The Introduction Arc is the first arc of the Naruto series.
Arc Length: Chapters 1-8
Short Summary
The beginning of the series, which details Naruto Uzumaki's past, his becoming a Genin, befriending the grandson of the Hokage and the formation of Team 7.
Long Summary
The tale begins by explaining Naruto's origins. In the Land of Fire, a monstrous beast known as the Nine-Tailed Fox attacked the ninja village of Konoha (a.k.a the Hidden Leaf village). The 4th Hokage, the leader of the village, defeated and subdued the beast albeit at the cost of his own life. He placed the beast within a baby, Naruto, and it was his wish that the people celebrate Naruto for containing the creature. However the people of the village did not, only seeing in Naruto the fox who caused destruction to their village, and so they shunned and ostracized him. What's more, the poor boy never understood why, as telling Naruto about the beast within him was forbidden. Thus in the present day, Naruto seeks attention through pranks as a way to cope with his loneliness. The only person who seems to ever give him respect is Iruka, one of the instructors at the ninja academy who had lost his parents to the fox. During some bonding time, Naruto states his wish to become the next Hokage so as to finally gain respect from the villagers.
However, his lack of ability in performing Ninjutsu seems to make that dream impossible, as he either can't do the jutsus correctly or performs useless variations on them. After a final exam once more sees Naruto flunk, one of the teachers, Mizuki, tells Naruto he can pass if he manages to retrieve a special scroll for him. Naruto sets out to do so, not realizing he's being tricked, as Mizuki has ill intentions. The rest of the ninjas begin a manhunt for Naruto after the theft, with Iruka managing to catch up. But not long after Mizuki finds them and reveals his true nature. As he attacks the two he gleefully reveals the reason behind the people's scorn for Naruto. But Iruka manages to save Naruto from one of the attacks, stating that he realizes that Naruto is his own person and not the fox. This gives Naruto the resolve to protect Iruka. Much to both Iruka's and Mizuki's shock, Naruto reveals he managed to figure out how to execute the jutsu detailed on the scroll, the Shadow Clone Jutsu (Which unlike the regular Clone Jutsu makes solid copies seemingly out of thin air), and quickly takes down Mizuki. After all is said and done, Iruka gives Naruto his headband as a reward, which officially allows Naruto to graduate and take his first steps on becoming a true ninja.
During a break before the next set of classes begins, Naruto meets Konohamaru, the grandson to the current Hokage. He and Naruto realize they're much alike as they wish to be their own person rather then what society thinks of them. In Konohamaru's case, the villagers always show him respect by default since he's technically royalty. But Konohamaru wishes to make his own way rather then have everything given to him just because of a title. Naruto sympathizes and encourages him to keep pushing forward. Thus the two become friends.
As the next portion of ninja education gets underway, The students are put into teams for their next phase of their training. Naruto is put into Team 7, which includes Sakura Haruno, a girl he has a crush on but who hardly acknowledges his existence, and Sasuke Uchiha, a brooding young man whom Sakura (and most of the female students for that matter) has a crush on, but Naruto hates him for his aloofness and popularity. Their instructor ends up being Kakashi Hatake, a somewhat offbeat fellow who was said to never give pass grades to any of the students under his wing. To wit after they meet him, Kakashi sets up a test in an open field in which the three must grab two bells from him to pass. To add to the challenge, he orders the three not to eat anything before the test and has stated that only those two who grab the bells from him will be allowed to eat lunch. The three try to do so but fail due to their lack of teamwork; Naruto brazenly going off on his own to get a bell, Sakura worrying too much about Sasuke to bother to help Naruto, and Sasuke believing his teammates to be a hindrance.
Kakashi gives them a final chance by ordering them to not feed Naruto (as punishment since he tried to get the lunches before the test was over). But Sasuke comes to realize that they'll need Naruto in top form for the team and offers his lunch. Sakura follows suit, and Kakashi suddenly appears to tell them...they passed. What he was trying to teach them was that while the mission is important, the team will amount to nothing if they don't look after each other. Thus Team 7 become the first to ever pass his test.
The Introduction Arc has the following tropes:
- Adaptational Early Appearance:
- The genin who would become Team 8 and Team 10 are included in the anime in episodes 1 and 3, establishing some of their characteristics such as Ino's rivalry with Sakura and Hinata's crushing on Naruto. In the manga, these were all just generic students that were never seen again beyond their initial chapters, like Tobio. Team 8 and 10 wouldn’t make their debut until the start of the Chūnin Exams storyline.
- On a minor note, during the class ceremony the jōnin teachers, Kakashi, Kurenai, and Asuma, plus some recurring extras such as Those Two Guys Izumo and Kotetsu and Raidō Namiashi, appear with the Third Hokage watching the event via his crystal ball...including Naruto and Sasuke's kiss.
- Adaptation-Induced Plot Hole: Episode 3 showcases Ino seeing Sakura placed on Team 7 with Sasuke, much to her envy, but a flashback during the Chūnin Exams arc contradicts this by having her say that she only heard about the placement and wasn’t there to witness it in person. Bizarrely, the anime version of said flashback doesn’t alter the line to make it match up with the anime’s changes.
