Over the span of 25 years since its manga debut (and 22 years since the inception of the original anime series), fans of Naruto have watched the protagonist, Naruto Uzumaki, overcome many trials and tribulations. From being ostracized at a young age by his village to having to save the same village that treated him as an outsider, we watched him take on a plethora of different types of villains.
Given that the original two series ran for so long, there are many entertaining and worthwhile villains to pay attention to—in total, there are at least 22 main villains, however, for the sake of this article, we will be examining 10 of the best villains in the Narutoverse.
For the sake of this article, I will be examining characters based on their background, motives, and their contributions to the story. I will also mainly be looking at villains on a more individualistic level, as opposed to the context of the group they're in.
10. Zabuza & Haku
Okay, okay, I know I said I would look at single entities.
But there's a very important reason that these two end up on the list together; because you can't have one without the other, and both impacted Naruto in a few important ways. So first, I'm going to introduce the two characters separately and then analyze their motivations together and what it means for the story.
For context, Haku grew up in a land where kekkei genkai (bloodline inherited abilities, if you didn’t know) users were feared and hated, and well, since Haku and his mother both had a kekkei genkai ability, that being ice release, predictable results came from that; Haku’s father, not knowing his wife had a kekkei genkai, assembled a mob, killed his wife, and attempted to kill Haku, who in self defense killed his father. Now an orphan, Haku was really out of options. This is where Zabuza comes in.
Zabuza, AKA, Demon of the Hidden Mist, was a missing ninja from Kirigakure. For context about the type of person he is, the Kirigakure Academy had a practice of pitting graduates against each other in death matches for the final exam with the exceptionally skilled students earning places as prime candidates for the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist, a practice that Zabuza put an end to after killing over 100 academy students.
Naturally, eventually, after repeated impressive feats, he joined the Seven Ninja Swordsmen, after which he discovered Haku. Upon learning of his kekkei genkai, he took him under his wing. However, over time, Zabuza came to disagree with the Fourth Mizukage’s reign, attempted to stage a coup d’etat, only to be betrayed and forced to flee with Haku.
Now, these two characters have different motivations and goals and, as villains, didn't have very long arcs. Zabuza’s motivation, his goal, was to establish shinobi as a ruling class. But Haku’s goal was simply to be useful to Zabuza.
The reason that these villains are unique is that they are the first villains in the series to actually illustrate issues that people in Naruto face constantly. It’s with Zabuza and Haku that we fully start to see the social climate of the world of Naruto—the constant political struggles, class struggles, the depravity of being a Shinobi.
Zabuza most likely understood the Shinobi lifestyle as the hardest, most dangerous lifestyle to live—so in his mind, it only made sense for them to become to ruling class to ensure that they had protections (which, admittedly, is likely a far fetched theory regarding why, exactly, he thought that there would be a Shinobi ruling class but I digress). The interesting thing about Zabuza is that, of the villains on this list, he's probably the only actually straight forward one who states his intentions, which also makes him stand out since every other villain is clandestine in their endeavors.
What makes Haku stand out is that he was aversed to causing harm. He wanted to do anything and everything he could to please Zabuza, but he went through great lengths to make sure it didn't come up harming or killing others, including putting his opponents in a death like sleep so they wouldn't fight. He had a sense of mercy that, typically, you didn’t see in the shinobi world.
Because of how short their stints were as villains, it makes sense not only to put them in tenth place, but also to put them together since they mainly operated together (whereas other villains on this list were longer standing and had longer track records. But they're compelling because they are also the villains that, despite their deeds, bring to attention the severity of life in the ninja world, while also humanizing one another, in a way. Especially Zabuza, Demon of the Hidden Mist, who for a moment got to experience humanity for the simple fact that he acknowledged caring for Haku.
9. Kimimaro
I have a feeling that this particular entry is going to be kinda controversial, but I swear he's a pretty good villain (just not the best in Naruto).
Kimimaro is the last surviving member of the Kaguya clan, a rare possessor of the Shikotsumyaku kekkei genkai and the former leader of the Sound 5.
To begin with, in order to fully understand who Kimimaro is, we need to start at the beginning. As stated before, he holds a super metal kekkei genkai, which, when it should have been a skill that was honed, was feared and got him locked up in a cage for most of his childhood, only being let out if needed for battle.
