Uzumaki Naruto

Uzumaki Naruto (うずまきナルト) is the Main character of the series: Naruto. He is a genin-level shinobi from Konohagakure, and a member of Team Kakashi. He is a maternal descendant of the Uzumaki clan. Naruto is the jinchūriki of Kurama — the Nine-Tails. Despite once being ostracised by the majority of the village, he is now regarded as a hero, worthy of inheriting the position his own father once held.

Background
Naruto was born as the son of the Fourth Hokage, Namikaze Minato and Uzumaki Kushina. Naruto's parents named him after the main character of Jiraiya's first book, thus making the Sannin his godfather. Prior to Naruto's birth, his parents and Sarutobi Hiruzen feared that his birth would break the seal which kept Kurama in Kushina. The plan to ensure it did not occur was for Kushina to be taken to a top-secret location outside the village with Sarutobi Biwako and Taji as her midwives, a few ANBU as security, and Minato to keep the seal in place. However, word of Kushina giving birth reached a masked ninja who intended to take the fox for his own evil ends. Killing the midwives and ANBU, the masked man took the newborn Naruto hostage to keep Minato away from Kushina so the seal can be shattered.

Though Naruto was taken to a safer location, the masked ninja succeeded in releasing Kurama and used it to devastate Konoha. After saving Kushina, Minato left Naruto with her as he went off to save their village. Having severed the masked ninja's control over the tailed beast, Minato realised the only way to stop Kurama 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. However, Kurama's chakra was too immense for the seal to hold, forcing Minato to first weaken the demon, splitting its Yin and Yang chakra, sealing the former into the Hokage himself and the latter into his son. This great effort came at the price of Minato sacrificing his soul as well as Kushina 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 final request to Hiruzen for the villagers to see Naruto as a hero who had helped defeat Kurama, only the Third Hokage and a few of the villagers honoured his request. Everyone else instead resented him for containing the beast that had destroyed their home, some even seeing him as the fox itself. Furthermore, Hiruzen made a decree to prohibit any mention of Naruto's nature as a jinchūriki in the hope that the other children would not resent him. However, even without knowing the reason, most of the children followed their parents' example and ostracised Naruto. The social isolation would cause Naruto to develop a need to be acknowledged through mischief.

Naruto later enrolled at the Academy. In the anime, one day, he was confronted by Sakura, Ino, Nara Shikamaru, and Akimichi Choji. They accused him of making someone named Yota, who was a stranger to the village, disappear. Seeing them look at him with such distrust like the rest of the village, Naruto grew furious and ran away, so angry that people would like even an outsider over him. He then heard a young boy crying who strangely appeared to control the weather, making it rain with his tears. Naruto then realised this boy must be Yota. Immediately taking a liking to Naruto, the young boy asked him to teach him how to whistle like he saw Naruto do earlier. As Naruto began teaching him, the two soon became close friends. Later, Naruto and Yota began playing along with other 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 anymore and ran away crying. His crying caused another rainshower, which alerted the ANBU. As they took Yota captive, Naruto and the others tried to stop the ANBU, but to no success.

Determined to save his first ever friend, Naruto and the others staged a plan with Naruto acting as a diversion. Despite finding Yota, the ANBU easily foiled their plan. Naruto quickly joined his friends, refusing to let Yota be kept prisoner. Seeing how much Naruto cared for him and then got struck down by the ANBU, Yota summoned bolts of lightning to knock the ANBU out. Greatly weakened by the act, Naruto carried Yota out of the village with the others, determined to bring him to freedom. Upon reaching a river, unable to walk over it yet, they chose to swim. Their attempts proved futile and nearly drowned, only to be saved by Yota. Having overtaxed himself, Yota felt his life fading. Happy to have had friends, Yota didn't want them to suffer with this sad memory and erased all knowledge of him from their minds.

Naruto eventually became the student of Umino Iruka and met his class mate Uchiha Sasuke when the two were paired to spar against each other. Though excited at the chance to achieve popularity by beating Sasuke, Naruto was easily beaten. By looking at Sasuke's eyes, Naruto realised that they were filled with hatred. When Iruka told them to make the reconciliation seal, they both refused. 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. Still, Naruto wished that, someday, Sasuke would acknowledge him as an equal.

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 father 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. 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.

Personality
Naruto is exuberant, brash, inattentive, and heedless to formality or social standings. He inherited his catch-phrase "Dattebayo!" (だってばよ!) from his mother, who would say "(da)ttebane" (だ)ってばね) when excited or frustrated. Naruto has a number of childish traits, like keeping his money in a chubby, green-frog wallet he affectionately calls "Gama-chan", being a very picky eater (he almost exclusively eats ramen and is a frequent customer at the Ramen Ichiraku), and being afraid of ghosts. He is also somewhat perverted, something he tends to be reprimanded for by Haruno Sakura and Iruka, but has only become even more so after meeting his mentor Jiraiya, causing many to say that Jiraiya raised a perfect replica of himself. However, whenever someone dear to him is in trouble or the situation calls for it, Naruto can be very serious, and will instantly try to come to their aid.

According to Kakashi, Naruto learns through his body, as he is relatively naive, simple, and being slow to understand a principle or situation, which often requires an oversimplified analogy in order to grasp what is being explained to him. Overall, Naruto responds best to competition and has a great deal of self-confidence, loudly proclaiming that he will master whatever technique he is learning within a fraction of the usual time, though he doesn't hesitate to ask for help if he needs it. While as naive as he appears to be throughout most of the series, Naruto has proven to have a keen eye to certain things most people don't see, showing that he can be smarter than what most people, especially Sakura, are willing to give him credit for when he wants to be, something even Chōji comments on once in a while. This was shown when Naruto was the first to notice the differences in Sai's book, later helped to decipher Jiraiya's dying message left from Fukasaku on his back and managed to help solve the message through Kakashi's Icha Icha book.

He is also quite observant in regards to other people's feelings (though he was oblivious of Hinata's love for him until she confessed her feelings to him) and is able to perceive the truth from people's intentions, such as when Sakura claimed she loved him and not Sasuke any more, Naruto immediately knew she was lying about how she felt, having witnessed her most extreme and inimitable signs of love for Sasuke. Naruto also saw through Iruka's lie about a new wild creature on the Island Turtle they were on by remembering Motoi stating that B had tamed all the animals on the island.

Due to the prejudice and loneliness he suffered in his childhood, Naruto developed a craving for acknowledgement. In order to achieve this, Naruto would pull pranks all around the village and even going far as strive for the title of Hokage. Even after graduating from the Academy, Naruto was still determined to be recognised, but as he made more and more connections with others, his reasons for wanting to become Hokage underwent a change, having less to do with the desire for recognition, and more to do with wanting the strength to protect his home and the people close to him. As noted by Tobi, Naruto possessed the Will of Fire, likening him to Senju Hashirama in this aspect. Naruto's determination and drive strongly impacts the lives of those around him, even his enemies have been affected by his empathy. Both Kakashi and Temari referred to Naruto's amazing charisma as a "unique power" that allows him to change the worldly views of others for the better, usually by helping them regain the beliefs they lost due to certain tragedies they suffered. Son Gokū also thought of him as an open and honest person.

Like Guy and Rock Lee, when Naruto makes a promise, he assumes the "nice guy pose" and becomes dedicated to fulfilling it, as shown in his promise to Sakura of bringing Sasuke back after the latter defected from Konoha. Even Madara saw Naruto as the "heart" of the Allied Shinobi Forces, further proven when Naruto's senjutsu-enhanced Tailed Beast Mode combined with telepathy causes his emotions and personal memories to be transferred to everyone, he managed to reignite their fighting spirit after being demoralised by the Shinju where Hashirama couldn't. Hashirama goes as far as to stating that Naruto's feelings and past gave hope to the Allied Shinobi Forces.

Sasuke's defection shocked Naruto to his core, but he never wavered in his resolve to bring him back to Konoha. When his teacher Jiraiya was killed in battle by the Akatsuki leader Pain, he vowed vengeance against the man and left Konoha for a time to train in senjutsu. Upon returning home after Pain destroyed the village and succumbing to rage, he met and spoke with his father, who explained to him the cycle of hatred and entrusted him with the duty of saving the ninja world from its hate. After listening to Nagato's story of how hatred can shape a person and the world into darkness, Naruto vowed he would end the cycle of hatred and bring peace to the ninja world. This decision, however, would come in direct opposition in his quest to bring Sasuke home, something that at first saddened him deeply. Nevertheless, after meeting again in the Land of Iron, Naruto resolved that if he had to, he would fight and potentially kill his friend to end the cycle of hatred and save Sasuke from despair, even if it costs his own life.

When he discovered that the Fourth Shinobi World War had started, Naruto made it his mission to end the war all by himself, so no one else would suffer. He continued to do so until his battle with the reincarnated Nagato and Itachi Uchiha. After the fight, even though Itachi acknowledged Naruto had become stronger, he explained to Naruto that if he continued to believe that he could do everything alone, he would become arrogant like Madara. Itachi also said that if Naruto were to become Hokage, he should never forget his friends or do everything on his own. Afterwards, Naruto acknowledged his shortcomings in his attempts to do things himself, and allowed others to help him instead of shouldering burdens himself. Due to this, Naruto takes up more of a leadership role, which he demonstrates throughout the course of the war as he successfully leads the counter attack on the White Zetsu Army, the charge against Tobi, who he later unmasks as Obito Uchiha, as well as leading the charge against Obito, Madara Uchiha himself, and even the Ten-Tails, ultimately freeing the tailed beasts by leading the entire Allied Shinobi Forces and the Konoha 11 personally.

Expressing disapproval on Obito's nihilistic outlook on life, Naruto declares to Obito that he would not let him kill any of his comrades. As a result, Obito resolved to put both him and the Allied Shinobi Forces into the same despair he experienced, namely by killing one of Naruto's friends, Hyūga Neji. This, along with Obito's diatribe towards Naruto and his beliefs, drove the young shinobi into a period of mental and emotional turmoil. Although nearly succumbing to Obito's temptation, Naruto was brought out of his depression by Hinata, who explained to him the meaning of Neji's last words that his life was not just his own, restoring his self-confidence as he thanked her for staying by his side. Soon after, Naruto tells Kakashi and his comrades that he clearly understands that shinobi are meant to endure, believing that if remembering his friends was a curse, he would gladly shoulder that burden and keep the real Neji in his heart forever.

This shows how far Naruto has come as a shinobi and that he is above Obito's psychological warfare, telling him that unlike Obito, he wants to maintain the bonds he made with his friends. His dedication to his loved ones and comrades is so great, that even while fighting, his chakra responds to his subconscious desire to save them by healing them on its own.

Appearance
As stated by Jiraiya, Naruto bears a striking resemblance to his father, having Minato's blue eyes and blond, spiky hair. From his mother, Naruto inherited the shape of both her eyes and face. During the Fourth Shinobi World War, Dan Katō initially mistakes him for Nawaki due to their stark resemblance as well. Naruto's most prominent physical characteristics, however, are the whisker marks on his face. Probably Naruto's most regularly mentioned trait before the second half of the series (which easily provoked him) was his short stature for his age. After the time skip, he had a noticeably significant growth spurt which made him taller than his team-mate, Sakura.

In Part I, Naruto's outfit consisted of an orange tracksuit with blue on the upper shoulders area as well as around the waist, a white swirl with a tassel on the left side, a red Uzumaki swirl crest on the back, a large white collar, orange pants with a shuriken holster attached to his right knee (due to being right-handed), blue sandals, and a blue forehead protector that was given to him by Iruka after he graduated from the Academy. Naruto would usually wear a black T-shirt inside his tracksuit, but sometimes wore armour underneath his clothing.[59] During his early childhood, Naruto would usually wear a T-shirt (white, navy green or black) that had either an Uzumaki or fire symbol on the front, also wearing a pair of shorts. He also donned green goggles that he wore on his forehead sometimes.

In Part II, Naruto's outfit undergoes modification after being worn to shreds during his training with Jiraiya.[60] The outfit retains the orange colour as well as the white (without the tassel) and red swirls, but the jacket is much more form fitting with the blue parts changed to black and the colour extending from around the neck and shoulders, down the front and sleeves. The forehead protector has also changed with Naruto moving the metal portion to a new longer black bandanna and he wears black sandals instead of blue. Naruto occasionally is seen wearing a navy green T-shirt with a fire symbol and white shorts on casual days or his off-duty days from missions. During his battle with Pain, Naruto briefly sported a short-sleeved red coat with a black flame pattern along the hemline and carried a large summoning scroll on his back.

When he enters his Nine-Tails Chakra Mode, his body is covered in a yellow shroud of chakra, upon which his seal is clearly visible. He also gains a necklace of magatama around his neck. Finally his hair spikes up, with the two endmost locks resembling horns. After he and Kurama melded their chakra, his appearance changed once again. The shroud splits down the middle and opens up into a cloak that has a tattered appearance. The previously smaller 'horns' grow out larger, and his whisker marks become thicker. Underneath the 'coat', the magatama are still visible and he gains a new set around the 'collar' of the coat. Underneath this his seal changes once again opening out into circles instead of swirls. He also gains seals on his hands and feet. The cloak also has nine, tail-like appendages formed from the cloak and flowing from it with lines running down the middle of each.

Dark Naruto
After Killer B refused to train Naruto, Motoi guided Naruto and Yamato to the Falls of Truth, the place where B trained to control Gyūki's power. He instructed Naruto to sit on a platform and close his eyes. Soon after, Dark Naruto (闇ナルト, Yami Naruto), the manifestation of hatred that existed within Naruto's heart, appeared, berating Naruto for how quickly the people from Konoha changed their ideals about him. Dark Naruto exclaimed that Kurama liked him better and he was the real Naruto while Naruto was an imposter. They started to fight, but after a while, Naruto realised that they both had the same techniques, skills, and tactics. As a result, their fight was a draw and Naruto mentioned that if they continued like this, it would take a very long time to settle it.

He appeared once again after Naruto returned to the Falls of Truth. Instead of fighting, Naruto projected an image from his mind of his autograph signature that he was unable to give to the Konoha shinobi. This angered Dark Naruto, pointing out to Naruto that those people were part of the same villagers who made him suffer as an outcast, telling him that he shouldn't trust them. However, Naruto stated that he trusted the villagers because they were important to him, but what was also important was that he needed to have faith in himself, so he would have the strength to live up to the villagers' trust in him. Naruto's statement started to weaken Dark Naruto, forcing him to question what was the reason for his existence. Naruto stated that Dark Naruto was really him and thanked Dark Naruto for pushing him to be the person he was now. He hugged Dark Naruto when the latter tried to attack him, telling Dark Naruto that it was all going to be alright. Letting go of his own anger at their past, Dark Naruto's eyes lightened as he gave into Naruto's words, and disappeared.

Later, when Naruto entered his subconscious, Kurama expressed surprise as it could no longer sense any hatred within Naruto, and questioned Naruto about where the "real him" was, to which Naruto replied that the real him was right in front of it.[51] During his battle with Kurama to obtain its power, the fox infected its chakra with its own hatred when Naruto started to gain the upper hand. This partially brought about Dark Naruto again briefly, before Naruto's mother appeared and helped banish him.

Abilities
Naruto was an unremarkable student in the Academy and he struggled to perform even basic techniques. He narrowly managed to graduate from the Academy and become an official shinobi after three failure. His only "ability" of note was the Sexy Technique. While creative and an effective distraction against certain men, the Sexy Technique had almost no practical uses. Yet Naruto's perseverance and dream of becoming Hokage later pushed past his stumbling block, revealing himself as a late bloomer as his true talent showed itself later, enabling Naruto to develop quickly during Part I, learning several complicated jutsu in a short period of time. His performance during the Chūnin Exams impresses many of the same people that knew him as a failure in the Academy; even Sasuke, who was the top of their graduating class, becomes jealous that Naruto is catching up to him so rapidly. Many prominent ninja, both allies and enemies have noted Naruto's great potential growth, Orochimaru in particular viewing Naruto as a great future threat if left alive.

Jiraiya, sees the same potential that Orochimaru does in Naruto, took the young boy as a student, greatly developing his skills by the start of Part II. Since his return to Konoha in Part II, Naruto continued to go through rapid improvement, mastering increasingly complicated jutsu and forms and even devising some long-range techniques to fill the gaps in his repertoire. Through his frequent encounters power shinobi like the Akatsuki, Naruto gains some notoriety, even defeating the leader of Akatsuki, Pain. Konoha has since considers him a hero, which leads his fame to spread to other ninja villages. He has even acknowledged by the the five Kage, the four previous Hokage, and the ninja world at large recognise as the only person who can save and change the world. Even shinobi such as Madara Uchiha were forced to take him seriously when he fought Naruto. He has also been noted to have surpassed his father and has even been compared to Senju Hashirama several times, with Tobirama even noting that he could become a greater Hokage than Hashirama was. Hashirama himself credited Naruto with their near defeat of Madara.

Chakra Control
Because of his Uzumaki lineage, Naruto's chakra reserves are naturally large and resilient, granting him tremendous stamina and vitality. Stemming from this is an exceptionally long potential life-span and an accelerated healing rate (the latter originally accredited to the Nine-Tails' chakra), allowing Naruto to recover from fatigue in a fraction of the time or injuries to mend themselves.[68] His poor performance in the Academy was because he lacked the proper control of his reserves, leading him to allocate chakra insufficiently. When he became aware of the Nine-Tails sealed inside him, he was able to improve his chakra output enough to perform techniques successfully, but he in fact used up more chakra than necessary. Because of how large his reserves were, this does not cause him immediate problems, but Ebisu - and later Jiraiya - nevertheless taught Naruto how to use his chakra more efficiently. Karin has described his chakra as being "bright and warm".

