The 4th Hokage of Konoha, Minato Namikaze, is said to be a genius and one of the strongest Hokage in Konoha history. He is known as the hero who sacrifices his life to save the people of Konoha from the rampage of the villainous Nine-Tailed Beast. Before that, his astounding performance during the Third Shinobi World War earned him the nickname Konoha’s Yellow Flash. Unfortunately, since he is already gone by the time the story of Naruto begins, we don't get many chances to see what his actual full battle looks like.
That being said, there are several instances, mostly through flashbacks, where we can see his brilliance during actual combat situations. It’s the time when he encounters the future Raikage and Killer B, his fight against Obito, and his performance in the Fourth Shinobi World War. Based on those battles, here are some of the things that Minato always does that makes his fighting style so unique.
Flying Thunder God Jutsu
Even before he earned the title of Hokage, Minato Namikaze was already well known all around the world as the Konoha’s Yellow Flash, a moniker given due to his mind-blowing speed. Minato manages to achieve this unbelievable speed due to a technique called the Flying Thunder God jutsu. This technique was actually created by the second Hokage, Tobirama Senju, but Minato is the one who perfected it. Flying Thunder God jutsu allows its user to instantly teleport to places or objects that they have marked beforehand.
High-level shinobi, ranked Jonin or higher, usually have a signature move that they always use during combat. It can be their own original technique, such as Kakashi’s Raikiri, or an improvement/unique take on an existing technique, such as Guy’s Eight Inner Gates. Their fighting style will usually revolve around these techniques and their own personality. That is why Kakashi will always analyze his opponent first before delivering Raikiri to finish them off, while Guy is the type of person who jumps head first and adjusts his inner gates as needed.
Yellow Flash also adheres to this same principle. In Minato’s case, he used both an improved version of old jutsu, which is the Flying Thunder God jutsu, and his own original jutsu, which is Rasengan. No matter who the enemies are, Minato will base his fighting style around these two jutsus. The Flying Thunder God is used to move extremely quickly, while the Rasengan is Minato’s one-hit knockout move.
The Use Of Custom-Made Kunai
As mentioned before, the Flying Thunder God jutsu enables its users to instantly teleport to the places or objects that they have marked beforehand. So what if they happen to be in a place that they’ve never visited before? Does that make the Flying Thunder God can only be used as a means to escape? While it’s true that you can always use this jutsu to flee from enemies, there is actually another method that can be used to circumvent this particular limitation of the Flying Thunder God, which is to use a marked object. In Minato’s case, it is his three-bladed kunai.
From what we’ve known thus far, Minato never uses a regular kunai since he became a full-time shinobi. He always uses the custom-made three-bladed kunai. There are two main reasons for this. The first one is the fact that this type of kunai has a longer and flatter grip than regular kunai, which allowed Minato to put the Flying Thunder God mark on the grip of the kunai. The second one is due to its unique design, this kunai is easily distinguishable from regular kunai, which means in the midst of an intense battle where tons of kunai are thrown around all over the place, he can easily recognize his own kunai.
In an actual battle situation, be it a 1v1, team fight, or an open battlefield, the first thing that Minato would do is throw a bunch of his three-bladed kunai in multiple directions. The number of kunai that he throws depends on the number of enemies that he has to face. More enemies mean more kunai. There’s even a scene during one of the flashbacks in the anime where Minato asked his fellow shinobi to use his kunai during an open battle so that he can cover more ground. After all, the more kunai he has in a battlefield, the more places he can teleport to with his Flying Thunder God jutsu.
Fast And Unpredictable Movement
After Minato spreads his marked kunai, he can basically move all over the battleground with Flying Thunder God jutsu. He can instantly appear behind the enemy line and incapacitate them before they even get the chance to react. After all, even if the enemy can use a disaster-level jutsu, none of it means a thing if the Yellow Flash can instantly appear behind them and shove a full-powered Rasengan to their unprotected back.
From time to time, however, there are enemies that can seemingly counter this set up. The most obvious example of this situation will be A (the future Raikage) and Obito. A uses his thunder-based jutsu to move at a lightning speed, and he also has an ultra speed reaction that allows him to instantly move to whatever direction Minato teleports to. He is one of the few people that can keep up with the Yellow Flash. In that case, Minato simply made a new mark by touching one of Raikage’s teammates, which happens to be Killer B, and threatens his life. At that time, that is enough to force A to back down.
In the case of Obito, he has the ability to phase through everything. That means even if Minato can get close to Obito, he can’t deliver the finishing blow. That being said, Minato quickly realizes that there’s a split second window where Obito’s body has to be solid, which happens right after he uses his phasing ability. So Minato throws his kunai directly to Tobi’s head, which forces Obito to enter the phasing mode to let the kunai pass through his head. In the split second after the kunai fully phase through Obito, Minato activates the Flying Thunder God, teleport directly atop Obito, and smash him to the ground with Rasengan.
As you can see, Minato already has the brain that can quickly analyze the battlefield and come up with the best strategy. When he combines that with the Flying Thunder God jutsu and the custom kunai, he becomes one of the most unpredictable and fearsome shinobi ever lived. And that is the secret behind the 4th Hokage’s unique fighting style.
Naruto is available to stream on Crunchyroll.