We all have watched Naruto and love how the whole story was played out. With the Naruto Shippuden arc, Naruto became something we all just can’t forget. Every character that we already loved and thought about got the best character building that they could have gotten. And from all of those characters, the one character I just loved was the 4th Hokage, Minato Namikaze, AKA Yellow Flash.
Minato was a born genius who always thought steps ahead to make sure the future was safe. Yellow Flash was recognized not only by the Hidden Leaf Village or the Land of Fire… He was recognized by all the great four nations as a true genius and a force to be reckoned with. Everyone called him Konoha’s Yellow Flash because of his fast reflexes like a flash.
Minato showed his genius from a very young age. He was a natural prodigy not only as a ninja but also as a normal boy. From a young age, he wanted to get everyone’s respect and recognition by becoming Hokage. When Kushina Uzumaki moved to Konoha, she was placed in the same class as Minato. Minato was immediately drawn to her bright red hair, finding it beautiful. Even in his early years, Jiraiya, a legendary Sannin in his prime, saw the potential that Minato held and had a special interest in making him a true hero. To Jiraiya, Minato was the child of prophecy who would save the world one day. He knew a child like Minato comes once in a generation.
Minato graduated from the ninja academy at the age of 10 with the highest score ever recorded in a Chunin exam, which is still undefeated, with Itachi Uchiha having the second-best score ever recorded. After graduation, Minato was placed under Jiraiya on Team 6. Jiraiya taught his best signature moves to Minato, and he learned them quite perfectly. Minato not only inherited his master’s moves but also created his own jutsu, namely one of the best jutsu in the Naruto universe. Rasengan was that jutsu which was created by Minato and became one of his special signature moves later.
During their time as ninja, Kushina was kidnapped by Kumogakure forces. Konoha mobilized its ninja to retrieve her, but only Minato noticed the strands of red hair Kushina left behind to mark their path. Acting alone, Minato rescued her from her captors. On their way back to Konoha, Minato confessed his admiration for her hair and her strength, causing Kushina—who had previously believed Minato “unreliable” and even “girly”—to fall in love with him. They eventually got married, and Minato became the 4th Hokage, gaining everyone’s respect and recognition.
Minato’s most signature move was the Flying Raijin technique, created by the 2nd Hokage, Tobirama Senju. He was better at the Flying Raijin technique than Tobirama himself, who created the technique. This move allowed him to travel as fast as lightning and was feared around the nations for it. The Stone Village even had a special rule for Minato alone. They were taught in their ninja academy to run away as soon as they found Minato on the battlefield, no matter how outnumbered he was. He was feared so much for a reason… He once defeated 10,000 Stone shinobi alone in the war and made them run for their lives.
As Minato’s reputation grew, he was placed in charge of his own team, consisting of Rin Nohara, Obito Uchiha, and Kakashi Hatake. Minato was tasked with helping Kakashi overcome the bitterness caused by his father’s death and reminding him of the human element of being a ninja. He gave his team a bell test to teach them the value of teamwork. Although Kakashi initially used his teammates as a means to an end, Minato passed them because they achieved the goal of the test by working together.
During a mission into Kusagakure to destroy the Kannabi Bridge, Minato transferred leadership of the mission to Kakashi, who had recently become a jōnin, while he headed to the front lines. He met up with the surviving and outnumbered Konoha ninja and single-handedly wiped out the opposing Iwagakure forces. His victory in this battle against a thousand ninja convinced the Third Tsuchikage to accept a peace treaty.
Minato encountered A of Kumogakure a number of times during the war, developing a rivalry across their many battles. During their first meeting, Minato and A fought with their speed, with Minato proving the faster. He received orders to retreat before their competition could resolve, but he lingered to compliment A and his brother, B, a jinchūriki like Kushina; he encouraged A to take care of B and remember he was a person.
