✴️ NARUTO ナルト ✴️ Informal Book Club

Japanese Language Book Clubs
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:ninja::ramen: Welcome to the NARUTO ナルト Informal Book Club :ramen::ninja:

An extremely iconic series, a longtime personal favorite of mine, and in honor of the NARUTO 20th Celebration happening now, this book club is one that I am very excited to bring to WaniKani!

This is an informal book club with scheduled arc thread releases but unscheduled reading, meaning that you can start when you want, read at the pace that suits you best, and reply to each discussion thread on your own time. Even you, person lurking this club three years in the future: you are invited to add your replies, too!

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:fish_cake: Summary

Natively Rating: Level 25 (JLPT N3) Furigana: Yes

Check out BookWalker’s free reading sample of Volume 1 here!

Physical Purchase: AmazonJP | CD Japan | KinokuniyaJP
Digital Purchase: BookWalker | AmazonJP | eBook Japan


:fish_cake: Discussion Threads

This series is split between Part One and Part Two. For now, only Part One story arc discussions are planned. However, if interest remains and no one riots in the streets, Part Two discussions will be scheduled, too.

EDIT: Part Two arc threads to be added in 2026. Hope to see you there!

Though this book club has no formal reading schedule, discussion threads will be released every four weeks and grouped by story arc. (This is not to suggest that you should read one arc per month, this is simply to keep forum-goers from hating me for too many threads being posted too quickly lol)

Part I: Arc Title Volumes Post Date
Prologue - Land of Waves Arc Vol. 1 - 4 Now Open
Chūnin Exams Arc Vol. 4 - 13 Now Open
Konoha Crush Arc Vol. 13 - 16 Now Open
Search for Tsunade Arc Vol. 16 - 19 Now Open
Sasuke Retrieval Arc Vol. 20 - 27 Now Open
Part II: Arc Title Volumes Post Date
Kazekage Rescue Arc Vol. 28 - 31 2026
Tenchi Bridge Recon Arc Vol. 32 - 34
Akatsuki Suppression Arc Vol. 35 - 38
Itachi Pursuit Arc Vol. 38 - 40
Jiraiya the Gallant Arc Vol. 40 - 42
Battle Between Brothers Arc Vol. 42 - 44
Pain’s Assault Arc Vol. 45 - 48
Five Kage Summit Arc Vol. 49 - 51
Fourth Shinobi War: Countdown Arc Vol. 52 - 54
Fourth Shinobi War: Confrontation Arc Vol. 55 - 59
Fourth Shinobi War: Climax Arc Vol. 59 - 67
Ten-Tail’s Jinchūriki Arc Vol. 67 - 70
Kaguya Ōtsutsuki Strikes Arc [END] Vol. 70 - 72

:fish_cake: General Discussion Rules

Despite NARUTO’s widely recognizable orange main character, there are many of us who have neither read nor watched any part of this series. Avoid giving accidental spoilers by using the Blur or Hide Details functions for predictions, specific comments, or story-revealing panels.

It is also a good practice to hide decades-old memes or jokes that come to mind, as they too can contain accidental spoilers. :sweat_smile:

When asking language-related questions, please include the volume number, page number if possible, and/or general context surrounding the sentence. This will make it much easier to answer questions without confusion.


:fish_cake: What Should I Post?

Great book club discussions include more than just grammar questions! If you want to join the discussion but aren’t sure how, try adding these:

  • Interesting panels you saw
  • Moments that made you laugh
  • Moments that made you cringe
  • Predictions you have about the direction of the story
  • Clues or foreshadowing that stood out to you
  • Questions about characters or settings
  • Comparisons to the anime (though this can tiptoe a spoiler-y line)

I hope that you will join in on the discussion, or poke it when it needs some new energy. Fostering an enjoyable reading atmosphere is my ninja way, believe it!


:fish_cake: Polls

What is your experience with this series?
  • I have read and/or watched it in the past
  • I recognize it but have never read/watched
  • I have no idea what this is
  • Clicky Poll no Jutsu :ninja:
0 voters
Best ninja weapon
  • Kunai / knives :dagger:
  • Swords :crossed_swords:
  • Throwing stars :gear:
  • The indomitable spirit of friendship :two_men_holding_hands:
0 voters

This is the ナルト Book Club home thread. To receive notifications when new story arc discussion threads are posted, please set the thread status to Watching below.

