Rock Lee

Rock Lee (ロック・リー Rokku Rī?) is a fictional character in the anime and manga series Naruto created by Masashi Kishimoto. He is a member of Might Guy's Team Guy, consisting of himself, Neji Hyuga, and Tenten. He is also considered part of the Konoha 11.

According to an interview with Masashi Kishimoto in Shonen Jump's Naruto Anime Profiles Episodes 1-37, Rock Lee is his most fun character to draw. He also has stated that Sakura Haruno and Rock Lee were meant to symbolize human weakness (at least in the beginning). Like Guy, Lee is modeled after the martial artist Bruce Lee and even has the same birthday.

In Shonen Jump's character popularity polls, Lee consistently ranked in the Top 10 in the first four polls, even making the Top 5 once. In the more current polls, however, Lee has fallen out of the Top 10 due to his lack of recent appearances.[issue # needed] Despite this, he still ranks at a relatively high position.

Lee is known for speaking respectfully to others and never using contractions. He also uses formal Japanese, applying proper titles ("-san", "-kun", etc.) to anyone he meets. His relationship with Guy has also caused him to acquire many of Guy's traits. Lee's green jumpsuit and shiny bowl haircut, having already had Guy's distinctive thick eyebrows (leading to the nickname of "Bushy Brow"), are direct results of his modeling himself in his sensei's image. In Part II he even begins wearing a tactical vest like Guy, the only difference being that Guy leaves his unzipped. Guy's influence has also caused the reshaping of Lee's personality, and his dedication to his promises as well as his belief that one cannot dislike food are also characteristics of Guy.

Lee has a number of other odd personality traits, though whether or not they are results of Guy's mentorship is unknown. One such trait is his apparent lack of common sense, believing at times that he can get what he wants by not wanting it. At other times, he takes copious notes, but forgets that he cannot check them during a fight. He also has a keen sense of honor and respects his opponents, refusing to hold grudges against those who have defeated him and returning favors to those that have helped him. Lee feels others should show the same respect, and is disgusted whenever someone is unnecessarily cruel to their opponent.

Lee's attempts to prove and better himself are recurring themes for his actions throughout the series. He is generally optimistic and believes that with hard work and passion, he can surpass natural genius, but can be prone to depression when faced with setbacks. His drive to succeed is initially most evident with his rivalry with Neji Hyuga, having learned from Guy that having a rival will provide incentive to succeed. Neji, a "genius," finds Lee's efforts of bettering himself to be in vain, believing Lee to be stuck as a "failure" for the rest of his life. As such, Lee resolves to prove Neji wrong, and confronts another "genius," Sasuke Uchiha in an attempt to test his worth. While Lee maintains the desire to defeat Neji in a fight throughout the Chunin Exams, after Neji's eventual defeat by Naruto Uzumaki, another "failure", he seems less interested in this goal. Neji's rejection of his previous belief in fate may also have contributed to this, as he now respects Lee, believing that he will surpass the gifted with enough work, and that he would have given up if he were in Lee's situation.

During his battle with Gaara during the Chunin Exams, Lee's attempts to prove himself have terrible consequences for him. Gaara's abilities render Lee's attempts to damage him futile, and Lee's attempts at using his more powerful techniques to defeat Gaara leave his body broken. After Gaara's attacks further damage his body, crushing his left arm and leg, Lee is left injured so badly that he can no longer pursue life as a ninja. Despite this, Lee would often sneak out of his hospital room in attempts to train. When Tsunade offers him an operation that carries a fifty percent chance of returning him to his former state, and a fifty percent chance of killing him, Lee is hesitant to accept the operation. While he can't stand the thought of not living as a ninja, he is scared by the possibility that he will die before he can fully prove himself. Through Guy's encouragement and words of dedication to him, Lee goes through with the operation and survives, causing his resolve to get stronger to only increase.

