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Naruto is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Masashi Kishimoto. It tells the story of Naruto Uzumaki, an adolescent ninja who constantly searches for recognition and dreams to become the Hokage, the ninja in his village who is acknowledged as the leader and the strongest of all. The series is based on a oneshot manga by Kishimoto that was published in the August 1997 issue of Akamaru Jump. Naruto was serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine from the 43rd issue of 1999 to the 50th issue of 2014, with the chapters collected into seventy-two tankōbon volumes by Shueisha. The manga was later adapted into a television anime, which was produced by Studio Pierrot and Aniplex. It premiered across Japan on the terrestrial TV Tokyo and other TX Network stations on October 3, 2002. The first series lasted 220 episodes, while Naruto: Shippuden, a sequel to the original series, has been airing since February 15, 2007. In addition to the anime series, Studio Pierrot has developed ten movies and several original video animations. Other types of merchandise include light novels, video games, and trading cards developed by several companies.
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Viz Media has licensed the manga and anime for North American production. Viz serialized Naruto in their digital Weekly Shonen Jump magazine, as well as publishing the individual volumes. The anime series began airing in the United States and Canada in 2005, and later in the United Kingdom and Australia in 2006 and 2007, respectively. The films, as well as most OVAs from the series, have also been released by Viz, with the first film premiering in cinemas. Naruto: Shippuden was first released by Viz in North America in September 2009, started broadcast on Disney XD in October of the same year and on Adult Swim’s Toonami block in January 2014. Viz Media began streaming both series on their streaming service Neon Alley in December 2012. As of September 2014, the manga has over 200 million copies in print, with over 130 million copies in Japan and the remaining 75 million being overseas, making it the third best-selling manga series in history. The manga is also available in 35 countries outside Japan.[5] It has also become one of North American publisher Viz Media’s best-selling manga series. Their English adaptation of the series has appeared in the USA Today Booklist several times and volume 7 won the Quill Award in
2006. Reviewers of the series have praised the balance between fighting and comedy scenes, as well as the characters’ personalities, but have criticized it for using standard shōnen manga plot elements.
A powerful fox known as the Nine-Tails attacks the ninja village Konoha, killing many people. In response, the leader of Konoha – the Fourth Hokage – seals the fox inside his newborn son Naruto Uzumaki at the cost of his life. As a child, Naruto is isolated from the Konoha community, who regards him as if he was the Nine-Tails itself. A decree made by the current Kage, the Third Hokage, forbids anyone mentioning the attack of the Nine-Tails to anyone else. Twelve years later, renegade ninja Mizuki reveals Naruto the truth before being defeated by Naruto with the Shadow Clone Jutsu, earning the respect of teacher Iruka Umino. Shortly after, Naruto becomes a ninja and is assigned alongside Sasuke Uchiha, whom he often competes against, and Sakura Haruno, whom he has a crush on, to form a three-person team named Team 7 under an experienced and severe sensei, the elite ninja Kakashi Hatake. Like all the ninja teams from every village, Team 7 is charged with completing missions requested by villagers, such as doing chores or being bodyguards.
After several missions, their most notably mission to the Land of Waves, Kakashi allows Team 7 to participate in a ninja exam in which they can advance to a higher rank, and thus, take part in more difficult missions. During the exams, Orochimaru, a top-wanted criminal, invades Konoha and kills the Third Hokage in an act of revenge. This forces one of the three legendary ninja, Jiraiya, to search with Naruto for Tsunade, who has been nominated to become the Fifth Hokage. During the search, it is revealed that Orochimaru desires to acquire Sasuke due to his powerful genetic heritage, the Sharingan. Believing Orochimaru will be able to give him the strength needed to kill his brother Itachi, who destroyed his clan, Sasuke eventually joins him after a humiliating defeat at his brother’s hands. Tsunade sends a group of ninja including Naruto to retrieve Sasuke, but Naruto is unable to bring him back to the village. Naruto and Sakura do not give up on Sasuke, however, and the former leaves Konoha
to train under Jiraiya’s tutelage in order to prepare himself for the next time he encounters Sasuke, while the latter becomes Tsunade’s apprentice. Two and a half years later, Naruto returns from his training with Jiraiya, and the criminal organization called Akatsuki, from which Itachi is a member, starts kidnapping the hosts of the nine powerful “tailed beasts”, including the Nine-Tails sealed inside of Naruto, to extract them from their bodies. Several ninjas from Konoha, including Team 7, fight against the Akatsuki members and search for their teammate Sasuke. Akatsuki is successful in capturing seven of those creatures whose hosts are killed in the process, except for Gaara, the host of the One-Tail whose life is saved in time by Naruto and his comrades. In the meantime, Sasuke betrays Orochimaru and faces Itachi to take revenge. After Itachi dies in battle, Sasuke learns from the Akatsuki founder Tobi that Itachi was ordered by Konoha’s superiors to destroy his clan to prevent a coup d’état to which he accepted with the condition of allowing Sasuke to be spared. Saddened with this revelation, Sasuke joins forces with Akatsuki to kill Konoha’s superiors who orchestrated the Uchihas’ elimination and destroy Konoha to exact revenge. Meanwhile, as several Akatsuki members are defeated by the Konoha ninjas, their figurehead leader, Nagato, kills Jiraiya and destroys Konoha. However, Naruto defeats and redeems him, earning the village’s respect and admiration as a result.
