Yamato

**Yamato**, previously known as **Tenzō**, is an Anbu of Konohagakure. He was assigned to Team Kakashi as a temporary replacement for their jōnin-sensei (and his former Anbu captain), Kakashi Hatake, and to help keep the Nine-Tails sealed inside of Naruto Uzumaki in check with the help of his Wood Release abilites. Kakashi eventually returns to the team, although Yamato stays on to provide assistance as needed. "Yamato" and "Tenzō" are actually codenames given to him, reflecting his time as Team Kakashi's captain and an Anbu member, respectively; his real name is unknown.

## Physical Appearance

Yamato has short brown hair, fair skin and black, almond-shaped eyes. He wears the standard attire of a Konoha-nin, along with a simple chest-guard colored dark green with clipped-on shoulder pads and high-collars colored light-grey, and a light-grey strap across his waist. The differences between his attire and that of a 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. 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 demeanour in stressful situations. He takes his missions very seriously, even insisting on being referred to by whatever his current codename. Having no family nor memories of them since childhood, Yamato's greatest desire has become to work hard for the village to make others happy and to be acknowledged by all for his efforts, particularly as leader of Team 7. 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 witness his visible fear and subsequent annoyance when Killer B maliciously joked about the dangers of a jinchūriki trying to control their tailed beast.

## Abilities

**Expert Hand-to-Hand Combatant**: During his test of his new team's skills, he demonstrated considerable ability in taijutsu shown by him simultaneously fending off Naruto and Sai.

**Enhanced Strength**:

**Enhanced Speed**:

**Enhanced Durability**:

**Expert Tactician**: Yamato is highly proficient in multiple areas of combat, including tracking, trapping, stealth, and diversionary tactics. He has keen instincts in battle, allowing him to quickly react to threats.

**Great Chakra Power**:

### Ninjutsu Prowess/Kekkei Genkai

**Wood Release Kekkei Genkai**: Sharing the same DNA as Hashirama Senju, Yamato possesses the First's signature **Wood Release** kekkei genkai. This kekkei genkai allows him to combine Earth Release in one hand and Water Release in the other, to create vegetation such as trees and even grass which can be grown from any surface. These trees can be grown not only from the earth and pre-existing flora, but from his own body as well, transforming his cells as a source of life. Wood Release makes an excellent defense, and a strong offense, as well as a superb means of capturing, or restraining targets, allowing Yamato to surround himself with extremely durable wooden domes, which can also be used to trap foes within, capable of enduring most attacks, and to rapidly grow sharp trees from his arms which can be used to trap or impale enemies. In addition to the numerous, simple binding techniques which exploit the wood tendrils produced by his own body, Yamato has demonstrated multiple unique uses of Wood Release. One such example is his special Transformation Technique known as Wood Release: Transformation, in which Yamato covers his entire body with a wood imitation rather than using an illusion to mask his appearance. He is also able to create a wood-based clone generated from his body as well as create one from the ground. Because they share the same cells, Yamato is able to track its location, communicate with it over long distances, and absorb any information it has gathered by laying his hand on it. Yamato can also use a seed form variant to this technique that operates in the same way: he is able to track anyone that he plants the seeds on by its response to his chakra. Having been genetically altered to match Hashirama's DNA, Yamato was also granted the legendary shinobi's ability to heal nearly any wound, without the need for hand seals.

* **Tailed Beast Suppression**: Using the First Hokage's Necklace to amplify his powers, Yamato can suppress the power of a tailed beast. This legendary ability was one of the reasons that Hashirama Senju was made Hokage in the first place, and it was greatly coveted by Orochimaru. Although the First Hokage could suppress entire tailed beasts, Yamato has admitted to his skill not being as strong as the original's so it is unknown what the limits of his suppression ability are. He was able to suppress Naruto's four-tailed form in mere seconds. It was for this reason why Yamato was assigned to Team Kakashi in their leader's absence.

**Nature Transformation**: He has also proven to be skilled with individual Water and Earth Release techniques, as seen when he used them in combination to rapidly create a giant waterfall for Naruto's training, by first raising up the ground and then creating water to fall down from it.