Kakuzu

Biodata

Feature	Value
Name	Kakuzu (角都)
Gender	Male
Origin	Takigakure, the Hidden Waterfall Village 18
Affiliation	Former Takigakure ninja; Xuanhui’s subordinate and ally; Akatsuki member 18 84 166
Occupation/Role	Bounty hunter and mercenary; Akatsuki finance minister; head of Amegakure’s finance department 18 96 166 186
Signature Technique	Earth Grudge Fear, a thread-based secret technique that supports five elemental hearts 19
Status	Alive at his last documented appearance; fighting against Madara 328
First Appearance	Chapter 18, “Heading to the Ambush” 18

Power Progression

Stage / Realm / Level	Chapter	Notes
Five-heart Earth Grudge Fear	19	Possesses five hearts with different chakra natures. Each heart supplies another life and can power a thread-bodied combat form.
Reduced to one heart	20 76	Loses hearts during his battle with Jiraiya and Orochimaru, sacrificing two masks to escape. Their later discussion confirms that he was left with one heart.
Replenished elemental hearts	82 83	Has recovered a five-heart complement before Xuanhui’s pursuit. Xuanhui destroys the fire heart, leaving his main body and three masked hearts. The replacement process is not shown.
One-heart reset	83 84	Xuanhui destroys his remaining masked hearts and captures him, then promises four replacements after recruiting him.
Two hearts: Earth and Fire	117 130	Takes the Uchiha second elder’s heart, restoring Fire Release and gaining access to several powerful Uchiha fire techniques.
Three hearts: Earth, Fire, and Lightning	135	Receives the Third Raikage’s heart and demonstrates Lightning Release Chakra Mode alongside Earth Spear.
Rasengan training	136	Recognizes the technique’s suitability for elemental modification and simultaneous attacks; Minato agrees to teach him.
Elemental Rasengan demonstrated	164 165	Burns Hanzo with a fiery Rasengan and defeats Danzō with an Earth Release Rasengan containing tiny stones.
Fourth heart: Wind	165	Takes Danzō’s heart, obtaining a stronger and more versatile Wind Release repertoire than his original wind heart provided.
Four Violet Flames Formation	165	Uses the barrier technique taught by Xuanhui, occupying its four corners with his main body and three masked creatures to prevent Hanzo’s escape.
Complete five-heart form	166	Takes Hanzo’s heart to fill the remaining Water Release slot. Xuanhui later credits the four replacement hearts with making him more than three or four times stronger than his original-timeline counterpart 167.
Further heart improvement	202	Describes his elemental hearts as having progressed from limited techniques to hearts belonging to Kage-level fighters. Further replacement donors are not identified.
Ryūchi Cave senjutsu foundation	202 203	Xuanhui injects senjutsu chakra for almost an hour until Kakuzu begins to understand the training method.
Senjutsu from two sage regions	207	The Great Slug Sage confirms that he has already learned senjutsu from Ryūchi Cave and Mount Myōboku. It accepts him for Shikkotsu Forest training.
Combined Three Sage Modes	327	Activates “Three Flowers Gather at the Crown,” cycling three kinds of natural energy to replenish his reserves. His threads turn white, and his masks unleash senjutsu-enhanced elemental attacks.

Background / History

Kakuzu is a veteran from Hashirama Senju’s era who once fought the First. He later explains that his departure from Takigakure stemmed from its leaders’ conduct, not resentment toward Hashirama, whom he admires 18 206.

His history with Takigakure includes killing leaders who had oppressed him. When he returns years later, he discovers that a descendant of one of those leaders has bought a leadership position. The discovery renews his anger at the village’s corruption 89.

After becoming a missing-nin, Kakuzu works as a bounty hunter and mercenary. His earlier employers include Kumogakure, where he worked alongside Kinkaku and Ginkaku 18 236.

Appearance

Kakuzu’s body is visibly scarred and stitched together with threads; his masked creatures emerge through bulges in his back 19.

• Eyes: Dark green 18.
• Face covering: Initially wears a black mask; later adopts a mask resembling Kakashi’s 76 127.
• Forehead protector: Bears Takigakure’s symbol, deliberately slashed by Kakuzu himself 18 206.
• Hair: Slightly long and worn loose during his service as Xuanhui’s deputy 127.
• Three Sage Modes markings: Blue around his eyes, red across his cheeks, and green on his forehead 327.
• Senjutsu transformation: Earth Grudge Fear’s normally black threads become fine white threads carrying a sage’s aura 327.

Personality

Kakuzu initially treats profit as the only dependable basis for loyalty. Takigakure’s betrayal has left him distrustful of villages and employers, and he refuses Xuanhui’s first recruitment appeal by declaring that he serves himself alone. His caution is practical: he abandons a bounty when an opponent displays space-time ninjutsu and sacrifices valuable hearts rather than die in a losing battle 18 20 81.

Following Xuanhui gradually changes his attitude toward cooperation. He accepts books, employment, training, and restrictions on whom he may kill, while continuing to complain about lost earnings and exploitative bosses. By the time he socializes with Akatsuki, he explicitly contrasts his old habit of cashing in comrades for bounties with his new willingness to make friends 84 95 241.

