
Jealous of Sasuke's skills and popularity, however, he developed a one-sided rivalry in his pursuit to prove himself just as good as, if not better than, Sasuke, wishing that someday, Sasuke would accept him as an equal. Naruto also met his class-mate Sasuke and tried to befriend him, since he was alone as well. In the Academy, Naruto became a student of Iruka Umino, who acted as a surrogate older brother to keep him in line and help him work harder. He was unaware the girl's growing affections for him began from that moment onwards.

When Naruto awoke, Hinata thanked him for helping her and returned his scarf to him, but he let her keep it. Despite not knowing her, Naruto immediately came to her defense, but he was outnumbered and knocked unconscious, and the bullies damaged his red scarf. On the day of his enrollment in the Ninja Academy - Naruto first met Hinata Hyūga, who was being picked on by three bullies. This social isolation caused Naruto to crave acknowledgment, which he would gain by pulling pranks. However, Naruto's peers emulated their parents' hatred of him, despite not knowing why. Soon, the Third Hokage forbade anyone from mentioning the Nine-Tails, hoping that the younger generation would not blindly hate Naruto as their parents did. However, the majority of Konoha had no knowledge of the circumstances surrounding his birth, and openly ostracized and resented Naruto for containing the beast that devastated the village and took many lives some even viewed Naruto as the Nine-Tails itself. Minato's dying wish that Naruto is regarded as a hero was honored by the very few who could put aside their pain and losses caused by the disaster. Orphaned, Naruto grew up not knowing who his parents were, receiving only his mother's surname, as Hiruzen wanted to protect Naruto from his father's enemies. After telling Naruto how much they loved him, Minato and Kushina succumbed to their wounds from protecting their son from the Nine-Tails and passed away. Since the Nine-Tails' chakra was too immense to seal into an infant, Minato sacrificed his soul to split the fox's chakra in half, sealing the Yin half within himself and the Yang half within Naruto. Returning to Naruto and Kushina's location, Minato realized the only way to stop the Nine-Tails was to seal it within Naruto, believing that his son would someday need the fox's power to defeat Tobi when he returned. Minato saved Kushina and left Naruto in her care before he went to protect the village, eventually defeating Tobi and freeing the Nine-Tails from Tobi's control. With Minato gone, Tobi captured Kushina and released the Nine-Tails from her, using it to devastate Konoha.

A masked man, Tobi, tracked down their location, however, killed the midwives and Anbu, and captured Naruto, forcing Minato to quickly rescue him and teleport him to a safe house. The Third Hokage made special arrangements for Minato to preserve Kushina's seal containing the Nine-Tails while she gave birth to Naruto in a remote location, escorted by midwives and Anbu. He was named after the protagonist of Jiraiya's first book, which made the Sannin his godfather. Naruto was born on the night of October 10th to Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki. He soon proved to be one of the main factors in winning the Fourth Shinobi World War, leading him to achieve his dream and become the village's Seventh Hokage (七代目火影, Nanadaime Hokage, lit. In the following years, through many hardships and ordeals, he became a capable ninja regarded as a hero both by the villagers, and soon after, the rest of the world, becoming known as the Hero of the Hidden Leaf (木ノ葉隠れの英雄, Konohagakure no Eiyū, Literally meaning: Hero of the Hidden Tree Leaves). After joining Team Kakashi, Naruto worked hard to gain the village's acknowledgment all the while chasing his dream to become Hokage.

He became the jinchūriki of the Nine-Tails on the day of his birth - a fate that caused him to be shunned by most of Konoha throughout his childhood. Naruto Uzumaki (うずまきナルト, Uzumaki Naruto) is a Ninja from Konohagakure.
