By Suzail Ahmad
With over 700 episodes, Naruto has plenty of extremely long canon arcs, but which ones are the shortest?
With the anime spanning over five hundred episodes, Naruto is among the longest-running series ever, even if it does not quite crack the top 20. The captivating story played a huge role in the anime being a hit with the fans. It is quite obvious that having so many episodes, the anime has a lot of arcs as well.
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However, many of these are filler arcs, which means they do not affect the original story of the series. In comparison to the filler, the canon arcs are much better, and they provide more re-watch value. So, here is a look at the shortest canon arcs in Naruto that can be rewatched.
10 Fourth Shinobi World War: Countdown Arc (22 Episodes)
After Tobi declares that the world would be engulfed in another war, the Five Shinobi Nations begin their preparation. Naruto and Sasuke clash one last time, and it ends in a draw.
Meanwhile, Tobi and Kabuto form an alliance, which puts the rest of the world at a significant disadvantage. The arc also sees Naruto trying to get control over the power of the Nine-Tails.
9 Tenchi Bridge Reconnaissance Mission Arc (21 Episodes)
In this arc, Naruto is sent to meet Sasori's spy to find information regarding the whereabouts of Sasuke. However, due to Kakashi being hospitalized, Naruto needs one more member to go on the mission.
Sai ends up becoming the third person on the team and Tsunade also assigns them an ANBU captain, who takes over Kakashi's duty temporarily.
8 Search for Tsunade Arc (20 Episodes)
Hiruzen's death leaves the Hidden Leaf without a head figure, so the elders approach Jiraiya and ask him to become the next Hokage. Jiraiya declines the offer and instead suggests Tsunade for the position, who is not in the Hidden Leaf at the time.
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So, Naruto and Jiraiya set out to find and bring Tsunade back to the Leaf, however, Orochimaru is also interested in her.
7 Prologue — Land of Waves (19 Episodes)
Despite being the first storyline in the anime, it is easily one of the best arcs in the entire series. This arc is the beginning of Naruto's journey, and it shows how the village treated him. It also features the formation of Team 7, and they also get their first mission.
The mission was supposed to be easy, but the person who had asked for help lied about the severity of the task. Thus, the newly formed Team 7 had to face the Demon of the Hidden Mist.
6 Five Kage Summit Arc (18 Episodes)
The Five Kage Summit arc sees Sasuke's reputation being tarnished even further. In the arc, Sasuke travels to the Land of Iron, where the Five Kage are gathering. Sasuke intended to kill Danzo in order to avenge Itachi, but the rest of the Kage don't react in kind to the Uchiha's attack.
Sasuke was lucky as he was saved by Tobi. Towards the end of the arc, Tobi declared war against the Five Shinobi Nations.
5 Akatsuki Suppression Mission Arc (17 Episodes)
This is one of the few arcs in the anime where the focus is not on Naruto. After declaring that Akatsuki is a threat, the Hidden Leaf is on alert and ready to fight them. In this particular arc, Hidan and Kakuzu come in contact with Team 10, and Hidan kills Asuma in the fight.
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Visibly distraught by their teacher's death, the rest of Team 10 conjure up a plan to defeat the two Akatsuki members.
4 Konoha Crush Arc (13 Episodes)
The arc takes place after the events of the Chunin Exams, and it sees Orochimaru's plan set into motion. After being driven away by Hiruzen Sarutobi, Orochimaru felt humiliated and wanted to destroy the entire Hidden Leaf.
Since no other ninja was capable to fight Orochimaru, Hiruzen had to step in and stop his former pupil himself. The Third Hokage managed to stop the invasion, but it came at the price of his own life.
3 Itachi Pursuit Mission Arc (12 Episodes)
Itachi was a wanted man and in this arc, he had two different groups chasing him. The first was Sasuke and his team, Taka, a group composed of Karin, Suigetsu, and Jugo. Sasuke wanted to hunt down Itachi in order to quench his thirst for revenge.
The other group was Naruto's, and they intended to use Itachi to draw out Sasuke and take him back to the village. The arc is intense and sees the different sides of the two main characters in the series.
2 Fated Battle Between Brothers Arc (10 Episodes)
This arc follows Sasuke and Itachi as they finally come face to face for the final time. Itachi was responsible for Sasuke having a life that was only filled with hatred. Sasuke even left the Hidden Leaf to gain more power to defeat Itachi.
After meeting with failure several times, Sasuke finally managed to defeat his older brother. The arc left the fans confused because Itachi's behavior was rather erratic as he seemed to have lost on purpose.
1 Tale of Jiraiya The Gallant Arc (7 Episodes)
The shortest canon arc in Naruto is actually about Jiraiya and his final adventure to the Hidden Rain. Despite the strict security of the village, Jiraiya manages to infiltrate it, and eventually, he stumbles across one of his former students Konan.
After battling Konan for a while, Jiraiya manages to find the leader of the Hidden Rain, Pain, who is also one of his students. The fight between the master and the pupil is extremely intense, and it brings Jiraiya's story to an end.
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