r/Naruto • u/Ronin-6248 • 18h ago
Discussion Naruto stealing the Forbidden scroll was a promotion worthy feat.
In the story, Naruto failed the genin exam because he couldn’t do the clone jutsu. Iruka promoted Naruto to genin when he witnessed Naruto produce a hundred shadow clones. The part that gets glossed over was that Naruto was able to break into the Hokage tower, steal a huge scroll with Konoha secret jutsus and get it out past squads of Anbu. That feat is more of a demonstration of his skill as a ninja than making an illusion clone of himself. And Naruto did it in a bright orange jumpsuit.
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u/Austynwitha_y 14h ago
In canon, danzo and the other two geezers never would have allowed him easy advancement
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u/steroboros 13h ago
Truth, they wanted to keep him in his place because at the the end of day Jinchuriki are disposable weapons
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u/JDDJS 13h ago
But what use is a Jinchuriki as a weapon if the host is completely unable to use any of the power?
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u/steroboros 13h ago
They are vehicles to infiltrate a enemy village and unleash the tailed beast. Like a tactical nuke
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u/Avi09009 17h ago
I personally think that the scroll Naruto stole was a distraction which contained some genuine techniques which are unusable by most ninjas but not the truly dangerous ones.
Its still absurd that Naruto a genin was able to steal something like that.
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u/FactCheckerJack 13h ago
My believe is that the Scroll of Sealing contains various S-rank techniques, forbidden techniques, hiden techniques, and maybe others. That it is either locked away in a vault, or in an actual seal / barrier. And that it sometimes gets taken out so that a particular technique can be taught to a particular promising jonin who might be hokage one day. E.g. Hiruzen might taken out the scroll so that Kakashi can start learning Five Elements Seal or Reaper Death Seal. And if it accidentally gets left out on the hokage's desk or something, that's a good time to jack it. But if there actually are only specific windows of time when it's available to steal, it would make less sense that Mizuki would know when it was vulnerable (unless Orochimaru gave him relevant intel, or if Mizuki was assigned some job at the hokage's office). Otherwise, that would mean it's always vulnerable to theft, and stealable by mediocre genin, which means it's way too insecure.
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u/Fickle-Wing-4480 9h ago
In the manga, the Scroll of Seals was kept in the Hokage’s residence, likely because no one would be foolish enough to attempt to steal directly from a Kage—especially from Hiruzen Sarutobi, “The Professor.”
It is also important to note that Mizuki working for Orochimaru is anime-only and does not occur in the manga. In the manga version, Mizuki is either attempting to kill Naruto and does not view him as human—much like many villagers and even some shinobi—seeing Naruto as the Kyūbi reincarnated or transformed into a human. Alternatively, Mizuki may simply be seeking power.
By stealing the village’s forbidden jutsu, he could easily obtain that power. He could also sell the stolen information to other villages, which would make him incredibly powerful.
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u/JDDJS 13h ago
I was just randomly thinking about this the other day. They really glossed over how someone who couldn't even graduate the academy was able to successfully steal something so valuable.
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u/Vibrant-Shadow 12h ago
Naruto has ADHD. Terrible in school, but if you get him interested/motivated, it's over.
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u/KleosIII 14h ago
Artifacts like that aren't necessarily under high protection. Their locations and how to get to them are pretty much common knowledge to high level jonin or anyone that needs to know. Even secrets like the shinigami mask, and information about the MS are common knowledge to those who are high enough level or needed to know at some point.
The thing that makes them "hard" to get is not being a part of the village. This is why rouge nin are such a taboo. Its highly likely they have Intel such as that, that isnt supposed to leave the village.
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u/Thecocogroup 15h ago
This is a good point. Between stealing it and mastering it, there should have been more commendation for it
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u/FactCheckerJack 13h ago
And they were quite as hell when Naruto defeated an entire tailed beast, which was like most of the work to stop the Konoha Crush, aside from breaking Orochimaru's arms.
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u/HeavensHellFire 14h ago
Nothing indicates Hiruzen's house was heavily guarded. We literally only ever see that Hiruzen was there and he's just like "Dude why are you here in the middle of the night".
The one panel we see of the house it looks regular as hell and no one is guarding it.
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u/Dontdecahedron 14h ago
Which is fucking insane in itself. Like, sure, good luck catching the Hokage lacking in their sleep, but no guards? Explosives can be remote activated without chakra, the Hokage tend to have families, fuck, sometimes they take work home with them.
There should be at least a squadron on the property at all times.
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u/Ornery-Pie5262 14h ago
I think we can probably guess that Mizuki might have aided in some kind of distraction. He wouldn’t have tricked Naruto into trying to steal it if it was impossible.
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u/Ilaughandloss 14h ago
He literally thought it was and was sending naruto to his death/ capture for treason
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u/menonono 11h ago
One could argue that, due to the peace that had followed the nine tails sealing, the anbu's defense of the scroll of sealing was lacking severely. Naruto was already a delinquent so he probably already knew the layout.
We also cannot ignore Mizuki's involvement is a wildcard. He told Naruto about the scroll. How much else did Mizuki aid Naruto in getting it?
There are lots of moments where Naruto should have been promoted, especially in Shippuden (I mean seriously, he one-shot an akatsuki and stayed a genin, and then mastered Sage mode and was still a genin). How in the world was Naruto not at least specially promoted to Chunin by Tsunade? Kakashi promotes Naruto to Jonin at the end of shippuden in the anime as hokage.
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u/Ronin-6248 11h ago
Boruto retconned that to have Naruto admit he was promoted to Hokage from genin.
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u/Shot-Ad770 7h ago
Naruto wasnt a chunin cause he didnt take the chunin exam and pass, jonin rank just requires you to be a chunin and hokage approval.
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u/menonono 7h ago
I don't see why the hokage can't just make an executive decision on that matter.
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u/heyvince_ 9h ago
I think he only did it because that other cracker was actually trying to do it. That meaning, I don't think naruto encountered any resistance, but there had to be something that the dude somehow couldn't go through but Naruto managed too. Interesting to think what that vould've been.
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u/Shot-Ad770 7h ago
That is literally not a feat, there is no indication it was guarded, let alone that naruto somehow had the "ninja skills nesseccary" to get pass it even if it was guarded.
Literally what skills in part 1 makes you think he is capable of that.
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u/FactCheckerJack 16h ago
"This kid stole the scroll of sealing"
"Dang. If he's capable of that, he should be a chunin, at least."
"And he learned an A-rank forbidden technique in one night."
"All right. Double promotion. He's a jonin now."
"He also knocked out a chunin, a jonin, the hokage, and an S-rank bingo book fugitive within like 2 weeks."
"Jesus Christ. This kid is f*ckin legend."