Fourth Hokage Cloak

Fourth Hokage

Minato and Kushina.

Some time after the war ended, Hiruzen Sarutobi chose Minato, who was not even thirty years of age, to lead Konoha as the Fourth Hokage.This choice supposedly initiated the decision of Orochimaru, the leading contender to the position and Hiruzen's former protege, to defect from Konoha. During Minato's reign, his relationship with Kushina Uzumaki would bear him a son.

After reading Jiraiya's book, where the main character was named Naruto, Minato said that the protagonist was just like Jiraiya. It was then that Minato revealed that he and Kushina wanted to raise their child to be a shinobi like the one in the book, and for that reason they decided to name him "Naruto" after the main character. Jiraiya pointed out that it would make him Naruto's godfather and asked if they were sure that they would want that. Minato stated Jiraiya was a good example for them all and that he could not think of a finer shinobi than him.

Prior to Naruto's birth, Minato and Kushina knew that the seal that kept the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox within her would weaken during childbirth, so they set up a plan to prevent that from ever happening. Kushina was taken a short distance outside of the village to give birth in secret, with Biwako Sarutobi and Taji as her midwives, a few ANBU as security, and with Minato keeping the seal in place. Their location was eventually tracked by Madara Uchiha, killing the ANBU, Biwako, and Taji, as well as holding the newborn Naruto hostage. Madara ordered Minato to step away from Kushina or he would kill Naruto. While Minato was able to save Naruto and protect him from the rigged Exploding Tags, he was forced to use the Flying Thunder God Technique to teleport Naruto to a safe place, letting Madara run away with Kushina.

Madara released the Nine-Tails to wreak havoc in Konoha, greatly weakening Kushina whom would have been killed by the Nine-Tails had Minato not come beforehand to teleport her to where Naruto was. Initially, Minato was able to hold back the Nine-Tails rampage, forcing Madara to confront Minato. After seeing Madara's prowess first hand, Minato deduced who Madara really was. When it became clear that Madara's superior space-time manipulation prowess put him at a disadvantage in direct combat, Minato was able to use a well-timed diversion to subdue him. Minato struck Madara again and placed a Contract Seal to free the Nine-Tails from his control. After their fight, Madara acknowledged that Minato deserves the Hokage title, swore the Nine-Tails would be his again someday and left.

Minato rushed to the village's help, where he and Gamabunta faced off against the Nine-Tails, but the beast's power could not be matched. When the Nine-Tails tried to fire another blast of chakra, he teleported himself and the Nine-Tails away from the village, letting the blast detonate with no one hurt. He met up with Kushina, who then held down the Nine-Tails with her chakra. After hearing Kushina's plan to take the Nine-Tails to the grave with her, if only to buy them time before it revives, Minato made a plan of his own. Having understood what a threat Madara still was to the village, and the threat of the Nine-Tails revival without a host, Minato decided to give him and Kushina a chance to see Naruto again 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 Nine-Tails into Naruto's body, hoping that his son would someday be able to use its power. When Minato sealed the Nine-Tails within Naruto, he split its chakra in two, the Yin and Yang. Minato sealed the Yang half within Naruto with the Eight Trigrams Sealing Style, which used Kushina's chakra, and sealed the Yin half with the Dead Demon Consuming Seal into himself, thus making it inaccessible to Naruto.The act cost Minato his life, and he died as one of the village's greatest heroes.