Ranking All 10 Naruto Chunin Exam Preliminary Fights

The Naruto series (including Shippuden and Boruto) is now well over 700 episodes long and counting. In a show this long, there are bound to be high points and lows. One of these highs occurs early on in the series in the form of the Chunin Exams, a series of tests where young ninjas from various villages compete to test their abilities and attempt to advance to the next rank: Chunin. The final test is a tournament of one-on-one battles, but when too many ninjas pass the previous tests, a series of preliminary rounds are held to narrow it down. This results in 22 episodes of some of the coolest (and also some of the lamest) fights in the Naruto series.

Here, I’ve ranked all ten from worst to best. The criteria I used are kinda loose, but I considered the following:

• Did the fight contribute to the plot
• Did the fight result in character development and/or revealing more about a character
• How cool was the fight to watch?

So, without further ado, here it is: all 10 Chunin Exam preliminary battles, ranked from worst to best as I see fit.

10. Tenten vs Temari 

Coming in last place is Tenten vs Temari. This is one of the shortest fights in the preliminaries because, well, nothing really happens. Tenten, who is talked up to be some great weapon master, throws some stuff at Temari, Temari uses her giant fan to blow it away before it even touches her, and Tenten goes, “Hey, maybe I should throw more weapons are her.” In the end, Tenten gets her butt handed to her and looks totally lame in the process. This fight really doesn’t do much except make Tenten look useless and Temari look like a ruthless jerk.

9. Misumi vs Kankuro

This one is ranked so low for pretty much the same reasons as the last one. It only does a little better because unlike Tenten, Misumi is just a random extra that we never see again, so making him look weak doesn’t go against the reputation of an already-established character. Plus, Kankuro’s puppet fighting style looks a lot cooler than Temari’s giant fan.

8. Dosu vs. Choji 

 This fight was the last one, and you can tell it was supposed to supply some comic relief after Gaara and Rock Lee’s battle. It was only a minute long, and Choji basically handed Dosu the victory.

7. Sasuke vs Yoroi

This is when it starts getting a little harder to rank them, and a lot of these middle ones just come down to my personal preference, because they all have their good and bad points. Sasuke was in pretty rough shape after the previous test, and this fight showed his ability to adapt to situations and learn quickly. Let’s be honest, though, viewers already knew that; he is the strongest rookie in his class. Yoroi is just a random extra character that doesn’t really bring a whole light to the fight, but hey, at least viewers get to watch Sasuke look cool.

6. Shikamaru vs Kin

 This fight isn’t particularly action-packed, but it’s the first time you get to see Shikamaru’s analytical skills in action. This one lands in the middle because of how it reveals more about his character.

5. Sakura vs Ino

This was a fight between childhood best friends turned rivals. There wasn’t much action, but the character development is top notch. And those flashbacks? Oh boy. We finally start to understand their rivalry.

4. Naruto vs Kiba

This is the first time Naruto, the main character, really holds his own in a fight. After being talked down to for  years, his character finally gets to prove how much he’s grown as a ninja. This one adds to the plot, shows off the main character, and is a pretty exciting fight to watch.

3. Zaku vs Shino

Neither of these characters got much screen time prior to this (heck, Zaku isn’t even a main character), but this is a cool fight. Shino basically stands there the whole time, barely even touches Zaku, and disables his arms by filling them with bugs. And it looks way cooler than it sounds.

2. Hinata vs Neji 

This fight is definitely a fan favorite, pitting the timid Hinata, a member of their clan’s main family, against her prodigy cousin Neji, an extremely bitter member of one of their clan’s branch families. The hatred Neji feels toward Hinata is palpable through the entire fight, but Hinata still loves her cousin, and it makes for an interesting dynamic.

1. Gaara vs Rock Lee

Is it really a surprise that this fight was #1? This was hands-down the best. I remember watching these episodes for the first time when I was 8 and being like “whoa” basically the whole time. I can’t begin to unpack all the things that made this showdown so great, but it checked pretty much all the boxes in my criteria. It added to the plot, revealed more about both Gaara and Rock Lee’s characters, and was just incredibly well-executed and gripping to watch.