Akira Toriyama has taken a lot of abuse for forgetting various characters in his Dragon Ball manga series. He would often create characters, set them up to be important, and then never use them again.
Toriyama's forgetfulness can be attributed to the intense workload that comes with creating a weekly manga series, as the constant encroaching deadlines make it harder for the author to come up with long-term plans.
Masashi Kishimoto is just as guilty of forgetting characters in Naruto as Toriyama was in Dragon Ball. The numerous interviews with Kishimoto that have taken place over the years suggest that he was often forced to prune his plans due to timing.
This meant that a lot of story ideas were planted that never came to fruition and a lot of characters were introduced, only to be forgotten later on. There were also a lot of times when Kishimoto would pawn characters off to the anime staff, where they would appear in subpar filler arcs.
We are here today to look at the Naruto characters that were forgotten by the series and have yet to even make token cameo roles in Boruto.
From Naruto's first true opponents to the living zombie that sleeps beneath the soil of Konoha, here are the 15 Naruto Characters Who Were Completely Abandoned!
15. The Demon Brothers
Naruto's first battle against non-Konoha ninja happened at the start of the Land of Waves Escort Mission arc. Two allies of Zabuza waited outside of Konoha in order to ambush Tazuna, who was being escorted by Team 7.
These were two former Hidden Mist shinobi, known as the Demon Brothers, who had defected from their village in order to join Zabuza's coup.
Kakashi and Sasuke were able to easily dispose of the Demon Brothers and keep Tazuna alive. They were then tied up next to a tree and left to be arrested.
We never actually see the Demon Brothers being arrested in the manga and escaping from being tied up is one of the most basic parts of ninja training. Were the Demon Brothers able to escape? If so, did they choose to abandon Zabuza? Why did they never reappear in the story afterward?
14. Seven Of The Tailed Beasts
The Tailed Beasts of the world of Naruto were once believed to be evil, with their presence being treated in the same way as a natural disaster.
Naruto is able to learn the truth of the nature of the Tailed Beasts and is able to befriend them near the end of the story.
Obito attempts to use the power of the Tailed Beasts for his own ends, but they are freed from his control and disappear from the story.
By the end of Naruto, two of the Tailed Beasts were accounted for-- Gyuki was inside of Killer B and Kurama remains inside of Naruto. This leaves seven other Tailed Beasts that remain unaccounted for, that seemingly have vanished in the time skip between the defeat of Obito and Boruto's era.
What happened to the other seven Tailed Beasts? These are giant monsters made of chakra, so it's not as if they can keep a low profile.
13. Homura & Koharu
The position of Hokage was never as powerful as we were led to believe at the start of Naruto. When Naruto returns to Konoha after the time skip, he learns how powerful the other elders in the village are.
When the truth about Itachi's past was discovered, it was revealed that the Third Hokage opposed the plan to wipe out the Uchiha clan, but the three village elders (Danzo, Homura, and Koharu) had the ability to outvote him and sanction the massacre of hundreds of villagers.
It seemed as it Homura and Koharu were being planned for something big, as they were always opposing Tsunade's rule and deemed Naruto to be a threat.
Sasuke also had plans to kill the two of them, as they were involved in the destruction of his clan. None of these plots came to pass and they are last seen planning for the upcoming war against Tobi.
12. Mizuki
Mizuki was the first ever antagonist in Naruto. He was the one who tricked Naruto into stealing the forbidden scroll so that he could dispose of Naruto and leave the village with the scroll in his possession. Naruto is able to defeat Mizuki with the aid of his new Shadow Clone Jutsu and he is never mentioned again.
Mizuki did make another appearance in a terrible anime filler arc, where he was revealed to be a servant of Orochimaru and turned into a tiger monster. He is captured at the end of the arc and sent to prison.
If this is considered canon (and it really shouldn't be, considering how bad it is), then what happened to Mizuki when Pain attacked Konoha?
Was he killed? Was he brought back to life at the end of the arc? Was he able to escape when most of the buildings in Konoha were flattened?
