Naruto More Story Arcs

[Knyght]

In one of the interviews following the conclusion of Naruto, we learned that Kishimoto had originally planned to include more missions of Team 7, facing new enemies after the Land of Wave to bond the team, including the leader of the enemy team being Kakashi's rival. But his editor urged him not to loiter and throw in a bunch of new characters at once. So we got the Chuunin Exams instead.

Personally, I think having more missions after the Land of Waves would have served the story well. Team 7 could have developed their skills, gained more experience and deepened their relationship before a potential promotion comes up.

I'd say there should have been two more missions, C-rank or higher, and should have involved shinobi from Kumo and Iwa in some way. That way we would have seen ninjas from all Five Great Shinobi Villages before the end of Part 1.

But aside from that, I'm struggling to think of what kind of missions they should have gone on, what kind of enemies they should have faced and what should have happened on them.

So what do you think should have happened between the Land of Waves and the Chuunin Exam?

 

[thecuiy]

RE: More Arcs, More Story

I thinking something like what Jmenace did in Written in Reverse where Naruto meets the other Jinchuriki. Not only that but set the stage for world building, examine the relationship between the villages and show the cultures and traditions of each village.

 

[Altered Nova]

RE: More Arcs, More Story

There are a bunch of anime-only "mission" filler story arcs that take place after the Search for Tsunade and Sasuke's defection that would be perfect for pre-chuunin exam Team 7 with some major tweaking. For example:

Kakashi and Iruka accept a mission to track down the escaped convict Mizuki. Because Mizuki is believed to be a low threat level and working alone, they bring Team 7 along for some field training and so Naruto can get some closure on that painful incident Mizuki had put him through. Mizuki is captured, but not before managing to hire a pair of strong local yami-nin to help him escape and revealing that he'd received a prototype cursed seal from Orochimaru and during his time in prison he'd learned how to activate it, giving him the strength to really push team 7 and Iruka to the limit.

Team 7 accepts a C-rank mission to help Sasame, the last known member of the Fuuma clan, look for her cousin Arashi and the rest of her missing clansmen in the allied Land of Rice. She has come Konoha because Otogakure mysteriously refuses to accept her mission. The mission is actually a trap; Sasame and her teammates actually intend to capture Sasuke Uchiha and trade him to Orochimaru in exchange for the freedom of their clansmen and their leader Gen'yuumaru, although Team 7 never explicitly discover this motivation.

Once in the Land of Rice, Sasame attempts to serve Team 7 seven drugged tea, but Kakashi sees through this and swaps the tea out. Several Fuuma clan ninja then attack Team 7, they are fought off but manage to capture Sakura. Team 7 tracks them down to one of Orochimaru's old hideouts and discover the group's leader, Arashi, who seems to have been driven insane by Orochimaru's experiments within. During the pitched battle, Arashi uses the kinjutsu Casualty Puppet to sacrifice his teammates as they fall in order to become more powerful. When Team 7 finally defeats Arashi, he attempts to collapse the entire hideout in order to take them with him. Team 7 narrowly escapes, the fate of Sasame, whom Naruto had become friendly with, is left uncertain (perhaps Naruto meets her again in Part 2 along with the rest of the Fuuma clan who were freed by Gen'yuumaru's last wish before becoming Orochimaru's host?), and they are ultimately left with more questions than answers regarding the incident. Kakashi reports to Hiruzen that he suspects Orochimaru may be hiding in the Land of Rice, foreshadowing his control of Otagakure.

There are a bunch of other anime-only story arcs you could use for inspiration on this page.

 

[ankokudaishogun]

RE: More Arcs, More Story

Pre chuunin-exam missions could have focused on showing the working of the naruto world:
A mission working along a Hidden Grass genin cell, to introduce the other villages, the fact they are Allies and how the Jonin don't really believe too much in such alliance
A mission dealing with the civilian side of the Fire Country, introducing the civilian governments and its relationship with the Hidden Villages
A story dealing with the bureaucratic part of being a ninja, introducing various offices, sections and shit.

 

[Knyght]

RE: More Arcs, More Story

The anime and films were indeed my first thought but I thought I should attempt a more original route.

