Training to become an elite ninja can be rough business. In the world of Naruto, though, it’s more than just putting yourself through weightlifting and endurance tests.
Naruto and his friends have battled demons, harnessed magic powers, and bent all of the laws of physics during the course of their journeys. As a result, the title character’s body has taken quite a beating.
Naruto began his journey to become a ninja as a child, attending specialized schools in the Hidden Leaf Village. He hoped one day to achieve his dream of becoming the village leader — the Hokage.
Despite being ostracized by many of his peers for his role (as an infant) in the previous destruction of the village, he held on to that determination and became one of the greatest ninja in the world.
Along the way, his body was put through some brutal tests. In addition to having a nine-tailed fox demon sealed inside it, his body also faced serious encounters with snakes, trained with toads, and crossed into new realities.
He suffered serious injuries over the years, but he still managed to achieve his dream.
Twenty years after readers of the manga met him, Naruto leads the next generation of ninja in the series Boruto, which follows the adventures of his son. There, his body continues to go through changes as he lears how to use new technology for a prosthetic arm, and even gets put through the ringer by his own daughter!
With so much history behind Naruto, we’ve rounded up some of the most interesting things to know with the 30 Crazy Secrets About Naruto’s Body.
Snakes Cloned Him
It typically takes another person in order to create a clone. In the case of Naruto, though, special snakes can do the job as well.
Kabuto, who did a lot of experiments with DNA for the big bad Orochimaru, used his boss’ DNA to create a special breed of tiny snakes. The snakes could then clone other ninja.
Naruto ended up accidentally ingesting a few of the snakes, which could have made him seriously sick.
The snakes were eventually extracted from him and turned into clones.
They were just like his own shadow clones, but he had no control over them.
He Agreed To Father Children Of A Priestess
Naruto fans know the title character marries Hinata Hyuga, but before the two got together, there were other women in his young life.
He had a crush on his teammate Sakura, and nearly ended up the father to the children of a priestess.
In Naruto Shippuden: The Movie, Naruto and a team of ninja are assigned to protect Shion. Complicating matters was the fact that Shion kept having visions of Naruto losing his life.
Shion is a priestess who is also the last of her line, and she wants to find a way to keep her particular brand of magic alive.
Unthinkingly, Naruto agrees to help, not realizing that she’s looking for someone to give her offspring.
He’s A Medium
Mediums are usually thought of as people who can communicate with ghosts. Naruto’s version of a medium is a little different, however.
Instead of ghosts, Naruto acts as a conduit for all of the tailed beasts.
His body played host to the nine-tailed fox Kurama since he was a baby. During the events of the Fourth Shinobi World War, though, there were many other tailed beasts that appeared in battle.
Once Naruto was able to absorb chakra from all of the other tailed beasts, he was able to communicate with all of them.
They were also able to use his body to communicate with each other. It’s like Naruto’s body became the telephone for tailed beasts.
His Daughter Can Knock Him Out
There’s no denying that Naruto is a powerful ninja. He did, after all, lead his village to victory in a major war and become the Hokage without completing his training.
Much of his skill comes from pure nerve, and his children might be following in his footsteps.
Boruto and Himawari fight just like any pair of siblings do, but thanks to powerful ninja genes, those fights can get rowdy.
On the day of Naruto’s inauguration for the Hokage position, Boruto broke his little sister’s favorite toy.
Himawari set about using the Gentle Fist, made famous by her mother’s family, on her brother.
Naruto stepped in to intervene, and his tiny daughter knocked him unconscious.
He Has Traveled Through Time
A lot of the manga and anime that focuses on the ninja lifestyle is more fantasy than science fiction. Naruto liked to combine both, though.
In one such instance, Naruto wound up two decades into the past.
Naruto was actually supposed to be on a mission to retrieve a criminal in Naruto Shippuden The Movie: The Lost Tower when he wound up decades in the past.
While that might have been a problem for anyone else, Naruto adjusted quickly.
The experience gave him the chance to meet his parents long before he was ever born. It was a bittersweet trip for the orphaned ninja.
His Chakra Is Reincarnated
According to Naruto canon, every ninja has their own life force flowing through their body that is supposed to be completely unique.