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Naruto Uzumaki Naruto Uzumaki , Uzumaki Naruto) is a shinobi of Konohagakure. He became the jinchūriki of the Nine-Tails on the day of his birth, a fate that caused him to be ostracised and neglected by most of Konoha throughout his childhood. After joining Team Kakashi, Naruto worked hard to gain the village’s respect and acknowledgement with the eventual dream of becoming Hokage. In the following years, Naruto became a capable ninja regarded as a hero, both by the villagers and the shinobi world at large. He soon proved to be the main factor in winning the Fourth Shinobi World War, leading him to achieve his dream and become the Seventh Hokage Nanadaime Hokage, Literally meaning: Seventh Fire Shadow). Born to the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze and second jinchūriki of the Nine-Tails, Kushina Uzumaki, Naruto is the first of Asura Ōtsutsuki’s reincarnations to be born into the era of relative peace. Naruto was named after the protagonist of Jiraiya’s first book, thereby making the Sannin his godfather.Prior to his birth, his parents and the Third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi feared that the stress of giving birth would compromise the seal which kept the Nine-Tails contained within Kushina. As a precaution, Kushina was taken to a top-secret location outside the village with Biwako Sarutobi and Taji as her midwives, guarded by Anbu and Minato to keep the seal in place. Through unknown means, a masked ninja who intended to take the fox for his own evil ends uncovered their plans. After killing the midwives and Anbu, the masked man took the newborn Naruto hostage as a means of separating Minato from Kushina in order to release the Nine-Tails.
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Minato quickly sprung into action, however, by the time he secured Naruto at a safer location, the masked man had succeeded in releasing the Nine-Tails and used it to devastate Konoha. Minato managed to save Kushina and left Naruto in her care before he went to protect the village.[13] After having severed the masked ninja’s control over the tailed beast, Minato realised the only way to stop the Nine-Tails was to seal it within Naruto, believing that his son would someday have need of the fox’s power to defeat the masked ninja when he returned.[14] However, the Nine-Tails’ chakra was too immense for the seal to hold, and thus Minato was forced to sacrifice his soul in order to first weaken the fox by splitting its Yin and Yang chakra amongst himself and his son before succumbing to his wounds alongside Kushina after taking a fatal blow from the fox meant for their son. Suddenly orphaned, Naruto was left to grow up knowing nothing of his parents, receiving only his mother’s last name as Hiruzen believed it was best that nobody knew that he was related to the Fourth Hokage.[ Despite Minato’s dying wish to see his son heralded as a hero, only the Third Hokage and a small number of the villagers could put their pain of loss aside and honour this request. The majority of Konoha, consumed with bitterness over the lives lost and destruction in the wake of the Nine-Tails’ attack, resented Naruto for it, unable to separate the beast from the boy, and with some even seeing him as the fox itself. In the interest of protecting Naruto and in the hope that the younger generations would not emulate this position,
Hiruzen passed a decree of secrecy that strictly prohibited the adults from divulging Naruto’s status as a jinchūriki. This policy was not entirely effective, as many of Naruto’s peers followed their parent’s example and shunned him.The social isolation would cause Naruto to develop a need to be acknowledged through mischief.
er the Konoha children that knew about Yota. One day, while playing a game of hiding, Yota insisted to hide with Naruto. When Naruto told him to hide somewhere else, Yota mistakenly thought Naruto didn’t like him any more and ran away crying. His crying caused another rain-shower, which alerted the Anbu. As they took Yota captive, Naruto and the others tried to On a snowy day in March, while stop the Anbu, but to no success. preparing to enrol at the Academy, Naruto first met Hinata Hyū- Determined to save his first ever ga, who was being degraded by a friend, Naruto and the others group of three bullies. Despite not staged a plan with Naruto acting as knowing her, Naruto refused to let a diversion. Despite finding Yota, the bullies insult Hinata and came the Anbu easily foiled their plan. to her defence, but was outnum- Naruto quickly joined his friends, bered and easily beaten, with his refusing to let Yota be kept prisonred scarf trampled over by them. er. Seeing how much Naruto cared After Hinata genuinely thanked for him and then got struck down Naruto for his efforts, he let her by the Anbu, Yota summoned bolts keep the scarf since it was ruined, of lightning to knock the Anbu unaware that was when the young out. Greatly weakened by the act, Hyūga girl’s affections began for Naruto carried Yota out of the vilNaruto. lage with the others, determined to bring him to freedom. Upon reachNaruto as a child ing a river, unable to walk over it Naruto as a child. yet, they chose to swim. Their atIn the anime, one day, he was con- tempts proved futile and nearly fronted by Sakura Haruno, Ino drowned, only to be saved by Yota. Yamanaka, Shikamaru Nara, and Having overtaxed himself, Yota felt Chōji Akimichi. They accused him his life fading. Happy to have had of making someone named Yota, friends, Yota didn’t want them to who was a stranger to the village, suffer with this sad memory and disappear. Seeing them look at him erased all knowledge of him from with such distrust like the rest of their minds. the village, Naruto grew furious and ran away, so angry that people Young sasuke and Naruto would like even an outsider over Naruto and Sasuke’s rivalry during him. He then heard a young boy their childhood. crying who strangely appeared to Naruto eventually became the stucontrol the weather, making it rain dent of Iruka Umino and met his with his tears. Naruto then realised class mate Sasuke Uchiha when this boy must be Yota. Immedi- the two were paired to spar against ately taking a liking to Naruto, the each other. Though excited at the young boy asked him to teach him chance to achieve popularity by how to whistle like he saw Naruto beating Sasuke, Naruto was easily do earlier. As Naruto began teach- beaten. By looking at Sasuke’s eyes, ing him, the two soon became Naruto realised that they were close friends. Later, Naruto and filled with hatred, even though it Yota began playing along with oth- wasn’t directed at him. When Iru-