I'd go for story arcs that aren't tied to the later of Part 1 myself, letting these one stand alone like the Land of Waves. They would be linked together in the sense that Team 7 are growing and changing from their experiences, but things such as Orochimaru, Jinchuuriki and Akatsuki would only be hinted at in small ways. Like the three of them learning that there are nine demons that have plagued the land for centuries to give more context to the Nine-Tails, hearing about a powerful ninja that went rogue before they born who might turn against Konoha, or seeing the remarkable destruction left behind by a mercenary that had passed through an area on their mission.

Nothing directly related to what they're doing but giving slight hints at their existence. It wouldn't be until the Chuunin Exams that they really learn about Orochimaru and Jinchuuriki, and then Akatsuki after that.

 

[goldenarms]

RE: More Arcs, More Story

I think more focus on life outside of the Hidden Village would have been good to look at. Team Seven coming into contact with a group of Yami-nin while on a routine mission to give us some history about ninja who not only forsake their village, they enlist themselves with the Underworld and work for other crime families. At the very least, it would finally put to rest the concept of missing-nin scratching out their headbands, but more I've been wanting to learn about their criminals since we were introduced to the concept in the Search for Tsunade arc.

 

[13ry4n]

RE: More Arcs, More Story

More arcs would've given more time for Sakura to come into her own. It also would have give some time for this brotherly connection that I keep hearing Sasuke and Naruto have to develop and for Sasuke to begin showing signs of improvement so when Itachi shows up and skull fucks him it's more noticeable.

Hell, you could also have had joint missions with the other rookie nine teams to allow for development there.

 

[Knyght]

RE: More Arcs, More Story

So I went and made a post about it...

tl;dr Other thoughts that came to mind were learning about chakra natures and genjutsu much earlier, Sakura actually learning some freaking genjutsu and being interested in medicine and Kakashi living up to his Copy Ninja nickname.

Edit: That was such an awkward thread title.

 

[AJ_Katon]

In one of the interviews following the conclusion of Naruto, we learned that Kishimoto had originally planned to include more missions of Team 7, facing new enemies after the Land of Wave to bond the team, including the leader of the enemy team being Kakashi's rival. But his editor urged him not to loiter and throw in a bunch of new characters at once. So we got the Chuunin Exams instead.

Personally, I think having more missions after the Land of Waves would have served the story well. Team 7 could have developed their skills, gained more experience and deepened their relationship before a potential promotion comes up.

I'd say there should have been two more missions, C-rank or higher, and should have involved shinobi from Kumo and Iwa in some way. That way we would have seen ninjas from all Five Great Shinobi Villages before the end of Part 1.

But aside from that, I'm struggling to think of what kind of missions they should have gone on, what kind of enemies they should have faced and what should have happened on them.

So what do you think should have happened between the Land of Waves and the Chuunin Exam?

That sounds exactly like what happened to Kubo before the whole SS arc. I wonder if it is going to be proven that it happened to Oda?

Like why did the editor push for more charas. instead of letting more arcs in?

Also would this help to make the movies canon?

 

[Knyght]

The editor was probably worried about the manga getting cancelled if it was made too slow-paced by dealing with more missions before anything really serious happened. So bringing in a bunch of characters in the Chuunin Exams created a lot of interesting conflict/variety and then shit hit the fan with the Konoha Crush.

Dunno why this would affect the films at all. They all happened after the Search for Tsunade Arc anyway, and would you really want any of them to be canon? :hmm:

 

[AJ_Katon]

The editor was probably worried about the manga getting cancelled if it was made too slow-paced by dealing with more missions before anything really serious happened. So bringing in a bunch of characters in the Chuunin Exams created a lot of interesting conflict/variety and then shit hit the fan with the Konoha Crush.

Dunno why this would affect the films at all. They all happened after the Search for Tsunade Arc anyway, and would you really want any of them to be canon? :hmm:

Mostly for some of the concept items like chakra armor, the locomotives, the Gelel stone and demon Muryou in relation to the Shinju tree.

I'd like a notice or hint that they're out there somewhere and being worked on long before Konoha updated via Kage!Naruto.

 

[Knyght]

Can't say I disagree with there being some interesting concepts I'd have liked to have seen in canon. :sisi:

 

[Knyght]

There are a bunch of other anime-only story arcs you could use for inspiration on this page.

