Naruto Uzumaki

is the title character and main protagonist of the series: Naruto. He is a genin-level shinobi from Konohagakure, and a member of Team Kakashi. A maternal descendant of the Uzumaki clan, Naruto is the jinchūriki of the Yang half of Kurama — the Nine-Tails. Despite once being ostracised by the majority of the village, he is now regarded as a hero, worthy of inheriting the position his own father once held.

Background
Naruto was born as the son of the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki, Kurama's second jinchūriki. Naruto's parents named him after the main character of Jiraiya's first book, thus making the Sannin his godfather. Prior to Naruto's birth, his parents and the Third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi feared that his birth would break the seal which kept Kurama in Kushina. The plan to ensure it did not occur was for Kushina to be taken to a top-secret location outside the village with Biwako Sarutobi and Taji as her midwives, a few ANBU as security, and Minato to keep the seal in place. However, word of Kushina giving birth reached a masked ninja who intended to take the fox for his own evil ends. Killing the midwives and ANBU, the masked man took the newborn Naruto hostage to keep Minato away from Kushina so the seal can be shattered.

Though Naruto was taken to a safer location, the masked ninja succeeded in releasing Kurama and used it to devastate Konoha. After saving Kushina, Minato left Naruto with her as he went off to save their village. Having severed the masked ninja's control over the tailed beast, Minato realised the only way to stop Kurama was to seal it within Naruto, believing that his son would someday have need of the fox's power to defeat the masked ninja when he returned. However, Kurama's chakra was too immense for the seal to hold, forcing Minato to first weaken the demon, splitting its Yin and Yang chakra, sealing the former into the Hokage himself and the latter into his son. This great effort came at the price of Minato sacrificing his soul as well as Kushina taking a fatal blow from the fox meant for their son. Suddenly orphaned, Naruto was left to grow up knowing nothing of his parents, receiving only his mother's last name as Hiruzen believed it was best that nobody knew that he was related to the Fourth Hokage.

Despite Minato's final request to Hiruzen for the villagers to see Naruto as a hero who had helped defeat Kurama, only the Third Hokage and a few of the villagers honoured his request. Everyone else instead resented him for containing the beast that had destroyed their home, some even seeing him as the fox itself. Furthermore, Hiruzen made a decree to prohibit any mention of Naruto's nature as a jinchūriki in the hope that the other children would not resent him. However, even without knowing the reason, most of the children followed their parents' example and ostracised Naruto. The social isolation would cause Naruto to develop a need to be acknowledged through mischief.

Naruto later enrolled at the Academy. In the anime, one day, he was confronted by Sakura Haruno, Ino Yamanaka, Shikamaru Nara, and Chōji Akimichi. They accused him of making someone named Yota, who was a stranger to the village, disappear. Seeing them look at him with such distrust like the rest of the village, Naruto grew furious and ran away, so angry that people would like even an outsider over him. He then heard a young boy crying who strangely appeared to control the weather, making it rain with his tears. Naruto then realised this boy must be Yota. Immediately taking a liking to Naruto, the young boy asked him to teach him how to whistle like he saw Naruto do earlier. As Naruto began teaching him, the two soon became close friends. Later, Naruto and Yota began playing along with other the Konoha children that knew about Yota. One day, while playing a game of hiding, Yota insisted to hide with Naruto. When Naruto told him to hide somewhere else, Yota mistakenly thought Naruto didn't like him anymore and ran away crying. His crying caused another rainshower, which alerted the ANBU. As they took Yota captive, Naruto and the others tried to stop the ANBU, but to no success.

Determined to save his first ever friend, Naruto and the others staged a plan with Naruto acting as a diversion. Despite finding Yota, the ANBU easily foiled their plan. Naruto quickly joined his friends, refusing to let Yota be kept prisoner. Seeing how much Naruto cared for him and then got struck down by the ANBU, Yota summoned bolts of lightning to knock the ANBU out. Greatly weakened by the act, Naruto carried Yota out of the village with the others, determined to bring him to freedom. Upon reaching a river, unable to walk over it yet, they chose to swim. Their attempts proved futile and nearly drowned, only to be saved by Yota. Having overtaxed himself, Yota felt his life fading. Happy to have had friends, Yota didn't want them to suffer with this sad memory and erased all knowledge of him from their minds.

Naruto eventually became the student of Iruka Umino and met his class mate Sasuke Uchiha when the two were paired to spar against each other. Though excited at the chance to achieve popularity by beating Sasuke, Naruto was easily beaten. By looking at Sasuke's eyes, Naruto realised that they were filled with hatred. When Iruka told them to make the reconciliation seal, they both refused. Since then, Naruto came to see Sasuke as a rival and intended to beat him. When Naruto found out that Sasuke was also an orphan, he was secretly happy for not being the only one alone and wanted to talk to him, but couldn't because of his jealousy toward Sasuke's skills. Still, Naruto wished that, someday, Sasuke would acknowledge him as an equal.

In the anime, when Naruto pulled a prank on a group of boys for not being invited to their "test of courage", he refused to return to the Academy after being glared at by Iruka with the same resentful stare everyone else gives him. Later, Naruto was tricked by the boys' leader, Hibachi, to get himself killed by enemy ninja in the hills. Learning of this, Iruka ended up saving Naruto from a trio of Takigakure kunoichi before Kakashi Hatake dispatched their pursuers. Soon after, Naruto began attending class again at the time that Iruka, who now acted as a surrogate brother to keep the boy in line, gave a lecture on the Will of Fire that inspired Naruto to become the next Hokage someday to achieve the acknowledgement he is striving for. Apart from Hiruzen and Iruka, Naruto also found a surrogate family with the owner of Ramen Ichiraku: Teuchi and his daughter Ayame to some extent.

Personality
Naruto is exuberant, brash, inattentive, and heedless to formality or social standings. He inherited his catch-phrase from his mother, who would say  when excited or frustrated. Naruto has a number of childish traits, like keeping his money in a chubby, green-frog wallet he affectionately calls "Gama-chan", being a very picky eater (he almost exclusively eats ramen and is a frequent customer at the Ramen Ichiraku), and being afraid of ghosts. He is also somewhat perverted, something he tends to be reprimanded for by Sakura Haruno and Iruka, but has only become even more so after meeting his mentor Jiraiya, causing many to say that Jiraiya raised a perfect replica of himself. However, whenever someone dear to him is in trouble or the situation calls for it, Naruto can be very serious, and will instantly try to come to their aid.

According to Kakashi, Naruto learns through his body, as he is relatively naive, simple, and being slow to understand a principle or situation, which often requires an oversimplified analogy in order to grasp what is being explained to him. Overall, Naruto responds best to competition and has a great deal of self-confidence, loudly proclaiming that he will master whatever technique he is learning within a fraction of the usual time, though he doesn't hesitate to ask for help if he needs it. While as naive as he appears to be throughout most of the series, Naruto has proven to have a keen eye to certain things most people don't see, showing that he can be smarter than what most people, especially Sakura, are willing to give him credit for when he wants to be, something even Chōji comments on once in a while. This was shown when Naruto was the first to notice the differences in Sai's book, later helped to decipher Jiraiya's dying message left from Fukasaku on his back and managed to help solve the message through Kakashi's Icha Icha book. He is also quite observant in regards to other people's feelings (though he was oblivious of Hinata's love for him until she confessed her feelings to him) and is able to perceive the truth from people's intentions, such as when Sakura claimed she loved him and not Sasuke any more, Naruto immediately knew she was lying about how she felt, having witnessed her most extreme and inimitable signs of love for Sasuke. Naruto also saw through Iruka's lie about a new wild creature on the Island Turtle they were on by remembering Motoi stating that B had tamed all the animals on the island.

Due to the prejudice and loneliness he suffered in his childhood, Naruto developed a craving for acknowledgement. In order to achieve this, Naruto would pull pranks all around the village and even going far as strive for the title of Hokage. Even after graduating from the Academy, Naruto was still determined to be recognised, but as he made more and more connections with others, his reasons for wanting to become Hokage underwent a change, having less to do with the desire for recognition, and more to do with wanting the strength to protect his home and the people close to him. As noted by Tobi, Naruto possessed the Will of Fire, likening him to Hashirama Senju in this aspect. Naruto's determination and drive strongly impacts the lives of those around him, even his enemies have been affected by his empathy. Both Kakashi and Temari referred to Naruto's amazing charisma as a "unique power" that allows him to change the worldly views of others for the better, usually by helping them regain the beliefs they lost due to certain tragedies they suffered. Son Gokū also thought of him as an open and honest person. Like Guy and Rock Lee, when Naruto makes a promise, he assumes the "nice guy pose" and becomes dedicated to fulfilling it, as shown in his promise to Sakura of bringing Sasuke back after the latter defected from Konoha. Even Madara saw Naruto as the "heart" of the Shinobi Alliance, further proven when Naruto's senjutsu-enhanced Tailed Beast Mode combined with telepathy causes his emotions and personal memories to be transferred to everyone, he managed to reignite their fighting spirit after being demoralised by the Shinju where Hashirama couldn't. . Hashirama goes as far as to stating that Naruto's feelings and past gave "hope" to the Shinobi Alliance.

Sasuke's defection shocked Naruto to his core, but he never wavered in his resolve to bring him back to Konoha. When his teacher Jiraiya was killed in battle by the Akatsuki leader Pain, he vowed vengeance against the man and left Konoha for a time to train in senjutsu. Upon returning home after Pain destroyed the village and succumbing to rage, he met and spoke with his father, who explained to him the cycle of hatred and entrusted him with the duty of saving the ninja world from its hate. After listening to Nagato's story of how hatred can shape a person and the world into darkness, Naruto vowed he would end the cycle of hatred and bring peace to the ninja world. This decision, however, would come in direct opposition in his quest to bring Sasuke home, something that at first saddened him deeply. Nevertheless, after meeting again in the Land of Iron, Naruto resolved that if he had to, he would fight and potentially kill his friend to end the cycle of hatred and save Sasuke from despair, even if it costs his own life.

When he discovered that the Fourth Shinobi World War had started, Naruto made it his mission to end the war all by himself, so no one else would suffer. He continued to do so until his battle with the reincarnated Nagato and Itachi Uchiha. After the fight, even though Itachi acknowledged Naruto had become stronger, he explained to Naruto that if he continued to believe that he could do everything alone, he would become arrogant like Madara. Itachi also said that if Naruto were to become Hokage, he should never forget his friends or do everything on his own. Afterwards, Naruto acknowledged his shortcomings in his attempts to do things himself, and allowed others to help him instead of shouldering burdens himself. Due to this, Naruto came into his own as a leader and during the course of the War successfully leads the counter attack on the White Zetsu Army as well as the charge against Tobi, who he later unmasks as Obito Uchiha. He also leads the charge against Obito, Madara Uchiha himself, and even the Ten-Tails, ultimately freeing the Tailed Beasts by leading the entire Allied Shinobi Forces and the Konoha 11 personally.

After exposing Tobi's identity as Obito Uchiha and expressing disapproval of his nihilistic outlook on life, Naruto declares to Obito that he would not let him kill any of his comrades. As a result, Obito resolved to put both him and the Allied Shinobi Forces into the same despair he experienced, namely by killing one of Naruto's friends, Neji Hyūga. This, along with Obito's diatribe towards Naruto and his beliefs, drove the young shinobi into a period of mental and emotional turmoil. Although nearly succumbing to Obito's temptation, Naruto was brought out of his depression by Hinata, who explained to him the meaning of Neji's last words that his life was not just his own, restoring his self-confidence as he thanked her for staying by his side. Soon after, Naruto tells Kakashi and his comrades that he clearly understands that shinobi are meant to endure, believing that if remembering his friends was a curse, he would gladly shoulder that burden and keep the real Neji in his heart forever. This shows how far Naruto has come as a shinobi and that he is above Obito's psychological warfare, telling him that unlike Obito, he wants to maintain the bonds he made with his friends. His dedication to his loved ones and comrades is so great, that even while fighting, his chakra responds to his subconscious desire to save them by healing them on its own. However, upon experiencing visions of Obito's past and regrets, Naruto sympathised him for his loss — even going as far as to shedding tears. Despite Obito denying it, Naruto stated that it was no sense for him to hide any longer as well as vowing to tear off his "true" mask once and for all.

Dark Naruto
After Killer B refused to train Naruto, Motoi guided Naruto and Yamato to the Falls of Truth, the place where B trained to control Gyūki's power. He instructed Naruto to sit on a platform and close his eyes. Soon after,, the manifestation of hatred that existed within Naruto's heart, appeared, berating Naruto for how quickly the people from Konoha changed their ideals about him. Dark Naruto exclaimed that Kurama liked him better and he was the real Naruto while Naruto was an imposter. They started to fight, but after a while, Naruto realised that they both had the same techniques, skills, and tactics. As a result, their fight was a draw and Naruto mentioned that if they continued like this, it would take a very long time to settle it.

He appeared once again after Naruto returned to the Falls of Truth. Instead of fighting, Naruto projected an image from his mind of his autograph signature that he was unable to give to the Konoha shinobi. This angered Dark Naruto, pointing out to Naruto that those people were part of the same villagers who made him suffer as an outcast, telling him that he shouldn't trust them. However, Naruto stated that he trusted the villagers because they were important to him, but what was also important was that he needed to have faith in himself, so he would have the strength to live up to the villagers' trust in him. Naruto's statement started to weaken Dark Naruto, forcing him to question what was the reason for his existence. Naruto stated that Dark Naruto was really him and thanked Dark Naruto for pushing him to be the person he was now. He hugged Dark Naruto when the latter tried to attack him, telling Dark Naruto that it was all going to be alright. Letting go of his own anger at their past, Dark Naruto's eyes lightened as he gave into Naruto's words, and disappeared.

Later, when Naruto entered his subconscious, Kurama expressed surprise as it could no longer sense any hatred within Naruto, and questioned Naruto about where the "real him" was, to which Naruto replied that the real him was right in front of it. During his battle with Kurama to obtain its power, the fox infected its chakra with its own hatred when Naruto started to gain the upper hand. This partially brought about Dark Naruto again briefly, before Naruto's mother appeared and helped banish him.

Appearance
As stated by Jiraiya, Naruto bears a striking resemblance to his father, having Minato's blue eyes and blond, spiky hair. From his mother, Naruto inherited the shape of both her eyes and face. During the Fourth Shinobi World War, Dan Katō initially mistakes him for Nawaki due to their stark resemblance as well. Naruto's most prominent physical characteristics, however, are the whisker marks on his face. Probably Naruto's most regularly mentioned trait before the second half of the series (which easily provoked him) was his short stature for his age. After the time skip, he had a noticeably significant growth spurt which made him taller than his team-mate, Sakura.

In Part I, Naruto's outfit consisted of an orange tracksuit with blue on the upper shoulders area as well as around the waist, a white swirl with a tassel on the left side, a red swirl on the back, a large white collar, orange pants, blue sandals, and a blue forehead protector that was given to him by Iruka after he graduated from the Academy. Naruto sometimes wore armour underneath his clothing.

In Part II, Naruto's outfit undergoes modification after being worn to shreds during his training with Jiraiya. The outfit retains the orange colour as well as the white (without the tassel) and red swirls, but the jacket is much more form fitting with the blue parts changed to black and the colour extending from around the neck and shoulders, down the front and sleeves. The forehead protector has also changed with Naruto moving the metal portion to a new longer black bandanna and he wears black sandals instead of blue. During his battle with Pain, Naruto briefly sported a short-sleeved red coat with a black flame pattern along the hemline. He also carried a large summoning scroll on his back.

