As the Ninetails jinchuriki, Naruto was ostracized from society and didn't have a single friend, making his childhood a painfully lonely one. He was alone, with basically no one to interact with. Because of his lonely upbringing, lack of familial and parental guidance/presence, Naruto's understanding of human nature became stunted and incomplete. In regards to social interaction, he was extremely sensitive and insightful at some moments yet painfully oblivious and clueless at others. As a result, Naruto became a self-absorbed, rude brat but he also somehow bizarrely accrued a very strong moral sense of right and wrong. Even in the face of the hardships he remained surprisingly good-hearted and upstanding of character, and ended up being one of the most (if not the most) morally upstanding characters in the series.

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Because Naruto was so neglected and abandoned since infanthood, he became desperate and needy for attention, to the point that he stopped caring if the attention was positive or negative: attention was attention no matter what form it took. Relationships and social interaction are essential for one's development and well-being, yet Naruto was ignored and shunned by the public and had no friends to turn to. To get the attention he was being denied, Naruto turned to pranks in order to force people to pay attention to him, forcing their hand to put a stop to his mischief because it was one of the few (if not only) ways he could evoke a reaction from the people around him.

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Naruto decided to aim to become Hokage, because the Hokage was the most respected and revered person in the village, and Naruto wanted everyone to look up to him and respect him and stop treating him like trash. Considering the political, social, and moral importance of being village leader, young Naruto's motivation for being village leader was shallow, but he was only a child who hadn't yet considered the world in the complex, political, and moral implications of what being a world leader meant. For Naruto, just earning attention from people was a struggle, so all he could do was look for solutions to get around his ostracization in society.

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Naruto was an extremely brave young soul, hiding his pain and sorrow behind a cloud of brave bluster. This becomes obvious how he appears carefree, cheerful, and fun-loving despite having a tough life. As a small child he even told kid Hinata that he never cries about his horrible life situation, a blatant lie as we fans saw him crying in an episode when he was small and starving but didn't have enough money for food. Naruto keeps his pain well hidden from others, projecting a fun-loving spirit of a prankster, but inside he is burdened by his grief and loneliness and hurt that most people don't see the depth of his pain because it isn't easy to see it unless they know Naruto well.

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Teuchi was the first person to accept Naruto by inviting him into Ichiraku, a place Naruto came to adore. While Naruto's love for Ichiraku's may be chalked up to his love for ramen, his love for ramen could have been caused by the fact that Teuchi was the first person to consistently treat him with kindness and not discriminate against him like everyone else. But while Teuchi was the first person to accept him and he was a lifelong casual friend to Naruto, Naruto was never close to the shopowner on a particularly meaningful level.

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The first person to truly befriend Naruto was Iruka. Iruka was initially cold to Naruto, but after a few misadventures involving the pair of them, Iruka set aside his bias of Naruto being the jinchuriki and began to genuinely care about his student, and so became close to Naruto. Their relationship was critical for Naruto's earliest years (when Naruto had no one else), but once Part I starts, Iruka becomes increasingly irrelevant and lower on the scale of people that Naruto cares most about, and Naruto's dependence and closeness to Iruka fades over time. Of course that's not to say that Naruto stopped caring about Irukae, it's just that Iruka was a huge influence on Naruto's childhood years and he was necessary in Naruto's life during his early years (since Naruto had no one else) but they drifted apart once Naruto got put on a team of his own and started making other friends.

 

When he was enrolled in the academy at age 5 or so, Naruto developed a crush on Sakura and tried to impress her and win her heart. Despite his intentions, he mostly ended up harassing her, resulting in her coming to despise him during their academy days.

