Naoto Tachibana

Naoto Tachibana is the younger brother of Hinata Tachibana. In the present, he is a detective working for Tokyo's organized crime department. He is also the trigger for Takemichi to activate his time leap.

Appearance
As an adult, Naoto is a man with black hair parted to the right. He usually has a serious expression on his face, befitting his occupation as a detective. During work, he wears a formal attire consisting of a white button-up, which is secured with a maroon-colored tie under a light gray coat styled in an american cut with peak lapels and slacks of the same color. His footwear consists of a pair of brown oxfords. In the final time leap, Naoto sports a curtain hairstyle and a goatee, and regularly wears black glasses.

As a child, Naoto has a more innocent look on his face. His hair is more or less the same as that of his adult years, albeit somewhat shorter. He is also quite skinny and his height is below average. Naoto wears his assigned schooling attire, which consist of a collared button-down shirt, a belt, black slacks, and loafers.

Personality
As an adult, Naoto is a righteous individual who is also determined to alter save his sister. He has a no-nonsense personality and is usually unamused by others' humorous advances, particularly from Takemichi. He is also willing to embrace far-fetched possibilities, such as the fact that Takemichi can time-leap, and even make his own hypotheses about it.

As a child, he possesses an average mindset and personality as how a youngster could have, but has shown intelligence and the ability to read a situation as shown when he repeatedly hopped on the spot to hear the clinking of his remaining coins as instructed (or more like intimidated to do) by a trio of delinquents from another school, and if not for a certain blonde-haired kid's intervention, he would've most likely have given away the rest of his coins in exchange for being left alone, or simply because he didn't want to get hurt.

In addition, he also doesn't question Takemichi every time he comes over to their apartment in order to shake hands, wordlessly complying with the blonde's particularly weird requests of handshaking, and just remarked once about it, it can be implied that he never probed about it any further.

Overview
As a detective, Naoto has excellent deduction skills. He is able to quickly piece together scraps of information to create a big picture. His position grants him access to an extraordinary amount of information that the average person cannot get. This has been extremely helpful in aiding Takemichi to change the past to create a better present.

Appearances
{{Appearances|Chapters|

Toman Arc

 * Chapter 1 - Reborn
 * Chapter 2 - Resist
 * Chapter 3 - Resolve (flashback)
 * Chapter 4 - Relieve (flashback)
 * Chapter 5 - Revolve (flashback)
 * Chapter 6 - Return
 * Chapter 7 - Rejoin
 * Chapter 8 - Reseparate
 * Chapter 9 - Releap
 * Chapter 10 - Reply (flashback)
 * Chapter 11 - Reburn (flashback)
 * Chapter 12 - Remind (flashback)

Moebius Arc

 * Chapter 13 - Regret
 * Chapter 14 - Resort (flashback)
 * Chapter 21 - Revolt (flashback)
 * Chapter 22 - Reconflict (flashback)
 * Chapter 28 - Reel (flashback)
 * Chapter 30 - Recept
 * Chapter 31 - Recognize
 * Chapter 32 - Rebuild

Valhalla Arc

 * Chapter 34 - Darkest Hour
 * Chapter 35 - Odds and Ends
 * Chapter 36 - Anyone's guess
 * Chapter 37 - Enter the stage (flashback)
 * Chapter 39 - My buddy (mentioned)
 * Chapter 47 - Level with
 * Chapter 48 - No way
 * Chapter 49 - Grow apart
 * Chapter 66 - Have an affair
 * Chapter 69 - Big moment (flashback)
 * Chapter 70 - Tide turns (mentioned)
 * Chapter 75 - Let one down
 * Chapter 76 - It is what it is
 * Chapter 77 - Gotta go

Black Dragon Arc

 * Chapter 88 - Just gotta do
 * Chapter 89 - How you met
 * Chapter 90 - Christmas Eve
 * Chapter 114 - On my way home
 * Chapter 115 - Turn over a new leaf
 * Chapter 116 - Far from home
 * Chapter 119 - Too late to be sorry

Tenjiku Arc

 * Chapter 130 - Pep party (mentioned)
 * Chapter 131 - Rest in piece
 * Chapter 132 - The big baddy
 * Chapter 133 - Sell out
 * Chapter 134 - Mortal enemy
 * Chapter 135 - Even I can
 * Chapter 147 - The root of all evil (flashback)
 * Chapter 155 - Turn the tide (flashback)
 * Chapter 166 - Brave heart (flashback)
 * Chapter 179 - End the standoff (flashback)

Bonten Arc

 * Chapter 192 - Just be close at hand
 * Chapter 193 - Feel great!
 * Chapter 195 - lingering scent
 * Chapter 196 - Can say that again
 * Chapter 197 - Be left behind the times
 * Chapter 201 - What's up? (flashback)

Kanto Manji Arc
}} {{Appearances|Episodes|
 * Chapter 236 - Band of brothers (mentioned)
 * Chapter 278 - Revengers

Toman Arc

 * Episode 1 - Reborn
 * Episode 2 - Resist
 * Episode 3 - Resolve
 * Episode 4 - Return
 * Episode 5 - Releap

Moebius Arc

 * Episode 6 - Regret
 * Episode 9 - Revolt
 * Episode 11 - Respect
 * Episode 12 - Revenge

Valhalla Arc

 * Episode 13 - Odds and Ends
 * Episode 17 - No way
 * Episode 18 - Open Fire
 * Episode 23 - End of war
 * Episode 24 - A Cry baby
 * Episode 25 - It is what it is

Black Dragon Arc
}}
 * Episode 29 - Christmas Eve

Etymology

 * The name Naoto means "straight" (直) (nao) and "person" (人) (to).
 * Naoto's surname Tachibana means "orange, tangerine" (橘).

Trivia

 * He shares the last kanji of his name with his father, Masato Tachibana.
 * According to the official character book:
 * His image color is grey.
 * He likes.
 * He dislikes karaoke.
 * His special skill is calligraphy.
 * The person he looks up to or admires is.
 * The person he dislikes or fears is his sister when she's angry.
 * His dream is to be a police officer.
 * His favorite place is the library.
 * Naoto's relationship chart: In the present:
 * Hinata: Older sister
 * Takemichi: Cooperate
 * Kisaki Tetta and Sano Manjiro: To pursue (To prevent them from killing Hinata)
 * His heroic story (or failure story): He sent his own postcard to MU Magazine.
 * A typical day at school: Arriving at school with my sister, she complains about me eating her pudding without permission -> Got a perfect score on math test -> Eat school lunch while reading a book during lunch break -> On the way home, I stopped at a bookstore, got beaten up by my sister in Smash Bros, and fell asleep in frustration.