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ka told them to make the reconciliation seal, they both refused.[20] Since then, Naruto came to see Sasuke as a rival and intended to beat him. When Naruto found out that Sasuke was also an orphan, he was secretly happy for not being the only one alone and wanted to talk to him, but couldn’t because of his jealousy toward Sasuke’s skills.[21] Still, Naruto wished that someday, Sasuke would acknowledge him as an equal.[22] Despite this, when Naruto and Sasuke traded glance when they were kids, they immediately looked away in annoyance but secretly smiled shortly afterwards, meaning Sasuke actually considered Naruto a friend somewhere deep down. In the anime, when Naruto pulled a prank on a group of boys for not being invited to their “test of courage”, he refused to return to the Academy after being glared at by Iruka with the same resentful stare everyone else gives him. Later, Naruto was tricked by the boys’ leader, Hibachi, to get himself killed by enemy ninja in the hills. Learning of this, Iruka ended up saving Naruto from a trio of Takigakure kunoichi before Kakashi Hatake dispatched their pursuers. Soon after, Naruto began attending class again at the time that Iruka, who now acted as a surrogate brother to keep the boy in line, gave a lecture on the Will of Fire that inspired Naruto to become the next Hokage someday to achieve the acknowledgement he is striving for.[23] Apart from Hiruzen and Iruka, Naruto also found a surrogate family with the owner of Ramen Ichiraku, Teuchi and his daughter Ayame to some extent. Naruto is a boisterous and exuberant individual. He would end sentences with “Dattebayo!” (だってばよ!) when excited or frustrated. He has a number of childish traits, such as being a very picky eater (he almost exclusively eats ramen), being afraid of ghosts, and carries a chubby green-frog wallet which he calls “Gama-chan”.[24] Naruto is heedless to formality or social standings and has a habit of giving people he meets nicknames or addressing them without appropriate honourifics, as shown when he offended the Second Hokage by not calling him “Lord Second” (二代目様, Nidaime-sama). He can be quite perverted, creating different forms of his Sexy Technique and once tried to sneak a peek in the women’s bath when the opportunity presented itself.[25] Despite these quirks, Naruto is said to have a personality that brings people to him, inspiring friendship and loyalty from most of the people he meets through acts of genuine kindness and sincerity that could change a person’s entire world view. For example, during the Fourth Shinobi World War, Naruto’s kindness inspired loyalty from the tailed beasts, and when linked to the entire Shinobi Alliance through telepathy, he reignited the demoralised armies’ fighting spirit, choosing to continue fighting despite the losses he could receive, as shinobi were meant to endure through hardships.[26][27] Naruto's Promise Naruto promising to return Sasuke back to the village. Years of isolation and scorn from the villagers made Naruto thirst for acknowledgement. He would pull pranks around the village just to get a response from anyone and his desire to be Hokage was in hopes of being someone that mattered. Naruto’s time at the Falls of Truth revealed that a part of him hated the villagers for treating him as a pariah, only to turn to him after he saved them during Pain’s assault on Konoha. This hatred allowed Kurama to manipulate Naruto in his rage, causing him to go on a rampage several times until Naruto confronted the problem and learned to let it go. As
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Naruto grew in his career as a ninja, his goal to be Hokage went from a desire for acknowledgement to a desire to help and protect the people close to him, which Tobi attributed to the Will of Fire.[28] Naruto developed his nindō of never going back on his word, putting himself through any lengths required to keeping his promise. This was especially shown in Naruto’s promise to Sakura to bring Sasuke back after his defection from Konoha, despite Sakura herself having grown to see this as impossible due to Sasuke becoming a dangerous international criminal later on. According to Kakashi, Naruto is a kinesthetic learner, as he is relatively naive, simple, and slow to understand principle or situations, often requiring an oversimplified analogy in order to grasp what is being explained to him.[29] He has grown more willing to admit this over time, even to Hagoromo Ōtsutsuki, and possibly puts up a strong front so people wouldn’t know about his embarrassment and frustration at his own ineptitude, despite all of his accomplishments so far.[30][31][32] Naruto responds best to competition, using it as an additional drive learn new techniques, though he doesn’t hesitate to ask if he needs it. Despite his naivety, Naruto can be quite observant picking up on things others miss and can retain information casually gathered through conversation.[33] In battle, Naruto has shown to be calm and collected most of the times, but he can get frustrated when he is unable to defeat his opponent. He can also be a quick thinker, making up strategies on the fly or inventive use of his techniques to catch his opponents off guard during the battle. However, he can get overexcited and forget some concepts or weaknesses that he himself noted beforehand.[34] The death of his master Jiraiya and Pain’s assault on Konoha caused a large world shift for Naruto. Grieving for Jiraiya, Naruto swore vengeance on Pain and left the village to learn senjutsu. [35] While training, Naruto read a copy of The Tale of the Utterly Gutsy Shinobi, which taught him that he was named after a hero from the book. Although further enraged by Pain’s actions during the invasion, Naruto soon spoke with his father, who explained to him the cycle of hatred of the shinobi world. After finally listening to Nagato’s story and the results of the cycle of hatred, Naruto vowed he would break the cycle and bring real peace to the world.[36] Despite this desire bringing him in direct opposition to Sasuke and the rest of Akatsuki, Naruto continued down this path, resolving to end both the Fourth Shinobi World War and the cycle of hatred. In adulthood, Naruto has become much wiser. When Boruto defaced the Hokage Monument, Naruto knew that his son just wanted his attention since they didn’t have as much personal time as they used to before Naruto became Hokage. Despite reprimanding Boruto for his behaviour and knowing he would be late for the Five Kage Summit, Naruto spent some time with his son to inspire him to endure any hardship as a true shinobi would, proving himself to be a loving father. Relationships Main articleDue to his friendly nature and his unique charisma, Naruto has built many relationships over the course of the series that have defined him and others, even tailed beasts and other jinchūriki. Many of these relationships started off antagonistic, but through his tenacity and empathy, they developed into deep and lifelong friendships.
