Here Is Who Took Care of Naruto As a Baby!

Naruto Uzumaki is the titular protagonist of Masashi Kishimoto’s Naruto franchise. He appears as the principal character in the anime Naruto and its sequel, Naruto: Shippuden; he also appears in Boruto: Naruto Next Generations, but as a secondary character since the show focuses on his son, Boruto Uzumaki. Throughout the years, Naruto has gone through a lot of changes, and we have seen him grow up as the anime progresses. But how did his story start? We know about his parents, but how did Naruto survive when he was an infant and a child? We are going to answer that question in this article!

Masashi Kishimoto has not confirmed who took care of Naruto when he was still a baby. It is assumed that Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Third Hokage, personally took care of him when he was little. When he became a bit older, he was cared for by the village and some other people, but he basically lived alone during the time and was provided with an income to live normally.

The rest of the article will give you some more information on Naruto’s childhood, as we are going to explain the story of his birth, as well as how he managed to live by himself in Konoha. There are going to be a lot of theories in here, as well as some spoilers, so do be careful how you approach the article if you don’t know everything yet.

How did Naruto become an orphan?

Due to the conditions in which Naruto’s mother was, who was the Jinchūriki of the Nine-Tails, Naruto’s birth had to be carried out very cautiously. When it was time to give birth, the seal that contained the beast inside the Jinchūriki weakened, making it necessary to strengthen it after the end of childbirth. Naruto was born in a room protected by a barrier, and the birth was only witnessed by his parents, Kushina Uzumaki and Minato Namikaze, as well as Biwako Sarutobi, wife of Hiruzen Sarutobi, and Taji, a medical ninja who helped during the birth.

Once Naruto was born, Minato was about to strengthen Kushina’s seal, but a masked man appeared who kidnapped Naruto. Minato manages to save Naruto, but due to this, he is unable to protect Kushina, who is kidnapped by the masked man. The masked man revealed that his intention was to release the Nine-Tails to attack the Leaf village, taking advantage of the weakness of Kushina’s seal. Minato placed Naruto and, subsequently, a weakened Kushina in a safe house while he decided to take care of the situation.

Finally, the Nine-Tails showed great power, and Minato decided to seal a part of the Nine-Tails’ chakra inside Naruto so that he would become a Jinchūriki. The other part of the Nine-Tails’ chakra was sealed inside Minato. At the same time, Minato saw fit to seal some of his chakra, as well as Kushina’s, in Naruto so that, once he grows up, they can help him in his role as jinchuriki.

While the sealing was taking place, Minato and Kushina were pierced by one of the Nine-Tails’ claws, which was trying to kill Naruto before being sealed. Due to this and the seal made, Naruto’s parents die, but not before saying goodbye to Naruto and asking Hiruzen that the villagers of Konoha treat Naruto as a hero by managing to save the village from the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox.

Who took care of Naruto when he was a baby?

Now, after being orphaned, Naruto’s childhood was a very difficult period for him. Namely, only a few inhabitants were able to fulfill this request because most of them resented the beast’s attack, treating Naruto badly during his growth. Due to this, Hiruzen decreed that no one should find out about Naruto’s truth so that the other children would not treat him differently and marginalize him. In any case, most of the boys maintained the same attitude of contempt as their parents towards Naruto, causing Naruto to find himself alone most of the time.

Hiruzen also considered it prudent that nobody tells Naruto that his father was the Fourth Hokage. All this situation provoked in Naruto the need to stand out so as not to go unnoticed. Subsequently, Naruto entered the Ninja Academy. One day, while playing alone on the swing near the Academy, Naruto witnessed Hinata Hyūga being teased by a group of bullies because of his eyes and decided to intervene. Naruto introduced himself to the thugs as the next Hokage, and since they outnumbered him, the bullies beat Naruto up and tore the red scarf he was wearing.

Surprised to see how Naruto had protected her, Hinata thanked him, while Naruto left the scarf behind because she was torn, dismissing her with a smile so she wouldn’t worry about her. One day in the anime, Naruto was confronted by Sakura Haruno, Ino Yamanaka, Shikamaru Nara, and Chōji Akimichi. They claimed him for someone named Yota, who suddenly disappeared.

Naruto denied knowing the person they were asking for, and then, at their insistence, Naruto leaves, annoyed to see that the boys’ looks were similar to those of the other villagers. Later, when he was in the forest, Naruto hears a boy crying, so he decides to find him. He later finds out that the weather had a bearing on the boy’s emotions. Naruto realized that this was Yota (the boy the others were looking for). Yota showed sympathy towards Naruto and asked him to teach him how to whistle.

Naruto is confused by the request but realizes that Youta has already seen him whistling, and that’s where the wish comes from. As Naruto taught him how to whistle, the two of them bonded and became close friends. Afterward, Naruto and the other Konoha boys set out to play, but during the game, Naruto unconsciously hurt Yota’s feelings, so he disappeared. Once they found him, they realized that he had been caught by the ANBU, who decided to interrogate him, realizing that he did not belong to the village. The boys tried to stop the higher-ups but to no avail.

The next day, Naruto received a visit from his friends, and they decided to go to the Hokage Mansion to rescue his friend. Naruto’s role was to distract the higher-ups while the others rescued Youta. At first, the plan seemed to pay off, but the ANBU managed to react and stop the boys. When the panorama looks dark, Yota gets upset and makes lightning fall on the ANBU, who faints. The boys began to run away from the mansion while being chased by the ANBU, reaching a river. The boys were unable to walk on water due to their short experience, so they had to walk through it.

Unfortunately, Naruto was swept away by the current but is eventually saved by Youta. Saving him, Youta revealed that he no longer possessed the energy and that it was time to say goodbye. Yota used a technique on the boys to make them forget what happened and, in this way, prevent them from having that bad experience in their minds. Eventually, Naruto became a student of Iruka Umino and met his partner, Sasuke Uchiha, when the two were chosen to join their seals. Despite Naruto’s high excitement at the opportunity to defeat Sasuke, given how popular he was, he was easily defeated.

Seeing Sasuke’s eyes, Naruto realized that they were filled with hate. When Iruka told them to perform the Seal of Harmony, they both refused. From that moment on, Naruto chose Sasuke as his rival and tried to take every opportunity to defeat him. When Naruto found out that Sasuke was also an orphan, he was secretly happy that he wasn’t the only one left alone and wanted to talk to him, but he couldn’t because of his jealousy. However, Naruto wished that one day Sasuke would recognize him as an equal.

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As you can see, Naruto had a very complex childhood. Formally, he was not cared for by anyone, but we assume – since Kishimoto never confirmed anything in the canon – that he was cared for by Hiruzen while he was an infant. We know that Hiruzen had a major role in his upbringing and that he did care for Naruto while he was a child, but it was never explicitly confirmed that he took care of baby Naruto.

When he was a bit older, he lived alone from the income his parents had secured him and was watched over by several people, although none of them were his parents or legal guardians. Hiruzen remains among them, but we also have to mention Sandaime, Iruka, and – of course – the ramen guy, all of who played a bigger role in Naruto’s childhood, but they were never his guardians. A lot of the villagers actually hated him, so these few that actually cared for him have to be mentioned in a story of his upbringing, although they were never legally in charge of him at any point.