Naruto/Fridge

Fridge Brilliance

• Bright colors- red, orange, and yellow, all symbolize extreme power. Naruto, Minato, Kushina, Kurama, Sakura, Choji, Nagato/Pain (all of the Akatsuki, in fact), Gaara, and quite a few others are all extremely powerful. When someone has bright colors, extreme power will be manifested at some point.
  • With one known exception. Obito. He had the Sharingan and also wore orange goggles, and yet we have never seen him use anything more destructive than fairly basic fire attacks.
  • Guess who else has orange facewear?
    • Maybe this is just paranoia, but it's not a long jump from orange goggles to an orange mask.
• In the fourth or fifth chapter, Kakashi mentions that "Ninja who defy orders are scum, but ninja who abandon their comrades are even worse scum." Hundreds of chapters later, it is revealed that his father sacrificed the mission to save his friends.
• The Chunin Exams weren't really cut short after all-they just took the fight outside the ring. Gaara defeated Sasuke, at which point Naruto began fighting Gaara, which according to the bracket was supposed to be the first match of the second round. Shino got his fight with Kankuro, and lost. Gaara's loss to Naruto, combined with the revelation that Orochimaru had murdered the Kazekage, led to Suna surrendering immediately, including Kankuro and Temari. So basically, Naruto won the Chunin exams, but didn't get promoted because no one with the necessary influence saw it and his victory was overshadowed by Hiruzen's death.
• The idea presented during Naruto and Sasuke's famous clash that "high level ninja can read each other's minds when their fists collide." Not only is this referenced again in their meeting after Sasuke kills Danzo, but it goes back as far as the very first opening, where Naruto and Sasuke bump fists after they take down a group of bandits.
• When Itachi and Kisame try to capture Naruto pre-timeskip, they attempt to keep Jiraiya out of the picture by using a woman under a genjutsu to hit on him as a distraction. Jiraiya detects the problem and comes running to Naruto's assistance. Since Itachi is loyal to Konoha, and may even have been working for Jiraiya, it's likely that the 'distraction attempt' was actually a warning, letting Jiraiya know that an attack was about to take place.
  • There were better ways. Itachi had to dutifully carry out every mission Akatsuki set for him, and he wasn't really a true double agent. He only cared, at that point, about Sasuke.
• I hasn't actually read the most recent chapters of Naruto, but all the talk surrounding it made me come to a revelation about the backstory of Pain/Nagato. The biggest complaints involved the idea that he hadn't gone through enough to justify the kind of heartless murderer he became. While this made sense, another point was made a few chapters later: he can perform what amounts to Mass Raise Dead, and it's implied somewhere that he could possibly do it without dying. After thinking it over, Pain's character suddenly made a lot more sense. He knew he could bring back the people he killed in his attacks (whether or not he actually did), and knowing this led to him becoming disillusioned with life and death, caring less and less about his own murders. This was only compounded by his already-pretty-traumatic childhood. So...not quite Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds yet, but no longer a Complete Monster. - User:Shotgun Ninja
  • The massive property damage was what Pain was aiming for in the first place. He was basically shoving them all aside so he could break all their stuff. He doesn't really "get" people, but it's in a much more sympathetic way than other "Kill'Em All, choppy choppy chop!" villains since he was just being petty, and didn't do anything he might see as permanent. This makes it even better if you've already had the initial Fridge Brilliance/Fridge Logic one-two punch a lot of fans seem to have had. -User:JET 73 L
    • Except that's not true. The only reason why most of the people survived Pain's wrath was because of Katsuyu and Tsunade counteracting most of the damage he's inflicted thus far. Chou Shinra Tensei (the giant one) only had survivors because of Katsuyu. Pain also killed many people regardless and, while he did later revive them all he only had enough to revive those that he killed. If Tsunade didn't put herself in a coma, then chances are the death toll would be in the thousands.
  • After re-reading the Pain fight, I finally understood how Naruto convinced him. It was mainly because Pain wasn't sure himself. His plan was a self admitted short-term solution that would just repeat endlessly. So, everytime he fought someone who said they were fighting for peace, he asked, "What's your plan?" When no one could answer, he continued on his way. Naruto reminded him of who he was, and just how far he had fallen in his efforts for peace. He saw in Naruto that maybe this is the one who could continue on and find a better way to peace than his own. This was someone who's beleif was unshakeable and who would keep going. A fellow pupil who could continue on, even considering all the pain he had suffered till now. So, he did the best he could to help his fellow pupil by bringing the people of Konoha back to life.
• It used to bug me that the Senju Clan, despite being the ultimate clan with near invincibility, just seemed to have disappeared over the past century and that no one even took notice of it. Then it occurred to me that over time the Senju Clan would have been whittled away little by little because they would always be the ones who were sent on the extremely dangerous missions (and consequently would be the first to suffer casualties) and of course no one would pay much attention to a slow trickling from a large pool of water until it was nearly empty. --User:ipdf 3
• For a very long time I just thought Neji vs. Kidomaru was just supposedly to be a cool fight, but then I realized it was more than that: it was the ultimate culmination of Neji's story. Ever since he lost to Naruto and learned of his father's true fate he decide that people aren't limited to the what's decided for them at birth. Kidomaru was beating him by exploiting the Byakugan's blind spot--its inherent flaw. While the old Neji would have given in when faced with such an obstacle, the new Neji didn't, and won, thus proving his new beliefs to be true. --User:thatother 1 dude
• Two more came to mean about the end of the "Hunt for the 8-Tails" Arc.
  First, I wondered how Killer Bee avoided having his fake body discovered as a disguised tentacle and I remembered Karin (the team sensor) was knocked unconscious... by Killer Bee. So basically, he ensured his Kansas City Shuffle by deliberately trying to kill/disable the one he knew was most likely to see through it (him knowing about her abilities was demonstrated in a scene where he identified her as a "sensor-type") and the attack itself would also distract them as he switched places with the tentacle.
  The second was about how Sasuke stated he didn't need the 8-Tails to destroy the Leaf Village because he had "a new power" that would be enough. This was confused me as I though he meant something yet introduced, until I realized he was just talking about Amaterasu, the power he just used. He was trying to destroy a village that had wooden buildings and he had inextinguishable fire that burns continuously for a week. His "plan" became so much clearer, and if it weren't for the village already being destroyed and Madara stopping him he could have killed an assload of people. --User:thatother 1 dude
  • I don't think this would have actually worked though, considering the Amaterasu fire can be captured and sealed. Not that Sasuke necessarily knew that.
  • Susanoo is the "new power" he unlocked at the end of that fight since its knowledge appears to the Mangekyo Sharingan bearer when he awakens the power in both his eyes, as Sasuke later confirmed in his fight versus the Raikage and his team. Another hint was that he mentioned after the Bee fight that had "something he wanted to try", which turned out to be combining Amaterasu to Susanoo's rib cage.
