Yamato (Naruto)

Yamato is a supporting character in the Naruto anime/manga series and the Boruto series. 
He is an ANBU in the service of Konohagakure. Because of his unique jutsu, he is added to Team Kakashi as a temporary replacement for Kakashi Hatake. Though Kakashi eventually returns to the team, Yamato stays on to provide assistance when he's needed.
He is voiced by Rikiya Koyama and Eri Gōda (as a child) in the Japanese version, while in the English version, he is voiced by Troy Baker, Colleen O'Shaughnessy (as a child) and later by Matthew Mercer.
==Appearance==
Yamato has short brown hair and black, almond-shaped eyes. While still a child and test subject of Orochimaru, he had long hair going past his shoulders. When he débuted, Yamato wore the standard attire of the Anbu, with a sword strapped to his back, a mask that resembles a cat's face covered in green, and red markings, and the Anbu tattoo on his left shoulder. When he meets up with Naruto, Sakura, and Sai for the first time, however, he has changed into a variation of the standard attire of a Konoha-nin, with a flak jacket. The differences between his attire and that of the standard one is that his does not have the Uzushiogakure crest on the shoulders of the sleeves, and the neck of his shirt is form fitting and goes up to his chin. He also still retains two hip pouches strapped to his lower back instead of just one. In addition to that, he has a happuri-style forehead protector that frames his face, similar to that of Tobirama Senju.
==Personality==
Yamato is a very discreet, cautious, careful and well-prepared person. He projects a calm, stoic demeanor in stressful situations. He takes his missions very seriously, even insisting on being referred to by whatever his current codename is. Yamato also takes great interest in architecture, which can be seen when he goes out on missions and creates a house to "camp out" in. This skill to incorporate his hobby with his kekkei genkai was also seen after Pain's assault on Konoha, where he was key in recreating the village. While he has been good-natured so far, Yamato claims to be a different sort of leader than Kakashi, one who is not above "ruling by the use of terror" when his team misbehaves. Aside from his obviously intimidating skills as a ninja, however, this "terror" has so far primarily consisted of casting a creepy "ghoul-eyes" expression at his charges. Naruto, especially, is easily terrified by it, and stated that it felt like Yamato was controlling him with fear — something Yamato himself has noted that he has no qualms with. He is, however, also prone to being a victim of a cruel joke when given misleading information, as witnessed by his visible fear and subsequent annoyance when Killer B maliciously joked about the dangers of a jinchūriki trying to control their tailed beast.
==Name==
For the simplicity of this section, he will be referred to as Yamato.
Yamato's real name is unknown. Instead of being giving a nickname to use for the rest of his life, Yamato has instead used multiple codenames on his assignments ever since being a member of Danzō Shimura's Root at a young age. As a member of Root, also known as The Foundation, he was given the codename Kinoe, which he originally used as his name. After defecting from Root and joining the Anbu Black Ops, becoming a good guy, he adopted the name Tenzō. 
The name Tenzō was given to him by Yukimi, a girl and only child of the Iburi Clan, which was being manipulated by Orochimaru to do research on their powerful kekkei genkai which allowed them to turn into smoke. Yamato was sent there by Danzō, while he was still known as Kinoe, to give the clan's leader and affiliate of Orochimaru Gotta information. Yukimi ran away with Yamato, lovingly calling him Tenzō in memory of her younger brother Tenzō, who with Yamato, was sent to Orochimaru for experiments. After Yukimi visited "outside" for the first time, Yamato ran away with Yukimi in order to prevent her from dying from Orochimaru. In short, Yukimi was saved by Yamato after she went back to Orochimaru during Kakashi and Yamato's fight. 
After being assigned by Tsunade as Captain Yamato to lead Team 7, Yamato became his new name. At one point, Kakashi teasingly calls Yamato Tenzō, in an episode long preceding the Kakashi Anbu Arc Yukimi was shown in, confirming that Tenzō is canon. Yamato is his most recent and current nickname, which is why it is what he is known as. 
