Hiruzen Sarutobi

**Hiruzen Sarutobi** (猿飛ヒルゼン, *Sarutobi Hiruzen*) is the **Third Hokage** (三代目火影, *Sandaime Hokage*, *literally meaning:* Third Fire Shadow) of Konohagakure. A disciple of the village's two previous Hokage, Hiruzen was a powerful ninja, hailed as a "God of Shinobi". Though he was only ever directly the teacher of the Sannin, generations of Konoha shinobi benefited from his wisdom during his lifetime.

## Background

Hiruzen was born the son of Sasuke Sarutobi. The Sarutobi clan was one of the first clans to settle in the newly-created Konohagakure, where Hiruzen struck up a friendship with the Shimura clan's Danzō Shimura. Hiruzen was part of the first generation of ninja produced by Konoha and he, Homura Mitokado, and Koharu Utatane were placed under the tutelage of Tobirama Senju. Hiruzen early on displayed prodigious talent in the ninja arts, earning him additional training from Hashirama Senju, the First Hokage; at the same time, Danzō became jealous of Hiruzen's skills and started a one-sided rivalry in an effort to surpass him.

During the First Shinobi World War, Tobirama, by that time the Second Hokage, led a team consisting of Hiruzen, Homura, Koharu, Danzō, Kagami Uchiha, and Torifu Akimichi. During a mission they started to be pursued by Kumogakure's Kinkaku Force, an enemy that somebody would need to distract and inevitably die at the hands of in order for the rest of the team to escape. Hiruzen volunteered to be the decoy, boasting that, as the strongest of their group, he stood the best chance of surviving the encounter; nevertheless, he asked Danzō to look after the others. Tobirama volunteered himself instead, and before going to his death he appointed Hiruzen as Third Hokage.

In the anime, Hiruzen permitted Danzō to create Root - a more ruthless subdivision of the Anbu under Danzō's exclusive control - shortly after he became Hokage in order to balance the shortcomings of his empathetic rule. For years he had ignored Root's questionable foreign ops, its abduction of children, and the actions it took against Konoha personnel, Hiruzen included.

At some point, Hiruzen married Biwako and they had a son, Asuma, and at least one other child who became an Anbu. Hiruzen also started leading his own team of new Academy graduates consisting of Jiraiya, Orochimaru, and Tsunade. Although he was close with all of his students, Hiruzen had the highest hopes for Orochimaru, a genius like himself who, after the deaths of his parents, was only further motivated to have a deep impact on the world. Hiruzen led Konoha's forces through the Second and Third Shinobi World Wars; in the anime, his choosing to end the Third Shinobi World War by signing a peace treaty with Iwagakure despite the losses Konoha suffered incensed Danzō, prompting Hiruzen to step down as Hokage against the village's protests.

Hiruzen had long hoped that Orochimaru would succeed him as Hokage but, despite his best efforts, he could never convince him of the Will of Fire: that Konoha was a family that the Hokage had to risk everything to keep safe. Unable to choose Orochimaru, Hiruzen considered Jiraiya as his successor, but Jiraiya did not believe he was responsible enough. Hiruzen ultimately settled on Jiraiya's former student, Minato Namikaze, who had proven himself time and again during the Third Shinobi World War. Hiruzen assisted Minato with the transition of power by advising him on how to handle individuals and other village matters. He even retained some of his own Anbu, several of which he assigned as security while Kushina Uzumaki, the jinchūriki of the Nine-Tails, gave birth.

Despite their precautions, the Nine-Tails escaped and attacked the village. Hiruzen led the village's defence until Minato arrived to remove the Nine-Tails to a safe distance. Hiruzen followed and, cut off by the Adamantine Sealing Chains, could only watch as Minato and Kushina gave their lives to seal the Nine-Tails into their newborn son, Naruto. Minato did not have time to tell Hiruzen how the Nine-Tails had escaped, instead using the final moments of his life to ask Konoha, via Hiruzen, to think of Naruto as a hero who saved the village and not the container of the monster that killed so many. Hiruzen did so, but the villagers proved unable to follow Minato's wishes, prompting Hiruzen, now the village's Hokage once more, to outlaw any mention of the Nine-Tails, an effort to protect Naruto from their misguided hate. He also gave Naruto his mother's surname in order to hide his relation to Minato from Minato's enemies.

