Naruto is one of the best anime franchises of all time because of its villains, but it can be hard to tell who might be the strongest of them all. Unfortunately for Naruto and the rest of the Hidden Leaf Village, there is a litany of powerful villains in the series. From villains acting on their own to those ing together in groups to cause havoc, there's no shortage of powerful antagonists in the series looking to rule the world with an iron fist.

Naruto is a great series because of how diverse the villains are. There are some villains that are pure evil, some villains who start evil and later reform themselves, and plenty in the middle. No matter where a Naruto villain ends up on the moral com, they're all some of the strongest characters in the entire series, using powerful Jutsu to make Naruto's life that much harder.

8 Kabuto Yakushi

One Of The Only Characters In Naruto To Use Sage Mode

On the surface, Kabuto might not seem like one of the strongest villains in the franchise. He starts the series as a studious character, looking to experiment in his laboratory more than fight outside of it. As one of the smartest characters in Naruto, however, Kabuto uses his intelligence to gain some of the most absurd powers in the series. Kabuto follows closely in his master Orochimaru's footsteps to acquire a dangerous power not many other characters in the series have ever gained.

Kabuto Yakushi is one of the few characters capable of using Sage Chakra. Jiraiya, Orochimaru, and Naruto are the only characters from the current generation of ninja who can use Nature Chakra, proving just how rare and powerful it is. Kabuto also uses Orochimaru's remains to gain the Power of the White Snake, turning into a snake just like his master before him.

7 Orochimaru

The Most Devious Character In Naruto

Out of all the characters in Naruto, there are none more deceptive than Orochimaru. While he and his assistant, Kabuto, have turned a new leaf in Boruto, they weren't always the shining examples of forgiveness they are now. Orochimaru is one of Konoha's legendary Sannin, three of the strongest ninja to ever come from the village. He grew up with Tsunade, the Fifth Hokage, and Jiraiya, one of the few characters to use Sage Mode in battle. The Sannin were trained by none other than the Third Hokage himself, learning from one of the strongest Hokage in existence.

While Jiraiya went to Mount Myoboku to learn Sage Mode, Orochimaru went to Ryuchi Cave to learn the powerful technique. While he was never able to master Sage Mode like Kabuto was, Orochimaru was able to use the powerful technique through the use of Cursed Seals. Only a smart character like Orochimaru could not only come up with but develop the idea of Cursed Seals, ing one onto Sasuke early on in Naruto.

Luckily for Naruto and the rest of the Hidden Leaf Village, Orochimaru stops being a pure villain towards the end of the Fourth Great Ninja War. He operates with Sasuke and is the character who reanimated the first four Hokage, giving the Allied Shinobi Forces the help they needed to take down Madara once and for all.

6 Pain

The Leader Of The Akatsuki

Pain is one of the best villains in anime. If it wasn't for the Fourth Great Ninja War arc, the Pain Arc might be the best arc in all of Naruto. Pain is such an excellent character in Naruto because of his backstory. While a lot of villains in the series are villainous for seemingly no reason, Pain has plenty of reasons to share his pain with the world. As a child, he was a victim of the Third Great Shinobi War.

Nagato, the man behind Pain, was a war orphan. He watched his parents get murdered by two ninja from the Village Hidden in the Leaves, awakening his Rinnegan at an early age. With his friends Yahiko and Konan, he formed the Akatsuki, a group that was created to protect the orphans made by the war. When Yahiko was killed in battle, however, everything changed for Nagato.

Nagato then created six puppets to use from the corpses of his allies, naming them the Six Paths of Pain. Each Path carries a powerful part of the Rinnegan, allowing Nagato to fight with six insanely powerful fighters at once. Each of the Paths would be a powerful villain in their own right, and together, they are nearly unstoppable.

5 Toneri Ōtsutsuki

The Guardian Of The Moon Turned Villain

Toneri Ōtsutsuki is the main antagonist of The Last: Naruto the Movie. He's the last descendant of Hamura Otsutsuki, the son of Kaguya. Toneri believed that humanity had misused Chakra, creating weapons out of what should have been a productive tool for peace. In an attempt to punish humanity for their actions, Toneri was going to send the moon crashing towards the Earth, rebuilding humanity with what was left.