When he enters his Nine-Tails Chakra Mode, his body is covered in a yellow shroud of chakra, upon which his seal is clearly visible. He also gains a necklace of magatama around his neck. Finally his hair spikes up, with the two endmost locks resembling horns. After he and Kurama melded their chakra, his appearance changed once again. The shroud splits down the middle and opens up into a cloak that has a tattered appearance. The previously smaller 'horns' grow out larger, and his whisker marks become thicker. Underneath the 'coat', the magatama are still visible and he gains a new set around the 'collar' of the coat. Underneath this his seal changes once again opening out into circles instead of swirls. He also gains seals on his hands and feet. The cloak also has nine, tail-like appendages formed from the cloak and flowing from it with lines running down the middle of each.

Abilities
Naruto was an unremarkable student in the Academy and he struggled to perform even basic techniques. His only "ability" of note was the Sexy Technique. While creative and an effective distraction against certain men, the Sexy Technique had almost no practical uses; in fact, Naruto's invention of it in the first place only cemented others' opinions that he was not cut out to be a ninja. Yet Naruto, driven by his dream to become Hokage, persevered. This, coupled with his natural potential, enables Naruto to graduate from the Academy and become an official shinobi. Naruto develops quickly during Part I, learning several complicated jutsu in a short period of time. His performance during the Chūnin Exams impresses many of the same people that knew him as a failure in the Academy; even Sasuke, who was the top of their graduating class, becomes jealous that Naruto is catching up to him so rapidly. After Naruto defeats Kabuto Yakushi, Orochimaru acknowledges Naruto as a future threat and tries to kill him to prevent this from happening.

Jiraiya sees the same potential that Orochimaru does when he meets Naruto in Part I. Instead of killing him, however, Jiraiya takes on Naruto as a student and spends two-and-a-half years training him. Although his fighting style remains the same, focusing primarily on short-range combat, Naruto's time with Jiraiya makes his abilities more rounded. When he returns to Konoha in Part II, he resumes his rapid improvement, mastering increasingly complicated jutsu and forms and even devising some long-range techniques to fill the gaps in his repertoire. Through his frequent encounters with the S-rank members of Akatsuki, Naruto gains some notoriety, first for defeating Kakuzu, and later for defeating Pain. Konoha considers him a hero for the latter accomplishment, which leads his fame to spread to other ninja villages. Finally, during the Fourth Shinobi World War, the five Kage, the previous Hokage, and the ninja world at large recognise Naruto - still a genin, never having had a chance to rise through the ranks - as the only person who can end the war, save and change the world. He has also been noted to have surpassed his father and has even been compared to Hashirama Senju several times, with Tobirama even noting that he could become a greater Hokage than Hashirama was.

Life Force and Chakra Control
Because of his Uzumaki lineage, Naruto's chakra reserves are naturally large and resilient, granting him tremendous stamina and vitality. Stemming from this is an exceptionally long potential life-span and an accelerated healing rate (the latter originally accredited to the Nine-Tails' chakra), allowing Naruto to recover from fatigue in a fraction of the time or injuries to mend themselves. His poor performance in the Academy was because he lacked the proper control of his reserves, leading him to allocate chakra insufficiently. When he became aware of the Nine-Tails sealed inside him, he was able to improve his chakra output enough to perform techniques successfully, but he in fact used up more chakra than necessary. Because of how large his reserves were, this does not cause him immediate problems, but Ebisu - and later Jiraiya - nevertheless taught Naruto how to use his chakra more efficiently.

Despite the natural size of his chakra reserves, the Nine-Tails' is far greater; Kakashi estimates that Naruto's chakra reserves are four times greater than his own without the tailed beast and a hundred times greater with it. Naruto's chakra has been mixing with the Nine-Tails' since the day he was born, amplifying his already large reserves. Due to this symbiosis, Naruto can perform so many chakra-taxing jutsu and in so rapid a sequence. Throughout Part I and for much of Part II, the Nine-Tails gives Naruto brief access to its chakra, but only insomuch as it benefits the fox. After Naruto befriends it and learns the Nine-Tails' name, Kurama, he is granted complete access to its chakra. Having long since mastered chakra control and already experienced with manipulating large amounts of chakra, Naruto makes quick use of what Kurama gives him, mixing it with his own so that he can, in turn, share it with others. The power of his shrouds to resemble his tailed beast cloak along with allowing them to use senjutsu-empowered Rasengan. When using the chakra he got from six of the tailed beasts in his and Sasuke's final strike on Obito, the tailed beasts reacted to their chakra and the chakra of the tailed beasts that was sustaining the Shinju came out, allowing him to initiate a tug-of-war to take the beasts out.

Jinchūriki Transformations
Naruto's journey to access and control Kurama's power (and later befriend the tailed beast) is a long and arduous one. Having been its jinchūriki for his entire life, Naruto has always benefited from its presence. After learning of Kurama's presence, Naruto begins tapping into its chakra reserves, supplementing his own and increasing his strength and speed in the process. It also augments Naruto's healing power, able to regenerate lost flesh within seconds with no lingering signs. But Naruto does not, in fact, consciously access Kurama's power on the first few occasions. Rather, Kurama intervenes when Naruto's life is in danger or it takes advantage of Naruto's rage to exert some of its influence. Jiraiya teaches Naruto how to communicate with Kurama, enabling Naruto to thereafter request a donation of its strength. His ability to utilise it and the amount he can access grows during Part I, culminating in his ability to enter a single-tailed version 1 state, which improves Naruto's defences and allows him to manifest chakra arms that increase his range.

Jiraiya helps Naruto improve his control of Kurama's power during their two-and-a-half years together. Naruto is able to reach a three-tailed version 1 form, which incrementally boosts his speed and strength. Although Naruto becomes more headstrong, even violent, when using version 1 cloaks, he remains in control. Satisfied with these results, Jiraiya loosens the seal that keeps Kurama sealed inside Naruto in the hopes it will give Naruto increased access to its chakra. This inadvertently triggers a version 2 state; Naruto's capabilities grow to exponential heights in version 2, but Naruto no longer remains in control of his senses, causing him to attack anything in sight. Jiraiya is nearly killed in their first experiment and Naruto remembers nothing about it afterwards. From that point further, Jiraiya encourages Naruto to be cautious in his use of Kurama's power and, upon returning him to Konoha, Jiraiya quietly advises others about how to prevent Naruto from losing control.

Because he was never told about his first version 2 experience, Jiraiya's warnings do not make an impression on Naruto. Added to the increasing danger he and his friends face and the frustrations that come with them, Naruto eventually enters a version 2 form a second time. Although he is able to use it to overpower Orochimaru, he attacks Sakura in the process. Yamato, having been specifically teamed with Naruto to suppress Kurama if needed, intervenes in time to save her. Yamato tells Naruto afterwards what happened. Upset that he could be a danger to those he cares for, Naruto stops relying on Kurama and looks for new ways to get stronger. He succeeds for a time, but once again succumbs to rage during his fight with Pain and enters another version 2 form.

Naruto's desperation for power in order to defeat Pain almost makes him release Kurama, causing him to realise that avoidance is not the solution. He instead decides to control Kurama, and seeks guidance from Killer B, the jinchūriki of the Eight-Tails. With B's help he is able to conquer Kurama and gain free access to a portion of its strength, focusing its power into a Nine-Tails Chakra Mode. Nine-Tails Chakra Mode increases his strength, speed, and defences beyond what they were in version 1 and 2, he becomes more dexterous with chakra arms, and he can sense negative emotions, a method of detection even sensor-type ninja can't do. His speed in particular surpasses A's, who was the fastest shinobi in the world since Minato Namikaze died. Nine-Tails Chakra Mode becomes instrumental to turning the tide of the Fourth Shinobi World War, letting him defeat the hordes of reincarnated shinobi.

Conquering Kurama is not the same as cooperating with it, and Naruto must still exercise caution when initially using Nine-Tails Chakra Mode. Having seen what Naruto has gone through during his life and the type of person he has become, Kurama decides to stop opposing Naruto and accepts Naruto's offers of friendship. Kurama freely gives Naruto as much of its chakra as it can, enabling him to enter Tailed Beast Mode. In Tailed Beast Mode, Naruto can focus Kurama's power into what is merely a more ornate Nine-Tails Chakra Mode or fully manifest Kurama's form, in doing so unleashing Kurama's full might, including Tailed Beast Balls. His speed, strength, and durability also increase by impressive amounts. He could hold his own against three tailed beasts in battle and equal the combined power of the five with a single Tailed Beast Ball in a clash. Naruto is even able to meld their chakra together so that he can pass it to others, giving them version 1-like cloaks that keep them safe and amplify their power.

While originally only having the Yang essence of Kurama's chakra, effectively giving Naruto half of Kurama's full power, the reincarnated Minato, who sealed the Yin essence into himself, later transferred nearly all of the Yin chakra into Naruto.

Taijutsu
Although not his specialty, Naruto does use taijutsu quite frequently. He remains manoeuvrable in a fight, able to get close to even skilled taijutsu practitioners and spar with them for a time, but if he is to ultimately defeat them in speed or strength he must utilise either Kurama or, in Part II, Sage Mode. Even if his offensive taijutsu skills are not extraordinary, his defensive skills are quite high. He can react quickly enough to intercept attacks or, if blocking would be impractical, remove himself or his allies from danger.

Shadow Clone Technique
Naruto is best known for his use of the Shadow Clone Technique. Where the average ninja must be careful in the creation of shadow clones so that they do not deplete their chakra reserves, Naruto can create upwards of a thousand clones and retain a decent amount of chakra in each of them. This lets him overwhelm opponents with sheer numbers or carry out multiple tasks at once. It is because of shadow clones that Naruto is able to be so effective during the Fourth Shinobi World War, as he can appear on multiple battlefields at the same time.

During Part II, Naruto learns that whatever his shadow clones learn, he, the original, would also learn. He frequently employs this to complete a year's worth of training in a couple of days. In combat, it also lets him scout an area or test an opponent's abilities, letting him gauge how many shadow clones he will actually need for a fight rather than waste chakra on thousands of excess clones.

Summoning Technique
In order to encourage improved control over Kurama's chakra, Jiraiya teaches Naruto to perform the Summoning Technique. By offering a certain amount of chakra, Naruto can summon the toads of Mount Myōboku as allies that fight beside him. He is initially restricted to tadpoles due to his poor chakra control, but as his control improves he can summon small toads such as then-young Gamakichi or Gamatatsu. During Part I he must rely on Kurama's chakra to summon toads of Gamabunta's size, but by Part II, Kurama's help is merely optional.

Rasengan
Once Naruto gets the hang summoning, Jiraiya teaches him the Rasengan. His reasons for teaching it to Naruto are various: the training involved in learning the Rasengan improves his chakra control; it is in many ways the counterpart to Sasuke's Chidori; it was invented by Naruto's father. Because of the very intricate chakra control the Rasnegan requires, Naruto struggles to master it, and is not helped by the time limit he imposes on himself during his training. Although the Rasengan is intended as a one-handed technique, Naruto learns to use it with more than one hand, specifically a shadow clone's: he provides the chakra that will make the Rasengan while the clone forms it into shape.

From further training with Jiraiya, Naruto is able to create larger versions of the Rasengan in Part II, such as the Big Ball Rasengan. The amount of preparation time required to form the Rasengan has decreased, but he still relies on shadow clones to help him when in his normal form. To make up for the need for shadow clones, Naruto steadily increases the number Rasengan he uses at a time, either by having the shadow clones form Rasengan in both of his hands or having the shadow clones make their own Rasengan to bombard the target with.

It is only with Kurama's chakra and the shrouds it produces that Naruto can make Rasengan on his own. He does so briefly at the end of Part I, using a version 1 cloak as a shell for a Kurama-powered Rasengan. With Nine-Tails Chakra Mode, he uses the extra hands of his chakra arms to make new Rasengan, such as the Spiralling Absorption Sphere and the Planetary Rasengan. Because the Rasengan was conceptually based on the Tailed Beast Ball, he attempts to bring it into further parallel with the Tailed Beast Rasengan. He fails when first trying to use it, but with Kurama's aid later invents the Super Mini-Tailed Beast Ball.

Nature Transformation
As a possible alternative to Kurama's chakra, Kakashi teaches Naruto how to take advantage of his natural elemental affinity: wind. The wind nature compliments Naruto, as the wind nature is a great match for short-range fighters. Because the Rasengan was originally intended to be combined with a user's nature transformation, Naruto sets out to combine his wind affinity with the Rasengan. He struggles with it, finding it as near-impossible as his father did before him, but once again finds a solution with shadow clones: while he provides the chakra and a clone provides the shape, as is done with normal Rasengan, a second clone infuses it with their nature. This results in the creation of the Wind Release: Rasengan, and later the Wind Release: Rasenshuriken.

On contact with a target, the Rasenshuriken explodes into a torrent of wind that cuts them at a cellular level. At first, Naruto uses it like a blunt object that he forces into opponents, causing him to receive the same level of damage as they do. After learning Sage Mode he becomes able to throw it, preventing harm to himself and at the same time increasing its speed and cutting power. In Nine-Tails Chakra Mode he can further augment its size, making a miniature version, a gigantic version, or even Twin Rasenshuriken, all without the help of shadow clones.

Collaboration Techniques
In the anime, Jiraiya gives Naruto special training in collaboration techniques so that he can combine his wind affinity with the affinities of summoned toads, creating one single technique that is more powerful than the sum of its part. Naruto eventually manages to synchronise with Gamakichi and Gamatatsu, first with the Wind Release: Toad Gun, and later the Wind Release: Toad Oil Flame Bullet.

Naruto briefly collaborates with Yamato, combining a Wind Release: Rasengan to create Typhoon Water Vortex Technique. He later performs another collaboration with Sasuke, producing the Scorch Release: Halo Gale Jet Black Arrow Style Zero. Tobirama Senju notes this required a perfect balance between the ratio of the combined techniques and was hard to achieve. Another collaboration with Sasuke is when Sasuke can shape Susanoo around Naruto's Sage Tailed Beast Mode, with Naruto adding chakra and senjutsu to the Susanoo swords so they can overpower even Obito's Sword of Nunoboko. He could also collaborate with most of the members of the Konoha 11, even giving them a Tailed Beast Mode mantle while they wielded a Rasengan he created.

Senjutsu
After Jiraiya is killed by Pain, Naruto is taught senjutsu by Fukasaku, a former teacher of Jiraiya, to prepare him for the day when Pain comes after him. During his training he proves to have a greater aptitude for senjutsu than Jiraiya, helped in no small part by his necessarily high chakra levels. He progresses through the learning steps rapidly, becoming able to sense and then gather the natural energy around him and perfectly balance it with his own chakra. However, doing this requires absolute calm, which can't be achieved or maintained in the middle of combat. For this reason, Fukasaku and his wife would theoretically fuse with him, gathering the natural energy for him to use. During all attempts at fusion, Kurama rejected Fukasaku, a threat to its power, leaving Naruto with no way to enter Sage Mode.

Naruto found a away to use shadow clones as a workaround. While he fights, the clones gather natural energy for him and then, when he is in need, he has them disperse, transferring their natural energy to him. Although this lets him enter a perfect Sage Mode that Jiraiya was never able to, this method limits the maximum number of shadow clones that he can create to five for as long as the clones are gathering natural energy, as anything more would interfere with their focus. To make sure he has enough shadow clones for use in battle, Naruto has only two shadow clones gather senjutsu chakra, allowing him to enter Sage Mode a total of three times.

