Naruto: 10 Major Villains, Ranked By Intelligence | ScreenRant
The Naruto universe is filled with an amazing cast of characters, especially its villains. Far from the typical one-dimensional approach to good and evil, these villains possessed strong philosophies and ambitions about justice and morality. Sometimes, fans wanted to root for the villain just as much as the hero and most times the villain even ended up saving the day and helping the heroes.
Looking at the major villains of the Naruto series (excluding Boruto), there were incredible feats of unique kekkei genkais and fan-favorite jutsus but strength doesn’t always equal intelligence.
10 Nagato Uzumaki/Pain
Despite being immobile and frail due to his battle with Hanzo, Nagato secretly created the alias of Pain and his Six-Paths bodies to carry out his plan to bring peace to the ninja world and during this time, only Conan and Tobi were aware of his disguise.
Pain guided the Akatsuki into a renowned group of international S-Rank rogue ninjas and successfully extracted all of the tailed beasts, except the Kyuubi. Before his death, Nagato strategically used Rinne Rebirth to revive those killed in the "Pain's Assault" arc, which stalled Tobi’s plan to resurrect Madara.
9 Kaguya Otsutsuki
As the progenitor of chakra on Earth, an Otsutsuki clan member, and the original jinchuriki of the Ten-Tails, Kaguya possessed unique knowledge and abilities not even shared by her son Hagoromo who was the Sage of Six Paths and the founder of Ninshu.
In spite of her profound expertise, Kaguya would be defeated by both her sons Hagoromo and Hamura and their reincarnates Naruto and Sasuke centuries later. However, she still possessed the incredible foresight to create Black Zetsu who would seed every major conflict in Naruto.
8 Kurama/Kyuubi
Kurama was the strongest of the tailed beasts created by Hagoromo and as a witness to the evolution of Ninshu for a millennium, Kurama possessed immense knowledge of both chakra and humankind.
While Kurama was introduced as the nine-tailed demon fox who destroyed Konoha and spent most of the series trying to kill Naruto, he eventually became a key battle partner and advisor to Naruto and saved his life through quick-thinking numerous times.
7 Obito Uchiha/Tobi
Uchiha Obito donned the guises of both Tobi and Uchiha Madara to manipulate the entire shinobi world into war. Motivated by the death of Rin Nohara, Obito fulfills Madara's revival and Eye of the Moon (Tsuki No Mei) plans. In his own way, Obito cleverly plotted to protect Konoha from the same pain he endured.
Obito’s tactics unleashed the kyuubi who destroyed Konoha (killing Kushina Uzumaki and Minato Namikaze) and convinced Uchiha Itachi to massacre their clan. Before his death, Obito shared his chakra with Kakashi allowing him to manifest both Mangekyo Sharingan and help Team 7 to defeat Kaguya.
6 Kabuto Yakushi
Born into a shinobi-less orphanage without any special techniques or bijuu, Kabuto became a chief strategist infiltrating many villages and inciting some of the series’ biggest arcs from the Chunin exams to the Fourth Great Ninja War.
In Naruto: Shippuden, Kabuto reanimated essentially every dead character in the franchise to both provide the army for Tobi in the war and force the Akatsuki to comply with his demands. Finally, he was the first living character to discover that Tobi was not actually Madara and one of few to master senjutsu.
5 Itachi Uchiha
Praised as a genius, Uchiha Itachi was one of the youngest anbu black ops and single-handedly massacred his clan as a teenager. From Sasuke’s vengeance to Kabuto’s izanami, Itachi was a master of deception from day one.
Itachi’s brilliance was evident in his manipulation of the sharingan: he implanted the Amaterasu in Sasuke's eyes to kill Tobi (which nearly succeeded) and implanted Shisui's eye in Naruto, which allowed him to reclaim control of his reanimated body and end Kabuto's Edo Tensei technique.
4 Danzo Shimura
Danzo founded and led Root, where he cultivated great shinobi such as Itachi, Kakashi, Orochimaru, Kabuto, and Yamato who would play major roles in the series. Simultaneously, he brainwashed many village leaders to pursue his own ideas of peace and power.
Danzo convinced Hiruzen to subject the Uchiha clan to Konoha's police force, which eventually led to their massacre. Then, he stole Uchiha Shisui’s eye to prevent a peaceful end to the attempted Uchiha coup and persuaded Itachi to assassinate the clan allowing Danzo to accumulate sharingan. At the Five Kage summit, Danzo almost bewitched the Five Kage to make himself the Supreme Allied Commander of the ninja world.
3 Orochimaru
Orochimaru was one of Konohagakure’s legendary Sannin and nearly accomplished his life ambition to learn the world’s secrets. Even as a genin and pupil to Hiruzen, Orochimaru’s intellect was considered to be once in a generation.
After performing countless unethical experiments, Orochimaru discovered numerous forbidden jutsu including Edo Tensei and cursed seal techniques (which he passed to Kabuto) eventually attaining immortality. In the Fourth Great Ninja War, Orochimaru’s summoning of the 5 Hokage was the turning point for the heroes' comeback.
Of all the villains in the series, it is no surprise that Orochimaru was one of few still alive by its conclusion.
2 Madara Uchiha
Before this death, Uchiha Madara launched a master plan to revive himself, capture all of the bijuu, and activate the infinite tsukuyomi. Amazingly, most of his plan occurred over several decades while he was still dead!
To accomplish his schemes, Madara deceived Obito into loyalty and placed a cursed tag on Obito's heart to prevent his betrayal. Additionally, Madara planted the rinnegan in Nagato as a fail-safe revival plan and entrusted his plans to Zetsu (admittedly a bad gamble but thorough nonetheless). Finally, Madara bequeathed his name onto Obito and this fear of Madara still being alive became the foundation for the Akatsuki's credibility.
1 Zetsu
Zetsu was the ultimate undercover agent of the entire series and worked in secrecy for over a thousand years to revive Kaguya while he manipulated almost every major villain along the way.
Black Zetsu tempted Indra to take Asura’s inheritance, which led to the first major shinobi conflict. Later, Zetsu revised the Uchiha clan’s Stone Tablet, which deceived Madara into recreating the rinnegan. Possessing both substitution technique and nature transformation, Black and White Zetsu were incredibly influential to Madara, Obito, and the Akatsuki and provided significant support for the Fourth Great Ninja War. There would be no major villains without Zetsu's ploys.
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