Rock Lee

Rock Lee

Main article: Rock Lee

Rock Lee (ロック・リー Rokku Rī^?) is a member of Team Guy and the favorite student of team leader Might Guy. In the ninja academy, Rock Lee was unable to use ninjutsu or genjutsu techniques, but his persistence impressed Guy. Guy spends much of his free time training with Lee to help him accomplish his dream of becoming a respected ninja by using only taijutsu. Lee has adopted several of Guy's habits because of this, such as his wardrobe and his perseverance.^[ch. 84] Guy has taught him a number of powerful, even forbidden, techniques. Because some of these techniques, such as the ability to open the eight chakra gates, can pose a severe risk to Lee's body, he is only permitted to use them to protect something or someone dear to him.^[ch. 52] In the Japanese anime and manga, he always utilizes honorifics such as "san" and "kun". In the English adaptations, he never uses contractions. In the Japanese anime, his voice actor is Yoichi Masukawa, and his voice actor is Brian Donovan in English

Read more »

Akamaru

Akamaru

Akamaru (赤丸^?) is Kiba Inuzuka's ninja dog, best friend, and constant companion. At the start of the series, Kiba carries Akamaru around on his head or inside his jacket. By Part II of the Naruto storyline, Akamaru grows large enough for Kiba to ride atop his back, but since Kiba spends so much time with Akamaru, he fails to notice this drastic difference.^[ch. 282] With his heightened sense of smell, hearing, and the ability to detect others' chakra levels, Akamaru acts as a valuable tool for Kiba in hostile situations. To help Kiba keep track of opponents, Akamaru can urinate on them, giving them a strong odor that can easily be tracked. In battle, however, he relies on Kiba to provide the chakra for the combination attacks they execute, which requires Akamaru to transform into a clone of Kiba.^[ch. 203] In the original Japanese anime, Akamaru is voiced by Junko Takeuchi, who is also the voice actor for Naruto Uzumaki, and Kōsuke Toriumi, who voices Kiba, when Akamaru transforms into a clone of Kiba.^[20] In the English adaptation of the anime, Akamaru's vocal effects are provided by Jamie Simone though Kyle Hebert provided the voice of Akamaru when he took Kiba's form

Read more »

Kiba Inuzuka

Kiba Inuzuka

Kiba Inuzuka (犬塚 キバ Inuzuka Kiba^?) is a member of Team 8 characterized by a number of dog-like traits such as being very protective of his teammates and extremely keen senses such as smell. Most apparent of his connection to dogs is the constant presence of his ninja dog (忍犬 ninken^?), Akamaru. Kiba is fiercely loyal to Akamaru, unwilling to abandon him and putting himself in harm's way for Akamaru's sake.^[ch. 204] In exchange for Kiba's devotion, Akamaru fights with him in battle; he uses his heightened senses to Kiba's advantage, and helps to double-team opponents with volleys of physical attacks. Since Akamaru is naturally better equipped for combat, Kiba usually modifies his own abilities at the start of a battle, growing claws and traveling on all four limbs to increase his speed.^[ch. 75] He can also drastically increase his sense of smell, and by the second half of the series he can use it to track things dogs cannot.^[ch. 364] Kiba's voice actor in the Japanese anime is Kōsuke Toriumi, and his English voice actor is Kyle Hebert.^[20][33]

Read more »

Madara Uchiha

Madara Uchiha

Madara Uchiha (うちは マダラ Uchiha Madara^?) is one of the founders of Konohagakure and the leader of the Uchiha clan.^[ch. 385] After losing his eyesight as a result of overusing his Mangekyo Sharingan, Madara had the eyes from his younger brother transplanted to him in order to regain his vision, obtain the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan, and continue fighting opposing clans.^[ch. 386] However, Konohagakure's foundation by the Uchiha Clan and the Senju Clan to end the war makes Madara ultimately leave the village and try to kill the Senjus' leader, the First Hokage Hashirama Senju, controlling the powerful nine-tailed fox, Kurama.^[ch. 399] Madara is reported to have died shortly after his defeat, but it is later revealed he survived it, having taken a blood sample of Hashirama and used it on himself to increase his power and set the stage for his Eye of the Moon Plan.^[ch. 560] Using life support after gaining the Rinnegan as a old man, Madara takes Obito Uchiha as his apprentice and continue his work while transplanting his eyes into Nagato as means to be revived years later.^[ch. 605] During most of the Naruto series, Obito uses the name of Madara until Kabuto Yakushi finds the real Madara and reanimates him to fight against the Shinobi Alliance.^[ch. 562] However, Madara manages to server his connection to Kabuto's technique to remain after the other reanimated ninja are allowed to return to the afterlife.^[ch. 601] Though the Ten Tails is revived, Madara can not enact the Eye of the Moon plan until he is fully reborn through Obito sacrificing himself through the Samsara of Heavenly Life Jutsu

Read more »

Pain

Pain

The Six Paths of Pain, from left to right: Animal, Naraka, Asura, Deva, Human, Preta.

