aruto Uzumaki (うずまきナルト, Uzumaki Naruto) is a shinobi of Konohagakure. He became the jinchūriki of the Nine-Tails on the day of his birth — a fate that caused him to be ostracised by most of Konoha throughout his childhood. After joining Team Kakashi, Naruto worked hard to gain the village's acknowledgement all the while chasing his dream to become Hokage.
In the following years, through many hardships and ordeals, he became a
capable ninja regarded as a hero both by the villagers, and soon after,
the rest of the world. He soon proved to be one of the main factors in
winning the Fourth Shinobi World War, leading him to achieve his dream and become the village's Seventh Hokage (七代目火影, Nanadaime Hokage, Literally meaning: Seventh Fire Shadow).
Background
A newborn Naruto with his mother Kushina.
Naruto is the son of the Fourth Hokage: Minato Namikaze, and the second jinchūriki of the Nine-Tails: Kushina Uzumaki. He was named after the protagonist of Jiraiya's first book, thereby making the Sannin his godfather.[14] Fearing that the stress of giving birth would break the seal containing the Nine-Tails, the Third Hokage arranged Naruto's parents to go to a top-secret location on the outskirts of the village guarded by Anbu, with the midwives Biwako and Taji
helping Kushina in delivering her child while Minato would keep the
seal in place. Shortly after Naruto was born on the night of October
10th, a masked man,
who managed to track down their location, killed the midwives and Anbu,
and took the newborn hostage as a means of separating Minato from
Kushina, in order to release the Nine-Tails for his own ends.[15]
Minato and Kushina protecting Naruto from the Nine-Tails.
Minato quickly sprung into action, however, by the time he secured Naruto at a safer location, the masked man had succeeded in releasing the Nine-Tails and used it to devastate Konoha. Minato managed to save Kushina and left Naruto in her care before he went to protect the village.[15] After having severed
the masked ninja's control over the tailed beast, Minato realised the
only way to stop the Nine-Tails was to seal it within Naruto, believing
that his son would someday have need of the fox's power to defeat the
masked ninja when he returned.[16] Because the Nine-Tails' chakra was too immense for the seal to hold on such a small child, Minato was forced to sacrifice his soul in order to first weaken the fox by splitting its Yin and Yang
chakra amongst himself and his son before succumbing to his wounds
alongside Kushina after taking a fatal blow from the fox meant for their
son. Suddenly orphaned, Naruto was left to grow up knowing nothing of
his parents, receiving only his mother's last name — as Hiruzen believed
it was best that nobody knew that he was related to the Fourth Hokage.[17]
Despite Minato's dying wish to see his son heralded as a hero,
only the Third Hokage and a small number of the villagers could put
their pain of loss aside and honour this request. The majority of
Konoha, consumed with bitterness over the lives lost and destruction in
the wake of the Nine-Tails' attack, resented Naruto for it — unable to
separate the beast from the boy — and with some even seeing him as the
fox itself. In the interest of protecting Naruto and in the hope that
the younger generations would not emulate this position, Hiruzen passed a
decree of secrecy that strictly prohibited the adults from divulging
Naruto's status as a jinchūriki. This policy was not entirely effective,
as even without knowing why, many of Naruto's peers followed their
parent's example and shunned him.[18] The social isolation would cause Naruto to develop a need to be acknowledged through mischief.
Naruto's first encounter with Hinata.
On a snowy day while preparing to enrol at the Academy, Naruto first met Hinata Hyūga,
who was being degraded by a group of three bullies. Despite not knowing
her, Naruto refused to let the bullies insult Hinata and came to her
defence, but was outnumbered and easily beaten, with his red scarf
trampled over by them. After Hinata genuinely thanked Naruto for his
efforts, he let her keep the scarf since it was ruined, unaware that was
when the young Hyūga girl's affections for him began.[19]
In the anime, one day, he was confronted by Sakura Haruno, Ino Yamanaka, Shikamaru Nara, and Chōji Akimichi. 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 any more and ran away crying.
His crying caused another rain-shower, which alerted the Anbu. As they
took Yota captive, Naruto and the others tried to stop the Anbu, but to
no success.[20]
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.[21]
Naruto and Sasuke's rivalry during their childhood.
Naruto eventually became the student of Iruka Umino and met his class mate Sasuke Uchiha 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, even though it
wasn't directed at him. When Iruka told them to make the reconciliation
seal, they both refused.[22]
Since then, Naruto came to see Sasuke as a rival and intended to beat
him. When he 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.[23] Still, Naruto wished that someday, Sasuke would acknowledge him as an equal.[24]
Despite this, when Naruto and Sasuke traded glance when they were kids,
they immediately looked away in annoyance but secretly smiled shortly
afterwards, meaning Sasuke actually considered Naruto a friend somewhere
deep down.