Shortly after his introduction, Lee reveals that he likes Sakura Haruno, asking her to be his girlfriend and vowing to protect her immediately after they meet. While she does not seem to share these feelings for him and considers him weird, Lee maintains these feelings throughout the Chunin Exams. At one point, he distracts himself from looking for resting Genin groups with a task of catching falling leaves, the success of which would 'prove' Sakura loves him. He purposely abandons this in order to save the life of an endangered squirrel, leading him to find Sakura, also endangered. He comes to her rescue, against three to one odds and uses forbidden techniques in an attempt to protect her, considering her someone dear to him. Sakura becomes more appreciative after this, punching Naruto whenever he insults Lee. Despite this, she does not seem to have any feelings for him, as she refers to him by the more formal "Lee-san", as opposed to "Lee-kun". The only apparent return of his feelings is when she brings him a bouquet of flowers while he is in the hospital to wish him well, catching him when he trips and falls in reaching for them, and in her gentle wishes and telling him that if he ever needs anything all he has to do is ask, which moves him nearly to the point of tears. After the Exams' conclusion, Lee's interest in Sakura goes largely unaddressed. Despite this, when Naruto fights Lee in the Lee's Dojo arc, he transforms into Sakura, causing Lee to forget about the fight long enough for Naruto to attack him, and in Part II, he is especially pleased that Sakura is doing well against Sasori.

Shikamaru Nara

Shikamaru Nara (奈良シカマル Nara Shikamaru?) is a fictional character in the anime and manga series Naruto created by Masashi Kishimoto. He is a member of Asuma Sarutobi's Team 10, consisting of himself, Choji Akimichi, and Ino Yamanaka. Through extension he is also considered part of the Konoha 11, the series' main protagonists.

"Shika" can mean deer (鹿?), and "-maru" (丸) means "round", "circle", or "well-developed", but is commonly used as a suffix in boys' names. The names "Ino", "Shika" and "Cho" are also a pun on the "Ino-Shika-Cho" winning combination in Hanafuda. His surname, Nara, is taken from Nara Park ( Nara ko-en?), a park famous for deer whose antlers are used for medicines.[citation needed] Nara was also the era when Buddhism was introduced to Japan. The Buddhist monasteries founded in the Nara Prefecture took the deer as their symbolic protector, and made hunting deer illegal in the prefecture. Nara also refers to maple, which is the plant associated with the shika card in Hanafuda.

In Shonen Jump's character popularity polls, Shikamaru has been in the Top 10 since the third poll and is usually in the 4th or 5th place.[issue # needed] In the most recent poll, however, he was placed 10th.[issue # needed] He is the only character on his team to make it to the top 10.

Shikamaru is an extremely unenthusiastic person, and as such lives his life avoiding work. This is partly due to seeking paths of least resistance, as he often chooses to do things he would otherwise not do if people nag him enough. His plans on life reflect this aspect of his personality, as he plans to be an average ninja making an average salary, and retire once his children become independent. In his free time he typically takes naps, watches clouds, and plays abstract logic games such as Shogi and Go. When put into a situation where he potentially needs to put effort into something, he attempts to try to find a way to avoid it such as forfeiting a battle or by pretending to be preoccupied with something else. In the instances where he can't avoid these situations, Shikamaru tends to remark "how troublesome" (めんどくせぇ mendokusē?, English TV "what a drag"). He is fully aware of this side of his personality, even dubbing himself "the number one at running away".

Despite his cowardly tendencies, Shikamaru is extremely intelligent. Asuma, wondering why Shikamaru was always able to beat him at Shogi and Go despite receiving abysmal grades at the Academy, disguised an IQ test as a series of puzzles to see how smart Shikamaru really was. In doing so, Asuma found Shikamaru to have an IQ of over 200, and learned that Shikamaru's poor grades were a result of him finding lifting a pencil to be too troublesome. Nevertheless, Shikamaru works very well with his teammates as their fathers were teamed together in their youth as well. Of his teammates, Shikamaru is closest with Choji, who repays Shikamaru's confidence in him with unyielding loyalty to Shikamaru. Shikamaru also has a strong bond with Asuma, often spending time with him playing strategy games. He even vows to protect Asuma and Kurenai's unborn child for Asuma's sake.

One of Shikamaru's more distinctive characteristics is that he finds all women to be bossy and "troublesome". He also often discusses how women ought to act. This viewpoint seems to be largely due to his mother's tyrannical personality, though also seems to be influenced by his father's identical view of women. Contrary to this opinion on women, he has expressed a notably mature interest in marriage and raising a family with one son and one daughter. Ironically, most of Shikamaru's opponents have been female.