Pain (ペイン Pein^?) is the figurehead leader of Akatsuki for Tobi, partnered to Konan and the principal figure in the tailed beast sealing ceremony. The first Pain appearing in the series is actually Yahiko, one of six different bodies collectively known as The Six Paths of Pain (ペイン六道 Pein Rokudō^?). Controlled by a single conscious mind, each of the six bodies are individually named after one of the six Buddhist paths of reincarnation.^{[ch. 378, 419]} All but one of the bodies have orange hair and a number of body piercings that, from a design standpoint, give Pain a "more dangerous" appearance and relate the pain of their installation to the character's name.^[24] Each also has a Rinnegan (輪廻眼^?, lit. "Saṃsāra Eye"), the unique eye technique possessed by the Sage of the Six Paths. As a result, the six Paths use the Rinnegan to share visual information and coordinate attacks.^[ch. 378]
The Paths of Pain are revealed to all be corpses controlled by Nagato (長門^?) who, like Konan, was an Amegakure orphan trained by Jiraiya alongside Yahiko (弥彦^?) before Yahiko became Deva Pain. Nagato desired peace for the world and created the Akatsuki to fight Amegakure's oppresive leader, Hanzo.^[ch. 373] After Yahiko's death years later as a result of a trap by Hanzo, Nagato came to the realization that peace could only be attained by teaching the world the pain caused by war. To that end he adopted the name "Pain" to conquer Amegakure before killing Hanzo, becoming a "god" in the eyes of Amegakure's citizens.^[ch. 369]
All six bodies of Pain are eventually defeated by Naruto. Naruto is able to renew Nagato's faith in his late master and in the possibility of peace, prompting Nagato to sacrifice his life in order to revive the people he killed in Konoha with the Samsara of Heavenly Life Jutsu.^[ch. 449] Nagato is later resurrected by Kabuto and sent alongside Itachi to battle Naruto and Killer Bee, but after Itachi escapes Kabuto's control he is sealed by Itachi. It would later be revealed that, were it not for Naruto, Nagato was meant to sacrifice himself to resurrect Madara. In the Japanese anime, all Pains except the female one is voiced by Kenyu Horiuchi, while Nagato's voice actor is Junpei Morita.^[20] In his cameo appearance in episode 135 of the English adaptation, he is voiced by Dave Wittenberg, and in the Shippuden anime he is voiced by Troy Baker,^[32] while Nagato is voiced by Vic Mignogna.^[2

Read more »

Konan

Konan

Konan (小南^?) is the only female ninja in Akatsuki. As such, Kishimoto originally wanted her to have an obscene appearance showing more of her bust.^[24] Being a partner of Nagato, Konan was also a pupil under Jiraiya after she was orphaned as a child by one of Amegakure's many wars and forced to fend for herself. Because she serves under Pain, she is referred to by villagers of Amegakure as "God's angel". While under Jiraiya, Konan learned to take advantage of her natural talent with origami, using it as a key component in her battle style.^{[ch. 373, 449]} Konan can divide her body into countless sheets of paper, which she controls and reshapes remotely to scout out an area, form weapons for attack, or create wings that mirror her title. While Konan's abilities are restricted when the paper is wet; since paper will cling to itself and lose its stiffness, she is able to use this weakness to her advantage as she implements explosive tags into her paper clones. After Nagato's death, Konan withdraws her position in Akatsuki and leaves the organization.^[ch. 372] Later, she is confronted by Tobi over the location of Nagato's Rinnegan eyes. She fights him, but is killed after being forced to reveal Nagato's resting place.^[ch. 510] In the Japanese anime, Konan is voiced by Atsuko Tanaka and in the English anime, her voice actor is Dorothy Elias-Fahn.^[20][28]

Read more »

Akatsuki

Akatsuki

Akatsuki (暁^?, lit. "Dawn" or "Daybreak") is an organization of criminal ninja that serves as the primary antagonistic force of the Naruto series. Led by Tobi, though he acts through the group's figurehead leader Pain, the Akatsuki's goal is world domination by using the power of the nine tailed beasts.^[ch. 239] The members of Akatsuki are ninja who have abandoned their villages, and are considered by their former homes to be S-class criminals, the most powerful and wanted ninja in the Naruto universe. At any given time, Akatsuki is composed of eight members, who operate in two-man teams. They share similar clothing, most notably a long, dark cloak bearing red clouds and a chin-high collar. Aside from an attempt by two Akatsuki members, Itachi Uchiha and Kisame Hoshigaki, to capture Kurama (the nine-tailed fox sealed within Naruto Uzumaki) Akatsuki is not prominently featured in Part I.^[ch. 143] In Part II, they take a more active role, capturing Gaara and extracting the one-tailed tanuki, Shukaku, from his body, as well as working towards capturing the remaining tailed beasts.^[ch. 261] Kishimoto called the Akatsuki's members antiheroes as he wished to expand their backgrounds as much as the ones from the series' protagonists, contrasting them with other types of villains.^[19]

Read more »