Naruto: My First Hero and Role Model by Kemin Zhang (G9) Naruto: My First Hero and Role Model By Kemin Zhang Grade 9 Two shinobi stand facing each other on gigantic stone statues, eyes grim. They’ve been rivals since they were kids, the distance between them spreading farther and farther each time they meet. One aspires to be Hokage, the village leader, and the other seeks revenge for the murder of his clan. Everything they’ve done during their long journeys has amounted to this point. Who’s going to win? Will they both achieve their goals after this battle? 10-year-old me could barely sit still as Naruto and Sasuke stared at each other intensely for approximately 13 seconds. I could hardly stand it! The suspense! The emotion! The music! The staring! This was my favorite TV show of all time, and I was so close to finishing it after three years. There was only about 20 episodes left, and I was ready to binge them all in one sitting… the only thing holding me back was my time limit. It was a long-awaited moment, and I gaped at the screen with rapture. Eyes wide, I watched as my favorite character from back then burst into action, his signature bright yellow hair and orange-and-black jacket rushing across the screen. My face burst into a grin. I wanted to be just like him, the legendary shinobi Naruto! As a second grader with glasses too small for my chubby face and a low-key interest in Harry Potter and Pokemon, I passed as a mediocre and slightly nerdy student. However, I had friends who were much nerdier than I was, and took every chance they had to shove propaganda for their respective fandoms in my face. Uncle Grandpa this, Warrior Cats that, Miraculous Ladybug, Homestuck… oh, no, anything but Homestuck! (I ended up reading the entirety of Homestuck in 6th grade.) It wouldn’t be overexaggerating to say every one of these things didn’t interest me in the least. I wanted to stay in my little world of Harry Potter and Percy Jackson and Pokemon forever, even if that meant reading The Half-Blood Prince more than eleven times in the span of two months. I didn’t mind! I happily went to school day after day, not having a genuine personality, and fell asleep at night with contentment. Life was simple, it truly was. However, one day during lunch, one of my friends was proudly showing off some action figures he brought from home. I crowded around with everybody else, watching him blab his mouth off about this amazing show that the toys were from, and how much he watched it and all of the merchandise he owned. The action figures did look pretty interesting, featuring a boy with spiky yellow hair, and a guy with white hair and a mask. Later, I asked him about it. “What show did you say those were from, Lucas?” “Oh, it’s from an anime called Naruto. I love it so much. It’s so cool. The characters in it have ninja stars and stuff.” My interest was piqued. Ninja stars did sound very cool. “Can I watch it on YouTube or something?” “Nah, I think my mom uses Netflix to let me watch it. I watch it on my iPad. You should watch it! It’s awesome.” Lucas peered into his lunchbox. “Aw, I only packed the action figures… I forgot to bring lunch.” Once I got home that day, I asked my mom if we had Netflix. Confused, she asked: “Netflix是什么?” (Translation: “What’s Netflix?”) Ah… I should have known. Being the stereotypical Asian mom she was, she didn’t know anything beyond yelling, gossiping with other Asian moms, and signing me up for extracurriculars. I quickly gave a rundown of what a streaming service was in simple Asian mom terms: Every month, pay money, get to watch fun shows, hooray hooray yippee. Sounds great, right? My mom glared at me like I had exotic fungi growing out of my nostrils and they were stinking up the room. Eventually, though, I managed to get through to her, and she paid for a Netflix account. However, she enforced strict rules: Only two hours on Friday night after Chinese class. To me, this was an absolute steal. “Two hours? To a lowly peasant like me? Ah, how generous of the Empress! I shall cherish these plentiful periods of time like they are fresh fruits grown from the rarest of trees, milady. Words cannot express my pure gratefulness for the benevolence of this heaven-descended deity, responsible for providing me sustenance and my very existence. Regrets you shall have none! I wish you a merry and splendid day!”… Which is what I did not say because I was busy getting comfy on the sofa. I blatantly misspelled the name of the show in the search bar as “naroto”, but thankfully, Netflix somehow knew what I was talking about and showed me the results. The first episode, to me, was mesmerizing. Titled “Enter: Naruto Uzumaki!”, the first thing that I witnessed was the story of the sealing of the Nine-Tailed Fox. It showcased the demon violently attacking Konohagakure, also known as the Hidden Leaf Village. (I had enough knowledge about anime to watch it with English subtitles, because I knew that if I watched it on English dubbed all of the weebs would come to my house and attack me.) Ultimately, the fox was sealed by the Fourth Hokage into a newborn Uzumaki Naruto. As I sat there, recovering from the shock of the chaotic introduction, it switched to a completely different scene. Taking place in the village twelve years later, Naruto Uzumaki is introduced as a mischievous boy as he defaces a Mount Rushmore-looking monument featuring the four Hokages. The ninja police see him and start a ridiculous chase, with Naruto absolutely smoking his pursuers. Eventually, he is caught and dragged back to school to take an exam. After the first episode, I immediately took a liking to Naruto. Not only is he an extremely flashy and comedic main character; the fact that even though his backstory is tragic and that he’s discriminated by the other