Zero Permanent Buffs, One Card That Locks the Opponent — Re-sorting All 22 Confirmed Cards by How Long Their Effects Last

This article is commentary and analysis by this site. To keep it distinct from official facts, reasoning and speculation are clearly labeled.

When people read a card, everyone reads what it does. The part that gets skipped is the phrase sitting right next to it: how long it lasts.

“+3 power” and “+3 power during this turn” are entirely different cards. One stays on the board; the other evaporates at end of turn. That difference decides when you fire the card.

In our August 11 article we sorted the confirmed card text by scope — whether the word “your” appears. This time we run the same 22 cards through a second axis: duration.

The conclusion first.

Only 6 of the 22 cards state a duration at all. Four of those say “during this turn,” and all four grant something — power, damage, a keyword, or immunity. Permanent buffs: zero. Exactly one card, Itachi Uchiha (N-013), restricts the opponent over time. And the longest duration confirmed so far is a drawback that Shisui Uchiha (N-016) imposes on his own controller.

22Confirmed cards tallied

6Effects that state a duration

4"During this turn"

0Permanent buffs

Basis for this article: the tallies below come from the cards registered in our card database. Card faces were read from the sample images on the official “About NARUTO CARD GAME” page and from photos and scans of the English-language demo cards distributed at Gen Con 2026 (SAMPLE watermark, NOT FOR SALE marking). The official rulebook is unpublished, so everything here is “reading the printed text as written.” Any inference about unannounced details is clearly labelled as inference.

1. There are only four duration phrasings

First, every time-related phrase in the text. Across the 22 confirmed cards (20 Characters plus the two Leaders), only these four appear.

during this turn (4 cards): Naruto Uzumaki N-001 (Leader) / Ino Yamanaka N-011 / Choji Akimichi / Suigetsu Hozuki N-021
during your opponent’s next turn (1 card): Itachi Uchiha N-013
from this turn until the end of your next turn’s End Phase (1 card): Shisui Uchiha N-016
the turn in which it is played ([Rush] reminder text) (3 cards): Naruto Uzumaki N-003 / Sasuke Uchiha N-014 / Ino Yamanaka N-011 (granted by effect)

The fourth entry, “the turn in which it is played,” is not an effect’s duration but the reminder text printed in parentheses for the [Rush] keyword. So the effects that actually carry a duration are the first three entries — six cards in total.

Every other effect states no duration whatsoever. K.O., return to hand, summon, reveal the top of your deck, gain or lose Life, negate a card — all of these are written to finish the moment they resolve.

That is the first takeaway. Most confirmed effects are the fire-and-finish kind. Nothing yet confirmed sits on the board doing a job every turn — the closest thing is Minato Namikaze N-007, covered below.

2. The four “during this turn” cards — every buff lives here

The largest duration group is the four “during this turn” effects. Lined up, they share an obvious trait.

Card	Notation & effect
N-001Naruto Uzumaki N-001 (Leader)	[Activate: Main] Turn 1 of your Chakra face-down and choose 1 Character: it gets +3 power during this turn
N-011Ino Yamanaka N-011	[Activate: Main] [Once Per Turn] If you have Shikamaru Nara and Choji Akimichi, all three gain [Rush] and +5 power/+1 damage during this turn
Choji Akimichi	[Support] Expansion Jutsu, [Quick] Choose 1 Character: summon this card, and the chosen card’s power is doubled during this turn
N-021Suigetsu Hozuki N-021	[Support] Hydrification Jutsu, [Quick] Choose 1 Character: summon this card, and the chosen card is unaffected by your opponent’s Support effects during this turn

All four grant something to a Character. Power, damage, [Rush], Support immunity — different payloads, but every granting effect carries “during this turn.”

Which means:

Not one confirmed card raises power or damage permanently.

That dovetails with the three-band stat structure we mapped in the stat overview (Aug 7). The printed numbers essentially define a Character’s baseline, and no confirmed effect rewrites them for good.

In practice (reading within what is confirmed): buff cards only pay off on the turn you use them. You cannot buff now and attack next turn, so the Naruto Leader’s [Activate: Main] — which costs Chakra — reads as a tool to fire only when it changes this turn’s combat.