Despite the natural size of his chakra reserves, the Nine-Tails' is far greater; Kakashi estimates that Naruto's chakra reserves are four times greater than his own without the tailed beast and a hundred times greater with it. Naruto's chakra has been mixing with the Nine-Tails' since the day he was born, amplifying his already large reserves. Due to this symbiosis, Naruto can perform so many chakra-taxing jutsu and in so rapid a sequence. Throughout Part I and for much of Part II, the Nine-Tails gives Naruto brief access to its chakra, but only insomuch as it benefits the fox. After Naruto befriends it and learns the Nine-Tails' name, Kurama, he is granted complete access to its chakra. Having long since mastered chakra control and already experienced with manipulating large amounts of chakra, Naruto makes quick use of what Kurama gives him, mixing it with his own so that he can, in turn, share it with others.

The power of his shrouds to resemble his tailed beast cloak along with allowing them to use senjutsu-empowered Rasengan. When using the chakra he got from six of the tailed beasts in his and Sasuke's final strike on Obito, the tailed beasts reacted to their chakra and the chakra of the tailed beasts that was sustaining the Shinju came out, allowing him to initiate a tug-of-war to take the beasts out.

Jinchuriki Transformation
Naruto's journey to access and control Kurama's power (and later befriend the tailed beast) is a long and arduous one. Having been its jinchūriki for his entire life, Naruto has always benefited from its presence. After learning of Kurama's presence, Naruto begins tapping into its chakra reserves, supplementing his own and increasing his strength and speed in the process. It also augments Naruto's healing power, able to regenerate lost flesh within seconds with no lingering signs. But Naruto does not, in fact, consciously access Kurama's power on the first few occasions. Rather, Kurama intervenes when Naruto's life is in danger or it takes advantage of Naruto's rage to exert some of its influence. Jiraiya teaches Naruto how to communicate with Kurama, enabling Naruto to thereafter request a donation of its strength. His ability to utilise it and the amount he can access grows during Part I, culminating in his ability to enter a single-tailed version 1 state, which improves Naruto's defences and allows him to manifest chakra arms that increase his range.

Jiraiya helps Naruto improve his control of Kurama's power during their two-and-a-half years together. Naruto is able to reach a three-tailed version 1 form, which incrementally boosts his speed and strength. Although Naruto becomes more headstrong, even violent, when using version 1 cloaks, he remains in control. Satisfied with these results, Jiraiya loosens the seal that keeps Kurama sealed inside Naruto in the hopes it will give Naruto increased access to its chakra. This inadvertently triggers a version 2 state; Naruto's capabilities grow to exponential heights in version 2, but Naruto no longer remains in control of his senses, causing him to attack anything in sight. Jiraiya is nearly killed in their first experiment and Naruto remembers nothing about it afterwards. From that point further, Jiraiya encourages Naruto to be cautious in his use of Kurama's power and, upon returning him to Konoha, Jiraiya quietly advises others about how to prevent Naruto from losing control.

Because he was never told about his first version 2 experience, Jiraiya's warnings do not make an impression on Naruto. Added to the increasing danger he and his friends face and the frustrations that come with them, Naruto eventually enters a version 2 form a second time. Although he is able to use it to overpower Orochimaru, he attacks Sakura in the process. Yamato, having been specifically teamed with Naruto to suppress Kurama if needed, intervenes in time to save her. Yamato tells Naruto afterwards what happened. Upset that he could be a danger to those he cares for, Naruto stops relying on Kurama and looks for new ways to get stronger. He succeeds for a time, but once again succumbs to rage during his fight with Pain and enters another version 2 form.

Naruto's desperation for power in order to defeat Pain almost makes him release Kurama, causing him to realise that avoidance is not the solution. He instead decides to control Kurama, and seeks guidance from Killer B, the jinchūriki of the Eight-Tails. With B's help he is able to conquer Kurama and gain free access to a portion of its strength, focusing its power into a Nine-Tails Chakra Mode. Nine-Tails Chakra Mode increases his strength, speed, and defences beyond what they were in version 1 and 2, he becomes more dexterous with chakra arms, and he can sense negative emotions, a method of detection even sensor-type ninja can't do.[74] His speed in particular surpasses A's, who was the fastest shinobi in the world since Minato Namikaze died. Nine-Tails Chakra Mode becomes instrumental to turning the tide of the Fourth Shinobi World War, letting him defeat the hordes of reincarnated shinobi.

Conquering Kurama is not the same as cooperating with it, and Naruto must still exercise caution when initially using Nine-Tails Chakra Mode. Having seen what Naruto has gone through during his life and the type of person he has become, Kurama decides to stop opposing Naruto and accepts Naruto's offers of friendship. Kurama freely gives Naruto as much of its chakra as it can, enabling him to enter Tailed Beast Mode. In Tailed Beast Mode, Naruto can focus Kurama's power into what is merely a more ornate Nine-Tails Chakra Mode or fully manifest Kurama's form, in doing so unleashing Kurama's full might, including Tailed Beast Balls. His speed, strength, and durability also increase by impressive amounts, to the point where he could deflect five Tailed Beast Balls at the exact same time and send them flying kilometres away, and even pin and damage a senjutsu-enhanced complete Susanoo from Madara Uchiha with a single tail.

He could hold his own against three tailed beasts in battle and equal the combined power of the five with a single Tailed Beast Ball in a clash. Naruto is even able to meld their chakra together so that he can pass it to others, giving them version 1-like cloaks that keep them safe and amplify their power.

While originally only having the Yang essence of Kurama's chakra, effectively giving Naruto half of Kurama's full power, the reincarnated Minato, who sealed the Yin essence into himself, later transferred nearly all of the Yin chakra into Naruto.

Taijutsu
Although not his specialty, Naruto does use taijutsu quite frequently. While his taijutsu attacks are not that skillful or very organised, he still used it successfully in battle against foes and opponents such as Kiba. In Part II, it seems that Naruto's taijutsu was at its best when using shadow clones to help. With the aid of two shadow clones, he could take out two rogue samurai on his own to protect Inari. He remains manoeuvrable in a fight, able to get close to even skilled taijutsu practitioners and spar with them for a time, but if he is to ultimately defeat them in speed or strength he must utilise either Kurama or, in Part II, Sage Mode. Despite this, Naruto's proven skilled enough to hold his own against highly skilled taijutsu users such as Hyūga Neji, Nagato's Deva Path, Karui and Omoi at the same time.

Shadow Clone Technique
Naruto is best known for his use of the Shadow Clone Technique. Where the average ninja must be careful in the creation of shadow clones so that they do not deplete their chakra reserves, Naruto can create upwards of a thousand clones and retain a decent amount of chakra in each of them. This lets him overwhelm opponents with sheer numbers or carry out multiple tasks at once. It is because of shadow clones that Naruto is able to be so effective during the Fourth Shinobi World War, as he can appear on multiple battlefields at the same time.

During Part II, Naruto learns that whatever his shadow clones learn, he, the original, would also learn. He frequently employs this to complete a year's worth of training in a couple of days. In combat, it also lets him scout an area or test an opponent's abilities, letting him gauge how many shadow clones he will actually need for a fight rather than waste chakra on thousands of excess clones.

Summoning Technique
In order to encourage improved control over Kurama's chakra, Jiraiya teaches Naruto to perform the Summoning Technique. By offering a certain amount of chakra, Naruto can summon the toads of Mount Myōboku as allies that fight beside him. He is initially restricted to tadpoles due to his poor chakra control, but as his control improves he can summon small toads such as then-young Gamakichi or Gamatatsu. During Part I he must rely on Kurama's chakra to summon toads of Gamabunta's size, but by Part II, Kurama's help is merely optional.

Rasengan
Once Naruto gets the hang summoning, Jiraiya teaches him the Rasengan. His reasons for teaching it to Naruto are various: the training involved in learning the Rasengan improves his chakra control; it is in many ways the counterpart to Sasuke's Chidori; it was invented by Naruto's father. Because of the very intricate chakra control the Rasnegan requires, Naruto struggles to master it, and is not helped by the time limit he imposes on himself during his training. Although the Rasengan is intended as a one-handed technique, Naruto learns to use it with more than one hand, specifically a shadow clone's: he provides the chakra that will make the Rasengan while the clone forms it into shape.

From further training with Jiraiya, Naruto is able to create larger versions of the Rasengan in Part II, such as the Big Ball Rasengan. The amount of preparation time required to form the Rasengan has decreased, but he still relies on shadow clones to help him when in his normal form. To make up for the need for shadow clones, Naruto steadily increases the number Rasengan he uses at a time, either by having the shadow clones form Rasengan in both of his hands or having the shadow clones make their own Rasengan to bombard the target with.

It is only with Kurama's chakra or senjutsu chakra that Naruto can make a Rasengan on his own. He did so with the former briefly at the end of Part I, using a version 1 cloak as a shell for a Kurama-powered Rasengan. With Nine-Tails Chakra Mode, he uses the extra hands of his chakra arms to make new Rasengan, such as the Spiralling Absorption Sphere and the Planetary Rasengan. Because the Rasengan was conceptually based on the Tailed Beast Ball, he attempts to bring it into further parallel with the Tailed Beast Rasengan. He fails when first trying to use it, but with Kurama's aid later invents the Super Mini-Tailed Beast Ball.

Nature Transformation
As a possible alternative to Kurama's chakra, Kakashi teaches Naruto how to take advantage of his natural elemental affinity: wind. The wind nature compliments Naruto, as the wind nature is a great match for short-range fighters. Because the Rasengan was originally intended to be combined with a user's nature transformation, Naruto sets out to combine his wind affinity with the Rasengan. He struggles with it, finding it as near-impossible as his father did before him, but once again finds a solution with shadow clones: while he provides the chakra and a clone provides the shape, as is done with normal Rasengan, a second clone infuses it with their nature. This results in the creation of the Wind Release: Rasengan, and later the Wind Release: Rasenshuriken. With two clones, he can make a bigger version of it.

On contact with a target, the Rasenshuriken explodes into a torrent of wind that cuts them at a cellular level. At first, Naruto uses it like a blunt object that he forces into opponents, causing him to receive the same level of damage as they do. After learning Sage Mode he becomes able to throw it, preventing harm to himself and at the same time increasing its speed and cutting power. In Nine-Tails Chakra Mode he can further augment its size, making a miniature version, a gigantic version, or even Twin Rasenshuriken, all without the help of shadow clones.

Collaboration Technique
In the anime, Jiraiya gives Naruto special training in collaboration techniques so that he can combine his wind affinity with the affinities of summoned toads, creating one single technique that is more powerful than the sum of its part. Naruto eventually manages to synchronise with Gamakichi and Gamatatsu, first with the Wind Release: Toad Gun, and later the Wind Release: Toad Oil Flame Bullet.

Naruto briefly collaborates with Yamato, combining a Wind Release: Rasengan to create Typhoon Water Vortex Technique. He later performs another collaboration with Sasuke, producing the Scorch Release: Halo Gale Jet Black Arrow Style Zero. Tobirama Senju notes this required a perfect balance between the ratio of the combined techniques and was hard to achieve.Another collaboration with Sasuke is when Sasuke can shape Susanoo around Naruto's Sage Tailed Beast Mode, with Naruto adding chakra and senjutsu to the Susanoo swords so they can overpower even Obito's Sword of Nunoboko and destroy half of it. He could also collaborate with most of the members of the Konoha 11, even giving them a Tailed Beast Mode mantle while they wielded a Rasengan he created.

Senjutsu
After Jiraiya is killed by Pain, Naruto is taught senjutsu by Fukasaku, a former teacher of Jiraiya, to prepare him for the day when Pain comes after him. During his training he proves to have a greater aptitude for senjutsu than Jiraiya, helped in no small part by his necessarily high chakra levels. He progresses through the learning steps rapidly, becoming able to sense and then gather the natural energy around him and perfectly balance it with his own chakra. However, doing this requires absolute calm, which can't be achieved or maintained in the middle of combat. For this reason, Fukasaku and his wife would theoretically fuse with him, gathering the natural energy for him to use. During all attempts at fusion, Kurama rejected Fukasaku, a threat to its power, leaving Naruto with no way to enter Sage Mode.

Naruto found a away to use shadow clones as a workaround. While he fights, the clones gather natural energy for him and then, when he is in need, he has them disperse, transferring their natural energy to him. Although this lets him enter a perfect Sage Mode that Jiraiya was never able to, this method limits the maximum number of shadow clones that he can create to five for as long as the clones are gathering natural energy, as anything more would interfere with their focus. To make sure he has enough shadow clones for use in battle, Naruto has only two shadow clones gather senjutsu chakra, allowing him to enter Sage Mode a total of three times.

Once in Sage Mode, Naruto's speed, strength, durability, and proficiency with the Rasengan and its variants increases. He can utilise the Frog Kata - a form of taijutsu that uses the natural energy around the user to enhance the range and the potency of their attacks - and sensory abilities effective even at long ranges. His sensing abilities also let him predict the movements of his enemies for easy retaliation. Following his befriending of Kurama, he can even combine Sage Mode with Tailed Beast Mode, which has the added bonus of letting him gather natural energy faster.

Strategy
From his years as a prankster, Naruto acquired a cunning and imagination that are useful in battle. Naruto's strategies typically involve shadow clones: he may direct his opponent's attentions towards one of his clones to disguise his own movements; he may transform them into objects or other individuals for surprise attacks; he may make himself seem predictable by creating a pattern, just to throw them off by breaking it.

Naruto is resourceful in a fight even without clones, formulating multi-step plans and even backups to those plans in the thick of battle. He is observant, able to notice details others may overlook; after wondering how the Third Raikage, who was famous in life for his defences, could receive a scar, Naruto deduced that the scar was self-inflicted, and subsequently takes advantage of that knowledge to manipulate the Raikage's movements and use him to defeat himself. Even when given new information he can act quickly; when he learned that Kakashi and Tobi's Kamui were connected, he formed a plan to send one of his clones into the other dimension which enabled him to destroy Tobi's mask.

Naruto is headstrong and often acts without thinking his actions through, making it difficult for others to communicate their battle or lesson plans to him. For this reason, he is sometimes considered dense. However, he is a masterful tactile learner, meaning that he learns better through executing a task rather than theorising about it. Once they see him in action, even the likes of the Second Hokage revise their thoughts about his intellect.

Other Skills
After the time-skip, Naruto has improved his knowledge of other ninja skills while under Jiraiya's tutelage. He has displayed some limited skill in shurikenjutsu. Naruto's been shown to keep a spring-loaded kunai up his sleeve for quick access. Though he has no skill in genjutsu, he does at least know how to dispel it and avoid falling prey to it.

His skills with fūinjutsu have not been explored greatly, but he knew how to use the seal's key after receiving Gerotora, and later resealed Kurama after he separated a majority of chakra from the tailed beast. Jiraiya had left Naruto with the key to help him complete an as of yet unknown technique which he, Naruto, and Minato have been working on, but never finished. Naruto stated that he was ready to complete it.

Introduction arc
Naruto, labelled as his classes 'Dead-Last', once again failed to graduate from the Academy. Disappointed that his plans of becoming Hokage have hit another hurdle, Naruto was approached by one of his instructors, Mizuki. Mizuki told Naruto that, if he could steal the Scroll of Seals from the Hokage Residence and learn one of the techniques written in it, then he would be allowed to graduate. Naruto did so, and began struggling to learn the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique, unaware that the village was now looking for him. Iruka Umino tracked him down, and discovered Mizuki's involvement in the theft, realising that Naruto had been duped by Mizuki, in an effort to steal the scroll. Mizuki attacked them, and told Naruto about the Nine-Tails sealed within him, claiming that Iruka hated him because of it. When Iruka risked his life to protect Naruto, however, Naruto realised that Mizuki's earlier words were a lie, and created hundreds of shadow clones to beat Mizuki to a pulp. For mastering such a difficult technique, Iruka allowed Naruto to graduate.

In the days to come, Naruto befriended Sarutobi Konohamaru and became his on-off teacher, showing him how to perform a variety of both perverted and useful techniques throughout the rest of the series. He was also assigned to Team 7, where he was partnered with Uchiha Sasuke and Haruno Sakura, under the leadership of Hatake Kakashi. As the team's first order of business, Kakashi gave them a test to see if they were ready to become genin. He had the three of them try to take the two bells he kept on his person, the goal of the test being to place teamwork above the fact that they couldn't all have a bell. Although they initially failed miserably, all trying independently to take a bell, they eventually decided to work together, allowing them to pass.

Lave of Waves arc
After completing a number of simple, uneventful missions, Team 7, at Naruto's insistence, was assigned the somewhat more difficult C-rank task of escorting Tazuna to the Land of Waves. When they were attacked by the Demon Brothers along the way, who tried to kill Tazuna, they realised that there was more to this mission than a simple escort. Tazuna revealed that his country was under the control of Gatō, who had left the people poor and unable to afford the more accurate A-rank mission payment. By building a bridge that would connect the Land of Waves to the mainland, Tazuna hoped to free the country from Gatō, prompting Gatō to try and kill him. Team 7 decided to help Tazuna, and act as his bodyguards until the bridge was completed.

They were soon attacked by Momochi Zazuba, another of Gatō's assassins, who engaged Kakashi in battle. When Zabuza captured Kakashi, he encouraged his team to escape with Tazuna. Having been of little use during the battle with the Demon Brothers, Naruto resolved to help Kakashi. With Sasuke's assistance, they were able to free Kakashi, who in turn almost defeated Zabuza. However, Haku, disguised as a hunter-nin, intervened, and appeared to kill Zabuza first, in actuality only putting him in a death-like state in order to get him to safety. Kakashi suspected that Zabuza was still alive, and gave Team 7 a Tree Climbing Practice to improve their chakra control. Naruto and Sasuke developed a competition over the exercise, each determined to complete the training first, and subsequently motivating each other to do better.

