
In Part II when Sakura and Naruto are 15, she displays highly developed skills from her training giving her the brutal power and strength of about 10 men. After his 1st attempt is delayed by the Sound Ninja 4, she resolves to become stronger by training with Tsunade. But after Sasuke leaves the village, she makes Naruto make a lifelong promise to bring him back. During most of Part I, Sakura is in love with Sasuke, and hates Naruto Uzumaki but begins to like him more during the Chuunin Exams and when he saved her life from the Sand Village's Gaara. As the two continued to grow, however, they became increasingly distant due to their shared affection for Sasuke Uchiha. As a child, Sakura was taunted by other children because of her large forehead, a feature Kishimoto has tried to emphasize in Sakura's appearances. Kishimoto created her as the heroine of the series, although he has admitted that he has little perception of what an ideal heroine should be. Sakura Haruno (春野 サクラ Haruno Sakura ?) is the sole female member of Team 7. In the Japanese anime, Sasuke's seiyū is Noriaki Sugiyama, and his English voice actor is Yuri Lowenthal. His teammates' attempts to recover him from Orochimaru forms a major component of the Part II plot.

During an encounter with his brother in Part I, Sasuke is easily beaten, which leads him to leave the village to seek more power from the criminal Orochimaru. His interactions with his fellow teammates, whom are all considered precious to him, make him focus less on revenge at the start of the series. Due to this, Sasuke's sole desire is to kill his brother, and he develops a cold and withdrawn personality. He is one of the few remaining members of the Uchiha clan along with his brother, Itachi Uchiha, who killed the rest of their family. He was created to be a rival to Naruto, as well as a, "cool genius", which Kishimoto believed was an integral part of an ideal rivalry. Sasuke Uchiha (うちは サスケ Uchiha Sasuke ?) is one of the members of Team 7. Naruto's seiyū in the original Japanese anime is Junko Takeuchi, and he is voiced by Maile Flanagan in the English adaptation. He develops an especially close relationship with Sasuke Uchiha and deep caring affection for Sakura Haruno, two of his fellow ninja in Team 7. He compensates for this with his cheerful and boisterous personality, and over the course of the series, manages to befriend many foreign and Konoha ninja.

Because he is the host of the nine-tailed demon fox, a malevolent creature that attacked Konoha, he is ostracized by the other villagers. In the series, Naruto has ambitions of becoming Hokage, the leader of Konohagakure. He was the first character created by Kishimoto during the conception of the series, and was designed with many traits from other shōnen characters, including Son Goku of the Dragon Ball series.

Naruto Uzumaki (うずまき ナルト Uzumaki Naruto ?) is the primary protagonist of the Naruto series.
