Naruto Uzumaki
CHARACTER HISTORY:
Almost since birth, Naruto has been seen as a menace to the people of his village. The day he was born, his father (the Fourth Hokage of the village) used his small body as a container to host the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox which the Fourth ended up sacrificing his own life to kill. Even though his dying wish was to have the people of the village acknowledge Naruto as a hero to them, quite the opposite happened. Instead of praising Naruto and taking care of him, the village ostracized him, fearing the demon inside of him, believing that it would one day escape his body and destroy them all.
Spending his entire childhood alone not understanding why he was treated the way he was, Naruto spent most of his time playing pranks on the villagers, vandalising public property, and trying to find any possible way to become something to the people who didn’t believe in him. When this was unsuccessful, Naruto made a promise to himself. A dream of sorts. He vowed that he would become the Hokage one day, the most powerful person in the village. That he would force the people who had never believed in him to acknowledge him.
After finally graduating from the ninja academy, Naruto found himself with three people who were to become very important to him and the way he lived his life from then on out; Hatake Kakashi, Haruno Sakura, and Uchiha Sasuke. They became like a kind of family to him: Sakura, who he’d had a crush on since early childhood; Sasuke, who he’d marked as a rival, the only person who could even begin to understand what it was like to grow up without parents; and Kakashi, who was to serve as a father figure of sorts.
As a team, the three of them accomplished a lot in their year together, including their first time experiencing the near-death of a teammate, witnessing the death of an ‘enemy’, the death of the Hokage they’d all known since birth, and the Chuunin exams which had to be cut short. When Naruto had the chance to meet Jiraiya, the man who would eventually become more than a father to him, he was given the opportunity to learn about the demon inside of him and how to try to harness the power of the Nine-Tails.
When confronted by Uchiha Itachi shortly after this, Naruto was made aware of the fact that his life was tangled up with that of the Nine-Tails, and that the organization known as Akatsuki was after the power of the demon. At Sasuke's request, Naruto did not interfere with the fight between Sasuke and Itachi, but was present when Sasuke was wounded and taken back to the village.
The effect Itachi had on Sasuke in turn affected Naruto’s life as well, forcing him to chase after his friend who had decided to leave the village. Seeing how this had affected Sakura, Naruto made a promise that was to hang over his head for the remainder of the series (so far). He promised her that no matter what it took, he would bring Sasuke back to her.
The battle at the Valley of the End was perhaps the turning point in Naruto’s life, forcing him, at that moment, to grow up. His childish ideals were swept away by Sasuke, who finally admitted to Naruto how much their friendship had meant to him, moments before shoving his arm through Naruto’s chest.
This was the first time that Naruto really gave his body over to the demon inside of him, his power growing quickly with the release of the Nine-Tails’ chakra. With the release of even this much of the demon, Naruto’s inhibitions were lowered and he attacked Sasuke with all that he had, desperate to keep Sasuke with him, to keep his promise and to prove to Sasuke that there was more than just power overcoming him, making him stronger than he’d ever been.
Unfortunately, his inability to actually kill his friend left him the loser of the battle, and when he woke up back in Konoha, Sasuke’s forehead protector clutched in his hand, it was already too late; Sasuke was gone to Orochimaru and Naruto had lost one more thing that he had worked so hard to gain.
Still, though, his promise to Sakura lingered, and he promised anew that no matter what it took he would find Sasuke and bring him back.
After two and a half years of training, Naruto was finally able to go looking for Sasuke. Following a lead, he and his team made their way to Orochimaru, and Naruto was forced to face this man, this snake that had taken first the only person he’d ever had from him and then Sasuke, too, with lies and promises of power and success. By this time Naruto had learned to filter the demon’s power into his body and he managed to hold his own against the man right until the end of the battle.
Finally making it to Orochimaru’s hideout and face to face with Sasuke, Naruto felt so very close to his goal. The years away from his teammates had served Naruto well and he confronted Sasuke, asking, "How can one become Hokage when they’re unable to save one person?", suggesting that he had put aside his lifelong dream to become the Hokage until he could save Sasuke.
After this, Sasuke left them again, and Naruto returned to the village determined, doubly now, to return with Sasuke.
After finding out that Sasuke had managed to kill Itachi, Naruto’s first goal had been to chase after the other. Unfortunately, the members of the team he’d been with insisted that he return to the village, and reluctantly Naruto followed.
Upon his return to the village, Naruto was told that Jiraiya, who had played the role of father, teacher, and friend to him, had been killed on his last mission. One more thing that the enemies of the village had taken from him.
His goals now? To bring Sasuke back to the village and to do whatever it takes to avenge his teacher.
