Naruto: 21 Things About Team 7 That Make No Sense

Naruto is one of the most beloved anime series. Even western culture has adopted an adoration for the show, which has now prompted a spinoff, Boruto: Naruto Next Generations.

At the center of the series is Naruto's ninja squad, Team 7. Team 7 mainly consists of the group's leader, Kakashi, and the three genins: Sasuke, Sakura, and Naruto. There have been some changes over time, but when most fans talk about the team, they usually refer to the original line-up.

Team 7 forms within the first few episodes of Naruto. Fans have watched Team 7 fight and grow for years, with Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura now shown as adults in the new Boruto series.

Despite all of their hardships, the team has remained as the heart of the show. After all, who can resist a rival friendship like Naruto and Sasuke, or the teachings of the mysterious Kakashi? Despite their differences, Team 7 brought its members closer of the years.

However, Team 7 isn't just the most exciting, powerful team around. In fact, there are a lot of other strange things about the team-- and these are not always good things.

With that said, here are the 21 Things About Naruto's Team 7 That Make No Sense.

When the teams were decided, the teachers said that they consisted of balanced groups. Iruka even explained that Naruto and Sasuke were paired because Sasuke was the best student in class and Naruto was the worst.

However, Iruka himself knew that there was more to Naruto. In the first episode of the series, Naruto masters the Shadow Clone Jutsu and saves Iruka from an opposing ninja.

Quickly, Naruto grows to be one of the strongest genins out there.

Within their first few months of training, the reason why Sasuke and Naruto were put together is void.

While their rivalry inspires both ninja, it meant that two of the strongest up-and-coming ninja were on the same team. This hardly sounds like a balanced pairing.

From the first time we meet her, Naruto expresses his crush on Sakura. At first, its an understandable school-boy crush on a pretty classmate.

Later, even after Sakura treats him cruelly, Naruto is still interested. After her love in Sasuke is solidified, he's still interested. Even two years apart, training under two different Sannin, Naruto still has romantic feelings for Sakura.

Though they grow into great friends, Sakura never loves him that way and he knows it.

Naruto should have given up on wanting to be with Sakura long before he did. However, its fair to say that his competitive and persistent spirit would struggle to give up on anything. Even if that thing is a girl who will only ever be his best friend.

However, it never made sense to hold out that long for something that never would've happened.

Naruto always struggled to be satisfied with genin missions. After their first few D-Rank missions, Naruto begged the Hokage for a larger mission. He gives Team 7 a C-rank escort mission to appease him.

However, the ninja team quickly discovers that the mission is hardly C-Rank when two ninja try to take them out the second they leave Konoha's gates.

Kakashi believes in his students and they all continue with the mission.

Though it taught Team 7 a lot, they were only rookie genins at the time. Their run in with Zabuza and Haku nearly struck them all down.

Despite the fact that they made it out ok in the end, it never made sense for Kakashi to risk his new students' lives like this.

Throughout 700+ episodes of Naruto, Team 7 only completes 16 missions successfully. While fans only see so much onscreen, its still a disturbingly low number of confirmed missions.

After all, several of the top Shinobi ever, including a few Hokages, completed over 800 missions in their career.

This becomes even more alarming when we realize that Naruto becomes the Seventh Hokage with less than 20 missions under his belt.

Its totally understandable that viewers can't see every mission that they go on, but a team so highly praised should really have a lot more experience under their belt-- especially if one of them is to be named the leader of the whole ninja village.

Granted, Naruto isn't even a top-raking ninja when he becomes Hokage.

Who thought it made sense for a near-newbie to become Hokage, again?

Sasuke infamously dissents from Team 7 and Konoha all together when he goes to Orochimaru for more power.

While with the snake-like villian, Sasuke commits several heinous crimes. He attacks a member of the Hidden Cloud Village, which could be seen as an act of war.

He also assaults the leaders of the five great nations at a Kage Summit, and destroys several shinobi from various countries there. He then takes down an acting Kage, Danzo.

All of Sasuke's actions, even if under the influence of Orochimaru, are inexcusable.

He may have helped to save the world in the end, but he should have received more punishment than what he got-- at least deliberate, mandated service to the community.

Being pardoned seems too light, even if he works towards atonement on his own.

While trust and loyalty are necessary in a team, Team 7's level was extreme. Even when Sasuke went rogue, both Sakura and Naruto put faith in him coming back.

Sakura eventually gives up, but even then she wants to be the one to slay him. However, he was a criminal at the time, so it shouldn't have mattered who took him down as long as it protected the land.

This trust also almost got Sakura's life taken several times by Sasuke, and led Naruto to get hurt in the Chunin Exams. After all, his loyalty to believing that Sasuke was a fearless shinobi was what led him to take so many hits from Orochimaru.

Trust and loyalty are vital for a team to gel, but Team 7 endangered themselves in the process. This depth of loyalty doesn't make sense for an effective ninja.

During Naruto, three rookie teams-- Team 8, Team 11, and Team 7--  took the Chunin Exams. It was something that had never been done before.

