See also: Plot of Naruto After the anime of Naruto had concluded the Sasuke Retrieval Arc, to make sure the anime did not overtake Part II of the manga, the makers instead animated several filler arcs to take place before Naruto left for his two year training with Jiraiya. In these arcs, Naruto is sent on various missions with the other members of the Konoha 11, but while there is little character development for himself, the filler arcs instead focused on the development of the supporting characters.

Survival Training Arc Edit

With no missions currently available, Naruto and the rest of his graduating class were assigned to be tutors for the current academy students for a survival test. Ironically, Naruto was assigned to Konohamaru and his friends. Unfortunately for them, Naruto's survival skills were pitiful which led them into a terrible storm. Despite that, Naruto did teach them the value of teamwork and looking out for their friends and allies. Unfortunately for Naruto, they used their newly learned teamwork to pin the blame on Naruto for the entire disaster.

Guy and Lee Impersonator Arc Edit

Desperate to get as strong as he could before Jiraiya returned, Naruto sought out Might Guy and Rock Lee in hopes they would train him in taijutsu. Unfortunately, the two of them had already left the village for a mission and were replaced by a couple of impostors. Despite their terrible disguises, Naruto fell for it and began following them all day. The rest of the village, however, easily saw through the impostors and decided to make them miserable by having "Guy" and "Lee" do all kind of horrific chores. While the two were miserable from doing so, Naruto cheerfully viewed this as another training session. After the impostors finally gave up and left the village, Naruto found the real Guy and Lee to thank them for the assistance in training, to which Guy and Lee had no idea what he was talking about.

Ninja Chef Arc Edit

Eager to have some Ichiraku ramen, Naruto and Chōji quickly go to the bar only to discover that it is closed early. They find out that Teuchi is trying to prepare a new kind of ramen because his daughter Ayame was taken hostage by the rarely heard of Ninja Chefs. Naruto and Chōji, with the assistance of Sakura, go to help Teuchi get his daughter back by helping him make the ramen. While having amateur skill in making ramen, Naruto and his friends use their own unique attributes to compensate and make a superb ramen meal for the ninja chefs, rescuing Ayame.

Rich Ninja Fan Arc Edit

Not having anything to do, Tsunade assigned Naruto to spend the day babysitting Kunihisa, the son of Tsunade's rich friend Kunijirō. Naruto quickly found the boy very annoying from how he believed he can do and get anything he wanted simply by buying it. As the day progressed, Naruto helped Kunihisa begin to understand the importance of working for something through showing him a few ninja skills like kunai throwing. Unfortunately, he was later kidnapped by a couple of goons who bribed Kunihisa's own bodyguards with money Kunihisa threw away. Naruto was able to save Kunihisa but then found himself hanging over a cliff for dear life. Not wanting his first real friend to die, Kunihisa used a rope to save Naruto. They were both proud of Kunihisa's action, especially because he really tried for it.

Courier Ninja Arc Edit

On Naruto's way back to Konoha from a recent mission, Naruto stops at a village with a hot springs resort. Along the way, he meet a unique ninja called a Courier Ninja who's mission duties were solely to deliver mail through the most difficult and dangerous of terrains. At the village, his shock and fury Naruto discovers Jiraiya fooling around with some girls. To calm Naruto down, Jiraiya reveals the real reason he hasn't started Naruto's training yet was because he was on a mission to gather information on the Akatsuki and learned that an agent of theirs was reported to be arriving in the village soon. Naruto asked Jiraiya to train him since they had the time, but Jiraiya explained he also had to finish the manuscript for his latest novel. After constant procrastination on Jiraiya's part, he eventually fell asleep with his work unfinished. Naruto instead decided to write the manuscript for Jiraiya and had a courier ninja deliver it, after bumping into a couple men and getting their mail mixed together.

When Naruto told Jiraiya what he did, Jiraiya was furious as he feared this would ruin his career as an author. After getting the mail back, Jiraiya was horrified to discover that the package contained a peace treaty between the Land of Fang and Claw who were on the brink of war. Realising that Naruto's manuscript was being sent to the Fang Daimyo and fearing that the Fang Daimyo would view as an insult for war, Jiraiya and Naruto rushed to get the manuscript back. After a heated struggle against the courier ninjas, the Fang Daimyo unfortunately got the manuscript. But to Naruto and Jiraiya's shock, the Fang Daimyo was a huge fan of the Make-Out series and thought it was a peace offering from the Land of Claw, effectively causing the war to be cancelled. Later, Jiraiya had to leave as his Akatsuki target had already left the hot springs resort, forcing Naruto to return to Konoha to wait for Jiraiya's return.

Rampaging Akamaru Arc Edit

After hearing from Tsunade that Akamaru was possibly infected by a strange poison from an enemy, Naruto was ordered to keep an eye of Akamaru. While doing so, it became apparent Akamaru was infected as he was randomly attacking people. It was also apparent that Kiba was terribly grieving from it. When it was decided that Akamaru needed to be detained after injuring several Leaf ninja, Kiba's feelings of Akamaru got the better of him and ran away from the village with Akamaru. Naruto went after Kiba to try and reason with him, only for Kiba to attack him in desperation to protect Akamaru. Unfortunately, Akamaru's symptoms got worse as he transformed into a giant ravenous beast. Luckily, Kiba's sister Hana arrived with an experimental cure for Akamaru. Thanks to Kiba reaching what little sanity Akamaru had left, they were able to cure Akamaru.

