Will we ever see the 4th in battle?

[sangai]

Hehe, maybe....maybe the 4th is the GATE that is blocking Kyuubi from getting out

not possible as stated by the third hokage that the sould is ripped from his body and eaten by the god of death, after which his soul is sealed into the god of deaths stomache leavint the enemys soul and the users soul to fight inside forever

[jonny-mt]

We're still not sure about that, though. Orochimaru just speculated that this was the technique used to seal Kyuubi. If it was, then it was used in an extremely unorthodox way, involving a third party and sealing an entire demon inside said party, so it's not unthinkable that the outcome would have been different, too. Maybe the Fourth just used the same sealing technique as opposed to the Shinigami no Jutsu and died because he used up all of his chakra....