The world of warring ninja clans and weird looking magical eyeballs colour the world of Naruto. The well-known anime is filled with extremely powerful ninjas who can demolish mountains with their overpowered ninjutsu. Many among those who have been featured prominently in the series have developed a reputation both in-universe and out for being extremely skilled and fearsome in battle. While word of these ninjas often precedes them, with entire villages having to be evacuated in preparation for epic ninja battles in the immediate vicinity, some others among them are, in fact, quite weak in the applications of their deadly skills. Some experience misfortune that outweighs the benefits of their power, some are simply misunderstood. The world of Naruto has no shortage of dangers, with absurdly powerful ninja literally wandering the world in droves to their own ends and in various degrees of organization. All of the weakest characters from among these shinobi have been gathered here for a list of the most useless ninja with the most powerful abilities in all of Naruto. Struggling with failure and weakness is a consistent theme throughout the series. With that said, let's delve into the various ways that extremely powerful shinobi can fall short of expectations, or outright annihilate themselves.

15 Gaara's Inexplicable Sand Powers

One of the earliest examples of power beyond recognition in the series, Gaara of the Sand, boasts the ability to manipulate sand in his vicinity, even shielding himself automatically and unconsciously from incoming attacks. Although this power makes him very intimidating and difficult to deal with, his mental anguish and loneliness as a tailed beast vessel make him incredibly weak as a shinobi during the early parts of the series. Even his subconscious sand defense is broken by Rock Lee during the Chuunin Exam. Most observant viewers will note that Gaara did not lose his sand powers after being relieved of the tailed beast within him, and he actually becomes more powerful through the power of friendship and his mother's love. That doesn't quite make losing his jinchuuriki status an accomplishment though. It's something Naruto himself managed to avoid for most of the series.

14 Kakashi's Penchant For Grown Up Novels

Kakashi A.K.A. the "Copy Ninja" is a shinobi renowned for his great versatility and ninjutsu skills, the best of which are entirely ripped off from his opponents with his one magical eye, which also isn't actually his. Some would claim he could take on an entire country on his own. He's also an important cornerstone to the themes of friendship, with his main affinity being for teaching and leadership despite his great power. Kind of reminds you of a beat cop being stuck with desk duty, doesn't it? Anyway, despite his copycat nature and underwhelming life's calling, his primary aspect of uselessness comes from his obsession with Jiraiya's adult novel series, which is so shameful he feels he needs to hide his face while reading it in public.

13 Sakura And Her Weak Willed Whining

The pink haired Sakura Haruno boasts a monstrous strength rivaling that of her teacher, Tsunade. She's even mastered the Strength Of A Hundred Seal, a technique passed down to her from Tsunade herself. In some ways, it could be said that she beats her English voice actress in a personality contest. Even still, fans of the series will have no trouble recalling what might as well have been hours of footage of Sakura staring from the sidelines sweating, looking wounded, screaming the combatant's names repeatedly, and otherwise being the very definition of useless. She is the entry on this list that most likely surprised nobody, but that doesn't stop her shrieking, pink-haired, deer in the headlights ninja style from earning her a spot.

12 Kakuzu The Masked Thread Man

The first half of the famous Zombie Combo. The duo so named for their ability to not die when killed. Kakuzu accomplishes by employing various fibers throughout his body, which he uses to link various vital parts of his body together in case they become severed. He is also in possession of four distinct hearts he's stolen from various ninja, which give him a variety of elemental affinities rather than one. Despite his reputation for not dying, he barely manages to overcome a team of children before being all but beaten by none other than Kakashi, who also appears on this list. He is also eventually struck by Naruto's Rasen Shuriken, an ability Naruto had just learned and could barely even use, which ravages his body and chakra on a cellular level.

11 Zabuza's Unwieldy Swordplay

Zabuza is an early protagonist from the original series. A ninja originally from the Village Hidden In The Mist who can manipulate water into huge dragon missiles and bubble shields to attack and control opponents. He also wields an extremely large sword which totally isn't compensating for anything. He killed over a hundred of his fellow students in his village's bizarre academic death contests, and has an entire backstory and character development that makes us feel deeply for him as a character. Unfortunately, he is dispatched by a group of children on their first ever mission, and with the power of friendship, no less. He eventually cries and sacrifices his own life to end his own character arc. A feat worthy of praise if ever there was one.

10 Hidan's Spooky Voodoo Curse

Hidan is the second half of the Zombie Combo. His spooky, powerful cultist powers make him impervious to death even after being decapitated or blown apart. He also has creepy voodoo techniques that allow him to use a victims blood and a sigil upon the ground to make his own body into a voodoo doll, inflicting wounds upon himself that also appear on his opponent, who probably can't survive them as readily. Unfortunately, this spell is easily countered by accomplishing the daunting feat of getting Hidan to step off the sigil. Easily countered spooky spells aside, his immortality is probably his most fearsome quality. However, to a sufficiently powerful opponent, it amounts to a simple task of blowing Hidan into tiny pieces and burying him in the woods forever.

9 Kimimaro's Bony Body

Kimimaro is a bony ninja with magical bone powers which make him the most powerful and sole survivor of the Kaguya Clan. Specifically, his powers allow him to manipulate the osteoblast and osteoclast cells within his bones to break down and build bone structures and protrusions from his own skeleton for use during combat, these being reputedly stronger than tempered steel. Although he uses this ability to great effect, standing toe-to-toe with many other powerful characters in the series such as a noticeably drunken Rock Lee. Unfortunately, his cool pointy bone ninjutsu and his general skeletal weirdness overall result in his bodily structure being too different from your average run-of-the-mill ninja to receive various forms of medical treatment. Hopefully, he never finds such treatment necessary.