While Naruto was resting from training one day, he encountered Haku, unaware that it was the same boy he had encountered earlier. The two had a conversation about those who were precious to them, and the lengths they would go to protect them. After Haku left, Naruto finished the training, but was left so tired that the rest of Team 7 allowed him to rest the next day as they went to escort Tazuna. When he woke up, he went to assist them, only to find that they were in the midst of battle with Zabuza and Haku.

Naruto went to help Sasuke in his battle with Haku, but they were both trapped by Haku's Demonic Mirroring Ice Crystals. When Haku tried to use a volley of needles to kill Naruto, Sasuke stepped in to protect him, appearing to die instead. Enraged by the apparent death of Sasuke, Naruto tapped into the Nine-Tails' chakra, allowing him to destroy the ice mirrors, and subsequently defeat Haku. Before he could kill Haku, however, the mask he was wearing broke away, revealing the face of the boy Naruto had met earlier. Naruto stopped himself, but Haku asked that he should finish the job, since he could no longer be of use to Zabuza. Although Naruto tried to comply, Haku stopped him at the last minute, and went to help Zabuza. When Naruto realised what had happened - that Haku had given his life to save an ungrateful Zabuza - an outraged Naruto reprimanded Zabuza for not appreciating Haku's actions. Touched by his words, Zabuza killed Gatō to repent in an effort to do Haku justice, but died of his wounds. The bridge (now named the Great Naruto Bridge) was completed, and the Land of Waves was saved. With a recovered Sasuke, Team 7 returned to the Konoha. On their way home, Naruto remarked to Kakashi that, even though Haku and Zabuza were their enemies, he still liked them.

Chunin Exam arc
After returning home and completing a few other simple missions, Team 7 was entered into the Chūnin Exams. In the first phase, a written test, the participating genin were tasked with completing the test by cheating, all the while being sure not to get caught. Though the rest of the examinees realised this, Naruto did not, and struggled to answer the questions, which were far beyond his comprehension. Hinata Hyūga, who was sitting next to him, offered to allow him to copy off her paper, but he refused, in fear that she would get caught. Naruto was forced to rely on getting the tenth question correct to pass. When faced with the prospect of correctly answering the question to proceed, failing and never being allowed to take the test again, or giving up to try it again during the next exams, Naruto insisted on answering the question, stating that, even if he got it wrong, he would still become Hokage. The willingness to face the unknown being the answer to the tenth question, Naruto and the rest of Team 7 were allowed to proceed to the second phase.

For the second phase, Team 7 was sent into the Forest of Death with one scroll, tasked to obtain a second scroll from another team and arrive at the forest's centre before the phase ended. Soon after entering the forest, they were attacked by Orochimaru, who immobilised Sasuke and Sakura with his murderous intent. Before Sasuke could forfeit their scroll in exchange for their lives, Naruto intervened, fighting Orochimaru by tapping into the Nine-Tails' chakra. Orochimaru rendered Naruto unconscious by restricting access to the Nine-Tails' chakra, but Naruto's courage inspired Sasuke to fight in his place. After Orochimaru was driven off and Naruto awakened, he tried to open their scroll what was forbidden, but he was stopped by Kabuto Yakushi, who disguised himself as Konoha ninja. Team 7 and Kabuto encountered Team Oboro. After wasting a day trapped in the rival team's genjutsu, Team 7 was able to defeat them, take their scroll, and pass the round.

Because too many genin teams had passed the second phase, a round of preliminary matches, where genin faced each other in combat, were held to thin the field. After watching the first few rounds, Naruto was matched against Inuzuka Kiba, and his dog, Akamaru. Remembering Naruto to be talentless from their days in the academy, Kiba believed it would be an easy match. He and Akamaru double-teamed Naruto, who initially had difficulty with the match. After combining the Transformation Technique with his shadow clones to turn Kiba and Akamaru against each other, Naruto was able to remove Akamaru from the competition. When Kiba was about to defeat him, Naruto farted, immobilising Kiba and his heightened sense of smell, and making him an easy target for the Uzumaki Naruto Combo which he invented watching Sasuke's Lion Combo. Naruto won the match.

While watching the remaining matches, Naruto witnessed Neji's ruthless treatment of his cousin, Hinata. Angered by Neji's actions and claims that Hinata was a failure who couldn't escape her fate, Naruto vowed to defeat Neji during the first round of the finals a month later. In the meantime, Naruto started training with Ebisu to improve his chakra control. When Ebisu was knocked out by Jiraiya, Naruto forced Jiraiya to train him in his place. Jiraiya, noticing that Naruto was the container of the Nine-Tails, and the restrictive seal Orochimaru had placed on him earlier, Jiraiya removed the seal to ease his chakra control. He then taught him how to take advantage of the Nine-Tails' chakra by showing him how to summon toads. Because Naruto had troubles with it, Jiraiya pushed him from the cliff, hoping to provoke Naruto to use Nine-Tails' chakra. When falling, Naruto met with the Nine-Tails in his subconscious and convinced it to lend him its chakra. Thanks to that, he was able to summon Gamabunta, landing on the toad's back. After a short argue with the giant toad, he had to be hospitalised due to the chakra loss. In the hospital he met Shikamaru Nara and the two encountered Gaara who was going to kill Rock Lee. Gaara told them about Shukaku sealed within him and tried to kill both of them, but they were saved by the coming of Might Guy.

When his match against Neji began, Naruto appeared to be at a disadvantage. Although he was able to overwhelm Neji with shadow clones, none of the clones could manage to land a hit. Convinced that Naruto was a failure that could not defeat a genius like himself, Neji used his Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms to cut off Naruto's chakra supply. Determined to prove Neji wrong, Naruto tapped into the Nine-Tails' reserves and, revitalised, clashed with Neji. When the smoke cleared, Neji emerged, Naruto appearing to have been defeated. This, however, was only a shadow clone, and the real Naruto burst from the ground beneath Neji, to deliver an uppercut and defeat him. Neji was taken away, contemplating the fact that fate was not predetermined, since a failure could beat a genius, while Naruto watched the remaining matches. When Sasuke fought Gaara, he was envious of Sasuke's improvements, but the fight was interrupted by the beginning of the invasion of Konoha.

Invasion of Konoha arc
Naruto was put to sleep when the invasion began, but was awakened by Sakura so that they could go after Sasuke, who was pursuing Gaara in order to continue their fight. They caught up in time to stop Gaara from killing Sasuke. Intrigued by Naruto's abilities since his battle with Neji, Gaara forced him into battle by threatening to kill Sakura. With the power of the Shukaku, Gaara tried to prove his existence by killing Naruto by playing with him. Although Naruto could relate to Gaara's life as a jinchūriki, he was not willing to allow anything to happen to Sakura and Sasuke. With the Nine-Tails' chakra, he summoned Gamabunta, and fought Gaara, who by now had progressed to his full Shukaku form. Naruto was able to awaken Gaara from his technique and reseal Shukaku, and they exchanged final blows, with Naruto emerging the final blow. Both of them, being very exhausted, fell to the ground and Naruto crawled his way towards Gaara, who was shocked to see why Naruto was so strong. Naruto explained that he had also suffered a relentless lonely life, but was later saved by having friends. Gaara understood, and retreated with Kankurō and Temari, while Naruto was returned back to Konohagakure with Sakura and Sasuke.

Days passed, and Naruto and the rest of the shinobi came to a ceremony to respect the death of the Third Hokage and his sacrifice for the village.

Search for Tsunade arc
After the failed invasion resulted in the death of the Third Hokage, Jiraiya was tasked with finding a Fifth Hokage. He convinced Naruto to come with him by promising to teach him a new technique that would be stronger than Sasuke's Chidori. Along the way, they were met by Kisame Hoshigaki and Itachi Uchiha, two members of Akatsuki, who sought to capture Naruto for the Nine-Tails sealed within him. Jiraiya was able to draw them off, but Naruto was introduced to the organisation that would become more of a problem for him in Part II. To prepare him for their future encounters, Jiraiya taught him how to use the Rasengan, a technique created by Minato. While Naruto was able to complete the first two steps of the learning process with little difficulty, he struggled to complete the third and thus master the technique.

Naruto and Jiraiya eventually found Tsunade, the ideal candidate for the position of Fifth Hokage. When she turned down the offer, and insulted all those who had previously held the title, an angry Naruto challenged her to a fight and attacked her with an incomplete Rasengan. Although his effort failed to hit her, she was surprised by his progress and made a bet with him: if he could master the technique in a week, she would give him her necklace, but if he couldn't, she would take his money and his frog wallet, Gama-chan. Naruto agreed, and started practising, but in a week's time, he still had yet to finish the training. Disappointed, Tsunade met with Orochimaru, the murderer of the Third Hokage, and Naruto, Jiraiya, and Shizune, Tsunade's assistant, tried to stop her from helping him.

Tsunade turned out to have no intention of helping Orochimaru, and fought him and his assistant, Kabuto Yakushi. When Kabuto left her unable to fight, Naruto came to her aid. Although he was getting beaten by Kabuto and Tsunade told him to run, Naruto refused and by using shadow clones to help him form it, Naruto was able to hit Kabuto with a perfected Rasengan, defeating Kabuto and winning the bet. Amazed by his determination to keep to his word and to survive against a superior opponent, Tsunade gave him her necklace, drove off Orochimaru and Kabuto, and accepted the position of Fifth Hokage. They returned to Konoha, Tsunade confidently believing Naruto would someday become a great Hokage.

Land of Tea arc
With Konoha having a shortage of jōnin due to Orochimaru’s failed invasion, Tsunade was forced to use genin for more dangerous missions than normally allowed. Team 7 (minus Kakashi who was assigned to another mission) was given the assignment of the escorting a member of Land of Tea's Wasabi family through a dangerous annual race as it was rumoured the rival Wagarashi family had hired ninjas of their own to sabotage the Wasabi family. Along the way, they met an arrogant teenager named Idate who openly showed his hatred towards ninja. He also showed off his impressive speed by running away from Team 7 after conning them into paying his bill at a restaurant. Upon arriving in the Land of Tea and meeting the Wasabi family’s leader, Jirōchō, Team 7 was shocked to see Idate again and learn he was the man they were assigned to escort.

During the race, Naruto and Idate continued to show their dislike of each other. It was also revealed that Idate was actually the younger brother of Ibiki and formerly a Konoha genin. They also encountered the three Ame genin from the Chūnin Exams. After defeating them, they encountered Aoi Rokushō, another former Konoha shinobi, who betrayed Konoha to join Amegakure. He was also originally Idate's teacher and the one responsible for Idate running away from Konoha. After barely surviving Aoi’s attack, Idate explained how after he was failed by Ibiki himself for the Chūnin Exams, Aoi tricked Idate into stealing a special scroll and the Sword of the Thunder God from the village. Being able to relate with Idate in both being taken advantage of and the need to have others recognise them, Naruto helped Idate regain his self-worth and continue the race.

While managing to catch up in the race, Aoi appeared again and used the Thunder Sword to initially overpower the Team 7. But thanks to Sasuke fighting Aoi and weakening the sword with his Chidori, Naruto was able to break it when they clashed and defeat Aoi with his Rasengan. With the danger overcome, Idate was free to continue and win the race for the Wasabi family. While returning to the village, Team 7 was escorted by Ibiki himself. While he did not openly state this fact, Ibiki was glad that Naruto had helped his brother grow as a man.

Sasuke Retrieval arc
After returning with Tsunade (in the anime, after returning from the mission in the Land of Tea), Sasuke began to fall into the corruption set in place for him by Orochimaru. He began lashing out at Sakura and Naruto, not as team-mates but as enemies. Naruto eventually fought with him, the battle ending with Naruto and Sasuke about to clash with the Rasengan and Chidori, with Sakura in the middle. Kakashi ends the feud, sending the two crashing into water towers, Naruto unknowingly doing more damage that Sasuke, much to Sasuke's annoyance. Despite his promises to Sakura, Sasuke eventually ends up defecting from Konoha in order to seek out Orochimaru for power. Under the escort of Orochimaru's Sound Four, Sasuke left to join Orochimaru, and Naruto joined a retrieval team that would bring him back; he also made a promise to Sakura that he will bring Sasuke back at all cost. While the other members of the team dealt with the Sound Four, Naruto finally engaged in a fight with the Sound Four's fifth member, Kimimaro. However, he was not able to beat him even with Nine Tails-enhanced shadow clones. When Naruto was about to be killed, he was saved by Rock Lee, who told him to continue the pursuit of Sasuke while he fought Kimimaro.

Naruto finally caught up with Sasuke in a place called Valley of the End, very near the border of the Land of Fire and the Land of Sound, and fought Sasuke. With Sasuke determined that he would kill Naruto in his quest for power, Naruto decided he would have to take the battle seriously if he was to bring Sasuke back. When Sasuke's drive to kill proved greater than Naruto's resolve of friendship in a 'fair' fight, Naruto tapped into the Nine-Tails' chakra to level the playing field, allowing him to batter around Sasuke. Sasuke, pushed to his limits, managed to develop the mature Sharingan, greatly overpowering Naruto. When Naruto, even with the Nine-Tails' chakra, was defeated, he tapped into the chakra even more, and a red aura of the Nine-Tails' chakra, in the shape of a fox, surrounded him. Sasuke then drew on the power of the second stage of his cursed seal to properly compete with Naruto.

The two had one final clash, Naruto with his Rasengan (enhanced by the Nine-Tails' chakra) and Sasuke with his Chidori (empowered by the cursed seal). Upon contact, a giant, black energy dome formed and surrounded them. In the dome, Sasuke struck Naruto in the stomach, while Naruto scratched Sasuke's headband, proving the latter's earlier taunt of the subject wrong. Sasuke won the fight, but after staring at the unconscious Naruto, he couldn't bring himself to kill his best friend, so he simply continued on his way to Orochimaru.

Kakashi and Pakkun didn't come in time to get Sasuke, and left with Naruto. In the hospital, Naruto vowed to Sakura that he would someday bring Sasuke home. Soon after, Jiraiya arrived suddenly, telling Naruto to train with him for three years prior. He also told him to give up on Sasuke, as he is no different from Orochimaru. Naruto accepts training with Jiraiya, but rejects to giving up Sasuke. In the manga, right after this, Naruto departs, but in the anime, he stays for a while, doing numerous filler arc missions.

Pre Shippuuden Filler arcs
After recovering from his battle against Sasuke, Naruto joins Sakura in another attempt to save Sasuke from Orochimaru. Before crossing Konoha's border, Jiraiya appears. He saves them from becoming labelled missing-nin from leaving the village without authorisation by allowing them to join him on a mission to gather information on Sasuke and Orochimaru. Their journey takes them to the Land of Rice Fields, the land of the Otogakure. After a couple comedic failures to gather info due to Jiraiya's perverted antics, Naruto and Sakura met a young kunoichi named Sasame of the Fūma clan. She revealed her desire to find her cousin Arashi, who along with the majority. After facing three members of the Fūma clan and managing to escape them, Jiraiya returned with new information he gathered from the remnants of the Fūma clan that saw through Orochimaru's lies.

Jiraiya explained that Orochimaru was gathering as many supporters as he could from various clans simply to gain their secret technique. After facing the three members again and defeating them, Sasame led Naruto and his team to Orochimaru's current hideout. Inside the base with no knowledge of where to go, the team took different paths. Eventually, Naruto found Sakura in a long corridor facing off against Kabuto. Naruto was able to hit Kabuto with his Rasengan, but unfortunately fell prey to a devastating technique that attacked his heart. After being saved by Sakura and Sasame, it was discovered that Kabuto was actually another Fūma clan member, Kagerō in disguise.

Soon after, they found Arashi, who became the victim of an unstable technique of Orochimaru's that merged him with his two fellow clan members and drove him insane. Naruto, along with Sasame and Sakura, were able to restore his mind. As Orochimaru's hideout began to fall apart, Arashi revealed that Sasuke was safe for now, but Orochimaru was doing everything in his power to make Sasuke a perfect host for him in the near future. After sure that the Fūma clan were free from Orochimaru's control, Naruto and his team returned to Konoha.

Ready to begin his three year training with Jiraiya, Naruto was furious to learn that Jiraiya was ordered by Tsunade to go gather information instead for awhile. After Jiraiya managed to sneak away from Naruto, he decided to talk directly to Tsunade. Naruto, who was spying on one of Tsunade's Hokage meetings, discovered that Mizuki not only had escaped from prison, but had a connection to Orochimaru. Seeing this as another chance to find Sasuke, Naruto went off to look for Mizuki and met up with Iruka. Eventually, Naruto found Mizuki and was horrified at how much stronger Mizuki looked now. Iruka had Naruto fight against the Legendary Stupid Brothers while Iruka faced off against Mizuki.

After being completely overpowered by the two brothers' insane raw strength, Naruto was saved by Team 10, who took over the battle so Naruto could aid Iruka. Along the way, Naruto met Mizuki's former lover Tsubaki. With her help, Naruto and Iruka found Mizuki's hideout, where it was discovered that Mizuki was given instructions for a special performance enhancing drug. Meanwhile Team 10 is almost defeated since the two brothers are too powerful, but Tsunade comes to their aid and convinces them that Mizuki tricked them and that they should head back to the prison. After consuming the drug, Mizuki became a behaemoth of his former self and completely overpowered Naruto and Iruka. After discovering that Mizuki's speed was rapidly declining from pouring more chakra into his raw strength, Naruto and Iruka were able to defeat Mizuki with a well-timed manoeuvre that ended with a Rasengan.

