Naruto Uzumaki

Naruto Uzumaki (うずまきナルト, Uzumaki Naruto) is the main character of the anime and manga series Naruto.

Background

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The infant Naruto — the newly-made Kyubi seal can be seen on his stomach.

Naruto was born on October 10, but not much is known beyond that. His parentage remains a mystery, as do any other family ties he may have had. As an infant, the spirit of the Kyubi (nine-tailed demon fox), who had attacked the village of Konoha, was sealed within Naruto's body by the Fourth Hokage of Konoha.

The villagers of Konoha harbored a fierce hatred for the young child, since he bore the spirit of the demon who decimated their once peaceful village, in spite of the Fourth Hokage's wish that Naruto be seen as a hero who contained the demon. He was shunned by his fellow villagers and their children, his classmates, leaving Naruto a confused and lonely child.

Fortunately, Naruto was befriended by his compassionate ninja instructor, a Chunin named Iruka Umino. Though Iruka's own parents perished at the hands of the Kyubi, Iruka didn't blame Naruto for their deaths. Instead, Iruka accepted Naruto and empathized with the boy's desire to be accepted, since he too once had the same desire. He may have been the first person to believe in Naruto, and has made a lasting impact on Naruto himself. It is through Iruka's presence as Naruto's only family figure that Naruto learns to overcome his sadness.

Personality

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Naruto is lighthearted and, at times, a merciless prankster.

Before graduating from the Academy, Naruto was craving for acknowledgement. He would play pranks all around the village in an attempt to be recognized by its inhabitants. This included, but was not limited to, painting graffiti on the monument depicting the first four Hokages. He would also tell everyone who doubted him that he would one day become Hokage. As he tells Iruka (and pretty much everyone else), he wishes to become Hokage in order to be recognized by those around him. Even after graduating, Naruto is still determined to be recognized, and becomes the "Number One Loudest, Unpredictable, Hyperactive Knuckleheaded Ninja" of Konoha, as described by Kakashi Hatake.

Naruto's exuberant personality and fiery desire for self-improvement strongly impacts the lives of those around him. At beginning of the series, Naruto befriends Konohamaru, the grandson of the Third Hokage, and it is through his brief tutelage that Konohamaru learns that the path to success is through plenty of hard work. Despite his headstrong nature, Naruto is a clever prankster who overcomes his opponents through a combination of willpower, dumb luck (though as Kakashi himself states, luck is very important), and clever diversions.

Naruto has a great sense of humor, albeit somewhat perverted in some cases, and is usually all smiles and laughs around (though, at times, he smiles to hide whatever's bothering him so no one worries about him; those who are closest to him see right through it). Outside his world, he's just an ordinary, hotheaded kid with a fierce will and a knack for getting into trouble.

Naruto and the Kyubi

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A glimpse into Naruto's mind as he stands before the locked-up Kyubi.

As the host (known as a Jinchuriki) of the Kyubi, both Naruto's body and mind (occasionally) are influenced by it. Physically, Naruto has some of the Kyubi's characteristics, such as whisker-like marks on his cheeks and larger than normal incisors. He also has increased stamina and healing ability, which allows him to recover from major injuries within a day and minor injuries within a few seconds. Mentally, Naruto remains largely unaffected, save for a few animalistic traits that slip through, such as his tendency to leap between trees on all fours. Since the Kyubi was sealed inside Naruto since birth, it is unclear just what parts of his personality it has had an effect on; however, it could explain Naruto's devilish side for pulling pranks to gain attention, as well as his stubbornness to never back down from a challenge. (In Japanese mythology, a kitsune is said to often play pranks on people, and foxes are also known to be very resourceful during crises.) These traits become more pronounced as he draws upon the Kyubi's chakra.

Naruto's normal chakra level is considered high for a ninja of his level, partially because of the Kyubi. Even without directly drawing upon it, a small amount of the Kyubi's chakra is always mixed with his own. His body instinctively rejects the bulk of it due to the damage it would cause. As such, he is naturally suited to jutsu that use a large amount of chakra, such as his signature technique: Shadow Clone Technique. While most ninja are only capable of creating a few clones safely, due to the jutsu's hazard of equally dividing the user's chakra among the clones, Naruto is able to create upwards of one thousand while maintaining a decent supply of chakra in each one.

