they shift the major protagonists around all the time......
1st saga: naruto, sasuke, sakura, kakashi
2nd saga (part 1): naruto, sasuke, sakura, kiba, hinata, shino, shikamaru, ino, chouji, lee, neji, tenten
2nd saga (part 2): naruto, jiraiya, sasuke, shikamaru, kakashi, gai, 3rd hokage....a bunch of other jounins......
3rd saga: naruto, jiraiya, tsunade, shizune
4th saga: naruto, shikamaru, kiba, neji, chouji, gaara, kankuro, temari, lee
sakura, hinata, and the other girls are ridiculed about being useless, but im certain its just a matter of time until they play a big role in a later saga
thats one of the great things about this series, is that despite it being named after one person, there are LOTS of other characters that play important roles
in fact it kinda reminds of chrono trigger in a way......with a bunch of characters having different abilities and being grouped differently depending on what point in the story is taking place....which also effects the kind of team strategies you can apply