Spoilers Off applies to all Moments pages, so all spoilers below are unmarked!
Chapter 1
- Kurenai has a moral one, but it's awesome nonetheless.The girl was obviously of the Hyūga main family. For such a one to be attracted to a ruffian like the one who bore the Kyūbi was an ineradicable smear on her family's honour.Good for her.
Chapter 4
- After meeting Gai and spending a morning training with him, Naruto decides to prank Kurenai with a genjutsu to make it look like he very hastily put on a green jumpsuit and dyed his hair black in an effort to emulate the other Jonin. It works, not by being just that good of a genjutsu but by comforming to her fears so well she doesn't even think to check.
- Team 8 taking down a rogue shinobi right within the village, after the three of them had been doing only D-rank missions up until then. Kurenai tried to conceal them with an invisibility genjutsu, but by the time she started it, Naruto & company took off completely on their own. As it turns out, the rogue ninja was a joninnote .
- In detail: Naruto uses his Shadow Clones to wear down the intruder, Shino uses his bugs to leech his chakra and Hinata finishes him off with Eight-Trigrams 64 Palms. That's right, Hinata uses an advanced technique from her family purely on instinct before Neji is shown performing it!
Chapter 7
- Kurenai details the history of the war between Konoha and Iwagakure: after Minato lost his student Obito, he lead attacks that wiped out over half of Iwa's shinobi.
- Naruto takes out a Missing-Nin who can turn his skin into steel with one punch that goes right through his body, with help from Kyūbi's power. This can also be considered a Curb-Stomp Battle.
Chapter 8
- Hinata's reaction to Naruto being told by a school doctor that he's a monster in regards to making his first kill.
Chapter 10
- Shino, after figuring out that the Kyūbi had been sealed inside his teammate, verbally crucifies his clan's elders for their treatment of and attitude towards Naruto.Shino: I was able to deduce the existence of Naruto's prisoner through sparring and training with him. When Uzumaki-san indirectly broached the topic with me, he merely confirmed my deductions. As I told him at the time, I am neither stupid nor unobservant. Moreover, it is highly likely that, without the Kyūbi's chakra to draw on, our battle with the missing-nin would have had a far less optimal outcome.
Suba Aburame: We are aware that the vessel itself is exempt from the Hokage's law, if it wishes to allow the truth to be known. But what is the nature of our clan's betrayal?
Shino: Your choice of pronoun speaks volumes, esteemed elder.
Chapter 12
- Once within the Forest of Death, Shino reveals that he planted female kikai bugs on every other team at the meeting area, allowing Team 8 to sense the other teams a mile away.
Chapter 13
- The entire fight between Team 8 + Team 7 and Orochimaru. As shown later in Chapter 21, Orochimaru is quite impressed:
- Shino versus the snake. Owned.
- Hinata manages to land a strike on Orochimaru. As Shino later points out, no one else but Naruto and Sasuke managed to do that. If it wasn't for the fact that Orochimaru is an experienced ninja and much stronger than all of them, Hinata could have very well have killed him.
- When Orochimaru summons a snake to capture Sasuke while he fights Naruto, Sakura manages to taunt and distract the snake from squeezing Sasuke into unconsciousness. She does this long enough to drive a kunai straight through its head. Ouch.
Chapter 14
- Shikamaru vs. Misumi. Misami quickly restrains Shikamaru, who then scares Misumi off by tricking him into thinking he has an envenomed kunai. He then snares Misumi with his shadow, and uses Misumi's stretchy neck to slam his head on the ground. Naruto realizes that Shikamaru never even moved from his starting position.
- A chilling one from Shino during the preliminaries of the Chunin Exams, immediately following Hinata's harsh beat-down at the hands of Neji.Glancing around, Shino noticed that both Rock Lee and Tenten were staring at him. Looking down, he realized that there was a fine spray of aspirated blood across the front of his jacket. Hinata's blood. He looked back up."What variety of flowers would be appropriate?" he asked in the calmest, most matter-of-fact tone of voice he could muster."What?" Tenten asked, rubbing a bruise on the side of her head that she'd sustained in her loss to Temari. To their credit, both of them appeared upset with the outcome of the last match, but Shino still had a point to make."For your team mate's funeral," he clarified.Lee paled.
- Naruto vs. Sasuke during the Chuunin Exam preliminary battles. Naruto just watched Hinata get destroyed by a very spiteful Neji. Sasuke taunts Naruto, hoping he'll fight better than Hinata (this slams down hard on Naruto's Berserk Button). The "fight" lasts as long as it does for Naruto to bullet-punch Sasuke once, sending him rag-dolling away into an unconscious heap, with a broken jaw. Sakura admits to herself that Sasuke really had it coming.
Chapter 16
- Naruto defeating the Kaiten by turning part of the arena into swampy ground and letting Neji screw himself ten feet underground. "Neji," "screw." Beautiful.
- After having all his tenketsu points closed by Neji's Jyuken strikes, Naruto blows them open with a technique he learned from sparring with Hinata. The resulting chakra pulse bowls over Hayate and sends Neji airborne. An unforgettable Pre-Asskicking One-Liner follows this scene:Neji: That's impossible.
Naruto: Just as impossible as fighting against fate. Just as impossible as fighting a Jyuuken user hand to hand. - Naruto puts his money where his mouth is and beats the stuffing out of the Hyūga prodigy in taijutsu. He doesn't even use the Kyūbi chakra until his final slash.
Chapters 17
- When a spectator bad-mouths Naruto regarding his brutal finishing blow on Neji, Hinata openly and strongly defends him. This act actually changes some of the spectators' views on Naruto, and Kurenai is impressed by Hinata's boldness.