3. Itachi Uchiha is the only card that locks the opponent down

Next, effects that restrict the opponent over time. Across all 22 cards, exactly one qualifies.

Itachi Uchiha N-013 [On Summon] Choose 1 Leader or Character: reveal the top card of your deck, and if the revealed card has the {Uchiha Clan} trait, the chosen card cannot attack during your opponent’s next turn.

No other card uses that phrasing. The other disruption — Sakura Haruno bouncing to hand, Shikamaru Nara N-008 cancelling an attack, all the K.O. effects — resolves and ends immediately.

Two things follow.

First, disruption is short. Even on a hit, Itachi stops the target for exactly one opposing turn. After that it moves again. Nothing confirmed locks a board down long-term.

Second, it can hit a Leader. The text says “choose 1 Leader or Character,” and as we established on Aug 11, no “your” means either side is a legal choice. Point it at the opposing Leader and that Leader cannot attack on their turn (both Leader cards print DMG 1 and 3 power, and the wording reads as though written on the assumption that a Leader can be an attacker). With Leader Life at 15 and confirmed Character DMG running 1–3, denying one Leader attack is worth a real amount.

Note also that the effect has to hit. Reveal a non-{Uchiha Clan} card and nothing happens. As covered on Aug 10, the Sasuke Uchiha N-012 Leader ability can place an {Uchiha Clan} card on top and make that hit a certainty. The only confirmed lasting disruption is backed by the only confirmed deck-stacking effect.

4. The longest duration is spent on a self-inflicted drawback

The longest duration wording confirmed so far belongs to this card.

Shisui Uchiha N-016 [Support] Koto Amatsukami [Support Activated] Negate that card. Then, from this turn until the end of your next turn’s End Phase, you cannot turn your CHAKRA face-up.

“From this turn until the end of your next turn’s End Phase” — it is the only card that states a starting point, and the only card whose text contains the words “End Phase” (which appears to refer to the End Phase of the four-phase turn confirmed on the official Gen Con 2026 playmat: Refresh → Draw → Main → End).

What matters is that this longest duration points at your own player, not the opponent. The “your” in “your CHAKRA” is the possessive we identified on Aug 11 as marking payment and your own zones. This is not an effect; it is a price.

What we can infer (inference): both Leaders share [Recovery] — “rest this card and turn all of your Chakra face-up.” If Shisui forbids turning Chakra face-up, the natural reading is that [Recovery] cannot restore your Chakra while the restriction is active, leaving you to play your next turn on whatever face-up Chakra remains. How [Recovery] and “cannot turn face-up” actually interact has not been officially explained.

Set next to the other negation card, the design of the price becomes visible.

Card	Negation	Price	Nature of the price
N-009Kakashi Hatake N-009 (Lightning Blade)	Negate that card	Lose 2 Life	Immediate, paid in full
N-016Shisui Uchiha N-016 (Koto Amatsukami)	Negate that card	Cannot turn Chakra face-up (until the end of your next turn’s End Phase)	Ongoing, paid in instalments

The same job — erase an opposing Support — comes with two ways to pay. Kakashi carves 2 off a 15-Life Leader immediately; Shisui mortgages next turn’s actions. Which one you want depends on the board and your remaining Life — and you can read that trade-off from the duration wording alone.

5. One card tracks a state, not a duration

One more card handles time in its own way.

Minato Namikaze N-007 [Your Turn] If this Character has 10 or more power, it gains [Rush].

This is not an “until X” duration. It is active while the condition holds — during your turn, with power at 10 or more. Minato’s base power is 8, so [Rush] switches on only while he is buffed by +2 or more.

He is the only confirmed continuous ability, and he is built to combine with other cards’ buffs. Fire the Naruto Leader’s [Activate: Main] (+3 power) and 8 becomes 11, which turns on [Rush] and lets him attack the turn he arrives.

And here §2 bites. Every buff is “during this turn,” so Minato’s [Rush] is a one-turn window too. Buffing, summoning, and attacking all have to happen on the same turn — a fairly hard constraint.

Note that the Rush reminder text itself — “(This card can attack on the turn in which it is played.)” — is also limited to the turn of arrival. The EX Characters Naruto Uzumaki N-003 and Sasuke Uchiha N-014 have it printed; Ino Yamanaka N-011 grants it by effect.

