Manga Pilots: Naruto

When you think of Naruto, do you think of the shonen battle manga story of an orange-clad ninja, or an urban fantasy murder mystery with elements of a coming of age story about a kitsune? If it's the former, you may be surprised to hear that the pilot for Naruto was starkly different from the published series in terms of genre, setting and characters, although it does also have some similarities in terms of themes and character design.

Synopsis

The pilot begins with Naruto having trapped another boy in a pit, apparently in retaliation for badmouthing him at school. The other boy tries to get Naruto to let him out by first making an insecure appeal to their friendship, then by threatening to reveal what Naruto did to the chief's bed, but Naruto refuses, then pees all over the other boy.

It is then revealed that in ancient times, nine warriors banded together to stop a fox spirit and succeeded in sealing it away, but only one of the warriors survived the battle.

The chief of Naruto's village, who strongly resembles Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Third Hokage, lectures Naruto about the importance of peace between humans and yokai, and how Naruto can't make any human friends. Naruto snarks about how he's never seen the chief with any friends, but the chief fires back that his friends died in the battle with Naruto's father, establishing that the chief was one of the warriors and Naruto is the son of the demon fox. 

After pushing the chief's buttons one time too many by suggesting that the chief join his friends in death, Naruto tries in vain to escape, but the chief stops him by throwing some sticks at him. Naruto is then given the task of finding a human friend he can trust, and is informed he cannot return to the village until he accomplishes this goal, much to his dismay.

In a modern Japanese city that is never given a name, Naruto rides his a scooter and stops to eat ramen at a stand that resembles Ichiraku from canon(and is called "Itiraku"). While he's there, two men, Kuroda and Matsushima, stop by for ramen, with Kuroda apparently being rather drunk. Matsushima insists that Kuroda finish his work on the painting, which needs a 24-hour police escort, by the following day.

Kuroda passes out, and the shop owner offers Naruto Kuroda's bowl as long as Naruto takes Kuroda home. Naruto accepts, planning on reneging on his promise, but the shop owner insists that he leave his bike key behind as collateral.

Naruto takes Kuroda back to his place, and is greeted by Kuroda's assistant Takashi, who explains that this is an art studio. Takashi then shows Naruto a painting called "Proof," painted by Saburo, an artist who died five years ago. Saburo had once been head of the Council for Cultural Advancement, a position that Kuroda now holds, implying that the two men are well-respected artists. Kuroda has been tasked with repairing the painting. Naruto, who's skeptical of Kuroda's qualifications, takes a sniff of the painting, and is overwhelmed by the smell of the detrempe used to seal the cracks.

A police officer notices Naruto getting too close to the painting, and complains that Takashi is lax about watching over it. Takashi apologizes and Naruto says it's "just a painting," only for the officer to point out that the painting is worth "billions," (of yen, which would mean that it's worth tens of millions of US dollars), before angrily leaving to keep watch outside.

Kuroda wakes up, and Takashi introduces him to Naruto. Kuroda suspects Naruto of trying to steal the painting, but invites Naruto to drink with him. Naruto complies... and drinks root beer. Kuroda drunkenly asks him to do a trick, and Naruto complies, using a spiral patty that's his namesake to transform into a beautiful woman, but notes that he still has a fox tail when he transforms. Kuroda and Takashi are both shocked, and the former apparently sobers up a little.

Outside, someone attaches a silencer to a handgun while the police officer from earlier sits and reads the newspaper.

Naruto explains he's a fox from Oinari Mountain, and that his chief sent him on a mission to make a friend he can trust. He flippantly remarks that it's a dumb training exercise, and is shocked when Kuroda says it's "really dumb." Kuroda then goes upstairs to go to bed, leaving Naruto with a parting remark about how he can only trust himself.

Naruto is still a bit shocked to hear this, and Takashi says that Kuroda used to be nice back when he was friends with Saburo. Their friendship ended when Kuroda replaced Saburo as head of the Council for Cultural Advancement, resulting in Saburo stabbing Kuroda, evidently hoping to get his job back. After the incident, Saburo painted "Proof" and then killed himself, while Kuroda refused to trust anyone ever again. It's unclear why Saburo's attempt on Kuroda's life failed or why Saburo didn't end up in prison for attempted murder, not to mention why Saburo was replaced or why he thought Kuroda's death would let him get his job back.

Takashi notices that Naruto has been disturbed by what he heard, and tries to lighten the mood by saying that he's also in training, to become an artist like Kuroda. He then explains that the painting symbolizes how Saburo wants to regain Kuroda's trust, but his suicide meant that this wouldn't happen. Takashi says that he and Naruto have a chance, and if Naruto trusts him, he will return the favor. Naruto feels strange about Saburo's offer to shake his hand, and isn't able to accept it. Takashi takes it in stride, and lets Naruto stay in his room.

That night, Takashi hears someone approaching, and assumes that it's Naruto... until the person points a silenced pistol at him. If I recall correctly, the version published in the localization of the Official Naruto Fan Book edited Takashi's head out of the panel.  He then says "You're..." implying he knows the person, before the gunman squeezes the trigger. The gunman then plants the gun in Naruto's bag.

Naruto wakes up to Matsushima, a police inspector, arresting him for murder and theft, since the gun with Takashi's blood was found in Naruto's bag and "Proof" is missing.

Naruto is led outside with his arms bound behind his back, and upon seeing Takashi's corpse, is overwhelmed with emotion and tearfully insists that he'll find the killer. Kuroda, moved by Naruto's plea, decides to take Naruto's place, even knowing that he'll be held responsible for Naruto's crimes if Naruto leaves. The entire deal sounds rather implausible, especially since no one has any reason to believe that Naruto can solve the case, but apparently, the police accept it.

