Naruto/Konohamaru Sarutobi
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CHARACTER · THE THIRD HOKAGE'S GRANDSON
Konohamaru Sarutobi
猿飛木ノ葉丸 · Sarutobi Konohamaru
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Konohamaru at the start of the series
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[ Details — full series ▾ ]
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Konohamaru Sarutobi (猿飛木ノ葉丸, Sarutobi Konohamaru) is the grandson of the Third Hokage in Naruto and the first person in the series to look up to Naruto Uzumaki.[2] He is introduced in chapter 2 as a small boy in a helmet and an impractically long scarf, plotting to take the Hokage's title from his own grandfather by force. By the chapter's end he has appointed himself Naruto's student, and he calls him "Boss" for the rest of the series.[1][5] Across the manga and its sequel he grows from Naruto's imitator into a ninja of the next generation in his own right.
1 Chapter 2✎
Konohamaru bursts into the story mid-charge, attacking his grandfather to claim the title, tripping over his own scarf, and blaming the nearest stranger, who happens to be Naruto.[1][2] The chapter's point is hidden in how everyone else treats him. The village handles the Honorable Grandson with gloves: nobody scolds him, nobody fights him, and nobody uses his name, which was taken from the village itself so it would never be forgotten. Naruto, entirely unimpressed by whose grandson he is, hits him on the head, and delights him by doing it.[1]
Konohamaru follows Naruto out and demands to be taught his best technique, which turns out to be the Sexy Technique. This horrifies his elite tutor Ebisu, who believes the boy's road to the title runs through a proper teacher.[2] Naruto ends the argument with a technique no respectable adult is prepared for. He then tells Konohamaru the truth that defines their friendship: there are no shortcuts to the Hokage's title, and anyone who wants it will have to go through Naruto first.[1] The rival demotes himself to student on the spot.
2 Across the series✎
Konohamaru spends Part I as comic relief with a serious core, leading two classmates in a self-appointed squad and copying everything his Boss does. The copying turns out to be real training. During Pain's destruction of the village, he defeats one of the invader's bodies with the Rasengan, the Fourth Hokage's signature attack, taught to him by Naruto himself.[6] It is the moment the apprenticeship stops being a joke.
3 The Boruto era✎
The sequel series makes good on the whole arrangement. In Boruto: Naruto Next Generations, set years after the original story ends, an adult Konohamaru serves as an elite ninja of the Leaf, leading and fighting beside the next generation of students.[7] Among them is the son of the Seventh Hokage — the son, in other words, of the man Konohamaru has called "Boss" since chapter 2.[7]
4 Personality✎
Konohamaru is a smaller copy of Naruto, and the series knows it. He is loud, impatient, hungry for attention, and convinced that one clever trick can replace years of work. The causes even rhyme, because Naruto is ignored while Konohamaru is smothered with attention, yet neither boy is seen as himself. The difference is timing: Konohamaru finds someone to follow in his second scene, while Naruto waited twelve years for the same thing. Under the boasting he is a child who copies his hero's habits, catchphrases and techniques, and he takes his lessons from the one person who treats him as a boy rather than a title.
5 Naruto's first follower✎
Konohamaru's function in the story is emotional rather than practical. Chapter 1 gives Naruto one adult who accepts him, and chapter 2 answers it with someone younger who admires him. For a boy whose stated dream is to be acknowledged by the whole village, gaining a follower in his second chapter is not a gag but a down payment. The series pays the idea off across two generations, and the friendship carries more warmth than the comedy around it suggests.
6 See also✎
- Naruto Uzumaki
- Sexy Technique
- Transformation Technique
- Ebisu
- Third Hokage
- Village Hidden in the Leaves
- Naruto, chapter 2: "Konohamaru!!" (Shueisha, Weekly Shōnen Jump, 1999).
- "My Name is Konohamaru!" NARUTO OFFICIAL SITE (official). naruto-official.com/en/anime/naruto1/list/01_226. Retrieved July 2026.
- Naruto, episode 2 on-screen cast credits (Studio Pierrot / TV Tokyo, 2002).
- Naruto, episode 2: "My Name is Konohamaru!" English-language broadcast credits (VIZ Media, 2005).
- "木ノ葉丸だコレ！" NARUTO OFFICIAL SITE (official). naruto-official.com/anime/naruto1/list/01_226. Retrieved July 2026.
- Naruto, vol. 46 (Shueisha / VIZ Media). viz.com. Retrieved July 2026.
- "Boruto: Naruto Next Generations." VIZ Media (official). viz.com/boruto. Retrieved July 2026.