Fourth Hokage

Flying Thunder God Technique
Four Symbols Seal
Dead Demon Consuming Seal
Rasengan (Invented)
Summoning Technique (Toads)
Eight Trigrams Divine Seal

According to those who knew him, Minato was a very talented ninja-having graduated from the Academy at the age of ten. He came under the tutelage of Jiraiya, and under his guidance, learned to develop his skills. Impressed with Minato's determination to succeed, Jiraiya took it upon himself to teach the latter the Toad Summoning Technique, which Minato quickly mastered. His skills would further grow with the development of his own jutsu, the Rasengan and Flying Thunder God Technique.


Team Jiraiya. Both of Minato's teammates' names are unknown.After attaining the rank of Jonin, Minato was given direction of his own team, which consisted of Kakashi Hatake, Rin and Obito Uchiha. Along with Kakashi, Minato's reputation greatly increased during the Third Great Ninja War, where his skills earned him the moniker of Konoha's Yellow Flash. As a gift for Kakashi's advancement to Jonin, Minato gave him a unique kunai marked with one of the Flying Thunder God transportation markers. Shortly afterwards, he informed the team of their mission: destroy a bridge that aided the enemy Rock ninja force. For the mission, Kakashi took Minato's place as commander of the team while he went to a different battlefield, where he was able to defeat a large number of Iwa ninja singlehandedly. His team, however, was unable to complete their mission, as differences between Obito and Kakashi lead the team to be caught in a trap. Obito, however, was unable to survive the mission, instead helping Kakashi save Rin by giving Kakashi his Sharingan eye before being completely crushed by rocks. When Rin used Kakashi's kunai, Minato arrived and easily defeated the Iwagakure ninja. Unfortunately, by the time he arrived Obito was already dead, though he managed to save Kakashi and Rin. They would later go on to fulfill their mission and help repel the invasion.

Fourth Hokage
Minato with Rin, Obito Uchiha, and Kakashi HatakeIn the months to come, Minato was chosen by the Third Hokage to lead as the Fourth Hokage. His first choice, Orochimaru, became power crazed and abandoned the village, though the Third thought Minato to be a fine replacement. His devotion to the village and his love for his friends inspired all those around him, and as such, Minato Namikaze became well-liked by the villagers. During his time and relationship with Kushina Uzumaki, Jiraiya showed Minato one of his developing books, which features a fictional character named Naruto. Minato appreciated the name and he would name his unborn son after the fictional character. Jiraiya, however, did not think the name was worthwhile. Kushina approved of the name, so Jiraiya had not much of a choice when both of them had approved. However, just moments after Naruto's birth, the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox attacked Konoha. Minato rushed to the village, where he and Gamabunta faced off against the Tailed beast. Near the end of the battle, Minato made the ultimate sacrifice; using the Dead Demon Consuming Seal, he sealed the demon fox into his newborn son, in exchange for his own life. His dying wish was that Naruto be viewed as a hero, and not as the container of the demon fox, a request not honored by most of the villagers. The only few people who did honor the request was the Third Hokage, and some other ninja of the village but not most of the villagers.

[Succession Since the Fourth Hokage never had a chance to pick his successor, Sarutobi resumed his role as Hokage. Soon after the sealing of the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox, the Third Hokage made a decree that Naruto's being a demon container should never be mentioned. This was done in the hope that if the children of Naruto's age grew up not knowing his true nature, they would not hold him in contempt like their parents did. Nevertheless they still shunned him because of their parents' attitude towards him. Because of this, Naruto was isolated and became mischievous.

Legacy When sealing the demon fox, Minato divided the demon fox's chakra in two halves as he sealed it into Naruto. He sealed the Yin chakra with the Dead Demon Consuming Seal making it inaccessible to Naruto, while using the Eight Trigrams Sealing Style and the Four Symbols Seal on the Yang chakra to give Naruto access to it. This way, Naruto could call upon the demon fox's chakra without being completely controlled by it, though the Four-Tailed Transformation seems to negate this effect. Jiraiya states Minato wanted Naruto to have the Seal Key that matched Naruto's Trigram Seal to help complete a yet to be identified technique.

Personalite Jiraiya and Tsunade point out that, while Naruto physically bears great resemblance to the Fourth, his personality and style of ninjutsu are almost identical to his mother. This and an earlier statement from Jiraiya on the mission to retrieve Tsunade imply that Naruto and Minato had somewhat different personalities.

This is later supported in the Kakashi Gaiden arc where Minato behaved in a calm but cheerful manner, while dispatching sage-like advice and sound military sense when necessary. When faced with an enemy, he could kill in cold blood, and seemed well aware of the terror his reputation inspired in his foes. He appeared to be respectful of those around him, as he was reproachful of freely speaking of others' pasts, not at all concerned about putting his faith in Jiraiya in regards to his son's upbringing, and was said to have been a very nice person.

Jiraiya has said that the Fourth was not the type to do something without reason. All in all, Minato was known for determination and drive which he passed on to his son.

Jiraiya noted that, although he was quite a genius, the Fourth's greatest aspect was his desire to succeed, largely attributing his success to hard work.

Abilities The Fourth created several distinctive techniques, including the Flying Thunder God Technique, which essentially allowed him to teleport to any location with the use of a special seal. He also created the Rasengan, a technique that does not rely on hand signs, but instead uses a concentration of spinning chakra in the palm that causes immense damage to its target on contact. Later in the series it is revealed that this signature technique is actually incomplete. Minato had planned to add his own nature manipulation training to the Rasengan, making it even more powerful, but couldn't manage to combine the two prior to his premature death. Minato's possibly last technique was the Dead Demon Consuming Seal, which was used to seal the demon fox into Naruto, at the cost of his own life.

It is unknown exactly how strong the Fourth was in combat. He was undoubtedly extremely powerful, as enemy nations considered fighting him certain death for the ninja sent against him, leading to a flee-on-sight order he is regarded as The Greatest Shinobi the Leaf Village ever produced. Once, during the Third Great Ninja War, he was able to defeat 50 enemies just by directing his kunai with the special seals on them. It seems to be that he kept teleporting around the terrain because, he was able to defeat them all shortly and without a scratch.