Once in Sage Mode, Naruto's speed, strength, durability, and proficiency with the Rasengan and its variants increases. He can utilise the Frog Kata - a form of taijutsu that uses the natural energy around the user to enhance the range and the potency of their attacks - and sensory abilities effective even at long ranges. His sensing abilities also let him predict the movements of his enemies for easy retaliation. Following his befriending of Kurama, he can even combine Sage Mode with Tailed Beast Mode, which has the added bonus of letting him gather natural energy faster.

Deception and Strategy
From his years as a prankster, Naruto acquired a cunning and imagination that are useful in battle. Naruto's strategies typically involve shadow clones: he may direct his opponent's attentions towards one of his clones to disguise his own movements; he may transform them into objects or other individuals for surprise attacks; he may make himself seem predictable by creating a pattern, just to throw them off by breaking it.

Naruto is resourceful in a fight even without clones, formulating multi-step plans and even backups to those plans in the thick of battle. He is observant, able to notice details others may overlook; after wondering how the Third Raikage, who was famous in life for his defences, could receive a scar, Naruto deduced that the scar was self-inflicted, and subsequently takes advantage of that knowledge to manipulate the Raikage's movements and use him to defeat himself. Even when given new information he can act quickly; when he learned that Kakashi and Tobi's Kamui were connected, he formed a plan to send one of his clones into the other dimension which enabled him to destroy Tobi's mask.

Naruto is headstrong and often acts without thinking his actions through, making it difficult for others to communicate their battle or lesson plans to him. For this reason, he is sometimes considered dense. However, he is a masterful tactile learner, meaning that he learns better through executing a task rather than theorising about it. Once they see him in action, even the likes of the Second Hokage revise their thoughts about his intellect.

Other Skills
After the time-skip, Naruto has improved his knowledge of other ninja skills while under Jiraiya's tutelage. He has displayed some limited skill in shurikenjutsu. Naruto's been shown to keep a spring-loaded kunai up his sleeve for quick access. Though he has no skill in genjutsu, he does at least know how to dispel it and avoid falling prey to it.

His skills with fūinjutsu have not been explored greatly, but he knew how to use the seal's key after receiving Gerotora, and later resealed Kurama after he separated a majority of chakra from the tailed beast. Jiraiya had left Naruto with the key to help him complete an as of yet unknown technique which he, Naruto, and Minato have been working on, but never finished. Naruto stated that he was ready to complete it.

Introduction Arc
Naruto, labelled as his classes 'Dead-Last', once again failed to graduate from the Academy. Disappointed that his plans of becoming Hokage have hit another hurdle, Naruto was approached by one of his instructors, Mizuki. Mizuki told Naruto that, if he could steal the Scroll of Seals from the Hokage Residence and learn one of the techniques written in it, then he would be allowed to graduate. Naruto did so, and began struggling to learn the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique, unaware that the village was now looking for him. Iruka Umino tracked him down, and discovered Mizuki's involvement in the theft, realising that Naruto had been duped by Mizuki, in an effort to steal the scroll. Mizuki attacked them, and told Naruto about the Nine-Tails sealed within him, claiming that Iruka hated him because of it. When Iruka risked his life to protect Naruto, however, Naruto realised that Mizuki's earlier words were a lie, and created hundreds of shadow clones to beat Mizuki to a pulp. For mastering such a difficult technique, Iruka allowed Naruto to graduate.

In the days to come, Naruto befriended Konohamaru Sarutobi and became his on-off teacher, showing him how to perform a variety of both perverted and useful techniques throughout the rest of the series. He was also assigned to Team 7, where he was partnered with Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura Haruno, under the leadership of Kakashi Hatake. As the team's first order of business, Kakashi gave them a test to see if they were ready to become genin. He had the three of them try to take the two bells he kept on his person, the goal of the test being to place teamwork above the fact that they couldn't all have a bell. Although they initially failed miserably, all trying independently to take a bell, they eventually decided to work together, allowing them to pass.

Land of Waves Arc
After completing a number of simple, uneventful missions, Team 7, at Naruto's insistence, was assigned the somewhat more difficult C-rank task of escorting Tazuna to the Land of Waves. When they were attacked by the Demon Brothers along the way, who tried to kill Tazuna, they realised that there was more to this mission than a simple escort. Tazuna revealed that his country was under the control of Gatō, who had left the people poor and unable to afford the more accurate A-rank mission payment. By building a bridge that would connect the Land of Waves to the mainland, Tazuna hoped to free the country from Gatō, prompting Gatō to try and kill him. Team 7 decided to help Tazuna, and act as his bodyguards until the bridge was completed.

They were soon attacked by Zabuza Momochi, another of Gatō's assassins, who engaged Kakashi in battle. When Zabuza captured Kakashi, he encouraged his team to escape with Tazuna. Having been of little use during the battle with the Demon Brothers, Naruto resolved to help Kakashi. With Sasuke's assistance, they were able to free Kakashi, who in turn almost defeated Zabuza. However, Haku, disguised as a hunter-nin, intervened, and appeared to kill Zabuza first, in actuality only putting him in a death-like state in order to get him to safety. Kakashi suspected that Zabuza was still alive, and gave Team 7 a Tree Climbing Practice to improve their chakra control. Naruto and Sasuke developed a competition over the exercise, each determined to complete the training first, and subsequently motivating each other to do better.

While Naruto was resting from training one day, he encountered Haku, unaware that it was the same boy he had encountered earlier. The two had a conversation about those who were precious to them, and the lengths they would go to protect them. After Haku left, Naruto finished the training, but was left so tired that the rest of Team 7 allowed him to rest the next day as they went to escort Tazuna. When he woke up, he went to assist them, only to find that they were in the midst of battle with Zabuza and Haku.

Naruto went to help Sasuke in his battle with Haku, but they were both trapped by Haku's Demonic Mirroring Ice Crystals. When Haku tried to use a volley of needles to kill Naruto, Sasuke stepped in to protect him, appearing to die instead. Enraged by the apparent death of Sasuke, Naruto tapped into the Nine-Tails' chakra, allowing him to destroy the ice mirrors, and subsequently defeat Haku. Before he could kill Haku, however, the mask he was wearing broke away, revealing the face of the boy Naruto had met earlier. Naruto stopped himself, but Haku asked that he should finish the job, since he could no longer be of use to Zabuza. Although Naruto tried to comply, Haku stopped him at the last minute, and went to help Zabuza. When Naruto realised what had happened - that Haku had given his life to save an ungrateful Zabuza - an outraged Naruto reprimanded Zabuza for not appreciating Haku's actions. Touched by his words, Zabuza killed Gatō to repent in an effort to do Haku justice, but died of his wounds. The bridge (now named the Great Naruto Bridge) was completed, and the Land of Waves was saved. With a recovered Sasuke, Team 7 returned to the Konoha. On their way home, Naruto remarked to Kakashi that, even though Haku and Zabuza were their enemies, he still liked them.

Chūnin Exam Arc
After returning home and completing a few other simple missions, Team 7 was entered into the Chūnin Exams. In the first phase, a written test, the participating genin were tasked with completing the test by cheating, all the while being sure not to get caught. Though the rest of the examinees realised this, Naruto did not, and struggled to answer the questions, which were far beyond his comprehension. Hinata Hyūga, who was sitting next to him, offered to allow him to copy off her paper, but he refused, in fear that she would get caught. Naruto was forced to rely on getting the tenth question correct to pass. When faced with the prospect of correctly answering the question to proceed, failing and never being allowed to take the test again, or giving up to try it again during the next exams, Naruto insisted on answering the question, stating that, even if he got it wrong, he would still become Hokage. The willingness to face the unknown being the answer to the tenth question, Naruto and the rest of Team 7 were allowed to proceed to the second phase.

For the second phase, Team 7 was sent into the Forest of Death with one scroll, tasked to obtain a second scroll from another team and arrive at the forest's centre before the phase ended. Soon after entering the forest, they were attacked by Orochimaru, who immobilised Sasuke and Sakura with his murderous intent. Before Sasuke could forfeit their scroll in exchange for their lives, Naruto intervened, fighting Orochimaru by tapping into the Nine-Tails' chakra. Orochimaru rendered Naruto unconscious by restricting access to the Nine-Tails' chakra, but Naruto's courage inspired Sasuke to fight in his place. After Orochimaru was driven off and Naruto awakened, he tried to open their scroll what was forbidden, but he was stopped by Kabuto Yakushi, who disguised himself as Konoha ninja. Team 7 and Kabuto encountered Team Oboro. After wasting a day trapped in the rival team's genjutsu, Team 7 was able to defeat them, take their scroll, and pass the round.

Because too many genin teams had passed the second phase, a round of preliminary matches, where genin faced each other in combat, were held to thin the field. After watching the first few rounds, Naruto was matched against Kiba Inuzuka, and his dog, Akamaru. Remembering Naruto to be talentless from their days in the academy, Kiba believed it would be an easy match. He and Akamaru double-teamed Naruto, who initially had difficulty with the match. After combining the Transformation Technique with his shadow clones to turn Kiba and Akamaru against each other, Naruto was able to remove Akamaru from the competition. When Kiba was about to defeat him, Naruto farted, immobilising Kiba and his heightened sense of smell, and making him an easy target for the Naruto Uzumaki Combo which he invented watching Sasuke's Lion Combo. Naruto won the match.

While watching the remaining matches, Naruto witnessed Neji Hyūga's ruthless treatment of his cousin, Hinata. Angered by Neji's actions and claims that Hinata was a failure who couldn't escape her fate, Naruto vowed to defeat Neji during the first round of the finals a month later. In the meantime, Naruto started training with Ebisu to improve his chakra control. When Ebisu was knocked out by Jiraiya, Naruto forced Jiraiya to train him in his place. Jiraiya, noticing that Naruto was the container of the Nine-Tails, and the restrictive seal Orochimaru had placed on him earlier, Jiraiya removed the seal to ease his chakra control. He then taught him how to take advantage of the Nine-Tails' chakra by showing him how to summon toads. Because Naruto had troubles with it, Jiraiya pushed him from the cliff, hoping to provoke Naruto to use Nine-Tails' chakra. When falling, Naruto met with the Nine-Tails in his subconscious and convinced it to lend him its chakra. Thanks to that, he was able to summon Gamabunta, landing on the toad's back. After a short argue with the giant toad, he had to be hospitalised due to the chakra loss. In the hospital he met Shikamaru Nara and the two encountered Gaara who was going to kill Rock Lee. Gaara told them about Shukaku sealed within him and tried to kill both of them, but they were saved by the coming of Might Guy.

When his match against Neji began, Naruto appeared to be at a disadvantage. Although he was able to overwhelm Neji with shadow clones, none of the clones could manage to land a hit. Convinced that Naruto was a failure that could not defeat a genius like himself, Neji used his Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms to cut off Naruto's chakra supply. Determined to prove Neji wrong, Naruto tapped into the Nine-Tails' reserves and, revitalised, clashed with Neji. When the smoke cleared, Neji emerged, Naruto appearing to have been defeated. This, however, was only a shadow clone, and the real Naruto burst from the ground beneath Neji, to deliver an uppercut and defeat him. Neji was taken away, contemplating the fact that fate was not predetermined, since a failure could beat a genius, while Naruto watched the remaining matches. When Sasuke fought Gaara, he was envious of Sasuke's improvements, but the fight was interrupted by the beginning of the invasion of Konoha.

Invasion of Konoha Arc
Naruto was put to sleep when the invasion began, but was awakened by Sakura so that they could go after Sasuke, who was pursuing Gaara in order to continue their fight. They caught up in time to stop Gaara from killing Sasuke. Intrigued by Naruto's abilities since his battle with Neji, Gaara forced him into battle by threatening to kill Sakura. With the power of the Shukaku, Gaara tried to prove his existence by killing Naruto by playing with him. Although Naruto could relate to Gaara's life as a jinchūriki, he was not willing to allow anything to happen to Sakura and Sasuke. With the Nine-Tails' chakra, he summoned Gamabunta, and fought Gaara, who by now had progressed to his full Shukaku form.

Naruto was able to awaken Gaara from his technique and reseal Shukaku, and they exchanged final blows, with Naruto emerging the final blow. Both of them, being very exhausted, fell to the ground and Naruto crawled his way towards Gaara, who was shocked to see why Naruto was so strong. Naruto explained that he had also suffered a relentless lonely life, but was later saved by having friends. Gaara understood, and retreated with Kankurō and Temari, while Naruto was returned back to Konohagakure with Sakura and Sasuke.

Days passed, and Naruto and the rest of the shinobi came to a ceremony to respect the death of the Third Hokage and his sacrifice for the village.

Search for Tsunade Arc
After the failed invasion resulted in the death of the Third Hokage, Jiraiya was tasked with finding a Fifth Hokage. He convinced Naruto to come with him by promising to teach him a new technique that would be stronger than Sasuke's Chidori. Along the way, they were met by Kisame Hoshigaki and Itachi Uchiha, two members of Akatsuki, who sought to capture Naruto for the Nine-Tails sealed within him. Jiraiya was able to draw them off, but Naruto was introduced to the organisation that would become more of a problem for him in Part II. To prepare him for their future encounters, Jiraiya taught him how to use the Rasengan, a technique created by Minato. While Naruto was able to complete the first two steps of the learning process with little difficulty, he struggled to complete the third and thus master the technique.

Naruto and Jiraiya eventually found Tsunade, the ideal candidate for the position of Fifth Hokage. When she turned down the offer, and insulted all those who had previously held the title, an angry Naruto challenged her to a fight and attacked her with an incomplete Rasengan. Although his effort failed to hit her, she was surprised by his progress and made a bet with him: if he could master the technique in a week, she would give him her necklace, but if he couldn't, she would take his money and his frog wallet, Gama-chan. Naruto agreed, and started practising, but in a week's time, he still had yet to finish the training. Disappointed, Tsunade met with Orochimaru, the murderer of the Third Hokage, and Naruto, Jiraiya, and Shizune, Tsunade's assistant, tried to stop her from helping him.

Tsunade turned out to have no intention of helping Orochimaru, and fought him and his assistant, Kabuto Yakushi. When Kabuto left her unable to fight, Naruto came to her aid. Although he was getting beaten by Kabuto and Tsunade told him to run, Naruto refused and by using shadow clones to help him form it, Naruto was able to hit Kabuto with a perfected Rasengan, defeating Kabuto and winning the bet. Amazed by his determination to keep to his word and to survive against a superior opponent, Tsunade gave him her necklace, drove off Orochimaru and Kabuto, and accepted the position of Fifth Hokage. They returned to Konoha, Tsunade confidently believing Naruto would someday become a great Hokage.

Sasuke Retrieval Arc
After returning with Tsunade (in the anime, after returning from the mission in the Land of Tea), Sasuke began to fall into the corruption set in place for him by Orochimaru. He began lashing out at Sakura and Naruto, not as team-mates but as enemies. Naruto eventually fought with him, the battle ending with Naruto and Sasuke about to clash with the Rasengan and Chidori, with Sakura in the middle. Kakashi ends the feud, sending the two crashing into water towers, Naruto unknowingly doing more damage that Sasuke, much to Sasuke's annoyance. Despite his promises to Sakura, Sasuke eventually ends up defecting from Konoha in order to seek out Orochimaru for power. Under the escort of Orochimaru's Sound Four, Sasuke left to join Orochimaru, and Naruto joined a retrieval team that would bring him back; he also made a promise to Sakura that he will bring Sasuke back at all cost. While the other members of the team dealt with the Sound Four, Naruto finally engaged in a fight with the Sound Four's fifth member, Kimimaro. However, he was not able to beat him even with Nine Tails-enhanced shadow clones. When Naruto was about to be killed, he was saved by Rock Lee, who told him to continue the pursuit of Sasuke while he fought Kimimaro.

