Who is Mirai in Naruto?

With the Naruto Konoha Retsuden series well underway with five issues published, fans are incredibly excited to see Kakashi Hatake and Might Guy at the center of a story yet again. While it may be a bit more slice-of-life skewing than fans were hoping for, their adventures in the series’ first five issues have certainly resonated with fans.

However, many Naruto fans who haven’t read the latest side story series seem a bit confused on who exactly is tagging along with Guy and Kakashi on their vacation. While the series does explain this in the beginning, many who aren’t interested in reading the series have nevertheless expressed an interest in learning who this girl, Mirai, is.

Thankfully, fans of the original series and Shippuden are already quite familiar with Mirai, even if they don’t know it yet. Follow along as this article fully breaks down who she is in the overarching Naruto franchise.

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Naruto fans seemingly forgot Mirai given confusion over her recent Konoha Retsuden debut

The Naruto Konoha Retsuden story centers around Might Guy and Kakashi Hatake planning to take a long-awaited vacation together. While it used to be a regular trip for them, the two have been unable to plan it recently between Guy’s recovery process and Kakashi becoming the Sixth Hokage.

Additionally, even when Kakashi retired as Hokage, he still had the responsibility of guiding his successor, the Seventh Hokage, through the position in his early months. Thankfully, however, Naruto’s recent convening of a Five Kage Summit within Konoha has shown Kakashi that his help is no longer needed. With this, the two rivals can finally set out on their highly-anticipated 20-day vacation.

However, Naruto refuses to let the two go alone, saying that as retired shinobi who aren’t as strong as they once were, some kind of escort is necessary. This is where Mirai is reintroduced to the series, with many fans seemingly not remembering who she is or where they’ve seen her before. Thankfully, the answers to this are quite simple.

Mirai Sarutobi is the daughter of Kurenai Yuhi and Asuma Sarutobi, born shortly after the end of the Fourth Shinobi World War. She was named by her father Asuma to represent his belief of protecting the future well-being of the children of the world. Asuma’s top student, Shikamaru Nara, regularly watched over her as she grew up, with this being his final promise to Asuma.

Mirai and Shikamaru became very close as a result, with the two not being incredibly far off in age at the time of her birth. Shikamaru also made good on a secondary part of his final promise to Asuma, fulfilling it in the form of training Mirai to become an excellent shinobi. Beyond this, they would often play shogi, as well as visit other members of the Konoha 11 and play with them.

As a genin, she’s shown to be incredibly confident in her abilities, as well as eager to enjoy a challenge based on her desire to be put on an S-Rank mission. She’s also shown to take her responsibilities much too seriously, which Kakashi says makes her very much like her father when he was a younger man.

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