Naruto Shippuden

Before Minato died, he asked that the villagers of Konoha view Naruto as a hero who had helped defeat Kurama. However, only a few of the villagers honoured his request, while most instead resented him for containing the fox that had destroyed their home. In light of this, the Third Hokage decreed that nobody should ever speak of the truth about Naruto, hoping that by doing this, their children would not resent him as they did. The children, however, followed their parents' lead, despite not knowing why. Apart from the Third Hokage, Iruka Umino was the only one who acted as a surrogate family to the young Naruto along with the owner ofRamen Ichiraku: Teuchi and his daughter Ayame to some extent.

When Naruto first metSasuke Uchiha in theAcademy, they were matched to spar against each other. Naruto was excited at the opportunity to defeat Sasuke and become so popular like him, however he was easily beaten. By looking at Sasuke's eyes, Naruto realised that they were filled with hatred. When Iruka told them to make the reconciliation seal, they both refused.^[8] Then, Naruto became determined to beat Sasuke, making him his rival. When Naruto found out that Sasuke was also an orphan, he was secretly happy for not being the only one alone and wanted to talk to him, but couldn't because of his jealousy. Still, Naruto wished that, someday, Sasuke would acknowledge him as an equal.

Naruto is exuberant, brash, inattentive, and heedless to formality or social standings. He inherited his catch-phrase "Dattebayo!" (だってばよ!) from his mother, who would say "(da)ttebane" ((だ)ってばね) when excited or frustrated.^[9] Naruto has a number of childish traits, like keeping his money in a chubby, green-frog wallet he affectionately calls "Gama-chan",^[10] being a very picky eater (he almost exclusively eats ramen and a frequent customer at the Ramen Ichiraku), and being afraid of ghosts. He is also somewhat perverted, something he tends to be reprimanded for by Sakura Haruno and Iruka, but has only become even more so after meeting his mentor Jiraiya, causing many to say that Jiraiya raised a perfect replica of himself.^[11] However, whenever someone dear to him is in trouble or the situation calls for it, Naruto can be very serious, and will instantly try to come to their aid.

According to Kakashi, Naruto learns through his body, as he is relatively naive, simple, and being slow to understand a principle or situation, which often requires an oversimplified analogy in order to grasp what is being explained to him.^[12] Overall, Naruto responds best to competition and has a great self-confidence, loudly proclaiming that he will master whatever technique he is learning within a fraction of the usual time,^[13] and he doesn't hesitate to ask for help if he needs it.^[14]

Due to the prejudice and loneliness he suffered in his childhood, Naruto developed a craving for acknowledgement. In order to achieve this, Naruto would pull pranks all around the village and even going far as strive for the title of Hokage. Even after graduating from the academy, Naruto was still determined to be recognised, but as he made more and more connections with others, his reasons for wanting to become Hokage underwent a change, having less to do with the desire for recognition, and more to do with wanting the strength to protect his home and the people close to him. As noted by Tobi, Naruto possessed the Will of Fire, likening him to Hashirama Senju in this aspect.^[15] Naruto's determination and drive strongly impacts the lives of those around him, even his enemies had been affected by his empathy. Both Kakashi and Temari referred to Naruto's amazing charisma as a "unique power" that allows him to change the other's point of view.^[16][17] Son Gokū also thought of him as an open and honest person.^[18] Like Guy and Rock Lee, when Naruto makes a promise, he assumes the "nice guy pose".

