Naruto question (manga spoilers)

[Don]

I have a question about the 3 who forms the 'pig/deer/butterfly' combo, namely the smart guy, the fat guy, and the Sakura clone. Are they inexplicably popular or is there some reason I cannot forsee why these guys even appear in this story? They don't seem to be actually popular. They're not even related to anybody remotely important. They are not strong ninjas by any stretch of imagination, nor do they have any real useful nijitsu (the shadow stuff appears to be useless against anyone who is actually important). Yet these 3 characters shows up with fairly regular frequency and we are constantly reminded that they'll someday be a legend or something like that. Is there like some secret fanbase out there demanding these 3 useless characters show up or else?

[Eric]

Shikamaru(The smart guy) is popular, the other 2 are on his team, so they get a lot of air time and Chouji(the fat guy) as a result gets character development because he's a male, and Ino(The Sakura clone) doesn't because she's a girl, and girls are weak/worthless in shonen manga, hence why Sakura is still weak/worthless/helpless. ^_^

Character Poll 3

# Kakashi Hatake - 8,198 votes
# Naruto Uzumaki - 7,759 votes
# Iruka Umino - 4,627 votes
# Sasuke Uchiha - 3,826 votes
# Shikamaru Nara - 1,788 votes

Character Poll 4

# Naruto Uzumaki - 7,689 votes
# Kakashi Hatake - 6,560 votes
# Sasuke Uchiha - 4,843 votes
# Shikamaru Nara - 4,700 votes
# Iruka Umino - 3,855 votes
# Neji Hyūga - 3,222 votes
# Rock Lee - 2,522 votes
# Gaara - 1,868 votes
# Itachi Uchiha - 1,619 votes
# Sakura Haruno - 1,348 votes
# Jiraiya - 1,235 votes
# Hinata Hyūga - 1,182 votes
# Tsunade - 1,058 votes
# Haku - 941 votes
# Temari - 930 votes
# Hayate Gekkō - 876 votes
# Kiba Inuzuka - 599 votes
# Might Guy - 567 votes
# Genma Shiranui - 541 votes
# Minato Namikaze - 529 votes
# Chōji Akimichi - 399 votes
# Orochimaru - 345 votes
# Ino Yamanaka - 286 votes
# Akamaru - 271 votes
# Shino Aburame - 253 votes
# Asuma Sarutobi – 237 votes
# Kabuto Yakushi - 237 votes
# Zabuza Momochi - 207 votes
# Tenten - 135 votes
# Anko Mitarashi - 120 votes

Jutsu Poll 1

# Rasengan - 5,128 votes
# Lightning Cutter - 4,395 votes
# Chidori - 3,216 votes
# Shadow Imitation Technique - 3,160 votes
# Summoning Technique - 1,897 votes

Character Poll 5

# Sasuke Uchiha - 6,647 votes
# Naruto Uzumaki - 5,614 votes
# Kakashi Hatake - 5,430 votes
# Iruka Umino - 4,128 votes
# Shikamaru Nara - 3,003 votes
# Itachi Uchiha - 2,997 votes
# Neji Hyūga - 2,497 votes
# Sakura Haruno - 2,394 votes
# Hinata Hyūga - 1,598 votes
# Gaara - 1,383 votes
# Temari - 1,037 votes
# Kiba Inuzuka - 788 votes
# Rock Lee - 722 votes
# Ino Yamanaka - 717 votes
# Haku - 706 votes
# Tsunade - 595 votes
# Might Guy - 559 votes
# Kimimaro - 478 votes
# Kabuto Yakushi - 473 votes
# Hayate Gekkō - 434 votes
# Shino Aburame - 377 votes
# Minato Namikaze - 345 votes
# Jiraiya - 317 votes
# Tenten - 280 votes
# Tayuya - 225 votes
# Asuma Sarutobi - 221 votes
# Orochimaru - 211 votes
# Kisame Hoshigaki - 202 votes
# Shizune - 163 votes
# Kankurō - 117 votes