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Appearances Naruto is an orphan who, as a newborn, had the dangerous fox-like entity known as Kurama the Nine-Tails sealed within his body by the Fourth Hokage Minato Namikaze, the leader of Konoha’s ninja force, at the cost of his own life.[11] Because he became the host of the Nine Tails, Naruto was isolated by most of Konoha’s residents during his early childhood.[11] Since then, Naruto has commonly made jokes and played pranks to attract attention.[11] Desiring what he lacked in early life, Naruto dreams of becoming a Hokage himself with the hope that it will bring him the villagers’ recognition and respect.[15] [16] In an attempt to become a ninja, Naruto is horrified to learn of his Jinchuriki nature, but finds acceptance from his teacher Iruka Umino, whom he views as a father. After learning the powerful Shadow Clone Jutsu, an ability to creates physical copies of the user, Naruto becomes a ninja.[11] [17] He joins a ninja group under the leadership of Kakashi Hatake, where Naruto gains the friends he lacked during his childhood in his classmates who also joined the established Team 7: Sasuke Uchiha, with whom he has a rivalry with since they first met at the ninja academy, and Sakura Haruno.[12]
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[18] While going through an exam to increase his ninja rank, Naruto meets the legendary ninja Jiraiya and learns how to summon toads to aid him in battle and to control part of the Nine Tails’s chakra energy.[19] The exams are interrupted as a result of the invasion of Konohagakure by the criminal
Orochimaru and the ninja of Sunagakure, with Naruto defeating the sand village’s One Tail Jinchuriki Gaara and convincing him of a better way to live. Shortly afterward, Naruto discovers the Akatsuki, a criminal organization that seeks to extract the Nine-Tails from his body. Though Jiraiya drives them off during this first meeting, learning its member Itachi is both Sasuke’s brother and the man who killed their family, the Akatsuki still plan to kidnap Naruto.[20] While accompanying Jiraiya to find a new leader for the village, Naruto also learns the Rasengan, a sphere of chakra for offensive purposes. [16][21] When Sasuke leaves the village to join Orochimaru’s forces to obtain the power to kill Itachi, Naruto becomes part of a rescue team to retrieve him.[18] Naruto and Sasuke ultimately have a one-
on-one battle, though neither can convince himself to finish off the other.[22] The two go their separate ways, but Naruto does not give up on Sasuke, leaving Konoha with Jiraiya to prepare himself for his next encounter with Sasuke and the Akatsuki.[23] After his two and a half years of training, Naruto returns to Konoha as begins to deal more actively with the Akatsuki threat by first saving Gaara from their
clutches. [24] To fight them, Naruto trains with Kakashi to infuse the Rasengan with his own wind-element chakra, creating the Rasen-Shuriken attack that proves instrumental in the downfall of the Akatsuki member Kakuzu.[25][26] Despite being targeted by the Akatsuki, Naruto dedicates himself to finding and retrieving Sasuke as he eventually deposes of Orochimaru and starts acting on his vengeance-driven whims.[27] Over time, though resisting the urge to use the creature’s power, the Nine Tails’s influence over him expands to the
point where he begins to lose his rationality as more chakra manifests in the form of tails to the point the Tailed Beast can take control of his body.[6] After learning that Jiraiya has been killed by the Akatsuki leader, Pain, Naruto prepares for a future encounter by learning toad-style Senjutsu, a power-enhancing ability involving the gathering of natural energy.[28] When they finally face off, Naruto defeats Pain and convinces him to quit Akatsuki.[29] At that time, Naruto learns that the Fourth Hokage was his father who sealed the Fox so that Naruto could use it to defeat the Akatsuki founder Tobi who was behind the Fox’s attack on Konohagakure.[30] When Naruto discovers Sasuke’s past role within the Akatsuki, his friend learning that Itachi acted in the village’s interests, he decides to confront Sasuke in battle which could end in both their deaths should Naruto be unable to save him.[31] As a result, he prepares himself for the upcoming fights by becoming a student under the Jinchiriki of Gyuki the Eight Tails, Killer Bee, to take full control of Kurama’s powers. He succeeds with help from his late mother, Kushina Uzumaki, who placed a chakra imprint of herself within the seal. [32][33] When Naruto learns that all his comrades are battling Tobi’s army to protect him, he takes Killer Bee to join the battle,[34] eventually cooperating with Kurama while obtaining fragmented chakra the captive tailed beasts as he engages Tobi before learning of his identity as Obito Uchiha, a student under his father alongside Kakashi.[35] Across the battle, Naruto joins forces with the ninja army to defeat Obito.[36] He later faces Obito’s mentor, Madara Uchiha, and briefly loses Kura-
ma’s Yang half until a reformed Obito transfers Kurama’s Yin half into him along with fragments of Shukaku and Gyuki.[37][38] In his subconscious, Naruto meets the spirit of Hagoromo Ōtsutsuki, the Sage of Six Paths, who grants him enhanced Senjutsu that allows him to heal most fatal injuries in order face Madara with the powers of all nine tailed beasts at his disposal.[39][40] He later faces the force behind Madara’s actions: Kaguya Ōtsutsuki, the core of the Ten Tails.[41] Though Naruto manages to seal Kaguya with Sasuke’s help, he ends up forced to fight his friend when he reveals his true reason for helping him. Naruto convinces Sasuke to reconcile so that they can
undo the Infinite Tsukiyomi, losing his right arm from their final battle before later gaining a new limb created from Hashirama’s cells. Years later, Naruto is married to Hinata Hyuga with two children, Boruto and Himawari, and serves as the Seventh Hokage, after Kakashi’s retirement, last seen attending a Kage summit held in the Hidden Leaf.[42]
