Kabuto Yakushi (薬師カブト, Yakushi Kabuto) is an antagonist of the series, who was first introduced as aKonohagakure genin. He was later revealed as Orochimaru's personal medic, assistant, and general right-hand man. After the latter's death, he joined forces with Madara Uchiha during the Fourth Shinobi World War.[4]
Background [8]Edit
As a young boy, Kabuto was found amongst the dead enemies after theBattle of Kikyō Pass by a chief medical officer of the Konoha Medical Unit Squad. The officer brought Kabuto with him back to Konoha, raised him as a son, and taught him medical jutsu when he got older. At some point in time, Kabuto was recruited by Sasori of Akatsuki, who sent Kabuto to spy on Orochimaru by using Memory-Concealing Manipulative Sand Technique to transform him into a sleeper agent. Orochimaru discovered this, and released Sasori's control over Kabuto's memories, leaving Kabuto with the option to follow him. With a little persuasion, Kabuto agreed to side with Orochimaru.
Kabuto has since used his experience with spying for Orochimaru, playing the role of Sasori's servant to gain knowledge of Akatsuki's plans. Through his affiliation with Konoha, Kabuto was also able to acquire the rank ofgenin and enter the biannual Chūnin Exams, using the first two parts of the exam to gather information on his fellow participants for Orochimaru's use. Additionally, with the medical expertise taught to him by his adoptive father, Kabuto is able to carry out human experiments for Orochimaru, while at the same time increasing his own knowledge of the human body.
Loyalty and Personality [9]Edit
Kabuto's loyalties and personality are difficult to discern, as he is a sadistic, yet polite, helpful man with a dry sense of humor. He enjoys playing mind games with his enemies, often unnerving them by pointing out their weaknesses and turning personal horrors against them. During the Fourth Shinobi World War, he freelyresurrected people not only for combat, but also to mentally attack his opponents, and saw the personalities of those he brought back as nothing but pawns.[5] Despite this, he seems to have a hard time tolerating rudeness though, indicated by his frequent admonishments of Sasuke Uchiha for not treating Orochimaru with respect. Orochimaru also seems to have a hard time determining Kabuto's thoughts at times, as seen when he orders Kabuto to kidnap Sasuke, and wonders if perhaps Kabuto will kill him instead, even giving hints that now would be an opportune time to halt his plans. Even in this instance, Orochimaru has great confidence in Kabuto's loyalty, often laughing at the prospect that Kabuto would betray him.
While Kabuto does generally obey Orochimaru's orders, even going so far as to save Orochimaru's life at times, he is not above helping Orochimaru's enemies; for example, he heals Sakura Haruno and Hinata Hyūga on different occasions. When healing Sakura, Kabuto hints at an ulterior motive, saying that Akatsuki is the true enemy; Orochimaru later says something similar, pointing out that the death of more Akatsuki members means fewer enemies for him. He is also generally polite to Naruto Uzumaki, upon whom Kabuto possesses a peculiar fixation on, despite the fact that they have conflicting motives during their encounters. Despite his unclear goals, Kabuto seemed to be content in following Orochimaru, using the alignment to make requests for specific bodies with which to further his knowledge.
Kabuto stated that he dislikes forcing people to do things against their will, and instead he would manipulate them by acting sympathetic to them. He plotted to send an ill Kimimaro to retrieve Sasuke, but merely spoke about how much Orochimaru is suffering, in order to stimulate Kimimaro's loyalty to move against his ill body. Orochimaru noted that Kabuto has a nasty personality. Kabuto also claimed that he is an introvert, and prefers secluded places. Due to this, he considers the Impure World Resurrection technique will bring him unwanted infamy and attention, which he notes to be the so-called perfect technique's downside.
Since merging the remains of Orochimaru into his body, Kabuto has shown to have the ambition to surpass Orochimaru. He has also recently shown interest in furthering his knowledge of jutsu, the goal of his former master and as such, apparently wants to acquire Sasuke for this. He also showed interest in experimenting onYamato and Zetsu. One of his goals seems to be able to learn the secrets of the Sage of Six Paths. Whether or not this personality change is brought on by Orochimaru's remains or not remains to be seen.
