#naruto lore

​A former ANBU captain, a man with blood up to his elbows, ties a broken teenager to a tree on a hospital roof and gives him a condescending lecture: "Revenge is bad, let it go." Kakashi says this to a kid who was just mentally destroyed by Tsukuyomi again. Kakashi was there himself. He was literally in a coma because of Itachi! And instead of saying, "I understand, this is hell, we will protect you and help destroy this threat," Kakashi suggests he just... forget it.

​Forget that your brother slaughtered your clan. Forget that he is roaming free and can come back at any moment. Just be a good, convenient soldier for the village. The adults demand that a traumatized child accept the genocide of his family because they need an obedient asset with a Sharingan.

​And the funniest part of these double standards: Itachi is an S-rank rogue ninja. By all Konoha's rules, Sasuke had the absolute, 100% legal and moral right to kill him. But the adults hold him back, pressure him, and shame him because his rage and pain are inconvenient for the system.

Before the villages, did they still have bingo books? Who made them then? Did each clan have their own books? And different webs of allied clans would have better, bigger, more informed books because they had access to eachothers information? If there was a general "good" bingo book with the best, most reliable information, then who was compiling that? Was it a specific guy or a group? With how isolated and uncooperative so many clans were back then, if the books were maintained by individual clans, then there must have been so many types of bingo books. Or maybe there were a few specific clans who would produce them...? I can see that as a Nara thing.

Id like to believe some nin like collecting old bingo books.

From enemies, as trophies. Bought from markets or found in old abandoned shinobi bases and clan homes. Passed down from a grandfather along with stories of having faced off with the unfamiliar, powerful nin from ages past recorded inside them.... the options are limitless.

I think many nin add their own little notes to their own bingo books, opinions, doodles, theories on enemy nin, etc. So collectors will value books with notes in it, especially if the books used to belong to a famous shinobi (cool insight into their mind !!) or is really old (cool time capsule comments on shinobi from forever ago !!)

You can make some serious money on an old bingo book filled with personal notes that belonged to a famous shinobi...

Rumor has it the first Hokage's bingo book was sold off by Tsunade to cover her gambling debts. And that when the Nidaime's bingo book dissapeared into the pockets of one of his students after his death, people were straight up ready to kill to get it back— but no one knew who'd taken it (it was Danzo)

Jiriyah lost his old bingo book from the war in a bet, and was surprisingly, genuinley upset over it die to the sentimental value. It was sold for some crazy money later on, as it had personal notes and doodles from all sorts of famous shinobi inside of it

Jiriyah, Tsunade and Orochimaru all drew over eachothers photos in their section of the book, and all three left sarcastic comments in many a corners. Minato left his own comment or two, as Jiriyah asked him to sign his own page after he broke S rank, to celebrate. Then Sarutobi also left some comments here and there too, and Sakumo had actually left more than a few— signing his own page, writing a little congratulations under Minato's S rank, drawing a wolf in the corner of Orchimaru's page after Jiriyah insisted he join him in defacing it, etc.

Jiriyah's bingo book being his team's official unofficial shared bingo book... all three of the sanin tossing it around and marking off shinobi they'd fought, leaving stupid notes and doodles for the others to find later, getting other shinobi to sign it on their own pages.....

I think a lot of shinobi do similar things with "personalizing" their own books, but the sanin certainly ended up creating one of the most valuable with their own endeavors

And then in Boruto, bingo books are probable even more of a collectors item. Especially w shinobi becoming even more commercialized / sort of idol-ified

Just like how some middle aged dad's will save up their baseball card collection to one day sell, telling their children it will be their college fund one day, shinobi are doing similar things with their bingo books

This one fact from Naruto is remembered perfectly by game writers, filler writers, and other content/plot creators, including Kishimoto, as well as fanfiction authors.

At the same time, it's one of those facts that channel creators running plot-analysis YouTube channels forget in their analyses.

