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When the long-running Naruto series reached its end with Shippuden in 2017, audiences were left with many questions of which only some have been answered in the sequel series, Boruto. However, one mystery stands out above the rest and still leaves fans baffled several years later: How does Naruto’s childhood make any sense?
How Did Everyone but Naruto Know He Was a Jinchuriki?
Even before Shippuden, at the very start of Naruto, we are told that Naruto is an orphan hated by the Hidden Leaf Village because he has a demon who attacked the village sealed inside of him. Throughout the series and well into Shippuden, Naruto’s lineage, familial connections, and the conditions in which he grew up are revealed, giving more context to Naruto’s early childhood. With each new piece of information given, more questions continued to plague fans, including myself.
How does a child who is considered a “weapon” to be guarded, the son of a world-famous leader, and one of the last remaining members of a powerful clan become a neglected and abused outcast?
Two pieces of information were meant to be made confidential on the day Naruto was born: No one was to know who Naruto’s parents were and no one was to know about the Nine-Tailed Fox sealed inside him. Both were meant to protect Naruto. However, this information was not handled well in any capacity, leading to several plot holes.
The first plot hole is the fact that Naruto’s parents’ identities were unknown to everyone except those close to his father. Naruto’s parents were Minato Namikaze (the Fourth Hokage and late leader of the Hidden Leaf Village) and Kushina Uzumaki (the previous Jinchuriki of the Nine-Tailed Fox). Both of them were well-known figures in the village. The villagers would know what their leader looked like. They would know who his wife was and that she was pregnant.
Then comes Naruto, who looks like a clone of his father but has the personality of his mother and is the new Jinchuriki after Kushina. He even has his mother’s last name, Uzumaki. It couldn’t be more obvious who his parents are. I remember the first time I saw a picture of Minato, long before we even knew his name, and I instantly recognized who he was to Naruto.
While the village was horrible at connecting the dots to Naruto’s parentage, they were quick to figure out that he was the new Jinchuriki despite it supposedly being confidential information, with some even believing Naruto was the demon itself. It became the worst-kept secret in the village and the very reason Naruto’s early childhood was an absolute disaster.
Despite both Naruto’s parents and his Jinchuriki status being top secret, the villagers were unable to deduce the obvious but somehow became aware of the more unapparent information.
How Did Naruto Raise Himself?
The plot holes throughout Naruto and Naruto Shippuden continue to build once you look at Minato and Kushina’s friends and support system and compare that to how Naruto was raised. Somehow Naruto survived despite not having anyone to raise him. We are shown flashbacks of him at around five years old, living by himself, receiving a monthly allowance and a quick check-out by the Third Hokage. No adult was living with Naruto, and no one was taking care of him.
We learn later in the series that Jiraiya was Naruto’s godfather, Mikoto Uchiha (Sasuke’s mother) was a close friend of Kushina’s, and the Nara clan (Shikamaru’s father specifically) held no malice towards Naruto and even seemed to pity him. Somehow no adult stepped forward to raise the son of their student, friend, or former leader. Arguments could be made that anyone who took care of Naruto would have control over a “powerful weapon” and the village elders didn’t want anyone with that power. But that’s a stretch considering how Naruto was able to run around unsupervised.
Of course, none of this explains who took care of baby Naruto or why the village leaders left a toddler to live on his own. How was a small kid able to take care of himself?
By all accounts, Naruto could have easily grown up to despise his village and become a villain. The only reason Naruto didn’t become the big bad of Shippuden and the rest of the series was due to Iruka, Naruto’s first teacher and the first person to show him any affection. It should be noted that Iruka was only a teenager himself when he met Naruto.
How Do You Make Sense of Naruto’s Childhood?
To be frank, Naruto’s early childhood is probably a product of poor planning and a shift in story progression. At first, Naruto seemed like a random orphan who came from nowhere important. He was originally meant to be the underdog who showed that hard work would overcome heritage, talent, and destiny. This theme of hard work versus raw talent was a large part of the first half of the series. It continued to appear in duos like Naruto and Sasuke, Rock Lee and Neji, and, even to some extent, Sakura and Ino, each one representing either hard work or inherited talent.
Naruto was originally a story focused on telling readers that, no matter who you are or where you come from, if you work hard you can achieve anything. But at some point, the story’s original message got lost.
Naruto‘s story started to shift its theme in Shippuden, which served as the second half of the series. There was less thematic consistency between the pre-time skip Naruto and post-time skip Shippuden sections, with the post-time skip Shippuden story adding more stress on how important and special Naruto was by giving him more familial connections and a powerful heritage. It’s in this second half that all the plot points that created the plot holes in his early childhood were added.
If the story stayed consistent with its original theme, fans wouldn’t be squinting at a board full of red string trying to make sense of Naruto’s past. Instead, it would have stayed the simple, sad backstory it originally was made out to be. Naruto would have been some random bullied kid who grew up achieving his dream on his own merits despite the odds — someone who started with nothing and gained everything through hard work alone.
Naruto no longer represents the “hard work” side of the duo but instead has become the “inherited talent” to justify his importance. How Naruto creator Masashi Kishimoto went about it made Naruto’s backstory more confusing and frustrating than sad.Read more