Right away, we can see as the viewer how lonely he must have been (hint: this ties into his motivation) and how difficult it must have been to grow up that way. Unfortunately for Kimimaro, he lives in Naruto so he becomes an orphan after his clan is wiped out.
Because of the first few details about his upbringing, we can also see that his sense of work is mired in his usefulness—he needs to be useful, he needs to be needed. Which is something that Orochimaru can see immediately upon meeting him. In a rare moment of kindness, which in Orochimaru’s case is always used to further his agenda, the snake Sannin takes Kimimaro under his wing (albeit as a future host), and because this is the first adult that expresses genuinely wanting to help him, following either a fanatical sense of religious zealousness or seeing Orochimaru as a father figure, Kimimaro gladly accepts his fate. Soon after, he meets Jūgo, a fellow human experiment and possible host, who he felt was a kindred spirit.
When Kimimaro is given a curse seal, he suddenly has the power to defeat all of the Sound 4, thus becoming leader and getting the group renamed to Sound 5. Things were going great.
Until that little cough ended up not being just a cough. Kimimaro became afflicted with a very serious illness that destroyed the worth he had to Orochimaru, getting him ousted from the Sound 5. Kabuto tried to heal him, but because there was no medical information on Kimimaro’s clan and his unique body structure, nothing could be done. Kabuto proceeded to blame Kimimaro for the Konoha Crush failing—had Kimimaro been able to participate, they would have been able to achieve victory.
See, here's the unique thing about Kimimaro: in a similar fashion to Haku, Kimimaro is not a bad person who likes to hurt people. It’s pretty clear, actually, that he was always a very gentle person, even in childhood. He did not want to hurt anyone he had no involvement with—and his empathy and kindness was so strong that it managed to keep Jūgo keep himself under control even in the wake of his rage issues. Because of his devotion to Orochimaru, he was more than willing to give of himself to progress his dreams and ideals, to the point that he didn't care much about what that meant for him.
That's his motive; be useful enough to push Orochimaru’s goal through to the end. Be useful enough to be kept. And that's the tragedy of it all!
Repeatedly, Kimimaro is used and tossed aside, much like Kabuto and Haku. Which makes for very interesting dynamics to ponder when you consider Orochimaru’s track record of keeping people just long enough for them to be useful, only to then dispose of them when he loses interest.
He's unique because he is one of the most compassionate villain in Naruto, to the point that when Lee needed to take his “medicine”, he stopped and waited for his highly dangerous opponent to take his medicine. We do not see that level of kindness in villains. Haku was kind, but Kimimaru was on another level.
Kimimaro is so interesting as a character because of the fact that his character portrayal shows the viewer what happens to kind ninja in this world. Even though we, as viewers, can distinguish that the ninja world is no place for kindness, he is a personification of what happens to kind Shinobi; they're used up, until they have nothing left to give, and when there is nothing left, they are abandoned to die. Kimimaro is one grim reality of the ninja world that, although it doesn't necessarily need to be said aloud, is still imperative to acknowledge, for the occasional reminder of what it means to be a devoted shinobi.
As an aside, Kimimaro is also a warning not to blindly devote yourself to one person simply due to their kindness. Just something to keep in mind.
8. Black Zetsu
This might also be a controversial part of the list, but here we go.
Black Zetsu is probably one of the most simple villains on the list while also being the direct cause of a lot of important plot points throughout the series. Basically, his whole deal is that Kaguya Ōtsusuki was so bitter that humanity turned on her that when she was being sealed away by her sons, she created Black Zetsu to secure her revival.
That's his whole motivation; make sure Kaguya comes back.
Now, throughout this article, you will see that I do deep dives on these characters. This is because we need to have a clear understanding of what this person has been through and what they've done in order to understand why they're a villain. In Zetsu’s case, it isn't even about what he went through because Black Zetsu technically didn't have a life to begin with; it’s about what he did.
Of the things he did, one of the most important is that he set the stage of making the Uchiha universally hated because he manipulated Indra (the founder of the Uchiha), over centuries also manipulating the reincarnations of Asura and Indra to continue the cycle of distrust, later personally reviving Madara to enact the Eye of the Moon plan.