In the anime, when Naruto pulled a prank on a group of boys for
not being invited to their "test of courage", he refused to return to
the Academy after being glared at by Iruka with the same resentful stare
everyone else gives him. Later, Naruto was tricked by the boys' leader,
Hibachi,
to get himself killed by enemy ninja in the hills. Learning of this,
Iruka ended up saving Naruto from a trio of Takigakure kunoichi before Kakashi Hatake
dispatched their pursuers. Soon after, Naruto began attending class
again at the time that Iruka, who now acted as a surrogate brother to
keep the boy in line, gave a lecture on the Will of Fire that inspired
Naruto to become the next Hokage someday to achieve the acknowledgement
he is striving for.[25] 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's Ninja Registration Form photograph.
Naruto is a boisterous and exuberant individual. He would end sentences with "Dattebayo!"
(だってばよ!) when excited or frustrated. He has a number of childish
traits, such as being a very picky eater (he almost exclusively eats
ramen), being afraid of ghosts, and carries a chubby green-frog wallet
which he calls "Gama-chan".[26]
Naruto is heedless to formality or social standings and has a habit of
giving people he meets nicknames or addressing them without appropriate honourifics, as shown when he opted to call the Second Hokage a name he thought of off the top of his head instead of simply "Lord Second" (二代目様, Nidaime-sama). He can also be quite perverted, creating different forms of his Sexy Technique and once tried to sneak a peek in the women's bath when the opportunity presented itself.[27]
Despite these, plus other quirks and the great amounts of criticism
that follows them, Naruto is said to have a personality that brings
people to him, inspiring friendship, loyalty and love from most of the
people he meets through acts of genuine kindness and sincerity that
could change a person's entire world view. For example, during the
Fourth Shinobi World War, Naruto's kindness inspired loyalty from the tailed beasts, and when linked to the entire Shinobi Alliance through telepathy,
he reignited the demoralised armies' fighting spirit, choosing to
continue fighting despite the losses he could receive, as shinobi were
meant to endure through hardships.[28][29] On several occasions, the Second Hokage has stated in many ways Naruto is very similar to the First Hokage.
Naruto promising to return Sasuke back to the village.
Years of isolation and scorn from the villagers made Naruto thirst
greatly for acknowledgement and love. He would pull pranks around the
village just to get a response from anyone and his desire to be Hokage
was in hopes of becoming someone that mattered. Because no one in the
village cared for him apart from Iruka, Naruto was completely
unresponsive to the villagers yelling at him from his pranks, only
showing response when Iruka showed up. Naruto's time at the Falls of Truth revealed that a part of him hated the villagers for treating him as a pariah, only to turn to him after he saved them during Pain's assault
on Konoha. This hatred allowed the Nine-Tails to manipulate Naruto in
his rage, causing him to go on a rampage several times until Naruto
confronted the problem and learned to let it go. As he grew in his
career as a ninja, his goal to be Hokage went from a desire for
acknowledgement to a desire to help and protect the people close to him,
which Tobi attributed to the Will of Fire.[30] Naruto developed his nindō
of never going back on his word, putting himself through any lengths
required to keeping his promise. This was especially shown in Naruto's
promise to Sakura to bring Sasuke back after his defection from Konoha,
despite Sakura herself having grown to see this as impossible due to
Sasuke becoming a dangerous international criminal later on, as well as
the pain it and his unrequited feelings for her was causing him.
According to Kakashi, Naruto is a kinesthetic learner,
as he is relatively naive, simple, and slow to understand principle or
situations, often requiring an oversimplified analogy in order to grasp
what is being explained to him, much to his teachers' annoyance.[31]
Naruto is aware his own ineptitude, and admits that he puts up a strong
front so people around him won't know of his embarrassment and
frustration about it, despite of all his accomplishments.[32][33][34]
Naruto responds best to competition, using it as an additional drive
learn new techniques, though he doesn't hesitate to ask for help if he
needs it. Despite his naivety, Naruto can be quite observant, picking up
on things others miss and retaining information casually gathered
through conversation.[35]
In battle, Naruto has shown to be a quick thinker, making up strategies
on the fly or inventive use of his techniques to catch his opponents
off guard. While he can be calm and collected most of the times during a
fight, Naruto can also get frustrated when he is unable to defeat his
opponent, and can forget some concepts or weaknesses that he himself
noted beforehand.[36]
The death of his master Jiraiya and Pain's assault on Konoha
caused a large world shift for Naruto. Grieving for Jiraiya, Naruto
swore vengeance on Pain and left the village to learn senjutsu.[37] While training, Naruto read a copy of The Tale of the Utterly Gutsy Shinobi,
which taught him that he was named after a hero from the book. Although
further enraged by Pain's actions during the invasion, Naruto soon
spoke with his father, who explained to him the cycle of hatred of the
shinobi world. After finally listening to Nagato's story and the results of the cycle of hatred, Naruto vowed he would break the cycle and bring real peace to the world.[38]
Despite this desire bringing him in direct opposition to Sasuke and the
rest of Akatsuki, Naruto continued down this path, resolving to end
both the Fourth Shinobi World War and the cycle of hatred.