For his performance during the war, Minato was chosen over Orochimaru to become the Fourth Hokage. He taught the Flying Thunder God Technique to the Hokage Guard Platoon to better aid them in their duties of serving the Hokage at any given time. Minato also tried to help Kakashi, now an Anbu, emerge from the darkness he’d fallen into after Obito and Rin’s deaths. During the gradual transfer of responsibilities from the Third Hokage to him, the Third advised Minato to restore Kakashi’s value of life by tasking him with protecting Kushina during her pregnancy.
As a jinchūriki, the strain of childbirth would weaken the seal keeping the Nine-Tails sealed into Kushina. For that reason, special precautions had to be taken: the child would secretly be delivered in a remote location outside of the village, with barriers around the area and several Anbu guards as extra protection. Minato and Kushina had already decided on a name for their son, “Naruto,” after the main character of Jiraiya’s first book, hoping that their Naruto would be just as determined as the character (and thus its author). Jiraiya tried to convince them to make a different choice since that would make him Naruto’s godfather, but they insisted that this was a good thing.
Naruto was born on the night of October 10. Only moments after the birth, Minato began making preparations to restore the Nine-Tails’ weakened seal, but he was interrupted by the arrival of a masked man, otherwise known as Tobi. Tobi killed the Anbu guards and midwives and took the newborn Naruto hostage, threatening to kill him if Minato didn’t back away from Kushina. Minato immediately took Naruto back from him, yet discovered explosive tags had been planted on Naruto. Minato was forced to teleport away to keep Naruto from harm, allowing Tobi to escape with Kushina. He found a safe place for Naruto and teleported to Kushina in time to save her from being killed by the Nine-Tails, extracted from her body by Tobi. He reunited mother and son before heading out to protect the village.
Minato returned to the village in the early stages of the Nine-Tails’ attack on Konoha, arriving in time to teleport away a Tailed Beast Ball before it destroyed the Hokage Rock. He attempted to reach the Third Hokage so that he could inform him of what happened, but was interrupted by Tobi, who tried to warp him away. Minato reacted in time to escape, but Tobi pursued him. Because Tobi was controlling the Nine-Tails’ actions, defeating him was of prime importance in order to save Konoha. Minato initially struggled to successfully strike him but, after several failed attacks, he finally hit him with a Rasengan and branded him with a Flying Thunder God seal, allowing him to teleport to Tobi whenever he wanted. He then used a Contract Seal on Tobi to release the Nine-Tails from his control, forcing him to flee.
No longer being controlled, the Nine-Tails began retreating from the village, though it continued to attack the Konoha ninja that pursued it. As it prepared another Tailed Beast Ball, Minato once again arrived in time to stop it, this time by dropping Gamabunta on top of it. He had Gamabunta keep it restrained while he gathered the chakra needed to transport the Nine-Tails to Naruto and Kushina’s location, the farthest from the village he could get. Kushina restrained it and erected a barrier so that it couldn’t escape while they decided what to do. To protect the village, Kushina offered to have the Nine-Tails sealed back into her so it would die with her. Minato rejected this, believing the Nine-Tails’ power would be needed in the future if and when Tobi struck again. Remembering Jiraiya’s words about the “Child of the Prophecy,” Minato decided to believe that Naruto was that child and that he would someday save the world. To prepare Naruto for this, Minato would make Naruto the Nine-Tails’ new jinchūriki so he could make use of its strength.
Because the Nine-Tails’ chakra was too immense to be sealed into an infant, Minato used the Dead Demon Consuming Seal to cut its chakra in half, sealing the Yin half within himself, and the Yang half within Naruto. Before he died, he summoned Gerotora and gave him the key to Naruto’s seal, so that he could someday access the Nine-Tails’ power. When the Nine-Tails realized what Minato intended to do, it attempted to kill Naruto, but Minato and Kushina used their bodies to shield him. As his life was fading, Minato sealed the last of his and Kushina’s chakra into Naruto so that they could see him again when he was older. Minato also made sure to place a seal on Naruto, allowing him to access the Nine-Tails’ chakra if he needed it. He
then sent Naruto away from the barrier. In his final moments, he and Kushina told Naruto how much they loved him and gave him their final words of advice. With that, Minato’s soul was consumed by the Shinigami, ending his life.
