The anime Naruto centers around two people, and to a lesser degree, a third.
1-Uzumaki Naruto, 2-Uchiha Sasuke, 3-Haruno Sakura
About 13 years ago, a giant demon fox attacked the Leaf Village (Konoha).
(Because the 4th died, the 3rd Hokage was forced to come out of 'retirement.')
The leader of the village, the 4th Hokage, was forced to give up his life to seal the fox away inside of a baby boy.
That boy was Naruto. They don't really explain who Naruto's parents were, but a lot of people guess that he's the son of the 4th Hokage, due to the similar blonde hair and blue eyes.
Since Naruto had the demon fox inside of him, people blamed him for destroying so much of the village and causing so much death. He grew up alone, and hated. There was a rule that none of the villagers were allowed to tell Naruto that he had the demon fox inside of him, or tell anyone else, so the children of the village didn't know, but they picked up on the adults treatment of him.
Naruto decided he was going to become the strongest shinobi in the village, and become the 5th hokage, the leader of the village.
Uchiha Sasuke comes from one of the formerly most prominent Clans of Konoha Village, who have a special ability passed down genetically called "Sharingan," which allows them to copy other people's techniques, as well as read people's movement ahead.
His entire clan was slaughtered by someone, you don't know who in the beginning, but Sasuke vows to get revenge on "that man," no matter the cost. He's alone, like Naruto, and has no parents to speak of. He doesn't believe in anyone's strength except for himself, and hates to lose, just like Naruto.
Haruno Sakura is an idiot. Sorry, but that's pretty much all anyone can say about her. She's a thirteen year old girl who does nothing but swoon over Sasuke.
Her backstory is that since a young age she's had a rivalry with another girl named Yamanaka Ino, and since they found out they both like Sasuke, they're going to be "rivals," and compete for his love, even though he doesn't like either of them.
Naruto is about those three, after passing "ninja academy," going on missions together as a team.
That's about it.