With Naruto’s impressive world building and detailed lineages, the series offers a wide range of unique clans and nations, each boasting distinct skills and capabilities. The show has elaborated on their novel backgrounds and one-of-a-kind powers throughout its runtime, yet one clan has managed to stand out in this ocean of impeccable bloodlines – the Uzumaki clan.
Some of Naruto's strongest and most notable characters belong to this clan, with the anime’s protagonist, Naruto Uzumaki, also being a descendent of this revered family. Despite being one of the most feared clans throughout the shinobi world, the Uzumaki clan met an unfortunate fate, with the whole nation being wiped out by the world’s strongest powers. Delving into the events that led to this incident can help shed light on why the strongest of clans met such a sorrowful demise.
The Uzumaki’s Prowess
Similar to other ninja clans, the Uzumaki had their own unique jutsus that only those from the clan’s bloodline could utilize. However, what set their capabilities apart from the rest was the severity of their power, as every other nation paled in comparison. The Uzumaki clan possessed a unique jutsu known as ‘fuinjutsu’, a sealing jutsu that had the potential to seal even the most formidable of powers.
The clan is considered to be the originator of these sealing jutsus, and their strident power is evident from their use in sealing tailed beasts in human beings. Apart from wielding the power to seal these beasts, the Uzumaki were also the only ones to be able to survive having a tailed beast removed from within them, as seen in the case of Mito Uzumaki and Kushina Uzumaki.
Members of the Uzumaki clan serve as the perfect Jinchuriki, as they possess extraordinary life force and thriving chakra systems that remain unparalleled. This serves another benefit for these tenacious people as the life force within them allows their aging process to slow down, and their wounds and injuries to heal much faster compared to other people. These excessive chakra reserves and inherently regenerative bodies allowed them to suppress tailed beasts – which explains why Naruto was chosen as the next Jinchuriki, as he was the only one that could have survived the process. Unfortunately, this threatening power is what led to their demise, as others deemed the Uzumaki too strong to be left alone.
The Uzumaki Massacre
Despite not being a direct threat to any nation, the shinobi world considered the Uzumaki clan a threat to their supremacy, as the fuinjutsu possessed by these formidable ninjas was capable of sealing chakra in both the living and the non-living. To rid this threat once and for all, the world’s strongest nations worked together to ambush Uzushiogakure, a village located in the Land of Whirlpools, and home to the Uzumaki clan. The only survivors were those that were away from the village during the attack, and to continue the bloodline, they had to flee and find refuge in different nations.
The only ally that Uzushiogakure had was the Hidden Leaf Village, as the Senju and Uzumaki clan shared a distant blood relation. Their friendship is also evident from the whirlpool-like emblem on the Leaf Village shinobi’s flak jackets. However, during the massacre, the Leaf Village shinobi were late to the scene as chaos and destruction had already ensued, leaving behind a few remnants of the great clan’s legacy.
The Remnants of the Massacre
Uzushiogakure, or the Hidden Eddy Village, was left in ruins after the invasion, and the remaining few members of the Uzumaki clan were left to fend for themselves as they went into hiding in different nations of the world. The Hidden Leaf Village was openly welcoming of any survivors, seeing how they took responsibility for young Kushina Uzumaki after she was left stateless due to the dreadful attack on her home village.
Despite every attempt to tame this all-powerful clan, a few of its surviving descendants can be seen throughout the series. Nagato is one such descendant, whose parents moved to the Hidden Rain Village to live in hiding. Karin’s family also survived the incident, as they were away from the Hidden Eddy Village during the invasion. Lastly, the Uzumaki clan can be traced back to Naruto, one of the last descendants, who eagerly uphold the name and prestige of this clan.