==History==
===Background===
Yamato was one of Orochimaru's test subjects, having the D.N.A. of The First Hokage implanted into him as a small child to try and replicate the 1st Hokage's unique bloodline limit that allowed him to use Wood Style. However, Yamato was the only one of the 60 test subjects that survived, and believing all of them had died due to the experiments, Orochimaru fled the Hidden Leaf village without checking, but Yamato would survive thanks to the D.N.A. of the 1st Hokage, and be found by Danzō after Orochimaru fled. He was raised and trained by Danzō as a member of The Foundation. He would greatly excel as a ninja and later, after defecting from The Foundation, become the Anbu captain after Kakashi stepped down. He is currently the leader of Team 7 under the orders of the Fifth Hokage. Due to the inclusion of Sai as Sasuke's replacement, there is some animosity that Yamato has to keep under check, going as far as saying that he will rule with terror... which is ultimately a scary face that only frightens Naruto.
===Kakashi Anbu Arc===
During Yamato's time in Root, he was known as Kinoe.
Following the resignation of Third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi, a council meeting in the Land of Iron decided that Minato Namikaze, Kakashi's sensei, was to be the Fourth Hokage. Danzō Shimura strongly opposed this decision, suggesting at the meeting that Orochimaru becomes Hokage, a very unpopular opinion. Until the death of Minato in order to save the village from Kurama, Minato would remain Hokage, with Hiruzen resuming power after Minato's heroic sacrifice. Danzō then uses his deception skills to force the unstable Kakashi into believing that Hiruzen Sarutobi's decisions led to Minato's death, successfully corrupting him into joining The Foundation, also known as Root. There, Kakashi meets Yamato for the first time, then known as Kinoe, surprised at seeing him using Wood Style from his arm. Danzō arrives to tell Kinoe that he invited him here, and Danzō tasks Kakashi and Kinoe to assassinate the Third Hokage. Kakashi, in truth, was not fully corrupted by Danzō, and quickly betrayed him. On their mission, Kinoe ended up attacking a clone of Hiruzen Sarutobi, projected by Kakashi using the Transformation Technique on himself. Kakashi subdues Yamato with the Chidori, but spares his life, stating that his Wood Style abilities would be useful to the Leaf one day. Kakashi later tells Hiruzen about a member of Root having Wood Style. 
Hiruzen comes back to his office to find Danzō sitting in his seat, and Danzō was so confident that Hiruzen would be dead that he struggled to come up with a lie as to what he was doing in the Hokage's chair. Hiruzen easily recognizes that Danzō is attempting to usurp him, and eventually finds Orochimaru's hideout. Orochimaru was severely injured by an exploding tag hidden in one of his snakes, and Danzō sent Kinoe to assist in Orochimaru's voyage to the Land of Fire so that he could escape captivity. Kinoe sends a message to the secret Iburi Clan that can turn into smoke, also loyal to Orochimaru. There, Kinoe meets Yukimi, who calls him Tenzō.
While Yukimi shows Kinoe around the caves, Yukimi and Kinoe later hear from a hole in a structure that an intruder has arrived. Kinoe recognizes this intruder to be Kakashi Hatake. The Iburi Clan's leader, Gotta, fights Kakashi, possessing him with the Body Oxidation Technique by turning into smoke and possessing his body, until Kinoe steps in and uses Wood Style to threaten to kill them both by encapsulating them, and Gotta backs off. They make a deal that instead of murdering him, they interrogate him, and until Gotta and his kinship leave, Kinoe pretends to interrogate Kakashi. After constraining and lightly torturing him with Wood Style, Kinoe apologizes and tells Kakashi that that was the only way to save his life, revealing that his goal is to prevent Orochimaru from getting to the Land of Fire, making Kinoe the second of the two boys to betray Danzō. 
The Iburi Clansmen return to attack them after eavesdropping on their conversation as a part of their plan, but fail to kill Kinoe and Kakashi due to Yukimi saving their lives using her ability to transform into pink smoke, and flies them away. Yukimi then tells Kinoe that she wants to experience the real world outside with him and turns into smoke to quickly transport herself and Kinoe outside the caves for the first time. Yukimi then possesses Kinoe's body so she can experience the outside world without having to worry about the wind blowing away her smoke form, and once they reach the Leaf Village, Yukimi possesses multiple people's bodies so she can eat the things they were eating. Kinoe became embarrassed at all of the drama Yukimi was causing with other people's bodies. After experiencing her fun with Kinoe, it becomes apparent that Yukimi has become one of Kinoe's first friends, and right when they start discussing running away together, Kakashi hidden in a tree says "You gotta be kidding me!". 
