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NARUTO -ナルト-
Also known as Naruto (2002), Naruto: Original Series
A loud, lonely orphan chases the village's highest honor one stubborn step at a time.
Naruto Uzumaki is a brash, chronically underestimated orphan living in the Hidden Leaf Village, a community of ninja where talent and pedigree decide everything. Shunned for reasons he does not fully understand, he clowns around to get attention and declares to anyone listening that he will one day become Hokage, the village's leader. After barely scraping through the ninja academy, he is assigned to Team 7 alongside the brilliant, embittered Sasuke Uchiha, the sharp but insecure Sakura Haruno, and their deceptively lazy instructor Kakashi Hatake. Missions that begin as chores escalate into confrontations with rogue ninja, rival villages, and a shadowy organization with designs on the world's hidden powers. As Naruto trains, fails, and slowly earns respect, the series widens into a story about inherited grudges, the cost of war, and the fragile bonds that hold teams and nations together. Long-form tournament arcs, mentor relationships, and escalating battles define the original 220-episode run, which ends with unfinished business carried into Naruto: Shippuden.
In a world organized around hidden ninja villages, an orphaned troublemaker named Naruto Uzumaki graduates into the lowest rank of shinobi with dismal grades and a huge ambition: to be acknowledged by the village that has always kept him at arm's length. Placed on a three-person squad with a rival prodigy and a crush who barely notices him, he takes on escalating missions under a mysterious masked teacher.
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Episodes 1-19
Naruto graduates by accident, learns the truth about the fox sealed inside him, and is placed on Team 7. Their first serious mission - guarding a bridge builder - pits them against the rogue swordsman Zabuza and his companion Haku, a confrontation that forces the young genin to confront death and the cost of the ninja life.
Episodes 20-67
Teams from allied villages gather in the Leaf for a brutal promotion exam: a written test, the lethal Forest of Death, preliminary duels and a public tournament. Orochimaru infiltrates the proceedings and brands Sasuke with a cursed seal, while Naruto's rivalries with Neji Hyūga and the unstable Gaara define the franchise's early emotional stakes.
Episodes 68-80
The exam finals become a smokescreen for a joint invasion by the Sand and Sound villages. Gaara transforms into a rampaging monster, Naruto answers with summoned toads and sheer stubbornness, and the Third Hokage duels his former student Orochimaru in a battle that costs the village its leader and shatters its sense of security.
Episodes 81-100
Jiraiya takes Naruto on the road to find the legendary medic Tsunade and install her as Fifth Hokage. Naruto learns the Rasengan, while Sasuke first encounters his brother Itachi and the mysterious Akatsuki. Tsunade's grief and gambling habit give the arc unexpected emotional weight before a clash of all three legendary Sannin.
Episodes 107-135
Sasuke defects to Orochimaru in pursuit of power, and Shikamaru leads a hastily assembled squad of genin to bring him back. Each member is left behind to fight one of the Sound Four in a chain of desperate solo battles, culminating in Naruto and Sasuke's duel at the Valley of the End - the series' defining tragedy.
Episodes 136-220
With the manga ahead of the anime, the final year covers original stories: Naruto's training journey delayed, missions to Star Village and the Land of Tea, Kakashi's unmasking gag episode, and a rescue quest involving the Guardian Shinobi. Quality varies, but several arcs deepen supporting cast members before the timeskip.
Episode 1
Prologue - Land of Waves
A remarkably efficient pilot that establishes Naruto's isolation, his pranks as cries for attention, and Iruka's compassion. The reveal of the sealed Nine-Tails reframes every joke that came before it in a single scene.
Episode 19
Prologue - Land of Waves
The climax of the Zabuza and Haku confrontation, where the series first argues that villains are made by circumstance rather than born evil. Its ending remains one of the most quietly devastating moments in the franchise.
Episode 48
Chūnin Exams
The purest expression of Naruto's hard-work-beats-genius thesis. Lee removes his weights and pushes past his limits against an opponent who cannot be hurt, backed by superb animation and Might Guy's fierce devotion.
