History Characters / NarutoHokages

* AsskickingLeadsToAuthority: He's the most powerful Shinobi of the age and that's a huge factor why he was made the first Hokage. While he is willing to let others abuse him, he will [[BewareTheNiceOnes remind them if they've said the wrong choice of words]]
-->'''Hashirama:''' No matter what happens I will protect our... no my village. I still believe that protecting the village is the best way to protect people, shinobi, and children...! Anyone who tries to harm it, whether they are my friends, siblings or my own children... I won't forgive them.

* AuthorityEqualsAsskicking: While he is willing to let others abuse him, he will [[BewareTheNiceOnes remind them if they've said the wrong choice of words]]

* HotConsort: The wives of the Hokage are this to their spouses: Mito to Hashirama (First Hokage) and Kushina to Minato (Fourth Hokage). Later, [[spoiler: Hinata is this to her husband, Naruto (Seventh Hokage).]

* WorldsBestWarrior[=/=]WorldsStrongestMan: This title has been somewhat liberally applied to the whole group, even Tsunade (who's hailed as the strongest kunoichi), with each having been variously stated to be the strongest Shinobi alive while they held the position and "strongest shinobi ever produced/seen by the Hidden Leaf". Chapter 627 even uses "the four strongest soldiers" in the ''narrative text'' when referring to them. Needless to say, when the top dog of the four is discussed, it gets messy. [[spoiler: Though amongst all seven of the Hokage, there's no debate because the most powerful by far and away is obviously Naruto.]]

[[folder:Eighth Hokage]]
See [[{{Characters/NarutoTeamTenMembers}} Shikamaru Nara]].
[[/folder]]

* HeroesWantRedheads: His wife, Mito, has red hair, a trait common to the Uzumaki clan.

* HeroesWantRedheads: The first thing he noticed about Kushina is her hair. This was also how he was able to track her down and rescue her when she was kidnapped, by following the strands of red hair that she dropped.
-->'''Minato:''' I noticed your beautiful hair right away.

* SkilledButNaive: Danzo’s argument against Minato becoming Hokage was essentially this and Orochimaru mused that Minato would have just been a puppet of Hiruzen’s wishes. Danzo was correct to a degree about Minato as he was shown to be a little too idealistic about his son being accepted by the village, and instead he is alienated and shunned thanks to Minato's choices.

* InformedAbility: Supposedly mastered every jutsu in the village, yet all he uses are [[PlayingWithFire Fire]] and [[DishingOutDirt Earth]] Style jutsu, Shurikenjutsu, Fūinjutsu, and a pole that's also a monkey. He's also supposed to be the strongest ninja of his generation, but his one and only on-screen battle against the two preceding Hokages and Orochimaru leaves something to be desired. It's all {{justified}} and {{lampshaded}} by everyone in that fight that the key word is "was": Hiruzen is only a shadow of the the prodigy he once was due to the simple fact his body is just too old to handle using his best anymore. [[spoiler:After being revived during the final phase of the Shinobi World war, he's shown using much more impressive techniques and even use ''all five'' elements at once thanks to the fact as a zombie with unlimited stamina and chakra, he can finally cut loose. This heavily mitigated the "informed" part]].

* RetroactiveIdiocyBall: There's ''far too much'' that could be labeled as Hiruzen's fault by virtue of revelations later in the series, but the biggest one would be his complete hands-off approach to Naruto, barely interacting with the child despite both being given responsibility to take care of him, and never revealing anything about Naruto's heritage despite the poor treatment and immense loneliness he was being given. The latter supposedly justified with him being left in the dark so that Minato's old enemies don't target him, but seeing how Naruto is never targeted for his relation to Minato even after his connection is made clear, it's a rather poor justification.

* RetroactiveIdiocy: There's ''far too much'' that could be labeled as Hiruzen's fault by virtue of revelations later in the series, but the biggest one would be his complete hands-off approach to Naruto, barely interacting with the child despite both being given responsibility to take care of him, and never revealing anything about Naruto's heritage despite the poor treatment and immense loneliness he was being given. The latter supposedly justified with him being left in the dark so that Minato's old enemies don't target him, but seeing how Naruto is never targeted for his relation to Minato even after his connection is made clear, it's a rather poor justification.