11. Yugao
It really seemed as if Masashi Kishimoto had something big planned for Yugao at one point. We likely will never learn what those plans were, as she never followed through on her vow of vengeance.
Yugao Uzuki was a member of the Anbu and the former lover of Hayate. When Hayate was slain by Baki during the Chunin Exam arc, Yugao visited his grave and swore to get revenge for his death.
Baki would later make a second appearance during the Gaara Retrieval arc, but Yugao was nowhere to be seen. Her revenge plot was dropped totally from the story of the manga.
It took an anime filler episode to explain why she had given up her plans, which involved Hayate being brought back as an undead soldier and the two of them fighting each other. Nothing like this happened in the manga.
10. Ebizo
The Gaara Retrieval arc involved the history of the Hidden Sand village being revealed. This was partly due to the presence of Sasori, who was one of the most powerful shinobi to have ever been created by Sunagakure, yet he had defected and now sought to destroy the village.
Sasori's grandmother, Chiyo, played an important part in this arc, as she was one of the few people who were familiar with his equipment and techniques. Chiyo's brother, Ebizo, was also introduced during this arc and held similar views about how the Hidden Sand village had grown weak over time.
Ebizo never took part in the mission to stop his wayward grandnephew and never involved himself in the war against Tobi.
Ebizo was introduced as being one of the few people with the knowledge to fight Sasori, yet he didn't do anything. He may as well have not existed.
9. The Great Sage Toads
Jiraiya was fond of summoning large toads that could help him in battle. It was during his fight with Pain that he finally broke out the big guns and summoned two of the most powerful toads in existence -- Fukasaku and Shima.
These weren't much bigger than regular toads, but they could help Jiraiya enter Sage Mode more easily and possessed their own range of powerful techniques.
Naruto later became a student of Fukasaku and even used the power of the two Toad Sages during his battle with Pain. Once he became familiar with them, he possessed the ability to summon them into battle like Jiraiya did.
The Two Great Sage Toads were two of Naruto's most powerful allies, yet he never bothered to summon them again in battle after Pain invaded Konoha.
8. Samui & Atsui
The Fourth Shinobi World War was essentially a glorified Boss Rush Mode for the world of Naruto, where previous foes could be brought back for one big chain of battles. It also allowed some characters to resolve their personal issues with deceased comrades and enemies.
The Fourth Shinobi World War also gave Masashi Kishimoto a chance to give fights to the numerous characters that had been introduced and hadn't received any combat scenes yet.
Samui and her team were an example of this, as they seemingly existed just to move the plot forward.
Samui and her brother, Atsui, took part during the war. They were captured in the Benihisago and were later freed by Darui. They have yet to make any other appearances in the post-war world of Naruto or Boruto.
7. Tsume Inuzuka
Naruto and Sasuke both lost their parents before the series began, while Sakura's didn't show up until much later. Many of the other Genin of the same generation belonged to huge clans and had relatives who were active ninja of the village. We got to see most of the parents in action during Orochimaru's initial attack on the village.
Tsume Inuzaka is the mother of Kiba and the matriarch of the Inuzaka clan. Kiba claims that she is so fierce that she managed to scare off his father, which suggests that she is a powerful ninja in her own right.
Tsume was seen fighting off enemy forces during the invasion of Konoha and would later fight Pain alongside her son during his attack on the village. Tsume was not present during the Fourth Shinobi World War, despite the fact that the other family members of the cast were involved in the conflict.
6. Baki
Baki was given the difficult task of acting as the leader of Gaara's squad, as well as acting as a secret agent during the preparation for the attack on Konoha.
He slew Hayate in order to keep his plans a secret, which prompted Yugao to swear vengeance for the death. Baki took part in the battle but fled when it became apparent that his village had been caught up in Orochimaru's machinations.
Baki would later be seen during the Gaara Retrieval arc, where he would assist Naruto and his team in enlisting the aid of Chiyo and her brother in rescuing Gaara.