If going all-out with a build-up to Orochimaru as the main villain of Part 1 then the Kaima Capture Mission could be a good one too with its own connection to him. And there's the Menma Memory Search Mission but that one doesn't seem too interesting and three extra arcs seems more than enough anyway.

Though if Kishimoto had gone down such a route, Part 2 would have been that much more disappointing. Orochimaru's plotline was weak and there would need to be a much more climactic end to his tale to do justice to Part 1's major villain. Like Team 7 temporarily reuniting to finish the job that the Third Hokage started.

And to move on from that...

Does anyone think that there could have been more arcs later in the story too?

Like between the Search for Tsunade and the Sasuke Recovery Mission which could deal with the fallout out from Sasuke's brutal defeat by Itachi, Naruto's ever increasing strength and the increasingly hostile rivalry between them in Ninja Clash in the Land of Snow Iron.

Or even somewhere between the Tenchi Bridge Reconnaisance and the Itachi Pursuit, Konoha does their own hunt for the unsealed Three-Tails. This puts them at odds with Kiri who want their Tailed Beast back; unfortunately they still have their reputation as the Bloody Mist and are rumoured to have been the origin of Akatsuki. Then their new regime could still suffers civil unrest as the other Seven Ninja Swordsmen that went rogue like Kisame seek to otherthrow the new Mizukage themselves. So it's a clash between Konoha, Akatsuki and factions of Kiri. Naruto could even get the chance of having a rematch against Deidara.

 

[Altered Nova]

Wasn't there an unmentioned timeskip of two weeks or so between the Sound Four confronting Sasuke his defection that you discovered from an easily overlooked change in the phase of the moon? Considering how low on manpower Konoha was from the Chuunin Exam Invasion, Team Seven should have been taking missions during that time. So it would make sense to slip in a few missions there where Sasuke keeps getting frustrated by how much faster Naruto is improving compared to himself to really solidify his belief that he's just wasting time playing games in Konoha and needs to go to Orochimaru to get stronger.

I also agree that there should have been more missions in Part 2. Naruto only does stuff related to national security in Part 2, hunting down defectors and fighting terrorists and such. It's easy to forget that he's technically a mercenary because he stops dealing with regular clients after the Wave Mission. And he apparently had a lot of downtime since Part 2 is a year long but there isn't anywhere near enough stuff depicted to fill an entire year passing (hell there's almost 200 chapters that take place over only two or three days!)

Hunting down the unsealed Three-Tails is something that really should have happened in the manga. Konoha knew Akatsuki wanted to capture all the bijuu, so they should have gone after Isobu to deny him to their enemy. It makes no sense that Akatsuki was able to capture the Three-Tails completely uncontested.

 

[thecuiy]

ANYTHING INVOLVING THE TAILED BEASTS.

Seriously. Such amazing potentials for character development for Naruto, meeting people who are like him, who are who he COULD become. It would have added a hell of alot more weight to the final fight between the Jinchuriki where all the Biju entrust him with a portion of their chakra.

 

[Knyght]

You guys be reading my mind.

If Jinchuuriki had actually needed to be extracted in order (rather than just the Nine-Tails needing to be last) it wouldn't have been too difficult to have Naruto make contact with every Jinchuuriki or Tailed Beast in some way before they were lost since Gaara would be the first. But we already had two extracted prior to Gaara's capture.

And while I'm keen on Gaara definitely being the first Jinchuuriki Naruto meets, I don't think I'd mind him meeting another one in Part 1 after him. Like Fu who's probably the closest in age and the odd one out as a ninja from a minor village.

I've been thinking that the reason the timescale of Part 2 is so deceptive is because of how quickly the first part happens; the Kazekage Rescue, Tenchi Bridge Reconnaissance, Akatsuki Suppression and the opening of the Itachi Pursuit Mission went down in, like, a month or two. But from that point, it seems like we're making big leaps in time.

 

[Altered Nova]

You guys be reading my mind.

If Jinchuuriki had actually needed to be extracted in order (rather than just the Nine-Tails needing to be last) it wouldn't have been too difficult to have Naruto make contact with every Jinchuuriki or Tailed Beast in some way before they were lost since Gaara would be the first. But we already had two extracted prior to Gaara's capture.

