-> Naruto, Sasuke & Sakura

Naruto Uzumaki

Naruto was born on October 10, but not much is known beyond that. His parentage remains a mystery, as do any other family ties he may have had. As an infant, the nine-tailed demon fox, which had attacked the village of Konoha, was sealed within Naruto's body by the Fourth Hokage of Konoha.In spite of the Fourth Hokage's wish that Naruto be seen as a hero who contained the demon, the villagers of Konoha harbored a fierce hatred for the young child, since he bore the spirit of the demon who decimated their once peaceful village. He was shunned by his fellow villagers and their children, his classmates, leaving Naruto a confused and lonely child.

One good friend to him though lies with his ninja instructor Uruka Umino, although his parents were killed by the nine-tailed demon fox, he holds no grudges towards Naruto, but is Naruto's greatest inspiration. Before graduating from the Academy, Naruto was craving for acknowledgement. He would play pranks all around the village in an attempt to be recognized by its inhabitants and is one of the reasons why he wants to be Hokage so he will be noticed and respected. Naruto's normal chakra level is considered high for a ninja of his level, partially because of the demon fox. Even without directly drawing upon it, a small amount of the demon fox's chakra is always mixed with his own.

His body instinctively rejects the bulk of it due to the damage it would cause. Ebisu implies that Naruto's poor chakra control stems from this, as a portion of his chakra is used to reject the overwhelming fox chakra. According to Kakashi, Naruto's regular chakra level is about double that of Kakashi's own. As such, he is naturally suited to jutsu that use a large amount of chakra, such as his signature jutsu: Shadow Clone Technique. While most ninja are only capable of creating a few clones safely, due to the jutsu's hazard of equally dividing the user's chakra among the clones, Naruto is able to create upwards of two thousand while maintaining a decent supply of chakra in each one.

Sasuke Uchiha

A Genin level ninja, Sasuke is the natural genius offspring of the once powerful Uchiha clan. The second son of a Konohagakure police captain, Sasuke grew up in the shadow of his older brother, Itachi. Itachi was an acknowledged prodigy who graduated at the top of his Academy class at age 7, mastered the Sharingan by age 8, became a Chunin at age 10, and an ANBU squad leader at the age of 13. As a result, the Uchiha clan took great pride and interest in Itachi and viewed him as a genius whose work would further strengthen the bonds between the village and the clan. In particular, Sasuke's father took an active interest in Itachi. Itachi, on the other hand, was rather ambivalent and full of oddly conflicting undercurrents, acknowledging Sasuke by taking interest in his progress as a ninja when even their father did not, but spending little quality time with Sasuke.

Even after Sasuke enrolled in the Ninja Academy, he still was unable to escape Itachi's shadow. Despite consistently scoring at the head of every class, Sasuke failed to receive any recognition from his father, who defined Sasuke's success only in terms of his older brother. Itachi acknowledged the rivalry Sasuke felt, telling him, "We are unique siblings. I am the barrier you must overcome, so you and I will continue to exist together." Now Sasuke has pledged to 'kill a certain someone', in other words, Itachi.

Sakura Haruno

In the beginning of the series, Sakura is a Genin-level student of Kakashi Hatake's. Initially, Sakura's stamina and overall talent were quite below average, having had only used a few skills over the course of the series, the most advanced of which is dispelling genjutsu. Sakura's main strengths are her intelligence and her great chakra control. She was able to climb trees using her chakra on her first try while it took several days of constant training for Sasuke and Naruto to manage it. Inside Sakura resides the "Inner Sakura" and seems to represent an assertive part of her personality. Sakura's typical gentle responses are juxtaposed with the Inner Sakura's constant "Shannaro". The phrase has no literal meaning, but is usually translated as "Hell yeah", "Hell no", or "Damn it", depending on the situation (in English, it's translated as an angry and forceful "Cha!"). Inner Sakura is often attributed to being Sakura's defining ability, aside from her chakra control. Inner Sakura actually exists as a separate spirit within Sakura, which came in handy during her battle with Ino.

When Ino hit Sakura with her Mind Body Switch Technique, she only suppressed the regular Sakura. As such, Inner Sakura, after a little prodding by Naruto, was able to emerge and force Ino to leave. Ino's lack of chakra also helped Sakura to resist. After this point, Inner Sakura only appears once in episode 197 of the anime, when Sakura fails to notice that a smoke bomb was set off the night before, and once in chapter 250 of the manga, when Naruto tries to refuse a mission assigned by Tsunade. Sakura, however, does occasionally exhibit traits that would have originally have been confined to Inner Sakura, though they are rarely seen (they become more frequent after the timeskip, a sign that Sakura is becoming more comfortable with herself and is showing her true nature more often).