This chakra determines their skill sets. However, Naruto’s chakra is extra special.
As a descendant of the Otsutsuki clan, Naruto actually has the reincarnated form of another ninja’s chakra: Asura Otsutsuki. It is not only incredibly powerful, but it also helped to supply Naruto with huge energy reserves.
This reincarnated chakra also explains why he is such a good match for Sasuke in a fight even when he hasn’t mastered all of his skills.
Sasuke has the reincarnated chakra of Asura’s brother.
He Lost An Arm
Following the events of the Fourth Shinobi War, Naruto finally battled his childhood frenemy Sasuke.
The two were so evenly matched by that point that they both lost an arm during the battle, winding up unconscious during the fight, with neither of them actually defeating the other.
Following the battle, Naruto was given a prosthetic arm. The arm wasn’t an ordinary prosthetic, though.
Instead of simply be formed from plastics and metals, it was created using the cells of a fallen ninja.
That ninja had a command over wood and was the first Hokage of the Hidden Leaf Village. With special regenerative properties in his DNA, the genetic material was also used for healing properties.
The Nine-Tailed Fox
The character of Naruto went through a lot of changes while Masashi Kishimoto was developing a new manga. He first wanted to write about a chef. Then, he changed his mind and his next idea made it into Akamaru Jump, a magazine in Japan.
This one-shot featured a boy who could turn into a fox. The shapeshifting story had quite a few fans, but Kishimoto wasn’t happy with it, and decided to add ninja to his story.
His early ideas also featured the father of his fox-boy being the son of a demon fox that destroyed a ninja village.
While that idea didn’t stay exactly the same, it gave Kishimoto a jumping off point.
Chakra As Rent
Because Naruto has another being trapped in his body, there’s a whole other well of chakra inside of him as well. If he’s smart about it, he can even use the fox’s chakra as his own.
It takes Naruto a long time to figure that out, and his sensei Jiraiya actually places him in life threatening situations several times to get him to access it.
One of those times, Naruto goes inside his own head and has a chat with the caged fox.
It’s there that Naruto informs the fox that he’d like rent for allowing the fox to live inside him. He wants that rent paid in the form of the fox’s own chakra.
~~~He Has Crossed Dimensions
The aspiring Hokage hasn’t just traveled back in time — he’s also ended up in an alternate reality.
During the events of Naruto The Movie: Road To Ninja, both Naruto and Sakura were unhappy with their lots in life.
A twist of fate (or a bad guy testing out a new project on them) caused the two to cross dimensional lines into a new world.
In this other dimension, Naruto’s father never became Hokage. Instead, Sakura’s did, leaving Sakura with a completely different relationship with her family.
Naruto, much to his surprise, found that his parents were both alive.
Of course, Naruto in that reality was named Menma instead and was actually the bad guy.
His Elemental Chakra
Because all ninja have unique chakra, they also can all access very specific skill sets.
In Naruto’s case, he had a natural affinity for Wind Chakra. Eventually, though, he was able to utilize all elemental chakras.
Naruto’s affinity for wind allowed him to add a little extra oomph to his weapons. The wind flowed into them, increasing their speed and strength.
The Sage of Six Paths granted Naruto some of his own energy to help him during the events of the War.
Because the Sage of Six Paths was a master of so many elemental abilities, Naruto became more skilled as well. He was able to utilize even more types of elemental chakras.
~~He Survived Being Swallowed By A Snake
During Naruto’s chunin exams, teams of ninja were sent into an enclosed forest with a simple task: get to the tower with a pair of scrolls. The task turned out to be anything but simple for Naruto’s team, though, since they were targeted at every turn.
One of the first “teams” to target them was supposedly a trio of Grass Ninja. However, it was actually Orochimaru in disguise. Orochimaru is snakelike in his movements, and he can also summon giant snakes.
Naruto had the misfortune of being swallowed whole by one of them.
Before it could digest him, though, he used his Shadow Clone Jutsu to create too many of him for the snake to keep inside.
There Is An Evil Version Of Naruto Named Menma
In an alternate reality, Naruto was named Menma, as revealed in the Naruto movie, Road To Ninja. While these two essentially have the same body, there were some specific differences.
