The Tiny Naruto Clue That Proves Kishimoto Edges Out One Piece in Foreshadowing

File this under fun surprises you only catch on a rewatch: Naruto has a sneaky little prophecy baked into its team photos, and most of us walked right past it for years.

The right-side hint that called every Hokage

Everyone loves to praise Eiichiro Oda for long-game foreshadowing in One Piece, and fair enough. But Masashi Kishimoto pulled off a different kind of flex in Naruto, and it was hiding in plain sight. A recent Reddit post from user NicolleleeeNNN resurfaced a pattern that quietly threads through decades of the story: the classic three-student team portraits. In the key team shots for three generations, the student posed on the right eventually becomes Hokage.

• Hiruzen Sarutobi's students: Jiraiya, Tsunade, Orochimaru. The right-side student in the lineup? Tsunade, who becomes the Fifth Hokage.
• Minato Namikaze's team: Obito, Rin, Kakashi. Right side? Kakashi, future Sixth Hokage.
• Team 7: Sasuke, Sakura, Naruto. Right side? Naruto, who caps the cycle as the Seventh Hokage.

Is this the loud, puzzle-box breadcrumb trail you get in One Piece? Not at all. And that is the point. Kishimoto did not pepper the world with coded relics and ancient riddles. He tucked the hint into character dynamics and a simple visual pattern that rhymes across generations. It is subtle, clean, and weirdly elegant.

Why it works: the Will of Fire made visual

The best part is how this lines up with the Will of Fire, Konoha's core belief that each generation inherits the duty to protect the village from the one before it. Naruto is obsessed with cycles of teachers and students handing off responsibility, and this right-side-throughline turns that theme into a quiet motif you can literally see.

So when Naruto finally puts on the hat, it is not just him proving himself. It completes a chain that started long before he was born, moving from Tsunade to Kakashi to him in a neat, almost ceremonial relay.

Oda vs. Kishimoto, different lanes, different wins

If we are keeping score: Oda is still the top seed for sprawling, long-term mysteries that pay off hundreds of chapters later. Kishimoto's strength here is the opposite. He hides meaning in relationships, repetition, and visual echoes. No treasure maps, just a pattern you only notice when someone points and goes, 'Hey, look at the right side.'

And yes, this one feels like a win for Naruto in the 'emotional foreshadowing' category.

Where to watch and how they stack on ratings

Quick housekeeping for anyone in a rewatch mood: both Naruto and One Piece are streaming on Crunchyroll. The mangas for both are available on Viz Media. On IMDb, Naruto sits at 8.4 out of 10, Naruto Shippuden bumps up to 8.7 out of 10, and One Piece rides at 9.0 out of 10.

Did you ever catch the right-side Hokage pattern on your own, or did it blindside you like it did me? Either way, it is one of those small, satisfying touches that makes a rewatch worth it.