Konoha's Yellow Flash

Name: Minato Namikaze
Gender: Male
Age: 27
Height: 179.2 cm
Weight: 66.1 kg
Village: Sound
Rank: Kage, Otokage
element: wind

Minato Namikaze (波風 ミナト, Namikaze Minato), also known as Konoha's Yellow Flash (木ノ葉の黄色い閃光, Konoha no Kiiroi Senkō), was the Fourth Hokage (四代目火影, Yondaime Hokage) and the father of Naruto Uzumaki. He was the student of Jiraiya and the teacher of Kakashi Hatake, Obito Uchiha, and Rin.

BACKGROUND
According to those who knew him, Minato was a very talented ninja, having been considered a genius that appeared once a generation. He graduated from the Ninja Academy at the age of ten and was added to a Genin team under the tutelage of Jiraiya. Jiraiya took a special interest in Minato and accepted him as an apprentice.

In later years, Minato was put in charge of a Genin team of his own, consisting of Kakashi Hatake, Rin and Obito Uchiha.
-Minato at a genin age, with team jiraiya

Spoiler:

Konoha's Yellow Flash
During Kakashi Gaiden, set during the Third Great Shinobi War, Minato led his team on a mission into Kusagakure famously known as "Konoha's Yellow Flash." 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. Before leaving he gave Kakashi a special kunai as a congratulatory present, outfitted with the seal used for his Flying Thunder God Technique.

While helping his fellow Konoha ninja he used the Flying Thunder God Technique to wipe out all of the opposing Iwagakure ninja in an instant. He returned to Kakashi in time to save him from another group of Iwagakure ninja, but could not save Obito. When Kakashi and Rin recovered from the ordeal, Minato helped them complete the task of destroying the Kannabi Bridge.

The Fourth Hokage
Some time after the war ended, Minato was chosen by Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Third Hokage, to lead as the Fourth Hokage. During his reign, he had a relationship with Kushina Uzumaki who would become pregnant with his son. After reading Jiraiya's book, where the main character was named Naruto, Minato and Kushina decided to name their son "Naruto" in the hopes that he would grow up to be just like the Naruto of the book (Jiraiya's). This, in turn, made Jiraiya Naruto's godfather.

Soon after Naruto was born, the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox attacked Konoha. Minato rushed to the village's help, where he and Gamabunta faced off against the demon fox, but the beast's power could not be matched. Recognizing that the demon fox was being controlled by Madara Uchiha, Minato decided to defeat it and give Konoha the means to combat Madara if he should ever attack the village again. He used the Dead Demon Consuming Seal to seal the demon fox into Naruto's body, hoping that Naruto would someday be able to make use of its power. The act cost Minato his life, and he died as the village's greatest hero.

Legacy
In the moments before he died, Minato asked that Konoha view Naruto as a hero who helped defeat the demon fox rather than the host of the monster that had attacked the village. Few of the villagers would honor this request, leaving Naruto to grow up as an outcast of the village. During the course of the series Naruto is able to change how the villagers view him for the better, but at the same time must combat the demon fox sealed within him. All the while Naruto would never know who his parents were, Hiruzen feeling it was best that the world not know who Naruto's father was.

With Minato's death, Hiruzen was forced to resume his position as Hokage due to Minato not being able to choose his successor. He made a decree that forbade the villagers from speaking aloud that Naruto was the container of the demon fox, hoping that the villagers' children would not shun him as their parents did. He otherwise tried to make Naruto's life as comfortable as he could, being one of the few people to appreciate him and putting up with his mischievous deeds.

During the sealing process, Minato split the demon fox's chakra in two, giving Naruto access to the Yang chakra and permanently cutting off access to the Yin. He left Jiraiya a key to the seal that kept the demon fox sealed within Naruto to be used to strengthen it whenever it began to weaken. As a final safety measure, he left an imprint of himself within Naruto's subconscious that would react whenever the seal was on the verge of breaking. This imprint could watch Naruto grow up and had the one-time ability of returning the seal to its original strength.


Personality
Jiraiya and Tsunade point out that, while Naruto physically bears great resemblance to Minato, his personality and style of Ninjutsu are almost identical to his mother. While Naruto is boisterous and relatively thick, Minato was calm, collected, and a natural genius. 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, and was said to have been a very nice person.

