Akamaru is the faithful dog of Kiba, who usually sits on top of Kiba's head. Kiba uses him as a tool in combat and Akamaru has proven to be useful to do various things. For example: He can pick up the scent of enemies and determine wether they're hostile or not. He can also perform combo jutsu's together with Kiba. But to kiba, Akamaru is not just a tool or ninja-dog, they have become very close, as a matter of fact Akamaru threw himself in front of kiba to protect him from an attack.©naruto-kun.com

Ebisu is a tutor to Konohamaru, and claims to be a "shortcut" to becoming Hokage. He held the common attitude towards Naruto as a demon punk, and looked down on him during their first encounter. Unfortunately, (or fortunately, depending on one's point of view,) he lost to Naruto quite dramatically when Naruto unleashed his Harem no Jutsu on him.

Later on, he tutored Naruto, and his opinion of Naruto changed for the better when he realized that Naruto was a better teacher to Konohamaru than he was, which led him to acknowledge Naruto as a good ninja. After being knocked unconcious by Jiraiya at the women's bath, he went back to teaching Konohamaru. ©naruto-kun.com

Hayate is one of Konoha's Special Jounins. He's also the one who was judging the Chuunin exam's third stage preliminary matches. He is said to be one of the most talented shinobi of the leaf, but his (apparantly)chronic sickness seems to have made him weak. He has bags under his eyes and doesn't look healthy at all.

When he was accidentaly eavesdropping on Baki and Kabuto, he found out about the secretly made treaty between the Hidden Sand & Sound Village, and the plan to attack the Leaf Village. He is then noticed by Kabuto and gets into a fight with Baki. Altough Baki praises Hayate for his skills at such a young age, his Dance of the Crescent moon is easily countered. And Hayate is killed, giving his life for the Leaf.
©naruto-kun.com

He and his friend, Izumo, held their own unofficial first test at the beginning of the chuunin exam. They used genjutsu to swith the room numbers and trick the candidates for the exam. He always makes some small appearances in Naruto, but isn't concidered an important character.©naruto-kun.com

Sakura is on the same team as Naruto and Sasuke, so another one of Kakashi's students. Altough she's one of the main characters in the series, she plays a more supportive part in the beginning. When we see her, basically things get focused on her love for Sasuke. But as the storylines continues she adventually gets strongers too. She's a very smart student, and graduated from the academy with top grades. She has a perfect control over her Chakra, but lacks the will to become an excellent ninja. She has no unique skills, nor do we see her do any training in the series. But Kakashi do said that she has some skill in genjutsu. So if we would have to expect Sakura learning new skills, it'll probably be in that area.

She has quite a history with Ino too. Sakura is somebody who got picked on because of here wide forehead when she was little. Ino was one of her first friends, and said if she didn't hide her forehead so much, she wouldn't get picked on whole the time. She also said 'Sakura, you will bloom into a beautiful flower one day.'. From that day on, they became best friends.

But the day Sakura told Ino she was in love with Sasuke too, she also said to Ino that from that day on they couldn't be friends anymore. Now they're rivals who compete over Sasuke's attention and love. Now when Sakura meets Ino, it's more like 'Ah, Ino-Pig...'. But as the series continues, Sakura undergoes some changes. Her obsession on Sasuke will lessen, and her respect towords the "not-so-cool" group like Naruto and Lee will grow. But not only will she gain some some respect towards other people. She also gets a little envious, and remembers that she should also try her best, too. ©naruto-kun.com

Kakashi is the sensei of Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke. He is known as "the Copy Ninja Sharingan Kakashi" all over the world, and it is rumored that he has memorized over 1000 jutsu. At first glance you would never guess Kakashi is a very powerful jounin. He's very relaxed and sometimes even somewhat slow. He also loves to read his romantic (or is it dirty?) book "Come Come Paradise". However, in this case, appearances can be deceiving. Kakashi is known throughout the world as a formidable adversary and he was an apprentice of the Fourth Hokage.

Kakashi is a very good but very strict teacher. Prior to Naruto's team, he had never allowed any of the teams he was to teach become genins. He uses the same teaching methods the Third and Fourth Hokages used, and he emphasizes teamwork above all else. He feels that someone who does not understand teamwork is not worthy of becoming a ninja.

