or other shadows, Ninja Log, etc. In fact, the series is much like Okami an almost fictional dictionary to japanese mythology, but since much of the stuff was obscure to western audiences before Naruto's debut, this was their first contact with it and most people assumed Naruto had invented those things. One of the main reasons behind it is that the supernatural aspects of the Ninja were always overshadowed in western media to portray them as realistic assassins.
  • Shocking Swerve: Itach Uchiha the man who murdered his entire clan, joined the evil organization the Akatsuki, and Mind Raped his little brother twice turns out to be a loving brother and under orders from his village the entire time.
  • Straw Man Has a Point: Danzou did have a point. Konoha was in bad shape. Having a top-class missing-nin running around planning to further run it to the ground was not a good idea (the irony of Danzou's brand of political solutions in the past being partially to blame for causing this mess in the first place notwithstanding).
  • Villain Sue: The Zero Tailed Masked Leach and Shinno from the Second Shippuden Movie and Hiruko from the Third Shippuden Movie.
    • Edo Tensei'd Uchiha Madara. The more you think about how he learned some of his techniques(one of which would be completely useless unless you were a zombie trying to break free of the control of your master), the less it makes sense. Not surprisingly, his endless amount of abilities turned into a meme made by fans to mock how even by supernatural ninja fiction standards he defies suspension of disbelief and his part on the final arc is very poorly received.
  • The Woobie: Gaara, oddly enough, post Not So Different moment with Naruto. This started happening even before his Heel Face Turn. Naruto strays into this every so often.
    • Gaara's getting a new level of Woobiedom piled on him as of Chapter 547.
  • Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Gaara starts out as this. Naruto got dangerously close to being tempted by Kyuubi into becoming one. Sasuke has become one after Itachi's death .
    • And then there's Pain.
  • Woolseyism: The Viz translation of "Sexy Jutsu" has it translated as "Ninja Centerfold". However most people like "Sexy Jutsu" Better as it's something more people would get without realizing what "Centerfold" is a reference to.
  • Writer Cop Out: A common accusation hurled at the ending of the Pain arc, which basically undid nearly every shattering twist of plot that had happened during this huge Wham Arc, including several major character deaths.

