Naruto facts for kids
| Naruto | |
First tankōbon volume cover, featuring Naruto Uzumaki
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Quick facts for kids NARUTO -ナルト- |
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| Genre |
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| Manga | |
| Written by | Masashi Kishimoto |
| Published by | Shueisha |
| English publisher | |
| Imprint | Jump Comics |
| Magazine | Weekly Shōnen Jump |
| English magazine | |
| Original run | September 21, 1999 – November 10, 2014 |
| Volumes | 72 |
| Anime television series | |
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| Media franchise | |
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Naruto is a world-famous Japanese manga comic series created by Masashi Kishimoto. The story follows Naruto Uzumaki, an energetic young ninja who wants to become the leader of his home village. In this fantasy setting, the village leader holds the title of Hokage. Naruto starts as an outsider who pulls pranks to get attention, but he works hard to earn respect.
The storyline unfolds in two major parts. The first part follows Naruto during his pre-teen years across the early volumes. The second part follows his adventures as an older teenager. Readers watch him master powerful martial arts skills, make lifelong friends, and protect the world from danger. Kishimoto based this epic tale on two one-shot manga stories he drew in the 1990s.
Naruto was printed in the popular Japanese comic magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump by the company Shueisha. It ran from September 1999 to November 2014. The total series contains 700 chapters collected into 72 book volumes. In North America, the publishing company Viz Media released translated editions in its own Weekly Shonen Jump magazine.
Animation studios Pierrot and Aniplex turned the comic into two famous anime series on TV Tokyo. These animated shows aired from October 2002 until March 2017. The franchise also includes animated movies, books, and interactive video games. The story continues today in the sequel series Boruto, which stars Naruto's brave son Boruto Uzumaki.
With over 250 million books sold worldwide, Naruto ranks among the best-selling manga series in history. It has gained millions of fans across dozens of countries. The story explores friendship, determination, and growing up, while using traditional ideas from Japanese mythology and Confucianism.
Contents
Exciting Plot and Adventures in the Ninja World
Part I: Becoming a True Ninja
The story begins with a giant creature called Kurama, the Nine-Tailed Fox. Long ago, this beast attacked Konohagakure, also called the Hidden Leaf Village. This settlement lies inside the Land of Fire, one of the Five Great Shinobi Countries. To save the village, the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze, used a magic spell to seal the beast inside his baby son, Naruto Uzumaki. Minato lost his life during this act, so the older Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, took charge once more.
Growing up, Naruto lived alone and faced harsh treatment from neighbors who feared the beast inside him. Village leaders made a rule forbidding people from talking about the attack. Because of this silence, Naruto had no idea why people avoided him. Twelve years later, a rogue named Mizuki tricked Naruto into stealing a secret scroll. Mizuki revealed the truth about the Nine-Tails, but Naruto stopped him and saved his kind teacher, Iruka Umino. This victory helped Naruto graduate from the ninja academy.
Naruto soon joins two classmates, Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura Haruno, to create a group called Team 7. They train under an elite teacher named Kakashi Hatake. The team learns teamwork through basic chores, outdoor survival exercises, and bodyguard assignments. During an adventure in the Land of Waves, Team 7 discovers the true dangers of being a ninja.
Later, Kakashi enters the group into the Chunin Exams, a contest where young ninjas compete for promotions. During these trials, an evil villain named Orochimaru attacks the village. Hiruzen Sarutobi sacrifices himself to stop Orochimaru from using hand-sign magic. In the aftermath, a wise master named Jiraiya helps Naruto find another master named Tsunade. Tsunade agrees to return to the village as the Fifth Hokage.
Trouble grows when Sasuke becomes obsessed with gaining power to defeat his older brother, Itachi Uchiha. Orochimaru promises Sasuke great power through secret training. Sasuke leaves the village, and Naruto leads a rescue squad to bring his friend back home. Naruto battles Sasuke near a giant waterfall, but Sasuke refuses to return. Naruto decides to spend the next two and a half years training under Jiraiya so he can become strong enough to save Sasuke.
Part II: The Great Battles of Shippuden
Naruto returns to the Hidden Leaf Village as a taller, wiser teenager. A mysterious group called the Akatsuki begins capturing the giant Tailed Beasts from their human hosts. Kakashi leads Leaf ninjas into battles across different lands to stop this threat. During this journey, Naruto discovers that Akatsuki wants to collect all nine beasts for a dangerous global scheme.
Meanwhile, Sasuke defeats Orochimaru and confronts Itachi. Itachi falls during their clash due to an ongoing sickness. Afterward, a masked figure named Tobi tells Sasuke that Konoha leaders had secretly ordered Itachi to take action to stop a rebellion. Sasuke feels betrayed and decides to seek revenge against the Leaf Village.