As Hidan’s guardian, Kakuzu emphasizes composure, education, and long-term profit rather than petty savings. His discipline remains rough-edged—he flicks Hidan’s forehead and threatens his allowance—but he also teaches him, repairs his injuries, and tells him that Xuanhui is family rather than an outsider 202 242.

Abilities & Skills

Earth Grudge Fear

Earth Grudge Fear turns Kakuzu’s body into a network of extensible threads and allows him to maintain up to five hearts with different elemental affinities 19.

• Extracts beating hearts with threads and installs them inside his own body 117 165 166.
• Releases masked, thread-bodied creatures that attack independently 19 83.
• Uses a heart’s elemental techniques without releasing it from his body 127.
• Extends limbs, anchors himself to trees, and stitches Hidan’s damaged body together 20 82 202.
• Losing a heart removes both a life and its associated elemental options; losing his fire heart prevents a planned fire-and-water smoke combination 19 83.
• His unusual constitution limits the benefit he expects from ordinary physical training, leading him to reinforce himself with chakra techniques instead 135.

Five Nature Transformations

His hearts provide Earth, Fire, Lightning, Wind, and Water Release, allowing him to combine attacks from several directions 19 83 290.

• Earth Release: Earth Spear hardens his skin for close combat and defense. He also creates earthen walls and burrows underground 20 83.
• Fire Release: Uses Head Mincing, Great Fireball, Majestic Destroyer Flame, and Dragon Flame Song 20 117.
• Lightning Release: Uses False Darkness and the Third Raikage’s Lightning Release Chakra Mode 19 135.
• Wind Release: Uses Pressure Damage and, after obtaining Danzō’s heart, Vacuum Great Sphere 19 165 290.
• Water Release: Uses Wild Water Wave, Water Dragon Bullet, and Water Body Flicker 83 187.
• Combination attacks: Water extends lightning’s reach, while wind amplifies fire. Against Yugito, he floods the battlefield to reshape the engagement 83 290.
• Layered defense: Danzō’s Wind Release tears through his incompletely trained Lightning Armor but fails to penetrate the Earth-hardened skin beneath it 165.

Hell Stab

Kakuzu uses the Raikage’s piercing hand technique in conjunction with Lightning Armor 290 291.

• Four-Finger Nukite: Pressures Yugito with a high-speed frontal charge 290.
• One-Finger Nukite: Pierces tunnel rubble while he carries Hidan to safety. The force of Yugito’s Tailed Beast Bomb strikes his armor from behind and propels the escape 291.

Elemental Rasengan

Kakuzu recognizes Minato’s Rasengan as an element-neutral foundation that could complement all five hearts 136.

• Envisions staggering attacks between hearts to create a nearly uninterrupted sequence 136.
• Uses a fiery Rasengan to severely burn Hanzo’s back 164.
• Uses an Earth Release Rasengan packed with tiny stones to fatally injure Danzō before taking his heart 165.

Three Sage Modes

Kakuzu learns senjutsu associated with Ryūchi Cave, Mount Myōboku, and Shikkotsu Forest. The Great Slug Sage warns that harmonizing his unusually varied internal energies will be difficult, but potentially highly rewarding 202 207.

• Three Flowers Gather at the Crown: Combines the three sage-region energies into a replenishing cycle 327.
• Alternates which natural-energy reserve is being consumed while the others recover 327.
• Transforms his thread creatures and enhances False Darkness, Pressure Damage, and Head Mincing with senjutsu 327.
• Forces Madara to block his barrage with a Truth-Seeking Orb wall rather than absorb it 327.
• Does not make him immune to unseen attacks: Madara’s invisible forces strike him and interrupt his attempt to reach Itachi 328.

Barriers and Sensing

• Four Violet Flames Formation: His main body and masked creatures supply the four positions needed to imprison an opponent 165.
• Chakra sensing: Detects Fū’s enormous jinchūriki chakra and later uses a state identified as “Sensory Mode” before Akatsuki mobilizes 282 317.
• Battlefield warning: Notices that an unseen attacker is moving toward Itachi, although he cannot clearly see it 328.

Finance, Negotiation, and Teaching

• Spots cost reductions and offers business advice that immediately earns Teng Ran-ichi’s trust and a job offer 96.
• Studies economics in Xuanhui’s library before taking charge of Amegakure’s finances 186.
• Pressures Ōnoki by withholding part of his trade goods and threatening to sell to Konoha instead 91.
• Controls Akatsuki funding and requires destructive experiments to take place away from the village base 236 241.
• Teaches Hidan academic subjects, history, taijutsu, and eventually accounting 186 202 207.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Slashed Takigakure forehead protector — Identifies his former village and missing-nin status 18 206.
• Combat clothing — Initially wears a gray combat uniform; later adopts Konoha clothing and a green flak jacket, preferring to omit the uniform underneath so his hearts can emerge more easily 18 127.
• Akatsuki cloak — Black with red clouds; removes it before releasing his combat forms 289 290.
• Gemstone necklace — A silver necklace with a five-colored gem, given by Xuanhui during recruitment. Kakuzu estimates it could fetch tens of thousands of ryō 84.
• Business and finance books — Gifts from Xuanhui that become part of his new livelihood and education 84 95.
• Xuanhui’s sealing scroll — Uses it to preserve Danzō’s corpse after the Reverse Four Symbols Seal ends 165.

