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srs-deep-dives · 5 days ago

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Minato & Kushina: A "Deep Dive" Analysis (Section B, Part II)

Earlier parts here.

So far we've explored Minato and Kushina's oneness in terms of the Hokageship. But what of their personal hopes behind ‘Hokage?’

(Section B) II. Minato and Kushina as Types

Genin-Kushina speaks of Minato being able to “make all of [her] dreams come true,” and spirit-Kushina thinks, in her final farewell, “our hopes really did reach our son.” On his deathbed, Jiraiya thinks of Naruto as having "inherited Minato and Kushina’s hopes" and makes a direct link between those hopes and the hero of his novel.

The novel’s hero embarks on a mission to bring peace and the couple name their son after him. Why? Because this “Naruto” embodies their hopes and dream: peace. They grew up in an era of war. Kushina lost her village and is a prisoner and weapon at Konoha’s beck and call. Minato loses two of his students, fails to fix the third's trauma, and sees the woman he loves suffer her entire life being the jinchūriki.

Furthermore, Minato is Jiraiya’s student, whose will he also inherits – harkening to the prophesied shinobi who will usher in an era of peace. A "savior" whom I will call, to maintain the parents' vision in mind, "peacemaker."

Which, of course, brings us to Minato and Kushina’s living legacy.

Naruto, this “child of prophecy,” dubs himself “Konoha’s Orange Hokage” as an amalgamation of the Yellow Flash and Red-Hot Habanero. By extension, thus, the peacemaker (and Hokage) title belongs to Minato and Kushina together, embodied in the living, breathing, walking result of their love.

We touched on Naruto inheriting his parents’ love and redeeming Kurama (turning Hatred himself into a vessel of love). But moreover, as Kurama’s jinchūriki he is the 'key' to changing the future. Passed from Jiraiya to Minato to Naruto is the mission of bringing peace. And passed from Kushina to Naruto is the means of accomplishing it.

Jiraiya first believes Minato is the child of prophecy (chapter: Minato’s Dead Demon Consuming Seal), and the anime version of their talk features a pregnant Kushina with them. So right as Minato learns of the prophecy, their child – its fulfiller – is present. Foreshadowed is the legacy Minato will bestow both as a peacemaker and the peacemaker’s father.

[Now on the topic of 'savior,' Naruto has been called by many fans a ‘Christ figure.’ This trope is actually a misnomer. Do you know what Jesus Christ actually did, what salvation actually is? Check out this 1-minute video:

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To define the saviorship motif in Naruto, we're talking about something very different. The series themes salvation as a ‘saving’ from hatred internal and external; a reconciling peace with oneself and peace between nations.]

Jiraiya and Minato’s conversation is not the first foreshadowing of the savior theme. The entire series kicks off, in fact, with the following prologue:

Minato is introduced as Konoha’s “champion” in direct conjunction with “Fourth Hokage.” Then we jump to the title of Chapter 1: Uzumaki Naruto! Naruto debuts desecrating the Hokage rock faces – a jokey hint that he’ll one day surpass them all.

Pranking which, for a fun fact, is an "interest" of Kushina's per one of the databooks.

We find mentions of “Fourth Hokage” throughout the story and learn that Naruto reminds Jiraiya of this renowned hero. He appears in person in the prelude to the timeskip – the ‘second prologue’ if you will – as Obito’s sensei. Then we jump to a 15-year-old Naruto returning to the village with Jiraiya. The parallelism in the two ‘prologues’ juxtaposes Minato and Naruto in the grand narrative: Minato is the typological peacemaker who secures the future; Naruto is the legacy peacemaker who carries it out. Minato is both a peacemaker himself and a ‘type’ (a ‘pre-figure’) of the one to come.

How is Minato a true peacemaker and a type? His love gave Kushina the peace to overcome Kurama, prefiguring the internal peace Naruto will help others achieve. And his actions contributed to ending the Third Great War, prefiguring the external peace Naruto will usher with the Fourth.

Framing Jiraiya’s flashback of Naruto’s parents is the theme of the child of prophecy, in the contrasts between his three students who were candidates for the role. Jiraiya is killed by Nagato who lost faith and betrayed his teachings; he remembers Minato who held faith and died for that faith; and in remembering Minato’s faith he recalls his own faith in Naruto – that Naruto is the one who will see their mission through.

In this flashback Minato is visually removed from “Fourth Hokage:” he is in his plain attire without the cloak. He is verbally removed from Fourth Hokage, with not a mention relating to the title. And we know that he is Hokage because Kushina is (heavily) pregnant.

Minato in this scene is three things, linked in the connection of three wills. He is the student of author and sensei Jiraiya, whose will he has inherited. He is the husband of (heavily) pregnant Kushina, who shares (and carries the fulfiller of) that will. And he is the father of to-be-born Naruto, who will fulfil that will.

Moreover, this scene is entirely centered around them naming Naruto (the act of doing so in itself a symbol of passing on legacy). With their child being named after the hero in Jiraiya’s novel, we see the amalgamating of the to-be-parents’ and Jiraiya’s legacies into one.

Kushina likewise is met not as “Konoha’s jinchūriki” but Naruto’s mother – this moment being her first in-person appearance in the series. She is very heavily pregnant, Minato remarking on their “soon-to-born child,” and when she enters the room all attention is drawn to her belly swollen with Naruto.