Back at the village, the Akatsuki leader Nagato launches a massive invasion. Nagato defeats Jiraiya, devastating the Hidden Leaf Village with immense power. Naruto masters nature energy and confronts Nagato with reasoned words. Naruto convinces Nagato to choose peace, and Nagato uses his remaining strength to revive the fallen villagers. Naruto is finally celebrated as a hero by the entire village.
Tobi pretends to be an ancient warrior named Madara Uchiha and declares war on the entire world. He wants to capture every beast to put everyone into an endless magical sleep. The leaders of the five great villages refuse his demands and unite their forces into the Allied Shinobi Forces. This union sparks the Fourth Shinobi World War, involving tens of thousands of ninjas.
Village leaders hide Naruto on a remote island turtle so he will stay safe from harm. Naruto learns how to work in harmony with the Nine-Tails inside him with help from Killer Bee. Naruto senses the conflict outside and rushes to the battlefield. During the fighting, the masked villain is revealed to be Obito, Kakashi's former childhood teammate.
Sasuke returns to fight alongside Naruto and Sakura after speaking with former village leaders. Together, the heroes face an ancient extraterrestrial princess named Kaguya Otsutsuki. Working as a united squad, Team 7 seals Kaguya away to save the planet.
Sasuke wants to change the political system by force, leading to one final showdown against Naruto. After an exhausting battle, Sasuke accepts Naruto's view of friendship and peace. Kakashi becomes the Sixth Hokage and pardons Sasuke for his past actions. Years later, Naruto marries Hinata Hyuga, takes office as the Seventh Hokage, and watches the next generation grow up in peace.
Creation and Development of the Manga
How the Story Began
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Masashi Kishimoto created a short comic titled Karakuri in 1995, which won praise in a young artist contest run by Shueisha. Afterward, Kishimoto began sketching ideas for a brand-new series. One early concept imagined Naruto as a restaurant cook making soup, but Kishimoto abandoned that idea. In the summer of 1997, he published a trial story about a boy who could turn into a magical fox. Readers enjoyed the fun premise, but Kishimoto wanted to improve the artwork and tone.
He decided to turn the concept into an adventure about stealthy ninjas. Kishimoto planned the first eight chapters before publishing them in Weekly Shōnen Jump. Early drawings showed crowded village streets with complex buildings, but Kishimoto soon focused more on drawing clean, expressive characters. He worried that magical ideas like spiritual chakra energy might confuse readers, but young fans loved learning the fictional mechanics.
Kishimoto loved classic giant monster movies featuring Godzilla. He used those movie memories to invent the giant Tailed Beasts that appear across the storyline. In Part I, the main message focused on how people can learn to accept one another. Naruto's early journey showed how kindness and hard work help someone overcome loneliness.
For the second half of the series, Kishimoto changed his drawing methods. He simplified comic panels so fast action scenes were easier to follow on paper. His artwork shifted from cartoonish figures toward slightly more realistic proportions. When finishing a long battle arc with Sasuke, Kishimoto packed extra pages into volume 43 to complete the storyline smoothly.
Designing Memorable Characters
Kishimoto studied various popular adventure comics while creating his large cast of heroes and villains. He wanted each character to feel unique while honoring Japanese cultural traditions. To keep team battles fun, he organized students into three-person squads with complementary skills and weaknesses. One teammate might excel at physical attacks, while another focuses on magical tricks or medical healing.
Writing romantic scenes was tricky for Kishimoto, but he included more relationship growth in Part II. He created scary villains to challenge the heroes' beliefs about peace and justice. To help the main characters grow stronger, Kishimoto used an ellipsis, which is a story time jump. This multi-year break allowed the kids to grow into capable teens who could match adult villains.
Building the Fantasy World
The magical hand signs used by ninjas were inspired by the twelve animals of the Chinese zodiac. Kishimoto based the buildings and forests of Konoha on his childhood hometown in Okayama. The setting blends fantasy with everyday modern conveniences like convenience stores and electrical poles. However, Kishimoto deliberately excluded cars, planes, and modern firearms to keep the spotlight on martial arts action.
Planning the Emotional Ending
Growing up near the historic city of Hiroshima, Kishimoto heard real stories about past conflicts from his grandfather. These accounts taught him that misunderstandings between nations often lead to tragic events. Kishimoto wanted the massive ninja conflict at the end of his comic to offer hope for genuine world peace.
