Throughout the long-running Naruto series, many different characters had a chance to step up to the plate as heroes during missions and war. These heroes fought valiantly to protect their friends, family, and village, and the ninja world would no doubt be very different if they had not been there to bring peace.
Characters like Sasuke and Obito have bounced back between the sides of peace and destruction, but what about the ones that haven't? It would be interesting to explore an alternate universe in which the shinobi heroes were actually villains--a world where evil prevails! Here are ten Naruto heroes reimagined as villains.
10 Hashirama
Art by DeviantArt user: excalibur321
One of the founders of Konohagakure and the First Hokage, Hashirama will forever be one of the most celebrated heroes in Naruto. He built the foundation of the shinobi world with Madara and protected it when his co-founder turned against him.
But what if Hashirama had been the one to betray the village? Perhaps if Madara had been crowned the First Hokage instead of him, Hashirama might have felt bitter enough to disrupt the peace they had built together. Rather than being the kind-hearted First Hokage we know and love, Hashirama could have been one of the most powerful and dangerous villains like Madara.
9 Gaara
Art by DeviantArt user: Tielss
Similar to Naruto, Gaara has one of the Tailed Beasts inside of him, which caused him much grief and suffering as a child. This pushed him into a dark place where he had little control over his emotions, to the point where he brutally killed others without much thought.
Thankfully, he was eventually brought out of that darkness by Naruto and his friends who showed him compassion. Without his friends, however, Gaara would still be suffering as a villain who was never loved. The thought of that is both scary and tragic.
8 Shino
Art by DeviantArt user: linnyxito
Shino didn't have as large of a role as many other characters in the series, but he was always on the side of the heroes and even became the dedicated academy teacher for the next generation of young ninja in Boruto. However, with his very intimidating appearance and bug-infesting techniques, Shino could easily be imagined as a villain.
Coincidentally, Shino's adoptive brother, Torune, served under the corrupt Danzo in the Root organization. Had Shino been recruited by Danzo over Torune, he could have been subjected to the emotionless and sinful duties of a villain.
7 Sakura
Art by DeviantArt user: Claudia Poland
Sakura was a key player as a hero in the Fourth Shinobi War, but she's also done a handful of terrible things that make you question her as a character. Maybe those moments were not terrible in the "evil" sense, but one could make the argument that Sakura would have been better off as a villain.
For example, it would have been interesting if Sasuke's abandonment of the village also drove Sakura to the dark side. Perhaps she could have joined Taka or the Akatsuki in an effort to help the love of her life achieve his dream of revenge.
6 Hinata
Art by Reddit User: OmarvinG94
With her gentle and well-mannered nature, Hinata is the least likely character in Naruto to ever pursue the life of a villain, but seeing a darker and more sinister version of her would be fascinating.
If Hinata had been evil for whatever reason, she could have gained the arrogance and motivation of a villain to lead the Hyuga Clan, one of Konohagakure's strongest clans, into a destructive battle for even more power. Or in a more elaborate scheme, an evil Hinata could have married Naruto, the Seventh Hokage, just for the sake of gaining control over the village.
5 Tsunade
Art by ArtStation User: Camilla Ferrari
The Fifth Hokage, Tsunade, was the granddaughter of the First Hokage and a student of the Third Hokage, so she had a lot of things going for her in terms of a bright future. Along the way, however, the traumatic death of her lover, Dan, caused her to develop a phobia of blood.
In a world where Tsunade developed bloodlust in place of her blood phobia, things would have been very different. When offered by Orochimaru to resurrect her deceased lover and brother in exchange for healing his arms, a bloodthirsty Tsunade could have gone along with his villainous plan instead of becoming the Fifth Hokage.
4 Ino
Art By DeviantArt User: harpiya
Ino might have been a villain in the eyes of her love rival, Sakura, but she was otherwise a hero in the Fourth Shinobi War who stepped up as the telepathic communicator for the entire Alliance after the death of her father.
While she continues to use the Yamanaka Clan's Mind Techniques to assist her allies in communication, intelligence-gathering, and combat, she could easily have chosen to abuse her jutsu to corrupt minds. She has the capabilities to take control over her opponent's mind and make multiple enemies fight each other--both of which could have been used in more villainous schemes.
3 Sai
Art By DeviantArt User: linnyxito
Sai was one of the more suspicious and mysterious characters who gave off villainous vibes until his truth came to light. His time training in Root caused him to suffer the loss of emotions, and it could have led him down the road to being a true antagonist like Danzo.
If Sai had ended up fighting and killing his brotherly friend, Shin, as Danzo had intended, Sai probably would have lost his emotions permanently and become an irrational killing machine. Luckily, Shin passed away from an illness before they could fight to the death.
2 Kakashi
Art by DeviantArt User: yaichino
As a ninja who put a lot of blame on himself for the deaths of his two closest allies, Kakashi was a hero with a lot of unseen darkness within him. But had he not learned the importance of teamwork through those tragic deaths, he could have grown up to be a selfish ninja villain who valued success more than the lives of his allies.
In fact, an evil Kakashi would probably prefer to work alone rather than have any allies at all. With a stolen Sharingan he'd snag from Obito, Kakashi could single-handedly take down any team of ninja with no one holding him back. In a world where evil Kakashi exists, teamwork is dead.
1 Naruto
Art by Reddit User: zephyzu
It is rare for a shonen protagonist to be a villain, but it is not impossible as seen with Light Yagami in Death Note. That being said, it was never likely that Naruto, who achieved his lifelong dream of becoming Hokage, would turn evil.
It might have been possible, however, if Naruto didn't have someone to show him love or kindness like Iruka had. If Iruka had ignored the poor kid like everyone else out of fear of the Nine-Tailed Fox, Naruto would have been driven to pure loneliness and emptiness, which could have led to an uncontrollable rampage similar to Gaara's.