The Kyuubi Attack

Disaster / Destruction

The Nine-Tailed Demon Fox's Attack (九尾の妖狐襲来, Kyūbi no Yōko Shūrai)on Konohagakure happened on the night of October 10, twelve years before the start of the series. After causing untold death and destruction, the Nine-Tails was stopped by the village's leader, the Fourth Hokage, who gave his life to seal the Nine-Tails into the newborn Naruto Uzumaki.

Hiruzen brought Naruto back to Konoha. With Minato and Kushina dead, Hiruzen decided it would be best if nobody knew of Naruto's relation to Minato so that Minato's old enemies wouldn't come after him; to that end, he gave Naruto Kushina's family name. Hokage once again, Hiruzen shared Minato's final request with the survivors. Although some, predominately those who personally knew Minato, were willing to follow his instructions, most were not, since they were incapable of setting aside their grief and bitterness in the wake of the death and destruction of the attack. Hoping that future generations wouldn't hate Naruto in the same way that their parents did, Hiruzen forbade anyone from discussing the Nine-Tails. This largely failed, as those in Naruto's age group only copied their parents' hate, though they didn't understand why. Naruto, already an orphan, grew up lonely. Because Minato was never able to explain what had happened, Konoha's villagers were left to come up with their own explanations for the Nine-Tails' attack. The Nine-Tails had historically attacked human settlements, drawn to large concentrations of humanity's dark nature. Accordingly, many assumed it was just a natural occurrence that nobody was responsible for. Konoha's leadership, however, believed an Uchiha was responsible, because of the Sharingan's famed ability to control the Nine-Tails. (In the anime, the Uchiha avoided direct engagement with the Nine-Tails on the orders of Danzō Shimura). The Uchiha, having helped create Konoha decades earlier, were offended by this mistrust, setting in motion the events that would lead to the Uchiha Clan Downfall.   Jiraiya, as Minato's former teacher, believed there was more to the events of that night. He, like Minato, suspected Madara Uchiha's involvement, despite how old Madara would have had to be at the time. He also felt that Minato's decision to seal the Nine-Tails into his own son was significant, assuming he intended for Naruto to someday gain control of the Nine-Tails' power for some purpose Jiraiya couldn't guess. As such, Jiraiya took on Naruto as a disciple once he was old enough, training him to take advantage of the Nine-Tails' chakra and using the key Minato sent to him to accelerate the process. Tobi, the threat that Minato wanted Naruto to be prepared for, would ever-after deny any involvement in the attack, insisting it was the natural outcome of Konoha's years of benefiting off the misfortunes of others.