Why Hiruzen Is The Worst Hokage In Naruto

In the Naruto universe, Hokages are considered to be the strongest and wisest people in Konoha. They shoulder the responsibility of keeping the citizens safe, maintaining peace with other nations, and working on development. 

However, there is one Hokage, who unfortunately failed on all fronts. Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Third Hokage is not what we believed him to be. 

In this article, we’ll break down why Hiruzen Sarutobi failed to live up to expectations. 

1) A Bad Parent And Grandfather: 

Throughout his life, Hirzuen failed to create a strong bond between himself and Asuma, his son. In a particular instance, Asuma had to sacrifice his teammates to protect a Feudal Lord. Even for this, Hiruzen didn’t even bother to say “good job”. 

When Asuma asked about this, he simply said that Asuma wouldn’t understand the true reason for a King’s importance. While Asuma understood this during his final moments, it is apparent that he was ignored as a child. 

Hiruzen never tried to cultivate the Will of Fire, he only hoped for the newer generation to learn it through experiences, which were either too late or too traumatizing. 

As for his grandson Konohamaru, Hiruzen spoiled him rotten. Because his parents had to work 24/7, Konohamaru didn’t have parental figures. And, his grandfather hired a ninja to be his babysitter, and let it at that. 

If it wasn’t for Naruto leading Konohamaru, there’s a great chance that the child would’ve grown up to become nothing significant and hate his life. 

2) A Worse Teacher: 

While this one might slightly shock you at first, Hiruzen couldn’t be worse as a teacher. Firstly, he let all of his students, i.e. The Legendary Sannin leave the shinobi life. 

This was because of his lack of knowing how to instill the Will Of Fire. Furthermore, he let Orochimaru live several times even though the man wasn’t just a criminal, he committed atrocities against humanity.  

In the end, this came to bite him back. As for Jiraiya, Hiruzen never taught him self-control, and almost all of Jiraiya’s wise thoughts come from his experience of traveling the world. 

As for Tsunade, he literally provided no support to someone who went through a series of traumatic events and developed PTSD. 

Hiruzen never took any true responsibility for his students, and none of his students would’ve become Sannin if it wasn’t for their natural talent and work ethic. 

3) Promoted the Chunin Exam Culture: 

While the Chunin Exams were conducted in Konoha, Hiruzen thought that it would be a great idea to turn these into an inter-nation competition. 

The third Hokage was promoting a deadly competition for children, while the concept of villages was born to prevent the death of children. 

This decision didn’t boost the inter-relations of nations either, he gave them a legal way of showing superiority and building stronger forces to fight. This whole idea is a complete mess. 

4) Let Danzo Do Whatever He Wanted: 

I’m sure that all of you have felt utterly disgusted by Danzo’s decisions. Guess who let him do it? Danzo was the mastermind behind Root, where children like Sai were brainwashed and made to survive the King of the Hill Style of battles. Meanwhile, the world, including Konoha frowned upon the Village Hidden in the Mist for doing the same. 

They are still known as the bloody mist. Hiruzen let Danzo segregate the Uchiha Clan and created animosity between the clan and Konoha. 

It was apparent that Danzo was jealous of Hiruzen, yet the third Hokage let the man do whatever he wanted. 

It is genuinely disgusting how Hiruzen allowed the brainwashing and killing of so many children over experiments and allowed Danzo to do whatever he wanted to basically anybody in the village. 

5) Let The Uchiha Massacre Happen: 

The biggest stain in Konoha’s history was the fault of Hiruzen, too. This man had Itachi, another Uchiha snitching on his brethren at all times, and still couldn’t find a better solution. 

He had all the information needed: What the Uchihas didn’t like, and what they needed. What did he do? Nothing. 

Furthermore, he let Danzo order Itachi to kill his own kind. Takes a deep breath. Just imagine what Itachi felt. This man betrayed his family to prevent a civil war. What did he get for this? An order to annihilate his own clan. 

God, this guy doesn’t understand the power of a Hokage. 

6) Let The Village Elders Take Decisions: 

Throughout his tenure, the third Hokage let the Village Elders force him into taking decisions. Everything was according to their will as if he wanted to please them to be the Hokage for a longer period. 

Hiruzen wanted peace, but he never committed to this goal, he never truly tried to bring about change. 

For example, the elders constantly pressured Tsunade to release an order to kill Sasuke and to prevent Naruto from fighting against Pain in the war. 

As soon as Naruto proved his point, Tsunade would stand up for him against anybody in the world, because she knew that she was the Hokage, not the elders. If it wasn’t for this boldness, the shinobi world would have been crushed in just a few hours. 

7) Cultivated Mistreatment Towards Naruto: 

Worst of all, the sheer mistreatment of Naruto boggles me. Naruto, a Jhinchuriki was forced to live alone, manage his own finances as a child and be self-dependent. No parental figures, no love or support, nothing.

He was traumatized by the whole village, and he did nothing about it. Looking back, he made Naruto into a time bomb. If Naruto hadn’t been as strong-willed as he was, Kurama would’ve managed to come out much sooner. 

Furthermore, Naruto’s treatment is so disrespectful towards Minato and Kushina, who died for the village and entrusted their child to this man; and Hiruzen lets the child be treated as an animal, a monster by a whole goddamn nation. 

8) Led To The Akatsuki’s Creation:

Hiruzen’s decision to let Danzo off the hook resulted in brutal military expansions. Countless innocent people were killed and children were orphaned. Yahiko, Conan, and Nagato were a part of them, too. 

In the end, these three felt so much pain that they had to resort to a twisted belief of justice to desperately try to fix the world in the span of their mortal lives.

So, this is why we believe that Hiruzen is the worst Hokage in the history of the series. Comment your thoughts below!