The World of Naruto

The seriousness of the Naruto story is often intermixed by pure silliness, but it all serves a purpose, propelling the young superhero forward on his path of adventure and growth.

After meeting Konohamaru, the annoying and aggressive grandson of the village Hokage, Naruto shows him no mercy, smacking him down before heading out the door. The child, seeking to become the next great village master ninja, The Fifth Hokage, becomes Naruto's follower, trying at first to remain unseen, but his efforts are ridiculously inadequate. He quickly learns to respect the older and somewhat wiser Naruto, deciding that he should become a student of the new graduate.

We are then introduced to information about the ninja's energy source, a substance that Naruto incorrectly identifies as chatora, meaning brown tiger. His young student is confused, envisions a large brown cat, then corrects his master, revealing that the word is actually chakra. Naruto covers his error, by telling the kid to "Shut up. Good Ninjas call it Chatora." We then learn that Chakra is the energy that you use to execute a technique. It is the inside body and spirit energy which can accumulate through experience and training. When you mix together training and experience, a seal is formed and the technique can be executed. It was Konohamaru who quoted this to his new-found teacher, Naruto being unfamiliar with the actual definition, although of its use his skills were much advanced.

Given this knowledge, the two young students embark on a training exercise, Naruto, teaching his very young charge, the silly and sexy "temptation" technique. The older Naruto is able to transform into a very beautiful girl, while the younger boy's efforts results in a fat, ugly hag. The combination of comedy and the logic behind the ninja lifestyle, lead to Naruto conducting the boy to various locations not very suitable for a boy his age. They go to a book store that sells girlie magazines so that they can "research pheromones". After the owner kicks them out, they head off to a woman's change room where they transform into girls before entering. Once again they are kicked out, with Naruto receiving a beating in the process. Here, we are introduced to the topic that Naruto is an older boy with a developing interest in girls, which will lead to complications in upcoming episodes.

When the younger boy's guardian, an elite Ninja master, finally catches up to them, he is upset that Naruto should be teaching so much nonsense to the grandson of the Third Hokage. "Young master, you are only going to get dumber and dumber if you hang around Naruto."

A showdown then ensues, but unlike the more serious and damaging fight of the earlier episode when Naruto earned his right to graduate by defeating a dangerous rival, the fight is much more comedic. Naruto surprises everyone by executing a combination of his Shadow Replication Technique (producing a hundred copies of himself) and his Temptation Technique, changing all of his duplicates into sexy women who ultimately subdue the distracted elite teacher. Witnessing this conflict on his crystal ball, the Third Hokage can only sadly conclude: "He made another stupid technique. I'll fall for it for sure, probably."

As the two young students part company, both realize they have parallel ambitions of becoming great Ninjas and achieving wide recognition. For now, this light-hearted view of the two immature students, much like the blind leading the blind, has introduced us to a variety of Ninja principles, attitudes, techniques, and resources, the most important of all being the power that could reside within all of us. Known as "chakra" here, the substance has been referenced in many works of fantasy and science fiction, not the least of which includes Star Wars, where it is known as "The Force." Here it is much more complex, though we are reminded of the growth of the youthful hero, Luke Skywalker, whenever we encounter Uzumaki Naruto.