Onbaa Arc Edit

While doing his daily training in preparation for Jiraiya's return, Naruto unexpectedly came in contact with a legendary creature called the Onbaa. In addition to it being a baby that by habit refused to separate from whoever it thought was its mother (that being Naruto), the stories stated that it would eventually grow into a giant ravenous monster. Initially Naruto and the creature got along well, but it began growing and an alarmingly fast rate. Eventually, Tsunade, decided to send Naruto on a far off mission to get the creature away from the village. On the way back from the mission, Naruto and the onbaa came across the creature's enraged mother. Initially, coming in contact with its own kind caused Naruto's onbaa to turn on Naruto in rampage, but Naruto was able to remind it that they were friends. Upon saying goodbye to his new friend and returning to the village, Naruto discovered that the onbaa were appearing all over the village, causing Naruto to laugh hysterically.

Laughing Shino Arc Edit

Naruto is sent on a simple mission with Shino to Motoyoshi Village. The client, Fuuta, was on the verge of inheriting a profitable land from his recently deceased father, but the will stated he must remain perfectly serious during the funeral and not laugh, or he would forfeit his inheritance. Initially, Shino was to act as a stand-in as chief mourner for the funeral because of how naturally serious he was. However, during dinner, Shino ate a strange drug that caused him to laugh uncontrollably. Because of this, Naruto had to take the job. During the funeral, the relatives of the client repeatedly tried all kinds of overly exaggerated jokes to make Naruto laugh, which he barely resisted. In the end, it turned out that the entire funeral was a hoax by the presumed dead father in the desire to make his family stop caring about money and enjoy life again with a smile. The man did this with Shino's help, who surprisingly was capable of being very humorous. After the mission was "technically" considered completed, Shino warned Naruto with a very stern look not to speak a word of what he saw Shino do to anyone, to which a terrified Naruto agreed.

Chubby Arc Edit

Naruto was sent to join Ino on a unique mission that was for Ino to impersonate a princess as Ino looked exactly like her. The goal was to deceive the princess' fiancé as the real princess put on much weight out of the fear towards meeting him. Naruto and Ino were surprised to discover the man was quite fat. After several comedic stunts from both Naruto and Ino, it was shockingly discovered that the fiancé was actually more attracted to the princess with her excess weight. Naruto found the whole situation humorous, but Ino refused to believe someone could actually be attracted to chubbiness and declared she would go on an even bigger diet.

Lee's Dōjō Arc Edit

After returning from another mission, Naruto found a poster for a dōjō. The dōjō (which was poorly constructed), turned out to be owned by Lee. After initially believing Naruto came to challenge him and slamming him through a wall, Lee explained he built his dōjō in the hopes that skilled warriors of various disciplines would come to challenge him so he could improve his skill for combat. After narrowly escaping Lee's request to face him, Naruto bumped into Guy and told him about Lee's dōjō. Guy, who was so proud of his student's dedication to improve, decided to help Lee by disguising himself (albeit a very poor disguise) and challenging Lee. Unfortunately, Guy was called by Tsunade to go and help Team 10 who reported some trouble. Unbeknownst to him and Naruto, a thief named Nanafushi who came to Konoha to steal its secrets impersonated Guy as he left. Naruto, thinking he was really Guy, dragged him to Lee's dōjō. Not wanting to break character, Nanafushi challenged Lee and was quickly defeated.

Nanafushi managed to convince Naruto he was just exhausted and had Naruto fill in for him. Knowing he couldn't beat Lee in direct combat, Naruto relied on various Shadow Clone tactics. Before the fight could be finished, Nanafushi (who now disguised himself as Lee) was knocked out cold by the real Guy. After getting their facts straight on who was who, they brought Nanafushi to Tsunade, unaware of who he was. Immediately after Tsunade gave them orders to search for and capture Nanafushi, they handed him over to Tsunade. This was the fastest mission that Naruto has ever completed successfully.

Cursed Castle Arc Edit

When Princess Kayo of the Land of Honey went missing, Naruto was sent on a mission to find her with Hinata and Kiba. Upon arriving at the princess' last known location, they found a large castle and decided to investigate, much to Naruto's disapproval due to his fear of the supernatural. Soon after entering, the team began finding all kinds of strange things happening like people in pictures moving and books flying. Soon it became clear that the castle was not what it appears. It was later discovered that fifty years ago the ruler of the castle, Kōza Kubisaki, placed a "curse" on the castle so all who entered it would be devoured. Hinata then used her Byakugan to discover that the castle was somehow alive.

After discovering this, the castle appearance changed to what appeared to be the insides of a giant creature. They were able to discover that the creature was actually a giant chameleon summoning that was caring out its dead master's orders for over fifty years. Through the surprising help of the spirit of Kubisaki they were able to find the summoning's summoning scroll and destroy it, causing the summon to disappear. Naruto and his team were barely able to escape with Princess Kayo and her men. Afterwards, Naruto and his team surmised that Kubisaki simply wanted their help to finally let the summoning go home.