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In the creation of Naruto, Kishimoto incorporated traits he felt made an ideal hero: a straightforward way of thinking, a mischievous side, and attributes possessed by Goku from the Dragon Ball franchise. Aiming to keep Naruto “simple and stupid”,[3] Kishimoto avoided modeling Naruto after anyone in particular, instead conceiving him as naïve with a dark side induced by his harsh past. Despite this, he is always optimistic, a trait Kishimoto says makes him unique.[3] Naruto’s personality is, by and large, childish; the creator tries to convey this trait in his illustrations. On the manga cover of volume 10, for example, Naruto is depicted mimicking a turtle as a child might do.[60] Naruto was Kishimoto’s first published manga, and he focused on how Naruto’s facial expressions would appear in difficult situations, trying make them consistent. [61] During the series’ publication, Kishimoto got married and had children which influenced Naruto’s character. This resulted in Naruto shortly meeting his parents and learning of their sacrifices to help him control the Fox inside him so that he could protect the world in their place. As a result, Naruto appreciated his life more and learned how his parents loved him, something the author wanted the character to feel based on his own experience as a father.[62] Naruto’s growth across the series surprised the author due to how the acknowledgement he receives from other characters allows the character even further.[63] By the time Sasuke suffered a drastic change in the plot which made him become one of the series’ antagonists, Kishimoto compared Sasuke and Naruto to the yin and yang as a result of their notable differences. As a result, he mentions that whenever one of the two progresses, he makes sure the other does it too.[64] Since the series started serialization, Kishimoto had decided the ending would feature a fight between these two characters.[65] Naruto’s wardrobe is based on clothing that Kishimoto wore when he was younger. According to Kishimoto, a pre-existing design would not have made Naruto unique, whereas something original would have made him too distinctive.[66] Because Naruto is associated with spirals in terms of objects he uses, the designer incorporated swirl patterns into the costume.[67] Initial illustrations depicted Naruto in boots, but Kishimoto replaced these
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with sandals, because he enjoys drawing toes.[68] The goggles that Naruto used to wear were replaced with a hitai-ite, or shinobi headband, because they were too time-consuming to draw.[69] One of the most difficult design choices was the color palette of Naruto’s outfit.[70] The orange in his costume makes Naruto “pop” and the blue parts are often used as complements.[4] Kishimoto apologized to the anime staff for Naruto’s design, considering it too difficult to translate to animation.[70] Kishimoto was satisfied that he gave his character blond hair and blue eyes, something rarely seen in Japanese. Therefore Naruto, along with the immense popularity the series has gained, comes naturally to the readers and international audiences with blond hair and blue eyes. Moreover, the editor of the American magazine Shonen Jump implied that these traits may have made the characters more appealing
to Western audiences.[71] Kishimoto most identifies with Naruto of all of the series’ characters.[71] When asked why Naruto’s favorite food is ramen instead of kitsune udon, Kishimoto said that he personally liked eating ramen.[71][72] In the Naruto: Clash of Ninja video game series, Naruto is playable in various stages of the Demon Fox’s manifestation, characterized by a red-colored chakra. Kishimoto took inspiration from the games’ presentation of these forms, imitating one of them for the manga cover of volume 26.[73] When designing Naruto for his Part II appearance, Kishimoto drew Naruto’s forehead-protector wider to make his eyebrows easier to draw, something that had bothered him in his previous design. He also noted that Naruto’s pants made the character look too childish. To remedy this, Kishimoto designed Naruto’s pants to roll up, giving him a more mature appearance.[74]
In the original Japanese versions of Naruto, Naruto often ends his sentences with the addendum “-ttebayo” (which achieves an effect similar to ending a sentence with “you know?” in English). Kishimoto wanted to give Naruto a childlike catchphrase, and “dattebayo” came to mind; the creator believed that the phrase complements Naruto’s character, and serves as a verbal tic that portrays him in a brat-ish manner.[66] Throughout the first episodes of the English dub version, “dattebayo” and “-ttebayo” were replaced with the phrase “Believe it!”, both to mirror the effect and to match the character’s lip movements. As the series’ title character, Naruto appears in every movie in the series. He typically appears as the lead character on a mission with comrades from Konohagakure. Naruto: Shippūden the Movie marks the first appearance of Naruto in his Part II appearance. [43][44] In Road to Ninja: Naruto the Movie, an alternate version of the character named Menma appears as the main antagonist of the film. For the final film, The Last: Naruto the Movie, Masashi Kishimoto conceived an adult design of the character that will appear in the feature.[45] He also appears in all four original video animations produced for the series: helping his friend Konohamaru Sarutobi find a four-leaf clover in the first;[46] escorting a ninja to his village and fighting the criminal who stole the village’s “Hero’s Water” in the second;,[47] participating in a tournament in the third and working with Team 7 in the fourth one.[48][49] He appears as a supporting character in the spin-off manga titled Rock Lee and his Ninja Pals where his fellow Konohagakure ninja Rock Lee is the main character.[5 Naruto is a playable character in the Naruto video games. In several titles, it is possible to access a special version of him enhanced with the power from the Nine-Tailed Fox. In several games from the Ultimate Ninja series he is playable with his own versions of Rock Lee and Might Guy’s techniques while wearing their costume.[51] Naruto Shippūden: Gekitou Ninja Taisen EX marks the first appearance of Naruto in his Part II appearance in a video game.[52] For the series’ 10th anniversary, Masashi Kishimoto made an illustration of Naruto as Hokage.[53] This portrayal of Naruto later appears as a secret character in the game Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 2.[54] He appears in several crossover video games that feature Naruto fighting
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Abilities VOICE ACTOR
Junko Takeuchi