Relationships

• Xuanhui — Former enemy, recruiter, benefactor, and trusted ally. Supplies replacement hearts and senjutsu training; Kakuzu eventually tells Hidan that he is not an outsider 20 84 117 202.
• Orochimaru — Research companion and combat partner. Their shared interest in secret techniques helps turn Kakuzu’s forced recruitment into productive cooperation 84 164 165.
• Hidan — Adoptive ward and eventual mission partner. Kakuzu rescues him from a Jashin ritual, raises him, educates him, and manages his unconventional combat behavior 175 202 282.
• Minato Namikaze — Battlefield ally and Rasengan teacher. Kakuzu supplies tactical intelligence during the A–B confrontation and admires Minato’s invention 130 136 165.
• Nagato — Akatsuki leader. Secures Kakuzu’s membership by offering exclusive control over the organization’s funds 166.
• Hashirama Senju — Former opponent whom Kakuzu continues to admire; his bitterness is directed at Takigakure’s leaders rather than Hashirama 206.
• Tsunade and the Great Slug Sage — Facilitate and provide his Shikkotsu Forest senjutsu training 206 207.
• Ōnoki — Negotiating adversary who attempts to change a completed bargain into an assassination contract. Kakuzu refuses and escapes 91 92.
• Itachi Uchiha — Akatsuki comrade and fellow lead attacker against Madara. Kakuzu later rushes to protect him from an unseen threat 327 328.
• Fū — Takigakure jinchūriki who admires his reputation but refuses to trust a missing-nin. Kakuzu nevertheless helps organize her capture while ordering Hidan to avoid making her bleed 282 283.

Story Role / Major Arcs

Bounty Hunting and Forced Recruitment

Kakuzu first appears searching a bandit camp for valuables, only to find that Konoha ninja have already cleared it. His pursuit leads to a battle with Jiraiya and Orochimaru, where Xuanhui exposes the mechanics of Earth Grudge Fear. He escapes underground after sacrificing hearts and vows to kill Xuanhui at their next meeting 18 19 20.

Their reunion in Yugakure reverses that threat. Xuanhui tracks him from a hot spring, destroys a heart through his hotel wall, and defeats him despite his attempts to flee. Kakuzu accepts recruitment after being offered valuables, clothing, and replacement hearts 81 82 83 84.

Travels and a New Livelihood

Traveling with Xuanhui and Orochimaru, Kakuzu contributes experience, handles valuables recovered from ruins, and helps guide Xuanhui’s training. He also violently extracts Takigakure’s secret techniques after discovering renewed corruption 84 89.

His bargaining skills secure access to Iwagakure’s Light-Weight Rock Technique, though Ōnoki’s changed terms force an escape. Near the journey’s end, Xuanhui directs him toward business and atonement; Kakuzu accepts a mercenary post guarding Teng Ran-ichi’s mineral-transshipment branch 90 91 92 95 96.

Amegakure and Akatsuki

After serving as Xuanhui’s deputy during the Third Shinobi World War, Kakuzu accompanies Orochimaru into the Amegakure conflict. He kills Danzō, helps trap Hanzo, and takes Hanzo’s heart after Nagato incapacitates him. He joins Akatsuki when Nagato offers him the finance ministry 127 161 165 166.

His work expands into Amegakure’s financial administration and Hidan’s upbringing. He later helps recruit Deidara and imposes spending and safety rules on the members’ experiments 175 186 235 236.

Jinchūriki Operations and Hidden Plans

Kakuzu and Hidan are assigned the Two-Tails and Seven-Tails. In Takigakure, he delays action until Sunagakure’s envoys leave, helps capture Fū, and supports Sasori’s seizure of Gaara 257 282 283 285.

He personally defeats Yugito using elemental barrages, Lightning Armor, and Hell Stab. Unlike Hidan, Sasori, and Deidara, he already understands the concealed plan behind Akatsuki’s apparent conflict with “Madara” and recognizes staged reactions during the failed sealing of Killer B’s decoy 289 291 293 297.

Reinforcements Against Madara

Akatsuki arrives to support Xuanhui against Ten-Tails jinchūriki Madara. Kakuzu and Itachi lead the attack while the others seek an opening to deliver Madara’s blood to Hidan. Kakuzu unveils his combined Three Sage Modes and launches a senjutsu barrage, but Madara blocks it and follows with unseen attacks that knock Kakuzu away 327 328.

Notable Quotes

“I only believe in profit. Stop talking about making me your subordinate. I'm loyal to myself alone.” 81

“Interesting. This is an investment. I hope you can turn a profit for me.” 166

“Haven't I told you not to chase petty bargains? Long-term planning brings greater profits.” 242