Who Won the Third Great Ninja War?

Naruto is one of the world's most popular shonen manga series and features a great, well-built universe in addition to an engaging story. One of the franchise's strongest points is that it doesn't take the existence of powerful chakra-manipulating warriors lightly: Naruto he is very serious in showing how human nature will arm these forces to create war.

In fact, the origins of ninjutsu are already chakra weapons, as Hagoromo Otsutsuki first focused on the distribution of chakra as a way to create a connection between people and create a new, peaceful world through it. This ideology was at the core of Ninshu, a religion that was eventually warped by the creation of ninjutsu by Indra Otsutsuki, Hagoroma's eldest son. But centuries after Indra's “abuse” of chakra, nations emerged and went to war to defend their geopolitical interests. These are known as the Great Shinobi Wars.

How many great ninja wars have there been?

IN Narutothere are five Great Shinobi countries, the five largest nations in the world, led by feudal lords (Daimyo). They function similarly to economic powers, but appear to have far fewer countries Naruto than in our real world. Each nation, the Land of Lightning, Water, Earth, Fire and Wind naturally has its own history and background. Since Konohagakure, Naruto's village, is located in the Fire Nation, we know a bit more about it compared to the others, but Kishimoto has created a large world with an extensive sociopolitical tradition.

As happens in the real world, these nations often fought wars with each other. While some conflicts may involve two of them, there have been several instances where all or most of the five nations have been drawn into war. These are known as the Great Shinobi World Wars or the Great Ninja Wars, and there have been four in the history of the series (or at least four have been recorded in-universe). Interestingly, Konoha was involved in all of them.

How did the third ninja war start?

As with previous wars, the Third Shinobi War was driven by competition for territory, resources, and power (as most wars in the real world have been). After the second war, there was a shortage of resources, which reduced the power of villages and subsequently nations. The conflict began along borders but soon escalated and spread between nations.

While the war only broke out ten years before the main story begins, the series rarely delves into it. The main source of information is probably The Kakashi Chronicles (Kakashi Gaiden), as the conflict escalated in such a way that the children, including Kakashi and his teammates, were drawn into the war while training as genin, budding ninja.

Who won the third ninja war?

Image via Pierrot.

The Third Great Ninja War lasted several years and ended only a year or two before Naruto Uzumaki was born. Hiruzen Sarutobi led the village as the Third Hokage in the Second and Third World Wars, and although Konoha had a favorable record during the Third War, he decided to turn to diplomacy to reach a truce and reconcile with the other nations.

So, technically, no one won the war. All countries involved agreed to a cease-fire. However, Konoha is generally considered the winner of the war due to its strong position and dominant position afterwards. The results of the war played a key role in the appointment of Minato Namikaze as the Fourth Hokage.

Aftermath of Shinobi World War III

In Konoha, aside from Minato becoming the new Hokage after the war, Minato's entire team gained attention during the war, and its surviving members were key to what came later. Unfortunately, Rin Nohara died during the war after being forced to become the Three Tails jinchuriki. On the other hand, Kakashi Hatake obtained the Sharingan from the seemingly dying Obito Uchiha and awakened the Mangekyo Sharingan after the death of his teammates.

Also, while nations achieved peace through diplomacy, it was fragile. As is common after wars, economic and population decline became a key issue. Due to the number of dead and other victims, the war also gave way to many “evil” organizations. For example, thanks to the war, Nagato became the leader of the Akatsuki. While the Akatsuki existed for a while, Nagato was the one who transformed the organization into the version we saw during the main story.

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Obito, as we know, did not die during the war, although Konoha mourned his death. Rescued by Madara Uchiha, he swore to follow his ideal of creating a “better world” after Madara's death and went into hiding as Tobi until he eventually started the Fourth Shinobi World War, a major event in the main story.

The fall of the Uchiha clan

Unfortunately for the Uchiha clan, World War III was a major disaster. Fugaku Uchiha, who had contributed greatly during the conflict, was not given the recognition he deserved, and his name was not even considered for the next Hokage. This caused conflict between the clan and the village officials (even more conflict, given that there was always some conflict between the Uchiha and the officials). Fugaku then turned to training his sons, Itachi and Sasuke, who showed great potential (especially Itachi).

The conflict between the clan and the villages led to Fugaku planning a coup d'état. However, at the same time, Danzo Shimura was manipulating Itachi against the clan. After Shisui Uchiha's suicide, and also believing it was the only way to protect Sasuke, Itachi sought out Obito, posing as Madara, for help and proceeded to massacre the Uchiha, killing all the clan members except his younger brother.

Will World War 5 take place in Boruto?

As of now, there is no clear evidence that the Fifth Shinobi World War could take place Boruto: Two-Blue Vortexbut the story moves towards an escalation of conflict that foreshadows a great war. However, this war is unlikely to be between nations. Instead, it is more likely to involve a united alliance of hidden villages defeating either the Shinju clones or the Otsutsuki clan.

Jura has already threatened many villages, leading to the belief that they will band together to defeat him. With the introduction of Omnipotence, a shinjutsu technique that grants the user the power to rewrite reality (or rather rewrite the perception of reality), Otsutsuki was able to use this ability to cause conflict between villages and nations.

What's next in Boruto: Two-Blue Vortex?

Boruto: Two-Blue Vortexcontinuation of the story, introduced a terrifying new threat: the Shinju clones. They are born from divine trees (also known as God Trees) but are powerful sentient beings. As far as we know, the goal of the leader of the Shinju clones, Jura, is to consume all the members of the Otsutsuki clan, and his first target is Boruto “Otsutsuki”, as Boruto is called by some after Momoshiki implanted his Kama/Karma and Eida/Ada's Omnipotence changed people's memories of him.

Jura's true target is Naruto Uzumaki as he believes that Naruto will satisfy his thirst for knowledge, but since Naruto has disappeared, he first wants to consume Boruto for being Otsutsuki and Himawari for being the new Nine-Tails jinchuriki.

The story also focuses on Kawaki's downfall and his grudge with Boruto, who he believes will eventually be taken over by Momoshiki for Kama, which is not far-fetched. Finally, the new series also makes it clear that the real enemies and probably the final villains of the story should be the Otsutsuki clan and their parasitic way of gaining power at the expense of everyone else's lives.

Naruto Shippuden

Release date

2007 – 00.00.2017

Network

TV Tokyo

directors

Masaaki Kumagai, Naoki Horiuchi, Kazunori Mizuno, Yuki Kinoshita, Kazuya Iwata, Hiroyoshi Kishikawa, Yusuke Onoda, Hisashi Ishii, Yoshihiro Sugai, Shu Watanabe, Akitaro Daichi, Takuma Suzuki, Kiyoshi Kuniga, Tomichi Kunichi, Kiyoshi Murayama, Nishida, Hideki Takayama, Masaharu Watanabe, Akira Shimizu, Ayataka Tanemura, Hiroaki Nishimura, Atsushi Nakagawa, Kentaro Fujita, Masayuki Matsumoto

Writers

Yasuyuki Suzuki, Shin Yoshida, Junki Takegami, Katsuhiko Chiba, Yuka Miyata, Satoru Nishizono, Kento Shimoyama, Daisuke Watanabe, Hideto Tanaka, Masaya Honda

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  Junko Takeuchi

  Naruto Uzumaki (voice)

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  Noriaki Sugiyama

  Sasuke Uchiha (voice)