1. Kakashi used to have a slogan.
During earlier drafts of Naruto, Kakashi would end his sentences with “gozaru,” a polite and old fashioned mannerism.
2. Chouji’s dad is part of the group that wanted to kill Naruto in Chapter 1.
This panel is on page 38 of chapter 1.
3. Naruto’s favorite ramen shop “Ichiraku” exists in real life.
Ichiraku is a ramen shop in Kyushu near the university that author Masashi Kishimoto graduated from.
4. Shikamaru’s IQ is above 200.
Just to put into perspective, Bill Gates is rumored to be around 170.
5. One of the scroll hangings in Sasuke’s room is different in the anime and manga.
In the manga,the scroll on the far left says “Director Date!!” (director of the anime).
In the anime, the scroll was changed to say “Kishimoto Sensei!!” (Authors are referred to as “sensei”)
6. If he takes his hood off, Kankuro’s hairstyle looks like Naruto’s.
Kankuro has a dramatic, unique look, but underneath that big hood his hair is surprisingly normal!
7. Asuma’s cigarette is never lit in the official American version
The smoke effects were specifically edited out.
8. A pair of twins played Sakura’s part in Naruto: the Musical (2006)
The twin singers Mikura Mana and Mikura Kana (Manakana) were double cast as Haruno Sakura!
9. The reason only Hinata appears in the Naruto ending song “Jitensha” (Bicycle) is because the anime staff contained a lot of Hinata fans.
On that note, Kurenai’s class (Hinata included) does not get many panels in the manga, but gets more screen time in the anime because of the anime staff.
10. Team Seven (Naruto’s team) was the first group to have been passed by Kakashi.
Kakashi didn’t pass “boneheads that just did whatever they were asked to do.”
11. Kakuzu’s techniques are named after the series Mobile Suit Gundam.
For example, Earth Grudge Fear (jiongu) was named after the gundam MSN-02 Zeong.
12. Neji’s forehead marks are different in the anime and manga.
They changed it in the manga because they felt the swastika was too strongly associated with Nazis.
13. The toads all have namesakes.
* Gamabunta = Bunta Sugawara
* Gamaken = Takakura Ken
* Shima = Iwashita Shima
They were famous actors (and actress) in the 80s and 90s.
14. Naruto's trademark "Kage Bunshin" is actually a Jōnin level technique.
15. The tallest shinobi in Hidden Leaf is Ibiki Morino
Height: 193.5cm (~6’4”)
Weight: 88kg (194lbs)
16. Naruto wasn’t supposed to be a ninja.
At first, Naruto Uzumaki was supposed to be able to use a form of magic instead of ninjutsu. But the author thought this was confusing, so just made Naruto a ninja.
17. The anime almost got cancelled.
A certain organization was not happy at the high amount of deaths in the series, and issued a complaint, requesting one of the sponsors of the show to pull their funding.
18. Sanji from One Piece was supposed to be named Naruto.
The character Sanji was originally named Naruto as his eyebrows are curly. But since Naruto was released around the same time, The author of One Piece changed his own character’s name to Sanji.
19. The Naruto BGM was chosen with overseas viewers in mind.
The producers of the anime had already planned on releasing Naruto outside of Japan from the start, so they sought out music that contained a lot of Japanese instruments such as taiko, shakuhachi, and shamisen because they would be a more unfamiliar experience for non-Japanese people.
20. The Legendary Sannin are a reference to an old novel.
