Sakura feels trapped in the middle when her long-time teammates Naruto and Sasake, now young men and accomplished ninjas, seem headed for separate destinies.

Naruto must pass the difficult test to enter the Ninja Academy, deal with his rival Konohamaru, and learn to get along with his new classmates, Sasuke and Sakura.

In the village of Konohagakure, school is literally a battlefield where classmates are ninjas in training competing to become the greatest ninja in the land.

"In another world, ninja are the ultimate power--and in the village of Konohagakure live the stealthiest ninja in the world. But twelve years ago Konohagakure was attached by a fearsome threat--a nine-tailed fox demon which claimed the life of the Hokage, the village champion. Today, peace has returned, and a troublemaking orphan named Uzumaki Naruto is struggling to graduate from the ninja Academy. His goal: to become the next Hokage. But unknown...

"Now preparing for the finals of the Chunin Selection Exams, Naruto studies with naughty new mentor Jiraiya and struggles to harness the power of the Nine-Tailed Fox chakra locked within him. Meanwhile, other ninja villages are forming secret alliances against Konohagakure"--Cover.

Naruto, Tsunade, Jiraiya and Shizune take on Orochimaru and Kabuto in battle, with the final fate of Tsunade hanging on the outcome.

Naruto is a ninja-in-training with a need for attention, a knack for mischief, and sealed within him, a strange, formidable power. His antics amuse his instructor Kakashi and irritate his teammates, intense Sasuke and witty Sakura, but Naruto is serious about becoming the greatest ninja in the village of Konohagakure! With only a few matches left to be fought in the preliminaries to the third portion of the Journeyman Ninja Selection Exams, the highly...