The worldbuilding in Naruto is unfortunately very sparse and kinda patchwork in a lot of aspects. We know that the villages are essentially dozens of clans banded together to become a bigger picture and there are even certain hierarchies among the clans, what with there being 4 noble clans (Akimichi, Aburame, Hyuuga and Uchiha) yet we never once get like an indication that the first two are anything special.
The Akimichi kinda makes sense because I think it was said that historically the Nara and Yamanaka clans were sort of retainers, and they've had this historic alliance, but whatever such hierarchy existed between them definitely doesn't in the present day, because all Nara are apparently high IQ leaders whose big brains definitely make for the best commanders, so if there is a leadership position in that alliance, it is definitely the Nara. Also, the Sarutobi are involved somehow, what with the giving the earrings thing, but I am not sure if this tradition predates Konoha or not, because they said it happens when they make chunin which is not something that existed before Konoha did.
It's interesting, and a bit frustrating because I don't think we are sure what that means? Like, you can see the synergy and reason for the Akimichi-Yamanaka-Nara alliance, and sure, more people in the alliance makes it stronger, but what exactly is the role of the Sarutobi there? Why did those three clans grant the Sarutobi this ceremonial but elevating duty? What is the connection there and how did that evolve? It's fun to speculate as a fan, and it's true that we don't really need this information for the story, but I have to say, I personally would have been more interesting in the whole clan history than the bunch of dimensional aliens the story later threw at us.
As to the maybe prominence of the Akimichi, you can hazard a guess, of course. Generally speaking the Akimichi are the physically strongest fighters, so strictly speaking, that might have given them the more dominant position, but then again, the Naruto world tends to have quite a few "geniuses" who are so much stronger than everyone else that a clan just needs to have one or two of those, and the overall strength of the clan doesn't matter all that much in comparison. I guess the Nara or Yamanaka never really had that, so they remained the support and enablers for the Akimichi to deliver devastating attacks.
And I don't super mind that, but I kinda wish the clans would be explored more. What makes the Aburame a noble clan, for example, and how come the Senju don't make the cut for noble clan? Especially seeing Uchiha and Senju were the two strongest clans and the founders, with the first two Hokage being Senju.
I guess the implication being that the Senju all died out eventually but a) how did that happen anyway and b) surely the noble clan stuff is not a recent thing, so when Konoha was founded, there were enough Senju alive to constitute a clan, especially seeing that Hashirama and Tobirama were around, so what disqualified the Senju from noble clan status?
The Hatake are a clan, but as far as we knew, the most amount of clan members they had were two. I don't think a single person constitutes as a clan, especially one that has been disgraced for so long as the Hatake were, but at least they had been a clan.
So now that I have learned that there is a Lee clan, with Rock Lee and his son, I'm not sure what a clan even is, anymore. What is the difference between a clan and a family? Because I would have assumed that a clan necessitates a certain size, at least at some point in history. Then there are traditions, techniques, and even bloodline limits, and while Lee can start a tradition or techniques to pass down on, I feel like to proclaim you and your son a clan feels a bit hasty.
I do find the notion interesting that despite banding together in a village, quite a few clans seem to have been depleted to single individuals when they maintained large numbers in the Warring Clans era.
The Senju had been in an all out war with the Uchiha for generations and with dozens of other clans, and the maintained hundreds of family members. But the second they formed Konoha with the Uchiha and many other clans, the Senju were reduced to one person who was in her 50s within two generations. And that was with the first two Hokage being Senju and the third being a Senju student.
Now, you can again theorize. I liked the fan theory that it was kinda Tobirama's unintended fault. That by making it so that the Uchiha were the police force within the village, which distanced them from the village population who viewed them as the unpopular cops who couldn't really earn glory and fame on the battlefield as almost all of them were stuck in the village, it also protected them from dying on the battlefield.
And it wasn't like there weren't any wars or fighting, so the Uchiha, their strongest fighters next to the Senju, were stuck in the village and couldn't go out and meet the strongest enemies in battle, so the Senju had to pick up the slack and more of them died until they couldn't maintain an active population anymore and none of the Hokage who definitely had their best interest in mind noticed or were able to do anything about it.
So the plan worked in that it alienated the Uchiha from the village and curbed their power, but it also was an abject failure because it resulted in the very thing Tobirama wanted to prevent, the deaths of his clan members.
That is of course just a theory, but it kinda rings true to me.
Not going to go into the Hyuuga now because nothing makes sense about them except the fact that they were designed to suck.
But yeah, I wish the clans were explored more, that we got a bit more about their histories and maybe like, that more of them have goals and ambitions beyond just protecting the village. Or that we learned how some clans still have hundreds of members while others have been completely decimated even though the village framework should have prevented that very thing.
Sorry, was a bit rambly and all over the place.