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Naruto in his one-tailed Kyubi transformation.

The Kyubi's chakra usually comes to Naruto during life-threatening or other stressful situations, given to him by the Kyubi itself to insure its survival. Naruto eventually learns to contact the Kyubi and demand some of its chakra, which it seems to comply to out of amusement. The reason Naruto is able to access its chakra is because of the unique way in which it was sealed. Though the Kyubi remains trapped within Naruto, its chakra can leak out through the seal and mix with Naruto's. Other Jinchuriki apparently possess similar seals. The Kyubi's limitless supply of chakra becomes an invaluable weapon for Naruto, often turning the tide of a difficult battle in his favor. The Kyubi chakra increases every aspect of Naruto's physiology, making him a nearly unstoppable force. His speed and strength increase far beyond that of any normal human, and even beyond that of most ninja. It also increases his healing rate, allowing him to regenerate even major wounds in a few seconds. His stamina is also increased beyond its normal level, allowing him to fight without tiring.

This tremendous power is not without its disadvantages, however. When he first accesses it, Naruto is unable to retain control when using the Kyubi's chakra, allowing its innate rage and anger to take over his personality. Over time, Naruto gains more control over the Kyubi, allowing him to retain his personality while using its chakra. However, his degree of control is determined by the amount of chakra he draws upon and his emotional state. As he becomes more emotional and draws on more of the Kyubi's chakra, his own personality is gradually supplanted by the Kyubi's.

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Naruto in his four-tailed Kyubi transformation.

Naruto's state of mind coincides with his tailed transformation states, which are characterized by a fox-shaped shield of chakra surrounding Naruto. Naruto becomes more powerful with each "tail" the chakra shield grows, but also loses more of himself to the Kyubi. Up to his three-tailed state, he remains in control, though somewhat more feral than normal. In his three-tailed state, the Kyubi chakra is intense enough to make people around Naruto feel pain, and Naruto has to fight the Kyubi for dominance. Once he reaches his four-tailed state, the Kyubi becomes dominant. In this state, which is the highest state Naruto has reached, Naruto's mind becomes mixed with the Kyubi's, causing the regular Naruto to fade out. The only thing Naruto can do is plead for the Kyubi to stop.

The chakra shield can act as a separate entity. This confuses opponents, and even the Sharingan has trouble following it. The shield can stretch and skew to many sizes and lengths, allowing Naruto to attack opponents from a distance. It can also create shock waves to repel opponents. In Naruto's four-tailed state, the chakra shield is intense enough to burn others and act as a potent poison. Additionally, Naruto gains the ability to mold the chakra to a much finer degree. In this state, he was able to create a ball of concentrated chakra to fire at an opponent. The chakra ball was powerful enough to break through three Rashomon gates without losing momentum.

Even with all of its benefits, Naruto's human body can only handle so much of the Kyubi's chakra, as demon chakra is far more intense than human chakra. As he draws upon greater amounts of the Kyubi's chakra, his own body is weakened. In his four-tailed state, the Kyubi's chakra is so intense that it constantly burns Naruto's skin, causing him to bleed from every pore. This causes his blood to mix with the Kyubi's chakra, creating a black (or dark red, considering that such details are lost in black and white drawings) chakra shield. In addition to the constant damage, the Kyubi's chakra also constantly regenerates Naruto's damaged tissue. This repeated cycle of damage and repair severely weakens Naruto's cellular structure. This shortens his overall lifespan, similar to Tsunade's Genesis Regeneration jutsu.

Part I

See also: Plot of Naruto

Naruto's personality tends to inspire similar traits in those around him, and as such he has changed the worldviews of several people, mostly through his battles with them. During the Chunin exam in particular, Naruto forges several bonds with other participating Genin. Naruto's encounters during the Chunin exam are characterized by Naruto relating to or opposing to sentiments and outlooks on life, and it is through this relation that he makes many new friends (on three different occasions, by defeating his future friend in battle).

