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[PLAYER INFO]
NAME: Ian
AGE: 22 /sigh
JOURNAL: pridefall
IM: priestlyish
E-MAIL: meaculpable AT live DOT come
RETURNING: Nope

[CHARACTER INFO]
CHARACTER NAME: Uzumaki Naruto
SERIES: Naruto
CHRONOLOGY: Right after learning the real name of the Kyuubi.
CLASS: Hero.

BACKGROUND:

The world of Naruto is one where the realms of gritty, ninja-style assassinations, Saturday-morning shounen heroics, and the lives of child soldiers collide. The manga largely takes place on an unnamed continent where so-called "Hidden Villages," populate many of the countries therein. In turn, each of these Villages trains, houses, and supplies the country they reside within a standing army of mercenaries known as "Shinobi," who are each trained from an early age in the arts of teamwork, assassination, and ninjutsu. The world is also populated by a variety of supernatural creatures ranging from talking animals to demons, and takes many of its mythological and historical cues from both Japanese history and mythology.

» Childhood; aka: Naruto Prime

At the beginning of the series, we're introduced to the manga's titular character, one Uzumaki Naruto. His story, however, actually begins fourteen years prior to the first chapter of the manga, specifically on the eve of his birth. On this night, a series of events leads to a monstrous demon known only as the Nine-tailed Demon Fox being released from its prison within Naruto's mother. This forces Naruto's father to kill himself using a forbidden technique designed to reseal the demon within a new vessel, which he chooses to be his own son. Naruto is thus forever marked as a Jinchūriki -- a person in which a powerful demonic entity known as a Tailed Beast is sealed inside of -- and spends the next fourteen years being both ostracized and feared by those around him.

During this period, Naruto decides that becoming his village's Hokage, or top shinobi and village leader is the only way he'll become respected by the people who hate him. He enrolls in his village's shinobi academy by himself, and spends years trying to master the necessary skills that will allow him to attain the rank of Genin, or "rookie ninja." Every time he tries to pass however, he somehow manages to royally fail one aspect of the test, and is held back a year. This pattern continues until he's given the chance to prove himself outside of the classroom, whereupon during another shinobi's attempt to murder Naruto the blonde both saves the man trying to protect him, and utterly wipes the floor with the shinobi trying to kill them both.

Shortly thereafter, Naruto is then given the rank of Genin for his deeds, and ends up placed on a team composed of both his first love, Haruno Sakura, and his long-time rival in all things, Uchiha Sasuke. The Hokage also chooses one of Konoha's most famous shinobi -- Hatake Kakashi -- to lead the trio and teach them how to act like a unit, rather than a combination of clashing personalities.

Kakashi’s teaching methods, however, are…pretty sketchy at best -- rather than teach the kids how to act like a team outright, he instead pits them against each other. In an exercise he called the “Bell’s test,” Kakashi states that whichever of the three is incapable of claiming one of the two bells on his waist will be sent back to the academy, while the other two will simply be unceremoniously kicked off of his team.

What follows is, perhaps, indicative of the tragedies that will follow.

Though Kakashi handicaps himself by only using one hand, each of the three Genin fail the test miserably. Naruto is too boisterous and headstrong, Sakura too timid and mentally fragile, and Sasuke too focused on proving himself the best. It’s only after they’ve given up, and share an actual moment together as a team that Kakashi relents, proclaiming that they’ve now passed the test and are part of his team and worthy of the name Shinobi.

Fast forward a few weeks later, and Naruto and co find themselves on their first real mission together. It all seems easy enough at first – they only have to escort someone somewhere – but eventually things get far too complicated, far too fast. The mission is originally billed as being of C-rank, but actually turns out to be of a much, much higher rank when a rogue shinobi by the name of Momichi Zabuza appears. Kakashi tries to keep things under control, but it’s eventually left up to Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura to pull through, stay alive, and work together to get everyone home safely.

Obviously the team prevails in the end and returns home for a much needed break. Their vacation, however, is short-lived. About a week or so after returning, word gets around that Konoha will be hosting the twice-annual Chuunin exam, an exhibition-slash-competition-slash-obligatory-fighting-tournament wherein teams of Genin from around the continent compete to show that they’re ready to receive the rank of Chuunin, or journeyman ninja. With the coming of the tournament, a slew of new tragedies and problems Naruto has to deal with arises – the most prominent of which being the arrival of a powerful shinobi named Orochimaru.

As the tournament is one of the largest arcs, I'll summarize the most important events below.

During the tournament, Naruto...

