Naruto Shippuden: Last 10 Characters Who Died (In Chronological Order) (2024)

Naruto is a series about teenagers training to become ninja, and while that sounds pretty cute to begin with, it proves itself in the first dozen episodes to be as harrowing as a true ninja life might be, with early character deaths personally witnessed by Naruto and his teammates.

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So it’s no surprise that the series ramps up after a three-year time jump in Naruto Shippuden, with the character deaths stacking up as a war breaks out among the ninja. Beloved characters and villains alike end up dying over the course of the series, and with such a high body count, it’s hard to keep track of which characters died last.

10 White Zetsu: Impaled By Sasuke's Amaterasu

White Zetsu is one of the longest-lasting villains of Naruto, as one of the few who makes it from the original series to pretty close to the climax of the Fourth Shinobi War in Shippuden. He dies at Sasuke’s hands after Sasuke develops his new eyes. These eyes allow him to create a blade out of the flames of Amaterasu, and White Zetsu is impaled on it. He essentially dies as an experiment to see if the eyes work, which is not a happy ending for the character.

9 Mabui: Hit By The Tailed Beast Ball

Mabui is a fairly minor character in Shippuden. She is a kunoichi from Kumogakure who acts as an assistant to the Fourth Raikage and is most often seen in this role. For the most part, she doesn’t participate in battles and usually is doing menial and administrative tasks in her role as an assistant. She is the Kage headquarters when the Ten-Tails reaches maturity. It fires a Tailed Beast Ball at the headquarters, causing Mabui’s death.

8 Inoichi Yamanaka: Hit By The Ten-Tails' Attack At The Kage Headquarters

Inoichi Yamanaka is likewise in the Kage headquarters when the Ten-Tails attacks it, and he therefore also dies there. Unlike Mabui, Inoichi has appeared more regularly in the series since as early on as the Chunin Exams.

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His daughter Ino participated in the exams, and he is often seen with the fathers of her teammates Shikamaru and Choji. He is later seen acting as a part of the Intelligence Division of Konoha and therefore more actively participates in the plot as the war looms.

7 Shikaku Naru: Killed Alongside Inoichi

Also in the headquarters when the Ten-Tails reaches maturity, Shikaku dies alongside his comrade and friend Inoichi. Shikaku similarly is the father of one of the rookie ninja that the series follows, his son being Shikamaru, Ino’s teammate and the first of the rookies to become a Chunin. Shikaku similarly works for the Intelligence Division. He, along with Inoichi and Choji’s father, were similarly a trio when they were young, as their children now are.

6 Neji Hyuga: Sacrificed Himself To Protect Hinata

One of the most tragic and devastating deaths in Naruto, Neji’s heroic sacrifice caught all fans of the series off-guard. Neji was a beloved character and anti-hero from the very beginning of the series, with understandable feelings of resentment toward his clan, which considers his family a less important branch.

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He dies protecting Hinata from the Ten-Tails, which is tragic in its own way, as he both set aside this resentment and fell victim to the very expectations of his clan that he was trying to overcome.

5 Madara Uchiha: Stabbed In The Back By Zetsu

Madara Uchiha actually dies twice in the series. Just before his first death, he entrusts his Eye of the Moon Plan, which Madara believes will bring about world peace by erasing free will, to Obito, who continues to carry it out. Madara is later resurrected and absorbs the Ten-Tails to give himself more power. He is ultimately destroyed by Black Zetsu, whose plan was to resurrect Kaguya using Madara’s body to collect chakra for her revival.

4 Obito Uchiha: Sacrifices Himself To Save Naruto & Kakashi

Obito Uchiha, like several of the villains in the series, is a complicated creature. He definitely thinks that he is doing the right thing, and he even is able to redeem himself in the eyes of fans and the heroes when he sacrifices his life to save those of Naruto and Kakashi. Obito was previously teammates with Kakashi, to whom he gave his Sharingan when he thought he was going to die and whom he later tried to kill but ended up saving instead.

3 Tadaichi: Killed By Shuriken & Explosion

Tadaichi is an unexpected character to have die so late in the series. He is a retired member of the anbu, who are the black ops division of Shinobi in Konohagakure. He is best known by Ino, who sees him often at her family’s flower shop, where he often buys flowers to place on his wife’s grave. Tadaichi ends up under an ocular technique spell, sent to attack Konoha as one of the explosion humans. He’s struck in the neck by a shuriken and subsequently dies from the explosion.

2 Amino: Took Her Own Life Under Genjutsu

Amino and Tadaichi are two of the three characters who actually die after the events of the Fourth Shinobi World War, in an arc following Sasuke’s life after the events of the war. Similarly to Tadaichi, Amino becomes one of the exploding humans attacking the Bamboo Village, where she ends up a threat to the women and children trying to take shelter from the attack. She ends up taking her own life by stabbing herself with a shuriken to make herself explode.

1 Io: Ran Into Fire After Witnessing His Daughter's Death

Io, the father of Amino, tries to help Sasuke and the other ninja from Konoha defend Bamboo Village against the exploding humans. He does so by himself for a long time, before Sasuke is able to arrive to help. At this point, he goes to check on his daughter, Amino, who has taken shelter with the other women and arrives in time to see she has become an exploding human. He witnesses her detonate and is stricken with rage and grief, runs into the flames, ending his own life.

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