The Worst Plot In Naruto According To Fans

At over 950 episodes and counting, "Naruto" is an ever-expanding universe filled with a litany of interesting heroes and villains with unique abilities and motivations. However, to create such a dense franchise with so many characters and events, while still focusing on the single titular character (and, later on, his son Boruto), the series had to tackle an ever-evolving issue. How does one continue a character's story after the protagonist has defeated the villain of their most recent story arc?

Different long-lasting franchises handle this problem differently. "JoJo's Bizarre Adventure," for instance, constantly switches protagonists and settings between major story arcs to keep things fresh. "Naruto," however, goes a more traditional route by following Naruto for the majority of its story, and making sure every arc and every villain plays an integral part in his development as a character.

While this can still be a good method to tell a story, it does have its downsides. Because the author, Masashi Kishimoto, is limited to telling stories about Naruto's development, not every beat in his story is going to be equally good because it's difficult to consistently come up with new ideas that work. On top of that, the longer the story gets, the more it runs the risk of getting over-complicated. As a result, there are some parts of "Naruto" that many fans feel are just straight up bad.

However, the worst "Naruto" plot, according to fans on Reddit, might not be what you think.

Surprisingly, many fans think that the worst part of "Naruto" comes near the end of the original series, before "Boruto: Naruto Next Generations" even began. The plot in question has to do with the arrival of the final antagonist, Kaguya Ōtsutsuki, and the revelation that Naruto and Sasuke are part of a reincarnation prophecy dating back to Kaguya's descendants.

"Personally, for me, it's Naruto and Sasuke's reincarnation cycle and the whole introduction of the Sage of Six Paths, along with Naruto's status as the 'Child of [Prophecy],'" wrote the original poster, u/FrozenFlames12. "Not only is it really cliche to play into the 'Chosen One' trope, but it completely invalidates literally everything he said to Neji during the Chunin exams, and many other points of Naruto's early character."

"I really hated the whole reincarnation/Ōtsutsuki plot," wrote u/crono220. "It really made the whole naruto world feel redundant. And it was used as the basis of the Boruto storyline. I loved when there was conflict between the villages and aliens were not a**pulled into the story."

With Kaguya and the other alien gods being introduced very late into the story, and Naruto's prophetic connection to them contradicting his earlier characterization as an underdog, it makes sense why fans dislike these elements. Of course, those are far from the only plot points that fans take issue with. However, their importance to the ending of "Naruto" makes them stick out like a sore thumb.