Konohamaru Sarutobi

is a major supporting character of the series and a genin-level shinobi of Konohagakure after which he was named. He hails from the Sarutobi clan and is a member of Team Ebisu.

Personality
Konohamaru is the grandson of Hiruzen and Biwako Sarutobi as well as the nephew of Asuma. He usually hangs out with his two friends and team-mates, Udon and Moegi. Together, they call themselves the "Konohamaru Ninja Squad". He and his team-mates constantly try to sneak up on Naruto Uzumaki with poor executions of the Cloak of Invisibility Technique. Konohamaru's biggest influence is Naruto himself, looking up to him as a role model. At various points, Naruto and Konohamaru appear to have common bonds between them, such as use of the perverted techniques, determination, and fiery attitudes. Konohamaru ends many of his sentences with, much like Naruto does with "Dattebayo!"

Even though Konohamaru and Naruto pretend to be rivals, the two clearly have a deep and understanding friendship. Konohamaru idolises Naruto in ways that no other person does, which was also shown when the two first met, with Konohamaru calling Naruto "Oyabun", which roughly translates to boss. He opened to Naruto and told him that he was sad because nobody saw him for who he really was, instead, they only saw him as the grandson of the Third Hokage and was always called instead of Konohamaru. He liked Naruto because he thought they were similar. They eventually became very close, with Konohamaru constantly calling Naruto, and Naruto also taught Konohamaru some techniques that he himself excels in.

Like Naruto, Konohamaru dreams of becoming Hokage; however, he is content to wait to be the Seventh Hokage, as he is convinced that Naruto will become the Sixth.

Appearance
Konohamaru has short spiky brown hair and black eyes. He also has a small chip in his tooth. In Part I, he wore a yellow shirt with the Konoha symbol in red, grey shorts, and a long blue scarf. When he was first introduced, Konohamaru wore a grey helmet that had an orange frowning face on the right side, a red circle on the left side, and had a hole at the top for his hair to stick out of. Eventually, he replaced the helmet with the pair of goggles that Naruto gave him after Iruka Umino gave the former his forehead protector.

In Part II, Konohamaru grew in size and wears a similar outfit as his previous one, with longer pants and a pale green jacket with a dark green stripe down the middle. He also retains his long scarf and now wears a Konoha forehead protector in place of his goggles.

Abilities
At the beginning of the series, Konohamaru's only skills included some poor cloaking techniques and transformation techniques. However, after learning the meaning of true determination, Konohamaru's abilities began to show significant improvement over the timeskip, implying that he may have inherited his grandfather, the Third Hokage's, natural talent.

In the anime, he is shown having a high level of pain tolerance, as he was able to grab a kunai without flinching, although his hand received a bleeding wound from it. Konohamaru also has the most stamina out of his team-mates, as shown during the work to rebuild Konoha after Invasion of Pain Arc, while Konohamaru was easily carrying wood, Udon and Moegi were worn out.

Taijutsu
During his short skirmish with the Naraka Path, Konohamaru displayed a high level of speed and evasive skills, able to dodge most of the attacks.

Ninjutsu
After meeting Naruto, much of his arsenal becomes comprised of sexy techniques he learned from or based off Naruto's. He did however with some instruction from Naruto learn the jōnin-level Shadow Clone Technique. In the anime, he has also demonstrated aptitude with other high-level techniques such as the Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique as well as with the generic Body Flicker Technique.

Rasengan
Sometime during Part I (Part II in the anime), Naruto taught Konohamaru how to use the Rasengan. His version of the Rasengan is, like Naruto's, performed using a shadow clone to control the power of the chakra, but is smaller than Naruto's (regular-sized in the anime). It was also shown that Konohamaru holds the Rasengan with a shadow clone the way Naruto originally held his Big Ball Rasengan. After hearing how he used Rasengan against Pain, Naruto praised him, and promised Konohamaru that he would teach him how to make a bigger one.

Nature Transformation
In lieu of his great talent, the anime has shown that Konohamaru has also displayed competent use of nature transformation, being able to use Fire Release techniques such as his uncle's signature technique, Fire Release: Ash Pile Burning.

Intelligence
In Part I of the anime, Konohamaru shows that he is quite knowledgeable about chakra and fairly skilled in making traps. After the timeskip, he is shown to be fairly analytical in battle, able to quickly analyse and understand the mechanisms of his opponent's technique.

Introduction Arc
Konohamaru was named after the village of Konohagakure by his grandfather, the Third Hokage. However, although almost everyone in the village knew his name, Konohamaru was always called. This caused Konohamaru to feel unacknowledged. He grew tired of this feeling and decided to become Hokage, trying to do so by constantly attacking on his grandfather so that he could defeat him and take his title. Although Ebisu, his tutor, tried to discourage this, it was only through Naruto's influence that Konohamaru realised that there would be no shortcut to becoming Hokage. Instead, it is a dream that would take many years of hard work and discipline to realise.

Konohamaru made a few other staggered appearances as Part I progressed, either trying to spend time with Naruto or simply trying to be helpful. After his grandfather's death, he briefly lost interest in Naruto's guidance, feeling the restoration of the village to be more important. In the anime, when Tsunade attempted to take on the position of Hokage, Konohamaru didn't accept her due to his opinion that she couldn't compare to his grandfather, as well as that he was afraid the village would forget about his grandfather. After Tsunade demonstrated her strength, medical abilities and recalling his grandfather's resolve however, he accepted her as the Third's successor.

