When & How Does Naruto Find Out About His Dad?

Minato Namizaki is not one of the most famous Naruto characters, that much we can attest to. And this is a shame because from what little we’ve seen of his actual story, Minato was one of the most interesting characters in the whole series. If you did not know already, Minato Namizaki was Naruto’s father who, along with his mother Kushina, perished when Kurama attacked their village. Minato Namizaki appeared, later on, to help his son during the Fourth Shinobi World War. The story of Naruto’s relation to his parents is an intriguing one and in this article, you are going to find out how and when Naruto found out about his father in the series.

The first time that Naruto Uzumaki met his father, Minato Namikaze, was in Episode 168 of the Naruto: Shippuden anime series, titled “The Fourth Hokage.” The episode premiered on July 15, 2010, in Japan. This is when Naruto found out that his father was the Fourth Hokage and what happened to his parents, which played an integral part in his character development.

The rest of this article is actually going to be the story of Minato Namikaze and his important meeting with his son, Naruto. We are going to tell you all you need to know about him and the famed meeting which helped shape Naruto’s story later on. This story won’t contain many spoilers because it is a retelling of old events, but we still have to warn you if you’re not fully up-to-date with the story of Naruto.

When does Naruto find out about his dad?

The events we are going to talk about later on in this article happened during the Pain’s Assault narrative arc of Part II of the Naruto manga. It happened in Chapter 440 of the manga, titled “A Conversation with the Fourth!!”, which first came out on April 06, 2009, in Japan. The chapter was, of course, adapted in the anime series Naruto: Shippuden, in Episode 168 of the series, titled “The Fourth Hokage.” The episode premiered on July 15, 2010, in Japan. What follows is an overview of how Naruto met his father and what he actually found out.

How and what does Naruto find out about his dad?

Minato was developed exclusively as a historical character for the majority of the series. He later started to show up in flashbacks in Part II. The 9-tails are let loose when Naruto breaks the seal on his stomach during the battle between him and Pain. The Kyūbi then takes advantage of Naruto’s uncertainty and desperation as a result of Pain’s comments and urges him to totally breach the seal, to which he desperately consents.

To Naruto’s surprise and the ire of the Kyūbi, who had hoped never to see him again, the Fourth Hokage himself appears just as he is about to do so. He explains that he had sealed the Bijū in such a way that it would appear in Naruto’s mind when 8 tails have been released. He also tells the Kyūbi, who had hoped never to see him again, that he is pleased to see his son grow even in a situation like the one they were in at the moment.

In spite of Naruto’s joy at discovering that he is his father, he strikes him in the stomach and accuses him of having imprisoned the Kyūbi inside of him. In an effort to make amends, Minato informs him that only he is capable of completing Jiraiya’s purpose to eradicate hatred from the world.

To stop the metamorphosis, he applies the Kyūbi seal to Naruto once more. He then vanishes, telling Naruto that this would be the last time he used the seal on him. But before he left, he disclosed the sinister reality about the Kyūbi’s 16-year-old attack, stating that the beast was under the control of an exceptionally powerful ninja, and that the same person was handling Pain for his own ends.

Before vanishing, he repaired the seal on Naruto’s abdomen, expressed his confidence in him, and urged him to find a way to break the cycle of devastation and death. And this is how the first meeting actually happened and how Naruto actually met his father for the first time. It is very similar to how he met his mother for the first time, but these two meetings went down quite differently.

So, what was the whole story of Naruto’s parents and why did Naruto not know anything about them? Here is what we can tell you. Namely, due to the conditions in which Naruto’s mother, who was the Jinchūriki of the Nine-Tails, was, Naruto’s birth had to be carried out very cautiously. When it was time to give birth, the seal that contained the beast inside the Jinchūriki weakened, making it necessary to strengthen it after the end of childbirth. Naruto was born in a room protected by a barrier, and the birth was only witnessed by his parents, Kushina Uzumaki and Minato Namikaze, as well as Biwako Sarutobi, wife of Hiruzen Sarutobi, and Taji, a medical ninja who helped during the birth.

Once Naruto was born, Minato was about to strengthen Kushina’s seal, but a masked man appeared who kidnapped Naruto. Minato manages to save Naruto, but due to this, he is unable to protect Kushina, who is kidnapped by the masked man. The masked man revealed that his intention was to release the Nine-Tails to attack the Leaf village, taking advantage of the weakness of Kushina’s seal. Minato placed Naruto and, subsequently, a weakened Kushina in a safe house while he decided to take care of the situation.

Finally, the Nine-Tails showed great power, and Minato decided to seal a part of the Nine-Tails’ chakra inside Naruto so that he would become a Jinchūriki. The other part of the Nine-Tails’ chakra was sealed inside Minato. At the same time, Minato saw fit to seal some of his chakra, as well as Kushina’s, in Naruto so that, once he grows up, they can help him in his role as jinchuriki.

While the sealing was taking place, Minato and Kushina were pierced by one of the Nine-Tails’ claws, which was trying to kill Naruto before being sealed. Due to this and the seal made, Naruto’s parents die, but not before saying goodbye to Naruto and asking Hiruzen that the villagers of Konoha treat Naruto as a hero by managing to save the village from the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox.

Now, after being orphaned, Naruto’s childhood was a very difficult period for him. Namely, only a few inhabitants were able to fulfill this request because most of them resented the beast’s attack, treating Naruto badly during his growth. Due to this, Hiruzen decreed that no one should find out about Naruto’s truth so that the other children would not treat him differently and marginalize him. In any case, most of the boys maintained the same attitude of contempt as their parents towards Naruto, causing Naruto to find himself alone most of the time.

Hiruzen also considered it prudent that nobody tells Naruto that his father was the Fourth Hokage. All this situation provoked in Naruto the need to stand out so as not to go unnoticed.