Naruto's own way of thinking is also strengthened by these encounters, particularly from his first real battle against Haku and Zabuza Momochi. Haku's sacrifice and Zabuza's initial lack of compassion in regards to it leads him to reject the idea of becoming an emotionless living weapon, the very definition of being a shinobi.

Gaara

Gaara, like Naruto, is the unwilling host of a demon, the one-tailed Shukaku. As such, Gaara had a similar childhood. Unlike Naruto, however, Gaara never had someone like Iruka to alleviate his loneliness. Instead, the one person who befriends Gaara eventually tries to kill him. This event leads Gaara to believe that his purpose in life is to kill everybody around him, so no one will be able to deny his existence. This is not helped by the fact that Gaara must always remain awake, lest Shukaku eat away at his personality. Naruto realizes that were it not for his own friends, he could have easily become like Gaara. During Naruto and Gaara's fight at the end of the Destruction of Konoha arc, Naruto explains to Gaara that he gets his strength from protecting those who he believes are important. This outlook, along with Naruto's unwillingness to be defeated, changes Gaara's outlook on life. He starts to value other people's lives, and he comes to consider Naruto his best friend. Gaara is profoundly affected by Naruto's words and decides to change. Gaara later goes on to become the Fifth Kazekage to protect his village.

Hinata Hyuga

While Naruto never has any previous problems with Hinata, her innate shyness prevented her from doing anything more than blushing and not saying anything when they spoke, which made him uncomfortable. Naruto states that he knows Hinata is a good person, but thinks she is timid and weird, regardless. He was (and still is) completely oblivious to the fact that she's extremely attracted to him.

Naruto never truly notices Hinata until the preliminaries of the Chunin exam, during Hinata's battle with Neji Hyuga. Hinata is part of the main house of the Hyuga clan, and supposedly the heir to its leadership, but she is only an average ninja, while Neji is recognized as a genius of his clan, but is part of the branch house and can never become its leader. As such, he takes out his frustration on Hinata, who doesn't give up despite being clearly outmatched against her genius cousin. During the fight, Neji berates her for her lack of ability, which inspires Naruto to cheer her on, since he knows what it's like to be underestimated. Hinata fights on because of his cheering, but loses anyway. Naruto is extremely overcome with emotion when he sees Hinata lose to Neji. He then decides that he will beat Neji. Even though Hinata lost, Naruto was able to inspire her to change, and she is able to become stronger later in the series. After the timeskip, Naruto gives Hinata a friendly greeting, much to her embarrassment (as she had been hiding from him trying to figure out what to say when he discovered her).

Neji Hyuga

After the preliminaries, Naruto is paired to fight against Neji Hyuga in the finals of the Chunin exam. When the chance comes, Naruto tells Neji to stop blaming everything on fate, challenging Neji's statements about how everything is predetermined. After Naruto defeats Neji, Naruto is able to convince him that fate isn't predetermined, and that destiny can be changed. Neji may never admit it, but he is thankful to Naruto for showing him a brighter part of life. Neji even admits that Naruto saved him from his own personal darkness, and they become good friends.

Rock Lee

Naruto gradually bonds with Rock Lee, calling him "Fuzzy Brows" (ゲジマユ, "geji-mayu"). At first, the name is derisive, but later becomes affectionate. Rock Lee is a taijutsu expert who is incapable of using either ninjutsu or genjutsu. Faced with that limitation, Rock Lee compensates by training himself to be almost ridiculously skilled in taijutsu, and thus represents the ideal of hard work prevailing against all odds. During Lee's fight with the more powerful Gaara during the preliminary exams, Rock Lee refuses to give up, even trying to fight while unconscious and having a crushed arm and leg. Naruto deeply identifies with Lee because they are somewhat similar. Lee's concept of 'hard work' is something they've both had to do, and both met with numerous failures before getting any success. They both wish to achieve their goals, and they want to prove themselves to gain other people's respect. They even have similar rivals in Sasuke and Neji. Both possess powerful bloodline limits and are considered some of the top rookies in the village, while Naruto and Rock Lee are considered subpar. Naruto feels very sorry for Rock Lee after Gaara beats him. Later, when Gaara tries to make an attempt on Lee's life in the hospital, Naruto and Shikamaru stop Gaara from crushing Lee with his sand. Naruto and Shikamaru would have been forced to fight Gaara themselves if Might Guy hadn't arrived to visit Lee. Naruto is also happy for Lee when he is able to fight again and continue being a ninja.

