Throughout the years of Naruto, we've had many characters. Some have been great and made us laugh and cry, while others have been grating on our nerves and making us wish they'd just fuck off, die and then come back so we can see a head-butt to that groin of theirs.
However, not every character in the series gets to do either. Some are cast aside and forgotten by the amount of screen-time that the stars of the show take up which is why I'm now here to inform you about the top 5 characters that need the love from you, from the writers and from the rest of the world!
SHIZUNE
Shizune "Insert-last-name-here" is one of the top medical-nin of the entire village and probably the entire world. She seemed to have become Tsunade's attendant, which must be a loose translation to "Tsunade's bitch" and spends a lot of time healing, holding Tonton the pig, or making an anime reaction face we all know and love.She was also Dan Kato's niece by the way, which I'm betting most people had forgotten.
She's A-dork-able!
Now it'd be unfair to say she doesn't get screentime because she definitely does. She's had some great moments including facing off against Kabuto in her first ever arc, which she did surprisingly well and managed to keep him on his toes for a while. She is constantly by Tsunade's side, giving helpful tips and always appears to heal somebody who has been majorly fucked by some massive villain. (See Neji vs Kidomaru for reference). And right now, she is Head of the Medical Division for the entire Shinobi War, healing everybody and even getting Tonton involved!
In Team Fortress 2, She's Always The Sniper
So why is she on this list? It's because she deserves more. She is a great character. Funny, smart, skilled, caring, hot. If I got lucky enough to meet a girl like this, I'd keep her around all the time. She has a backstory involving Tsunade's former lover and she was clearly good enough to become her attendant. I'd love to see how she impressed her, even if it did just involve a lot of sake and having a smaller bosom. Also maybe something to do with how those two got a close friendship. (Or more if you're a heavy shipper of TsunadeXShizune).
4. KANKURO/TEMARI
The two older siblings of Gaara, and former antagonists of the series. It's hard to mention one of them without mentioning the other so we'll give both of them this spot. Kankuro is the middle child and wears some type of strange cat-like outfit of full black as well as some tattoos on his face, which keep changing every arc he appears in. Temari is the eldest of the three and overall, very awesome with her cool get-ups, casual smirk and confident nature that makes Shikamaru get all nervous.
I Couldn't Have Said It Better Myself
Kankuro's jutsu is in the form of puppets, where he uses chakra strings to control different types of puppets, starting off with just one ugly freak and eventually going to three at the one time. We've seen him fight a strange stretchy guy called Misumi, lose in a very cool way to our very cool bug-man Shino and even save Kiba from one of the Sound Five, in a very gruesome way. Then Part 2 happens and he stops being so cool. Yes he was the first to fight Sasori, but he was defeated almost instantly. He then spends the rest of his time staying behind Gaara and letting him do all the work until he joined in the war. Most of this went to Sai but Kankuro had a great moment where he made a reanimated Sasori move on peacefully, but only after the others had defeated the entire group and let him pick up the pieces.
You Came To The Wrong Neighbourhood, Motherfucker
Temari's jutsu, which is all wind-themed and mostly done through the work of her giant fan, is a unique and majorly powerful one that literally blows opponents away. (Yes. I like puns.) Her first battle wasn't even seen because we had to watch Sakura and Ino talk about their rubbish fight. We got to see it in the manga but sadly, that doesn't technically count. After a great one-on-one with Shikamaru, in which she only won because of some major laziness, she then stays out the spotlight, getting bitch-slapped away by Gaara and made to watch Naruto fight Gaara. Eventually, she comes back and saves Shikamaru from Tayuya, destroying an entire forest and pissing off environmentalists along the way. Like Kankuro, she seems to stay quiet until the war, where she leads a pack of random Shinobi, including Gaara's head fangirl Matsuri. Needless to say, this pack never managed to get any real victories without Gaara, Naruto or Onoki there to do the work.