Sasuke's defection shocked Naruto to his core, but he never wavered in his resolve to bring him back to Konoha. When his teacher Jiraiya was killed in battle by Akatsuki leader Pain, he vowed vengeance against the man and left Konoha for a time to train in senjutsu.^[19] Upon returning home after Pain destroyed the village and succumbing to rage, he met and spoke with his father, Minato Namikaze, who explained to him the cycle of hatred and entrusted him with the duty of saving the ninja world from its hate.^[20] After listening to Nagato's story of how hatred can shape a person and the world into darkness, Naruto vowed he would end the cycle of hatred and bring peace to the ninja world.^[21] This decision however would come in direct opposition in his quest to bring Sasuke home, something that at first depressed him deeply.^[22] However after meeting again in the Land of Iron, Naruto resolved that if he had to he would fight and potentially kill his friend to end the cycle of hatred and save Sasuke from despair, even if it costs his own life.^[23]

When he discovered that the Fourth Shinobi World War had started, Naruto made it his mission to end the war all by himself, so no one else would suffer.^[24] He continued to do so until his battle with the reincarnated Nagato andItachi Uchiha. After the fight, even though Itachi acknowledged Naruto that he had become stronger, he explained to Naruto that if he continued to believe that he could do everything alone, he would become arrogant like Madara. Itachi also said that if Naruto were to become Hokage, he should never forget his friends or do everything on his own.^[25]

After Killer B refused to train Naruto, Motoi guided Naruto and Yamato to theFalls of Truth, the place where B trained to control Gyūki's power. He instructed Naruto to sit on a platform and close his eyes. Soon after, Dark Naruto (闇ナルト, Yami Naruto), the manifestation of hatred that existed within Naruto's heart, appeared, berating Naruto for how quickly the people from Konoha changed their ideals about him.^[26] Dark Naruto exclaimed that Kurama liked him better and he was the real Naruto while Naruto was an imposter.^[27] They started to fight, but after a while, Naruto realised that they both had the same techniques, skills, and tactics. As a result, their fight was a draw and Naruto mentioned that if they continued like this, it would take a very long time to settle it.

He appeared once again after Naruto returned to the Falls of Truth. Instead of fighting, Naruto projected an image from his mind of his autograph signature that he was unable to give to the Konoha shinobi. This angered Dark Naruto, pointing out to Naruto that those people were part of the same villagers who made him suffer as an outcast, telling him that he shouldn't trust them. However, Naruto stated that he trusted the villagers because they were important to him, but what was also important was that he needed to have faith in himself, so he would have the strength to live up to the villagers' trust in him. Naruto's statement started to weaken Dark Naruto, then forcing him to ask what was the reason for his existence. Naruto stated that Dark Naruto was really him and thanked Dark Naruto for pushing him to be the person he was now. He hugged Dark Naruto when the latter tried to attack him, telling Dark Naruto that it was all going to be alright. Letting go of his own anger at their past, Dark Naruto's eyes lightened as he gave into Naruto's words, and disappeared.^[28]

Later, when Naruto entered his subconscious, Kurama expressed surprise as it could no longer sense any hatred within Naruto, and questioned Naruto about where the "real him" was, to which Naruto replied that the real him was right in front of it.^[29]

Main article: Naruto Uzumaki's RelationshipsDue to his friendly nature and his unique charisma, Naruto has built many relationships over the course of the series that have defined him and others, even tailed beasts and other jinchūriki. Many of these relationships started off antagonistic, but through his tenacity and empathy, they developed into deep and lasting friendships.

As stated by Jiraiya, Naruto bears a striking resemblance to his father, having Minato's blue eyes and blond, spiky hair.^[30] From his mother, Naruto inherited the shape of both her eyes and face.^[31] During the Fourth Shinobi World War,Dan Katō initially mistakes him for Nawaki due to their stark resemblance as well.^[32] Naruto's most prominent physical characteristics, however, are the whisker marks on his face that he gained from Kurama's influence on him while he was in Kushina's womb. Probably Naruto's most regularly mentioned trait before the second half of the series (which easily provoked him) was his short stature for his age. After the time skip, he had a noticeably significant growth spurt which made him taller than his team-mate, Sakura.^[33]

In Part I, Naruto's outfit consisted of an orange tracksuit with blue on the upper shoulders area as well as around the waist, a white swirl with a tassel on the left side, a red swirl on the back, a large white collar, orange pants, blue sandals, and a blue forehead protector that was given to him by Iruka after he graduated from the Academy.

