Shortly afterward, Naruto becomes a ninja and joins with Sasuke Uchiha, against whom he often competes, and Sakura Haruno, on whom he has a crush, to form Team 7, under an experienced sensei, the elite ninja Kakashi Hatake. Naruto then defeats Mizuki in combat, earning the respect of his teacher Iruka Umino.
Because of a decree made by the Third Hokage forbidding anyone to mention these events, Naruto knows nothing about the Nine-Tails until 12 years later, when Mizuki, a renegade ninja, reveals the truth to Naruto. Naruto is often ridiculed by the Konoha villagers for being the host of the Nine-Tails. In response, the leader of Konoha and the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze (with his wife Kushina Uzumaki) seals the fox inside the body of his newborn son, Naruto Uzumaki, making Naruto a host of the beast this costs Naruto's father his life, and the Third Hokage returns from retirement to become the leader of Konoha again.
A powerful fox known as the Nine-Tails attacks Konoha, the hidden leaf village in the Land of Fire, one of the Five Great Shinobi Countries in the Ninja World.