Shikamaru Wishes He Could Tap That
These two are a great duo, alone or together. They have done so much and have such great potential with both their powers and personalities. The fact they are the older siblings of Gaara also adds to potential interesting scenes we would all love to see, including their need to protect Gaara despite not really needing to except emotionally. If any character group got a spin-off, the Sand Siblings would be high on my list for the choice.
IRUKA UMINO
Iruka is one of the first ever characters we meet in the series and is also one of the biggest influences of Naruto's life. His parents died during the attack from the Kyuubi, the same Kyuubi that Naruto has sealed inside him shortly afterwards. Without parents, Iruka became a prankster and only the Third Hokage or Mizuki could or would cheer him up. He eventually became a lecturer at the Academy, and taught most of the uprising ninjas, including Naruto himself. The two eventually bonded and Naruto finally had a friend who would look out for him and protect him, as shown in the first ever chapter of Naruto.
That Scar Adds Depth To His Character
After that first chapter, he spends all of his time with the kids in his academy and makes sure they are well-educated or, depending on the arc we're in, safe and away from the fighting. Almost every time we see him, it's when Naruto is thinking about his friends who have helped him out, and Iruka is there too. We never hear his voice, see him move or even blink. He just fades in, stares then fades out.
His appearances in Shippuden where he actually does appear are good but doesn't make him feel like he's much of a character anymore. The best appearance in Shippuden was when Naruto discovered Jiraiya had been killed in battle. Naruto was depressed and heartbroken, just like all of us were. Iruka suddenly appeared and did what he did best, which was give Naruto comfort like a father or big brother should. I loved this moment until I realised he was basically doing the exact same thing Jiraiya would do if Iruka had died. It was too predictable and clich , although I do enjoy a good clichlike this if it's done right. Shortly after that, he went up against one of the Six Paths of Pain, and refused to tell him any information about Naruto. He was seconds away from death when Kakashi suddenly saved him and proceeded to die, until the end of that arc.
To Be Fair, He Is One Bad-Ass Ninja For Not Needing A Wheelchair After This
His most recent appearance was one that I honestly felt was a waste of time. He appeared and tried to convince Naruto not to leave the island and fight in the war. This was a huge waste of time for many reasons, mainly how Naruto was obviously going to fight in that war no matter what anybody said. It was later shown he was always going to let Naruto go anyway, as he had left a note in Naruto's headband to wish him luck. Iruka served no purpose than to be yet another person supporting Naruto. To make matters worse, Iruka is literally doing nothing to contribute to this war right now. We haven't seen him in months!
I'd love to see more Iruka as he is a great character and he did make a great impact on Naruto's life. The anime tries it's best to give us as much Iruka as possible, but sadly it's nowhere near enough and the manga doesn't work hard at all. I'd love to see the moments where we saw Iruka and Naruto grow into becoming friends and how they started out.
TENTEN
Tenten is the fourth kunoichi of the "Konoha 11" and the girl of Maito Gai's team, alongside the boys Rock Lee and Neji Hyuga. She is strong, stern and usually serious but has a cool personality and keeps her hair in a traditional Chinese-buns style. She's an expert in taijutsu and likes to try to prove that she doesn't let the fact she is a girl hold her back. Her most common style of jutsu involves a very type of summoning where she makes weapons suddenly appear out of scrolls and has most recently picked up a super weapon fan called the Bashosen.
Bitches Can't Handle The Buns
All of these are very good qualities to have in a character which is why I must ask Masashi Kishimoto one question.
Why do we not get more Tenten!?
Tenten has never once appeared in a battle in the manga. The anime has proven just how much potential there is in making Tenten have screentime and testing out her jutsu. We get to see a personality that suffers because it's not written by the original writer, and yet some of us still manage to enjoy her. Hell, I even like her theme music she had!
Sing It With Me!
