Naruto is a mischievous young boy who, due to the "stigma" of having the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox sealed within him, is shunned by the adults of Village Hidden in the Leaves, since he is the "vessel" of the demon who had killed so many people in the village twelve years ago. Before he was aware of this fact, Naruto was simply a young orphan, living alone in his house, eating his "cup ramen" (instant cup noodles), and basically getting attention to himself by being a brat. He would pull pranks, and vandalize monuments and statues. He even made fun of his ninja apprenticeship classes, inventing "stupid ninja skills" as "Sexy no Jutsu", where instead of transforming his appearance to look like his teacher, he turns in to a naked, blonde girl.

Naruto is not without "serious ninja skills", however. His specialty is the "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu", learned from a forbidden secret scroll he was tricked into stealing. In contrast to the normal "Bunshin" (clone illusions) done by ordinary ninjas, the "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu" produces multiple "Shadow Clones" of the user, with actual physical bodies. In short, Naruto can create real duplicates of himself (or anything else) and each of the duplicates can physically affect his enemies just like the real thing.

Naruto believes that the only way the people of the village will accept him and acknowledge him as a citizen of the village is to train hard and become the village's next "Hokage" (the highest-level ninja and leader of all ninjas in the village). This is ultimate goal, and he is determined to achieve it no matter what.

Naruto may be a hyperactive knucklehead, but few people have as much sheer guts and willpower, and it can produce a number of surprising results, such as when he first invoked the Shadow Clone technique. Having the much-talked-about Sasuke as a teammate also fuels his fire, since it stirs intense rivalry in both of them, spurring each to push harder.

He doesn't really know it (Kakashi does, though), but Naruto has even more chakra potential than Sasuke. The reason is that the spirit of that infamous nine-tailed fox is still within him, and the dark side of that secret emerges when Naruto is pushed over the mental edge. As he realizes just how big of a problem the demon within him can be, he gains another reason to become stronger: so he can keep the vengeful demon in check.

Naruto technically found out about the nine-tailed fox within him in the first episode when his original sensei was fighting the white haired ninja guy, Mizuki, over the scroll that Naruto "stole" so that he could graduate and be a higher level ninja. Mizuki is screaming at Naruto telling him that everyone hates him and it's a secret why, and that he'll tell Naruto. Naruto's sensei says no, but the Mizuki tells Naruto about the nine-tails fox anyway. However, it would seem that Naruto either doesn't believe him or there was too much going on for Naruto to comprehend what was being said (or Naruto is just extra thick), because afterwards Naruto acts just as if he had never heard it.

Naruto learns from his new sensei, Jiraiya (who we later learn is Naruto's godfather), how to do a summoning jutsu. He learns how to summon Gamma Bunta and his son which is usually carried around like Akamaru on Kiba.

In the Manga Chapter after the two and a half year time gap, Naruto will still be a Genin while everybody else are Chunins and Jounins, because Naruto was training with Jiraiya. But Naruto should be a Jounin, meaning he is at that level. The same goes for Sasuke, because he was training with Orochimaru, so he should be a Jounin too.

There was a rumor among the show's fans that the Fourth Hokage could be Naruto's father. Well, not only was this rumor confirmed in chapter 367 of the manga, but also the Fourth Hokage's true name was finally revealed: Minato Namikaze. Additionally, we learn that Naruto's mother was Kushina Uzumaki, and that she was a ninja of the Land Of the Whirlpool.

Sasuke is one of the top scorers of the ninja apprenticeship school and the top "Genin" (rookie/first-level ninja) of the Village Hidden in the Leaves. He is the sole remaining member of the Uchiha clan, a once powerful ninja clan of the village. He is very dark and serious, and is focused on nothing else but training to become a stronger ninja.

All of this is for one ultimate goal: revenge. His life's ambition is to grow powerful enough to kill "a certain man" (his older brother Itachi). As part of the Uchiha clan, Sasuke has higher "chakra" (spirit energy/chi). He also has a technique to blow fireballs from his mouth.

Also, as one of the Uchiha clan, he inherits the clan's Kekkei Genkai (or bloodline trait)--the Sharingan. He begins to unlock it in the fight with Haku (who himself was using a Kekkei Genkai) and it gradually gains strength as he learns to use it to track movements and observe ninjitsu techniques. It helps having a knucklehead like Naruto as a teammate. He doesn't like Naruto at first, but as they and Sakura learn to work as a team, he shows a surprising willingness to protect Naruto. It's the beginning of a pretty complex teammate/rival relationship, as each watches for the other but at the same time wants to become better than the other.

When Sasuke fought Naruto, they each use a powerful jutsu. Naruto use Rasengen and Sasuke uses Chidori. Chidori, also known as Raikiri (Lightning blade), is a jutsu taught to him by Kakashi.

Sakura, like any other teenage girl, has only one thing in mind...boys! More specifically, one boy, Sasuke Uchiha. She tries to act all sweet, prim, and proper on the outside, but we also get to see "Inner Sakura", a "darker" (and perhaps the true) hidden version of her personality, whenever she makes certain comments.

