Only three revealed Characters can pay Gamabunta (N-005) off their printed stats — and all three are EX Characters

So far this site has mostly counted across the revealed pool — comparing the four EX Characters, tallying chakra costs, and so on. Starting today we are adding the opposite read: one card, from the top of the frame to the bottom.

First up is Gamabunta (N-005), chosen because the story does not stay inside its own frame. The phrase “10 or more power” in its [Summon Requirements] runs straight into the distribution of everything revealed so far, and something that looks a lot like a contradiction falls out.

3Characters printed at 10+ powerOf 38 revealed cards. All EX

1Cards Gamabunta sends to the trashTied for fewest among the four EX

3Names its [On Summon] can reviveAll have revealed non-EX versions

About this article: the figures below come from our own card database. Gamabunta’s frame was read from the sample image in the card-type section of the official “About the NARUTO Card Game” page (SAMPLE watermark, NOT FOR SALE marking), with the Japanese trait line cross-checked against the English wording. Details may change in the retail release, and the official rulebook and card list are still unpublished. Anything speculative is marked as such.

1. Reading the frame

Here is the object under discussion — the card the official site uses as its example of an EX Character.

Field	Printed value
Name	Gamabunta
Card number	N-005
Card type	EX Character
Rarity	C
DMG	2
POW	10
HP	8
Cost	none printed
Traits	Water / Toad / Mount Myoboku

The effect text runs three lines.

Cannot be summoned normally. [Summon Requirements] Place 1 of your Characters with 10 or more power in your trash. [On Summon] Summon 1 non-EX [Naruto Uzumaki], [Jiraiya], or [Minato Namikaze] Character from your trash.

Lines one and two are the shared format of all four revealed EX Characters. EX Characters have no chakra cost box; [Summon Requirements] sits there instead. Since chakra is a five-card resource, there is a ceiling on what chakra can buy, and EX Characters are given a different way to pay that sits outside it.

What this article digs into is lines two and three.

2. Only three revealed cards can pay for it off printed stats

The requirement asks for one card. In card count that ties Manda (N-022) for the lightest of the four EX Characters.

But that one card has to have 10 or more power. Counting the revealed pool by printed power gives this:

Power 10 or more EX Naruto 11, Gamabunta 10, EX Sasuke 103cards

Power 7–97cards

Power 4–610cards

The three are:

• N-003DMG3POW11HP10Naruto Uzumaki (N-003) — EX Character, SR / POW 11
• N-005DMG2POW10HP8Gamabunta (N-005) — EX Character, C / POW 10
• N-014DMG3POW10HP11Sasuke Uchiha (N-014) — EX Character, SR / POW 10

All three are EX Characters. No revealed non-EX Character is printed at 10 power or above; the highest is Jugo (N-019) at 9.

So paying the requirement literally means fielding an EX Character in order to summon an EX Character. And because Gamabunta itself qualifies, “trash a Gamabunta to summon a Gamabunta” is a legal reading of the text as printed.

Speculation from here: the natural explanations are that non-EX Characters with 10 or more power exist but have not been revealed, or that buffing power into the requirement is the intended route. With 38 cards revealed and card numbers confirmed only in scattered patches up to N-022, “we simply have not seen them yet” is entirely plausible.

3. The way out: effects that raise power

Two revealed cards raise a Character’s power. Both can push a sub-10 body to 10 on paper.

Naruto Uzumaki Leader (N-001)

[Activate: Main] Flip 1 of your CHAKRA face-down and choose 1 Character: The chosen card gets +3 power during this turn.

The target is “1 Character”, with no wording restricting it to your own. Six revealed non-EX Characters are printed at 7 or more, so +3 takes them to 10:

• N-006COST2DMG1POW7HP4Jiraiya (N-006) 7 → 10
• N-009COST1DMG1POW7HP4Kakashi Hatake (N-009) 7 → 10
• COST1DMG1POW7HP3Choji Akimichi 7 → 10
• N-007DMG2POW8HP8Minato Namikaze (N-007) 8 → 11
• N-013DMG2POW8HP8Itachi Uchiha (N-013) 8 → 11
• N-019DMG2POW9HP7Jugo (N-019) 9 → 12

Ino Yamanaka (N-011)

[Activate: Main] [Once Per Turn] If you have [Shikamaru Nara] and [Choji Akimichi] on the field, your [Ino Yamanaka], [Shikamaru Nara], and [Choji Akimichi] all gain [Rush] and +5 power/+1 damage during this turn.

When the condition is met, three cards get +5 at once: Ino 5→10, Shikamaru Nara (N-008) 6→11, Choji Akimichi 7→12 — three bodies at 10 or more in one activation.

Unconfirmed: nothing states whether a temporary power buff counts when [Summon Requirements] is checked. The same “10 or more power” phrasing appears in Minato Namikaze’s [Rush] condition, where the question is equally open. Whether the check reads printed power or current power changes how hard Gamabunta is to deploy. This is waiting on the official rulebook.

4. [On Summon] gives back something different from what you paid

Line three:

[On Summon] Summon 1 non-EX [Naruto Uzumaki], [Jiraiya], or [Minato Namikaze] Character from your trash.

All three names already have revealed non-EX versions.

