Ok im bored and ran out of good content so fuck it lets do this. Decided not to publicize it for so long bc its difficult.
This is my boldest and most prized contribution to this cursed fandom, as well as my dearest tribute to Tobirama, the best political character ive ever read in fiction, and his anija.
warning - this might not be for people with too heavy leaning on anti-konoha, anti-Hashirama sentiments or ships that's not hashimito or tobirama/konoha, or take the timings and numbers of the databook too seriously.
Hashirama is vaguely hinted to canonically have retired as Shodai years earlier, then married Mito, then lived till 10-20 years after VOTE and died in or before the 2nd War.
Tobirama died first in the 1st War. The scene where he sacrificed himself for his squad happened before the VoTE fight, not after. It's his death that signaled the End.
Hashirama losing his power/ability to lead due to possible depression and keeping a low profile (no one could know how and when the Shinobi God died because village situations, and there were sensors and trackers who could find him) is the reason why he didnt know the motive of the Police Force that Tobirama created, and also struggled with Kurama to the point he needed Mito to LEND him power, when earlier he could beat both Kurama and Madara.
Zetsu made up bullshit about Tobirama burying and letting Madara escape with a clone, based that assumption on Tobirama's reputation of creating weird jutsus involving sacrifices, most likely framing him for his surbodinates' doings, because Tobirama totally never knew Tsunade, possibly never even met Mito and dealt with a jinchuuriki, while Hashirama did both, comparing teenage Sakuras power to Tsunade's.
Zetsu also would not have been near there to know what the senju brothers did because they were both sensors that could detect him. Hashirama was the one who buried Madara.
As Onoki said this summit was to end minor conflicts, it happened right after Konoha was founded, not right before the WW. the 2nd kages looked much younger than in the VOTE/WW era. Hashirama likely had other means, more temporary and less effective, to restrain Kurama at this point (his mokuton and necklace) The databook also never said Hashirama died in which war.
Tsunade and Tobirama had no recollection of each other outside Tsunade only calling him distantly 'nidaime' since part 1 and only 'heard' about the ones who killed him.
meanwhile Hashirama was too familiar with tsunade as she with him, and familiar with the village and people, so that he could recall his memories with it despite just having seen it before he died like weve been told.
He talked like he's been through 2 wars with them.
Our second known grandkid of Hashirama was Nawaki, who was 11 years younger than Tsunade. Unless his first son has multiple children in short years which is pure fanfiction, how would he know Tsunade was his 'first' grandkid and how she would turn out 'in the end' if he died when she was this small.
Also the fact that Hashirama didnt wear Konoha headband in the VOTE fight.
But did wear it when he married Mito. Tsunade was not Mito's grand daughter.
As for how he died, its in battle, probably to a nobody mob while protecting his clan or Mitos clan (both conveniently destroyed or disappeared after hes dead). And by the time they killed him and he let them do that, i doubt they even realized or remembered they killed the First Hokage and God of Shinobi. I mean youd think whoever killed him should have been insanely famous, regardless of his power level at the time.
Tobirama said "my role as Second Hokage was to stand between and meditate between brother and Madara while protecting the village" this raised eyebrows because there would have been no one to stand between if he only became Second after Hashirama died and Madara left (forever). Meaning Hashirama was alive when Tobirama became Second, and it had been like that for a long time.
This is what a japanese fan thought of Tobirama's death
Between the two brothers, it makes more sense for the 'normal' one who invented jutsu that defied the law of nature, including
ninja nuclear bombs,
Summoning the dead and giving them infinite chakra
clones only reserved for monster chakra reserves like Naruto with Kurama in him
and a teleportation jutsu that required 5 people in place of an absolute genius like Minato to do- moderately,
rather than a powerful monster with the same annount of chakra as a bijuu AND sage mode that heals himself, to die earlier out of illness.
This is also why Hashirama would ban Tobiramas jutsu and compiled them into HIS scroll seen in the very first chapter - they likely literally shorten ones life. Hashirama wouldnt want random people to drop dead using them...like his brother.
Some more readings on which Japanese samurai characters that have been Kishimoto's references for the founders.
Oda Nobunaga - Hashirama's first concept when he was a scary rugged scarred and big nosed guy, the one who stopped the genenations long wars, unified japan and died right after realizing the dream, but he died partly because of his brutality and crimes in life - he ACTUALLY killed his brother by blood among others of his family who betrayed him. His successor has nickname 'Saru'.
Ashikaga Takauji - Hashirama's later concept, first shogun of his era but softer big brother guy.
Ashikaga Tadayoshi - Takauji's younger brother who stepped up where he couldnt, disagreed with Takauji on politics and died 5 years before his brother did, in defeat but also there are sources that say he suffered some kind of illness before that.
Ko no Moronao - Takauji's close friend who Tadayoshi hated and was later exiled.
More references in Japanese creation mythos involving Izanagi and Izanami, where Izanagi killed his Fire god son Kagutsuchi after Izanamis death, hence his words "my very own child".
ello there! Apologies for the ask but this thought has been stuck in my mind for a bit and since you are the Resident Hatake Gal™ I thought that you would be the one to most likely have an answer. That question being what the time frame was with sakumo failing the mission and his death.
