8 Naruto characters who outsmarted opponents stronger than them 

There are many characters in the Naruto series who have proven their intelligence on numerous occasions. One of the most important aspects of being a shinobi is being able to strategize and plan ahead in order to catch an enemy off guard.

Naturally, this series has featured numerous such occasions in which a shinobi has been able to outsmart someone who is potentially stronger than them. Let’s take a look at some of these situations and understand how they were able to do so.

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8 Naruto characters that were able to outsmart their opponents

1) Naruto vs Kaguya

While the entire fan base is quite upset with the way this fight was handled, no one can deny that Naruto was able to outsmart Kaguya Otsutsuki in this fight. He was no match for her since she was leagues above him.

However, he used a very odd technique to catch Kaguya Otsutsuki off guard and it was the Reverse Harem jutsu, which was essentially multiple shadow clones of himself but naked. This distracted her and created an opening for him and Sasuke to capitalize.

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2) Naruto vs Pain

Naruto was not extremely strong at this point in the story, but he was strong enough to master Sage Mode. However, Pain was quite strong and caused a lot of problems. That being said, the protagonist had a few moments when he thought outside the box and outsmarted his opponents.

After his failed attempts at using the Rasenshuriken, he was able to use that same technique to outsmart Pain, since he was one of the Rasenshuriken clones and almost managed to land an attack until Pain used his Almighty Push.

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3) Shikamaru vs Hidan

One of the reasons why Shikamaru is smart is because of his clan jutsu. Since it is very situational, he is forced to strategize before engaging in combat.

He knew that Hidan was immortal and the only way he could die was through starvation. Shikamaru laid the traps in such a manner that all the explosive tags tore his body into numerous pieces, and another explosive tag buried him alive.

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4) Kurama vs Obito

This was one of those hilarious moments that no one expected since it was a serious fight towards the end of Shippuden. When Kurama asked Naruto to switch with him, he threw Kakashi into Obito’s Kamui, which shocked everyone.

When Kurama did that, Kakashi received his chakra and he was able to hit Obito’s torso which had entered the Kamui while dodging Naruto’s attack. Kakashi had enough chakra to exit the Kamui dimension as well.

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5) Madara vs Hashirama

Madara was an exceptional shinobi and fought against Hashirama who was given the title of “God of Shinobi.” In this fight, Madara was about to die, but he was able to escape without alerting Hashirama. Madara knew that Hashirama wouldn’t tamper with his body, which always happened when he used his Izanagi.

During that fight, he ripped off Hashirama’s skin and planted it onto his chest once he came back to life, which also allowed him to activate the Rinnegan. This showed just how smart Madara was in the Naruto series.

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6) Naruto vs Zabuza

The protagonist and Sasuke were quite inexperienced at this point of time in the series and this was their first tough mission when they encountered Zabuza and Haku.

In this fight, the protagonist came up with a brilliant idea that shocked the fans since he didn’t seem like the type of shinobi who strategizes. But, he made Sasuke use the Shadow Shuriken technique and he made himself as one of the clones of the shuriken. He then attacked Zabuza from behind which caught him off guard.

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7) Shikamaru vs Temari

Shikamaru has always been known for being smart and being able to strategize even in some of the toughest moments. While Temari was far stronger than him in a 1v1 contest, Shikamaru utilized his surroundings and her attacks in such a manner that he was able to use his Shadow Possession jutsu.

While he forfeited from the match, everyone knew that he had Temari cornered and was the winner of that matchup.

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8) Minato vs Obito

Minato Namikaze (Image via Pierrot)

Obito was quite strong and he had one of the most broken Sharingan abilities, the Kamui. While others were struggling to find a counter for this, Minato was able to analyze the situation fast enough to understand a way to counter this as well.

Minato was able to outsmart Obito and this was no surprise because there are very few people that understand time-space jutsus like Minato does.