In Part II, Naruto's outfit undergoes modification after being worn to shreds during his training with Jiraiya.^[34] The outfit retains the orange colour as well as the white (without the tassel) and red swirls, but the jacket is much more form fitting with the blue parts changed to black and the colour extending from around the neck and shoulders, down the front and sleeves. The forehead protector has also changed with Naruto moving the metal portion to a new longer black bandanna and he wears black sandals instead of blue. During his battle with Pain, Naruto briefly sported a short-sleeved red coat with a black flame pattern along the hemline. He also carried a large summoning scroll on his back.

When he enters his Nine-Tails Chakra Mode, his body is covered in a yellow shroud of chakra, upon which his seal is clearly visible. He also gains a necklace of magatama around his neck. Finally his hair spikes up, with the two endmost locks resembling horns. After he and Kurama melded their chakra, his appearance changed once again. The shroud splits down the middle and opens up into a cloak that has a tattered appearance. The previously smaller 'horns' grow out larger, and his whisker marks become thicker. Underneath the 'coat', the magatama are still visible and he gains a new set around the 'collar' of the coat. Underneath this his seal changes once again opening out into circles instead of swirls. He also gains seals on his hands and feet. The cloak also has nine, tail-like appendages formed from the cloak and flowing from it with lines running down the middle of each.

At the start of the series, one of the only techniques Naruto could do without fail was the Transformation Technique, and his own original variant of the technique called the Sexy Technique; a creative but almost completely useless diversionary technique.^[35] Throughout Part I he learns a number of short-range techniques, which are expanded upon during his two-and-a-half years of training with Jiraiya. Naruto also improves his knowledge of other ninja skills while under Jiraiya's tutelage, using more taijutsu and ninja tools than he did in Part I. He also learned how to dispel genjutsu and despite his limited skill with it he was able to resist being put to sleep by Itachi Uchiha. During Part II, he starts to master longer-range techniques, such as the Wind Release: Rasenshuriken, Mini-Rasenshuriken, chakra arms, and Tailed Beast Ball.

In Part I, Naruto was regularly noted to have a great deal of potential. When Orochimaru saw him defeat Kabuto, he tried to kill Naruto for fear of what he would become.^[36] Much of this potential manifests itself during Part II, regularly proving himself a match for the S-rank members of Akatsuki. His victory over the Six Paths of Pain has earned him great accolade in the ninja world: Konoha villagers now even believe he is Hokage-material after they hear about it, and Zetsu, after seeing the battle, suggests Naruto has become stronger than Sasuke, who also showed similar improvement against Akatsuki members.^[37][38] Even Kurama showed surprise at Naruto's sudden increase in strength during the second half of their fight in Naruto's subconscious. As another testament to his power, Naruto earned the acknowledgement of the revived Madara Uchiha, who was considered one of the most powerful shinobi in history, second only to Hashirama Senju after stopping one of the Uchiha's strongest attacks.^[39] With further training and control of Kurama's power, he is even able to fight on a comparable level against Kage of both the previous and current generation on the battlefield. After forming an alliance with Kurama, he could fight Tobi's fully transformed tailed beasts and overwhelm them, ultimately freeing them from his control all at once.

Being a descendant of the Uzumaki clan, Naruto inherited an incredibly strong life-force. This gives him extraordinary stamina and vitality, and by extension, an equally long lifespan. Despite his young age, Naruto has been repeatedly noted to have a massive chakra reserve, to which Kakashi, estimated it to be at least four times greater than his own during their initial missions together as Team 7.^[40] His chakra was described by Karin to be warm and bright, the exact opposite of Sasuke.^[41] He apparently has some knowledge on fūinjutsu, as he knew how to use the seal's key after receiving Gerotora, and resealed Kurama after he separated it from its chakra.^[42]Jiraiya had left Naruto with the key to help him complete an as of yet unknown technique which he, Naruto, and Minato have been working on, but never finished. Naruto stated that he was ready to complete it.

