Kakuzu

**Kakuzu** (角都) is an S-rank missing-nin from Takigakure and a member of Akatsuki who was partnered with Hidan. Kisame Hoshigaki jokingly referred to them as the **Zombie Combo** (ゾンビコンビ, *Zonbi Konbi*, *English TV:* Zombie Pair), due to the fact that, in differing senses, they could not die.

## Background

When under the servitude of Takigakure as an elite ninja, Kakuzu took on a mission to assassinate Hashirama Senju, the First Hokage. This mission, however, ended in failure against the God of Shinobi. Despite the insurmountable danger faced on the mission, what awaited his return to his village was the stigma and harsh punishment associated with the failure of his objective. In response to this treatment, a wrong levied against a shinobi who had put life and limb on the line for his village, Kakuzu came to hold a violent hatred for Takigakure as he escaped from imprisonment. In his flight from the village, Kakuzu killed the village elders, took their hearts, and fled with knowledge of the village's most prized forbidden techniques. He made a living off bounty hunting on the black market, and tearing out the still-beating hearts of powerful shinobi to extend his own lifespan and arsenal. At some time in the past, he apparently encountered the Gold and Silver Brothers and witnessed Kinkaku's jinchūriki transformation.

Some time after his defection, he became affiliated with, and joined, the criminal organisation, Akatsuki. During his early years in Akatsuki, he had at least four partners that he eventually ended up killing due to his short temper, and would come to use their hearts for his Earth Grudge Fear. In the anime, he, Itachi and Konan were tasked with killing an apparent immortal, who turned out to be Hidan. He managed to destroy one of Kakuzu's heart. Taking an interest in his abilities, Akatsuki recruited Hidan instead. Kakuzu was eventually paired with Hidan, who took an interest in Kakuzu after thinking of him as a pioneer for immortality, despite a mutual dislike. He was deemed a fitting partner for Kakuzu as he could not be killed because of his own, similar immortality.

## Personality

Kakuzu was a greedy and miserly individual. He would arrange goals in terms of the highest profit he could gain from them, and was often unwilling to involve himself in something if there was nothing to gain from it, as well as claiming that he tended to forget opponents who were not worth any money after he was done with them. He even remarked that money is the only dependable thing in the world. Due to this end, he referred to himself as the "Treasurer of Akatsuki". Given his friendly relationship with Zangei, his bounty officer, it would seem he collected bounties rather frequently to earn cash, and did so (or at least tried) during his missions on several occasions. The frequent side-tasks and devotion to money were both major points of contention between Hidan and Kakuzu. He also seemed to respect an opponent who thinks well, as shown with his reaction to Kakashi's counters to Kakuzu's masks, and Shikamaru's quick analysis of Hidan's curse, even mentioning Shikamaru would have been a good bounty in the future.

Out of all the Akatsuki members, Hidan and Kakuzu displayed the most animosity towards each other, since neither of them were very fond of each other's interests. The two often traded barbs with one another, Kakuzu's usually having better timing than Hidan's. Hidan had shown great annoyance with Kakuzu's greed and occasional habit of doing or saying blasphemous things, such as attacking a temple and killing the head monk for the bounty on the monk's head. Kakuzu, in turn, disliked Hidan's religion, believing the rituals associated with it to be a waste of time. Kakuzu was also rather impatient with Hidan's drawn-out speeches and battle style. Despite their mutual dislike of each other, their teamwork was almost flawless, because they complemented each other's abilities extremely well. Also, Kakuzu seemed to care to an extent about Hidan, as he picked up and gave back his partner's forehead protector after he lost it during his fight with Asuma, a feat that made Hidan admit that Kakuzu was not as hostile as he appeared to be, although Kakuzu did note that he only did so because he could not stand the sight of the scar on Hidan's neck.

The only reason that Kakuzu put up with Hidan was because he couldn't get rid of him. Due to his violent temper, Kakuzu often killed anyone close by when enraged, having killed his previous partners and even took their hearts to extend his own life. Hidan, therefore, was the perfect partner for Kakuzu, because of Hidan's inability to die. Kakuzu's somewhat indiscriminate attack style also made Hidan an ideal partner, since Kakuzu didn't need to worry about catching his partner in the crossfire.