8 Shin "Uchiha"

A powerful genetic experiment originally created by Orochimaru, Shin "Uchiha" appears in Boruto, the sequel anime to Naruto: Shippuden as an early antagonist. His name in Japanese could mean "new" or "true," making his true nature very mysterious, adding to his fearsome nature and confusing eyeball power. He also possesses not one, but numerous pairs of magical ninja eyes (known as Rasengan), characteristic of the famous Uchiha clan. Unfortunately for Shin, he's just a wannabe genetic experiment imbued with the famous Rasengan and an obsession with the famous ninja family, specifically lil' misunderstood Sasuke's older brother, Itachi. He is eventually betrayed by his own clones of himself, before being completely annihilated by an actual Uchiha, namely Sasuke himself, all grown up, and also featured later on in this list.

7 Kaguya Ex Machina

Kaguya is the progenitor of all human chakra users, and the resident Eve allusion of the series. She steals magical fruit giving her magical ninja powers way more than anybody else ever. When her power is passed on naturally to her sons, she goes crazy and tries to steal her power back from them, eventually leading to the entire history of conflict throughout the Naruto series. While existing as a paragon of power and the force of will enduring through the ages, she mainly serves as a way to tie up Madara Uchiha's storyline. She basically comes out of nowhere to swallow up Madara and transform into herself, becoming the new big bad guy — negating a long and complex series of fights and stratagems. What a twist!

6 Kabuto The Underwhelming

Kabuto is a sneaky spy who eventually becomes a sneaky snake. He is a student of Orochimaru who serves as a double agent within the ranks of the ninja from the Village Hidden In The Mist, acting as an informant and right-hand-man to Orochimaru. He remains in this position for most of the series, and has a powerful set of shinobi abilities in his own right. Under Orochimaru's tutelage, he becomes ever more powerful, eventually absorbing Orochimaru's remains and overpowering Orochimaru's will, taking his power as his own. Despite inheriting unimaginable power from an impressively useless character such as Orochimaru, he eventually comes around in his character arc to develop his own power of will and kind-hearted raison d'être. However, that just means he spent one half of the series being subjugated by something out of weakness, only to be defined afterwards principally by his ability to overcome something he mainly brought upon himself. Win-win I guess.

5 Old Man Sarutobi

The Third Hokage, known as "a god of shinobi," had to slip back into the Hokage costume after the fourth Hokage could no longer continue his duties. Nonetheless, he retains an impressive amount of competence and deadly precision in the many ninja techniques he has mastered throughout his long life. However, his aging body is shown early on the in the series as not being able to keep up, wavering under the weight of an ancient monkey summoned by a scroll that turns into a huge staff. Apparently, he was unable to use such extravagant ninjutsu tools due to his old age. He also holds himself responsible for the creepy crawly snake evils that Orochimaru eventually unleashed upon the ninja world after Sarutobi let him escape years prior. He eventually dies trying to sacrifice himself to defeat Orochimaru and fails horribly.

4 Might Guy? Might Guy What?

Might Guy is the son of Might Duy, a man known for never passing the exams to become a full ninja, but who developed a technique to open the Eight Gates that limit the flow of chakra in the body. This allows for chakra usage that far surpasses normal levels, but severely damages the user's body in the process. Duy eventually passes it on to his son, Guy, who himself has a reputable problem with passing ninja exams, despite being granted leadership roles and the authority to teach others, such as Rock Lee, powerful techniques that can destroy their bodies. Ultimately, Guy is a teacher who not only knowingly gives a student with a history of self-harm the ultimate magical ninja tool with which to harm himself, but also feels accomplished in doing so. After all, he was simply passing on his legacy of underachievement and Pyrrhic victories.

3 Nobody Understands Sasuke Uchiha

The personal favourite of Sakura "shrieking-from-the-sidelines" Haruno. Sasuke is a misunderstood tortured soul whose parents were never there for him and whose brother is a total jerk. Despite his personal problems, he's demonstrably one of the most powerful characters in the entire series, serving as the main rival for the eponymous protagonist, even surpassing him in many ways. His Family's magical ninja eyes, or Rasengan, are instrumental to his role throughout the series, driving many of the relationships at play. Despite his power, he spends effectively the entire plot of the series avoiding his friends and looking grumpy, besides being manipulated intermittently by evil forces. He eventually overcomes his desire to brood and hate his friends and gives in to the immortal power of friendship, ultimately tying with Naruto in their fated showdown.

2 Rock Lee's Drunken Taijutsu Obsessions

Rock Lee is an unfortunate young shinobi who exhibits absolutely zero aptitude for ninjutsu (ninja arts), or genjutsu (illusions). He makes up for it by obsessively training his martial arts ability, or taijutsu, to the point of repeated self-injury. To make matters worse, he's encouraged even further by his teacher, Might Guy. Might, inspired by Lee's willingness to injure himself, teaches Lee how to release the Eight Gates which limit chakra flow in the body. This gives Lee the ultimate power to sacrifice his own well being for temporary power, with Lee becoming badly injured after using it in his fight with Gaara. He also had his face beaten so badly that his blood had to be censored out of the original English dub.

1 Orochimaru Always Doomed To Fail

Another famous antagonist from the series is a huge example of uselessness for me despite his overwhelming ability to out-puke and out-snake his various opponents for most of the series. His tendrils of twisting evil affect many dark corners of the plot, especially when it comes to Sasuke, whom Orochimaru eventually wants to enter into and take over Sasuke's body for his own. To this end, as well as his own admittedly sick and reputedly restricted research curiosity, he develops ninjutsu and other techniques revolving around death, reincarnation, snakes, body recycling, and snakes. Despite all of this Orochimaru eventually, fails in basically every single thing he ever set out to do. Congratulations, Orochimaru! You are one of the most powerful characters to ever accomplish absolutely nothing.