Name: Naruto Uzumaki
First appearance: Manga Chapter 1, Naruto Episode 1
Voiced by Japanese: Junko Takeuchi
English: Maile Flanagan Profile: Age Part I: 12-13
Date of birth: October 10
Known relatives: Minato Namikaze (father, deceased), Kushina Uzumaki (mother, presumably deceased)
Ninja rank: Genin
Ninja team: Team 7

Naruto was born the son of Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki. His name was taken from the lead character in his godfather Jiraiya’s first book, a persistent ninja that Minato had intended to raise him like. Soon after his birth, the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox attacked their hometown of Konohagakure, leaving destruction wherever it went. In order to stop the fox’s attack Minato sealed it within Naruto’s body, giving Naruto access to its great power at the cost of Minato’s life. Before his death, Minato requested that Naruto be viewed as a hero of the village rather than a container for the fox. Many villagers chose to ignore this request, leading to the enactment of a law forbidding anyone to speak of Naruto as the fox’s host.

With his father dead and his mother presumably sharing the same fate, Naruto has never known his parents. Although knowing that Minato sealed the fox within him, Naruto is currently unaware of their relation to each other. Despite this, Naruto is the spitting image of his father and many characters confidentially find the two have a number of other similarities. The abilities he learns and begins to utilize as he gets older are also reminiscent of those used by both of his parents during their lives.

Personality
Naruto as he appears in Part IIHaving lived without a family for all of his life, Naruto has always needed to look to others for attention. Because he is initially viewed only as the container of the demon fox, many villagers are unwilling to pay him this courtesy. To force them to give him their recognition and respect, Naruto’s dream has become to gain the title of Hokage, the village’s protector, hoping that it will bring him the attention he desires. In his quest to become Hokage, Naruto displays a fierce determination in any situation, putting his all into everything and guaranteeing that he can complete a task. This often results in him promising more than he can live up to, such as stating that he would be able to perfect the attack, Rasengan, in three days. In these situations where Naruto is unable to meet his own expectations, he readily asks anyone for help in achieving the goal. Naruto’s efforts have proven successful as the series has progressed, as many characters have reached the conclusion that Naruto will someday be an excellent Hokage.

Since his introduction, Naruto’s determination has resulted in some of his traits rubbing off on those around him, such that in Part II his teacher, Kakashi Hatake, notes this to be Naruto’s unique power. This trait has caused Naruto to be a catalyst for change amongst many characters introduced in the series, whose beliefs and views are completely altered as a result of their interaction with Naruto. Neji Hyuga learns that fate is not predetermined and that people can choose their own destiny.[18] Gaara discovers that true strength is found in fighting for one’s friends, not for one’s self. Tsunade is shown that the seemingly impossible can become a reality and that dreams really are attainable.These changes that other characters experience serve as the moral for the part in the story they take place in, and subsequently become the creed for the particular character’s life.

Through his ability to change others, Naruto has gained the friends that he lacked during his childhood, each of whom he holds very dear. Sasuke Uchiha, the character Naruto considers to be his closest friend, defects from Konoha at the end of Part I. Naruto does all in his power to stop Sasuke so as to bring him back home and to save him from the life he is choosing. Though Sasuke escapes and becomes labeled as a traitor, Naruto is unwilling to think of him as such and readily lashes out at anyone who speaks poorly of Sasuke. Sakura Haruno, Naruto’s long time crush, is just as affected by Sasuke’s defection as Naruto. Being in love with Sasuke, Sakura pleads for Naruto to bring Sasuke home, which Naruto swears to do despite his own feelings for her. Even after his initial failure, Naruto keeps this promise to Sakura as his lifetime vow, placing her happiness before his own well-being.