Hiruzen eventually started investigating a number of disappearances throughout Konoha. In the anime, he followed a lead provided by Kakashi Hatake, which ultimately led him to discover that Orochimaru was behind it all. Hiruzen was dismayed not only by Orochimaru's role or that he was experimenting on those he kidnapped, but also his reasons: to create an Eternal Youth and Immortality Technique. He attempted to apprehend Orochimaru, but could not bring himself to strike down his favourite student and allowed him to escape. From examining what Orochimaru left behind, a young boy imbued with Hashirama Senju's Wood Release was discovered, and over the years the boy became one of Hiruzen's top Anbu operatives. (In the anime, the boy was previously discovered by Danzō, and Hiruzen negotiated the boy's release into Hiruzen's care.)

Because Minato never had the opportunity to explain the cause of the Nine-Tails' attack, Konoha's leadership came to suspect a member of the Uchiha clan was responsible due to the Sharingan's ability to control the Nine-Tails. The Uchiha resented this suspicion and began planning a coup d'état, something reported to Hiruzen and the Konoha Council by Itachi Uchiha. Hiruzen attempted to peacefully resolve the conflict but negotiations consistently stalled. Danzō eventually stepped in without Hiruzen's knowledge and ordered Itachi to slaughter the Uchiha. Hiruzen only learned of the mission afterwards when Itachi reported its successful completion. Before needing to publicly leave the village as a criminal in order to hide Konoha's involvement in the Uchiha's destruction, Itachi asked Hiruzen to look after his younger brother, Sasuke, the only Uchiha he could not bring himself to kill. Hiruzen agreed. In the anime, Hiruzen also promised not to change the village barrier's formula, enabling Itachi to sneak in from time to time to watch Sasuke from afar. Danzō's role in the Uchiha's assassination was not something Hiruzen could abide, and as such he ordered Root be disbanded.

About five years after the Nine Tails Fox's attack on the village, Hiruzen had a disagreement with his son Asuma, leading to the latter to leave to pursue his personal interests.

## Personality

Hiruzen is a firm believer in the Will of Fire, which holds that all the people of Konoha are a family and that the Hokage is chiefly responsible for that family's well-being. Throughout his tenure, Hiruzen lives up to the Will of Fire by being available for Konoha's villagers and shinobi during their time of need, making decisions to the betterment of as many people as possible, and providing his wisdom and guidance whenever he can. His delicate, thoughtful approach to not only issues within the village but also his interactions with foreign powers has given Hiruzen the reputation of being soft, something the Konoha Council spends much of its time trying to rectify. Nevertheless, Hiruzen's kind and pacifist ways are widely valued by Konoha's residents and even his rival Kage, and for those reasons his eventual death is regretted by many. However, Hiruzen was not entirely for his softness as he allowed Danzō to form an Anbu faction of his own, to handle the dark side of Konoha's actions.

Although he loved all of Konoha, Hiruzen held his students especially dear, believing they were the village's future and, as such, must be cultivated and protected. He favoured Orochimaru, seeing in him a prodigy similar to himself whose contributions to the village could someday be greater than his own. Even when Orochimaru increasingly went astray and then finally defected from Konoha, Hiruzen could never abandon his attachments to Orochimaru, instead blaming himself for not being a better teacher. When he is reincarnated, he reflects on his life and finds it similarly flawed: he feels responsible for Danzō's taking on of the village's darkness, believing Danzō would not have turned out so badly had he been more willing to make the difficult decisions; he believes that some of the village's - and even the world's - problems could have been avoided had he led with a firmer hand. Hiruzen's own son, Asuma, was defiant towards Hiruzen's philosophies during his youth, but eventually sees the merits in valuing future generations after Hiruzen's death.

Despite his reputation and responsibilities, Hiruzen is somewhat lecherous: he and Jiraiya bonded over their shared desire to spy on naked women; he falls victim to Naruto's Sexy Technique on more than one occasion and suspects he would be defeated by the Harem Technique as well; talking to young girls was his favourite "hobby".

## New era / Glad you Came

A mysterious force revived Hiruzen. He told Naruto that he was proud of achieving his dream of becoming Hokage.