• Yet another bit was with the idea of the Byakugan having a blind-spot. The basic idea of the Byakugan is just human vision of a much greater ability, including panoramic vision. The blind spot is behind the neck and extends at a low angle -- the exact spot where it's practically impossible for a regular person to see by turning their head. So it's not vision in every direction as once it's vision in every direction you can already look at once. -- User:thatother 1 dude
• A lot of people are upset at how absurd Madara's instumentality plan is, but for me that was the point: Madara is dangerous because he is completely insane a la The Joker, but is aware of it enough to hide it until it no longer matters!
• The first Hokage in Naruto has the power to manipulate wood and trees... and the village where most of the characters are from is the Hidden Leaf Village. Of course, it is surrounded by a forest, but still the name bothered me, especially when most of the other villages specialized in jutsus related to their village locations. -- User:Gallows
• In Naruto, the emphasis on teamwork and D-Rank missions make absolutely no sense given that ninja seem entirely oriented toward one on one combat. However, then I realized that the ninja system is actually a Super Registration Act, and those things are meant to STOP them from becoming mindless soldiers by giving them a strong sense of loyalty, civic duty, and balance with civilian life. Also, despite what is seen, excluding prodigies, most ninja are NOT likely to be child soldiers, as they probably stick to D\C missions for most of their life, meaning that they are less "super-soldier" and more "social worker/militia". If this system wasn't used, the Naruto world would be like the Marvel universe, except even a weak super would be able to terrorize non-supers. -- User:Wodan 46
• Not only did Naruto give Pain the same speech the main character of Jiraiya's book gave his opponent, but he also did so with a modified version of the character's tactic (the character used a smoke bomb, tricked the enemy into attacking a clone, then took him by surprise. Naruto's plan involved more layers of deception) -- User:Rampulus
• I was initially pissed as hell when Sasuke apparently throws his newly found-and-bonded-with team Taka to the wolves for the sake of persuing Danzo, and it seemed a bit too much like his situation with Team 7. But then I did a little research - Sasuke is trapped in his own cycle; he's mirroring the patterns seen in some abused/traumatised children. Long story short, they make friends but then seem to do everything possible to drive them away, and then hate themselves for it, then eventually make new friends and do the same again! I wasn't expecting something like that from Naruto, of all manga - Shiruvi
  • Helps emphasize the idea of it being a cycle when you realize Taka is really similar to Team 7. There's the oddball maverick in Naruto/Suigetsu, the obsessive fangirl who beats up the quirky one (Sakura/Karin), and the strange but also logical one (Kakashi/Jugo). He's not only in the cycle mentoned by the previous troper, he's trying to give himself another chance with the same kind of friends he ditched before.
• After going over the Wave Country arc several times (the manga especially), I totally facepalmed when I realised that Gato, who broke Kaiza's "two arms" and cut off his head has his head ripped off by a man who can't use his arms. In a weird, kinda sick way, Zabuza was, unintentionally, totally avenging Khaiza. -Sobek
• Naruto failed his academy exam three times because the test was always the clone jutsu. Why would the test be the same simple jutsu so many times in a row? Because Mizuki was setting up his plan to have Naruto steal the scroll, of course.
  • Mizuki briefly suggests that Iruka pass Naruto on this anyway, although if you think about it, it was probably part of the plan to make him seem sympathetic compared to the stricter Iruka.
• I initially thought Danzo's downfall was overly quick, but realized later that it was essentially inevitable considering who Danzo is. He started out as the leader of a covert operations unit whose followers considered themselves to be his tools, and had a mind control eye. While these are considerable resources at his disposal, he's also used to getting his way rather than having to negotiate or gain approval, which is especially noteworthy in that he states that even if Mifune might have made him head of the alliance if he hadn't used mind control, he couldn't take that chance. The scene where he kills the Hannya-masked assassins initially seemed to merely be a way to show off his powers, but it also showed that he's made quite a few enemies, and his role in the Uchiha massacre leads to his death at Sasuke's hands. Say what you will about some of the decisions Naruto has made recently, but he's certainly far better at swaying people to his side, even former enemies, and this shows that Danzo's pragmatic (and thus typically assumed to be more effective) approach actually doesn't work when trying to unite the world or maintain peace. -User:Rampulus
• Naruto always seemed to put a massive emphasis on the idea of the prodigy or genius. Characters like Neji and Sasuke were considered geniuses, while the other characters like Lee, Sakura and Naruto were labeled as failures. At first I thought it was just sort of a Dumb Is Good situation, until Lee was called a genius by Kakashi for being able to open the gates. It was then that I realized that one of Naruto's morals is that everyone is a genius or very talented at something. They just have to figure out what it is and how to use it to it's full potential. -User:Wind Weaver 19
• People always like to point out that Naruto's stupid for wearing bright orange. He certainly appears to have an unexplainable attraction to the colour. Turns out, as pointed out in chapter 498, he's the child of Konoha's "Yellow Flash" and "The Bloody Habanero"; red and yellow makes orange.
  • Why would an aspiring ninja wear orange in the first place? Because Naruto isn't concerned with being invisible, but with being seen, or in other words acknowledged by the villagers who shun him. What better way to be noticed than to wear traffic-cone orange? - koolkame
  • A note on that. Most if not all of the ninja wear fairly bright colored (orange, pink, etc) or "normal" clothing for their area. People keep complaining, wondering "what kind of ninja wears bright colors?" Answer: a good one. Being able to conceal yourself and move stealthily REGARDLESS of what you're wearing is part of what makes them good ninja. Like girls that normally fight crime in high heels. It seems ridiculous, but it's a sign of how good they are at what they do.
• In chapter 499 we saw Naruto using both Sage Mode and Tajuu Kage Bushin simultaneously, and at the end of the Pain fight proper makes sense. Naruto, since he was no longer restricted by absorbing Natural Energy via the two other clones, transferred his Sage Mode into nearly a 1000 clones, and disguised them as rocks all the while under the smoke screen he made to land the Shadow Rasenshuriken. When he was out of Sage Mode, he caught Pain completely off guard with his thousand clones. Thus, explaining why, and how broken Naruto is if he doesn't have to absorb Natural Energy.
• The nine-tailed fox yelling that Naruto has made him angry is actually quite an interesting admission if you consider that for the most part, the Nine-Tailed Fox has pushed Naruto into drawing out more and more of its power when he's highly upset (taunting him while he's losing against Sasuke for being weak and promising to destroy everything that hurts him after Hinata is seemingly killed). Naruto only manages to resist him while he's calm enough to do so, as he comes up with the idea of demanding chakra "rent" when desperate but otherwise with enough presence of mind to think about what he must do. In this case, not only is Naruto calm, but he's actually managing to make the Nine-Tailed fox lose its temper, and realizing this upsets the fox even more and leads to quite the Villainous Breakdown that's a nice step toward Naruto dominating the fox rather than living in fear of it (which is why I hoped he would control the power, rather than just suppress it like Yamato told him to) - User:Rampulus.
