After months of waiting, the Minato One Shot finally dropped and it is safe to say that every fan of Naruto was blown away by the level of quality this chapter delivered. Having been away from Naruto and manga in general for the past few years, fans did not expect for Kishimoto to make a grand return in this style and deliver a powerful chapter that had both action and, at the same time, tugged at the heartstrings of the readers.
The chapter, although quite long, was intriguing, with every page telling more stories about the phenomenal characters who fans came to love in the original Naruto series. Naruto Gaiden: Minato One Shot proved to be everything that fans wanted and more and it answered quite a lot of mysteries that the original series raised over the years.
The Third Great Ninja War
One of the most intriguing things that fans got to see in the Minato One Shot was an onlook into the events of the Third Great Ninja War. By the looks of it, the Third Great Ninja War went on for quite a few years and, during these years, Minato went from being in a team that was led by Jiraiya to leading his own team into the world later on. At the very beginning of the chapter, fans got to see Team Jiraiya, which was only shown in the series once before. The unnamed character in Jiraiya's team will also give him some attention as all of them engaged in a fight with two of Hidden Rock's Jinchuriki, Han and Roshi.
Surprisingly, both Han and Roshi seem to be somewhat capable of manipulating their Tailed Beast Powers. While they are not Perfect Jinchuriki, they are apparently strong enough to manipulate the powers of their Tailed Beast, which would suggest a partial Tailed Beast control, at the very least. Launching two powerful Tailed Beast Bombs at their enemies, it was Minato who rescued his team using his Flying Thunder God Jutsu.
Kishimoto ensured that fans get an idea of how grand the war was. While the likes of Minato were seen on the battlefield on the very first page, they moved back to Konoha on the next, simply because the war actually went on for years. In Konoha, fans got a look at some of the most beloved characters that the series has ever produced, with Minato and Kushina being central to it.
Kushina As The Jinchuriki
Although not many fans expected it, a lot of focus was thrown on Kushina Uzumaki in the Minato one-shot. To a degree, some fans saw it coming, simply because Kushina and Minato are two characters whose fates are intertwined. From the very beginning of their journeys as a ninja to their ultimate deaths, these two characters have done everything together and for Kushina to not be involved in the one shot would have been a missed opportunity. The Konoha point of view in the manga was mostly through Kushina as she was kept under tight watch since she was the Jinchuriki of the Nine Tails. With guards to watch her all the time, Kushina felt caged and this was emphasized even more by the fact that there were only a handful of places in the village where she could visit.
Kushina simply couldn't live the normal life of a normal ninja or even go where she wanted. All this was down to her being the Jinchuriki of the Nine Tails and in the time of war, Kushina possessed even more value simply because she was supposed to be the ultimate weapon of the village in case it ever came down to Jinchuriki warfare.
While things do look grim for the red-hot habanero, at the same time, she is seen making the best of her opportunities as she tries to train Minato in the art of Sealing Jutsu. Fans know that Kushina Uzumaki was a very skilled and powerful ninja, strong enough to take on even capable Jonin with ease. She was a master of Sealing Jutsu, such that even the future Fourth Hokage paled in comparison to her in this art.
Kushina emphasizes how she has many Sealing Jutsu left to teach Minato, however, after returning from his latest mission in the War, Minato now had a new Jutsu to train and he blew her off, which eventually led her to make a big mistake as she stepped into a place where her seal was weakened.
Minato's Rasengan Training
One of the biggest focuses of the Minato one shot was always going to be the creation of the Rasengan. In fact, even before the one-shot came out, Kishimoto made sure to emphasize the fact that the creation of his own jutsu was going to be central to the story. After having observed the Tailed Beast Ball in the War, Minato got the idea of creating a similar Jutsu. This connects very well to the original manga, where Killer Bee suggested that Minato based the Rasengan off of a Tailed Beast Ball and the only difference between the two techniques was that instead of mixing positive and negative chakra, Minato resorted to high-speed rotation instead.