Sooo, will the next step be for them to finally confess their feelings to each other?? 🙌🏻✨

Honestly agree with alot of this and it aligns with my version of the uzumaki a lot; when it comes to my uzumaki there would be a drastic difference in not only appearance but also culture between them the senju & uchiha.

In my version the Uzumaki aren’t typical warriors their nomads and scholars so they tend travel a lot before they settled and founded Uzushiogakure alongside the damiyo of that land ( i could go more into how i’d craft that on a later date ). This fact about them would be confusing for many because their tall and very built, the shortest height for the women being 5’11 and for the man 5’10. I like the idea that the women of the clan towers over the man it really puts importance on how highly they are treated. With their towering stature, vibrant tan skin and blinding red hair they are different from many. Even while traveling and being nomads their beauty would be known far and wide even though not much would be known about the clan other than them being proficient in sealing.

Now back to their cultural being misconstrued; I feel like this would make a lot of sense especially since in the manga we have a scene where Kushina states that the Uzumaki clan was seen as barbaric. I feel like it makes sense a lot of these misconceptions came from the Senju elders themselves. While the senju and uzumaki are distant relatives they would be culturally different and the difference in customs would be what sets off the elders.

I agree that the Uzumaki would find the Uchiha deep raven roots to be intriguing and would even explain what the color black represents in their culture. It would be the opposite of how the Uchiha are viewed. This positive connotation would offset the Elders. And in attempt to control the Uzumaki even though they don’t reside in Konoha it would only drive them closer to the Uchiha.

I think what would start it officially would be Madara and Mito, their both two important people in Hashirama life and it makes sense he would want to introduce them to each other and hope they become close friends. The elders misconstrued Mito words towards Madara as flirtatious or romantic would worsen an already fragile treaty between the two clans.

I say because in my revision the Uzumaki & then Senju would be at odds due to the Uzumaki rejecting aiding the Senju in their fight against the Uchiha as it goes against their morals and ideology. Their pacifist they don’t believe in war nor participate in war. But since the world is getting more dangerous as more wars erupt their best bet would be to settle and rebuild their alliance through a political marriage. Mito and Hashirama would indeed love each other it wouldn’t be a loveless marriage though it is political.

I think when it comes to their marriage the elders would be very controlling which would only drive Hashirama and Mito closer to Madara. But honestly I think this idea is so amazing and would work so well to build a connection between the Uchiha and Uzumaki while creating conflict and drama.

Naruto-kun when life gave you lemons you wasted no time in whining about their sourness. You made instant lemonades. It simply can't be a coincidence, your birthday being on 'world mental health day'.

Your existence is therapy. For generations. There was a time when you were standing on the other side of the world than the world around you. Devoid of love, empathy, and hope. So you became their very embodiment. Your smile, Naruto-kun, is warmer, brighter, and more vigorous than the burning star.

I've spent more time with you than with my friends. I've grown old with you. I've seen you cry to sleep. And the very next day smile like nothing hurts.

In the face of despair you'd always dig deeper, searching for the strength to overcome it. In you, I saw myself. Perhaps because I've learned more about life from you than all the books and degrees I've finished. ( I say 'finish' because it's not a guarantee I'll end up being more smarter/better AFTER than I was before. Make it make sense!)

You gave me the courage to dream audaciously. Dreams larger than the blue sky that envelopes us. Dreams that made everyone doubt me. Laugh at me.

Everytime I was affected by their laughter and cheers, I went back to you. And like a guardian angel you set me back on the right path like I was never lost. You taught me to 'Believe in myself when nobody did. Especially when nobody did.'

You taught me 'Dreams do come true' - the first step towards your dream is to believe. In the dream. In yourself. You made me believe in my flaws.

When Zabuja said 'your words cut deeper than any blade'. I cried. Your words cut through the chains that were binding my heart and set it free.