As the stereotypical, three way, love-hate-triangle goes...Naruto likes Sakura, while Sakura thinks Naruto's annoying. Sakura likes Sasuke, while Sasuke thinks Sakura is annoying! Of course Naruto hates Sasuke's guts (or at least he thinks he does, at times), while Sasuke thinks Naruto is just an idiot. And to make matters worse...it's the three of them who are teamed up together to compose ninja Team 7!

Back then Sakura and Ino were best friends and stopped being friends over well... Sasuke. Before they broke apart, Sakura was a shy sensitive girl and Ino was the one who made her come out of her shell, and when Sakura announced that she liked Sasuke, Ino regreted what she did. Then when Sakura heard that Ino liked Sasuke too she said that she and Ino were enemies from then on. After a few days of breaking up,Ino heard Sakura say the Sasuke liked girls with long hair, which is why they both grew their hair long.

Sakura's long hair ended up becoming a symbol of her rivalry with Ino, as they both grew it long because they heard Sasuke liked long hair. Sakura then cuts it during a battle in the Forest of Death, and later in the chunin exam when she and Ino were chosen to fight for the preliminary rounds, Ino cuts her hair after being called superficial by Sakura. Sakura also used her "inner sakura" to counter Ino's shintenshin no jutsu. Thankfully, the two of them then became friends again.

Sakura matures a lot during the Chuunin Exams when she is stuck in the Forest of Death with Sasuke and Naruto - that is after she is attacked by the Sound-nin. After Rock Lee made an attempt to protect her, but failed as it was a three-against-one attack, one of the sound-nin grabs Sakura by the hair and tells her to watch everyone get killed. Out of frustration, she starts to cry thinking that she is always being in the way and is always being helped. At that point, she cuts her own hair with her kunai and attacks the sound-nin. Later, Ino, Shikamaru, and Chouji come to the rescue and saves the day.

After Sasuke left, Sakura felt helpless about the fact that she couldn't help in rescuing him. This sprouted a wanting inside of her to help Naruto and the others in wanting to protect the ones she loved and cared for, so she then studied under Tsunade, Godaime Hokage. Two and a half years have passed and Sakura is not only a junior medical-nin, but she also has the super human strength of Tsunade (not to mention her beauty and bad temper). With this strength and new technique to heal, she hopes she can help Naruto on his journey to retrieve Sasuke.

Kakashi is one of the Hidden Leaf Village's "Jounin" (elite/top-level ninja), and Team 7's trainer/teacher. He wears a ninja mask covering his face up just below the eyes and wears his headband skewed on his head, covering his left eye. At first Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke think he's not much of a teacher nor ninja, but when Kakashi places them under his "Survival Training" course, the three "Genins" (rookie/first-level ninja) realize the value of teamwork in getting the mission done.

Kakashi Hatake (Naruto) Kakashi's unique ability is the use of the "Sharingan" in his left eye. It is an ability unique to the Uchiha clan (Sasuke also has a weaker version of this ability), yet Kakashi is not from Uchiha. The "Sharingan" allows the user to copy and predict the movements of any genjutsu or ninjutsu technique used against him (except for bloodline trait techniques). Of course, you would have to SEE the ability/technique first in order to copy it. Since Kakashi is not of the Uchiha clan, using the Sharingan strains his body.

The story of how Kakashi obtained his Sharingan comes from the manga, told in Kakashi Gaiden, which is the side story that separates the two parts of Naruto. After Kakashi Gaiden, the Naruto story picks up again 2 1/2 years later. Currently, the anime series is still in the first part of the Naruto story and hasn't yet reached the Kakashi Gaiden part. However, odds are that Kakashi's Sharingan origin will be the same (or at least very similar to) the one in the manga. Anyway, lets get on with it....

When Kakashi graduated as a jounin, his teammates had to give him a present, but Uchiha Obito forgot. They also had to do a mission on the same day. On that mission to the grasslands, they got attacked by a group on rock ninjas. The rock ninja's can turn invisible, and slashed Kakashi's left eye (that's how he got the scar). Later, Uchiha Obito gets his whole right side crushed by a huge rock thrown by a rock-ninja. With the last of his strength, Obito tells Kakashi to take his right eye as he will no longer need it. So then Rin, with her special ability, transplanted Obito's eye to Kakashi. During the time skip later in the series, Kakashi develops his Sharingan into the Mangekyo Sharingan, which is basically just an enhanced version.
Oh, and the reason Kakashi is always late is because his best friend, Obito, was always late, and he choose to adopt his old friend's habit. Unfortunately, Uchiha Obito's body was never recovered, so instead of a grave, he visits a large stone monument that serves as a memorial for all those who died for the mission's completion.

Itachi is Sasuke's older brother and these two are the only ones left in the Uchiha clan. The entire clan was murdered by Itachi about four years prior to the start of the series. Itachi seemed to hold a grudge against his clan and the only reason he gave for his crime was he wanted to test his strength.