Shikamaru has had a number of his appearances coincide with those of Temari. The two face each other during the final matches of the Chunin Exams. Shikamaru has a chance to claim victory in this match, but he forfeits the match instead, having run low on chakra. Temari later comes to his aid during the Sasuke Retrieval arc and defeats Tayuya of the Sound Four to save him. Shikamaru returns the favor in the last of the anime's filler arcs and saves her from one of the Shiitenshounin. In addition, the two are seen together in their Part II debuts. In this instance, Naruto Uzumaki asks if the two are on a date, though both state that this is not the case. Temari ranks as one of the women he finds most troublesome, along with Ino and his mother

Tsunade

Tsunade (綱手?) is a fictional character in the anime and manga series Naruto created by Masashi Kishimoto.

Tsunade's name is taken from the character of the same name from Jiraiya Goketsu Monogatari (児雷也豪傑物語, "The Tale of the Gallant Jiraiya"). The Tsunade in that story excelled in snail magic and was married to Jiraiya. The name "Tsunade" (綱手) means "mooring rope".

The deaths of Dan and Nawaki greatly changed Tsunade; Dan's death and her failed attempt to save him gave her a fear of blood, causing her to freeze up whenever seeing it. The amulet's repeated returns to her also led her and many others to believe that it was cursed, and whoever Tsunade might give it to would die soon after. Similarly, Tsunade came to lose faith in the title of Hokage, believing that only fools would want such a position that would, as she believed, inevitably require them to sacrifice themselves as all the previous Hokages had. While she would maintain this mindset for many years, meeting Naruto Uzumaki causes Tsunade to reject each of these ideas.

Tsunade is approached by Jiraiya and Naruto with the offer of becoming the next Hokage. She declines the offer, ridiculing it and those who have held its position. Naruto, wanting to one day become Hokage, is enraged that she could say such things and tries to attack her with an incomplete Rasengan. While the attack fails, Tsunade decides to make a bet with him: if he can master the jutsu in a week he will get the First Hokage's amulet. Naruto accepts, and gets to work on the jutsu's completion. As the week progresses, Tsunade keeps a careful eye on Naruto's progress and all the while remembers Dan and Nawaki, both looking much like Naruto and both having the same dreams. When the week comes to an end, Naruto appears to have failed in completing the jutsu, and Tsunade believes the bet to have been impossible.

During her later battle with Orochimaru, Tsunade's fear of blood leaves her paralyzed and unable to protect herself. Naruto arrives to save her and manages to land a perfected Rasengan on Kabuto Yakushi. After Naruto passes out due to his injuries, Tsunade acts on her promise and puts the amulet around his neck, wishing once more for its wearer to become Hokage. When Orochimaru attempts to kill Naruto, Tsunade overcomes her fear of blood for the sole purpose of protecting him, willing to do whatever is necessary to ensure that Naruto becomes Hokage. Finally, Tsunade accepts the title of Fifth Hokage (五代目火影 Godaime Hokage?), Naruto's influence convincing her that the title her loved ones so dearly desired is something to be valued. Since then, Tsunade has maintained the belief that Naruto will someday become a great Hokage, her entire outlook on life changed because of him.

Tsunade is a compulsive gambler who has the unfortunate disadvantage of having terrible luck. As a result, she has been elevated to a comical status as "The Legendary Sucker" (伝説のカモ Densetsu no Kamo?, Viz "The Legendary Loser") for the gross profits others have made off her misfortune and gambling addiction. In the rare instances that Tsunade hits a winning streak, she believes it to be a bad omen, and bad things tend to happen to her afterwards. The symbol on the back of her coat, 賭 ("kake"), means "gamble," or "wager," as gambling is one of her favorite pastimes.

Tsunade typically projects a tough demeanor, even when facing great personal difficulty, and rarely compliments or praises people. She readily criticizes others for their faults, such as Naruto for his immaturity or Jiraiya for his perversion. On occasion, though, Tsunade often shows sympathy for others, consoling Shikamaru that while he failed his mission to return Sasuke to Konoha, all of his teammates survived.

Orochimaru

Orochimaru (大蛇丸?) is a major antagonist in the anime and manga series Naruto created by Masashi Kishimoto.

Orochimaru's given name and distinguishing features are derived from the character of the same name from Jiraiya Goketsu Monogatari (児雷也豪傑物語, "The Tale of the Gallant Jiraiya"). The Orochimaru in this story was originally Jiraiya's student until he was corrupted by snake magic.

Orochimaru is male, but speaks with a very formal female tone in Japanese to make him seem more sinister. In the English language dub, he is instead given a masculine yet quiet and raspy voice.

