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Writer Tomi Adeyemi is immensely accomplished. She has three bestsellers under her belt, and she's only 31 years old. But before Adeyemi took the world by storm with her debut novel, Children of Blood and Bone, she wrote an immense amount of Naruto fanfiction as a child. Like, a whole novel's worth. 

At her spotlight panel at C2E2 2025, Adeyemi gave us all the details on her Naruto fanfic from her youth. She believes that the stories we consume as children leave a profound impact on us. "My childhood story was Naruto. I wrote three hundred pages of Naruto fanfiction - single spaced. I just added myself in as a character and I had a complicated love triangle with Sasuke and Naruto." After some deliberation, her character picked Naruto in the end. 

Adeyemi's love of Naruto is deep though. She stated that seeing him "crying" with "snot" pouring out of his nose in the first episode while the rest of his village called him names provided a model for her, once he began his journey to become the greatest ninja there ever was. That underdog spirit and willingness to succeed in the face of immense hostility was inspiring for Adeyemi. And I'll admit, I was never into Naruto much as a kid (I was hiding in the darkness of my closet pretending I was Batman), but Adeyemi's explanation has helped me understand why so many of my fellow millennials imprinted on him. 

Now, we are left to wonder if Adeyemi still has a copy of that fanfiction file. 

Did you miss a C2E2 Main Stage panel? Don't worry, we're filming it all thanks to our partners at CGC x JSA -  our official authenticator & grading partner. Here is the C2E2 2025 panel livestream & VOD release schedule.