During the casting for the Japanese version of the animated adaptations, the staff sought a male voice actor for Naruto. Junko Takeuchi, a female actress, was instead chosen following a large number of auditions that involved male actors.[76] Before recording the first episode, Takeuchi noticed several lines from the script that ended with exclamations points which helped her define Naruto’s voice. She noted difficulties in transitioning from the young Naruto to the older Naruto in the animated adaptation of Part II, as she had to record the first episode after the time skip only one week after voicing the character from before the time skip. [77] This concerned the character’s growth as Naruto started acting more mature in contrast to his attitude of a child.[78] It was difficult for Takeuchi to voice Naruto in his Nine-Tailed Demon Fox form and during the fight against Sasuke, due to the suffering Naruto was going through.[77] Nine years after first voicing the
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character, while still finding it tough to voice Naruto, Takeuchi’s opinion regarding him changed to “a very reliable young man”.[79] She admires his ability to prioritize and calmly make important decisions, and believes these traits will inspire viewers worldwide.[79] The producers of the English anime stated that Naruto was the most difficult character to cast, adding that Maile Flanagan “has Naruto down, from the mischievous side, that precocious twelve year old we learn to love, to the serious side.”[80] Flanagan did not listen to Junko Takeuchi’s performance of Naruto because she did not want to imitate it, stating: “I wanted to create my own voice for the character
SageArtSTBR Naruto’s combined senjutsu and tailed beast influence over his trademark techniques. Despite his initially poor performance in the Academy, Naruto pushed past this stumbling block as a late bloomer through sheer willpower and perseverance. His rapid growth during Part I enabled him to fight on par with noteworthy prodigious and skilled shinobi, as well as master various difficult and high-level techniques. Several highly skilled shinobi, such as the legendary Sannin, have noted Naruto’s great potential.[44] Naruto’s two-and-a-half years of training with Jiraiya had further increased his abilities to match the S-rank members of Akatsuki, up to defeating their leader Pain, being consequently praised as a hero worthy of becoming Hokage. [45] During the Fourth Shinobi World War, his unique skill set allowed him to effectively battle several Kage-level shinobi.[46][47][48] After receiving the Six Paths Chakra, Naruto could overwhelm Madara Uchiha as the Ten-Tails’ jinchūriki, Kaguya Ōtsutsuki (the progenitor of chakra), and defeat
Sasuke in their final battle despite holding back and being exhausted. [49][50][51] By war’s end, Naruto has been acknowledged by others to have surpassed the previous Hokage.[52] Two years after the war, he became a world-famous hero whose improved prowess allowed him to single-handedly defeat Toneri Ōtsutsuki, a wielder of the Tenseigan. [17] Years later, Naruto’s abilities continued to develop until he eventually succeeded his former sensei, Kakashi, as the Seventh Hokage.[53]
the other tailed beasts’ Due to his Uzumaki lin- chakra, his reserves ineage, Naruto has a much creased even further. A greater longevity than true testament to Narumost humans, along with to’s impressive stamina a considerably strong life was his ability to fight for force and physical energy. nearly the entire Fourth From this, he could sur- Shinobi World War, facvive the extraction of a ing multiple Kage-level tailed beast (albeit he was and above opponents and rendered unconscious only becoming exhaustand in a critical state). ed during his final battle [57] Naruto is also known with Sasuke.[63] for his greatly accelerated healing which has been With the power given attributed to Kurama. to him by Hagoromo, [58] His lineage was part Naruto is bestowed the of the reason why he was innate ability to instincable to synchronise with tively grasp the nature of Kurama’s chakra.[59] chakra and comprehend Part of his chakra prow- all universal things.[64] ess and physical energy With this ability, Naruto Chakra Prowess and Life stems from being a rein- was able to quickly masForce carnation of his ancestor, ter the new powers that Naruto gives Hinata Asura.[32] Naruto’s heal- came subsequent to his power ing ability was further meeting with the legendNaruto sharing Kura- heightened after receiv- ary sage.[65] ma’s chakra with Hinata ing a prosthetic forearm through physical contact. made from Hashirama’s Naturally, Naruto alone cells. possesses a massive amount of potent chakra, When Naruto was taught which is estimated to be the principles of transat least four times great- ferring chakra, he was er than Kakashi’s.[54] able to mould the transNaruto’s chakra colour is ferred chakra in order yellow and its quality was to adapt it to another described by Karin to be person’s specific chakra “bright and warm”.[55] type.[60] His chakra levEarly in his shinobi ca- els also became so high reer, Naruto had very lit- and potent, he was able to tle chakra control, caus- share his chakra with the ing him to waste more entire Shinobi Alliance; chakra than necessary, chakra that was stated but his natural reserves to be more of his own made up for this flaw.[56] than Kurama’s[61][62] Over time, once this issue and strong enough that it was pointed out to him, could be felt as far away Naruto learned greater as Konoha despite the chakra control, allowing battlefield being counhim to not waste chakra tries away. After gaining unnecessarily. some of Hagoromo’s and
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Combined with his already massive chakra reserves, being the jinchūriki of Kurama's Yang half gives Naruto a reserve a hundred times greater than Kakashi's.[54] Due to his Uzumaki lineage and being Kurama's jinchūriki his entire life, Naruto's chakra was more effectively mixed with the fox's.[66] Because of this, Naruto can perform very chakra-taxing techniques in quick succession without feeling fatigued. When tapping into Kurama's chakra, Naruto gains enhanced speed, strength and healing. Later, Naruto gained some of the other tailed beasts' chakra. This combined with both Yin and Yang-Kurama sealed into him and restored as one being presumably increased Naruto's chakra strength and reserves even more.
NinjitSu
At first, Naruto could only access Kurama's power when he was enraged or his life was in danger, but after training, Naruto learned how to access the chakra by consciously requesting the fox for help. However, while Naruto was able to utilise Version 1 transformations, he only had the briefest of control of his own actions. If he fell deeper into a rage, Naruto could slip into Version 2, losing himself to Kurama's negative influence and going berserk, requiring outside help to suppress the fox's chakra.[67] Because of these drawbacks, Naruto wouldn't make use of Kurama's chakra until he was given the means of controlling the chakra completely.