Why is he fascinating? Because he is an extension of Kaguya, for one—as a character, the fact that he was created for the specific purpose of reviving Kaguya strikes me as a ‘Sacrificial Lamb’ archetype in a way. Let me explain;
Black Zetsu is, strictly speaking, a manifestation of Kaguya’s will with its sole purpose to revive her. So what happens once his mission is fulfilled? Well, once Kaguya comes back, you would assume that he would cease to be. Although his ultimate fate was to be sealed in the moon with Kaguya (admittedly fulfilling Black Zetsu’s goal of being with its “mother”), had that not been the case, would it be far fetched to assume that once the mission has completed, Black Zetsu would be either reabsorbed into Kaguya or die? Or am I reaching?
Black Zetsu has this place on the list because of the fact that he’s so involved in the culmination of the world as we see it throughout the plot. He's fascinating because of the fact that there are so many what ifs involved in his inception—and perhaps the what ifs, for me, are one sided because I never fully understood the ins and outs of his inception. Is he the best villain? Most likely not. But given his heavy involvement, it doesn't feel fair not to dissect him a bit, too, especially given that Kaguya is right above him on this list—after all, he was there right from the beginning, and somehow managed to always be just manipulative enough to continuously ensure that plans spanning thousands of years reach their bloom. That takes serious dedication, if nothing else.
7. Kaguya Otsutsuki
Hot E.T. really fucked around and found out.
In all seriousness, I wasn’t going to even put Kaguya on the list, but I have to say that I would be a fool not to. Granted, she didn't get very high on the list, but considering her role in the story, I would say she's pretty important, and her character concept is pretty interesting—though she's wildly unpopular because of the manner in which she was introduced as a villain.
So who is Kaguya Ōtsusuki?
Kaguya Ōtsusuki was the first ever chakra user, an otherworldly being sent to earth during an era of endless war to cultivate a God Tree on earth and harvest its chakra fruits. Initially, she was going to be sacrificed to the ten-tails, which would nourish the God Tree, however Kaguya betrayed Isshiki (who was sent to earth with her) and left him for dead because instead of being a sacrifice, she wanted to eat the fruit herself.
While on earth, she encountered Tenji, the emperor of The Land of Ancestors, becoming his concubine. When she was threatened by officials from another land and retaliated, she was hunted down for execution.
Feeling betrayed by and losing all faith in humanity but still wanting to achieve peace, she ate the chakra fruit, believing that it was the best route for peace, because it gave her the ability to cast infinite Tsukuyomi, gradually turning humans into white zetsu and becoming the sole ruler of the world—essentially God. She would go on to give birth to twins, Hagoromo and Hamura, who became the first people to be born naturally with the ability to use chakra.
Unfortunately, Kaguya eventually grew greedy and wanted to possess all chakra, which intensified her resentment towards humans and her sons, who are half human. In order to enact her plan, she proceeded to become the Ten Tails to absorb all Chakra—which her sons mistook for an incarnation of the God Tree that attacked them, sealed her (the beast’s) chakra, which ended up creating the moon, which Hamura decided he would depart to in order to guard the Ten Tails’ remains while Hagoromo spread chakra to humanity and taught them the concept of ninshū.
Before Kaguya was sealed, she created Black Zetsu out of her will, who manipulated Indra (well technically both of Kaguya’s son’s descendants within both the Uchiha and the Senju clans) in order to reawaken the Rinnegan and break the seal, which Madara Uchiha succeeded in.
So yeah, a lot to unpack there.
Kaguya had a couple of motivations; revenge on humanity for betraying her when she had betrayed her own people for them, and taking back the chakra that had been growing on earth.
She is on this list because of the simple fact that everything in Naruto, every last little plot point or detail all leads back to her. Without Kaguya, there is no Naruto. I personally don't like her very much—while her motivations are fitting for her character, given her background, the way she was introduced didn't do her justice, and most fans agree with that, hence why she's such an unpopular villain. But in that same train of thought, she is the only female villain in Naruto really worth her salt. I mean, Kaguya’s a literal goddess. And she's entertaining because the revelation of her existence is intriguing to the larger story, to the worldbuilding involved in Naruto.
Just imagine—one day you wake up and find out that the world is the way it is because an alien came to earth, gave humans a chance, and was subsequently burned by the dumpster fire that is humanity. Insane!
6. Obito/Tobi
Mr. Mid, or Obito Uchiha, AKA Tobi, sits at number 6 but honestly he almost got placed much lower.
Okay, full disclosure, Obito is not the worst villain in Naruto. Some villains are just straight trash with zero depth and little to no impact on the story on their own—Obito at least has something going for him in the sense that he's a relatively important tool for the story of Naruto.
