Natsu "Salamander" Dragneel (Japanese: ナツ・ドラグニル, Hepburn: Natsu Doraguniru) is a fictional character and protagonist of the Fairy Tail manga series created by Hiro Mashima. First making his debut in Fairy Tail chapter #1, "The Fairy's Tail", originally published in Japan's Weekly Shōnen Magazine on August 2, 2006, Natsu is depicted as a member of the eponymous wizards' guild, who are notorious in the fictional Kingdom of Fiore for their numerous accounts of causing unintentional property damage with their magic. Being a Dragon Slayer, Natsu possesses the same abilities as his foster father, the dragon Igneel, namely the ability to consume and manipulate fire. Natsu's predominant role in the series is to reunite with Igneel, who has been missing for seven years by the story's outset. He appears in most Fairy Tail media, including both feature films, all original video animations (OVAs), light novels, and video games. He is voiced by Tetsuya Kakihara in Japanese, while Todd Haberkorn voices him in the English dub.

Mashima has considered Natsu to be among his favorite characters, and claimed that he based him on his own characteristics. Reviewers have largely praised Natsu's character, noting his action-packed combat scenes and upbeat demeanor throughout the series. His motion sickness has also been well-received as a humorous element within the story. Natsu has placed high in popularity polls, and many different pieces of merchandise related to him, such as action figures, have been released.

During the making of the series Rave Master, manga author Hiro Mashima considered the protagonist Haru Glory as the "angsty hard-working type". As a result, when writing Fairy Tail, Mashima made the new lead Natsu to be calmer than Haru. Natsu Dragneel was one of the first characters Hiro Mashima created during the development of Fairy Tail. He was conceptualized as a fire-using member of a courier guild who would suffer from motion sickness, a character trait the author based on one of his friends. Mashima implemented Natsu's motion sickness into the final version of the character, believing that this and his pink hair make the character unique. Mashima cited his own personality as a junior high school student as the inspiration for Natsu's personality, and his father's death as an influence for the relationship between Natsu and Igneel. Natsu's concept evolved in a one-shot short story titled Fairy Tale, where he is depicted as a spirit with horns. He is normally portrayed as wearing black-colored clothing, which Mashima chose in favor of his original choice of red to improve the contrast between the character's fire abilities and clothes. The author mentioned that Natsu had been designed to give the best of himself when it comes to everything. Mashima regarded Natsu's development throughout the story as great and stated that the series could easily progress because of it. The author also commented that Natsu is his favorite character.

Mashima named Natsu after the Japanese word for "summer" (夏, natsu) to avoid using Western fantasy names that would sound unfamiliar to the Japanese audience, and to follow up on the fact that the protagonist of his earlier work Rave Master is called Haru, which means "spring" (春, haru). Mashima also said that the names of both characters highlight their personality traits, with Natsu being "a fiery guy" as opposed to the "warm" Haru.

Natsu's age is left ambiguous throughout the series, with the character's age listed as "unknown" on the cover of chapter 23. A scene occurs during chapter 108 in which he is trapped behind a runic blockade designed to prevent those over the age of 80 from crossing; as a response to questions about the scene, which were submitted by readers for the "Emergency Request! Explain the Mysteries of Fairy Tail" section of the manga's volume 15 tankōbon release, it is asserted that the character's age is actually not over 80, and that "beyond that would be revealing an important plot point".

Regarding the anime adaptation of the series, Mashima commented that his favorite part is seeing Natsu and Happy move around, characterizing them as "fun". Mashima stated that he loves Natsu's voice from the anime. When the Fairy Tail anime started being released in North America, Mashima was concerned about actor Todd Haberkorn's voice since Natsu, the character he plays, often yelled across the story. Haberkorn mentioned that one of his favorite aspects of voicing Natsu was leaving the recording studio without a voice. Tetsuya Kakihara, Natsu's Japanese voice actor, said that while he had not initially wanted to voice Natsu and had instead hoped to voice the character Gray Fullbuster, he had come to love playing Natsu and thought he was meant to voice him. He further mentioned that Natsu is his favorite character and considered him "fantastic". He also described Natsu's character as difficult because he has exceptional gifts compared to his friends. Kakihara stated that each scene in which he voiced Natsu remained in his mind, adding that he regarded Happy as his own partner since he is Natsu's companion.

Natsu first appears in Fairy Tail chapter #1, "The Fairy's Tail", which was originally released on August 2, 2006, in Weekly Shōnen Magazine. He is an orphan raised and trained by the dragon Igneel, whose disappearance Natsu notes on the date of July 7, X777, seven years before the beginning of the narrative. Upon introduction, Natsu is a famed member of the Fairy Tail wizards' guild who notoriously causes most of the collateral damage for which his guild is blamed. During the first chapter, Natsu and his Exceed companion, Happy, rescue celestial wizard Lucy Heartfilia from a criminal operating under Natsu's alias, "Salamander", whom Natsu confuses for Igneel, an actual salamander. The three form a team to perform missions together, later being joined by two of Natsu's childhood rivals, ice wizard Gray Fullbuster and armor wizard Erza Scarlet, becoming what their guildmates label as Fairy Tail's most powerful team.

Natsu is eventually selected to participate in Fairy Tail's S-Class promotional trial held on Sirius Island, the guild's sacred ground. The exam is interrupted when Natsu and his guildmates encounter Zeref, an immortal dark wizard who wishes to be killed by Natsu but is not recognized by him. After Natsu defeats Hades, master of the dark guild Grimoire Heart, the black dragon Acnologia assaults the Fairy Tail wizards, who are protected and placed into seven years of suspended animation within the magic Fairy Sphere cast by the spirit of Mavis Vermillion, Fairy Tail's founding guild master. Returning to find that Fairy Tail has fallen behind the other wizard guilds in the Kingdom of Fiore, Natsu participates in the Grand Magic Games tournament with his friends to regain their guild's prestige. Following Fairy Tail's victory in the tournament, the guild becomes embroiled in a war between Fairy Tail and Tartaros, a dark guild of Etherious demons created by Zeref that seek to summon E.N.D., Zeref's ultimate demon. When Acnologia appears and threatens both guilds, Igneel emerges from Natsu's body, revealed to have sealed himself within Natsu at the time of their apparent separation in order to inoculate him against dragonification, a Dragon Slayer affliction that transforms them into dragons similar to Acnologia. After his strength proves insufficient to prevent Acnologia from killing Igneel, Natsu embarks on a training journey with Happy to avenge Igneel.