Hokages

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Find out all you need to know about the Hokages that have and are ruling Konoha!
1st Hokage
Name: Unknown (Referred to as Shodai Hokage)
Strengths: Herculean Strength, Secret tree Jutsu
Family Members: The 2nd Hokage (Brother), Tsunade (Granddaughter), and Nawaki (Grandson)
Students: Sarutobi the 3rd Hokage (Deceased), Homura, and Koharu the Hokage's advisors

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Sixty years ago, Shodai Hokage led a group of Shinobi to a lush forest land and founded the village of Konoha. Unfortunately during that chaotic era, he passed away shortly after the creation of the village.
He later returned in the series when Orochimaru resurrected him using the Impure World Resurrection (Kyuchiyose Edo Tensei) and was forced to fight his former disciple. The 3rd had to stop his former teacher and used the 4th's Demonic Soul Seal (Fuuinjutsu Shiki Fuujin) sealing his soul into one of his Kage Bunshins. With this jutsu, whoever's soul is sealed will suffer for all eternity in the belly of the Shinigami, never gaining release, hating each other and battling for all of eternity. Shodai Hokage's fighting style is a direct one, preferring to attack the opponent head on in hand to hand combat rather than attack from a distance or rely on jutsus to do his dirty work. Sadly because of this, we only see him use one jutsu.
The Secret Tree Element Technique: Birth of the Trees (Mokuton Hijutsu, Jukai Koutan), is a secret technique that (allegedly) only he could use and a number of the large trees growing in Konoha were created with this technique. By using his chakra as a source of life, Shodai Hokage can cause massive trees to grow exponentially fast as well as control their movement whilst they grow. This is particularly useful for ensnaring opponents or wrecking buildings and is truly one of the coolest jutsus ever. When Orochimaru discovered that only those with the bloodline of the 1st Hokage could control Bijuu, he decided to break into the grave of the 1st and steal his DNA. He then implanted the DNA into 52 test children. Only one survived as a clone of the 1st and his name was Yamato.

2nd Hokage
Name: Unknown (Referred to as Nidaime Hokage)
Strengths: Genjutsu, Water Style Jutsus, Agility
Family Members: The 1st Hokage (Brother), Tsunade (Grandniece), and Nawaki (Grandnephew)
Students: Sarutobi the 3rd Hokage (Deceased), Homura, and Koharu the Hokage's advisors

Info: The cofounder and creator of the Konoha, he was the 2nd Hokage. He is the younger brother of the 1st Hokage and took over the role of Hokage when his brother stepped down. Nidaime inherited his older brother's will and was responsible for the creation of the Ninja Academy and others organizations within the village. The great ninja war broke out afterwards; in his dying moment, Nidaime instructed the future generation to pacify the war and ensure the village's prosperity. He later returned in the series when Orochimaru resurrected him using the Impure World Resurrection (Kyuchiyose Edo Tensei) and was forced to fight his former disciple. The 3rd had to stop his former teacher and used the 4th's Demonic Soul Seal (Fuuinjutsu Shiki Fuujin) sealing his soul into one of his Kage Bunshins. In contrast to his brother, who prefers to assault the enemy head on, Nidaime is a more nimble fighter preferring to capitalize on his speed and agility to catch his opponents off guard. He is also very dangerous at a distance thanks to his prowess with Water Style techniques, and he can even use extremely powerful water attacks in areas with no water nearby, a feat that has yet to be repeated.

3rd Hokage
Name: Sarutobi
Strengths: Knowledge of over 1,000 Jutsus, Genius intelligence, Summoning
Family Members: Konohamaru (Grandson), Asuma Sarutobi (Son)
Students: Jiraiya, Tsunade, and Orochimaru