Meets another Jinchūriki named Gaara, who shows him what his life would be like if he had never been loved.
Is abandoned by Kakashi, who now blatantly shows his favoritism to Sasuke when it comes to training.
Gets to show his naysayers that he belongs in the exams, pulling two upset victories out from seeming defeat.
Meets Itachi, Sasuke’s older brother and the murderer of their entire clan; the sole person Sasuke desperately wants to kill.
Meets Jiraiya, a famous shinobi of the Leaf who takes him under his wing and teaches him a valuable new technique.
Sees that even the strongest of Shinobi are not immortal, as Orochimaru kills the current Hokage.

After this, Jiraiya convinces Naruto to travel with him in his search to find the new Hokage. It's here that Naruto learns his signature technique, the Rasengan, and also where he proves himself instrumental in convincing Jiraiya's long-time friend Tsunade to assume the mantle of Hokage. The trio returns to Konoha shortly thereafter, and Naruto attempts to take a well-deserved breather...only to find out that something is incredibly off with his teammate Sasuke. The Uchiha, it seems, has only become more agitated and restless since the end of the Chuunin exam. He constantly snaps at both of his teammates and shuns them, seemingly infuriated with something neither Sakura nor Naruto can understand.

It’s not until Sasuke challenges Naruto to a duel on the roof of the hospital he’s in that everything seemingly falls into place. And by then, it’s almost certainly too later – after seeing by how much Naruto has surpassed him, Sasuke decides to leave Konoha and join up with Orochimaru, who offered him a way to kill his brother when the two met during the Chuunin exam. Naruto sets out in pursuit of Sasuke with several of his other friends shortly after, and the two meet for one final showdown at the base of a waterfall leading into an area of land known as “The Valley of the End.”

The two battle, with the both of them being even in almost every way until they decide to trade their final blow. Here, rather than aim to kill Sasuke, Naruto’s goal is to knock the other boy unconscious, while Sasuke proves how set he is on leaving his old life behind by ramming his fist through Naruto’s chest and out the other side.

It’s here that two fairly important things things happen.

The first is that we learn that Naruto seemingly cannot die, as his wounds literally sear over and close. The second is that, when pressed, Naruto can allow the demon inside of him to take over, and then use its chakra as though it were his own. What follows is a battle that reshapes the very landscape, with both Naruto and Sasuke vying to try and convince the other that their way is the correct one, that what they want is something more important than the wants and desires of everyone else.

Ultimately, the battle would end with Sasuke victorious, with Naruto knocked unconscious and incapable of stopping his lifelong rival from leaving the behind the life he believed he no longer needed to be a part of.

» Timeskip; aka: the Jiraiya Years.

After being dragged back to Konoha by Kakashi, Naruto rests in the hospital to heal up his almost non-existent wounds. Jiraiya then shows up before the blonde is discharged, and offers to teach him everything he needs to know to become the next Hokage. A bunch of miscellaneous adventures happen here, but are mainly only covered in the anime during its filler arcs. Of most importance, however, would be the time that Jiraya tried to teach Naruto how to better utilize the Fox's chakra, an event which...actually ended up being a horrible idea, and nearly killed them both.

» Post-Timeskip; aka: Naruto Shipudden

After two and a half years of training with Jiraiya, Naruto returns to Konoha. Now fifteen years old, the blonde visits many of the friends he's left behind and marvels at how they've all changed, or have been promoted in his absence. Jiraiya then leaves Naruto in his ex-mentor's care, and departs to further his investigation into an organization known only as the Akatsuki. This organization -- which we only caught brief glimpses of in the first part of the manga -- effectively become the main antagonists of the second half of the manga, as it's discovered that their true intentions are to steal the Jinchūriki of every Hidden Village for purposes unknown.

At this point, Naruto rejoins his old team -- sans Sasuke -- and is immediately sent on a mission to the Village Hidden in the Sand. The mission, however, is a total clusterfuck. Though their goal is to save Gaara from having his demon extracted from his body by the Akatsuki, they arrive too late, and Gaara is killed. Naruto understandably flips out at this, since by now he and Gaara have become good friends, and it's his impassioned speech that convinces one of the elders of the Village to give up her life to revive Gaara. The team then learns of the presence of a spy within the Akatsuki, and, after bidding Gaara farewell with a heart handshake, Naruto and the rest of Team 7 return back to Konoha to regroup and start out on the search.

