Naruto is an ongoing manga series, created by Masashi Kishimoto. The manga was first shown to the public in Akamaru Jump in 1997 and since then EVERYONE has been crazy about it! (Can't blame them!) The first anime episode of Naruto was launched in Japan on October the 3rd 2003. The series is about a young ninja boy who resides in the Leaf Village with no family, his name is Naruto Uzumaki. Twelve years ago, when Naruto was a baby, the Kyuubi (9 tailed demon fox) attack the Leaf Village, it created chaos and havoc to the Leaf Village, it was indestructible! Until the 4th Hokage (leader of Leaf Village) risked his life to battle the beast, the 4th Hokage used the death seal and trapped the Kyuubi inside Naruto's baby body. From then on everyone in the Leaf Village looked down at Naruto, as if Naruto himself were the beast. The 3rd Hokage regulated that no one spoke of the demon fox, but even so Naruto was treated like shit! He had no idea why either, until in the first episode, he fights Mizuki (a Leaf Village Chuunin Teacher) who then tells Naruto why he is so different (because the kyuubi is inside him).
Naruto graduated from the academy by using the Shadow Clone jutsu on Mizuki. He became a genin, the genin squad he was assigned to consisted of: Sakura Haruno (Naruto's crush), Sasuke Uchiha (Naruto's competition) & their team captain Kakashi Hatake. There first mission was to get these 2 bells of their captain, Kakashi, this would guarantee them as Genin once & for all. They never get the bells, but eventually pass by showing that looking out for your team is more important than not following the rules.
So from then on Team 7 as they are known take various missions and they all encounter obstacles, but not just as a team. More characters are introduced throughout the series especially in the chuunin exam saga, where very important characters were introduced, "The Legendary Sannin"(legendary three ninja) originally three leaf village ninjas who are about 50 years old but so strong their at Kage level.
Throughout the series Naruto doesn't appear to mature much, he is very silly and a prankster, but his skills when it comes to fighting do improve. Naruto is not someone you wanna face, because even if your more skilled/stronger Naruto will NEVER give up. A lot can be said for the other genin characters, they all improve greatly, especially Sasuke. Sasuke is in wanting of power and skill to seek out & destroy his older brother Itachi who is a S-class missing nin. In order to do this Sasuke believes that Orochimaru (1 of the legendary sannin) can help him so he flees the village in search of orochimaru's power, at all best efforts Naruto fails on the retrieval of Sasuke. They fought it out, Sasuke used his curse-seal whilst Naruto used some of the Kyuubis chakra, the retrieval of Sasuke which was the only promise he made to Sakura that he hasn't accomplished. So before the timeskip to Naruto Shippuuden, mainly all you see is an about 80 appalling fillers including all Leaf Village genin. Naruto is then taken away to train for a few years by Jiraiya, to get him ready for the Akatsuki organization who want the kyuubi.
Naruto Shippuuden is the follow up after Naruto, the series is the same it's just after a few years. The manga starts at Chapter 245. The anime made it's debut Febuary 15th 2007 in Japan and is still rolling now, at the moment whilst I write this they are up to episode 78.