Who Won the Third Great Ninja War?

Naruto is one of the most popular shonen manga series worldwide and in addition to a captivating story, it also has a fantastic, well-built universe. One of the strongest points of the franchise is that it does not take lightly the existence of powerful chakra-manipulating warriors: Naruto is very serious in showing how human nature would weaponize these forces to create war.

In fact, the origin of ninjutsu is already a weaponization of chakra, as Hagoromo Otsutsuki first aimed to distribute chakra as a way to create connections between people and create a new, peaceful world through it. That ideology was at the core of Ninshu, the religion that would eventually be distorted by the creation of ninjutsu by Indra Otsutsuki, Hagoromo's eldest son. But centuries after Indra's “abuse” of chakra, nations would arise and they would go 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, which are led by feudal lords (Daimyo). They function in the same way as economic powers, but there are apparently far fewer countries in them Naruto than in our real world. Each nation, the lands 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 little more about it compared to others, but Kishimoto created a large world with a large socio-political lore.

As happens in the real world, these nations have often fought each other in wars. Although some conflicts may involve two of them, there were a few times when all or most of the five nations were drawn into war. These are known as the Great Shinobi World Wars, or the Great Ninja Wars, and there were four of them in the history of the series (or at least four were set in-universe). Interestingly, Konoha was involved in all of them.

How did the Third Ninja War begin?

As with previous wars, the Third Shinobi War was driven by competition for territory, resources, and power (as has happened with most wars in the real world as well). After the Second War, there was a shortage of resources, which reduced the power of villages and, consequently, of nations. Conflicts began along the borders, but soon escalated and spread among the nations.

While the war broke out only ten years before the main story began, the series rarely goes into it. The main source of information is without a doubt The Kakashi Chronicles (Kakashi Gaiden), as the conflict escalated in such a way that children, including Kakashi and his teammates, were drawn into the war as they trained as genin, novice ninjas.

Who won the third ninja war?

Image via Pierrot.

The Third Great Ninja War lasted a few 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 despite Konoha having favorable results during the Third War, he decided to turn to diplomacy to reach a truce and reconcile with the other nations.

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

The aftermath of World War III in Shinobi

In Konoha, aside from Minato becoming the new Hokage after the war, all of Team Minato 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 jinchuriki of the three tails. Kakashi Hatake, on the other hand, received the Sharingan from a seemingly dying Obito Uchiha and awakened the Mangekyo Sharingan after the death of his teammates.

Although the nations achieved peace through diplomacy, it was fragile. As usual after war, economic and population declines became key problems. Considering the number of dead and other victims, the war also gave place to many “rogue” organizations. For example, it was because of the war that Nagato became the leader of Akatsuki. While the Akatsuki had existed for some time, Nagato was the one who reshaped the organization into the version seen during the main story.

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

The Downfall of the Uchiha Clan

Unfortunately, for the Uchiha clan, World War III was a major disaster. Fugaku Uchiha, who made huge contributions during the conflict, was not given the recognition he deserved, not even having his name considered for the next Hokage. This sparked conflict between the clan and the village officials (even more conflict, given that there was always some conflict between the Uchihas and 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 Fugaku to plan a coup d'état. But at the same time, Danzo Shimura manipulated Itachi against the clan. After committing suicide by Shisui Uchiha, also believing it was the only way to protect Sasuke, Itachi sought Obito, posing as Madara, for help and proceeded with the Uchiha massacre, killing all members of the clan, except for his younger brother.

Will a fifth world war take place in Boruto?

Currently, there is no clear evidence that a Fifth Shinobi World War could take place in Boruto: Two-Blue Vortexbut the story builds towards escalating conflicts, which portend a great war. However, it is unlikely that this war will be between nations. Instead, it is more likely to involve a united alliance of hidden villages to defeat 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. However, with the introduction of Omnipotence, a shinjutsu technique that gives the user the power to rewrite reality (more precisely, it rewrites the perception of reality), an Otsutsuki could use this ability to create conflict between villages and nations.

What happens next in Boruto: Two-Blue Vortex?

Boruto: Two-Blue Vortexthe sequel to the story, has introduced a terrifying new threat: the Shinju Clones. They are born from divine trees (also known as god trees), but they are powerful, sentient beings. As far as we know, the goal of the leader of the Shinju clones, Jura, is to consume all the Otsutsuki clan members, and his first target is Boruto “Otsutsuki”, which is what Boruto is called by some after Momoshiki implanted his Kama/Karma on him and Eida/Ada's memories of him were altered.

Jura's actual 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 to be an Otsutsuki and Himawari to be the new jinchuriki of the Nine Tails.

The story also focuses on Kawaki's fall and his grudge against Boruto, who he believes will eventually be controlled by Momoshiki because of Kama, which is not a far-fetched theory. Finally, the new series also makes it clear that the story's true enemies, and likely final villains, should be the Otsutsuki clan and their parasitic ways of amassing power at the expense of everyone else's lives.

Naruto Shippuden

Release date

2007 – 2017-00-00

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 Murayama, Kiyoshi Murayama, Ts. Hideki Takayama, Masaharu Watanabe, Akira Shimizu, Ayataka Tanemura, Hiroaki Nishimura, Atsushi Nakagawa, Kentaro Fujita, Masayuki Matsumoto

Author

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)