Quote Originally Posted by Death BOO Z
letting every character fight will turn the manga into bleach, where we waste gazzilion of chapters on no name fighting other no names...
Can't argue with that.

That has been one of the highlights of Naruto. The secondary characters are role players and when they do appear in battle its usually in a support role during a team effort. The 1v1 battles are generally saved for main characters, unless it's some type of defining moment for a secondary character.