What Year Was Naruto Born?

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 when was Naruto born? Okay, we know his birthday, but what year was it? In this article, we are going to explain the theories surrounding Naruto’s year of birth.

Naruto Uzumaki was born on October 10, but the exact year of his birth was never revealed; he was 17 years old when Naruto: Shippuden ended. Now, we don’t know when Kishimoto’s story is set, so we don’t have an exact chronology that we could compare to ours, but some fans speculate that Naruto is set in real-time but in an alternative reality, which would mean that he was born in 1986 (or 1989, depending on how you calculate).

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, but also the theories surrounding his age. 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.

What year was Naruto born?

This is, honestly, a question that has been bugging fans for some time now. Namely, Masashi Kishimoto never actually revealed the chronology of his magnum opus, so we do know how many years have passed between events in the manga, but we don’t know what year it actually is, nor how the Naruto timeline is related to our real-world timeline. It is known that Naruto uses the same calendar as we do, but that is about it. We also know that he was born on October 10. But what year was it?

Now, some fans speculate that Naruto is set in real-time but in an alternative reality. That would make sense, and it would, of course, make things easier. That would mean that Naruto’s plot began in 1999 when the manga began publication, and that would make it easy for us to track the chronology of the Naruto plot. As per that theory, Naruto would have been born on October 10, 1986.

At the beginning of the series, Naruto Uzumaki was 12 years old. The moment when Naruto fights Sasuke near the end of Part I, he is 13 years old. That means that: 1999–13=1986. This is a calculation from which it makes sense that Naruto was born in 1986. To corroborate that, we can also add the following: Part 2 of the manga began two and a half years later, i.e., around mid-2002, because Naruto was 15 and a half when he returned to the village.

Half a year later, when Naruto and his team search for Sasuke after failing to bring him back earlier with Sai and Yamato, he is 16 years old. During his fight against Pain, it was revealed that he was still 16 years old. The Fourth Great Shinobi War ended on Naruto’s 17th birthday, i.e., on October 10, 2003, based on our calculations.

This does make sense from a mathematical point of view, and the numbers are completely correct, but there is a problem: this is only a theory. We have absolutely no clue whether this theory is correct since Masashi Kishimoto never confirmed anything, and there are numerous other theories online, but from our standpoint, this one makes sense, and we hope that we have helped you grasp the whole idea a bit better. Now, let us describe the circumstances of Naruto’s birth.

Naruto’s birth

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.

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.