how Naruto never found out his father was the Hokage, the hero of the Hidden Leaf Village, and how its inhabitants could keep it a secret from him for so long.

Although fans did not get a full reveal of Minato until Naruto Shippuden, he appears several times throughout Part 1 of the series. He’s never explicitly named, and sometimes he’s not even acknowledged as the Fourth Hokage, but depictions of him can be seen as early as the first episode, where he fends Kurama off from destroying the Hidden Leaf. Although the series is obsessed with keeping the reveal a secret, it did a poor job of making the secret surprising.

The Identity of Naruto’s Dad Is Sprinkled All Over Part 1

The Fourth Hokage Is A Looming Figure In Part 1, And It’s Not Hard To Figure Out Why

Although the Fourth Hokage is one of the first characters seen in the opening moments of Naruto, he’s only seen at a distance. He’s also mentioned several times throughout the series, but a close-up of Minato’s face isn’t seen until episode #56, “Live or Die: Risk it All to Win it All!” The scene juxtaposes from Hokage Rock to a scene showing an older Third Hokage looking at portraits of all the Hokage before him. After showing a portrait of a younger Third, the scene pans to an image of a spikey blond-haired man who looks exactly like Naruto.

Although he isn’t mentioned as Hokage or Naruto’s father at this moment, the cinematography and identical appearance say it all and confirm suspicions keen fans have had since the first episode. However apparent the series made it for viewers to pick up the clues, the secret was ultimately for Naruto and not the fans, no matter how troublesome it eventually became as a viewer. However, this conclusion raises some questions of its own, like how it was possible for an entire village to keep this secret in the first place.

Why Keeping Minato’s Identity a Secret Ultimately Makes No Sense

The Deeper Down the Rabbit Hole, the Less It Makes Sense

Even though the identity of Minato was a secret for Naruto more than its viewers, the logistics of keeping that secret is far too strenuous to believe. Minato, the Fourth Hokage, is revered for giving up his life to save the village. It seems far-fetched that nobody put the clues together themselves to realize the only spikey-haired blonde from the village had an identical son. It’s even wilder to believe none of the adults ever brought it up to the young boy, no matter how afraid of him they were supposed to be.

If Minato is etched into Hokage Rock, which looms over the entire village, there must be a picture Naruto could’ve come across in all his time living there. It raises too many questions as to why the Third Hokage never told him or why Jiraiya, who trained both Minato and Naruto, never revealed who his father was. As his godfather, Jiraiya arguably had a responsibility to tell Naruto himself, but he just never did. It felt like everyone but Naruto knew. Most of all, it makes audiences perceive its protagonist differently once they’ve wisened up to his true origins.

Naruto seems dumb for not being able to realize what most young audiences could do before the official reveal. It also erases Naruto’s entire struggle in Part 1 of not being a prodigy from a superior lineage like Sasuke and having to control and develop his abilities. But by the time the reveal comes late into the sequel series, audiences already know that’s not true.

Although the revelation of Minato's identity as Naruto's father is executed well when it comes, it is still a rocky road to get there, with plenty of holes to poke through that only work due to the love fans have already garnered for Naruto by the time this "big" reveal happens.