During the Fourth Shinobi World War, Naruto received some chakra from seven of the nine tailed beasts; the effects of this gift are currently unknown.

Main article: Naruto Uzumaki's Jinchūriki Forms

As Kurama's jinchūriki, Naruto's already considerable chakra reserve is greatly enhanced to enormous levels, to which Kakashi estimated it to be a hundred times greater than his own when its influence is not suppressed.^[40] It also gives Naruto accelerated healing (recovering from minor injuries within seconds and major injuries within a day). Also, depending on the amount of Kurama's chakra he's using, Naruto is given an increase in strength, speed, and his healing factor are pushed to such levels that he completely recovered from aChidori through his chest in mere seconds with no signs left. At times, he is also granted a fox-shaped chakra shroud with massive invulnerability, being able to resist being pierced by Orochimaru's Sword of Kusanagi, a sword known as being able to cut through adamantine, and is completely undamaged by the alkali substance excreted by Saiken, which was able to damage Gyūki and disintegrate its surroundings rapidly.

The seal had allowed a small amount of Kurama's chakra to always mix with Naruto's own. In Part I, Jiraiya once stated that Naruto's body was much too small a vessel to properly contain Kurama's chakra, and his body would instinctively reject the bulk of it due to the damage it could cause. Ebisu also implied that Naruto's poor chakra control stemmed from this, as a portion of his chakra was used in attempt to suppress Kurama's own overwhelming chakra.

Kurama's chakra first came to Naruto during life-threatening situations, given to him by the fox itself to ensure its survival, but after training with Jiraiya, Naruto learned how to contact Kurama and demand some of its chakra. Alternatively, Naruto could give into his anger or frustration, allowing Kurama to force its influence upon him. Depending on how much he gained, Kurama's influence within its chakra could make Naruto lose control of his senses, devolving into an animal that attacks anything within reach, as well as damaging his own body, slowly shortening his lifespan. Although a number of methods had been devised to break its influence over Naruto (Jiraiya's seal tag,^[43] and Yamato's Hokage-Style Sixty-Year-Old Technique — Kakuan Entering Society with Bliss-Bringing Hands, which was facilitated by Hashirama Senju's necklace Naruto wore before its destruction),^[44][45] Naruto simply limited his use of Kurama's chakra, and tried not to allow his anger get the best of him, but he eventually attempted to exercise more control over it.

The Nine-Tails Chakra Mode is a form that Naruto gained after he separated and sealed Kurama from its chakra. He could access its chakra directly whenever he needed it without interacting with the fox at all. In doing so, he gained a chakra shroud that resembles the Sage of the Six Paths' silhouette.^[42] This form's chakra shroud also gave Naruto a great deal of protection, but he noted that it would have been dangerous, and the fight would have been over, if A had got a clean hit on him.^[46] Like his predecessor, Mito Uzumaki, Naruto also gains Kurama's ability to sense negative emotions, even while he was inside a chakra isolation chamber within the Falls of Truth; something that not even the best sensor-type ninja can do.^[47][48] The power of his techniques become so great that unless they already have some inherent durability, like the Third Raikage, reincarnated shinobi have a hard time regenerating.^[49] He had shown to stay in this form for an entire night and most of the morning during the Fourth Shinobi World War, much longer than that ofSage Mode.

Like Killer B and Gyūki, Naruto eventually reconciled with Kurama and has access to its full powers. When they meld their chakra together, he gains a new Nine-Tails Chakra Mode as well as the ability to create a tailed-beast cloak. In both forms, he has shown tremendous speed and power able to deflect multiple Tailed Beast Balls and take on several tailed beastssimultaneously. He is also able to use the Tailed Beast Ball himself. His skill with the Tailed Beast Ball is high enough that he could aim it perfectly at the bottom of the combined Tailed Beast Ball Tobi's controlled beasts made to send both flying into the air and explode.^[50] He could also use his tails as chakra arms, making a clone in each while in the initial Nine-Tails Chakra Mode to attack all at once.^[51]

