Land of Waves Arc

Land of Waves Arc 

After completing a number of simple, uneventful missions, Team 7, at Naruto's insistence, was assigned the somewhat more difficult C-rank task of escorting Tazuna to the Land of Waves. When they were attacked by theDemon Brothers along the way, who tried to kill Tazuna, they realised that there was more to this mission than a simple escort. Tazuna revealed that his country was under the control of Gatō, who had left the people poor and unable to afford the more accurate A-rank mission payment. By building a bridge that would connect the Land of Waves to the mainland, Tazuna hoped to free the country from Gatō, prompting Gatō to try and kill him. Team 7 decided to help Tazuna, and act as his bodyguards until the bridge was completed.

They were soon attacked by Zabuza Momochi, another of Gatō's assassins, who engaged Kakashi in battle. When Zabuza captured Kakashi, he encouraged his team to escape with Tazuna. Having been of little use during the battle with the Demon Brothers, Naruto resolved to help Kakashi. With Sasuke's assistance, they were able to free Kakashi, who in turn almost defeated Zabuza. However, Haku, disguised as a hunter-nin, intervened, and appeared to kill Zabuza first, in actuality only putting him in a death-like state in order to get him to safety. Kakashi suspected that Zabuza was still alive, and gave Team 7 a Tree Climbing Practice to improve their chakra control. Naruto and Sasuke developed a competition over the exercise, each determined to complete the training first, and subsequently motivating each other to do better.

While Naruto was resting from training one day, he encountered Haku, unaware that it was the same boy he had encountered earlier. The two had a conversation about those who were precious to them, and the lengths they would go to protect them. After Haku left, Naruto finished the training, but was left so tired that the rest of Team 7 allowed him to rest the next day as they went to escort Tazuna. When he woke up, he went to assist them, only to find that they were in the midst of battle with Zabuza and Haku.

Naruto's first use of the Nine-Tails' chakra.

Naruto went to help Sasuke in his battle with Haku, but they were both trapped by Haku's Demonic Mirroring Ice Crystals. When Haku tried to use a volley of needles to kill Naruto, Sasuke stepped in to protect him, appearing to die instead. Enraged by the apparent death of Sasuke, Naruto tapped into the Nine-Tails' chakra, allowing him to destroy the ice mirrors, and subsequently defeat Haku. Before he could kill Haku, however, the mask he was wearing broke away, revealing the face of the boy Naruto had met earlier. Naruto stopped himself, but Haku asked that he should finish the job, since he could no longer be of use to Zabuza. Although Naruto tried to comply, Haku stopped him at the last minute, and went to help Zabuza. When Naruto realised what had happened - that Haku had given his life to save an ungrateful Zabuza - an outraged Naruto reprimanded Zabuza for not appreciating Haku's actions. Touched by his words, Zabuza killed Gatō to repent in an effort to do Haku justice, but died of his wounds. The bridge (now named the Great Naruto Bridge) was completed, and the Land of Waves was saved. With a recovered Sasuke, Team 7 returned to the Konoha. On their way home, Naruto remarked to Kakashi that, even though Haku and Zabuza were their enemies, he still liked them.

Introduction Arc

Part I 

Introduction Arc Edit

The official group photo of Team 7.

Naruto, labelled as his classes 'Dead-Last', once again failing to graduate from the Academy. Disappointed that his plans of becoming Hokage have hit another hurdle, Naruto was approached by one of his instructors, Mizuki. Mizuki told Naruto that, if he could steal the Scroll of Seals from the Hokage Residence and learn one of the techniques written in it, then he would be allowed to graduate. Naruto did so, and began struggling to learn the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique, unaware that the village was now looking for him. Iruka Uminotracked him down, and discovered Mizuki's involvement in the theft, realising that Naruto had been duped by Mizuki, in an effort to steal the scroll. Mizuki attacked them, and told Naruto about the Nine-Tails sealed within him, claiming that Iruka hated him because of it. When Iruka risked his life to protect Naruto, however, Naruto realised that Mizuki's earlier words were a lie, and created hundreds of shadow clones to beat Mizuki to a pulp. For mastering such a difficult technique, Iruka allowed Naruto to graduate.