Audience Reactions

  • Americans Hate Tingle:
    • Naruto's western fanbase is divided on Sasuke, while he is more consistently popular in Japan. The degree to which this is true varies throughout western fandom (very high in America; slightly more moderate in Latino America and Europe).
    • Sakura is one of the most hated characters in American fandom alongside Sasuke. In Japan, not so much.
  • And the Fandom Rejoiced: The upcoming movie, Road To Ninja, which has Kishimoto as the writer. Also, Hinata's new look and personality change garnered some attention.
  • Awesome Art: The quality of the animation varies wildly over the series, but Hirofumi Suzuki's team has been nicknamed "Team God" for a reason. In their first episode, Shippuuden 82, they made playing Shogi more dramatic -- and beautiful [dead link]—than any action scene.
  • Beam Me Up, Scotty: Tobi didn't say "Tobi is a good boy," Zetsu did. As well, a translation error by Sleepy Fans has Sasuke claiming that he wants to kill all five Kages, instead of just Danzo.
  • Common Knowledge: Tobi/Madara never ordered the massacre of bloodlines in the Hidden Mist Village. Haku's bloodline, and many others, were wiped out by ordinary citizens of the Water Country (the Mist is simply one town/ organization based in said country) because the existence of said bloodlines frequently led to destructive wars; Kimimaro's clan was destroyed by the Mist but that was because the clan was Stupid Evil and died attacking them for no good reason. Both are canon and nowhere in the story is it suggested that the Mist had a policy of wiping out bloodline users, and neither of those bloodlines even belonged to the Hidden Mist in the first place.
  • Crazy Awesome: The entire Hidden Cloud Village.
  • Critical Backlash / Hype Aversion / Hype Backlash: This is probably the most popular ninja-based anything ever and also one of the most looked-down upon in terms of how much of a "generic shonen manga" it is, and the backlash from both directions is proportionate.
  • Die for Our Ship: Has its own subpage.
  • Draco in Leather Pants:
    • Sasuke Uchiha. Many girls in the series had a crush on him or expressed interest, probably some pre-emptive Truth in Television. There are even fans who think of him as more of a Chew Toy than a Jerkass, and then there are fans who think he is just as justified in his actions as Naruto is.
    • Orochimaru.
    • Itachi Uchiha since day one, even before The Reveal.
    • Most of the Akatsuki.
  • Ensemble Darkhorse: Plenty. It's really inevitable. There's Hayate Gekko, Iruka Umino, Shikamaru, Gaara, Anko Mitarashi, Zabuza and Haku. Then there's Hinata, who had a role in a total of three pivotal scenes out of a 500-and-counting-issue manga, yet somehow inspired one of the biggest freak-outs in fandom history, is in the Fan-Preferred Couple with the main character and had an omake (shippuuden 165) dedicated to Lampshade Hanging her disproportionate popularity with the anime producers. Kishimoto clearly did not plan for this ("Everyone says Hinata-Hinata all the time," he complains in an interview).
    • Tayuya probably has the most fanart of the Sound 5 behind Kimimaro.
    • Kushina's fanart sky-rocketed after her backstory was revealed.
    • Hidan's Religion of Evil has gotten quite a bit of attention from fans.
  • Estrogen Brigade
  • Fan-Preferred Couple: Naruto and Hinata ("NaruHina"), as mentioned above—in western fandom at the very least. The point where a video game adaptation decided that these two are "secret lovers" now (with zero canon support of this) was probably crossing some sort of Fan Preferred Couple Event Horizon. Cue the angry shippers!
  • Fandom Rivalry: With One Piece and Bleach, especially since it has a Dueling Shows dynamic with the former.
  • Fridge Logic: With all the wheels within wheels of agendas, over-the-top ninjutsu, Schizo-Tech and outrageous twists of plot, if you want to enjoy the show it might be a good idea to never ever question anything that happens. Every once in a while you'll be surprised with a nice Lampshade Hanging by way of Retcon (Why is a supposedly stealthy ninja running around wearing orange? Ah, there's a story behind that. No, seriously.)
  • Funny Moments: See here.
  • Germans Love David Hasselhoff: While the anime is moderately popular in Japan, it's even bigger in America and Europe (and the manga is comparatively more popular, though as with all manga sales they are much lower in foreign markets).
  • Girls Need Role Models and Real Women Don't Wear Dresses: A page for the latter here.
  • Heartwarming Moments: See here.
  • Internet Backdraft: Don't bring up any of the following issues on a Naruto forum. Just don't.
    • Who's more powerful- Itachi or Jiraiya? When Itachi said he and Kisame could have fought Jiraiya to a draw, was he telling the truth of bluffing to convince Kisame to back out of the fight? What about the fourth hokage in his prime? Where does he fit in all of this? (To further exacerbate things, the databooks have them tied...)
    • Geez, are the girls in the manga getting the short end of the stick or what? Are we ever going to get a female character who 1. actually has impressive abilities and can win important fights here and now, 2. has more than a tangential bearing on any important plot at all and 3. is alive?
    • And, last but definitely not least, who should/will Naruto end up with- Sakura or Hinata? (see below, in Ship-to-Ship Combat).
  • Like You Would Really Do It: Averted; fans seemed resigned to the idea that Choji, Neji, Kiba, Shikamaru, Kakashi and Hinata were going to die, each in turn, despite them being relatively important and well-loved characters.
  • Macekre: The German dub.
  • Madonna-Whore Complex: Extremely present in the fandom when comparing Sakura to Karin. Take a wild guess who is almost always presented as "The Virgin" and who is almost always called "The Whore". Which leads to-
    • Hinata often being the sweet and pure virgin when compared to Sakura. And all the time when compared to Karin.
    • Sakura again in some fanfics when Naruto is a God Mode Sue with a harem, usually Ino immediately switches from Sasuke to the stronger Naruto and Sakura's the whore.
  • Memetic Badass: Many. Aoba, Iruka, Kisame and the Raikage come to mind.
  • Memetic Molester: Orochimaru, for his tendency to lust over the bodies of teenage boys. Also the 5th Mizukage, for her tendency to cuddle her teenage bodyguard and the rather interesting comments she makes about Gaara and Sasuke.
  • Memetic Mutation: Lots of them, believe it.
  • Moment of Awesome: Plenty of awesome moments.
  • Narm: ...And a few not so awesome ones.
  • Nightmare Fuel: See here.
  • Possession Sue: Due to the belief that main characters should be awesome, the fans love doing this to Naruto. Then again, due to the belief that their favorite character should be awesome, the fans love doing this to their favorite characters, which pretty much covers everyone.
  • Replacement Scrappy: The main characters (at first) hated Sai for replacing Sasuke on Team 7. Some fans too. Since among a sizable segment of American fans Sasuke is considered a Scrappy himself (in stark contrast to his overwhelming popularity in Japan), this gave Sai a slight fan following in America.
  • Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Sakura, temporarily.
  • Ship-to-Ship Combat: So. Is Naruto more likely to end up with Sakura or Hinata? If you're familiar with how Shipping works and how long this series has been running, you can appreciate that this is a Big Question. As to the answer, well, it depends. And the fandom is very fond of less-than-civilly discussing the things it depends on. Like...
    • Was the aftermath of Sakura making her confession to Naruto the end of the story for them? When Word of God says she "used his feelings for her" what exactly does it mean? What does she feel for him romantically, if anything? When Yamato said that despite how Sakura treats Naruto he can see that "in reality, she..." did he mean it that way? Given everything that happened with Sasuke, does Sakura still loving him have any meaning at all for the purpose of this exercise? Was the confession a Take That to the whole idea of Naruto and Sakura together?
    • Why in the world didn't Naruto have a talk with Hinata to sort things out after she confessed her love to him? Is he ever going to? Does this mean that the author doesn't care, or that Naruto doesn't care, or what? Does all their Filler Ship Tease "count" in some way? How much of this ship's popularity is the audience reacting to something that's there and how much is colored by Values Dissonance and Wish Fulfillment?
    • What about Naruto's mom's comment that Naruto should find someone "like her" and not someone "weird", when she is conspicuously similar to Sakura and Naruto used the word "weird" to describe Hinata once? It can't possibly be taken seriously In-Universe, but if you look at it as a message from beyond the fourth wall doesn't it spell out plainly how things are going to turn out? Or is this whole thing a coincidence or an instance of, well, for lack of a better word, trolling?
    • Given that in the Shonen genre it's much, much more common for the main character to end up with the Sakura kind of girl than with the Hinata kind of girl, where on the argument does this weigh? Is the "Girl repeatedly slaps boy until the series ends then falls in love with him at the last minute" class of Shonen Romance ubiquitous enough that we can expect it to happen here until proven otherwise? Ubiquitous enough that it becomes justifiable to expect the author to avert it for a change?
    • And so on, and so forth...
  • The Scrappy: Sakura has had varying shades of this throughout the series. Out of Team 7 she's had by far the least characterization drive plotted into her (Naruto wants to become Hokage; Sasuke wants to avenge his clan; Sakura wants... What?). Though she has her moments and a solid fanbase (mainly thanks to her immediately-post-time-skip bout of Character Development), her subsequent reChickification has not been very well-received by her fans, let alone by her non-fans.
  • Squick: In Chapter 513, finding out that armadillo's gender was not necessary. Kishimoto evidently didn't agree, so he treated us to another panel full of it in the next chapter. Yes, we love biology.
  • Stupid Statement Dance Mix: Kabuto's ninja info cards.
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Many Akatsuki fans feel this way about those who were killed off, at least before those who were resurrected by Kabuto's Edo Tensei spell returned. Notable examples include Hidan and Kakuzu.
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
    • Neji's father had to die because of a diplomatic incident with the Hidden Cloud Village. At the time they were Hufflepuff House and we weren't expecting this to be anything more than background for Neji's grudge; but later the Hidden Cloud Village actually becomes prominent in the plot and even forms an alliance with the Hidden Leaf, with Neji working in the same division as a Cloud-nin. We'd expect to get a resolution on the inevitable hard feelings, but it doesn't even get an obligatory "we're at war here, let's let old grudges go" exchange. On the other hand, Neji has already made his peace with what happened, and from an In-Universe point of view it would be ridiculous of him to start rambling about old grudges and people who've been dead for over ten years in the midst of a world war when the people he's rambling to are his allies.
    • Danzo. So many questions surround him: Why he was after the Kyuubi, how he got the sharingans, what role he exactly played in the Uchiha massacre, the extent of his involvement with Madara and Orochimaru, and not least how his ideology was the opposite of Naruto's-- all this could've made for an interesting plot. Instead he is sacrificed to hype up Sasuke's new powers before any of this gets resolved.
  • The Untwist: The identity of Naruto's father. Didn't see THAT one coming.
  • Values Dissonance: The core reason why a substantial part of the western fandom hates Sasuke while he's extremely popular in Japan.
  • Viewer Gender Confusion:
    • Haku.
    • If it weren't for the fact that names ending in -maru indicate that they're male, Gaara's uncle Yashamaru would have most people fooled as well. To the point that in some translated versions of the manga, the producers mistook him for a woman.
    • Deidara deserves a mention too. Seriously, he looks like Ino's evil older sister.
    • Sai was mistaken for a girl by some fans at his very beginnings. Admittedly, his midriff T-shirt isn't helping his manliness.
  • Viewer Myopia: Hinata being in love with Naruto. Note that she tends to do her fawning over him from a distance, behind his back, or from around corners, often with him never even knowing she's there. But could it be more obvious?
  • What an Idiot!: Some fans feel this way about the seal Kakashi used to try and seal Sasuke's Curse Mark way back during the chunin exams. Yes, give the kid whose sole motivation is power the seal based on willpower: aka he can only suppress the Curse Mark (which grants tremendous power) if he wants to suppress it aka denies himself that power that seems right there for grabs. Yes, that will totally work. It's like telling a kid who loves candy that there's some Reese's on a shelf, but that they shouldn't want to go get that step stool in the closet to get them.
  • What Happened to the Mouse??:
    • Didn't Hinata have a more talented younger sister? The last we saw of her was in the freaking Chuunin exams; the last we heard of her was in the Pain arc.
    • In the war between Un-Madara and his posse and the united five villages, Kabuto summoned the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist with Impure World Resurrection. They proceed to cut through Team Good Guys' forces like a hot knife through butter, but as soon as the scene switches away from them they are completely forgotten, with events moving ahead without anyone so much as mentioning them.
    • What was the reason Tobi ever bothered with the "Tobi" persona in the first place? Even the seemingly fan preferred "He just did it for the heck of it" hasn't been acknowledged.
      • There are hints that he reasons for it. So far, this is more of an unresolved plot thread. The alias served as a way to cover his identity, but why he hid behind a fake personality is anyone's guess.
  • What Measure Is a Non-Badass?: Aside from a small pool of elites, a lot of sympathetic characters (especially girls) constantly get the short end of the stick in their fights and appear to be physically incapable of accomplishing anything that matters. This generates resentment from fans who every once in a long while find themselves subjected to the hopeless, pointless, doomed antics of these characters failing at life until the Big Damn Heroes show up to save the day. "Character X is too weak/useless to deserve screentime" is a common sentiment in forums.