Sasuke Uchiha

Perhaps Naruto's most defining relationship, the bond between him and Sasuke remains at the core of the series. The two are both rivals and friends, though more of the former than the latter. Their rivalry pushes them to outperform one another, which makes it a mutually beneficial relationship. The opinions of this greatly differ, however. While Naruto sees himself as an equal to Sasuke, or at least works his way up to that point, Sasuke sees himself as stronger than Naruto. As such, whenever Sasuke finds that Naruto is either catching up to him or surpassing him, Sasuke feels as if he's inferior or weak. This opinion is not helped by the fact that Naruto is usually responsible for their team's victories.

After the Chunin exams, Naruto's continued increase in strength makes Sasuke even more jealous (comparatively speaking, Naruto had progressed much more than Sasuke over the same length of time). Naruto's defeat of Gaara, who Sasuke stood no chance against even with his cursed seal, is what brings these feelings to the surface. This is compounded by the arrival of Sasuke's brother, Itachi. Not only is Itachi not the least bit interested in Sasuke, he is actually after Naruto; more specifically, the Kyubi, but Sasuke doesn't realize this. This, coupled with the staggering differences in their respective strengths and Sasuke's subsequent defeat, leads Sasuke to challenge Naruto to a fight.

The two go to the roof of the hospital, where each voices their opinion of their rivalry, with Naruto insisting they're equals while Sasuke thinks otherwise. Their battle is short, ending with each trying to use their most powerful attack on the other. Kakashi steps in to prevent them from injuring Sakura, who attempts to intervene. Kakashi deflects their attacks into adjacent water towers. At first, it appears as if Sasuke did more damage, but in reality Naruto did. While Sasuke does put a bigger dent in the front of his tower, Naruto actually blows out the back of the other, demonstrating that Naruto's strength had truly surpassed his. Though Kakashi tries to convince Sasuke to give up his quest for revenge, his defeat at the hands of the Sound Four leads him to defect to Orochimaru.

The Sound Four are held off by Naruto's friends so Naruto can reach Sasuke. Once he does, the two have a much more serious battle, during which they each bring out their respective "gifts", those being Naruto's Kyubi chakra and Sasuke's cursed seal. During the battle, Sasuke claims that he doesn't need any friends, as that does nothing to make him more powerful, since killing Itachi is his only goal. Naruto refuses to accept Sasuke's decision, as by his own admission Sasuke is like a brother to him and he can't bear to lose him to the twisted path of self-destruction he has chosen. This drives Naruto to draw upon the Kyubi's chakra to such a degree that he nearly overcomes Sasuke's Sharingan. As such, Sasuke finally acknowledges Naruto as an equal. In the end, the two use their most powerful attacks against each other once more, only this time enhancing the attacks with their respective gifts. They do not go through with their attacks, however. Naruto purposefully misses, instead scratching Sasuke's headband, and Sasuke doesn't kill Naruto because he doesn't want to become like Itachi.

With Sasuke's successful defection, Naruto's main goal is to bring Sasuke back before Orochimaru can take him as his new host.

Part II

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Naruto, two and a half years later.

New personality

In the second part of the story, after a two-and-a-half year time skip, Naruto shows physical growth, sports a new outfit, and appears to not only have increased in strength, speed, and techniques, but intelligence as well. However, according to Tsunade, Naruto is also slowly adopting some of Jiraiya's perverted traits. During his apprenticeship under Jiraiya, Naruto was able to read the latest of the "Icha Icha" series written by Jiraiya, although when he presents a copy to Kakashi, he says he thought it was boring.

