A giant, powerful fox known as the Nine-Tails attacks the ninja
village Konoha, killing many people. In response, the leader of Konoha –
the
Fourth Hokage – seals the fox inside the newborn
Naruto Uzumaki
at the cost of his life. The Kohona community regards Naruto as if he
were the Nine-Tails itself and often ridicules him throughout most of
his childhood. A decree made by the current Kage, the
Third Hokage,
forbids anyone mentioning the attack of the Nine-Tails to anyone else.
This includes Naruto, who is unaware of the fox inside of him. Twelve
years later, Naruto is tricked by the renegade ninja Mizuki into
stealing a forbidden scroll that would teach him a secret ninja
technique, but he is stopped by his teacher,
Iruka Umino.
When Iruka almost dies while protecting Naruto from Mizuki, who also
reveals that he is the container of the Nine-Tailed Fox, Naruto uses the
Jutsu he learned from the scroll that creates multiple clones of himself,
Shadow Clone Technique, to defeat Mizuki.
Naruto is assigned alongside
Sasuke Uchiha, whom he often competes against, and
Sakura Haruno, whom he has a crush on, to form a three-person team named Team 7 under an experienced and severe
sensei, the elite ninja
Kakashi Hatake.
Like all the ninja teams from every village, Team 7 is charged with
completing missions requested by villagers, such as doing chores or
being bodyguards. After several missions, most notably their mission to
Wave Country as Tazuna the bridge builder's guards, Kakashi allows Team 7
to participate in a ninja exam in which they can advance to a higher
rank, and thus, take part in more difficult missions. During the exams,
Orochimaru,
a criminal at the top of Konoha's most wanted list, attacks Konoha and
kills the Third Hokage in an act of revenge. This forces one of the
three legendary ninja,
Jiraiya, to search for his former teammate
Tsunade,
who has been nominated to become the Fifth Hokage. During the search,
it is revealed that Orochimaru desires to acquire Sasuke due to his
powerful genetic heritage, the
Sharingan. Believing Orochimaru will be able to give him the strength needed to kill his brother
Itachi,
who destroyed his clan, Sasuke eventually joins him after a humiliating
defeat at his brother's hands. Tsunade sends a group of ninja including
Naruto to make Sasuke return to Konoha, but Naruto is unable to defeat
him and bring him back to the village. Naruto does not give up on
Sasuke, however, and he leaves Konoha to train for 2½ years under
Jiraiya's tutelage in order to prepare himself for the next time he
encounters Sasuke.
As Naruto returns from his training with Jiraiya, the criminal organization called
Akatsuki,
from which Itachi is a member, attempts to capture the nine powerful
"tailed beasts" that are sealed within people, including the Nine-Tails
sealed inside of Naruto. Several ninjas from Konoha, including Team 7,
fight against the Akatsuki members and search for their teammate Sasuke.
Akatsuki is successful in capturing seven of those creatures whose
hosts are killed in the process, except for
Gaara,
the host of the One-Tailed beast whose life is saved in time by Naruto
and his companions. In the meantime, Sasuke betrays Orochimaru and faces
Itachi to take revenge. After Itachi dies in battle, Sasuke is told by
the Akatsuki founder and leader
Tobi
that Itachi was ordered by Konoha's leadership to destroy his clan to
prevent a coup d'état to which he agrees with the condition of allowing
Sasuke to be spared. Saddened with this revelation, Sasuke joins forces
with Akatsuki to kill Konoha's superiors who orchestrated the Uchihas'
elimination and destroy Konoha in revenge.
Meanwhile, as several Akatsuki members are defeated by the Konoha ninjas, their figurehead leader,
Nagato,
invades the village to capture Naruto. However, Naruto defeats him and
convinces him to abandon the Akatsuki. With Nagato's eventual death,
Tobi, while disguised as one of Konoha's founding fathers
Madara Uchiha,
announces that he wants to obtain all nine of the "tailed beasts" in
order to perform an illusion powerful enough to control all of humanity.
The leaders of the five ninja villages refuse to aid him and instead
join forces to confront Tobi and his allies. This results in a fourth
ninja
world war
between the unified armies of the Five Great Countries (collectively
known as the "Ninja Alliance Army") and Akatsuki's forces. Apparently,
Naruto, and
Killer Bee,
the host of the Eight-Tails, head for the battlefield refusing to sit
back. During the conflict, it is revealed that Tobi is actually Obito
Uchiha, Kakashi's former teammate who was supposed to be dead, but he
was saved by the real Madara Uchiha and has been working with him ever
since. As Sasuke learns the history of Konoha, including the
circumstances that led to his clan's downfall, he decides to protect the
village instead of destroy it and rejoins Naruto and his comrades to
stop Madara and Obito's plans, which unleash the Ten-Tails. However,
after the Ten-Tails is defeated, Madara's body ends up possessed by
Kaguya Otsutsuki,
an ancient princess who intends to subdue all of mankind, and Obito
sacrifices himself to help the reunited Team 7 stop her. Once Kagura is
defeated, Madara perishes as well, but Sasuke decides to take advantage
of the situation and takes control all the tailed beasts to realize his
goal of ending the current village system, with Naruto standing in his
way.
The series is being released to
Region 2 DVD in Japan with four or five episodes per disc. There are currently four series of DVD releases divided by story arc. There is also a special feature included with the seventh
Naruto: Shippuden compilation DVD based on the second ending of the series called
Hurricane! "Konoha Academy" Chronicles. Besides the regular DVD series, on December 16, 2009
Kakashi Chronicles: Boys' Life on the Battlefield (カカシ外伝～戦場のボーイズライフ～ Kakashi Gaiden ~Senjō no Bōizu Raifu~) was released featuring episodes 119-120 which are set during
Kakashi Hatake's childhood.