Unsorted Akatsuki Characters

Itachi

  • Alternate Character Interpretation: They abound to say the least.
  • Ass Pull: Some fans consider the true reasons behind his massacre of the entire Uchiha clan in this light.
  • Complete Monster: Subverted. Until the end he pretended to be one, claiming to have killed his clan essentially for target practice, and claiming that his ultimate end was to steal Sasuke's eyes in order to upgrade his own. Later, we learn the truth, that he had to kill his clan because the Raison d'État of the Leaf village said so, and that even under orders he could never kill Sasuke. Every horrible thing he did to Sasuke was to help make him stronger, which ultimately failed to an horrible degree. The only reason he doesn't fall into this category is his status as Woobie, he felt guilty about Sasuke, the setting and his status with the Fandom.
    • At this point, he's admitted his methods were beyond wrong and is trying to atone though.
  • Draco in Leather Pants: Some fans tried to rationalize his participation in the Uchiha massacre, saying that he was under orders. To a degree, they were right. It still does NOT justify the repulsive extremes that the fandom will reach to excuse his Moral Event Horizon crossings, and there's also the fandom's extremely creepy refusal to aknowledge that his actions are a big part of the reason why Sasuke is now fucked up to the degree that he is.
  • Memetic Badass: Naruto fans earnestly and detractors mockingly call him the "Solo King"; the fans because they find his powers awesome; the detractors because of the incredibly contrived ways Kishimoto wrote Itachi in such a way he would never lose a fight, to a point one could say nothing in fiction could ever defeat him, similar to Batman and planning
  • Memetic Molester: While his interactions with Naruto and Sasuke gave off this vibe, a certain event in chapter 386 cemented his status as this.
  • Nightmare Fuel: His battles with Sasuke, and almost all of his genjutsu, especially Tsukuyomi.
  • Too Cool to Live

Kisame

  • Alas, Poor Villain: He died not knowing what was real in his world, or if he would be considered a loyal shinobi. Turns out he was. His death is so sad that Samehada cries.
  • Dying Moment of Awesome He was captured and he was going to fail his mission, because the information he collected was intercepted and he was going to be interrogated which is impossible to resist. What did he do? He used the last of his chakra to summon sharks that ate him alive in a matter of seconds. His whole body. Oh, and that seal on the information had a trap that paralyzed everyone around it for long enough that the jutsu could bring it to the Akatsuki. What a way to go down.
  • Nightmare Fuel: Late in the series, his BFS. His sword is alive and it eats chakra. It feeds him the chakra it eats and heals his wounds. On top of that, it has a mouth as large and sinister as a shark that it can hide in its spikes. When you actually see the uncovered, it is a huge blade made up of dozens of long pointed ends that are meant to tear flesh like a shark's jaw.
    • It Got Worse. Kisame fuses with his BFS and turns into a two-legged shark hybrid.
  • Squick: Suggesting they cut Naruto's legs off so it would be harder for him to get away, and almost does this to Killer Bee before he grabs the pencil he threw at the start of the fight.


Zetsu

  • Nightmare Fuel: Everything about him. He is half plant and he is actually two people in one. Besides from the large, green fly catcher like mouth that usually covers his head, his body is divided in half vertically. Half is body is pure black and the other half is pure white (yin/yang). Which half is a person with his own mind and they have different personalities to boot. He can "tear" himself in half which causes the personalities to split.. into two half bodies (not many people see a man with half his body missing, but still running around). He records battles from a distance since he can phase shift into any object. The black half is a bad ass assassin and the white half is a shape shifter that can appear as any person. Madari/Tobi clones him and the clones infiltrate the combine shinobi force and they kill a lot of people. Whew. If anyone know how he became what he was it might help or it could just make things a lot worse.


