() is the titular character and main protagonist of the manga series Naruto, created by Masashi Kishimoto. He is a ninja from the fictional . As a boy, Naruto is ridiculed and ostracized on account of the Kurama the Nine-Tailed Fox—a malevolent creature that attacked Hidden Leaf Village—that was sealed away in his body. Despite this, he aspires to become his village's leader, the Hokage, to receive their approval. His carefree, optimistic, and boisterous personality enables him to befriend other Hidden Leaf Village ninja, as well as ninja from other villages. Naruto appears in the series's films and in other media related to the franchise, including video games and original video animations (OVA), as well as the sequel Boruto series, where he is the Seventh Hokage, and his son, Boruto Uzumaki, is the titular character and main protagonist along with Kawaki, Naruto's adopted son.
When creating Naruto for the initial part of the series, Kishimoto kept the character "simple and stupid" while giving him many attributes of an ideal hero. Kishimoto gave Naruto a dark side by adding tragedy to the character's past. He has revised Naruto's image many times, providing the character with simple clothes to fit the young demography. Kishimoto changed his design for Part II of the storyline, which starts two-and-a-half years after Part I. Naruto is voiced by Junko Takeuchi in the original animated series and Maile Flanagan in the English adaptations.
Merchandise based on Naruto includes figurines and keychains. Naruto's character development has been praised by anime and manga publications and has drawn scholarly attention. Although some initially saw him as a typical manga and anime protagonist comparable to those in other shōnen manga, others have praised his personality and character development as he avoids stereotypes typically seen in similar media. The character has also been the subject of research in literature, making him stand out in fiction based on his traits and growth.
Creation and conception Original concept and influences
During the 1990s, new manga author Masashi Kishimoto sought to write a one-shot chapter that would feature Naruto as a chef, but this version never made it to print. Kishimoto originally wanted to make Naruto a child who could transform into a fox, so he created a one-shot of Naruto for the summer 1997 issue of Akamaru Jump magazine based on the idea. When comparing both the Naruto one-shot and his other work, Karakuri, Kishimoto realized that the former's title character was more appealing than the lead of Karakuri. Kishimoto reflects that Naruto's "honest" smile was well received in contrast to the sly look the main character from Karakuri had. Following the success of another one-shot, Mario, Kishimoto started working on the Naruto series, where he wanted to reuse the title character from his earlier one-shot. Kishimoto wrote the first two chapters to show his appeal to the readers and then focus on the other protagonists despite difficulties. Following the second chapter, Kishimoto introduced the other protagonists, but with bad relationships, including with Sasuke Uchiha and Naruto's constant rejected affections for Sakura Haruno. The manga story was planned to show Naruto's coming-of-age through multiple fights, and he looked forward to seeing the conclusion.
For the serialized version, Kishimoto incorporated traits he felt made an ideal hero in the creation of Naruto: a straightforward way of thinking, a mischievous side, and attributes possessed by Goku from the Dragon Ball franchise, aiming to keep Naruto "simple and stupid". Although Goku was a major influence to Naruto, Kishimoto was more attracted by Dragon Ball character Krillin, as he comes across as more human than the protagonist for displaying flaws that made the readers easier to accept in a similar fashion to his mentor Iruka Umino. Kishimoto avoided modeling him after anyone in particular, instead conceiving of him as naïve with a dark side resulting from his harsh past. Despite this, he is always optimistic, a trait Kishimoto said makes this character unique. By and large, Naruto's personality is childish; the creator tried to convey this trait in his illustrations. Kishimoto notes the cover of volume 10 as an example of this, where Kishimoto depicts Naruto mimicking a turtle as a child might do. Naruto was Kishimoto's first published manga, and he focused on making Naruto's facial expressions consistent in difficult situations. He commented, "It's rather awkward to talk about what makes Naruto appealing to audiences, but I think his being a knucklehead gives him an appeal". He believed it was Naruto's losses that made readers identify with him, although he wanted Naruto not to feel defeated again, which was his primary aim when writing the series. Kishimoto has said that Naruto's burning desire to be a ninja was based on his own ambition to succeed as a manga artist. As the series went on, Kishimoto wrote the older incarnations of Naruto to be naïve idealists due to how Naruto was written to continuously avoid repeating previous mistakes. However, at the same time, Kishimoto wrote him as a sign of hope, something important in regard to the series's audience.
In the original Japanese versions of Naruto, Naruto often ends his sentences with the addendum "-ttebayo" (which achieves an effect similar to ending a sentence with "you know?" in English). Kishimoto wanted to give Naruto a childlike catchphrase, and "dattebayo" came to mind; he believed that the phrase complemented Naruto's character and served as a verbal tic that portrayed him in a brattish manner. Throughout the first episodes of the English dub version, "dattebayo" and "-ttebayo" were replaced with the phrase "Believe it!", both to mirror the effect and to match the character's lip movements, although later in the English dub, Naruto stopped saying "Believe it!" and the phrase was replaced with "You know?".
