r/NarutoFanfiction • u/Ok-Client-2451 Naruto x Hinata x Shion x Shizuka x Ryūzetsu x Fem!Haku is OTP • Dec 01 '25
Discussion What if the events of Naruto occurred over a wider period of time, like in Avatar?
The life of the Sage occurred ~1,000 years ago, and the village system is about ~70-80 years old. For all of those events and mythos, 1,000 years feels like too little time. But what if everything took place over a wider period of time, like, say, an Avatar-esque time period?
The first Avatar lived ~10,000 years ago and has been reincarnating ever since. What if the Naruto world had something similar: the Sage lived ~10,00 years ago, and his two sons have been reincarnating for just as long, destined to battle.
Obito and Madara claim that the villages are inadequate, but it's a new system (~70-80 years old), and considering how things were before and ignoring the fact that those two are the main cause of the system's instability, stability was going to take some time. But, if the villages were way older, like ~250 years or so, then they could have some justification for trying to change the system.
What do you guys think? How would the world work if the events occurred over a wider period of time, like in Avatar?
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u/Dreamlancer Dec 02 '25
I'll go against the grain here. I think that ironically I'm of the opposite opinion. The 1000 year gap was frankly too large. The expectation that no one thought to civilize and ally together over the course of 1000 years just felt overly silly, and none of the world building supported that idea.
Some simple examples are like: The United States is less than 250 years old. The Roman Empire lasted effectively around 500 years.
And we're just supposed to accept that during the time period of the Samurai and the warring clans, that none of the other clans thought "Hey, maybe we should get together like all of these Samurai are doing and found a village." its utterly ridiculous and hinges solely on the idea that Kishimoto wanted to blow the capabilities of the Senju and Uchiha clan out of proportion on a Global scale across the elemental nations - the idea that in spite of their warring ways, their might alone could prevent others from civilizing is silly.
Because now when we look at the scope of the series? And look at Konoha for example that was founded around 150 years ago as of Boruto. And in that time the advancements made by shinobi are completely massive. Technology is outstripping the ninja world at this rapid pace.
The timeline wan't too short, it was too long.
If they wanted to go down this route of Avatar for example with these long standing empires, civilizations, and traditions dating back 10000 years things like the ninja villages would need to be feasibly founded significantly further back, like Konoha being founded a few thousand years ago. Otherwise you just run into the exact same issue as the current series, but just magnified to greater extents.
Because instead of the expectation you are presenting that no one figured out how to do functioning civilization over 1000 years until 150 years ago. You're instead expecting it to be no one figured it out for 10000 years.
Avatar works, because you have a world that functions on a traditionalist and spiritual society where the nations are inherently always at war with one another. And the elements also have weaknesses to one another, so it's not like a world war can truly kick off. And then you have the Avatar that is always there to become this great powerful entity. And the Avatar cycles through various tribes of birth effectively as a means of saying "Hey, don't do crazy stuff when you have the Avatar, because a hundred years from now another nation/tribe might do crazy stuff in retaliation when they have the avatar." as a simple example.
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u/fluffy_harriet Naruto is a sunshine midget🌻 Part 1 enthusiast (supremacist) Dec 01 '25
I would rather the events happen in a wider period of time, it's waaay better for the world building. Thanks to this you had better legends in part 1, like the origin of the Uchiha being a mystery (some theorizing they came from the Hyuga, making the Hyuga feel even older in comparison, also makes sense with the Hyuga's aesthetics being so old and traditional) You could ask yourself "how old is the kyubi?" "How many times passed and how many died to make the leaf village?" which seemed to be younger and more modern than the other villages.
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u/Richmond1013 Dec 01 '25
in-universe it means there is a good chance that zetsu was successful, but Kaguya got sealed again or stagnation is really a thing for both avatar and naruto
the ninja village system at the start of canon is less than 70 years old, as Hashirama and Madara made it when they were young men, heck Tsunade gen might be the first gen to be born in the ninja system so they might be only 50 to 60 plus
Zetsu or Ishhiki want the humans in naruto to stagnate, in Atla the avatar prevented new systems as shown with Roku denying Sozin the chance to get new land peacefully ,he just chose to say no