In both the anime and game versions, in fact, we see Kushina’s belly before we see the rest of her. In the anime, she waddles tummy-first into the frame, and after close-up shots of her and Jiraiya is a close-up of her caressing it.

In the game (Storm Generations), we have a mid-shot of just her belly, from which the camera pans up to her face.

[Kushina rubbing her belly in the anime could also imply that the baby is kicking. Which would further make Naruto not just the topic of, but active in the scene. (Though of course, pregnant women are known to rub their bellies all the time. Just a thought.)]

Kushina’s mention-debut too is in conjunction with Naruto: Tsunade says Naruto takes after “his mother” before she introduces her name. The first word Kushina herself speaks is “Naruto,” with her remark that the name is “wonderful.” And she does the same in her second appearance 16 years later when she saves him from Kurama.

Further, Kushina's mention-debut draws a contrast between her and Minato in relation to their son. Where we’ve been led up to this point to believe that Naruto is a ‘mini-Minato’ (reminding Jiraiya of “Lord Fourth,” having the Hokage dream and so forth), Jiraiya and Tsunade reveal the key twist: Naruto is LESS like Minato and VERY MUCH like Kushina.

Tsunade attributes Naruto’s personality and ninjutsu style to “definitely” being from Kushina. Additionally, aside from his hair and eye-color, his face is the splitting image of his mother’s. (We are in no way discrediting Minato here – Naruto is in many ways, as we’ll discuss, like his father too. The emphasis is that he is far less like Minato in comparison.)

[It is greatly fitting that Jiraiya and Tsunade are the ones to exposit these details, being the prior generation characters themselves in the circle of legacy. As Mito’s granddaughter, Tsunade is essentially ‘the Uzumaki’ of her generation. She also sits in a curious position in the Hokage line: succeeding Hiruzen who (preceded and) succeeded Minato; and preceding Kakashi who will precede Naruto. Further, in dynamics and traits we have a multi-generation parallel: Hashirama and Mito; Jiraiya and Tsunade; Minato and Kushina; Naruto and Sakura; and Boruto and Sarada/Himawari. This is something we will visit later too, for there is a plethora of parallels here. (Note I said “dynamics and traits,” not “ships,” so hold your pitchforks. We'll certainly discuss Hinata too.)]

So Tsunade, our Uzumaki ‘cousin,’ tells us that Naruto is most like his mother, with Jiraiya’s agreement and reveal that he does not in fact possess Minato’s genius. (Contrary to a common fan misperception, Naruto is a people and battle genius. So by this lack we mean academic, Kushina herself admitting she was bad at studying.) These statements follow Jiraiya and Tsunade discussing their faith in Naruto becoming Hokage. And here we have in subtext something which gets very much overlooked.

Recall me saying that Kushina gives Naruto the means of bringing peace while Minato (and Jiraiya) pass on the mission. That means is not only Kurama, but the very trait at the core of Naruto’s personality.

Yes, we are talking about his signature technique: the soul-piercing ‘talk no jutsu.’

It is of no insignificance that Minato’s dying words to Naruto are “ditto your loquacious mother” (or in the anime, "your talkative mom said it all"). Nor that Naruto repeats his mother’s speech to Minato verbatim after he has helped save the world. Minato’s dying act is to sacrifice himself, putting his faith in his son WITH Kushina's chakra. His final departure to the Pure Lands is a following of that faith fulfilled.

It is also of no insignificance that Kushina’s self-introduction to Naruto is on his inheriting her talkativeness. Naruto realizes who she is not by her near-identical face, nor by the fact that he had met his father under similar circumstances, but by her verbal tick 'ttebane like his 'ttebayo. Ironically, her “Minato didn’t say anything?” line alludes to this even further: Kushina is the one to pass on the passionate, empathetic talkative quirk; one Minato doesn't have.

(Let us not distort the context: Minato had far less time with Naruto so he couldn't say much. But the emphasis still stands, for he ensured Kushina would have far more time, saying, “There are things that only you can tell him. Things that I can’t. That’s a mother’s role.”)

Further, Kushina's starkest display of this quirk is while she is pregnant with Naruto. Recalling his promise to her, Edo-Minato thinks back to her rambling about the future traits of their baby. And when he calms her, asking how she could possibly know, she replies with confidence, “Because I’m his mother.” Look at the manner in which she says it here below: her expression reads, "Well, duh." She is fully convinced that their baby is a boy and that he will want to be Hokage, that he will act up when his father is busy and be a little trouble-maker.

And she works herself into a state over it, showing her intuition and empathy. She envisions Naruto acting out to get attention when feeling deprived due to Minato's work. She envisions how this will further affect his behavior, leading him to "defy his teachers" and so on. What we see is a display of how deeply she can read others, and what is played in the fretting-mom sense gets passed to the child in her womb. The intuition and empathy by which this baby will peer into people's hearts and expose their desires and philosophies, expressed through his talk-no-jutsu.

Why is this so crucial? Because Kushina is a ‘type’ for the “child of prophecy” too. Naruto is Minato’s legacy as rescuer; he is Kushina’s as redeemer. Two aspects wholly intertwined in him achieving their dream of peace.

And on that note, we can now delve further into internal conflicts – beginning with Minato journeying on his personal redemption arc.

Section B, Part III here.

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