In the days to come, Naruto befriended Konohamaru Sarutobi and became his on-off teacher, showing him how to perform a variety of both perverted and useful techniques throughout the rest of the series. He was also assigned toTeam 7, where he was partnered with Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura Haruno, under the leadership of Kakashi Hatake. As the team's first order of business, Kakashi gave them a test to see if they were ready to become genin. He had the three of them try to take the two bells he kept on his person, the goal of the test being to place teamwork above the fact that they couldn't all have a bell. Although they initially failed miserably, all trying independently to take a bell, they eventually decided to work together, allowing them to pass.

Question

QUESTION FOR FUN: (answer at comment)
1. What is the real name of Kyuubi ?
2. What seal that Minato used to seal Kyuubi to Naruto's body ?
3. What seal that Minato used to seal Kushina's chakra to Naruto's body ?
4. What seal that used to seal Hachibi in Killer B's body ?
5. What statue that used by Akatsuki to seal Bijuu ?

Learning Capabilities

Learning Capabilities

Results of Naruto's training over the years.

Naruto's ability to learn through study is somewhat limited due to his average intelligence, something he got from his mother. When he applies himself to physical training and experience however, he is able to learn highly advanced techniques in a much shorter period of time, the most prominents examples are his senjutsu and jinchūriki training.

Naruto can also be quite innovative, using his clones to master advanced techniques. Examples of this include a two-man Rasengan, three-man Rasenshuriken, using clones to perform senjutsu and using chakra arms to perform the Tailed Beast Rasengan.

Naruto has also shown potential as a teacher, at least in regard to Konohamaru. He helped him to develop hisTransformation Technique, albeit for the sake of the Sexy Technique, and the Rasengan, albeit a very weak version, prior to the Invasion of Pain.

Deception and Strategy

Intelligence

Deception and Strategy

Naruto sneaks up behind Kakashi.

Although Naruto's intelligence is greatly downplayed for most of the series, his skills in deception and strategy are actually extremely high. According to Kakashi, this is all thanks to his cunning and imagination as a former prankster, which allows him to fool perceptive and dangerous jōnin-level shinobi like Zabuza Momochi in Part I and even defeat S-rank ninja such as Kakuzu and Pain in Part II. He also possesses the ability to formulate complex plans in the midst of battle. Naruto's strategies typically involve shadow clones; either directing his opponent's attentions towards one of his clones to disguise his own movements, transforming them into various shapes such as shuriken, to allow for surprise attacks, or making himself seem predictable by creating a pattern, just to surprise them by breaking it (examples being when Naruto fooled Neji and Kakuzu into thinking the shadow clone, furthest away from danger, was the real him, or variations using the Shadow Shuriken Technique).

His deceptive skills were first best displayed in Team 7's first battle against Zabuza; he came up with the strategy to disguise himself as a fūma shuriken in order to free Kakashi from Zabuza's Water Prison Technique. During the preliminaries of the Chūnin Exams, Naruto was even able to get around Kiba's sensitive nose by fooling him visually. In the anime Hoshigakure Arc, he deduced the weakness of the Mysterious Peacock Method, that while the user is manipulating such large quantities of chakra, they pay less attention to their surroundings, which allowed Naruto to easily sneak up on Natsuhi and land a blow (something that according to Akahoshi had never been done before). These skills were shown to have increased exponentially by the time of his battle with Pain, allowing him to prevail through an elaborate and highly unpredictable array of back-up plans, such as transforming his clones to mimic the environment. He also used the Shadow Shuriken Technique and the Transformation Technique to turn himself into a Rasenshuriken to temporarily neutralise the Preta Path while his real Rasenshuriken went to attack the Deva Path, while a clone attacked the Naraka Path from above with a Sage Technique: Spiralling Serial Spheres. When Naruto caught his second wind against Kurama to bypass its hatred completely, he systematically used the Sage Art: Many Ultra-Big Ball Spiralling Serial Spheres, Wind Release: Rasenshuriken and his mother's chakra chains to push Kurama's chakra out of its body from a safe distance to absorb it into his own body. During his fight with the reincarnated Third Raikage, knowing the speed of the Raikage is great, he tricks the Raikage into dodging the first Rasenshuriken, his true intentions being to use Kurama's chakra arm to redirect it and throw it at him from behind. Even after the second attempt fails, Naruto still has the where-with-all to attack the Kage with a third at point blank range before he can even get decent footing to dodge. After speaking with Gyūki about its battle with the Third Raikage, he deduced that the latter injured himself with his own technique and used this to his advantage by slamming a Rasengan to the side of his arm forcing the Raikage to impale himself with his own technique. When he learned the location of the chakra receivers on Tobi's Six Paths of Pain, he immediately formed a plan to eliminate them. Testing it out on Rōshi, he nearly destroyed the chakra receiver if not for Han's interference.^[128] He then forms a two-fold plan to release Son Gokū from Tobi's control by attacking from the outside in Nine-Tails Chakra Mode, pulling the receiver, while having a shadow clone in Sage Mode inside Son Gokū trying to push it out.^[129]When he learned that Kakashi and Tobi's Kamui's were connected, he formed a plan to send one of his clones into the other dimension which enabled him to destroy Tobi's mask.^[130]

