Naruto - The Animanga Series

The following is a brief outline of the Japanese animanga series, Naruto (contains Manga spoilers).

The story of Naruto follows young Uzumaki Naruto on his journey through the ninja world. Naruto grows up with quite a burden to carry as he soon learns he is the container or Jinchuuriki of one of the Tailed Beasts - the Nine Tailed Demon Fox. The reason, as I understand at least, for Naruto being the container was that when the Fox attacked the village, the village's leader, called the Hokage, who we now know was Naruto's father, had to seal the Fox in order to save the village of Konoha. It seems logical that Yondaime (the Hokage) would choose his own son to seal the Fox within for reasons which I won't go into here. Unfortunately this act of sealing the Fox cost Yondaime his life and so far we are unsure of how Naruto's mother died.

As a result of being the container of the Fox who many years ago wreaked havoc in Konoha and killed dozens of ninja, Naruto grows up being hated throughout the village and ends up being a bit of a troublemaker in an attempt to get attention from others. In the long run though, we see that this gives Naruto unbelievable mental strength and his attitude to never give up often shows up in the storyline. Had Naruto not been hated in his childhood, which his father had obviously wished against, he might not have turned out to be the exceptional individual we see in the Manga at present.

Aside from Naruto, the story closely follows the lives of other ninja, most notably Naruto's rival and friend, Uchiha Sasuke. The life of Sasuke develops in complexity as the story goes on and it brings yet another theme into Naruto as the young Uchiha is set on revenge for the massacre of his clan by his brother Itachi. An amazing twist in the plot more recently changes everything for Sasuke and it becomes very hard to tell just what Sasuke is thinking which makes this series even more exciting than it already was.

Other major characters in the series include Haruno Sakura and Hatake Kakashi, Naruto's teammate and Sensei, all of whom along with Sasuke and the main character himself make up Team Seven. Others include Jiraiya one of the legendary three ninja who is responsible for teaching Naruto his more advanced ninja techniques along with Tsunade, Iruka and many more.