About

Little is known about Naruto's birth or parentage, and it is very probable that he has no living relatives at all. What is known, however, is that around the time his mother was about to give birth to him, the Nine-tails Demon Fox, or Kyubi no Yoko, attacked his village, Konohagakure (Hidden Leaf) and the Yondaime Hokage (Fourth Hokage) decided to seal the demon away with a forbidden technique inside him, sacrificing his life in the process. Yondaime's wish was for Naruto to be remembered as a hero by the people of the village. Things, unfortunately for him, definitely did not turn out that way. The people of the village needed something to blame and channel their bitterness and loss onto, and he was the perfect candidate. The adults of the village, without known exceptions, knew him and treated him as nothing more than the demon fox that has attacked the village; As a result he grew up alone and isolated. It is implied in the manga that he went through very difficult emotional times and often shed many tears, but kept reprimanding himself for doing so and telling himself nothing would be achieved by crying. Eventually he developed into the loudmouth, hyperactive prankster he was at the start of the manga, though as the Third Hokage (Sandaime) observed (and even Naruto himself, in a moment of rare enlightenment, once admitted this), it is only an act to cover up for his deep insecurity in a desperate plight for recognition. By chance or fate, Umino Iruka, who had felt much of the same desperation as Naruto in his younger years, was Naruto's teacher, and he was the first person to recognize Naruto as a human being and ninja, and not just as a stupid screwup or the Nine-Tails. Part Two: In the second part of the story, after a two-and-a-half year time skip, Naruto shows physical growth, sports a new outfit, and appears to not only have increased in strength, speed, and techniques, but intelligence as well, Kakashi even said that Naruto has become more cunning. However, according to Tsunade, Naruto is also slowly adopting some of Jiraiya's perverted traits. During his apprenticeship under Jiraiya, Naruto was able to read the latest of the "Icha Icha" series written by Jiraiya, although when he presents a copy to Kakashi, he says he thought it was boring. It seems Naruto's feelings for Sakura have matured. He does not seem to have a child-like crush anymore. They have a very easy time communicating with each other, despite the nearly three-year separation. They are capable of having a casual conversation together, and they seem to like spending time together. Naruto is now noticeably taller than Sakura and some of his other friends. (In Part I, he is made fun of for being shorter than her.) It is when Team 7 was on the way to Sunagakure that Naruto revealed to Sakura and Temari that the demon fox was sealed inside him. She sympathizes with him, as does Temari, who is very grateful to Naruto for the change in her little brother, Gaara. It is also shown that Sasuke's defection still affects Naruto and Sakura, and when the whole of Team 7 (minus Kakashi) finally meets after two and a half years, Sasuke greets them, as he did when they became a team, with cold indifference, and says he doesn't care if he becomes Orochimaru's vessel as long as Itachi will die. He even attempts to kill Sakura and Naruto. Later, after Sasuke leaves with Orochimaru and Kabuto, Naruto and Sakura are clearly upset that he is no longer the Sasuke they knew. Naruto has displayed a few new abilities since the start of Part II. Sometime during his training with Jiraiya, Naruto transformed into a four-tailed form of the demon fox without his remembering. Jiraiya claims that this is one of the only two times in his life when he nearly died – the first was an incident with Tsunade in which she beat him within an inch of his life for being a pervert. During Naruto's battle with Orochimaru, he gets angry to the point of accessing his four-tailed form again. Orochimaru states that this form is powerful enough to actually kill him. Naruto has greatly improved his ninjutsu and taijutsu post-timeskip, as well as becoming a much better tactician. He managed to catch Kakashi by surprise during his second bell test, and even used Kakashi's obsession to Icha Icha Paradise to his advantage. Apparently, Naruto is starting to wield and become more skilled with weapons (other than regular kunai or shurikens), as seen in the Rescue Gaara arc. Naruto has also developed a more powerful version of the Spiraling Sphere, titled the Great Ball Spiraling Sphere. Naruto uses both his and his clone's hand to control it due its unstable nature. During his battle with Itachi, Naruto utilizes this new technique to defeat him, only to realize that he had defeated a clone of Itachi formed by the Akatsuki leader's Shapeshifting Technique. Recently, Kakashi has been training Naruto to alter the nature of his chakra, in order for Naruto to create a jutsu that is unique to him. Yamato has been helping by controlling the demon fox's chakra and building various structures for Naruto to train with. Though this normally takes a long time to do, there is a trick that speeds up the process. By creating one thousand clones of himself, Naruto can complete twenty years worth of training in just one week. Because the clones are linked to Naruto, he remembers everything they experience after they disperse. By dispersing a clone after it makes progress, every clone picks up the knowledge. With so many clones, the odds that at least one will pick up the trick to doing the jutsu increases greatly. Naruto was ignorant of this fact until told by Kakashi, despite his near-constant use of the technique. Kakashi also helps Naruto to discover the nature of his chakra through a special form of paper that reacts differently to different chakra. When Naruto channels his chakra into the paper, it splits in half, indicating that Naruto has an affinity for wind. The first part of Naruto's training involves him and his many clones trying to cut a leaf in their hands with chakra alone. Whenever one makes progress, it disperses itself so each clone gains the knowledge. During this time, Naruto asks Kakashi if there are any other wind element users, so Kakashi points him to Asuma. Asuma gives one of Naruto's clones some pointers by explaining how he uses his trench knives, but not before getting Naruto to cover his team's next party dinner. After a while, he disperses every single clone, allowing him to gain all their knowledge at once, but also causing extreme mental fatigue. He does this again to complete his training. The second part of Naruto's training involves the same technique, but with a much bigger object: in this case, a waterfall Yamato had earlier created as a demonstration. At first he fails to even stop the water, but an argument with Kakashi over the need to get stronger than Sasuke makes Naruto even more determined. That night, Naruto sees a shooting star and is reminded why he is doing this training. Naruto gets up and resumes his training. By daybreak Naruto and his clones split the waterfall all the way across, completely severing it from side to side. He disperses his clones once more, leaving him both tired and hungry. With the second step done, Naruto can start creating his first original jutsu. Before they begin, however, Kakashi reveals that he can perform Rasengan. He explains that the ultimate purpose of the Fourth's jutsu was to combine both the form manipulation and nature manipulation of one's chakra into an extremely powerful jutsu. However, the Fourth was unable to complete the jutsu and the Rasengan was the maximum that both the Fourth and Kakashi were able to achieve. This means that Naruto will have to, from now on, train by himself. Kakashi then tells Naruto that he can do it, for if there was anyone who can surpass the Fourth, it's him, then walks away with Yamato. Yamato commends Kakashi on his "way with words" but Kakashi tells him that he does believe that Naruto will be more powerful than the Fourth. Despite Kakashi's confidence, Naruto is having a lot of trouble combining the two forms of chakra manipulation into one jutsu. As Naruto describes it, it's like trying to look left and right at the same time. He even begins transforming into a four-tailed fox state at one point due to his frustration. Though Yamato successfully reverses the change, he notes that he can't guarantee he'll be able to stop it every time. Despite this, Naruto continues training.