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It rapidly became clear that Sasuke was the cool, popular kid in class, the kid that everyone fawned over and adored for appearing so effortlessly talented and smart. Naruto burned with jealousy wherever Sasuke was concerned, since Sasuke had everything Naruto wanted: talent, skill, intelligence, and most importantly of all, attention – lots and lots of attention. For the same reasons Naruto wanted to be Hokage, Naruto wanted to be like Sasuke. Being the village leader and being the coolest and most talented kid in the class meant getting attention (the praiseworthy, positive type of attention instead of the negative attention Naruto was accustomed to receiving), so unsurprisingly being Hokage and being like Sasuke were the two things Naruto became obsessed with.

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Though there were several layers to Naruto's relationship with Sasuke, primarily Naruto's awareness that Sasuke was as alone as he was. One day at school Naruto learned that Sasuke was the sole survivor of his clan, and he came to the realization that Sasuke was an orphan, like him. Plus despite being the cool kid of the class, all of Sasuke's classmates kept their distance from him and gave Sasuke his space, so Sasuke didn't have any friends at the academy either, just as Naruto didn't have any friends. Naruto felt drawn to Sasuke because of that, because Sasuke proved to Naruto that even someone as alone as Naruto was could be strong and cool in the face of unbearable and crushing loneliness that Naruto sometimes felt he couldn't withstand. Even though Sasuke had lost everything, he didn't act like it. To Naruto's naïve and limited perspective, Sasuke seemed completely put together; he was strong and self-controlled, there were no visible emotional/psychological cracks in Sasuke (though certainly there were major ones Naruto didn't see at the time). Sasuke had the mental fortitude to not let his suffering, loneliness, and pain of being alone pull him into despair or hopelessness. Instead, Sasuke remained as seemingly cool and strong as ever. That caused Naruto to admire Sasuke all the more, because not only did Sasuke have the physical strength that Naruto wanted, but he had the mental strength as well, and through example Sasuke provided Naruto a way to cope with his pain of loneliness that was crushing him inside: Naruto'd turn it into a competition. If Sasuke could handle the loneliness of being an orphan, Naruto would prove that he was just as good (or better) than Sasuke and cope with the loneliness just as well as Sasuke. No – he'd show that he could cope with loneliness better than his rival Sasuke.

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Furthermore, while Sasuke could have been snappish and easily angered by Naruto's obnoxious behavior that was frequently directed at repetitively challenging him only for Naruto to spectacularly lose to Sasuke, Sasuke treated Naruto's incessant challenges with a brotherly, patient tolerance, indulging Naruto over and over again by participating in the challenges Naruto held him to instead of ignoring him completely, as many of the villagers did when dealing with Naruto.

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Sasuke's mental fortitude soon became a crutch for Naruto (a lifelong one, as we'll later see) in his earlier days and as a result their "rivalry" became a necessity to Naruto's survival, mental sanity, and happiness. Without Sasuke's presence in their academy days, I wouldn't be surprised if Naruto would have ended up despairing and hopeless like people such as Gaara, Sasuke, Karin, Kimimaro, etc. Without Sasuke, Naruto would've been significantly more inclined to team up with Mebuki, the first person to be honest with him by telling the truth about why the villagers treated him with contempt. Much like Sasuke's talent and skill became a point of competition between Naruto and his self-named rival, so also did their mental strength become another point of competition between them. If Sasuke had the mental fortitude and endurance to suffer and endure the unbearable pain of loneliness, then Naruto would prove that he could too. As a result, Sasuke's presence in Naruto's life became a staple necessity, not merely a childish competition. Naruto's relationship to Sasuke prevented Naruto from drowning in despair, even if externally it appeared only as an insignificant rivalry.