villagers for having the Nine Tailed Fox inside him, yet still remains cheerful and playful on the outside, made me want to root for him the whole way. He clearly wasn’t born with any innate talent, nor was he a child prodigy, unlike characters like Harry Potter or Percy Jackson. He simply set his mind to something and worked inhumanly hard towards it. While Harry was playing Quidditch as the youngest Seeker in history, Naruto failed the exam that would make an official ninja… three times. While Percy Jackson spent his summer in a large camp that provided multiple facilities and any type of food he wanted, Naruto returned from day after day of grueling training to an empty house, where he was relying on instant ramen and a carton of expired milk. When he returned to Konohagakure after the time when he fought Haku and Zabuza, after taking the Chunin Exams, or after he went on the Sasuke Retrieval Mission, all of the attention went to the other members of his team. This only spurred him to work harder. He wanted so badly to surpass his rival Sasuke, a child prodigy from the extinct Uchiha Clan, and to prove his worthiness in his team. People looked down him for being too reckless and always having to be saved by his team members, calling him a burden. After failing the genin exam three times, he rigorously practiced Shadow Clone Jutsu, eventually turning his worst jutsu in his best. This became his trademark jutsu throughout the show, with him using it to defeat many powerful opponents. I found it sad that even though he trained very hard, people were slow to recognize his devotion and determination to becoming a good ninja. Every time he leaves his house early in the morning, he says “行ってきます(I’m leaving)”. And every time he comes back at night, he says “ただいま(I’m home)”. Even though there was nobody there to hear him say it and welcome him back. Watching Naruto heavily influenced me. I knew he was a fictional character, but I looked to him as a real role model. I admired how he was always looking on the bright side of things, unlike Sasuke, who was the literal embodiment of an edgy emo teenager, and Sakura, who was too in love with Sasuke to really care about anything else. While Kemin Zhang remained a mediocre student, Uzumaki Naruto worked towards his dream of becoming Hokage with passion and resolve. After watching a few more episodes of the show, Naruto’s infectious spirit pushed me to… want to become a ninja. However, I soon realized that was impossible, and instead decided to make him my entire personality. By this, I mean that I incorporated him into my every thought process. Stuck on a hard decision? Well, what would Naruto do? Would Naruto study for this spelling test? Would Naruto finish this multiplication homework before doing other things? Would Naruto read ahead of the rest of the class in this assigned reading? The answer to all of these questions are… no, actually. He was never the most studious person. But I, drunk on his single-minded, determined, indomitable spirit, lied and told myself that yes, he would! I’ve got to get good grades, so if Naruto is actually real and comes to visit me at my house, he’ll tell me that I’m doing a good job!… Is what I told myself. I used him as motivation for physical activities, too, by pretending I was training to be a ninja at swim practice and running while leaning forward and holding my arms out behind me like all of the ninjas did in the show. Imitating his happy-go-lucky personality, I acted cheerful all the time at school, and encouraged myself to grin more, just like Naruto. I tried to mimic his reckless personality by jumping off a slide while throwing a stick that I was pretending was a kunai. This resulted in me hitting my head and crying, and the teacher had to take me to the nurse’s office for an ice pack. For three years, I enthusiastically awaited the precious two hours after Chinese class on Fridays, always wondering what was going to happen next. And finally, after a long run, I made it. I watched with wide eyes as Naruto and Sasuke fought, and as Naruto fulfilled his dream of becoming Hokage. I shed a total of two whole tears as the final episode came to an end. Three years of excitement and suspense and frustration! Three years of buying every single piece of merchandise I could afford! Three years of blindly putting my fictional idol first, before everything else! Oh, what was I to do now! …Since I had thirty minutes left before bedtime, I decided to start watching Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. And then I was happy again. However, this was not The End. Not for my hero Naruto, at least. The orange, black, and yellow shinobi caused a chain reaction of me watching more and more anime, resulting into me evolving into a full-time weeb. I gained a lot of friends that shared my nerdy interests, and picked up drawing so I could draw my favorite characters. Of course, my sense of self changed too. When I finished Fullmetal Alchemist I decided Edward Elric was worthy of being my role model, because of his bold, no-nonsense personality. Later on, when I watched Attack on Titan (my favorite anime of all time), I idolized Eren Jeager, admiring his devotion to his friends and how he carried on even though he knew what was going to happen to him. And even later, I chose Himmel from Frieren as my hero, because of his gentlemanly nature and the way he remained loyal until the end. However, even if I say to other people “I stan Himmel” or “Team Eren forever”, I know that I never replaced Naruto. I found that I tend to favor characters that treasure their friends and devote their hearts to them, because that is the kind of person I want to be. Naruto has been the prime example of everything I have wished to embody, as a child and now. He will always be my hero!
