Naruto is a mischievous young boy who, due to the "stigma" of having the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox sealed within him, is shunned by the adults of Village Hidden in the Leaves, since he is the "vessel" of the demon who had killed so many people in the village twelve years ago. Before he was aware of this fact, Naruto was simply a young orphan, living alone in his house, eating his "cup ramen" (instant cup noodles), and basically getting attention to himself by being a brat. He would pull pranks, and vandalize monuments and statues. He even made fun of his ninja apprenticeship classes, inventing "stupid ninja skills" as "Sexy no Jutsu", where instead of transforming his appearance to look like his teacher, he turns in to a naked, blonde girl!

Naruto is not without "serious ninja skills", however. His specialty is the "Kage Bunhsin no Jutsu", learned from a forbidden secret scroll he was tricked into stealing. In contrast to the normal "Bunshin" (clone illusions) done by ordinary ninjas, the "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu" produces multiple "Shadow Clones" of the user, with actual physical bodies. In short, Naruto can create real duplicates of himself (or anything else) and each of the duplicates can physically affect his enemies just like the real thing!

Naruto believes that the only way the people of the village will accept him and acknowledge him as a citizen of the village is to train hard and become the village's next "Hokage" (the highest-level ninja and leader of all ninjas in the village). This is ultimate goal, and he is determined to achieve it no matter what.

Naruto may be a hyperactive knucklehead, but few people have as much sheer guts and willpower, and it can produce a number of surprising results, such as when he first invoked the Shadow Clone technique. Having the much-talked-about Sasuke as a teammate also fuels his fire, since it stirs intense rivalry in both of them, spurring each to push harder.

He doesn't really know it (Kakashi does, though), but Naruto has even more chakra potential than Sasuke. The reason is that the spirit of that infamous nine-tailed fox is still within him, and the dark side of that secret emerges when Naruto is pushed over the mental edge. As he realizes just how big of a problem the demon within him can be, he gains another reason to become stronger: so he can keep the vengeful demon in check.

Naruto technically found out about the nine-tailed fox within him in the first episode when his original sensei was fighting the white haired ninja guy, Mizuki, over the scroll that Naruto "stole" so that he could graduate and be a higher level ninja. Mizuki is screaming at Naruto telling him that everyone hates him and it's a secret why, and that he'll tell Naruto. Naruto's sensei says no, but the Mizuki tells Naruto about the nine-tails fox anyway. However, it would seem that Naruto either doesn't believe him or there was too much going on for Naruto to comprehend what was being said (or Naruto is just extra thick), because afterwards Naruto acts just as if he had never heard it.

Naruto learns from his new sensei (Jiraiya) how to do a summoning jutsu. He learns how to summon Gamma Bunta and his son which is usually carried around like Akamaru on Kiba.

In the Manga Chapter after the two and a half year time gap, Naruto will still be a Genin while everybody else are Chunins and Jounins, because Naruto was training with Jiraiya. But Naruto should be a Jounin, meaning he is at that level. The same goes for Sasuke, because he was training with Orochimaru, so he should be a Jounin too.

Sasuke is one of the top scorers of the ninja apprenticeship school and the top "Genin" (rookie/first-level ninja) of the Village Hidden in the Leaves. He is the sole remaining member of the Uchiha clan, a once powerful ninja clan of the village. He is very dark and serious, and is focused on nothing else but training to become a stronger ninja.

All of this is for one ultimate goal: revenge. His life's ambition is to grow powerful enough to kill "a certain man" (his older brother Itachi). As part of the Uchiha clan, Sasuke has higher "chakra" (spirit energy/chi). He also has a technique to blow fireballs from his mouth.

Also, as one of the Uchiha clan, he inherits the clan's Kekkei Genkai (or bloodline trait)--the Sharingan. He begins to unlock it in the fight with Haku (who himself was using a Kekkei Genkai) and it gradually gains strength as he learns to use it to track movements and observe ninjitsu techniques. It helps having a knucklehead like Naruto as a teammate. He doesn't like Naruto at first, but as they and Sakura learn to work as a team, he shows a surprising willingness to protect Naruto. It's the beginning of a pretty complex teammate/rival relationship, as each watches for the other but at the same time wants to become better than the other.

When Sasuke fought Naruto, they each use a powerful jutsu. Naruto use Rasengen and Sasuke uses Chidori. Chidori, also known as Raikiri (Lightning blade), is a jutsu taught to him by Kakashi.

Sakura, like any other teenage girl, has only one thing in mind...boys! More specifically, one boy, Sasuke Uchiha. She tries to act all sweet, prim, and proper on the outside, but we also get to see "Inner Sakura", a "darker" (and perhaps the true) hidden version of her personality, whenever she makes certain comments.

As the stereotypical, three way, love-hate-triangle goes...Naruto likes Sakura, while Sakura thinks Naruto's annoying. Sakura likes Sasuke, while Sasuke thinks Sakura is annoying! Of course Naruto hates Sasuke's guts (or at least he thinks he does, at times), while Sasuke thinks Naruto is just an idiot. And to make matters worse...it's the three of them who are teamed up together to compose ninja Team 7!

 Back then Sakura and Ino were best friends and stopped being friends over well... Sasuke. Before they broke apart, Sakura was a shy sensitive girl and Ino was the one who made her come out of her shell, and when Sakura announced that she liked Sasuke, Ino regreted what she did. Then when Sakura heard that Ino liked Sasuke too she said that she and Ino were enemies from then on. After a few days of breaking up,Ino heard Sakura say the Sasuke liked girls with long hair, which is why they both grew their hair long.

 Sakura's long hair ended up becoming a symbol of her rivalry with Ino, as they both grew it long because they heard Sasuke liked long hair. Sakura then cuts it during a battle in the Forest of Death, and later in the chunin exam when she and Ino were chosen to fight for the preliminary rounds, Ino cuts her hair after being called superficial by Sakura. Sakura also used her "inner sakura" to counter Ino's shinten no jutsu. Thankfully, the two of them then became friends again.

Sakura matures a lot during the Chuunin Exams when she is stuck in the Forest of Death with Sasuke and Naruto - that is after she is attacked by the Sound-nin. After Rock Lee made an attempt to protect her, but failed as it was a three-against-one attack, one of the sound-nin grabs Sakura by the hair and tells her to watch everyone get killed. Out of frustration, she starts to cry thinking that she is always being in the way and is always being helped. At that point, she cuts her own hair with her kunai and attacks the sound-nin. Later, Ino, Shikamaru, and Chouji come to the rescue and saves the day.

After Sasuke left, Sakura felt helpless about the fact that she couldn't help in rescuing him. This sprouted a wanting inside of her to help Naruto and the others in wanting to protect the ones she loved and cared for, so she then studied under Tsunade, Godaime Hokage. Two and a half years have passed and Sakura is not only a junior medical-nin, but she also has the super human strength of Tsunade (not to mention her beauty and bad temper). With this strength and new technique to heal, she hopes she can help Naruto on his journey to retrieve Sasuke.