Obito Uchiha is—honestly—kind of a unique case in the Uchiha clan in the sense that he didn't seem to grow up with the standard Uchiha Arrogance (well, kind of but that’s beside the point), though he definitely grew up with that standard Uchiha Dramatism. The reason I say that is that the Uchihas seem to always leave Konoha when they don't get their way—though to be fair, if I were in Obito’s shoes, I probably wouldn't want to stay, either, so Obito at least has a sympathetic reason why he would leave.
In order to look at his motivation, I'm going to explain his background, and for the sake of this article, I'm going to analyze him based on being Obito and not Tobi, the Akatsuki member.
Obito was not born bad. Many of the villains on this list were not born bad. He was just a little excitable, and determined to be noticed since he wasn’t really acknowledged by his own clan. Naturally, he struck up a one-sided rivalry with Kakashi over a girl, Rin, who they were on a team with. Always in Kakashi’s shadow, no matter what stage of their ninja careers, Obito struggled with jealousy over Kakashi’s popularity.
It’s important to note that Obito’s relationship with Kakashi and Rin is imperative to understanding his character, but not necessarily his motive. When Kakashi lost an eye during the mission to rescue Rin, Obito (after being crushed on his right side during the cave-in) gave Kakashi his good eye with the Sharingan. To his fortune, he was rescued by Madara, healed, given Rinnegan in one eye, which naturally made Obito feel indebted to him—and when we feel indebted to people, sometimes we kinda put them on a pedestal, thinking they’re worth trusting.
But of course, Madara being Madara, would go on to orchestrate Rin’s death and make Obito watch to totally shatter Obito’s hope and thus make him easier to groom for the Eye of the Moon plan. Rin’s death is part of why he is the way he is as an adult, but it is not why he did everything he did—he even says so himself.
His motivation lies in wanting revenge against a world that he felt betrayed him—he felt that he lost everything and technically, that's true. While his love for Rin fueled this motivation, his ultimate goal wasn’t just because of Rin.
What makes him even more intriguing is that he's much like Naruto. Or rather, like a failed version of Naruto. While yes, Naruto had a significantly harder upbringing, Obito literally lost everything.
Obito and Naruto spent both their childhoods dreaming of being acknowledged. Obito and Naruto both saw the world with wide eyes, holding onto their idealism with tight grips. The difference is that Obito “died”, was locked in Madara’s cave for a year and fed manipulative tactics, forced to watch the most important person to him get murdered by someone she cared for—the same person he gave his literal eye to.
Obito felt so betrayed and alone because of Madara’s actions, because of the relentless grooming, that Obito was willing to do anything and everything for Madara—and that’s the danger of devotion. I think that’s the general consensus behind the villains in this series—devotion can be either your greatest tool, or your greatest weapon. It went so deep that Obito attacked his former mentor and his family, damning both Minato and Kushina to death just to seal Kurama into Naruto as an infant. This goes without mentioning, even, how Obito straight up almost killed Naruto, himself, all for Madara.
No, Obito isn't the best villain, but his contribution to the story as a villain is important because of his role manipulating the Akatsuki, his role in Naruto becoming a jinchuriki in the first place, and in a much smaller way, an important part of the culmination of Kakashi’s character. If Obito and Rin weren’t in Kakashi’s life, the story would not be the same because something fundamental would be changed.
5. Kabuto
This poor boy.
Look, just hear me out, this might be kinda unconventional, but let me just analyze this poor guy. I used to not like him—I used to think he was annoying as all hell but he grew on me like a tumor.
Kabuto Yakushi is one of the first really major antagonists of Naruto that we see, as he made his first appearance and started his bullshit during the Chunin Exams Arc. He is a former Root member and a disciple of Orochimaru, and honestly his story is so sad. In order to look at his motivations, we have to, as usual, dissect his Obligatory Tragic Backstory.
Not much is really known about his life before he was discovered as an orphan by Nonō Yakushi, a former Root member, because he was found with a severe head injury that gave him amnesia. His case was so bad that he couldn't even remember his name—so, after being gifted a helmet to protect his already injured head from further injury, he received the name Kabuto. The reason this is important to note is that his reaction to his new name epitomizes, to me, why his character is so tragic; he was so grateful to her that he broke an orphanage rule, and when further issues were discovered (his lack of eyesight) he was even more grateful.