He succeeded in killing everyone except Sasuke. He left his little brother alive, telling him:

"Foolish little brother... you can't kill me, your hate's not strong enough... you're not strong enough. That's right, live in shame, run away, and live."

Sasuke has done this, living only to avenge his family and become strong enough to kill Itachi. However, killing Itachi is not going to be easy. Itachi at age seven was already a ninja, at eight had mastered the Sharingan (a special ability of the Uchiha), and at 13 had destroyed an entire tribe. He was able to stand up to Kurenai, Asuma, and Kakashi (all of whom are the highest ranking ninjas, and Kakashi being Sasuke's sensei). He was also able to defeat Orochimaru who is said to be one of the most powerful ninjas of Leaf Village.

Once he killed his family, he fled from the Leaf Village and joined a terrorist organization called Akatsuki and quickly became a top member. He has returned to Leaf Village on a mission to kidnap Naruto so they can use the demon inside him. His strongest attack is the Mangekyou Sharingan which is the ability to enter another mind and make them feel anything you want. For example, when fighting Kakashi, Itachi forces Kakashi to feel as if he is being stabbed with katanas for 72 hours in only a matter of seconds. This leaves Kakashi unconscious for several days.

Gaara is about 12 years old (at the start of the series), and he enjoys killing people that stand in his way (his way of having fun - he hates people and loves only himself). Long ago, when he was around the age of six, his father, the Kazekage, sent assassins to kill off Gaara because he believed Gaara was becoming too dangerous (after killing a man that passed him in the street). But the attempt failed, and later ninja's were sent...who were all killed by Gaara.

Yashamaru says that he is Gaara's mother's brother (that would be an uncle for all you slow people out there). He also tells us, as he is dying, that Gaara's father, the Kazekage (leader of the Village Hidden in the Sand, like Hokage is for the Village Hidden in the Leaves), ordered him to kill Gaara. Yashamaru admits that he could have turned down the mission but chose to do it. Yashamaru had "adopted" Gaara due to his obligation to his sister, but could never get over the fact that Gaara's birth resulted in his sister's death.

Gaara's father was killed by Kimimaro, then Orochimaru took his body and posed as him during the tournament. They find his body after the tournament, and find out about Orochimaru's plot. Gaara has two older siblings, his brother Kankuro and sister Temari, who are with him in the chunin exam.

Gaara's gourd is made of sand and the blood of the victims, which he says gives him power. In battle, he takes out sand and uses it to kill off his enemies by means of the techniques called Desert Coffin and Desert Funeral. The gourd itself is also made out of sand, as is his armor. He has a sleep spell that gives the demon Shukaku the ability to manifest (just check out the dark lines around Gaara's eyes). Gaara doesn't sleep because if he does Shukaku will take control.

Garaa becomes the fifth Kazekage of Sunagakure (village Hidden Among the Sand) after he leaves Konoha, after the chunin exam. Itachi's group kills Gaara by taking the demon from his body, but Naruto and Chiyo end up bringing him back to life.

Temari is the oldest child out of her siblings, Kankuro and Gaara of the Desert. She can be very arrogant and over-confident of her abilities, though she does have some very strong attacks.

She carries around a large fan which can create large wind jutsus. As well she can summon Kamaitachi, a powerful summon that can level an entire forest in one attack.

Temari comes from the Village Hidden in the Sand. Apparently she likes Shikamaru.

Kankuro hailing from the Village Hidden in the Sand, along with his team mates and siblings, Gaara of the Desert and Temari. Together, they all participate in the Chuuin Exam.

Kankuro's unique ability is that he can control puppets by channeling his chakara into the strings of the puppet. He has three puppets he uses: Karasu, Kuroari, and Sanshouo. He starts the series with Karasu, getting Kuroari later on, and then getting Sanshouo after the time skip.

Kankuro is a proud fighter, though he doesn't take battles seriously and is pretty cocky. If you insult his ability to fight, he will die trying to kill you.

Kankuro is the middle sibling, with Gaara being the youngest and Temari being the oldest.

Shikamaru Nara is in Team #10, which is Asuma Sarutobi's team, along with Ino Yamanaka and Choji Akimichi. Nara can use shadow Jutsu with a limit of about five minutes. He's a good team leader and really intelligent, but everything is annoying to him!

Shikamaru Nara is a lazy genius. He finds many things in life to be annoying or troublesome and is usually foul mouthed. But, deep down, he is a kind person. Not only is he kind, but he is a genius with an IQ of 200+. He is a brilliant strategist as well as a level-headed thinker. He also enjoys the game "Shougi", which is basically like chess.

Though he lacks motivation, this allows him to think clearly without becoming overly excited. These qualities were recognized by others for they could see he was a great leader, worthy of becoming a chunin. That is why he was the only one of Naruto's class mates to become a chunin on his first try.

Apparently, Nara also likes to look at clouds. When he was remembering how he and Chouji met, and how they became friends, he told Chouji that the seat was reserved for him, and that he would get lazy and just sit back and watch the clouds.

Ino is a Genin and was assigned to a team with Akimichi Chouji and Nara Shikamaru. Ino likes Sasuke, which is the main reason why she is Sakura's enemy.

