The Tale of the Utterly Gutsy Shinobi (novel)

The Tale of the Utterly Gutsy Shinobi was 's first book, written while training the. The story follows the adventures of a ninja named Naruto, a name Jiraiya came up with while eating ramen. The main character, Naruto, never gives up and vows to break the "curse" that was mentioned in the story. The mentioned "curse" represents the 'vicious cycles' of war, conflict and hatred that occupies the ninja world that once spoke to Jiraiya about.

Because of this, the book is dedicated to Nagato. notes that the Naruto in the story is very much like Jiraiya. For this reason he thought it was a very good book, though Jiraiya pointed out that it didn't sell very well; he even had a book signing which not a single person showed up to.

Because he enjoyed the book so much, Minato chose to name his then-unborn son after the character of Naruto in the story, in the hopes that his son would too grow up to be just like the protagonist. Even though Naruto was not aware of this until sixteen years after his birth, he nevertheless is just like the protagonist. When he points this out to Nagato during the invasion of Pain, Naruto convinces him to abandon his goals of war and believe in breaking the curse like he once did.