Top-5 Naruto Throw Downs

Bee always playin’ – it’s just a part of his nature. The stupid-ass rhymes and dance moves are annoying to some, but we find him hilarious; he’d beat the ‘ish outtaya while spitting the Naruto-verse’s equivalent to Lil Tay in ya ear. Killer Bee is so laid back that we underestimate his strength… he is a perfect Jinchuriki n’ all with the ability to transform into a massive 8 tailed octopus!

Bee’s hardly ever serious, but he quickly realized he’d need to put his big boy pants on when he faced off against Sasuke and Taka. The fight’s pacing makes the exchange memorable with swords of all shapes ‘n’ sizes flying around everywhere. There’s a distinct ‘feel-each-other-out’ period in the beginning with Sauske’s team greatly underestimating Bee’s abilities; but things ramp up quickly as Bee opens up his bag of sword tricks and gains an early advantage against Sauske. He would have killed the young Uchiha if Karin, Jūgo and Suigetsu weren’t there to back him up. Had the fight been 1 v 1 then Bee would have smoked Sauske – good thing Sauske was wearing plot armor!

GANG GANG GANG!!! Adult Sauske & Naruto served up a double can of Whoop Ass on Momoshiki in their first tandem fight since they took on Kaguya. The animation quality is stupid clean with each frame beautifully showcasing the combatants’ skills. Naruto’s Six Paths Sage Mode looks friggin’ baller, and Sauske’s eyes look as powerful and menacing as ever. Seeing the two life-long friends fight side-by-side hit us right in the feels. Each 1-2 punch to Momoshiki’s dome gave us goosebumps!

Geeks everywhere lost their ‘ish when Sauske & Naruto ended a brutal combo on Momoshiki with a friggin’ Shinra Tensei (Planetary Devastation, aka one of Sauske’s strongest moves, aka the most baller move in all “Naruto”). The show’s creators threw in a heavy dose of fan service by having Naruto & Sauske duplicate the Shadow Shurken technique they used against Zabuza during Season 1 too.

Using a time-jump as a plot devise to advance an anime or shonen’s story is one of the oldest tricks in the book; yet, it works every friggin’ time! Fans like us were clamoring to see what Kakashi Sensi could do post time-skip from “Naruto” to “Naruto Shippuden”. How much stronger is he gonna be? Have his chakra reserves and staimina increased? We had so many questions.

Luckily, our questions were answered emphatically when Kakashi showed out and bailed out Team Asuma (RIP Asuma!!!) during the Akatsuki Suppression Mission Ark. Taijutsu was on point during the entire fight with beautifully fluid exchanges between Kakashi and the two Atkatuski. Flurries of kicks, flips and jutsu accentuated the combatants’ speeds and agility – these are 3 of the strongest living ninja on the planet! Shikamaru, Choji and Ino struggle through most of the fight but come through where it counts with timely support. The entire sequence shows off how capable and revered Kakashi is across the ninja world. Kunai, wires, bombs, substitutions… K had to use every trick in his book to live long enough for backup to arrive; but Kakashi most def held his own against two S ranked criminals. Hatake ain’t no ninja to f^ck with!

Tension built for years leading to this fight. Naruto and Sauske were young, recently bestowed with god-like powers and hellbent on realizing their goals. Naruto just wanted his friend back – from day 1 he wanted Sauske to be his sudo-brother and fought through countless obstacles to reach this point. Sauske wanted answers – vengeance drove his decisions throughout “Naruto” and Sauske sought revenge against everything that contributed to his clan’s destruction. Two Friends met with two very different end goals and the outcome was legendary…

Sauske fought with the goal of actually killing his friend, and unlike most ‘friend fights’ in anime/movies/manga Naruto came correct with equal intensity. Think back to Iron Man VS. Captain America – Cap and Iron Man didn’t want to ever really kill each other, they were just mad at each other. This climatic “Naruto: Shippūden” fight on the other hand had Sasuke throwing hands with killer intent, and Naruto beyond willing to beat some sense into his buddy. This was truly a no holds barred battle of epic proportions.

Obito vs Kakashi is one of the best fight scenes in anime history, period. The former teammates let their hands do the talking in this emotionally encompassing fight; their demons are literally exercised – from their friendly skirmishes as boys to the shared pain caused by the death of their squad-mate, Rin. Tragedy followed both characters like shadows and throughout the show we saw how each of them handled their pain.

Flashbacks are spliced into the fight to add even more emotion to the already charged exchange. Obito was so hurt and confused (not to mention powerful) and Kakashi was shocked to see his friend still alive (not to mention substantially weaker, but eh). The battle felt real – like two friends on the playground hashing out their differences. It’s just beautiful people, do yourself a favor and peep it… now. Oh, BTW the camera work is dumb good too!