Naruto has always been at least passable in taijutsu, ever since the Academy where he received a B in that class. Throughout Part I, his taijutsu slowly improved, where it was first showcased in his battle with Kiba Inuzuka in theChūnin Exams preliminaries where he was able to hold his own and avoid multiple slash attacks from Kiba and Akamaru's Four Legs Technique without the aid of his shadow clones. A testament to his skill with taijutsu was shown when Naruto was fighting against Neji Hyūga's Gentle Fist techniques in the Chūnin Exam finals, where he got into striking distance using only hand-to-hand combat. After the time skip, Naruto's taijutsu improved greatly under the tutelage of Jiraiya where he could hold his own in hand-to-hand against several shinobi skilled in taijutsu. Throughout the series, Naruto's taijutsu continually improved, eventually learning the Frog Kata style fromFukasaku. He was also able to react quickly enough to block Karui's sword with his elbow while she was slashing, then catch her blade when she tried a spinning slash, and even break it. In Sage Mode, he was able to beat theDeva Path twice in taijutsu, the first time sending it flying back with a roundhouse kick leaving it vulnerable to aWind Release: Rasenshuriken, and the second time disarming it of its Chakra Disruption Blade and sending it crashing into a boulder with a single kick. After thinking he found a weakness in the Third Raikage's ultimate shield, Naruto used the Frog Kata style to avoid his Hell Stab when it was just one finger by sensing the chakra, before slamming a Rasengan right into the Raikage's elbow to send his Nukite slamming right into his chest.^[52]While in Nine-Tails Chakra Mode, he was also able to block several of A's immensely strong punches despite being intercepted several times.^[46]

On top of his taijutsu skills, Naruto has shown a high level of physical strength. During the Chūnin Exams, he stopped a charge from one of Orochimaru's giant snakes albeit while using Kurama's chakra. During his senjutsutraining in Part II, he was able to budge one of the huge statues without using the special oil. After the training, he could shatter stone with his raw strength, as seen when he escaped from the petrified Preta Path after it absorbed too much of his senjutsu chakra. His strength is increased to such a point in Sage Mode where he can toss not only the Animal Path's Giant Rhino after stopping its charge, but Kurama itself. In Nine-Tails Chakra Mode, Naruto becomes strong enough to push a fully formed Tailed Beast Ball through a multiple layered barrier.^[53]

Naruto has also displayed impressive speed over the time skip as well. When confronting Sasuke after the Five Kage Summit, he saved Sakura from her own poisoned kunai which Sasuke wielded to stab her and received only a shallow cut in exchange. Naruto was then able to restrain Kakashi while charging up a Rasengan, meeting Sasuke's Chidori charge and equaling it. While in Sage Mode, Naruto's speed increases greatly to the point where he could intercept the Asura Path, which was using its chakra boots before Nagato could complete his sentence or attack Tsunade. He was even able to avoid the Third Raikage's Nukite at near point blank range and retaliate with a Rasengan after meeting his charge. Naruto's speed is at its greatest however, while in his Nine-Tails Chakra Mode, where Killer B even had trouble determining if he used the Body Flicker Technique when attacking Kisame Hoshigaki, who was hidden in Samehada. His speed in this form surpasses even that of A's while clad in hisLightning Release Armour as seen when he was able to dodge A's attack while he was clad in a full-powered lightning armour and using what he referred to as his fastest attack,^[54] something that only the Fourth Hokage had done in the past, with his Flying Thunder God Technique.^[55] His speed and strength seems to have increased again in his Tailed Beast Mode, using it to deflect multiple Tailed Beast Balls at point blank range, to the point where Kakashi mistook him for his sensei.^[56]

Although Naruto had trouble with the Clone Technique at the start of the series, he quickly learned how to use jōnin-level techniques, like the Shadow Clone Technique and its large-scale version. The technique would become his first signature technique, one of the two foundations of his ninjutsu, and later, the base of his training skills. The Shadow Clone Technique takes advantage of the massive chakra reserve Naruto possesses due to him being Kurama's jinchūriki. Naruto is able to create upwards of a thousand clones, and retain a decent amount of chakra in each of them. Because of this, Naruto can use his shadow clones for virtually anything, from straight combat to speed training.