Deidara

  • Broken Base: Not Deidara himself, but Sasuke has this effect on almost every Deidara fan after Sasuke lived and not Deidara.
    • Though some of his fans insist it's more that he was defeated with an Ass Pull than that he was defeated (he was a villain, after all)
  • Dying Moment of Awesome His motto is "art is an explosion" so he blew himself up in an explosion so big it wiped out miles of forest and it probably could've been seen from miles away. He did it just to try to kill Sasuke.
  • Ensemble Darkhorse: In one poll he was more popular then the titular character himself (this was his first poll ever and he ranked #3, higher than any Akatsuki member then or since). In the last poll he was still a very high #6. Likely linked to...
  • Evil Is Cool: Many fanboys will forever love him for the number he did on Sasuke.
  • Evil Is Sexy: Many fangirls will forever love him for this.
  • Fetish Fuel: He has an autonomous mouth on each hand as well as a larger one in his chest, complete with teeth and tongue.
  • Ho Yay: With Sasori and Tobi.
  • Nightmare Fuel: The mouth on his chest. Squick much?
    • Worse is during the 4th War, he realizes that as a zombie he can use his suicide technique over an over, and his reason for not doing it is that he thinks it cheapens the art, not that it's, oh, I don't know, constant suicide?
  • Younger Than They Look: He was 19 when he died, two years younger than Itachi, but because some think he does look 19, others think he looks older. His attitude fits right in with this age, of course...
    • But it makes some of the Ho Yay moments with Tobi much creepier since Tobi was thought to be Madara Uchiha (aka around 200) and now he's at least been shown to be somewhat old.


Sasori

  • Draco in Leather Pants: His human puppet form is quite attractive, but some forget he's killed hundreds, maybe even thousands, of people, and maybe provoked a war by abducting and killing the 3rd Kzekage.
  • Ensemble Darkhorse: He's right up there with Shikamaru in the polls.
  • Evil Is Sexy: Is it ever!
  • Ho Yay: With Deidara.
  • Nightmare Fuel: His puppets are made out of people he's killed. He describes the process of preserving them in great detail. (See Squick below)
  • Squick: His description of how he makes puppets out of humans. It arguably gets worse when you find out he willingly did it all to himself.

Sasori: Do you know how I add to my collection? First I tear out the organs. Once I've washed it clean, I drain out all of the blood. After I've made sure it won't decay, I fill it with weapons and traps, and add it to the collection. As grandma said, Hiruko is part of my collection. With you and Chiyo, I will have exactly 300 puppets in my collection! This is my art!

Tobi/Madara Uchiha/Whoever The Hell He Is

  • Common Knowledge: He is absolutely not the mastermind of Mist's policy to exterinate bloodline users, largely because no such policy actually existed. While bloodline users were persecuted in the Water country, that was by ordinary people, not the Mist village; the only clan the Mist wiped out was the Kaguya clan, and that was only in self-defence. Nowhere in the manga is it stated that the Mist conspired to annihilate bloodlines or that he had any problem in particular with non-Uchiha bloodlines.
  • Complete Monster: Competes with Orochimaru and Hidan in this trope.
  • Ho Yay: With Deidara, but it's just an act.
  • Magnificent Bastard: Or at least he gets points for trying. Gets props for infiltrating his own organization pretending to be and convincing many people he was silly, goofy Tobi when he was actually The Man Behind the Man of the organization, seemingly because he can.
  • Memetic Molester: The infamous SURPRISE BUTTSECKS panel before Sasuke fights Danzo.
  • Memetic Mutation: "Tobi is a good boy!", and later "Tobi is a BAD boy!"
  • Motive Decay: Zig Zagged. We are led to believe that he initially wanted to protect the Uchiha clan, but eventually grew bitter after his clan ostracized him, and wanted to (and helped to) destroy them along with the rest of Konoha. And now we just do not have an inkling of a clue about who the hell he is in the first place.
  • Squick: You know those amusing scenes that painted Tobi as a complete goofball? Rewatch those with the knowledge that he's an evil, creepy old man and try not to be a little disturbed.


Hidan

  • Base Breaker : Just don't mention the words "Hidan" and "Shikamaru" together on any forum. Hidan and Shikamaru fans will appear and rumble. Remember though, there are plenty of fans who like both. And even some who ship them.
  • Complete Monster: Hidan, a member of a Religion of Evil, worships violence and death, and sees mercy--or anything other than full-scale slaughter--as a sin. He and his partner, Kakuzu, corner and capture the Two-Tails jinchūriki, Yugito Ni, delivering her to Pain for draining and, eventually, death. The two of them subsequently slaughtered a temple's worth of monks in order to collect the bounty on the head monk, Chiriku. During the battle at the bounty station, Hidan engaged Asuma Sarutobi in combat, and used a religious ritual to bind their souls together, then began mutilating himself in order to torture Asuma, ultimately leading to the Leaf Ninja's painful death. When Asuma's student Shikamaru confronted Hidan, Hidan mocked his mentor's memory, and attempted to inflict the same fate on Shikamaru.
  • Draco in Leather Pants : Some of Hidan's fans seem to totally ignore that he's a violent psychopath and hate Shikamaru for killing him. Even though Hidan had previously brutally killed Shikamaru's mentor and was going to return to Konoha to capture Naruto. If Shikamaru didn't take him out, someone else would have.
  • Ensemble Darkhorse: The guy has his fans and is surprisingly popular with the American fan base. This can probably be attributed to his over-the-top Faux Affably Evil act.
  • Foe Yay : With Shikamaru. Just watch Hidan's reactions when he got Shikamaru alone in the woods. It almost felt like something was about to go down.
  • Ho Yay: With Kakuzu.
  • Moral Event Horizon: He seems to be a nice Affably Evil villain (more so in the anime) who gives out reasonable complaints about his job, ritual and his partner's line of work, a while acting more like a understandable complainer. This goes all out the window once he goes insane and kills Asuma and later insults his students about how weak he was.
  • Nightmare Fuel: His defeat and his Ax Crazy moments.
  • Too Funny to Be Evil: A lot of his fans actually find him to be too hilarious to hate.

Hidan (just moments after having his head sown back on by Kakuzu): Know what Kakuzu? Eat a dick!

Kakuzu

  • Faux Symbolism: The four masks on Kakuzu's back correspond to the four creatures of the 4 evengelists (Man, Ox, Bird and Lion).
  • Ho Yay: With Hidan.
  • Iron Woobie: His backstory
  • Nightmare Fuel: The Earth Grudge Fear, that relies on tearing the living hearts of his victims. Also the black beast that emerge from his back.


