9 unhappiest Naruto characters, ranked

Naruto is often considered to have one of the most heartwarming and inspiring stories in all of anime. However, there have been several instances of the characters being engulfed in sadness, grief and sorrow in the series. Some would argue that the essence of the anime lies in these moments of sadness because they are often so crucial to the storyline.

Many negative characters in Naruto cannot be considered outright evil as they have tragic pasts which forced them to make tough decisions.

Expand Tweet

Having said that, not all of the tragic characters took the wrong path, with a few even choosing to walk the path of sacrifice so that others do not have to suffer similar fates. Naruto shows how hardships are a way of life and the only way to survive is to remain true to yourself.

This article presents nine such characters who faced a multitude of tragic incidents and remained unhappy.

Obito Uchiha, Gaara and 7 other unhappiest characters in Naruto, ranked

It is important to mention that the rankings are not conclusive. However, the characters mentioned below have definitely spent a significant portion of their time in the anime suffering from past trauma and guilt, which in turn led to them being unhappy.

9.Obito Uchiha

There might be a lot of arguments regarding the decisions taken by Obito towards the end of the anime, especially joining hands with Madara, but there is no doubt that he had a really unhappy childhood.

Obito was very similar to Naruto as the former also wanted to become a Hokage. He had a lot of energy, and, despite being inferior to Kakashi in skill, he was the one who held his group together.

However, Obito still ended up suffering. He got crushed under a rock as a child while trying to protect Kakashi, and was also brainwashed by Madara Uchiha. He also had to watch Rin Nohara get killed by his best friend (Obito thought at first that Kakashi killed Rin, but it is now known that was not the case).

Rin's death left a massive impact on Obito and his entire world came down crumbling. He did recover and eventually returned to the good side towards the end of Naruto: Shippuden, but it was definitely a bit too late.

8. Neji Hyuga

Neji Hyuga, despite the title, was part of one of the branch houses within the Hyuga clan. This meant that his entire life would be spent in the service of the main house and was also the reason why he was branded on his forehead by a cursed seal, despite being considered a prodigy.

From his very childhood, Neji witnessed nothing but suffering. Neji's father Hizashi Hyuga was not very fond of the fact that his son was branded by the seal. However, whenever Hizashi got angry, Neji's uncle Hiashi Hyuga would activate the cursed seal on Neji's father to make him suffer with pain.

This led to a traumatizing experience for Neji Hyuga. Once there was an attempt within the Konoha village to kidnap Hinata in order to gain the secrets of the Byakugan. However, the head ninja who tried to do so was killed by Hiashi Hyuga. The issue was that when the allegations were brought against the accused, they were denied which almost led to a war against the village. While Hiashi was ready to fight, Neji's father volunteered instead and ended up dying.

Neji was under the impression that his father was purposefully killed by the main clan and he developed immense hatred within himself. In fact, he believed that a person could not choose their fate and they were destined to a specific future from their birth itself.

Fortunately, Naruto ended up changing Neji's mindset and the latter was able to understand the meaning of freedom and lead a better life until his death during the Fourth Great Ninja War.

7. Gaara

Gaara is a character who suffered a tragedy even before he was born.

The Fourth Kazekage, his father, wanted to create a weapon in order to protect the village. It was decided that Gaara would be made the One Tailed Jinchuriki. So, Shukaku, the One Tailed Beast, was sealed inside Gaara even before he was born. As a result, Gaara had a sort of premature birth, and the immense strain was unbearable for his mother Karura, who ended up dying.

While Gaara lived, he was raised in isolation so he could become strong. The villagers would often ignore him on account of being a Jinchuriki and other children were forced away from him due to the same. Gaara tried to be as polite as possible, but nobody wanted to come close to him.

In fact, there was an instance when Gaara discovered that his own father wanted to kill him because he was deemed as a failed experiment. This led to immense grief and sorrow within him, which manifested as anger and hatred for the people around him.

Gaara did end up changing after his fight against Naruto and he also received support from his siblings Kankuro and Temari. However, his childhood trauma was something that no child should ever have to bear.

6. Hinata Hyuga

Hinata Hyuga, despite being a heiress to the main house within the Hyuga clan, had quite an unhappy life in the early days. She did not enjoy fighting and violence. She was a calm and caring woman who was more into helping others instead of harming them. However, she was mistaken to be timid and disinherited as the heiress within her clan.

Hinata also cared for Neji but the latter did not reciprocate during their childhood on account of various reasons. This led to Hinata feeling like an outcast at all times and she never felt at home until she met Shino, Kiba and Kurenai sensei.

Eventually, her classmates, including Neji, started to support and understand her. However, amongst them all, Naruto was her primary source of motivation. Their relationship blossomed into romance as she ended up marrying him towards the end of the series.

5. Naruto Uzumaki

Naruto, the main protagonist of the anime, suffered his fair share of tragedies which led to a major portion of his childhood being unhappy. Naruto's parents sacrificed themselves to protect the village the same day he was born. However, they ended up sealing the Nine Tailed Fox inside him, which led to the entire village resenting him and treating him as nothing but a bother.