Now, why is this tragic? Why is gratefulness so tragic? Because his devotion is so strong that he's willing to get himself in trouble. This is proven once again when Danzō Shimura tracks down Nonō and tries to strongarm her into rejoining Root, telling her that if she doesn't come back, then she needs to turn over an orphan that he can recruit to take her place or else he'll pull strings to get the orphanage Nonō started up shut down. Upon hearing this, Kabuto reaches out to Danzo when he isn't even a teenager yet to keep his adoptive mother safe. Danzō, in turn, takes advantage of Kabuto’s advanced spying skills and manipulates him from a young age to carry out Root missions.
Unfortunately, due to Danzō’s influence, Kabuto ends up accidentally killing Nonō, as she was sent to kill him while dressed as an Iwa-nin. He tries to save her with the medical ninjutsu she taught him, but is unsuccessful. Disillusioned after his adoptive mother’s death, and forced to flee before other root members find him, his sense of self was compromised because Nonō could not recognize him even when Kabuto told him who he was.
When Orochimaru comes across Kabuto, given his track record with kids, this is the perfect opportunity. So then Orochimaru manipulated him into spying on the participants of the biannual Chūnin Exams for Orochimaru’s later use. Then later, Kabuto was turned into a sleeper agent and got Sasori to spy on Orochimaru.
Kabuto never got a break from being used. He never got a chance to even think for himself and realize who he was without someone else trying to use him for their own gain—and so he began to resent the Shinobi world. The only time he got to feel like he knew who he was was when he was Orochimaru’s subordinate, and when he lost Orochimaru, Kabuto also lost…Kabuto.
His motivation was not just to get Sasuke’s body—he wanted identity. And in his mind, the only way to find himself again was to become Orochimaru, adopt his goal—that being to get Sasuke’s body—and surpass him.
Kabuto represents the struggle that many people have when recovering from trauma—It changes the way you view yourself, the world, and people around you. For him, because his whole life he just kept experiencing trauma after trauma, he was not allowed a moment’s rest to consider who he was, where he belonged, and what he was supposed to do. That's why he's so fascinating.
4. Orochimaru
Oh, look, it’s creepy snake Michael Jackson.
Here's the deal; Orochimaru is one of my personal favorite villains in Naruto because he genuinely scares the hell out of me and I’m sure plenty of other fans can agree that he’s kinda scary. So let's look at who he is as a person:
Orochimaru is one of the three legendary Sannin of Konoha, and a strong enough ninja that he was once a candidate for 4th hokage, alongside Minato Namikaze. He always managed to set himself apart as a genius without even trying, being described as a prodigy by his teacher, Hiruzen Sarutobi. He gained an obsession with rebirth following an event in which, after his parents' deaths, he encountered a white snake that was said to represent rebirth—and he resigned himself to the pursuit of immortality and the knowledge of everything.
The thing about Orochimaru is that he's incredibly calculating; although he had ambition on becoming hokage as well, it wasn't to benefit the village. It was to further his own agenda. And upon seeing that his pupil was, y’know, pretty crazy and beyond help, Hiruzen chose Minato, which prompted Orochimaru to decide that there was no point of staying in Konoha and proceeded to openly perform human experimentation to understand better how jutsu works and how chakra works.
Orochimaru proceeded to implant Hashirama Senju’s DNA into sixty children, as well as Danzō Shimura per his request. He would continue to experiment on people, even practicing curse seals in place of activating sage mode since his body was too weak to do so. While he technically saved Kabuto by going against orders, he also manipulated that same horribly traumatized child who has never been allowed to think for himself and groomed him to serve as his underling. This is a pattern for Orochimaru; he manipulates and abuses children to further his own efforts.
Eventually, he became affiliated with the Akatsuki, which, in and of itself, implies a number of heinous acts, especially given that he was partnered with Sasori of all people, possibly the most depraved of the Akatsuki.
Of course, of his awful actions, this also includes his manipulation of Sasuke to be his apprentice, essentially throwing Kabuto away as he put his focus pretty much all in on the youngest Uchiha, and his overall disdain for human life.
His motivation lies purely in the search for immortality, which for one is super interesting since I feel like I don't see a lot of villains who go to the lengths Orochimaru went in the pursuit of immortality. Of the Naruto villains, he is probably one of the most complex in the sense that he once was capable of empathy—this was seen when he shed tears for Tsunade’s loss, this was seen when he was a child—but it seems like he's capable, too, of entirely ignoring or even turning it off, which is seen throughout the series.