Shadow Clone Technique Multiple Shadow Clone Technique Naruto using the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique. Naruto’s first trademark in battle is the Shadow Clone Technique. Whereas most ninja must be careful with this technique as to not deplete their chakra reserves, Naruto’s immense reserves can handle creating thousands of
Naruto transforming Naruto transforming from his Nine-Tails Chakra Mode into his Tailed Beast mode. After his close victory against Pain, Naruto realised he could no longer avoid using Kurama's power and sought Killer B, the jinchūriki of Gyūki, to learn how to control it. With his mother and B's help, Naruto was able to separate and take most of Kurama's chakra, giving him access to Nine-Tails Chakra Mode, which massively increases his speed, strength, and defences. As conquering Kurama was not the same as cooperating with it, Naruto at the time couldn't use the complete output of the fox's power and had to exercise extreme caution when using Nine-Tails Chakra Mode, as it could cost him his life. Naruto's tailed beast mode Naruto's Tailed Beast Mode. Eventually, realising its own respect for Naruto after all he had endured in his life and the type of person he has become, Kurama decides to accept his friendship. With this new unity, Kurama freely gives Naruto its chakra and access to Tailed Beast Mode, which was yet another increase in speed, strength, durability, and the ability to create Tailed Beast Balls. Unlike other Tailed Beast Modes, Naruto's form is transparent, allowing others to enter the chakra shroud and grant them some of Naruto's power while inside of it.[68] He can still access his previous forms, as shown when he entered Version 1 to deflect Amaterasu.[69] Naruto can also use Kurama's chakra to revatilise the life forces of others.[70][71] Should the need arise, Kurama can transfer to Naruto chakra that is limited and usable to him alone, even if the chakra was instead absorbed.[72] Two years after the Fourth Shinobi World War, and with Kurama's power complete, Naruto became capable of channelling all of his transformation's power into a single part of his body. With this, he could remove Toneri's Puppet-Cursing Sphere from Hinata's body, overpower Toneri's Golden Wheel Reincarnation Explosion, and knock the latter in his Tenseigan Chakra Mode a considerable distance away with a single punch, depowering and defeating him. Naruto has even demonstrated the ability to manifest both his Tailed Beast Mode and Kurama's physical body outside of his own body, allowing the
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Naruto’s initial mediocre chakra control left him barely able to perform basic techniques, which caused him to fail three times in the Academy. The only technique he could use successfully at the time was the Sexy Technique; an inventive, but presumably useless diversionary technique. Over time, with his chakra control steadily improving, Naruto’s arsenal expanded with it. Under his training with Jiraiya, Naruto continued to rapidly improve his skills, mastering various advanced techniques and forms to expand his repertoire, eventually surpassing Kakashi in sheer ninjutsu prowess.[73][74] Once meeting Hagoromo and gained some of his power, as well as the chakra of all the other tailed beasts, Naruto gained access to a large array of new and unique abilities.
clones and retain a decent amount of chakra in each of them.[75] This lets him overwhelm opponents with sheer numbers or carry out multiple tasks at once. Upon receiving Hagoromo’s power, Naruto’s clones are able to fly and equally combat Madara’s corporeal shadows. Naruto’s clones are also capable of performing his Tailed Beast Mode to form clones of Kurama’s chakra replica as well. While originally relying on his shadow clones only for overwhelming numbers in battle, Naruto came to be more tactical with them during Part II, overall making him waste less chakra in battle. As seen in his second
bell test, he could use his shadow clones to manoeuvre him in midair and transform them into weapons to conserve his normal supply. After learning that all knowledge and experiences shadow clones gain will be transferred back to the user once they disperse, Naruto would frequently employ this to complete years’ worth of training in days. He can also use shadow clones to scout an area or test an opponent’s abilities in combat. [76] Kakashi noted that Naruto’s great mastery of the technique far exceeds his own and even Minato’s, as only Naruto can apply shadow clones to catalyse the learning, usage, and mastery of complex techniques.[77] Summoning Technique Summoning Technique Naruto using the Summoning Technique. To encourage improved control over Kurama’s chakra, Jiraiya taught Naruto the Summoning Technique. By offering a certain amount of chakra, Naruto can summon the toads of Mount Myōboku as allies. He was initially restricted to tadpoles and small toads such as then-young Gamakichi or Gamatatsu due to his poor chakra control. During Part I, he could only summon larger toads when accessing Kurama’s chakra, but by Part II, Naruto’s skills with the Summoning Technique improved as he becomes capable of summoning Gamabunta and the likes whenever he desired. He can also use the Summoning: Food Cart Destroyer Technique to summon giant toads above his targets, thereby crushing them.
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YellowRasengan Naruto creating a Rasengan with one hand. Naruto’s second trademark technique is the Rasengan, which was created by his father. Originally, because of the very intricate chakra control the Rasengan requires, Naruto struggled to learn it. Although the Rasengan is intended as a one-handed technique, Naruto made up for his poor control by incorporating the assistance of a shadow clone: he provides the chakra while the clone forms it into the spherical shape. Since acquiring the Rasengan, Naruto began expanding on its nature to create stronger variations of it such as the Big Ball Rasengan. As his skill with the Rasengan improved, the amount of time he needed to prepare it decreased. To make up for the need for shadow clones, Naruto steadily increases the number Rasengan he uses at a time, with feats like having the shadow clones make their own Rasengan to bombard the target with. By the end of the Fourth Shinobi World War, Naruto’s chakra control and mastery over the Rasengan has improved to the point where he could form a Rasengan and its variants without the need of any transformations or shadow clones, with his regular Rasengan expanding to the size of a Big Ball Rasengan.[78][79][80] Through the usage of Sage Mode or Kurama’s chakra, Naruto can create more powerful and elaborate variations of the Rasengan. Also towards the latter, since the Rasengan was conceptually based on the Tailed Beast Ball, Naruto takes it further by creating the Super Mini-Tailed Beast Ball. Nature Transformation Fūton Rasenshuriken Naruto and his shadow clones creating a Wind Release: Rasenshuriken. Naruto’s natural elemental affinity is wind. As his wind affinity works best at short to mid-range, this compliments a short-ranged fighter such as himself. Through a lesson given from Asuma Sarutobi, Naruto greatly refined his wind-type chakra control, allowing him to increase the potency of his weapons by embuing them with his windchakra. After completing his wind training, as the Rasengan was originally intended to
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be combined with a user’s nature transformation, Naruto set out to combine his wind affinity with the Rasengan.