I don't recall it ever being stated in canon and it's never really brought up in the fandom. Or if it is I'm just oblivious and miss it which, in that case, my bad ^^'. But I'm quite curious as by going off some of the info canon and you have gathered the time frame doesn't seem to be very long.
And something I've noticed when it comes to any flashbacks or even scenes of sakumo is that the length of his hair varies. Some scenes have it short (Like with the baby gai and kakashi meeting) while some have it longer. And while I could be wrong on this, in the scene where minato talks to obito about sakumo, when it gets to the part of his death it looks as if sakumos hair is short. While in the ending 33 (I believe? Sorry if I'm wrong) sakumos hair is longer.
Im going to assume that short haired sakumo was before/shortly after the mission while long haired sakumo was after the mission. But then that brings up the question of how long exactly was the time between the failure of the mission and his death.
And I know this is anime and Naruto at that but hair doesn't just grow overnight. And while I am by far not an expert on hair nor old men I assume that to get to that length of hair would take a couple of months, hell maybe a year. And I'd assume that as you age the growth of your hair would slow due to, yknow, growing old and your body gradually falling apart.
Honestly, to me, I'd make the most sense if there was around maybe 6-8 months between sakumos mission and his death. But then again the Naruto timeline is so funky that I barely even know wtf is happening and when half of the time.
Sorry again fir the ask! And sorry if I was yapping too much. The tism took one look at the hatakes and called dibs so they've been rotating in my brain like a goddam. Rotisserie chicken for the past week or so. The main reason for this ask was 1. Because I was mentally reviewing the timeline and was stuck when it came to this. 2. I want to (try) and write a fanfic to feed and calm the beast that is the tism. And 3. I'm tired so the overwhelming shame and anxiety I'll inevitably have in a couple of hours for daring to be remotely social haven't kicked in yet.
God this is so long. I'm so sorry. While I'm at it I also heavily apologize for spam liking a lot of your posts. In general I just apologize for everything. Wish I could've put this on anon but I know that some anons can be unhinged and little bitches so it's understandable! Anyway uh goodbye and I hope you'll have a great rest of the week!
Hiii ☺️ sorry it took me a couple of days to answer, life was lifing as usual 😅
Wow! You really got me thinking of things I've never even considered before.
Okay so since Naruto timeline is so weird that we all have to come up with all kinds of headcanons to make sense of it which resulted in so many contradicted headcanons going against each other, I'm going to only consider the official and canon sources regardless of the scenes we have from filler episodes.
So the first canon fact that we have in the manga about Sakumo's cursed mission is that it happened 5 years before the Kanabi bridge incident (which was when Kakashi was promoted to Jounin)
So this was speaking about the mission itself not his death and according to Boruto which is unfortunately official, Kakashi was promoted to Jounin when he was 12 years old so this means he was 7 years old when Sakumo had that mission. And according to the novel "Kakashi Retsuden" which is also official Kakashi wasn't even 10 when Sakumo died
So it means he was about 9 years old when Sakumo died so that means that the poor man spiraled in depression for 2 years until he reached the point of taking his own life 💔 which now that I think about it, it makes a lot of sense because it doesn't happen over night to reach this point and reading this part of the manga again
It does seem like it took a lot of time for the damages to reflect in the village and then a lot of abuse and bullying by everyone for both Sakumo's body and soul to deteriorate this much, like he must have stopped training or going to mission for a good time for his body to also get weaker along with his mind 😢😢
Now about his hair! I thought about this a lot and yeah for his hair to go from this
To this...
It takes time... And I mean TIME!! Like, I'm talking years!!.
And thinking about it now, those scenes of short-haired Sakumo were all with pre academy Kakashi. specifically, the ones with little baby Gai and Dai were when Kakashi was accepted to the academy and since we know from the manga that it only took Kakashi one year in the academy before he graduated at 5 years old this means that Kakashi was 4 when we last saw short-haired Sakumo. However the ones with long-haired Sakumo were from Kakashi's memory of Sakumo after his death and from Kakashi's meeting with Sakumo in the afterlife which also made me notice the way short haired Sakumo looked so much younger and healthier than long-haired Sakumo
So assuming that the way Sakumo looked during his meeting with Kakashi in the afterlife was the same way he looked right before his death especially that Kakashi himself during that meeting also looked the same way he did before his own death too.
So that wrinkles-free short-haired Sakumo screenshot on the left (when Kakashi was 4) was 5 years before that tired looking older long-haired Sakumo on the right (when Kakashi was 9) and I believe those 2 years of depression, stress and abuse contributed greatly to how old and tired he looked before his death because even tho you can grow your hair that much in 5 years, usually people do not get this old in 5 years unless they weren't in a healthy state of mind and body which definitely can make people age way faster than they should 😓💔
there are many things i think star wars sucked at. many i would gladly punch someone in the face to change. and many i would happily ignore for the rest of my life.
but thank GOD, thank GOD for their timeline. their well-kept, efficiently dated BBY system.
as an ao3 author in both the naruto and star wars fandoms. i can say. that having a nonexistent timeline. is the most FRUSTRATING SHIT
how did it go building up that timeline u talked about the other day? :0
well, it's been going pretty steady. but that is mostly because this is more of a Kakashi and Iruka centric project, so I've only been focused on their existence making sense and not the greater scheme of things
basically, the original problem is that there is a lot of contradicting statements regarding what ages characters were at certain points of the story, and it is particularly bad with Kakashi. you would think that he is significantly younger than his peers based on some info, but then other stuff ages him up?
