Naruto Volume Four is a manga by Masashi Kishimoto, and it was released in North America by Viz Media’s Shonen Jump imprint in 2004. The series is rated “T” for teens; from what I’ve read in the manga and from what I’ve seen in the anime series, I would agree with this rating.
Naruto Uzumaki, the title character of the series, is an orphan who has decided that one day he will become the Hokage (the leader) of his village. Unfortunately, Naruto isn’t the best of students at the ninja academy, is ostracized by many people in the village, and constantly pulls pranks in order to force people to pay attention to him.
Unknown to Naruto, the Fourth Hokage sealed a fox demon that was attacking the village inside of Naruto when he was a baby. The Hokage died shortly after, and he hoped the villagers would see Naruto as a hero; instead, the adults of the village shunned him. The Third Hokage returned to the position of leader of the village, and he decreed that the disclosure of Naruto’s secret is strictly forbidden under severe penalty. Naruto’s peers don’t know his secret, but many of them picked up their parents’ animosity toward Naruto and perpetuate it.
In the first three volumes of the series, Naruto is tricked by one of the academy instructors into stealing a sacred scroll. He learns a cloning technique from the scroll, and it becomes Naruto’s signature jutsu in the series. When the traitorous instructor tries to take the scroll from Naruto, he is saved by his teacher, Iruka Umino.
Naruto manages to graduate from the academy, and is placed in Squad 7; in his squad is Sakura Haruno (a girl he has a crush on) and Sasuke Uchiha (a boy Naruto strongly dislikes, and Sakura has an obvious crush on him). They are assigned to a new teacher named Kakashi Hatake, and they begin doing missions together.
During Volume Two, Squad 7 is on a mission to serve as bodyguards to a bridge builder named Tazuna. However, they quickly learn that the bridge builder omitted some very important details about his situation, and that the mission is really a higher ranked mission than the Hokage had realized. The members of Squad 7 find themselves face to face with some of the most lethal Mist Ninjas.
At the beginning of Volume Four, Squad 7 is in the middle of a battle with Haku and Zabuza on a bridge. The first six chapters of this volume focus on this battle, as well as the aftermath of the battle. I know this portion of the story from seeing the anime series, but I really appreciate how much quicker this battle resolves in the manga than it does in the anime.
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