Like many of the Naruto villains, he puts himself on a pedestal; he had hoped, and continues to hope, to be the “ultimate being” up until the end of part II. But despite all of his cruelty, he genuinely wants to see his underlings and experiments grow and develop. He's entertaining because of the fact that he's so complex—but he's also a successful villain because, well, he's depraved as all hell.
3. Nagato
Top-10-Best-Naruto-Villains-Nagato.png
Ah, yes. The star of the Akatsuki.
Okay, maybe that’s debatable, considering that there are multiple members of the Akatsuki that can be considered popular—but Nagato, by far, of the Akatsuki, has the most compelling backstory and contribution to the main plot, whereas the rest of the Akatsuki are more support for Nagato—the ringmaster for the circus of broken individuals.
In all seriousness, though, Nagato is an intriguing villain to dissect, and arguably, of the villains on this list, his backstory is probably one of the most tragic (though most tragic backstory is a very, very difficult thing to discern in Naruto since about 99% of the cast seem to experience life altering, soul crushing trauma for one reason or another).
Nagato Uzumaki, also known as Pain, was technically the second leader of the Akatsuki, right after Yahiko, one of his childhood best friends who promoted and tried to fight for peace. In order to look at Nagato’s motivations, we will dissect his past.
To keep it short, Nagato did not have it easy as a child. At an extremely young age, Madara Uchiha abducted Nagato and implanted the Rinnegan in his eyes—an event that Nagato could not even remember simply because he was just too young. And then, sometime later during the Second Shinobi World War, Nagato would become an orphan after Konoha ninjas broke into his Amegakure home and killed his parents due to a misunderstanding.
Nagato, in his grief, killed the ninjas that killed his parents, even as they tried to apologize, and after laying his parents to rest, Nagato was forced to wander the streets in search of food, but because of the war, resources were scarce. To his luck, he was discovered by his childhood friends, Yahiko and Konan, and the three would form the earliest version of the Akatsuki, the more peaceful version.
The three decided that in order to get to a place where they could be in charge and end all wars, they had to become ninja. So they approached the legendary Sannin looking for help—to which they would not receive much initially, but they at least were given a place to live and taught how to fish by Jiraiya, who would later change his mind upon seeing Nagato’s eyes and being reminded of the Sage of Six Paths. Jiraiya thought of him as a reincarnation of the aforementioned sage, someone who would use their Rinnegan to usher in a world of peace (important for later).
So, Jiraiya taught the three orphans for three years, and given that the three advanced in their training very, very quickly, they were deemed ready to forge out on their own, then forming the Akatsuki, with Yahiko as the leader. They became very popular and their message was gaining momentum—enough that Hanzō of the salamander felt threatened, prompting him to seek out Danzō Shimura for help to ambush them under the guise of a peace negotiation. With Konan taken as a hostage, and Yahiko and Nagato forced to fight to the death.
To spare Nagato, Yahiko committed suicide, an event that totally changed the course of Nagato’s life. His death convinced Nagato that his dreams for peace were stupid—that there is no ending to the cycle of hatred, pain, and death. Given that the fight against Danzō and Hanzō left him crippled, he couldn't personally do work for the Akatsuki in the sense that he goes on missions—so using Yahiko’s corpse, he activated the Deva Path, essentially puppeteering his dead friend to continue the work of the Akatsuki with a different approach.
Nagato is unique because he was probably the closest to actually achieving some semblance of peace at least within the context of his village, though the plan was likely doomed to fail from the start. Although his motives weren't necessarily evil just for evil’s sake, although his ultimate goal was peace, spreading pain won't unite everyone. All Nagato was doing was submitting to delusions of God-hood due to people around him hailing as something akin to a messiah, and repeating the cycle of abuse.
But that's exactly why he's so interesting as a character; he had a tragic upbringing like many other villains (and even like the good protagonists) but unlike many of the other characters, he was hailed a messiah, people believed in and supported him and yet his plan was one that would destroy the people who had destroyed him, as well as everyone else. The shared pain never would have stopped wars; it likely would have intensified war efforts.
2. Danzō
This jerk.
Okay, jerk is the understatement of the century. Danzō is a demon. He is the devil. He is so easy to hate.