Naruto’s personality is, by and large, childish in nature. Kishimoto frequently tries to show this when illustrating Naruto, such as depicting him mimicking a turtle like a child might do on the cover of Naruto manga volume 10. Food is a major component of Naruto’s life, with ramen being his favorite. As such, ramen is typically the only thing Naruto will eat and he can often be found dining at a Konoha ramen shop when he’s not away on a mission. He possesses a number of perverted tendencies, such that his first original ability is the Sexy Technique, which transforms him into an attractive naked woman that he utilizes to win over men. Most recurring of his childish tendencies, however, is Naruto’s thickheadedness, as he is slow to notice, if ever, what is obvious to others. This is best seen in his relationship with Hinata Hyuga; Hinata has a crush on Naruto since they went to ninja school together. Though Hinata’s feelings for Naruto are obvious to most characters, Naruto only considers her tendency to blush and faint when around him as “weird”.
Abilities:
Naruto in a one-tailed fox shroud forming the RasenganAs the container of the demon fox, Naruto has access to its great chakra reserves. In addition to allowing him to rapidly recover from injuries, the fox enables Naruto to perform jutsu that someone of his skill and rank would ordinarily be incapable of using. While portions of the fox’s chakra are constantly being mixed with Naruto’s own, Naruto can draw upon large amounts of the fox’s reserves if need be. This is most commonly accomplished by submitting to rage and allowing the fox’s power to leak out and consume him. As its influence grows, the fox begins to manifest itself through a fox-shaped shroud that surrounds Naruto and that has an ever-increasing number of tails. With each tail Naruto is given a drastic increase in strength, such that with only four tails he is a match for the likes of Orochimaru. Consequently, the fox’s violent personality begins to supplant Naruto’s own as the number of tails increases to the point that he can no longer distinguish between friend and foe. Because of the danger he poses to those he cares for in these situations, Naruto has begun to limit his own usage of the fox’s power.

Naruto first takes advantage of the fox’s chakra through the Shadow Clone Technique, which creates any number of physical copies of the user. Because the user’s chakra levels are evenly distributed amongst all of the clones, most ninja only create a few clones to keep from depleting their reserves. Since Naruto has the near-limitless chakra of the demon fox, he can create hundreds of clones at once without worrying about tiring out. He has found a number of uses for these clones, such as overwhelming an opponent and scouting a large area in a short period of time.[35] His ability to summon toads in battle also relies on the fox’s chakra, as he can only summon larger toads with the fox’s help.

Rasengan, a concentrated ball of spinning chakra first created by his father, is Naruto’s favored form of attack.[14] When performing the technique Naruto creates shadow clones to help him form the attack, one Naruto providing the chakra and the others spinning it into shape.[37] While devastating by itself, capable of grinding into whatever it touches and causing great damage, Minato created the Rasengan with the intention of infusing it with his own elemental chakra. He was unable to do so prior to his death, but Naruto has since begun to complete his work. Through repeated training with his shadow clones, Naruto has been able to infuse the Rasengan with his wind chakra. This has resulted in the creation of the Wind Release: Spiraling Shuriken (????????, F?ton: Rasenshuriken?), which damages what it hits on a cellular level. Even though it is extremely effective at defeating opponents, the hand he is performing the technique with is damaged in the process. Should he continue to use this technique, Naruto will eventually be unable to perform any more jutsu.
Part in the story:
As the main character of the series, Naruto is present in every arc and typically plays a prominent role for its duration. During Part I, Naruto’s involvement in the plot is relatively indirect, as he spends his time bettering his ninja abilities and pursuing his own goals while the overarching events occur elsewhere. During the Return of Itachi arc, Naruto is introduced to Akatsuki, a criminal organization that seeks to extract the demon fox from his body. Though Jiraiya drives them off during this first meeting, Akatsuki’s interactions with Naruto become a more central conflict in Part II. It is not until the Sasuke Retrieval arc that Naruto takes a direct part in the plot, joining a team of ninja dedicated to stopping Sasuke from joining forces with Orochimaru. Naruto and Sasuke ultimately have a one-on-one battle, though neither is able to bring themselves to finish off the other. The two go their separate ways, but Naruto does not give up on Sasuke, leaving Konoha with Jiraiya for two-and-a-half years of training to prepare himself for the next time he meets Sasuke.