After Mizuki was interrogated, it was discovered that he unfortunately had no knowledge of Orochimaru's whereabouts.

Seeing how desperate Naruto wanted to find Sasuke, Team 8 came up with a solution. They requested Tsunade assign them a mission to find the legendary bikōchū beetle that could track any target as long as it had the target's scent. As Kurenai was still hospitalised and there were no other missions available, she approved their request. Naruto was placed on the team as well after being caught spying, and forced to vow not to continue asking for missions to be sent to search for Sasuke, if this one failed. Naruto was annoyed, however to be under Shino's command. Upon finally arriving at the nesting grounds of the bikōchū, the team had great difficulty searching for the bikōchū.

Things became even more complicated when it was discovered that the Kamizuru clan of the Iwagakure were also after the beetle in hopes of restoring their clan honour. After Naruto and his team managed to capture the bikōchū and it laid an egg, Hinata was captured by the enemies and used as a hostage to get the bikōchū egg. While Naruto and his team tried to save her, they fell prey to the enemies' trap and were captured as well. Fortunately, Shino had already hid the bikōchū too thoroughly for the enemies to find. After Hinata escapes from her prison only to seemingly fall off a cliff, Naruto begins to draw on his tailed beast chakra in his rage, frightening an enemy who decides to pre-emptively kill him. Fortunately, Hinata appeared and saved her team. Naruto then watched in amazement as Hinata's new, original technique completely overpowered the enemies' bee-oriented techniques. He was even more shocked to hear he was the one who inspired Hinata to attempt making something so complex and powerful.

After Naruto defeated the last enemy, the bikōchū egg finally began to hatch. Naruto unfortunately could not find Sasuke's forehead protector that he brought for Sasuke's scent. In a fit of desperation, Naruto accidentally farted, causing the baby bikōchū to memorise Naruto's scent. This meant the mission was a failure as a bikōchū can only memorise one scent in its lifetime and it will take another year before another egg is hatched. Upon returning to the village, Naruto was forced to face a livid Sakura, who was angered due to his bumbling the last chance Tsunade had permitted them to attempt to find Sasuke.

With Jiraiya still gone and no idea of when he would return, Naruto decided to train anyway he could in the village. While training in the woods, he came across three weak and injured men from the village of Katabami Kinzan. Naruto brought them back to Konoha. After they recovered and explained to Tsunade that they came Konoha for help in ridding their village of a terrible gang, Tsunade decided to assign Naruto on the mission with Team Guy to keep him preoccupied from his obsessions of finding either Sasuke or Jiraiya. Before leaving, Naruto learned from Lee, who was told by Guy that the leader of gang is Raiga Kurosuki, a former member of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist. Naruto saw this as another chance to find Sasuke as Raiga might know where Kisame and Itachi are, which could lead him to Sasuke.

Before arriving at the village, the team stopped at a small restaurant that Lee knew well from his early days training with Guy. There, they met an old acquaintance of Lee's, Sanshō, an elderly lady who's best meal was an energising and nutritious curry known as the "Curry of Life". Sanshō revealed that her son Karashi left the restaurant a while ago after getting a wrong understanding on being strong. The team then went to the village and were horrified to discover that not only was the villagers so traumatised by the gang that they refused to be rescued, but also that Raiga had a psychotic joy for funerals and would regularly bury people alive. After defeating Raiga's minions and discovering one of them was Karashi, then Naruto and the others were confronted by Raiga. In addition to Raiga's highly powerful lighting-jutsu, Naruto and his team found themselves at an even bigger disadvantage from a powerful genjutsu even Neji's Byakugan was powerless against.

Soon, it was discovered that Raiga's unique genjutsu and much of his power was actually coming from a young boy he was carrying on his back. The boy was named Ranmaru and possessed a unique dōjutsu. After separating the two, Naruto was able to launch him off a cliff with a Rasengan and defeat him. Afterwards, Naruto and the team retrieved Ranmaru. They learned that the boy had been with Raiga for years by choice because the two of them had an understanding of each other. Raiga gave Ranmaru a reason to live and feel useful. This made Naruto remember Haku, who shared a similar relationship with Zabuza, and ultimately refused to let Ranmaru go down the same path as Haku did and offered him another path.

Later, while the team was helping Sanshō make a shelter for her shop against a storm, Ranmaru had Karashi bring him to Raiga's burial. Ranmaru was able to tell that despite Raiga's fatal wounds from Naruto, Raiga was still barely alive. Ranmaru without hesitation transferred almost all of his energy into Raiga to save him. Infuriated by the sight of a seemingly dead Ranmaru, Raiga took his rage out on Naruto and his team. While no longer having Ranmaru's eyes to aid him in battle, Raiga instead gather natural energy from a lightning storm of power and enhance his lightning release technique.

After Ranmaru was saved and recovered by Tenten, he began to understand what Naruto was talking at night about trying to find value in life besides killing others Ranmaru helped Sanshō and Karashi revive the unconscious Naruto, Neji, and Lee with the "Curry of Life". Ranmaru then tried to convince Raiga to stop the meaningless battle, but Raiga only viewed this as betrayal. After seeing that Ranmaru had made up his mind and Naruto managed to overpower him, Raiga decided to give himself a "funeral" by electrocuting himself to death.

After the mission was completed, with Ranmaru now being an apprentice to Sanshō, Naruto and his team returned to the village.

When word that a notorious thief known as Gosunkugi of the Land of Stone was making his way towards the Land of Fire reached Konoha, Tsunade assigned Naruto, Kiba, and Hinata to capture the man. Along their way, they met a bounty hunter by the name of Sazanami who was also after Gosunkugi. After quickly dispatching Naruto and his friends, Sazanami managed to find Gosunkugi but was quickly defeated. He was saved by Konoha shinobi. It was later while treating the man's wounds that Naruto and his team found out the man was actually another wanted man by the name of Tokichi. Tokichi explained that he was framed for murdering a family that Gosunkugi actually killed. Deciding to help Tokichi clear his name, they worked together track down Gosunkugi again. Gosunkugi and Tokichi himself were captured by another bounty hunter and handed over to the authorities. The bounty hunter was an honourable man and helped clear Tokichi's name. For Naruto and the others, this meant they failed their mission as someone else captured Gosunkugi.

While eating ramen after doing his daily training in preparation for Jiraiya's return, Naruto met a young man named Chishima. He is told about the troubles going on in the Land of Birds and wishes to help. He then joins Neji and Tenten in solving the mystery of Cursed Warrior's ghost. Upon arriving in the Land of Birds, they meet one of the daimyō's advisors Mōsō who explains the situation. While searching the kingdom at night, Naruto and his team find the ghost and face off against it, only to find that not only was the armour empty, but according to Neji's Byakugan, it had no living presence. Kōmei believed later that it was one of Mōsō's devices. The following day, Mōsō explains that it is believed that the whole situation is a scheme set up by the daimyō's head strategist Kōmei to take over the Land of Birds. They then go to meet the daimyō, Sagi, who turns out to be a young teen and childhood friend of Chishima. However, since becoming daimyo and losing his twin sister Toki, he has become quite cold to all beyond his duties as daimyō. After saving him from an attempted assassination, it is discovered that the weapons are owned by Kōmei's soldiers.

Naruto, Neji, and Tenten begin spying Kōmei, who later goes to the site Cursed Warrior was seen the previous night. This time upon fighting, Naruto and his team face a much more formidable opponent using high level ninjutsu techniques. While defeating him, the enemy commits suicide by melting himself in acid. Then later, Kōmei is arrested for conspiracy. While they are told the mission is over, both Naruto and Neji have their doubts about it. Naruto goes back to the site to investigate and discovers a chain of underground tunnels. Unfortunately, Naruto takes a path that leads inside the daimyō palace and is arrested. Later in a prison cell, Naruto is confronted by Cursed Warrior who attempts to kill him. Naruto manages to defeat him and discovers that it is really Sagi in disguise. Sagi explained he made this disguise to find out who killed his father and sister. Before the fight could continue, and injured Chishima appears and reveals that Mōsō was behind the deaths of Sagi's family.

Naruto then impersonates the Cursed Warrior and saves Kōmei from his execution. He then meets up with Neji, Tenten, and the newly arrived Kakashi. They then go to confront Mōsō. Unfortunately, Sagi goes ahead out of his desire for revenge. Upon catching up with Sagi, it is discovered that Sagi is actually the twin sister Toki impersonating her dead brother. It is also discovered that Mōsō is actually a ninja named Hōki of the Watari ninja who plan to take over the Land of Birds. Hōki kidnaps Toki and Naruto and Chishima go after him while Kakashi, Neji, and Tenten deal with Watari ninja. Naruto is initially overwhelmed by Hōki's cunning deceptions and various improvised jutsu, but is saved by the spirit of Sagi, who tells Naruto he has to save Toki from her anger. After a battle of clones between the two, Naruto defeats Hōki. Later, Naruto and his team watch as Toki takes up her role officially as daimyō and thanks Naruto for saving her kindness.

When Mitarashi Anko was assigned to escort a delivery ship and stop a sea monster mystery in the Land of the Sea, she was assigned with Naruto, Shino, and Ino as all other active ninja were unavailable. Upon arriving at the Land of the Sea, Naruto met a young girl with several bandages named Isaribi. Naruto was shocked to learn that much like him Isaribi was shunned from the society and treated as a monster. Naruto tried to befriend her, but she was too traumatised to embrace his kindness. Later when reaching the ship, Naruto and his team were attacked by Yoroi Akadō and Misumi Tsurugi from the Chūnin Exams. Naruto was knocked out and sunk to the ocean. Fortunately, he was saved by Isaribi. Meanwhile, after gathering information from the villagers, they found Isaribi after she transformed into a humanoid sea creature and prevented her from escaping. After catching up with his team, Naruto discovers the sea monster was actually Isaribi. Unfortunately, before they could figure things out, Yoroi appears and kidnaps Isaribi. Naruto's team is unable to follow as Anko mysteriously faints.

After Anko recovers, she reveals the truth about her past and this chain of islands. She tells her team that several years ago, Orochimaru used this place as a base to conduct many of his horrific experiments. He was responsible for the people mysteriously disappearing; kidnapping them and using them as lab rats. Isaribi was one of them. These actions also started the legend of people being captured by spirits. Determined to make Orochimaru pay, Naruto insisted on destroying the hidden lab. While Anko was able to guide them to the lab thanks to prior knowledge she had as Orochimaru's former apprentice, they were ambushed by the enemy. Naruto was shocked to learn that Isaribi was working with the people who turned her into a freak. She explained that all she cared about was becoming normal again, which Amachi, the lead scientist of the lab, promised he would do. Naruto tried to convince her that this was wrong and that he understood her pain since he too has been discriminated against but Isaribi refused to listen. She then retreated with Amachi to attack the cargo ship. Naruto was stopped from following by Misumi, but was able to defeat him with Ino's help. After escaping with his team from the crumbling lab as a result of the all the fighting inside, Naruto and his team went after Amachi and Isaribi. Naruto then found himself up against Isaribi, but eventually managed to make her understand what she was doing was wrong.

Soon after, Amachi went up against Naruto and revealed to have put himself through the same surgery as Isarabi but fully perfected. Initially, Naruto was completely overwhelmed, but by tapping into some of the Nine-Tail's chakra, Naruto quickly defeated Amachi. He soon after collapsed from exhaustion, but was saved again by Isaribi who was compelled to save him after realising Naruto really did understand her pain. Shortly after Naruto awoke, he and his team found themselves attacked by Amachi's spectral summoning. Naruto countered by summoning Gamabunta to help. Together, they were able to destroy it with an improvised fire release technique. After discovering that Amachi had no idea how to restore Isarabi to her previous form, Naruto offered Isaribi to come back with him to Konoha in hopes that Tsunade's superior medical prowess would be able to help her.

Noticing that lately Naruto, Hinata, and Kiba have been a rather low success rate in their ninja missions, Tsunade decided to give them one final chance to succeed or be sent back to the academy to restart their training. Their mission was to retrieve a hidden treasure. Initially, Naruto and Kiba kept getting into arguments about which way to go, which resulted in them taking different directions and each time Kiba emerging the one correct. Along the way, Hinata injured her ankle, forcing Kiba to go on alone while Naruto stayed with Hinata. After Kiba left, Naruto and Hinata were attacked and captured by mysterious ninja. Naruto later awoke to discover that he and his friends were replicated by their captors. The captors revealed themselves to be of the Kedōin clan, a clan with a special transformation technique that copies a person beyond just looking like the target. Their plan is to infiltrate Konoha and destroy it from the inside.

The enemies attempt to crush Naruto and his team in a cave-in. Kiba and Naruto manage to free Hinata who then uses her Gentle Fist to repel all the rocks. Later, Naruto and his team escape the cave and go after the Kedōin clan. To Naruto's fury, his double goes around the village building up a huge bill from various restaurants and even eats all of Naruto's saved food at home. After finding the doubles, it is discovered that they can't replicate the original's physical prowess and are easily able to capture them. Later, it is revealed from Tsunade that she actually hired the Kedōin clan to test Naruto and the others on how well they could handle such a situation.

While having a snack with Sakura, Naruto learns that Neji, Lee, and Tenten were sent on a mission to aid Hoshigakure protect their precious chakra-emitting star (which was actually a meteorite) from thieves. Suspecting that Orochimaru might be behind these attempted thefts, Naruto convinced Tsunade to add him to the team. After Naruto and the team arrived at the base of the Hoshigakure, they met a young Hoshi genin named Sumaru who escorted them safely around the deadly gases surrounding the village. They were then introduced to the acting leader, or "Hoshikage" of the village Akahoshi who explained the situation. It was revealed that the special star enhances the chakra of whoever trains under it long enough and enables them to manipulate their raw chakra in very unique ways, forming a ninjutsu known as the Mysterious Peacock Method. Later, the star was stolen by a masked ninja who possessed the same star-enhanced techniques as the Hoshigakure only more powerful and refined.

While Naruto began making friends with several of the Hoshi genin, he learned that Sumaru lost his parents when he was young and dreams of becoming Kage of his village. Later after Sumaru was kidnapped by Akahoshi (disguised as the masked ninja), it was discovered the real reason why the star was so coveted by other villages was because of the dangers to using it as very few in history have survived the star-training. The forced releasing and enhancement of chakra generally proves too unnatural for most people to adapt to, causing the body to give out and die before it can properly synchronise with the chakra. And even if a person does complete the training, there is still a chance the person will eventually be killed by the enhanced chakra. Although the Third Hoshikage who died recently, stopped the training, Akahoshi resumed it soon afterwards, which the Hoshi ninja have been willing go through for the village's prosperity.

Later, Naruto found himself up against the masked ninja again when Akahoshi attacked with the intent of killing the masked ninja and knocked Naruto and the masked ninja into the poisonous cavern. Fortunately, the masked ninja saved them both. Naruto then discovered that the masked ninja was actually a Hoshi jōnin named Natsuhi, who was Sumaru's mother and one of the few people to ever successfully complete the star training. She explained that ten years ago, despite Natsuhi and her husband, who sometime later died, convinced the Third Hoshikage to stop the star training in exchange for faking their death and watching over the village from afar. After hearing how dangerous the star really was, Naruto was determined to help Natsuhi stop Akahoshi, who was deliberately using the Hoshigakure for his own selfish goals. Upon facing off with Akahoshi, he revealed to have killed the Third Hoshikage so he could take over the village and resume the star training and willing to sacrifice anyone as long as the village got the glory he desired. After Sumaru appeared, Akahoshi used him as a hostage to force Natsuhi to give him the star.

Despite Naruto's anger at Akahoshi, Neji reminded Naruto that technically, Akahoshi is not a villain to the Hoshigakure as they all wish to make their village strong as well and as such, the Konoha ninja cannot do anything against the village leader without repercussions. Later, Natsuhi attempted to retrieve the star again despite her failing health, but was killed by Akahoshi. It wasn't until one of the Hoshi genin showed the villagers the damage the star training did to his body and the truth of the Third Hoshikage's death were revealed that the villagers finally turned against Akahoshi. Deciding to regain control by any means, Akahoshi embedded the star into his being to gain a tremendous power increase. With the help of a final techinque left behind from Natsuhi, Naruto was able to defeat Akahoshi and destroy the star using the Rasengan. Later, the infected Hoshi ninja were taken to Konoha for treatment from Tsunade and are cured. Naruto is glad to see that despite losing the star, the Hoshigakure still is determined to become recognised as the next Great Shinobi Village.

Excited to finally have another mission, Naruto was joined with Hinata and Chōji to the Land of Vegetables for escorting a group of merchants. Along the way, it was noticed that smoke was coming from deep within the Land of Vegetables, prompting Naruto to investigate. Upon doing so, he was attacked by a couple of unknown ninja. After escaping them and reporting to his team, it was decided to try going down a different route in hopes the mysterious ninja weren't after them. In addition one of the merchants, Shun, suggested the group split into two to allow the weak and younger members a further protection. After the teams were split up, with Hinata going ahead with the weaker group and Naruto with Chōji staying back to protect the first group, Naruto went to check the area again and found one of the merchants, Kikunojō, dead and dressed as a ninja. Naruto then returned to his group in time to see the enemies attacking and then just as quickly retreating. This allowed Naruto and Chōji to realise the enemies were after a target in the other group.

After catching up with Hinata's group, Naruto and Chōji confronted Shun and Yurinoshin, since Kikunosuke was close to them. It was revealed that Shun was actually Princess Haruna, heir to the Land of Vegetables throne, and Kikunosuke and Yurinoshin were Haruna's personal ninja bodyguards named Kikunojō and Yurinojō. It was also explained that a dangerous group of ninja called the Criminal Brothers conjured a coup d'état and captured the Land of Vegetables' daimyō. Fearing that their combined skills would not be enough to protect Haruna, Kikunojō and Yurinojō hired Konoha for extra help, but pretended it was an escort mission because they were low on money. Naruto was furious when he learned that Haruna purposely decided to use the innocent merchants as a decoy for her escape from the Criminal Brothers. Later, he was told that Haruna has lost her faith in others because of her troubled past of growing up away from home for years in a terrible land.