it's super weird.
my timeline is pieced together under the assumption that Kakashi is 13 during the Nine Tails Attack, while Iruka was 10. everything else is built from there
this is what i have so far (again, the events are from Kakashi's life)
Iruka and Kakashi have a gap of 2 years 8 months according to this timeline, which makes sense imo. i'm very much assuming when in the year a lot of things happen, but it's been working so far
calculating other character's age is rather easy from here. but i do think that most of Kakashi's peers should be at least two years older than him for everything to make sense. so, Rin and Obito are around 14 for the Kannabi Bridge incident
Asuma, Kurenai and the rest of their class are around the same age too, give or take a year since they are filtered by skill and not solely by age. the only one i can't decide is if Gai should be the same age as Kakashi (born on the same year) or a year older
This has to be one of the most coherent timelines of Naruto I've ever seen. And the cleanest too. But I AM curious about something. The only times the First great shinobi world war are acknowledged is the year it ended and the one that came just before that. I reread the whole timeline again and all the other wars have designated years, both for their endings AND beginnings. And it looked like the peace treaty attack was BEFORE the first war even started too. Did I read that wrong? Or am I slow?
Firstly, thank you very much! Yes, there is no starting year for the First Shinobi War on that timeline. Admittedly, having composed that timeline over a number of years (I think it’s almost 8 years old now, eep!) it’s sometimes a little hard to remember why I did or didn’t add something in.
But looking at it now, I think the reason I didn’t put in a beginning year is that I didn’t think there was anything that even gave hint to guess. While there’s definitely a lot of guesstimating in the whole thing, I usually do try to back ideas up with something seen in-text. There’s a lot of room between the first Five Kage Summit and an all out war, and the tie-in books are purposely vague about the outbreak by saying that few records remain.
The peace treaty isn’t necessarily before the war, it just has to predate the battle that Tobirama dies in (because he’s there doing the treaty) so that’s why it’s before the first “known” event in the war. It isn’t explicitly stated in the English manga that the allyship ceremony is part of the war, so that’s why it doesn’t have the same label. It could’ve been part of the war, but incident could’ve also been something that led to the outbreak of war.
If I absolutely had to hazard a guess, it’s possible the war’s outbreak could’ve happened around the time of Hashirama’s death, which I would place about 3 years prior to the Tobirama v. Kinkaku unit battle. That’s not based on any particular scene, but on the idea that Hashirama was the glue holding the alliances of the Hidden Villages together. The Uchiha factions would be forming close to this time. So the villages would lose the person keeping them most in check, and there’d be Konoha’s vulnerability imposed by internal strife. That still doesn’t give an exact time, because we don’t know who attacked whom and when, but you could place it the same year or shortly after.
trying to understand the naruto timeline while writing a fic is like looking into my yarn box and finding that my sisters went digging with no regard for tangles, mixing fifteen different shades of brown into a monstrous mess that resembles a bloodthirsty cat ready to kill me if i touch it
Naruto's Great Shinobi Wars— aka, Masashi Kishimoto's fucked-up timeline
So. The Great Shinobi Wars are a mess and a half.
Assuming that the ages given in the official databooks makes sense and that Kishimoto is consistent in his character design when it comes to indications of age (neither of which have proven to be reliable metrics but we gotta start SOMEWHERE), let’s work backwards.
It’s implied that the Third Great Shinobi War ends around the time that Minato became the Fourth Hokage, because of why Hiruzen stepped down: to take the blame of ending the unfruitful campaign and accepting the sunk cost rather than continuing to throw resources into pursuing the war further (which is what Danzo and presumably a fair number of people wanted). Therefore, the Third War had to have ended before Minato and Kushina died and Naruto was born.
Okay, so Minato was probably the shortest-reigning Hokage of all time. Weird, but not that weird.
We also know that the Third Shinobi War only ended after Kirigakure kidnapped Rin and stuffed the Three-Tails inside her à la Trojan Horse, which occurs several months after the Kannabi Bridge mission featured in Kakashi Gaiden, which in turn takes place when Kakashi is 12. Considering he's listed as age 26 going on 27 in the events of Part One, this event must have happened about three years before Naruto was born.
But the war couldn't have ended before Itachi at age 4 was brought along by his father Fugaku to witness the carnage of a battlefield. Since he was 5 when Sasuke and Naruto were born, that means the Third Great Shinobi War didn’t end until after the 9th of June in the year before Naruto’s birth.
The real question is, how long did the war last?
With the new NARUTOP 99 one-shot, Naruto Gaiden: Whirlwind Within the Vortex, we get this one crucial panel.
Kakashi only met Gai once they enrolled into the Academy, and neither of these three kiddos have forehead protectors [hitai-ate] in this image. We know that Kakashi graduated from the Academy as a genin at the age of 5, and that Kakashi is 26 going on 27 in Part One of Naruto. Therefore, Whirlwind in the Vortex must take place around two decades before Part One.
That said, nowhere in this one-shot is it explicitly mentioned which war is being fought. We only know that the conflict involves Konoha and Iwa on opposite sides, which is true of the Third War, yes, but is by no means specifically unique to the Third War. Guess this scene needs to be tabled.
Okay, so what else happened during the Third War?
