After Minato Namikaze convincingly won a Naruto character popularity poll, a manga revolving around him was confirmed to celebrate the Naruto Anime’s 20th anniversary.
After a lot of rumors and speculation surrounding it, the One-shot manga by Masashi Kishimoto was finally released. While the manga is only 55 pages and will not be a series like the Sasuke side-story, it was more than enough to satisfy the cravings of fans of the original series.
What is the story of the New Minato Manga?
This short story managed to cover a lot of details about Minato’s past while also answering many questions of fans. It starts by giving us a glimpse into Team Jiraiya, as Naruto’s beloved master, his father, and other unnamed characters face off against the powerful Jinchuriki’s, Han and Roshi. After barely escaping from their formidable powers, the story moves back to Konoha village.
The main achievement of this manga is that it clearly showed us how the relationship between Minato and Kushina is possibly the best love storyline in all of Naruto. Once the setting changes to the village, we watch an eager Kushina hope to spend time with Minato. However, in order to get stronger and protect Kushina, Minato refuses her company and goes to train alone while developing a new technique.
After curiosity gets the best of her, Kushina leaves the barriers meant for her protection and sees Minato working hard to get stronger. While only growing to admire him more, Kurama suddenly tries to take over her and escape the seals placed on him. Seeing the person he loves struggling, Minato moves into action and works together with her to seal the fearsome-tailed beast again. We also see him finally perfect the Rasengan which he had been practicing to develop.
The manga ends as we get a tease into Minato becoming the fourth Hokage while having his next to his predecessors in the Hokage rock while Kushina looks over him lovingly. The one-shot is filled with heart and is a very wholesome reading experience that cannot be missed out on while reminding us of why we fell in love with Naruto in the first place.
