Tailed Beast

The **tailed beasts** (尾獣, *bijū*?), sometimes referred to as "**Chakra Monsters**" (チャクラのバケモノ, *Chakura no Bakemono*?), are the nine titanic living forms of chakra created by the Sage of Six Paths out of the chakra from the Ten-Tails. They are differentiated by the number of tails they have, ranging from one to nine.

## Abilities

Tailed beasts are widely believed to be bestial in nature, incapable of the intelligence needed to fully utilise their immense strength. It is thought that only when sealed within humans are they able to benefit from the knowledge of their jinchūriki to use their powers effectively. Though this is not true of the divided tailed beasts, the Ten-Tails does make more wanton use of its powers, not focusing its abilities to the most advantageous end until sealed into a jinchūriki.

Each of the tailed beasts have their own unique abilities, but they all share the same core attributes: they have massive quantities of powerful chakra — coloured red — far greater than what most shinobi have, can easily transfer their chakra to whomever they choose, and can use the Tailed Beast Ball. Because the tailed beasts are pure chakra, they cannot actually be killed; if they or their jinchūriki die, their chakra will re-coalesce in time. In addition, if a large portion of a tailed beast's chakra is separated from it, that chakra becomes a separate, sentient copy of a tailed beast. However, if a tailed beast uses a life sacrificing power up, it will have its physical form destroyed and die. In this case, the death of the tailed beast will not endanger the life of its jinchūriki. It is also pointed out that consuming the flesh of a tailed beast is usually deadly for anyone, unless the person is somehow descended from the Sage of Six Paths; in this case, the person will gain abilities similar to a jinchūriki.

Tailed beasts can communicate telepathically with one another and their jinchūriki, and possess several levels of consciousness. In the initial level, the beast appears to be in a habitat of sorts, typically imprisoned in some way by whatever fūinjutsu was used to seal them. The second level is where all the tailed beasts can convene and communicate with one another, free of any restrictions. Jinchūriki are also able to enter this level, but in order to do so, they must be completely linked with their tailed beasts. A freed tailed beast can continue communication with their former jinchūriki, even years after separating.

Although only shown with Kurama, a tailed beast will become unconscious if they have lost all of their chakra, by either using it, or having it drained from them.

It has been shown that Tailed Beasts can have more than one conscience or body, as in the Fourth Great Ninja War and onwards, Shukaku to Chōmei are present in the real-world, and Gyūki was inside Killer B, while all eight were inside Naruto as well, where they hold meetings.

## The Tailed Beasts

The tailed beasts in order of their number of tails:

1. Shukaku
2. Matatabi
3. Isobu
4. Son Gokū
5. Kokuō
6. Saiken
7. Chōmei
8. Gyūki
9. Kurama
10. Ten-Tails

## Trivia

* Shukaku, Matatabi, Gyūki, and Kurama are based on popular animal yōkai from Japanese myth (tanuki, nekomata, ushi-oni, and kitsune respectively). The others are original creations by Masashi Kishimoto, mixing together various elements from certain species of animals.
	+ Kurama even likens the true nature of tailed beasts to that of yōkai.
* Shukaku is the only tailed beast that hasn't been shown giving its jinchūriki the characteristic red chakra-shrouds (Version 1 or Version 2 forms). This is presumably because Shukaku appeared early in the story when Kishimoto have not yet defined the specific abilities that all the tailed beasts share.
* While most of the tailed beasts have conventional tails, Chōmei and Gyūki differ; Chōmei has one regular tail and six wings that make up its seven tails, while Gyūki has eight cephalopod limbs that serve as tails.
* Shukaku and Matatabi are the only tailed beasts made from an inorganic material. Strangely, both were also believed to be a living ghost (生 霊, *ikiryō*).
* Despite having names, the tailed beasts do not generally use them, either for themselves or for each other, instead referring to each other by how many tails they have. Son Gokū is the only consistent exception, taking offence to the monikers.
	+ Shukaku also refers to itself only by its name, however it doesn't bother to be called the One-Tail.
* There have been cases that both the tailed beasts and their jinchūriki are affected to a certain degree during a full moon:
	+ According to Gaara, Shukaku's blood-lust is especially strong during a full moon.
	+ In the anime, Blue B, during his time as Gyūki's jinchūriki, noted that he would have trouble sleeping during the nights of the full moon, because anytime he would stare at it, it would reflect the loneliness in his heart. Gyūki would take advantage of those moments of weakness and try to gain control over Blue B's body. Blue B was also shown to take sleeping pills to help with this side-effect.
* Several non-jinchūriki shinobi have been said to hold chakra levels or strength comparable to that of a tailed beast. Such individuals include Madara Uchiha, Hashirama Senju, the Third Raikage, the Fourth Raikage, and most notably, also dubbed 'The Tailed Beast without a Tail', Kisame Hoshigaki.
* The Madara Uchiha's Complete Body — Susanoo and Hashirama's Wood Release: Wood Human Technique are said to have destructive powers that rivalled the tailed beasts.
* In the anime, the six tailed beasts that were used by Tobi shared a Japanese voice actor with one of each other's respective jinchūriki.
* How the tailed beasts speak has been depicted inconsistently throughout the series, where sometimes their mouths move with their words and sometimes they don't.
* Due to the death of its jinchūriki, Isobu is the first known tailed beast to have "died" and revived.
* Years after the Fourth Shinobi World War, Konohagakure and Sunagakure make stuffed toys of Kurama and Shukaku, respectively. For Parent and Child Day, a limited-edition Kurama doll was offered, and toy stores in Konoha imported Shukaku dolls to sell for the holiday. In the anime, chibi-style masks of several of the tailed beasts were also on sale.

## References

1. ↑ *Boruto* episode 201
2. ↑ *Naruto* chapter 91, page 19
3. ↑ *Naruto: Shippūden* episode 318
4. ↑ *Naruto* chapter 589, page 7
5. ↑ *Naruto* chapter 468, page 9
6. ↑ Fourth Databook, page 299
7. ↑ *Naruto* chapter 641, page 5
8. ↑ Naruto Shinden: Parent and Child Day
9. ↑ *Boruto* episode 95