Kishimoto Reveals The Reason Why Naruto Uses Talk No Jutsu

Naruto Uzumaki is one of the most powerful ninjas to have ever left. In fact, it wouldn’t be a stretch to say that at his peak, he might just be the strongest ninja in history. Although born without any talent, Naruto went on to work incredibly hard and turn his biggest weaknesses into his strengths, and turning even his enemies into his friends. In fact, Naruto’s biggest power isn’t his Six Paths abilities, or even Kurama. It is a fact that Naruto uses words that cut deep.

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Naruto Uzumaki has famously utilized just his words alone to make many villains reconsider their actions and join the good side. In the Naruto fandom, this is, funnily enough, known as Talk no Jutsu, and it is his biggest ability and quite easily one of the most prominent ones as well. For those wondering why Naruto makes such prominent use of Talk no Jutsu, Kishimoto has already answered this long ago In one of his interviews.

How Naruto Settled Fights With His Words

• Naruto could always see the side of his enemies
• Naruto affected his enemies with words alone

Naruto Uzumaki has always been a rather unique ninja. Whereas Shinobi were revealed to be tools at the very beginning of the story, Naruto always questioned this idea. In Naruto’s mind, shinobi simply doing what they were asked to do without showing any emotions was never the right way to go. This is one of the reasons why Naruto spoke openly against Zabuza for his treatment of Haku, and even reduced him to tears. The idea that a demon such as Zabuza, who was known to show no emotions, was reduced to tears, openly exclaiming that Naruto’s words cut deep, is proof of the fact that Naruto always attuned towards the emotions of others around him. As the story continued, fans saw Naruto attempt to save his enemies even more. In many ways, this was Kishimoto’s way of showing that the villains in the Naruto world were just like any other people, and were suffering in their own ways. Of course, this does not apply to all the villains, but certainly ones like Gaara, of Nagato, who were traumatized from a very young age.

Naruto reached the deepest of depths inside his enemies’ hearts and awoke something in them, once again, showing that Talk no Jutsu was actually his most effective technique when nothing else worked. Perhaps, the most memorable usage of Jutsu comes in the Pain Arc of the series where, despite having seen his village blown up and some of his best friends killed, along with his own mentor, Naruto persisted with his words. He endured heavy losses during this arc, but despite everything, he went to Pain and tried to understand his point of view, and much to the surprise of the fans, he succeeded in turning him into a good guy. In a do-or-die situation, Naruto Uzumaki created a third path that no one else could have seen, and it goes without saying that this made him one of the most unique ninjas to have ever existed.

In the Fourth Great Ninja War, Naruto once again utilized the Talk no Jutsu, and this time, it was aimed at Obito Uchiha. Naruto saw a reflection of himself in Obito, with the only difference being Obito going down the wrong path and not having the right people around him when he needed them most. This is why he took the fight against Obito as seriously as he did. Needless to say, Naruto Uzumaki succeeded in turning him into a good guy as well.

Why Kishimoto Made Naruto Use Talk No Jutsu

Kishimoto Wanted Naruto To Use His Words To Send A Message

Kishimoto’s decision to make Naruto use Talk no Jutsu as often as he did was quite a conscious one. He clearly intended for Naruto Uzumaki to be more than just someone beating strong enemies. To Naruto, the reason for villains doing what they did was a consequence, because, to him, it was clear that given the past that he had endured, he could easily have been in their place as well.

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Kishimoto himself spoke about Naruto’s Talk no Jutsu, and according to him, Naruto Uzumaki went down the road of beating the enemy without killing them following the events of the Pain Arc. According to Kishimoto, this was more in line with Shonen series, for one reason or another.

Perhaps, in Kishimoto’s mind, he was conscious of the fact that kids reading the stories take very important messages from them. To Kishimoto, it was absolutely necessary for Naruto to have developed this kind of mentality. That said, Kishimoto himself admitted that while this approach is perfect for Shonen series, he felt that it killed the mood on many occasions, which is why there was a need for a counter to Talk no Jutsu.

The Counter To Talk No Jutsu

Kishimoto Came Up With Zetsu and Edo Tensei As A Tool

Because Kishimoto set a condition for Naruto to not kill his enemies and to use his words with them, he had to figure out a way where the story did not feel repetitive or boring. Of course, this raised a massive issue for him, and that is why he had to come up with a solution. The solution for Kishimoto was what fans saw in the Fourth Great Ninja War, and that is, the power of Edo Tensei, and at the same time, the usage of Zetsu. When it comes to the Edo Tensei, fans know that despite these people having emotions, they absolutely needed to be destroyed in one way or another. Naruto had no problems in dealing deadly damage to them, because these characters were not actually alive anymore and Kishimoto did not have to worry about Naruto continuing the cycle of hatred by killing others.

At the same time, Edo Tensei could be destroyed without them getting in the way of Naruto’s dreams. This is precisely why fans so many Edo Tensei in the ninja war, and why they made up the vast majority of the villains following the Pain arc.

Kishimoto also went how to introduce characters like Kaguya Otsutsuki, who was revealed to not even be human. It is because of this change in the story that Kishimoto could be relaxed about Naruto defeating and possibly even killing his enemies, because they were far different when compared to living Shinobi who had previously suffered due to the world around them.

Of course, despite Kishimoto’s steps, there were some places where Talk no Jutsu absolutely should not have worked, but, at the end of the day, it is a part of Naruto’s character and something that makes him incredibly special. While this type of thinking might not be for every fan, it is what makes Naruto unique, and just goes to show that, at the end of the day, he has a kind and pure heart and is an individual who holds the Will of Fire dearly in his heart.

Naruto is available to read on the MangaPlus and the Shonen Jump app. Fans can read the official release and support the author by doing so.

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Naruto

Release Date

October 3, 2002

Creator

Masashi Kishimoto

Number of Episodes

220

Streaming Service(s)

Netflix
, Crunchyroll
, Amazon Prime Video
, Peacock
, The Roku Channel
, Amazon Freevee
, Hulu
, Hoopla
, Pluto TV
, Tubi