Complete List of Naruto & Naruto Shippuden Filler Episodes You Can Skip Without Losing the Plot

So you want to watch Naruto without dedicating half your life to it. Respect. The show is iconic, massive, and yes, packed with filler. Here’s the clean, no-BS rundown on what the series is, what you can skip, and where to watch it without getting lost in the weeds.

The quick refresher: what this thing is

Naruto (and its direct sequel Naruto Shippuden) adapts Masashi Kishimoto’s long-running manga. It’s a coming-of-age ninja story about Naruto Uzumaki, an orphan who wants to become the Hokage, aka the boss of the Hidden Leaf Village. Expect training, escalating showdowns, and a lot of goofy humor to balance the kid-friendly action. The franchise is gigantic: manga, games, merch, a stage musical, even live-action attempts. The anime alone runs 700+ episodes across Naruto and Shippuden from 2002 to 2017, followed by Boruto, which adds almost 300 more. It’s the gateway drug for a ton of anime fans, so the nostalgia factor is real.

About that filler

Across both series, a surprising amount doesn’t move the main plot. If you’re a completionist, enjoy. If you’d rather focus on the core story, you can skip a lot and not miss crucial developments. Below is the straight-to-the-point skip list. It covers episodes widely agreed to be filler or extra material not essential to the manga storyline.

• Naruto filler to skip: 26; 97; 101-106 (Land of Tea Escort Mission); 136-140 (Land of Rice Fields Investigation Mission); 143-219. Yes, that last stretch is 77 episodes in a row. Wild.
• Naruto Shippuden filler to skip: 57-71 (Twelve Guardian Ninja); 91-112 (Three-Tails' Appearance); 144-151 (Six-Tails Unleashed); 170-171; 176-196 (Past Arc: The Locus of Konoha); 223-242 (Paradise Life on a Boat); 257-260; 271; 279-295 (Fourth Shinobi World War: Confrontation); 303-320; 347-361 (Fourth Shinobi World War: Climax / Kakashi: Shadow of the ANBU Black Ops); 376-377; 388-390; 394-413 (In Naruto's Footsteps: The Friends' Paths); 416-431 (Birth of the Ten-Tails' Jinchuriki); 427-450 (Jiraiya Shinobi Handbook: The Tale of Naruto the Hero); 464-468 (Kaguya Otsutsuki Strikes); 480-483 (Childhood).

Context, caveats, and the good kind of detours

Shippuden picks up about two years after Naruto and runs 500 episodes; nearly 200 of those are considered filler. That said, a few side trips are fan favorites even if they’re not required reading.

The big eyebrow-raiser in the original Naruto is that 143-219 block. It doesn’t advance the central plot, which is why people skip it, but you can always sample to see if the vibe hits. One example: episodes 169-173 team Naruto with Ino, Shino, and Anko for higher-level missions, which is a fun shake-up of the usual party dynamics. Episodes 101-106 (the Land of Tea escort detour) are also self-contained: perfectly watchable, not essential to the main story.

On the Shippuden side, there’s debate around whether Kakashi: Shadow of the ANBU Black Ops (episodes 347-361) counts as filler. It is not required for the main plot, but it’s rich with character work for Kakashi and gives the Hyuga sisters more to do. Similarly, episodes 464-468 dig into the history of the shinobi world. If you’re a lore person, that arc punches above its filler label.