The leader of each team was convinced that their students were strong enough to participate and possibly rank up. However, Team 7 should not have been one of the rookie teams participating.

While Sasuke and Naruto showed strength, they both had glaring flaws.

Naruto was headstrong, often overly confident in himself, and was bad at teamwork. Sasuke was selfish and had little faith in the others' abilities.

Sakura simply got little attention in training, which meant that she was ill-prepared to fight with her teammates.

Each ninja was strong in their own ways, but unlike the other rookies, they hardly meshed well as a team.

It made no sense for such a mis-matched, uneven team to enter the exams.

In the first episode of Naruto, an enemy eggs Naruto on by telling him that he hosts Nine-Tailed Fox that destroyed the village and struck down the fourth hokage.

Horribly, no one explains this any further to Naruto until Naruto Shippuden, and even worse, it takes 400+ episodes for him to discover his parentage.

The whole village knew about his role as a jinchuriki, as the Uzamaki had been shouldering the burden for centuries, but everyone kept it a secret from Naruto.

Everyone also knew that the Uzamaki clan were like this, as many of them were aware that his parents were the Fourth Hokage and his wife, the past jinchuriki, Kushina.

It makes no sense to treat the host of such a powerful creature so dismissively, especially when his father saved the village before his untimely demise.

However, instead of explaining the tragedy of his heritage and protecting him, the village shunned him.

Before the rest of her team, Sakura is shown to have an affinity for genjutsu. She even showed promise in an ability to destroy them, as she is seen breaking out of Ino's mind transfer during the Chunin Exams.

This opened an opportunity for Sakura to have unique genjutsu of her own, perhaps one involving mind control immunity or mental power.

However, this ability is never expanded upon and Sakura doesn't ever grow new abilities out of it. She never develops any genjutsu nor a deliberate ability to resist them.

Instead, Sakura is left as an intelligent, strong, medical ninja. While her abilities are impressive, it would have made more sense with this set-up to give her a very unique, mental genjutsu.

It also would have set her further apart from the very aggressive fighting styles of her teammates.

Kakashi is an impressive shinobi and Team 7 looks up to him, even if he's always late. He has a lot of faith in his team's abilities and pushes them to be their best.

During lessons and missions, though, you can often see Kakashi reading instead of focusing on his subordinates.

Even stranger, he's reading romantic novels written by a colleague, Jiraya. Kakashi can read whatever smut he wants, and its a funny aspect of his character, but its an inappropriate habit to have while trying to train.

The romance novels add some lovely humor to training sessions and D-rank missions, but it makes no sense for Kakashi not to give Team 7 his undivided attention.

After all, he's supposed to make them better ninja. He shouldn't be enjoying a hobby while they do all of the work.

Because Naruto's an orphan, he lives in an apartment on his own. He may only be 11, but that's his way of life. He also mainly eats ramen and sometimes expired milk.

Similarly, Sasuke is also implied to live on his own, despite being a child.

One of the most baffling parts of Konoha culture is the way orphans are supposed to just live on their own.

This is even more baffling when taking Boruto into account. In Boruto, there is an orphanage for parentless children to be cared for. Either Konoha didn't have an orphanage until the time of Boruto or no one thought to send Naruto or Sasuke there, and we're not sure which is the most baffling.

Regardless, the way Naruto and Sasuke are expected to live on their own is odd and one of the strangest parts of these ninja's lives.

Vengeance is Sasuke's main goal, which is something that viewers learn early on in Naruto. Only later do fans learn why.

Sasuke's older brother, Itachi, slayed their entire clan. Itachi left only Sasuke alive. The young Uchiha only wants to avenge his parents, something that he wasn't strong enough to do when he was younger.

Sake despises Itachi so much that its surprising he'd choose to train where Itachi learned the ninja ways-- not only out of hatred, but because if he went elsewhere, then Sasuke would be trained in styles that Itachi wouldn't know, which would make him stronger.

It would make more sense for Sasuke to leave Konohagakure all together. Yet, despite all of this, Sasuke becomes a Konoha shinobi with the hopes of one day slaying another Konoha shinobi: his brother.

Logically, ninja are supposed to be subtle. Because of this, many of the young genin have blue, gray, green, and black colored outfits.

There are some variations of tan, brown, and the like, but there is a common theme: colors that can blend in to the surroundings.

However, somehow Sakura and Naruto didn't get the memo.

While it makes sense for main characters to wear bright colors, Naruto and Sakura stick out like sore thumbs in their orange and pink garb.

At least Sasuke wears dark blues and blacks.

As ninja, their outfits destroy any semblance of stealth. It makes no sense for their clothing to be allowed at all, at least when they're young.

They are learning what its like to be a shinobi-- they don't need their clothing to hinder them.

When Team 7 disbanded, Naruto was added to other team's missions on and off. The reasoning behind this was to keep him busy and keep him from going after Sasuke.

However, Naruto is still bad at teamwork and keeps all of the other flaws he has when he's young. He's still one of the worst ninja at this time.

He only causes trouble for whichever new team he joins.

