Land of Sound

The Naruto manga and anime series takes place on a fictional universe known as the Ninja World, also most of the times known as the Shinobi World (忍の世界, Shinobi no Sekai^?). The setting is a world with numerous countries and locations, including the main setting of the story, Konohagakure, a village part of the Land of Fire that the eponymous protagonist of the series, Naruto Uzumaki, was born in. The geography has a consist of nine countries, including the "Five Great Shinobi Nations", the five countries that united during the Fourth Shinobi World War. This universe has many things that exist or no longer exist that has made it what the village is now. When being a ninja in these countries, there are 4 main levels of becoming an shinobi, and there are other ranks and organizations that a shinobi can participate in by choice if eligible.

When Masashi Kishimoto was creating the setting of the Naruto manga, he initially concentrated on the designs for the village of Konohagakure, the primary setting of the series. He asserts that his design for Konohagakure was created "pretty spontaneously without much thought", but admits that the scenery is based on his home in the Okayama prefecture in Japan. Kishimoto created Konohagakure without specifying an era or location in the real world, noting that the village is "just a place in his head". Without a specific time period, Kishimoto included modern elements in the series such as convenience stores, movies and CCTV surveillance systems, but specifically excluded projectile weapons and vehicles from the storyline. For reference materials, Kishimoto performs his own research into Japanese culture and alludes to it in his work. In an interview, he commented that he "often visits Japanese gardens and goes to Kabuki performances" for reference material. Kishimoto added that, as Naruto takes place in a "Japanese fantasy world," the creator has to "set certain rules, in a systematic way" so that he could easily "convey the story." Kishimoto wanted to "draw on" the Chinese zodiac tradition, which had a long-standing presence in Japan; the zodiac hand signs originate from this. Regarding technology, Kishimoto said that Naruto would not have any firearms. He said he may include automobiles, aircraft, and "low-processing" computers; Kishimoto specified the computers would "maybe" be eight-bit and that they would "definitely not" be sixteen-bit.

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