Kakashi has a sharingan in only one of his eyes. This is unusual because normally sharingan affects both eyes. The most likely explanation for this is that it was surgically implanted.

The sharingan gives Kakashi a huge advantage in battle. He is able to read and copy his opponents moves with it. Almost all of Kakashi's moves are copied from other ninjas. The only exception is the Chidori. The Chidori is Kakashi's sole original technique.©naruto-kun.com

Hiashi is the leader of the Hyuuga clan's main house and has two daughter, Hinata and Hanabi. He feels guilty for the death of his twin brother, Hizashi (Neji?s father), who gave his life for him.
On the day, the long war between the Leaf and the Cloud Village ended, and a peace treaty was made. Someone tried to kidnap Hinata and steal the Byakugan's secrets. The kidnapper was spotted, and easily taken care of by Hiashi. The kidnapper was the Cloud Village's head ninja. It's then when The Cloud accused the Leaf from breaking the peace treaty, and demanded Hiashi's body. It's obvious that the Cloud went to the Leaf Village with the intent to steal and reveal the secrets of the Byakugan all along.

But the Leaf, not wanting to risk another war, didn't decline their demand right away. And hosted a meeting with Hyuuga. Hiachi agreed to the matter, and was willing to die for the sake of the Leaf Village. But just when he was about to, Hizashi interfered.

Hizashi wanted to go instead, so that the Byakugan's secrets wouldn't be revealed. (The curse seal casted upon all Branch House members seals the Byakugan ability upon death.) But the real reason why he wanted to give his life, wasn't because he was a branch family member(protectors of the main house), and Hiashi was a member of the main house. No, he hated and detested the main house of Hyuuga. He did it to protect Neji, his family, and his village, ...to save his brother. Just once, he wanted to go against the destiny of Hyuuga. He said he just got urge to choose his own destiny, make his own dicision and choose his own death. To choose freedom, that's all.

Ever since that event Hiashi has felt guilty for the death of his younger brother. He only tells Neji what really happened to his father, when he was old enough to understand. This was right after Neji lost the fight against Naruto in the chuinin examn. Hiashi gave Neji a letter written by Hizashi, adressed to his son. He then kneels down before Neji and begged for forgiveness.©naruto-kun.com

Hyuuga Hinita is part of the family branch of the Hyuuga clan, and is the daughter of Hyuuga Hiashi Neji's uncle. She is very shy towards people and has a very low self esteem. She has a huge crush on Naruto in the anime and is pretty much always Secretly encouraging him through his trials when she witnesses him.

Hinita also seems to not really want to be a ninja at all but she goes along and is very obedient to people. She would seem better off doing home type of activities then fighting and in time the show may put her in a more of a 'house? wife position.©naruto-kun.com

Hyuuga Neji is considered the strongest and most talented of all genin. He is a member of the Hyuuga Clan and masters Hyuuga Style Taijutsu, the most powerfull Leaf Village TaiJutsu style. Neji is a true genius and he knows it all to well. He is very confident (maybe even to confident) of himself and thinks he knows everything. Neji strongly believes that destiny is something one cannot control: it is given to you at birth and not even hard work can change it. Fully confident of himself, Neji is able to mentally destroy his less confident opponents just by talking to them.

On top of all this Neji really is an incredibly talented ninja. The combination of the Byakugan, Hyuuga Style Taijutsu and the Opening Point Attacks is perfect, and the fact that Neji has already fully mastered those techniques makes him a genius among geniuses. ©naruto-kun.com

Sasori was once part of the Hidden Sand Village, but 20 years ago he left the village and became a missing-nin. He developed and uses many battle puppets to fight his opponent(s) with. Even Karusu, Kuroari, and Sanshouuo, the puppets that Kankuro uses were made by Sasori.

He is a very skilled ninja, with many aces up his sleeve. He is part of Akatsuki and travels around with Deidara as his Akatsuki partner. Before Orochimaru left Akatsuki and Deidara became Sasori's partner it was Orochimaru who was part of a team with Sasori. Sasori is also known as "Akasun no Sasori" or "the Scorpion of the Red Sand". He is very impatient and likes to get things done as fast as he can, he doesn't like to let people wait or be waiting himself.