This also would have the added bonus of making Akatsuki a far more menacing group of villains because it means the good guys would have to lose at least seven fights against them, and they'd actually be killing important developed characters onscreen (the Jinchuuriki) instead of hunting them down as minor characters in the background while the heroes focus on the obviously far more important issue of finding Sasuke. /sarcasm

Seriously I find it extremely annoying that nobody but Gaara seemed to be taking that whole "an S-rank group of missing-nin are collecting all the bijuu" issue seriously until it seemed they captured Killer B and the Raikage forced the issue by calling for a Kage Summit. The ninja world actually waited until Akatsuki seemed to have captured all but one of the bijuu before anyone said "ya know maybe we should do something about those guys."

 

[AJ_Katon]

You guys be reading my mind.

If Jinchuuriki had actually needed to be extracted in order (rather than just the Nine-Tails needing to be last) it wouldn't have been too difficult to have Naruto make contact with every Jinchuuriki or Tailed Beast in some way before they were lost since Gaara would be the first. But we already had two extracted prior to Gaara's capture.

This also would have the added bonus of making Akatsuki a far more menacing group of villains because it means the good guys would have to lose at least seven fights against them, and they'd actually be killing important developed characters onscreen (the Jinchuuriki) instead of hunting them down as minor characters in the background while the heroes focus on the obviously far more important issue of finding Sasuke. /sarcasm

Seriously I find it extremely annoying that nobody but Gaara seemed to be taking that whole "an S-rank group of missing-nin are collecting all the bijuu" issue seriously until it seemed they captured Killer B and the Raikage forced the issue by calling for a Kage Summit. The ninja world actually waited until Akatsuki seemed to have captured all but one of the bijuu before anyone said "ya know maybe we should do something about those guys."

It would've helped if there was some mention of ninja being killed while trying to retrieve or protect the Bijuu. For Nation deterrents, the ninja who had them were pretty stupid on taking care of them.

Onooki mentioned that most of the kidnaps were kept secret due to being a blow to nation pride but...actually why wasn't Taki allowed to go to that Summit? If they were talking about Bijuu shouldn't one of the Nations that had one be invited?

 

[Knyght]

Taki is a minor village which likely makes it unworthy of the Great Five's attention. They ain't gotta welcome such puny village leader to the Kage Summit. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

They and the other villages weren't even invited to the war to decide the fate of the world despite even the samurai getting involved. Perhaps with more arcs we could have actually seen more ninjas from these villages, particularly their leaders, so they could have shown up without it being an even greater influx of new characters. I'd have liked there to have been more fallout from the collapse of the Hidden Sound as well; those guys had hideouts all over the continent as well as their actual village and fell apart with Orochiaru, yet we never hear from any of them.

Another bonus of extra arcs would be more screentime and development for the rest of the Konoha 12. The only ones who managed to achieve any significance in Part 2 were Shikamaru, Hinata and Chouji (and Neji :rip1: ) while the rest were left in minor roles almost the entire time. I won't count Neji who only managed to die in the name of NaruHina.

 

[thecuiy]

the thing i hate most about Hinata and most of the side characters(Konoha 12) is that they seemed to have been created for a singular purpose, reducing them to less then characters even at times. Like Hinata, in my opinion, is completely irrelevant to the story. Remove her and you have epic bromance between Naruto and Sasuke that ends with everyone wondering why the fuck the main hero didn't get the girl. Her only purpose seems to be to give Naruto a waifu and children and that makes her a completely flat character in my eyes.

 

[ankokudaishogun]

Hinata actually has a (minor) role: she's Naruto's "confirmation".
Her being in love with him is completely irrelevant: the important part is her being a weak-willed loser who, by not giving up, manages to improve and prove herself to other, gaining their acknowledgement.
While one might argue Rock Lee could have served the same purpose, that's not right: he starts "strong" and "strong-willed", therefore already "superior" to Naruto(whose strong will is in part an act, at least in the first part of the manga).
Hinata starts as Naruto's "inferior" that has to be "helped" by Naruto. By the 4th Ninja War, she has come to the point it's HER who helps Naruto(the slap).