Kinoe then changes his mind and says that he wants Orochimaru to get away, so that he can protect Yukimi. Kinoe and Yukimi run away together, with Kakashi chasing them. Kakashi starts with using lethal force, but when Yukimi puts her body in front of Kakashi's Chidori, Kakashi's PTSD of killing Rin resurfaces, and Kakashi cancels the Chidori. Kinoe starts fighting Kakashi, and the fight ends when both sides are at a Mexican standoff. Kinoe and Kakashi notice that Yukimi disappeared, and rush back to the Iburi Clan hideout, where they discover that they were all killed by Orochimaru, and Orochimaru is about to steal Yukimi's blood in order to steal her kekkei genkai. The dead souls of the Iburi Clan guide them to Orochimaru, and while their presence extorted Orochimaru into not stealing Yukimi's blood, Orochimaru escapes, telling Kakashi that he is still too weak to fight him. Orochimaru used the curse mark to defeat Yukimi, which he had implanted in all members of the Iburi Clan, in order to stabilize their powers, but it could also be used by Orochimaru to contain their abilities, which is exactly what he did. 
The stress of the curse mark ended up killing Yukimi after Orochimaru's departure, and disappearing in smoke, Kinoe's PTSD of the last test subject dying kicked in, and he desperately tried to contain her dissipating smoke with wooden structures. He is distressed to realize that his Wood Style is not good enough, but fortunately, the smoke of the undead clansmen wraps around her smoke, successfully containing it. Their powers merge, and Yukimi is successfully revived. No longer afraid of the wind, Kinoe, Yukimi, and Kakashi peacefully depart. 
Another 2 years pass and Kinoe and Kakashi reunite, with Kinoe still being a part of The Foundation. They team up to explore an abandoned hideout of Orochimaru's, but in actuality, Kinoe's mission is to kill Kakashi, in order for Lord Danzō to get a new Sharingan without making an enemy of the Uchiha Clan, their wielders. It's not long until Kinoe attacks Kakashi, but only manages to cut his cheek. Kakashi pleads for Kinoe to stop, saying that killing a friend isn't a mission, but Kinoe objects by bringing up the past about Kakashi killing Rin Nohara. Kakashi, previously using no jutsu at all, uses Chidori to destroy the wood dome that was trapping him, and runs towards Kinoe, destroying all Wood Style constructs with his Chidori. For the second time, Kinoe's life is spared by Kakashi. 
A giant snake breaks free from a chamber and begins to attack them, and Kakashi uses his Chidori to save Kinoe's life, cutting the snake in two. The snake, made up of many smaller snakes, releases poisonous gas, which nauseates Kakashi, and this time, Kinoe saves him. Kinoe finally decides to defect from The Foundation and creates a false Sharingan to return to Lord Danzō along with Kinoto, planning to tell him that he failed. Danzō becomes furious, stating that he is not mad because he failed, but because he abandoned the mission. Danzō uncovers his eye to knock Kinoe into a coma using Genjutsu, instantly. 
Meanwhile, Kakashi and Yugao go to Danzō's hideout to save Kinoe after reporting to Lord Third, but find that Danzō is nowhere to be seen. Kakashi sends Yugao to report back to Hiruzen, while he stays and rescues Kinoe. They are inevitably caught, and are soon cornered by Danzō and the rest of The Foundation. However, they are then saved by the Third Hokage, who promotes Kinoe to a member of the Anbu Black Ops. Danzō reluctantly gives up Kinoe, even though Danzō himself was the one who found him, rescued him, and raised him, but Danzō stated that he would not remove the curse mark that keeps him from speaking Danzō's name. 
The next day, Kakashi welcomes Kinoe to the Anbu Black Ops, giving him the new name Tenzō. Tenzō will become Kinoe's new codename for the remainder of his Anbu career, including when the 11-year-old Itachi Uchiha joins the Anbu, the youngest person ever to join the Anbu, and the youngest to ever become appointed Captain at age 13. Itachi joined Team Ro, captained by Kakashi, and they took on many operations. This would continue until Guy, Asuma, and Kurenei plea to Hiruzen Sarutobi that the Anbu is blackening Kakashi's heart, and Kakashi is made a Jonin leader at the Ninja Academy following Itachi Uchiha's massacre of the Uchiha clan. The plan would work, and Kakashi would finally pass Team 7 after failing the previous two years' applicants, and seeing the bright atmosphere of youth, Kakashi would become happier. Tenzō and Kakashi interacted after noting his positive attitude surfaced, and he would become among the greatest Anbu in the history of the Leaf after Kakashi's new time with Team 7. Eventually, after Sasuke's departure of the village, Yamato would now be Captain of the new team, which now had Sai instead of Sasuke.
