Uzumaki Naruto (Naruto Uzumaki in the English anime) is the main character of the manga and anime series Naruto. He is a student of Hatake Kakashi's and later of Jiraiya.
History
Little is known about Naruto's birth or parentage, and it is very probable that he has no living relatives at all. What is known, however, is that around the time his mother was about to give birth to him, the Nine-tails Demon Fox, or Kyūbi no Yōko, attacked his village, Konohagakure (Hidden Leaf) and the Yondaime Hokage (Fourth Hokage) decided to seal the demon away with a forbidden technique inside him, sacrificing his life in the process. Yondaime's wish was for Naruto to be remembered as a hero by the people of the village.
Things, unfortunately for him, definitely did not turn out that way. The people of the village needed something to blame and channel their bitterness and loss onto, and he was the perfect candidate. The adults of the village, without known exceptions, knew him and treated him as nothing more than the demon fox that has attacked the village; As a result he grew up alone and isolated. It is implied in the manga that he went through very difficult emotional times and often shed many tears, but kept reprimanding himself for doing so and telling himself nothing would be achieved by crying. Eventually he developed into the loudmouth, hyperactive prankster he was at the start of the manga, though as the Third Hokage (Sandaime) observed (and even Naruto himself, in a moment of rare enlightenment, once admitted this), it is only an act to cover up for his deep insecurity in a desperate plight for recognition.
By chance or fate, Umino Iruka, who had felt much of the same desperation as Naruto in his younger years, was Naruto's teacher, and he was the first person to recognize Naruto as a human being and ninja, and not just as a stupid screwup or the Nine-Tails. Naruto, at one point, says that when he is with Iruka, he often wonders whether that is what being with a father is like.
Personality and characteristics
Naruto is very determined and has very strong values that he never once fails to act by, even in hopeless situations. His dream is to become Hokage, as it is the epitome of his ambitions to have the village acknowledge him and live for the sake of protecting his important people.
Naruto has a knack for inspiring people to realise their potentials and resolve to work harder or change their ways for the better; his determination and resolve often earn him sympathy from other characters. One early example of this is Konohamaru, the grandson of the third Hokage, who was inspired by Naruto to stop trying to find shortcuts to becoming Hokage, as there are no shortcuts and the only way is paved with plenty of hard work. Another is Inari, whom Naruto helped by making him see that anyone can make a difference and by confronting him about his refusal to come to terms with his painful past (as Naruto's past was similarly tragic). Both of them have gotten very attached to Naruto and have taken to calling him Onii-chan (big brother).
Though he is naturally impetuous, hyperactive and tends to rush into combat without thinking, Naruto is capable of devising some quite clever plans by creative usage of his jutsu. He has more than once upstaged what looked like a superior opponent by exploiting the element of surprise an unconventional usage of a technique entails; Kakashi even dubs him the "number one ninja in surprising people". Another main driving force behind his otherwise average Taijutsu and Ninjutsu abilities is the huge power and chakra reserves of the Kyūbi. Kyūbi is by no stretch of the imagination a particularly pleasant character, but nevertheless does everything in his power to help Naruto - lending chakra as requested, healing Naruto with his extreme healing ability and so forth - if only for the fact that Naruto's death would apparently mean the Kyūbi's death as well.
There are downsides to the huge chakra load that is Kyūbi; like most of the biggest weapons, it can't be lifted, let alone wielded, with ease. Naruto is a relatively small container that cannot quite handle the whole of Kyūbi's chakra, which might account for Naruto's inability to control and focus chakra consistently for jutsu during his days at the academy. Even later, when Naruto learns to better control his chakra, any technique relying on Kyūbi's chakra to work properly runs a chance of failing, as it takes great conviction or control on Naruto's part to draw Kyūbi's chakra effectively. However, Naruto's Chakra and Kyūbi's chakra are slowly fusing and are expected to eventually become one, which is bound to drastically change this status-quo.
Ninja academy