• At the end of part I, Naruto was carried by Kakashi back to Konoha, after the failed Sasuke Retrieval Mission, and is feeling depressed at not being able to bring back Sasuke, and is still regarded poorly by the rest of the village. The second time Kakashi carries him back to Konoha, he's treated as a hero. - User:Aurana
• When it was revealed that Naruto was not the first Jinchuriki, I thought that it was stupid for everyone to hate Naruto because the previous ones worked as well. A few hours later the Fridge Brilliance hit: the Kyuubi was released from the previous Jinchuriki, so it's reasonable for the villagers to think that the seal could break a second time.
  • And that's assuming they weren't outright lied to by, say, Danzo. Given that Danzo has been acting as a subversive this whole time just to feed his twisted self-importance and usurp Hiruzen's (and later Tsunade's) position as Hokage, it wouldn't be a stretch to suggest that Danzo spread lies amongst the population about what exactly Minato did before Hiruzen shut down discussion of the topic.
  • Actually, only very few people knew that Kushina and Mito were Jinchuriki in Konoha, mostly the elders and Hokage.
• The Akatsuki cloaks have become sort of like this. Before they die, all the members either remove their cloaks or have them forcibly removed/damaged. The only member who dies with their cloak on and intact is Konan, the only original member left, who at the time was fighting for the Akatsuki's original ideal of peace. All other members fought for their own reasons, and warped Nagato's aspirations to peace beyond recognition. After this, none of the remaining members wear the uniform. Konan's death actually signals the end of Akatsuki. ~ Catt
  • Considering what Konan wears beneath the Akatsuki cloak (a semi-transparent backless shirt, according to the databook), Kishimoto-sama probably thought it fit to let her keep it on to protect her modesty. Though you could argue that it was he who chose what she wears in the first place.
• I always assumed that the Airplane Arms run was simply Rule of Cool, but thinking about it, many if not all of the ninja are moving very, very fast and they're usually doing it as a series of accelerations and decelerations by essentially jumping and landing. Ever tried to move your arms forward in a sports car just as someone floors it? ~ User:Black Sam
  • Actually, no. How/what is it like?
• Why does Nagato repeatedly neglect Konan's warnings and spam attacks that are Cast From Lifespan? Because he's an Uzumaki, gifted with an exceedingly long life span. If Kushina's life force was strong enough to withstand having a Bijuu extracted, which was unambiguously shown to be fatal in all other cases, it speaks volumes about why Nagato would sacrifice several years of his own life so cavalierly. To wit, Cast From Lifespan techniques aren't a Desperation Attack for him; they are his standard combat techniques! Even maintaining the Hive Mind drains his lifespan, but it's so long and durable that he doesn't care!
• The complete fridge brilliance of Naruto's name just hit as I was writing up a mock seafood menu for a class. Narutomaki/naruto uzumaki is a type of food, namely, fish cakes with a characteristic orange swirl, commonly used in udon. There is a type of udon known as ninja udon, so named because all the good stuff, meat, veg, etc. is hidden in the noodles. If you put narutomaki in a ninja udon, all point is lost, as the visual appeal is lost once it's hidden. So if you're going to use it, you put it on top, while all the real "ninja" is actually hidden. Naruto is a Highly-Visible Ninja because, if you can't see him, there's no point in using him rather than generic ninja #5.
• Rather minor example, but when Karin first shows up, she's an annoying Fan Girl. Everybody hated her. Now go back to part one. Enter Sakura. She was an annoying Fan Girl, and everybody hated her. Which is in line with the other moment of Fridge Brilliance regarding Sasuke, albeit indirectly. To wit: Karin is more than likely an intentional echo of Sakura.
• Kabuto's return and role as part of a Big Bad Duumvirate with Madara caught me off guard at first. I mean, we all knew he was coming back (he's after all, a former disciple of Orochimaru's who has a rivalry with Naruto and wants revenge against Sasuke) but I was expecting some petty revenge plot, not an elevation into a Dangerously Genre Savvy Classic Villain. It works and its justified, but I wondered where it was going. And then I realised this: one of the major themes of this series is the young generation surpassing the old. Almost every major villain they've fought has either had ties to the past and previous generations, been angsty kid like Sasuke, or, like Deidara and Hidan, no connection to the main cast whatsoever. Kabuto's 23, has very personal rivalries with Naruto and Sasuke, and is shaping up to be serious contender for the Big Bad role, all while coming off as an archetypal villain. Kabuto is to villainy as Naruto is to heroism: he's the new blood that keeps the ball rolling and surpasses his predecessors. The fact that he's allied with Madara only serves to hammer that point home.
• The Chuunin exams actually work in a way similar to some Martial arts tests - at least when it came to the tournament part. It wasn't about winning - it was about showing the judges what you were made of. Winning the fights only meant you had a better chance to show them your moves. Of course, granted this was mentioned that they wouldn't have to win to become Chuunin since there was the likelyhood that none of the combatants became Chuunin.
  • Can you call it Fridge Brilliance when it was stated in series?
• A rather minor one but in chapter 539: you are made to belive that the man with a bandaged arm is the culprit, but if you look closely, when the culprit is aproching the first medic, he is pulling the curtain away with his left hand, the one in bandages. A hint that he wasn't the killer.
• There's always been some flak on the fact that one of the series' themes is that a hard-working fool can overcome a genius is undercut by the fact that Naruto not only has a hateful super-demon power at his disposal, but is also descended from uber-powerful warriors. However, when you think about, before Naruto got serious about his training, he was nothing more than an obnoxious brat who could only aggravate people with his antics. Once he started working his butt off, things began to improve. And the reason he didn't look so impressive after the timeskip was that he was mostly relying on the Kyuubi, which reduced his overall effectiveness. The moral isn't hard work can overcome genius, it's that your natural gifts can only take you so far, and that there's always room for improvement.
• When we are presented with the ideals of the Sage's of the Six Paths sons -- the older believed peace could be achieved through strength, while the younger believed love is the key to peace -- they appear as awfully simplistic and clichéd. But if you think about it, both the Sage and his sons are half-legendary figures that lived hundreds of years ago. It's entirely possible that whatever agendas the brothers had, they were eventually washed down to Black and White Morality through the generations.
  Also, the brothers' conflict may be one possible explanation for Madara's "conquer the world just because" plan. By uniting the world under his genjutsu, he will prove that the older brother (and ancestor of Uchiha clan) was right. -- User:Styx D
  • Given that Madara says that Naruto represents the younger brother's ideals, Naruto could beat him and still prove him right if Naruto can't figure out a way to save Sasuke from himself and the allied forces.