One perfect example of Kishimoto purposely ignoring Tenten, for no good reason whatsoever, is when she fought Temari in the Chunin Exams. Kishimoto could have filled out time with an epic battle between two women to make up for the pitiful fight between Sakura and Ino who, let's be honest, would have both lost if any other name had popped up. This was a battle that could have been potentially one of the best of the exams and wouldn't be filled with flashbacks or emotion. Instead, we got an awkward conversation between the blonde and the pink.
Another example and my least favourite moment ever, is when Neji had just died. Lee and Gai had appropriate reactions, with Gai having to keep it together while clearly breaking on the inside and Lee practically screaming in agony as he held his friend and rival. Tenten did not react. She got upset a little later on, but not having her actually have a moment like the other two is quite insulting to her character.
At Least Lee Cared
Recently, we saw her take central in the form of cute as she was one of the main characters of the series known as Naruto SD or Rock Lee's Springtime of Youth. In this, she got a bigger head and showed a funny side to her, using her symbolic fan to smack Lee and Neji whenever they did or said anything that even neared stupidity. She also performed punchlines and the show itself even referenced her role as that and there was even one episode where she stops trying to be the one who gives punchlines. (It was really funny and I liked that show when it was on. Sue me.)
How Tenten Should Have Reacted To Neji's Death (With Neji's Reaction Too)
To see her get a central moment, or even a fight within the manga would be a great sight. She's probably one of the best females in the series and Kishimoto needs to have more strong females in his cast, both physically and emotionally, and Tenten would be a perfect addition to the badass females, alongside Tsunade and Mei Terumi.
SHINO
Shino Aburame is one of the best characters of the series. I would honestly debate him being my favourite supporting character, and there are just so many reasons why. His look and design is one of the creepiest and darkest of the series, especially in Shippuden when he gets this massive green coat and even Naruto can't tell who he is. Being from the Aburame Clan means he gets the special privilege of having massive amounts of beetles and bugs inside his body and to use in various jutsu and battle.
"Heheh... The Bugs Tickle My Organs"
He's always been there, ever since the Chunin Exams and as soon as you saw him glide in, letting Kiba hog the spotlight while he just stared behind those shades, you know you'll want to see more of him. Like almost all of the fights in that exam, Shino showed how strong and cunning he was. His strategy to defeat Zaku was both painful and awesome. He caused Zaku to rip his arm out of his sling and try to defeat every bug and Shino. Instead, in the manga, Zaku's arm blew off! From then on, we all knew to fear and respect Shino.
"Prepare Your Bug-Hole, Zaku"
His next battle came in the form of Kankuro who was trying to prevent Sasuke going after Gaara, who was currently going nuts as he transformed. Surprisingly, Shino was really annoyed because he was supposed to fight Kankuro in the finals but then Kankuro forfeited. It was so much fun to see Shino show anger (or whatever counts as anger with him) and finally beat Kankuro so hard he turned into a good person.
This is when Shino starts to disappear. Not counting the anime filler, Shino makes several rare appearances throughout the series and this includes fighting Konan for 12 seconds during the Invasion of Pain arc, and hanging out with Hinata and Kiba during the Shinobi War. Obviously, he is currently alongside the rest of his friends fighting scary monsters but he does seem to have sunk into the realm known as "Kishimoto Has Forgotten These Naruto Characters".
One Of The Many Residents Of That Realm
During the entire series of Shippuden, Shino was upset. He wanted more attention. He wanted to help his friends more. He wanted to go back in time and help stop Sasuke from leaving the village in the first place. I'm not sure what Shino could have done to convince Sasuke but honestly, aren't we all just thinking "What if"? Shino is easy to upset, which is probably one of the reasons for his massive coat. I want to see him happier and I know that some more care from Kishimoto would help with that.
Any characters you think I missed out? Let me know in the comments below!
SHIGGINS:Shiggins enjoys all strange forms of communication, especially those including cosplayers saying hello to him. However, until that wonderful day comes, you can also contact him on his Skype; SHIGGINSISHERE. He can also respond to you if you contact him through GMails at SHIGGINSISHERE@GMAIL.COM.
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