CHARACTER PERSONALITY:
Naruto Uzumaki, as a protagonist, represents everything that a good protagonist should be. He’s in it for the long shot. The type of boy who would never give up on the things he believes in because they are so much a part of him that it would be too much like giving himself up. Regardless of the fact that his entire life has found him ostracized and excluded from just about everything he’d ever longed to be a part of, he’s loyal almost to a fault. He feels compelled to do what is right (even though in his younger days he spent his time making as much mischief as he could), regardless of what purpose it serves him. He wants peace for the sake of peace, and he longs to prove himself to the people who have never appreciated him, yearning to become a symbol of something great to them, and to prove successful to those who have shown him, through the years, that they believed in him. Generally cheerful and energetic, Naruto usually spends his time outside, preferring to be where he can waste as much of his pent-up energy as possible. Although a lot of the time his actions seem rather childlike, Naruto possesses the ability to use his emotions almost completely to his advantage. This seems to help him a lot, considering that his physical skill, while being the first thing that he tries to use, is typically unlikely to be the thing that wins battles for him (despite the fact that he seems to be more of a brawn over brains type).
Growing up without a family has left Naruto a certain way. His outlook on life is different than most characters’, and even though he’s grown up in a world where people are meant to be strong and as cut off from their emotions as possible, Naruto embraces the way he has felt in the past and almost every move he makes is driven by the desire to save people from the life he might have led, had he not been so strong and determined to live at the very least a normal life. This has gained him a wide assortment of friends that he never had in his early childhood, which has changed him for the better. Instead of feeling like the boy who had so much to fight for in order to feel as though he’d achieved something, Naruto became the boy who had so many people to fight for, so many people to protect, and finally, finally he had something to show for the years he spent trying to gain some semblance of normalcy.
However, having friends and people to love and who love him in return has also had an adverse affect on Naruto. With friends comes a betrayal different than that felt when it’s done by strangers. Having worked so hard to gain and keep the friends that he’s made over the years, the loss of one, especially one as important to him as his best friend, Uchiha Sasuke, changed Naruto -- leaving him, at first, a shell of what he had been before. Growing almost frantic after the loss, Naruto turned all of his attention toward getting stronger, basically starting from the beginning, working on building the essentials to once again prove himself not only to Sasuke and the rest of his village, but to himself.
Unfortunately this has changed Naruto from the child he had been, forcing him to grow up and face a different sort of reality. With a more mature outlook on life, Naruto’s mannerisms have changed slightly from when he was a child, spending less time on frivolous matters (like trying to achieve a goal he’d set for himself when he was too small to really understand it), and more time on trying to save the one person he’d ever really connected with. So for now, he has pushed aside his dream to prove himself to all the people who had forsaken him as a child, and focused completely on proving himself to the one person who, in his opinion, needs to believe him, believe in him, more than anyone else.
HOW IS THIS CHARACTER APPROPRIATE FOR THIS SETTING: Canonly Uzumaki Naruto shows symptoms of the personality disorder ‘Dissociative Identity Disorder’, often switching between the personality that is Uzumaki Naruto and the personality that largely belongs to the demon fox locked inside of him. These personalities are quite separate, and the more Naruto allows himself to fall into the personality of the ‘Kyuubi’ the more dominance that identity seems to build. I also think this character would be absolutely fascinating to play in this setting.
WHAT WILL THEIR DIAGNOSIS BE: 1) Naruto sufferes from DID-Dissociative Identity Disorder ( Also known as ‘Multiple Personality Disorder’).
Suffering from constant bouts of amnesia, Naruto’s diagnosis is that of a person who suffers from dissociative identity disorder. This means that there are two completely different identities living inside of Naruto, neither aware of the existence of the other.
2) Naruto also suffers from retrograde amnesia. This means that in addition to the loss of his memories leading up to each of his 'episodes', he is unable to recall randomly-placed events from his past. It is thought that this has been caused by some kind of trauma to his brain at some point prior to his admittance.
PREDICTED PSYCHOLOGICAL EFFECTS: This condition leaves the sufferer to experience bouts of amnesia whenever the other identity takes hold of the body. He’ll suffer from the amnesia, occassional bouts of depression and anger, frustration, loss of periods of time, headaches, muscle aches, and ocassional depersonalization with the onset of an ’episode’.
PREDICTED BEHAVIOR/PLANS: Naruto would be the person in the asylum interested in making friends with as many people as possible. He would feel bad for them, try to empathize, even if he found many of them to be almost creepy or weird.
However, as his treatment progresses, Naruto will experience more frequent episodes. The goal of treatment for DID is merging the two personalities into one, which, especially considering Naruto’s lack of belief in anything they’re telling him, won’t be a pretty picture.
DANGER LEVEL:
Naruto’s danger level would be a 1 (usually). Although the alternate personality is rather aggressive and can border on being violent when it pleases, it doesn’t tend to lash out physically on a regular basis, so more than half the time (depending on the day), Naruto would be a rather decently assimilated part of society.