Naruto Chapter Book 9: The Challengers

Naruto Chapter Book #9

by Masashi Kishimoto

Meet Naruto, he's a class-clown, a lazy bum, a total prankster, and could just possibly be the world's most powerful Ninja!

Naruto is a ninja-in-training with an incorrigible knack for mischief. He's got a wild sense of humor, but Naruto is completely serious about his mission to be the world's greatest ninja!

The Challengers

They're obnoxious, rude, and one of them really rubs Sakura the wrong way! Meet the challengers that Naruto and his friends encounter when it comes time for their new exams. Can Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke set aside their differences in time to team up against all the other young ninja?

Genres: Manga, Comics

80 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Masashi Kishimoto (岸本斉史 Kishimoto Masashi) is a Japanese manga artist, well known for creating the manga series Naruto. His younger twin brother, Seishi Kishimoto, is also a manga artist and creator of the manga series O-Parts Hunter (666 Satan) and Blazer Drive. Two of his former assistants, Osamu Kajisa (Tattoo Hearts) and Yuuichi Itakura (Hand's), have also gone on to moderate success following their work on Naruto.

Kishimoto's first work as a manga artist was Karakuri (カラクリ?), which he submitted to Shueisha in 1995. This earned him the Weekly Shōnen Jump's monthly "Hop Step Award" in 1996, granted to promising new manga artists. This was followed in 1997 by a pilot version of Naruto (NARUTO－ナルト－), published in Akamaru Jump Summer. In 1998, Kishimoto premiered as a Weekly Shōnen Jump artist with a serialized version of Karakuri in Weekly Shōnen Jump, but it proved unpopular and was canceled soon after. In 1999, a serialized version of Naruto began publication in Weekly Shōnen Jump and quickly became a hit.