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Sarutobi is a kind old man in every sense of the word; he regards everyone living in Konoha has a family member often acting like a grandfather to his people instead of just their leader. His biggest drive in life is to keep Konoha safe and to keep the people who live there happy.
He is also known to be a bit of a pervert as seen by his vulnerability to Naruto's Sexy Jutsu as well as his interest in young Jiraiya's peeping techniques. Despite his calm and kindly exterior however, he is an incredibly strong leader with guts and willpower to match. Not much is known about Sarutobi's life before he became Hokage. We do know that as a Jounin he was in charge of training the Gennins that would one day become the 2 Legendary Sennins, Jiraiya, Tsunade, and Orochimaru, and that he pioneered the "get the bells" drill the Kakashi would later employ on Naruto and the rest of team seven. After the 4th Hokage was chosen he decided to retire and let the 4th run the village, but after the 4th died fighting Kyuubi Sarutobi took the position of Hokage once again.
It was because of his leadership skills that lead Konoha to victory and peace against both the Earth and Thunder countries. He took great interest in Orochimaru as a student because of Orochimaru's genius and hoped he would someday inherit the title of Hokage and rule the village justly. This dream blinded him from seeing Orochimaru's inner malice until one day Orochimaru was caught experimenting on Konoha ninjas trying to create in immortality jutsu. Even when confronted by this evidence, Sarutobi still couldn't bring himself to kill his former student and Orochimaru escaped to wreck havoc later.
Prior to the Wind and Sound country's invasion of Konoha he was planning on staying in office for 5 more years before choosing a 5th Hokage, but that plan was never realized do to his defeat at Orochimaru's hands, but even in defeat the 3rd managed to save his homeland by stealing the life-force from Orochimaru's hands which rendered them useless, and him jutsu-less. Being a master of over 1,000 jutsus, including every secret jutsu in Konoha, Sarutobi has a pretty nice arsenal of moves to choose from, though he seems to favor fire and earth style jutsus.
This is most likely due to the fact the fire jutsus are Konoha's specialty and the fact that he spent a great deal of time fighting against enemy ninjas from the earth country, thus he has a great deal of experience with them. But his arsenal alone is not what makes him so dangerous, it's the way he uses and combines them that lead to him being called the most powerful Hokage of all time (at least, when he was in his prime). An example of this was seen in his fight with Orochimaru wherein he combined the Earth Style; Earth Dragon Missile (Doton, Doryuudan), a jutsu that causes a dragon head of mud to rise up and spit mud missiles at the opponent, with the Fire Dragon Missile (Karyuudan) which causes the user to breath intends flames, to create missiles of molten lava. Like most upper level Shinobis, Sarutobi also knows the Summoning Jutsu (Kyuichose No Jutsu); in his case he is able to summon monkeys. The only one of whom we've seen him summon (and most likely the strongest of the monkeys) is Enma, the eldest Monkey a.k.a. The Monkey God, King Enma. While he's not as large as some of the other Kyuichose No Jutsu animals, Enma's extremely tough, as he is able to physically fend off a Kage level opponent without too much difficulty.
His true power though, is his unique ability to transform into a black and gold Bo staff called the "Free Forming Diamond pole," (Kongou Nyoi). As its name suggests this weapon is as hard as a diamond and can adjust its size and length at will. not only that, but since Enma is the actual weapon itself he/it can move around completely unaided, he can also multiply himself and cause his eyes and arms to sprout from anywhere on the pole.
As a last resort Sarutobi has the ability to call on the most power and most dangerous jutsu created by the 4th Hokage, the Demonic Soul Seal (Fuuinjutsu Shiki Fuujin). This is the same technique the 4th used to seal Kyuubi inside Naruto's body so the sheer power of this jutsu is beyond compare. This Jutsu allows the user to call upon a Shinigami or "Death God" which joins with the actions of the user.
Shinigami reaches into an outline of a soul in front of him which is actually the user. When the user grabs the victim, the Shinigami extends his hand through the soul outline and comes out from the stomach of the user.
The Shinigami's hand goes into the enemy's stomach where from it literally rips the soul out. After the soul is pulled back into the user, the user says "Fuuin" (Seal) this completes the seal of the soul in the user's body. This can be used until the user runs out of energy, and since it is a sealing jutsu, there is a price. The user pays the price with his life, which death devours. The souls of both the user and the target are kept in the belly of the Shinigami, and will suffer for all eternity in the belly of the Shinigami never gaining release, hating each other and battling for all of eternity. Apparently if the soul is not completely extracted from the body, Death can cut part of it and seal just the part which he has grasped. In Orochimaru's case this was his arms, which are now lifeless and unusable.

