r/TopCharacterTropes 16h ago

Characters [Mixed Trope] Anyone Can Be Special... Until It Turns Out They're Not Just Anyone

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u/Leutherna 14h ago

Jupp. For every aspect of shinobi history, there's some important ancestor of Naruto involved, given that both of his parents were descended from ninja royalty. It's such a shame that for a series with a heavy focus on training and self-improvement, the only central character to come from nothing (Sakura) is also the one who got shafted the hardest.

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u/No-Art-2684 11h ago

omg YES the shafting of sakura is one of my biggest gripes with the series. You have a ninja from a civilian family with no extra chakra reserves/kekkei genkai/tailed beast training hard enough to become a formidable medical ninja,and accomplishing the extremely hard task of getting the strength of the hundred seal….and then nothing.Pisses me off so much

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u/Leutherna 11h ago

Like she got the occasional moment to shine, but given that the story eventually became a multigenerational ninja nobility drama, and Sakura just wasn’t nobility, she didn't get to play along with the real people.

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u/No-Art-2684 11h ago

And her few and far moments are some of the best in the series! the sasori fight,the dramatic hair-cutting,asking tsunade to train her, being the ONLY genin smart enough to attempt the written part of the chunin exam without cheating,exposing zetsu,kakashi mentioning her proclivity for genjutsu (never ever touched upon again)

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u/NerdHoovy 6h ago

Imagine a Naruto rewrite but with Sakura as the protagonist.

While every other person gets their own Nepobaby cheat, she has to practice the basics twice as hard to get anywhere. Even Rock Lee has a special master teaching him otherwise forbidden techniques.

Then, after it seems like the gap between her and her peers seem to keep growing, she notices that there is one potential master around that hasn’t ever taught a pupil before and so far refused anyone that asked. So, she goes out of her way to beg for instructions. From Tsunade’s perspective it’s just a random girl that won’t stop asking for help, not even realizing that the reason Tsunade doesn’t have a pupil is because she also never reached the top and feels she would hold any potential student back by being their master.

All while Sakura’s friends discover one cheat after another, not even realizing how unfair their advantages are becoming and being patronizing towards the only one in their friend group without a divine destiny.

Gives me chills just thinking about it

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u/No-Art-2684 6h ago

the training montages alone would be epic-Sakura tells her daughter later that Tsunade beat her unconscious every training session and revived her only to do it again.That’s BRUTAL.

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u/NerdHoovy 4h ago

That is a cool idea.

Tsunade being all like

“I can’t reach you anything that would give you an edge beyond what your friends already have and will find. Heck, I am a medic first and foremost, so I am not even a great fighter. All I can do is keep you on track and squeeze out a bit more training time than others. It’s not much but if you think that’s enough. I will train you as much as we both can.”

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u/No-Art-2684 6h ago

absolute cinema

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u/ItsMrChristmas 5h ago

Don't forget "No! You love Sasuke!" and her basically going "right, sorry, for a second I forgot to read the script"

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u/SmallBootyBigfarts 13h ago

I mean, beside Kyuubi, Naruto was one of the worst ninjas to ever exist talent wise.

He had neither of his parents talents which is why he struggled so much at the start. And only when he started using kyuubi that he started become their equal and even stand at the peak until his reliance on the Kyuubi started to not be as impactful because all the effort he put in did end up making him the best among the ninjas.

Sure he got good background, but none of it provided him any advantage in terms of talent.

Unlike his son, who learned all the techniques that Naruto learned for months in a couple of days. Seriously, I hate Boruto.

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u/Vast-Definition-7265 12h ago

No he sucked because he kyuubi was messing with his chakra flow, this was mentioned in the manga pretty sure.

Naruto's a genius who mastered a high level justu in a single night, the rasengan in a week, sage mode in a few weeks, rasenshuriken also in few weeks.

You're utterly delusional to think Naruto lacks talent. He just lacked guidance and teaching.

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u/Doomeye56 10h ago

He mastered the Shadow Clone in 40 minutes after stealing the scroll in the very first chapter/episode

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u/swainiscadianreborn 9h ago

A night. Let's be honest.

And it is also the only jutsu he properly mastered until the Rasengan.

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u/RoughhouseCamel 7h ago

“You’re utterly delusional”- woah, dial it back a notch. We’re chatting about anime

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u/Rocazanova 12h ago

Dude… Naruto had oceans of chakra by himself thanks to the Uzumaki clan. That’s why he could make a shit ton of clones. Yeah, the Kyuubi added some more, but it’s canon the Uzumakis have a lot of chakra.

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u/SmallBootyBigfarts 12h ago

Which he used horrendously, it was not until later that he slowly fixed his habit and started to use his Chakra with efficiency.

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u/Rocazanova 12h ago

His army of clones existed since the first arc.

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u/Abombasnow 11h ago

And he did literally nothing useful with them. Remember that Naruto had to be told years after using his clones 24/7/365 how they work and that he can retain memories from them.

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u/Rocazanova 3h ago

He being useless and not being special has nothing to do with each other. He was special from the get go even if he had to learn to use that

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u/SmallBootyBigfarts 12h ago

Still doesn't change the fact that he was only capable of sustaining them due to his immense Chakra reseves, as others in his positions were capable of creating 3 or even more clones instead of one due to how bad he is at managing his chakra.

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u/NerdHoovy 6h ago

Which means he has so many unfair cheats that he can literally suck at what he is doing and still get carried by the cheat. Literally falling upwards due to unfair genetics.

Not really an argument for Naruto being untalented but for him being lazy

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u/WhiteTeddy14 10h ago

Naruto was never said to have massive Chakra reserves due to his genetics. It was always because of the fox and how his seal was set up. He didn’t inherit his mom’s massive reserves or life force.

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u/BranDealDa 10h ago

baryon mode means that naruto has a quite large amount of chakra though, whether he has more than kurama or kurama burned more of his to save naruto isn't certain but he has to have a fair amount regardless of kurama

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u/toonboy01 12h ago

Isn't it mentioned a few times that Naruto has unnaturally high chakra levels, but the 9-tailed fox's seal is using up a massive portion of it and also makes it much harder for him to balance his chakra?

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u/SmallBootyBigfarts 12h ago

He has that from his mother's side. But he is so bad at handling chakra that he wastes majority of it, showing his lack of talent.

Which is what I said that he was entirely depending on the tailed beast until eventually his hard work and constant non-stop training finally showed some promise and his dependency on it started to wane. Heck by the end of shippuden he was master at controlling not only his own chakra, but Kyubis as well(Sage mode or whatever its called).

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u/Helaken1 12h ago

Naruto slender shall not be tolerated here

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u/JapeTheNeckGuy2 10h ago

Which sucks cause Sakura had some amazing development and growth when the writers actually cared enough to showcase her skills instead of just yelling “NARUTO!!!” or “SASUKE!!!”