Kakashi, however, does not join them. Instead, a member of the ANBU -- Konoha's highest rank of ninja -- named Yamato is installed as the head of the team. With him comes the taciturn, almost emotionless ANBU Sai, who brings with him a host of new problems as well. Initially, the team struggles to get along at the most basic level -- Sai is a dick, and Sakura and Naruto think he can't replace Sasuke -- and suffers extremely for it. Naruto does his best to try and see things from Sai's point of view, but Sai is literally incapable of describing the things that make him who he is, so when the team's mission actually turns out to be a trap, well. It's another clusterfuck. Rather than the spy being an actual informant, it appears that Kabuto -- a man who works for Orochimaru -- is in fact a double-agent, and that the purpose of the original rumor was to lure a member of the Akatsuki out so that Orochimaru could kill them. Team 7, now caught between a rock in a hard place, are forced to do battle with both Kabuto and Orochimaru.

It's here that we learn how far Naruto's training actually got him. Rather than whip out any new techniques, Naruto loses control of himself and transforms into a half-human, half-fox being made almost completely out of negative, acidic energy. He and Orochimaru do battle and are evenly matched, but because Naruto has no sense of self Yamato is forced to act and seal away his power to save the rest of the team. Orochimaru escapes with Sai -- who has now revealed himself as a traitor -- and the team follows to figure out what the hell is going on.

(Yeah, I know this doesn't make much sense. Bear with me. I am seriously, grievously paraphrasing.)

When the team arrives at Orochimaru;s hideout, they're utterly surprised to see Sasuke there. Rather than have a tearful reunion, however, Sasuke immediately attacks and drives home the point he tried to make when he first defected from the Leaf Village -- he no longer believed them a necessary part of his life. There's another battle, more grandstanding on both Naruto and Orochimaru's parts, and in the end everyone parts ways. Orochimaru retreats, and Team Seven returns back to Konoha after finding out that everything Sai did was, in fact, an order from his superiors: a group of dissidents in Konoha's military called the Root.

Flash forward a few dozen chapters wherein Naruto trains with both Yamato and Kakashi to better prepare himself, and..You know what? This is getting obscenely long so I will just do bullet points.

During his investigation of the Akatsuki, Jiraiya is killed by the organization's leader. Naruto finds out about this and spirals into depression until he reads the last book Jiraiya ever wrote, whereupon he decides to learn Jiraiya's most powerful technique to carry on the man's dream of uniting the world in peace.
The Akatsuki, now whittled down to two members after several chapters worth of fights, attack Konoha and decimate the village.
Naruto, however, shows up in the nick of time and saves everyone. He also learns that he and the leader of the Akatsuki, a former student of Jiraiya's named Nagato, aren't so different in their histories. Their methods for attaining peace were just very, very much at odds.
The Akatsuki disband.
Rumors begin to spread of Sasuke attacking a summit of world leaders. Rumors also begin to spread that he did so using a team going by the name of Akatsuki.
Naruto goes to investigate this, but the current political climate has shifted almost irrecoverably in the direction of war. He's unable to find Sasuke, and is denied further freedom in his investigation.
After learning that Konoha now plans to kill Sasuke as a traitor to keep the peace, he pleads with certain important people to try and get the decision overturned. He is denied at all points, and plans are made to keep him in protected custody once the war begins.
On the verge of giving up, he's summoned to the land where the toad spirits he is capable of summoning live, and told of a prophecy that will shake the very foundations of the world.
He then trains to try and further master his ability to use the Demon Fox's chakra, and is told that he must find a new teacher to be able to fully perfect the technique.
In his travels, he meet the last surviving Jinchūriki besides himself -- Killer B, the holder of the 8-Tailed Octopus. He immediately asks B to become his teacher, and sets off to a remote island with him to train.
During his training, Naruto is forced to confront his inner demons, and meets the spirits of both his mother and father for the very first time in his life. He also succeeds in gaining the Demon Fox's begrudging respect by mentally dueling and beating him.
While this is happening, a man by the name of Tobi -- who was once part of the Akatsuki, and apparently behind everything that's gone on in the manga thus far -- finally makes his bid for power.
War begins between the United Nations of Shinobi and the assembled forces of the newly-resurrected Akatsuki.
Having mastered his latest and most powerful technique, Naruto sets off to the battlefield to save the day yet again.
While there, he finds out that Tobi has, in fact, ressurected every great hero of the past hundred years to do battle for him using a forbidden technique -- amongst them six Jinchūrik he never got to meet
Naruto does battle with them, and finds out that they're too powerful to be controlled by just the forbidden technique. With quick thinking, he exploits this weakness and then travels to a realm in his mind, where both his Demon and seven of the other Tailed Demons are all waiting for him.
He speaks to them, makes an impression, and emerges back to the real world with yet another Shounen power-up.