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I thought it might be nice to engage in the age-old naruto fan tradition of making your very own ninja character in one of those dress-up doll flash games, as was the common practice for those returning home after a long day of running around with arms straight back and saying dattebayo. [checks anthropological notes] Let’s boot up our family computers and wait for the internet to load so we can all make some ninjas ^–^

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Why is the picture for volume 71? :thinking:

Spoilers?

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i wanted to show an earlier and later cover that featured all the kids together! but they’re rarely ever all three on the same cover so i had to choose from what was available :sweat_smile:

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oh gosh i JUST started reading naruto in english but it’s still too hard for me in japanese… I’LL BE BACK!

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i can’t wait for your return! it’s one of my all-time faves so that “watching” notification will stay on for me in the thread forever and we can read it again in the future ヽ(＾▽＾)ノ

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yaay hopefully it’ll be sooner rather than later, it seems that natively level 25 is where a lot of fun stuff is!

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so many of the fun ones hover around 24-26, i never noticed before! it’s gotta be the pre-teen average or something haha ^-^

weirdly enough, it looks like the entire series is listed at level 25 on natively, including the more complex end chapters. i wonder if 25 is the highest it goes, or maybe an average, blanket-added across volumes? it’ll be interesting to see how they compare to each other when reading through in japanese for the first time. if i had more time to spare, i could keep track of new words and grammar in each volume to see if the content generally stays the same difficulty or if it rises toward the end :thinking:

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i thiiink natively just blanket applies the same difficulty to a whole series. i feel like the last volumes being difficult probably wouldn’t matter that much because, after all, once you get there you’ve had a lot of reading practice already!

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Based on your study log, you’re probably closing in on that level faster than you think ! :star_struck:

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AHH! The WK Book Club icon was added to the series Natively page! What a fun feeling ⸜( ´ ꒳ ` )⸝ In the language class I took this summer, my classmates were finding our book clubs from Natively pages without knowing anything about wanikani! The first time someone mentioned the Kiki’s Delivery Service club was so surreal, like, a niche internet place I go to is being talked about right now?! They gushed about the vocab sheet and chatted about the forum discussions. I hope readers in the future keep finding these clubs (this also serves as a reminder that random internet users DO find and read the things we post on this forum :sweat_smile:)

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wah, thank you for believing in me! :man_bowing:

Ahahahah.. :sweat_smile: [looks over my shoulder for lurkers]

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(suddenly very happy that the campfire section is private)

and don’t forget that any level book becomes easier to read with a shared vocab list to reference and discussions to ask grammar/context questions in! :innocent:

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happy Naruto’s Birthday day to all who celebrate :relieved:

Just reminding all you amazing people that the discussion thread for the first arc will drop at the end of this week - as I outlined in the first post, this is not a scheduled book club and anyone who reads this series at any time is welcome to pop in and share their thoughts or questions.

I’ll be starting with Volume 1 on Saturday and will read at the pace that suits me best. I invite you to do the same! ＼(＾▽＾)／ ってばよ！

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The discussion thread for the first arc “Prologue - Land of Waves” is now open (ᵔ◡ᵔ)

This is my very first book club!! („• ֊ •„) So please take a look through both this home thread and the discussion thread to let me know if there is anything I’m missing or could be changed. I’m so excited to read this series and host my first club!

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Yaaay!!! I think I might try working through it even though it’s above my level. If I read ahead in English it shouldn’t be too bad since I already know the story…

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So exciting! That’s kind of the way I’m handling it, too. My most comfortable reading level is 23, I can handle 24 with jisho handy, but this will be my first level 25 series (^ヮ^)

I read the first two chapters back in spring of this year and I actually found it very approachable! I struggled a bit with how casual Naruto would speak sometimes (heavy on the chau and jau), though everyone else was perfectly understandable, and then I was also stumped on ninja-related vocab occasionally (but that’s because I was being too stubborn to break down new kanji combinations into their parts - I know better now haha!)

I’m hoping that the shared vocab list makes the reading process even smoother. And if you try but it’s too difficult right now, you can always return to it later (ᵔ◡ᵔ)

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I don’t have the time to read Naruto in addition to everything else, but cheering you all on from the sidelines! Have fun! :smiley:

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It’s so awesome, I’m following along without even reading Naruto because I love your enthusiasm! :glowing_star:

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@DIO-Berry I’m looking forward to that JoJo book club you mentioned! :grin:

oh gosh thank you :face_holding_back_tears: I’m happy to treat the discussion threads as a reading log so far as it’s just me right now ahaha but i love the series!

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