I’m not one to beat around the bush. In fact, I’ll get straight to the point in 3…2..1..

I’m a Naruto fan.

Yeah, I said it. I’m 28 and I like me some good Naruto. It all started a little over a year ago when I was assigned the book for Naruto Ninja Council 3. Being a good lil’ author I decided that if I was going to do the book well and do right by the Naruto franchise, that I’d at least need to know what Naruto was all about. I went out and  bought the Naruto Uncut Season 1 dvd box set, a few ramen cups, and a headband (ok, I didn’t buy the headband.) and made a bee-line to my couch with a short stop by my microwave for 2-3 minutes. I was surprised at how much I actually liked the anime. I’d never been a big fan of anime, but somehow this one got through.

Promptly after watching all of Season 1, I was back at BestBuy purchasing Seasons 2 and 3. Needless to say, I was hooked. Now I’ve got seasons 1-7 with 8 pre-ordered AND I’ve got my grubby little hands on Naruto: Path of the Ninja 2 for the Nintendo DS.

So far, I’m thoroughly enamored with the game. It’s an old-school RPG (Think old-school SNES Final Fantasy games and you’re on the right track) and has all the charm a Naruto fan could want. My only gripe is that in order to record my footage I have to play it on a Nintendo DS debug unit that is the equivalent of a clipper ship’s anchor, so I can’t play it on my couch and am, quite literally, anchored to my office desk.

Every now and then, I have to stop and wonder. How exactly did I end up with Naruto manga on my bookshelf, Naruto dvds in my Xbox 360, a Naruto figure over each of my three monitors, and an addiction to Ramen???