Hiruzen Sarutobi

"The Will of Fire will be passed down from generation to generation."

- The Third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi was one of the supporting characters of the Naruto franchise. He was originally from Konohagakure's Sarutobi clan. He was part of Team Tobirama alongside Homura Mitokado and Koharu Utatane under the leadership of the Second Hokage. He was also trained by the First Hokage and would later become the teacher of the Legendary Sannin Tsunade, Jiraiya, and Orochimaru.

Background
Born into the Sarutobi clan to Sasuke, Hiruzen was a prodigy who truly stood out in talent. He and his former team-mates, Homura Mitokado and Koharu Utatane, were students of Tobirama Senju, the Second Hokage. He was also trained by Hashirama Senju, the First Hokage. While once a close friend of Danzō Shimura during their early childhood, Danzō developed a one-sided rivalry with Hiruzen who always managed to be a step ahead of him. During the First Shinobi World War,Team Tobirama along with Danzō, Kagami Uchiha and Torifu Akimichi were pursued by enemy Kumogakure ninja. Knowing that one of them would need to be a sacrificial decoy so the others can escape, Hiruzen volunteered. However, Tobirama chose to be the decoy instead, naming Hiruzen his successor while driving a further wedge between his student and Danzō. Later in his life, he married Biwako and became the father of at least two children, Asuma Sarutobi and at least one other, who has yet to be seen in the series. This unnamed child would later give Hiruzen a grandson: Konohamaru Sarutobi and Asuma later, another grandchild.Prior to the Second Shinobi World War, Hiruzen became the teacher of Jiraiya, Orochimaru,and Tsunade. Coming to appreciate Orochimaru's natural talent, Hiruzen saw him as a once in a lifetime genius.However, while explaining to Orochimaru the symbolic significance of a white snake the boy found near his parents' grave, Hiruzen unknowing caused his pupil to go down a dark road while attempting to steer him away from it.After serving as Hokage for many years, Hiruzen started looking for a successor to the title. While he hoped to be able to give the position to Orochimaru, he saw that he only was interested in the power it offered.Though he turned to Jiraiya,Hiruzen instead named Jiraiya's student Minato Namikaze as his successor.In the anime, another one of his students was Kosuke Maruboshi, whom he passed on the Will of Fire to. He also taught him ninjutsu, one of which is the Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique.

Personality
Due to the long life he had lived, Hiruzen served as a source of wisdom for much of the series, passing on the things he had learned to the next 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 more than the container of Kurama, and, as such, became someone that Naruto truly admired, even thinking of Hiruzen as a grandfather-figure.According to Kakashi Hatake, Hiruzen loved his students deeply, including Orochimaru, no matter how far he had fallen.This ideal stems from his belief that Konoha's next generation is a precious resource that must be protected. However, it was the same belief that forced Hiruzen to allow Orochimaru to escape after uncovering his experiments in replicating Hashirama's DNA at the cost of many lives, thus unknowingly allowing his former student to commit even more tragedies. By his own admission, Hiruzen noted that he was too compassionate and indulging of a person, leaving things such as the more underhanded, but necessary, tasks to Danzō. To this end he admitted that he believed that he had failed to carry on the Second Hokage's mission of bringing stability to the village.Hiruzen was also bit lecherous as well, as he enjoyed spending much of his free time talking to young girls, which was his favourite pastime,and when Jiraiya was still his student, he offered to help Jiraiya test the technique 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 more than one occasion, fainting after he saw it.

Abilities
Hiruzen was one of the most powerful shinobi in history, so much so that he was admired as the God of Shinobi (忍の神, Shinobi no Kami) in his prime, and was said to be the strongest Hokage that Konoha has ever had. Even in his old age, he was also said to be the strongest of all the five Kage at the time of his death.Both Naruto and Sasuke would go on to praise his sheer prowess soon after seeing him in action. Enma commented on his battle with Orochimaru, saying that it was "miserable" compared to his prime, even though he had clearly been able to hold his own against Orochimaru and two former Hokage without losing his composure. He was also the longest living and longest reigning Hokage.Although he concedes that in his current state, he might not be able to fight in equal terms with his former student, Hiruzen remains very confident of his abilities; when confronted with the reincarnated First and Second Hokage, after being told by his predecessors that they had no choice but to fight him, Hiruzen simply told them to prepare to be defeated.