• Sasuke's insane. This isn't a bashing or anything, don't get me wrong, he's been my favorite character for the longest time and I'm kinda annoyed about what happened to him recently with all the out of character stuff that's happened to him recently. But when you think about it, Sasuke's entire life up to this point had been to kill Itachi for his murder of their perfect clan. But now, he knows that Itachi was the good guy or at least more so and his clan was the bad guy. For the longest time Sasuke's been like Batman, but now it's like as if Batman woke up one day and learned that his parents were supervillains and the guy who killed them was the equivalent to D.C.'s Jesus. of course he would have snapped given that he always had anger issues and wasn't very stable to begin with.
  • Actually, there is very strong evidence that Sasuke is actually clinically insane, at least in his obsession to kill everyone. There is a mental condition called delusional disorder, and looking at the symptoms, they seem to have been written about Sasuke. I'll post a copy of the list from The Other Wiki below:

1. 1. 1. The patient expresses an idea or belief with unusual persistence or force.
      2. That idea appears to exert an undue influence on the patient's life, and the way of life is often altered to an inexplicable extent.
      3. Despite his/her profound conviction, there is often a quality of secretiveness or suspicion when the patient is questioned about it.
      4. The individual tends to be humorless and oversensitive, especially about the belief.
      5. There is a quality of centrality: no matter how unlikely it is that these strange things are happening to him, the patient accepts them relatively unquestioningly.
      6. An attempt to contradict the belief is likely to arouse an inappropriately strong emotional reaction, often with irritability and hostility.
      7. The belief is, at the least, unlikely, and out of keeping with the patient's social, cultural and religious background.
      8. The patient is emotionally over-invested in the idea and it overwhelms other elements of their psyche.
      9. The delusion, if acted out, often leads to behaviors which are abnormal and/or out of character, although perhaps understandable in the light of the delusional beliefs.
      10. Individuals who know the patient observe that the belief and behavior are uncharacteristic and alien.

• • Looking at this, as well as Sasuke's recent OOC moments, we can almost certainly diagnose him as having Delusional Disorder.
• I realized why there hasn't been much Naruto/Hinata interaction even after Hinata's confession during the Pain arc; Naruto knows he may have to die in order to acheive peace and he doesn't want to have any regrets when doing it. So he's intentionally distancing himself from those he cares about. This especially hits home after Naruto decides if he can't Talk no Jutsu Sasuke into stopping his revenge, he will take him down with him. - tclittle
  • Besides that, he's an emotional basket case. He wouldn't know what to say to her.
  • This is assuming Naruto has feelings for Hinata at all. It's quite possible Naruto doesn't feel anything for Hinata other than a strong friendship. Much to dismay of NaruHina fans. In the entire series, Naruto has not shown or cause to even being in love Hinata, but has shown to still be in love with Sakura.
• Four can be prenounced as "Shi" in Japanese. Shisui's Mangekyou is four-pronged.
• Gaara once appears to call Shukaku "Mother". Turns out that Gaara has been protected by Karura's will instead of Shukaku, so he did call the right thing "Mother" after all.
• Shisui's eye. His Sharigan as the ability to mind control people. He gave Itachi the order to "protect Konoha," in other words could have been ITACHI WAS MIND CONTROLLED. When he was tasked with assassinating his clan he probably didn't do it of his own will entirely...
  • That was Itachi setting up Shisui's eye to give that order to Sasuke.
• I had sometimes wondered why Naruto's always having new Rasengans used during the movies. I mean, yeah it's a versatile technique, but why was it so easy to make it so much stronger. That's when I remembered the Wind Release: Rasengan. The Fourth Hokage had designed the Rasengan in mind to use TWO chakras in making it. He wasn't able to add the second chakra to it before he died. Thus, the reason the Rasengan seems to absorb other outside energies easily is because it's got the room for it! - Drakohahn
• Why did Izuna need to be blinded to restore Madara's eyesight? Why didn't they just swap eyes? That could explain why "Madara" seems sympathetic to Sasuke, the younger brother.
  • ... Wouldn't that make him less sympathetic to Sasuke?
  • Remind me, did Izuna willingly give his eyes to Madara, or did Madara steal them?
    • We don't know. We only have Madara's word on the matter, and he's a confirmed liar. He says Izuna gave him his eyes willingly, but nothing he says can be trusted without corroborating evidence.
  • It is strongly hinted that the Eternal MS is a fusion of two sets of eyes, which takes it to a whole new level that removes the Blindness -factor by creating a new type of Sharingan. There are two pieces of evidence for this: First is that the EMS takes a combined physical appearance from both eye-sets used and the second is Susanoos seen during Itachi/Sasuke-fight and Itachi's story about Madara. Madara's Susanoo has two sets of eyes, while as Itachi's has only one, but has an empty slot for another pair of eyes. Swapping eyes on the other hand would be nothing more than a normal transplanted organ and as seen with Kakashi, his eye still goes blind as he uses his MS. It probably would not make a difference.
• In episode 232, Hinata was shown disappointed over being passed over for the position as field commander for the Hyuuga clan, but frankly Hiashi was absolutely right, and Hinata was misinterpreting his decision. See, it's not that her father doesn't respect her or recognize the fact that she has gotten a lot stronger, it's that strength alone does not a commander make. He wasn't doubting her strength; he was doubting her fitness as a commander because of her bearing and judgment. Determination to win without regard for one's own safety is a laudable trait in an individual soldier or even a platoon commander, but a field grade officer can't be recklessly endangering her own life the way Hinata has on two separate occasions, because if the field officer is killed or incapacitated, the troops are sent into disarray. Her training has been entirely focused on improving her personal skills, and she has no command experience to speak of. Her inexperience, recklessness and self-doubt was liable to get her subordinates killed.
• In Bonds movie, Naruto mistakes Amaru's feelings for the Doctor as romantic, when in reality she thinks of him as her father. Why? Because he has never had an actual family and people were actively avoiding him for most of his childhood, so he's never had the opportunity to observe different forms of love and be able to discern them. Without the experience of observing husband/wife and parent/child relationships, his knowledge of love is limited to romance novels (which he isn't even interested in) and childhood crushes. It's the same reason he acts like an idiot around Sakura and awkward around Hinata -- he doesn't know what he's doing and can't even correctly identify his own emotions. This also explains why he came up with an improbable scenario to explain why Kurenai was at the hospital when she was about six months pregnant -- he didn't see any relationship, so he tried to come up with something that was plausible in his own mind. The one thing that stands out, however, is the Shipper on Deck scene with regard to Shikamaru/Temari. The only logical conclusion is that it's just that obvious. Sure, Shikamaru does that whole She Is Not My Girlfriend routine, but nobody believes him, not even Naruto.
