Many Shonen Jump manga have puns for character names, so can you explain some puns in the name of Naruto characters? I know that Naruto is a world for the spiral fishcakes in ramen... But I've also heard of a place off the sea of Japanese called the Naruto Uzumaki (the Naruto whirlpools), like Naruto's first and last name.
Uzumaki (spirals) are a very cool Japanese pattern. Weekly Shonen Jump's philosophy for naming characters is to create a name that the readers can easily associate with the character, by combining it with puns and gags.
How did you develop the chakra power system in Naruto? Are you interested in East Indian mysticism?
I actually have no interest in East Indian mysticism. I need a hook to tie in those points in the story when the characters would use powers that were beyond normal human capabilities. The term is chakra, which is used as an explanation for readers to better understand the powers. It's similar to "the Force" in Star Wars, or chi (aka ki) in Dragonball, or "magic points" in RPGs.
How did you develop the mystic hand gestures used by the ninja in Naruto?
As an alternative to the standard verbal method of casting spells, like in RPGs, the ninja use hand gestures instead.
