Naruto fans have watched the title character for years on his journey to become a ninja. Whether reading the manga or watching the anime, fans saw him go from a boy who couldn’t master creating shadow clones to one of the most powerful leaders in his village.
Known for his severe determination and a nindo (ninja motto) that involved never looking back or going back on his word, it’s no wonder that Naruto’s hard work paid off.
Naruto became the seventh Hokage (leader of his village) without ever officially finishing his shinobi training, but that doesn’t mean that he’s hurting for abilities. The ninja has a variety of skills that he learned as a result of training in his youth, his own bloodline, and the spirit of a demon fox sealed within his own body.
In fact, many of the abilities specific to Naruto are a result of his relationship with the nine-tailed fox Kurama. Throughout his life, Naruto has learned to use Kurama’s chakra (life force) as his own. He’s also been able to gain access to other tailed beasts, giving him a lot of powers in his arsenal that other shinobi don’t have.
Naruto also has a lot of powers that only made themselves known in the anime, so readers of the manga might not have seen some of them in action.
Naruto’s ninja way might involve never looking back, but we’re going to do just that as we examine some of his more obscure powers stretching all the way back to his childhood.
Here are the 20 Powers Fans Didn’t Know Naruto Had (And 10 Weaknesses).
Weakness: Yamato
For a short time, the Anbu ninja codenamed Yamato was assigned to act as the leader for Naruto’s Team 7. Yamato, who was an intelligence officer for the Anbu, had been experimented on as a child and was left with the ability to control tailed beasts.
While Yamato’s control of tailed beasts was limited, it gave him a bit of an edge while training Naruto.
Any time Naruto attempted to access the power of Kurama, especially if he did it by accident, Yamato could put a stop to it.
This meant the temporary sensei acted as a block to some of Naruto’s powers for a while.
Power: Magnet Release
When Naruto fans first met Shukaku, the beast wasn’t involved with the title character. Instead, it was sealed within Gaara.
As a sand demon, Shukaku’s abilities are far and wide as long as there is sand present. This particular power doesn’t need sand, though, as it draws on Shukaku’s curse marks instead.
Curse marks can be used in a variety of ways – to give a person more power or to cause them immense pain, for example.
In the case of Shukaku’s Magnet Release, the curse marks create suction, almost like the act of sealing someone.
Naruto uses the Magnet Release with his rasengan to launch a ball of energy covered in Shukaku’s curse marks.
Power: Pachinko Technique
Pachinko is a Japanese game that is a cross between pinball and a slot machine. It inspired this particular technique, though Naruto can’t do this one alone.
Only appearing in the anime, this technique was born out of necessity.
Naruto and Sasuke had their hands bound together with liquid chakra. Since the liquid chakra was more like Spider-Man’s webbing than actually a liquid, the two were stuck together.
With the duo being stuck for a few days, they had to learn how to fight while still connected. They used the elastic-like chakra as a method of slingshotting materials away from them, and the Pachinko Technique was born.
Weakness: Genjutsu
The art of Genjutsu is a tricky one in the world of Naruto. Those who can master various Genjutsu techniques can create different illusions to fool their enemies. Those who lack the skills, like Naruto, are often easily tricked by their enemy.
Naruto’s teammate Sakura had a natural affinity for Genjutsu, often able to end an illusion as soon as she realized it had been created.
Luckily for Naruto, Sakura was around a lot when he became trapped in one.
Naruto rarely realized that he had been trapped by an illusion until it was already too late. As an adult, this is a skill he developed more.
Power: Scorch Release
Only one character performs this technique on their own in the Naruto universe, and it’s not Naruto. Instead, it’s Pakura. This is because it’s an extremely rare ability.
In order for it to work, the user has to combine fire and wind based nature chakras. Most ninjas have an affinity for only one nature chakra. Naruto’s affinity is for wind, but his teammate Sasuke’s is for fire.
During the Fourth Shinobi World War, Sasuke and Naruto teamed up to combine their own fire and wind techniques to create the scorch release.
They had to use equal parts of one another’s chakra in order to evaporate all of the liquid inside an enemy, completely drying them out.
