10 Best Ninjutsu Abilities In Naruto, Ranked

Jan 28, 2024

Ninjutsu is the most versatile jutsu category in Naruto: requiring hand seals and chakra, ninjutsu finds roots in every technique classification.

Ninjutsu is the most versatile jutsu category in Naruto: requiring hand seals and chakra, ninjutsu finds roots in every technique classification. Medical ninjutsu heals allies, sealing jutsu binds enemy chakra or movement, while most other ninjutsu are used exclusively for hand-to-hand combat or espionage.

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Ninjutsu allows its user to build an arsenal of unique attacks capable of taking enemies by surprise. Like most things in Naruto Shippuden, using ninjutsu can come at the cost of a user's chakra, personal safety, and, in extreme cases, their life. Needless to say, some ninjutsu grant better abilities than others on the battlefield.

Users of Earth Style: Hidden Mole jutsu channel chakra into the earth to create mutable sand they burrow into. While their entrance point returns to its original state, they travel comfortably beneath the ground using magnetic sensors; the user can track their opponents' movements above ground via vibrations.

The Hidden Mole Jutsu grants benefits two-fold: providing a means of escape while serving as a reconnaissance tool. The jutsu envelops the user's entire body, allowing them to move and breathe inside solid earth. By burrowing deeply, they can avoid most enemy attacks or tracking units. By using it in conjunction with other jutsu, they can launch surprise attacks on unwary enemies from below.

As a specialty of Kirigakure, its ninja use the Hidden Mist Jutsu to fill the air with chakra-controlled mist. Once thick enough, the target's sight and defensive capabilities are reduced to nearly zero. Because the shinobi produce the mists, they can create clouds so thick that even the Sharingan and Rinnegan are incapable of seeing through them.

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As a defensive jutsu, the Hidden Mist is one of the best as it requires little chakra to provide complete coverage over a wide distance. If thick enough, the mist allows its user to escape ambushes safely; it can also be combined with other techniques, such as the Silent Killing Jutsu, to wipe out entire unseen armies.

The Summoning Technique allows a user to summon various sentient animals after signing a contract in blood. The animal's size depends on the user's chakra, with its strength increasing alongside its summoners over time. Three commonly summoned animals are toads from Mount Myoboku, snakes from Ryuchi Cave, and slugs from the Shikkotsu Forest.

Upon witnessing its strength, it's easily understood how the Summoning Technique made the Sannin so legendary. It grants access to larger-than-life companions capable of decimating entire battlefields with a swing of their gargantuan blades. Like Katsuyu's healing factor, their abilities are lifesaving while others can fight in tandem with their user, such as Jiraiya combining Fire Style with Gamabunta's Toad Oil. As a last resort, users can also hitch rides back to their summons' location as a means of quick escape.

The Shadow Clone Jutsu halves its user's chakra to create one identical clone; by splitting their chakra multiple times, they can create multiple clones so long as their original body maintains enough chakra to live. These tangible beings are intelligent, autonomous jutsu-casters capable of acting independently of their original.

Unlike other clone techniques, the Shadow Clones are completely tangible: their attacks do real-world damage, can be used to supplement armies, and any information the clone gains returns to its original upon the technique's release. Used for offense, espionage, and diversions, the Shadow Clone is one of the most versatile clone jutsus ever invented.

The art of medical ninjutsu rose from the necessity for medics on the shinobi battlefield; by placing their hands on a target, a medical-nin can use the Palm Sage jutsu to convert their own chakra into a healing force. This chakra heals injuries, mends broken bones, and restores ailing comrades back to full health. Its strongest proponents could heal fatal wounds and critical injuries directly proportional to its user's chakra control.

As most four-man squads require a medical-nin, the Palm Sage jutsu is the greatest in the medical arsenal for ensuring a team's safety and its mission's success. Through the mastery of this jutsu, a medical-nin can preserve their team's vitality even on the most difficult missions without carrying heavy and expensive medical supplies.

The Summoning Technique: Triple Rashomon Gates protect their user from harm; due to the jutsu's scale, two seals are required to complete it. The first gate assumes the brunt of an opponent's attack, while the second reduces its overall power. Finally, the third disperses the pressure evenly to prevent its user from being harmed.

The Triple Rashomon Gates create several miles of distance between the user and their attacker. 50 meters high and five meters thick, this technique gives users time to plan their escape or counterattack out of the line of fire. It adequately withstood the brunt of Naruto's first cataclysmic Tailed Beast Bomb, preventing Orochimaru's death from an attack that devastated the surrounding landscape.

Known only to Konan of the Akatsuki, the Dance of the Shikigami converts her chakra into paper, allowing her to transform her body at will. She can disperse herself to travel along the wind, create body modifications like wings, or craft indestructible weapons to use against opponents in battle.

Konan's ability also included modifying the appearance of paper to look like other things: origami butterflies used for spying, identical clones capable of using jutsu, or diamond-hard shuriken to decimate opponents. The paper could be wrapped around her opponents to asphyxiate them or to create entire landscapes such as Amegakure's great lake, which Konan rigged with explosive tags to kill Obito Uchiha.

Tobirama Senju invented the Flying Raijin Jutsu to combat the Uchiha's Sharingan. It allows its user to transport to any location bearing the jutsu's seal. With no limit to the number of seals capable of being placed, a Flying Raijin user can teleport anywhere in the world without distinction while bringing anyone or anything they're touching along with them.

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In combat, this easily proved to be the best space-time ninjutsu ever made. Proficient users could teleport around a battlefield, effortlessly wiping out entire armies in a single, decisive attack. Massive enemy jutsu could be transported away safely, like when Minato used the Flying Raijin to save the Allied Shinobi Alliance from the Ten Tails' Beast Bomb.

While in Sage Mode, the Gracious Deity Gates are summoned from the sky to fall onto their target. These red torii change in size and form depending on their target's strength, creating an absolute-binding force that nullifies the target's chakra and movements.

Due to its erosion of the victim's will to fight, the Gracious Deity Gates are the strongest sealing technique in existence. Hashirama Senju completely subdued Kurama, the strongest Tailed Beast, using only three gates. It also immobilized the Ten Tails and its jinchuriki. Additional torii gates could also be summoned, compounding on each other to completely restrict any target.

The Substitution Jutsu allows users to guard themselves against fatal attacks by switching places with an object. Requiring exact timing, users can substitute their body for an object or person, escaping to a safe distance to observe and plan a counterattack.

Due to its advanced versatility, the Substitution Jutsu is the single-most perfect ninjutsu in an active shinobi's arsenal. It allows them to avoid any fatal injury as long as they know their surroundings. They can use logs, clones, or other objects to assume the brunt of the damage and escape with their lives.

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Joseph Messink is an anime lists writer. Outside of writing for CBR, Joseph is currently pursuing a Masters's degree in English Education while writing a novel. He also writes for and maintains a personal creative blog.