If you didn’t know anything about Naruto, you’d assume characters who do things like destroy foes’ bodies at the molecular level, use parasitic insects to fight for them, invade their opponent’s psyche, or fight with a body that’s been transformed into a puppet would be villains. But in the world of Naruto, what matters isn’t so much what the jutsu looks like, but who’s using it, and why.
Naruto heroes with villainous jutsu prove that morality is more complicated than it looks. Everyone knows that Naruto Uzumaki is a hero, but the damage his Rasenshuriken can do is life-ruining. Meanwhile Jugo is just about the nicest person in the world, but he can’t even exist in society because his Sage Transformation turns him into a raging monster. Also, did you guys realize that Shizune, a medical ninjutsu expert, also breathes poison?
These are the 9 most evil jutsu that heroes use in Naruto, ranked by over 10,000 votes from Naruto fans on Ranker. We’re presenting the jutsu as a countdown, so the one fans voted as most evil will be last at #1.
9. Onoki – Dust Release
The third Tsuchikage is able to perform the only known kekkai tota, Dust Release. This technique lets him create a shape with both hands that can surround a target’s body. Anyone or anything unlucky enough to be caught inside of it will be absolutely destroyed down to their very molecules. It’s one hell of a useful attack, but it’s one that’s nearly impossible to use without a fatal outcome. Guess you don’t get to be the Tsuchikage without taking a few lives.
8. Jugo – Sage Transformation
Jugo is a genuinely nice person who wants nothing more than to live peacefully. Unfortunately for him, he’s forced to live an isolated life. That’s because of his clan’s most powerful jutsu, Sage Transformation.
In most cases, Sage Transformation is a manageable power boost. In Jugo’s case, he’s constantly absorbing Sage Energy, which eventually builds up and causes him to go on a rampage. Even though he just wants peace, he has no choice but to be violent.
The only person who was ever able to suppress his rages was Sasuke, but Sasuke has his own life to live, and did not stay by Jugo’s side.
7. Shizune – Poison Mist
Most of Shizune’s moves revolve around healing. That’s only natural – after all, she’s a medical ninjutsu expert and Tsunade’s right-hand woman. But Shizune also has a move that seems like the exact opposite of that: Poison Mist. By converting her chakra into a special chemical, she’s able to breathe out poisonous mist. This mist is so dangerous that it can instantly obliterate anyone who breathes it in.
6. Shisui Uchiha – Kotoamatsukami
Kotoamatsukami is the ultimate gaslighting technique. It’s a genjutsu that allows the user to thoroughly manipulate a person’s memories and beliefs so that they think they made a decision on their own. Shisui typically used this move for good, but there’s a reason why villains like Danzo wanted to get their hands on it.
5. Hiruzen Sarutobi – Dead Demon Consuming Seal
There’s a good reason that the Dead Demon Consuming Seal technique is a kinjutsu, and that’s because it’s horrifying. By summoning a shinigami, the user can pull a person’s soul out of their body and trap them in the Shinigami’s belly for eternity. The cost is the user’s own life – they will suffer the same fate, and will have to spend their afterlife locked in combat with their foe.
The main person seen trying to use this move is the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi. He usees it to stop Orochimaru from destroying Konoha, but it doesn’t quite work. He only manages to seal Orochimaru’s arms, and he still has to pay with his life.
4. Kankuro – Puppet Technique
Without looking too closely at the details, Kankuro’s puppet technique is already pretty devastating. The puppets he controls can eviscerate, burn, poison, and otherwise destroy his targets in a plethora of ways. But it gets worse: many of the puppets he controls are made from human bodies. While most of them were gifts from Sasori, he’s still controlling the bodies of once-living people – including Sasori’s own body.
3. Sasuke Uchiha – Amaterasu
Sasuke has vacillated between villain and hero several times throughout the series, so it’s only appropriate that some of his techniques follow suit. Perhaps the best example of this is Amaterasu, a Mangekyo Sharingan move that’s literally referred to as the flames of Hell. It creates black flames that will never stop burning unless Sasuke stops them himself. They’re as hot as the sun, and they can eat through any material.
2. Ibiki Morino – Summoning: Torture Chamber & Iron Maiden
It’s hard to call someone who tortures people for a living a hero, but since he does it for the sake of Konoha, he counts.
But you wouldn’t know it from some of his jutsu. They’re perfect for the job, but they’re bone-chilling. The scariest ones allow him to summon either a torture chamber or an iron maiden. He combines these horrible weapons with his extensive knowledge of human psychology and interrogation techniques to get whatever information he needs. Let’s just ignore the fact that whether or not torture actually produces useful information is highly controversial.
1. Gaara – Sand Waterfall Funeral
Gaara might be a good guy now, but everyone saw what kind of horrors he was capable of when he was originally introduced as a villain. One of the scariest moves he pulls off is Sand Coffin and its follow-up move, Sand Waterfall Funeral. The first move involves encasing his foe in sand. Sometimes, he’ll simply let them suffocate. Sometimes, he’ll crush all the bones in their body and drench the sand in blood.
His current techniques aren’t quite so brutal, but he still pulls out the harsher stuff when he has to.