Despite all of this screen time, Baki didn't take part in the Fourth Shinobi World War.
Also, no resolution was ever given for his killing of Hayate or his role in the invasion of Konoha.
5. Nekobaa
We generally didn't have scenes in Naruto where we would see the characters buying their equipment for each mission. It was assumed that Konoha provided supplies and weapons based on the ranking of the mission, which would be factored into the price.
Those ninja who had defected from their village were forced to rely on the black market in order to acquire weapons. It was revealed that members of the Uchiha clan maintained their own black market suppliers, in the form of a woman named Nekobaa.
Nekobaa was an old woman who kept two talking cats as pets. She showed sadness over the fact that Sasuke was hunting Itachi... and then never showed up again. This interesting character was introduced and then never used again.
Nekobaa did appear in some flashbacks in the filler episodes of the anime and her granddaughter would end up with Kiba, but she had no role in the story after Sasuke visited her shop.
4. Shiho
Naruto has the second-biggest fan fiction community after Harry Potter. A great of deal of this fan fiction concerns the potential romantic relationships between every possible group of characters that you could imagine.
Masashi Kishimoto seemed to be aware of the popularity of this aspect of the series, as he kept feeding the speculation over which character would end up whom.
It seems like Shiho was introduced for no other reason than to annoy the fans who expected Shikamaru and Temari to get together.
Shiho was a geeky girl who acted as a member of Konoha's Cryptoanalysis Team.
It was clear that Shiho was attracted to Shikamaru, even though he seemed blissfully unaware of the fact. Shikamaru would later break his leg protecting Shiho. She would only make brief appearances in the filler episodes of the anime after that.
3. Team Oboro
The second portion of the Chunin Exam arc took place within Konoha's Forest of Death. This was a massive location that was filled with all kinds of dangerous animals and poisonous plant life. The purpose of this part of the exam was to steal a scroll from an opposing team and make it to the center of the forest.
Team Oboro hailed from the Hidden Rain village. They battled Team 7 and Kabuto during the Chunin Exam, as they were trying to take out stragglers on their way to the center of the Forest. Naruto's team triumphed and Team Oboro was never seen again.
Team Oboro briefly appeared in one of the anime filler arcs, but they never showed up in the manga again, despite the fact that the Hidden Rain village became important during the second half of the story.
2. The Other Members Of Team Kabuto
Three members of Kabuto's team during the Chunin Exam arc had defected to Orochimaru. It's also possible that the leader of the team was also a traitor, but we saw no evidence of this during the story.
Kabuto's teammates were Yoroi and Misumi. Yoroi possessed the ability to drain a person's life force with his touch, while Misumi could dislocate all of his joints in order to squeeze into tight places.
The last time we saw these characters in the Naruto manga happened during the Chunin Exam, where they were both injured and knocked out of the tournament.
The idea of their being Genin in Konoha who were loyal to Orochimaru was an interesting one, but it never came up again.
Yoroi and Misumi would only ever show up again during a poor filler arc of the Naruto anime.
1. Hidan
Hidan was one of the weakest members of Akatsuki, due to how situational his powers were and how easy it would be for a team of coordinated ninja to take him down.
Despite this, Hidan is the only surviving member of the Akatsuki lineup that appeared before the time skip in Naruto. This is due to the fact that he is immortal and even severing his head isn't enough to stop him from living.
Shikamaru buried Hidan beneath the soil of Konoha, where he still exists. Kabuto reveals that he is unable to bring Hidan back as a zombie, which suggests to him that Hidan is still alive.
This led many fans to speculate that he would arrange for Hidan to be freed during the Fourth Shinobi World War to act as a distraction during the conflict and do as much damage as possible.
This never happened. Clones of Hidan appeared in a filler arc of the anime, but the original remains beneath the ground. Hidan is presumably still there underground, eating passing insects, and hoping that the writers of Boruto remember that he exists.
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Can you think of any other Naruto characters who were completely abandoned? Let us know in the comments!