* WeakButSkilled: In comparison to the previous Kage, Minato lacks the same benefits and power they all have by virtue of their Clans, notably lacking a Kekkei Genkai. Even among all the Hokage to exist in the series, he stands out as being weaker than all the other Hokage save Kakashi, and that's only because Kakashi became Hokage after losing his Sharingan, but he's arguably the most skilled out of them due to his mastery of the Flying Raijin Jutsu in conjunction with his fighting style. There's a reason why he had a flee-on-sight order issued on him, after all.
** Minato was actually very powerful, as he was strong enough to become a Sage, something only two other Kage could attain. And he was stated to be as strong as Hashirama by Kurama due to his ability with Uzumaki seals, despite not being a member of the clan. All in all, Minato was both Strong and Skilled.

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: A lot more reasonable and tolerable then the Fifth Hokage, and a peaceful man. Though later subverted since one of his flaws was being a bit ''too'' nice, as he admits that many of the problems in the current story stem from him letting people such as Orochimaru and Danzo get away with things.

->Favorite words: "Mind – technique – body"

* WeakButSkilled: Best way to describe Hiruzen towards the end of his life. Unlike most of his fellow Hokage and even himself during his prime, he simply does not have the chakra reserves and physical strength high enough to pull off any significant feats and his old age [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome comes to bite him in the ass hard during his attempt to seal Orochimaru’s soul]]. That said, his chakra control is arguably among the best in the series as it allows him to perform a few high level techniques without wasting too much chakra and as shown during his brief fight against Obito, his deductive skills allow him to discern a technique’s attributes by its HandSeals and just seeing it in action once or twice.

* WorfHadTheFlu: He is a near septuagenarian Shinobi, which mean that his [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome body is very weakened from old age and overuse and way past his time]], instead of becoming a normal {{Wuxia}} ''seemingly'' old master. Unlike TheWorfEffect example, this is played seriously when he's forced to perform a HeroicSacrifice to seal Orochimaru's arms.

[[folder:Eight Hokage]]

* MyGreatestFailure: He has a few, the two major ones being unable to bring himself to kill Orochimaru when he had both the chance and the ability, and the destruction of the Uchiha Clan. He also deeply regrets not reigning in Danzo's activities more, which allowed Danzo to do things that ended up causing or influencing many of the tragedies in the manga, to the extent that Danzo has ties with every major non-Uchiha villain in the series, including Orochimaru. To that end, he describes himself to Sasuke as the "most naive" of all the hokage.

* {{Bishonen}}: Kushina even mocks him in their youth for his pretty boy looks.