As an Ōtsutsuki, Toneri's power is nearly unrivaled. He is able to use Truth-Seeking Orbs, one of the most powerful Jutsu in Naruto. Naruto himself is easily the strongest character in the series when the two face each other, and Toneri holds his own for quite some time. He is strong enough to contend with Naruto's Sage Mode and Naruto's Nine-Tails Chakra Mode, still leaving enough strength in the tank to control the moon and send it plummeting toward the Earth.

4 Obito Uchiha

The Man Who Unleashed The Nine-Tails On Konoha

Obito Uchiha has one of the best backstories in Naruto. Many of Naruto's best characters have been through a lot of hardship, and Obito has been through more than most. He grew up fighting, and, as an Uchiha, a lot of pressure was put on him from an early age. Obito fought in the Third Great Ninja War alongside Kakashi and Rin, with Minato Namikaze leading the trio. He was only 13-years-old during the war, and he witnessed some of the worst brutality the series had to offer.

Fighting against much stronger and older enemies without their leader, Obito was crushed underneath a boulder, set to die. He gave his eye to Kakashi as a parting gift, but before he died, he was saved by Madara Uchiha. Obito then saw Kakashi kill Rin out of context, leading Obito to a life of revenge against both Kakashi and the ninja world that led to the events of the war.

Fueled by his rage and Madara's teachings, Obito quickly becomes one of the strongest characters in the series. He uses his Sharingan to great effect, unleashing the Nine-Tails on the Hidden Leaf Village and devastating his former home. As the series progresses, Obito becomes the Ten-Tails Jinchuuriki, controlling godlike powers as an enemy of his former friends. While he eventually reforms himself and tries to do right, he spends most of the time as one of the series' strongest villains.

3 Sasuke Uchiha

An Amazing Character With An Equally Impressive Character Arc

Sasuke Uchiha is one of the most complicated characters in anime. He starts Naruto as an innocent child with a hard backstory. His clan was annihilated by his older brother Itachi, leaving Sasuke with nothing but revenge on the mind. When he thinks that he'll never be able to get strong enough to defeat his brother, Sasuke turns his back on his village, ing Orochimaru to learn more about his brother and to try to get strong enough to kill him.

Sasuke then spends most of Naruto as a villain, even attempting to kill his former teammates on a few occasions. He s the Akatsuki, the notorious terrorist organization focused on reviving the Ten-Tails and destroying the world as everyone knows it. After learning Itachi's true intentions, Sasuke becomes a good guy again. He res the Hidden Leaf as one of its strongest defenders, fighting against Madara Uchiha in the Fourth Great Ninja War.

Before the series ends, however, Sasuke goes back to his villainous ways. He uses his new godlike powers to trap the Tailed Beasts, fighting Naruto one last time. While Sasuke's moral com might be confusing, his power isn't. At the end of the series, he's easily one of the strongest characters in it, going toe-to-toe with Naruto in a battle that metaphorically and literally reshapes the world.

2 Madara Uchiha

One Of The Greatest Uchiha Of All Time

Madara Uchiha is one of the most overpowered villains in anime. His strength is so absurd that even characters who have never seen him before have heard enough to stay away. Madara is a walking one-man-army. When he's first reanimated, he's able to take on an entire regiment of soldiers by himself in one of the best sequences Naruto has to offer. He's arguably the strongest Uchiha to exist during Naruto: Shippuden, and, unfortunately for Naruto, he's no longer a fan of the Village Hidden in the Leaves.

Madara Uchiha would never have lost if it wasn't for the Deus Ex Machina that is Kaguya. He nearly single-handedly puts the events of the Fourth Great Ninja War into motion. Not only did he start an entire war by himself even after he died, but when he was revived, he gained the strength to rival the Sage of Six Paths himself.

1 Kaguya Ōtsutsuki

The Mother Of All Chakra

There's no debating that Kaguya Ōtsutsuki is the strongest villain in Naruto. She's the mother of all Chakra, starting what eventually becomes the basis for all the strongest jutsu in the series. Kaguya's power is on a nearly incomprehensible level. She can transport herself and her enemies between dimensions, create an Inifinite Tsukuyomi that traps her victims eternally, and so much more.

If the Sage of Six Paths hadn't come back to give his powers to Naruto and Sasuke, nobody would have been able to stop Kaguya. She's the first member of the Ōtsutsuki clan to grace the Naruto series, showing just how powerful the creators of Chakra truly are. In this way, it's impossible to imagine the franchise without her. Naruto, and the anime genre in general, would be completely different without her.