Board Thread:Theories and Speculation/@comment-30355627-20170312130432/@comment-25122992-20170312133756

I think one of the most nerfed characters could be Neji. In part 1, he was regarded as one of the strongest genin, was tying with other powerful genins like Naruto/Sasuke, was said to be an exceptional talent even for the Hyuga and defeated Kidomaru of the Sound Four without any enhancements (like Choji's pills) and despite being at disadvantage (as a close-range fighter against a long-range fighter), though heavily injured. At the beginning of the part 2, we found out he became a jonin, i.e. a rank higher than the other members of Konoha 11. But then, we see that his abilities didn't really change, he demonstrated only a few new jutsu like Vacuum Palm, and while Konoha 11 kept advancing, especially Team 7, he stayed relatively on the same level as always, although his initial potential was comparable to Naruto/Sasuke themselves. I do realise he's not the main character, yet even the other non-Team 7 Konoha 11 ninja had a chance to prove their developement, as seen in the clash against Ten-Tails' clones, unlike Neji, who was already dead at that moment.

Also, I think Orochimaru is a bit nerfed as well. I shall explain why. In the part 1, it was mentioned he intended to learn all the jutsu in the world, and there were a lot of hints that he learned pretty much of them, since the sealing of his arms by Hiruzen seemed to be a great loss for him because it restricted the most of his arsenal. However, throughout the series he keeps using only his snake techniques, despite having an opportunity to show something beyond them (before his arms were sealed and then when they were unsealed). Eventually, it looks like the only jutsu that the sealing resticted were Summoning and Edo Tensei, but nothing more. Even Jiraya has shown a wider variety of techniques, though he had no goal to learn all them in existence in the first place.