We also have the first appearance of Sasuke’s brother, Itachi.

Here we have the first time that Jiraiya teaches Naruto, as the two head out in search of Jiraiya’s former ninja teammate. Jiraiya, the Akatsuki and Sasuke Leaves The Search for Tsunade We learn about Gaara’s connection to Shukaku.

We see several summonings: Orochimaru has snakes, the Third Hokage has a monkey and Naruto summons a couple of toads. Orochimaru attacks the Hidden Leaf village. Naruto passes the written exam with a blank paper Shikamaru ultimately earns the chunin rank by doing the right thing and forfeiting his match. Two ninjas manage to ‘win’ despite doing seemingly nothing. Sasuke also gets his curse mark in this arc. As a result, we get to see them show off some awesome ninja moves and clever strategies. There are some fun battles here.Įveryone is competing for the coveted chunin prize, and not actually trying to kill each other. Quite a few major characters get introduced in this arc. There is a Great Naruto Bridge in real life. It makes sense in hindsight, but in the context of the arc, it seems like a bit too much for a master bridge builder’s lowly genin bodyguard. The Land of Waves arc is also the first time that we see Team 7 in action. If you’ve watched Naruto before, it can be nostalgic watching these characters when they were less serious and goofier. The Prologue isn’t the best story arc, but it’s fun to watch. In the manga, we don’t meet a lot of the characters until chapter 34. These three get tossed together into a team with the elite ninja, Kakashi (all above). We meet Sasuke, Naruto’s rival, and Sakura, a Sasuke fangirl with a giant crush. Of course, the audience knows the truth, that Naruto is the orphaned son of a great leader, and that he has the powerful Nine-Tailed Fox trapped inside of him. He’s a practical joker, unpredictable and sort of a loser. Naruto’s epic story starts so low and humble, that people don’t even bother to give it a name - it’s just the prologue.

Which are the best Naruto story arcs, and which are not-so-good? Here are all the story arcs in both Naruto and Naruto Shippuden, in chronological order. In these stories, Naruto goes from ‘number one hyperactive, knucklehead ninja’ to a great hero of the Fourth Shinobi World War and beyond. Along with the series came many story arcs.

It makes sense, since the anime and its sequel Naruto Shippuden ran for 15 years from 3 October 2002 to 23 March 2017. Naruto is an extremely long anime with many, many story arcs.

List of naruto episodes