Aside from Naruto, the story closely follows the lives of other ninja, most notably Naruto's rival and friend, Uchiha Sasuke. The life of Sasuke develops in complexity as the story goes on and it brings yet another theme into Naruto as the young Uchiha is set on revenge for the massacre of his clan by his brother Itachi. An amazing twist in the plot more recently changes everything for Sasuke and it becomes very hard to tell just what Sasuke is thinking which makes this series even more exciting than it already was.
Other major characters in the series include Haruno Sakura and Hatake Kakashi, Naruto's teammate and Sensei, all of whom along with Sasuke and the main character himself make up Team Seven. Others include Jiraiya one of the legendary three ninja who is responsible for teaching Naruto his more advanced ninja techniques along with Tsunade, Iruka and many more.