Masashi Kishimoto is the creator of the Naruto series which ran in Shueisha's Weekly Shounen Jump from 1999 to 2014. The manga was hugely popular throughout the world and amassed a huge fanbase in its 15 years of running in WSJ. Having concluded in 2014, Kishimoto made sure to write an ending that certainly satisfied all the fans.
However, as with every other story, there are things that the writer just forgot to wrap up. While some of these things are minor, others are quite big and not resolving them in the story has driven the fans crazy at times. Here are 10 things that Masashi Kishimoto completely forgot about in Naruto.
10 The Truth-Seeking Balls
By the end of Naruto, a special power known as the Six Paths Senjustu was introduced in the story which gave characters like Naruto Uzumaki and Madara Uchiha a huge power boost. When used, this power also granted the user a number of truth-seeking balls that could be used as an offensive and defensive ability.
In Naruto's case, their numbers seemed to reduce over time since they could only be controlled in a 70 m radius. However, the last three of Naruto's truth-seeking balls simply vanished, never to be seen again.
9 Sharingan Abilities
The Sharingan was introduced as an eye that could read and see through Ninjutsu, Genjutsu, and Taijutsu. Its other ability was that it could successfully copy all of the said techniques unless they were Kekkei Genkai. Unfortunately, Masashi Kishimoto simply forgot about this ability of the Sharingan with time. In Naruto Shippuden, the Sharingan was barely ever used to copy the Jutsu of other people.
With the Mangekyo Sharingan and the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan being introduced, the Sharingan simply served as a basis for gaining even greater powers in the series.
8 Six Paths Sage Mode Color Scheme
This may be a minor gripe, but its impact has been huge among the fans over the last few years. The Six Paths Sage Mode was initially introduced as a power that gave Naruto Uzumaki a yellow glow, but his face remained unaffected, unlike the Kurama Chakra Mode, which added the glow to the face as well.
After the Fourth Great Ninja War, the Six Paths Sage Mode became far too identical to the Kurama Chakra Mode for some reason. It's not that Kishimoto forgot that Naruto had the Six Paths Sage Mode. He simply forgot what it looked like or for some reason, thought that the old appearance of this power should be changed.
7 Madara's Mangekyo Ability
Now, this is one of the biggest things that Masashi Kishimoto forgot to put in his story. When the Mangekyo Sharingan was introduced, we were told that each eye possessed a unique ability. For instance, Itachi had the Amaterasu in one eye and the Tsukuyomi in the other.
Surprisingly, in Madara's case, the Mangekyo Sharingan ability simply never existed. If it did, Kishimoto did a poor job of illustrating it in the story because it was never revealed to us. Even when reanimated, Madara simply used the Susanoo, never even thinking about using his Mangekyo Sharingan ability.
6 The Ethereal Weapons
The Ethereal Weapons were first introduced during Sasuke Uchiha's fight against Itachi in Naruto Shippuden. These two weapons were held by Itachi Uchiha, and interestingly, even Orochimaru was looking for them at some point in time.
However, after Itachi's death, they simply vanished. The fact that Orochimaru was looking for them meant that these weapons weren't exclusive to his Susanoo. Unfortunately, with time, the Ethereal Weapons were written out of the story.
5 Side Characters
The Naruto series focused quite well on the side-characters right until the time-skip. After Naruto returned, the series became more focused on Sasuke and Naruto, pushing the rest to the background. That's not bad altogether since Naruto and Sasuke are the main characters, however, Kishimoto's under-development of the other characters is shocking.
Throughout the first part of the series, characters like Kiba, Shino, and Rock Lee among others were actually given some time to develop, but with progress, all of them were pushed to the background and Kishimoto simply pretended that they didn't exist, for the most part.
4 Kakashi's 1000 Jutsu
Kakashi Hatake's skill with the Sharingan had earned him the moniker of the Copy Ninja in the Naruto series. It is said that he had copied over 1000 Jutsu in his life. One would expect Kishimoto to have shown the fans at least 30-40 of the copied Jutsu to show why he deserved the moniker in the first place.
Again, Kishimoto chose to give Kakashi the ability to use just a few Jutsu despite having copied a 1000. It's a shame that this aspect of Kakashi Hatake was never explored in the series and we're certain that the fans would've loved to see him do more.
3 The Hyuga Resolution
Another big thing that Masashi Kishimoto simply forgot about is the Hyuga Clan's resolution. The whole drama with the Main family and the Branch family was ultimately going to be changed by Naruto Uzumaki, and by the looks of it, he did change it.
Unfortunately, we didn't get to see any of that happen, which is a shame, really. Hiashi did acknowledge the fact that the fate of the wasn't sealed anymore and that Neji was fighting to prove the exact same thing, however, again, it felt like a rushed cover-up. Kishimoto never gave the fans an illustration of how the Hyuga Clan functions and what happens to those of branch now.
2 Lee vs Neji
Rock Lee vs Neji was hyped up to be an incredible clash during the first part of Naruto. To surpass Neji, Lee worked incredibly hard and mastered the usage of 5 of the 8 gates during the first part of the series. In fact, it was Lee's goal to surpass Neji by fighting him and according to what we were told, the Primary Lotus was actually developed to counter Neji's Byakugan.
Just like everything else on this list, Kishimoto forgot about this fight altogether, or just didn't see it important to give us this fight where Rock Lee could clash against Neji.
1 The Meaning of the Akatsuki Rings
All the members of the Akatsuki were given a specific ring to wear for some reason. These rings weren't just for show as it was considered extremely important to retrieve Sasori's ring upon his death. Why that was the case is something we'll never know because Kishimoto simply never gave us an explanation for this.
More likely than not, Masashi Kishimoto forgot about the rings and why they were important. It is possible that the meaning of the rings was little when compared to other flashy things in the series, such as Madara Uchiha's revival.