Ao steals a byakugan from a member of the Hyuga clan. Sasori was out there doing something— likely fighting a defensive front, going by his "Red Sands" [Akasuna] moniker. The Third Tsuchikage reluctantly accepts a peace treaty between Iwa and Konoha delivered by the senior Ino-Shika-Cho trio with the Fourth Kazekage supervising (because they're doing it along the border to the Land of Wind for some reason), with a major contributing factor to his decision being the retreat of a thousand Iwa-nin after Minato said "It's flashin' time" and Yellow-Flashed all over those guys a while before that. The Third Raikage was killed after fighting for three consecutive days in order to cover the retreat of his troops against a large force of an unknown nationality, but most likely either Konoha or Iwa, considering the geography and what little we know of political tensions between the villages. Some time before this, Minato encounters the then-future Fourth Raikage and Killer B and proves himself faster than the lightning cloak by out-speeding them using the Flying Thunder God.
Great. Fantastic. Doesn't tell us anything about when the Third War actually started. Does the wiki have anything?
Because of a decline in national power, the reign of the Five Great Shinobi Countries was crumbling. Along their borders, skirmishes with smaller nations broke out all the time. The prolonged conflicts gradually spread their flames far and wide, until at last it developed into an all-out war.
Fuck's sake, fine, let's also table that. What about the Second War?
Believe it or not, we actually have even less about this one. Sure, there are a lot of major players involved— the Ame orphans were found by the Legendary Sannin and eventually trained by Jiraiya, said Legendary Sannin got their moniker from fighting Hanzo, Hatake Sakumo probably earned his moniker as the "White Fang" and killed Sasori's parents during this time, Chiyo was having her poison-vs-cure production contest with Tsunade, Tsunade's lover Kato Dan died (likely fighting Iwa, based on the nature of his injury), and Tsunade's little brother Nawaki died. It's also highly likely that Kumo's attempt to kidnap Kushina happened around this time, seeing as Minato and Kushina were both Academy-age, aka no more than twelve years old.
And of course, we know fuck-all about everyone's ages at this time— except for Sasori.
This is Studio Pierrot's character reference sheet for the young Sasori that we see in the flashback after his parents have been killed. Now, I know this image isn't of great quality, but you know what his height is listed as? Either 115 cm or 118 cm. I'm willing to bet that Sasori was intended to be around 6 or 7 years old, here, i.e. 28 or 29 years before his appearance in Shippuden whereupon his age is listed as 35. Doing a bit of arithmetic reveals that this would have been 11 to 12 years before Naruto's birth. This lines up with Minato's age— he and Kushina were both still in the Academy when Kumo tried to kidnap Kushina, aka no more than 12 years old, and we know that Minato died when he was age 24.
Okay, so now we're getting somewhere! The Second Great Shinobi War ended at the earliest around a dozen years before Naruto's birth, and the Third Great Shinobi War ended about a year before that. How about the First War?
This is my favourite one to talk about, actually, because of the sheer chaos of it. This is the war in which the hidden villages realized they maybe shouldn't keep sending their leaders out onto the battlefield because you know what happened? So many fucking Kage died, and their militaries were left scrambling in the wake.
The Second Hokage, Senju Tobirama, is implied to have croaked last among all of the Kage who did die— killed by the Gold and Silver Brothers (or at least the platoon that the two were infamous for having led). Second Tsuchikage Muu assumes it was Tobirama who reanimated him and his three peers during that one scene during the Fourth Great Shinobi War, after all.
The Second Tsuchikage and Second Mizukage killed each other, which is weird if you consider how far away the Land of Earth and the Land of Water are from each other, but... eh.
The First Raikage died sometime before the failed attempt at a peace treaty between Kumo and Konoha, because it's the Second Raikage who's depicted next to Tobirama in this panel addressing that:
Likewise, the First Tsuchikage Ishikawa, First Mizukage Byakuren, and First Hokage Senju Hashirama must have all died prior to the above events. The only one who we don't know for sure died in this war is the First Kazekage Reto, but come on. Reto is listed to have been age 58 at the time of his death, and Kishimoto clearly drew him with those lines around his eyes that he tends to only give characters who are 30 or older. Considering all the other First Kage died in this war and the twenty years of peace that supposedly followed, I think we can say that Reto did as well.
The war's outbreak plunged the world into a chaos not seen since the end of the Warring States Period, for which reason there are very few records about the war. According to Ōnoki, the war was a result of countries and their hidden villages taking resources from other countries and other hidden villages; Madara Uchiha's demand that Iwagakure be subservient to Konohagakure is implied to be the first such example of this.
The first sentence from this excerpt implies that there was a period of peace following the founding of the hidden villages, before the First Great Shinobi War broke out.
Now we have our basic information! Wonderful! Let me toss together a basic timeline using this info and see what we can do about the gaps.
[Year 1]
Konohagakure is founded.
Because of course they were the first hidden village, right? At least, we're never given any indication that there was another before them that Madara and Hashirama were inspired by, so long as you ignore anime filler. The feudal lords [daimyo] of nearby nations would logically have felt threatened at this unity of what had once been splintered, scattered clans of shinobi, now working together for Fire's feudal lord and stronger for it, so the order for shinobi to unify is given out in other lands as well. It's very likely that the countries which ended up being part of the Five Great Nations were the first five to do so while the rest scrambled and lost land to this new, stronger system of fighting forces. We can also assume that Uzushio was another of the earlier ones, due to the formation of their allyship with Konoha under Uzumaki Ashina and Senju Hashirama's leaderships, respectively.