Despite his obsessive personality and violent rages, Kakuzu was much more cautious than his partner, and was not as arrogant, never mindlessly rushing into battle like Hidan. Kakuzu frequently warned Hidan not to let his guard down, and then teased Hidan when he inevitably did. Kakuzu also seemed quite willing to follow orders. When ordered to retreat by the Akatsuki leader, Kakuzu complied immediately (while Hidan attempted to argue), despite the rather large bounty he could have received by taking Asuma. He seemed to forget the greater goals of the organisation when enraged, as he attempted to kill Naruto, in spite of Akatsuki's need to capture all the jinchūriki alive.

Kakuzu held a violent hatred for his village, as despite his loyalty and willingness to risk life and limb on a dangerous mission, his failure was repaid with uncharacteristically harsh punishment. He responded in kind by brutally betraying Takigakure — committing jailbreak, taking knowledge of their most valuable kinjutsu and killing all of the elders before departing.

## Shinobi of The Sea

At some point, Kakuzu joined the Avatar Program alongside his wife and son

## Abilities

Kakuzu was an extremely powerful ninja, earning membership into the S-rank organisation of Akatsuki. During his frequent rages, he killed all but one of his partners in the organisation, due to the latter being immortal. His skills were such that he was chosen by his village to assassinate Hashirama Senju, surviving the battle despite failing the mission. Kakuzu's might is such, that had it not been for the interference of Team Yamato, he would have likely killed Team Asuma.

### Chakra and Physical Prowess

Kakuzu was quite fast, able to cross great distances almost instantly and disappear from unfocused eyes. He could intercept Kakashi when he was attacking Hidan with his Lightning Cutter. His raw strength could catch one of Chōji's enlarged punches with a single hand and easily overpower the latter, as well as lift two people up by their necks at once with relative ease. Kakuzu was also adept in taijutsu, able to go toe-to-toe against a Sharingan-wielding Kakashi. From all the assimilations he had conducted over the decades of his defeated foes, he had amassed a vast amount of chakra.[citation needed]

### Ninjutsu

#### Earth Grudge Fear

Kakuzu's fighting style and unique abilities revolved around the special nature of his body structure, which was composed of hundreds of thick, grey tendrils woven throughout his flesh called Earth Grudge Fear, holding his body together like the stitches of a rag-doll. Seemingly through this, it had allowed Kakuzu to retain his youthful strength, health, and appearance despite his advanced age. This also let him separate his body parts at will, perform mid to long-range physical attacks, and sew up almost any injury he suffered. The threads could also be used to repair the bodies of others, as seen when he reattached Deidara's arms. Because of his unique body structure, Kakuzu was 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. The individual hearts could also 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 of elemental chakra from their mouths. If Kakuzu was killed somehow, then one of his extra hearts could sacrifice itself by re-entering his body and resuscitate him.

#### Nature Transformation

Using the Earth Release: Earth Spear Technique increased his durability to withstand otherwise normally fatal attacks, such as Chōji's Spiked Human Bullet Tank. By collecting the hearts of other ninja, Kakuzu was granted their elemental affinities. This was done by connecting his chakra circulatory system to his four extra hearts, one for each chakra nature, granting him the ability to utilise this nature in battle. His efficiency with these different elemental attacks were noted to be impossible without having an affinity to that particular element.

Whereas in the manga, Kakuzu's own elemental affinity was implied to be Earth, in the anime, he was able to use water-based techniques that didn't stem from his Earth Grudge Fear technique, performing such feats as hiding within water or creating defensive walls and clones.

* **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 biped. It could use Lightning Release: False Darkness.
* **Water Mask:** This heart had an water affinity, and took on the shape of a demonic, beaked biped. It allowed Kakuzu to use Water Release techniques, although they were not seen in the manga as the mask was destroyed before Kakuzu could use any.
* **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.

### Intelligence

Kakuzu was shown to be a keen analyst and pragmatist, which was somewhat attributable to his advanced age. He was highly observant, easily noticing that Shikamaru was taking his time to formulate a plan to counter Hidan's technique, after the former caught his partner in his Shadow Imitation Technique. He was able to quickly discern the purpose of Shikamaru's various shadow attacks, and devised ways to counter them almost instantaneously during the battle. An example is when Shikamaru trapped him and Hidan in his Shadow Imitation Shuriken Technique, only for Kakuzu to detach his right arm, hide it underground and with its help, remove the trench knife, thus successfully breaking free from the technique.