Apart from that, the Third Hokage never mentioned to anyone that Naruto was the son of the Fourth Hokage. Therefore, Naruto never got the respect that he deserved. Fortunately, Naruto never gave up and continued to fight even when everything seemed hopeless.

He was very hardworking which impressed people like Kakashi, Jiraya and few others even when others treated him with contempt. Eventually, people realized Naruto's goodwill and gave him their support, but his childhood was truly sad.

4. Kakashi Hatake

Kakashi Hatake was a child prodigy, but his life was filled with nothing but sorrow for the most part. His mother died when he was still a child, and his father committed suicide after he was accused of abandoning his duties by all of Konoha (his father chose to protect his comrades ahead of the assignment which led to uncountable losses).

Eventually Kakashi grew into a top-tier ninja, but he not only lost his friend Obito Uchiha but also had to unwillingly kill Rin Nohara. His sensei, Minato Namikaze, ended up dying as well while trying to protect the village.

Kakashi's sorrow prevented him from developing new relationships because he realized that the people he grew close to always ended up dying. The worst part was that Kakashi would often blame himself for the losses which further fueled his sadness.

Becoming a sensei to Naruto gave Kakashi a new outlook on life. In fact, Might Guy even considered Kakashi a friend, which the latter eventually realized during the events of Naruto: Shippuden.

There is no doubt that the pain faced by Kakashi must have been unbearable at times, and it is admirable how he managed to hide it and continue with his daily life.

3. Sasuke Uchiha

Several people in the fanbase may claim that how Sasuke Uchiha handled everything was childish and that his outlook towards life was poor. However, no one can argue that his life was quite unhappy because of a string of events.

Firstly, his entire clan was killed by his brother Itachi Uchiha. He saw his family get slaughtered in front of his eyes and his brother ran away when he was just a child. The hatred and desire for revenge that developed within him were natural reactions to the horror he witnessed. He eventually sided with Orochimaru and left Konoha with the hopes of getting stronger and finding his brother.

They eventually clashed and Itachi ended up dying, only for Sasuke to find out that his brother had followed the instructions given by the the village head in order to carry out his duty and walk the route of the ultimate sacrifice. This turned Sasuke's life upside down once more as he suddenly realized that up until that point he had been chasing nothing but a lie.

2. Nagato

Nagato ended up taking a wrong turn in his life on account of a tragic past. However, given his situation, there were not a lot of legitimate options left for him either.

When Nagato was a child, Madara Uchiha implanted his Rinnegan into the former without the knowledge of his parents. This did not cause Nagato any issues during his childhood. However, his misery began when his parents were killed because of a misunderstanding during the Second Great Ninja War. Nagato became an orphan and he had nowhere to go. He eventually found Yahiko and Konan, who were also war orphans.

The three banded together to find food and shelter. They eventually came across Jiraya, one of the three Legendary Sanins from Konoha. Jiraya took them under his wing and trained them after he noticed that Nagato possessed the Rinnegan. After training for three years, the three opened a group called the Akatsuki that was meant to bring peace to the world.

Unfortunately, the growth of Akatsuki hampered the plans of the then-leader of Hidden Rain Village, Hanzo. They took Konan hostage and asked Nagato to kill Yahiko. Nagato did not want follow the order, but in order to save the other two, Yahiko sacrificed himself by stabbing himself with Nagato's kunai. Nagato then saved Konan by slaughtering all of Hanzo's men, but the grief became unbearable. He developed a notion that peace was an illusion, so he created the persona of Pain and used his Rinnegan to exact revenge.

Nagato was eventually reminded of his past convictions when he confronted Naruto. They were sibling students to Jiraya (died in the hands of Pain) and eventually Nagato felt that maybe Naruto would succeed in which he failed.

1. Itachi Uchiha

The unhappiest character in the series was Sasuke's older brother, Itachi Uchiha. Itachi was considered a prodigy as a child. He was smart, thoughtful and always cared for others. However, his life changed when he was eventually forced to carry out a mission assigned by Konoha village and he had to kill every member of the Uchiha clan since they had planned a coup.

Itachi just wanted to prevent an all-out war so he acted as an informant for the village. Alongside Shisui Uchiha, he wanted to bring peace. Unfortunately, he soon realized that he would have to resort to violent means when Danzo Shimura announced that Itachi needed to murder his whole clan. Itachi could only keep his brother Sasuke alive if he managed to murder his clan before the coup took place. Itachi took the deal and carried out the deed while being consumed by grief.

He then joined the Akatsuki as the incident made him a wanted criminal. However, he strongly believed that one day Sasuke would punish him for the crime he committed. His wish was eventually fulfilled, but Sasuke and Naruto ended up forgiving him after learning the truth. Unfortunately, Itachi had to take on the persona of a criminal his whole life, suppressing the sorrow and the guilt within himself.

Disclaimer: All external media in this article are the property of their respective owners, and Sportskeeda claims no ownership of the same.