• Fridge Brilliance: The revelation that the Rinnegan is an evolution of the Sharingan is something Kishimoto has been setting up since, well, Orochimaru was introduced. The Rinnegan, not the Sharingan, is Orochimaru's and Kabuto's "truth behind ninjutsu". Why else would Orochimaru want both Sasuke's Uchiha bloodline and be experimenting with Hashirama Senju's cells? Everyone thought Orochimaru was after the Sharingan for its copying abilities, but he was actually after the Rinnegan, which grants control over all of the elemental chakra transformations, among numerous other abilities, or why wouldn't he just kill Sasuke and take his eyes? Orochimaru said Yamato resulted from an experiment to see if Hashirama's cells could be implanted into others, and that he wanted to run further experiments on him. Danzo showed that combining the Sharingan with Hashirama's cells could unlock power beyond either bloodline: the reality-warping Izanagi, the Sage of Six Path's trademark power, but in order to get the Rinnegan this troper thinks one needs to combine the Uchiha bloodline with that of the Senju, hence Orochimaru trying to possess Sasuke rather than just taking his eyes. Kabuto said he wanted a Zetsu, which are cloned from Hashirama, to run tests on, and even said to the real Madara that he and Orochimaru had come up with the theory that the Mangekyo could evolve into the Rinnegan provided the user's body had certain modifications (hinted to be the addition of Senju cells taken from either Tobi's clone of Hashirama, from Yamato, or from said Zetsu clone), and that Madara had validated it. Working from the fact that Madara unlocked the Rinnegan, it's more than likely Nagato's Rinnegan were Madara's, seeing as how he initially thought he'd been resurrected using Rinne Tensei rather than Edo Tensei.
  • It seems likely that this is the secret of the scroll Suigetsu found.
  • If this is true, since Karin is an Uzumaki and thus a branch of the Senju, Sasuke must be kicking himself now! He could have bred the Rinnegan into his entire clan if he chose to restore it with her. And she was throwing herself right at him!
    • Becomes Fridge Horror if you consider he is probably not above rape at this point. Although neither is she...
  • This could be exactly how Nagato came to be, His mother had the red hair of an Uzumaki but his father had the black hair of an Uchiha.
• Fridge Brilliance: Itachi is the proof that the sage might have chosen poorly, he used power to prevent a civil war, yet the love for his little brother is going to cause a lot of headaches in the Shinobi world.
  • Alternatively, it could also mean that there can be no compromise between the two paths. You gotta go for one or the other.
• Fridge Brilliance: As corny as it may be, it makes a some sense why Kishimoto had Naruto, a ninja, wear an orange jumpsuit. His father was well known as the Yellow Flash and his mother was known for her Fiery Red Hair. The two colors together makes Orange, the color Naruto is most known for wearing.
  • A lesser one was revealed during his battle with Kyubi. Remember in the final part of Naruto vs Pain, when he had tossed two Rasenshurikens at Pain...and then all the questions on how he created all those clones while still in Sage Mode? Well he's only limited to two clones when he has other clones gathering Natural Energy. When he ran out of those...that limit is gone and he could create as many clones as he wanted.
  • Naruto is using clones in his Nine-Tailed Chakra Mode when the Ox warned him not to. Well beforehand...he DID pin the Fox to the ground with his Torii to prevent him from swallowing anymore of his chakra. So he won't have anymore drawbacks for a while.
  • Actually the 8-Tails later reveals that the reason Naruto survived making all those clones is because the 9-Tails was going easy on him.
• The 3rd mentioned place where you can learn Sage Mode, Shikkotsurin is likely the home of the Slug Sage. Now, besides Katsuyu, which other slug is well-known in the series? you guessed it, Saiken the Rokubi. During the Tsuchigumo Kinjutsu filler arc, what kind of jutsu did the villain use to try destroy a chunk of a large country? that's right, a Nature Chakra-powered jutsu. Who stopped it? Rokubi. By seemingly absorbing it. Coincidence? maybe, maybe not.
• Back in Part 1, when Kabuto's glasses were knocked off, he looked pissed. Why? Because those were the glasses his mother gave him.
• In Part 1 (and repeated during the How We Got Here Clip Show in Shippuden Episode 260), Neji says that Naruto's eyes are better than his. In Part 1, this is metaphorical, but by the War Arc, it has become literally true. Naruto's sensory powers and skills exceed that of an elite Hyuuga. The Hyuuga can see their enemies' chakra in every direction, save for a blind spot and a distance limit. Naruto's Kyuubi Sage Mode allows him to sense his friends and enemies with no blind spots and an unlimited range. The Gentle Fist style allows Hyuuga to defeat their enemies using only their fingertips, but Naruto's Kawazu Kumite can cripple an enemy WITHOUT MAKING CONTACT AT ALL.
• Sasuke was terrified at the prospect of Naruto overtaking him in Part 1, fearing that he'd never be able to beat Itachi if Naruto surpassed him. But here's the thing: Sasuke knew nothing about Kurama until Part 2 (with a few sneak peaks at Naruto's raw power). Naruto was always stronger than Sasuke, even at the Academy. Sasuke kept beating Naruto in the sparring matches because for the time being, Sasuke's moderately strong, but incredibly skilled trumped Naruto's raw power completely devoid of any training.
• When it was revealed that Tobi (or whoever the hell he is) was not Madara, I first thought it was another Shocking Swerve, but there was actually a fairly significant clue that becomes much more obvious in retrospect. Namely, he never uses the Mangekyo Sharingan, which the real Madara would have.
• Kushina's advice that Naruto should look for someone like her caused a firestorm of Shipping Wars between NaruSaku and NaruHina fans, with both sides claiming it for their own. Why? Because Kushina's traits are a combination of those of Sakura and Hinata, specifically all of their strengths and none of their weaknesses. It may have been intended to mess with us, but it was definitely intended to make us think.
  • It's just wishful thinking that Hinata and Kushina share traits. In what way are they similar? Sakura and Kushina are very similar in that both have some what of a temper. They both were picked on as kids for having an abnormal trait (Kushina with her red-hair and Sakura with her forehead) and the guy who fell in love with them, and has saved them, are the ones who were seen as ridiculous in their youth. Plus they both have a shade of red hair with Sakura's being pink. I think Hinata sharing traits with Kushina is just wishful thinking on NaruHina fan's part to justify why NaruHina should be together.
    • Plus that Kushina said not to be with any girls that are weird to which Naruto has said that he saw Hinata as being "weird" in Part 1.
  • ^Perfect example of Ship-to-Ship Combat. Please bear in mind that both sides could be right and try to avoid making it sound like everyone who doesn't agree with you is stupid. I agree with the above comparisons between Kushina and Sakura, but there are certain obvious similarities between Kushina and Hinata, too.
    • For example, both of them have gotten impaled to save Naruto. By someone with orange hair.
    • Hinata was also made fun of quite a bit, and Naruto never actually stood up for Sakura. But he attacked three guys at once to help Hinata.
    • This quote from Kushina was probably just meant to rule out everyone else, like Tenten, Temari, Ino, Tsunade, and anyone else in the manga with two X chromosomes.