This is where he'll be taken from.
PERSONALITY:
Naruto is, at times, both reckless and cunning, both selfless and selfish, remaining devoid of tact even though he's been blessed with more empathy than nearly anyone else in the series. Because Naruto was ostracized as a child, he also grew up to be the type of person who not only craved attention, but who also defined himself by what kind of attention he received.

Naruto is very open with his likes and his dislikes, with what he believes to be absolutely right and absolutely wrong. He will never lie to himself, will never spare someone the truth of the matter if he can help it, and remains so doggedly focused on pursuing his dreams that he's sometimes blinded by his cause. Naruto is goal-oriented -- almost pigheadedly so, at times -- but focuses more on the how of things instead of the why, most often coming to his conclusions based on gut feelings or a quick assessment of surface characteristics. He's devoted to what he believes is correct, but is also very, very naive in what he does believe, usually falling back on maxims or codes of honor to support his actions.

Since he wears his heart out on his sleeve so often, Naruto also takes offense to things both big and small fairly quickly, usually defaulting to threats of violence or petty name-calling whenever someone points out the faults they see in either his person or his actions. This, however, doesn't mean that Naruto is a bleeding heart forever looking to start a fight with people who disagree with him -- no, Naruto is more the type to show others what is most wrong with themselves through his words and actions, never judging anyone or anything outright despite whatever misgivings he may have at the time. He'll see someone as evil if they present themselves to him as such, but believes that people aren't always as they seem.

That said, Naruto is still very, very, very immature for someone his age. Whereas many of his friends grew up in relatively loving households -- the Hyuuga notwithstanding -- Naruto grew up as both an orphan and someone who was hated and discriminated against by the majority of his village. This means that, again, Naruto defined himself by the kind of attention he got, and decided at a relatively young age to act out and receive that attention.

This acting out took the form in the many harmless -- and not so harmless -- pranks and practical jokes that Naruto soon became famous for. It also led the blond to develop a very strange and...almost masochistic mental complex where he could only express what he really felt through his fists. This, in turn, led Naruto to seemingly and subconsciously confuse the concept of abuse with his concept of love, as all of his closest bonds with those around are those born out of strife, or pain.

He is not attached to the concept of parents -- and very rarely wonders about his own parentage -- because of this, focusing more on reaffirming bonds that he can immediate gratification out of; to Naruto, Sakura has to hit him when he professes his love to her because that's what love is, and Sasuke has to fight with Naruto over everything because that's what friends do. He's never been exposed to what normal relationships between children are, so, even at sixteen he's still a brat who won't think about compromise or understanding when he get what he wants through force of will alone.

Naruto is basically a socially awkward child continuously caught in a cycle of needing his existence to be reaffirmed through violence, as this is both another type of attention -- which, remember, he is a glutton for -- and the only way he can understand what other people are all about. Since he's had to fight for everything he wanted, other people's problems only begin to make sense -- or have any gravity -- when they're shoved into his face or backed with a fist; this doesn't mean, however, that Naruto is inherently violent or stupid. He's just a very hands-on, very driven person that learns through doing, and who finally masters things when he's had several chances to mess up, pick himself back up, and try again. And again. And again, all the way until he gets it right.

POWER:
Chakra Manipulation - The ability to shape and control a naturally occurring form of internal energy -- dubbed Chakra -- to achieve a variety of supernatural effects. Though most characters in the Naruto universe can use chakra to enhance many of their physical abilities, Naruto is quite bad at this, and only uses it to achieve three very distinct effects.

The first ability is that, by expelling a continuous stream of chakra through his feet, Naruto can walk on sheer surfaces or even on water, treating both as though they were just solid path.
The second ability allows Naruto to manipulate one of the five element he is most associated with: Wind. This ability, however, doesn't generally come into play, simply because Naruto doesn't know many ninjutsu that utilize the Wind element outside of his Rasengan.
Though not a master of the third ability, Naruto also uses chakra to speed himself up and give a small amount of weight to his physical attacks.

Ninjutsu - Combined with his ability to manipulate Chakra, Naruto is also able to use a number of supernatural techniques he's learned over the years, many of them akin to spells from a Wizard's spell book. For a full list of Naruto's ninjutsu, see this post. If it's alright with the mods, I'd like him to at least keep the ability to summon one of his toads -- Gamakichi, his best friend amongst the toad family. The other toads I can part with.

Jinchuuriki - At a young age, Naruto was chosen to be the sole container for a terrifying and powerful demon known only as the Nine Tailed Demon Fox. Using a forbidden technique, Naruto's father sealed the demon within his son once Naruto was born, which forever changed Naruto's body on both a spiritual and physical level. Because of the Fox's presence, Naruto is able to:

Heal himself from terminal injury, as the Fox's chakra will not allow Naruto to die.
Receive an overall boost to all of his abilities, making what was once just superhuman terribly, horrifically demonic.
Use the Fox's chakra to attack or defend himself, growing multiple arms or Fox-tails capable of simple motor functions.