Senjutsu Mode

Senjutsu

Naruto in Sage Mode.

With the strength of his chakra being so high, Naruto's training was able to expand to include the same senjutsu arts of his late sensei Jiraiya. He learned this in Mount Myōboku, showing an even higher aptitude for it than Jiraiya and ultimately learning how to perfectly enter Sage Mode. In order to achieve this, Naruto had to learn to sense and then gather the natural energy around him and perfectly balance it with his own chakra. Once mastered, Naruto was able to perfect the Rasenshuriken, so that he could throw it, and learn Frog Kata: a taijutsu style that uses the natural energy around the user to enhance the range and the potency of their attacks. In Sage Mode, Naruto's overall physical abilities are dramatically enhanced to the point where he could throw entities much larger than himself with little to no effort, including the Animal Path's Giant Rhino and Kurama.^[117][118] He can even shatter sharp objects with his bare hands, such as the Deva Path's chakra disruption blades, with relative ease. Using Frog Kata in the anime, he was able to completely overpower the Nine-Tailed Naruto Clone, even stripping him of his "Version 2" cloak with each of his punches.^[119] His durability increased to the point where he could fall on a bed of spikes and not even be damaged, as well as surviving the Giant Rhino's charge despite it tearing up the land behind him with its impact. His speed increases to the point where he was able to intercept a charging Asura Path, which had been using its chakra boots to attack Tsunade, create a Rasengan and slam it down before it could even react, showing him covering a considerable distance in a short amount of time.^[120] Also while in Sage Mode, Naruto gains a sensory ability to detect and identify other people's chakra even from very long distances away. This enabled him to be able to gain a sense of what was going on during the Fourth Shinobi World War, on battlefields a considerable distance away.^[121] His sensing abilities have also enabled him to predict the movements of his enemies for easy retaliation.^[91] With his sensing abilities, he could pinpoint the chakra receiversthat were on Tobi's tailed beast Six Paths of Pain.^[122] He also attempted to use this mode to gauge the power of the Ten-Tails, only to find out that it was immeasurable.^[123]

However, Naruto had two flaws in his senjutsu training: To mould natural energy, the user must remain absolutely still, something one cannot do while in combat; and because of Kurama, Shima and Fukasaku were unable to fusewith Naruto to mould it for him. To counter this, Naruto had to leave two shadow clones in a safe place to mould the natural energy for him. Once he depleted his current amount of senjutsu chakra, he would dispel one of the clones and use the natural energy it had gathered to re-enter Sage Mode. However, this method limits the maximum number of shadow clones that Naruto can create to five. Any more would interfere with the focus of the clones' gathering natural energy. However, this limit in shadow clones ceases should Naruto decide to go all out during a fight and forget having any clones store natural energy for him.^{[124][125][126]} Naruto has also stated that it is possible to lengthen the time he is in Sage Mode.^[127]