      • And yet with the revelation that Karin is an Uzumaki, it failed to do even that.

Fridge Horror

• This is a bit of fridge horror: Orochimaru is sealed away by the Totsuka Sword, which is wielded by Itachi's Susanoo, and it is said to trap souls into a eternity of drunken-dreams. So far as we know he cannot escape. But when Itachi dies, Susanoo subsequently disappates away, presumably with the sword. Because Susanoo possesses the Totsuki Sword, and assuming it disappeared as well, does Orochimaru die as well? Or remained sealed for eternity with no hopes of escape? Or is he simply just wiped from existance?
  • If he's in a drunken state, he probably wouldn't care.
  • Orochimaru has not been revived by Kabuto, implying his soul is in fact still sealed away.
  • The sword still exists within Itachi's Mangekyou. He used it to seal Nagato after being revived.
• This entire show is an example of Fridge Horror. Its a story about a group of secretive military villages that indoctrinate and train children to kill each other in a Forever War, with fart jokes.
  • Cue Fridge Brilliance. Naruto's quest for peace will involve ending this cycle by teaching the villages and nations that hate and war doesn't work. For that reason, not only will Kabuchimaru and Madara both lose out in the end as Big Bads typically do, but, here's the part that isn't already guaranteed canon - Naruto will inevitably save Sasuke and prove the second son of the sage right as part of the Grand Finale of the Fourth Shinobi World War. The Where Are They Now? Epilogue will for this reason see a much more stable relationship between the nations, and ninja traditions will keep strong initially but end up phasing out over time as a period of harmony envelops the world.
• Naruto can go into this occasionally, but one of the best examples happened when Danzo loses control of the 1st Hokage's cells in his arm that were letting him use wood releases, his arm grows into a tree and nearly absorbs him into it before he rips it off to get away. Now consider how the fifty infants Orochimaru did the same thing to probably died. It'd only be worse if there was a small grove of little trees somewhere in Orochimaru's lab.
• Akatsuki wants to get the Tailed Beasts, most of which are sealed in human hosts. They need to be sealed in order (or at least have the 9-tails sealed last), but they may still end up capturing a host/beast long before they're supposed to be sealed. When Kisame and Itachi nearly captured Naruto, Kisame mentions cutting off Naruto's limbs so he can't get away and they hadn't sealed any of the beasts by then, which implies that if Jiraiya hadn't saved him, Naruto would have spent years suffering in holding before being killed (and this may have happened to some of the other hosts).
• Sasori is a Marionette Master whose puppets are made out of people, and Sasori describes in graphic detail to Sakura and Chiyo how he goes about making his puppets. Continued thought on the subject of Sasori leads to even more nightmare fuel when one considers the types of procedures that must have been involved when he turned himself into a puppet.
• Both fridge horror and kind of sad: the Greatest Puppeteer's life ended. And he became a puppet himself, controlled by another puppeteer. He started out a great puppeteer, and ended up another's puppet (literally).
  • Though judging by his reaction to that revelation, that seems to have appealed to his sense of artistry. Unlike Deidara, he prefers to create art that lasts forever.
• Shino and the other members of his clan are human insect hives. If you think about it that, with the expendable manner the insects are in use and their short lifespan, they have to be continuously mating inside his body (this is actually made explicit in the anime and he even has a technique which makes them mate faster).
• Pain's plan to build a nation-killing superweapon. It's not the weapon itself that causes the fridge horror, but what he intends to do with it. He plans to nuke hidden villages to scare everybody into laying down their arms -- fine so far, albeit a bit on the crazy side. What makes it horrifying is the next aspect -- he expects that this is not a permanent solution to war, but only one that will last until people forget how horrible this weapon is, at which point nations will once again wage war and use this weapon on each other. Hey Kishimoto, how long has it been since the Nagasaki bombing?
• Realizing just how powerful Itachi actually was. His brother was more powerful than Deidara, who was roughly as strong as the Kazekage. While actively trying NOT to kill him, Itachi defeated his brother while barely being hit by any of his attacks. Oh, and this was while he was terminally ill. If Itachi was this much stronger than a Kage-level shinobi while he was suffering from what might have been cancer, then just imagine how strong he was before he contracted the disease. Not to mention the fact that Kakashi, one of the series' strongest characters, and two other elite fighters took on Itachi in what basically amounted to a Curb Stomp Battle, without Itachi using even the slightest bit of effort. Kakashi even outright stated that Itachi was using less than half of his power, meaning that Itachi was capable of totally outclassing three of Konoha's toughest elite shinobi without breaking a sweat. Plus, there's the fact that Kakashi had command of over a thousand jutsu copied with his eye -- and Itachi had been using those same eyes in combat for nearly as long as Kakashi has. His teammate, a man who was capable of defeating the Eight-Tails in one-on-one combat, was afraid of him. You get the idea.
  • Okay, you're just exaggerating Itachi's strength now. First off, he defeated a nine year old Deidara who didn't even have C2, C3, C4, or C0, and who had never heard of the Sharingan. Secondly, his illness only went terminal when fighting Sasuke. Third, his stamina wouldn't increase since he has NATURALLY LOW stamina.
  • The Uchiha clan massacre itself is absolutely TERRIFYING. After it happens, no one in the entire village so much as cares that dozens of people were slain in a single night by a killer who is still at large. Either the Uchiha clan was the most hated organization in the world, or the Konoha villagers are beyond Apathetic Citizens. Jiraiya even (to his knowledge) lets perhaps the greatest mass murder get away and doesn't bother going after him. As far as he knows, he could be out killing MORE clans. Given the fact that the Uchiha clan was slaughtered by someone who loved peace, imagine how much of a chance other clans would stand against someone who was powerful and truly evil.
    • On the other hand, Jiraiya letting Itachi go could be considered a moment of Fridge Brilliance and a massive plan. Jiraiya is the spymaster of Konoha, so he's good at gathering information. I doubt he would have had a problem with finding out what really happened that night and why. Itachi was also proven to be loyal to Konoha and killed his clan to protect everyone else. We also learn that Jiraiya had an inside informer in Akatsuki, who has leaked what information he could back to Konoha. Considering everything, this informant was most likely Itachi. Now Itachi is so strong that he pretty much sent Orochimaru running screaming like a little girl and actually made the man afraid of him. Jiraiya is supposed to be on the same level as Orochimaru, which means Itachi might have been stronger than either of them. The Batman Gambit in itself was two-fold: by pretending to be weaker than Jiraiya and afraid of fighting him as both Itachi and Kisame would die as a result, Itachi paints Jiraiya as someone who is too strong to mess with. Thus the Akatsuki is more hesitant to capture Naruto as long as Jiraiya is around, since Itachi does want to protect him due to his loyalty to Konoha. The exchange also makes Itachi appear weaker, which would make the other members of Akatsuki underestimate him. The whole act is made more believable by the eye-witness account from Kisame, who would testify that Itachi was worried/scared about the idea of fighting Jiraiya.