Pain


Konan


Yahiko

Konoha Citizens

Hinata Hyuuga

  • Base Breaker: Fans new to the series learn quickly that they should never discuss Hinata in any form, for she can create massive Internet Backdrafts that are almost as bad as Sasuke. The sheer amount of Fan Dumb existing in both defenders and haters is astonishing. She's practically runner-up to Sasuke, the poster boy of Base Breaking.
  • Die for Our Ship: While she has a strong fan following, about an equal amount bashes her for her characterization as a Shrinking Violet and a developing Yamato Nadeshiko, with such fans saying that "she's too weak and shy and fat and doesn't deserve Naruto."
  • Ensemble Darkhorse: One of the more popular female characters with a massive fanbase. Her status as this trope was basically confirmed based on the collective freak out the fanbase had when they thought Pain had killed her, then re-confirmed in a publication 2011 character popularity poll, where she was the most popular female character and the 10th most popular character overall. This is Lampshaded several times in the anime, where a character (usually an annoyed Sakura) comments about Hinata's large popularity despite not being the main heroine. The episode 165 omake flat out states that even the anime producers are Hinata fans.
  • Launcher of a Thousand Ships: Along with half of the cast.
  • Memetic Badass: Mainly for her ballsiness rather than her skill.
  • Never Live It Down: She faints once on-screen in the manga and all of a sudden the fanbase and the anime team are convinced that she can't be near Naruto or hear his name without fainting. Although to be fair, Kiba does confirm that Hinata has fainted around Naruto more than once.
  • Purity Sue: Fanart sometimes portrays her in this light.
  • Real Women Never Wear Dresses: Often bashed for being more traditionally feminine and more stacked than the other female ninjas, as well as for her shyness around Naruto. She's an interesting inversion as far as wardrobe goes, though; Hinata typically wears pants (with the exception of two short scenes, one in a flashback to her third birthday), while Sakura and Ino tend to wear skirts.
  • Too Dumb to Live: Brave though it was, it has to be said that charging in to attack Pain, an opponent far stronger than her - and who she knew she had no chance against - with no support, no backup and no plan, was a really bad idea. Changed in the anime which gives her a better gameplan.
    • Actually, given that Hinata's Gentle Touch disrupts chakra flow and that's pretty much the only thing holding up Pein's puppet bodies, 'hit the dude from behind and paralyze him long enough for Naruto to get back in the fight' is a viable gameplan.

Shikamaru Nara

  • Base Breaker: Never ever mention his and Hidan's name together. You'll be in for a huge flamewar. And never ever ask if his arc as a whole was a Broken Aesop about the theme of Revenge. You'll risk seeing a mighty bloodbath among Sasuke fans and Shikamaru fans. And third parties.
  • Ensemble Darkhorse
  • Fan-Preferred Couple: With Temari. Just don't tell that to fans of him with Ino.
  • Launcher of a Thousand Ships: Despite having so called "canon" ships with Temari, Shiho, and Ino, you'd be surprised how much he gets around.
  • What Were You Thinking?: leaving Choji and Ino, both of whom are primarily support ninja and neither of whom have elemental ninjutsu, to fight Kakuzu. Good thing Kakashi was there too and that Team 7 showed up.
    • On the other hand, keeping Kakuzu and Hidan together could have been suicidal for Team 10 in general. The duo's combined and synchronized attacks had been shown to force Team 10 and Kakashi onto the complete defensive and would've arguably kept them there if not for Shikamaru's quick thinking. Even if Team 10 had gone back to fighting as they did before, it would probably only have been prolonging the inevitable. Shikamaru leaving behind his teammates in a literal Taking You with Me ploy may have been the only way to deal any sort of damage to the immortals at that point (even if it hadn't been part of his plan all along).


Shino Aburame

  • Squick: His bugs live inside him. Even the Big Bad was grossed out by it.


Asuma Sarutobi


Ino Yamanaka

  • Die for Our Ship: At the beginning of the series, she was hated by Sasu/Saku fans for having a crush on Sasuke and being better endowed than Sakura. Now that Karin has come into the picture, they mostly leave her alone. She's still not very well-liked by Shikamaru/Temari fans though.


Rock Lee


Neji Hyuuga


Might Guy


Jiraiya

  • Dying Moment of Awesome: By Pain.
  • Memetic Molester: Not as bad as Orochimaru but he is mostly portrayed as constantly going after women any age to use in his "research".
  • Memetic Badass: SotU GG...
  • Moral Event Horizon: In chapter 95, he throws Naruto off a cliff in a Fly or Die attempt to make him learn summoning. In other words, Jiraiya attempted murder for a reason which was not vital to Naruto's survival and therefore not necessary. To make matters worse, he fully knows it's lethal, given he gives Naruto a bath, a meal of his favorite food, and tell him to hug Sakura(Naruto's crush), in an attempt to at least Naruto have a good day before dying.
  • Too Cool to Live: He could actually kill Pain, the enemy who his entire Village, the Hokage, his animal companions and even his student having perfected his strongest technique and backed up with the power of the strongest Tailed beast at the same time couldn't, if he had knew his secret.

Tsunade

  • Replacement Scrappy: Some fans view her as this as the The Third Hokage was a generally cool pacifist compared to the violent, ineffectively strong drunkard excuse for Sakura to get stronger.
    • It should be noted that most of her "violent" outbursts are Flanderization of the anime, as with her alcoholism which was actually requested to be toned down by Kishimoto's editor. Her strength, however, remains to be seen given that she hasn't had a fight since getting back into shape after her twenty year hiatus from the ninja lifestyle.
  • Iron Woobie: As if you didn't feel bad for her when she worked herself up into a coma trying to heal everybody in the Leaf Village...