Later, the youngest brother of the the group and the one who killed Kikunojō, Ruiga attacked Naruto and his team. Despite outnumbered, Ruiga's unique water technique easily overpowered his enemies. Fortunately, an attack was already predicted and Hinata escaped with Haruna. After Yurinojō realised Ruiga's technique wouldn't work in dry areas, he along with Naruto and Chōji lured Ruiga into a canyon to cut off his water supply and were able to defeat him. Unfortunately, Yurinojō sustained an injury, causing Chōji to stay with him while Naruto went after Hinata and Haruna. Naruto then discovered that Haruna knocked out Hinata and ran away. While looking for Haruna, the second brother, Jiga, appeared. Armed with a magnetic wave manipulating jutsu, Naruto was quickly defeated by his enemy. Fortunately, Hinata arrived and used her Gentle Fist to turn Jiga's own technique against him by tampering with his chakra network, causing Jiga to become buried in iron sand. Afterwards, Naruto leaves an exhausted Hinata in Chōji and Yurinojō's care while he went off to find Haruna, knowing that she needs help and to regain faith in others.

After finding Haruna, they were ambushed by the eldest brother of the group, Renga. Naruto faced off against Renga, but his unique ability to create ice disks out of the moisture in the air allowed him to repel all of Naruto's attacks and force him on the defensive. After hearing from Renga planned to kill his brothers later so he could keep all the profits for himself and how Haruna's father gave her up for the country's safety but deeply despised himself for it, Haruna realised her outlook in life was wrong. When Renga began using his disks to create heat beams from the sun's rays, Naruto used his forehead protector to reflect the beam on Renga and defeat him. Afterwards, Haruna found herself with a chance to kill Renga and avenge her father, but she chose not to after being inspired by Naruto's selflessness. Later after being crowned daimyō, Haruna decided to become a ruler with the same kind of compassion. She also asked Naruto to be her advisor, but Naruto unfortunately declined as he still desired to save Sasuke.

While going through a standard check-up with Tsunade, Naruto learned that Lee's recovery from his injuries during the Chūnin Exams was still questionable. Later, Naruto and Tenten went to check on Lee just in time to see him in a practice match against young prodigy named Yagura. To Naruto, Tenten, and Guy's amazement, not only was Yagura able to push Lee back in taijutsu combat, but was also able to use an advanced taijutsu technique to nearly break Lee's ankle. Later when Naruto and Tenten were worrying about Lee's well-being, Neji convinced them to have faith in Lee as Neji had learned, stating bluntly that Lee has the potential to surpass any prodigy despite his shortcomings because of his dedication.

Later when Guy went on a mission with Yagura, it was discovered that the boy, who was with Guy, was actually an impostor. Tsunade quickly sent Neji, Tenten, and Naruto to go after Guy. Tsunade also decided not to tell Lee in fear he would follow them despite his ankle injury. Upon catching up with Guy, it was discovered that he was already captured by a ninja team of brothers who wielded a unique Puppet Technique that controlled wooden training dummies and were on a mission of revenge against Guy for their father's death. While Naruto and the team managed to fight back the dummies, Lee surprisingly showed up and rushed to aid his sensei. As Naruto and the team began to tire, Guy and Lee managed to defeat the brother's dummy fortress and break the technique. Afterwards, Guy revealed to everyone the story behind his battle with the brothers' father, making the brothers realise that their father didn't have contempt for Guy, but respect. This meant their desire for revenge was pointless.

With so much new construction and expansion going on in Konoha, workers from outside the village were also being hired to help in the project, including an old man named Gennō. Shortly after meeting each other at Ichiraku, Naruto and Gennō became close. It turned out that Gennō was in fact a legendary ninja from Kagerō Village, who was infamous as a strategist.

One night, Gennō finally began his plan against Konoha and stole several building blueprints. After being cornered by the ANBU, Gennō decided to end things by blowing himself up. Later, after Tsunade sent every available ninja above genin rank (except Shikamaru) on a mission to secure the Land's of Fire border from a possible attack that Gennō spoke of from Takigakure. Tsunade assembled Naruto and the other genin to aid Shikamaru in locating the stolen blueprints. Naruto was horrified to find out the kind man he grew attached to was actually an enemy of the village.

Later, Naruto was taken in for questioning with the ANBU as he possibly would be the best lead to discovering Gennō's plans. Even with hypnosis the ANBU were unable to gather any useful information beyond that Gennō was nice to Naruto because he reminded Gennō of his grandson. Later, questions about Gennō's supposed death came up. It was then discovered that Gennō faked his death with a fake corpse. It was also discovered that the Takigakure had nothing to do with Gennō, meaning Gennō tricked Konoha into making itself almost completely unprotected.

The group's search for Gennō soon took them to the Academy, where it was discovered that an enormous chain of expolsive tags were planted starting from it, and leading all over the village. The group then immediately went to work safely removing the explosive tags. Thanks to help from Homura Mitokado and Koharu Utatane, it was discovered that Gennō had actually planted most of them over thirty years ago. This meant Gennō came to the village once before. It was then learned that thirty years ago, Gennō's village was at war with Konoha. In the end, Konoha was able to destroy the village with a sneak attack. Two days later, however, another rival village came and destroyed the remnants of the village. Meanwhile Naruto remembered that whenever he ate ramen with Gennō, he was frequently gazing at the Hokage Monument. This prompted Naruto to go investigate the mountain. Inside, he found Gennō was indeed alive and had planted several explosive tags inside the monument. Gennō revealed that the explosive tags all over the village were just another decoy. Gennō's real goal was to cause a rock slide from the Hokage Monument to destroy the village.

The group arrived in time after Shikamaru correctly deduced Gennō's true goal and disarmed his main means of triggering the tags. Not willing to give up, Gennō summoned a giant bird to activate them manually from the monument of the Third Hokage. With his friends help, Naruto was able to stop the bird with his Rasengan. Later, Gennō died as it was discovered that he was incredibly ill. It was also revealed his grandson was actually his son, and after getting to know Naruto, decided instead of revenge to have one last fun "game". He did so by tampering with several of his explosive tags to at most leave a few weak cracks in the Hokage Monument. After learning the truth, Naruto realised that the village has to be prepared for real enemies who desire the village's destruction, and he decided more than ever to train hard.

While continuing his solo training, Naruto came across a young girl painting portrait of Konoha. While watching her do so, she strangely drew a bolt of lightning striking the village. To Naruto's shock, the village suddenly did get struck by lightning, causing the Ninja Academy to become engulfed in flames. While following the girl to figure things out, Naruto was stopped by two medical-nin and an ANBU who drugged and took her somewhere. Naruto soon returned to the village only to learn that recently, Kurenai gave up her position as sensei of Team 8.

Not wanting his friends to be sad, Naruto went to find Kurenai and try to reason with her. After failing to make Kurenai change her mind, Naruto went to talk to Tsunade. Instead of doing so, he bumped into Sakura who revealed that Kurenai quit because of new development from an old student of hers named Yakumo Kurama, a student with an unheard of natural aptitude for genjutsu. Deciding to investigate further, Naruto found Yakumo at her family's mansion and disguised himself as Kurenai to gain access. Inside, he found several pictures of various horrors, including the image of Kurenai being stabbed in the heart. Seeing this picture somehow caused Naruto become suddenly struck by an overwhelming fear as if he himself was stabbed and a vision of a demonic looking Yakumo. After being discovered, Naruto was drugged and knocked out. While so, Naruto had a dream about Yakumo and Kurenai which showed that despite Yakumo badly wanting to be a ninja, Kurenai refused to let her and instead decided to perform a fūinjutsu to seal away her power.

Later, it was discovered that Yakumo came from a noble clan of Konoha that was once infamous for its high aptitude and strong usage of genjutsu but lost much of their reputation ever since Yakumo's parents, the head of the Kurama clan, died. It was also revealed that the Kurama clan had a very rare and powerful Kekkei genkai, but without proper guidance was deemed too dangerous. Naruto was then joined up in a mission to protect Yakumo with Might Guy, Sakura, and Team 8 as Yakumo was being targeted by members of the Kurama clan, including Yakumo's uncle Unkai. Naruto and his team managed to find Yakumo, who was protected by Kurenai in time to save them from the Kurama clan. After Sakura treated Kurenai and Yakumo, Yakumo revealed to Naruto that she was put under Kurenai's care back then because of a special order from the Third Hokage due to Yakumo's weak body but strong and unstable powers. She also revealed that she overheard the Third Hokage talking to Kurenai about the Kurama clan's power being a threat to the village that had to be dealt with. To Naruto's even greater shock, Yakumo's parents were killed in a horrible fire that Yakumo suspected was the Third Hokage's doing. Then upon returning to the village, the team found it in ruins with no signs of life. While searching for others, Naruto was found by Unkai. He explained to Naruto that the "destroyed" village was actually a giant genjutsu casted by Yakumo. Unkai also explained that he and the Kurama clan were after Yakumo because they feared her powers were becoming too unstable and dangerous for the village's safety. He explained that Yakumo's Kekkei genkai allows her to cast genjutsu that stimulate the mind so much, that it can cause actual damage, even to the point of death. The problem is, without proper care and training, the Kekkei genkai's power can turn against the user by creating a second, highly dangerous, personality known as Ido. Because of this, the Third Hokage and Kurenai realised there was no choice but to destroy Yakumo's power before the second mind took over.

Willing to sacrifice himself, Unkai knocked Naruto out to block his senses, making the genjutsu powerless and helping Naruto to escape. Doing so unfortunately let Unkai terribly wounded. Naruto and Team 8 quickly went after Kurenai and Yakumo, only to be caught in another of her genjutsu. Despite Kurenai's pleas for Naruto not to, Naruto began telling Yakumo the truth about her powers. Doing so caused her to finally remember how her parents died, which caused her inner-demon to finally break free. While Naruto had a heated struggled against it, Kurenai pleaded with Yakumo to help as she was the only one who could stop it. While scared and unsure of herself, Yakumo was convinced by Kurenai that this was still her power and could learn to make this power a great tool if she overcame the darkness. Yakumo managed to destroy the monster and save Naruto, finally purging herself of the darkness. Afterwards, it was learned that all this time, Yakumo still cared for Kurenai as a mother-figure. With Kurenai's final mission from the Third Hokage finally completed, Kurenai felt she could now resume her role as leader of Team 8. While Naruto was happy for his friends, this adventure reminded him that he still had to worry about his inner demon and save Sasuke from his darkness.

Naruto,Rock Lee, and Sakura were ordered to help escort a wanted criminal ninja named Gantetsu, who was a member of a criminal group called Shinobazu, to the Land of Forests's capital to be interrogated and standing trial. Upon arriving to their mission, Naruto and the others met Todoroki, one of the head guards. He quickly made it clear that he didn't want the young ninja's assistance. It was clear that for some reason, he had especially high anger towards Gantetsu. During the transfer through a river, the Shinobazu attacked and caused Naruto, Todoroki, and Gantetsu to be separated from the rest of the group. After a short skirmish with the Shinobazu's leader, Shura, they fell off a waterfall, forcing Shura to retreat. While Naruto managed to survive with Todoroki and Gantetsu, they were now lost in a maze-like forest which was also the Shinobazu's home territory. Surprisingly, Gantetsu offered to lead them through it. He explained to Naruto and Todoroki that the Shinobazu were after him to get the money Gantetsu stole from them back and then kill him. Along the way, one of the Shinobazu members, Toki, found and attacked them. With help from Gantetsu, Naruto was able to defeat him. In doing so, Gantetsu had gained Naruto's trust, but Todoroki's rage towards the man seemed to grow even greater.

It was then revealed that Gantetsu killed Todoroki's family five years ago. After learning what happened to his family, Todoroki joined the Land of Forests's police to find his family's killers and trained extensively so he could get revenge. Finally giving into his anger, Todoroki decided he would kill Gantetsu now. Then, another member of Shinobazu appeared named Monju. He captured Gantetsu in a net of steel string and caught Naruto and Todoroki in a constricting trap of more steel string. Later after Monju left with Gantetsu, Naruto and Todoroki used their sweat to weaken the strings and broke free. Naruto then caught up with Gantetsu and Monju, who was fighting Sakura, Lee, and strangely a group of kids. With some Shadow Clone tactics, Naruto was able to defeat Monju. Unfortunately, Shura then emerged and took one of the kids after Monju told him the boy knew where their treasure was.

The boy turned out to actually be Todotoki's younger brother Akio. Todoroki, who arrived not too long ago, refused to believe it. It was explained that while Gantetsu was once a true member of the Shinobazu, after witnessing the pointless slaughtering his gang was doing, he began secretly saving children from Shinobazu's attacks and sheltering them, starting with Akio. After time, the children began looking to Gantetsu as a father-figure and became a new family. Eventually, he decided that his actions of merely sheltering people wasn't enough and decided to put an end to Shinobazu. He then formulated a plan to steal from them their stolen goods and get caught by the police, knowing that this would drag out Shinobazu and give the opportunity needed to stop them permanently. Despite learning the truth, Todoroki refused to forgive Gantetsu as he still helped in the murder of his parents.

Naruto, Todoroki, and Lee then Gantetsu then joined in saving Akio while Sakura stayed behind to watch the orphans. Upon arriving at the base, Todoroki accidently set of the alarms. They soon found Akio, only to be caught in a trap set by Shura, who set the building on fire. Naruto left Todoroki and Gantetsu to save Akio while he went after Shura. With the assistance of his Shadow Clones, he was able to catch up to Shura and defeat him with a Rasengan. Later with the Shinobazu destroyed, Todoroki grudgingly decided to let Gantetsu go and watch over the orphans, swearing he would tell his superiors Gantetsu was killed in the fire. Todoroki also grudgingly decided to let his brother Akio stay and help Gantetsu.

While searching for a special bamboo ingredient for his next ramen meal, Naruto came across a young man floating in the river. Quickly, he took him to the village hospital. It was then discovered that the young man had no memory of who he was. There were no clues to who he was beyond and ocarina the boy was carrying. Later the following night, lightning struck the hospital, causing it to burst into flames. The young man, who was still being cared for in the hospital, quickly acted by saving an infant with the aid of strange technique performed with his ocarina. To thank him, Tsunade decided to let the boy stay in the village for the time being, as long as he stayed with Naruto. Naruto then decided to name him Menma, a name he came up with from the bamboo he found. As time went on, "Menma" showed himself to be very considerate and giving, as he began doing all kinds of chores around the village even without being asked first.

While cleaning the Hokage Monument, an unknown man attacked Naruto. At first Naruto was forced on the defence, until Menma played another melody on his ocarina, which somehow gave Naruto a tremendous surge of chakra to overwhelm the man. This forced the man to retreat and Naruto to wonder who Menma really was. After telling Tsunade about the incident, Tsunade theorised Menma might be from the Land of Rice Fields that was known for music-based techniques. After begging her, Naruto and Menma were allowed to go, along with Neji and Tenten. They were sent along as Tsunade feared Menma might be affiliated with Orochimaru as one of his subordinates, Tayuya used a similar techniques style.

On their journey, they came across a small village in ruins. The sight of the destruction seemed to horrify Menma for some reason. Soon after, Naruto and the others were attacked by the villagers. Despite their unexplained hostility, the villagers stopped attacking after learning they were from the Konohagakure. Before the team left the village, one of the villagers approached them and begged for their help. She explained that because of the gold mine at the foot of the village, it has been subjected to a terrible attack by rogue ninja from the Otogakure, costing the village countless lives. Thanks to Menma's insisting, it was decided to stay and help the village. Naruto and Menma then began making a wall to aid in protecting the village from the next attack. Eventually, the rest of the village was inspired to help make the wall.

While still working on the wall, the man who attacked Naruto and Menma earlier attacked again. In the scuffle, Menma was injured while saving the village leader. While treating his wound, it was shockingly discovered a tattoo on Menma that revealed he was actually a member of missing-nin. Despite the village's anger towards him, they were talked into helping Menma. Soon after, the rouge ninja attacked again, led by the man from earlier. After managing to fight back the enemies, Menma, who seemed to have regained his memories, revealed he knew gang leader's, Shiin, backup plan; to blow a large dam to flood the entire village. Menma asked Naruto bring him to the mines where he planted several explosive tags there to counter Shiin's plan. Along the way, Menma revealed he was indeed a member of that gang. He explained that he was taken in by them when he was young, but never realised how evil they really were until they attacked the village. Menma explained that after being taken to the Konoha, he pretended to have amnesia to live a peaceful life even for a short while, and to get help from Konoha in stopping his clan's horrible actions on the small village.

While Naruto was initially furious at Menma for all his lies, he soon sympathised with him for his troubled past and realised Menma's intentions behind his lies were pure. Menma then gave Naruto his ocarina as a parting gift before pushing him into a canyon river and setting off the explosive tags at the cost of his own life. While it succeeded in stopping Shiin's plan, Naruto was furious at the loss of his friend and defeated Shiin with his Rasengan. Later back at the village, Naruto finally had the special ramen he was waiting for Ichiraku to prepare and had in memory of Menma.

Sakura, Shikamaru and Naruto discussed the status report from Temari saying that she and her brothers are going to become involved in their village's new shinobi training program.

In Sunagakure, the three siblings were shown leading a combat training class. One of the students, a shy, quiet girl named Matsuri, was reluctant to use something that could hurt someone else, so Gaara taught her to use a defensive weapon, the Rope Javelin. They became friends.