6. All 22, sorted by duration

Everything above in one list. First, the 22 cards grouped by how their duration is written:

Counted by what each effect does, the breakdown is:

Resolves immediately (no duration stated) (most of them): K.O. (6) / return to hand (1) / summon (8) / reveal top of deck (3) / Life gain or loss (2) / negation (2) / cancel an attack (1) / draw and stack (1) / turn Chakra face-up (2 Leaders)
During this turn (4): +3 power (N-001) / [Rush] +5 power/+1 damage (N-011) / double power (Choji) / Support immunity (N-021)
During your opponent’s next turn (1): Cannot attack (N-013)
From this turn until the end of your next turn’s End Phase (1): Cannot turn your Chakra face-up (N-016 — a self-inflicted drawback)
While a condition holds (1): [Rush] at 10+ power (N-007)

Note: some counts are per effect rather than per card, since one card can appear in several categories.

Six of 22 cards state a duration. As it stands, this game’s effects are concentrated on winning the turn in front of you.

7. General TCG principles — how to read durations

The following is not confirmed NARUTO Card Game information; it is standard practice for any TCG that prints durations.

1. With “during this turn” effects, sequencing is everything. A permanent effect rewards playing it early; a turn-limited one is worth zero if this turn’s payoff is zero. Count the damage it pushes through or the body it kills before you fire it.

2. Measure opponent-side restrictions in “one lap.” “During your opponent’s next turn” buys you the time until your own turn comes back around. If you have not decided what that turn accomplishes, you bought time and nothing else.

3. Budget ongoing costs through to the final instalment. An immediate cost (−2 Life) and an ongoing one (no resource refresh next turn) can look equally heavy while affecting your plan very differently. Ongoing costs delete things you wanted to do later. Check what next turn loses before you pay.

4. Watch the moment a conditional ability’s condition drops. A “while X” ability turns off the instant X stops being true. If X is being propped up by a buff, the ability and the buff expire together.

8. Still unknown

Plenty of open questions remain around duration. None of the following has been announced.

How “turns” are counted. Whether “from turn 2 onward” on both Leaders’ [Recovery] means the game’s second turn or that player’s second turn is unannounced (we flagged this in the going first or second article as well). Itachi’s “your opponent’s next turn” and Shisui’s “your next turn” cannot be pinned down strictly until this is settled
What “your opponent’s next turn” means if Itachi arrives during the opponent’s turn. Whether it refers to the turn already in progress or the following one cannot be read from the text
How [Recovery] interacts with “cannot turn Chakra face-up.” As in §4: unusable, usable but does nothing, or rests the Leader only — all unannounced
What happens if a buff’s condition breaks afterwards. Ino Yamanaka N-011 buffs all three “if you have Shikamaru Nara and Choji Akimichi,” but the text does not say whether the buff falls off if Shikamaru is K.O.‘d after resolution
What actually happens in the End Phase. The four-phase turn is confirmed from the official playmat, but the contents of each phase (hand size limits, cleanup of ongoing effects) are unpublished
Exactly when a “during this turn” effect ends — before, during, or after the End Phase — is unannounced

Summary

Of the 22 confirmed cards, only 6 state a duration; the rest resolve and finish on the spot
“During this turn” covers 4 cards (N-001 Leader / Ino N-011 / Choji Akimichi / Suigetsu N-021). Power, damage, [Rush], and immunity all live here — permanent buffs: zero
Itachi Uchiha N-013 is the only card that restricts the opponent over time, for exactly one opposing turn, and it can target a Leader
The longest confirmed duration is Shisui Uchiha N-016’s “cannot turn your Chakra face-up” — duration length is spent on a price, not a payoff
The two negation cards split their costs into immediate (Kakashi: −2 Life) and ongoing (Shisui: frozen Chakra)
Minato Namikaze N-007 is the only conditional continuous ability (10+ power grants [Rush]). Because every buff is turn-limited, buff, summon, and attack must all line up on one turn
Shisui is the only card whose text says “End Phase,” matching the four-phase turn on the official playmat

Read the time wording next to what the card does, every time. Once the rulebook is out we will confirm how turns are counted and what the End Phase does, and update this article. Confirmed cards live in our card database; notations are catalogued in the keyword list.

Source: About NARUTO CARD GAME (official site)