Naruto Uzumaki

Naruto Uzumaki is the titular main character of the Naruto series.

He is a shinobi of Konohagakure and a descendant of the Uzumaki clan. He became the jinchūriki of the Nine-Tailson the day of his birth... a fate that caused him to be shunned 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, becoming known as the Hero of the Hidden Leaf. 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.

In the AWA fics, Naruto is a student of AWA Academy and is part of Class 1. Naruto is also the owner of the Uzumaki Hotel and Uzumaki Villa.

Appearance
According to Jiraiya, Naruto strongly resembles his father: he has blond, spiky hair and blue eyes, while inheriting the shape of his mother's eyes and face. His trademark characteristic are the three whisker markings on his cheeks. During the Fourth Shinobi World War, Dan Katō initially mistook Naruto for Nawaki due to their stark resemblance. Naruto was rather short for his age during Part I, though he grew to be taller than Sakura in Part II. Naruto originally wore green goggles on his forehead, though he discards them upon becoming a genin.

In Part I, Naruto wore an orange and blue jacket with a white collar, a white swirl with a tassel on the left side, and a red Uzumaki crest on the back. He also wore orange pants with a shuriken holster on his right knee, blue sandals, and a blue forehead protector, given to him by Iruka after graduating from the Academy. In Part II, Naruto wears a more form fitting outfit after wearing out his original one while training with Jiraiya, with a T-shirt or mesh armour underneath. While retaining the swirls and orange pants, the blue pieces of his outfit changes to black: his forehead protector (which is now longer), sandals, and orange jacket, the black colour showing more prominence than the blue did originally. During his battle with Pain, Naruto briefly wore a short-sleeved red coat with a black flame pattern around the hem and carried a large scroll on his back.

Naruto loses his right arm after the Fourth Shinobi World War, though it is later replaced by a fully maneouverable prosthetic arm made of Hashirama Senju's cells, wrapped completely in bandages. In The Last: Naruto the Movie, Naruto grew again to be one of the tallest of his graduating class, cut his hair short, and wore a black elastic forehead protector. Over his pants and sandals, he wears a black uniform jacket with an orange zipper and buttons on the waist and sleeves, which can be folded up at times. He has a red armband with an Uzumaki crest on his left arm. After becoming Hokage, Naruto dons a garment similar to his father's: a white cape that has a red flame pattern around the hem, is held together by a red rope, and has the kanji for "Seventh Hokage" written vertically down the back. Underneath this, he wears an orange sweatshirt with black stripes (reverse in the manga version of Boruto: Naruto Next Generations), black pants and sandals. He occasionally wears the traditional Hokage headpiece, but has stopped wearing a forehead protector.

Personality
Naruto is characterised as boisterous, exuberant and unorthodox, quite similar to Hashirama Senju. He inherited his mother's verbal tic, as he ends his sentences with "Dattebayo!" when emotional. Though he responds best to competition and is not afraid to ask for assistance, Naruto is relatively naive, simple, and slow to understand principles or situations. He often requires an oversimplified analogy in order to grasp explanations, and can even forget some concepts that he himself noted earlier if he is too emotional. Naruto is aware of his faults, and admits he acts strong to mask his embarrassment and frustration about them. Despite his naivety, Naruto can be quite observant, picking up on things others miss and retaining information casually gathered through conversation.

Growing up as an orphan who suffered years of hatred and social isolation by Konoha's villagers has influenced Naruto's character in a number of ways: he is heedless to formality and social standings, addressing certain people with nicknames instead of honourifics, although by the time of his adulthood, Naruto has slightly outgrown this trait, as he stopped referring to Lee as "Bushy Brows" and calls him by his name; he has picky eating habits of ramen, his favourite food; he has a perverted side that manifests as uses of the Sexy Technique or attempts to peep into women's baths; he didn't understand the real meaning of "love" and believes that loving and/or being loved by someone and ramen are both the same. Despite his quirks and the criticism they earn him, Naruto is said to have a personality that draws people to him, inspiring friendship and loyalty through acts of genuine kindness that could change a person's world view. He is thus able to build meaningful relationships that he lacked in early life; the Sage of Six Paths believes Naruto's kindness is a special gift that allows him to save Kurama from its hatred. Naruto deeply cherishes these bonds and will go to great lengths to protect them, best seen with Sasuke after his defection from Konoha. Naruto's time at the Falls of Truth revealed that a part of him hated the villagers for ostracising him, only to admire him after he saved them during Pain's Assault. This allowed Kurama to manipulate Naruto's rage until he confronted it and learned to let it go, becoming greater than what he suffered.

Another of Naruto's prominent traits is his desire for acknowledgement; his pranks around the village were for people to notice, or at least scold, him. Therefore, he dreamed of one day becoming Konoha's Hokage, the epitome of acknowledgement and respect from everyone in the village. Knowing his dream is a long, arduous and seemingly impossible path, Naruto developed his own nindō of never going back on his word. This life-long philosophy serves as the cornerstone of Naruto's great self-confidence; he believes he can accomplish any goal with enough hard work and perseverance, no matter how big the obstacle is or how long it takes to complete it. This guides him in many aspects of life besides a battle, such as his promise to Sakura of bringing Sasuke back to Konoha. Over time, his goal to be Hokage grew 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. His nindō is reinforced by his understanding that shinobi were meant to endure through hardships. His belief in hard work and perseverance made him detest people who would use insincere shortcuts to achieve their goals, as he disqualified his son from the Chūnin Exams for using the banned and unfair Kote, and expressed disgust at Momoshiki and Kinshiki Ōtsutsuki for their reliance on harvesting from Chakra Fruits to lazily gain power.