After word reached Konoha that Gaara and his team needed help against a group of ninja called the Four Celestial Symbols Men from the Takumi Village who kidnapped Matsuri, Naruto joined the rest of the Konoha 11 (minus Tenten) under Shikamaru's command to help. Naruto was particularly glad he could finally pay Gaara back for helping them during Sasuke's defection. Quickly, Shikamaru formulated a strategy to best handle the situation and had Naruto pair up with Lee for main offensive assistance. The two arrived in time to save Gaara from Suiko, an opponent with chakra-absorbing armour after being struck by a Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet Technique. After Gaara recovered with help from Sakura's medical Ninjutsu, he took over for Naruto and Lee to finish off Suiko. Afterwards, Gaara went on ahead. He stopped just before going into the canyon, and was shown to be worried about Matsuri. Naruto followed soon after.

Naruto arrived in time to see Gaara facing off against the leader of the Four Celestial Symbols Men, Hōki, now armed with all the unique weapons of his allies. Unfortunately, Gaara was still too exhausted to properly fight back. Naruto quickly went to help Gaara. After Hoki shouted his anger towards the Five Great Shinobi Countries for overlooking his village's greatness as weapon makers and vowing to destroy them, he trapped Gaara in a giant iron sphere which began absorbing the chakra of Shukaku, the one-tailed demon inside Gaara. Doing so slowly began to make Gaara transform into Shukaku. Hōki then used that chakra and himself as a sacrifice to perform a resurrection technique with the intent of reviving the Takumi Village founder, Seimei. Quickly after emerging, Seimei reconfigured the weapons of Hōki as armour for himself. Seimei then began siphoning off Shukaku's chakra, making Naruto repeatedly try to break Gaara free.

Eventually, Gaara's transformation process proved too great for the prison to handle. While Seimei was looking forward to facing Shukaku, Gaara was able to suppress Shukaku and revert to normal, amazing Naruto and everyone else who appeared. While everyone else didn't understand why Gaara wouldn't take advantage of Shukaku's power, Kankurō explained that Gaara was determined to rely on his own power from now on. Gaara then used his remaining chakra to turn some of the canyon around them into sand and crushed Seimei, finally ending the battle and saving Matsuri. As everyone rushed to help Gaara who fainted shortly afterwards, Kankurō noted to Naruto how he finally found someone who he can relate to.

Later while Naruto was recovering at the village, Jiraiya showed up. After explaining how he had spent the past few months gathering information about the Akatsuki, he told Naruto he was finally ready to train him for the next two years. Gaara's siblings and his student left for Sunagakure.

After recovering and having one last bowl of ramen with Iruka, Naruto finally set off with Jiraiya to begin his training, vowing to become strong enough to free Sasuke from Orochimaru when he returned.

Kazekage Rescue arc
When Naruto returned to Konoha, the remaining members of Team 7 were reorganised into Team Kakashi. As their first order of business, Kakashi gave them another bell test, this time the only goal being to take a bell, and that he would use his Sharingan against them. Although their abilities had improved, Naruto and Sakura were still unable to beat Kakashi, and it was only by threatening to spoil the end of the latest Icha Icha novel that they distracted Kakashi long enough to take the bells. Naruto reconnected with his old friends, who had all advanced to chūnin-rank or higher, and then heard that Gaara, the new Kazekage, had been kidnapped by Akatsuki. Naruto and Team Kakashi set out for Sunagakure to save him.

Upon arrival in Sunagakure, Chiyo was added to Team Kakashi as an adviser, and they followed Akatsuki's trail. Along the way, they encountered a body-double of Uchiha Itachi, which engaged them in battle. Kakashi and Naruto teamed up in order to defeat the lookalike, before continuing onto the Akatsuki lair. There, they found Gaara's body in the possession of Deidara and Sasori. When Deidara flew off with Gaara, Naruto and Kakashi pursued him, leaving Sasori to Chiyo and Sakura. While initially unable to catch Deidara, Kakashi was able to use his Mangekyō Sharingan to distract Deidara, giving Naruto an opportunity to attack him and retrieve Gaara. Deidara escaped, and Naruto and Kakashi reunited with Sakura and Chiyo.

Although Sakura tried to heal Gaara, he had already died, a casualty of Akatsuki's tailed beast extraction-process. Angered that Gaara had died because he was a jinchūriki, something he had never asked for and had suffered because of his whole life, Naruto lashed out at Chiyo, the one who had sealed Shukaku into Gaara in the first place. To make up for what she had done, Chiyo, with the help of Naruto, restored Gaara back to life, at the cost of her own. Gaara awakened surrounded by his rescue party and the ninja from Sunagakure. After Chiyo's funeral, Naruto and Gaara finally shake hands (Gaara insisting), as a sign to their close relationship. Afterwards, Team Kakashi and Team Guy returned to Konoha.

Konoha History arc
While the exhausted Naruto was returning to the village, Kakashi found him and carried him back. He was greeted by the entire village and celebrated as a hero.

Video Games
Naruto Uzumaki is a playable character in the following video games:
 * Jump Ultimate Stars 23 November 2006
 * Naruto RPG 2: Chidori vs. Rasengan 14 July 2005
 * Naruto SD Powerful Shippūden 29 November 2012 5 March 2013
 * Naruto Shippūden 3D: The New Era 31 March 2011 24 June 2011
 * Naruto Shippūden: Clash of Ninja Revolution 3 17 November 2009
 * Naruto Shippūden: Dragon Blade Chronicles 26 November 2009 16 November 2010
 * Naruto Shippūden: Gekitō Ninja Taisen! EX 22 February 2007
 * Naruto Shippūden: Gekitō Ninja Taisen! EX 2 29 November 2007
 * Naruto Shippūden: Gekitō Ninja Taisen! EX 3 27 November 2008
 * Naruto Shippūden: Gekitō Ninja Taisen! Special 2 December 2010
 * Naruto Shippūden: Kizuna Drive 15 July 2010 22 March 2011
 * Naruto Shippūden: Legends: Akatsuki Rising 6 October 2009
 * Naruto Shippūden: Naruto vs. Sasuke 4 July 2008 6 November 2010
 * Naruto Shippūden: Ninja Council 4 19 July 2007 2 June 2009
 * Naruto Shippūden: Ninja Destiny 2 24 April 2008 15 September 2009
 * Naruto Shippūden: Ninja Destiny 3 28 April 2009
 * Naruto Shippūden: Shinobi Rumble 22 April 2010 8 February 2011
 * Naruto Shippūden: Ultimate Ninja 4 5 April 2007 24 March 2009
 * Naruto Shippūden: Ultimate Ninja 5 20 December 2007 27 November 2009
 * Naruto Shippūden: Ultimate Ninja Heroes 3 10 December 2009 11 May 2010
 * Naruto Shippūden: Ultimate Ninja Impact 20 October 2011 18 October 2011
 * Naruto Shippūden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 2 21 October 2010 19 October 2010
 * Naruto Shippūden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 18 April 2013 5 March 2013
 * Naruto Shippūden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Generations 23 February 2012 13 March 2012
 * Naruto Shippūden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Revolution
 * Naruto: Clash of Ninja 11 April 2003 7 March 2006
 * Naruto: Clash of Ninja 2 4 December 2003 24 November 2006
 * Naruto: Clash of Ninja Revolution 23 October 2007
 * Naruto: Clash of Ninja Revolution 2 21 October 2008
 * Naruto: Gekitō Ninja Taisen! 3 20 November 2004
 * Naruto: Gekitō Ninja Taisen! 4 21 November 2005
 * Naruto: Konoha Senki 12 September 2003
 * Naruto: Ninja Council 1 May 2003 22 March 2006
 * Naruto: Ninja Council 2 29 April 2004 10 October 2006
 * Naruto: Ninja Council 3 27 April 2006 22 May 2007
 * Naruto: Ninja Destiny 14 December 2006 20 March 2008
 * Naruto: Path of the Ninja 22 July 2004 23 October 2007
 * Naruto: Path of the Ninja 2 13 July 2006 14 October 2008
 * Naruto: Rise of a Ninja 30 October 2007
 * Naruto: Shinobi no Sato no Jintori Kassen 26 June 2003
 * Naruto: The Broken Bond 18 November 2008
 * Naruto: Ultimate Ninja 23 October 2003 26 June 2006
 * Naruto: Ultimate Ninja 2 30 September 2004 12 June 2007
 * Naruto: Ultimate Ninja 3 22 December 2005 25 March 2008
 * Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Heroes 28 August 2007
 * Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Heroes 2: The Phantom Fortress 30 March 2006 24 June 2008
 * Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm 15 January 2009 4 November 2008
 * Naruto: Uzumaki Chronicles 18 September 2005 16 November 2006
 * Naruto: Uzumaki Chronicles 2 16 November 2006 4 September 2007

Throughout the games, different non-canon variants of Naruto have appeared as playable characters. Those include Naruto wearing his Might Guy jump suit, Naruto from Shippū! Konoha Gakuen Den! and Mecha-Naruto, who was designed by Masashi Kishimoto as an exclusive character for Naruto Shippūden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Revolution.

Quotes

 * (To Hatake Kakashi) "And my future dream is to be the greatest Hokage! Then the whole village will stop disrespecting me and start treating me like I'm somebody. Somebody important!"
 * (To Ibiki) "Don't underestimate me! I don't quit and I don't run! You can act tough all you want! You're not gonna scare me off! No way! I don't care if I DO get stuck as a genin for the rest of my life! I'll still be Hokage someday!"
 * (To Hyuga Neji) "I'm not gonna run away, I never go back on my word! That's my nindō: my ninja way!"
 * (To Gaara) "It's almost unbearable, isn't it… the pain of being all alone. I know that feeling; I've been there, in that dark and lonely place, but now there are others, other people who mean a lot to me. I care more about them than I do myself, and I won't let anyone hurt them. That's why I'll never give up. I will stop you, even if I have to kill you! They saved me from myself. They rescued me from my loneliness. They were the first to accept me as who I am. They're my friends."
 * (To Sai (Naruto)) "I don't care who I have to fight… If he rips my arms off, I'll kick him to death. If he rips my legs off, I'll bite him to death. If he rips my head off, I'll stare him to death. And if he gouges out my eyes, I'll curse him to death… Even if I'm torn to shreds… I will take Sasuke back!"
 * (To Pain) "You should give up… on me giving up!"
 * (To Nagato, reciting a line from Jiraiya's first book) "Then I will break that curse. If there's such thing as peace, I will find it. I won't give up!"
 * (To Uchiha Sasuke) "If you attack Konoha, I will have to fight you… So save up your hatred and take it all on me, I'm the only one who can take it! It's the only thing I can do! I will shoulder your hatred and die with you! Because I'm your friend!"
 * (To Uzumaki Kushina) "Don't apologise… I had a lot of hard times growing up as a jinchūriki, but I never blamed you or Dad. I couldn't understand what a parent's love was like because you guys were never there… so I could only guess… But now I know… I live because you and Dad gave your lives for me and filled me up with love before the Nine-Tails was inside me! So here I am, happy and healthy! I'm glad I ended up being your son!"
 * (To A) "Yes, he might have died… but together, he and my mom protected Konoha from the Nine-Tails! They protected me! It may have only been for a second, but in that second, they gave me so much… their faith! Faith that I could finish their jobs! Faith that I could fulfil the role of a 'saviour!'"
 * (To Kurama) "You're not the monster fox anymore. You're one of my team-mates from Konoha… Kurama."
 * (To Obito and Madara) "You guys piss me off so much that I can't even put it into words… So I'll just tell you something about me… I'm not trash!! And I'll never become trash either!! I won't let you kill my comrades!!"
 * (To Kakashi) "That's why we endure… We are ninja. I will never forget. And anyway, that wound means that my friends are still inside me. The real friends are not the ones I created in my dreams not to get hurt… That would be erasing the real ones. It can work as a curse but I don't care… I want to keep the real Neji here!!"
 * (To Uchiha Obito) "Quit it with your stupid reasoning! I meant to say that I'll stand any pain for my friends!! I'm not gonna give up on them!! It might just be me being selfish, but… not having my friends here… is the most painful thing for me!! Period!!!!!"
 * (To himself, relayed to surviving members of the Allied Shinobi Forces) "That time I should have called out to him. I thought about it over and over. That's why… I… don't want regrets. I don't want to think,"I should have done it!!" And I don't want all the things we did to be turned to nothing!"

Relationships
"Quit it with your stupid reasoning! I meant to say that I'll stand any pain for my friends!! I'm not gonna give up on them!! It might just be me being selfish, but… not having my friends here… is the most painful thing for me!! Period!!!!" - Uzumaki Naruto

Due to his friendly nature and his unique charisma, Naruto Uzumaki 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 lasting friendships.

Kurama
"Naruto… If you really want to do something for us… then do what you've always done… Prove it to us with your actions! That's who you are!"

A relationship that shaped Naruto's character, albeit unintentionally, was with the tailed beast that was sealed within him since the day he was born, Kurama — the Nine-Tails. Because he was the fox's jinchūriki, though never learning why, Naruto was hated and shunned by most of the villagers and his peers. Even after learning the truth, the isolation only convinced Naruto to desire their acknowledgement prior to meeting Kurama and consciously accessing its chakra. However, having intense hatred and distrust against humans. Kurama plotted to use Naruto's dependence on its power to gain control over him and eventually break free from the seal. When Naruto resolved to use his own power after accidentally hurting Sakura, Kurama became very antagonistic and made several attempts to influence Naruto, before it was bested in combat and stripped of most of its chakra.

However, their relationship soon began to change during the Fourth Shinobi World War, when the young shinobi promised to someday resolve its hatred. Despite Kurama reproaching him for making such a claim, the fox nevertheless had developed a level of respect for Naruto and his determination, even noting that he was different from the humans it had previously encountered, eventually allowing Naruto to utilise the Nine-Tails Chakra Mode without consequence. Kurama then intentionally aided Naruto when the reincarnated Madara was fighting against one of Naruto's shadow clones and the Fourth Division.

Afterwards, Naruto told Son Gokū of his desire to save the tailed beasts and admitted that he was jealous of Killer B's dynamic relationship with Gyūki and wanted the same with Kurama. Kurama — having witnessed all of the challenges and endeavours Naruto had in his life — stood by to see if Naruto could truly aid its brethren through his actions.[8] When Naruto successfully freed Son Gokū from Obito's control, Kurama finally became convinced of Naruto's word and offered to meld its chakra with his as a coalition, to which Naruto then removed the seal that restrained it and happily acknowledged the fox as his team-mate from Konoha.

Their relationship has greatly improved by this action, as shown when Kurama pulled Naruto into the other tailed beasts' subconscious, and teased Naruto about his first and only kiss with Sasuke.Within that short space of time, the two instantly gained utmost trust in one another, even to the point where Naruto would allow Kurama to momentarily take control of his body without worry. Later on, when Obito tried to instil doubt into Naruto as an attempt to weaken his resolve, Kurama asked Naruto to switch once again long enough to reveal that it was sealed within Naruto to give the boy the strength to stop him while proclaiming itself as Naruto's friend, along with the confidence in its jinchūriki's ability to live up to the legacy Minato and Jiraiya left him. When Naruto fell into despair over Neji's death, Kurama, with Hinata's aid, managed to break him out of it by reminding him over how his parents died for him as Neji did without a second thought over how his life has an unshakable bond.

Uzumaki Kushina & Namikaze Minato
"You will find the answer… I believe in you." - Namikaze Minato Throughout most of the series, Naruto never knew his parents due to Hiruzen's attempt to keep his lineage a secret as a way to protect the boy. However, despite not knowing that the Fourth Hokage was his father, Naruto had expressed the utmost respect for his father Namikaze Minato. Though angry at Minato's chakra imprint at first once learning of their relation and that it was his own father who sealed Kurama inside of him, Naruto quickly got over his anger and expressed pride in being the Fourth Hokage's son.

During his training to control Kurama's power, Naruto tearfully embraced his mother Uzumaki Kushina when her chakra imprint came to his aid. After learning how his parents met and how they died in what actually occurred during Kurama's attack on Konoha, Naruto told his mother that he could finally understand what a parent's love felt like and that he didn't blame her or Minato, instead he felt glad to be their son.

On his way to the Fourth Shinobi World War, Naruto defended his parents with vigour when the Raikage A insulted Minato on how he failed as the "Child of the Prophecy" upon his death. Naruto also explained to A that despite the fact his parents died shortly after he was born, their love and faith in him made him strong.

Umino Iruka
"Yeah… the monster fox would do that… but Naruto is different. I've acknowledged him as… one of my excellent students. He may not be the hardest worker… and he is clumsy and no one accepts him… but he already knows what it is to feel pain inside your heart. He isn't the monster fox. He is a member of the Konohagakure. He's Uzumaki Naruto!"

As it was because of his parents' death by Kurama's attack that he suffered a miserable childhood, Iruka initially found it awkward to become a teacher to Naruto, before eventually deciding to be strict with the boy so he could work harder and reach his potential. In time, learning from Sarutobi Hiruzen that the boy acted out with his antics to be acknowledged as he had in his youth, Iruka understood Naruto's loneliness and went out of his way to connect with the boy outside the classroom — treating Naruto like a younger brother. As a result, after Naruto learned of his nature as a jinchūriki and Kurama's role in the deaths of his teacher's parents, Iruka confidently believed in Naruto as a ninja of their village and nothing else. Ultimately, Naruto began looking up Iruka as a father-figure, when he admitted it to Sasuke at the Valley of the End.

