Naruto is a Japanese anime television series based on Masashi Kishimoto's 1999–2014 manga series Naruto. It follows Naruto Uzumaki, a young orphan ninja who seeks recognition from his peers and dreams of becoming the Hokage, the leader of the Village Hidden in the Leaves. Like the manga, the anime series is divided into two separate parts: the first series retains the original manga's title and is set in the world of ninjas. The second series, a direct sequel titled Naruto: Shippuden, takes place during Naruto's teens. Both anime series were animated by Studio Pierrot, produced by Aniplex, and licensed by Viz Media in North America.

The first anime series aired on TV Tokyo and ran for 220 episodes from October 2002 to February 2007. An English dub produced by Viz Media aired on Cartoon Network and YTV from September 2005 to December 2009. The second series, Naruto: Shippuden, also aired on TV Tokyo and ran for 500 episodes from February 2007 to March 2017. The English dub of Naruto: Shippuden was broadcast on Disney XD in the United States from October 2009 to November 2011, airing the first 98 episodes before eventually switching over to Adult Swim's Toonami programming block in January 2014 to September 2024, starting over from the first episode. After Disney XD removed the series from broadcast, Viz Media began streaming new English dubbed episodes on their streaming service Neon Alley in December 2012 starting at episode 99. The service aborted its run in March 2016 after 338 episodes due to its shutdown a month later. Besides the anime television series, Pierrot also developed 11 animated films and 12 original video animations.

The anime series achieved significant commercial success, becoming one of Viz Media's top-earning franchise and being a cultural impact with the run of the series. It was the third most-watched series in the United States by 2020. Critically, it received mixed reception. Its adaptation of Kishimoto's art style and story pacing was not received well. The fight scenes, character dynamics, and emotional depth received critical acclaim. Naruto: Shippuden was consistently ranked as one of the most-watched in Japan. It was lauded for its improved animation, more mature tone, well-crafted character interactions, and balanced storytelling. The first anime ranked 38th in IGN's Top 100 Animated Series and Shippuden earned a nomination from the Crunchyroll Anime Awards for Best Continuing Series. Viz Media sold over three million anime home video units by 2019.

A demonic nine-tailed fox called Kurama attacks Konoha, the Village Hidden in the Leaves in the Land of Fire, one of the Five Great Shinobi Countries in the Ninja World. In response, the leader of the Leaf, Fourth Hokage Minato Namikaze, sacrifices his life by splitting the fox in half and sealing the fox inside himself and in the body of his newborn son, Naruto Uzumaki, respectively, making him a host of the beast. The Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, returns from retirement to become the leader of the Leaf again. Naruto is often scorned by Konoha's villagers for being the host of the Nine-Tails. Due to a decree by the Third Hokage forbidding any mention of these events, Naruto learns nothing about the Nine-Tails until 12 years later, when Mizuki, a renegade ninja, reveals the truth to him. Naruto defeats Mizuki in combat, earning the respect of his teacher, Iruka Umino.

Shortly afterward, Naruto becomes a ninja and joins with Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura Haruno to form Team 7, under an experienced sensei, the elite ninja Kakashi Hatake. Like all the ninja teams from every village, Team 7 completes missions requested by the villagers, ranging from doing chores and being bodyguards.

After several missions, including a major one in the Land of Waves, Kakashi allows Team 7 to take a ninja exam, enabling them to advance to a higher rank and take on more difficult missions, known as the Chunin Exams. During the exams, Orochimaru, a wanted criminal, invades Konoha. The Third Hokage subsequently sacrifices his life to disable Orochimaru from permanently performing jutsus using his hands. Jiraiya, one of the three legendary Sannin, declines the title of Fifth Hokage and searches with Naruto for Tsunade, whom he chooses to become Fifth Hokage instead. Tsunade is also a member of the Sannin.

During the search, it is revealed that Orochimaru wishes to train Sasuke because of his powerful genetic heritage, the Sharingan. After Sasuke attempts and fails to kill his older brother Itachi, who had shown up in Konoha to kidnap Naruto, he joins Orochimaru, hoping to gain from him the strength needed to kill Itachi. The story takes a turn when Sasuke leaves the village: Tsunade sends a group of ninja, including Naruto, to retrieve Sasuke, but Naruto is unable to persuade or force him to come back. Naruto and Sakura do not give up on Sasuke; Naruto leaves Konoha to receive training from Jiraiya to prepare himself for the next time he encounters Sasuke, while Sakura becomes Tsunade's apprentice.

Two and a half years later, Naruto returns from his training with Jiraiya, just as the Akatsuki start kidnapping the hosts of the powerful Tailed Beasts. Team Kakashi and other Leaf ninja fight against them and search for their teammate Sasuke. The Akatsuki succeeds in capturing and extracting, subsequently killing, seven of the nine Tailed Beasts. Gaara, who previously had the One-Tails, survived after a Sand ninja sacrifices their life for Gaara. Meanwhile, Sasuke betrays and kills Orochimaru and faces Itachi to take revenge. After Itachi dies in battle due to an unknown illness, Sasuke learns from the Akatsuki founder Tobi that Itachi had been ordered by Konoha's superiors to destroy his clan to prevent a coup; he accepted, on the condition that Sasuke would be spared. Devastated by this revelation, Sasuke joins the Akatsuki to destroy Konoha in revenge. As Konoha ninjas defeat several Akatsuki members, the Akatsuki figurehead leader, Nagato, kills Jiraiya and devastates Konoha, but Naruto defeats and redeems him, earning the village's respect and admiration.