"We got robbed": Naruto fans still upset they never got to see this Sasuke fight

Modified Mar 15, 2024 20:59 GMT

"We got robbed": Naruto fans still upset they never got to see this Sasuke fight (Image via Studio Pierrot)

Within creator, author, and illustrator Masashi Kishimoto’s Naruto series and larger overall franchise, there are a seemingly infinite number of exciting “what if’s” and alternate outcomes. Many of these are as foundational as questioning what the titular character’s life would’ve looked like had he been accepted by the Hidden Leaf Village from the start.

Others are more power scaling centric, asking the question of what would’ve happened had two specific Naruto shinobi happened to meet on the battlefield as enemies. Unsurprisingly, many of these center around Sasuke Uchiha, whose own independent plotline during the events of Shippuden led to his missing out on many exciting battles.

Even in Naruto’s first part, however, there are several potential Sasuke Uchiha versus X, Y, and Z matchups which fans are frothing at the mouth for, but never canonically received. However, there is one potential Chunin Exams arc matchup which fans of the franchise and Sasuke as a character are seemingly unable to move past not getting.

Naruto fans claim Sasuke vs Neji in the Chunin Exams arc is the “fight we all deserved”

Why fans are so high on the matchup, explained

Expand Tweet

One of the biggest reasons why Naruto fans are seemingly incapable of moving past the idea of a Sasuke Uchiha versus Neji Hyuga matchup in the Chunin Exams arc stems from their character arcs at that time. Both Neji and Sasuke had to start their training at an early age, and work hard to teach themselves the skills that others wouldn’t so they could achieve their respective goals.

Neji’s philosophy is also that everyone is chained to a predetermined destiny, and that his is to prove himself the Hyuga clan branch he hails from as being superior to Hinata and the main family branch. Sasuke, meanwhile, had only one goal in life, which could be interpreted as him believing his predetermined destiny is to kill his brother Itachi and avenge the Uchiha clan.

Likewise, this hypothetical Naruto matchup would’ve seen each fighting to grab hold of their predetermined destiny, giving the fight significant literary value as a result. However, the fight in and of itself without any context whatsoever would also have been one of the most exciting and engaging in the series at that time.

Neji and Sasuke arguably represented the peaks of the series’ power scaling with respect to its central cast at that point given how early in the story the Chunin Exams arc occurs. To see the two battle it out period would’ve been one of the most memorable bouts in the series, and would be even more so given the aforementioned context of their respective goals and philosophies.

Fan reaction

Fan reactions to this Naruto "what if" as seen on X (formerly Twitter) (Image via X users @Chaddon_, @CasanovaCed, @AnimesempaiØ, @Mefunni1)

As mentioned above, many Naruto fans agree that they deeply wish this fight had occurred in the mainline series. While some are arguing over exactly who would win the bout, it’s clear that everyone involved in the discussion wishes the fight could be more than a retroactive “what if” after the series’ end.

Others are instead choosing to discuss whether or not Kishimoto “fumbled” the opportunity to give fans this fight, as well as advocating the idea that everyone wanted this matchup. Given the current ongoing discussion on this matchup in the series’ community, it’s hard to argue otherwise in terms of how widely desired this fight was.