It seems Naruto's feelings for Sakura have matured. He does not seem to have a child-like crush anymore. They have a very easy time communicating with each other, despite the nearly three-year separation. They are capable of having a casual conversation together, and they seem to like spending time together. Naruto is now noticeably taller than Sakura and some of his other friends. (In Part I, he is made fun of for being shorter than her.)

It is when Team 7 was on the way to Sunagakure that Naruto revealed to Sakura and Temari that the Kyubi was sealed inside him. Sakura had already found out, but she sympathizes with him, as does Temari.

It is also shown that Sasuke's defection still affects Naruto and Sakura, and when the whole of Team 7 finally meets after two and a half years, Sasuke greets them with cold indifference, and says he doesn't care if he becomes Orochimaru's vessel as long as Itachi will die. He even attempts to kill Sakura and Naruto. Later, after Sasuke leaves with Orochimaru and Kabuto, Naruto and Sakura are clearly upset that he is no longer the Sasuke they knew.

New abilities

Naruto has displayed a few new abilities since the start of Part II. Sometime during his training with Jiraiya, Naruto accidentally transformed into a four-tailed form of the Kyubi without his remembering. In this form, Naruto loses all control of himself and cannot remember what happens during this state. He becomes an unrestrainable beast who attacks anyone he sees. Jiraiya claims that this is one of the only two times in his life when he nearly died – the first was an incident with Tsunade in which she beat him within an inch of his life for being a pervert. During Naruto's battle with Orochimaru, he gets angry to the point of turning into the four-tailed Kyubi. Orochimaru states that this form is powerful enough to actually kill him.

Naruto has greatly improved his ninjutsu and taijutsu post-timeskip, as well as becoming a much better tactician. He managed to catch Kakashi by surprise during his second bell test, and even used Kakashi's obsession to Icha Icha Paradise to his advantage. Apparently, Naruto is starting to wield and become more skilled with weapons (other than regular kunai or shurikens), as seen in the Rescue Gaara arc.

Naruto has also developed a new version of the Rasengan, titled the Great Ball Rasengan, which is a more powerful version of the normal Rasengan. Naruto uses both his and his clone's hand to control it due its unstable nature. During his battle with Itachi (actually a clone of Itachi formed by the Akatsuki leader's Shapeshifting Technique), Naruto utilizes this new technique to defeat Itachi's clone.

Recently, Kakashi has been training Naruto to alter the nature of his chakra, in order for Naruto to create a jutsu that is unique to him. Though this normally takes a long time to do, there is a trick that speeds up the process. By creating one thousand clones of himself, Naruto can complete twenty years worth of training in just one week. Most ninja are unable to train using this method due to a lack of chakra and stamina, something Naruto doesn't need to worry about. Because the clones are linked to Naruto, he remembers everything they experience after they disperse. Naruto was ignorant of this fact until told by Kakashi. Kakashi also helps Naruto to discover the nature of his chakra through a special form of paper that reacts differently to chakra. When Naruto channels his chakra into the paper, it splits in half, indicating that Naruto has an affinity for wind.

The first part of Naruto's training involves him and his many clones trying to cut a leaf in their hands with chakra alone. Whenever one makes progress, it disperses itself so each clone gains the knowledge. During this time, Naruto asks Kakashi if there are any other wind element users, so Kakashi points him to Asuma. Asuma gives one of Naruto's clones some pointers by explaining how he uses his trench knives, but not before getting Naruto to cover his team's next party dinner. After a while, he disperses every single clone, allowing him to gain all their knowledge at once, but also causing extreme mental fatigue. He does this again to complete his training.