The Warring States era ends.
[Year 3]
The future Third Tsuchikage, Onoki, is born as the grandson of the First Tsuchikage, Ishikawa. His age is listed as 79 during Shippuden.
[Year 8]
[10] Chiyo (Sunagakure elder) is born. Her age is listed as 73 during Shippuden, but every single one of her appearances takes place before what would have been her birthday that year.
[Year 9]
[02] The future Third Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, is born to the Sarutobi clan head Sarutobi Sasuke.
[Year 10]
[01] Ebizo (Sunagakure elder and Chiyo's younger brother) is born. His age is listed as 72 during Shippuden.
[Year 15]
Uchiha Madara (somewhere in his 30s, going off of the lines under his eyes) travels to Iwa to proclaim Konoha's superiority. The then-future Second Tsuchikage Muu and his student Onoki (who is drawn to look around the same age as the Rookie Nine when they first graduate, ergo 12 is a reasonable estimate of age) fight Madara. This is based on both Onoki's flashback and Madara's recognition of Onoki as an established shinobi with a moniker, "Fence-Sitter", during the Fourth Great Shinobi War.
Uchiha Madara and Senju Hashirama (both in their 30s, both with the age-lines around their eyes) clash, seemingly killing Madara and creating the Valley of the End.
[Year 16]
The first Five Kage Summit is held.
In attendance are First Hokage Senju Hashirama and Senju Tobirama from Konoha, First Kazekage Reto and Shamon from Suna, First Tsuchikage Ishikawa and Muu from Iwa, First Raikage A and… A from Kumo, and First Mizukage Byakuren and the unnamed future Third Mizukage from Kiri.
As a gesture of goodwill, Konoha divides the captured tailed beasts to the other nations, based on how much they’re willing to pay: the Three-Tails and Six-Tails to Kiri, the Four-Tails and Five-Tails to Iwa, the Two-tails and Eight-Tails to Kumo. The Nine-Tails is kept within Konoha. It's unknown what happened to the Seven-Tails and when or how it ended up with Takigakure.
Due to Suna having already captured the Ichibi on their own, the First Kazekage demands a plot of fertile land and thirty percent of the monetary value from what the other nations would pay instead of a tailed beast. This enrages several of the other attendees to the point of threatening war, which is not followed through on immediately but gives rise to high tensions between the five major hidden villages.
Sometime around this period, a shinobi from Takigakure named Kakazu (in his 20s) is ordered to assassinate Hashirama but fails. His age in Shippuden is given as 91. I assume this attempt takes place while Madara is out of the picture for whatever reason due to his utter lack of mentioning the Uchiha, because we all know that dramatic bastard wouldn't not fight Kakuzu given the circumstance.
[Year 16≥]
The First Great Shinobi War begins.
We can extrapolate that at the very least, Konoha was fighting Kumo and Iwa was fighting Kiri. Due to the wiki calling this a war over resources and Suna's prior statements during the Five Kage Summit, they were most probably also involved, but to what degree and against who I can't say.
The First Tsuchikage Ishikawa is killed; Muu is instated as the Second Tsuchikage.
The First Mizukage Yamashiro Byakuren is killed; Hozuki Gengetsu is instated as the Second Mizukage.
The First Raikage is killed; A (the First Raikage’s aide during the first Five Kage Summit) is instated as the Second Raikage.
First Kazekage Reto (58) is assassinated by an unknown party for unknown reasons. Shamon is instated as the Second Kazekage. During his reign, Shamon funnels considerable funding into expanding and improving the Puppet Brigade in order to decrease the casualties of Suna's flesh-and-blood shinobi.
[Year 27]
[08] The future Fifth Hokage, Senju Tsunade, is born as the granddaughter of First Hokage Senju Hashirama.
[10] Orochimaru is born.
[11] Jiraiya is born.
[Year 29≥]
First Hokage Senju Hashirama dies to causes that are never revealed in canon. Senju Tobirama is instated as the Second Hokage.
Second Hokage Tobirama and Second Raikage A meet to discuss a peace treaty, but are interrupted by a rebel Kumo faction led by the Gold and Silver Brothers. It's possible that the Second Raikage died during this event— he's really never mentioned chronologically after this point. I assume this meeting took place after Hashirama's death because the Fourth Raikage refers to Tobirama by his Kage title when describing these events in chapter 527 of the manga, but it's also possible that A only did so out of respect and not because Tobirama was actually Hokage at the time. Stick this event wherever in the timeline, I guess.
The Second Tsuchikage Muu (30≥) and Second Mizukage Hozuki (30≥) Gengetsu kill each other in battle. Onoki (20s) and the First Mizukage's unnamed aide from the first Five Kage Summit are instated as the Third Tsuchikage and the Third Mizukage, respectively.
The future Third Kazekage is born.
Roshi, the Four-Tails' jinchuuriki, is probably also born around this time, considering he appears as an adult while fighting Jiraiya and Minato during Naruto Gaiden: Whirlwind in the Vortex.
Second Hokage Tobirama (late 40s, maybe?) is killed. Sarutobi Hiruzen (20s) is instated as the Third Hokage.
