Naruto #1-16

Naruto #1-16

Originally released in 1999

Written by Masashi Kishimoto

Art by Masashi Kishimoto

I haven't gone back to the earlier chapters of Naruto since the manga ended, though I've been meaning to.  Now, almost ten years later (time really flies), I figure now seems like as good of an opportunity as any to go back to the start of the series.

These early chapters had me hooked pretty quickly.  I read through 16 of them (roughly two volumes) in about an hour and a half, and I only stopped because I had reached a good stopping point in the story. (Though I'll likely continue rereading the series even if I don't post about it.  I did the same for Dragon Ball - it's amazing in hindsight that the first 50 or so chapters of Dragon Ball Z introduced Gohan and Vegeta, hinted at the existence of Frieza, revealed that several key characters were aliens, and killed off 40 to 60 percent of the main cast depending on who you count as being part of the main cast)

Naruto has spent his whole life being looked down upon for (as far as he knows) no apparent reason, so he resorts to pranks and acting out so he'll get any sort of attention, not caring if it's good or bad.  He wants to become the Hokage, the leader of his village, so that everyone will have to acknowledge him.

He's unaware that a Nine Tailed Fox, a massive beast that's described as demonic, was sealed inside of his body by the Fourth Hokage, at the cost of the Hokage's life. Coming back to these early chapters, some of the lines of dialogue take on greater meaning and a more heartwarming feeling than they might have originally intended to be. (I'm not sure how far ahead Kishimoto might have planned some of his twists)

Naruto works well as an underdog - at this point, he has no special powers, struggles in school, and he has an extremely short attention span.  However, his determination, hard work, and unpredictability allow him to surprise even the most practiced ninja, even if he doesn't live up to his own boasts.

Early on, he's placed into a team with Sasuke Uchiha (a brooding loner and member of the talented Uchiha clan) and Sakura Haruno (who's smart but seems to have trouble with putting what she learned into practice), along with their leader Kakashi, who seems way too relaxed at first glance but is a fairly strict and serious teacher.

Naruto has a crush on Sakura, Sakura finds Naruto annoying and has an unsubtle crush on Sasuke, and Sasuke finds both of them annoying and only cares about revenge. Of the trio, Sakura gets the short end of the stick, not really doing much in these first 16 chapters aside from fawning over Sasuke. She doesn't get to show any techniques (or jutsu), demonstrate her intelligence, or accomplish anything of note.

Kakashi gets some good moments, both when introducing himself to the team and when they go on their first major mission. He gives the trio important lessons on teamwork and pooling their skills rather than trying to do everything solo, which makes it feel unfortunate in hindsight that a lot of later arcs tend to involve one-on-one fights rather than group efforts. (At least from what I recall - maybe there's more teamwork involved than what I remember)

The first major arc of the series stands out because the main villain is a billionaire shipping magnate rather than a ninja. He hires ninjas, but it sticks out compared to later arcs, where it seems like the entire world/economy revolves around ninjas. He's trying to stop a bridge from being built, as that would disrupt his business, so Naruto's team is hired to guard the bridge builder.

Unfortunately, the bridge builder, Tazuna, lied about the sort of threats that they'd be facing since he couldn't afford to pay the reward for a higher-ranked mission. Ordinary ninjas alone would be too much for Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura, since they're just trainees, but the billionaire also hired Zabuza, an elite ninja with a blood-soaked history and a sword that cannot be beat.

It's up to Kakashi to take Zabuza on, leading to a great sequence where Kakashi uses his Sharingan eye that normally remains covered (Sharingans normally belong to the Uchiha clan and grant an increasingly ridiculous number of powers as the series goes on - for now, they're mainly uses to copy techniques) to imitate Zabuza's every move and leave him rattled.

Naruto and Sasuke also get some good moments during the battle.  It makes me wish that the Shonen Jump app used the coloured versions of colour pages rather than keeping everything gray-scale like they were in the volume releases. Some of the impact of colour spreads (two page spreads at the start of chapters) is lost as a result of them being black, white, and gray, and some pages (like the first page of the manga, which shows an artistic rendition of the Fourth Hokage facing down the Nine Tailed Fox) become much more difficult to interpret as a result.

This set of chapters ends with the introduction of a mysterious young man named Haku, who shows up out of the blue to seemingly kill Zabuza. Zabuza survives this, but both he and Kakashi need time to recuperate after their fight, setting up the stage for some downtime. (And for Kakashi to teach Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura more of the basics)

These chapters helped to remind me of why I liked Naruto (the series and the character) so much. Kakashi's great as well, though Sasuke and Sakura don't leave a great first impression. (Sasuke comes across as arrogant, while Sakura has an infamous moment early on where she claims that Naruto has life so easy because he's an orphan, seemingly unaware that Sasuke was orphaned as well - Sakura vows to do better, but most of her positive actions at this point are attempts at impressing Sasuke, who doesn't care)

Still, it's a solid underdog story - you get a good feel early on of how the odds are heavily stacked against Naruto, but he doesn't care and will stubbornly push forward regardless. Zabuza makes for an intimidating early foe, with his casual sadism making it clear that this is a life or death situation.  I'll continue to read this series - I know that the Chunin Exams (where most of the supporting cast is introduced) is a highlight, and I read the last third or so of the series with a week-long break between chapters, so I'm curious to see how it will hold up if the chapters are read back-to-back.