4th Hokage
Name: Namikaze Minato
Strengths: Speed, Rasengan
Family Members: Naruto Uzumaki, Uzumaki Kushina
Students: Kakashi Hatake, Rin, Obito Uchiha
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Sadly we haven't seen much of this Konoha legend in action so most info on him comes from the testimony of other characters in the story. All we really know about Minato is that he was the Jounin who trained Kakashi and that he was the one who defeated Kyuubi by sealing him inside Naruto's body. The most dangerous thing about Minato was his insane speed gained thanks to his Body Flicker Jutsu (Shunshin no Jutsu). This jutsu instantly transports him to anyplace he wants, hence the nickname "Yellow Flash of Konoha" and can be used over long distances as long as he knows exactly where he's going.
Another jutsu that Minato uses involes special kunais. These kunais are made so wherever they are throw, the 4th Hokage can immediately teleport to its location. This technique is particularly effective on large numbers of enemies; Minato will simply distribute his special kunai to ally ninja and tell them to throw them at different targets at the same time, then simply teleport to the location and finish off his opponents.
This attack can literally defeats a whole army almost instantly. Minato is also one of only four people in the Naruto world able to use the Rasengan, as well as its creator. While we don't know the peculiars of the Rasengan's birth, we do know it took Minato three years to perfect the technique. Based on Gamabunta's testimony we also know that Minato was able to use the Summoning Jutsu (Kyuichose No Jutsu) to summon frogs just like his teacher. As a last resort Minato has the ability to call on the most power and most dangerous Jutsu that he himself created, the Demonic Soul Seal (Fuuinjutsu Shiki Fuujin), the Jutsu that sealed Kyuubi inside Naruto. This Jutsu allows the user to call upon a Shinigami or "Death God" which joins with the actions of the user.
Shinigami reaches into an outline of a soul in front of him which is actually the user. When the user grabs the victim, the Shinigami extends his hand through the soul outline and comes out from the stomach of the user. The Shinigami's hand goes into the enemy's stomach where from it literally rips the soul out. After the soul is pulled back into the user, the user says "Fuuin" (Seal) this completes the seal of the soul in the user's body. This can be used until the user runs out of energy, and since it is a sealing Jutsu, there is a price. The user pays the price with his life, which death devours. The souls of both the user and the target are kept in the belly of the Shinigami, and will suffer for all eternity in the belly of the Shinigami never gaining release, hating each other and battling for all of eternity. However in the 4th's case he somehow moved Kyuubi's soul into Naruto's body instead of into the Shinigami's stomach, it is presently unknown exactly how he accomplished this, but it's a good thing he did.