Kazekage Rescue Arc
After the timeskip, the Konohamaru Corps had become a genin team under Ebisu. In the anime, Konohamaru and his team were given the same mission as Naruto's team when they had first become genin (the runaway cat). Konohamaru stated that he would become the Seventh Hokage, and that Naruto would be the Sixth. Tsunade described Konohamaru as the second Naruto. Konohamaru's scarf is even longer post-timeskip, stretching at least several feet beyond his neck. When Naruto returned after his two and a half years of training, he introduced himself by showing off his new and improved Sexy Technique, only to be told by Naruto that they were no longer children and should not use such techniques, only to reveal that he had improved it himself, and was almost about to use it when he was smacked around by Sakura, in turn scaring Konohamaru and his friends.

Hidan and Kakuzu Arc
Konohamaru was seen at his uncle Asuma's funeral, crying. He made his next appearance after the defeat of Hidan and Kakuzu, where he demonstrated that he had been able to learn the Shadow Clone Technique, albeit only with a single clone. He continued to add the Sexy Technique to it, creating the Sexy: Girl on Girl Technique by having him and the clone take on the forms of two naked women engaged in a suggestive position, which got a perverted reaction from Naruto. After using the technique he was promptly hit by Sakura. In the anime, Sakura was about to hit him, but Moegi hit him first.

After being told his technique was useless, aside from its perverted use, Konohamaru used Sexy: Boy on Boy Technique to transform into two naked males who resembled Sasuke Uchiha and Sai, showing that Sakura was a closet pervert, and showing that the technique could in fact be used as a distraction, as it had been developed for both males and females (this part was censored and not included in the anime).

Invasion of Pain Arc
During Pain's invasion on Konoha, Konohamaru was patrolling around the village in order to assure that the villagers were evacuated safely, meeting up with his team-mates Udon and Moegi for status reports. While sneaking around corners, gasping for breath but looking uninjured, he witnessed the Naraka Path of Pain judging two Konoha shinobi, and killing the one that had lied to him before draining the energy of the other one, although he didn't understand the technique at the time. Before he could manage to escape from the scene, however, he was spotted by Pain. Fortunately, his sensei, Ebisu, jumped in, giving Konohamaru a chance to escape.

However, Ebisu was easily defeated, but, before being killed, he was saved by some kunai thrown by Konohamaru. The Naraka Path charged at him while Konohamaru braced himself and began performing hand seals. Konohamaru was caught by the Naraka Path, and witnessed his technique, thus understanding it. At that moment, the Konohamaru in the Naraka Path's grasp disappeared, revealing that it had been a shadow clone. Having successfully distracted his enemy, the real Konohamaru and another shadow clone struck the Naraka Path from behind with a Rasengan, scoring a full-impact hit that slammed the Naraka Path through a wall. However, the path retreated before their battle could progress further.

In the tankōbon version of the manga however, he is seen celebrating Naruto's return with the rest of the village.

Five Kage Summit Arc
When Naruto, Kakashi Hatake, and Yamato wanted to leave Konoha, Naruto tasked Konohamaru with dealing with the Foundation members watching them. Standing facing each other, both of them performed the Sexy Technique, which was amplified by a genjutsu made by Kakashi's Sharingan.

Konohamaru, however, complained that Naruto's was more sexy, and lamented that he was getting further behind him, something he shouldn't be doing since they were rivals. Naruto, however, complimented him on managing to use the Rasengan, having heard about how he had used it on Pain. He patted his head and said that he too was a hero. As he took off, Naruto praised Konohamaru for learning faster than he himself had, and promised Konohamaru that he will teach him how to make a bigger one next time.

In the anime, after the Five Kage Summit, Konohamaru was seen working on the "Konoha Hero Newspaper" with Moegi, wondering where Naruto was for their interview. When Naruto returns to the village, he says they will have to interview him next time. As Naruto passes him, Konohamaru realises there is something different about Naruto.

Naruto 5: Blood Prison
During Naruto's flashback to the members of the village when he was gathering natural energy to enter Sage Mode, Konohamaru can been seen amongst the villagers.

Creation and Conception
Konohamaru's design caused great difficulties for Masashi Kishimoto; he intended for Konohamaru to look like a "punk" smaller than Naruto, yet all of his attempts resulted in a mere recreation of Naruto. He eventually gave Konohamaru small, angry-looking eyes, and was instantly happy with the design.

Trivia

 * In the anime, when he was showing off his Sexy: Girl on Girl Technique, he was beaten up by Moegi instead of Sakura. Similarly, the Sexy: Boy on Boy Technique was not shown in the anime.
 * According to the databook(s):
 * Konohamaru's favourite foods are ramen and chocolate-covered bananas. His least favourite are onions.
 * He wishes to fight his grandfather and Naruto Uzumaki.
 * His favourite phrase is:.
 * An omake at the ending of Naruto Shippūden episode 160, revealed that Konohamaru copied Naruto's infamous kabuki face painting when he had his picture taken for his genin profile.

Quotes

 * (To Naruto)
 * (To Ebisu)
 * (To Pain) "Someone told me there's no shortcut on the path of a ninja."
 * (To Pain)
 * (To Shikamaru) "I'm the grandson of the Third Hokage who protected Konohagakure, and Naruto promised we'd fight for the title of Hokage, I'm gonna train more until I can pulverise Naruto. Because becoming the Hokage is my dream!"