In the beginning, Naruto would create a multitude of clones to overwhelm his opponents. Other times, however, he would employ the use of the Transformation Technique to change the appearance of these clones to catch his target off guard. By Part II, Naruto learned that whatever his shadow clones learn, he, the main mind, would also learn. By using this, he is able to learn techniques that would usually take months or years in days, which speed up his training greatly. Naruto takes advantage of this often, using shadow clones to determine his opponents' abilities, to determine how many clones he will really need to defeat them instead of simply wasting chakra on thousands of clones.^[57]

Despite the risks of Naruto's chakra being drained faster by Kurama whenever he uses the Shadow Clone Technique while in Nine-Tails Chakra Mode, Naruto did use the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique to scatter throughout the battlefield, although he didn't create as many as he normally does.^[58][59]

Naruto was first taught how to use the Summoning Technique by Jiraiya. After allowing Naruto to sign the summoning contract with the toads of Mount Myōboku, Jiraiya took Naruto through the execution of the technique in order to provide Naruto with allies in future battles. Additionally, Jiraiya's other motivation to teaching Naruto how to summon was to help Naruto to realise and take advantage of Kurama's chakra.

The type of toads that Naruto can summon at any time is proportional to his chakra and skill, as when he first started out he could only summon tadpoles. At first, Naruto had a hard time getting any specific toad, as he summoned either Gamakichi or Gamatatsu. But when he used Kurama's chakra, or when he was truly motivated, Naruto was able to summon the toad boss, Gamabunta. Naruto is also capable of summoning Gamahiro to use Summoning: Food Cart Destroyer Technique.

Created by the Fourth Hokage and taught to him by Jiraiya, the Rasengan is Naruto's second and strongest signature technique. While the Rasengan is a one-handed technique, Naruto required the use of two to form it due to his poor chakra control, thus using a clone to form the "shell" of the sphere. Despite this, Naruto has used the Rasengan effectively in almost every one of his fights after mastering it. The Rasengan holds an advantage over its counterpart, theChidori, in only requiring chakra control to form, while the Chidori uses so much chakra that it can only be used a few times a day. Naruto has mastered the Rasengan to a degree that he can do it almost instantaneously.^[60] He is now able to create larger Rasengan without the use of natural energy or Kurama's chakra.^[61]

The Rasengan, like the Shadow Clone Technique, would be the base of several original techniques created by Naruto, such as the Big Ball Rasengan, a larger and more powerful version of the Rasengan. He has also created the Wind Release: Rasengan and Wind Release: Rasenshuriken after his wind training, and after his senjutsu training, the Sage Art: Big Ball Rasengan, Sage Technique: Spiralling Serial Spheres and Sage Art: Ultra-Big Ball Rasengan. He has also demonstrated the combined use of his shadow clones and the Rasengan, resulting in theSage Art: Many Ultra-Big Ball Spiralling Serial Spheres, in which Naruto and his shadow clones can each use a Rasengan many times their own size against a single target. Because of the risk of using the Shadow Clone Technique while in Nine-Tails Chakra Mode, Naruto instead uses the shroud's chakra arms to help him create new Rasengan variants, such as the Spiralling Strife Spheres, the Spiralling Absorption Sphere and the Planetary Rasengan for example. He has completed the technique related to the Tailed Beast Ball: the Tailed Beast Rasengan.^[62] He later developed a miniature version of this technique.

Due to the unique nature of the Rasengan in Naruto movies, Naruto creates a new type of Rasengan, often facilitated by a character in the movie, or a unique property present in the movie.

