One of the major themes of Naruto, which for many fans can be somewhat frustrating, is that just about everyone can earn their redemption if they come around to Naruto’s way of thinking and do their best to make their mistakes right.

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And while some of the villains of the series, like Gaara or Sasuke, might even earn that redemption, others have done such horrible things that it seems hard to imagine them making a comeback from those actions. One such person is Kabuto, Orochimaru’s right-hand man and general spy who’s too clever for his own good. There are several things that he has done that the series expects fans to forget about and some of which they successfully have.

10 He Tries To Kill Sasuke While He’s In A Hospital Bed

Kabuto standing over Sasuke with a scalpel

For some reason that’s never fully explained, Kabuto is truly resentful of the idea of Orochimaru choosing Sasuke as his next vessel. After Kakashi attempts to seal Sasuke’s Curse Mark, Sasuke ends up in the Konoha Hospital, where he is recuperating from these efforts. Orochimaru tells Kabuto that if he doesn’t want Sasuke to be his vessel, he’ll have to kill him before they leave the village. But Kabuto tries to do this while he’s incapacitated, only failing because Kakashi is there to protect him.

9 He Kidnaps Anko

Kabuto vs anko in Naruto

Anko has a lot of difficult feelings about Orochimaru since she was once his student. She seems to feel a personal responsibility for his actions, and she eventually decides that she has to track him down herself to stop him from achieving his goals. Kabuto intercepts this attempt and, after they fight, he takes her hostage. He forces her to be a constant witness to his plans and how they’re going, using her as an unwilling sounding board.

8 He Genetically Mutates Young Victims

Orochimaru and Kabuto

There is a certain irony to the fact that Kabuto helps Orochimaru experiment on young people that they’ve either kidnapped or lured to their lair. Kabuto himself was after all trained at a young age to work as part of the Root organization, and his experiences there are what led him to betray Konoha in the first place. So the fact that he is personally running experiments on people that genetically alters them forever seems extremely horrific.

7 He Kills Members Of Konoha’s ANBU

Konohamaru Anbu in Naruto

During the Konoha Crush Arc, Kabuto’s infiltration of Konoha is part of the reason that the invasion of the village is such a success.

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One of the things he does that really sets things up well for the Sound and the Sand is killing a lot of ANBU operatives in order to install himself, along with several other agents of the Sound, in their places, hidden in plain sight so they can cast a genjutsu over the Chunin Exams arena.

6 He Pits Tobi & The Allied Forces Against Each Other

Obito with his mask

Aside from Orochimaru, Kabuto doesn’t ever really work for anyone but himself. He’s great at taking advantage of people and situations so that he can be the one who comes out on top. During the Fourth Great Ninja War, he orchestrates things perfectly so that Tobi and his forces go up against the Allied Shinobi Forces. This leaves Kabuto in a perfect position to capitalize on the carnage and take a place for himself at the top of the pile.

5 He Works As A Double Agent

Kabuto Yakushi Smiling Naruto

Kabuto is incredibly good at spying since he’s able to blend in just about anywhere thanks to his Root training. Viewers see this firsthand during the Chunin Exams when he successfully convinces Team 7 that he’s there to help them and has no ulterior motives. He also works as a double agent for Orochimaru, infiltrating the Akatsuki and keeping tabs on their movements and plans. The Akatsuki are evil, so it’s not the worst thing he’s done, but it does lead to a lot of bad things happening later.

4 He Kills Nono While On A Root Mission

Kabuto young

As a child, Kabuto’s village was destroyed, and he was left without memories of his life due to a head injury. Nono, who worked at a Konoha orphanage, found him. She’s the closest to a mother figure he’s ever had.

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So when they face off during a Root mission and he kills her, it’s one of the worst moments in the series, on par with Gaara accidentally killing his uncle. Though he didn’t know it was her when it happens, it is the beginning of his descent into villainy.

3 He Lives In Konoha After The Fourth Great Ninja War

Kabuto Yakushi in Boruto.

While most of the people who get their redemption moments in Naruto actually end up dying afterward, there are a couple that manage to survive the war. Kabuto, along with Orochimaru and Sasuke, is one of them. The fact that, after all of the things he’s done, he moves back to Konoha to run an orphanage and just live among the people there is quite a choice. At least Sasuke has the decency to mostly stay out of town on missions, given the awful things he’s also responsible for.

2 He Creates The Edo Tensei Soldiers

Kabuto & Obito

Despite the fact that Kabuto is never truly a member of the Akatsuki, he does do a few things that directly help them in the Fourth Great Ninja War. One of these things is stealing the corpses of powerful dead shinobi, particularly those who used to be in the Akatsuki, and using forbidden jutsu to resurrect them, creating the Edo Tensei Army. This is a huge blow to the Allied Shinobi Forces, who now have to contend with powerful ninja in addition to the other forces they’re already facing.

1 He Lets The Edo Tensei Keep Their Personalities

Edo Tensei Zabuza vs Kakashi

Usually, when someone uses a forbidden jutsu in order to bring someone back to life and force them to fight for them, they remove the person’s personality so that they keep all of their fighting skill but none of their own free will. Kabuto chooses to let the Edo Tensei keep their personalities to traumatize the Allied Shinobi who have to fight against them. This backfires on him, of course, but it’s still an awful thing to do to both the Edo Tensei and those facing them.

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