Also, while pledging an allegiance with Madara Uchiha and Akatsuki, as well as offering to resurrect an army of powerful men for power, Kabuto had previously provided Naruto a book containing all the information on Akatsuki, as well as leaving a trail of corpses to allow Anko Mitarashi and her brigade to follow into Mountains' Graveyard. This was apparently to lure Anko into a trap so he could capture her in order to extract her chakra, and he refused to kill her on Madara's orders. Madara also suspects that Kabuto plans to use the war to weaken both the Allied Forces and his own fighting power after learning that Kabuto had lead the Konoha ninja to his hideout.
Appearance [10]Edit
Kabuto has black eyes with grey hair kept in a ponytail and wears circular glasses. He wore a dark purple shirt with a white undershirt and a white obi around his waist worn at an angle. He had dark purple pants and a shuriken holster on his right leg. He previously wore an Otogakure forehead protectorand dark purple gloves with open fingers in Part I.
Shortly after Sasuke had counter-absorbed Orochimaru, Kabuto took cells and tissue from Orochimaru's true form's remains and injected himself with it. The cells and tissue slowly began to take over his body, but he resisted. After some time he attained control over Orochimaru's genetic material, his appearance changed drastically though. He looks much more like his former master, having the same markings around his eyes. He has slitted pupils reminiscent of Orochimaru and his hair is also now shoulder-length instead of kept in a ponytail. He still wears his glasses, but now has scales on his face and arms, and, presumably, the rest of his body. Kabuto wears a deep purple cloak with two bright red, white and yellow markings similar to eyes on the hood. He has also grown a snake tail which comes out from the back of the cloak. His body's drastic changes, which include a bipedal serpentine body, similar to that of a Nāga, with added legs, were mostly concealed by his cloak. However, this form seems to be merely a shell: he can shed this body to reveal his true form as a snake with arms, similar to Orochimaru's true form.
Abilities
Kabuto has proven himself to be a skilled and cunning ninja, particularly because of his medical abilities. His skills are said to rival those of Kakashi Hatake on more than one occasion. He has been shown to be able to killANBU members with relative ease and even mockingly stated he could handle at least 10 ANBU members. During his battle with Tsunade, she remarks that Kabuto's jutsu sense and sharpness may have surpassed hers, even in her prime. Through keen observation, Kabuto can quickly determine the situation at hand. Even when up against a stronger opponent, he can take advantage by quickly exploiting their weakness. Kabuto is also very adaptable, as when Tsunade flipped his nervous system signals, he managed to regain control of his body quickly, a feat that impressed Tsunade. Kabuto's stamina has increased tremendously after he integrated and controlled Orochimaru's remains to the point where he can summon and control dozens of resurrected ninjas at one time, as well as summon Manda II, a snake even larger than Manda.
Taijutsu [11]Edit
While he states to having lesser skill in taijutsu, Kabuto has shown proficient enough to hold his own againstTsunade, a skilled taijutsu fighter known for her devastating strikes. His main style of taijutsu is to use theChakra Scalpel, which allows him to form his chakra into a blade and hit his target's muscles, pressure points, and other key points of their body. First, he will quickly assess his opponent's strength and battle style to comprehend their movements, thereby allowing him to easily predict and dodge their attacks. He then uses his medical ninjutsu to systematically take down his opponent in order to disable and subdue them.
Ninjutsu [12]Edit
Medical Ninjutsu [13]Edit
Despite his age, Kabuto has demonstrated tremendous skill and ingenuity in medical ninjutsu. With his extensive knowledge of medical ninjutsu and of the human body, Kabuto can quickly adjust to any damage done to his body and severely injure a person with a single chakra-infused strike to the chest. He has also developed the unique ability to be able to reactivate dead cells and grow new ones.
