Masashi Kishimoto is an artist with his characters and has given them exquisite backgrounds. But even Kishimoto wasn’t an ace mangaka when Naruto began, and this can be proven by the introduction of this one character.
Zabuza Momochi was an extremely strong shinobi introduced in the early stages of Naruto. He was also disposed of pretty quickly after exhibiting his strength.
Why was Zabuza Introduced at the Beginning of Naruto?
In an interview, Masashi Kishimoto was asked why Zabuza was introduced so early in the series. Kishimoto claimed that it was simply because he wanted to show off Kakashi’s strength. Zabuza was a pretty strong character who battled Kakashi in the Land of Waves prologue.
However, Kakashi’s Sharingan gave him the upper hand pretty soon, and Zabuza was defeated very soon. Even so, Kishimoto made his death bittersweet. With his dying breath, Zabuza revealed that he cared about Haku, the boy he raised to be an efficient tool. Kakashi also fulfilled his last request to die by Haku’s side.
Since Zabuza was defeated so easily despite being phenomenally strong, it made fans question why he was introduced so quickly if was supposed to ge botten rid of anyways. As it turns out, Zabuza was only introduced to make Kakashi’s superiority in the Narutoverse as plain as day.
This would set some cornerstones down in the manga straight away and make it easier for the audience to put things into perspective.
Indeed, Zabuza’s defeat helped the audience understand that Kakashi wasn’t just an average sensei but also a pretty strong shinobi.
Kishimoto Made Things up for Excitement in the Beginning of Naruto
Masashi Kishimoto is an experienced writer and mangaka now, but he wasn’t so when Naruto first began. Kobayashi even pointed out that other than Zabuza, there were also elements that were introduced in the arc that played major roles right until the ending of the series.
Powers like Kekkei Genkai, Sharingan, and others were eventually used a lot. Even Zabuza was reincarnated in the Fourth Shinobi World to fight against the Allied Shinobi forces. Despite being disposed of in the very beginning, Kishimoto remembered to bring him back to serve one last punch.
According to Kishimoto, he was simply bluffing with the characters and elements in the beginning. He made them without thinking about how they could be used in the future. He made things up only for momentary suspense and excitement. Some of those threads were not used till much later in the franchise.
The great author of Naruto was basically exercising his right to creativity by introducing rampant elements. In fact, even Sasuke’s backstory was last minute. The only thing clear about him was that he would have an elder brother with a dark history.
It was only after Itachi was introduced that Kishimoto decided the character could be turned into a good guy who did bad things due to his circumstances. Even Kishimoto accepted that a lot of the planning was hazy in the beginning.
Despite these shortcomings, Kishimoto later learned how to connect the dots together and delivered a heart-wrenching story.
You can read Naruto on Viz Media and watch it on Crunchyroll.
