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Both Naruto and Boruto have showcased some fantastic fights. Powerful characters are able to go up against each other and duke it out to their heart's content.
At the same time, some of these fights have come across as shocking to fans. Although a surprisingly large gap in strength causes many astonishing wins, some are also due to other circumstances. Strength is not the only aspect of battle, even though it may seem the most important.
Note: This article is purely subjective and solely reflects the author's views. It also contains spoilers for both the Naruto and Boruto animes.
Nine wins in Naruto and Boruto that caught fans off guard
1) Naruto vs Neji (Naruto)
Neji was a prodigy of the Hyuga Clan and one of the strongest genin in the Konoha 11 during the original Naruto anime. He was projected to win the Chunin Exams due to his mastery over the Byakugan and Gentle Fist Taijutsu.
However, it was a complete surprise to everyone when Naruto won instead. Naruto was able to partially channel Kurama's chakra to boost his strength, allowing him to defeat Neji in the end.
2) Konohamaru vs Naruto (Naruto Shippuden)
Konohamaru won this fight during the Sunagakure Chunin Exams on a technicality, but that did not make it any less surprising. During the battle, Konohamaru had one goal he focused on. Although he really wanted to become a chunin, he settled for landing at least one punch on Naruto instead.
Naruto seemed to have Konohamaru on the ropes. He could counter each of his attacks and land all of his blows without getting hit once. All seemed lost after Konohamaru got knocked down, but he got up, and the pair went at it again.
After Konohamaru was finally able to land a hit on Naruto, the latter decided to get serious finally. He activated Sage Mode but was immediately disqualified, making Konohamaru the winner.
3) Mitsuki vs Shino (Boruto)
Mitsuki was the newest addition to Shino's class at the Ninja Academy in the earlier episodes of Boruto. During the Genin Exams, he showed some of his true strength by defeating Shino Aburame alone.
Although the fight was not shown on screen, it can be guessed that Mitsuki had to use Sage Mode sometime throughout the battle to take down Shino. This fight was shocking as Shino has much more combat experience, so he should have defeated Mitsuki.
It is also assumed that he held back during the fight to give Mitsuki and the rest a chance to become genin.
4) Madara vs the Five Kage (Naruto Shippuden)
Fans knew Madara was incredibly powerful through the stories about him and his performance against the Shinobi Alliance in the desert. However, it was shocking to watch him toy with the leaders of the five major villages in Naruto.
He was able to take each of them down without even using his full strength, and even though they seemed to overpower him at times, Madara would just increase the power he used and overwhelm them once again.
5) Rock Lee vs Gaara (Naruto)
Before the beginning of the Chunin Exams, Rock Lee was showcased as the strongest genin in Konoha. His mastery of taijutsu allowed him to easily take down Sasuke and intimidate the other genin present.
He was blindingly fast, insanely powerful, and had an amazing combat instinct. However, Gaara's sand ninjutsu was too much for him to handle and resulted in him getting severely injured.
6) Jiraiya vs Pain (Naruto Shippuden)
As one of the Legendary Sannin and a Sage of Mt. Myoboku, Jiraiya was mighty. He knew various techniques that could be used in any strategy and was easily one of the strongest characters alive at the time of his fight with Pain.
Although Pain was strong as well, fans expected Jiraiya to win the fight, albeit with quite a bit of struggle. However, nobody expected him to be ruthlessly killed without doing any lasting damage.
None of his Jutsus seemed to work well against Pain, and his Sage Mode was quite useless as well.
7) Asuma vs Hidan (Naruto Shippuden)
Asuma was loved by everyone, especially Konohamaru and his three-person team. As a jonin sensei, he was powerful and incredibly skilled, so it surprised everyone when Hidan killed him.
In their fight, Hidan used his scythe and signature technique, Curse Technique: Death Controlling Possessed Blood. This is an ability granted to him by being a believer in Jashinism and is his primary method of killing strong opponents.
The second Hidan got a drop of Asuma's blood, fans knew it was over for him. Hidan soon made all the necessary preparations for his technique and quickly killed Asuma.
8) Obito vs Konan (Naruto Shippuden)
When Konan revealed that the pieces of paper surrounding Obito were all paper bombs, fans were in shock. She spent time creating 600 billion paper bombs and disguising them as the water surrounding Amegakure.
Konan could then lure Obito into the perfect position and launch her onslaught of paper bombs. He initially thought it was just a couple of them and tried using Kamui to avoid them, but Konan soon revealed that every piece of paper was explosive.
This forced him to use Izanagi, one of the strongest Sharingan techniques in the show.
9) Naruto & Sasuke vs Jigen Round 1 (Boruto)
Naruto and Sasuke are perhaps the most potent duo in the entire series. Because of this, nobody was expecting them to lose as badly as they did in their fight against Jigen.
Sasuke's Susanoo was praised for being one of the strongest defensive Jutsus in the series, yet Jigen could smash it with a single kick. He was also able to overpower and outspeed Naruto even while he had Sage Mode activated.
This sudden defeat caught the pair off guard and caused Naruto to be sealed away and Sasuke to retreat.
