Many teachers, mentors, and role models populate the story of Naruto, and many of them are counted among the best teachers and mentors in all of anime, alongside Master Roshi, Zangetsu, and others. Naruto Uzumaki needed more than a few teachers to guide him along, and he started with Kakashi Hatake, the commander of Team 7.
Kakashi did much to coach his three genin students, and in later story arcs, Naruto also gained the toad sage Jiraiya as a mentor and learned a lot from him, too. But which ninja instructor was more helpful to Naruto, and who taught him the best life lessons? And which of them fought the hardest for Naruto's sake?
10 KAKASHI: He Taught A Balance Of Friendship & Duty
Early in the story of Naruto, the three genin of Team 7 gathered at a training ground one morning, where Kakashi challenged them to steal two bells that he held. According to Kakashi, Naruto and his teammates would have to fight as a united front to get the bells, but one of them would end up failing as a genin.
This forced Naruto to choose between himself, friendship, and duty, and it was a vital lesson indeed. Kakashi was smart to perform the bell test, inspired by the words of his old friend and teammate, Obito Uchiha: "Those who abandon their friends are worse than trash."
9 JIRAIYA: He Helped Naruto Access Kurama's Vast Chakra
Naruto met Jiraiya partway through the Chunin Exam arc, and at the time, Naruto only used Kurama's chakra during moments of great distress or anger and couldn't control it at all. Jiraiya became Naruto's newest mentor and got to work right away.
First, Jiraiya unlocked Kurama's chakra by dispelling the sealing mark that the insidious Orochimaru had put on the boy's belly. Then, Jiraiya forced Naruto to access Kurama's chakra or face certain death. And it worked.
8 KAKASHI: He Let Naruto Learn The Hard Way With A C-Ranked Mission
Early in the series, Naruto Uzumaki was ready to go on real ninja missions. D-ranked missions, however, were really just errands. Naruto was eager to prove himself with a greater challenge, and both Kakashi and the Third Hokage indulged him.
Team 7 finally received a C-ranked mission to escort Tazuna the bridge-builder back home in the Land of Waves. Kakashi was kind and smart to let Naruto brashly take on a risky mission like this, allowing Naruto to receive a shocking first-hand lesson about how dangerous and scary ninja work can be.
7 JIRAIYA: He Taught Naruto How To Summon Animals
The summoning jutsu allows a ninja to spend some chakra to teleport a certain animal (or several) to their location, and even characters such as Sasuke Uchiha and the Six Paths of Pain use this technique. Naruto learned it too, and it was Jiraiya who showed him the way.
It's not a terribly difficult process, either. Jiraiya brought a contract scroll and had Naruto sign his name and mark his thumbprint in blood, then taught Naruto to fuel his chakra into the jutsu and summon toads. Naruto kept getting tadpoles at first, but at least he was on the right track thanks to Jiraiya.
6 KAKASHI: He Trusted Team 7 In The Chunin Exams
Once again, Kakashi proved himself a wonderful mentor and teacher by trusting his greenhorn genin with risky and challenging missions. Team 7 returned from the Land of Waves only for the Chunin Exams to begin, and Kakashi, despite Hiruzen Sarutobi's misgivings, wanted Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura to enter.
But there was a test first. Kakashi set up a few tests across the Hidden Leaf Village and challenged his three genin in what seemed like real combat situations. Naruto and his teammates passed, and Kakashi trusted the three of them in the Chunin Exams with no doubts in mind.
5 JIRAIYA: He Trained Naruto Before Shippuden
The Naruto anime is one of many with a time skip; in this case, two and a half years passed between the end of the Sasuke retrieval arc and the beginning of Naruto Shippuden. During that time, Naruto was away from the Hidden Leaf Village, training exclusively with Jiraiya.
Needless to say, this off-screen training paid off immensely. Naruto worked so hard, his headband wore out, and Jiraiya got him another one, a headband with black cloth. Naruto is much more powerful and craftier now, and he and Sakura Haruno pushed Kakashi really hard in the second bell test.
4 KAKASHI: He Broke Up The Naruto & Sasuke Fight At The Hospital
After Naruto and Jiraiya found Lady Tsunade, Naruto was more powerful than ever, and Sasuke, who had lost badly to his brother Itachi Uchiha, was seething with resentment at Naruto's remarkable progress. Sasuke spitefully challenged Naruto to a duel, even though he was still recovering in the hospital.
This scene was the beginning of the end for Sasuke's loyalty to the Leaf Village, but at least Kakashi intervened and broke off the fight before Naruto and Sasuke badly hurt each other on that hospital roof. A good teacher will let their students learn from bump and scrapes, but not like this.
3 JIRAIYA: He Taught Naruto The Rasengan Technique
The Rasengan is a classic jutsu in the Naruto series, and this technique soon became Naruto's personal trademark. Naruto learned it when Jiraiya taught him the three basic steps during the search for Tsunade, and Naruto went through hell to master these simple but demanding steps.
Jiraiya was fairly hands-off about this, but he did give Naruto some helpful hints, just enough so Naruto could piece together the rest on his own and learn the technique. And, of course, Jiraiaya had total faith that Naruto could complete this training.
2 KAKASHI: He Helped Naruto Learn The Rasenshuriken
Partway through Naruto Shippuden, Jiraiya had pretty much taken over as Naruto's #1 mentor, but Kakashi wasn't done yet. At one point, Naruto wanted to improve the Rasengan, make it fancier, and add his own natural elemental chakra to it. Not even Minato Namikaze had accomplished such a feat.
However, Naruto had the advantage of making shadow clones to coordinate all this, and Kakashi helped Naruto determine that his natural chakra is wind-based. With Kakashi's aid, Naruto perfected the Rasenshuriken, a massive and bladed Rasengan that came in handy against the Akatsuki.
1 JIRAIYA: He Left Naruto Clues To Pain's Downfall
Jiraiya tragically lost his life while fighting Pain alone, but his demise was not in total vain. Jiraiya used the last of his strength to write a code onto the back of a toad named Fukasaku and sent him to Naruto and his allies.
The code looked like a handful of random numbers, but in fact, these numbers correspond to pages in Jiraiya's erotic novel, and Naruto realized that the "9" was actually the katakana character for "ta," a vital clue. Jiraiya's code spelled out "the real one's not among them." With this information on hand, Naruto was able to confront Nagato and put an end to Pain once and for all.