 

While Naruto respected and admired Sasuke more than anyone, Naruto was too afraid to approach Sasuke as a friend. Approaching Sasuke in search of a friendship would require a lot of vulnerability on Naruto's end and broaching a very personal subject: his hurt feelings over his loneliness and how much pain it caused him. Naruto finds it extremely difficult to speak about anything touchy-feely with people he cares most about (as we'll see several times throughout his life), so approaching the person he idolized most was a daunting prospect. Plus, as the bottom of the class, Naruto felt unworthy – how could the kid at the bottom of the class ever dream of being friends with the prodigy at the top of the class? Fear and jealousy became barriers to Naruto seeking a friendship with Sasuke at this stage, even though he deeply and desperately wanted to befriend Sasuke. Naruto championed living his life admirably so that he would never have to live with regrets, but we see in the war that his deepest regret was not approaching Sasuke during their academy days. Naruto's jealousy hindered him from attempting to start a friendship, and it ended up that Naruto watched Sasuke get further and further away while he could do nothing to stop him.

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Naruto probably fantasized about the idea of trying to become friends with Sasuke during his earliest days at the academy, perhaps after he learned the truth about the massacre. In a conversation with Sasuke many years later, Naruto recalls that he would feel giddy at the thought of trying to talk to Sasuke as a friend, but ultimately his jealousy, fear, and sense of unworthiness held him back from doing so. Instead of making Sasuke his friend, he turned Sasuke into his rival, and Naruto kept his admiration and respect for Sasuke secret and out of view. Outwardly, Naruto pretended to resent and hate Sasuke, and Naruto never missed a moment to criticize or challenge Sasuke or complain about how Sasuke was overrated or about how much attention Sasuke was getting. Naruto kept his true feelings carefully locked behind a competitive façade, pretending to hate Sasuke when he actually deeply admired him. Unfortunately, after a while, approaching Sasuke became a matter not just of fear but of pride as well. At first, approaching Sasuke in the hopes of starting up a friendship may have seemed a possibility, but after openly appearing to hating Sasuke for so long, Naruto felt he had to continue his image of hating Sasuke.

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This rival dynamic became a kind of game for Naruto, becoming second nature. Naruto began to prefer the casual rivalry trash-talk over meaningful dialogue, because joking around was easier than having poignant and vulnerable heart-to-heart chats with someone he admired so greatly. He adopted the assumption that he understood Sasuke's pain and shared his loneliness, and Sasuke equally understood his pain, and that that understanding was left unspoken between them. Talking about anything personal was too daunting and uncomfortable, as Naruto didn't really like sharing his deeper, innermost feelings with people he deeply admired and cared about. Naruto kept his relationship with Sasuke underneath a competitive veneer: he would try to prove himself better than Sasuke and be outspoken about complaining how Sasuke got too much praise or recognition and he refused to admit how much he secretly admired Sasuke.

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Naruto also developed superficial relationships with some of his other peers, namely Choji, Shikamaru, and Kiba, who became Naruto's playmates. None of these three boys especially liked Naruto or enjoyed spending time with him, but they benevolently tolerated Naruto interjecting himself into their group and let Naruto spend time with them. But apart from being playmates, there was little substance in the relationships between them and Naruto was still immensely lonely, seeing as he was never really included in their group, as the others never invited him to their homes or to hang out. Naruto just had to force his way in.

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Naruto disliked school. He was a high-energy type suited to adventuring and romping outdoors rather than sitting behind a desk for hours. Naturally, several of his pranks revolved around finding ways to get out of school faster. Naruto didn't seem too taken with his schoolwork, as he had the lowest scores in class and he never seemed to apply himself to written studies, using all his training effort on practicing for the physical aspects of a shinobi.

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Despite his reputation as being stupid, that's too simplistic of a take on Naruto's intelligence levels Naruto was a strange mixture of having extremely insightful moments and high emotional intelligence (such as recognizing that something was wrong with Sasuke the day after the massacre even though Naruto hadn't heard no news of the massacre at that point, seeing the hatred in Sasuke's eyes but realizing it wasn't directed at him but at someone else, and recognizing Sasuke suffered from loneliness despite them never actually discussing the matter). Naruto proved himself to be an insightful, perceptive, and sensitive child with a surprisingly high level of emotional intelligence, considering his background. Even at a young age, Naruto was quite a clever person. Some of his pranks were fairly ingenious and creative, and though his intelligence wasn't well applied, he was a sharp and clever child in certain areas of intelligence, despite his reputation to the contrary.