After failing to bring Sasuke back to Konoha for the second time, Naruto went through elemental training where he discovered that he had an affinity for Wind Release. By incorporating his wind affinity with the Rasengan, which was originally intended to be combined with an element, he greatly increased the technique's power and range. The wind nature compliments a fighter like Naruto, as the wind nature is a great match for short-range fighters. By focusing his wind chakra, Naruto can go as far as cutting objects with just his chakra. During his training to use his Wind Release, Asuma Sarutobi taught him how to channel it through his weapons.

Naruto had learned nature transformation to upgrade his Rasengan, which he achieved with the Wind Release: Rasengan and the Rasenshuriken, combining peak levels of both shape and nature manipulation originally deemed impossible without natural talent or instinct. The Rasenshuriken was capable of slicing into the victim and cutting them at a cellular level faster than a Sharingan can see it. However, it caused similar damage to his own arm, as it was still a hand-held technique, despite its name. After his senjutsu training, he completed the Rasenshuriken. He could increase its power and attack radius, to the point where he could reduce Human Path to the top of its head. The speed of the Rasenshuriken is also great enough that it could cross an entire mountain range in a single second, and explode with enough force to fill up nearly half that area. In the Nine-Tails Chakra Mode, Naruto can also create a miniature Rasenshuriken, using two small chakra arms on his forefinger.

Collaboration Jutsu entail techniques that are comprised of at least two or more techniques that, when initiated with the right timing, one will feed into each other to become a technique of greater power than the sum of its parts. Naruto was introduced to the subject by Jiraiya in the anime, in order for him to synchronise with a toad, and develop a collaboration technique. Naruto eventually managed to synchronise with Gamakichi and Gamatatsu developing the Wind Release: Toad Gun, and the stronger Wind Release: Toad Oil Flame Bullet. The stronger version had enough power to temporarily knock out the Three-Tails. Naruto has also done collaboration techniques with both Gamabunta and Yamato.

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 control the natural energy around him. 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. 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 a point where he was able to intercept a chargingAsura 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 considerable distance in a short amount of time. Also while in Sage Mode, Naruto gains a sensory ability to detect and identify other people's chakra from very long distances.^[63] His sensing abilities have also enabled him to predict the movements of his enemies for easy retaliation.^[52] With his sensing abilities, he could pinpoint the Chakra Receivers that were on Tobi's tailed beastSix Paths of Pain.^[64]

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.^[65][66][67] Also, Naruto had been training to extend the time he could remain in Sage Mode. His skill with Sage Mode has increased greatly where he only needs a couple moments to enter it.^[68] During his battle with Kurama within his subconscious, Naruto and his large group of shadow clones entered Sage Mode without staying still, though this was because his "physical self" entered Sage Mode while not moving, then his "mental self", who was battling Kurama, reflected the act as well as all of his shadow clones.

Naruto's skill in Sage Mode greatly increased after his battle with Kurama, to the point that he mastered the art of senjutsu. Naruto can even stay in Sage Mode for ten minutes, as displayed during the Fourth Shinobi World War, although he had stopped creating shadow clones to gather natural energy for him as Naruto started using his Nine-Tails Chakra Mode, excessively.

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. 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: Rasenshurikenand 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 his battle with the Third Raikage he deduced that the latter injured himself with his own Nukite 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.^[69] He then forms a two-fold plan to release Son Gokū from Tobi's control, attacking from the outside in Nine-Tails Chakra Mode, pulling the receiver, while using Sage Mode from the inside to try to push it out.^[70]

Naruto's ability to learn through study is somewhat limited. When he applies himself to physical training however, he is able to learn highly advanced techniques in an amazingly short period of time.

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, atleast in regard to Konohamaru. He helped him to develop hisTransformation Technique, albeit for the sake of the Sexy Technique, the Shadow Clone Technique at some point prior to his departure to train with Jiraiya, and the Rasengan, albeit a very weak version, prior to the Invasion of