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Throughout the story of Naruto, Naruto Uzumaki is put through many trials that test his loyalties, and abilities that put his life in danger. And the world of Shinobi can be gruesome. Naruto follows this journey of Naruto alongside Team 7 and his rival Sasuke. Throughout much of the series, Naruto and Sasuke are at each other’s throats.
Naruto because he wants to save Sasuke from his own hatred. Sasuke because he is hell-bent on obtaining revenge for the massacre of his village at the hands of his brother.
Throughout the journey, there are plenty of obstacles that pop up in their way and there are many shinobi that lose their lives for multiple reasons. Here we’ll examine all these situations and discuss whether or not Naruto died in the Naruto series.
Bottom Line Up Front
The bottom line is that Naruto Uzumaki does not die in the Naruto series. Despite all the danger that he is put in at the hands of Sasuke, Pain, Orochimaru, and even the Akatsuki, Naruto manages to overcome these events.
There are multiple times in the manga that his life is in danger and once where he is basically at death’s door. In this article, I’ll discuss these events, how Naruto managed to stay alive, and things that happened to Naruto that were worse than death.
Who is Naruto?
Naruto Uzumaki is a member of the Hidden Leaf Village and the Jinchuriki of the Nine-Tailed Fox, Kurama. He is the main character of the Naruto series and has set his sights on becoming the Hokage when he grows up. Because he is a Jinchuriki he has anything but a normal life. His own village outcasted him at first due to his dangerous chakra, and the evil forces of the Akatsuki sought him out to extract the Nine-Tailed Beast from him.
Unfortunately, if Naruto were to ever have the Nine-Tailed Fox extracted from him, he would forfeit his life. Throughout his journey, Naruto has to fight for his right to be a normal Shinobi and to obtain the trust of others. Along the way, he builds bonds with his shinobi team including Sasuke, Sakura, and Kakashi.
A lot of the other shinobi in his age group also grow to acknowledge Naruto as a powerful being. But sometimes these bonds end up hurting Naruto due to betrayal or due to their death while protecting him. As a Jinchuriki, Naruto is a valuable ally.
His chakra is immense and once he has fully trained he is considered one of the strongest Shinobi in the Hidden Leaf Village. So defeating him is no easy feat, but this also means that the people who seek him out are some of the strongest ninjas in the world.
Naruto and The Hidden Leaf Village
Most of the time Naruto is in danger it takes place in the Hidden Leaf Village. Either he gets attacked there or he is protecting the village from danger. So to really put together why Naruto’s life is always in danger you need to understand all of the events that have transpired in the Hidden Leaf Village and how they involved Naruto.
Minato and Kushina’s Sacrifice
The dangerous life of Naruto started with tragedy. His mother, Kushina Uzumaki was the Jinchuriki for the Nine-Tailed Beast. But due to her giving birth, his seal weakened that day. This allowed Tobi to infiltrate the village and unleash the wrath of the Nine-Tailed Fox.
Minato, Naruto’s father, fought against the Nine-Tailed Fox and Tobi while trying to protect Kushina. During this fight, he realized that he would need to seal the Nine-Tailed Fox if he hoped to save the Hidden Leaf Village.
So he decided to seal it in Naruto. He already knew that Kushina would not survive due to having the Nine-Tailed Beast extracted, but despite this, she still had the strength to lend him. Together they protected Naruto and managed to seal the Nine-Tailed Beast inside him. Tobi retreated and Naruto was left as the Jinchuriki of the Nine-Tailed Beast.
This is considered a sacrifice in many ways. Minato and Kushina sacrificed their life to protect Naruto and the Hidden Leaf Village. They also sacrificed the normalcy of Naruto’s life. Since Jinchuriki are feared for their chakra and because he would grow up without his parents. This is how Naruto’s birth went and the beginning of his story.
Naruto’s Upbringing
As a child, Naruto was shunned by the village due to fear of his power. The Third Hokage kept the truth about his parents a secret. He simply mentioned they died protecting him against the Nine-Tailed Fox. But he did not mention who they were or that his father was the Fourth Hokage.
As Naruto grew he was often regarded as a problem. The first person to open his heart to him was Iruka-Sensei. He would give Naruto the opportunity and support that he needed to turn into one of the most powerful shinobi in the world.