Naruto's choice to forgive former enemies formed the emotional heart of the story's conclusion. Kishimoto decided early on that the story would finish with a dramatic battle between Naruto and Sasuke. He wanted Sasuke's lonely path of anger to contrast directly with Naruto's path of teamwork and friendship.
Kishimoto chose Hinata Hyuga as Naruto's future wife early in the series because she always supported him. Their romance was featured heavily in the 2014 movie The Last: Naruto the Movie. Naruto's new life as a busy father was explored further in the 2015 movie Boruto: Naruto the Movie, completing his long journey from lonely child to proud parent.
Big Themes and Cultural Ideas
Scholars note that Naruto uses rich symbols from ancient Japanese mythology. For example, Sasuke's family uses special techniques named after Shinto legends like Tsukiyomi, Amaterasu, and Susano-o. The crest of Sasuke's family represents a traditional fan called an uchiwa. In folklore, these fans were thought to blow away evil spirits.
Magical foxes, known as kitsune, are famous tricksters in Japanese folktales. These mythical foxes play pranks and sometimes inhabit human bodies, mirroring how Kurama is trapped inside Naruto. Naruto's early habit of painting monuments connects directly to these classic fox trickster stories.
The story also reflects core values from Confucianism, such as showing respect, honoring teachers, and protecting community harmony. Other popular series like Bleach share these themes. While the comic features exciting action, researchers note that the violence usually shows why peaceful problem-solving is better.
Naruto overcomes deep alienation by helping his neighbors. In older classic anime like Akira or Neon Genesis Evangelion, lonely characters often remain separated from others. In contrast, Naruto builds connections through empathy and shared struggle.
Psychologists explain that young readers relate to the story because it deals with making friends and coping with loss. Sasuke acts as a sharp foil to Naruto; while Sasuke isolates himself, Naruto draws power from loved ones. The story works as a classic bildungsroman, which is a literary term for a story about growing up.
As the series moves into Part II, humorous moments decrease to match the serious tone of the plot. Other popular comedy series like Gintama and Reborn! took over the laughs in Weekly Shōnen Jump. Later story arcs introduce powerful alien visitors inspired by the ancient Japanese fairy tale The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter. These mythological ideas laid the foundation for modern series such as My Hero Academia and Ninjago.
Popular Media Releases
The Original Manga Series
Masashi Kishimoto wrote and drew the manga chapters weekly in Weekly Shōnen Jump from 1999 to 2014. The 700 chapters were gathered into 72 paperback books. Chapters 1 through 238 cover Part I, while a short bonus story explores Kakashi's youth. Chapters 245 through 700 cover Part II, which takes place after a long training break. Special ani-manga books using movie art were also published. In 2015, Kishimoto released a mini-series titled Naruto: The Seventh Hokage and the Scarlet Spring.
Before books arrived in American stores, some fans read unlicensed online fan translations. In 2003, Viz Media officially began publishing chapters in its English Shonen Jump magazine. Viz accelerated its schedule to catch up with Japanese releases, releasing boxed sets and thick three-in-one editions.
Worldwide, publishers translated the series for readers in over 90 different nations. Madman Entertainment printed the series across Australia and New Zealand starting in 2008. European readers enjoyed translated books from Carlsen Comics, Kana, Japonica Polonica Fantastica, Comix-ART, Sangatsu Manga, Bonnier Carlsen, and Panini Comics.
Side Stories and Spin-offs
A funny spin-off manga titled Rock Lee & His Ninja Pals starred the martial artist Rock Lee. Lee cannot use magical techniques, so he trains his body with great effort. The comic ran in Saikyō Jump and became a fun television anime. Streaming platforms like Crunchyroll streamed the episodes online worldwide.
In 2016, a sequel series called Boruto: Naruto Next Generations began monthly publication. Kishimoto supervised the project while artist Mikio Ikemoto and writer Ukyō Kodachi created the pages. Kishimoto also drew a special short story about Naruto's father called The Whorl Within the Spiral in 2023.
Naruto even teamed up with American heroes in a special comic with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The crossover ran for four issues and was collected into a graphic novel. In late 2026, Kishimoto announced plans for another brand-new manga adventure titled Naruto Shadow Rising.
Television Anime Shows
The animated series began airing in Japan on October 3, 2002. Director Hayato Date led the team at Studio Pierrot, while artist Tetsuya Nishio designed the characters. The original show ran for 220 episodes, with many fun standalone adventures created exclusively for television.
The sequel animated series, titled Naruto: Shippuden, began in February 2007. This program adapted Part II of the comic, showcasing grander battles, older characters, and higher drama. The show reached its grand finale on March 23, 2017, after 500 episodes. In late 2026, producers announced a special limited crossover anime featuring characters from the classic series Ninku, directed by Noriyuki Abe.
