Naruto: Chapter Book, Vol. 15 The Last Chance

L to R (Western Style). 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 a need for attention, a knack for mischief and, sealed within him, a strange, formidable power. His antics amuse his instructor Kakashi and irritate his teammates, intense Sasuke and witty Sakura, but Naruto is serious about becoming the greatest ninja in the village of Konohagakure! Naruto is trying harder than ever to pass all his exams and get to the next level of ninja training. But a powerful and mysterious new young ninja might throw all his plans out of whack. Who is Gaara and why does he make everyone so nervous?

Author/artist Masashi Kishimoto was born in 1974 in rural Okayama Prefecture, Japan.  After spending time in art college, he won the Hop Step Award for new manga artists with his manga Karakuri ("Mechanism").  Kishimoto decided to base his next story on traditional Japanese culture.  His first version of Naruto, drawn in 1997, was a one-shot story about fox spirits; his final version, which debuted in Weekly Shonen Jump in 1999, quickly became the most popular ninja manga in Japan.