Naruto (Series)

Naruto is a manga series created by Masashi Kishimoto in 1999 and is currently on going with 64 volumes released to date. The Anime Adaption started in 2002 and the sequel series (which adapts Part II of the manga) titled Naruto Shippuden began in 2007. There are also 10 movies and a variety of OVA's.

Plot
The series follows the story of the titular character Uzumaki Naruto as he attempts to become the Hokage, a title granted to the leader of Konoha, the Village Hidden in the Leaves. However, Naruto has another problem to deal with in the form of the Kyuubi, a demon that was sealed in to him when he was a baby.

The series begins in a rather laid back fashion as Naruto and his teammates, Uchiha Sasuke and Haruno Sakura, train to become fully fledged Shinobi under the instructions of their Sensei, Hatake Kakashi. However, Sasuke's long standing grudge against his brother, Uchiha Itachi, eventually leads to his defection from the village and Part I of the manga ends with a battle between Naruto and Sasuke.

Part II is more concerned with the efforts of a group called the Akatsuki and their attempts to collect all of the Bijuu, a class of 9 demons such as the Kyuubi. The end results of this is a full blown World War between a United Shinobi Alliance and the few Akatsuki members that reamin.

Standing as a Manga/Animeverse
While pailing in comparsion to the likes of Dragon Ball Z and may other verses, Naruto is still fairly strong in comparsion to it's Shonen contemporaries and is arguably the strongest of the HST. While Part I of the series is fairly unimpressive, the Invasion of Pain Arc onwards introduces characters capable of Mountain Busting (some of which can be done casually), hypersonic+ movement, as well as a variety of other abilities such as teleportation, soul sucking, high level illusions, creation of other dimensions and mind control. Of particular note is the Juubi, the psudeo-God of the Narutoverse, which has so far dwarfed all other powers and is implied to be capable of country to contiental level destruction.

Characters
Due to the size of the series, a comprehensive list of chacters is unwise for the purposes of this Wiki, so only Top Tier Characters will be included as well as characters that are popular in versus matches.

Konoha And Allies

 * Uzumaki Naruto (Kyuubi Included)
 * Hatake Kakashi
 * Might Guy
 * Senju Hashirama
 * Namikaze Minato
 * Gaara of the Sand
 * A
 * Killer Bee

Akatsuki

 * Uchiha Obito
 * Uchiha Itachi
 * Uzumaki Nagato

Other

 * Uchiha Sasuke
 * Uchiha Madara
 * Juubi