Naruto Databook 3 Character Poll

1. Kakashi Hatake - 48,431 votes
2. Naruto Uzumaki - 42,862 votes
3. Sasuke Uchiha - 33,632 votes
4. Iruka Umino - 23,532 votes
5. Shikamaru Nara - 11,211 votes
6. Sakura Haruno - 9,701 votes
7. Neji Hyūga - 9,362 votes
8. Gaara - 8,660 votes
9. Rock Lee - 8,614 votes
10. Itachi Uchiha - 7,067 votes
11. Hinata Hyūga - 6,917 votes
12. Haku - 3,551 votes
13. Might Guy - 2,913 votes
14. Temari - 2,803 votes
15. Minato Namikaze - 2,734 votes
16. Deidara - 2,555 votes
17. Kiba Inuzuka - 2,398 votes
18. Hayate Gekkō - 2,183 votes
19. Jiraiya - 2,055 votes
20. Shino Aburame - 1,963 votes
Naruto Tenth Anniversary Poll
Konohagakure Poll

1. Naruto Uzumaki - 38%
2. Shikamaru Nara - 12%
3. Hinata Hyūga - 11%
4. Neji Hyūga - 8%
5. Sakura Haruno and Rock Lee - 5%
6. Kakashi Hatake and Kiba Inuzuka - 4%
7. Shino Aburame - 2%

Akatsuki Poll Edit Akatsuki Poll section

1. Sasuke Uchiha - 28%
2. Itachi Uchiha - 20%
3. Pain and Tobi - 10%
4. Deidara - 7%
5. Suigetsu - 5%
6. Konan - 4%
7. Kisame, Sasori, and Hidan - 3%
8. Zetsu - 2%
9. Karin and Kakuzu - 1%

Character Poll 7

1. Naruto Uzumaki - 6,880 votes
2. Sasuke Uchiha - 5,791 votes
3. Kakashi Hatake - 4,828 votes
4. Gaara - 4,239 votes
5. Itachi Uchiha - 4,011 votes
6. Deidara - 3,623 votes
7. Minato Namikaze - 3,477 votes
8. Sasori - 3,152 votes
9. Shikamaru Nara - 2,533 votes <---- He hasn't been in the manga for a while heh
10. Hinata Hyūga - 2,517 votes
11. Iruka Umino - 2,494 votes
12. Sakura Haruno and Sai - 2,188 votes

[Don]

Yeah I figure at least one of those character is quasi-popular, but generally speaking if you're as weak and unimportant to the story as these guys are, you'd have to be somewhere near top 5 in popularity to warrant continued exposure. A good example would be Bleach's Toushiro, who is mega popular so even though he's basically worthless he shows up all the time because his legion of fans demand it. But I really don't see that with any of those 3. I'd say you'd have to be about as popular as Gaara (who probably got rescued from a one-off villian status because of his popularity) to be at where those 3 are today and I'm assuming Gaara is more popular than any of those 3, if not combined.

[Don]

So he's more popular than unimportant girl who likes the main character, and less popular than unimportant villian who blows things up. That's pretty unimportant if you ask me!

[Zeus]

I think we all need to intervene and force Don to face his uncontrolled fear of the Spoiler button

[Eric]

I think we all need to intervene and force Don to face his uncontrolled fear of the Spoiler button

Considering I read the manga, I deny this motion. :p

[SineSwiper]

Agreed. I didn't know what the fuck he was talking about.

[Don]

The trio's name refers to a type of hand in a Japanese card game, and they've always been referred to as that ever since they first appeared. I can see they don't bother translating that kind of stuff in a sub because it frankly wouldn't make any sense anyway. They're not important enough to be remembered by their real name anyway. I just recently noticed they show up a lot, far more than a character of their power level/importance is supposed to.

[Zeus]

Agreed. I didn't know what the fuck he was talking about.

In his reply to you, he completely missed the point of why you didn't get what the fuck he was talking about. How many times do you think I have to throw it back in his face before he wakes up and realizes what he's doing?

[Eric]

Well in Don's defense he didn't really spoil anything, you know the trio is gonna show up again later....big deal. There's a war coming up ya know! :p