One Naruto jutsu was so powerful Kishimoto decided to get rid of it altogether

While Naruto manga creator Masashi Kishimoto is known to be a great storyteller, even he seems to have made an error in the early days of the series. While fans may have forgotten about it, at the start of the series, there was one jutsu that was spammed repeatedly in any given fight, the overpowered yet E-rank ability, the substitution Jutsu.

Naruto, created by Masashi Kishimoto, follows the story of Naruto Uzumaki, an orphan boy who was ostracized by the people of the Hidden Leaf Village for having a tailed beast sealed inside him. Thus, to get acknowledged by everyone, he dreams of becoming the head of the Hidden Leaf Village, i.e., the Hokage.

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Why did Naruto creator Masashi Kishimoto get rid of substitution jutsu?

Substitution Jutsu as seen in the anime (Image via Studio Pierrot)

From the beginning of Naruto, the substitution jutsu was shown to be a staple as Kakashi Hatake was seen repeatedly using it on several occasions in the first few arcs. The same was specially featured during the bell test as Sasuke explained how the jutsu worked.

The substitution jutsu allowed a user to replace their body with a block of wood or some other object when an attack lands on them. When the attack lands, the attacker is shown an optical illusion that the target has been hit, giving enough time for the jutsu user to get away or prepare their next attack to catch the attacker off-guard.

Sakura fighting Sound Village Shinobi (Image via Studio Pierrot)

While this seems like a very useful jutsu, it is seemingly only an E-ranked jutsu and is a basic jutsu that students learn even before they become a Shinobi. Moreover, while the jutsu is said to have hand signs, only Sakura Haruno has ever been shown to do the hand signs during her fight against the Sound Village Shinobi in the Forest of Death.

That said, the jutsu seems too easy to use. However, over time, Naruto's creator, Masashi Kishimoto must have realized his mistake about how he ended up introducing an overpowered attack. The substitution jutsu demeans the meaning of any fight in the series as one could always escape death or defeat by using it.

Jiraiya passing away (Image via Studio Pierrot)

The real issue does not lie in the fact that anyone can escape death in the series, but in how several Shinobi in the series were dealt fatal attacks despite them knowing how to use the jutsu. Hence, fans were left to wonder why the character did not use the E-ranked jutsu.

In addition, as evident from the fight between Sakura and the Sound Village Shinobi, it seems like the substitution jutsu can be spammed multiple times without the user draining their chakra. This means that the substitution jutsu does not require a lot of chakra.

Sasuke using Amenotejikara in Boruto (Image via Studio Pierrot)

Thus, Kishimoto had to slowly get rid of the jutsu to make it easier for him to orchestrate fights between characters. However, he did not completely remove the concept of substitutions as he later introduced Madara Uchiha's Limbo clones and Sasuke Uchiha's Amenotejikara, both of which are Rinnegan abilities.

Therefore, it seems like Kishimoto did realize that the substitution jutsu was too overpowered and was at the level of a Rinnegan user's abilities.