The manga was first published by Shueisha in 1999^20th in the 43rd issue of Japan's Shōnen Jump magazine. VIZ Media publishes a translated version in the American Shōnen Jump, and is currently within a few volumes of the Japanese publication. Naruto has become VIZ Media's best-selling manga series.

The animated television series, produced by Studio Pierrot and Aniplex, premiered across Japan on the terrestrial TV Tokyo network and the anime satellite television network Animax on October 3, 2002, and stopped airing in 23rd March 2017. Viz also licensed the anime for North American production. Naruto debuted in the United States on Cartoon Network's Toonami programming block on September 10, 2005, and in Canada on YTV's Bionix on September 16, 2005. Naruto began showing in the UK on Jetix on July 22, 2006. It began showing on Toasted TV on January 12, 2007 in Australia, although it could be watched on Cartoon Network in 2006. The first series lasted nine seasons, while the second began its first on February 15, 2007.

In September 18 November 22, 2012, VP of Strategic Marketing and Promotions for Cartoon Network, Jason DeMarco, announced Naruto would make a come back to Toonami, now a block on Adult Swim on Saturday, December 1, 2012. Additionally, they mentioned that it would be uncut. The show started all the way back at episode 1 and was removed from the schedule after episode 52 on November 30, 2013 due to Toonami announced will be premieres January, 5 on Naruto: Shippūden.

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The series' length and popularity is comparable to that of Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball, another popular action/martial arts-oriented shōnen manga, and one that was said to have greatly influenced Kishimoto's manga, Naruto. Since its creation, Naruto has spawned a large number of fansites that contain detailed information, guides, and active forums. Some of the first and most popular sites targeted at English speaking audiences were established shortly after the first English manga volume was released in August of 2003. Also, like many other manga and anime titles, Naruto has also spawned its own collectible card game, along with an array of merchandise, such as action figures, clothing, stationery kits and household goods.

Naruto has had several collaborations with big name brands, including Primitive, Nike, Adidas, Coach, BAPE and Champion, and in 2022, Chinese phone company Realme released a Naruto-themed edition of their GT Neo 3 phone.

As of October 2014, the manga has over 220 million copies in print, with over 130 million copies in Japan and the remaining 75 million being overseas, making it the sixth best-selling manga series in history. The manga is also available in 35 countries outside Japan.[2][3] It has also become one of North American publisher VIZ Media's best-selling manga series. Their English adaptation of the series has appeared in the USA Today Booklist several times and volume 7 won the Quill Award in 2006.[4] In TV Asahi's latest top 100 Anime Ranking, Naruto ranked 17th on the list.

In 2015, Live Spectacle Naruto, a stage play based off the series began showing, in 2018, a Naruto kabuki play of the show began it's run throughout Japan and in 2019, 2 Naruto theme parks, one in Japan and one in Shanghai, opened.

Naruto has a large and colourful cast of characters, running a gamut of detailed histories and complex personalities, and allowing many of them their fair share in the spotlight; they are also seen to grow and mature with the series, as it spans several years. As fitting for a coming-of-age saga, Naruto's world constantly expands and thickens, and his social relations are no exception – during his introduction he has only his teacher and the village's leader for sympathetic figures, but as the story progresses, more and more people become a part of his story.

The students at the Academy, where the story begins, are split up into teams of three after their graduation and become genin. Each team is assigned an experienced sensei. These core teams form a basis for the characters' interactions later in the series, where characters are chosen for missions for their team's strength and complementary skills; Naruto's Team 7 becomes the social frame where Naruto is acquainted with Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura Haruno, and their sensei Kakashi Hatake, also called the "copy ninja" for copying thousands of ninja techniques with his Sharingan, forming the core of his world-in-the-making. The other three-man teams of his former classmates form another such layer, as Naruto connects with them to various degrees, learning of their motives, vulnerabilities, and aspirations, often relating them to his own. The groups of three are not limited to the comrades Naruto's age – groups in the story in general come in threes and multiples of three with very few exceptions.

Sensei-student relationships play a significant role in the series; Naruto has a number of mentors with whom he trains and learns, most notably Kakashi Hatake and Jiraiya, and there are often running threads of tradition and tutelage binding together several generations. These role models provide guidance for their students not only in the ninja arts but also in a number of Japanese aesthetics and philosophical ideals. Techniques, ideals, and mentalities noticeably run in families, Naruto often being exposed to the abilities and traditions of generation-old clans in his village when friends from his own age group demonstrate them, or even achieve improvements of their own; it is poignantly noted that Naruto's generation is particularly talented.

Many of the greater lingering mysteries of the series are questions of character motives and identity. The legacy of Naruto's parents, the goals that guide Kabuto Yakushi, the identity of the mysterious Akatsuki leader – these are only a few of the fundamental unanswered questions of "who" and, by proxy, "why" currently at the core of the series. The story is remarkably character-driven; the theme of causality runs inherently throughout the series as characters reciprocate for their past actions and relationships. In this respect, characters' respective destinies are very much intertwined, and large emphasis is placed on comradeship and 'bonds' between the community or individual.

Character names often borrow from Japanese mythology, folklore and literature (such as the names borrowed from the folk-tale Jiraiya Goketsu Monogatari), or are otherwise elaborate puns; often there is a noticeable influence of the story behind the name shouldered by the character.