Sasori lost his parents at a young age and was left in the care of his grandmother, Chiyo. It's she who taught him everything there is to know about puppetry. When Sasori first learned how to use this ability, he made puppets resembling his dead parents in order to feel loved by them. He later on starts creating human puppets (puppets made from human bodies) from opponents he thought worthy of becoming his puppet.

His favorite puppets are Hiruko and the Third Kazekage, both shinobi from the Hidden Sand who he kidnapped and killed to become part of his collection. Hiruko is a more defensive puppet, while through the Third Kazekage's puppet Sasori can use the Third's unique Iron Sand ability.

But that's not all, Sasori himself is actually a puppet too, he converted his own body into a puppet. It gives him a young appearance, and let's him control 100 puppets at once by using a mechanism on his chest that can spin numerous chakra strings. To be able to do this he has to be able to use chakra, for this reason his heart is preserved inside his puppet. His heart, being the only part left of his human body, is the only way to really kill Sasori. Otherwise he'll just transfer his heart to another puppet.

Sasori is eventually killed by his grandmother Chiyo and Sakura. He is stabbed through the heart in the form of a hug by the human puppets of Sasori's parents. After his defeat Sasori informs Sakura of his spy within Orochimaru's ranks, Kabuto Yakushi. He tells her where and when she can meet him. ©naruto-kun.com

Deidara is a missing-nin from the Hidden Rock Village who specializes in explosives. At first it seemed unclear whether he was a he or a she, since both the third person pronouns he and she are used to refer to Deidara. But judging from the deep masculin voice givin to him in the anime, he's definitely male.

He's able to manipulate clay and forms it into different animal-like shapes to attack his opponents with. The clay is infused with chakra and is detonated from a remote distance by Deidara using the command "Katsu", which translates into "Detonate".

The means to make this explosive clay are the mouths in the palm of each hand. All he has to do is devour an animal or anything for that matter and he is able to copy its form. And like said he's able to bring it to life by infusing chakra into the molded clay. Depending on how much chakra is infused he refers to his creations from anywhere between "C1" to "C4", C4 being the strongest.

Deidara was recruited after being noticed by Akatsuki's leader, Pein, as a successful terrorist bomber for hire. Originally Deidara refused to join Akatsuki, but after being defeated by Uchiha Itachi he was forced to join. From that point on Deidara is determined to defeat Itachi, and searches for a way to resists Itachi's genjutsu. During his time with Akatsuki Deidara was first teamed up with Sasori. Sasori having a somewhat artistic ability himself earned the respect of Deidara, who always addresses him as master Sasori. After Sasori is killed, he's paired with Tobi, a relatively young boy who tends to unintentially irritate Deidara a lot. Despite that, Deidara tries to protect Tobi, and treats him as a diciple.

Deidara is also the one who starts the assault on the Sand village in order to abduct the Kazekage Gaara. He succeeds in his mission and was able to obtain the jinchuuriki Gaara. He's a long distance fighter and isn't partically good at taijutsu as shown in his fight with Gaara. His long range attacks however are very damaging, and since he's not your average head-on attacker he's one Akatsuki member you do not want to underestimate. During his fight with Gaara Deidara loses one hand, but was able to revive it. The arm he lost escaping Kakashi's Mangekyou Sharingan wasn't revivable.

Just like Sasori was able to turn himself into a puppet, Deidara is able to turn himself into a human bomb. Just like on his hands, he has a mouth on his chest which can be unsealed. Once unsealed and provided with clay he can turn himself into a living bomb which can destroy everything in a 10 kilometer radius. He eventually uses this technique as a last resort in his fight against Uchiha Sasuke in an attempt to prove his art is absolute. Deidara hated the fact that it was Sasuke, and not him, who eventually killed Orochimaru and tries to end the fight in a draw. However, Sasuke was able to survive and Deidara just ended up blowing himself up. Deidara first appears in episode 135 stating that Akatsuki would eventually kill Orochimaru. ©naruto-kun.com

Hoshigaki Kisame was introduced alongside Uchiha Itachi, as a fellow member of the dreaded Akatsuki. Not much is known about Kisame, other than his past affiliation with Momochi Zabuza in the Hidden Mist's Seven Legendary Swordsmen group. He has a freakish personality and an equally freakish shark-like appearance.