- All the Other Reindeer: Naruto is said to have this in his past, and we see it with Ebisu treating Naruto with disdain.
- Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: Sasuke to a tee.
- Ass Shove: A Thousand Years of Pain.
- Body Horror: Kakashi's genjutsu on Sakura pulls this on Sasuke. The anime tones it down but the manga outright involved dismemberment. It's not a real wonder why Sakura freaked out and fainted at the sight of it.
- Bratty Half-Pint: Naruto.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Kakashi is this, he spent most of the test reading, and even performed an ass shove on Naruto. Yet he has a wide skill set and was toying with Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke.
- Butt-Monkey: Naruto. First chapter he was the only one to not graduate, second chapter he was the only one punished for his and Konohamaru's misdeed. Even Konohamaru's bad transforms ended with Naruto beat up. The bell test, has Kakashi pulling an ass shove on Naruto, his moment of awesome negated by his own stupidity, he was tied up and after they passed, the rest of team 7 left while he was still tied up as they went home.
- Chekhov's Gunman: In Sasuke's speech, we hear he wants to kill a certain man. That man becomes a very important character.
- Cool Old Guy: The Third was one of the few people that actually cared for Naruto.
- Covert Pervert: Ebisu tries to act uncaring of Konohamaru's Sexy Jutsu, then Naruto uses the Harem Jutsu and he's out cold from a nosebleed. The Third watching just thinks, he would probably fall for it too.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: First shown when we get to meet Sasuke and Sakura. Naruto is able to get the drop on Sasuke and then transforms into him. Till Naruto has to go to the bathroom as he drank expired milk.
- Dirty Old Man: The Third. In the manga the reason Naruto even got the scroll was because he used the Sexy Jutsu on him and it worked.
- Disproportionate Retribution:
- At one point, Naruto tries to teach Konohamaru how to do a clone jutsu. Pointing to a woman to use as an example. Konohamaru wounds up making a Gonk version of her which the woman assumes Naruto is making fun of her and promptly beats him up over it.
- Naruto again after the Sacred First Kiss incident by Sakura and the other girls.
- Gonk: All of Konohamaru's transformations at first.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Mizuki never thought Naruto would actually master the scroll's power.
- I Am Who?: Naruto holds the Nine-Tailed Fox, that destroyed his home town.
- Ironic Echo: After the students get paired into teams. Naruto tries to have a conversation with Sakura but she brushes him off, stating he's annoying. When she tries to talk with Sasuke, he pretty much tells her that she's annoying.
- Irony: It's established that Naruto is pretty bad at cloning jutsu which happened to be the final exam he was given. So when Mizuki tried to manipulate him into getting the scroll, he wound up inadvertently helping him master it and then some.
- Last of His Kind: How they introduce Sasuke.
- Love Triangle: Naruto likes Sakura, Sakura likes Sasuke and Sasuke couldn't care for either of them.
- No Man Left Behind: What Kakashi was trying to teach Team 7.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Naruto was still lonely and unsure of his place in the world at the start of the series. If it hadn't been for Mizuki, he would've never found out the reason why people shunned him but more importantly found that there were indeed people who did care for him. This becomes important later on.
- Pinned to the Ground: While Kakashi repremants Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke after they failed his test, Sasuke attacks Kakashi but is quickly subdued and pinned to the ground by Kakashi sitting on him holding one of Sasuke's arms behind his back.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Iruka, Kakashi and the Third. They don't look down on Naruto and simply treat him as a person, which is very rare.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Kakashi when explaining why Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke failed his test the first time.
- Sacred First Kiss: The infamous scene of Naruto and Sasuke locking lips after Naruto gets knocked into Sasuke by accident.
- Secret Test of Character:
- The point behind Kakashi's bells test. The newly christened Team 7 has to take one of Kakashi's bells, of which there are only two, in order to eat lunch, meaning someone will have to go hungry. The whole idea is to see who would put their own needs aside and suggest they all work together. Unfortunately, none of them do so — Naruto tries to fight Kakashi single-handed, Sasuke dismisses the other two as useless, and Sakura is too busy obsessing over Sasuke to even consider helping Naruto. Not a one of them realizes the exercise even had a point until Kakashi spells it out for them in the end. It's enough to almost make Kakashi fail them on the spot.
- ...But he doesn't, thanks to Team 7 passing his second test. He tells the three he'll give them another chance after they eat lunch — but Naruto doesn't get any, due to trying to steal them earlier. Sasuke and Sakura let Naruto eat anyway, since they'll be needing him. Kakashi then bursts out of his hiding place to let them know — they passed! By ignoring his orders and caring for their fellow teammate, they proved they had what it took to work as a true unit.Kakashi: In a ninja's world, those who violate the rules and fail to follow orders are lower then garbage. However, those who do not care for and support their fellows are even lower than that!
- Smitten Teenage Girl: Well more like preteen, but still Sakura.
- Taking the Bullet: Iruka gets a shuriken in the back when protecting Naruto from it. Thankfully he survives.