Episode 101
Filler Era
The best-loved comedic filler in the series, in which Team 7 schemes to see under Kakashi's mask. A perfect showcase of the cast's chemistry and the show's willingness to be silly between tragedies.
Episode 133
Sasuke Recovery Mission
The conclusion of the Valley of the End duel. Friendship, envy and grief collide as Sasuke chooses revenge over his bond with Naruto, closing part one on an unresolved wound that drives the sequel series.
Every episode of Naruto with its broadcast title and air date, grouped by arc. Watch links search Crunchyroll for the series.
Every character has a full profile covering their history, abilities and relationships.
Naruto UzumakiProtagonist
Sasuke UchihaRival and deuteragonist
Sakura HarunoHeroine and team medic
Kakashi HatakeMentor
Itachi UchihaAntagonist turned tragic figure
Hinata HyugaSupporting heroine
Shikamaru NaraStrategist ally
Rock LeeSupporting ally
GaaraAntagonist turned ally
JiraiyaMentor
TsunadeFifth Hokage and mentor
OrochimaruAntagonist
Neji HyugaRival turned ally
Iruka UminoTeacher and father figureAI companions from Naruto, each portrayed as an adult and written to stay in character.
Nearly every antagonist is produced by loss: Gaara, Nagato, Obito and Sasuke all answer grief with violence. The franchise repeatedly asks whether revenge can be interrupted, and Naruto's refusal to kill Nagato is its clearest answer.
Naruto begins as a shunned jinchūriki who acts out for attention. His journey is less about strength than about being recognised, and the series mirrors that hunger in Gaara, Sasuke, Haku and later Kawaki.
Rock Lee, who cannot use ninjutsu, embodies the argument that stubborn work can rival genius. The Hyūga, Uchiha and other bloodline clans represent inherited privilege that the series treats with deep scepticism.
Knowledge passes down chains of teachers and students - the Third Hokage to Jiraiya to Minato to Naruto. The idea that a generation entrusts its unfinished hopes to the next drives both the original series and Boruto.
Naruto became one of the defining anime exports of the 2000s, joining One Piece and Bleach as a globally recognized shōnen pillar and introducing millions of overseas viewers to the medium. Its vocabulary - chakra, jutsu, rival-brothers, the forward-leaning run - saturated fan culture, cosplay, and memes for two decades. The franchise spawned films, video games, a stage musical, theme-park attractions, and the sequel series Boruto, while its themes of loneliness and earned belonging remain its most-cited legacy.
Content notes: Frequent stylized combat violence, Blood and serious injury, Character deaths, Child soldiers and war themes, Bullying, social ostracism and themes of loneliness, Occasional crude humor and mild sexual gags.
The original Naruto series ran for 220 episodes between 2002 and 2007. Its direct sequel, Naruto Shippuden, added 500 more episodes from 2007 to 2017. Together that is 720 television episodes, not counting the theatrical films, OVAs and the follow-up series Boruto.
Start with the original Naruto (episodes 1-220), then continue straight into Naruto Shippuden (episodes 1-500), which picks up after a two-and-a-half-year time skip. Afterwards come the film Boruto: Naruto the Movie and the sequel series Boruto: Naruto Next Generations.
It is a continuation rather than a reboot. Shippuden adapts the second half of Masashi Kishimoto's manga, following an older Naruto after his training journey with Jiraiya. The name change signals the time skip and the darker, higher-stakes storyline involving the Akatsuki organisation.
Roughly forty percent of both series consists of anime-original filler. The original Naruto's longest stretch runs from around episode 136 to 220, and Shippuden has several extended filler arcs. Skipping filler does not break the main plot, though some episodes offer enjoyable character material.
Masashi Kishimoto wrote and illustrated the manga, serialised in Weekly Shonen Jump from 1999 to 2014 and collected in 72 volumes totalling 700 chapters. VIZ Media publishes the English edition in print and digitally, including through the Shonen Jump subscription service.