After the death of his master Jiraiya, talking to his father Minato and listening to Nagato's tragic story, Naruto grew to understand the cycle of hatred and vowed to break it in order to bring real peace to the world. To that end, his participation in the Fourth Shinobi World War is not only to protect his friends, but also to bear and erase the world's hatred all by himself. After encountering a reincarnatedItachi Uchiha, however, Naruto realises that he cannot handle everything alone and that he must allow his friends to support and fight alongside him. As he does so in war's climax, his fighting spirit inspires the Allied Shinobi Forces to join him and keep fighting to end the war as well, ultimately becoming an example for many people to admire, follow, and believe in.

Naruto first met Hinata Hyūga when they were children, where his open kindness and courageous spirit earned him her admiration, which grew into love. On his part, Naruto remained largely oblivious to Hinata's feelings for him and even considered her "weird" because of her shyness around him. However, things change during the Chūnin Exams in Part I when they began to interact more and support each other, causing Naruto to like her as a friend. In Part II, as Hinata becomes willing to risk her life to protect Naruto, he in turn sees her as a strong person despite his speechlessness at her love confession. Naruto did grow to love Hinata subconsciously, but he was never able to consciously realise it because he kept "fighting" for Sakura, which was just another way for him to compete with Sasuke. During The Last: Naruto the Movie, Naruto finally recognises the love that Hinata has always had for him, causing him to become more bashful and protective of her, just as she was for him. Realising that she alone has always had faith in him and that she has always been there for him, he reciprocates her feelings and desires to be with her for the rest of his life.

Abilities
Naruto was an inept student in the Academy, having failed to graduate three times before successfully becoming a shinobi. Through sheer determination, however, his skills rapidly improved in Part I by defeating strong shinobi such as Neji Hyūga, Gaara, and Kabuto Yakushi, earning acknowledgement from the Sannin for his potential. Under Jiraiya's tutelage and training at Mount Myōboku, Naruto became strong enough to fight and defeat members of Akatsuki, which ultimately earned him the praise of Konohagakure as a hero of Hokage-material. Naruto's participation in the Fourth Shinobi World War led to the defeat of many of the reincarnated Kage and tailed beasts. He also could defeat opponents who threatened the fate of the shinobi world, such as Obito Uchiha, Madara Uchiha, Sasuke, Kaguya and Toneri Ōtsutsuki. Others believed Naruto had surpassed the previous Hokage and was the central key to winning the war. By adulthood, his prowess earned him the position of Seventh Hokage, and is regarded as having command of overwhelming jutsu. Viewed as the strongest shinobi of his era and in history, Sasuke is noted to be the only person capable of matching him.

As an Uzumaki, and a reincarnation of Asura Ōtsutsuki, Naruto has massive reserves of strong chakra, at least four times greater than Kakashi's, and described by Karin as "bright and warm.". His initial poor control of it was offset by his sheer reserves. Naruto's reserves were so large, he could fight for three and a half days of constant battleagainst several powerful opponents. Only by the end of his battle against Sasuke did he show exhaustion, and even then could still fight to a standstill and eventual victory. Naruto's control improved greatly over time: he could transfer his chakra to others, and perform one-handed hand seals. He later received chakra from all of the other tailed beasts, and Hagoromo Ōtsutsuki, which increased his reserves even further. Naruto's powerful life force grants him an extreme longevity, healing power, stamina, and vitality; this allowed him to survive the extraction of a tailed beast for a while. Naruto also learned how to counter genjutsu from Jiraiya, but had limited skill in using it. In adulthood, Naruto's chakra is powerful enough to destroy high-level barriers simply by releasing chakra in his enhanced form.

While naturally a short-range fighter, Naruto was not adept at the use of taijutsu during Part I, as he required the use of unpredictable attacks to surprise combat experts like Kiba Inuzuka and Neji . He often utilised shadow clones or Kurama's chakra to simply overwhelm his foes; with the former, he created techniques such as the Naruto Uzumaki Combo and its stronger versions. Although these tactics resume in Part II, Naruto becomes much more adept at taijutsu due to Jiraiya's training. After Fukasaku's tutelage, he was capable fending off a pair of skilled kenjutsu users on his own. Two years after the war, Naruto's taijutsu improved to such an extent, that he could defeat dozens of opponents without requiring shadow clones or enhancements.

As the jinchūriki of Kurama's Yang half, Naruto had access to a massive chakra reserve, which was at least a hundredfold greater than Kakashi's. Due to his inheriting his mother's unique chakra capacities and being Kurama's jinchūriki for practically his entire life, Naruto's chakra had more effectively mixed with the fox's,[82] allowing him to perform several chakra-taxing techniques unhindered. Originally while accessing Kurama's chakra, typically through sheer rage, enhanced Naruto's abilities, the fox's negative influence made Naruto more aggressive. While essentially remaining himself up to accessing a Version 1 state, Version 2 would make him lose control and turn feralforms, requiring outside assistance to suppress Kurama's power through various methods and regain control. These drawbacks caused Naruto to rely on his own strength instead of Kurama's until he proved capable of controlling it completely. By the time he became the jinchūriki of Kurama's Yin half, he could access his Version 1 form without any loss in his mentality.