Before both Sakura and Ino liked Sasuke, they were best friends. Ino helped Sakura become more confident and believe in herself when they were younger. Because they once were such good friends, this made it interesting for them to have to fight each other in the preliminary matches of the Chunin Tournament. Ino's favorite move is the Mind Transfer.

Ino has long yellow hair tied in a pony tail, and long bangs in front of her face. Her long hair ended up becoming a symbol of her rivalry with Sakura, as they both grew it long because they heard Sasuke liked long hair. Sakura then cuts it during a battle in the Forest of Death, and later in the chunin exam when she and Ino were chosen to fight for the preliminary rounds, Ino cuts her hair after being called superficial by Sakura. Thankfully, the two of them then became friends again.

Ino's family owns a flower shop.

Chouji Akimichi is a rather large kid who has the unique ability to increase any of his body parts ten times their original size. His Team 10 and their leader is Asuma Sarutobi and his partners are Shikamaru Nara and Ino Yamanaka.

Along with his ability to increase his size, he also has another attack called Meat Tank which allows him to roll toward his opponents at high speeds with his increased body. Even though most of his attacks center around his weight, he is quite sensitive about his weight and will pulverize anyone who dares mock him.

Chouji loves to eat, and must always eat the last of whatever is available at the time.

Asuma Sarutobi is the sensei of team 10, which consists of Choji Akimichi, Shikamaru Nara, and Ino Yamanaka. He always has a cigarette in his mouth.

When the chuunin exam comes he nominates all three of his students.
Asuma is Konohamaru's uncle, and he and Kurenai are lovers.

Asuma is killed by the two Akatsuki members Hidan and Kakuzu. Hidan used a technique such that everytime Hidan gets attacked, his damage gets transfered to Asuma as well... and then Hidan deals a death blow to himself (since he's imortal and Asuma is not). Choji and Ino took him back to Konoha, but by the time they arrived, Asuma passed.Also when Kurenai heard he died, she broke down crying.

Hinata is very quiet, secluded, and shy. She usually avoids social events, and she has a large affection for Naruto, which is sadly, not returned. (Or is it?)

Her cousin, Neji Hyuuga, hates her because she is part of the main house of the Hyuuga clan. She tries to become friends with him, but he is reluctant. Hinata is paired up in team 8 with Shino and Kiba.

Hinata resides in the Main House of the Hyuuga Clan (while her cousin, Neji Hyuuga, lives in the Branch House). Hinata seems to have weak Hyuuga blood in her and has not mastered the secret arts of their clan (for instance the Byakugan which is a technique that allows the user to see chakra points and find where they are).

She dislikes fighting and is very shy. She also developed a crush on Naruto which causes her additional shyness. She knows a lot about medicines but she is not confident of her abilities. With the encouraging words of her secret crush, Naruto, she gains more confidence and even stands up to her cousin, Neji.

In the second part of the series, when Hinata and the Rookie Nine are 15 years old, Hinata seems to have lost much of the confidence Naruto has given her, and she is seen hiding behind a pillar unwilling to confront Naruto after so long.

Kiba is a Genin competing with along with Naruto and the other Genins. His dog, Akamaru, is his best friend, as well as being very useful in battle.

Kiba is on Hinata and Shino's team (the Jounin is Kurenai). He has a fierce and competitive attitude, similar to Naruto's.

Shino is a very mysterious character of this anime. Because he's a member of the Aburame Clan, his special skill is that he has insects in his body that feed of his chakra. He then utilizes these insects for attacking and defending (or cheating, as he did on written portion of the Chunin test). Some of his abilities is Bug Host and Bug Clone. These bugs obey whatever he orders them to do. These bugs are really harmful because they eat chakra.

Everyone in Shino's family wears the sunglasses. Because of this, people think that there is something wrong with Shino's eyes. There is nothing wrong with Shino's eyes, though he might see like a bug.

Yuuhi Kurenai is a rookie Jounin of Konohagakure. Her squad, also known as Team 8, consists of Hyuuga Hinata, Inuzuka Kiba and Aburame Shino. She specialises in both tracking and Genjutsu. She graduated from the Ninja Academy at the age of 9, and became a Chuunin at age 13. She tends to favour Hinata over the rest of her team, because of how her father sees her as.

Kurenai is the overseer of Hinata Hyuuga, Shino Aburame, and Kiba Inuzuka in the Genin Team 8. Although a new Jounin herself, she is an expert in Genjutsu, or illusion ninja techniques. She spends a lot of time with fellow Jounin Asuma Sarutobi, and it is strongly suggested that she has a romantic relationship with him, especially after the two year time gap. The last we see of her is when Shikamaru comes to tell her that Asuma passed away during a mission, where she breaks down and cries.

Kurenai trained a girl named Yakumo. Yakumo put all of Team 8 and Naruto and Sakura in a genjustu world that looked similar to Konohagure, but Konohagure was demolished. Soon after they learned that Yakumo had made the world and try to stop her.

