Anime Manga: Minato Namikaze

Minato Namikaze

Background

When Minato was in the Academy, his class-mate and future wife Kushina Uzumaki thought that he looked "unreliable" and even "girly". He dreamed of being acknowledged by the Konoha villagers by becoming the Hokage, which Kushina considered to be an impossible dream for someone like him.

Years later, however, when Kushina was kidnapped by ninjas from the clouds, Minato was the only one to pick up on the fact that she was leaving behind strands of her red hair to mark their path. After rescuing her, Minato explained that he had always admired her hair. No longer seeing him as "unreliable", she fell in love with him.

According to those who knew him personally, Minato was a very talented ninja prodigy — a rare genius that appeared only once in a generation. He graduated from the Academy at the age of ten, and was added to a genin team under the tutelage of Jiraiya, who took a special interest in Minato, and took him on as an apprentice, amongst other things teaching him the Summoning Technique. He even believed Minato might be the "Child of the Prophecy", someone who would someday save the world.

Konoha's Yellow Flash

In time, Minato was put in charge of a genin team of his own, consisting of Rin Nohara, Obito Uchiha, and Kakashi Hatake. During the Third Shinobi World War, Minato led his team on a mission to destroy the "Kannabi Bridge"(During the Third Shinobi World War, this bridge was a vital pathway to "Hidden Stone Village's" line of supply). Because Kakashi had recently become a jonin, Minato gave leadership of the mission to Kakashi while he went to help Konoha's forces on the front lines.
After meeting up with the surviving and out-numbered Konoha ninja, Minato used his "Flying Thunder God Technique"(that technique allows the user to transport themselves to a marked location in the blink of an eye. This technique was the reason behind his nickname, "Konoha's Yellow Flash") to kill ninjas from the Stone. He then returned to his team, just in time to save Kakashi and Rin from another group of Iwa forces, but was too late to save Obito. When Kakashi and Rin recovered from the ordeal, Minato helped them complete the mission.

Before becoming Hokage, Minato clashed with A on several occasions. There, Minato and A had a clash of speed with Minato almost severely injuring the future Raikage before B intercepted the attack. Upon receiving the signal that Konoha was retreating for the time being, Minato lingered to praise B's bravery and told A that he had a good family and followers surrounding him as he did, and also offered A the advice of making sure his brother knew who he was before he became neither human nor jinchuriki.

Minato then declared that the next time they met, it would be to put the title of "Kage" on the line. Not one to allow his enemy to escape so easily, A attempted to attack Minato before he left. Believing that Minato would teleport to one of his special kunai, A was shocked to see Minato appear behind his brother before realising that Minato had marked him earlier. Impressed by the fact that B had reacted fast enough to pull one of his swords on him, Minato praised B for his skills.

Fourth Hokage

Minato, not yet thirty years of age, was chosen to become the Fourth Hokage. While Kushina was pregnant, he read Jiraiya's first book and liked the main character's determination — whom he believed to be just like Jiraiya — decided to name their son "Naruto" in the hopes that he would be just like the main character.

Soon after Naruto was born. the masked man took Naruto hostage, threatening to kill him. Minato was able to take Naruto back, but this gave his opponent the chance to escape with Kushina to break the seal of the nine-tails. By the time Minato found a safe place to put Naruto and then teleported to Kushina, he spirited her to safety just as the freed Nine-Tails was about to kill her. With Kushina looking after Naruto, Minato heads to Konoha to defend it from the Nine-Tails.

Minato arrived in the early stages of the Nine-Tails' attack. After protecting the village from the beast's Tailed Beast Ball by erecting a barrier and sending the attack elsewhere, Minato tried to reach the Third Hokage to inform him of what had happened, but was stopped by the masked man, who tried to warp him away with Kamui. However, Minato flew to another of his kunai, and was quickly followed by his opponent.
When the two began fighting, Minato realised that the battle would be decided by speed, and by carefully timing his Flying Thunder God Technique, Minato was able to strike the masked man with a Rasengan and apply the Flying Thunder God Technique seal on his back as well. This allowed him to teleport directly to the masked ninja and uses a "Contract Seal" to sever the ninja's hold on the Nine-Tails before he could escape. (Naruto chapter 502) and (Naruto chapter 503).

When Minato returned to the ruined village, he summoned Gamabunta(the chief toad of Mount Myoboku) to hold down the Nine-Tails long enough to teleport it away from the village to Naruto and Kushina's location. Kushina then restrained it with her chakra chains and erected a barrier so that the beast could not escape. Despite knowing that the trauma of resealing the Nine-Tails in her weakened body would kill her, she volunteered to do it so the Nine-Tails would die with her. Minato however disagreed, and instead decided that he would use the Dead Demon Consuming Seal on the Nine-Tails to weaken it and then seal the rest into Naruto.