Even after Naruto graduated, Iruka still treats his former student at the Ramen Ichiraku whenever he returns from a mission. Though times like that allow him an opportunity to see how Naruto is developing as a ninja, Iruka still tends to worry about him. During the Fourth Shinobi World War, Iruka was among the ninja assigned to keep an unaware Naruto safe from the army Obito amassed to take him and Killer B by force. But once Naruto learned of the war, Iruka attempted to talk Naruto out participating in the fight until the youth reminded him of the confidence he had in him years ago. Staging an apparent capture of him while secretly giving his former student a message to come back alive, Iruka was assured by Killer B that he and his teachings are with Naruto in his heart.

Hatake Kakashi
"Naruto has a mysterious ability… even without saying much, he can become friends with anyone."

Hatake Kakashi is the leader of Team 7, the squad Naruto was assigned to after becoming a genin, and one of his first mentors after becoming an official ninja. Initially seeing Naruto as a slacker, Kakashi soon came to understand that Naruto's unpredictability was his greatest asset and also came to believe in Naruto's style as Konoha's "number one most unpredictable ninja". In turn, Naruto would cherish the lessons he learned from Kakashi about friendship and teamwork. After he came back from training with Jiraiya, Kakashi would train Naruto in nature transformation and acknowledged that he was the only one who could surpass his sensei the Fourth Hokage. With Kakashi's help, Naruto was able to create and master the Wind Release: Rasenshuriken which would become one of the most powerful techniques in his arsenal. Kakashi sees much of his beloved friend Obito inside Naruto and has noted that his ideal and even personality are much like the Uchiha's when he was a child. Naruto's firm resolution in his beliefs has many a time helped Kakashi find the resolve to fight on most recently during the tumultuous Fourth Shinobi World War.

Jiriaya
"Never go back on your word… and never give up. That's your ninja way… and as your mentor… I have no business whining! Because… the student's ninja way should be the master's too! Isn't that so, Naruto?!"

Even before Naruto met him, Jiraiya indirectly played a role in his life as he was mentor to both Namikaze Minato and to Nagato due to being foretold that a student under him would be destined for greatness. He was also the one who gave Naruto his name, with the boy named after the protagonist in his "The Tale of the Utterly Gutsy Shinobi" novel, thus making him Naruto's godfather. Because of Orochimaru's defection, and learning of the Akatsuki's existence, Jiraiya was forced to leave the village to spy on the organisation and was unable to take care of his godson during the first twelve years of his life. Jiraiya would only meet Naruto years later during the boy's first Chūnin Exam, being labelled '"Perverted Hermit" (エロ仙人, Ero-sennin; English TV "Pervy Sage").

While more perverted than Naruto, Jiraiya has some similarities to his godson from a desire to bring peace to an unrequited affection for his former team-mate Tsunade. Since their meeting, Jiraiya and Naruto became close with the latter holding him in high regard as he took news of his mentor's death by Pain hard. After being moved to tears from reading "The Tale of the Utterly Gutsy Shinobi", Naruto confronts Jiraiya's killer and the true identity of Pain, his fellow pupil Nagato. Meeting Nagato face to face, Naruto declared that what he inherited from Jiraiya will help him bring peace in this world, and that if Jiraiya was willing to place his faith in him, then Naruto was willing to believe in himself and stated that he would find peace for the world. Naruto also made a memorial grave in honour of Jiraiya. In the Fourth Shinobi World War, when Tobi and Naruto argued about dreams, Naruto answered back that he thought of Jiraiya as a hero.

Throughout the series, Naruto has gained a vast network of friends and allies that even goes beyond the borders of Konoha with the members of the Konoha 11 being the closest to him. Recently during the Fourth Shinobi World War, his desire to protect his comrades and those dear to him has become so strong that his chakra responded to his subconscious will by going to their aid on its own.

In addition, the villagers of Konoha as a whole had a drastic change in the manner that they view Naruto: moving from what they viewed as a menace and looming threat because of Kurama sealed within him, to a citizen/hero of Konoha whom they genuinely care about and would even go as far as to risk their own lives to ensure that he was safe.

Haruno Sakura
"Always acting like a fool who only knows one thing… Hokage, Hokage. I'm sorry Naruto… that impossible dream of yours… I don't want to see it crushed!"

Naruto and Haruno Sakura have had a long-standing friendship that arose from shaky beginnings and gradually grew stronger over the course of the series, enforced by a mutual respect and trust that had not been present at first and a shared goal to return their former team-mate Sasuke Uchiha to the village. Their friendship also bears great resemblances to that of their Sannin masters, Jiraiya and Tsunade. Naruto had feelings for Sakura that have gone un-reciprocated as she in turn has feelings for Sasuke instead.

Back in the Academy days, Sakura, like most of their other peers, considered Naruto an annoyance because of his constant antics. She even went as far as to accredit his behaviour to the fact that he was an orphan, a statement which offended Sasuke when she shared this belief with him. Sasuke in turn admonished Sakura for saying that, which led Sakura to realise that she had gone too far and decided to be more pleasant towards Naruto from then on. Shortly after being assigned to Team 7, Sakura eventually began to see Naruto in a new light due to his constant dedication to his friends, and made good on her resolution to be nicer to Naruto, as shown when she explained the mechanism behind the Tree Climbing Practice during their mission in the Land of Waves, and was even willing to forfeit her entry into the Chūnin Exams upon realising that Naruto would not have been able to pass the first test, which would have resulted in him being stuck as a genin thus ending his dream to become Hokage.

Later, when she learned from Sasuke that Naruto was the one who saved her from Gaara during the invasion of Konoha, she was surprised, but grateful. By the time Sasuke defected from Konoha, realising her strong genuine feelings for their former team-mate, Naruto promised Sakura that he would do everything in his power to bring Sasuke back to her.

When Naruto returned from his training with Jiraiya after two years, he and Sakura soon fell into their old ways, displaying that their friendship had not suffered any during the time apart. Later, when Sai informed Sakura that the strain of making her happy and fulfilling his promise to her have been the source of Naruto's pain, she felt guilty for asking too much from Naruto and decided to stop Sasuke from sinking any lower by herself.Sakura tried to release Naruto from his promise by telling him that she loved him and not Sasuke any more, but Naruto and the others present immediately knew that she was lying.After Naruto saved Sakura from being killed by Sasuke and voiced his resolve that he would shoulder Sasuke's hatred as a friend, she was touched by Naruto's determination, for he had again given her hope that there may still be a happy ending for Team 7.

As the Fourth Shinobi World War reached its climax, Sakura resolved to aid Naruto in fighting Obito, stating that he didn't need to carry the burden alone and that everyone would be there to help him.Her understanding and care of Naruto was strengthened when he exclaimed how not having any friends was the most painful thing to him, to the point where she raised the morale of the Shinobi Alliance.[37] When the reincarnated Minato arrived to the battlefield, he asked Naruto if Sakura was his girlfriend, to which he replied with a "sort of", though his answer prompted Sakura to lash out at him for lying and told him to focus on the situation at hand.

After Sakura finally manifested her seal and displayed her increased strength by decimating several dozen miniature Ten-Tails clones with ease, it frightened Naruto enough to not joke around with her ever again.

Hyuga Hinata
"I used to always cry and give up… I made many wrong turns… But you… You helped me find the right path… I always chased after you… I wanted to catch up to you… I wanted to walk beside you all the time… I just wanted to be with you… You changed me! Your smile is what saved me! That is why I'm not afraid to die protecting you! Because… I love you…Naruto"

Unlike their peers who ostracised Naruto while growing up in the Academy, Hyuga Hinata instead admired him, for she was inspired by his enthusiasm and unyielding determination to never give up. She was one of the first to identify Naruto's painful childhood and his desire to be acknowledged, and she fiercely believed that he would one day achieve his goal of becoming Hokage. Hinata's long-standing admiration towards Naruto later grew into genuine care and affection, eventually leading her to fall in love with him.

Even though Naruto was oblivious to her feelings, he held Hinata in high regard because of her desire to change herself and be acknowledged, something that he could relate to. Naruto also held high expectations of her, such as during the Chūnin Exams, he declined her offer of copying her test due their risk of being disqualified, disbelieving at first that she would allow him to cheat off her.Later, he defended Hinata from Neji's contempt and even vowed with her own blood to defeat Neji in her place.When Naruto, for the first time, revealed his growing doubts about the match and his own abilities to Hinata, she reassured him that he never gave up because he always had the strength to overcome his own failures. Naruto gratefully thanked Hinata for bringing him out of his depression, and he said to her that even though he had thought of her as a shy and quiet girl, he really liked a person like her.

During the Invasion of Pain, Hinata came to Naruto's aid after he was pinned down by Pain. Though knowing she stood no chance against the stronger opponent, Hinata refused to leave Naruto behind, confessing her love and willingness to protect him, even at the cost of her own life. Left speechless upon hearing her confession, Naruto instantly erupted into a rage after he saw Hinata being struck down by the Akatsuki leader, allowing Kurama to take control and continued the battle with Pain.[40] However, once the fox was suppressed, Naruto was brought to tears of relief upon learning that Hinata was still alive. Naruto would later remind Hinata of this event during the Fourth Shinobi World War reassuring her that she was strong. When the Shinobi Alliance began to mobilise to aid Naruto and B against Tobi, Hinata made the decision to be together with Naruto once the war ended.

After Neji died protecting her and Naruto from the Ten-Tails and almost falling victim to Obito's rhetoric, Hinata reminded Naruto of their shared nindō, to bring him back from the edge. With her and Kurama's aid, Naruto's self-confidence was restored and he took Hinata's hand, thanking her for staying by his side before transferring Kurama's chakra into her.As the battle progressed, the Ten-Tails prepared to attack the injured Naruto directly, Hinata led a group of the Shinobi Alliance to protect him as Sakura healed his wounds.

Then later during the war, after taking down one of the Ten-Tails' mini-clones, Hinata continues to motivate herself to keep moving forward so that she could forever be at Naruto's side.

Hyuga Neji
"Naruto…sometimes your eyes are even better than mine."

In the beginning, Naruto developed a strong dislike towards Hyuga Neji due to his ideals that no one can ever change their fate. Furthermore, after Neji left his cousin Hinata in critical condition, Naruto vowed to beat him at their match.Their match proved not only a physical battle, but also a conflict of ideals with Neji losing on both accounts after revealing his own fight with his fate as a branch member of the Hyūga clan. When Naruto promised that he would change the fate of the Hyūga clan for him, Neji became a nicer person as he set aside his hatred for the main house, looking after Hinata as he trained with her, and desired to become strong enough to return the favour to Naruto.

Years after, Neji got his chance during the Fourth Shinobi World War when he and Hinata came to Naruto's aid in a plan to defeat the Ten-Tails. However, their defences proved no match for the monster, and Neji took a deathblow from the Ten-Tails meant for Naruto and Hinata. As Naruto pleaded why Neji sacrificed himself, the latter, reminding him of their battle years ago replied that Naruto called him a genius. Neji realised in his final moments that, like his father before him, he made the choice to die for those he holds dear.

Upon Neji's death, Naruto's resolve was shattered even further as Obito openly mocked Naruto for failing to protect his comrades. However, Hinata and Kurama managed to remind Naruto of his life not being just his own nor should he give up on Neji's death so easily. As his confidence was restored, Naruto thanked Hinata and admitted to himself how he'd never be able to thank Neji enough for everything he had done.Naruto then told a saddened Lee that he'll keep the real Neji in his heart forever and stated to Obito that Neji's will isn't dead and used his death to increase the morale of the Allied Forces.

Nara Shikamaru
"My master entrusted me with a lot, from big things to little things. It's the same for you, an unlimited number of things, don't you think it's about time for us, to be the ones who entrust, not the entrusted, it's a pain in the ass but I can't say that; Someday you'll be the one to treat others to ramen and you'll be called Master Naruto… we can't stay kids forever, like Asuma and Jiraiya, I wanna be as cool as them."

Nara Shikamaru was a "dead last" student like Naruto during their Academy days. Having noticed the way the other villagers ostracised Naruto, Shikamaru seemed to be one of the first of their peers to see him as more than as a jinchūriki. Furthermore, Shikamaru himself stated that something about Naruto compels him to follow him. Because of this, outside of the missions that may include them working together, Shikamaru would sometimes hang out with Naruto. Having lost his mentor Asuma Sarutobi prior, Shikamaru played a role in helping Naruto cope with Jiraiya's death. In the anime, during the Fourth Shinobi World War, Shikamaru asserted that he wishes to protect Naruto and also fight alongside him during the war.

When he was weakened by the Shinju, aware that Naruto was always alone, Shikamaru believed Naruto needed an intelligent brother figure, like Tobirama was to Hashirama, by his side, and resolved to be Naruto's adviser when he becomes Hokage so he would never have to be alone again.

Akimichi Choji
Originally one of Naruto's fellow "dead lasts" during their Academy days, Akimichi Choji, like his friend Shikamaru, mostly hangs out with Naruto when not on missions, usually going out to eat. Growing up alongside Naruto, he has witnessed Naruto's personal and physical development first hand; something he made mention of during their battle against Akatsuki members Hidan and Kakuzu.

Inuzuka Kiba
Originally one of Naruto's fellow "dead lasts" during their Academy days, both Inuzuka Kiba and Naruto have a sense of friendship and rivalry with one another. Kiba constantly challenges Naruto's aspirations for the position of Hokage, first ridiculing the young man, but, since his defeat at their Chūnin Exams and their interactions since. The two young shinobi often challenge each other in terms of skills — though admittedly, Kiba is generally flabbergasted at Naruto's progression when he believes that he has caught up to him.

Yamanaka Ino
Like her friend Sakura, Yamanaka Ino originally considered Naruto as a loser compared to Sasuke. However, upon seeing Naruto's strength and unshakeable resolve during the Chūnin Exams, Ino gradually grew to respect and like him as a friend. While she would often aid Naruto on missions with others, she partnered up with him only once in an anime-exclusive two-man mission that left her flabbergasted and getting into an argument with Naruto on the way back home. In the anime, after Naruto defeated Pain, Ino remarked that she could almost fall for him, much to her team-mates' shock.

Aburame Shino
Like most of their peers, Aburame Shino originally considered Naruto to be a talentless troublemaker, but soon accepted him as a fellow ninja, despite bearing a slight grudge on the youth for not recognising him after being away for nearly three years. Regardless, Shino admitted that Naruto had surpassed the rest of their peers, and during the Fourth Shinobi World War, he stated that he himself needed no reason to follow Naruto and aid him without question.

Sarutobi Hiruzen
"The Fourth wanted the villagers of Konoha to see him as a hero. That was his last wish as he placed the seal and died."

Naruto was raised by Sarutobi Hiruzen after his parents' deaths. The Hokage kept his parents' identity a secret and gave him his mother's last name. He asked the village to never reveal anything about Kurama to Naruto or the children. Naruto was inspired by the Hokage, originally due to the respect they received, including Hiruzen, and hoped to become Hokage himself someday. He would often get under Hiruzen's skin by the disturbances he would make by his pranks or the use Sexy Technique, the latter of which often caused Hiruzen to suffer from nosebleeds due to being a closet pervert. Despite their unique relationship, Naruto deeply cared for Hiruzen and was very saddened by his sudden death, to which he payed his respects to the Hokage at the ceremony for the sacrifices he made for the village. Thanks to Hiruzen's teachings and value, Naruto would continue to help and protect the village after his death.

During the Fourth Great Shinobi War, when the reincarnated Hiruzen saved Naruto from nearly dying to the God Tree, a half-conscious Naruto sincerely thanked Hiruzen, happy to see him again.

Sarutobi Konohamaru
"I promised… someday, I would fight Naruto over the name of Hokage! Naruto is my rival, hey!! That's why I can't choose to run away!! Because if I chose that path, Naruto wouldn't be there at the end!!!”

Even though he and Naruto had a rough start when they first met, Sarutobi Konohamaru is the second person to acknowledge Naruto as he is. This was due to Naruto not seeing Konohamaru as Sarutobi Hiruzen's grandson like everyone else in Konoha originally did. Though he pretended to be Naruto's rival for the position of succeeding Hokage, Konohamaru clearly has a deep and understanding friendship with Naruto and appears content to be the Seventh Hokage as he is perfectly convinced that the older boy will become the Sixth.[61] Having trained under him to learn the Sexy Technique, Konohamaru devised his own variations of the unorthodox transformation technique. At some point, Naruto would go on further to teach him the Rasengan, further establishing both a brotherly and mentor-pupil relationship. Konohamaru calls Naruto Naruto Niisama (Big Brother) when he hangs out with him.

Uchiha Itachi
Though he learned from Sasuke that he is looking for his brother, Naruto had no idea that Sasuke intended to kill Uchiha Itachi for the massacre of their clan. By the time Naruto learned of this, he was attacked by Itachi when the Akatsuki sent him and Hoshigaki Kisame to capture him. Naruto was forced to stand by and watch Sasuke's failed attempt of revenge that lead him to defect from Konoha.

When encountered by Itachi again years later over his interest in Sasuke, Naruto told him that Sasuke was more of a brother to him than to Itachi. This made Itachi smile as he asked if that resolve would be as strong if Sasuke thought to attack the village, delighting with Naruto's answer of finding a way protect the village and save Sasuke without killing him. Taking his leave, Itachi placed a crow in Naruto's body with hopes that he may never need to use it.

Eventually, after Itachi's death, the crow is revealed to be embedded with Uchiha Shisui's Sharingan with Itachi installing a command that would compel Sasuke to protect Konoha. However, reincarnated and under the control of Kabuto during the Fourth Shinobi World War, tasked alongside Nagato to capture Naruto and Killer B, Itachi is forced to sacrifice his gambit to free himself from Kabuto's control and aid Naruto. Upon learning that Naruto was told the truth of the Uchiha clan massacre, gaining his respect for the lengths he would go to protect their village and promise not to reveal it to anyone else, Itachi entrusts Sasuke's well being to Naruto as he departed to stop Kabuto and release all the reincarnated ninja to give their side a fighting chance.