* WorldsBestWarrior[=/=]WorldsStrongestMan: This title has been somewhat liberally applied to the whole group,
* MasterApprenticeChain: Hashirama founded the village and was the First Hokage. His brother Tobirama became the Second Hokage, and was the one who trained Hiruzen and Danzo, who would become the Third Hokage and acting Sixth Hokage respectively. The Third Hokage trained the Fifth Hokage Tsunade (who is herself the granddaughter of the First and grandniece of the Second) and Jiraiya, who would go on to train the Fourth Hokage, Minato. The Fourth Hokage (Minato), of course, would train Kakashi, who would train Naruto. [[spoiler:Both would go on to become Hokage; the Sixth and Seventh, respectively]].
* NoSell: Thanks to being resurrected zombies, the first four Hokages are immune to [[spoiler:Madara's Infinite Tsukiyomi]].
* OneManArmy: Part of the job description.
* PosthumousCharacter: The first two and the Fourth are this, and we also end up learning more about the Third after his death than we did before it.
* RenaissanceMan: Everything we've seen and heard of their abilities shows each of them as masters of a wide variety of techniques that [[ComboPlatterPowers don't really have anything in common with each other]].
* SelfDuplication: All but Tsunade have some sort of Clone technique, and Tsunade's summon can do this too. Wood for Hashirama and Shadow clones for the rest.
* StrongAndSkilled: In comparison to each other, they run the gamut from [[UnskilledButStrong mostly relying on bloodline traits]] to [[WeakButSkilled mainly relying on extremely refined taught shinobi arts]], but in comparison to all other Ninja there is no question the Hokage are both ''very'' powerful and ''very'' skilled.
* TheTeam: The first four work together as Edo Tensei, with the Fifth close to the action. They roughly hit the archetypes of the FiveManBand. The First is the TheLeader, TheHero, and a jovial and open-minded. The Second is his brother and {{Lancer}} with a stern and judgmental personality. The Third is TheBigGuy, hailed as the God of Shinobi during part one and good enough to take on (slightly weakened versions of) the first two simultaneously. The Fourth is TheSmartGuy as a CombatPragmatist that lacks the others' raw power, but is shown to be calm, cultured, and CrazyPrepared. The Fifth is TheHeart as the TokenGirl and the world's best [[TheMedic medical shinobi.]]
* UndyingLoyalty: Each of the Hokage is completely loyal to the village and its inhabitants.
* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: The first four Hokages have all inadvertently helped cause the current conflicts.
** Hashirama spared Madara, enabling everything Madara would go on to do. [[spoiler:Though it's later revealed that this isn't exactly what happened. Hashirama actually did kill Madara, however Madara - using [[ThanatosGambit rather]] [[RealityWarper convoluted]] means was able to revive himself.]]
** Tobirama was partially responsible for Madara gaining the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan. He also invented the Edo Tensei technique that allowed for Kabuto to resurrect and use the dead for evil.
** Sarutobi was the one to first get Orochimaru fixated on immortality, due to a comment made near Oro's parents' graves. He also couldn't bring himself to stop Orochimaru (who would later start a war against Konoha and eventually kill him) when he had the chance. He also allowed Danzo to run around unchecked, which would have ''severe'' consequences in the long run, as every single non-Uchiha BigBad, ''including'' Orochimaru, had some ties with Danzo or were a result of his actions that would come to haunt the very village he was claiming to protect.
** Minato was unable to prevent his students Rin and Obito's deaths, which is what spawned the BigBad. His own death also caused a vast amount of problems, as it forced Sarutobi to re-assume the position, and Sarutobi's lack of a sufficient backbone in his old age was one of the major reasons for all the problems he ended up causing. Not to mention Minato's decision to seal half of Kurama in Naruto led to his own son being hated and feared as a pariah for much of his childhood, the terror of being controlled by Kurama's malevolence, and him being hunted by the Akatsuki and eventually the entire village being destroyed by their leader.
* WalkingSpoiler: Given just how deeply ingrained their actions are into the backstory of the series, and their influence on everything that's actually going on in the present day, this is unavoidable.

-->'''Minato:''' I noticed your beautiful hair right away.

* HeroOfAnotherStory: Kishimoto has said that he would be interested in writing another story in the Narutoverse with Minato as the protagonist, which, being the Hokage automatically counts him as this.

* LikeFatherLikeSon: While Naruto takes after his mother in personality and intelligence, his looks came from his father and a lot of the events that happen in Naruto's life are similar to those that happened in Minato's. The most notable being that a lot of Minato and Kushina's romance is echoed by that of [[spoiler:Naruto and Hinata's]], including the two couples falling in love the same way: RescueRomance, with the RedStringOfFate being utilized in both rescue scenarios.

* LongTitle: Prone to giving his (and sometimes other people's) attacks comically long and convoluted names.

* HundredPercentAdorationRating: This is the reason why he became Hokage in the first place. Every inhabitant liked and respected him even members of the Uchiha Clan with whom they had a long of enmity recognized him as the leader of the village.

* PowerUpLetDown: He's shown to be able to use Perfect Sage Mode during the War arc, but he admits that his lack of usage of the transformation prior to his death meant that he could not maintain it for long.