It is also thanks to Iruka that Naruto grows compassion and learns that bonds are worth protecting. He risks his life to protect Iruka in the first-ever chapter of Naruto and he would go on to put his life in danger multiple times for his friends. Including in the Chunin Exams where he and Sasuke faced off against Orochimaru to protect Sakura.
Itachi and Kisame Invade
The first time that the village was attacked because of Naruto was when Itachi and Kisame invaded. Thankfully, Jiraya was there to protect him. But this also made Sasuke grow hatred towards Naruto. After the attack, Sasuke challenged Naruto to a fight not understanding why Itachi wanted Naruto. During this fight, Sasuke realized that Naruto had grown much more powerful.
This is what started Sasuke’s spiral downwards. Sasuke would go on to pose the biggest threat to Naruto’s life in the entire series.
Konoha’s Destruction
The Pain Arc began with Kisame and Itachi’s invasion of the Hidden Leaf Village. Following these events and Sasuke leaving the village, Naruto decides to train with Jiraya to prepare for the battles ahead. While he is training, Jiraya goes to discover the identity of Pain.
During this investigation, he discovers that Pain was actually a student of his from the past. They end up fighting and Jiraya loses his life.
Naruto decides to train Sage Mode to combat Pain, but while he does this Pain attacks the Hidden Leaf Village. During this battle, he decimates the village and kills multiple friends of Naruto including Kakashi Hatake. Naruto manages to complete his training and return to the Hidden Leaf Village while Pain is still invading.
They fight but Naruto is unable to defeat Pain and is subdued. Hinata then steps in and professes her love for him, but Pain quickly kills her. Naruto loses control of his emotions and unleashes his Six-Tailed Form. When in this form, Naruto is unable to coherently control his abilities and destroys everything in his path.
The battle continues and Naruto grows into the Eight-Tailed Form which is the most powerful he’s been. During this, Minato shows up. He confesses that he instilled some of his chakra into Naruto in case an emergency like this happened. This is the only time Naruto is able to engage with his father.
Minato helps Naruto quell the rage and defeat Pain with his own abilities. Naruto then shows compassion to Pain which influences Pain to use the last of his chakra to restore and heal everyone in the Hidden Leaf Village including those thought to have been killed.
The Fourth Shinobi World War
The Fourth Shinobi World War took place with the Allied Shinobi Forces taking on the Akatsuki. At this point, it had been revealed that the true masterminds behind the Akatsuki were Madara Uchiha and Obito Uchiha. It is also the arc where Naruto’s life almost fizzled out.
During this battle, all is revealed and we find out the true threats against Naruto, Madara, and Obito Uchiha. It is revealed that they were the reason the Nine Tailed-Fox escaped from Kushina and they were the reason Naruto lost both his parents. During this battle, Madara obtains the Rinnegan and easily defeats both Naruto and Sasuke.
He extracts the Nine-Tailed Fox from Naruto which we all know means certain death. But thanks to Naruto’s heritage and him having Uzumaki blood in him, he doesn’t die instantly. Giving Sakura enough time to reach him and keep his chakra alive.
This is the closest in the series that Naruto has come to die. During this moment he meets with the Sage of Six Paths. The Sage of Six Paths gifts Naruto with half of his power including Sage of Six Paths mode, and basically gives him strength bigger than he’s ever had.
So despite Naruto being on his death bed, he actually leaves this battle with more power than ever before.
Naruto vs. Sasuke
Naruto’s life is usually in the most danger when it has to do with protecting his bonds. He will go to great lengths to protect those he cares about including Sasuke.
Sasuke himself is constantly on a path of destruction and is always looking to grow stronger no matter the means. Along this vengeful journey, Sasuke discovers that if he truly wants to reach his true potential he needs to sever those bonds.
This puts Naruto’s life constantly at risk because he tries to save Sasuke. The first time that they fought Sasuke could have easily killed Naruto, but he hadn’t been consumed by darkness yet. When they meet in the 5 Kage Summit, Naruto and Sasuke exchange fists. During this exchange, they realize that they’ve both grown incredibly powerful and if they were to fight again they would both die.