Naruto is shocked that Kuroda would do something like that for him, and isn't sure whether to believe it. Apparently, the ramen shop owner returned Naruto's bike key since he kept his end of the deal, even though Naruto's being accused of murder.

A week later, Naruto begins to despair due to not having found any clues. He then overhears three boys talking, and two of them are badmouthing their mutual friend Hiroshi, seemingly confirming Naruto's beliefs. However, the third one rebukes the other two, saying Hiroshi is a good person and that he won't stand for badmouthing them. Hiroshi comes back with the drinks, not knowing why the mood has become awkward, who Naruto is or why Naruto's jealous of him.

Naruto visits the police officer who'd guarded "Proof" at his home(one would think that he'd be in hot water for failing at his job), with the latter remarking that he'd thought Naruto had left, and asks him to share some kitsune udon with him, having smelled the udon.

After the meal, Naruto questions the guard about the incident, only for the guard to deny seeing anyone suspicious. Naruto flippantly accuses the guard of having stolen the painting, but the guard says he only came inside to use the toilet and never touched the painting. Naruto then observes that the guard smells exactly like the painting, since he recognizes the smell of the stuff used to repair it, as the guard wordlessly picks up a knife off the counter.

In Matsushima's office, the officer, now sporting a bandage on his cheek, reports that he killed Naruto. Matsushima, pleased with himself, says he's glad he hired the officer, and that now that Naruto's dead, he'll serve as a fall guy for the theft, making Kuroda look like  a fool.

The officer says "I see... that explains everything!" as his tail waves. He reveals himself as Naruto, who explains that the officer cut Naruto on the cheek, but Naruto then subdued the officer and interrogated him. Matsushima opens fire on Naruto, who transforms into a fox and grabs him with his tails.

Matsushima is soon arrested, and while he tries to deny everything, his accomplice had confessed. Naruto obtains the portrait and reunites with Kuroda, whos' been released. Kuroda thanks Naruto for helping him trust people again, but Naruto says it's all thanks to Takashi. After some coaxing, Kuroda shakes Naruto's hand, but while he considers Naruto a friend, he is too busy to go to the mountain. Naruto takes it in stride and sets out to find other friends, having been convinced of how great friendship is.

Characters

Despite having the same name and a largely similar design(mainly the goggles he wore on his forehead prior to becoming a ninja), this Naruto doesn't resemble the canon Naruto very much. In canon, Naruto is the vessel of the nine-tailed fox, not the fox itself or its offspring. Instead of being a goodhearted boy who's lacking in social graces and desperately wants someone to acknowledge him, Naruto is an antisocial and cynical jerk who has to be ordered to befriend someone.

The chief seems similar to the Third Hokage, but is significantly more temperamental. Of course, this could be due to the fact that Naruto is more of a jerk than in canon, and there are fewer opportunities for him to show the gentler side that the Third Hokage possessed.

Kuroda has some rough similarities with Tsunade, being an alcoholic who's grown cynical over a past incident (although surprisingly, Orochimaru's betrayal of Konoha didn't affect Tsunade all that much). In both Tsunade and Kuroda's cases, their more affable assistant/protege explains their past to Naruto.

Matsushima and his accomplice have no obvious canon counterparts, although their duplicitous nature and plans to frame Naruto make them vaguely reminiscent of Mizuki, who used Naruto to steal the scroll of forbidden jutsu and planned on disposing of him afterward.

Analysis

Kishimoto is not especially proud of how the one-shot turned out, even if it did well in the polls, and it isn't hard to see why.

The plot, as Kishimoto self-deprecatingly puts it, is "a mess," since it seems to mainly be driven by story convenience. While Naruto coincidentally happening to meet a cynical and broken man isn't too much of a stretch, him getting roped into taking him home seems like a contrived way to get Naruto involved. As I mentioned above, it's rather implausible that Naruto would be trusted with the investigation of the murder for which he is the prime suspect, for reasons relating to his competence and personal character, and Naruto seems to solve the case the same day he regains his resolve, due to Hiroshi, a character who "shows up out of nowhere," and has no relation to the events except for unwittingly providing Naruto an epiphany.

The yokai are sorely underutilized. It's implied that humans are in contact with yokai, and relations are growing tense, but the only impact that has on the plot is the chief forcing Naruto to befriend a human. Apart from the few instances when Naruto shows off his powers, no one seems to treat him any differently from a human boy.

That said, the character development is decent for a one-shot, considering that most one-shots are too short to accommodate character arcs. While Naruto's character arc mirrors that of many loner characters in shonen manga, it's also subtly hinted that he has trust issues that are similar to Kuroda's, since the boy he peed on at the start spread rumors about him and makes insincere attempts to appeal to Naruto. This, combined with his shock at Kuroda's cynical rejection of the idea of friendship, shows that he isn't completely opposed to making friends, per se. Kuroda's change of heart is a bit too abrupt, but perhaps this might have been done better in a longer series, where there's more time for organic character development.

The villains are rather one-note, which is a bit surprising. Most Naruto antagonists have sympathetic traits or at least what TV Tropes calls a Freudian Excuse to justify their evil, but Matsushima and his accomplice seem to only be motivated by greed. 

Kishimoto also mentions that the art is rather rough compared to canon, because he hadn't gotten the hang of the shonen art style yet. While I'm no art expert, I'd have to agree.

Conclusion

While Naruto's pilot has little in common with the final story it has some elements of the final series in it, such as the focus on friendship, some character designs and people who have been hurt by their difficult pasts. It clearly comes off as a rough draft due to being unpolished and having many elements that changed before its serialization, but you can see the concepts and themes at the root of Naruto, so this provides an insightful look at the basis behind one of the most popular shonen manga series.