Naruto was born as the son of the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze, and the Nine-Tails' second jinchūriki, Kushina Uzumaki. Naruto's parents named him after the main character of Jiraiya's first book, thus making the Sannin his godfather.[4]
Prior to Naruto's birth, his parents and the Third Hokage knew that the seal that kept the Nine-Tails within Kushina would be in danger of breaking during childbirth. To prevent that threat Kushina was taken a short distance outside of the village to give birth in a secure, secret location, with Biwako Sarutobi and Taji as her midwives, a few ANBU as security, and with Minato keeping the seal in place. However, immediately after Kushina gave birth, Madara Uchiha appeared and took Naruto hostage, demanding that Minato step away from Kushina or he would kill the newborn child. Madara then used a clever diversion that forced Minato to transport the baby to a safer location, allowing him to escape with Kushina. By the time Minato could intervene, Madara had already succeeded in releasing the Nine-Tails.
Fortunately, Kushina (who survived the extraction thanks to her strong vitality) was saved by Minato and brought to Naruto, leaving the weakened mother to care for the sleeping Naruto while Minato went to combat Madara. To save the village, Minato sacrificed his life to seal the Nine-Tails within Naruto, believing that his son would someday have need of the beast's power to defeat Madara's threat once and for all.[5] Suddenly orphaned, Naruto was left to grow up knowing nothing of his parents, receiving only his mother's last name because the Third Hokage thought that it was best that nobody knew that he was related to the Fourth Hokage.