    • Another fridge brilliance regarding Itachi. The reason why Tsunade was so lenient on letting Naruto chasing Sasuke is because she knows the truth. Her plan was no doubt to tell Sasuke the reason behind the massacre and let him choose from there. If the good guys had gotten hold of Sasuke first, he would've been less insane by now, no doubt.
• The Sharingan itself. The idea is that when using it, you can instantly memorize pretty much anything, such as jutsus in the middle of a fight. Most likely, you'd only use the Sharingan in battle. It stands to reason that at some point, a veteran Uchiha would have seen a friend or close relative die in combat. That Uchiha would remember how that person died, in perfect detail, for the rest of his or her life. As you age, some memories start to fade. Instead of remembering when let's say, Cousin Ichijou managed to paint the cat pink, you'd recall the moment a kunai split her head in two. At some point in old age, all you would remember is violence and the deaths of your loved ones. Now consider just how many battles Madara had fought in...
• When Rock Lee gets intoxicated he proceeds to lay the smackdown on everyone around him. Let's hope that if he gets married and has children he doesn't go anywhere near alcohol.
• Kabuto has brought about a low level Zombie Apocalypse by using a technique that allows him to sacrifice a living person to revive a dead one. Recent chapters reveal that he has done this dozens, if not hundreds of times...
• Jinchuuriki are usually related to the reigning Kage of the village. Extracting their bijuu kills a jinchuuriki. To prevent the bijuu from escaping, the Kages must periodically transfer them to new hosts. Which means that on multiple occasions, the ruler of a village has likely ordered the death of their own blood to reseal a demon into another member of their family who will suffer the same fate.
• Orochimaru's curse seal has a 9 in 10 mortality rate. Sasuke is lucky because of "Plot Armor", but when he defected from Orochimaru and went to free the originator of the seal, he finds hundreds of young people who also have the seal. Considering 90 percent of people die from the procedure, the people we see is only a fraction of the people Orochimaru experimented on, the rest being dead. Try painting Orochimaru in a positive light now.
• When Konoha is destroyed by Pain's Almighty Push, he later revives everyone who died, but Konoha is still destroyed. This means thousands of people are living in a crater with a population density of a city, but with no running water, electricity or any other kind of infrastructure. It's like Hurricane Katrina without the deaths.
  • However, it was shown that Yamato can quickly build a house using Mokuton (although it does exhaust him). Add to that all other things ninja can do with ninjutsu (for example, providing said water/electricity), and while Konoha still needs reconstruction, at least it is possible to live here.
• If you think carefully, the Sharingan might have been born from The Ten Tails, a demon monster. That means Uchiha might have inherited demon blood and are more sensitive to negative feelings.
• Fridge Logic: There's one thing in part 1 that always bothered me. Namely, the fact that, canonically speaking, Lee was never able to beat Neji. Watch Neji's fights with Hinata and Naruto, and then watch Lee's fight with Gaara. While yes, Neji is skilled, but Lee was moving fast enough to run circles around him WITHOUT releasing his weights. So given how many orders of magnitude of superior strength and speed Lee has... how is it that Neji beat him EVERY SINGLE TIME?! Sounds like Informed Ability to me!
  • Lee trained to that level specifically he could beat Neji, and even said he'd been saving it for a rematch but had to use it against Gaara to win without dying.
  • Some techniques Hyuuga are capable of wrecking havoc on people specializing in melee combat. And even if Lee was that fast, all Neji needed was 1 lucky hit; combine that with just his Heavenly Spin, which would damage Lee more the stronger he tried to attack, and the only ways for Lee to defeat Neji are to either play the endurance card with weak, quick attacks (it's not his style, it's risky since 1 hit from Neji would still be enough, and Lee wouldn't want to defeat his rival without getting serious), or to train until he would be capable of breaking through Neji's defences without getting killed from the backslash and able to evade all of his attacks with sheer speed. So, rather than an example of Informed Ability, it is one of rivals making us stronger.
  • Lee was also forbidden by Gai from releasing his weights or using the 5 gates that he could open unless it was a situation where he absolutely had to protect people important to him. Considering how Lee is and how important Gai's respect is for him, he would not use those abilities in a simple Grudge Match unless he got a permission. Also look at Neji's reaction to both Lee's true speed and the gates. It's clear that Neji didn't actually have a clue as to Lee's true skill level. Also since Lee never fought Neji going all out, he didn't know that he had actually surpassed his rival a long time ago. That is why it is so ironic though, that Neji made Jounin during the time-skip because he is more well rounded than Lee can ever be. Half of Neji's moves are considered to be Ninjutsu rather than Taijutsu and he is also very efficient at breaking Genjutsu due to his Byakugan. Full Jonin need to be versatile in all aspects of the ninja arts. Lee on the other hand can only use Taijutsu, meaning that other than being made a Hokage for some reason, the highest rank Lee can ever gain is that of a Tokubetsu-Jonin, a ninja who has jonin-level skills on one area and lower or even poor skills on the rest. Tenten too seems to be destined for the rank of Tokubetsu-Jonin because all she ever uses are weapons, weapons and more weapons. She hasn't even been shown using Henge, Bunshin or Kawarimi.
• Fridge Logic: If Lee has a problem with his chakra, how come he's able to do that "water might as well be ground" thing like everyone else?
  • I would presume that he's just moving so damn fast it doesn't matter. That, or he's Christ.
    • Actually no. It's not that Lee can't use chakra at all, it's that he can't mold it. Hand seals mean little or nothing to him. Lee is incapable of shape recomposition or nature recomposition. No elements and no forms. Even something like Rasengan which requires no hand seals also requires the absolute highest level of shape manipulation so it's out of his grasp. But the tree climbing technique and water walking technique both only require simple manipulation of chakra in its basic state. Holding chakra to his feet and releasing it steadily respectively. I wouldn't be surprised if Lee could also use the Body flicker technique as it's just chakra control to the muscles boosting speed. Although in Lee's case that's redundant. It's a fact however that Lee can use chakra, as the Eight Gates are specifically stated when they are first described to use chakra to forcefully override the body's restrictions. But Lee can not alter his chakra into anything other than chakra in its most raw state. But that doesn't preclude him from doing simple things like canceling genjutsu either. And don't underestimate Lee becoming a full Jonin. Though Guy can use ninjutsu, he isn't special at it. He is a Jonin because of his superlative taijutsu and his goal is to make Lee even stronger than him.
