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Throughout Naruto and Naruto Shippuden, the eponymous protagonist has always prioritized his friends' lives and well being over anything else. This is especially evident in Naruto Shippuden, where Naruto progressively gets stronger and is actually able to protect his friends.
Unfortunately, Naruto has come up short a few times before. While some of these end up being reversed thanks to extraordinary jutsu, Naruto has certainly failed his friends a few times before.
Here are four times Naruto couldn’t save his friends.
Note: This article contains spoilers.
These four times Naruto couldn't save his friends turned into some character-defining moments
1) Neji Hyuga’s death
Neji Hyuga’s death during the Fourth Shinobi World War is a tragic example of Naruto never quite being powerful enough to protect everyone. In an extremely heartbreaking moment, Hinata tries using her own body to shield Naruto from the Ten Tail’s attack. Neji, blood-bound to his duty as a Hyuga, instead puts himself in front of Hinata and Naruto, saving the two at the cost of his own life.
What’s even more tragic here is that if Naruto unlocked the Sage of Six Paths powers at this point, Neji could’ve easily been saved. Unfortunately this doesn’t happen until a little later in the war, and as a result, Neji tragically dies on the battlefield.
2) Sasuke vs. Naruto round one
The climax to the original Naruto series saw the eponymous protagonist taking some friends along to try and bring Sasuke back to the Hidden Leaf. The Sasuke Retrieval arc ends with a massive fight between Sasuke and Naruto, where the two alternate between heartfelt sentiment and non-stop action sequences.
Naruto tries his best, but sadly falls short to Sasuke after the latter fully awakens his Sharingan to three tomoe. This shortcoming of Naruto’s is one of his most significant, as it establishes his most basic of motivations for the actions seen taken in Naruto Shippuden. It also forces Naruto to reflect on himself as a person and ninja, something which sparsely occurs in Naruto part one outside of this moment.
3) Pain vs. Hinata
During the Pain’s Assault arc of Naruto Shippuden, the Akatsuki figurehead leader Pain attacks the Hidden Leaf with intent to utterly destroy it. The various Pains all swarm the village and do everything from property destruction to outright murder. While Naruto does eventually show up and give the secondary Pain some trouble, the true Pain has an initial edge over Naruto and traps him.
Hinata then arrives trying to fight for and save Naruto, but she is tragically and utterly defeated and killed by Pain. This failure is especially hard for the jinchuriki to bear, as Naruto slowly begins losing himself to the still-malicious Nine Tails inside him. While Hinata does come back to life thanks to Rinne Rebirth, this failure of Naruto’s is incredibly formative and likely where he first realized his true feelings for Hinata.
4) Obito’s death
Finally, Obito’s death is one of the most influential and impactful failures of Naruto’s life. After fighting each other for so long, the two finally become friends over their shared dream of being Hokage. Obito even aids Team 7 in the fight against Kaguya during the series' final moments. He even sacrifices himself to save Kakashi and allow him to keep nurturing his students.
As Obito crumbles to dust, Naruto tries desperately to use Six Paths Powers to save him. This unfortunately doesn’t work, and Naruto says goodbye to Obito, as the latter encourages him to become Hokage for the both of them. Interestingly enough, one of the last times in which we see Naruto unable to save a friend ends up being one of the most impactful. His steadfast smile through teary eyes after Obito’s unfortunate passing highlights this significance.
