How did the people in the Naruto Universe forget about their history?

Question

Can somebody explain the timeline of Naruto?

Apparently everything started off with the Sage of the Six Paths creating jutsus (with no info on society before it), and then a couple generations later Konoha is founded. Then about two generations later Naruto becomes this savior of the world.

Judging from this, people forgot even though the span of their history could only be about 1000 years.

Let's say the Six Paths was 1000 years ago and the Konoha as well as the other major hidden villages were founded around 300 years ago. What happened in those 700 years?

How did the people forget their own history, in such a short time? Did everybody just forget to tell their children stories about the strong people of their time? Was there no form of writing or stories passed down generation to generation?

Note: I'm not saying that the history was only 1000 years, it might have been longer or even shorter. There was no evidence to it so I estimated it by generation. Each new generation every 60-80 years.

Answer 1

Naruto/Naruto Shippuden is mainly focused on the tale of the gutsy, unpredictable, strong willed protagonist ninja Naruto. Everything that relates to him is shown in the story.

Of course, the sage of Six Paths taught people the Jutsu. An art of fighting to protect themselves or the weak to retain humanity on earth. The human race were then able to use Justsu to at least fight against beasts/animals (for example, the ten-tails which attacked)

People later started to misuse Jutsu, stemming from their hunger for power and wealth.

The history prior to Rikudō Sennin is not important to Naruto's story so it is not mentioned anywhere. That doesn't mean that the people have forgotten everything.

Answer 2

First about your thinking about the timeline, then about the question itself:

It's simple theory, but I'd say: the First founded the village, he was reigning as Hokage almost at the same time as his brother, the Second. The Second's student would become the Third, and the Third's student's pupil would become the Fourth, and the Fourth Hokage's son is Naruto. I don't know exactly the lifespan of a Shinobi, but if we think, and according to the pictures of each Hokage on the narutopedia, we could assume that:

• The First was roughly 40+, his brother was younger (prior to their deaths).

• The Second had in his team the Third when he died. I'd say that Sarutobi was 16.

• That would mean that Hashirama was around 25 when Hiruzen was born and when he battled THAT battle against Madara after founding the Leaf Village.

• Hiruzen died at 60 maybe 70.

• Minato was still young when he was made Hokage, maybe 20 at least 25, the date almost to coincide with the day when Naruto was born, around 17 years before the Fourth Shinobi War.

That being said, the foundation of Konoha was around 85 years ago, but anyway, at least 100.

As for the question, just think about it: in those 100 years, they had four great Shinobi Wars, before that, on the war-torn era. They practically had massacre over massacre, so since the beginning of the Narutoverse, we can talk just about blood and hatred and killing (as it was said by Pain). So I think they didn't forget their history, they just don't want to remember those times, and tell these kinds of stories to their own children.

Plus, I can't imagine an Uchiha telling stories about the Hyuuga clan. That would mean that he would be able to pass only their own history, but not all clans were direct descendants of the Sage of Six Paths, so they don't have or have only a short history. That would be another reason, too.