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While strength and talent wise, Naruto was regarded as a loser and was at the bottom of the class, his weakness was due to lack of training. It's well established in the Naruto-verse that a child's power levels translate directly to the quality of training they have had. Characters who have attentive, dedicated mentors or family members to teach and encourage their skills from a young age progress quickly in the shinobi arts, whereas those without effective/devoted teachers or a ninja clan heritage are at a serious disadvantage. Naruto and Sakura were at the bottom of their class in terms of power, not because of their lack of potential (they actually had the highest power potential of their peers aside from Sasuke), but because of their lack of training and lack of present ninja family members. Because Naruto had no ninja family members to stimulate and encourage his skills in fighting, he grew up without refining or honing of his powers. Naruto lagging behind in training was not due to his lack of ability or intelligence, but rather due to lack of proper mentorship and familial guidance.

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Even despite this huge disadvantage, Naruto was interestingly the first of his peers to invent his own jutsu: the sexy jutsu. Naruto's invention of the sexy jutsu was most likely a result of Naruto's loneliness. Much like Naruto's pranks were designed to catch people's attention, his sexy jutsu was likewise designed to catch attention. Due to the nature of his sexy jutsu, it was a fail-safe way to always evoke a strong reaction from people around him. So unsurprisingly, Naruto continued to cultivate this jutsu. It had the effective side effect of nearly always thwarting men trying to punish him, so Naruto could use his sexy jutsu both to get attention but also to slip away when he needed to escape. In his genin years, the sexy jutsu became a way to earn favors, as it became one of the only ways Naruto could convince Jiraiya to train him, as Jiraiya would coerce Naruto in using the sexy jutsu in payment for his training.

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Despite his flaws of being rude and arrogant at times, young Naruto had the heart of a hero and was a very brave young soul. Despite the unfair injustice he faced daily (or perhaps because of it), he couldn't stand the sight of injustice or people getting hurt. He wouldn't hesitate to aid a classmate in need, as we saw him defend Hinata from bullies on multiple occasions whenever he saw she needed help. Naruto knew that the way he was being treated was unfair and wrong, and he pushed against the social injustice he faced in his village, challenging people such as Iruka on how their hateful treatment towards him was wrong and unfair.

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Because of his ostracization from society, Naruto became very independent, stubborn, and strong-minded. Free of the conditioning of social and peer pressure due to his lack of closeness with anyone, Naruto developed his own opinions on life. Sometimes his ideas were shockingly revolutionary and detached from cultural expectations, and he wasn't the best at molding himself to fit in. He grew up an assertive kid, unafraid of speaking out or finding ways to express himself or make himself known. He wasn't cowed by social pressures because he knew he wouldn't be accepted by complying with them anyway, even if he did follow social expectations. Because no one believed in him, Naruto was forced to believe in himself and have faith in himself, because if he didn't, no one would. As a result, Naruto ended up a having a healthy, solid level of self-confidence throughout his life (except for at the beginning of Shippuden in the first two arcs when his psychological state was at an unhealthy low) and was a strong-minded individual who was firm and courageous in holding to his own beliefs. This became an essential character trait that allowed Naruto to stand up for his beliefs and cause change, and stay firm, strong, and unmoving even in the face of intense, cruel, and unbearable opposition.