Jiraiya has said that Minato was a shrewd person and was not the type to do something without reason. All in all, Minato was known for an unbeatable determination and unbelievable drive which he passed on to his son. Minato's devotion to the village and his love for his friends inspired all those around him, and as such, he became well-liked by the villagers. He is nevertheless understanding of the fact that Naruto might hold some animosity for him for sealing the the demon fox within him.

Part two
For most of the series, Minato is only made reference to in passing. Later in Part II, he begins appearing in flashbacks.

It is not until Pain attacks Konoha that he makes an actual appearance in the story. When Naruto starts to give into the temptations of power from the demon fox and is about to release the beast, the imprint Minato left behind stops him. Although he voices his dislike of seeing the demon fox again, he points out that its actions have allowed him to see his son. Naruto picks up on this and is overjoyed to finally find out who his father is. Minato tries to talk with Naruto, but the fox keeps interrupting the conversation so they go someplace that is quiet. After the shock of finding his father, Naruto is quickly outraged at the idea that Minato would seal the demon fox in his own son, and gut-punches him. Minato apologizes and Naruto quickly gets over his rage at the thought of being the Fourth's son.

Because he has a limited amount of time to talk to Naruto, Minato briefly catches up with him, at the same time indicating that he knows Pain killed Jiraiya. He expresses his suspicions that Pain, like the demon fox years earlier, is being controlled by Madara Uchiha. He goes on to suggest that so long as the current ninja system exists, people like Pain who are ruined by war and only go on to create new wars will continue to exist. He restores the seal on Naruto's stomach and encourages Naruto to find a way to stop the vicious cycle of death and destruction, voicing his confidence in Naruto before disappearing.

Abilities
According to Jiraiya, Minato was easily one of the most gifted shinobi who ever lived. He 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. 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. He had a keen knowledge of fūinjutsu and was one of the few people capable of getting Gamabunta to work with him.

It is unknown exactly how strong Minato was in combat. Flee-on-sight orders were given to enemy shinobi during the Third Great Shinobi War in case he ever appeared on the battlefield. This stemmed from his Flying Thunder God Technique, which essentially allowed him to teleport to any location with the use of a special seal. 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 without receiving a scratch. This earned him the nickname of Konoha's Yellow Flash because of the speed at which Minato (with his yellow hair) moved when using this jutsu.

Jutsu
Dead Demon Consuming Seal (屍鬼封尽, Shiki Fūjin; English TV "Sealing Jutsu: Reaper Death Seal")
Type: Kinjutsu, S-rank, Offensive, Short range (0-5m)[1]
Users: Minato Namikaze, Hiruzen Sarutobi
Hand Seals: Snake, Boar, Ram, Rabbit, Dog, Rat, Bird, Horse, Snake, Clap Hand
Debut (Anime): Naruto Episode 72
Debut (Manga): Chapter 123
This seal invokes the powers of the death god (shinigami). Once called upon, the death god hovers behind the user and inserts its arm into their soul. At this stage only the user can see the death god. To perform the seal the user need only grasp the target. The death god's arm extends from their chest and grabs the soul of the target, immobilizing them and allowing them to see the death god as well. Soon after the sealing is completed the death god consumes the user's soul, sentencing them to an eternity of battle in its stomach. A swirl-pattern is left on the stomachs of those that have had something sealed within them using this jutsu.

The Dead Demon Consuming Seal has served different purposes during each of its uses:

• Minato Namikaze used it to seal the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox into Naruto Uzumaki. Before his soul was consumed Minato used the Eight Trigrams Sealing Style and Four Symbols Seal to allow Naruto to tap into the fox's chakra reserves.
• Two shadow clones of Hiruzen Sarutobi sealed the souls of the Hashirama Senju and Tobirama Senju into their bodies. In this instance, the death god consumed the two Hokage's souls in addition to the souls of the shadow clones.
• Hiruzen Sarutobi attempted to seal Orochimaru's soul into his body, but was too weak to completely remove it. Instead, Hiruzen sealed off Orochimaru's arms by having the death god cut off the arms of Orochimaru's soul. Doing so left Orochimaru unable to use his arms to perform jutsu and left him in terrible pain due to necrosis of his arms. He was only able to escape the effects of the seal by switching to a new body.

