Naruto's Biggest Mysteries

I have watched Naruto more times than I will admit, and I still keep a small list in my head — the questions the story raised, waved at, and then walked away from. Masashi Kishimoto built one of the biggest worlds in anime, and some corners of it stayed dark forever. Here are the ones that still live in my head rent-free.

*Spoiler warning: this one talks about the whole Naruto story — the Uzumaki reveal, Itachi's end, and Kaguya. Boruto comes up once, near the end.*

What really happened to the Uzumaki clan?

Naruto's own clan was once so feared for its sealing jutsu that other villages joined hands to wipe out their home, Uzushiogakure. We are told this in a few lines, and that is all we ever get. Who led the attack? When exactly? How did a clan of sealing masters with crazy-long lives lose so completely that only a handful of redheads were left in the whole world? The story never shows it. The fall of the Uzumaki is one of the biggest events in this world's history — and it happens fully off-screen.

Who — or what — is Jashin?

Hidan cannot die. Cut his head off and he keeps talking, keeps cursing you in the name of his god, Jashin. The series never explains the god, the cult, or where Hidan's immortality truly comes from. Every other power in Naruto has rules and a source. Jashin's gift has none. Is Jashin a real god in this world? A forgotten Ōtsutsuki? A dark jutsu dressed up as religion? We never find out — and canon leaves Hidan buried alive in that forest, still waiting, which makes it worse.

How did Hashirama die?

The First Hokage was called the God of Shinobi. He beat Madara and the Nine-Tails at the same time. Then he died young, in the war era, and nobody ever tells us how. Kakuzu claimed he fought him and lived — which only makes it stranger. A man that strong does not just die in a normal fight. Sickness? A secret mission gone wrong? The series simply moves on, and the strongest man of his age has no death story.

Where did the Senju go?

The Senju founded Konoha together with the Uchiha. The Uchiha's end is one of the most famous stories in anime. The Senju just... fade. By Naruto's time, Tsunade is the only Senju we meet, and nobody in the village talks about what happened to the rest. Did they mix into other clans and lose the name? Did the wars eat them slowly? A founding clan does not vanish quietly — but this one did.

Who was Kaguya so afraid of?

Near the end, we learn Kaguya was building her White Zetsu army to prepare for a threat — someone she feared. Naruto ends before that threat gets a name. Boruto later gave us Momoshiki and his clan, so this one did get an answer in the sequel — but inside Naruto itself, the strongest woman in history was scared of something, and we were left guessing.

What sickness did Itachi have?

Itachi planned his whole life and his own death, down to the last move. But the sickness eating him was never named. He kept himself alive on medicine just long enough to die by Sasuke's hand, the way he wanted. For a man who controlled everything, the one thing he could not control never even got a name.

Canon

What the manga and anime state plainly: the Uzumaki clan was destroyed by enemies who feared its sealing jutsu — Kushina tells Naruto this herself. Hidan worships Jashin and cannot die. Hashirama died in the war era after founding Konoha. The Senju are never shown as a living clan in Naruto's time. Kaguya built an army to face a coming threat. Itachi was sick and kept alive by medicine near the end of his life. And the Uzumaki are distant blood relatives of the Senju — that part is stated too.

Interpretation

How we read those facts: the Uzumaki fall looks planned, not accidental — clans do not fall that completely by chance. Jashin's silence feels deliberate, as if one corner of the world was meant to stay unexplained. Hashirama's early death, so soon after his god-level fights, reads like the price of his huge chakra and healing — a body that burns bright and burns out. These are readings of the story, not facts from it.

Speculation

The fun stuff, clearly marked: fans have long guessed that Jashin could be an Ōtsutsuki experiment, that the Senju quietly became Konoha's ordinary families, and that Hashirama fell to a team-up of kage-level fighters we never saw. None of this is confirmed anywhere. Believe it at your own risk — that is half the fun.

Sources

• Naruto manga by Masashi Kishimoto (1999–2014) and Naruto anime, Studio Pierrot (2002–2007) — the scenes discussed above
• MyAnimeList — Naruto: https://myanimelist.net/anime/20/Naruto
• Naruto — Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naruto