Theatrical Feature Films
Movie theaters have hosted 11 animated feature films alongside 12 short video features. Hollywood studio Lionsgate began developing a live-action movie adaptation with producer Avi Arad. Filmmaker Destin Daniel Cretton was chosen to direct the project, receiving personal praise from Kishimoto after visiting Tokyo. Screenwriter Tasha Huo worked on the movie script. In mid-2026, casting teams launched international auditions to find young actors for the roles of Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura, with actor Charles Melton in discussions to portray their teacher Kakashi.
Light Novels and Chapter Books
Twenty-six short light novel books have been written about the ninja world. Author Tracey West wrote 16 illustrated early-reader books for elementary school students. Several novels follow Naruto's master Jiraiya or explore the background of Sasuke's family. A series of books called Hiden shows what popular characters did after the final war ended.
Games, Toys, and Merchandise
Video Games
Dozens of interactive video games have appeared on platforms made by Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft. Most titles are competitive arena brawlers where players control their favorite characters. Combatants use punches, kicks, and magical special moves against computer AI or in multiplayer battles.
The earliest game was released in Japan in 2003 for the WonderSwan Color handheld system. Popular game series include Clash of Ninja and Ninja Council. Publisher Bandai Namco announced that the franchise's games have sold tens of millions of copies worldwide. Fun guest fighters have appeared, including Lars Alexandersson from the fighting game Tekken in the title Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 2. Kishimoto had previously designed an outfit for Tekken 6, which inspired the guest appearance by developer Hiroshi Matsuyama at CyberConnect2.
Artbooks and Guidebooks
Shueisha has released several high-quality art collections filled with colorful illustrations and sketches. A special guest artbook was handed out to visitors at an art exhibit inside the Mori Art Museum. Fans can also read official data books that list ninja power levels, secret techniques, and character birthdays. One celebratory anniversary book featured an interview between Kishimoto and Yoshihiro Togashi, the creator of Hunter × Hunter.
Trading Cards and Board Games
Between 2002 and 2006, Bandai produced a physical trading card game featuring hundreds of collectible cards. Two players use customized fifty-card decks, playmats, and metal coins to battle for rewards. Extra cards were packaged in foil booster packs and collector tins. Fun tabletop releases include the Naruto Shippuden Deck-Building Game and Naruto: Ninja Arena.
Legacy, Fame, and Worldwide Influence
In 2006, Naruto became the first anime figure listed in Newsweek magazine's list of respected Japanese figures. Internet data showed that "Naruto" was one of the most searched terms in the world during the late 2000s, competing with pop stars like Britney Spears and Paris Hilton, as well as sports shows like WWE. Over a twenty-five-year stretch, it ranked as the single most-searched anime on Google Search, earning a special interactive Easter egg feature on the website.
Libraries have documented the comic's popularity among young readers. The Brooklyn Public Library named the first volume one of its most borrowed books of the past century. European publisher Le Lombard noted that Naruto achieved the same legendary classic status as Dragon Ball across France.
The series inspired many successful manga artists. Creators like Kohei Horikoshi (who made My Hero Academia), Yūki Tabata (creator of Black Clover), Koyoharu Gotouge (creator of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba), Gege Akutami (creator of Jujutsu Kaisen), and Takeru Hokazono (creator of Kagurabachi) all praised Kishimoto's storytelling. Renowned comic artist Whilce Portacio pointed out how the series influenced American illustrators.
Musicians love the series as well. Rock bands like Kana-Boon, Bad Omens, and Ankor wrote high-energy songs connected to the show. Japanese pop star Kenshi Yonezu said reading Naruto as a child originally inspired him to become an artist. Hip-hop stars like XXXTentacion, Lil Uzi Vert, SahBabii, Duckwrth, Denzel Curry, Robb Banks, Xavier Wulf, DRAM, Saba, Sir Michael Rocks, Megan Thee Stallion, and Eminem have all referenced the ninja hero in their songs.
Famous video games like Apex Legends, Overwatch, Final Fantasy XIV, and Fortnite include dances, skins, or moves inspired by the series. The show also created a huge international love for Japanese food. Naruto's favorite dish, pork-bone ramen, saw huge surges in popularity around the world as young fans sought to try the delicious noodle soup eaten by their favorite orange-clad ninja.
Families can even explore real-world attractions based on the series. An indoor theme park opened in Shanghai in 2020, and a giant outdoor amusement park called "Konoha Land" opened in France in early 2026. The story of a determined boy who never gave up continues to inspire young people everywhere.
See also
In Spanish: Naruto para niños
