Naruto's Most Underestimated Character Revealed the Dark Truth Behind Konoha (2024)

Naruto features a vibrant world of countries with hidden villages where shinobi reside and train. None are more renowned than Konohagakure, often called "Konoha" or "the Hidden Leaf Village," where protagonist Naruto Uzumaki resides alongside other mainstays like Sakura Haruno and Sasuke Uchiha. Konoha is the largest of the hidden villages and serves as the center for Naruto's plot.

Because Konoha is the focal point, viewers may overlook its nature as a political entity. While many characters throughout the series challenge this privileging of Konoha, it sometimes takes extra analysis to understand the full implications of a character and their development.

There are few better examples of this than Naruto Shippuden's oft-forgotten Konan, a member of Akatsuki and partner of Pain who hails from Amegakure, "the Hidden Rain Village."

Living through brutality, Jiraiya trains Konan, Nagato, and Yahiko – orphans of Amegakure

Konan fully emerges as a character in Naruto Shippuden's Pain Assault arc. Her home village, Amegakure, is often caught in conflicts between larger villages. Konan, Nagato, and Yahiko were orphaned due to these conflicts and later founded the first iteration of Akatsuki, a group initially focused on resisting war and fighting for peace.

As children, the three were trained by the legendary Jiraiya, who found them during a conflict involving Konoha. Konan becomes one of Naruto's most intriguing shinobi, being the only one to master paper-jutsu. Expanding a precocious skill at origami into an entire fighting style, Konan epitomizes what makes Naruto's combat system unique: intricate manipulation of chakra producing a style that reflects a character's backstory and personality.

Konan spearheaded Nagato's assault against Konoha and had intense fights with some of Shippuden's strongest shinobi. She possessed an incredible talent for prediction, simulating scenarios internally to determine the best course of action. Her raw strength, predictive power, and unyielding faith in her comrades make her one of Naruto's most underestimated—and dangerous—shinobi.

The Pain Arc Shows Strength On All Sides

After Nagato and Konan lead an assault against Konoha, Naruto makes a questionable promise.

Konan's lack of allegiances in a world often presenting itself as black and white is what makes her interesting. Her few allegiances are to Amegakure and her fellow orphans, Nagato and Yahiko. After Yahiko dies, Akatsuki's leadership passes to Nagato, and Konan remains loyal to his vision of bringing peace to a violent world, one linked to their origins in the war-torn Amegakure.

The Pain arc is beloved partly because it highlights the damage villages like Konoha have caused to bystanders. It concludes not with a climactic battle but with Naruto convincing Nagato to change his path, where a key promise is made: that Naruto will help restore peace to Amegakure. As Nagato dies, Konan, the last surviving member of the Amegakure orphans, leaves Akatsuki on this premise.

When Konan returns to Amegakure to lead it, she receives none of the promised support and eventually defends against Obito, who seeks the Rinnegan she received from Nagato. Without real material support, she loses her life in the process. While Obito's plan couldn't have been predicted, a proactive response from Konoha might have provided vital backup for Konan. Her death is marked by a slip of paper returning to where she and Akatsuki's other founders trained and promised to return.

Konan shows the limits and failures of Naruto's war-ravaged world.

Konan is important because she reveals that Konoha, despite being the series' focal point, is far from innocent. Konoha, like other villages, catches Amegakure in the crossfire of geopolitical disputes. It casts Naruto's central village in a different light once one realizes Amegakure and Konan represent wasted potential sacrificed for the political needs of places like Konoha.

As a series, Naruto always emphasized the hopeful idealism of its title character. However, Konan also reveals the limits of this idealism in the face of Naruto's geopolitical realities. Despite Naruto's well-meaning promise to Nagato, it's salt in the wound that Konan returns to Amegakure only for it to be forgotten. The village reappears in Boruto episode 157, where Sasuke and Sai find it in shambles, the state it's been in since the Fourth Great Ninja War. Naruto unceremoniously dispatches aid to Amegakure in response, a gesture that is never followed up on.

This reveals that Konoha's problem isn't limited to a single Hokage's error but is tied to the ideals that have always driven it. Whether through Hashirama's lofty dreams, Tobirama's pragmatism, or Naruto's stubborn idealism, Konoha occupies a central position that obscures the rubble it leaves behind. Naruto forgets his promise to Konan and Nagato, highlighting a problem that leaves Amegakure unstable while villages like Konoha benefit.

The fact Amegakure is rarely mentioned also highlights one of Naruto's narrative struggles: despite constructing an immense world, Naruto focuses mostly on the perspective of one village. An unintentional effect is that the villages on the periphery tend to be sidelined both narratively and politically. Konan serves as a reminder that even the most beloved place in Naruto is built partly on tragedy and missed potential.

Naruto: Shippuden

TV-14

Action

Adventure

Animation

Martial Arts

Set two and a half years after the events of Masashi Kishimoto's original anime, Naruto Shippuden continues the titular hero's attempts to become the best ninja in the Hidden Leaf Village and bring his former friend Sasuke Uchiha back to the light. The 500-episode series features the return of allies such as Sakura Haruno and Naruto Uzumaki's mentor Jiraiya, as well as the villainous organization Akatsuki.

Cast

Junko Takeuchi , Kazuhiko Inoue , Noriaki Sugiyama , Chie Nakamura , Shoutarou Morikubo , Hideo Ishikawa , Nana Mizuki , Houchuu Ootsuka

Release Date

February 15, 2007

Seasons

22

Network

Adult Swim

Streaming Service(s)

Crunchyroll

Franchise(s)

Naruto

Writers

Junki Takegami , Satoru Nishizono , Yasuyuki Suzuki , Yasuaki Kurotsu , Masanao Akahoshi

Directors

Hayato Date , Masaaki Kumagai , Yasuaki Kurotsu , Osamu Kobayashi , Chiaki Kon