To preface, before we get into it, the only reason he did not find a place at number one is because the villain at number one is in a league of his own—very few characters in Naruto can compare to number one—that being said, Danzō still sits high on this list because of the sheer depravity of his actions. And, frankly, a villain can be (and who am I kidding, often is) very successful when you can genuinely hate said character. Danzō is a villain that fits this category very well.
Before I get into why he's a good villain and why he deserves this spot, let's look at who Danzō is; Danzō Shimura is an elder of Konoha, nicknamed “The Shinobi of Darkness” or “The Darkness of Shinobi”, and he is the founder of Root (a subdivision of the Anbu). Before the end of his life, he was appointed the sixth Hokage candidate, only to die by Sasuke’s hands before he could taste the kind of power that comes with being Hokage.
In his youth, Danzō participated in the first Ninja war, and in fact was on Tobirama Senju’s escort team along with Kagami Uchiha and Hiruzen. In this war, Danzō is exposed to what true power looks like when he witnesses Hashirama in battle—and it awakens inside him an immense thirst for power like that. It’s this thirst that drives him forward in his rivalry with Hiruzen.
When the escort team is confronted by Kinkaku and Ginkaku, they are confronted with the reality that someone will need to essentially be sacrificed in order for the team to make it out alive—which Hiruzen volunteers before Danzō can, earning in turn the title of ‘next hokage’.
From this point on, Danzō becomes determined to become hokage—but in the meantime, he is appointed to overlook the secret underbelly of the Ninja world, that being the Anbu—thus founding Root, a hand picked team of people that Danzō himself would put together, composed of people he thought would be best for assassination or reconnaissance missions. In establishing Root, he proceeded to carry out the dirty jobs, such as assassinating political enemies or overthrowing other governments. In short, he is essentially (for American readers) akin to the head of the C.I.A.
Danzō, naturally, eventually, began to target the Akatsuki—but the only reason he did was because he was promised help by Hanzo the Salamander to take the hokage title, and actually directly targeted Nagato for the reason that his powers would end up being a particularly big problem. Initially to attack the akatsuki, he sent root members dressed as Hidden Stone ninja to attack a peace treaty signing, but when Nagato killed all the offending ninja that were sent, he tried a different tactic. He proceeded to disguise himself with a (stupid) fake name—Kanzō of all things—and dress as an Ame ninja, and go to Konan, Yahiko, and Nagato, telling them that Hanzo sent him to tell them that peace contracts were made and that they wanted to have a meeting with the Akatsuki.
When this meeting came, however, Konan was taken hostage, and Yahiko and Nagato were forced to fight to the death—with Yahiko dying. Effectively creating Pain, who killed almost everyone except for Danzō, Hanzo, and Konan.
Pretty bad guy, right? Yeah, he gets worse.
He started working with Orochimaru, too—Danzō knew about Orochimaru’s human experimentation but didn't tell Hiruzen. Danzō participated in this human experimentation, actually, when Orochimaru replaced his arm with Shin Uchiha’s arm, which he then grafted Hashirama’s cells onto to harness his power.
He also recruited Kabuto as a child into Root, brainwashed Nonō into killing Kabuto by altering her memories to the point that she does not remember his face. Why did Danzō do that? Because he thought they knew too much.
Danzō would also go on to have a hand in the Uchiha massacre, ordering a 13-year-old Itachi to murder his family.
There are so many awful things this man did that it feels impossible to list each and every one.
The reason he's so unique and the reason he is so high up on this list is that he has no redeeming qualities or explanation for how he got that way. He just is. Almost every other Naruto villain has some kind of noble, tragic backstory that makes you feel for them, that you can even agree with in some way—but Danzō is pure evil. He is number 2 because of the fact that many of the major events that occur in the main story lead back to him—he had a hand in the culmination of the third ninja war, he single handedly created the new Akatsuki, and he propagated the destruction of an influential ninja family and set several important characters down the paths that would lead them to where they are at the start of the series, to say the least.
1. Madara Uchiha
Is it really any surprise that Madara reached the #1 spot on this list?
To be perfectly honest, when making this list, Nagato had a really strong chance to win the #1 spot, but the reason he didn’t is because of a couple reasons;
1) comparatively, the Eye of the Moon plan is, in a way, much, much more nuanced, debatable, and even kind of persuasive in the sense that between fans of the series, there is significant debate about Madara being right where Nagato’s plan is arguably less than persuasive in the sense that his whole deal was unifying every shinobi nation under the shared experience of pain.