Power: Typhoon Water Vortex
As another skill that required Naruto to work with an ally, this one combined wind technique with a water technique. Also called Hurricane Vortex Jutsu in the English translations of the series, Naruto performed this with the Anbu ninja Yamato.
In order for this particular jutsu to work, a ninja with an affinity for water chakra had to create a “tearing torrent” with their Water Release skills.
Likewise, someone with a wind chakra then had to use their rasengan, which happened to be Naruto’s specialty at the time.
It’s primarily a defensive measure as the combination of the two skills actually creates a spiraling mist barrier, blocking an enemy’s vision.
Weakness: His Emotions
On the one hand, Naruto uses his emotions to motivate him. His empathy for villains sees him willing to talk instead of fight. The depths of his feelings for his friends makes him intent on avenging their losses.
On the other hand, his emotional state also makes him easy to read in a fight.
Naruto wears his every emotion on his sleeve. He has no poker face, so to speak. If he’s excited because he thinks he’s winning, he gloats, becoming overconfident and giving his enemy an in.
If he’s scared, he gets sloppy and desperate.
When Naruto is angry, he also doesn’t listen to reason, causing him to alienate his own allies as well.
Power: Female Jutsu
Those who got into the Naruto fandom late in the game might not be familiar with this particular jutsu. Naruto often used it as a kid, but eventually became too mature to play the prank.
This jutsu involved Naruto turning his own body into a female version of himself. Though he wouldn’t transform with clothing, he would be covered up with clouds.
It’s not an battle-ready jutsu, but it was effective. Naruto often used it to distract those around him, making them angry enough, or amused enough, to allow him to get away with other things.
Power: Strong Fist
Though Strong Fist is less of a power and more of a style of fighting, it’s not Naruto who is known for this. Instead, it’s his friend Rock Lee who uses this more often in a fight.
Naruto has employed it a time or two in battle, though.
Rock Lee uses the Strong Fist because he isn’t adept at genjutsus, or really any jutsus. He has to rely on his physical prowess instead.
When Naruto has to employ the Strong Fist, it’s usually because he doesn’t see another option.
The Strong Fist is exactly what its name implies. It involves a fighting style where the user employs brute strength to hit his enemies as hard as he can.
Weakness: Chakra Rods
Chakra rods are one dangerous weapon in the world of Naruto. The ninja using a chakra rod has to be powerful enough to create one, and if they are, their opponent better watch out.
During the Pain story arc in both the manga and anime, Naruto found this out the hard way.
The rods are infused with the chakra of the ninja who created it. Once their opponent is pinned by the rod, or has the rod pushed into them at all, the ninja in charge can disrupt their chakra.
A chakra disruption makes it more difficult for a ninja to use their abilities, and sometimes, as Naruto discovered, paralyzes them completely.
Power: Sensing Negative Emotions
Negative emotions involve hatred, anger, sadness, etc. Kurama is able to sense these negative emotions. At times, the nine-tailed fox has pinpointed Naruto’s own negative emotions to use against him. It isn’t Naruto who employs this particular power, though.
Instead, it’s a character named Menma. Menma is the alternate reality version of Naruto that exists in the movie Road to Ninja. There, Naruto didn’t lose his parents as an infant because his father never became Hokage.
Menma grew up relying on the fox instead of tamping it down, and as a result, he became adept at using Kurama’s abilities for himself.
He also desired power and wasn’t exactly the hero Naruto was.
Power: Frog Conversion
As a character with an affinity for toads and frogs, Jiraiya has a variety of abilities linked to the creatures. As one of Naruto’s sensei’s, Jiraiya trained the young ninja in the ways of the Toad Sage.
While Jiraiya could actually change his enemy into a toad, something that he employs as an interrogation technique, that isn’t where this skill comes into play for Naruto.
In fact, it’s more of an effect of Naruto’s Sage Mode instead.
Because Naruto draws his sage power from the toad chakra of the animals he’s bonded with, if another ninja tries to steal his chakra, there are consequences.
The chakra thief gets turned into a frog.
Weakness: Genin Status
Naruto has the distinction of being the first of the Hokage to never make it beyond genin rank. It’s a dubious honor, as he’s chosen for the job because of his sheer power and his efforts during the Fourth Shinobi World War, but maybe not his skill set.
