Kishimoto Reveals Why Sasuke And Naruto Lost Their Arms

Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha have enjoyed one of the greatest rivalries in anime and manga. They are quite easily two of the most important characters in the franchise, with Naruto Uzumaki being the protagonist and Sasuke following right behind him as the second most important character in the story. According to Kishimoto, both carry equal importance and when one grows stronger, so must the other.

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In a way, the author of the series, Kishimoto, always ensured that these two characters progressed together in order to maintain a certain equilibrium Sasuke and Naruto were, in many ways, the complete opposites in terms of their ideologies. While Naruto was more of a believer in nurturing ways, such as inheriting the Will of Fire, Sasuke was more nihilistic and sinister in his plans. Undoubtedly, these two were destined to clash, especially because they were the successors of Indra and Ashura, and they certainly did for one last time at the Valley of the End come the end of the Naruto series. At the end of the clash, Naruto was victorious, but the price to pay was massive for both of these ninjas. Both Naruto and Sasuke ended up losing one of their arms, which was absolutely massive in more ways than one. Kishimoto has addressed this in the past and the reason behind it is quite intriguing.

Naruto And Sasuke’s Final Fight In The Ninja War

• Sasuke Wanted A Revolution Of The Ninja World
• Naruto Brought Sasuke Back To The Village

Naruto and Sasuke were always portrayed to be rivals right from the very beginning of Naruto, which meant that these two pushed each other to the next level, and also at times, engaged in fights against each other. The two ended up battling seriously at the Valley of the End at the very end of the first part of the story. At this point in time, Sasuke, who was shaken by his brother returning to Konoha, was planning on leaving the village in order to attain higher levels of power. Meanwhile, Naruto was doing his best to prevent him from defecting to the Sound Village and his goal was to bring Sasuke back. In the end, Naruto did catch up to him right when they reached the Valley of the End. It was here that Naruto and Sasuke ended up clashing properly for the first time, and this was a fight for fans to remember.

This fight saw Naruto tap into the power of the Nine Tails properly, unlike ever before, and Sasuke continued to grow In terms of his control over the Sharingan, and at the same time, the powers of the Curse Mark as well. These two fought a stunning battle, but, at the end of the day, there could only have been one winner here, and that person was none other than Sasuke Uchiha. Naruto wasn’t able to stop him from leaving the Village, but he certainly vowed to bring him back.

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Naruto and Sasuke’s second proper battle took place once again in the Valley of the End. This time around, they were both very strong, with Naruto having awakened the power of the Six Paths, and Sasuke having gained the Rinnegan. Both of these individuals had tremendous strength at this point in the story, and it is safe to say that their powers were utterly unmatched. When Naruto and Sasuke ended up clashing at this point in the story, fans knew that this was going to be their last battle. As such, the vast majority of the fans had put all their money on Naruto, and it’s safe to say that he did end up winning this clash. However, the price to pay here was absolutely massive, as Naruto ended up losing his arm, just like Sasuke.

Why Naruto and Sasuke Lost Their Arms

Kishimoto Had Planned This Long Ago

Naruto and Sasuke losing their arms was shocking to quite a lot of the fans. However, for Kishimoto, this was a very important decision. In fact, he had planned this long before the series even got to this final fight, which is quite interesting.

According to Kishimoto himself, he wanted Naruto Vs Sasuke to be a fight without much ninjutsu. The reason behind this was simply that he wanted it to be a pure fight between boys who communicate their feelings through each blow. According to him, this was a fight that needed to be settled with fists more than anything else, and he actually ended up receiving quite a lot of criticism from his editors, among other people, but chose not to listen to them.

Kishimoto also went on to say that he decided to take away the dominant arms of both Naruto and Sasuke in this battle. As fans know, Naruto utilized his right arm as his dominant one, while for Sasuke, it was the left. Both carried their final attacks in their dominant arms, and ended up losing them. According to Kishimoto, this was done on purpose and it relates to a flashback in the beginning of the story where they cross fingers with each other, making the Seal of Reconciliation after combat. While back then, they could always do that peace sign following the conclusion of the battle, this time around, Kishimoto intended it to be so that they couldn’t cross fingers at all and this was because they had lost their arms. But, Kishimoto cleverly utilized the Hashirama and Madara statues that were behind them to form the seal instead. This worked beautifully as both Hashirama and Madara represented Indra and Asura, just like Naruto and Sasuke.

In a way, this statue formed the seal of reconciliation not just for Naruto and Sasuke, but also for Madara and Hashirama, and at the same time, Indra and Asura, who had been fighting for generations upon generations. This was quite a special touch by Kishimoto, and according to him, he actually wanted to draw the scene since Part 1 of the story. This was quite a long time ago and just goes to show that Kishimoto might actually have intended for both Naruto and Sasuke to lose their arms long ago.

Of course, at the end of things, Naruto ended up getting a replacement arm due to Hashirama cells, while Sasuke chose to continue without an arm, likely due to his journey of redemption having only just begun at the end of the Naruto series. To this day, Sasuke carries the guilt of his actions with him, and it is quite a nice touch for this character, and it just goes to show that even years after this battle, Sasuke still considers himself to be a shinobi in the process of redemption.

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