The lead character of Masashi Kishimoto's manga series Naruto is Naruto Uzumaki his native hidden leaf village  Because of the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox, a malicious beast that assaulted Konohagakure and was imprisoned inside his body, Naruto was teased and shunned as a young child. Nevertheless, he wants to rise to the position of Hokage, the village chief, in order to win their acceptance. He can make friends with ninja from different villages and other Konohagakure ninja thanks to his lively, carefree, and happy demeanor. In addition to the films in the series, Naruto can be seen in other media associated with the franchise, such as video games and original video animations (OVA), as well as the follow-up Boruto:

Kishimoto gave Naruto many qualities of a perfect hero while yet keeping him "simple and stupid" when he created the character for the first portion of the series. By introducing sorrow into Naruto's past, Kishimoto gave the character a darker aspect. He has made numerous changes to Naruto's appearance, dressing the character simply to appeal to the younger audience. Two and a half years after Part I of the story, Kishimoto revised his original design for Part II. In the original animated series, Naruto was voiced by Junko Takeuchi; in the English versions, Maile Flanagan did the same.

Figurines and keychains are among the Naruto-themed merchandise items. Scholarly attention and appreciation for Naruto's character development have come from anime and manga periodicals. While some have lauded his attitude and character development for eschewing tropes commonly found in similar media, others have dismissed his first perception as a conventional manga and anime protagonist similar to those in other shōnen manga. The character's characteristics and development have been the focus of literary research, which has helped him stand out in fiction.

Naruto frequently adds the suffix "-ttebayo" at the end of his phrases in the original Japanese versions of the manga, which has the same effect as saying "you know?" in English. "Dattebayo" immediately sprang to Kishimoto when he thought of a catchphrase for Naruto that would be infantile and match his persona without coming across as brattish.[10] "Believe it!" was used in place of "dattebayo" and "-ttebayo" in the English dub's first episodes in order to mimic the effect and the character's lip movements. However, later on in the English dub, Naruto stopped saying "Believe it" and substituted "You Know?" for it.[11]