[Year 30≤]
The First Great Shinobi War ends.
The Five Great Nations sign an armistice. Note that the First and Second Great Shinobi Wars have been stated by the wiki to reflect the First and Second World Wars from real life, and so does this armistice, which allows for twenty years of peace in accordance to the irl armistice.
Second Kazekage Shamon researches Tailed Beasts with the intent to gain mastery over the Shukaku. It's likely that no perfect jinchuuriki exists at this point in time.
[Year 38]
[03] The future Fourth Kazekage, Rasa, is born.
It's also likely that Pakura of the Scorch Release was also born around this time.
[Year 40]
Akimichi Choza, Yamanaka Inoichi, and Nara Shikaku are born in Konohagakure.
[Year 41]
[01] The future Fourth Hokage, Namikaze Minato, is born.
[06] The future Fourth Raikage, A, is born as the oldest and only biological son of the Third Raikage, A.
[07] The eventual second jinchuuriki of the Nine-Tails, Uzumaki Kushina, is born.
[Year 43]
[05] Yashamaru is born. Here's a surprise: he and his sister Karura are canonically NOT twins, although it should be noted that he is the younger of the two.
[Year 45]
The Ame Orphans— Yahiko, Konan, and Uzumaki Nagato— are born.
[Year 46]
[05] The eventual jinchuuriki of the Eight-Tails, Killer B, is born.
[08] Namiashi Raidou is born.
[11] Sasori is born. Despite being listed as age 35 in Shippuden, his appearance occurs before his birthday that year, and so I have him as being born in Year 46 instead of Year 47.
Sometime between now and Kushina's succession of Mito as the Nine-Tails' jinchuuriki, Uzushiogakure falls. We know this because of Mito's dialogue with Kushina during a flashback from Naruto Gaiden: Whirlwind in the Vortex in which Mito says that the Uzumaki clan is scattered.
[Year 48]
[07] Shiranui Genma is born.
[Year 50]
The Second Great Shinobi War begins
Many of the minor countries are ravaged as they become battlegrounds for the other Great Nations during this war. Uzushiogakure has already fallen at this point, even before the official beginning of this war, one of the inciting incidents.
We know that Suna and Konoha were fighting because of Chiyo and Tsunade's back-and-forth. By virtue of the country that Amegakure is located in being a major battleground, Suna and Konoha were also fighting Ame.
Konoha and Iwa were also implied to have been fighting, based on how fearfully those Iwa-nin were referring Konoha's White Fang, Hatake Sakumo, during the Kannabi Bridge Mission from the Third War. Presumably, Sakumo got that moniker during the Second War, seeing as he's likely around the same age as the Sannin and therefore would have been too young to fight in the First War.
The Ame Orphans become... well, orphans. Nagato's parents are specifically killed by Konoha-nin, who mistook them for combatants instead of civilians.
The Second Kazekage Shamon (50s) is assassinated sometime around this era. The unnamed Third Kazekage is instated.
[03] Ebisu is born.
[10] Sarutobi Asuma is born as one of the Third Hokage's two sons.
[11] The future second or third jinchuuriki of the Three-Tails, Nohara Rin, is born. Shizune is also born, as the niece of Tsunade's lover, Kato Dan.
[Year 51]
[01] Maito Gai is born.
[02] Uchiha Obito is born.
[03] Morino Ibiki is born.
Namikaze Minato (10) graduates from the Shinobi Academy. Jiraiya becomes the jounin-sensei of Team 6, which is comprised of Minato, another male genin named Dekai, and a third ungendered and unnamed genin (who looks suspiciously like a member of the Uchiha clan).
[06] Yuhi Kurenai is born.
[05] The future Fifth Mizukage, Terumi Mei, is born.
[09] Hatake Kakashi is born as the son of the White Fang, Hatake Sakumo.
[Year 52]
Nagato (6) meets Yahiko and Konan (7).
Sasori's parents/Chiyo's son and daughter-in-law are killed by Hatake Sakumo.
[Year 53]
Sasori (7) becomes a genin.
Uzumaki Kushina (12) graduates from the Academy, and Kumogakure makes a failed attempt to kidnap Uzumaki Kushina. I'm putting this event here in the timeline because she has her forehead protector [hitai-ate] during this fiasco in the image below, and also because her shinobi identification number is #007310 compared to Minato's #006510, suggesting that she graduated after he did.
Orochimaru, Tsunade, and Jiraiya (25-26) gain their “Legendary Sannin” moniker through fighting— and being spared by— Hanzo of the Salamander in the minor country where Amegakure is located.
Nagato (7), Yahiko, and Konan (8) meet the Sannin. Jiraiya begins training them. I can only guess that Minato and the rest of Team 6 either got promoted to chunin and have thus officially disbanded or have been ditched for the time being??? We never get a chunin promotion age for Minato, but it isn't out of the realm of plausibility for a genius like him to have done so at or even before age 12. In fact, a lot of young Konoha-nin who have a record of wartime service got their chunin promotions very young (Genma at 13; Asuma at 12; Rin, Obito, and Gai at 11???).
[Year 54]
Sasori (8) becomes a chunin.
Maki, the eventual genin student of Pakura of the Scorch Release, is born.
[11] Gekko Hayate is born.
[Year 55]
[05] Umino Iruka is born.