Naruto was the first one to wake up and he shook the others awake. They went to the place were Yakumo was hiding. They had a little trouble getting there, but Naruto managed to get through. Kurenai was in the room with half her body disappeared and Yakumo had a painting, which was Kurenai. Naruto managed to persuade her that she wasn't alone. Yakumo realized that the Hokage hadn't set flame to her house and claimed her parents' life. The demon within her, the person who makes the genjustu, had set flame.

After she had given some hope in Kurenai, the demon had come from within her and also persuaded her that Kurenai wanted to kill her and that Yakumo shouldn't spare Kurenai's life. But Naruto wouldn't let that happen so he started forward but got stuck in the demon's helping hands. Or just very big hands that held Naruto by the arms. Then out of the blue, Yakumo used her glazer to kill the demon and conquer her fears.

In the end, Yakumo learns that Kurenai, when she did the seal for Yakumo's ridiculous genjustu, was only trying to protect her. And Kurenai decides to go back to Team 8.

Rock Lee is the epitome of hard work and determination.

For many years, this youth with little to no promise continued in his training to someday become a ninja--despite the fact that no one really believed he could ever succeed. He had no skill in controlling his life force (chakra), and therefore couldn't perform even the most basic of ninja techniques. Even his hand-to-hand combat skills were below average.

Yet, after training those hand-to-hand skills for years with heart and focus, Rock Lee has become one of the better known genin in Hidden Leaf Village. He only knows taijutsu (hand-to-hand), but his skills are considerably tough to handle...the speed his body is able to maintain is unnerving, as is his iron will to succeed.

Lee is the spitting image of his young sensei (Gai, the rival of Kakashi); he idolizes the man. His intensity and excitement with his training spread to all aspects of his life (which you can imagine makes him an interesting character to watch). His rosy red cheeks and large, round eyes give away whatever emotion he feels instantly.

An innocent and sweet kid at heart, Lee is on a team of three with a girl weapon specialist named Tenten, and a famed genius of a specialized hand-to-hand combat style, Hyuuga Neji. Neji's fatalistic nature and constant mockery of Lee reinforce the boy's determination to prove himself.

It is this determination that makes Rock Lee great. After years of being taunted by everyone, Lee is willing to destroy himself to prove one thing: that if a person is determined enough, they can overcome any trial.

Lee goes into a drunken frenzy whenever he takes even a small sip of sake. He basically can't have any ever since he ruined a restaurant at one point after the smallest sip. The whole entire event of being in the restaurant was with Gai and was meant as a celebration for Lee's accomplishment of Primary Lotus.

Rock Lee has another fighting style that is seen later on in the series (after the Fifth Hokage arrives). Lee ends up in a fight with Kimimaro and just as it seems hopeless for Lee to win, he drinks a so-called medicine given to him by Gai-sensai. A few seconds later Lee is drunker than Jiraiya at a frat party. At first Kimimaro couldn't figure out why he was having a hard time fighting Lee until he took a wiff of what was in the bottle: sake.

Gai explains to the Fifth Hokage that Lee knows the Drunken Fist Style. Apparently, Gai took his squad to a restaruant to celebrate and during that time Lee accidently drank Gai's sake instead of water. Lee then trashed the restaruant and when Gai woke up he and Neji tried to restrain him. Gai realized that he can secretly give Lee a bottle of sake in order to unleash his drunken fury.

Lee is also called "The Green Beast of the Leaf" by American fans, and called "The Green Beast of Konoha" by Japanese fans.

Tenten is part of a team made up by Rock Lee and Hyuuga Neji. She has an extreme talent in weapons, able to throw a kunai or shuriken without missing the target. The only time she misses is if she has a break in her concentration.

When she went to the Chuunin Exam, she was beaten by Temari. Since Tenten's ultimate attack is Twin Rising Dragons, a smoke-like attack formed by two scrolls, Temari's huge fan nullified the attack.

She seems to show some feelings for Neji. She always states to Lee that he can never beat the genius Neji and trains with him very often. She not only admires Neji, she also looks up to the 5th Hokage, Tsunade, as like an idol. She works hard to become like her as well.

Neji's team members are Tenten and Rock Lee, and his instructor is Gai sensei. Neji hates when they talk about the head family of Hyuuga being better than the branch family of Hyuuga.

Neji is not only talented but also good looking too. Neji's most powerful jutsu is Byakugan. Using that jutsu, he can see where your chakra flows and can easily damage his opponents. Neji is one to fear. He is a Konoha genius ninja.

When Neji uses his Byakugan he is assumed to have a 360° vision of his surroundings. As such, he usually compares the 8 birds to how much he can really see. Before he meets Naruto, he always sees 7 birds with his Byakugan, but when he turns around, there is an 8th bird. The symbolism lies in that there is still something Neji can't see. During a fight in episode 117, he sees 8 birds using his byakugan. He finally can see what Naruto was talking about when it came to changing fate and the like.

Neji actually defeats Kidomaru (the spider person), after getting the courage from Naruto.