While this was done to help him, adding Naruto randomly to different teams only further ensured that Naruto never settled into a new group. He was starting to get used to working with Sakura and Sasuke, and taking away any kind of permanence just keeps him from getting better.

Though they meant well, doing this doesn't make any sense and only puts others' missions at risk.

Sasuke leaving led to the dismemberment of Team 7. After a few years of training elsewhere, Sakura and Naruto decided to reboot the team.

However, they needed a third member. Luckily for them, a ninja their age named Sai dropped out of the Anbu training system just as they were looking for another teammate.

Sai started off as an outsider, but he became a part big of the group as time went on.

Fans struggled to change that initial "outsider" mindset. However, Sai was a fantastic teammate for both Sakura and Naruto, as he was better than Sasuke ever was.

Sasuke was placed with them to learn to become a team player, but never did figure this out.

Meanwhile, Sai developed a personality, personal skills, and showed both Sakura and Naruto how to be more pragmatic shinobi. It makes little sense to treat Sai like an outsider when he was a great teammate to both Naruto and Sakura.

Sakura eventually becomes a talent medical ninja. However, Naruto takes a lot of time to try to find what she's good at.

In the anime, her weaknesses and abilities are completely ignored for 20 episodes. Worse, there isn't any effort for her to explore her abilities and fight until episode 31, when she's trying to protect Sasuke, Naruto, and Rock Lee.

Understandably, she's completely destroyed, despite her strong resolve to fight, and other teams come to her rescue.

Because of this, Sakura develops as a character long after her teammates. The show makes her look weak and useless for a long time by giving her nothing to do.

In the average ninja team, this makes no sense, as she should be growing and learning alongside her peers. However, instead she was ignored.

Sasuke eventually becomes a villain, doing terrible things for the sake of power. Konoha's ninja are sent on several missions to either capture him or take him down.

However, through it all, Naruto believes that Sasuke is still a good person and will come back to the village willingly. Because of this, Naruto is reluctant to try to slay him, as he's convinced Sasuke will change his mind.

Even Sakura eventually gives up on Sasuke, and she's in love with him.

Naruto is eventually proven to be right, however. Though he had no proof that Sasuke would come back to Konoha, he always believed in his ex-teammate.

If Naruto was wrong, a lot of people would have lost their lives and it would have been all of Naruto's fault.

Naruto's faith in Sasuke was reckless and stupid. No ninja should put their so-called friend over the safety their village.

Sakura loved Sasuke since she was a young girl, while Sasuke thought that she was annoying. However, through time and hardships, the pair eventually fell in love.

It may sound romantic, but there's one little problem: Sasuke repeatedly tried to end Sakura's life.

When Sasuke left the shinobi order, he abandoned all relationships and previous feelings in the pursuit of power. This included his friendship with Sakura. Every time they encountered one another afterwards, Sasuke actively tried to take down his former friends and peers.

The second Sasuke rejoined Konoha, though, Sakura was by his side again, despite his heinous crimes against her and the world. In Boruto, the two even are married and have a daughter named Sarada.

It hardly makes sense to love a man after he attempted to end your life multiple times, but that doesn't stop Sakura's feelings for Sasuke.

With the writers generally giving her the short end of everything, Sakura never quite had a chance. She never would matter much next to her teammates.

Perhaps she could have even become one of the strongest ninja of her time. However, she was written as third fiddle to Naruto and Sasuke, which stunted her character development.

Of course Sakura later became a better healer than fighter. It explains why she would marry a man who tried to slay her-- fans can see how she would just end up a wife and a mother, as her shinobi ways were pushed to the side.

Sakura spent the entire series being pushed to the side, never measuring up to her teammates.

A stronger Sakura could have made for a much more interesting story.

During the time when Team 7 is together, with Sasuke, Sakura, and Naruto, it's baffling to discover that they don't actually make a good pairing.

If Naruto and Sasuke are working well together, Sakura is standing by, useless. If Sakura is doing something helpful, then Naruto and Sasuke are fighting. Or, if Sasuke is doing something, Sakura and Naruto are bickering.

No matter what, the three ninja of Team 7 never seem to be on the same page and can't seem to stay focused.

Only after they are much older, after Sai joins them and they win the Fourth Shinobi War, do they show more coordination.

However, other than that, Team 7 doesn't seem to act well as a team at all.

They're just a dysfunctional band of powerful misfits-- and though this doesn't make for a good team, it does make for a good story.

Throughout Naruto, the show tries to be clever and logical by giving the ninja tons of pockets and bags that the characters can use to store their gear. However, any fan of the show will admit that these pockets hardly cover the amount of knives that are tossed around.

Team 7 is a great example of this. They technically have a backpack for knives in their first big mission, but the backpack is soon never seen again.

By their second Zabuza fight, Naruto and Sasuke are throwing Kunai knives as if they're growing out of their pockets.

Though it doesn't make sense, it's still a funny part of the show. Such crazy things as the endless knives in Naruto are what make the series so much fun.

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Are there any other things about Naruto's Team 7 that don't make sense? Let us know in the comments!

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