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Mixing elemental chakra to the Rasengan was a such a difficult task that Minato, the technique’s creator, left the technique incomplete by the time of his death. Naruto found his solution to this issue with shadow clones: one clone is used like he normally would to create a Rasengan, but adds a second one to combine the wind-chakra. This results in the creation of the Wind Release: Rasengan, and later the Wind Release: Rasenshuriken, the latter of which cuts the enemy at a cellular level. Intially, Naruto could only use it as a hand-held technique, causing him to suffer similar damage inflicted on his enemy. After learning Sage Mode, he can throw the Rasenshuriken and increase its speed and cutting power, preventing harm to himself and becoming able to expand it at will. Two years after the Fourth Shinobi World War, Naruto’s skill with the Rasenshuriken had greatly improved, being able to instantly form, throw and even guide it toward enemies without the use of shadow clones or his higher forms.[17] Naruto can manipulate the Rasenshuriken’s size using Sage Mode or Kurama’s chakra, creating miniature and gigantic versions, or even two Rasenshuriken simultaneously. While in his Six Paths Sage Mode, Naruto can add his wind-nature to his Tailed Beast Balls to create the Tailed Beast Ball Rasenshuriken, which was able to destroy multiple Chibaku Tensei satellites.
Naruto creating a Rasengan with one hand. Naruto’s second trademark technique is the Rasengan, which was created by his father. Originally, because of the very intricate chakra control the Rasengan requires, Naruto struggled to learn it. Although the Rasengan is intended as a one-handed technique, Naruto made up for his poor control by incorporating the assistance of a shadow clone: he provides the chakra while the clone forms it into the spherical shape.
Via Six Paths Senjutsu, Naruto can utilise all five elemental nature transformations, along with Yang Release, Yin Release, and Yin– Yang Release.[81] Due to the chakra given to him by the tailed beasts, Naruto can also use the Magnet Release, Lava Release, and Boil Release kekkei genkai from Shukaku, Son Gokū, and Kokuō, respectively.
Via Six Paths Senjutsu, Naruto can utilise all five elemental nature transformations, along with Yang Release, Yin Release, and Yin– Yang Release.[81] Due to the chakra given to him by the tailed beasts, Naruto can also use the Magnet Release, Lava Release, and Boil Release kekkei genkai from Shukaku, Son Gokū, and Kokuō, respectively.
Naruto can also make perfect use of Yin– Yang Release.[82] He has used it to revitalise life-forces and heal whomever he comes in contact with, which allowed him to restore even missing organs. This ability however, has its limits as he was unable to fully restore
Naruto can also make perfect use of Yin– Yang Release.[82] He has used it to revitalise life-forces and heal whomever he comes in contact with, which allowed him to restore even missing organs.
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longer period of time with no visible exhaustion afterwards. [105]
With the power given to him by Hagoromo, Naruto gained access to the Six Paths Senjutsu ( 六道仙術, Rikudō Senjutsu). He becomes able to enter Sage Mode without manifesting the orange pigmentation around his eyes — though the pupils still take on a cross-like shape — that further enhances his abilities. Naruto can take his transformation a step further by donning a new chakra cloak similar to that of the NineTails Chakra Mode, known as the Six Paths Sage Mode.[4] While using this power, Naruto becomes immune to the effects of the Truth-Seeking Balls and gains the ability to fly. His physical parameters are heightened to the point where he could pressure Madara as the Ten-Tails’ jinchūriki, evade Kaguya’s Yomotsu Hirasaka, and outright blitz her while catching her completely offguard.[102][103][104] His durability has also increased, as he took no damage from Sasuke’s Chidori. As opposed to his normal Sage Mode, Naruto can access this mode instantly and maintain it for a much
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S A G E OF S I X P A T H S
Naruto's Battle Avatar Naruto’s conjoint Tailed Beast Mode. Naruto can still access his Tailed Beast Mode chakra replica of Kurama and even increase its size and power to match Sasuke’s Rinnegan-enhanced Complete Body — Susanoo, being able to block its giant sword with its tails several times over. [106] Naruto’s enhanced Tailed Beast Mode can also levitate, and with Kurama’s aid, gather huge amounts of natural energy. He can even combine his and two of his shadow clones’ Tailed Beast Mode shrouds to create a stronger battle avatar of Kurama with six arms and three heads, similar to Asura’s. [107] In this state, Naruto can merge natural energy with his two strongest techniques to counter Sasuke’s most powerful lightning-nature attack. [108] Truth-Seeking Ball In his Six Paths Sage Mode, Naruto can manifest the Truth-Seeking Balls behind his back, which are composed of the five basic nature transformations, Yin–Yang Release and Six Paths Sage Chakra. He can perform various tasks with them, such as moulding them into staves and platforms,
transferring them his shadow clones to hide his location, or firing them as speeding projectiles. Sensory Perception Naruto sensing Madara Naruto sensing and fighting Madara’s shadows. After mastering Sage Mode, Naruto can detect and identify other people’s chakra from vast distances. [109] With this skill, he can better react against high-speed opponents like the Third Raikage, being able to dodge his attack and effectively counter.[110] He also gained the ability to sense negative emotions after taking control of Kurama’s chakra. Naruto can also use both of these abilities simultaneously through his senjutsu-enhanced Tailed Beast Mode and the Six Paths Sage Mode respectively. Upon achieving the latter, Naruto’s sensory capabilities were empowered to the highest possible level,[111] making it possible for him to sense the other half of Hagoromo’s chakra, as well as Madara’s Limbo: Border Jail.
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