Minato Namikaze

[Minato Namikaze]

As a child, Minato was regarded as a genius shinobi. High grades in all areas of his Ninja studies. At some point Kushina Uzumaki, his future wife, was brought to The Hidden leaf as the new vessel for the Nine Tailed Fox – however, this was unknown to anyone other than the village leaders. At some point after they had graduated and become a Genin, Ninja from Kumogakure kidnapped Kushina and had almost succeeded in their mission, if not for Minato’s admiration for Kushina’s red hair. Kushina had been dropping strands of her hair along the path the ninja had taken her and it was this that allowed Minato to track them and save her. It was at this point that they became a couple.

Fast forward ten or so years and Minato had become known as ‘The Yellow Flash’, a ninja so fast and so dangerous that if he was to be met in battle by anyone other than a ninja that was as skilled as a high ranking jounin or above, they were to flee the battle immediately. It was at this stage that Minato took on a group of young Ninja consisting of, Kakashi Hatake, Obito Uchiha and Rin Noharah. During the Third Shinobi World War, Minato and his team were tasked to destroy the Kannabi Bridge, however Minato was also supposed to help with the other battles throughout the war zones, so he left Kakashi, a newly appointed Jounin, in charge of the three man squad and sent them on their way to destroy the bridge. After winning a front line battle against 1000 opposing shinobi, single handed, he returned to find that Obito had been killed and Kakashi and Rin surrounded by enemy ninja. Minato saved them and returned to The Hidden Leaf with the two surviving members of his team to mourn Obito. Minato's competing obligations would later repeat the tragedy of Obito's death: while he was away on another mission, Rin was kidnapped by Kirigakure and died during Kakashi's attempt to retrieve her.

At some point before Naruto was born Minato encountered A of Kumogakure a number of times during the war. During their first meeting, Minato and A compared their speed, with Minato proving the faster. He received orders to retreat before their competition could resolve, but he lingered to compliment A (The future fourth Raikage) and his brother, B, a jinchūriki like Kushina; he encouraged A to take care of B and remember he was a person. A pursued Minato, so Minato moved against B, threatening to kill him if A didn't let him and his team go. Minato was confident he and A would someday meet as Kage.

For his performance during the War, Minato was chosen over Orochimaru to become Fourth Hokage. 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. 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 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 was able to save the village from a tailed beast ball and then was forced to teleport away, in an attempt to escape, from Tobi. Tobi, however, pursued him. During his battle with Tobi, Minato was able to place a seal on Tobi that released the Nine Tails from his control, which caused it to retreat from the village and eventually find both Minato, as Tobi is forced to retreat. Kushina is able to catch up to Minato and together they begin battle with the nine tails. After a long battle, Minato uses the Dead Demon Consuming Seal to seal half of the Nine Tails’ Chakra within his own body, and the other half inside of Naruto – his infant son – thus saving the Village and returning the world to an era of peace.

With the Dead Demon Consuming Seal over, Minato’s life begins to fade, his vision darkens as the Third Hokage and several elite jounin reach him. It is at this point that Minato finds himself within a dark area, his vision blocked by some form of perpetual darkness, yet, he feels just as alive as he had earlier that morning, before Kushina had gone into labour. Omni had restored his life and pulled him into the Omniverse.