The Amazing Ninja Power That Got Pushed Aside On Naruto
In the Shonen genre, having an array of extraordinary abilities or powers is just as important as having a brave yet lovable protagonist. Fortunately, that's never been a problem for Masashi Kishimoto's "Naruto" series.
The shinobi present in the world of "Naruto" would probably make other ninjas from any other series fearfully shake in the shadows. And who could blame them? The powers in "Naruto" are as impressive as they are varied. By the end of the "Shippuden" saga, the Fourth Ninja War feels more like an epic battle found within Akira Toriyama's "Dragon Ball Super." Someone could easily make a comparison chart between Goku's Super Saiyan God form and Naruto's Baryon transformation with Kurama.
With that in mind, one of the most incredible aspects of the ninja powers present in "Naruto" is that fans got the chance to see some of these abilities grow and become stronger as the series ran. This is especially true for the Uchiha Clan's Sharingan. At the beginning of the series, Kakashi showed its exceptional copycat abilities. But by the end of the series, Sasuke had evolved the Sharingan into summoning Susanoo, a massive creature made of chakra.
Yet, while the Sharingan flourished, other ninja powers floundered when it came to keeping up. In fact, one amazing ninja power that started as a rival to the Sharingan got pushed aside as the series ran.
The series loses focus on the Byakugan
During Neji's battle with Naruto in the episode "Ultimate Defense: Zero Blind Spot" (via Crunchyroll), we get a good look into the abilities of the Byakugan and why at first, it's a formidable rival to the Sharingan.
The Hyūga clan's power grants them a 360-degree field of vision that potentially covers anywhere from 50 to 800 meters away, eliminating just about any blind spots. Additionally, the Byakugan gives the user the ability to see the chakra pathway system throughout the body. The Hyūga clan also develop some offensive techniques to close or manipulate anyone's chakra points to compliment the Byakugan.
From the episode, an example of one of these techniques is Neji's Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms, where he precisely strikes 64 points in the body that stop the flow of chakra. And in the world of "Naruto," unless you're Taijutsu expert Rock Lee or Naruto with loads of anime plot armor, suppressing someone's chakra is usually a guaranteed victory in a fight.
It's too bad that an ability once regarded by Kakashi in the "Naruto" manga (via Viz Media) as a power that can see chakra far greater than the Sharingan never got much more of an upgrade. Throughout the rest of the series, Neji and Hinata display expert use of the Byakugan, especially when combined with their Eight Trigrams and Gentle Fist abilities, but it's left in the dust compared to the village-destroying levels of the Sharingan or Rinnegan in "Shippuden."