Naruto finally caught up with Sasuke in a place called Valley of the End, very near the border of the Land of Fire and the Land of Sound, and fought Sasuke. With Sasuke determined that he would kill Naruto in his quest for power, Naruto decided he would have to take the battle seriously if he was to bring Sasuke back. When Sasuke's drive to kill proved greater than Naruto's resolve of friendship in a 'fair' fight, Naruto tapped into the Nine-Tails' chakra to level the playing field, allowing him to batter around Sasuke. Sasuke, pushed to his limits, managed to develop the mature Sharingan, greatly overpowering Naruto. When Naruto, even with the Nine-Tails' chakra, was defeated, he tapped into the chakra even more, and a red aura of the Nine-Tails' chakra, in the shape of a fox, surrounded him. Sasuke then drew on the power of the second stage of his cursed seal to properly compete with Naruto.

The two had one final clash, Naruto with his Rasengan (enhanced by the Nine-Tails' chakra) and Sasuke with his Chidori (empowered by the cursed seal). Upon contact, a giant, black energy dome formed and surrounded them. In the dome, Sasuke struck Naruto in the stomach, while Naruto scratched Sasuke's headband, proving the latter's earlier taunt of the subject wrong. Sasuke won the fight, but after staring at the unconscious Naruto, he couldn't bring himself to kill his best friend, so he simply continued on his way to Orochimaru.

Kakashi and Pakkun didn't come in time to get Sasuke, and left with Naruto. In the hospital, Naruto vowed to Sakura that he would someday bring Sasuke home. Soon after, Jiraiya arrived suddenly, telling Naruto to train with him for three years prior. He also told him to give up on Sasuke, as he is no different from Orochimaru. Naruto accepts training with Jiraiya, but rejects to giving up Sasuke. In the manga, right after this, Naruto departs, but in the anime, he stays for a while, doing numerous filler arc missions.

Pre-Shippūden Filler Arcs
After the original Naruto anime had concluded the Sasuke Retrieval Arc, to make sure the anime did not over take Part II of the manga, the makers instead animated several filler arcs to take place before Naruto left for his three year training with Jiraiya. Naruto is sent on various missions with the other members of the Konoha 11, but while there is little character development for himself, the filler arcs tend to develop the supporting characters, as well as Gaara. The final filler arc was right before Naruto's departure with Jiraiya, though in the manga, this was right after the Sasuke Retrieval Arc.

Kazekage Rescue Arc
When Naruto returned to Konoha, the remaining members of Team 7 were reorganised into Team Kakashi. As their first order of business, Kakashi gave them another bell test, this time the only goal being to take a bell, and that he would use his Sharingan against them. Although their abilities had improved, Naruto and Sakura were still unable to beat Kakashi, and it was only by threatening to spoil the end of the latest Icha Icha novel that they distracted Kakashi long enough to take the bells. Naruto reconnected with his old friends, who had all advanced to chūnin-rank or higher, and then heard that Gaara, the new Kazekage, had been kidnapped by Akatsuki. Naruto and Team Kakashi set out for Sunagakure to save him.

Upon arrival in Sunagakure, Chiyo was added to Team Kakashi as an adviser, and they followed Akatsuki's trail. Along the way, they encountered a body-double of Itachi Uchiha, which engaged them in battle. Kakashi and Naruto teamed up in order to defeat the lookalike, before continuing onto the Akatsuki lair. There, they found Gaara's body in the possession of Deidara and Sasori. When Deidara flew off with Gaara, Naruto and Kakashi pursued him, leaving Sasori to Chiyo and Sakura. While initially unable to catch Deidara, Kakashi was able to use his Mangekyō Sharingan to distract Deidara, giving Naruto an opportunity to attack him and retrieve Gaara. Deidara escaped, and Naruto and Kakashi reunited with Sakura and Chiyo.

Although Sakura tried to heal Gaara, he had already died, a casualty of Akatsuki's tailed beast extraction-process. Angered that Gaara had died because he was a jinchūriki, something he had never asked for and had suffered because of his whole life, Naruto lashed out at Chiyo, the one who had sealed Shukaku into Gaara in the first place. To make up for what she had done, Chiyo, with the help of Naruto, restored Gaara back to life, at the cost of her own. Gaara awakened surrounded by his rescue party and the ninja from Sunagakure. After Chiyo's funeral, Naruto and Gaara finally shake hands (Gaara insisting), as a sign to their close relationship. Afterwards, Team Kakashi and Team Guy returned to Konoha.

Sai and Sasuke Arc
During Sakura's battle with Sasori, she learned of a spy in Orochimaru's inner circle, an opportunity for them to find Sasuke after his years of absence. Kakashi was left hospitalised from overuse of the Mangekyō Sharingan, so Yamato was assigned to lead Team Kakashi in his place. Sai was also added to the team as Sasuke's replacement, but neither Naruto nor Sakura were able to accept him as such.

In route to the meeting place with the spy, Yamato tried to get the team to work together, although Sai's personality and disdain for his predecessor caused only conflict amongst the team. When they arrived at the meeting spot, they found that the spy was Kabuto. Yamato, disguised as Sasori, spoke with him, but they were interrupted by the arrival of Orochimaru. Kabuto, in turn, turned against Yamato, who was forced to call Naruto and the others for back-up. Surprised to see Naruto, Orochimaru wondered aloud if Naruto had become as strong as "his Sasuke". Enraged that Orochimaru had spoken as if Sasuke belonged to him, Naruto entered his three-tailed form, and attacked him.

While a fair match, Orochimaru was able to evade Naruto's attacks. Further provoked by his inability to land a debilitating blow, Naruto advanced to his four-tailed form, losing his sense of self in his anger. Now a danger to Orochimaru, Naruto was forced back so that he could switch targets, his first being Sakura. Yamato restrained him before he could do any real harm, and forced the Nine-Tails' influence to recede. When he woke up, they found that Sai had joined up with Orochimaru. They followed him in the hopes that he would lead them to Sasuke, and to see what he was up to. During a break, Yamato took Naruto aside, and told him of how he had attacked Sakura, encouraging him not to rely on the Nine-Tails if he really wanted to protect those close to him.

When they arrived at Orochimaru's hideout, they infiltrated the lair, and captured Sai. Exposed, Sai revealed that his superiors had sent him to help organise another invasion of Konoha. He was restrained for his treachery, while the others went looking for Sasuke. Sai, having earlier met Sasuke, asked why Naruto was so determined to bring him back. Naruto explained that the two had a bond that couldn't be broken, and that he would risk his life to protect this bond. Intrigued, Sai switched sides, helping them to capture Kabuto and then scouring the base in order to reunite Sasuke with Naruto. He succeeded, but was attacked by Sasuke, the magnitude of which drew the rest of Team Yamato to their location.

Together again, Naruto and Sakura tried to convince Sasuke to come home. Still determined to gain power, he refused, prompting the team to use force. Their efforts were unsuccessful, and Naruto, who was exhausted from his fight with Orochimaru in his four-tailed form, wasn't able to compete with Sasuke's growth. Within his subconscious, the Nine-Tails began to offer Naruto its chakra, but he firmly rejected its assistance. The Nine-Tails became contemptuous at Naruto, mocking him that if it wasn't for its power, he would be nothing. It then tempted Naruto to break the seal so it can "grant" him all of its power, but he still refused. However, before their quarrel could escalate any further, Sasuke with his Sharingan activated, suddenly appeared within Naruto's subconscious, which surprised both Naruto and the Nine-Tails. As the Nine-Tails stated that Sasuke had similar chakra to Madara Uchiha, Sasuke used his Sharingan to suppress the beast's residual chakra. The Nine-Tails concluded that this was probably its last meeting with Sasuke, so it warned him not to kill Naruto, for he would only end up regretting it. Back in the real world, Sasuke tried to finish off his former team-mates, but he was stopped by Orochimaru and they retreated, leaving Team Yamato to return home.

Twelve Guardian Ninja Arc
Naruto, Yamato, Sai and Sakura was sent on a mission that involved Fire Temple. When the group didn't spot the party attended to meet them Sakura and Yamato go off to look for them while he and Sai stayed just in case the party showed up. Naruto goes off anyway despite his orders because Sai crept him out. Naruto ends up wandering into one of the hidden tombs. Naruto finds that the tomb was missing. Naruto turns to see a young man turning out to be Sora, a monk in training at the Fire Temple but assumes he's the grave rubber. Sora attacks first showing off his use with wind nature and the two battle. Yamato, Sakura, Sai and monks arrive to see their battle. Chiriku orders Sora to stop. After the confusion was settled the group heads off to the Fire Temple.

While their Chiriku explains the background story of the tombs that are being robbed. After a promise made from the Konoha ninja to stop the perpetrators Naruto finds Sora sparring with another monk. Naruto mocks Sora and they whine up arguing again. The group are soon told by a monk that another tomb has been robbed. Team Yamato, Chiriku and Sora go to find the enemies they spot coffins moving on their own to a hill where four ninja; Furido, Fudō, Fūka and Fuen stand upon. The group goes after the ninja but are separated and trapped in a rocky canyon like maze. Naruto runs into Fūka and fights her on proving to be a very capable opponent having to show all five element natures. He whines up getting kissed by Fūka and she's absorbing his chakra. The Nine-Tails chakra proves to be too much for her to handle and she released Naruto. After Sora makes his way to help Naruto the cave collapses. Everyone manages to make it out unharmed.

Team Yamato goes back to the Konoha with Sora tagging along. Naruto introduces Sora to his comrades but Sora doesn't make a good impression and almost gets into a fight with Chōji and Kiba for his insults. Soon Naruto accompanies Sora, with Sai and Sakura to introduce him to Tsunade only to see him get knocked through a wall by Tsunade for a wrong choice of words with him. When the four ninja from earlier arrive they cast a barrier around the Konoha to prevent escape and Fudō resurrects members of the Kohaku clan. Naruto pursues Sora who goes after Furido. But Naruto is stopped by Fūka. He battles her again this time managing to kill her in the end. Sora is found out to be a pseudo-jinchuriki. When Furido unleashes Sora seal he transforms. Naruto is forced to fight him while at the same time trying to get through to Sora. Naruto finally manages to reach Sora who releases the Nine-Tails' power. Naruto and the rest of Team Yamato later sees Sora off.

Hidan and Kakuzu Arc
Kakashi, hoping to make Naruto better prepared for his next encounter with Sasuke, trained him to create a new wind-based technique. In the anime, this training began before, and continued throughout, the Twelve Guardian Ninja Arc, with Naruto seeking assistance from Asuma and Sora, two other wind chakra users. Kakashi had Naruto train with shadow clones to master wind manipulation in only a fraction of the time. When he did this, Kakashi left him with the task of combining what he had learned with the Rasengan. He explained that infusing one's chakra nature with the Rasengan was what Minato had intended to do when he created the Rasengan, but had not been able to do so before he died. Kakashi believed Naruto would prove successful where his father could not, inspiring Naruto to do his best.

While he struggled to create his new Rasengan, the rest of Konoha mobilised to deal with the Akatsuki members, Hidan and Kakuzu. When the two managed to kill Asuma, Kakashi left Yamato in charge of overseeing Naruto's training so that he could help Team 10 avenge Asuma. Once he achieved a usable technique, Naruto and Team Yamato went to provide assistance, arriving in time to save Kakashi and Team 10 from Kakuzu. Naruto engaged Kakuzu by himself with his Wind Release: Rasenshuriken, created with the help of shadow clones. Once striking Kakuzu with the attack, two of his hearts were destroyed, and his final heart was left on the brink of failure. Tired out by the ordeal, Naruto's injuries were healed while Kakashi finished off Kakuzu.

Upon returning to Konoha, Naruto was forbidden by Tsunade to use the Rasenshuriken again. While it was devastating to his opponents, it caused minor injuries to Naruto's arm as well. Even though they weren't as bad as his opponent's injuries, it was harmful enough to cause the arm to be beyond medical repair if performed again with contact of his hand and the opponent, endangering him and his hopes of remaining a ninja. Naruto said that he realised this, but claimed he understood his own body better than anyone else.

Itachi Pursuit Arc
After news of Orochimaru's defeat at the hands of Sasuke, Team Kakashi decided to make another attempt to find him. Knowing that Sasuke was going after his older brother, Itachi, they teamed up with the members of Team 8 to find either of the Uchiha brothers. They scoured the landscape, and eventually encountered Kabuto, who had absorbed some of Orochimaru's remains into his body. As his thanks to Naruto for "inspiring" him to overcome Orochimaru, Kabuto gave him a book containing some information on Akatsuki, while making an escape to avoid capture.

After regrouping and Kiba picked up on Sasuke's trail, Naruto used a number of shadow clones to search the area faster. When one of his clones neared what he thought was Sasuke's location, he found Itachi there instead. Itachi repelled all of Naruto's attempts to attack him, insisting that he only wanted to talk. He trapped Naruto in a genjutsu and, as was later revealed, questioned Naruto on his dedication to Sasuke and to Konoha. When Naruto insisted that he would protect both at any cost, Itachi gave Naruto some of his power sealed inside a crow in case he ever needed it. Itachi left, and Naruto continued his search, eventually finding Sasuke.

When the real Naruto and the rest of the team moved to intercept him, they were stopped by Tobi. Despite their efforts to quickly dispose of Tobi, none of their attacks worked, and it was only after word reached them that Sasuke had killed Itachi that they were allowed to continue. Tobi, however, reached Sasuke first, and having lost the trail, the Konoha-nin were forced to give up on the search.

Invasion of Pain Arc
When he returned to Konoha, Naruto learned that Jiraiya had died in his battle with the leader of Akatsuki, Pain. Grief stricken, Naruto spent the rest of the day mourning the loss of his teacher, musing over the fact he had wanted Jiraiya to be there when he became Hokage. After being comforted by Iruka and Shikamaru, Naruto helped to decipher Jiraiya's dying message. When the code was broken, Naruto decided to go to train with the toads to learn senjutsu, knowing that Pain was coming for him and deciding to make the most of the time Jiraiya had bought for him. To learn senjutsu, Naruto trained to harmonise with nature, a process he sped up by using a limited amount of shadow clones. He rapidly progressed through the introductory stages and attained a perfect Sage Mode, something Jiraiya had never been able to do. When news of Pain's attack on Konoha reached them, they began to mobilise for battle.

As Naruto (in Sage Mode), Fukasaku, Gamaken, Gamahiro, Gamabunta, and Gamakichi were summoned to the centre of Konoha, Naruto did not immediately recognise the crater he had been summoned to, but then saw the Hokage Monument in the distance. Realising that Pain had destroyed the village, an infuriated Naruto destroyed Pain's Asura Path with a Rasengan before it could attack Tsunade. Naruto told the Hokage to make sure that none of the other villagers would intervene in the battle. Pain's Animal Path summoned a number of animals to attack Naruto, who used the Sage Mode's immense strength to bat them aside to his toad allies. While they dealt with the summons, Naruto disposed of the Preta Path with Frog Kata before preparing the fruits of his senjutsu training: a perfected Rasenshuriken. He hurled the attack at Pain's remaining bodies, and it expanded when it neared them, disintegrating the Human Path. Running low on chakra because of the attack, Naruto had Gamabunta trap the Animal Path in his mouth, where Naruto defeated it with his Sage Technique: Spiralling Serial Spheres without interference from the other bodies.