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The lack of parents in Naruto's life weighed very heavily on him. After asking about his parents and getting no answer from Hiruzen, Naruto was forced to realize that no one would ever tell him anything about his parents, so early on he stopped asking about it altogether. Even though he rarely brought it up, not knowing a thing about his parents or who they were always weighed heavily on him and greatly bothered him. He thought about it sometimes, but always privately. Naruto kept his focus on earning recognition and friendship from the living, not mourning the deceased parents he could never get back and who he knew he would never meet. This is because one of Naruto's best traits is his ability to look forward and focus on the things he can change rather than sulk about the things he can't change. Naruto had a high internal locus of control, rejecting the idea of fate and believing that he was in full control of his circumstances. Naruto didn't sulk about expecting people to change, because he knew he had to be the one to change if he wanted to work his way out of his dire social situation. Naruto had an optimistic nature, and what distinguishes him from the series' villains is his ability to look to the future and not soak in the past. Naruto even acknowledged he was mere steps away from ending up like Gaara or Sasuke or Obito. Naruto's inner strength says volumes about his strength and nobility of character; he chooses to focus on the future and what he can change and stays hopeful instead of despairing and obsessing over regrets about past losses that can never be changed. Since Naruto couldn't bring his parents back or force anyone to tell him stuff about his parents, Naruto shelved those thoughts (even though they were always a source of great hurt that was always bothering him) and focused on the bonds he could have with his friends in the present and future. Thus why he practically never mentioned his parents (until he meets them) and only focused on his bonds with the friends he had in his life, even though the lack of knowing anything about his parents was a crushingly heavy weight on him for a long time from his childhood to his teen years.

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Naruto's attempts to gain attention were perhaps too heavy-handed, because instead of earning himself friends, instead he earned people's scorn. During their academy days, Sakura even believed Naruto purposely harassed her because he enjoyed making her miserable. Naruto tended to foolishly claim he was better than he was, even though it was blatantly obvious to everyone that Naruto's claims about how great he was were false and he could never back up his boasts. As a result, Naruto made a fool out of himself by constantly claiming that he could perform better than Sasuke, only to fail again and again. He became the class prankster and the class pest, the annoying kid who always caused trouble, always said dumb things loudly, and bugged and bothered everyone. Naruto brashly and arrogantly proclaimed his greatness without giving valid actions to back them up. Actually, throughout his life Naruto developed this strange quirk of arrogantly bragging about things he was bad at while being humble about the things he excelled at. He'd tend to downplay his talents, while conversely he'd brag about things he wasn't good at. But as a child, Naruto had more failures than feats, and because of his tendency to boast about how he'd be Hokage and how he could beat Sasuke when he could never do anything to back up these bold statements, it made everyone view him as foolish and his peers took him less and less seriously as time went on. This possibly created resentment and ridicule towards him from his classmates, and played into why Naruto's classmates didn't think too highly of him. The only ones who didn't resent him were Hinata and Sasuke. Hinata admired Naruto's courage in the face of opposition, while Sasuke understood that the true reason for Naruto's brazen and attention-seeking behavior was because of his loneliness.

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In short, Naruto's childhood was a very unhappy one with Naruto dealing with the abuse and ostracization that came with being a jinchuriki. Nearly all his focus was on gaining attention and trying to become stronger (to gain attention). The loneliness in his heart had a hugely damaging effective on his psyche in his formative years that majorly shaped the kind of person he grew up to be. Notably, in Part I and Part II Naruto talks in vague terms about how miserable his past was many times, but overall he tends to avoid thinking about this time in his life, as if it is the unmentionable dark era in his life. Some fans attempt to over-glorify how kind Shikamaru, Kiba, Choji, or Hinata were to Naruto during his childhood, but the reality was that Naruto felt abandoned and ostracized by everyone (with the exception of Iruka, Teuchi, and Ayame) which is why he indiscriminately visualizes the faceless masses of Konoha's villagers staring down at him with hatred while he stands against them alone, without anyone offering a helping hand. The only time he thinks back to his pre-Team 7 years is generally in regards to his relationship with Sasuke, who as I mentioned before, seemed to be the main force helping Naruto psychologically survive his miserable childhood. Overall, Naruto's childhood days became a chapter of his life he never liked to revisit or recall. Due to Naruto's forward-thinking perspective, he chose to focus on the happy moments of his life filled with the bonds of friendship during his genin days and beyond instead of the miserable early days full of loneliness and lacking any friends.