He also often uses scalpels as throwing weapons instead of kunai. By Part II Kabuto has apparently advanced his medical jutsu even further. He is capable of using the Chakra Scalpel without any hand seals, and still powerful enough to cut through wood and flesh with ease, and can use the Mystical Palm Technique at a distance.[6][7]
Kabuto's medical ninjutsu has also led him to develop a series of drugs which he uses with great effect. For Sasuke, he gave him drugs which helped to increase to his aid in his training process,[8]. As shown with Manda IIhe is also capable of genetically altering organisms making them bigger, stronger than the original.[9] Kabuto has also invented a special drug that is capable of suppressing the power of a Wood Release user.[10] He has also developed a truth serum that allows him to interrogate enemies with ease.[11]
Kabuto has demonstrated an unique affinity for corpses, and has demonstrated an interest in being able toreanimate them. This is primarily convenient when he is experimenting with test subjects, though they have been used briefly in escape situations, and may be used in combat. Kabuto's expertise in medical ninjutsu is far-reaching enough for him to be able to create an almost perfect copy of a person from a corpse in very little time and under high pressure, and keeps a sealing scroll to summon corpses for usage; he mentioned to Orochimaru that he would like to keep his stock refilled after using one. Kabuto can even use the small remains of a corpse to create an enhanced clone as he did with Manda by using the dead snake's cells and various drugs.
Nature Tranformation
Water release
Kabuto now has great skill in water techniques from Zabuza. He could perform several of them while keeping a separate one active, as seen when he kept Kakashi trapped in the Water Prison Technique while at the same time attacking the rest of Team 7 with a water clone; he could maintain several of these clones at the same time, often using them as diversions. He also showed proficiency in large-scale, highly destructive water-attacks from launching powerful torrents of water in the forms of dragon missiles and giant waterfalls at his opponents.
Zabuza was especially adept at the Hidden Mist Technique, as it made hisSilent Killing even easier to perform. By blanketing the area in a thick mist Zabuza could blind his targets, making it even more difficult for them to defend against him. Though he would be blinded too, Zabuza could strike his opponents without the need of sight, instead focusing on any slight sounds made by the opponents. In this manner, Zabuza was capable of carrying out stealthy attacks even in completely open spaces, able to suddenly disappear from enemy's sight and then strike unseen. His skill with this technique was such that he could create an impenetrable mist without the need of an immediate source of water nearby. Even Kabuto Yakushi kept Zabuza's use of the technique in high regard, as seen when he was willing to sacrifice other revived shinobi to protect Zabuza and keep the Hidden Mist Technique going.
Haku's Ice Release
Haku's most noticeable power was the utilization of water and wind chakra to create ice. His power over ice granted him special techniques, like theDemonic Ice Crystal Mirrors, which surrounds a target with mirrors that Haku could teleport between and attack from, even if his opponent is in the sky. During his flashbacks of his youth in the anime, Haku was shown to releaselarge spikes made of ice when he was about to be killed by his father. He could also use water-style techniques, such as Thousand Flying Water Needles of Death, which causes the water on the floor to concentrate into needles with just one stomp on the ground.
With his Ice Release, he could create domes that were capable of blocking even multiple exploding tags at once.
Nagato Abilities
agato's most powerful and most used technique was the Six Paths of Pain(ペイン六道, Pein Rikudō). This technique allowed Nagato to control six separate bodies as though they were his own. Each of these bodies were reanimated corpses that were both kept mobile by and made use of Nagato's chakra. By using these six bodies for combat rather than himself, Nagato avoids the unlikely risk of being killed in battle by a stronger opponent as well as having six different fields of vision, virtually making it impossible to attack any of the bodies without being seen. While controlling them, Nagato used the alias "Pain", yet still regarded them as separate entities from himself.[14] The Pains can't feel physical pain, as Ibiki Morino discovered when he tried torturing the second Animal Path.
In order to use the technique, Nagato remained in a machine that moved with six relatively small mechanical legs and used several large chakra rods on his back to transmit chakra. From his location, the chakra was picked up by the numerous receivers, modelled as body piercings on each body. To control them, Nagato had to be close by, and ideally at the highest possible point, so he could have the best possible range.