Some of Naruto’s skills are well beyond genin status.
He masters the art of creating hundreds of shadow clones, and distributing his chakra amongst them, before most of his friends can create more than one.
He, however, never goes back to his official training to take any of the shinobi exams, leaving gaps in his skill set that many of his employees have to fill.
Power: Chakra Transfer
Chakra allows shinobi to use their special abilities, gives them energy in a fight, and is tied to their life force. Their chakra is what they use to survive.
If a ninja is going to transfer their chakra to another, they need plenty to go around.
Thanks to Naruto’s immense chakra reserves, he has a lot of chakra stored up. Not only does Naruto have a huge amount of chakra because of his Uzumaki bloodline, but he can also use Kurama’s chakra.
In order to give his people a fighting chance in the Fourth Shinobi World War, Naruto joined forces with his future wife Hinata to share chakra.
After sharing his with her, the two spread the energy boost amongst their allies.
Power: Chakra Identification
Everyone in the Naruto universe seems to have some form of chakra detection ability. Just how specific it is depends on how strong their own chakra is and what skill sets they have at their disposal.
For example, Sasuke with his shuriken can detect and identify specific chakra levels. The Hyuga clan members, like Neji and Hinata, are able to use their Byakugan to see chakra as well as specific chakra points in someone’s body.
Naruto’s abilities aren’t quite the same.
Instead, he unconsciously combines Kurama’s ability to sense emotions with his own to sense chakra to be able to identify people based on their chakra signature.
The skill strengthens over time.
Weakness: Alcohol
Unlike Rock Lee, who is an accidental master of Drunken Fist, Naruto doesn’t have any kind of tolerance for alcohol.
In the world of Naruto, sake is frequently employed as a celebratory drink on special occasions, even though some senseis count drinking as one of the things that a shinobi should never do.
When Naruto was named Hokage, he and several of his friends imbibed in celebration.
Unfortunately for the new Hokage, the sake didn’t exactly agree with him, and those same friends ended up carrying him home to Hinata. His wife wound up taking care of him while he recovered.
Power: Earth Style Wall
Though there are plenty of shinobi with earth chakra in the anime, this isn’t a skill you’ll see Naruto use there. Instead, the Earth Style Wall is only used by Naruto in the manga.
A shinobi who uses this technique can actually harness the power of the earth chakra within themselves and spit out mud to form a wall, or they can manipulate the earth around them to create a wall. (The latter sounds a whole lot easier.)
The wall is resistant to both fire and water, and it can be infused with chakra to make it even stronger.
In the manga, Naruto is able to do this with the help of his Dragon Blade.
Power: Tailed Beast Medium
Once Naruto reached his full potential channeling Kurama’s chakra, he and the fox became allies instead of enemies. Eventually, his use of Six Paths Sage Mode allowed him access to all of the tailed beasts. It also allowed them access to him.
It seems an even trade if Naruto can draw from their chakra and abilities that the tailed beasts can also use Naruto – at least to an extent.
The various tailed beasts can actually use Naruto’s mind as a meeting place. With Naruto as a medium, the beasts are able to communicate with one another, no matter where they are.
Weakness: His Stomach
A growing ninja needs a high calorie count to help replenish their chakra. Just ask Choji, whose Expansion Technique depended on him consuming large amounts of food. Naruto, however, didn’t have that particular ability, but he was certainly always hungry.
His favorite food happened to be ramen, but the series made it clear that he wasn’t that picky.
While training with Jiraiya and searching for Tsunade to inform her she would be the next Hokage, a young Naruto spent almost as much time eating food in markets as he did in training.
In fact, on more than one occasion, he ate so much that he couldn’t bring himself to train.
Power: Rasengan
If you’re at all familiar with Naruto, you know that one of his signature moves is the rasengan. Gathering chakra into a ball of pure energy, Naruto can then use as a destructive force against an opponent in battle.
If it’s so well known, why does it make the list? The way Naruto used the rasengan is unique.
Unlike any other ninja, Naruto used shadow clones to help form the ball of energy so that he didn’t have to devote all of his attention to it or wear himself out.
Divvying up the work between clones allowed him to keep fighting.