When he ran out of natural energy and was no longer in Sage Mode, Naruto had Fukasaku summon one of his shadow clones from Mount Myōboku that gathered it for him. Revitalised, Naruto attacked with another Rasenshuriken, only for the Preta Path to appear and absorb the attack. Realising that the Naraka Path had restored it, Naruto focused his efforts on getting rid of it by distracting the Deva Path with a smokescreen, and landing a great blow on the Naraka Path. Though he had defeated four of Pain's six bodies, Naruto was captured through a combination of efforts from both the Deva and Preta Paths. The Preta Path absorbed his chakra to make sure he was no longer a threat, but being unable to handle natural energy, the Preta Path turned into a frog statue, allowing Naruto to free himself. However, the Deva Path quickly captured Naruto again, and killed Fukasaku when he tried to come to help. While immobilising Naruto, the Deva Path told Naruto about his plans for world peace. When Naruto disagreed with his views, the Deva Path questioned Naruto for a better solution. Before he could answer, Hinata came to intervene. Worried about her own safety, Naruto demanded Hinata to stay away from the fight, but she refused to leave despite knowing that she didn't have the power to defeat the Deva Path. After she confessed her love to Naruto (greatly shocking him), Hinata fought bravely against the Deva Path, but was immediately taken down by its Shinra Tensei and stabbed her with one of his chakra blades despite Naruto begging him not to. When it looked as if the Deva Path had killed Hinata right before his very eyes, Naruto became so furious to the point where he entered his six-tailed form.

Even though his necklace reacted to quell the transformation, the Nine-Tails quickly destroyed it and attacked Pain. Unable to deal with this new threat, the Deva Path retreated to a location where it could use Chibaku Tensei, drawing in and containing Naruto. Within his subconscious, Naruto thought of Pain's plans for peace, and pleaded for someone to help him with a response. Through his suffering, the Nine-Tails tempted Naruto to entrust his heart to it so that it could destroy everything that was causing Naruto pain, thus distorting the seal to the point where the eight-tailed form was released, breaking free of the Chibaku Tensei. Before he could completely release the Nine-Tails, his father, Minato, appeared in Naruto's subconscious and stopped him. Minato revealed that he designed the seal to allow an imprint of himself to appear in an event that the seal was about to break, a fail safe meant to protect his son. Picking up on this, Naruto was overjoyed to finally know who one of his parents was. His time being short, Minato revealed that he had sealed the Nine-Tails into his own son because he thought Naruto would someday find use for it in finally stopping the masked man of Akatsuki. They also discussed the concept of peace, and Minato revealed that hatred gave rise to Pain, and that ninja must find a way to end the hatred. While Naruto doubted that he could do it, Minato replied that he believed Naruto would be able to find the answer, and restored the Nine-Tails' seal before disappearing.

Outside, Naruto emerged from the Chibaku Tensei, with the Nine-Tails' influence gone and Sage Mode having returned. After he expressed tears of relief when he found that Hinata was still alive, he clashed one final time with the Deva Path. Taking advantage of the five-second gap between its attacks, Naruto was finally able to defeat the Deva Path with his Rasengan and win the battle. Using the Deva Path's chakra receivers, Naruto sought out Nagato, Pain's base mind, to finally answer his earlier question about peace. Naruto admitted that he hated Nagato, but restrained himself long enough to ask how Nagato, a fellow student of Jiraiya, turned out this way. After hearing Nagato's past and his reasons for desiring war, Naruto agreed on some points, but rejected the overall conclusion on the grounds that it differed from Jiraiya's ideals. To break the cycle of hatred, Naruto told Nagato and Konan that, despite hating them, he would not kill them. Amazed by Naruto's determination to his answer, Nagato said that he would believe in Naruto, and revived all the people he had killed in Konoha, at the cost of his own life. With this, Naruto helped Konan retrieve Nagato and Yahiko's bodies for burial in Amegakure. After confirming that she had quit Akatsuki, Konan left Naruto a bouquet of paper flowers for him, symbolising their new alliance.

He then created a memorial for Jiraiya and left the flowers and a copy of The Tale of the Utterly Gutsy Shinobi by a rock with the kanji for.

Konoha History Arc
The anime created several flashback episodes covering a range of different characters who had interacted with Naruto. The purpose of these flashbacks was to show how Naruto had changed in the eyes of these different characters. Some of the characters shown included Iruka and Kakashi.

Five Kage Summit Arc
While the exhausted Naruto was returning to the village, Kakashi found him and carried him back. He was greeted by the entire village and celebrated as a hero. Soon afterwards, he learned that Tsunade had been left in a coma as a result of protecting the villagers from Pain. Sakura tried to cheer him up, but her efforts were interrupted by the news that Danzō Shimura has replaced Tsunade as Hokage and has ordered that Sasuke be executed as a traitor to the village. Naruto and Sakura questioned Sai about Danzō, hoping to learn how they can change his mind, but Sai was unable to help them. Their questions gained the attention of two Kumo-nin, Karui and Omoi, who told Naruto and Sakura about Sasuke's work with Akatsuki and demanded any information that might be useful in killing him. To spare Sakura from having to help them, Naruto volunteered, but ultimately could not bring himself to sell out Sasuke. He offered to allow the Kumo-nin to take their anger out on him by beating him up, to which they gladly accepted before being stopped by Sai.

While Naruto recovered from his injuries, he asked Yamato and Kakashi to take him to the Land of Iron so that he could ask A, the Fourth Raikage, to forgive Sasuke. Yamato and Kakashi agreed, but when they arrived and spoke with A, the Raikage refused his request and berated Naruto for standing up for a criminal. Naruto went to a local inn to consider what to do next, where he was soon confronted by Tobi, who asked Naruto on how he got Nagato to change his mind. Naruto ignored the question and demanded to know about his plans with Sasuke. Tobi told him about the Sage of the Six Paths, the Uchiha clan, and the truth about the Uchiha clan massacre, all of which now drove Sasuke along a path of vengeance. Naruto insisted that that he could still get through to Sasuke, but Tobi laughed and left, saying that Naruto and Sasuke are fated to fight again.

While Naruto was practising on extending his Sage Mode's sensory skills in hopes of finding Sasuke, Sakura interrupted him, having come to the Land of Iron to speak with him. She told him that she loved him and she no longer had any feelings for Sasuke. Naruto, knowing that Sakura still had feelings for Sasuke, didn't believe her and said she was lying to herself, as well as he hated people who lied to themselves. Angered by this, Sakura insisted that she was telling the truth and he therefore doesn't need to fulfil his earlier promise of bringing Sasuke home. Naruto firmly replied that his actions had nothing to do with the promise and that he just wanted to save Sasuke, choosing not to reveal what Tobi had said to him before. Sakura then left with the others, saying she was going home. Soon, one of Sai's ink clones approached Naruto, telling him, Kakashi, and Yamato about Sakura and the rest of the Konoha 11's decision to kill Sasuke to prevent him from involving Konoha in another war, and also mentioned that he thinks Sakura is still in love with Sasuke, later proven to be true, and wanted to be the one to stop him from sinking any lower. Gaara also appeared and told them about the Fourth Shinobi World War, and the decision to protect Naruto from Akatsuki. Gaara pleaded with Naruto to think about all of the people who will be fighting the likes of Sasuke on his behalf and, as Sasuke's friend, to do what was best given his actions. When Gaara left, Naruto considered what everyone had told him and started hyperventilating. He passed out and when he woke up, he discovered from Yamato that Kakashi had gone to stop Sakura and deal with Sasuke.

Using a shadow clone as a decoy, Naruto escaped from Yamato and pursued Kakashi using his Sage Mode to follow the latter's chakra. He arrived just in time to save Sakura from being killed by Sasuke. Naruto made a last attempt to reason with his former friend, commiserating with his pain and acknowledging Itachi's sacrifice. However, Sasuke was unmoved and made his resolve to destroy Konoha clear. Shocked by the depths of his hatred, Kakashi resolved to kill Sasuke, but was stopped by Naruto, who instead fought Sasuke head-on; matching his Rasengan with the latter's Chidori. Both survived the clash, with Tobi and Zetsu coming to Sasuke's aid. Before Sasuke left, Naruto noted that they had both become top-class ninja, and if they ever fought again, they would both die. He nevertheless accepted such an outcome, since it would at least enable him to shoulder Sasuke's hatred alone. In answer, Sasuke declared that he had no intention to die, and promised to kill Naruto first. He left with Tobi, and Naruto returned to Konoha with his team-mates, bearing Karin as a captive. In the anime, Naruto, Karin, and the rest of Sakura's team rest while Kakashi sent his ninken to the other Hidden Villages.

Upon returning to the village, Naruto explained the situation to his friends. When he insisted to handle Sasuke alone, Neji and Shikamaru said it was foolish not to finish Sasuke when he was already weakened from his fight against the other Kage and Danzō, but Naruto explained that at his current level, he wouldn't be able to kill Sasuke. As Shikamaru berated Naruto for taking all this on his own, Naruto dismissed this and headed off to Ramen Ichiraku. Sakura realised Naruto was hiding something however, remembering what he said to Sasuke directly.

Confining the Jinchūriki Arc
As Naruto was about to eat at Ichiraku, he was suddenly summoned back to Mount Myōboku by Fukasaku where he learns from the Great Toad Sage's fortune that he will meet an "octopus" and would battle a "young man with powerful eyes". When Gerotora is summoned to give Naruto the "key" to the Eight Trigrams Seal, Naruto knew he would need the Nine-Tails' power for the battles to come and accepted the key. From there, Naruto is sent back to Ichiraku where some of the villagers asked for his autograph. Naruto was unaware of that the five Kage are planning to keep him from the upcoming Fourth Shinobi World War for his safety on a remote island in the Land of Lightning with Yamato, Might Guy, Aoba Yamashiro, and several other Konoha-nin as security.

Once at the island, Naruto meets his fellow jinchūriki Killer B, requesting to be his student after being marvelled at B's mastery with his tailed beast. B refused the offer on the grounds that he is on vacation, with Naruto worsening it when he accidently insulted B while pulling off a capable rap and his Harem Technique having no effect. However, when word of him bumping fists with B reached Motoi, Naruto is taken to Falls of Truth, where B began his training to control the Eight-Tails. Motoi instructed Naruto to sit on the platform in front of the waterfall and close his eyes, and he would see his true self. While doing this, Naruto was greeted by another version of himself, who berated Naruto on how quickly the people from Konoha changed their opinions of him.

Both he and Dark Naruto began to fight and were evenly matched both physically and chakra level wise as both were able to produce the exact same number of shadow clones. It was revealed that the entire battle occurred within Naruto's mind, as Yamato observed Naruto still meditating near the waterfall. Somehow able to break out of the meditation, Naruto questioned Motoi about B's history in order to figure out how to conquer his inner darkness. After that, Naruto reminisced about how B and Gaara changed everyone's opinions about them, he begins to doubt if the villagers of Konoha truly trusted him. After witnessing B save Motoi from giant squid and resume their friendship, an inspired Naruto returns to the Falls of Truth and confronts Dark Naruto again. With Naruto now having faith in himself, it started to weaken Dark Naruto as he asks what his reason for existing is. Answering his question, Naruto accepts Dark Naruto as a part of him while thanking him for pushing him to become who is now. He then hugged a struggling Dark Naruto, who finally relents and fades.

After awaking and celebrating, Naruto and Yamato is led by B to a special room within the secret temple behind the Falls of Truth where Naruto is prepared to fight the Nine-Tails for its chakra. Within his subconscious, after unlocking the seal, Naruto (in Sage Mode) appeared to have the upper hand after he weakened the Nine-Tails with the Rasenshuriken and drained out its chakra, but the Nine-Tails instantly planted its own hatred within its chakra with the absorbed energy consuming Naruto as it begins to use his body to give Yamato and B trouble. Just before Naruto was completely succumbed, the spirit of his mother, Kushina Uzumaki, appeared. Naruto believed that Kushina was the Nine-Tails in disguise before she clobbered him on the head before she apologises and hopes he did not inherit her short-temper. Picking up on this and realising Kushina was his mother as he hugged her while crying, the love-filled reunion causes the Nine-Tails's hatred to be purged from the drained chakra, much to Yamato and B's surprise.

With Kushina holding the Nine-Tails at bay, Naruto quickly made a large number of shadow clones, entered Sage Mode, and bombarded the Nine-Tails with the combination of Sage Art: Many Ultra-Big Ball Spiralling Serial Spheres and the Rasenshuriken, weakening the Nine-Tails further and completely separate it from its chakra. When its chakra merged into Naruto, an enraged and emaciated Nine-Tails attempted to fire a much larger Tailed Beast Ball, but its attack ultimately dissipated as Naruto used a new, stronger seal to imprison the weakened tailed beast once again. After that, when Naruto learned from Kushina about his heritage, the truth behind the Nine-Tails' attack on Konoha, and how his parents gave their lives to protect him. Naruto then told Kushina that he was glad to know that he was filled with their love before the Nine-Tails was sealed within him, and he was happy to be their son. Before she completely faded away, Kushina tearfully hugged Naruto, and thanked him for letting her and Minato be his parents.

Once out of his subconscious, Naruto shows off his new form to B and Yamato before sensing Kisame hidden inside his Samehada by detecting his negative emotions. When the surprised Kisame attempted to escape, Naruto used his blinding speed to quickly smash Kisame into the wall with a powerful punch. Naruto's foot got stuck in the wall, allowing Kisame to escape with B in pursuit as Yamato stays behind to help Naruto out of the wall. Naruto and Yamato then caught up with the others as they watched Guy and Kisame's fight from a distance. After the battle, the Konoha and Kumo-nin restrained Kisame and attempted to interrogate him before the Akatsuki member commits suicide before that could get any more information out of him. Shocked by this action, Naruto realised that even the shinobi in Akatsuki fought for their comrades before being trapped in one of Kisame's booby trap water prisons and occupied with summoned sharks as one of the sharks takes the information scroll on Kisame to Akatsuki's base.

Shinobi World War Arc
After Motoi sent his summoned owl to inform the Allied Shinobi Forces about the situation, Naruto and Killer B started evacuating the giant animals into the Island Turtle's shell for their safety in case an attack came. Naruto was trying to log the island's ecology as part of his "official" S-rank mission, but did not realise that it was a ploy to keep him away from the war. After he was done, B instructed Naruto back into the temple within the Falls of Truth and started to train on how to utilise his Nine-Tails Chakra Mode properly. However, during his training, Naruto suddenly sensed the Nine-Tails' chakra within the rampaging six-tailed Kinkaku far away from the temple. Wanting to investigate, Naruto was able to trick B into letting him out, but was stopped by Iruka Umino, Shibi Aburame, and a handful of Konoha-nin, which confirmed his earlier suspicions that something was wrong. Iruka tried to trick Naruto into believing that he had a second mission on the island, but Naruto used Sage Mode to barge through the guards, losing his forehead protector in the process.

With Naruto out the chakra isolation chamber and sensing the war going on around him, Iruka finally told Naruto the truth. Naruto refused Iruka's order to remain, vowing to end the war and endure whatever pain and anguish is there by himself. When Iruka returned Naruto his fallen forehead protector, he immediately trapped Naruto within a barrier, but Naruto easily broke free while in Nine-Tails Chakra Mode. On his way to battle, he found a note from Iruka in his forehead protector, in which Iruka told him that in the event he could not stop Naruto from leaving, he asked Naruto to come back alive. Naruto then proceeded to eat the note after reading it.