Eight Trigrams Sealing Style (八卦の封印式, Hakke no Fūin Shiki; English TV "Eight Sign Seal")
Type: No rank, Supplementary, Short range (0-5m)[1]
User: Minato Namikaze
Debut (Anime): Naruto Episode 1
Debut (Manga): Chapter 1
The Eight Trigrams Sealing Style, consisting of two Four Symbols Seals, was used by Minato to help Naruto Uzumaki access the chakra of the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox sealed within him. This seal weakens over time. To strengthen the seal again when it gets too weak, Minato drew a key on the abdomen of the scroll toad Gerotora.
-The 8 trigrams seal

Spoiler:

Flying Thunder God Technique (飛雷神の術, Hiraishin no Jutsu; Viz "Flying Thunder God Jutsu")
Type: S-rank, Supplementary, All ranges[1]
User: Minato Namikaze
Debut (Manga): Chapter 240
This jutsu was created by Minato Namikaze, and quite possibly the reason behind his nickname, "Konoha's Yellow Flash" (木ノ葉の黄色い閃光 Konoha no Kīroi Senkō). It allows the user to move himself to another location in the blink of an eye. Although it is often compared with the Body Flicker Technique, the speed of this jutsu is much greater. In principle, this jutsu is similar to the Reverse Summoning Technique, as it revolves around manipulation of time and space rather than accelerated movement, but instead of bringing something to users, it sends them somewhere. Additionally, it makes no noise and produces no puff of smoke, allowing the user to appear behind someone unnoticed.

To activate this jutsu, the user needs a special seal or "jutsu formula" (術式, jutsu-shiki) to mark the destination. After this is done, the user enters a dimensional void that almost instantaneously transport himself to the location of the seal. Minato applied the formula in advance to weapons such as kunai. By giving one such kunai to a person, he can immediately teleport to that person at any time. He can also apply the mark to a touched area, such as his opponent or some other surrounding feature.

Furthermore, if an object marked with the seal may touch the ground, Minato will immediately know the position of everyone close to the object. This technique also possesses surveillance purposes as he can continuously sense where anyone is as long as the seal is on them. No matter where an opponent is, he arrived directly next to them. The jutsu is also very unique because it requires no use of chakra, due to a special secondary seal that emits the same chakra as him, allowing him to have an instant connection to the area.

It is because of this technique that Konoha came out victorious in the Iwagakure-Konohagakure Ninja War. After having his subordinates toss marked kunai randomly into the enemy ranks, Minato used the technique to appear within their ranks, using the great speed of this jutsu to seemingly appear to be in several places at once and wipe out entire squadrons one by one in moments before they could even react.


- The kunai used in the jutsu

Spoiler:

Four Symbols Seal (四象封印, Shishō Fūin; English TV "Double Tetragram Seal")
Type: No rank, Supplementary, Short range (0-5m)[1]
User: Minato Namikaze
Debut (Anime): Naruto Episode 1
Debut (Manga): Chapter 1
Used as part of the Eight Trigrams Sealing Style, the Four Symbols Seal helps Naruto Uzumaki access the chakra of the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox sealed within him.

Rasengan
Rank A-rank
Class: Offensive
Range: Short-range
Users:
Minato Namikaze
Jiraiya
Naruto Uzumaki
Kakashi Hatake
Konohamaru Sarutobi

The Rasengan is a powerful technique invented by Minato Namikaze, though after three years of development it was never completed. Rasengan was meant to be an example of nature manipulation as Minato meant to combine his chakra element with the Rasengan. He died before he could accomplish this, but the Rasengan is still a very useful and difficult jutsu to learn.
.

Approved.

New Rasengan Jutsu
Warp Rasengan (Loimi Rasengan)
Type: S-rank, Offensive, Mid to long-range (0-10+m)
User: Minato Namikaze
While charging up a large Rasengan in his hand, Minato warps himself into multiple poistions over the feild leaving after image there. With the after images left there to suprise the target minato appears behind the target and drills his rasengan into there back. Fromt he impact the opponent is sent flying.


Gaint Power Rasengan (Daiki Rasengan)
Type: S-rank, Offensive, Short range
User: Minato Namikaze
Gaint Power Rasengan was invented by Minato Namikaze. During his years as hokage, He spent a large amount of time trying to fuse elemental chakra with Rasengan. With this utter failure he had a new plan, he would fuse his Twin Rasengan's power into one hand. Gaint Power Rasengan was in the end suppose to be the most powerful Rasengan there was.