Development
After fans likened Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura to the three main characters from the Harry Potter fantasy books, Kishimoto noted that both trios began their careers in a classroom, though he added that the similarity was unintentional. During the series's publication, Kishimoto married and had children. This influenced how he viewed Naruto's character. Naruto met his parents and learned of their sacrifices to help him to control the Nine-Tailed Fox inside him so that he could protect their world. As a result, Naruto appreciated his life more and learned that his parents loved him, something the author wanted the character to feel based on his own experience as a father. In the first chapters of the series, Kishimoto did not conceive the idea that Naruto would be the son of Minato Namikaze. However, as time passed on, the manga author made touches to Minato's face shown in the Hokage Mountain in Konoha to make them more similar to Naruto with an emphasis on their spiky hairs. However, to reduce too many similarities, Kushina Uzumaki's character was made to look like Naruto's face.
Out of all the student-teacher relationships Kishimoto has created in the Naruto series, the one between Naruto and Jiraiya is his favorite. Right before Jiraiya's death in his fight against Pain in his last moments, he discovers the origin of Pain's multiple bodies and uses his last forces to send that message as a piece of advice to Naruto so that Naruto could defeat him in his place. This arc was the most difficult one to write; he felt this because Naruto truly forgave his enemy. Instead of having the protagonist kill the enemy he hates, as it happens in other series, Kishimoto found the idea of the two characters interacting and settling their differences more challenging. This had a major impact on the writer, and he decided to have Naruto forgive Sasuke during their final fight in a similar manner as he interacted with Nagato. Kishimoto felt the need to create a story arc that would emphasize the tragedy of wars, leading to the final arc, which would include a war. The principal reason for this was a significant difference between the two main characters, Naruto who had no knowledge of wars, and Sasuke who was a victim of one; his entire clan had been annihilated to avoid a potential civil war. As a result, Kishimoto created Nagato as a war victim who would kill Jiraiya, and act as Naruto's nemesis so he would understand the tragedy that Sasuke had experienced. As a result, Naruto's coming-of-age would have been completed in this arc and the final arc, where Naruto deals with world war and develops a vision of the shinobi world as well as how he should handle the conflict.
In the 2015 film, Boruto: Naruto the Movie, Kishimoto developed Boruto and Naruto's relationship from his relationship with his sons. In portraying the adult Naruto, Kishimoto did not want to make the character give a cool impression in contrast to his younger days as a war hero because Naruto being a strong father figure to Boruto would be too boring for the narrative. Studio: Pierrot. Similarly, Chengxi Huang wanted to properly display Naruto's facial expression during this scene, stating that while Naruto has grown up ever since his introduction, his gentle smile was the same. Manga author Mikio Ikemoto claimed the scene in which Naruto helps his son to create a Massive Rasengan was his favorite at the time of drawing Boruto, as across this moment, he had to draw Naruto's past to the point he "felt the weight of NARUTO series and its long history behind it."
Rivalry Early in the making of the series, Kishimoto had poor faith in the manga as he believed the series was lacking something to become popular. After being recommended by his editor to give the protagonist a rival, Kishimoto wrote Sasuke with influences from Takehiko Inoue's Slam Dunk manga, which was famous for dealing with rivalries. When first introducing Sasuke, Kishimoto wrote him as a rival who never noticed Naruto. However, as the series continued, Naruto became strong enough to finally be recognized by Sasuke as a rival. He also intended for both of them to be brother-like due to the fact that both characters suffered loneliness, something that made the readers relate to them, as he noted through fan letters. By Part I's ending, the bond between Naruto and Sasuke was weakened as a result of their fight but still expected from the time when Sasuke accepted Naruto as an equal. Kishimoto compared Sasuke and Naruto to the concept of yin and yang because of their notable differences. When one of the two progressed, Kishimoto made sure the other did too. During the climax of Part I, Naruto and Sasuke engage in a mortal fight, which was directed by Atsushi Wakabayashi from Pierrot. In an interview, the director claimed that the animation was based on a journey to Lake Mashu from Hokkaido to come up with new ideas. Wakabayashi aimed for the characters to move stilted based on storyboards he made, leading to entertaining sequences. When Naruto became berserk due to the Nine-Tailed Fox's influence, Norio Matsumoto aimed to make Naruto behave like a beast, with Wakabayashi aiming to make Naruto look like an equal to his rival. The staff was inspired by 1970s series, like the boxing series Ashita no Joe, most notably its lead character, Joe Yabuki, who was often seen as an underdog the audience rooted for. However, the team still worked carefully to make the two ninjas be equals without overpowering each other.