• N-004COST2DMG1POW5HP4Naruto Uzumaki (N-004) (R / DMG 1, POW 5, HP 4 / cost 2)
  [Support] Rasengan — [During Your Main] K.O. all Characters.
• N-006COST2DMG1POW7HP4Jiraiya (N-006) (SR / DMG 1, POW 7, HP 4 / cost 2)
  [Support] Fire Style: Toad Flame Bombs — [During Your Opponent’s Attack] Choose up to 2 rested Characters: K.O. the chosen cards.
• N-007DMG2POW8HP8Minato Namikaze (N-007) (SR / DMG 2, POW 8, HP 8)
  [Your Turn] If this Character has 10 or more power, this Character gains [Rush].

The detail that matters here is that two of the three carry a [Support] box.

As set out in the face-down reading guide, a card with [Support] can either be summoned as a Character or set face down and used as a jutsu. So a Rasengan or Toad Flame Bombs that has already been used and sent to the trash can come back onto the board as a Character through Gamabunta’s [On Summon]. That is what the text permits.

Lining up what you pay against what you get:

You pay	1 Character with 10+ power (in practice, an EX Character today)
You get	Gamabunta (POW 10 / HP 8 / DMG 2)
Plus	1 of the three named non-EX cards, out of the trash

By card count that is one in, two out. But you are trashing something at 10 or more power and getting back Gamabunta (10) plus a body in the 5–8 range, so the total power does not necessarily go up. Among the cards that use the trash as a resource, this one leans toward adding bodies rather than adding stats.

Note also that if none of the three names is in your trash, that line simply does nothing. As counted in the conditional-effects article, no revealed card writes a fallback for missing, and this is no exception.

5. The traits do not line up — and that is the point

It is easy to skip the trait line. Gamabunta’s is {Water} / {Toad} / {Mount Myoboku}. The three revival targets look like this:

Card	Traits
Gamabunta (N-005)	Water / Toad / Mount Myoboku
Naruto Uzumaki (N-004)	Special / Jinchuriki / Hidden Leaf Village / Team 7
Jiraiya (N-006)	Fire / Legendary Sannin / Hidden Leaf Village
Minato Namikaze (N-007)	Wind / Lightning / Five Kage / Hidden Leaf Village

They share nothing. The three targets all carry {Hidden Leaf Village}; Gamabunta does not. Conversely {Toad} and {Mount Myoboku} are traits no other card in the revealed pool has ({Water} is shared with Suigetsu Hozuki (N-021)).

Which is exactly why the relationship is written by card name instead of by trait. Only four revealed cards name other cards in quotation marks, and Gamabunta is one of them. Naming three cards at once is something only Gamabunta and Ino Yamanaka (N-011) do.

The three named ninja are also, in the manga, the ones who summon Gamabunta — that is our reading against the source material, not an official statement. A relationship that traits cannot bundle gets expressed by name instead.

6. Rarity C, with those numbers

One small but striking point. Rarities across the four revealed EX Characters:

• SR (EX Naruto, EX Sasuke) 2cards（50%）
• R (Manda) 1cards（25%）
• C (Gamabunta) 1cards（25%）

Gamabunta is the only EX Character at C. As noted in the rarity analysis, rarity and printed strength do not map neatly onto each other in the revealed pool. Gamabunta is a C with printed power 10, the third-highest figure revealed so far.

Then again, an EX Character does not reach the board without meeting its requirement. The cost is paid in difficulty of deployment rather than in rarity, which is one way to read it — but that is an impression drawn from four cards, and the official side has never commented on how rarity relates to power level.

7. Still unknown

Even for a single card, this much is open:

• Whether a temporary power buff satisfies “10 or more power” in [Summon Requirements] (section 3)
• Whether the Character placed in the trash must be on the field (or whether one in hand can be used)
• When [Summon Requirements] can be met (your main phase only, or during the opponent’s turn too)
• Whether the card brought back by [On Summon] keeps its effects — Naruto Uzumaki (N-003) explicitly says “with its effects negated”, and Gamabunta’s text has no such clause
• Which product it appears in (no product announcement yet)
• Whether any other card references {Toad} or {Mount Myoboku}

All of it waits on the official rulebook and card list. We will update the card page and this article as things are confirmed.

Summary

• Gamabunta (N-005) is an EX Character at rarity C with DMG 2 / POW 10 / HP 8. There is no chakra cost box; it enters through [Summon Requirements]
• The requirement is “Place 1 of your Characters with 10 or more power in your trash.” One card is the fewest among the four EX Characters, but only three revealed Characters are printed at 10 or more, and all three are EX
• The way out is power buffs (N-001’s +3, Ino’s +5), though whether a temporary buff counts for the check is unconfirmed
• The three names its [On Summon] revives all have revealed non-EX versions, and two carry [Support] — a spent jutsu can return as a Character
• Gamabunta and its three targets share no trait at all, which is why the link is written as named cards rather than as a trait

Related articles

• How Do You Play a Card That “Cannot Be Summoned Normally”? — Deck Building Lessons From All 4 EX Characters
• Only 4 Cards Call Another Card by Name — 7 Names Are Listed, and No Two Cards Look in the Same Place
• Only 4 Cards Mention the Trash — All of Them EX Characters. They Place 6 Cards There, but Only 2 Say They Can Take Anything Back
• Only 4 Cards Touch [Rush] — The Design Around “Attacking the Turn You Summon,” and the Power 10 Line That Shows Up in Three Places
• Only five revealed cards say “if” — three of them decide it by flipping the top of your deck, and not one card tells you what happens when you miss