Episodes

The series opens on a lonely young prankster who carries a sealed beast none of the villagers will let him forget, until a betrayal and a teacher's kindness finally earn him his ninja headband. The premiere episode of the original Naruto.

The second episode of Naruto introduces the Third Hokage's grandson, a boy chasing the Hokage title for his own reasons who latches onto Naruto after learning there is no shortcut to earning respect.

Team assignments day at the Academy pits Naruto against his new squadmate Sasuke, delivers an infamous accidental kiss, and sends a milk-poisoned Naruto racing to the bathroom while he schemes to sabotage Sasuke and Sakura.

Kakashi puts Team 7 through the bell test, a survival exercise with a brutal failure rate, and the mismatched trio quickly discovers that pranks and reckless charges are no match for an elite jonin reading a book mid-fight.

The bell test reaches its verdict as Sasuke, Sakura, and Naruto each fail to think like a team, only for a shared act of defiance to teach them why abandoning a comrade is the worst crime of all.

The sixth Naruto episode sends Team 7 on its first mission beyond the village walls, a bridge-builder escort to the Land of Waves that turns deadly the moment two hidden assassins strike, marking the squad's earliest brush with real combat.

Team 7's escort job to the Land of Waves reveals its real danger when a rogue swordsman ambushes them for their client. Kakashi is forced to unveil his Sharingan against Zabuza Momochi, and the two jonin open with a duel of clones inside a wall of mist.

With Kakashi sealed inside a prison of water, his three students must hold off Zabuza on their own. A vow etched in his own pain drives Naruto to abandon his flight instinct and gamble on a clone-and-shuriken trick to free his teacher.

Freed from Zabuza's water prison by his students' teamwork, Kakashi turns the swordsman's own jutsu against him with the Sharingan. Just as he moves to finish the fight, a masked hunter-nin appears to claim Zabuza's body.

Recovering at Tazuna's home, Kakashi realizes Zabuza only faked his death and will surely return. With a rematch looming, he sends Team 7 into the woods to master a tree-climbing exercise built entirely on chakra control.

As Tazuna's crew loses heart, Team 7 sees firsthand the poverty crushing the Land of Waves, and the torn family photo on Inari's wall opens the tragic story of Kaiza, the hero Gatō destroyed.

A chance meeting with Haku in the forest teaches Naruto that real strength comes from protecting someone precious. As he and Sasuke master tree-climbing and Naruto clashes with the bitter Inari, Team 7 heads to the bridge, where Zabuza is waiting for a rematch.

As Inari finds his courage against Gatō's hired kidnappers, Sasuke faces the deadly ice mirrors of Haku on the bridge, and Naruto races between both crises. This 13th episode of the original Naruto series belongs to the Land of Waves prologue.

Naruto crashes the bridge battle with a loud entrance that earns Kakashi's scorn rather than praise. Trapped alongside Sasuke inside Haku's dome of ice mirrors, the two struggle to find any weakness in a jutsu neither of them understands.

Trapped in Haku's ice mirrors, Sasuke and Naruto fight a losing battle against blinding speed while Zabuza blankets the field in fog to nullify Kakashi's Sharingan and aim a killing blow at Tazuna and Sakura.

Episode 16 pushes Team 7 to the brink on the great bridge. Haku stops holding back, Sasuke awakens his Sharingan to guard a fainting Naruto, and grief over an apparent loss unleashes the Nine-Tailed Fox's power inside Naruto for the first time.

Episode 17 of the original Naruto sees a rage-fueled Naruto shatter Haku's ice mirrors, only to learn the tragic history of the boy behind the mask, while Kakashi closes in on Zabuza with his signature lightning blade.

In this Land of Waves entry, the duel on the unfinished bridge reaches its grim turning point as Haku throws himself between Kakashi's strike and a helpless Zabuza, while a frightened village finally begins to find its courage.

Betrayed by Gato and moved by Naruto's tears, Zabuza makes one last charge to avenge Haku, closing the Land of Waves mission and inspiring Naruto to seek a ninja path of his own.

The opening episode of the Chūnin Exams arc, in which Team 7 returns from the Land of Waves to fraying teamwork, Konohamaru's antics bring the Sand siblings into view, and the Third Hokage announces the coming exam.

Naruto episode 21 opens the Chunin Exams by introducing the Sand siblings and a lurking Sound team, then follows the three jonin nominating their rookies and Iruka's disguised test of Team 7's readiness.

The 22nd Naruto episode introduces Rock Lee, who challenges Sasuke to prove that raw taijutsu can outclass the Sharingan, before Might Guy arrives to reveal Lee is not even the strongest genin on his own team.

The twenty-third Naruto episode gathers Konoha's rookie graduates on the threshold of the Chunin Exams. Reunions turn tense as an obliging examinee named Kabuto lays out how dangerous their rivals are, and a trio from the Sound quickly shows how volatile the room already is.

The Chunin Exams open with a grueling written test run by Ibiki Morino. The genin slowly realize the true challenge is not answering the impossible questions but cheating without being caught, and each candidate turns a personal skill toward stealing answers unseen.

Ibiki dangles a cruel choice over the final exam question, and it is Naruto's defiant refusal to back down that carries the whole room past the first stage of the Chūnin Exams.

