Naruto

Konoha Ninja Academy

Ninja Rank: Current: Genin

Team Kakashi

Eating Ramen, Play frank on others

Libra

The story of the Naruto series is focused in the Team 7, a group of ninja affiliated with the village of Konohagakure, and it is composed of the series' primary characters. Due to Sasuke Uchiha's departure from Konohagakure at the end of Part I, the team is disbanded. During Part II, the team is reformed with two new members, Sai, who occupies Sasuke's position, and Yamato, who acts as Kakashi's replacement when he is briefly incapacitated and later stays with the team when Kakashi returns.



Naruto Uzumaki (Uzumaki Naruto) is the primary protagonist of the Naruto series. He was the first character created by Kishimoto during his initial conception of the series, and was designed with many traits from other shōnen characters, including Son Goku of the Dragon Ball franchise. In the series, Naruto is a ninja affiliated with the village of Konohagakure, and has ambitions of becoming Hokage, or the leader of the village. Due to being the host for the nine-tailed demon fox, a malevolent creature that attacked Konohagakure, he is ostracized by the other villagers. He compensates for this with his cheerful and boisterous personality, and over the course of the series, manages to befriend several other Konohagakure ninja, as well as ninja from other villages. He obtains an especially close relationship with Sasuke Uchiha, one of his fellow ninja in Team 7, and treats him as his brother.



Sasuke Uchiha (Uchiha Sasuke) is one of the members of Team 7. He was created by Kishimoto to be a rival to Naruto, as well as a "cool genius," which Kishimoto believed was an integral part of an ideal rivalry. He is one of the few remaining members of the Uchiha clan, his brother, Itachi Uchiha, having killed the rest of their family. Due to this, Sasuke's sole desire is to kill his brother, and he develops a cold and withdrawn personality. His interactions with his fellow teammates, especially Naruto Uzumaki, make him focus less on revenge, but an encounter with his brother, who leaves Sasuke beaten physically and mentally, causes Sasuke to leave the village to seek more power from the criminal Orochimaru. His teammates' attempts to recover him from Orochimaru form a major component of the plot in Part II of the Naruto storyline.



Sakura Haruno (Haruno Sakura) is the sole female member of Team 7. Kishimoto created her as the heroine of the series, although he has admitted that he has little perception of what an ideal heroine should be. As a child, Sakura was taunted by other children for her particularly large forehead, a feature Kishimoto has tried to emphasize in Sakura's appearances,but was comforted by Ino Yamanaka. As the two continued to grow, however, they became increasingly distant due to their shared affection for Sasuke Uchiha. During most of Part I, Sakura is infatuated with Sasuke, and spurns the advances of Naruto Uzumaki. After Sasuke leaves the village, she resolves to become stronger by training with Tsunade. In Part II, she displays highly developed skills from her training, and a more open disposition towards Naruto.


Kakashi Hatake (Hatake Kakashi) is the leader of Team 7 and the sensei of Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura. Kishimoto originally had intended for Kakashi to be introduced earlier in the series, and created him as an easygoing person that would be able to keep the members of Team 7 in check. Kakashi treats his leadership position with a detached manner, and is consistently late to meetings as a result. In a gaiden on Kakashi's past, this is shown to be the result of an incident in which he witnessed the death of one of his teammates, Obito Uchiha, who gave Kakashi his Sharingan eye and imparted many of his habits, including his tardiness. Due to Obito's Sharingan, Kakashi has amassed a reputation as a skilled and powerful ninja, earning the moniker "Copy Ninja Kakashi"(Kopī Ninja no Kakashi). Although he mentors all three members of Team 7 early in the series, he particularly concentrates on training Sasuke as the series continues, teaching him his Chidori technique; however, he is unable to prevent Sasuke from leaving the village to seek Orochimaru for greater power.