Their final fight is one of the most intense and chaotic battles in the series. It ends with both of them nearly dying but Sakura jumps in just in time to save them both. They end up just losing one of their arms in the process. Both times that Naruto was on the verge of death he was saved by Sakura.
Naruto’s Enemies
Despite Naruto only wanting to do what is best for the village and his friends, there are shinobi that want to take him down and take his life.
The Akatsuki
The Akatsuki are the biggest enemies of Naruto Shippuden. Originally they are led by Pain, but later it is discovered that Marada Uchiha was behind them all along. Their goal is to bring back the Ten-Tailed Beast but to do this they need to extract all the tailed beasts from their Jinchuriki. Naruto happens to be one of them. He is the host of the Nine-Tailed Fox.
Once a tailed beast is extracted from its host, the host dies because of the sudden loss of chakra. At one point Naruto does lose Kurama which causes Naruto to enter a state of limbo. If it wasn’t for his mother’s strong bloodline then he would’ve instantly died.
There are a few members of the Akatsuki that Naruto fights with. These members include:
- Itachi Uchiha
- Pain
- Deidara
- Kakuza
- Zetsu
Sasuke
Sasuke isn’t really an enemy of Naruto. He is more of a rival. Unfortunately, Sasuke sees their bond is weighing him down. This drives them to fight multiple times throughout the series.
Naruto’s Weaknesses
Naruto is one of the most powerful shinobi in the Hidden Leaf Village but even he has a few weaknesses that often get exposed by his enemies. This leads Naruto to put his life in danger.
His Bonds
The thing that always seems to put Naruto in danger is his bonds. No matter what, Naruto will risk everything to protect his friends. We have seen him do this time and time again. Risking his own well-being to help one of his friends. He constantly put his life at risk to bring Sasuke back to the Hidden Leaf Village despite Sasuke not wanting to return.
He almost lost his humanity when he thought that Pain had hurt Hinata and put his own body on the line to ensure she was avenged.
Control of the Nine-Tails Chakra
Naruto’s inability to control the Nine-Tails Chakra has put him at risk many times throughout the series. Whenever he loses himself he hurts those around him and he puts his body through dangerous situations. The most notable of these is when he fights Pain and sees Hinata get hurt. He is only able to bring himself back because his mother’s chakra saves him.
Does Naruto Die?
No, despite all the danger that he is throughout the series Naruto does not die during the series. There were other characters that Naruto held close that did end up dying. These deaths affected Naruto deeply and went on to shape who he was as a character.
Deaths That Affected Naruto
Jiraya
Jiraya was Naruto’s master. He taught Naruto about the shinobi way and helped him find his own rhythm as a ninja. Through Jiraya, Naruto learned how to do most of his signature abilities. It’s safe to say that Naruto and Jiraya had one of the strongest bonds in the series.
When Naruto was training, Jiraya went to investigate who Pain was. He discovered it was one of his old students that had the Rinnegan in his power. The Rinnegan is one of the strongest ocular powers in Naruto and gives the wielder incredible powers.
Jiraya ended up losing this fight and losing his life, but he discovered something that would help Naruto when he eventually came face to face with Pain himself.
Nagato
Nagato’s death affected Naruto because it was someone that he wished he could have saved. Pain turns out to be Nagato who had been using his Rinnegan and Chakra Bars to control the 6 Pains. Once Naruto found him he simply had to talk to Nagato to get him to understand what he was doing was the opposite of total peace.
Nagato realized the error of his ways and gave up his own life to undo all the destruction he had caused to the Hidden Leaf Village.
Neji
Neji gave his life to protect both Hinata and Naruto. It was a moment when Naruto could do absolutely nothing to protect his friend. Throughout the entirety of the Naruto series, Naruto strives to be strong enough to protect his friends. But in a moment when everything seemed to be going wrong, his friend gave his life to protect him.
It is something that lives with Naruto even in the new series, Boruto.
Hinata
Technically Hinata didn’t really die. She was killed, but thanks to Nagato giving his life to undo his actions, she was brought back to life along with Kakashi Hatake. But her “death” has had the biggest immediate effect on Naruto in the entire series.
Seeing Hinata get killed pushed Naruto to immediately invoke the power of Kurama, the Nine-Tailed Fox. Doing so causes Naruto to lose himself and attack Pain in a rage of power. In this form, Naruto can actually damage Pain. He can match his speed and Pain is unable to dodge Naruto’s attacks.