Orochimaru relishes conflict and unrest, becoming bored when neither is in motion. Ibiki Morino, when first seeing Orochimaru as a child, claims to have been terrified at the sight of Orochimaru, believing him to be a monster in human skin. Despite this, Orochimaru has a knack for winning otherwise desperate people to his cause, filling the void in their life with loyalty to him. He brands some of his most powerful subordinates with a cursed seal that corrodes their body and free will in exchange for power. While many of Orochimaru's subordinates seem to admire and respect him, the reverse does not seem to be true. Orochimaru generally treats his subordinates as pawns, caring only for their ability to further his interests. The only ones he shows any sort of care for are those he intends to use as a host, and this too is only because they can prolong his existence.

After two and a half years of training Sasuke, Orochimaru's current body begins to fail him and he is forced to begin contemplating how to take Sasuke's body. Sasuke, however, is unwilling to give him the chance and attacks a bedridden Orochimaru. Forced into a corner Orochimaru reveals his true form and begins the transfer process, though Sasuke, like Itachi years earlier, is able to use his Sharingan to stop it. Setting himself apart from his brother, Sasuke also uses his Sharingan to take control of the dimension within Orochimaru, completely turning the process against him. When later asked by Kabuto about Orochimaru's fate, Sasuke explains that he has taken over Orochimaru, and retained possession of his body. After absorbing Orochimaru, Sasuke is able to heal at a faster rate, an ability he attributes to Orochimaru's white snake form.

While Orochimaru is considered dead in the eyes of the Naruto world, Kabuto has integrated what remained of Orochimaru into his body in an attempt to make himself into an entity even stronger than Orochimaru. The remains, however, seem to have some degree of consciousness, as they have since begun to slowly take control of his body.

Jiraiya

Despite the fact that he left Konoha for many years, Jiraiya has maintained a strong allegiance with his hometown. During Orochimaru's invasion of Konoha, he helps fend off the invading forces in order to protect the village. When Konoha finds itself in need of a new Hokage after the Third's death, Jiraiya volunteers to look for Tsunade so that she can become the Third's successor after turning the job down himself. After he finds Tsunade and begins to suspect that she may be assisting Orochimaru, he makes it clear that he will kill her if she betrays the village. Tsunade ultimately turns out to be loyal to Konoha, and Jiraiya joins her in attempting to defeat Orochimaru.
Jiraiya is a self-proclaimed super-pervert and a frequent voyeur, going so far as to create the Transparent Escape Technique (透遁術 Tōton Jutsu?, English TV "Transparency Jutsu") to allow him to spy on naked women without being caught (doing "research" as he calls it). He never actually hides his perversion, and even seems proud of it, as seen when he told the Third Hokage about it when he was still a child. Despite this, Jiraiya doesn't like being called Ero-sennin (エロ仙人? literally "Perverted hermit" or "Erotic hermit"; English TV "Pervy Sage") by Naruto Uzumaki in front of others.
Jiraiya's perversion has been used against him on occasion, as seen when Naruto gets Jiraiya to start training him after a simple display of the Sexy Technique. When two Akatsuki members (Itachi Uchiha and his partner Kisame Hoshigaki) later try to distract Jiraiya, they use a hypnotized woman to catch his eye and keep him busy. While their effort initially succeeds, Jiraiya eventually sees through their plot due solely to the fact that women do not typically express interest in him. His peeping habits have also caused him great injury on one occasion; when caught spying on Tsunade in his younger years, she proceeded to break both of his arms, six of his ribs, and ruptured a number of organs as punishment.
Some time after leaving Konoha, Jiraiya became an author of adult novels, his most popular work being "Make Out Paradise" (イチャイチャパラダイス Icha Icha Paradaisu?), a personal favorite of Kakashi Hatake's. The novels are based on his rejections in love that he retells in a comical way. In a filler episode of the anime, Naruto ghostwrites one of Jiraiya's Icha Icha novels and the book is found to be very popular, indicating that Naruto is capable of writing on the same level as Jiraiya, or that Jiraiya's writing abilities are no better than those of a child. Tsunade seems to suspect that the latter is true, as she notes that a report on the Onbaa he wrote as a child, accompanied by crude crayon illustrations, was poorly written. The popularity of the Icha Icha series seems to have paid off well, as Jiraiya's checkbook reveals that he is fairly wealthy (Naruto exclaims that there are quite a few zeros at the end). Despite his wealth, Jiraiya is not above taking Naruto's money and spending it on sake and women, and frequently suddenly disappears when Naruto attempts to make him pay.