Orochimaru

Naruto Uzumaki

  • Alternative Character Interpretation: Lets just say Naruto gets this a lot in fanfiction. Considering all the tropes about him here, there's no reason why they can't.
  • Angst? What Angst?: When Naruto discovers he's the host of a demon that nearly destroyed his village, he's awestruck. The next morning, he just goes about his business as if nothing happened.
  • Base Breaker: While not as prevalent as fandom's reaction to Sasuke, Naruto's characterization in Shippuden rubbed a lot of fans the wrong way.
    • Since Naruto is only Stupid Good in regards to Sasuke, this may be less to do with Naruto, and more of a side effect of Sasuke's Base Breaking. Imagine that.
    • Waaaaaay back when the show started, Naruto was also this in early episodes of the anime series (especially in the dub) due to being a loudmouthed, hyperactive Idiot Hero, causing quite a few potential fans to be turned off immediately.
  • Iron Woobie: Taken to ridiculous levels in fanfictions, where he is beaten at least ONCE A WEEK most of the times he doesn't know about Kyuubi yet he still forgives them. Not that his assaulters learn anything.
  • Launcher of a Thousand Ships: Has been shipped with just about every named character in the series.
  • Memetic Badass: GARuto!, GODruto!
    • Special mention must go to a particular clone of his during the Shinobi World War arc, which lasted for an impressive eighteen chapters rather than disappearing as soon as it got hit. Some people actually prefer this clone, which people have called "Datclone", and would have liked to see it as the main character instead of the real Naruto.
  • Stupid Good: When it comes to anything involving Sasuke.
  • Too Dumb to Live: Not him, but the villagers' original treatment of him. If you actually do think Naruto is the demon, then why are you deliberately trying to piss him off? And if you don't think Naruto is the demon, then why are you giving him crap at all?
    • The ninja look even stupider than the villagers here. The civilians are flailing around in stupidity and ignorance, but the ninja know enough about seals to know that Naruto can, with a simple act of will, rip the seal off and let the Kyuubi out to rampage again. IOW, they know as a fact that only the continued goodwill and mental stability of Naruto Uzumaki is keeping everything within a several-mile radius from violently exploding... and they still spend the first 11 years of his life watching him suffer repeated emotional abuse and neglect from pretty much the entire village population without doing anything about it.
  • Woolseyism: "Believe It!" was meant to fill in the mouth movements for "Dattebayo" in the dub. Over time, he stops doing this.

Sasuke Uchiha

  • Alternate Character Interpretation: One can argue his quest for revenge falls under filial piety rather than self relief. Filial piety is a critical feature of Asian civilizations (including Japan). Hence, the only people he will ever recognize allegiance to are his dead parents and clan. He basically lives for the dead ones. The fact that he totally ignores Itachi's will can also be explained this way, because Itachi was only one among many others. Pretty much confirmed after he kills Danzo, where he rants about how good it feels to clear his clan's name by killing people, and sees it as his mission to do so. May be one of the sources of Values Dissonance between Japanese and Western fandom.
    • Remember, he's eating out of the hand of a Manipulative Bastard who claims that the entire Uchiha clan sans Itachi wanted to rule Konoha for treating them oh so badly. So he has no need to question how his clan would feel about it.
    • Alternatively, he is on to Tobi and biding his time. Tobi is directly responsible for the demise of the Uchiha Clan, if he is Madara exiled and not part of the family. After waking up, Sasuke had little other choice than to pretend to join or he would have been killed easily. He ignored the genjutsu which he should have seen through cast by Bee to get out of the mission, dumped Karin not fatally wounded on the most skilled medic nin he knows and left Juugo and Suigetsu to their own devices so that Tobi couldn't use any of them as leverage against him. After he has a power upgrade and enough knowledge to beat his opponent he will set out to complete his revenge. In the meantime he's probably hiding out in Itachi's room.
    • Or he wants to die.
  • Base Breaker: Sasuke could very well be the poster boy.
  • Deus Ex Machina: The conclusion of his fight against Deidara.
  • Draco in Leather Pants: Is sometimes portrayed as a poor woobie whose acts must be forgiven. Or also being motivated by a strong sense of filial piety for Justice Will Prevail rather than by Revenge Before Reason. What makes him kinda unique (due to his Base Breaker status) is that this effects are also applied Ron the Death Eater below.
  • Evil Is Cool: As is noted below, many people like him better now that he's gone from an anti-hero to full-fledged villain.
  • Fashion Victim Villain: His first outfit at the start of the timeskip has been described by some as making him look like a "fat gay pirate". He's wisely ditched it since then for slightly more dignified costumes.
  • Foe Yay / Ho Yay: With Naruto, depending on your interpretation. Also with Suigetsu and Juugo.
  • Fridge Horror: Nii-san...that's one down.
    • For those who don't know, "Nii-san" is Japanese for brother. He just stabbed Danzo through the heart with an electric blade, but Danzo had Karin as a hostage, so he hit her also just so he can get Danzo. That statement just shows how easily manipulated Sasuke has been since he believes without a doubt that Tobi is telling the truth. The Fridge Horror comes along if you didn't know what Nii-san meant and then you looked it up.
      • Well, Danzo confirmed Tobi´s words.
      • Only that Konoha had its hand in the Uchiha Massacre, not the sob story Tobi cooked up to make the Uchiha look sympathetic.
  • Hate Dumb: People hate him while praising Itachi, the one responsible.
  • Hollywood Pudgy: Has been called "fat" by fans, even though he's really got an average (or even athletic) build. (Adopting Orochimaru's sense of style didn't help.)
  • Iron Woobie: For all the wangst the character is accused of, for the most part Sasuke had keeped quiet about the Massacre and his pain, only stating in short sentences very sporadically to justify his goal. Hell, the reason Sasuke crying after Itachi's death was so powerful was because it was the only instance in the actual Time Line he had ever done so.
  • Jerkass Woobie: A second interpretation of the Character.
  • Memetic Molester: Chapter 479 should give you a hint.
  • Misaimed Fandom: A disturbing number of people claims to have become fans of Sasuke after he stabs through Karin to get revenge on Danzo. No, people, it's not supposed to be considered cool...
  • Moral Event Horizon: Chapter 480 and next few ones seem to have been basically written just to show how far he has fallen.
  • Motive Decay: Actually averted, despite his behavior. It's his methods which have decayed. He has always wanted to restore the Uchiha clan's name and his own pride but how he thinks he should do so has gone from killing Itachi --> destroying Konoha --> killing Danzo --> killing every last man, woman and child in Konoha and erase the bad name of the Uchiha clan from history.
  • Ron the Death Eater: His portrayal in the earlier parts of the manga is subject to this, despite the above leather pantsing. People tended to crank whatever negative traits he had Up to Eleven, like constantly insulting his teammates or thinking that he's better than everyone else. While he was an Arrogant Kung Fu Guy before the timeskip, he had at least the decency to keep it civil for the most part. In the first part, he's willing to pull a Heroic Sacrifice to protect Naruto and Sakura. Even in the second part he was strongly reluctant to kill without reason. But since chapter 480, He Canonically Got (Much) Worse.
  • Stoic Woobie: Fanon notwithstanding, this was the first characterization of Sasuke, only breaking momentarely after being brutally tortured by Itachi a second time and a small gloating to Naruto in the Valley of the End. This went to eleven after the Time Skip, being almost emotionless. In fact almost anything we knew about him and the clan where by short monologues during his spotlight and some flashbacks.
  • Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Sasuke has become what Naruto - with his sense of justice, his importance of precious people and Unfettered nature - could become if he had Just. One. Bad. Day.
  • Values Dissonance: One of the reasons why American Fandom is so divided regarding the character: His sense of justice and Vengeance (to personally kill the Masterminds of the Uchiha Massacre so the spirits can rest, going against the wishes of Itachi and loyalty the Family, the clan above all else) are very rooted in (ancient) Japanese/Chinese morality. Yes, he is barking mad at this point, but is easier to swallow if looked with this mindset instead of a "modern" one.