Based on the six Buddhist paths of Reincarnation, each body was named after one of the different "paths": Deva, Asura, Human, Animal, Preta, and Naraka. The only common feature shared by these bodies was their bright orange hair and their Rinnegan. Each also had a vast number of body and facial piercings of various shapes, sizes, and patterns. Each body seemed to serve a specific purpose in battle, such as summoning, repairing, and defensive capability. There is also a seventh body, the Outer Path, with control over the forces of life and death.Fukasaku stated, the best way of fighting Pain is to take out the paths one at a time as they were most formidable when fighting together in combos.
As stated by Konan, Nagato is able to use all the powers of the Paths himself, as they are all powers of the Rinnegan.
Rinnegan
It is said to be the most powerful of Great Three Dōjutsu (大三瞳術,Daisan Dōjutsu); the user can use all six forms of chakranature transformation, allowing them to master any technique in a short period of time.[1] It also allows the user to use all of the six paths techniques as well as control the seventh path - who is "beyond life and death" - to use the Outer Path: Samsara of Heavenly Life Technique.[2]
The Six Paths of Pain were all reanimated corpses thatNagato gave the Rinnegan to through some unknown means. By doing so, Nagato could see each individual body's field of vision, coordinating the bodies with extremely precise planning. The animals summoned by the Animal Path also possessed the Rinnegan, suggesting that Nagato controlled and could see through them as well. On its own, the Rinnegan allows the user to see chakra, including otherwise hidden barriers. It can also decipher more of the Sage of the Six Paths' tablet than the Sharingan and the Mangekyō Sharingan are able to.
Uchiha ancestor Eyes
He found the body of the first uchiha he took one of his eyes and gave the other one to the first hokage.
As a further testament to his corpse theme, Kabuto can perform Summoning: Impure World Resurrection, to which only Tobirama Senju and Orochimaru could before. Kabuto states that his usage of the technique surpasses that of the two other users, and he supports that by resurrecting five deceased Akatsuki members at once. He also states that he can resurrect many other powerful ninja under his control, including one that disturbed Madara Uchiha. He applied a seal on the corpses that does not completely rob them of their free will, but still controls their body movement against their will; a seal different from the one Orochimaru used. Kabuto showed his prowess in this technique by summoning a large group of famous and powerful shinobi, including deceased jinchūriki, Kage, and many others.
Snake Techniques [14]Edit
Kabuto different snake forms
After implanting Orochimaru's cells into his body, Kabuto has gained all of his snake-oriented techniques and abilities, exhibiting some of these skills by easily killing several Takigakure ninja with multiple snakes. He can also add his medical knowledge to make them even stronger, proven by his creation of a Manda II. Kabuto can also communicate telepathically with his snakes using the snake that serves as his tail. Another ability orientated with his new snake-theme is that Kabuto can shed his skin and turn into a white snake with arms, similar to Orochimaru's true form. He can move at very fast speeds in this form, as well as even swallow a fully grown man.
Kabuto is the origin of the Orochimaru's Juinjutsu, using his bodily fluids to create the various cursed seals Orochimaru brands his followers with.[3] As such, he is able to use its power to its full extent without it eroding his body. Unlike those who have been given a cursed seal, Kabuto is not limited to one transformation, and can enter whatever form is best for the situation. He can change what form he takes almost instantly and can isolate the transformation to parts of his body.
After studying jugo nd taking kimimaro ankos and ugos power kabuto was able to exactly copy jugo
Kabuto has changed his body into a number of forms during his appearances. At his debut, he changed his left arm into a piston-like ram to increase his punching power, and then altered it into a massive axe blade to counter Suigetsu's sword. While Taka was fighting Killer B, Kabuto formed boosters on his arm that allowed him to throw his team-mates to safety. When he entered a full level 2 form during Taka's fight with the Fourth Raikage, he made a number of chakra cannons on his back that were capable of devastating the area.If he fully transforms, Kabuto gains a massive power boost, but loses his mind to his murderous side. His voice also changes. As with all cursed seal transformations, Kabuto skin turns dark, with black sclera in the eyes and a black stripe running from the middle of his forehead and down the bridge of his nose. In his level 2 form, Kabuto is also very resilient, as he took a punch from the Fourth Raikage right through the arm and chest and managed to retaliate with ease.