Naruto's shy personality as he observes Hinata from a distance.
In adulthood, Naruto has become much calmer and wiser in his
approach, but still retains some of his childlike excitement. After
realising he is in love with Hinata, Naruto became not only protective
of her, but also shy and flustered in her presence to the point where he
accidentally told her how he felt. When Hinata went with Toneri Ōtsutsuki,
Naruto fell into a great depression and came close to giving up on
everything, until Sakura helped him realise how deep and unwavering
Hinata's feelings for him truly were, and that she only pretended to
reject him to have a better chance of saving Hanabi and stopping Toneri.
This made Naruto more determined than ever to save the Hyūga sisters,
stop Toneri, and make his desire to be with Hinata for the rest of his
life a reality. After several months of dating, Naruto and Hinata got
married and started a family together with a son and daughter.[19][39][40][41]
After becoming Hokage, Naruto has grown more serious and strict
with his duties, taken up huge responsibilities and becoming
overwhelmed, leading him to create shadow clones to tend to his family,
which has strained his relationship with his son, who would occasionally
pull pranks such as defacing the Hokage Rock to seek his attention.[13]
However, Naruto still shows that he deeply cares about his family and
is willing to protect them in times of danger, and tries to make time
for them in actual person, proving himself to be a loving father and
husband.[42]
Relationships
Main article: Naruto Uzumaki's Relationships
Due to his friendly nature, tenacity, empathy, and unique charisma,
Naruto has built many relationships over the course of the series that
have defined him and others.
Appearance
Naruto as a child.
As stated by Jiraiya, Naruto bears a striking resemblance to his father, having Minato's blue eyes and blond, spiky hair.[43] From his mother, Naruto inherited the shape of both her eyes and face.[44] During the Fourth Shinobi World War, Dan Katō initially mistook him for Nawaki due to their stark resemblance as well.[45]
Naruto's most prominent physical characteristics, however, are the
three whisker markings on his cheeks. His most regularly mentioned trait
before the second half of the series (which easily provoked him) was
his short stature for his age.[46] Over time, Naruto continued to grow as after the time skip, he was taller than his team-mate, Sakura.[47]
Two years after the Fourth Shinobi World War and by the time he became
Hokage, Naruto became one of the tallest of his generation.
Naruto in Part II (left) and in Part I (right) respectively.
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.[48]
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 with
"Naruto" written on them that he wore on his forehead sometimes, though
he eventually stopped wearing it and replaced it with his forehead
protector.
Naruto as he appeared during his battle with Pain.
In Part II, Naruto's outfit underwent modification after the original was worn to shreds during his training with Jiraiya.[49]
The outfit retained the orange colour as well as the white (without the
tassel) and red swirls, but the jacket was 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 metal portion of
his forehead protector had moved to a longer black bandanna, and he wore
black sandals instead of blue. Naruto occasionally was 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; the
coat was destroyed following his transformation into his six-tailed
Version 2 form. After meeting Hagoromo's spirit and receiving his chakra and therefore the Six Paths Sage Mode, Naruto also obtained a light sun-like mark
on his right palm, which vanished after Kaguya's sealing. After his
final clash with Sasuke following Kaguya's defeat, Naruto lost his right
forearm. Sometime after the war ended, Tsunade constructed a fully
manoeuvrable prosthetic forearm for Naruto made of Hashirama Senju's cells, wrapped completely in bandages from his fingertips to halfway through his bicep.
Two years after
the Fourth Shinobi World War, Naruto grew taller again with his hair
cropped short and moved the metal portion of his forehead protector to a
simple black elastic headband. He wears a black uniform-style jacket
with an orange zipper that features several buttons on the waist and
sleeves, allowing him to fold up the left sleeve and rear coattails,
giving him easy access to the pouches on the back of his belt. He wears a
red armband with an Uzumaki crest on his left arm. While off-duty,
Naruto wears an orange hooded sweatshirt and black and orange shorts
with sandals. He initially wore a teal and light blue striped scarf that
was knitted by his mother, but later took it off when he found out
Hinata was knitting a long red scarf for him. When he and Hinata
married, Naruto was wearing a traditional black wedding kimono.
Naruto's Hokage attire.
After becoming Hokage, Naruto stops wearing a forehead protector
altogether. He now wears an orange sweatshirt with black stripes, along
with black pants and sandals. Along with the traditional Hokage
headpiece, he also dons a white cape decorated with red flame-like
motifs on the edges, with the kanji for "Seventh Hokage" (七代目火影, Nanadaime Hokage) written vertically down the back, and held together by a red rope, similar to the one worn by his father.