Sakura Haruno


Kakashi Hatake

  • Iron Woobie: His father committed suicide out of shame. Everyone who was on his first ninja team is dead or hinted at being dead. And his once promising student defected to the side of the sworn enemy of Konoha and has recently passed up any chance of being redeemed. Despite all this, he has spent very little on-screen time angsting.
  • Ron the Death Eater: He is sometimes accused of playing favorites towards Sasuke. Also, some fanfictions have him hating Naruto for having the Kyuubi sealed in him since Minato sacrificed his life in order to do it.


Sai


First Hokage

  • Broken Pedestal: Considering he is also unable to fully understand Kurama, the Nine-Tails, and treated all the Tailed Beasts as solely weapons, there's a reason he's not The Messiah (unlike his distant cousin Naruto) despite all his efforts.
  • Memetic Badass: In addition to being revealed to be an enormous Badass in real life, the First Hokage is generally considered capable of curb-stomping anyone in the Narutoverse besides fellow Memetic Badasses the Fourth Hokage, the Raikage, and Zabuza's sword, which cannot be beat.
  • Too Cool to Live


Second Hokage

  • Broken Pedestal: Sure, everything Tobi said about his part in organizing the Konoha Military Police Force and keeping tabs among the Uchiha might be bullshit, but the fact that he was unable to tame their grudges enough can still speak volumes.


Fourth Hokage


Iruka Umino

  • Ensemble Darkhorse: To the extreme; an essentially minor character that has a huge fan following, to the point where he's been in the top 5 of most popularity polls.
  • Ho Yay: Some fans see this between him and Kakashi although the two barely even interact in the manga. Nonetheless, Kaka/Iru is a popular slash pairing. It probably comes from the fact that they interact and hang out much more in the anime, specially in the many, many Fillers.
  • Memetic Badass: Despite only managing to get wounded with a kunai and getting hit in the back with a giant shuriken in his only real battle in the manga, against an opponent that Naruto defeats in the first episode/chapter, Iruka has quite a reputation on the Internet. Supplemental material supports this, indicating that the only reason he's not a Jonin is that he prefers to remain an academy teacher, and that he's actually stronger than the Special Jonin Anko. His stats are fairly good all around and better than most of his former students. He's actually too nice to be a field jonin. The Third Hokage calls him out on this in a flashback.


Kushina Uzumaki

  • Crowning Moment of Heartwarming: In possibly what seemed to be an emotional and horrifying struggle for Naruto in Chapter 497 since the Invasion of Pain when the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox once again infects him with the hatred he sought to abandon to control that Eldritch Abomination, Kushina appears to reassure her son that the village he protects (and the Nine-Tails sought to destroy) loves him.
  • Dying Moment of Awesome
  • Internet Backdraft: One of her final words to the newborn Naruto, asking him to date a girl "like his mother," has already re-erupted the NaruHina vs NaruSaku Ship-to-Ship Combat. Fun. Curiously enough, Naruto specifically thinks of how he has followed (or will follow) all of her advice except this part. Who said "Kishimoto is a Troll" ?


Koharu Utatane and Homura Mitokado


Danzo

  • Alas, Poor Villain: While his "villain" status has been hotly debated, Danzo's past is shown as he is about to die. In his final moments, he reflects on his rivalry with (and respect for) Sarutobi. It works strongly to humanize Danzo, even if it doesn't excuse some of the awful things he's done. His final words are "For the sake of Konoha, I cannot allow you to live!", which really drives it home that he earnestly believed all his misguided and atrocious actions were the right thing to do.
  • Ambiguously Gay: Never shown to have a wife, but does have a fierce devotion / rivalry with Sarutobi.
  • Base Breaker: Depending on your spectrum of Well-Intentioned Extremist and Alternate Character Interpretation.
  • Complete Monster: Is often Flanderized to be this in Fan Fics. Yeah, he's horribly ruthless and has crossed the Moral Event Horizon, but he's far too complex for the label.


Anko Mitarashi


Hayate Gekko


Shikaku Nara


Hiashi Hyuuga

  • Iron Woobie: His jerkass tendencies can be at least partly explained by watching the Caged Bird Seal tear his family apart, the fact that his daughter was nearly kidnapped, setting in motion a chain of events leading to his brother's death, which he was helpless to prevent, the fact that his nephew nearly killed his daughter, and the strong implication that his wife is dead.
  • Ron the Death Eater: He is a Jerkass, yeah. But still not to the horrifying degrees that fanfic writers use sometimes, like him raping and abusing either Hinata, Hanabi, Neji or even Hizashi For the Evulz.


Shiho

Characters From Others Villages

Gaara

Temari

  • Die for Our Ship: Fans of Shikamaru with Ino generally dislike her for obvious reasons.
  • Ensemble Darkhorse: Directly behind Hinata in terms of popularity among fans for the reasons cited below, despite not being featured that much.
  • Misaimed Fandom: Due to being one of the sole female characters to be actually Badass and successful in practically all the fights she engages in, she is often glorified as a "feminist icon" by her own personal Fan Dumb base. See below.


Kankuro

  • Internet Backdraft: It's been hotly debated on whether his rematch with Sasori and his levels taken in Badass are legitimate,as Sasori was forced to make due with human victims,instead of his regular puppets,and each of Kankuro's appearances has him using another one of Sasori's puppets instead of creating his own. There's also the claim he made that his techniques have surpassed Sasori's,despite the move being shown is simply a slightly different version of his older technique.


