High IQ Moves

Side quests

Episode 0 — Introduction

The concept, and our methodology

Slide 1: Episode 0 — Introduction
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Naruto Walkthrough — Reader Edition

Episode 0 — Introduction

Naruto is usually seen as a shōnen manga: a story meant for teenagers, with a likeable protagonist, ninja fights, and a happy ending.

In this walkthrough, we are going to see that Naruto is, in fact, a pious detective novel. In Mr Kishimoto’s novel, you, the reader, are the detective, and your goal is to find the true plot of the story, hidden under the disguise of a simple battle manga.

The main antagonist in Naruto is Samehada. In the true ending, she absorbs the Jūbi and uses its formidable power to start the Seawater Deluge, wiping out humanity. This is the ending we want. Since Naruto is a difficult novel, this walkthrough will guide readers to unlock the true ending, so that everyone may get a chance to enjoy Mr Kishimoto's wonderful work.

This claim might sound surprising at first, but everything will be proven in due time. I can already promise that, with the true ending unlocked, Naruto is one of the best novels ever written. If you tag along, you will not regret it.

Note: this walkthrough assumes that the reader is already familiar with Naruto.

Slide 2: The walkthrough structure
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The walkthrough structure

Completing Naruto takes a lot of detective work. This walkthrough will be divided into 26 episodes (plus this introduction) as follows:

Step 1 — Complete the side quests.

A side quest is a hidden plot unrelated to Samehada. Several characters had hidden plans, such as losing a fight on purpose or staging an incident, in order to reach a long-term goal. We need to find 8 of them in order to unlock the main, Samehada quest.

Step 2 — Complete the Samehada quest.

We will follow Samehada’s plan from her first appearance to the Fourth Shinobi World War.

Step 3 — Find the pious meaning of the novel.

The false gods, false messiahs, false angels, false Edens, and false salvations all point toward the true ending.

Step 4 — Unlock the true ending.

Once the hidden plots and the symbolic structure are both understood, the Samehada ending becomes visible.

Slide 3: Our methodology
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Our methodology

Before starting our first quest, we need to explain the methodology we will follow.

In order to complete a quest, we first need to find a discrepancy. A discrepancy is any event that contradicts our established knowledge, or is illogical. For example:

A character fails to use an ability they should have.

A character acts against their established goal.

A character’s plan or decision makes no sense.

These are not mistakes or plot holes. They are a clue leading to hidden plot.

Once we have our discrepancy, we need to correlate it to a character’s goal. Who benefits from the discrepancy, and could that character plausibly have arranged the event? This correlation is the definition of a hidden plot.

Some difficult quests may not always offer a clean discrepancy, and will instead require one more tool: the coïncidence. As opposed to a discrepancy, a coïncidence isn’t inherently inconsistent, but convenient and unlikely to have happened by accident.

By itself, a single coïncidence doesn’t prove much — sometimes, people do get lucky. But a pattern of coïncidences can become a clue: if the same kind of unlikely event keeps happening, keeps benefiting the same character, and that character keeps being nearby, we may have a hidden plot.

Slide 4: Our standard
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Our standard

We are not looking for random speculation, or assuming that any scene can mean anything we like. We will follow a strict standard:

A true hidden plot must make Naruto less convoluted, not more.

We are going to look at scenes that, at first glance, seem convoluted, for example with a couple of characters making weird decisions for the sake of the plot. And then, with the hidden plot, we will realise “oh, everything makes sense now!”.

In the next episode, we will illustrate our key concepts (discrepancy, goal and coïncidence) with our first side quest: the chapter 1 tutorial.

Let us end this introduction with a little reminder: all credit goes to Mr Kishimoto.

In this walkthrough, we will explain Mr Kishimoto’s work, so that every reader may enjoy the true ending. But the ideas were Mr Kishimoto’s to begin with; we are merely explaining them. For example, making Samehada the main antagonist was Mr Kishimoto’s idea, not mine. So was the very idea of having a true ending to unlock.