Naruto and B, who had been asked by Iruka to watch over Naruto and finally caught up with him, both broke through a barrier that surrounded the Island Turtle and continued their way to the battlefield. Shortly after that, the Nine-Tails pulled Naruto into his subconscious, berating him for squandering its chakra. Calling Naruto naive for thinking he could stop the war by himself, the Nine-Tails tried to tempt him again with power, but to no avail, earning Naruto some recognition. When the Nine-Tails claimed that his attempt to put an end to hatred was futile, using the boy's history with Sasuke as proof, Naruto pinned the fox down with a torii in retaliation and tells it that he will find a way to deal with both Sasuke and the war. Though Nine-Tails then condescendingly complimented him for standing up for him, Naruto unnerved the tailed beast with the promise to someday resolve the fox's own hatred.

Some time later, A and Tsunade showed up at Naruto and B's location to prevent them from going another step further. After Naruto failed to argue his way through with A, Naruto tried to bypass them with his speed, but the Raikage, in his Lightning Release Armour, matched his speed and punched him back. Naruto pleaded with Tsunade to allow him to pass, but Tsunade stated she had to follow through on her role as a leader of the Allied Shinobi Forces. Understanding Tsunade's position, Naruto made another attempt to bypass them, only to be intercepted by A once more. A then declared to Naruto that he will kill him if he refuses to comply; believing he would buy the Allied Shinobi Forces some time before the Nine-Tails could revive, which would delay Madara's plan. However, B blocked A's attack and defeated his brother in a Lariat clash while explaining that his and Naruto's strength come from both their tailed beasts and those who cared about them. To test Naruto's resolve, A fully powered up his Lightning Release Armour and attacked Naruto with his fastest punch, but when he was able to dodge it, A allowed Naruto and B to pass.

While on their way, Naruto and B were contacted by Shikaku Nara (with the help of Inoichi Yamanaka's telepathy) that the former is the only one who can sense the White Zetsu Army. When their path was blocked by a group of White Zetsu disguising as shinobi, Naruto quickly takes them all out with his new techniques and he then deploys his shadow clones to the other battlefields. After that, Naruto and B find themselves facing reincarnated Itachi Uchiha and Nagato. While Naruto sparred with Itachi, Naruto revealed to him about Sasuke's plight, but reassured him that he still had a plan to do something about him.

After Nagato summoned his giant dog and bird, Itachi then activated his Mangekyō Sharingan in order to use Amaterasu on Naruto, but the crow Itachi placed inside Naruto before his death suddenly emerged from Naruto's mouth and locked eyes with Itachi, causing him to use Amaterasu on Nagato and his summons instead. Itachi explained that the crow used Kotoamatsukami, thus releasing him from Kabuto's control. Nagato, having his personality completely removed by Kabuto, used his Asura Path ability to restrain both Naruto and B respectively. Before Nagato could remove Naruto's soul, he and B were subsequently rescued by Itachi with his Susanoo. After Nagato used Chibaku Tensei as an attempt to trap them, Naruto used his Wind Release: Rasenshuriken, along with Itachi's Yasaka Magatama and B's Tailed Beast Ball, to attack the centre of Nagato's technique, effectively destroying it. After Itachi sealed Nagato with his Sword of Totsuka, he told Naruto that he would help end Kabuto's Impure World Reincarnation while Naruto would focus on fighting Tobi. Naruto insisted that Itachi come and see Sasuke again, but he declined, saying that he should leave his brother to his friends. After Itachi left, Naruto and B continued heading towards an unknown destination.

One of Naruto's shadow clones arrived at the Fourth Division's location at the battlefield to fight against the reincarnation Mū and the Third Raikage. Although he was able to defeat Mū, none of Naruto's attacks had much effect against the Third Raikage, as Dodai explained that the Third's physical endurance could withstand almost any kind of technique, along with the relative invulnerability of Impure World Reincarnation. When Naruto's clone noticed a scar on the Third's chest, Dodai stated that the Third got it during his past fight with the Eight-Tails. Believing that only a tailed beast was capable of harming the Third, Naruto's clone attempted to form the Tailed Beast Ball, only for it to dissipate, and was then forced out of Nine-Tails Chakra Mode due to chakra overuse. After learning from the Eight-Tails that both it and the Third only collapsed after their prolonged battle with their techniques still in their hands, Naruto's clone entered Sage Mode and charged toward the Third with a Rasengan in hand. Using Sage Mode's sensory ability, he dodged the Third's Hell Stab at the last second and aimed the Rasengan at the Raikage's arm. The attack knocked the Third's arm into his chest, impaling him long enough for him to be sealed away. Naruto's clone then went towards where Gaara was fighting the Second Mizukage, arriving just in time to see the sealing take place.

In the anime, one of Naruto's clones senses an immense source of hatred. Then, realising that he couldn't sense Shikamaru, Neji, Chōji, and Kiba's presence any more, Naruto's clone quickly rushes to their aid. Along the way, eliminating more White Zetsu clones in disguise, Naruto's clone finds a member of the communications team, contacting HQ for help. He learns from Inoichi Yamanaka that his missing friends have been affected by a strange technique. By locking in on the reincarnated Sound Four's malice, Naruto was able to find and destroy the barrier, letting Inoichi dispel the technique and save Shikamaru and the others. Jumping in to face the Sound Four, with their souls no longer bound to the world, Naruto quickly destroyed them as well.

Meanwhile, another Naruto clone finds Karui and her division being attacked by former reincarnated samurai named Tatewaki. As the division is quickly overwhelmed by Tatewaki's swordsmanship, Naruto is shocked to meet the man again after three years. Remembering Naruto, he asks Naruto what became of the two children he was guardian. After Naruto assured him that the children were safely brought to their destination, the relieved samurai was able to let got of his past pains, breaking the summoning contract and returned to the afterlife.

Later, Naruto noticed three unusual weather patterns near each other, one of strong rain, one of snow, and one lightning. While searching for the source, he found to his shock a reincarnated Yota, who began attacking him with powerful wind blasts. While at first unable to remember the child, Naruto gradually began recalling the events that led to Yota's death. As Naruto continued evading the attacks, he received word from his allies that Yota was currently fighting in three other locations. It was then deduced that at least three of the Yota were White Zetsu disguised and using Yota's power from a distance. While the three fake Yota were quickly defeated, Naruto found himself unable to attack Yota. Suddenly, despite being controlled, Yota was able to contact Naruto and his friends telepathically, revealing that he in fact died long before meeting them. Coming from a wondering clan with the same powers as him, Yota was a test subject by Orochimaru to refine the Impure World Reincarnation technique and as such was soon reanimated after "dying" while with Naruto and the others. Happy to see how well his friends grew up, Yota was able to break the summoning contract and destroyed his body with a bolt of lightning.

When Omoi is reported to have left his post on the battlefield to find the Thundercloud Unit, the Allied Shinobi Forces' Headquarters asks Naruto to assist. He arrives and saves Omoi from a vast army of White Zetsu, stating he believes him. With his help, they manage to defeat a large number of them. Naruto's time at the battle comes to an end when Omoi accidentally slices through the shadow clone when striking a White Zetsu clone.

While Naruto's clones arrived at the other division's locations to help find and fight off the remaining White Zetsu within the areas, the one clone with Gaara and his unit was alerted to someone's presence by a sensor. They spotted Mū on a cliff above them and Ōnoki informed them that he must have split in half. They were even more shocked when Ōnoki told them that the person beside him was none other than Madara Uchiha. Gaara pointed out that Madara was reincarnated, and they all wondered who the masked man claiming to be Madara really was. As Madara began his assault, Naruto's clone made more clones to fight and stall him for time to enter Sage Mode. He and Gaara attack simultaneously, but their attack failed when Madara revealed his Rinnegan and used its power to summon a large meteorite to finish everyone within the area off. After the meteorite was stopped by Ōnoki and Gaara, a second one was sent crashing into it, which made a landfall and devastated the division. When Madara attempted to summon the Nine-Tails, Naruto could feel his stomach burning and the fox angrily recognised his chakra calling for it. As the Nine-Tails resolved to lend Naruto its chakra, he first thought that it was going to attempt to take over his body like it used to, but the fox said it would rather help Naruto than be manipulated by Madara again. Using its chakra, Naruto's clone was able to create more clones and countered Madara's Wood Release Secret Technique: Nativity of a World of Trees with a series of Big Ball Rasengan. After that assault, the clone was left severely weakened to the point where he felt like that he could disappear at any moment. As Madara and Mū moved to attack, Tsunade, A, and Mei Terumī suddenly appeared and was able to keep them at bay. Naruto's clone pleaded with Tsunade to heal him as he didn't want to disappear yet or have Tsunade to use her forehead seal. However, she refused and Ōnoki explained to him that the war was about protecting everyone, not just him. Tsunade also told Naruto's clone that the Kage would handle the real Madara, while he should focus on defeating the imposter. Elsewhere in a dense forest area, the real Naruto received the dispersed clone's information and vowed to win. Naruto noticed Tobi approaching and immediately headbutted him, causing both of them to recoil from the impact.

When Naruto questioned him about his true identity, Tobi simply replied that he was a nobody and that only completing the Eye of the Moon Plan and fixing the worthless world mattered to him. Though Tobi claimed he and B understand misery as jinchūriki, Naruto argued that having tailed beasts sealed inside them is not that bad while stating he is not going to fall for his lies. Tobi then had his jinchūriki paths enter the early stages of their tailed beast transformations to attack the gravely disadvantaged Naruto and B. After narrowly escaping from the jinchūriki, Naruto, B, and the Eight-Tails began to formulate a counter measure against them. After being informed by B that he had seen a black rod embedded into Yugito's chest, Naruto battles Rōshi to destroy the receiver in his chest with a Rasengan before being sent flying by Han's kick. Clutching onto B as he transformed into the Eight-Tails and devastated a large area of the forest, Naruto watched on as B used his ink clones to try and seal the jinchūriki, but the technique was cancelled when they all entered into their Version 2 forms at the last second. As Naruto was fending off the jinchūriki, he eventually became overwhelmed and was weighed down, thus allowing Tobi the opportunity to try and capture Naruto. However, Naruto was saved by the timely arrival of Kakashi and Guy. After Guy destroyed the coral that was restricting his movement, Naruto began assisting them in battling Tobi's Six Paths of Pain. Suddenly, Tobi had both Utakata and Rōshi fully transform into the Six-Tails and the Four-Tails respectively, throwing him off onto the Eight-Tails, and he fell out of the Nine-Tails Chakra Mode. With Kakashi and Guy cut off from him, the Four-Tails tossed the Eight-Tails and Naruto quickly re-entered Nine-Tails Chakra Mode when he was right between the giant ape's teeth.

As he struggled to free himself, Naruto was eventually swallowed by the Four-Tails and, to his surprise, ended up inside of Rōshi's subconscious and found the Four-Tails in chains. After denying that he had come to steal the beast's power, Naruto was chastised by the ape as it demands to be called by its proper name: Son Gokū. Learning the Nine-Tails' true name is Kurama, talking from experience, Naruto expressed his wish to be friends with it in the same manner that B was with the Eight-Tails. Hearing the resolve in Naruto's words, Son Gokū decided to help Naruto defeat it but explained to the boy not to expect it as his ally until he wins the tailed beast's trust. Using his Multiple Shadow Clone Technique to force the transformed Rōshi to vomit him out while leaving one a clone in Sage Mode behind, Naruto staged two-fold attack on the chakra receiver that located on the side of the neck. Though Naruto succeeded in removing it, he learns that he only severed Tobi's control over Rōshi while Son Gokū's being is still held by the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path. Regardless, Naruto earned the Four-Tails' trust as he gave the boy some of its chakra being sealed back into the statue. Drained of chakra, finding out his actions also earned the Nine-Tails' trust while thanking if for aiding his clone against Madara, Naruto accepts Kurama's offer to meld their chakra. Noting that Kurama was no longer the monster fox that attacked Konoha, but the village's ally and his team-mate, Naruto unlocked the seal's gate as he and released Kurama prepared to face the five remaining, fully-transformed jinchūriki in their new form.

Wasting no time, Naruto intervened to save Guy and Kakashi from the jinchūriki's Tailed Beast Balls, with the latter mistaking him for his own former teacher. As the beasts rallied again and prepared to attack the shinobi, Naruto transformed into Kurama — seemingly "absorbing" Guy and Kakashi into the beast's chakra for safe-keeping. After creating a Sage Mode clone to help locate the other chakra receivers, Kurama warned Naruto that they only had five minutes to maintain the form because it was his first transformation. With this, he grabbed the Seven-Tails in mid-flight, intending to pile-drive the beast into the Three-Tails, but the giant turtle rolled out of the way. Right after that, the Six-Tails quickly swallowed Kurama's hand, rendering it immobile and allowing the Three-Tails to attack, but was stopped by the Eight-Tails. The Two-Tails attempted to pounce on Naruto and Kurama from behind, but they fiercely swung the Six-Tails right into the monster cat, throwing the two away from a distance while B dealt with the Five-Tails. As the other tailed beasts gathered and preformed a collaborative Tailed Beast Ball, Naruto and Kurama preformed one of their own, intending to counter the attack by aiming slightly below his opponents', which sent them both flying upwards in a massive explosion.

Then, as the massive dust cloud was clearing, Naruto used Kurama's tails, transforming them into chakra hands, to grab his opponents by their throats. He then used Nine-Tails Chakra Mode clones to pull out the stakes, while silently promising to free all the tailed beasts. Suddenly, Naruto found that his subconscious had been pulled into a space so that the remaining beasts and their jinchūriki could converse with him. Yagura and the other jinchūriki explained that Son Gokū insisted that they wait for Naruto and try to help him. After both the jinchūriki and tailed beasts introduced themselves and offered Naruto some of their power, Naruto, back in the real world, successfully managed to pull the chakra receivers from the beasts, just before his time in the new form ran out. Forcing to seal all of the tailed beasts back into the Demonic Statue, Tobi was left incredulous about these turn of events, but remained convinced that still changed nothing. Naruto, though, disagreed, stating that he just learned a bunch of difficult names all at once, and teased Tobi for not knowing any of them. Later, when Naruto saw the end to Kabuto's Impure World Reincarnation as the corpses of the jinchūriki began to deconstruct, he silently thanked Itachi and continued battling Tobi and the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path.

Ten-Tails Revival Arc
As Naruto taunted his opponent on taking off his mask, Tobi summoned both the Benihisago and the Kohaku no Jōhei that contained the reincarnated Gold and Silver Brothers, who possessed a portion of Kurama's chakra, and tossed them into the Demonic Statue's mouth. That, along with the chakra from one of Gyūki's tentacles that was cut from B's last fight with Sasuke, the Demonic Statue began its transformation into the Ten-Tails. When Tobi exclaimed that world no longer needed the concept of heroes, hopes, or future, Naruto argued that his own heroes were the reason why he was able to keep moving forward without faltering and would make his dream to become Hokage a reality. With that, Naruto resolved to first crush Tobi's mask, to which the masked man responded that he would not allow them to touch the Demonic Statue.