Chiyo


Matsuri


Karura

  • Moe: When she isn't shown dying in childbirth, the panels showing Karura display a woman who looks insanely Moe. In particular, a panel in 548 shows her and her brother Yashamaru together: she has very wide eyes, is wearing loose-fitting clothes, has the sweetest smile, and seems to be on the petite side if the fact that she's smaller than Yashamaru (who according to the databooks is only about 5'7") is anything to go by.


Zabuza

  • Alas, Poor Villain
  • Ensemble Darkhorse: One of the most popular characters in the series, usually making the top 10 in every opinion poll.
  • Memetic Badass: "ZABUZA SWORD CANNOT BE BEAT!" Until the Raikage breaks it. And even then, just give it time and blood and it'll be as fresh as just forged.
  • Hide Your Gays: Nothing is officially confirmed about this but there is... subtext between him and Haku. It is heavily hinted that their relationship might have been more than mentor/student, especially when he requests to die next to Haku and wishes to go to the same place as him in the afterlife. In fact, solely changing Haku's gender would have probably made the pair Canon. Zabuza's parting words really speak for themselves:

Zabuza: "Is it you, Haku? Are you weeping? You were always at my side. The least I can do is to be beside you at the end. I know I cannot be, but I wish I could go to where you have gone...How I wish I could join you there...Haku..."


Haku


Mei Terumi, the 5th Mizukage

  • Memetic Molester: Given her soft spot for her younger bodyguard, and commenting that she finds both Gaara and Sasuke attractive, this was inevitable.


Killer Bee


A, the 4th Raikage


Hanzo from the Rain

  • Moral Event Horizon: Holding Konan hostage to make Nagato kill Yahiko, and once Yahiko commits suicide to prevent Nagato from making the choice, he orders Nagato killed as well. Suffice to say, that didn't go as planned.


2nd Mizukage

Orochimaru's organization

Kabuto

  • Ass Pull: How the hell did he get all of that DNA, especially since one blew himself to bits.
  • Creepy Awesome: Fits better after assimilating Orochimaru's remains.
  • Evil Is Cool: Getting one over on the supposed Big Bad scores him some points.
  • Evil Is Sexy: Some would say so.
  • Foe Yay: Has called Naruto "cute", is generally polite to him, and appears to possess a peculiar fixation on him. Seems to have gravitated to Sasuke in recent chapters
  • Jerkass Woobie
  • Magnificent Bastard: The biggest one in the series.
  • Moral Event Horizon: Could be kicking the crap out of Tsunade and nearly killing young Naruto but spamming Kuchiyose:Edo Tensei, implicitly killing many people and violating sanctity of the dead is probably the better pick.
    • Heck, even TOBI was repulsed by his Edo Tensei spell, and blackmailed into going along due to Kabuto summoning the real Madara Uchiha.


Tayuya


Sakon


Kimimaro

  • Alas, Poor Villain: He's the only really sympathetic member of the Sound Five, which, coupled with his genuine loyalty to Orochimaru, makes his death rather sad.
  • Ensemble Darkhorse


Karin

  • Ass Pull: A Meta example: She is now the fifth named Uzumaki, behind Naruto, Kushina, Mito, and Nagato.
  • Die for Our Ship: IN. FUCKING. SPADES from SasuSaku fans but also from SasuNaru fans to a lesser degree, who detest her even more than Ino, if only for the fact that she's more..."proactive" in her ways of trying to get in Sasuke's pants. It won't get better, as Sakura has been ordered to heal Karin after Sasuke tried to kill them both which she does. To further infuriate them, Karin not only lives but is seen smiling gently whilst being taken back to Konoha on Kakashi's back.
    • And now that she has taken a shining to Naruto as well, NaruSaku fans have also joined the ranks of the Karin haters.
      • Designated Girl Fight: Due to this, SasuSaku fans were roaring for a showdown over Sasuke between her and Sakura, which unfortunately for them will never happen now in light of the most recent events.
      • Irony: A Meta example. Sakura stopped Sasuke from finishing her off and then healed her afterwards. Karin is very grateful and affable afterwards to the point that she willingly goes with them without even trying to put up a fight. Brilliant Take That, Audience!, Kishimoto...
  • Never Live It Down: She once planned to drug Suigetsu and Juugo in order to rape a weakened Sasuke. Thus, for a big fraction of the fandom especially the SasuSaku shippers, she still remains "the whore who tried to rape Sasuke".
  • The Scrappy
    • Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Partially. Used to be one of the most hated characters in the manga but her being so badly hurt by Sasuke and her warning Sakura about Sasuke intending to kill her made her strangely turn into a Jerkass Woobie for a good fraction of the fandom. But now stuffed back into the heap because she now likes Naruto, which, for many fans especially shippers, puts her right back in the "whore" category. Note she doesn't really display any remote sentimental feeling, only a vague interest, and just acknowledges that his chakra is warmer and lighter than Sasuke's.
  • Slut Shaming: Another meta example. Die for Our Ship aside, the main reason why fans hate her is because she did intend to rape Sasuke and that she's indeed very lascivious around him, much more than Sakura or Ino ever were. Her open sexual advances, which are taken Up to Eleven in the anime, frequently elicit this trope in fan fora.
    • Let's say if you have never read "Karin is a slut/whore/skank", you have never been to a fan forum.

Others

The Kyuubi

  • Draco in Leather Pants: Perhaps the biggest one in the series.
  • Jerkass Woobie: You'd never believe it, but after the downright ridiculous asskicking that it endured, just to have its power taken from it and to be locked away again seems like it would be very depressing for the Fox. This sentiment is starting to be recognized by the fandom..
    • Even Naruto feels sorry for it, and apologizes for trapping it in its prison again. (not that it deserves any sympathy, but Naruto is The Messiah after all).
    • Considering how Ch. 572 depicts not only Kurama, the Fox, but all the Tailed Beasts as embittered entities who considered the Sage of the Six Paths as a father figure, this has grown into Canon.
    • Add onto that he's spent at least close to a century either mind-raped into slavery by others or imprisoned and treated as a weapon to be used by his jailers, and you can certainly sympathize with him.
  • Nightmare Fuel: Just look at it.
    • Or better yet, strip it of its skin and tail flesh/bone, and you get the eight-tailed state.
  • Rule 63: To the point (in fanfic) where it is not completely unknown to have people who actually think this is canon. Goes with Draco in Leather Pants.


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  1. ↑ one week after the paid version
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