Naruto: Minato’s side story explores the origin of Rasengan

The highly anticipated Minato’s side story officially makes its debut. Here’s how the manga one-shot explores the origins of one of the series’ most powerful Jutsu.

Naruto’s most famous character isn’t the protagonist or everyone’s beloved Kakashi sensei. Instead, the one who stands at the pinnacle of fame is actually Minato Namikaze, Naruto’s father. The global popularity poll held in April 2023 gave a tremendous victory to the Yellow Flash of Konoha.

The difference in the number of votes between the first and second ranks is a whopping 287k. In May 2023, Naruto’s creator Masashi Kishimoto announced a manga spin-off dedicated to the Fourth Hokage due to Minato’s popularity. The manga was scheduled to release in July 2023. 

Titled “Naruto: The Whorl within the Spiral,” Minato’s side story features the origin of Rasengan and how that name came to be. Fans finally learn the secret behind Minato giving a normal name to a Jutsu. Delve deeper to find out how many Minato’s side story reveals the truth behind Rasengan’s creation.

Minato’s side story reveals how Rasengan was created

Unfortunately, the side story is only a one-shot that features Minato’s adventures as well as the origin of Rasengan. It was released on 17 July 2023, having 56 pages with four colored pages and a cover. The story is set during the warring times when the villages were preying on Konoha’s Nine-Tailed Fox. 

At that time, Minato and Kushina were yet to be married, and the latter had yet to learn how to control the tailed beast properly. Throughout the ordeal, Minato was there to help her and take any risk necessary to ensure her safety. 

Minato’s side story also features Kushina remembering Mito Uzumaki talking about “Rasen,” meaning a helical staircase that leads to a spot where one can clearly see the statues of all the Hokage. Later, after barely controlling the fox with Minato’s help, the latter reveals how he used the Jinchuuriki’s chakra sphere as a reference to create a new Jutsu. 

He calls it “Ice Pop Inspired Nimbus Jiraiya Twin Whorl Sphere,” even though Jiraiya disagreed. As expected, Kushina instantly rejects such a stupid name. Then, she asks him to let her name the Jutsu since he created it for her. She shows the helical staircase to Minato and names the Jutsu “Rasengan.” 

Naruto can currently be streamed on Crunchyroll. In the meantime, you can check out more anime coverage below:

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