The style Neji uses to fight is based on the Chinese Yin Bagua Zhang (Eight-Diagram-Palm). This style was previously taught in the forbidden palace in Bejing. Also it uses the number eight a lot, which is what Ba means. In one episode, he holds his hands exactly the way it is taught for Yin-style Piercing Palms.

Gai is the arch rival of Kakashi Hatake, leader of squad seven. The two of them compete in all sorts of different events to prove who is the better ninja. Some of their competitions include 100 meter dashes, wrestling, eating contests, and rock paper scissors. They keep score, and Gai has a record of 50 wins and 49 losses. (And to top that, Gai is faster and probably stronger than Kakashi.)

Although they seem to be highly competitive in everything they do, they also share a special bond close friends. Gai is a highly skilled Jonin and a master of tai jutsu and has a very close, emotional bond with his student Rock Lee. There are many similarities between the two, like their bushy eyebrows, green jump suits, orange leg warmers, shiny bowl haircuts, and rather goofy nature which seems to make their opponents under estimate them, however both are very strong and competent in their fighting. They have many secret techniques which they are dying to show off to prove that they deserve recognition, and Lee finally gets it when he fights Gaara in the Chunin exams.


Gai and Lee also have similar skills seeing they both use tai jutsu. Gai is a very good and loving sensei, but he has his show of tough love which he insists builds character. Other than that, he a perfectly happy, go lucky, goof ball.

Pein's real name is Nagato, and his kekkei genkai is called the Rinnegan eye, a form of Doujutsu. He is in his forties and has this special jutsu that allows him to have 7 bodies. It's not the shadow clone jutsu, though. This jutsu allows him to control seven different bodies with his mind. It was originally six bodies but another one was discovered in the manga.

In the episodes and the manga it's said that he uses the rain to sense his opponent's chakra or presence. He kills Jiraiya with this six body technique too. All the members in the Akatsuki refer to him as a god because of his Kage-like strength. Pein also has another form other than the one he's in now. The form he is in now is not his own. He is using the form of his old dead teammate named Yahiko, who died in the Rain Village war. Nagato assumed his form and said that Yahiko was dead. He kept building up his Doujutsu and started to go by the name of Pein.

Pein and Konan had been teammates back in their Genin days in the Rain Village. They had Yahiko on their team as well. Jiraiya had come to the village many many years ago to help the Rain with the war they were about to undergo and took a liking to the three and helped them train. Jiraiya had seen that Nagato had a special ability that was known as the Rinnegan eye and helped him develop it as much as he could.

After Yahiko was killed by a rock ninja, Pein gathered a few other Rain ninja, including Konan, and started a war with a man named Sanshuoo no Hanzou. (I'm guessing he was the current leader of the Hidden Rain village.) Pein eventually killed Hanzou including all of his friends, family, associates, and eventually the whole village, for this was the dream of Yahiko before he was killed.

Konan was a member of Pein's team along with Yahiko back in the rain village during the civil war(s), there team was taught by Jiraiya for a period of time. Konan's parents were killed at an unknown time prior to this event.

Konan's jutsu/abilities feature a large amount or origami (the art of paper folding). Konan can actually turn herself into origami and travel to the Rain village she helps command with Pein. Her weakness obviously is water because paper sticks together when it is wet, this is how she is easily defeated by her old sensei Jiraiya when they meet again.

Konan also is the only member of the Akatsuki that calls Pein by his name, and also knows that Tobi is actually the leader of the group and not Pein, having been with him when Tobi was speaking to him. The rest of Pein and Konan's relation is unknown, but they appear to be only team mates.

Tobi is a mysterious individual and is an associate of Zetsu, whom he has been an associate of for an unknown time.

When Akatsuki member Akasuna No Sasori was killed, Tobi was very eager to get his ring and replace him. And in turn, he found it with Zetsu's help and was eventually allowed to become a member of the Akatsuki Organization. He was assigned to work with Deidara, and was given the task of capturing the Three Tailed Bijju, Sanbi. He shares a testy relationship with Deidara.

After this event, Tobi and Deidara's screen time and importance in the main plot was limited until Deidara picked a fight with Uchiha Sasuke. Deidara kept Tobi on the sidelines until he was needed to place clay mines. Then Deidara told Tobi to flee, since he was using his C4 attack, Tobi was supposedly caught in the crossfire and killed.

Akatsuki's leader remarked that Tobi was easily replaceable. However, later on, Pein is seen ordered to capture the Kyuubi. The figure is none other than Tobi, who was speaking in a rather ominous and more serious voice.

Deidara is an S-class criminal from The Village Hidden in the Stone/Rock (Iwagakure). He used to be a professional bomber from Iwagakure. When Pein took an interest in his skills, Pein sent Itachi to recruit him into the Akatsuki. Deidara refused and put up a fight, but Itachi defeated him and he was forced to join the Akatsuki. Deidara maintained a deep loathing for Itachi from that point further and became determined to defeat him, even training one of his eyes to overcome Itachi's signature ability: genjutsu.