- The entirety of the Sand/Sound Invasion is one for Naruto. First he, in the words of Temari next chapter, beats Gaara like an unwanted stepchild, literally draining him of chakra. Then he uses his chakra pulse to destroy Kabuto's genjutsu that put the arena to sleep. Said pulse envelopes Konoha and the surrounding area, disrupting the ritual that WAS going to summon the three giant snakes. The ritual only saw a bunch of pissed-off little snakes summoned and promptly kill their summoners before disappearing. Then he leads the pursuit of Gaara.
Chapters 18
- It's revealed that the Sound Four barrier was disrupted by Naruto's chakra pulse, allowing Haku to go through and fight Orochimaru alongside the Hokage, easily keeping up with them.
- The entire fight between Team 8 + Shikamaru & the Sand Siblings.
- Without needing Gamabunta's help, Naruto takes his fellow jinchuuriki to town.
- Kankurō is able to hold his own against both Shino and Shikamaru. Even though Kankurō is shown to be at a disadvantage, and the latter two aren't fighting to kill, that's still quite impressive.
- Hinata's fight against Temari is great on several levels. First, it means that Hinata, a genin technically on sick leave, beat a kunoichi who should have, by all rights, been made a chunin. Second, she beat a ninja who beat one of her seniors (Tenten) and the smartest ninja of her generation (technically Shikamaru forfeited, but it still counted as his loss). Third, despite being the least threatening person in the cast, she showed off how swift and cunning she could be if pressed (evading Gaara's sand claw with a backflip and using a downed clone to draw Temari in for an attack). Interestingly enough, this last point could be seen as a Call-Back to Kurenai's lesson on deception, as Temari's dismissive, superior attitude and her impression of Hinata contributed to the success of the deception. And... when the Sands surrender and it's all said and done, she goes back to being quiet, gentle Hinata. Awesome.
Chapter 19
- Finding out the real reason Naruto ripped Neji's face open at the end of their fight: breaking the caged bird seal and preventing it from being reapplied!
Chapter 20
- Kurenai escapes Tsukuyomi by exploiting its own torturous mechanisms. In other words, she forced the genjutsu to help her escape from it.
Chapter 21
- Naruto fights Tsunade with hordes of clones. With one finger, she wipes them out by the dozens.
- Naruto wins his bet with Tsunade by disrupting her genjutsu with the Naruto Majutsu: Chakra Pulse.
- He even uses her Exact Words to his advantage. Naruto vs. Tsunade, with Tsunade boasting she can win by using just one finger against him. Naruto quickly busts out his Shadow Clone Zerg Rush. It's still not enough, exemplified with Tsunade causing a chakra-fueled fissure with her finger to decimate Naruto's clones. That's when Naruto busts out the Chakra Pulse, destroying Tsunade's youthful genjutsu. Naruto points and laughs. Tsunade starts strangling him...which is more than just one finger. Check and mate.
- It's even better when you consider the entire thing is a Batman Gambit. Tsunade could have refused to carry on with the terms of the bet or just flicked him with her finger when Naruto disrupted the genjutsu, which would cause enough harm given her super strength, but Naruto realizes that her age and gambling habits are serious issues for Tsunade and precisely uses them to his advantage.
- In canon, Orochimaru and Kabuto attacked the Tsunade Retrieval Squad and came close to winning, even with the Snake Sannin unable to use jutsu. Here, he is only missing one arm and hasn't lost his ability to use jutsu. He refuses to attack. The change: Team 8 and Sasuke are present in addition to Naruto. Orochimaru deliberately states that Naruto should be a Chuunin (possibly Shino too) and that all of Team 8 was "impressive" in the Forest of Death. He pretty much implies that the four genin would clean Kabuto's clock. Oh, and Naruto hasn't even begun learning to use the Rasengan.
- Kakashi and Asuma standing on either side of Hyūga Hiashi and threatening him to keep him from punishing Hinata for 'breaking decorum' and comforting Naruto during Kurenai's funeral. Kakashi accomplishes this by threatening to share his secrets for beating the Byakugan with the entire village while Asuma goes with the direct approach:Kakashi: I know you have no wish to do anything that might seem disrespectful to Kurenai-san's memory, so you'll stay right here and leave her team alone to say goodbye as they wish to.
Hiashi: (seething) You have no right to interfere with my clan!
Kakashi: No, I don't...but I do have a right to share any jutsu I've acquired. You know, 'Copy-Cat Ninja Kakashi' and all that. Bingo book says I know over a thousand. (nonchalant shrug) I know of at least two dozen that can neutralize or otherwise bypass eye bloodlines...like the Byakugan. Iruka's always after me to contribute some jutsu to the Academy curriculum, especially for their advanced jutsu workshops.
Hiashi: (pissed) That's treason!
Kakashi: No, not at all. I'm providing these to the village as a whole. Just because everyone else in the village learns how to fight against the Byakugan—if they have to—doesn't make it treason against Konoha, does it?
Asuma: I don't have anything half so elegant; I'll just kick your ass if you take one step towards those kids.
Hiashi: Do you really think you can do that?
Asuma: A few days ago, the two of us were fighting two of the most dangerous missing-nins in the world. We were out of position or too slow to save a valued comrade from being killed. Now here you are, someone she clearly despised, trying to make an ass of yourself and disrupt her funeral. How can we not?
Chapter 23
- Naruto mastering the Rasengan in a week without using clones.
- Naruto manages to convince the Kyūbi to provide assistance in emergency situations against dangerous adversaries.