Formulating their strategy as Naruto produces a shadow clone, the shinobi agree that the use of feint attacks would be crucial in this battle because of Tobi's abilities. Moving directly towards Tobi, Naruto uses the Super Mini-Tailed Beast Ball to attack Tobi. However, becoming intangible, Naruto passes through him. Guy then leaps in with his Sōshūga to join battle. Using his nunchaku to counter Tobi's gunbai, Guy is able to sent the masked man throttling towards Naruto and his Super Mini-Tailed Beast Ball. As Naruto's attack is about to make contact, Tobi teleports which Naruto had the idea to sense him out to anticipate Tobi emerging from the ground in a surprise attack. Dodging the attack, Naruto now has a harder time blocking Tobi's gunbai. Kakashi then appears to join in the fight with his Lightning Release infused kunai. As Kakashi launches the kunai, Tobi became intangible once again and kicks the kunai towards Naruto. Telling Naruto to ignore it, Kakashi uses Kamui to warp away the kunai. As Naruto makes his last attempt to land a blow on Tobi, he becomes intangible. Regrouping as the last attack seemingly fails to land, the shinobi wonder how they were going to defeat Tobi. Just then a tiny crack appears on Tobi's mask. Noticing the crack Guy believes Naruto's attack caused the damage but Kakashi disagreed noting that the crack was not consistent with a punch. Naruto agrees to confirm Kakashi's hypothesis and climbed aboard Gyūki's hand and is then launched across the battlefield towards Tobi. He allows Guy to initiate the first attack breaking the rocks before him and force Tobi to phase through them but Guy continues his assault even as the masked man is still intangible forcing him to absorb his nunchaku. This allows Naruto to attack Tobi with a Rasengan during this vulnerable period and injure his left arm. Naruto later listened in surprise as Kakashi explained the mechanisms behind Tobi's technique. Confused as to why the kunai made a mark but his punch didn't, Kakashi explained causing Naruto to realise that this was what his Rasengan did as well.

As Tobi chastised Kakashi, Naruto interjected stating that he would not give up on his dreams no matter what. When Tobi began to chastise Naruto as well, the young man switched places with Kurama who told Tobi in Naruto's stead that he would not lose, no matter what. With that they entered the Tailed Beast Mode and charged at Tobi. After Tobi evaded Naruto's attack, and chided him for attacking alone, Naruto rebutted that he was not alone, in that he had his friends and teachers with him, getting Kakashi out of his slump and moving to attack again as a group. Using a shadow clone, Naruto had B cover him while he had the clone charge at Tobi with a Rasengan while the real Naruto charged a Tailed Beast Ball. Tobi thought he destroyed the clone when Kakashi's Kamui failed to warp the Rasengan, and then phased through the Tailed Beast Ball. Once in the other dimension however, he discovered that Kakashi had instead sent the entire clone over and before he could react, Naruto hit him in the face with a Rasengan, breaking his mask.

He is later seen expressing alarm that Tobi's identity is revealed to be Obito Uchiha, a former comrade Kakashi and Guy are acquainted with. After his question about who was standing, unmasked before them is answered, Naruto tries to rally his sensei, telling him that for now, they had to focus on stopping his plans. When Obito attacked Guy and Kakashi, Naruto manifested Kurama's tails and used them as a blockade — dispelling the flames before Madara Uchiha makes an appearance on the battlefield. With Madara's appearance, Naruto demands to know what happened to the five Kage while the two Uchiha casually discussed the current situation, but Madara notes that the Naruto in front of them was a clone, and informed him that the Kage were not doing well. Further angered by his casual disregard of Nagato, Naruto launched an attack on Madara, first releasing B from the chakra stakes, then throwing them at Madara, who blocks them, and then attacking with a mini Tailed Beast Ball. However, Madara sent the force back with his gunbai, destroying the clone before moving to deal with the jinchūriki.

Naruto, Killer B, and Guy all engaged Madara in combat after that point. Madara overwhelmed B and Guy, and Naruto rose to challenge him and announced that he was the Fourth Hokage's son. In response, Madara created a gigantic wood dragon to attack him after remarking he won't take it easy on Naruto any more. In response, Naruto countered with his full Tailed Beast Mode, smashing and biting the dragon. However, the dragon eventually gained the upper-hand in their struggle and began to absorb Kurama's chakra, causing the beast's shroud to falter. Hearing Obito and Madara's ideals once again, Naruto noted that they annoyed him to no end before creating a shadow clone to intercept Obito's attack on Kakashi while he protected Guy and B from Madara. He noted that he was not trash and that he would never become trash and that he would protect his comrades. After Kakashi rallied to his side, he and Naruto stand to face their opponents head-on. As Obito began to attack, he binded Naruto's clone with a Wood Release technique, and tried to send Kakashi to the other dimension, however, Naruto head-butted him, boldly denying Obito's claim that Kakashi was trash.

As Obito regained his composure and charged at a visibly exhausted Kakashi, planning to send him to the other dimension to keep him from stopping his plans, Kurama asked that Naruto switch with him. As Naruto did so, Kurama grabbed Kakashi's hand and hurled him at Obito, letting Kakashi get absorbed — much to Naruto's shock — to which Kurama simply stated that Naruto could now fight without hesitation. Without much time to discuss the matter as he was set upon by Obito once again, Naruto used his chakra arms to fend off his would-be attacker. As his attacks phased through him, Obito showed signs of being attacked much to Naruto's shock; there it was revealed that Kurama had actually gave Kakashi some of its chakra so he could attack Obito in the other dimension and also return to the real world using Kamui. Meanwhile, the original Naruto entered the full Tailed Beast Mode to create a giant Tailed Beast Ball with B and Gyūki and fired it at the Demonic Statue. This was all done in vain however, as after the resulting explosion, the Ten-Tails had been revived.

Naruto and the others quickly regroup while Kurama restored Kakashi and Guy's respective chakra, but the Ten-Tails, under the control of Obito and Madara, quickly overwhelmed them before they could finish devising a strategy. Kurama and Gyūki then fired a barrage of Tailed Beast Balls at the Ten-Tails, who easily deflected them with a single blast of its own. Naruto and Kurama were able to withstand the attack (losing six of its tails in exchange) and threw Kakashi and Naruto's Sage Mode shadow clone above the Ten-Tails, where Kakashi teleported Gyūki and B who prepared to launch a Tailed Beast Ball from the beast's blind-spot. However, the Ten-Tails simply flicked the attack back at Gyūki, leaving Naruto's shadow clone, and Kakashi open for an attack. After the clone successfully pushed Kakashi out of the way, and gets dispelled by the tail himself, Naruto and Kurama were able to rescue Kakashi, Gyūki, and B before the Tailed Beast Mode was deactivated, which Kurama noted to Naruto that it needed time to generate more chakra.

As Obito and Madara had the Ten-Tails fire another Tailed Beast Ball at Naruto's group, the shinobi were shocked to realise that the attack had missed. Just then, from above, Ino, Hinata, Hiashi and a few others arrived and it is revealed that Ino was able to shift the blast after taking control of the beast for a split second. Shrouding the battlefield in mist and releasing kikaichū to stop them from being sensed, the entire Allied Shinobi Forces arrive at the battlefield, and Naruto announces that they were no longer a disorderly crowd before announcing that the "Ninja Alliance Technique" could stop the Infinite Tsukuyomi. As the Allied Shinobi Forces seemingly managed to trap the Ten-Tails with their battle strategy, Naruto entered Sage Mode and prepared to attack the two Uchiha with a Rasenshuriken. He throws the Rasenshuriken like planned as he and the other Allied Shinobi attack only to be repelled by the beast emerging in its matured form, sending Naruto and several others flying backwards, only to be left in shock at the beast's transformation, also leaving Naruto with a dislocated shoulder.

After the Ten-Tails launched several Tailed Beast Balls at nearby locations and the Allied Shinobi Headquarters (not before Shikaku and Inoichi relay their final battle strategy), Naruto questioned what happened to them, but suddenly Neji and Hiashi defended him from an incoming attack and told him not to get distracted in the battlefield. After reminding Naruto that he was the key to their strategy, the two of them, plus Hinata, declared that they will protect him. The Ten-Tails then started firing a barrage of wooden spears that proved difficult to defend against. Naruto entered Sage Mode and launched a few Rasenshuriken at the projectiles, but exhausted his senjutsu chakra. Soon the Ten-Tails launched a pinpoint attack at Naruto that the Hyūga were unable to deflect in time. Hinata prepares to defend Naruto as a human shield, only for Neji to take the fatal blow instead. In his final moments, Neji reminded Naruto that Hinata, as well as everyone else, was willing to die for him. When Naruto pleaded to know why he'd sacrifice himself for him, Neji replied it was because he was called a genius, reminding him of their first battle. Devastated, Naruto and Hinata tearfully mourn as Neji passed away.

Capitalising on Naruto's grief, Obito mocked Naruto about his earlier statement that he wouldn't let any of his comrades to die by reminding him of many shinobi that were already killed. Naruto was then left in a bewildered and depressed state as Obito lashed out at his beliefs, telling him that they would only lead to more of the same. As Obito tried to tempt Naruto into joining his plan, Hinata managed to snap Naruto out of his rut. She told him that if his life was connected to everyone who shared his beliefs and were willing to sacrifice their lives for him like Neji had, that he shouldn't give up and let their deaths be for nothing. Kurama also joined in, telling Naruto of his parents' similar sacrifice to protect him. With his confidence restored and his beliefs reaffirmed, Naruto took Hinata's hand and he thanked her for staying by his side. As he re-entered Tailed Beast Mode, Naruto transferred some of Kurama's chakra to Hinata, and created three shadow clones to swiftly transfer more of its chakra to many of the still alive across the battlefield, in particular Ino, Shikamaru, and Chōji, whose clans' Ino–Shika–Chō Formation figured in Shikaku's last strategy.

When Naruto finished distributing chakra to the rest of the Allied Shinobi Forces, he lead a charge attack with two Rasenshuriken prepared. One of them he used in front as they cut right through a couple of the Ten-Tails' tails. He prepared to throw the second one at Obito, but his dislocated shoulder got in the way. Hinata quickly fixed it with her Gentle Fist, allowing him to throw his technique, successfully cutting Obito's connection to the beast, alongside Lee cutting Madara's. The Uchiha duo quickly recollect themselves and began attacking the Allied Shinobi Forces directly with collaborated techniques. Naruto's chakra shrouds were able protected everyone from being killed by the barrage, but Kurama warned Naruto to be careful about micro-managing all of the chakra he had given them, as it was exhausting him and causing him to revert to his Nine-Tails Chakra Mode. Obito confronted Naruto, telling him he was contradicting himself by saying he was closest to his friend after they died but still wished to protect them. Naruto rejected Obito's words completely, telling him that his words were meaningless and that a loner like him wouldn't understand. Suddenly, the Ten-Tails started going berserk, completely distorting the weather around the area into powerful storms. As Kakashi attempted to stop the beast with Kamui, Obito intervened. As Naruto called to his sensei in concern, Kakashi told Naruto to take care of things here while the two former friends teleport back to the alternate dimension.

Naruto once again protected everyone from the Ten-Tails' Tenpenchii, but doing so drained him all of Kurama's chakra to maintain the Nine-Tails Chakra Mode and the chakra forming the Alliance disappeared. Despite that, however, members of the Alliance protected the exhausted Naruto as Sakura healed Naruto. Soon, the Ten-Tails prepared a giant Tailed Beast Ball, only for it to be stopped by the arrival of Naruto's reincarnated father. After sending the Ten-Tails' Tailed Beast Ball to the sea, Minato thanked Sakura for healing Naruto, then asked him if she was his girlfriend, to which Naruto responded "more or less". Sakura lashed at him for lying about them being intimate and that he should focus on the current situation, the action reminding Minato of Kushina and her own short temper. Naruto stated that he had felt their chakra in Tailed Beast Mode, just as the other Hokage arrived. Minato donned a chakra cloak, much to the others' shock, and led Naruto to brag about his father once again to Kurama. After sealing the Ten-Tails in a barrier, Sasuke and Jūgo arrived on the battlefield. After some dispute between the original Rookie Nine and Sasuke declaring to everyone that he would change the village and become Hokage, Naruto, finally healed, stood beside Sasuke and said that it was he who would actually become Hokage. Naruto and Sasuke moved to the battlefield, followed by Sakura, and the reborn Team 7 prepared to face the Ten-Tails.

The rest of the Rookie Nine rallied them, and they set out. The Hokage used the barrier to contain the Ten-Tails' Tailed Beast Ball, and Hashirama created an opening in the barrier for them to get it. As Sakura began to lay waste of the miniature Ten-Tails clones, a shocked Naruto made a mental note never tease her again. When she momentarily let her guard down, he and Sasuke protected her. Sakura praised Sasuke, but not Naruto, causing him to complain about it. Naruto was annoyed when she declared that if Sasuke and Naruto begin fighting again, she'd snatch the Hokage seat from under their noses. As the trio stood together, back to back, Naruto examined Sasuke's Amaterasu and his Mangekyō Sharingan, while Sasuke examined Naruto's tailed beast form. After he got into a short scuffle with Kiba, Naruto proceeded to save Sai from his failed aerial attack on the Ten Tails' main body. Sai asked Naruto if he could give chakra to the Alliance, but he explained he couldn't since Kurama was still moulding more chakra. Sai suggested that it would be best to defeat the largest of the clones, and slip close enough to beat the Ten-Tails itself, but it would be too far to jump at one go. He explained, however, that if they were to suffer severe wounds, the medical group would not be able to make it up front. Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke simultaneously used the Summoning Technique, saying that they fortunately have a solution to the problem. Naruto summoned Gamakichi, while Sasuke and Sakura summoned Aoda and Katsuyu, as each the solution to one problem.

Naruto wondered who his summonning was, but after realising it was Gamakichi, he was shocked at his rapid growth. Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke, due to their summonings were noted by onlookers to be the new Three-Way Deadlock as each used their summoning for a purpose. Gamakichi leaped high into the air and used his tantō to protect him and Naruto from the attacks of the guards. Naruto created an Ultra-Big Ball Rasenshuriken, and threw it at the Ten-Tails. As he and Sasuke attacked the Ten-Tails, they were cheered on by the rest of the Rookie Nine, including Sakura, who shed some tears. Naruto's technique merged with Sasuke's Blaze Release: Susanoo Kagutsuchi arrow, creating a shuriken-shaped mass of black flames, which hit the Ten-Tails. Naruto then asked Sasuke to extinguish the flames so he and Kurama could pull the other tailed beasts out of the Ten-Tails' body. Wanting to end the twisted system, Sasuke refused to do so, which angered Naruto. When Obito returned from the other dimension and Madara began to control him, he let out a scream as Naruto looked on in shock.

Mobilising after being instructed by Hashirama to stop Obito, Naruto called out to Sasuke as he rushed towards their target. However both young men are bested by Minato who created a clone and used the Flying Thunder God Technique to teleport to where Obito was. Still making his way to where Sasuke and now his father were, Naruto is shocked to see the beast begin to disappear. Using chakra arms to grab his father and Sasuke, Naruto noted that this was Obito's plan all along. Noting that he sensed the beast's chakra being absorbed by Obito, and having seen the Outer Path: Samsara of Heavenly Life Technique once before, he realised that the seals were entirely different. He later watched on as Hashirama attempted to restrain Obito to no avail and then later looked on in shock as Obito effortlessly destroyed portions of both Hashirama and Tobirama's bodies. As Naruto worries about protecting the Hokage, Sasuke notes that they were using their immortal bodies to gain a sense of Obito's abilities so they could find a way to defeat him which led Sasuke to tell Naruto to stop worrying about them. Minato, while noting Sasuke's intelligence, notes that their bodies took a while to reconstruct so he would have to create an opening for them. While Minato prepares to use the Spiralling Flash Super Round Dance Howl Participate Formula, Obito makes a play to attack Naruto, but is blocked by Sasuke's Susanoo. As Sasuke attempts to attack Obito, however, he takes both him and Naruto by surprise, breaking through Susanoo's defence and attacking the two.

