I come to find that in Naruto Shippuden, at least before the war starts, the arcs are quite intricately planned out and efficiently written in terms of set ups and pay offs, themes and world building (not so much efficiently, in terms of flash backs and scene repetitions). Anyways, I’d like to explain here briefly, what I mean.
Interestingly I also found, that Naruto is not really the main character in most of those arcs. Of course, he is there and saves the day at the end most of the time, but the focus doesn’t lay on him. He’s not the one doing the growth, or even taking part in the thematic discussion. So that’s why I will refer to the arcs, with the name of the respective main character.
Gaara/Chiyo Arc
The first arc of shippuuden highlights the overall theme of it, which is the change from a wartorn past to a peaceful future. We have Gaara here, who was once a villain, and now thanks to Naruto’s talk-no-jutsu is an ally and old lady Chiyo, who dwells in the past and is reluctant to work together with people from another village, who in the end sacrifices herself for the future represented in Gaara. Meanwhile, the villain, Sasori, is literally an inanimate puppet, thus unable to change, who was another victim of war.
Of course, the characters of OG Naruto are getting reintroduced, while at the same time the world building gets opened up, by them travelling to another village.
In terms of set ups there is a lot going on. Most importantly, the Akatsuki, the group of villains, that haunt the series for quite some time to come, are introduced, and their goal is established. Similarly, Kakashi’s Kamui power is revealed, which will play a very important role much later in the series. But also, short term, in setting up the preconditions of the next arc, Kishimoto does a great job. Because of the use of the Kamui, Kakashi will be out for quite some time, causing them to need another team leader. Sasori’s information leads them on Orochimaru’s and Sasuke’s trace.
Sai arc
With a team leader and a teammate missing for team 7, two new characters must be introduced. Sai and Yamato serve two establish two new concepts in the Naruto-World: The foundation, a secret, inhuman black ops organisation of Konohagakure, and Woodstyle Jutsu. Both of which play important roles going onward.
The theme here is nothing new. In the foundation Ninjas are seen as tools, that have to run smoothly, without emotions hindering them at their task. Sai is one such tool and learns to become more human throughout the arc.
Only now in this second arc, the relationship between Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke gets further established. While the first arc reintroduced us to the world, the second picks the story up, where it had ended in the OG Naruto. We see that Sasuke is way stronger than the other two now, showing that his gamble to join Orochimaru has paid off. We also get to see Naruto in his four tailed fox form as a tease for what still might come.
Shikamaru Arc
When the second pair of the Akatsuki manages to kill Shikamaru’s mentor Azuma, the third arc introduces a rather disturbing idea: characters we know may die. At the same time, it makes another thematic argument, that it is worth dying for the future generations. It also continues to paint the Akatsuki as a dangerous threat, since each member seems overpowered.
Sasuke Arc
Now we are approaching the midpoint of the Shippuuden series, and the end of the second act from all of Naruto. The Sasuke arc provides a turning point, because until now the main story was to save Sasuke from Orochimaru. Now Sasuke defeats Orochimaru. He does so at the beginning of his arc, and ends it with the defeat of his brother Itachi, his only goal in life up to this point. And we learn, that everything we knew about Itachi was false and that the world is more complicated than it seems. Thanks to the introduction of the Foundation in Sai’s arc, we had been slowly eased into believing the story of Itachi and the mixing of good and bad into grey areas. There is the reveal of Madara and his influence on a now goalless Sasuke.
The most remarkable thing about this arc, is that it opens up the thematic discussion to include the question of injustice. This complicates, and therefore deepens the ongoing themes of war and peace and progressive change throughout the generations.
Naruto / Pain Arc
With Sasuke reaching a turning point in his journey, so does Naruto. Technically this arc is known as the pain arc, but since Naruto finally does grow throughout this arc, I include his name as well. First of all, this is the pay off of so many strings, that have been set up since OG Naruto. We get to see the Nine Tails and Naruto’s father. Hinata confesses her love in the face of a villain that has been set up as powerful, by showing all his underlings to already be overpowered, in the past arcs. Naruto’s mentor dies, which comes a bit less shocking, since already a mentor to a less important character had died in Shikamaru’s arc.
The same events that pay off previous set ups, also set up the future of the series. Tsunade sacrifices her power, which creates a power vacuum, that allows the Foundation leader to take on the power over the leaf village. Minato, Naruto’s father, tells Naruto about his fear of Madara, and that he had planned for him to take on control over the fox. Both things come up later in the story again.
In terms of world building, it introduces the Sage of Six Paths, the founder of the Ninja times and establishes the Rinnegan, as his eyes and powerful weapons.
Naruto grows in this fight, because his search for respect finally ends and he starts to intentionally take on responsibility and to try to create a better world.
The 5 Kage Arc
The 5 Kage arc starts with Sasuke attacking the 8 tails. He now works for Madara, because he has no other goal for the moment. This prompts the five leaders of the villages to meet for a summit and discuss the elimination of the Akatsuki. By introducing these other villages the world of Naruto widens up immensely.
By hearing that Sasuke is now a wanted criminal, Naruto tries to talk the Raikage out of pursuing him, but realizes that he has now more responsibility than just the one for Sasuke, and gets overwhelmed.
Meanwhile the war gets set up by its declaration by Madara at the Summit and Sasuke manages to … revenge to Danzou, the leader of the Foundation, who made Itachi kill their clan.
Learnings:
Each of the arcs follow one or multiple other main characters, allowing Naruto to stay himself, without making the series boring. Each of these characters combine world building and thematic discussions within them, as they journey through pay offs from past arcs and set ups for the next arc, or even for much later within the story. In most cases, though not all, each of these aspects – character, theme, worldbuilding, and plot are tightly intertwined and allow for an efficient telling of a story on a historically and spatially large scale.