Itachi was also one of the few people who knew the identities of Naruto's parents and was well aware of his dream of becoming Hokage.

Gaara
"He was the one who taught me to deepen my bond with my people. Thanks to him, I was able to regain my true self. That village has him, the one who cherishes a friend's bond more than anyone I know. Uzumaki Naruto… Knowing him and the friends he holds so dear, they will overcome this disaster and grow even stronger from it."

When Naruto first met Gaara prior to the Chūnin Exams, he was unaware that he was a jinchūriki like himself until he and Shikamaru stopped him from finishing off the hospitalised Lee. Ever since their encounter, Naruto understood that Gaara had been through the same pain like he had. Though he was afraid to fight Gaara at first, later during the Invasion of Konoha, Naruto was able to overcome this fear after seeing both Sasuke and Sakura in danger and was determined to protect them both from Gaara. When Naruto defeated him, Gaara, in great shock, questioned him why was he so strong. Naruto explained that despite having suffered a relentless lonely life, he never gave up hope on being acknowledged as a person and ultimately found friends who truly cared for him.

From that day on, Naruto's undying devotion and desire to protect his loved ones inspired Gaara to take on a similar path, and over time, he eventually became the Fifth Kazekage of Sunagakure and was finally able to connect with his people and be acknowledged as a person rather than a jinchūriki. When Naruto insisted to save Gaara from the Akatsuki, he lamented to find that they killed Gaara by extracting Shukaku. Though he criticised Chiyo for sealing the tailed beast inside him, Naruto offered his chakra to her for Gaara's revival.

At the Five Kage Summit, when Sasuke attacked the meeting, Gaara tried to convince him to go back to light, but Sasuke's refusal forced Gaara to consider any attempt Naruto made to reach his former friend futile, along with possibly damaging his faith in him and his devotion to his friends. He later confronted Naruto about this face-to-face, stating to Naruto that if he were to become Hokage, he would be placed in a position of either saving Sasuke or protecting Konoha's people from him. When they met again on the battlefield, his earlier decision motivated by the need to protect his friend, Gaara eventually came to accept that he may have made an error in judgement when he decided to isolate Naruto from the war, willing to place his trust in him again. Stating likewise, Naruto insisted that he had no plans on dying before becoming Hokage, and said that Gaara's position as Kazekage didn't mean that he should treat him like a kid.

The first time Naruto met Shukaku was during the failed Invasion of Konoha, where it attempted to kill him and Gamabunta on sight. Despite their hostile encounter and not having the chance to come to terms with one another since then, Naruto expressed his desire to save Shukaku along with the other tailed beasts.[69] After being freed from Obito, Shukaku, though having an intense rivalry with Kurama and exclaiming that it would not pass any sort of opportunity to surpass the fox, started aiding Naruto in his fight against Madara.

Inari
At first Inari never liked Naruto. He thoght of him as a loser,who should give up on his dreams and hopes. But after Kakashi told Inari about Naruto's horrible past and childhood. Inari realize that Naruto is simliar to him. Inari then started to look up to Naruto after, he saved his mother from Gato's men. Inari then told Naruto that he would stop crying, and change his ways. Naruto then told Inari that it was ok to cry. Inari then round up the rest of the village to help Naruto, and Kakashi defeat Gato's men. Inari then saw Naruto's squad head back to Konoha. Inari now looks up to Naruto as an Older Brother and his best friend.

In Part ll, Inari helped Naruto rebuild the Ichiraku Ramen bar,after Pain's invasion on Konoha.

Uchiha Sasuke
"Just shut up for once! What the hell do you know about it?! It's not like you ever had a family in the first place! You were on your own right from the beginning, what makes you think you know anything about it?! Huh?! I'm suffering now because I had those ties, how on earth could you possibly understand, what it feels like to lose all that!"

When he first met with Uchiha Sasuke back in their Ninja Academy days, Naruto wanted to befriend Sasuke, knowing that he too was alone. But when Sasuke proved to be better than him at everything, gaining popularity and admiration, Naruto grew jealous and made it his goal to surpass him. Ever since then Naruto instantly saw him as his rival and was bent to prove himself as an equal before both youths were made members of Team 7. Even though he thought of Naruto as a loser, Sasuke understood the pains of being an orphan well to the point of taking offence to Sakura blaming Naruto's stupidity on him not having parents. As the series progressed, Naruto came to view Sasuke as a brother. In turn, Sasuke also saw Naruto as a dear friend until the events of the Chūnin Exam arc convince him to defect from Konoha to train under Orochimaru to achieve his goal to avenge his clan against his brother Itachi, one prime reason is realising that Naruto is starting to surpass him.

Even after being defeated by Sasuke in an attempt to stop him from leaving, Naruto still strived to bring him back home despite Sasuke's willing defection and eventual corruption. When Naruto came to understand both the nature of the cycle of hatred and the reason of Sasuke's malice, his desire to save Sasuke grew even more.[73][74] It became so immense that Naruto was willing to take physical abuse from the Kumo-nin rather than sell Sasuke out, pleading with the Fourth Raikage to pardon Sasuke for his crimes against his village.

Naruto would later learn that Tobi poisoned Sasuke against Konoha upon telling him why the Uchiha clan was killed off. According to him, Naruto and Sasuke were considered mortal enemies as they respectively embody the Will of Fire and the Curse of Hatred respectively. Finding Sasuke, yet refusing to back down or kill him with the intent to bare his friend's hatred, Naruto concluded that reasoning him out of destroying Konoha was no longer a possible option and believed that they would most likely die during their fated conflict. However, during the Fourth Shinobi World War, Sasuke renounced his intent to destroy Konoha and joined forces with his former team-mates against Madara and the Ten-Tails. The dynamics between the two have not changed and their innate rivalry still causes Naruto and Sasuke to challenge each other in every way, now more than ever since Sasuke's announcement that he wanted to be Hokage, and Sasuke's witnessing of Naruto's new-found abilities on the battlefield during the Fourth Shinobi World War.

Uchiha Obito
"You remind me of myself… Naruto… yeah… just like when I was young… but, that'll all change with time…"

Similar to Naruto in his youth in many ways before his presumed death during the Third Shinobi World War, Uchiha Obito is a reflection of the person Naruto would become if he ever gave into hatred and despair. Though he saw the boy of no concern, Obito has been the cause of almost everything negative in Naruto's life, having been the one who used the newborn as a hostage, started Kurama's attack on Konoha, and indirectly killed his parents. Years later, after adopting the name Tobi, he would encounter Naruto again when he distracts the youth and the rest of the Eight Man Squad from interfering with Sasuke's fight against Itachi. Tobi later appeared before Naruto again, revealing the truth behind the Uchiha clan massacre and how he engineered Sasuke's descent into darkness. Though Tobi claimed his actions were for world peace, he embraced being called a monster while proclaiming that Naruto and Sasuke are fated to battle each other.

Though Tobi initially saw Naruto as a means to stimulate Sasuke for his ambitions, the youth's inadvertent thwarting of his plans forced him to plunge the entire ninja world into war to expedite his plans. Even after Naruto broke his thrall over the tailed beasts he captured, Tobi reiterated his contempt for Naruto and reassured himself that the boy is no match for him. However, as Kurama stated, Naruto was made a jinchūriki for the purpose of defeating him. Ultimately, it was because of Naruto that Tobi is finally exposed as Obito. While using the Ten-Tails to fight him, Obito realised the similarities between himself and Naruto as he vainly attempts to point out the futility of the youth's struggle against him and Madara. But when Naruto vowed to make sure none of his friends die and expressing disapproval on Obito's nihilistic outlook on life, the Uchiha resolved to put both him and the Allied Shinobi Forces into the same despair he experienced. Though he almost succeeded in breaking Naruto with his guilt over his "inability" to protect Neji, Obito's plan failed when Hinata and Kurama intervened. As a result, now above his psychological warfare, Naruto tells Obito that the only difference between them is that he wants to keep the bonds he made with his friends.

However, before finally separating Obito from the tailed beasts, Naruto showed a more sympathetic side towards him after experiencing visions of the Uchiha's past — even going as far as to shedding tears for Obito's loss.[81] Naruto told Obito that if things were different, he would have looked up to him because like himself, Obito also dreamed of becoming Hokage. To this end, Naruto proclaimed that even though the Uchiha claimed he was no one, there was no sense in Obito hiding any longer, and that he was going to tear off his true mask once and for all.

After forcing the tailed beasts out of Obito's body, Naruto did not let Sasuke give the final blow to the defeated enemy, and even tried to reason with Kakashi so that Obito would be given the chance to atone for his crimes instead of being killed by his old comrade, though it was Minato who stopped him. Ultimately, Naruto succeeded in changing Obito's mindset and it led Obito to attempt to revive everyone he had killed with the Samsara of Heavenly Life Technique.

After finding out that Obito had used that technique, and was forced to revive Madara, Naruto displayed a hint of sadness over the fact that Obito was doomed to perish after using the technique, despite the two fighting against each other moments before.

Knownable Relatives

 * Uzumaki Kushina (Mother/decreased)
 * Namikaze Minato (Father/decreased)
 * Jiraiya (Godfather/decreased)
 * Umino Iruka (Surrogate Father/childhood Sensei)
 * Sarutobi Hiruzen (Surrogate Grandfather/decreased)
 * Sarutobi Konohamaru (Suroogate Little Brother/Student)
 * Inari (Naruto) (Surrogate Little Brother)
 * Hyuga Hinata (Love Intereset)
 * Uchiha Sasuke (Surrogate Older Brother/Childhood Rival & Teammate)
 * Ayame (Surrogate Older Sister)
 * Teuchi (Second Surrogate Grandfather)
 * Son Goku/Kakarotto (Counterpart)

Trivia
According to the databook(s): Naruto shares many similarities with Son Goku from DB/DBZ and DBGT. Naruto has many Similarities with Endou Mamoru from Inazuma Eleven. Nartuo has many similarities with Gon Freecss from the 1999 Hunter X Hunter series. Naruto has many similarities with Takuya Kanabara from Digimon Frontier. Naruto has many similarities with Mokuba Kaiba from '''Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters'''. Naruto has many similarities with Yami Yugi from '''Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters'''.
 * Spirals and swirl patterns are a recurring theme in Naruto, especially in relation to the character of Naruto Uzumaki himself. The word/name "Naruto" can mean "maelstrom," and is also short for 'Narutomaki', a kind of kamaboko with a pink whirlpool design in the middle that is used as a topping for ramen, which is Naruto's favourite food. The surname "Uzumaki" is a pun on "spiral" (渦巻), because it refers to a three-dimensional spiral, like a whirlpool or vortex. "Uzumaki" can also mean "whirlpool," in reference to the Naruto whirlpools (鳴門の渦潮), named after the city of Naruto. In addition, Naruto's mother, Kushina Uzumaki, is from Uzushiogakure in the Land of Whirlpools, who used the spiral pattern as their village symbol.
 * October 10, Naruto's birthday, was Health and Sports Day in Japan when his character was conceived. The holiday, however, was later moved to the second Monday of October in 1999.
 * Masashi Kishimoto stated in an interview with the U.S. 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 Shōnen Jump character popularity polls. However, in the sixth character poll, he was ranked fourth. According to the Databook 3 character poll, which adds up all the votes from the first six polls, Naruto took second place. In the most recent poll, Naruto regained his status and reached first.
 * Naruto is one of four characters to have always stayed in the Top Ten of every Character Popularity Poll.
 * Naruto's mother was nicknamed the "Red Hot-Blooded Habanero" while his father was famed as the "Yellow Flash". Naruto's appropriate self-styled title of "Konoha's Orange Hokage" refers to the fact that the colour orange is a mixture of red and yellow.
 * Eiichiro Oda, author of One Piece stated that his character Sanji's name was originally Naruto, but changed it because Naruto series was about to become serialised.
 * Naruto's hobbies are pulling pranks and watering plants.
 * Naruto wishes to fight Sasuke Uchiha, the Third Hokage, and members of Akatsuki.
 * Naruto's favourite foods are Ichiraku ramen and red bean soup. His least favourite are fresh vegetables.
 * Naruto has completed 16 official missions in total: 7 D-rank, 1 C-rank, 2 B-rank, 6 A-rank, 0 S-rank.
 * Naruto's favourite phrase is "a large serving of miso ramen with roasted pork fillet" (味噌チャーシュー大盛り, miso chāshū ōmori).
 * They both have similar personalities (both : Hyper.cheerful and energetic)
 * They both are the main characters of their respective series. (For Naruto : Naruto/Naruto Shippuden and for Goku : Dragon Ball/Dragon Ball Zand Dragon Ball GT)
 * Both were had someone who they look up to as a grandfather. (for Naruto : Sarutobi Hiruzen and for Goku : Grandpa Son Gohan)
 * Both have one rival that hates to see them get stronger than them. (for Naruto : Sasuke and for Goku : Vegeta)
 * Both have one female character that has a huge crush on them since their childhhood. (for Naruto : Hinata and for Goku : Chi-Chi)
 * They both never knew about their past or origins until they got older. (For Naruto : Kushina and for Goku : Raditz)
 * They both have two friends that they knew since their childhood. (for Naruto : Hinata & Sasuke and for Goku : Krillin and Bulma)
 * Both bear a striking resemblance to their father.(For Naruto : Minato and for Goku : Bardock)
 * Both will fight to protect their love ones,and allies. (for Naruto :his friends and sensei's. Then for Goku : his friends and family)
 * Both of them have many Sensei's that have trained to become a better fighter. (For Naruto : Iruka,Kakashi,Ebisu and Jiraiya. For Goku : Grandpa Son Gohan,Master Roshi, Kami,and King Kai)
 * Both of them became orphans since they were born. (for Nauto : the Nine Tails Attack on Konoha and for Goku : The Destruction of Planet Vegeta)
 * Both were given a message by their parents before they died. (For Naruto : by Kushina and Minato.Then for Goku : Bardock)
 * Both have a evil counterpart that looks exactly like them. (For Naruto : Menma and for Goku : Tullece)
 * Both are voiced by one female for all their appearances in the Japanese version of the anime.
 * Both of them dislike losing their battles. (For Naruto : on missions and for Goku : the Budokai Tenkaichi tournament)
 * Both of them keep on training for their next battle. (For Naruto : to learn how to control Kurama and for Goku : to meet future villains)
 * Both of them try to escape from the hosptial when they are seriously injure. (For Naruto : at the end of the Sasuke Retrieval arc and for Goku : after his first battle with Vegeta)
 * Both of have one thing that they are afraid of. (for Naruto : Ghosts and for Goku : Needles)
 * Both of their evil counterparts are voiced by their Japanese voice actress. (For Naruto's counterpart : by Junko Takeuchi and for Goku's counterpart : by Masako Nozawa)
 * Both of them left their friends in order to train for their next battle, and don't come back until they are older. (For Naruto :16 years old and for Goku : 18 years old)
 * Both were raised by someone after they parents died. (For Naruto: Sarutobi Hiruzen and for Goku : Grandpa Son Gohan)
 * Both them have something living inside of them. (For Naruto : Kurama and for Goku : Great Ape DNA)
 * Both of them meet their father when they are older. (for Naruto : Invasion of Pain arc and for Goku : in the video games)
 * Both of them had anesmia from some point in their life. (For Naruto : Battling his evil counterpart in the six Shippuuden film, while looking at the Sharigan and for Goku : By having an hand injury as a baby)
 * Both have turn one of their enemy's from bad to good. (For Naruto : Gaara and for Goku : Tien)
 * Both of them were angry when some of their friends die for being innocent. (For Naruto : Gaara,but was brought back to life by Chiyo. Then Neji for protecting him and Hinata. For Goku : Krillin when Frieza survive Goku's Spirit Bomb Technique, but was brought back with the Namekian Dragon Balls)
 * Both of their love interest confess their love to them when they got older. (For Naruto : when Hinata was protecting him from Pain and for Goku : when he was fighting Chi-Chi at the 23 Budokai Tenkaichi)
 * Both of them were Mischiefious when they were young. (For Naruto : Pulling Pranks and for Goku : playing with dangerous wild animals)
 * Both of them would get hit on the head by someone that they knew since their childhood. (For Naruto : By Iruka, when he wasn't listening to him. For Goku : by Bulma,when he tapped a girl's private part with his foot)
 * Both of them would turn into their powerful form yet in the sereis. (For Naruto : his Nine Tails Chakra Mode and for Goku : his Super Saiyan 4 form)
 * Both of their parents saw them when they were born. (For Naruto : before The Nine Tails attack on Konoha,and for Goku : Before Planet Vegeta's Destruction)
 * Both of their parents try hard to save their children,and their home. (For Naruto : The Nine Tails Attack on Konoha and for Goku : Planet Vegeta's Destruction)
 * Both of them have allies that look up to them when they are older. (For Naruto : Iruka,Konohamaru,Inari,Udon,Moegi Matsuri,Hinata & Tsubaki. For Goku : Gohan,Goten,Videl,Pan,Uub,Dende,OX King & Goku Jr)
 * Both of them have gone to a special event to test out their skills as a fighter. (For Naruto : the Chunin Exams in his home village, and for Goku : The Budokai Tenkaichi tournament)
 * Both of them wre held by someone when they were a baby. (For Naruto : by Sarutobi Biwako, his father Minato & The Third Hokage. For Goku : by Grandpa Son Gohan)

Voice Actresses

 * Japanese : Junko Takeuchi, Ema Kogure (Sexy Jutsu)
 * English : Maile Flanagan, Stephanie Sheh (Sexy Jutsu)