Kushina objected since this would mean Minato's death and leave Naruto orphaned. Minato insisted it was for the best since allowing the Nine-Tails to resurrect itself, without a jinchuriki to contain it, would inevitably cause harm to Konoha and the Fire Country. Also, Minato was convinced that Naruto was the "Child of the Prophecy" Jiraiya had once told him about and would need the Nine-Tails' power to someday defeat the masked man. After Minato used the Dead Demon Consuming Seal to seal away the beast's Yin chakra, the Nine-Tails realised their intentions and tried to kill Naruto, but Minato and Kushina used their bodies to shield him.
(Naruto chapter 504)

While Kushina gave her final words to Naruto, Minato summoned Gerotora(a scroll toad from Mount Myoboku), gave him the key to the seal he would use on Naruto, and sent him to Jiraiya. After Kushina told Naruto how much his parents loved him he seconds everything she says and then sealed the Nine-Tails and the rest of their chakra into Naruto so that they would be able to see him again when he was older, ending their lives. Since the Third Hokage had come to help, Minato used his last moments to request that Konoha think of Naruto as a hero, and not the container of the monster that caused so much death and destruction. Before he died, he sealed the rest of their remaining chakra into Naruto so that they could someday see him again too, specifically if ever the seal was about to break so that they could restore it, or help him control Nine-Tails' power.

Abilities

1. Taijutsu

One of Minato's trademark attributes was his immense speed and instantaneous reflexes, He is often referred to throughout the series as the fastest shinobi who ever lived.
When fighting, he mainly employed the use of his unique kunai, wielding them proficiently and taking advantage of their particular form, which made them even more suitable for close range combat than standard kunai.

2. Ninjutsu

2.1 Rasengan

Minato spent three years creating the Rasengan by observing the Tailed Beast Ball. It is the highest level of shape transformation and it does not require hand signs to be performed. Instead, using a concentration of spinning chakra in the form of a sphere in the user's palm, immense damage is inflicted to its target upon contact. As its creator, Minato had great mastery over the Rasengan, able to form it with one hand and his standard version — at one point — being larger than the Rasengan used by other characters(roughly the size of the Big Ball Rasengan). The lack of elaborate preparations needed for the Rasengan gave Minato an advantage over other technique users in battle. For example, in his fight with Tobi, he is able to form a Rasengan right after throwing his marked kunai at him, allowing Minato to land a devastating blow immediately after performing the Flying Thunder God Technique.

2.2 Space–Time Ninjutsu

Minato was famous for his unique space–time technique, the Flying Thunder God Technique, which essentially allowed him to teleport to any location with untraceable movements Minato had through the use of special seals. By throwing kunai that had the seal attached to them behind enemy lines, Minato could wipe out an entire platoon in the blink of an eye. Minato could teleport to his special kunai even as it travelled through the air. He was also capable of applying the seal to solid surfaces with his bare hand, allowing him to tag opponents and give himself an easy way to track and reach them. He also incorporated this seal formula into Kushina's seal so he could always come to her aid, at any time.

For defensive use, Minato was capable of implementing space–time barriers to counter large attacks such as a Tailed Beast Ball, sending the blast to a distant area away from the village(Naruto chapter 502 page 7). He was even able to teleport things as large as the Nine-Tails itself, albeit at the cost of a large portion of his chakra due to the beast's immense size.
(Naruto chapter 503 page 11) and (Naruto chapter 503 page 12)

2.3 Fuinjutsu(Sealing Techniques)

Minato was very knowledgeable in fuinjutsu, partially due to Kushina teaching him some of the Uzumaki clan's unique sealing techniques. He knew the full capabilities of the Dead Demon Consuming Seal and was aware that he could not completely seal all of the Nine-Tails' chakra within the death god. Minato could also remove an opponent's ability to use the Summoning Technique.

The greatest example of his prowess with fuinjutsu is the seal used on Naruto, placing two Four Symbols Seal to create the Eight Trigrams Sealing Style, which would allow small amounts of the Nine-Tails' chakra to leak out and naturally mix with Naruto's own.

2.4 Summoning Technique

In his youth, Jiraiya taught Minato how to use the Summoning Technique to summon toads. He was able to summon Gamabunta, showing considerably large reserves of chakra in doing so, and was one of the few people that Gamabunta would willingly cooperate without hesitation. He could use the Summoning: Food Cart Destroyer Technique for a devastating surprise attack that could even pin powerful large targets like the Nine-Tails down.

3. Intelligence

Minato was shown to be very intuitive and clever from a young age. Of the many ninja sent out to save Kushina from her Kumogakure kidnappers, Minato was the only one to notice the trail of hair she was leaving. During difficult events, he was still capable of maintaining his composure, assessing the situation, and devising appropriate plans of action.

During his skirmish against Tobi, he was able to determine that his opponent didn't want to drag on their fight as he could not keep Kurama summoned for very long, as well as quickly ascertain a method of counter-attacking. Using this information, he was able to take advantage of Tobi's haste to not only wound him, but also remove his control over the beast as well.