Kishimoto reveals why Naruto never became a Jonin

This article contains spoilers from the Naruto series.

Summary

  • Naruto jumped from Genin to Hokage because of his divine status and skipped the ranks of Chunin and Jonin.

  • Kishimoto revealed that Naruto never became a Jonin because he became Hokage directly.

  • Naruto's lack of interest in the exams and his personality led to him quickly becoming Hokage.

Naruto Uzumaki is one of the most influential characters in the entire manga and fans have loved him because he is a symbol of courage, hard work and the will to never give up. Naruto set lofty ambitions at the very beginning of the series, but to everyone's surprise, he ended up fulfilling it.

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It's safe to say that Naruto Uzumaki was absolutely incredible throughout Naruto story and that he lived his ninja way, never going back on his word even once. While Naruto certainly went on to achieve his dream, he did so in a rather surprising way. Naruto basically continued to jump ranks from Genin to Hokage without ever becoming Chunin or Jonin. Now, Kishimoto, To Naruto mangaka, revealed the answer to why this was the case.

Naruto's journey from Genin to Hokage

  • Naruto graduated from the Academy after many failures

  • Naruto never got the chance to become a genin

During Naruto's academy days it was immediately clear that he lacked any real talent to become a ninja. This was clear even to people who held Naruto dear like Iruka. This is one of the reasons why he failed the Academy exams and was not allowed to become a ninja, at least initially. However, Naruto's innate talent shined much later and at this point it was clear that he too had what it took to become a very strong ninja. Naruto successfully ended up becoming a Genin and was assigned to Team 7. From here he could easily level up to become a Chunin or even a Jonin.

I want to fight against all the powerful ninjas gathered here. – Naruto Uzumaki

After all, Naruto had immense strength and, in time, the maturity needed to achieve these positions. In the Chunin Exams, it's safe to say that Naruto was one of the most impressive ninjas. Even though Shikamaru was the only one to eventually become a Chunin, Naruto was far superior to him when it came to displaying true strength and bravado as a ninja. The only thing Shikamaru had going for him was maturity and leadership, which was why he was the only Chunin at the end of the trials. It should also be noted that initially Kishimoto wanted to complete the Chunin Exams and his goal was to make Shikamaru the winner, although he had no idea how he could do that.

Regardless, while Shikamaru gained the position of Chunin, Naruto along with everyone else ultimately failed. After this event, things were quite chaotic in Konoha. Sasuke eventually left the village and Naruto followed in an attempt to stop him. Since he failed, he knew he had to get stronger, and that's where the time jump began, which lasted over 2 years. Naruto returned to the village after more than 2 years and at this point the vast majority of his friends had already reached high ranks. Most of the Konoha 11 had already become Chunin and Neji had actually risen to Jonin level which was impressive to say the least. His friends from other villages like Gaara had actually already become Kage.

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As for Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha, fans know that their case was quite different. Sasuke was not officially designated as a rogue ninja at this point, but fans knew that he was no longer part of Konoha, which meant that he could not be registered as a high level ninja. Meanwhile, Naruto was busy training with Jiraiya and was unable to attend any trials. Even after returning to Konoha, it was clear that he didn't have the opportunity to actually participate in the Chunin Exams, which is why he never actually attained the rank of Chunin.

Naruto Uzumaki sad childhood

And of course, if Naruto never made it to Chunin rank, there was absolutely no way he was going to become a Jonin. Naturally, this put many fans in a state of doubt as to how he could become Hokage, as it would mean skipping quite a few steps. Kishimoto had his own reasons for this.

Why Naruto never became Jonin

Kishimoto is finally giving fans an answer

The Great Jonin and Chunin War

As the story makes clear, Naruto never had a chance to become a Jonin. He couldn't participate in the Chunin Exams arc, and there was absolutely no way he would have a chance to participate in the Jonin Exams. Likewise, after returning from the timeskip, the battle against Akatsuki began to escalate, and within moments, the Fourth Great Ninja War began. After the war, Naruto was already a hero and savior of the world, and ranks like Jonin and Chunin meant quite a bit to him. Even though the anime tried to show its own thing where Naruto was basically forced to pass many tests before becoming Kage, the canon manga doesn't have any such things. Naruto canonically went from Genin to Hokage and Kishimoto explained why that was.

Q: Speaking of Naruto, his dream of being Hokage came true, but when did he pass the exam to become a jounin?

Kishimoto: Naruto didn't become a jounin. He became Hokage as a genin. Sasuke isn't even a jounin or chunin, but rather, since he left the village, he's a nukenin. That's enough for them (laughs). But I thought having him suddenly go from genin to Hokage would be fun and like Naruto.

As evident from Kishimoto's words, Naruto simply changed from Genin to Hokage because it fits his personality. It was fun for Kishimoto and that's reason enough to include it in his story. While this may sound like a ridiculous reason, it also makes a lot of sense as Naruto is not the type of person to continue to pass exams that he might have to study a lot for. At the same time, it would make absolutely no sense for Naruto to participate in any trials where he would have to fight, given that he was basically a godlike figure by the end of the story.

As such, Naruto being granted the position of Hokage in the village was the least they could do after saving them several times. It would also be appropriate for his personality to directly reach the top by skipping a few steps. It can be said that at the end of the day, it was a perfect decision by Kishimoto to make Naruto directly Hokage and not waste his time participating in many of their trials, even though the trials themselves could have been quite interesting, to say the least.

Naruto is available to read on MangaPlus and Shonen Jump. Fans can read the official release and support the author.

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Naruto

Release date

October 3, 2002

Creator

Masashi Kishimoto

Number of episodes

220

Streaming services

Netflix , Crunchyroll , Amazon Prime Video , Peacock , The Roku Channel , Amazon Freevee , Hulu , Hoopla , Pluto TV , Tubi

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