He has a terrifying sword he calls Samehada, which is basicaly a chakra-absorbing sword that cuts through his opponent's chakra by absorbing the chakra around it. The amount of chakra it can absorb is unclear, but seems to be unlimited. Kisame's Samehada is of comparable size to Zabuza Momochi's chopping blade, but rather than slicing its intended victim, it rips them apart like the teeth of a shark. Kisame is also the only one that is able to wield his Samehada. When Maito Gai attempted to use the Samehada against Kisame, the sword responded by attacking Gai's hand with spikes coming out of the handle.

Kisame loves to fight, and was eager to fight Asuma, Kurenai, and Gai at the same time, but was disappointed when Itachi ordered a retreat. He is fearless, and not afraid to use his Samehada liberally. He uses water-based jutsus and is able to create water from nothing, turning any battleground into a lake, enabling him to use even stronger water-based jutsus. Kisame's amount of chakra is said to be the largest in Akatsuki. Truly someone to be cautious of, if not terrified of. As an Akatsuki member Kisame was assigned to capture the host of the four-tailed beast, an assignment he already succeeded in.©naruto-kun.com

Uchiha Itachi is one of the last of the Uchiha clan, he graduated from the chuunin selection exam at the age of 10, and when he was 13 he already became an ANBU Captain. Together with his brother, Uchiha Sasuke, they're supposably the only ones still alive after the Clan's massacre. Their clan, once praised as the strongest clan in Leaf village, was viscously wiped out by none other then Itachi himself. Itachi, a genius praised as the clan's future, killed all his family in a single night. Everybody except for Sasuke, he was left alive in order to avenge the clan. As Itachi himself stated: "At the moment you aren't even worth killing. My foolish little brother. If you want to kill me, despise me, hate me, live a loathsome life and cling to life. And then some day, when you have the same eyes as I do, come before me".

Itachi, being an Uchiha member, has the feared Sharingan bloodline ability. An eye-technique used to copy an opponent's techniques, and see through their movement. Itachi, having fully mastered the "Sharigan Eye", is able to use the clan's ultimate eye-technique: "Mangekyou sharigan".

After the incident Itachi left the Leaf, and became a missing-nin. The reason why Itachi let Sasuke live and revealed the Mangekyou Sharigan's secret is unclear. It may be because only a Mangekyou sharigan user can kill him, and he wished to be killed by his brother. Or prehaps he really let him live because he thought he wasn't even worth killing. Either way, he forced his brother to live a painfull life, swearing that he will avenge the clan and kill Itachi. The reason why he murdered all members of the Uchiha clan is also not known. Altough he said it was to test his ability, it's strange that Itachi already seemed to have joined Akatsuki prior to the killing. Itachi also informs Sasuke about a second Mangekyou sharigan user besides himself.

Itachi is currently a member of the organization "Akatsuki", an organization comprised of "Sly S-Rank Criminals" as Kakashi stated. Their ultimate goal is unknown, but we do know they're after the jinchuuriki and Itachi and his partner Kisame were ordered to track down the Kuuybi (the nine tails fox demon) jinchuuriki, and take him back with them. In other words, they were ordered to kidnap Naruto, the host in which the Kyuubi was sealed. Some time after Itachi joined Akatsuki Orochimaru tries to take over Itachi's body, but fails and ends up having his hand severely damaged. After this incident Orochimaru leaves the organization.

Itachi first appeared in episode 80, where we breifly veiwed him and Kisame observing the ruined Leaf village, after Orochimaru's invasion. Itachi and Kisame get detected by Kakashi who is defeated by Itachi quite easily using the Mangekyou Sharingan. Kakashi being defeated so easily, searches for a way to counter the Mangekyou Sharigan. We have yet to see Itachi's true power, but considering his Sharingan and the fact that he's very skilled with genjutsu and ninjutsu makes him a force to be wreckend with. ©naruto-kun.com