Even though during Minato's time the Gaint Power Rasengan was a ultimate move, later on Jiraiya had created multiple variations off this jutsu, such as Super Great Ball Rasengan, and Great Ball Rasengan. This technique is a original version and most powerful version of Great Ball Rasengan used by naruto.

Twin Rasengan (Tsuin Rasengan)
Type: Unknown, Offensive, Short range (0-5m)
Users: Jiraiya, Naruto Uzumaki (Movie Only)
The Twin Rasengan simply refers to the ability to form two Rasengans, one in each hand. Jiraiya first demonstrated this technique while teaching Naruto how to use the Rasengan (although does not mention the name of the two Rasengan technique to Naruto). In Naruto the Movie 2: Legend of the Stone of Gelel, Naruto performed this technique with two different versions of the Rasengan, the Gelel Rasengan, with the aid of Temujin (who helped form it like a shadow clone would normally), and the Demon Fox Rasengan, with the aid of his shadow clone. Although, normally this technique is used with two regular Rasengans instead of two advanced Rasengans, it inflicted more damage to the enemy.

Fire Release: Flaming Rasengan (Katon: Gōen Rasengan)
Type: S-rank, Offensive, Short range
User: Minato Namikaze, Jiraiya
This move was the first seen Rasengan with a special Chakra Nature Added. Jiraiya had invented this move later on during the era of the Fifth Hokage. Using a variation of Fire Chakra and Rasengan, The user charges up a strong force of flaming chakra in there palm. Once complete the user slams it into the target, and when struck a explosion of flames sends the target flying.

Ninjutsu
Fire Release: Flame Bullet (Katon: Endan)
Type: C-rank, Offensive, Short to mid-range (0-10m)[1]
Users: Jiraiya, Gamakichi
Debut (Manga): Chapter 371
This jutsu resembles the Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique, but more of a stream than a ball. The user gathers oil in their mouth, spits it out, and ignites it, sending a streaming fireball to the enemy.

Flying Swallow (Hein)
Type: B-rank, Offensive, Short range (0-5m)[1]
Users: Asuma Sarutobi, Naruto Uzumaki, Sora, Kazuma, Minato Namikaze
Debut (Anime): Naruto Episode 81
Debut (Manga): Chapter 141
This technique requires a bladed weapon. By feeding chakra into the weapon, the ninja will increase the length and density of his blade to strike an enemy from several feet out of the physical blade's range. This is done by creating an invisible extension of chakra that shapes into an edge that functions like the normal blade itself. Seeing the blade, the opponent may misjudge how far they need to move to avoid an incoming strike and thereby still be cut even if they manage to avoid the metal portion of the blade. The chakra-enhanced blades are strong and sharp enough to strike through solid rock or cut through iron. This technique works best with element chakra, especially with wind-type for offensive power.

Shadow Clone Technique (Kage Bunshin no Jutsu)
Type: B-rank, Supplementary
Users: Naruto Uzumaki, Hiruzen Sarutobi, Shizune, Kakashi Hatake, Itachi Uchiha, Ebisu, Konohamaru Sarutobi, Jiraiya, [1] some Jonin-level ninja
Similar to the Clone Technique, this jutsu creates clones of the user. Unlike the Clone Technique, these clones are actual copies, not illusions. The user's chakra is evenly distributed among every clone, giving each clone an equal fraction of the user's overall power. The clones are capable of performing jutsu on their own and can even bleed, but will usually disperse after one or two solid blows. They can also disperse on their own.

Unlike other clone techniques, they can't be detected by the Byakugan because the clones have the exact same amount of chakra and aren't made from any other substance, making them indistinguishable from the actual person. Sasuke Uchiha claims that the Sharingan can tell the difference during his battle with Naruto at the Valley of the End, albeit they might just make him able to keep track of the original Naruto.

Yellow Flash (Kiiroi Senkō)
Type: B-rank, Supplementary, All ranges
User: Minato Namikaze
Yellow Flash is based off of Minato's Nickname. This technique releases a strong burst of chakra to cover the feild in a 'yellow flash' which blinds everyone.