TOP FIVE CHARACTERS IN NARUTO

If you are like most weebs my age, then you more than likely watched cartoon network growing up. And, like most kids, you' watched it until the cows came home. Then, there was that one fated day where you stayed up on a Saturday night at eleven am, and saw adult swim. But it wasn't your usual dose of edgy adult humor and debauchery. It was Toonami. The greatest thing to happen to TV since the Nazi's inception of it. And, if you were lucky enough to stay up, there was this one show that always came on every Saturday night at 11:30 am, and it was called Naruto.

When my Oedipal organs first experienced the pleasure of watching Naruto, I knew for a fact that it would be apart of my childhood. Or at least I knew for a fact that I would be watching it for a while. What really got me was the opening. Before Naruto, I never knew that the Japanese culture was producing cooler rock music than the people who started it. It never came to my mind that the Japanese culture could produce such high-quality works of art, and still label it as a cartoon for the enjoyment of pre-teens just like myself. Watching Naruto was a worldview expanding experience for the young me, and it didn't hurt that the just cool as fuck!

You got this kid ninja called Naruto, who everybody hated because he had this demon inside of him. This wasn't no "oh I'm facing my demons" run-of-the-mil type of demon. This was a jinchuriki, a tailed-beast, a source of spiritual energy so strong that the person who put it inside of Naruto did so at the cost of his own life! And before that demon was sealed, he caught hella bodies and went on a rampage throughout the hidden leaf village. So yeah, of course there were some kids at the ninja academy whose parents just so happened to die trying to subdue the beast inside of Naruto, and of course they hated him due to the fact that he was a living reminder of all of the pain that the village went through. 

While Naruto may start off his story as an outcast, the beauty of this story is in the fact that he ends it off as the leader and protector of his village. Along the way, he interacts with a shitton of characters, and we wouldn't be talking about Naruto if these characters were some run-of-the-mil hooligans who added no value to the story. Quite the opposite is to be said! All of the characters in Naruto create this massive world of people with different agendas, personalities, backstories, and abilities, who are all trying to survive in the cutthroat world of being a ninja. To say that they revolve around Naruto would be a disservice to them, for they are really what makes the show enjoyable past all of the cheesy catch phrases, odd comedic scenes, and the filler. OHMYFUCKINGGOD there is a lot of filler! But it adds to the character of the show, and the pockets of the studio that runs it, so who am I to judge?

With that being said, I tried to find an accurate counting of all the characters, to no avail. So pardon me if your favorite side side side side character doesn't show up in the top five. When deciding these characters, I did not include any of the main characters because this list would be boring otherwise. I also judged them based on the overall impact they had on the show, their most memorable scenes, and how different they stand out from other characters. Mostly though, it's based on my opinion, and the emotional toll they took on me when and if they died, or had their loved ones die, or things of that nature. 

Now that the setting is set, let us begin!

5. Zabuza Momochi

Animes with a lot of episodes are notoriously slow in the beginning. Its like they expect us to wait 300 episodes before they finally get to warming up their fight scene geniuses. If I were to make a top ten list of opening arcs in animes though, then Naruto would be number one. The main reason that Naruto has the best opening arc is because of one man and one man only; one of the only surviving members of the seven deadly swordsman of the hidden mist village: Zabuza Momochi

There is a ritual in the hidden mist village done by their ninja academy that is of note. 

Imagine you are not Naruto, and you have friends in the academy (which is like ninja middle school). You are learning the fundamentals of becoming a ninja, and over the course of time you develop your bond with your classmates. Then, in order to graduate, there is a winner takes all battle royale where the only prize is your own life and the blood of your best friends on your hands.

That is the world that Mr. Momochi grew up in, and it shows. He partook in this deadly ritual, and killed over 100 academy students in the process. The kicker is: he wasn't even a student yet himself. His actions were so brutal that they disbanded the practice after him, and the village dubbed him "Demon of the Hidden Mist" They still taught him swordsmanship, and let him work as their Anbu (black-ops) ninja though, so idk what type of logic they were using. He eventually staged a coup d'état on the hidden mist village leader, the mizukage, and failed (who would've seen that coming amirite?).

When Naruto and his team come to the village, Zabuza is working with the top Yakuza boss in order to raise enough money to stage another c'oup. Before all that happened, Zabuza would find his ultimate killing tool and boy genius in Haku. Haku had this super rare power called a kekkai genkai (bloodline trait) that allowed him to manipulate ice to his will, and because of his genius he got the stereotypical burn the witch treatment in his home village. His own dad tried to kill him, and he had to flee immediately. When Zabuza found him, he was fighting with a street dog over scraps of bread. Even in this fucked up scenario, Zabuza was everything to Haku. Zabuza gave Haku's life purpose, and that is invaluable to any human being's life.

Why bring up Haku? Because all throughout the arc, Zabuza is painted as this ruthless killer who is incapable of the slightest ounce of sympathy, but there was one scene that tore that picture to pieces. Naruto's mentor and leader, Kakashi, was dueling it out with Zabuza, and he got caught slipping for a split second. With Haku devoting his life 100% to his master, he grabbed Kakashi, and told Zabuza to slice him and Kakashi in half. With someone who is as well-versed in killing, it shouldn't have been a problem right? Wrong! Zabuza hesitated long enough for Kakashi to get away scott free.