If you’re familiar with Naruto, the manga series created by Masashi Kishimoto and later adapted by Pierrot and Aniplex into an anime, you know how complicated the story can get. The manga, first published in 1999, ran until 2014 and followed the eponymous main character’s adventures as he trained to become a skilled ninja. Due to a two and a half year time skip, two different anime series were created, Naruto and Naruto Shippuden, but we won’t get too into the differences.
The main plot follows Naruto, a young, socially awkward ninja who hopes to gain the respect of his village by becoming the Hokage, the village leader and strongest shinobi in the Land of Fire. Throughout the series, multiple Hokage are introduced, all skilled with impressive abilities. Unfortunately, the Hokage don’t tend to stick around too long and most meet tragic, if epic, deaths.
Reading or watching Naruto and it’s many spin-offs requires a lot of time and dedication. If that’s (understandably) not high on your to-do list, you might be left with many unanswered questions about the series, like how the aforementioned Hokage met their ends. In chronological order, here’s how every Hokage died in Naruto, Naruto Shippuden, and Boruto. It should go without saying, but this list contains spoilers for the entire Naruto franchise — read at your own risk.
First Hokage
The first Hokage was Hashirama Senju, a legendary shinobi and one of Konohagakure’s founders. After years of war between his clan and the Uchiha clan, he founded the Leaf Village with his younger brother Tobirama and his childhood friend Madara in an effort to foster an environment of peace where children would no longer be forced to die in meaningless wars. His friendship with Madara is rocky, and eventually the two become enemies—but Madara isn’t responsible for Hashirama’s eventual passing. Although ridiculously powerful (in addition to being skilled at ninjutsu, Hashirama has very forgiving regenerative abilities), the first Hokage died at a relatively young age, presumably of natural causes. He still had time to see his village being to prosper, as well as spoil his grandchild Tsunade.
Second Hokage
Tobirama Senju, the younger brother of Hashirama and one of the founders of the Leaf Village, became the second Hokage after his older brother’s mysterious death. A fierce fighter and pragmatic leader, Tobirama is known for creating well-knownJutsu like the Shadow Clone Jutsu and for prioritizing the education of aspiring shinobi. Tobirama was killed in battle during the First Shinobi World War while actively trying to create new alliances with other villages. When his team found themselves overwhelmed by the Kinkaku Force from Kumogakure, Tobirama offered himself as a decoy so the rest of his team could escape. He was killed by Kinkaku but fortunately, his sacrifice was not in vain and the rest of his team was able to get out safely.
Third Hokage
Before Tobirama was killed, he was able to name his successor: fellow team member Hiruzen Sarutobi. Hiruzen was a talented ninja and one of the Hokage Naruto-readers would be most familiar with as he was Konohagakure’s leader for a good chunk of the series. Trendsetter that he is, Hiruzen actually chose his successor without dying and would resume the role of Hokage after the death of the fourth. Along with his Hokage duties, Hiruzen led a team consisting of Tsunade, Jiraiya, and Orochimaru which would eventually come back to bite him when Orochimaru turned out comically evil. The two would face each other later in the series and although Hiruzen caused major casualties — he literally sealed Orochimaru’s arms so that he could no longer use them for jutsu — he ultimately perished after the battle.
Fourth Hokage
The fourth Hokage was a ninja named Minato Namikaze, who is revealed to be Naruto’s father later in the series. Minato was a talented child who, like his son, dreamed of becoming Hokage and earning the respect of his peers. While still a genin, Minato rescued Kushina Uzumaki from a kidnapping attempt and the two fell in love as a result. Later, Minato would lead his own team of young ninjas (including an angsty Kakashi), and prove his skills during the Third Shinobi World War, beating out Orochimau to become the newest Hokage. Tragically, Minato would die on the night Naruto was born after the Nine-Tails began attacking the village. Although precautions had been made to prevent such an incident from occurring, Tobi/Obito took advantage of Kushina’s weakened state after giving birth to steal the Nine-Tails’ power for himself. After a fierce battle, Minato used the Dead Demon Consuming Seal to seal the Nine-Tails in his newborn son. Thanks to Minato’s actions, the village avoided calamity but the sealing technique killed him in the process.
There are seven Hokage in total, but fortunately, the most recent three are still alive. In the most recent chapter of Boruto, the seventh Hokage’s fate is left a bit ambiguous but we’ll just have to speculate until the manga returns in September.
