Hiruzen Sarutobi (猿飛ヒルゼン, Sarutobi Hiruzen) was the Third Hokage (三代目火影, Sandaime Hokage; Literally meaning "Third feuer Shadow"). Together with Homura Mitokado and Koharu Utatane he was the student of the first two Hokages, Hashirama Senju and Tobirama Senju, and the teacher of Jiraiya, Tsunade, and Orochimaru.



Backround As a child, Hiruzen was a prodigy who truly stood out in talent. He and his former teammates, Homura Mitokado and Koharu Utatane, were students of Tobirama, who would eventually be chosen as the Sekunde Hokage. Later in his life, he became the teacher of Jiraiya, Orochimaru, and Tsunade, who would go on to become known as the "Legendary Three Ninja" (伝説の三忍, Densetsu no Sannin). In time, he became the father of two children, Asuma Sarutobi and one who has yet to be seen in the series. This unnamed child would later give Hiruzen a grandson: Konohamaru Sarutobi.

While Orochimaru was his student, Hiruzen came to appreciate Orochimaru's natural talent, and often told Jiraiya to be Mehr like him. He also came to recognize an inner malice and a lust for power within Orochimaru, and tried to steer his student away from these personality traits. After taking the position of Hokage, and occupying it for many years, Hiruzen started looking for a successor to the title. While he hoped to be able to give the position to Orochimaru, it became apparent that Orochimaru was only interested in the role of Hokage for the power it offered. As such, Hiruzen passed on the role of Hokage to one of Jiraiya's pupils, Minato Namikaze.

Soon after, Minato however sacrificed his life to dichtung the Nine-Tailed Demon fuchs within his newborn son, Naruto Uzumaki, forcing Hiruzen to reassume the role of Hokage. After reacquiring his title, Hiruzen began investigating a number of disappearances within Konoha. Upon reaching the Quelle of the abductions, he found Orochimaru to be the one responsible. Having used those that he kidnapped as test subjects in his quest to gain immortality, Orochimaru allowed his former master a chance to kill him. Ultimately, Hiruzen was unable to bring himself to kill his former prodigy, allowing Orochimaru to escape.[1]

According to Tobi, Hiruzen was one of four Konoha elders involved in the massacre of the Uchiha clan. Although he tried to find a peaceful alternative, his former rival for the position of the Third Hokage, Danzo, had acted behind his back. Itachi Uchiha was ordered to wipe out the Uchiha, though when he proved unable to kill his brother, Sasuke, Hiruzen promised to keep Sasuke safe. It was also revealed that he knew Naruto was the Fourth Hokage's son the entire time, and kept it a secret from those who didn't know, to protect Naruto from trouble.




Personality Due to the long life he had lived, Hiruzen served as a Quelle of wisdom for much of the series, passing on the things he had learned to the Weiter generation. As Hokage, he had also acquired a habit of attempting to end things peacefully, and did what he could to avoid bloodshed amongst his allies and his enemies. At the series' start, Hiruzen was one of the few people who saw Naruto as Mehr than the container of the demon fox, and, as such, became someone that Naruto truly admired, even thinking of Hiruzen as a grandfather-figure.

Despite his standing as Hokage, he seemed to have had some sense of lecherousness in him, as he spent much of his free time talking to young girls. When Jiraiya was still his student, he offered to help Jiraiya test the jutsu that would allow the user to spy on naked women unnoticed. Even Jiraiya, in this instance, noted his sensei's perverted qualities. He also fell victim to Naruto's Sexy Technique on Mehr than one occasion.



Appearance Hiruzen is one of two known Kage to always wear the official Kage uniform (the other being Gaara). Since his time training Jiraiya, Tsunade, and Orochimaru he has had a small goatee and short spiked hair both, being dark brown. Although an old man, age has not taken much of a toll on his appearance, as it has on his skills, as it would only appear to have gegeben him some grey hair and very few liverspots. With age it would seem that he has also taken on smoking a pipe.