[08] Yamato/Tenzo is born.
Jiraiya (28) leaves the country where Amegakure is located after three-ish years of covert ops and training Nagato, Yahiko, and Konan (10). The trio infiltrate Amagakure's shinobi system for further training and also networking to start creating Yahiko’s iteration of the Akatsuki, while Jiraiya returns to Konoha and reconnects with one of his old genin students, taking the future Fourth Hokage Namikaze Minato (14) as his apprentice. It's highly likely that Minato masters the Flying Thunder God technique around this time.
[Year 56]
[06] Utakata, the eventual jinchuuriki of the Six-Tails, is born.
The events of Naruto Gaiden: Whirlpool in the Vortex takes place. Told you we'd come back to this! Remember, Kakashi was born in Year 51, so by mid- to late-spring (considering the Japanese school year starts in the spring, not autumn), he should be familiar enough with Gai and Obito for this manga panel to be plausible.
Meaning Minato is 15 when he, Jiraiya, and the rest of Team 6 encounters Iwa's two jinchuuriki. Although they end up retreating, Minato becomes inspired by the Tailed Beast Bomb to create the Rasengan.
So now we know that this one-shot takes place during the Second War! But you know what's also implied to happen when Kakashi is age 5?
Yeah, Sakumo's thing.
Konoha's White Fang chooses to save his squad rather than complete a mission that he deems likely to fail, and upon his return, is ostracized for it. Sakumo commits seppuku in order to restore his (and by extension, Kakashi's) honor before his son even graduates from the Academy. And then—
The Second Great Shinobi War ends.
[Year 57]
Hatake Kakashi (5, going on 6) graduates from the Academy in March.
[Year 58]
Kakashi (6, going on 7) gets promoted to chunin.
[Year 58≥]
The Third Great Shinobi War begins.
Essentially a continuation of the Second War, the Third seems almost like fighting for fighting’s sake. We once again have Konoha vs Iwa, Konoha vs Kumo, and Konoha vs Kiri. Sasori fighting a defensive front on his home soil (based off of his Red Sand moniker, i.e. enemy blood spilled on the sand) suggests conflict with either one of the minor countries, Iwa, and/or Konoha. I think there's a hint of Iwa vs Kumo, too, but I can't find a source for why my brain thinks that outside of speculation. If we go by an anime filler statement from Pakura during a flashback (episode 285), Suna was also fighting against Iwa and Kiri, which may explain how Suna and Konoha ended up as allies by the time of the events of Part One— the enemy of my enemy is my friend and all that.
According to said filler, this should also be around the time that...
Pakura was sent on a mission to stop Iwagakure's plans during their feud with Suna. She successfully accomplished the mission and was hailed as a hero by the village.
Also, Namikaze Minato has an encounter with the future Fourth Raikage, A, and the jinchuuriki of the Eight Tails, Killer B some time early on in this war, presumably before Minato gets his genin team based on their absence in this scene. Minato's Flying Thunder God proves to be faster than A's lightning cloak in combat.
[Year 60]
[02] Hozuki Mangetsu is born as the older brother of Hozuki Suigetsu. I chose to place this event here in the timeline after working backwards from Mangetsu's youthful teenage appearance in his reanimated form from the Fourth War, which doesn't look to be more than 17 or 18 years old. We know that he had to have died after a long enough time to master multiple of Kiri's legendary swords and gain some international renown, but also before Suigetsu ended up as one of Orochimaru's test subjects (because Suigetsu knows that his brother is dead when straight out the gate of his first appearance in Shippuden). Narratively speaking, it would be pretty cool for his reanimated self to be the same age as Suigetsu is during Shippuden, or for him and Suigetsu to have a similar age gap compared to Itachi and Sasuke.
Ebisu (10), Gai (9), Rin (9), Obito (9), Asuma (9), and Kurenai (9) graduate from the Academy, based off of the info found in the databooks. I have no idea what Kakashi (8) has been doing in the meantime (fanon likes to say that he got taken on as an apprentice by someone, usually Minato but sometimes another jounin like Aburame Shibi), but it's only now that this iteration of Team Seven is formed. As for the chunin exams... ugh. We'll get to that in a bit.
[06] Itachi Uchiha is born.
Danzo sabotages the first iteration of the Akatsuki. Yahiko (15) dies. Hanzo of the Salamander is killed by Uzumaki Nagato (15).
[Year -]
Some time between Year 60 and Year 62, a genin team comprised of Gai (10), Genma (12-13), and Ebisu (11) are cornered on a mission by the Seven Swordsmen of Kirigakure: Munashi Jinpachi’s predecessor, Hozuki Mangetsu’s predecessor, Jinin Akebino, Kushimaru Kuriarare, Raiga Kurosuki, Jūzō Biwa, and Fuguki Suikazan. Gai’s father, Might Dai, buys time for the genin to escape and kills all but the last three listed swordsmen using the Eight Gates (in the anime, that is— in the manga, it's implied that he kills all but Fuguki Suikazan, who is the only one that we see chronologically after this point in time during one of Kisame's flashbacks).