Although Deidara has a feminine appearance, he is definitely male, and his voice is more masculine and low in the anime. Deidara is first seen in the anime as a mysterious figure before the 2 1/2 year time skip. In the manga, we see a more clear version when he and his partner, Sasori, or Sasori-danna (Master Sasori), head to the village Hidden in the Sand (Sunagakure) to capture Gaara.

Deidara uses a technique with the two mouths on his hands. He uses clay from his bag, feeds it into his mouth on his hand and adds in chakra to make a bomb that explodes without the uses of explosive tags. Deidara usually chooses birds but is seen using spiders when he took out the sky patrol. Deidara used his masterpiece (no. 18) when he fought Gaara and threatened to blow up the village. Deidara was ordered to capture Gaara and take him back to the Akatsuki to extract his Bijuu (Shukaku). Deidara won, capturing Gaara, though Deidara's arm is crushed in the process thanks to Gaara's Sand Coffin.

Deidara was later seen fighting Kakashi and Naruto after Gaara was killed. Deidara often flies on one of his clay birds to put distance between him and his opponent since he uses long range battle techniques. Deidara lost part of right his arm when Kakashi used his Mangekyou Sharingan and put it seemingly into another dimension (it's eventually recovered and sown back on by Kakuzu). Deidara managed to throw Naruto and the others off his trail by creating an explosion out of himself, but he buried himself under the ground and survived. Tobi finds it first and suspects Deidara had died too. Deidara appeared and gave Tobi a piece of his mind for that. Although Deidara seems to have some issues with loosing his arms, he does also seem to recover from it okay, as in chapter 356 he holds up both hands when he is about to fight against Sauske.

Since Sasori, Deidara's partner, was destroyed, Tobi was able to join Akatsuki as Deidara's new partner.

Deidara is very involved with his art as he often argues with Sasori about what true art is; Deidara claims art is a fleeting image of beauty. Deidara also often ends his sentences with "un" ("hmph...") or in the English version subtitled as a "yeah". His physical appearance also consists of a tracker or scope over his eye that's covered by a lock of hair on the left side of his face. It's purpose is to train his eye so that the sharingan would be ineffective against him. Can you tell that had held a grudge against Uchiha and wanted to defeat him?

Sasuke forced him, through his 'ignorance of true art', to use his last technique--a chest mouth that was sealed shut with threads. He fills it with clay during his fight with Sasuke, turning himself into his own 'art' and exploded, spanning 10 kilometers. And though he dies, Sasuke survives. Deidara dedicates his final moments to apologizing to Tobi, appearing to actually be very sorry.

Sasori used to be a part of the hidden village of the sand. He is a puppeteer and obsesses with his battle puppets. He created the puppets Kankurou uses, Karusu, Kuroari, and Sanshouuo. His partner is Deidara, and he works with Akatsuki. He works very well with puppets. There really isn't much known about him.

Sasori himself isn't exactly a human; he turned himself into a puppet. He has a talisman on his chest, and it reads 'Sasori,' meaning scorpion. Inside of it is his chakra, letting him move his body.

Sasori, and only he himself, is able to make human-puppets. Human-puppets were originally humans, but Sasori would kill them, extract everything inside, and rebuild it, making the deceased human a puppet. (That explained why he isn't a human above.)

During his usual combat, Sasori 'wears' one of his favorite puppets, Hiruko. This keeps his true self from being damaged. He has a collection of 298 human-puppets, as he mentioned in his fight with Sakura and Chiyo (grandma).

He and his partner, Deidara, would argue over what true art was. Deidara believed that art was very explosive and ended quickly (like his exploding clay birds), while Sasori believed art was something that would last forever (like his puppets).

Sasori is also 35 years old. He was Orochimaru's partner before Orochimaru left Akatsuki, which took place right after Itachi got there, or 4 years ago. He left Suna twenty years ago, and had been part of the Akatsuki for 11 years before Itachi arrived.

Kakuzu is a member of the infamous Ataksuki Organization, and is one of the last to be introduced.

Kakuzu, being from the Ataksuki, has a partner, and his is Hidan, and although they apparently don't get along too well, they make a formidable team. Kakuzu constantly irritates his partner with all of his tracking bounty hunts, and in turn, Hidan annoys Kakuzu because of his religion, which slows the group down, and it has even been said by Hidan himself he is the slowest fighter.

Kakuzu's abilities lie in his Elemental affinities. For one thing, Kakuzu is impervious to just about any physical attack, by utilizing the Earth Element to harden his body to take any blow. Another interesting ability is his black tendrels, that allow Kakuzu to detach his limbs to attack at long rage, and can also stitch things, such as stitching Hidan back together when he's cut up by a foe, as seen in there battle against Sarutobi Asuma.

Kakuzu's other ability is revealed when Kakashi Hatake used Chidori against Kakuzu's vital area, his heart. Interestingly enough, Kakuzu had four other hearts in his body, one just being destroyed by Kakashi. He appeared to have shattered a mask, which covered the organ. Kakuzu has the ability to deploy these hearts from his body, keeping his natrual one inside, using his new tools to fight. Each mask had an element, and each mask could fire a blast imbued with the Chakra of that element, an easily impressive move.