• There is a moment of in-universe fridge horror where the horror is realized by a character in the show. These are hardly ever talked about. When Sasuke defected, he had to preform missions for Orochimaru. One such mission was he had to help Karin stop a prison riot. He ended up saving her and he called her "niisan". That is when she fell in love with him. Much later, Sasuke recruited her much to her happiness, but, if the above theory is incorrect, then he really didn't mind killing her if it meant killing Danzo. When she survived, Sakura showed up and promised to join him, so Sasuke asked Sakura to kill Karin to prove her loyalty. This could be explained by Sasuke's possible motive to call Sakura's bluff, but just before Sakura showed up he was about to finish her off. And what did he say to her right before that? He called her "niisan" and he even had the same look on his face from the time he saved her (doubles for Ironic Echo). From her monologue and her distress- you can see the horror in her eyes-, she realized that Sasuke had changed. However, she could also have considered that maybe Sasuke never gave a damn about her any ways and that he only cared about her abilities. Need I remind that she loved this man?
  • He actually said "see ya" in both instances, nii-san means brother. Even if he was saying nee-san the Japanese equivalent of sister (which is just as valid for some random lady just like gramps works for any old person). Second the first time they met wasn't during a mission for Orochimaru it was way back in the Forest of Death in the Chunin Exam, Karin was a Grass Genin. The cruelty comes from the first time she saw him stand over her and say "see ya" he'd just saved her life. The next time she saw him stand over her and say "see ya" he was seconds away from taking it.
• When Tobi suppresses the Gobi, and when we later see the Yonbi imprisoned, Tobi uses the same chains that Kushina uses to supress the Kyuubi. Kushina didn't tell us the back-story about the Uzumaki Clan's destruction for nothing; Tobi is an Uzumaki.
  • Actually, Kushina stated her chakra was special and unique, with the chains being the manifestation of that. Which is both why she was chosen as a jinchuuriki and why she was targeted by Kumogakure. Which means that Tobi most likely incorporated her abilities the same way he did to the Senju and Uchiha in order to use Izanagi... which, when you think about it, is a lot worse than Tobi being an Uzumaki.
    • Actually the Gobi said the chains were part of the Rinnegan's Outer Path techniques.
      • Well, the Uzumaki are descended from the Sage of Six Paths right?
      • Let's follow up on that: could Tobi be a direct descendant of the Sage? One of the sons could be alive. Fridge Logic if it's the bad son, Fridge Horror if it's the good son.
• Fridge Logic: Neji claimed that fate was unalterable, and that Naruto was a failure, and that he was a genius. In effect, Neji was saying that Naruto was fated to never amount to anything because of what he knew of Naruto. However, we now know that Naruto was born the son of Ninja Jesus, and by the time of the War arc, everyone has accepted him as a hero, and have effectively deferred to him to end the conflict by himself. Neji's spiel about fate was true, it's just that Neji was wrong about Naruto's fate.
• Learning the full extent of Nagato's abilities causes a massive case of Fridge Logic. Namely, why couldn't he have simply brought Yahiko back to life?
  • Not really acknowledged, but it does sort of get explained. When Yahiko died, Nagato barely had any knowledge or control of his powers, certainly not to the extent of raising the dead. Remember, Nagato said that he could bring the people who died in Konoha back to life because he acted fast enough. He couldn't bring back Jiraiya, however, because he'd been dead for too long (and it had only been a few weeks or so) So it's believable that by the time Nagato had mastered his powers to the extent of being able to raise the dead, Yahiko had already crossed the point of no return.
• Fridge Logic: Why the hell didn't Tobi just grab Naruto himself years ago, before he became powerful enough to challenge his plans? Even if he had to seal the Kyuubi last for his plan to work, he could have just kept Naruto imprisoned until he had the other tailed beasts.
  • Because Hiruzen would have used the Reaper Death Seal against him, rather than let Naruto fall into his hands. That's one thing he couldn't regenerate from, and it's unclear whether he'd be capable of dodging it either.
    • Sure, but he could have just waited until Naruto was outside the village and then snatched him where Sarutobi couldn't interfere. And during the second part of the manga, before he learned Sage Mode, there were several times when Naruto was outside the village without Tsunade or Jiraiya to protect him. Why didn't Tobi grab him then?
      • Because without the other 8 tailed beasts, capturing Naruto is useless to the Akatsuki, and there's plenty of stuff that could go wrong in the interim. There's no way he didn't know Nagato had his own agenda, and why risk a scenario where Nagato could use Naruto to help him overthrow Tobi? As it turns out, Tobi would have been in serious trouble if he had to fight Nagato, Konan and Naruto in short succession, and Nagato would be quite happy to pull a Let's You and Him Fight between Naruto and Tobi.
• Fridge Logic: The first chapter states that Naruto has failed the graduation exam at least twice. Shouldn't that mean he's actually older than Rock Lee, Tenten, and Neji? Or did he join the academy earlier? If so, then why don't those three recognize him from their time together in class? Or was he allowed to try the graduation exam earlier? If that's possible, then why didn't Sasuke do the same, so he could start actual ninja training earlier?
  • Naruto is the same age as the other students he graduated with. And yes, he probably did enter the academy early. The most likely explanation is that there's more than one class for each year, owing to another piece of fridge logic. Given the size of the Allied Shinobi forces, there would have to be way more than one class. The army assembled by the Allied Shinobi forces is stated to have eighty thousand people; some of those are samurai from the Land of Iron, but that still leaves a lot of ninja. Call it ten thousand for each of the great hidden villages, which is probably a conservative estimate, since it's unlikely they committed their entire strength; they probably left at least some ninja to defend their villages, and it's mentioned that the younger genin like Konohamaru aren't part of the army. Even assuming that the students in Naruto's class who weren't part of the Rookie Nine eventually became genin, thirty new ninja a year doesn't give anywhere near that kind of numbers. You'd need at least seven classes, and that's assuming none of them die or retire before the age of sixty, which is... unlikely. The actual number is probably much higher. This is most likely a case of Writers Cannot Do Math, but multiple classes per year is still the only possible explanation.
    • The more problematic fact is that all the Academy flashbacks indicate Naruto has always been in that class, or else all the flashbacks are to his last year in the Academy.
      • You can probably choose to take the final exam early.
• Fridge Horror: When you see Tobi has all those Sharingan in his possession, you wonder if he somehow managed to make genetic clones of the eyes and grow them from scratch... or did he pilfer them in the aftermath of the Uchiha Massacre somehow?
  • If he could grow them, he wouldn't have bothered amassing so many. . . They are almost certainly "authentic".
• Fridge Horror: With the power of Edo Tensei, there is a high chance that Kabuto could revive Fugaku and Mikoto Uchiha and pit them against Sasuke in hopes of breaking him, as in "I can't hurt my loved ones." Worse, he could torture either one of them and destroy Sasuke's resolve- especially if he attacked his mother. However... if the jutsu fails to bring them back... guess who's still alive? Which means Itachi spared his family and cast a genjutsu to fool Sasuke so long ago. But is this idea just an idea that's been overlooked? Time will tell...