Who is Naruto’s father?

The identity of Naruto’s father has been the subject of speculation for Naruto fans for a long time. There have been heated debates, even flaming wars on the internet, about the mystery that is Naruto’s father.

The fourth Hokage theory

Most people believed that Naruto’s father was the Yondaime or the Fourth Hokage. The resemblance between Yondaime and Naruto is striking: they both have blue eyes and yellow hair and even have the same smile. And since Naruto is an orphan and the fourth died fighting the Kyuubi, it all made sense.

Some people even came to believe that the Yondaime, although it was clearly stated that he died fighting the Kyuubi, somehow survived and lived to become the leader of the Akatsuki. They believed that everything from the sealing of the Kyuubi within Naruto to Akatsuki’s hunt for the Jinchuuruki was part of an elaborate plot concocted by the genius mind of the Fourth Hokage. They believed that what was shown about the Yondaime was just a hoax, it was actually evil despite the fact that all the people of Konoha loved him and that he was willing to die for them.

However, there were many people who disagreed with these ‘Yondaime is Naruto’s father theory’ believers because they couldn’t understand why a father would seal something like the Kyuubi within his own son. Some believed that it would be ‘too obvious’ and that Kishimoto can’t write something so obvious, there has to be a twist. Some believed that the Yondaime was Naruto’s uncle, brother or some other distant relative, but not his father.

There were even people who believed that the Akatsuki leader (who they believed was not Yondaime) was actually Naruto’s father. And, for some reason, he was hunting his own son. This theory was reinforced by the fact that the Akatsuki leader’s shadow seemed to have the same hair as Naruto. And when it was revealed that the faces of the Akatsuki leaders also bore a striking resemblance to Naruto, this theory gathered more followers. And they believed that a Star Wars scene with the Akatsuki leader saying “Naruto, I am your father” was not such a distant possibility.

There were other theories, some so wild and random that you’d have to wonder what fans smoked to get to that. But all those theories were dispelled once Chapter 367 of the manga arrived.

The revelation

Chapter 367 is a perfect example of how the simplest answers are almost always correct. It turned out that the blatant was actually true and the Fourth Hokage really is Naruto’s father. Jiraiya and Tsunade confirmed everything and even revealed that Yondaime’s name was Namikaze Minato.

But if the fourth is Naruto’s father, why is he called Uzumaki Naruto and not Namikaze Naruto? Where does the Uzumaki come from? Turns out, for some reason, Naruto got his mother’s last name instead of his father’s. And it’s not really ruthless for Minato to seal Kyuubi inside Naruto as after all his dying wish was for Naruto to be treated like a hero for having to deal with having a monster inside of him. He died believing that the villagers would love Naruto, he had no idea that they would do otherwise. This chapter has yet to become a Naruto episode, but it should be revealed in Naruto Shippuden very soon.