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The Minato Namikaze one shot, titled Naruto: The Whorl Within the Spiral, was released on July 16, 2023. As promised by mangaka Masashi Kishimoto, the winner of the Narutop99 popularity poll received his own one-shot manga of 56 pages, marking a welcome return for the beloved Fourth Hokage.
For the equivalent of a short story, the manga had many things that fans welcomed aside from Minato. This included Kushina getting the spotlight, a major fight, and the origin of one of Naruto's signature jutsu - Rasengan. As such, these are just some of the few highlights of the Minato Namikaze one-shot manga, Naruto: The Whorl Within the Spiral.
Disclaimer: The following article contains spoilers from the recently released Whorl Within the Spiral Naruto manga.
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Highlights from Naruto: The Whorl Within the Spiral: Minato's signature jutsu, Jiraya and Tsunade's cameos, and many more
Minato and Kushina share the narrative
Some Naruto fans were surprised to find out Minato and Kushina sharing the narrative of this short story. While the former was trying to develop his new jutsu to pass on to Kushina, the red-haired kunoichi was seen struggling with managing Kurama's seal. Kushina was Kurama's vessel before Naruto, and this one-shot highlighted the difficulty of being the Kyuubi's host.
This presents several revelations, the chiefest among them being Kushina unable to leave a sealing area without an escort, which confined her to a single building. Her only salvation was seeing Minato every day and learning new jutsu alongside him, particularly sealing jutsu. If her emotions ever boiled over outside the sealing area, the seal around Kurama would weaken, and he would be unleashed.
The Rasengan's origins
In what was arguably the highlight of the short story, Minato's signature Rasengan's origins were detailed. He was attempting to use a spiral and whorl to knead chakra into place for an attack to counteract a Biju bomb. The trouble with doing that was twofold:
- He couldn't get the hang of the kneading of the chakra due to trying too many directions, owing to trying to knead chakra according to the whorl in his hair.
- The original name was too long and wordy: Ice Pop Inspired Nimbus Jiraiya Twin Whorl Sphere.
It finally clicked for him when Jiraiya told him he had twin whorls in his hair and to try both in equal directions, using an ice pop as an example. The result was the first Rasengan.
As far as the name went, that was Kushina's part. Mito Uzumaki gave her a tour of the spiraling tower that she was to live in, which inspired the name. The term "Rasengan" is derived from the spiral that it forms and the ascending helix of the tower. It was considered a far better name than Minato's original one.
A fight with Kurama
Kurama has been a key staple of Naruto since the beginning, which is why a fight to calm his malevolent nature was inevitable. This particular fight was both an inward and outward, owing to Kushina stepping outside the protective seal area and tying the guards up. While it resulted in her gaining freedom, it also showed Kurama's increased attempts to scrape and claw out of Kushina.
On the outside, Kushina went Stage 4 Chakra cloak. On the inside, she was straining with sealing jutsu and chains to keep Kurama down. Minato lent her a hand with a sealing jutsu and countered Kurama's incoming Tailed Beast Bomb with his newly minted Rasengan. It landed him in the hospital, but the teamwork helped calm the beast.
Returns and cameos
Since the one-shot was set in the past, before Kushina and Minato were officially married, there were other characters who made a return or were seen in a cameo. Among them were two tailed beasts, specifically the Four-Tailed Son Gokū and the Five-Tailed Kokuō alongside their Jinchūriki Han and Roshi confronting Jiraiya's Team 6.
Speaking of welcoming returning characters, Jiraiya also returned briefly to help Minato figure out the mechanics behind the Rasengan technique. While the Third Hokage didn't make a spoken appearance, he was mentioned more than once. A silent cameo came from a younger Tsunade, who helped Minato back to proper health following the Kurama fight.
Beautiful art
For a short story, the manga was really well drawn. Most one-shots are not nearly as detailed and are usually there for humorous moments. However, the art here conveyed plenty of emotions, from the serious moments in combat, including a beautiful spread of Minato colliding with Kurama, to the more humoros moments of Minato coming up with the Rasengan's name.
In particular, the final shot of the one-shot could arguably go into a 'Naruto Hall of Fame' for art shots, with Minato smirking and saying he likes the name Rasengan for the jutsu and showing his face positioned exactly where his Hokage Rock monument will be in the future.
Great writing
If there was one thing to take away from this story, it was how well-written the narrative was. The story may be short, but it provides a sneak peek of insight into Minato and Kushina's lives, which the original Naruto could only go into so much in both anime and manga form.
There were no wasted characters or missed opportunity, it was just a short and heartfelt story about three people: Kurama, Minato, and Kushina. The trio were written consistently with how they'll develop later on in Naruto Shippuden. Moreover, Kushina herself was given a backstory, history, and a powerful lesson.
The Naruto one-shot has been well received by the fandom, if fans' comments on social media are anything to go by. The focus on both Minato and Kushina absolutely helped, given they were both characters that the main series never had the chance to focus on.
Many fans are now hoping that these one-shots return for anniversaries. If there are any missing highlights from the one-shot, readers are encouraged to list them in the comments.