And gave me wings to fly off and reach for my destiny. Your words became my saviour. My refuge. You, Naruto-Kun, became my hero and saved me when I didn't even know I needed saving.

I'll stop now, I don't want to make Lady Hinata jealous. And the worst, pissed. But before I go, I want you to know, in my loneliness, you were my only friend, the only one who guided me out of that dark place I was in, and for that, I'll always owe you everything. Believe it.

Some people say that is because he was unable to perfectly balance his own chakra with natural energy but others say that is because his reserves of chakra were not big enough to prevent it.

So, what is the truth?

To prevent gaining toad features, the user must have huge reserves of chakra to counteract the effects of senjutsu (toad features)? Or just has to be able to perfectly balance his own chakra with natural energy?

Once again, I'm not the best with these types of questions, but my personal guess is that it's both.

Fukasaku explains that, in order to acquire sage mode, you need to balance your own chakra with nature energy. If you gather too much nature energy, you will turn into a frog. Even if the scales are just ever so slightly off, the user will gain toad-like features, such is the case with Jiraiya.

But then Fukasaku also explains that without enormous chakra reserves, there is no point in training for sage mode. The nature energy would just overwhelm the user in an instant.

So what is it? Did Jiraiya fail because of poor control or insufficient chakra reserves? I think we need to differentiate between training and mastery.

First of all, nature energy is literally everywhere except it doesn't enter a user's body unless they actively draw from it (compare chapter #409, page 13-15). Fukasaku goes even further and tells Naruto how, besides collecting too much, you can also collect too little nature energy. All of this strongly suggests that the user can limit and stop the influx of nature energy.

Secondly, when Fukasaku explains that large chakra reserves are a prerequisite, he does so not in reference to sage mode itself but in reference to the training that precedes the true acquisition. As we see in the case of Naruto, even individuals with massive chakra reserves will start out struggling to counter-balance the massive influx of nature energy, both with and without the use of toad oil. This means that the training itself is extremely risky to everyone who dares.

In conclusion, large chakra reserves are only the prerequisite for training in the use of sage mode. But when it's about mastery, it all comes down to balancing.

So does Jiraiya just have poor control over nature energy and/or his own chakra? Not quite.

When balancing your own chakra with nature energy, there are mostly three different outcomes:

Too little nature energy (no sage chakra acquired)

Perfect ratio (sage chakra acquired)

Too much nature energy (user turns into a frog)

For obvious reasons, sage mode users will try to hit that perfect ratio, as both the "too little" and the "too much" ends of the spectrum lead to unfavorable results. However, for users like Jiraiya, who struggle to maintain the perfect ratio, there is also an acceptable alternative by drawing in just a little too much nature energy, hitting a nearly perfect ratio. It does have reversible drawbacks (gaining toad features) but it gets the job done and expands the margin of error for the user by not confining them to a metaphorical tightrope.

Now, Naruto, of course, is not forced to make use of the imperfect ratio. This is where my personal theory comes into play: I believe that this difference between master and student is primarily caused by the size of each of their respective chakra pools. With a larger chakra pool, minor fluctuations of influx may not have as much of an effect as they do on smaller chakra pools, giving them greater error margins. If you need a mental image, imagine seasoning your food. The bigger a soup, the less of an effect a spoon of salt will have on the taste.

This would also explain why sage mode training is better suited for individuals with large chakra reserves. Since the early training stages are the most dangerous (as the user still has no control over nature energy), individuals with larger chakra reserves (and therefore bigger margins for error) are less likely to turn into frogs right at the start. Their large chakra reserves are like metaphorical support wheels for learning how to ride a bike.

So yeah, if Jiraiya had a larger chakra pool, he'd probably have an easier time maintaining the perfect ratio for sage mode. Alternatively, if Jiraiya were to train more/harder, he wouldn't need a larger chakra pool. It's not like he physically cannot achieve a perfect ratio, it's just that it'd be harder for him to maintain a perfect balance than it was for Naruto.