The first filler installment of the original series, a comic recap in which the Konohamaru squad interviews Team 7 outside the Forest of Death. Each ninja bends the story to flatter himself, and the interviews turn into another round of squabbling between Naruto and Sasuke.

Anko lays out the brutal second phase of the Chūnin Exams inside the Forest of Death, a survival trial built to cut the field in half as teams hunt one another for the scrolls they need to advance.

A Chunin Exams episode in which Team 7 unmasks two separate impostors inside the Forest of Death, a clever overlong password scheme exposes a Grass ninja wearing Naruto's face, and a giant snake swallows the real Naruto whole.

Refusing to let Sasuke surrender their scroll, Naruto snatches it back and throws himself at the disguised enemy in the Forest of Death. Beaten and drained, he still finds the will to protect his teammate, forcing a shaken Sasuke to rediscover his own fighting spirit.

Sasuke's brutal duel with a mysterious Grass ninja climaxes with a devastating fire technique, only to expose a far deadlier opponent. The stranger sheds a false face to reveal Orochimaru, who brands Sasuke and vanishes into the forest.

Exhausted and cornered by the Sound trio, Sakura stands alone over her unconscious teammates. Rock Lee bursts in with a vow to guard her with his life, unleashing his forbidden Front Lotus on Dosu, only to learn that raw speed is no match for an enemy who strikes at the speed of sound.

Episode 32 of the Chunin Exams arc gives Sakura her breakout moment, cutting her hair and standing alone against the Sound genin to guard her fallen teammates until help arrives.

Team 10 steps in to defend the wounded Team 7 against the Sound genin, and Ino's mind-transfer gamble leaves the fight deadlocked. Then Sasuke wakes with the cursed seal raging across his body, turning his fury on Zaku before Sakura's plea pulls him back.

An early Naruto episode during the Forest of Death lets the recovering rookies witness Gaara's ruthlessness firsthand, as the Suna genin annihilates a rival team and clears the second exam stage without a scratch.

A Chunin Exams chapter in which a newly recovered Naruto weighs forging the second scroll his team needs, only for Kabuto to warn against reading the one they hold. Kabuto then joins Team 7 on the trek to the forest tower, where a rival Ame team's genjutsu ensnares them.

Naruto episode 36 wraps the Forest of Death fight against Team Oboro, where Naruto turns their illusory clones against them with his own shadow doubles and Kabuto's true loyalties quietly surface.

The thirty-seventh episode of Naruto closes out the Forest of Death survival test, reuniting the squads that cleared the second exam and setting the stage for the next phase as the Third Hokage briefs the finishers.

A Chūnin Exams episode where too many genin clear the second stage, forcing a round of one-on-one preliminaries, with the first bout pitting an ailing Sasuke against Yoroi Akadō under Kakashi's watchful eye.

Crippled by the cursed seal and drained by Yoroi's chakra theft, Sasuke is boxed into a duel he can only fight with taijutsu. He answers with a brand-new move pieced together from Rock Lee's speed, then Kakashi whisks him away only to run straight into Orochimaru.

A tense standoff pits Kakashi against Orochimaru during the Chūnin Exams, though the confrontation ends without blows. In the arena, Shino outlasts Zaku through clever use of his insects, punching his ticket to the next match.

Kankuro dispatches Misumi with a puppet trick, then the preliminary spotlight turns to Sakura and Ino, whose girlhood friendship and buried rivalry finally boil over into a fight neither is willing to lose.

The forty-second episode of the original series closes the preliminary bout between Sakura and Ino. Old friends push each other to exhaustion, Ino's hair trap nearly wins it, and a burst of will from Inner Sakura ends the match in a draw.

Two preliminary bouts play out as Temari's fan overwhelms Tenten's arsenal and Shikamaru turns a losing genjutsu trap against Kin, using her own wires to steal the win.

A Chunin Exams preliminary match pits Naruto against Kiba and his partner Akamaru. Outmatched at first, Naruto turns the bout into a battle of wits, though the Inuzuka pair's beastly teamwork proves overwhelming.

The forty-fifth episode of Naruto settles the preliminary bout between Naruto and Kiba, in which the underdog turns a rival's own tricks against him and improvises his way to a scrappy, unlikely victory in front of the Chunin Exam crowd.

The tournament pits a timid Hinata against her own cousin Neji from the Hyuga branch house. Belittled and on the verge of quitting, she draws sudden courage from Naruto's shouts of support, and the two relatives finally clash using the clan's signature Gentle Fist.

The 47th Naruto episode closes the wrenching preliminary bout between the Hyūga cousins, as a battered Hinata keeps rising against Neji and Naruto swears to make him pay.

The forty-eighth Naruto episode delivers the long-awaited preliminary duel between Rock Lee and Gaara. Lee sheds his hidden weights to slip past a self-guarding wall of sand, yet each blow he lands proves less decisive than it appears against a defense that keeps changing shape.

Tricked by a sand decoy, Lee squares off against the real Gaara and reaches deeper into the Eight Gates, opening the Third and unnerving even his opponent, as Guy and Neji recall the boy's fierce climb from failure.

The 50th episode of Naruto pushes Rock Lee to open a fifth inner gate against Gaara, and even in triumph the cost of that gamble threatens to end his career as a ninja for good.