When Naruto arrived, he used his perfected new Rasengan to destroy two of Kakuzu's other hearts, leaving only one left. However, he was immobilized, and Kakashi in turn took Kakuzu's life.

Jiraiya-sama is known as the Ero-Sennin by Naruto. Jiraiya is the creator of Love Love Paradise (also known as Come Come paradise), the book that Kakashi is always reading.

The technique Jiraiya uses the most is his Summoning no Jutsu. This technique can summon a Toad of any size. One of the toads that he summons is called Gamabunta the Frog Boss. Two other smaller frogs he can summon are Gamabunta's children, Gamakichi and Gamakichi's younger brother Gamatatsu.

Jiraiya is known to everyone as one of the legendary ninjas of the leaf country. Jiraiya-sama is also the one who taught the Fourth Hokage most of his techniques. One of the techniques that he learns from the Fourth Hokage is the Rasengan, which he teaches to Naruto.

The symbol on his forehead protector means oil (as can be seen at Kanji Land).

Jiraiya was killed by Pein when he traveled to the Village of the Rain to get some information. Pein revealed his six bodies to Jiraiya, and they brought Jiraiya to death's door. But before Jiraiya died, he realizes something about Pein, and gives this information to the elder toad he summoned, so that it could be passed on to Naruto.

Orochimaru is another one of the legendary ninjas of the leaf country. He was trained by the Third Hokage himself, until he left the village after being denied becomming the next Hokage. He then taught himself a lot of forbidden Jutsu's, one of which he uses make himself immortal so that he could take revenge on the Third Hokage.

Orochimaru allied the Hidden Village of Sound and the Hidden Village of Sand where Gaara, Kankuro, and Temari came from, and planned with the Kazekage to destroy Konoha. However, on the day of the match, Orochimaru, Kabuto, and Kimimaro killed the Kazekage and Orochimaru put on his clothes and pretended to be him at the chuunin match, betraying both the Sand Village and Konoha, and placing himself right beside the Hokage.

Like Jiraiya, Orochimaru can also do Summoning No Jutsu, but instead of summoning Toads, he summons Snakes. Orochimaru is always using the "Cursed Seal" on people. He used it on Sasuke, but only so that Sasuke would seek him out and work for him, or maybe so Orochimaru could steal his body and have the Sharingan for himself.

In his fight with the 3rd Hokage, he pulled off his face and revealed the face of a young woman. He also revealed the real reason he was after Sasuske... which is that he wants Sasuke's body.

But this is not to be, as eventually, when Orochimaru can wait no longer and attempts to take over Sasuke's body, he is defeated by Sasuske. Kabuto then transplants some of cells from Orochimaru's defeated body into himself so that he might have greater power than even Orochimaru had.

Tsunade, or Granny Tsunade as Naruto would call her, is one of the three legendary Sannins that was trained under the 3rd Hokage, also known as Sarutobi, along with Jiraiya and Orochimaru. Unlike Orochimaru and Jiraiya, she has incredible super-human strength and a bad temper to go along with it. Tsunade also happens to be the grand daughter of the 1st Hokage. She is a spontaneous person who loves to gamble, even though she is horrible at it and always ends up losing.

Her grandfather died fighting a great war when she very young, and everybody in her life that wished to become Hokage in the future, like her brother and boyfriend, also ended up dying. So she goes along traveling the world, with her student Shizune and Pig Ton-Ton, borrowing money from banks and loan-sharks to gamble and lose it.

Because of her troubled past, she resents and refuses to go back to Konoha (the Hidden Leaf Village). A turn of events then happen involving Orochimaru and she then she finally decides not only to return to Konoha but to also take the place of her deceased sensei and become the 5th Hokage. As Hokage, she tries to rebuild the almost obliterated village of Konoha.

Fifth Hokage Tsunade has a huge fear of blood, but she gets over it when she was fighting Orochimaru... which is good, since she is a medic.

Toward the end of episode 96, Tsunade has flashbacks to her days with Dan, her boyfriend, and her little brother Nawaki. They both wanted to be hokage, but unfortunately both died. Tsunade gave them a necklace that belonged to her grandfather, the 1st Hokage, but it was given to and meant only for her (though with the chain of events that occurred, it seems to belong to those who are meant to be someone important to Konoha, as in the hokage). She gave both Kawaki and Dan the necklace, and they each ended up dying from it.

Naruto is like a little brother to Tsunade because he looks like her younger brother, and has most of the traits that Dan had including goals which is to be hokage and protect the village. She offered a challenge to Naruto, telling him that he couldn't master the Rasengan in a week, but if he could then she would give him the necklace. Of course, he did win and he got the necklace, but he didn't die.

Tsunade is believed by some to bethe Yondaime's aunt, which, if true, would make her Naruto's great aunt. Also, the diamond symbol on her forehead is very important because it keeps her looking young, but at a cost of taking away years of her life doing so.

The symbol on the back of her coat, "kake", means "gamble" or "wager".