2) While Nagato’s story is compelling, Madara’s influence is much more widespread, with a significant amount of major plot points (especially in part 1) leading back to Madara.
So who is Madara Uchiha?
Madara is one of the original founders of Konoha and one of the old leaders of the Uchiha clan. He was born during the warring states period, when children fighting in wars at extremely young ages was pretty much a requirement. Throughout Madara’s life, he has seen an extreme amount of death and violence—to begin with, three of his younger brothers dying, leaving him only with one brother that he was very close with.
It’s even worse when you remember that Madara’s best friend/rival/enemy just so happened to be Hashirama Senju, the other co-founder of Konoha, the first village to emerge from the warring states period, and the Senju and Uchiha clan were destined to always be at war with one another. So, naturally, they were rivals all throughout their lives. Madara’s problem, however, is that he cannot learn to lose with dignity.
Madara lost to Hashirama his whole life. Despite being evenly matched, Madara was never as popular—he lost the vote for Hokage—his concerns weren't taken seriously—he lost his role as an Uchiha leader when he began to express fear and paranoia about how the Senju family would suppress the Uchiha clan—he could not compare to Hashirama’s power—from childhood into adulthood, Hashirama had the nerve to be stronger than him but also better natured. Enough that to secure peace was willing to kill himself. Madara kept losing fight after bitter fight, all because he cannot learn to lose and let it go.
It wasn’t entirely that he was trying to serve himself with all of his fighting—he fought his whole life just to survive and now he had to fight to ensure continued survival. This is part of why he founded Konoha with Hashirama; he was tired. Before they were trying to decide who should be hokage, they had agreed that no children should be forced to fight in a war.
Which is ironic given that the fourth ninja war prompted children (teenagers, but still) to need to fight.
Here's the deal with Madara, and this is what makes him a terrifying villain, power aside; his motivation was some semblance of true peace. His idea of achieving this was The Eye of the Moon plan (granted, under Kaguya/Black Zetsu’s influence but my point stands); essentially, he would gather all of the jinchuriki to reform the ten tails, to then become the jinchuriki of the 10 tails and cast the Infinite Tsukuyomi, which would definitely create peace, in a manner of speaking…while also destroying free will. Hence the question; Was Madara right? That's still debated by many fans.
What makes Madara a compelling and unique villain is a few things; he is, of the Naruto villains, one of the most well spoken, complex characters in the show. The striking thing to me is that despite all of the awful things he did—using children to orchestrate his plan despite his original sentiments, or the thousands of deaths he caused throughout his 2 lives (his first life, then during his reanimation during the fourth shinobi war)—he did all of this because he loved his clan enough, because he wanted peace badly enough that he wanted to ensure a world that would not make for violent ends, even if it meant bringing violent ends.
There is a phrase on the internet that goes “A hero would sacrifice you to save the world. A villain would sacrifice the world to save you.” And frankly, Madara fits that, if you ask me, though it refers more towards his long-dead brother and his long annihilated clan. I also think that he had a very fitting end when he experienced his final death, finally burying the hatchet with Hashirama, effectively ending the conflict that he had dragged out needlessly.
Final thoughts
Naruto in and of itself is a wildly complex story with even more complex and moving villains. It is no easy task to discern which villains deserve to be in the top ten list, and so this article may be biased. However, I think that many anime fans—especially those who grew up watching Naruto—can agree that this anime really set the bar for villains.
What many stories get wrong about villains is that they don’t balance them out; in many stories, the villain teeters either into being too unlikeable, or too likable. In Naruto, there is equal balance for most villains that give them that extra X-factor above other villains in other stories. Some may argue that there are no real villains (except Danzō) in Naruto and that there really are only broken heroes, but what many people forget is that these characters are still evil in the grand scope of the story.
Something to note, interestingly, is that many of the Naruto villains appear to be motivated by love for someone, in some capacity. And really, I think that that's what Naruto is all about—love for one another being a motivator, so strong that it makes a person with immense power willing to move mountains for the people they loved and lost. And I think that that's what makes it such a popular series; many people can connect with the feeling that you care so much for someone that you would do anything for them—even rip apart space and time, even alter reality, just to make a world they would have liked.
