Masashi Kishimoto’sNarutobecame a true icon, a member of the big three, responsible for the impact and worldwide surge of anime.Narutowas loved by its amazing characters, action-packed scenes, cliffhangers all over the place and just enough mystery to keep the fans hooked.
With all that in mind, a good number of fans still felt that the last couple of arcs inNaruto Shipuddendidn’t make much sense within the overall story. The idea was that almost everything that happened afterthePain Arcwas pretty much decided last minute to expand the series with a ton of fan service with a war and the comeback of hundreds of characters. To sum it up, it wasn’t on Kisimito’s plans.
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No Pain No Gain
This fan theory mainly rested on the hypothesis of ending after thePain Arc. That means in a final arc that would have closed every remaining plot line right after Naruto defeated Pain in order to finallybecome the hero of the Village. Up until that point the entire series had been building to an ultimate clash with Akatsuki. One after the other they kept coming and fighting Naruto and his friends. Nagato killing Jiraiya and then being defeated by Naruto was the absolute culmination for a number of episodes that was already above most other series.
Perhaps, it was the feeling left by a well-rounded plot ending what incited this theory. It was an arc of such quality that thinking that what came after fell short was almost unavoidable. But truth is, Kisimoto’s plan still had plenty of things to wrap up. Obito was not only still around, but he hadn’t revealed anything about his identity or intentions. Kabuto was also lurking around and getting stronger.Sasuke and Naruto needed to come full circleas it was clear the end, whenever that was going to be, would consist of a final battle between them for the fate of the Shinobi world. And last, but equally important, what was going to happen with the Bijjus in general and between Naruto and Kurama.
However, what this theory might be right about is the fan service component of the war, and the whole idea of Black Zetsu being behind everything that happened in history for the sake of Kaguya seeming like a clearexample of Deus ex machina. What most fans wonder is at what point the Otsutsuki were added to the explanation of the story. Was it necessary for the transition to Boruto? Was only planned to extend Naruto as much as possible? Whether that’s true or not, it does feel a bit more rushed than the entire build-up between the first episode and the end of Pain’s arc.
What Could Have Been The Original Plan
There are many reasons why theFourth Great Ninja War Arcdidn’t live up to the rest of the show, quality wise. At the end of the day, it was a bunch of short stories put together to bring back an insane number of beloved characters, see some of them in action for the first time and didn’t really affect the story that much. Most of the battles felt like filler because they didn’t change the grand scheme of things in the slightest. Thus, the existence of the Fourth Great Ninja War was a commodity rather than a necessity to reach the conclusion. The fact that only one of the main charactersdied during the war(three total if you count both sides), makes you think if it should actually be considered a war.
Evenif Madara’s plan was there all along, it could have been resolved much easier in a direct combat between the parts rather than an all out war that also ended with a direct combat between Obito/Madara and the two remaining Jinchurikis. This gets even more frustrating in the anime, when the secondary battles were mixed with fillers, and the percentage of canon content kept going down more and more. In the meantime, Sasuke’s character development also felt kind of erratic during the war, to the point that he was just waiting until the “filler” part of the war ended to make up his mind.
A fair assumption regarding what Kisimoto might have originally planned would need to combine some of the ideas from the theory of ending with pain and some key elements of what happened after. Way before Pain’s defeat it was stated that the Akatsuki wherecollecting the Bijuusto stablish a new world order. At that point the idea of Obito being responsible for pulling the strings was without a doubt planned for many different factors: Kakashi’s mangekyou sharingan, the 4th Hokage story, Itachi’s mission, it all added up.
Naruto Shipuddencouldn’t have ended with Pain, because the series revolved around Akatsuki, and Akatsuki’s true leader was still alive and ready to fight. What is true, is that Kabuto could have played a minor role in that if any, the battle could have been limited to bringing back Madara. The ending would have being Sasuke and Naruto vs. Madara, and then the anticipated Naruto vs. Sasuke. They could have gained the power of Indra and Ashura the same way, because The Sage of the Six Paths could have been explained without the Otsutsuki. It wouldn’t have felt like the whole history of the Shinobi was meaninglessbecause of Black Zetsu.
It definitely wasn’t supposed to end with Pain, but just by eliminatingthe unnecessary elements of the warand the Kaguya twist,Naruto Shipuddencould have ended over a 100 episodes earlier. When you have a product that has gained that big of a marketability it’s not precisely rare for the producers to be interested in making it last as long as possible. Unfortunately, the answer to the real plan Masashi Kisimoto had for Naruto’s ending it’s only known by him and maybe a few more lucky co-workers. The only thing fans can do is hope for him come forward about this one day, or imagine how it could have been.