[Year 62]
Assuming this first of two chunin exams (recall how chapter 39 of the manga mentions that Konoha holds the Chunin Exams twice a year) is held before the summer, Genma (13), Gai (11), Obito (11) and Rin (11, going on 12) are promoted to chunin. However, this is NOT the chunin exams depicted in the flashback where Kishimoto forgot about his timeline, threw in a bunch of minor characters into the background willy-nilly, and made Kakashi a chunin. In fact, you could argue that any or all of the above-mentioned promotions were doled out for excellent performance in the field rather than during an exam, even, aka a field promotion, and nothing would be contradicting you.
Sasori (15) defects from Sunagakure and becomes a rogue ninja. I'm putting this event here in the timeline because Kankuro mentions (in chapter 251 of the manga) that it's been over twenty years since Sasori left. Therefore, the Third Kazekage (30s, based on the age-lines that are drawn around his eyes) is assassinated around now as well. Rasa (24) is instated as the Fourth Kazekage.
[08] Temari is born as the only daughter to the Fourth Kazekage, Rasa (24).
The events of Naruto Shippūden the Movie: The Lost Tower occur at this point in the timeline, since it's stated to be 20 years in the past from Shippuden. Of course, this is a non-canon movie, so it's whatever, but I thought I'd toss this in here for funsies. If you're writing a Suna-centric story like I am, roundabout now would be a fun time to have Sunagakure destroy Roran :D
[Year 63]
[05] Deidara is born, based on his listed age during Shippuden being 19.
[06] Kaguya Kimimaro is born, based on his listed age during Part One of Naruto being 15.
Team Ino-Shika-Cho (23) delivers a request for a peace treaty to Iwa shinobi on the border to the Land of Wind. Rasa (26) shows up with a large force to facilitate the exchange.
Kakashi (12) is promoted to jounin, and the Kannabi Bridge mission takes place while Minato slaughters enough Iwa-nin for the remainder of the once thousand-strong force to retreat.
[Year -]
The Third Raikage dies from chakra exhaustion after three continuous days of fighting in order to give his troops time to retreat. His son, A, is instated as the Fourth Raikage.
Sometime in between the Kannabi Bridge mission and Minato's inauguration, Rin (13) is kidnapped by Kiri-nin, has the Three-Tails sealed inside of her, and commits suicide via Kakashi's chidori through her chest.
[Year 64]
[05] Kankuro is born as the son of Fourth Kazekage Rasa.
[06] Itachi turns four and is led by his father Fugaku to see a battlefield.
Due to outcry from either withdrawing from the war or agreeing to terms of a peace treaty (likely the one with Iwa from earlier, but also possibly an alliance treaty with Suna that we see from OG Naruto— you'll see why Kumo's not an option here in a bit) that are viewed as unfavourable by the public, Third Hokage Sarutobi Hiruzen voluntarily steps down from office. Namikaze Minato is instated as the Fourth Hokage.
[07] Hyuga Neji is born.
[11] Rock Lee is born.
The Third Great Shinobi War...
Well, it doesn't end so much as lose steam. This war was noted to be particularly bad in terms of casualties, so I wouldn't be surprised if there simply weren't enough able-bodied soldiers for a viable war effort at this point. However, it should be noted that Konoha and Kumo still have beef.
[Year 65]
[02] Hozuki Suigetsu is born.
[03] Ten Ten is born.
[05] Akimichi Chouji is born.
[06] Uzumaki Karin is born.
[07] Inuzuka Kiba and Uchiha Sasuke are born.
[09] Yamanaka Ino and Nara Shikamaru are born.
[10] Uzumaki Naruto is born. The Kyuubi is let loose on Konoha by a masked man. Fourth Hokage Namikaze Minato and Uzumaki Kushina die while sealing it away.
[12] Hyuga Hinata is born.
[Year 66]
[01] Gaara is born. His mother, Karura, dies.
Aburame Shino is born.
[03] Sakura is born.
Sometime around this period, Fourth Kazekage Rasa sends Pakura of the Scorch Release to Kiri as an envoy for... reasons. It's implied that someone (Sunagakure's council, Wind Country's feudal lord, idk take your pick) isn't happy about the terms of the peace treaty that was signed between the Land of Wind and the Land of Water? Either way, Pakura is killed in an ambush by Kiri-nin and dies thinking that her village betrayed her. Suna promptly blames the death of their hero on Iwa, which could be one reason for the hostility in that one scene of a Suna-nin and Iwa-nin butting heads during the very start of the Fourth Great Shinobi War, just before Gaara gives his big speech.
Sorry, I know it's hard to tell here, but that's an Iwa-nin and Suna-nin talking smack here.
[Year 68]
[12] Neji receives the Caged Bird Seal on Hinata's third birthday. A peace treaty between Kumo and Konoha is also due to be signed that very night, only to give way to the events of the Hyuga Affair.
[Year 72]
Rasa orders Yashamaru (28-29) to test Gaara's control over the One-Tail. Gaara (6) accidentally contributes to his uncle's death, kinda? Suna seems like its economic situation takes a turn for the worse around this time (not that it was ever great), probably due in part to all the infrastructural damage caused by the One-Tail's rampaging.
[Year 78]
[03] The Rookie Nine graduate from the Academy (see: the Japanese school year ends in March).
[07] The first, second, and preliminary phases of the Chunin Exams take place.
[08] The final phase of the Chunin Exams takes place and is interrupted by Orochimaru's invasion of Konoha.
[Year 82]
Shippuden babyyyyy yeahhh (I am so done with this timeline).
