The Third Hokage is the Hidden Leaf village chieftain. He would probably have retired as Hokage (highest ninja position) of the village twelve years ago had the Fourth Hokage not sacrificed himself in order to seal the Demon Fox. He's now quite old, and he mostly does administrative jobs like running the academy, assigning missions to the ninja teams, and other such tasks.

The Third Hokage is the one who recognized and explained to Iruka about Naruto's behavior, that it was an affirmation from the village that Naruto was alive, that he existed, and that he can be a contributor to the village.

The Third Hokage was killed while using a forbidden jutsu in an attempt to kill Orochimaru in episodes 79-80. Although he failed, he did take away the use of Orochimaru's arms so that he may never perform a ninjustu ever again.

Orochimaru, Jiraiya, and Tsunade were the Third Hokage's students.