===Sasuke and Sai Arc===
Yamato accompanies Naruto, Sakura, and Sai to the Heaven and Earth bridge to meet Sasori's spy and uses Transformation to make himself look and sound like Sasori in his Hiruko puppet. The spy turns out to be Kabuto and everything goes relatively smoothly until Orochimaru appears, revealing that Kabuto and Orochimaru had planned on killing Sasori. When Naruto started sprouting his tails and made the bridge collapse, Yamato used his mokuton abilities to catch Sakura when she fell. After dealing with Kabuto, Yamato used his other ability to subdue an out of control 4-tailed Naruto, which is why Tsunade made him the new team captain. The Team 7 have looked for Sai after his betrayal to the team. However, after seeing him, they were able to find out more about Sai's personality and joined the team. 
Kabuto then appeared and untied Sai from Yamato's wood ties and battled the team. Believing that Sai had really betrayed the team, Yamato was surprised to see Sai helping them. Yamato then led the team inside Orochimaru's hideout and looked for Sasuke. After the encounter with Orochimaru, the team then encountered Sasuke who have already changed and fought them. Yamato have been brutally hurt but was able to recover after making a counter strike against Sasuke's technique. The Team then went back to Konoha and reported to Tsunade where he reveals Sai's relation with Danzo. Yamato would go onto aiding Naruto in his wind affinity training, keeping the Kyuubi under control since the seal on Naruto is weakening, allowing the Kyuubi more influence over Naruto as his anger spikes. He'd then accompany Naruto to aid Kakashi against Kakuzu after his technique was finished. They made their entrance blocking Kakuzu's wind fire attack with their own combined wind and water techniques to create a typhoon. After Naruto misses his first attempt with his new Raseangan, Yamato protects him while Kakashi gets him away from Kakuzu. After defeating the Akatsuki members they travel back to Konoha. After another meeting with the Kage, they decide to take Naruto to an island where Killer Bee stays and trains with their tailed beast. They also decide that Yamato go with him too. when they arrive at the island they are attacked by a squid, which Yamato states he only has 6 tentacles and Naruto thinks is the Octopus that he was supposed to meet. When they get settled on the island Yamato and the guide take him to a waterfall where he must face his inner self. Yamato the waits for Naruto to complete his task. When Naruto is sitting around after his fight with his inner self Yamato and their guide get attacked by the squid again. Yamato tries to restrain the beast while they try to get the guide back, but Killer Bee comes and knocks the squid away before anything else happens. After that he just tags along with Naruto and Killer Bee to the waterfall of truth and once Naruto wins Yamato asks if he can come and follows them behind the waterfall. They then go into a lion's mouth and Killer Bee tells Naruto has to put his head in the mouth and see if it will accept him, if it doesn't it will eat his head off. Naruto plays a trick on Yamato and pretends his head got eaten but tells Yamato it was a joke. Yamato becomes really mad and calls them stupid idiots. Then they go in the room where Yamato sits with them while Naruto and Killer Bee fight the Nine-Tailed fox. When the fox's hatred starts to take over Naruto, Yamato says that he will try and hold it back while Naruto meets his mother beneath all the hatred he is going through. When Naruto finally manages to control the Nine Tails' Chakra, he notices Kisame in Killer Bee's sword, Yamato states that the chakra gives him the ability to sense hatred. Later on, when Kisame is captured, he is put in a wood element prison that Yamato made but breaks out of it to Yamato's surprise. When the island is attacked by Kabuto Yamato tries to make it seem like there are earthquakes so that Naruto wouldn't notice. he eventually gets caught in a fight with Kabuto and Kabutos snake form swallows and captures him. Later he is seen on the ground if front of Madara who is talking about how to use his powers to make more clones. Madara also states that his left eye is ready for a fight showing that he has the Rinnegan.
==Gallery==
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1Fear3.jpg|Yamato's creepy stare
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Tumblr ovo5v2cZXr1tr6wqbo3 1280.png|Yamato in Boruto: Naruto Next Generations
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==Trivia==
*His first English voice actor, Troy Baker, also voiced Madarao in Kekkaishi, Excalibur in Soul Eater, Greed in Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood and Captain Grime in Amphibia.
*His second English voice actor, Matthew Mercer, also voiced Levi Ackerman in Attack on Titan, Sinbad in Magi, and Beelzemon in Digimon Fusion.
==External Links==
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