He's still able to be killed, however. By City rules, he'd probably have a regeneration factor that can "burn out" after he's taken the appropriate level of damage, whereupon the Fox will take over for around and hour before also "dying" as well.

He also can't use the Fox's chakra for long because it taxes his body to the point of paralyzing him after five minutes or so.
[CHARACTER SAMPLES]
COMMUNITY POST (VOICE) SAMPLE:

Oi! OI! What the hell is going on here? This is not where I need to be right now!

_{[ There's frantic movement -- running, obviously. ]}

--There's a stupid guy in a stupid mask that needs to get his ass whupped and I'm the only one who can do it! I don't have time to be messing around here!

_{[ A pause. ]}

Wherever here is..._{[ There's a rustle of cloth. ]} --Okay, Naruto: think. You were fighting Tobi or Madara or whatever his dumb face his calling himself now, kickin' his ass every way from here to Sunday, and then...Then...

_{[ And we're back at frantic again. ]}

I want some answers, dammit! Where am I? Who did this? Where'z Octo-dude and everyone else?! Sakura-chan?! Granny?! The Leaf Village's Number One Hokage Candidate ain't gonna be pushed around like this, whoever you are!!!

LOGS POST (PROSE) SAMPLE:

Ten seconds.

Growing up, he’d been taught a great many things by Iruka-sensei. Some he’d absorbed instantaneously, like how long it took to cook beef correctly over an open fire, while things like acting his age or learning how to defer to his betters went in through one ear and out the other. Others still had taken months, if not years to beat into his skull. But eventually he had had learned; had triumphed, in the end. And it was that dedication, that unwillingness to throw Naruto aside like so many others that he thought of now, looking out over the battlefield.

Nine seconds.

He’d grown up all his life wanting to be something more – to be more than just an orphan, to be more than just a shinobi, or a problem child, or even just the Rokudaime Hokage. All his life he’d been told that he’d never amount to anything, that he was never going to reach his dream simply because others were further ahead of him, or more qualified. Sixteen years, and all he’d ever heard from anyone was stop; was slow down; was stop carrying on to the beat of your own drum.

Eight seconds.

He’d have none of it today. Not when so many counted on him. He stood on a cliff overlooking the battlefield and felt the Ninetails prickle at the back of his mind – a clawing, fiery presence more insistent than overpowering. They’ve reached an accord of sorts, an agreement of ceasefire born out of mutual desperation and – at least Naurto thinks – respect. In all of his time being a human sacrifice, he’d never thought it’d come to this.

Only part of him felt trepidation over what the truce could entail.

Seven seconds.

His allies were below him, fighting for their lives. He felt an odd mixture of pride and fear because of it – they were, after all, his special people. Those he would do anything to protect; but they were also warriors in their own right, and seeing them shed away their civilian personas and become something else was…beautiful, in a way. It’s what he wants to show the world; that shinobi were capable of being more than their constituent parts, that deadly ninjutsu and years of training could amount to more than just tragedy and heartache.

Six seconds.

Briefly, he thought of Sakura and Hinata fighting for their lives; of Kakashi and Sasuke, and the difference one brief moment of hesitation could change a person.

Five seconds.

A quick assessment of the battlefield told him where he needed to go, a second revealing what he needed to do. The chakra in his body broiled and thundered through his veins, every second he’s not moving passing by in glacial sluggishness. He’d never been a person to sit and wait, to formulate ideas and then execute them. If it hadn’t been for Bee, standing next to him with knuckles so white they were almost see-through, it would’ve physically hurt to keep still.

He’d long since realized that he wasn’t the only one with everything at stake.

Four seconds.

Clones appeared around them by the hundreds, screaming and hollering. Each one of them glowed with the newfound power he’d all but taken from the Ninetails, their combined aura glimmering like a sunrise just peaking over the horizon.

Three seconds.

He gripped the necklace around his neck tight, drawing in a deep breath.

Two seconds.

“Go.”

One second.

The clones leap all at once, raining down across the battlefield in a hailstorm of gold, orange, and fire.

Zero.

The world suddenly shifts, and an oddly metallic voice proclaims: “Welcome to the City, Hero.”

FINAL NOTES:
The Ninetails isn't really alive, per se. It exists as more of an amalgamation of sentient energy within Naruto's head, so I don't know if it would count as a separate character or not.