But Naruto is also unable to think coherently in this form. It is well known that the more tails Naruto has in this form the more the Nine-Tailed Fox chakra has consumed him. If he were to grow all nine tails then he would lose his life to the Nine-Tailed Beast. During the course of this fight, he manages to grow eight of them.
Thankfully, his father Minato had left a bit of his mother’s chakra in him so that she can help contain his chakra. Kushina, Naruto’s mom, talks to him and is able to give him some motherly advice before she disappears. This is one of the more emotional scenes in Naruto and truly shows how much Naruto missed out on as a kid.
Naruto in Boruto: Naruto Next Generations
Naruto’s story doesn’t end in Naruto Shippuden. The entire cast of Naruto is also in Boruto: Naruto Next Generations and their adventure continue there. It focuses on Naruto’s son and his generation. Hence why the name is Naruto Next Generations.
Kurama’s Death
In Boruto, Naruto loses one of his most recognizable traits. During his fight with Isshiki, Kurama ends up completely running out of chakra and losing their life. This happens because Naruto uses Baryon Mode to acquire unparalleled strength to close the gap between him and Isshiki.
The fight ended up going longer than intended and Naruto believed that it was his and Kurama’s chakra being drained when in reality it was Kurama who had sacrificed his essence to keep Naruto alive. They were able to defeat Isshiki but there was no way of saving Naruto.
Usually, when a host loses their Tailed-Beast they die but thanks to Naruto’s newly acquired Baryon Mode he is able to survive. But because he lost an immense amount of chakra the Hidden Leaf Village needs to discover a way to keep him alive.
Baryon Mode
Baryon Mode is the ultimate Naruto form. It works like nuclear fusion where it consumes Naruto and Kurama’s chakra to create an even more powerful reaction. In Baryon Mode, Naruto is able to reach heights that he never thought possible before. Unfortunately, this mode consumes the user’s energy and lifespan. This is the reason that Kurama ends up perishing.
Naruto’s Foreshadowed Death
Naruto did not die during the events of Naruto Shippuden, but it has been suggested that his death may come during Boruto: Naruto Next Generations. When the manga first starts there is a moment where Kawaki tells Boruto that he is sending him where he sent his father. Implying that Kawaki has already defeated Naruto.
Boruto can also be seen wearing Sasuke’s cloak and headband which could also mean that Sasuke has also died.
FAQs
Question: Why does Naruto not die?
Answer: Naruto has plenty of friends that will stop at nothing to protect him. He is also one of the strongest shinobi in the world and has Kurama backing him up. When he gets close to dying, Kurama’s chakra takes over him and keeps him alive.
Question: Why does Naruto die if Kurama is extracted?
Answer: Naruto has been Kurama’s vessel since he was born. His chakra is heavily mixed with his and if Kurama’s chakra is removed then Naruto loses his lifeforce.
Question: Does Naruto die while he is Hokage?
Answer: No, Naruto has not died while being the Hokage of the Hidden Leaf Village.
Question: Does Sasuke die?
Answer: Sasuke has not died yet. During the first scenes of Boruto: Naruto Next Generations, we do see Boruto wearing his cape and headband, and wielding his sword. This could mean that at some point Sasuke dies, and Boruto decides to avenge his master.
Sasuke does lose his Rinnegan though which means he is severely underpowered compared to his Naruto Shippuden self.
Question: Who is Kurama?
Answer: Kurama is the real name of the Nine-Tailed Beast. Throughout history, the people have grown afraid of the tailed beasts and disregarded their origins. It isn’t until Naruto comes along that he decides to actually learn more about his Tailed Beast and discovers that his actual name is Kurama.
Final Thoughts on Naruto’s Death
Naruto is the face of the Naruto series so it makes sense that he has yet to die. But now that the main series has ended and the torch has been passed down to the new generations it wouldn’t be surprising if Naruto were to die.
It would require a very emotional fight since so many people from the Hidden Leaf Village depend on Naruto and look up to him. It would cause a rift in the village and many would find themselves helpless and at a loss. Especially Hinata and Team 7 who have been with Naruto since the very beginning.