Kabuto considers those who have received one of Orochimaru's cursed seals to be one of his "copies". Since they have proven compatible with the cursed seal, he is able to give them some of his flesh to heal their injuries. This has the side effect of shrinking him and giving him an overall younger appearance. He can similarly absorb others to heal his own injuries and return him to his original "adult" form, though they do not need to be curse seal recipients.He can also use the Hidden Shadow Snake Hands for a quick ambush attack. Moreover, with his new form, Kabuto is capable of injecting the drugs directly through the fangs of snakes that he creates from his body.[12] After having captured Anko, he becomes even more powerful by absorbing Orochimaru's chakra that resides in her.
Immortality Technique
In his quest to gain immortality, Kabuto has made a number of modifications to his body, resulting in his natural form taking on the appearance of a giant, white snake composed of many smaller snakes. The snakes that compose Orochimaru's body can extend themselves to strike and bind the targets, and if Orochimaru is sliced to pieces, the body simply can reform, making him very difficult to kill. Also, the blood that is released by killing the snakes is also poisonous, evaporating into the air and paralysing anyone who has breathed it in, something that makes long lasting fights against him a bad choice.
The primary use of the form is with his Living Corpse Reincarnation, which allows him to transfer his soul to another body and extend his life indefinitely. To use this jutsu, Orochimaru leaves his former body, revealing his true form. Once he has done this, he swallows the new body and transports its current inhabitant to a dimension within himself where he absorbs them, thus allowing him to take over their body. Orochimaru can only perform this technique once every three years, which is also around the time that his new body begins to reject him and forces him to find a new host. Although he might leave their bodies behind, the souls of those whose bodies he has taken always remain within Orochimaru's subconscious. After taking over another body, Orochimaru modifies it to suit his theme of snakes, in order to increase his survival capabilities, such as stretching and bending his body, reconnect his body from bisection and shedding his skin to heal injuries. Thus, even if Kabuto is able to transfer bodies, he can easily heal and evade attacks rendering him virtually immortal. Kabuto also alters the face of his host body to look like his original form.
Body Used
Deidera's Abilities
Deidara possessed a kekkei genkai known as Explosion Release: this allowed him, by combining two yet unknown chakra natures, to give his chakra explosive qualities. Deidara possessed special mouths in the palm of each hand and on his chest as a result of stealing a powerful kinjutsu from his village. With these hands he could create Exploding Clay, clay infused with his explosive chakra that detonated with the command Katsu (喝) and a single-hand hand seal of either tiger or ram. This clay could be moulded into a wide variety of shapes and forms, growing to large sizes when infused with chakra (with Deidara performing the necessary hand seals), and could be controlled at will. This allowed him to create living explosives to attack opponents at long range. Deidara could even create clones from the clay and named Suicide Bombing Clones, that could be a deadly surprise for opponents. Deidara's clay creations ranged from microscopic to gigantic in size, allowing him to adapt to any situation. Deidara could also use the clay for other purposes, as he was frequently seen creating birds to be used for transportation. It seemed he also knew standard earth-based jutsu, as shown from his Earth Release: Hiding Like a Mole Technique, which he used to avoid damage from one of his mass-scale bombs. However, he could potentially run out of clay if he used too much of it, leaving him vulnerable. Since all of his explosives were earth-based, they were vulnerable to lightning, and could thereby be defused with lightning-based attacks.
Kakuzu's Abilities
All of Kakuzu's abilities revolved around his unique body structure, which was composed of hundreds of thick, dark grey threads woven throughout his flesh called Earth Grudge Fear, holding his body together like the stitches of a rag-doll. This allowed him to separate his body parts at will, to perform long-range physical attacks, and sew up almost any injury he suffered, making him very difficult to defeat. The threads could also be used to repair the bodies of others, as seen when he reattached Deidara's arms, although Hidan's inability to die after being dismembered caused him to be Kakuzu's most frequent patient. Because of his unique body structure, Kakuzu is a highly enduring man, able to take a direct strike from Kakashi's Lightning Cutter without it hindering his performance. His threads could even compact together to form a giant octopus-like form around his body, used for long range battle.
