by mundy » Mon Aug 23, 2010 3:27 pm
Naruto was born as the son of the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze and the Nine-Tails' second jinchūriki, Kushina Uzumaki. Before his birth, they had decided to name him after the main character in Jiraiya's first book, hoping their son would be as great a ninja as the character was, making Jiraiya Naruto's godfather.[4]
Prior to Naruto's birth, his parents knew that the seal that kept the Nine-Tails within Kushina would be in danger of breaking 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. Immediately after Kushina gave birth, Madara Uchiha appeared and took Naruto hostage, demanding Minato to step away from Kushina or he would kill the newborn child. Madara then threw Naruto into the air, forcing Minato to catch him and transport him to a safer location, allowing Madara to escape with Kushina. By the time Minato could go after Kushina, Madara had already succeeded in removing the Nine-Tails from Kushina.
Fortunately, Kushina (who survived the extraction thanks to her strong vitality) was saved by Minato and brought to Naruto, leaving the weakened mother to care for the sleeping Naruto while Minato went to deal with Madara. To save the village, Minato engaged Madara in combat and sacrificed his life to seal the Nine-Tails' Yin chakra within himself and seal the Yang chakra (as well as imprints of his and Kushina's soul) within Naruto, believing his son would someday have need of the demon's power to defeat Madara's threat once and for all.[5][6] Suddenly orphaned, Naruto was left to grow up knowing nothing of his parents, receiving only his mother's last name since the Third Hokage felt that it was best that nobody knew that he was related to the Fourth Hokage.
Naruto as a young child.
Before Minato died, he asked that the villagers of Konoha view Naruto as a hero who had helped defeat the Nine-Tails. However, only a few of the villagers honored his request, while most instead resented him for containing the monster that had destroyed their home. In light of this, the Third Hokage decreed that nobody should ever speak of the Nine-Tails sealed within Naruto, hoping that their children would not resent him as they did. The children, however, followed their parents' lead, despite not knowing why. Apart from the Third Hokage, Iruka Umino was the only one who acted as a surrogate family to the young Naruto.