With Minato unable to teleport to their aid, Naruto, remembering his father's words about how the Flying Thunder God Technique worked, created two chakra arms and grabbed onto Sasuke and attached the other to his father allowing Minato to teleport them to safety. Watching on as the scene unfolded on the battlefield, on his father's command, Naruto prepared to launch a collaborative strike on Obito after his father had attacked the Uchiha. Watching on as Obito attacked himself, and later as Minato himself is attacked by Obito, a worried Naruto is reprimanded by Sasuke who reminded him that they needed to prepare to strike. When his father is able to seemingly narrowly avoid Obito's attack and teleport back to them, Naruto and the others looked on in shock as a ball of the mysterious substance that had been attached to Minato started to glow and expand. Saved by Tobirama who teleported the orb away from them, Naruto thanked him, but Tobirama reprimanded the young man for the way he addressed him. He and Sasuke later launched their counter-attack against Obito forming another Kagutsuchi-infused Rasenshuriken. As they charged, Minato telported in front of them taking the blow of the technique, his father then used the Mutually Instantaneous Revolving Technique to land a surprise attack on the new jinchūriki.

Though they believed the attack to have worked initially, they are all shocked to see Obito emerge from the attack unscathed. As they rushed forward, Naruto noted that Obito was much like the perfect jinchūriki he had imagined himself as in his dreams. As the readjusted their strategy, Naruto informed Sasuke that he was going to go all out again and asked if he would be able to keep up. Attempting to go into Tailed Beast Mode, Naruto's mantle disappeared entirely. As he asked Kurama to give him more chakra, Naruto is shocked to see Gamakichi attack Obito with the Starch Syrup Gun. Questioning his intentions, Naruto thanked Gamakichi for helping out after the toad told him that he could not stay any longer. Watching as Obito attempted to deflect the attack, Naruto initiated his strategy and upon hearing Obito not only decry the position of Hokage but his father as well. Forming a Rasengan, Naruto told Obito that even more than looking down on a position he never attained, Obito should not bad mouth his father. With this, Tobirama telported Naruto to Obito's location and the young man sent the senjutsu-enhanced Rasengan crashing into the Uchiha.

When he retreated to his comrade's side, Naruto explained to Sasuke how senjutsu worked and then noted that he was then going to use Frog Kata to fight the jinchūriki. He later watched on as Obito created an enormous tree which he used to prepare four Tailed Beast Balls to attack the Alliance with. As they prepared to deflect the attacks, and Obito trapped them within a barrier and continued to berate his father, Naruto noted that it would be his birthday the following day and declared that the world would not end because he was in it. Bumping fists with his father, he called to him to get ready as he donned the Tailed Beast Mode, Naruto matched his father's chakra signature, recombining the two halves of Kurama's chakra reforming and strengthening the chakra shrouds on the rest of the shinobi army, just before Obito fired the Tailed Beast Balls. By linking his chakra with his Minato, his father was able to use the Flying Thunder God to teleport everyone outside of Obito's barrier and to safety. When Minato noted that he had wanted to speak to Naruto, the young man dismissed this, noting that men could say all they wanted to each other with a simple look, and that both his, and his mother's feelings had already been conveyed to him.

Entering his full Tailed Beast Mode with renewed vigour, Naruto's charge towards Obito was halted by Tobirama, who reminded the young man that only Sage Mode techniques were going to be effective against their opponent. While he had completely forgotten this already, Naruto chased off Kurama, mocking of his stupidity before being reminded of the time he had entered Sage Mode while utilising Kurama's power as well. Entering Sage Mode, Naruto is soon joined by his father in Tailed Beast Mode as well, and together, both men create an enormous senjutsu-enhanced Rasengan and are teleported to Obito's location by Tobirama. This attack, however, is anticipated by their target, leading them to readjust their strategy by creating a Tailed Beast Ball enhanced with natural energy. Before they can launch the attack, Naruto and his team are soon face-to-face with the Ten-Tails once again as Obito continued his Eye of the Moon Plan.

As Obito's assault using the Shinju began claiming the life of the Allied Forces, Obito took advantage of their despair, insisting that they surrender. Hashirama's clone has Ino Yamanaka telepathically connect him to everyone via the Mind Body Transmission Technique so that he could inform them about the Eye of the Moon Plan and to try and rally them to continue fighting. While Hashirama's words failed to inspire them, Naruto's emotions and memories are conveyed to them via Ino's technique. Shocked at Naruto's refusal to give up despite of his hard life, the Allied Forces quickly begin to regain their will to fight. Naruto then joined the Susanoo-clad-Sasuke who had already begun to cut down the Shinju into battle once again. As Naruto prepared to attack, he and his father connected to one another so that Yin Kurama could supply them with more chakra. With this the two senjutsu-enhanced young men leaped into battle once again.

While pressing on with his attack, subconsciously still thinking about saving his allies, Naruto's chakra responded to his will and formed the Version 1 shroud around Shikamaru Nara in an attempt to aid his recovery. With a senjutsu-enhanced Tailed Beast Ball, as well as Sasuke firing a senjutsu-enhanced arrow with his Susanoo Bow, they cracked the sphere Obito had wrapped around himself as he pushes forward. The battle continued resulting in Sasuke's Susanoo and Naruto's Tailed Beast Mode form being destroyed. However, Sasuke and Naruto got up on their feet again, their resolves untouched.

Obito once again tried to instill doubt into Naruto to deter him from his path but Naruto refused to listen. Sasuke then claims to finish the battle with the next attack and manifested his final Susanoo which encased Naruto's Tailed Beast Mode mantle. Using the telepathic link, Naruto called for his comrades who rallied to his side all donning Tailed Beast Mode mantles as they entered Kurama's tails. Using the Rasengan Naruto had created, they all attacked Obito's defences who had formed a shield to defend himself. They broke through the shield allowing himself and Sasuke to deliver a devastating blow against Obito and destroying the Sword of Nunoboko and forcing out the chakra of all the tailed beasts. Grabbing hold of the two through seven tailed beasts, Naruto, with the aid of the Shinobi Alliance began to pull the chakra from Obito's body, with Gaara and B pulling Shukaku and Gyūki's chakra respectively to reduce Obito to a shell of the Shinju and prevent the flower from blooming. As they pulled, Naruto and Obito entered a level of shared subconscious where Naruto told Obito he would break his true mask: the facade of being nobody.

Obito continued to deny his past identity, claiming to have ascended to the same realm as the Sage of the Six Paths. Naruto scoffed the remark, saying that he was still the same Obito Uchiha of Konoha, and like him, they both grew up alone and wanted to become Hokage, originally to be acknowledged by others and ultimately to help the village. Naruto went on to say that Obito's warped views were just a desperate means to escape his personal pain. Obito admitted that there was an undeniable likeness between Naruto and him as a child, but still insisted that the Eye of the Moon Plan was to help the world as a whole. Naruto strongly asked Obito if he really believed that; unable to look Naruto in the eye, Obito said he does. In response, Naruto angrily denied that choice, stating that there are no shortcuts to achieving peace, dreams, or changing yourself, and pointed out to Obito that when he was about to be subjugated by the Ten-Tails, he refused to give up his memories of his genin team and overcome the beast. While Naruto noted that Obito would still have to pay of his crimes, he still had a home in Konoha and insisted that Obito come back to his friends, shocking the older Uchiha with an outstretched hand of friendship.

However, instead of holding his hand, Obito tried to strangle Naruto, saying he had no regrets for his actions. Naruto immediately broke free and punched him, stating if Obito truly thought that then he should stop picturing himself as a Hokage. Obito then began to see Naruto as his younger self completely, insisting that Rin would hate what Obito had become and never watch over him. As Obito continued to tell himself he preferred to be alone, Naruto grabbed Obito and forcibly dragged him over, telling Obito it was time to rejoin his friends and not underestimate them. Finally, the Shinobi Alliance managed to separate all the tailed beasts' chakra from Obito, reverting him to his original state. Naruto and Sasuke then broke their chakra unison.

Creation and Conception
When creating Naruto, Masashi Kishimoto incorporated into the character a number of traits he felt made an ideal hero: a straightforward way of thinking, a mischievous side, and many of the attributes possessed by Son Gokū from the Dragon Ball franchise. He also made sure to keep Naruto "simple and stupid," since he does not like smart characters. Naruto himself is not modelled after anyone in particular, being conceived as childlike, with something of a dark side as a result of his harsh past. Despite this, he is always positive, making him unique in Kishimoto's eyes.

Naruto's wardrobe is based on clothing Kishimoto wore when he was younger; according to Kishimoto, using a pre-existing design would not have made Naruto unique, whereas something original would have made him stand out too much. The orange colouring of his costume is used to make Naruto "pop", with blues often being used to complement the orange. Because Naruto is associated with spirals, swirl patterns are incorporated into his costume. Initial illustrations of Naruto had him wearing boots, but Kishimoto substituted these for sandals, because he likes drawing toes. The goggles that Naruto used to wear were also replaced with a forehead protector, because the goggles themselves were too time-consuming to draw. Kishimoto said that he felt glad that his character had blond hair and blue eyes. The editor of Shonen Jump in the United States added that Kishimoto implied that the traits may have led the character to appeal to a Western audience. Kishimoto said that he most identifies with Naruto out of all of the Naruto characters.

In the Japanese versions of Naruto, Naruto often ends his sentences with the addendum "-ttebayo" (which gives a similar effect to ending a sentence with "you know?"). Kishimoto wanted to give Naruto a childlike catchphrase, and "dattebayo" came to mind. It complemented Naruto's character, and served as a verbal tic that showed him to be something of a brat. Throughout the beginning of the English, the dub replaced "dattebayo" and "-ttebayo" with the phrase "believe it!" to mirror the effect, as well as to match the character's lip movements.

Trivia

 * Spirals and swirl patterns are a recurring theme in Naruto, especially in relation to the character of Naruto Uzumaki himself. The word/name "Naruto" can mean "maelstrom," and is also short for 'Narutomaki', a kind of kamaboko with a pink whirlpool design in the middle that is used as a topping for ramen, which is Naruto's favourite food. The surname "Uzumaki" is a pun on, because it refers to a three-dimensional spiral, like a whirlpool or vortex. "Uzumaki" can also mean "whirlpool," in reference to the , named after the city of Naruto. In addition, Naruto's mother, Kushina Uzumaki, is from Uzushiogakure in the Land of Whirlpools, who used the spiral pattern as their village symbol.
 * October 10, Naruto's birthday, was Health and Sports Day in Japan when his character was conceived. The holiday, however, was later moved to the second Monday of October in 1999.
 * Masashi Kishimoto stated in an interview with the U.S. Shonen Jump that his childhood was like that of Naruto's years while he was enrolled in the Academy.
 * Naruto consistently ranked in the top two (taking first place twice) in the first five official Shōnen Jump character popularity polls. However, in the sixth character poll, he was ranked fourth. According to the Databook 3 character poll, which adds up all the votes from the first six polls, Naruto took second place. In the most recent poll, Naruto regained his status and reached first.
 * Naruto is one of four characters to have always stayed in the Top Ten of every Character Popularity Poll.
 * Naruto's mother was nicknamed the "Red Hot-Blooded Habanero" while his father was famed as the "Yellow Flash". Naruto's appropriate self-styled title of "Konoha's Orange Hokage" refers to the fact that the colour orange is a mixture of red and yellow.
 * Eiichiro Oda, author of One Piece stated that his character Sanji's name was originally Naruto, but changed it because Naruto series was about to become serialised.
 * According to the databook(s):
 * Naruto's hobbies are pulling pranks and watering plants.
 * Naruto wishes to fight Sasuke Uchiha, the Third Hokage, and members of Akatsuki.
 * Naruto's favourite foods are Ichiraku ramen and red bean soup. His least favourite are fresh vegetables.
 * Naruto has completed 16 official missions in total: 7 D-rank, 1 C-rank, 2 B-rank, 6 A-rank, 0 S-rank.
 * Naruto's favourite phrase is.

Quotes

 * (To Kakashi) "And my future dream is to be the greatest Hokage! Then the whole village will stop disrespecting me and start treating me like I'm somebody. Somebody important!"
 * (To Ibiki) "Don't underestimate me! I don't quit and I don't run! You can act tough all you want! You're not gonna scare me off! No way! I don't care if I DO get stuck as a genin for the rest of my life! I'll still be Hokage someday!"
 * (To Neji) "I'm not gonna run away, I never go back on my word! That's my nindō: my ninja way!"
 * (To Gaara) "It's almost unbearable, isn't it… the pain of being all alone. I know that feeling; I've been there, in that dark and lonely place, but now there are others, other people who mean a lot to me. I care more about them than I do myself, and I won't let anyone hurt them. That's why I'll never give up. I will stop you, even if I have to kill you! They saved me from myself. They rescued me from my loneliness. They were the first to accept me as who I am. They're my friends."
 * (To Sai) "I don't care who I have to fight… If he rips my arms off, I'll kick him to death. If he rips my legs off, I'll bite him to death. If he rips my head off, I'll stare him to death. And if he gouges out my eyes, I'll curse him to death… Even if I'm torn to shreds… I will take Sasuke back!"
 * (To Pain) "You should give up… on me giving up!"
 * (To Nagato, reciting a line from Jiraiya's first book) "Then I will break that curse. If there's such thing as peace, I will find it. I won't give up!"
 * (To Sasuke) "If you attack Konoha, I will have to fight you… So save up your hatred and take it all on me, I'm the only one who can take it! It's the only thing I can do! I will shoulder your hatred and die with you! Because I'm your friend!"
 * (To Kushina) "Don't apologise… I had a lot of hard times growing up as a jinchūriki, but I never blamed you or Dad. I couldn't understand what a parent's love was like because you guys were never there… so I could only guess… But now I know… I live because you and Dad gave your lives for me and filled me up with love before the Nine-Tails was inside me! So here I am, happy and healthy! I'm glad I ended up being your son!"
 * (To A) "Yes, he might have died… but together, he and my mom protected Konoha from the Nine-Tails! They protected me! It may have only been for a second, but in that second, they gave me so much… their faith! Faith that I could finish their jobs! Faith that I could fulfil the role of a 'saviour!'"
 * (To Kurama) "You're not the monster fox anymore. You're one of my team-mates from Konoha… Kurama."
 * (To Obito and Madara) "You guys piss me off so much that I can't even put it into words… So I'll just tell you something about me… I'm not trash!! And I'll never become trash either!! I won't let you kill my comrades!!"
 * (To Kakashi) "That's why we endure… We are ninja. I will never forget. And anyway, that wound means that my friends are still inside me. The real friends are not the ones I created in my dreams not to get hurt… That would be erasing the real ones. It can work as a curse but I don't care… I want to keep the real Neji here!!"
 * (To Obito) "Quit it with your stupid reasoning! I meant to say that I'll stand any pain for my friends!! I'm not gonna give up on them!! It might just be me being selfish, but… not having my friends here… is the most painful thing for me!! Period!!!!!"
 * (To himself, relayed to surviving members of the Allied Shinobi Forces) "That time I should have called out to him. I thought about it over and over. That's why… I… don't want regrets. I don't want to think,"I should have done it!!" And I don't want all the things we did to be turned to nothing!"