The second part of Naruto's training involves the same technique, but with a much bigger object: in this case, a waterfall. Yamato had created it earlier as a demonstration. When he completes this step of the training, he will be able to use the skill in combat. Template:Endspoiler

Trivia

• The surname "Uzumaki" is a pun to "spiral" (渦巻). While "Uzumaki" refers more to a three-dimensional spiral, like a whirlpool or vortex, a more accurate translation for spiral would be 'Rasen'. The Konoha leaf symbol is drawn with an arrow attached to a spiral, the seal on his abdomen is a spiral, the symbol on his jacket's back and shoulders is a spiral, and one of his attacks is Rasengan, which means "Spiraling Sphere".
• Goku, a character from a popular anime series and manga titled Dragon Ball, was a inspiration for Naruto, as the creator of Naruto is a big fan of Akira Toriyama's works. This is evidenced in the orange and blue combination of clothing that Naruto wears, his blonde (Super Saiyan) hair and his personality including an insatiable hunger, love of fighting, and urge to protect his family and friends. Other heroic main characters that have the same personality and happy appetite include the following:
  • Monkey D. Luffy of One Piece.
  • Jaden Yuki of Yu-Gi-Oh GX.
  • Zatch of Zatch Bell!.
• "Uzumaki" can also mean "whirlpool" in reference to the Naruto whirlpool (鳴門の渦潮), named after the city of Naruto.
• Naruto can mean "maelstrom", and is also the name for a sliced stick of Kamaboko with a pink whirlpool design in the middle that is used as a topping for Ramen (Naruto's favorite food). The Japanese sometimes use it as a nickname for the commercial at (@).
• In the Japanese versions, Naruto often ends his sentences with "dattebayo" or "(verb)-ttebayo", and as such Naruto has a unique style of speech. In the Japanese language, an ending can be added with no meaning to make the tone sound more tough, childish, girlish, or many other changes depending on the many existing endings. "-ttebayo", which is not a well-known ending, has no literal meaning and cannot be translated, but carries the connotations of the speaker being uncultured, brusque, and seeming tougher than they really are. In the English anime and video games, he often says "Believe it!" to fit with the mouth flaps of "-ttebayo".
• The Kitsune (狐) is a well-known character in Japanese myth, and the influence behind not only the Demon Fox, a.k.a. the Kyubi, but many other reincarnations in modern Japanese culture. It likes to play tricks and pranks on people, and on occasions transforms itself into a beautiful woman and seduces a man (obviously the inspiration for Ninja Centerfold (Oiroke no Jutsu, or Sexy Jutsu). Also, Kitsune are known to keep their promises, a trait Naruto has, his nindo is 'I never go back on my word'. It should also be noted that every time Naruto loses control and is overwhelmed by the Kyubi's chakra, he seemingly gains another "tail" of chakra. This stems from the Japanese myth that the more tails a kitsune has, the more powerful it is, with nine tails usually being the limit.
• October 10, Naruto's birthday, was "Taiiku no hi" (Health and Sports Day) in Japan when his character was conceived - a holiday full of physical activity fit for a hyperactive kid. The holiday, however, was moved to the second Monday of October during 1999.
• According to the Game Boy Advance game Naruto: Konoha Senki and the official data books, one of Naruto's hobbies is gardening, even though Naruto was beaten in episode 5 for not knowing the difference between weeds and herbs. He is the one who gives Kakashi Mr. Ukki, the plant seen on Kakashi's windowsill (Kishimoto once described how he had the same plant for a while until he fed it undiluted plant food).
• Masashi Kishimoto, the creator of the manga series, stated in a recent interview with the US Shonen Jump that his childhood was like that of Naruto's years while he was enrolled in the Academy.
• Naruto consistently ranked in the top two (taking first place twice) in the first five official Shonen Jump character popularity polls. However, in the sixth character poll, he ranked in #4.
• In the May issue of Shonen Jump, Kishimoto was asked about the (spiral and string) sewn on the jacket of Naruto's left shoulder.

SJ: Let's get right to the most pressing and important question, something our readers often ask, and we'd like to know, too: What is this thing?

MK: Many Japanese fans ask the same question. What is it? I just drew it in as a spur of the moment thing, and it doesn't have much meaning. I'm hoping I can expand more on it later and integrate it into the story.

• Naruto has completed at least 7 D-rank, 1 C-rank, 1 B-rank, 2 A-rank and no S-rank missions during the first part of the show. (Some of Naruto's missions happened off camera, so it is possible he did more D or C Ranked missions; also, the missions shown during filler arcs may or may not be canon).
• Naruto started out as the shortest of the rookie nine, but is now one of the tallest.