Kakuzu's threads granted him a degree of immortality (though he declined to think of it that way). The threads could pierce the flesh and bodies of others, allowing him to remove their organs and integrate them into his own body, thereby extending his life. He commonly removed hearts in this fashion, keeping a total of five at any time, and requiring that he be killed at least five times in a battle before he truly died.
Ninjutsu [15]Edit
Five Elements [16]Edit
[17]Kakuzu with all his hearts.
The hearts captured from other ninja granted Kakuzu numerous elemental affinities, along with a vast supply of chakra. The raw power of each element Kakuzu demonstrated even made Kakashi, who is also capable of multiple elements, stiff with awe. The individual hearts could be released from his body and wrapped in a vast blanket of threads, forcing a heart into a limb before being detached or forming a monstrous body with a mask as its face. These masks could move and attack independently, unleashing powerful blasts ofelemental chakra from their mouths.
- Earth mask: This heart had an earth-affinity, and took on the shape of a demonic, beaked bipedal.[3] It allowed Kakuzu to use Earth Release: Earth Spear. In the anime, even though this mask was destroyed, Kakuzu was still able to use the Earth Spear technique, though it only hardened his arm.
- Fire mask: This heart had a fire-affinity, and took on the shape of a demonic tiger. It could use Fire Release: Intelligent Hard Work. This mask could also unite with the Wind mask to launch a fire-wind dual strike that was near unstoppable.
- Lightning mask: This heart had a lightning-affinity, and took on the shape of some sort of deformed bipedal. It could use Lightning Release: False Darkness.
- Wind mask: This heart had a wind-affinity, and took on a strange four-legged body with thin wings. It could use Wind Release: Pressure Damage. It could unite with the Fire mask to launch a fire-wind dual strike that was near unstoppable.
- Water: In the anime, Kakuzu could use water-based techniques. Kakuzu used Water Encampment Wallwhen Shikamaru threw an exploding tag at him, and also a Water Clone Technique.
Intelligence[18]Edit
As a former agent for Akatsuki , as well as being the right-hand man and spy for Orochimaru, Kabuto has gained access to large stores of knowledge which he uses for devastating effect. This includes him finding Madara, knowing about Zetsu, outwitting Kurotsuchi by knowing her abilities, etc.
He has also shown himself to be a very skilled manipulator. For years, he was able to convince all of Konohagakure into believing he was a genuinely kind-hearted man with inept shinobi skill outside of medical skills (to which he made it appear he was only decent at) to make it easier in gathering information. He made Orochimaru doubt his true loyalties on at least one occasion, but since Orochimaru's demise, he has expressed his true support of his former master's ideology. He has shown to be able to use his strong powers of deception to fool his targets into aiding him in several manners, even including a master manipulator such as Madara, well known for his own ability to manipulate others. He also used such manipulative methods with the Summoning: Impure World Resurrection, by allowing the revived to retain their personalities, so they can be used for psychological warfare, as well as memories, emotions, and creativity to enhance combat efficiency; this shows that Kabuto understands the human mind very well, and takes advantage to help meet his own ends.
However, Kabuto's present loyalties still remain unclear due to his many conflicting comments and actions.[13][14][15][16][17]
Stats [19]Edit
| Databook | Ninjutsu | Taijutsu | Genjutsu | Intelligence | Strength | Speed | Stamina | Hand seals | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| First | 4 | 2.5 | 4.5 | 5 | 3 | 3.5 | 3 | 4.5 | 30 |
| Second | 4.5 | 3.5 | 4.5 | 5 | 3 | 3.5 | 3 | 5 | 32 |
| Third | 4.5 | 3.5 | 4.5 | 5 | 3 | 3.5 | 3 | 5 | 32 |