Curiously, it was also mentioned in the original manga that it took Minato 3 years to complete the Rasengan, which means that the clash seen at the beginning of the chapter and the point where Minato manages to use the Rasengan for the very first time spans over 3 years, which, once again, highlights the scale of the Third Great Ninja War. The training itself was focused on quite a bit in the one-shot as Minato managed to struggle to contain this spherical jutsu, however, his genius shone so incredibly that he managed to successfully create this Jutsu, to a certain extent, at the very least.
Kushina And Minato Combine
Kushina ended up playing a major role throughout the entirety of the one shot, in some ways, even more so than Minato himself. Not only did the chapter in Konoha begin with her, the vast majority of it was through her point of view. Fans get to see her rebellious nature, which she is very well known for and, this was shown when she stepped out of bounds after using her incredible Sealing Jutsu to easily take care of the two ANBU guards who were supposed to watch her all the time.
Fans also get to see a look at her relationship with Mito Uzumaki, the wife of the First Hokage. In the original story, fans only saw glimpses of their relationship as Kushina was brought straight to her when she came from the Uzushiogakure. Then, the only exchange they had was Mito telling her that as a Jinchuriki, she needs to fill herself with love and then she will truly be happy in life even though she has Tailed Beast sealed within her. That comes into play once again in the Minato one shot when Kushina gets a flashback of Mito Uzumaki.
Surprisingly, the destruction of the Uzumaki Clan was also brought into focus in this chapter. The destruction of this clan was only briefly touched upon in the original series. Here, it was once again made clear that the Uzumaki Clan was used in wars to the point where they got drowned in it and eventually, they scattered all over the world. The incredible Sealing Jutsu prowess of this clan was such that even the crest itself is meant to strengthen the sealing power of a Jinchuriki. Mito mentions, however, that a vortex is not meant to keep the Jinchuriki happy, instead, it is a spiral that fills the heart. She then shows Kushina that she had Hashirama in her life as her husband who gave her lots of love and, through that, she was able to be happy in her life and even tame the Nine Tails to a degree.
Kushina and Minato had a similar, if not better, relationship and that is precisely what it ended up becoming her strength in her life as a ninja. In the current timeline, while Minato was practicing his Jutsu, the Nine-Tails took over Kushina's body since she was outside the barrier. Immediately injuring Minato, Kushina realized that she had made a mistake, however, Minato reinforced her seal with his own even though he was not a member of the Uzumaki Clan, which surprised even Kurama, who went on to state that Minato was a Shinobi of the same caliber as the First Hokage.
However, strong as Minato was, he was not stronger than Kushina, as he admitted so himself. In fact, his entire reason for falling in love with Kushina was because she was stronger than him at this point.
During their exchange, Minato also goes on to say that the reason why he created this new Jutsu was to protect Kushina. As Jinchuriki warfare is a very real possibility, he wanted to create a Jutsu that could resonate with Kushina's own powerful chakra and be enough to stop the other Tailed Beasts if the need ever arose. That is precisely why Minato modeled the Rasengan after a Tailed Beast Bomb, known to be the ultimate attack of the Tailed Beast.
During his conversation with Kurama, however, he quickly realized that it was way too difficult to take him on alone. Kushina, upon hearing Minato's confession, snapped out of the control of the Tailed Beast and decided to use her Adamantine Sealing Chains, which proved to be strong enough to restrain the Tailed Beast, even though he was incredibly powerful. Minato, on the other hand, uses this opportunity to attack him with his new Jutsu.
This one shot is largely a love story of Kushina and Minato and fans finally get to see how they confessed to each other. This is perfectly fitting for a couple as fiery as this one. Born into an era of war, Minato and Kushina relied on the love and support of each other to get through adversity and find happiness in life. Together, they fulfilled all their ambitions and gave birth to Naruto, the man who went on to save the world in the future. Their incredible relationship is focused once again towards the end when Minato wakes up in a hospital and the two restart their training once again.
Eventually, Kushina takes Minato to the same place where Mito used to look at her husband's face on the Hokage faces, which was, in a way, Kushina's way of saying that she had found the love needed to fill her vessel. There, it was Kushina who ended up giving the name Rasengan to this jutsu, as it was a technique created for the sake of her protection, and thus, the legend of the Rasengan was born.