5th Hokage
Name: Tsunade
Strengths: Medical Jutsu, Summoning, Insane Physical Strength, Giant Knockers
Family Members: The 1st Hokage (Grandfather), Nawaki (Brother)
Students: Shizune, Sakura Haruno
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Despite growing up during the great ninja wars, Tsunade's younger days were pleasant ones, ninja training with Jiraiya and Orochimaru (who was still a creep back then, but not yet an evil one), living with her little brother, Nawaki (who bears a slight resemblance to Naruto), etc., life was good. Things started to change on Nawaki's 12th birthday, when Tsunade gave him a very special present, a rare stone necklace belonging to their grandfather the 1st Hokage. Nawaki was of course extremely happy to get this as he too dreamed of one day becoming Hokage and protecting Konoha* just like their Grandfather did. Shortly after that day Nawaki was killed, the only details we are given regarding his death are that it happened on some mission and it was really messy, but it is suspicious that Orochimaru ended up in possession of the necklace until Tsunade arrived to see the damage. After Nawaki's death, Tsunade went to government meetings began to push for the training of medical ninjas to be included in squads to reduce the deaths of Konoha ninjas.
Her idea was promptly rejected, not because of lack of interest in her ideas, but lack of time and resources needed to train medical ninjas. One Jounin however, stood up of the idea as he had just lost his little sister in a raid on the village, but to no avail. After that meeting, Tsunade and Dan the Jounin became very close, so close in fact, that the night before the two were to leave on a huge mission Tsunade presented him with the necklace that had belonged to her brother (and grandfather) because Dan too wanted to become Hokage to keep others from feeling the pain he felt after losing his sister.
Sadly, during the mission Dan was severely wounded and in the end the bled to death as Tsunade tried desperately to close the wound. From that night on, Tsunade developed a paralyzing fear of blood due to the fact that she was covered with the stuff after Dan bled to death. She also became disenchanted with the life of a ninja and left Konoha with her apprentice Shizune. Many years later, after the death of the 3rd Hokage at the hands of Orochimaru the Konoha government needed to find a new 5th Hokage fast, the first offered the position to Jiraiya, but he refused.
He then volunteered to go on a trip to find Tsunade so she could fill the position, making sure to take Naruto with him for special jutsu training. While Naruto worked perfecting Jiraiya's jutsu, Jiraiya went from place to place seeing if anyone had seen her (and doing a shit load of drinking and partying). Anyways, after while Jiraiya and Naruto found her, but unknown to them, so had Orochimaru, who had met with her in secret offering her the resurrection of Nawaki and Dan in exchange for healing his damaged arms.
At first she cannot decide, so Orochimaru gives her a week to think it over. During this time, she does some soul searching ad spends time with Jiraiya and Naruto, after hearing their offer to become 5th Hokage, she refuses, and as Naruto often does, he pisses off Tsunade saying that she's an old bat who can't do any good for the village anyways, and how he's going to be the best Hokage ever. After a few minutes of this, Tsunade's famous temper flares up and she beats the shit out of Naruto using only one finger.
After smacking him around for a few minutes, she offers Naruto a bet, if he can master his new Jutsu in one week, she'll acknowledge that he has the potential to become a strong Hokage, and give him the necklace that once belonged to the 1st Hokage (and her brother, and her boyfriend, but I digress). If Naruto fails to master the Jutsu, then Tsunade gets all of Naruto's pocket money, which is quite a lot considering he just won a big lottery in a nearby village. So the days pass, and the day for Tsunade's big decision arrives, all the signs say that she's going to accept Orochimaru's offer. She leaves alone for an abandoned area, even resorting to drugging Jiraiya so he won't follow.
After some brief temptation, she at last changes her mind and decides not only to not heal Orochimaru's hands, but to defeat him, as the 5th Hokage! She also overcomes her fear of blood in order to fight off Orochimaru and his subordinate. At about that time reinforcements show up in the form of Jiraiya who is still drugged so he's only at about 1/3 of his normal power, Shizune, Naruto who's just mastered his new Jutsu and won the bet. What follows is a massive Smackdown between the most powerful ninja's ever. In the end, Orochimaru is beaten and flees off with his underlings, while Naruto is seriously wounded. Fearing a repeat of what happened with Dan; Tsunade desperately tries to heal Naruto, and just barely pulls it off.
It is then admits Naruto has won their bet and the 1st Hokage's necklace changes hands for the final time. After their ordeal Naruto, Jiraiya, Tsunade, Shizune and Ton-Ton all return to Konoha where Tsunade is inaugurated as the 5th Hokage. Honestly though, she's not well suited to the task, she hates doing the necessary office work and if left unchecked by Shizune, would rather spend the whole day drinking and lounging. Her medical skills often come in particularly useful in healing Rock Lee's damaged spine and the various injured Gennins after Sasuke's betrayal, after which Sakura becomes her new protege feeling worthless after her was powerless to stop Sasuke from leaving. Being a medical Ninja, Tsunade does not possess much in the way of combat jutsus (comparatively speaking), but instead takes advantage of her insane physical strength to over whelm opponents, it has even been remarked that one "clean hit" from her is enough to finish any opponent. As with all her fellow Sennins however, she is also skilled with the Summoning Jutsu (Kyuichose No Jutsu), in her case summoning slugs to do her bidding (yes, I said slugs). Sadly, the only one we've met thus far is her most power ally, a rather shy, 6 story tall slug named Katsui, seen here using her signature, 'Acid of 1000 Fangs Jutsu' (Zeshi Nensan). When all else fails though, Tsunade does possess one final trump card, her Genesis of Rebirth Jutsu (Ninpo, Sozo Saise). You see, that small diamond on her forehead is actually a seal that she uses to store vast amounts of unused chakra, when the Genesis of Rebirth is activated the seal expands to its full shape and all the compressed chakra is released.
This chakra not only heals all damage to her body and organs, but can actually regenerate any lost body tissue, making it almost impossible for Tsunade to die in battle. There are however three disadvantages to using this technique; 1) the Jutsu has a strict time limit, and after her time is up, she's completely helpless, as in can't do shit for the rest of the battle, 2) she's so weak after the time limit is up that she is unable to maintain her Anti-Aging Jutsu, and thus reverts to her natural form until she regains her strength, and 3) The number of times human cells can divide is finite, and by forcing her cells into over drive this technique actually shortens her overall life span, so it must the used with extreme caution.