Instead of sharing his body with the nine-tailed fox and keeping it caged inside him, Menma made the choice to allow the demon fox to take up space.
They shared in their power and their hatred, making Menma a little bit stronger than Naruto early on, but also making him evil.
That evil was denoted by one significant change in appearance. As Menma’s hatred grew, his hair color darkened. While Naruto remained blond, Menma’s hair turned black.
Clones Take Care Of His Family
Most parents can’t be in two places at once. That’s not the case for Naruto, though. The ninja is a master of the Shadow Clone Jutsu, allowing him to create duplicates of himself.
In the series Boruto, when Naruto finds himself overwhelmed with work and family duties, he can multitask.
He often stayed late for work in the office or had to take long trips. In those cases, he would send a shadow clone to take care of his family.
While Naruto means well, it’s not the best technique, as it implies to his son that his duties are more important than his family.
Why He Has Blond Hair
Characters in manga and anime rarely have hair colors that occur in nature. Often, they have hair that is purple, blue, or even green.
In Naruto, Sakura even has pink hair. Masashi Kishimoto actually had a plan for some of the more colorful hairstyles when he initially started writing.
In an interview with a fan, he revealed that Naruto was always going to be blond. It wasn’t because he wanted different colored hair for his many characters, though.
Instead, it was because he planned to make Naruto an outsider visiting the country.
Kishimoto’s stories are primarily set in his fantasy version of Japan. Blond is definitely not the dominant hair color in the region.
His Voice Actors Are All Women
A lot of animated male characters — especially those who are children — are voiced by women. Naruto, who began his anime journey at the age of 12, is no exception.
Junko Takeuchi voices the character in Japan. She’s provided the voice of Naruto since the very beginning and continues to voice him in the spinoff series about his son, Boruto.
Takeuchi is known for her work in the Digimon franchise as well.
For the English dubs, Maile Flanagan voices the ninja. Like Takeuchi, she voiced Naruto through the entire Naruto and Naruto Shippuden runs.
Flanagan is also a character actor, appearing in shows like Lab Rats and Shameless.
He Has Large Chakra Reserves
In the Naruto mythology, every ninja has very specific chakra. Unique to each person, the chakra allows them to wield different abilities.
The stronger the chakra, or the more of it a person has, the more powerful their attacks will be.
Naruto constantly found his peers making fun of him when he was younger. Though he professed himself as the next great Hokage, he couldn’t master many of the simplest skills they were taught.
He had limited control over his chakra.
The reason why his control was so poor was because he has such immensely powerful chakra.
In addition to his own, the chakra of the nine-tailed fox sealed in his body also took up space.
He Always Wears Sandals
Plenty of ninja representation in media shows the martial arts masters wearing slippers or variations of sandals as part of their lifestyle.
In Naruto, it’s not just part of the character’s lifestyle to wear sandals, but also an artistic choice.
Fans claim that in long lost interviews, creator Masashi Kishimoto has two different reasons for always putting Naruto — and so many other characters — in sandals.
He finds sandals easier to draw than bulky boots, according to some.
According to others, he just really enjoys drawing toes. Either reason makes sense to us.
He Has Whiskers
Plenty of the ninja in the Naruto franchise have distinctive markings on their bodies. While some of them have curse marks — tattoos left on them by enemies — that might disappear over time, others have more permanent markings.
Naruto is one of them. The three lines on each side of his face aren’t simply affectations of the artist. Instead, they have more symbolic meaning.
The design is meant to look like whiskers, reminding the reader and the audience that Naruto has the spirit of a demon fox living inside of him.
He Is The Fox
Even though they are two separate beings, and many thought of the fox as wholly evil, Naruto and the fox both share a fierce determination in a fight.
Some of the other traits of the fox seeped into Naruto’s fighting even before he knew he was using the fox’s chakra.
When Naruto would get particularly worked up in a fight early on in the series, changes in his demeanor would be noted by changes in his design.
In addition to sharper nails, almost like claws, he would also suddenly have pointier teeth. The additions made him appear more feral, like a wild animal.
Eventually, he was also able to channel chakra through a tail.