As part of its latest patch, Fortnite has added a new NPC under the codename "Headband", leading many to hope that Naruto is finally being added to the game.
For those out of the (zero point) loop, Naruto coming to Fortnite has been one of the game's worst-kept secrets for some time. Beyond being on many leaked surveys and internal documents, Epic's chief creative officer Donald Mustard even confirmed that Naruto would be coming to Fortnite during a conversation with a Twitter user, with many expecting him to be one of the battle pass offerings.
Instead of Naruto, we got Carnage, which has led many to believe that the character has been pushed back for some reason. Mustard later clarified that Naruto wasn't supposed to be part of the battle pass, leaving many wondering when the Konoha's finest would be added to the game.
Well, things are starting to heat up again and it looks like Naruto isn't far off at all. Reliable Fortnite leaker HYPEX Tweeted that a new NPC had been added to the game during the latest patch, under the codename "Headband". No other information about the NPC was made available in the patch beyond the codename.
Although "Headband" admittedly could apply to a good number of characters, and could even refer to some sort of Halloween costume, one of Naruto's defining traits is his commitment to his headband. Beyond his whiskers, it's easily one of the things most attributable to his character, so it would make sense as a codename.
When releasing a big new character as a skin, Fortnite tends to add that character to the game's map as an NPC, which would imply that whoever is being added here is a big enough skin to be counted as its own character. Combining those two bits of information together with the fact that we know he's coming at some point, and it makes it a lot more likely that Naruto is on the way.