Katsuyu (RW109)

Katsuyu
Debut
Novel	Naruto: A Shinobi Story
Appears in	Novel
Character Status
Species	Slug
Birthdate	May 9
Gender	Other
Affiliation(s)	Shikkotsu Forest Konohagakure Allied Shinobi Forces
Classification	Summon
Jutsu
Chakra Transfer Technique, Katsuyu: Immense Network Healing, Slug Great Division, Tongue Tooth Sticky Acid

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Katsuyu (カツユ) is a slug and the personal summon of the Fifth Hokage Tsunade, and her disciple Sakura Haruno. Katsuyu resides in the legendary Shikkotsu Forest.

Background

At some point during the Second Shinobi World War, Katsuyu was summoned to the battlefield, alongside Gamabunta and Manda.

Personality

Katsuyu is quiet and more subservient to its master especially when compared to Manda or Gamabunta. It addresses Tsunade with the highly respectful honorific “-sama”, and, in the English versions, calls her “Mistress” or “Milady”. Katsuyu tends to also use honorifics like “-kun” and “-san” on other villagers. Sakura and Shizune show it considerable respect, addressing it as “Katsuyu-sama”.

Appearance

Katsuyu’s full appearance.

Katsuyu is an enormous entity whose true size is unknown. The general size of the summoned portion of Katsuyu is easily as tall as the largest building in Konoha. During the Fourth Shinobi World War, Tsunade mentioned that her and Sakura’s combined capabilities are only able to summon one-tenth of the slug’s actual size, which easily dwarfed neighboring mountain ranges — being able to cover the Allied Shinobi Forces when liquified. In fact, unlike other summons which may be multiple in number as well as vary in size, the slugs summoned by Sakura and Tsunade are all portions of the same entity.

It is predominantly white in color with three blue streaks that run vertically down the middle and side of its body from its head and tapering off at its tail. Its optical tentacles have a slight tint of gray to them, and it also has two sensory tentacles on either side of its mouth.

Abilities

Katsuyu attacking Manda.

Offensively, Katsuyu can spit acid using its Tongue Tooth Sticky Acid technique, which is strong enough to melt through rock with ease. With its Slug Great Division, Katsuyu can divide itself into smaller clones to evade attacks or to serve small-scale functions and is capable of quickly reforming itself if need be.

Katsuyu’s clones can attach themselves to injured people, allowing its summoner to channel their chakra through it to heal the injured person; these clones also establish a sensory connection with the patients, allowing the summoner to make an assessment of their condition instantly upon contact. Katsuyu’s clones can also telepathically share information with each other which allows the slug to serve other supplementary purposes when divided such as gathering and dispensing information. Katsuyu was also capable of putting Tsunade’s bisected body back together, although due to Tsunade being weakened, the process took a considerable amount of time as Katsuyu needed assistance bringing the two halves of her body together before Katsuyu could rejoin her.

Katsuyu begins to deconstruct.

Furthermore, due to its genetic and physical make up, Katsuyu is extremely resistant to damage, as seen during Pain’s assasult. Katsuyu is also able to encapsulate people into its body to protect them from physical harm — like the large-scale Shinra Tensei — or put them in stasis to prevent loss of life. A palm-sized version of Katsuyu even survived the corrosive chakra of Naruto’s eight-tailed form and Nagato’s Chibaku Tensei. Katsuyu’s clones were fast enough to throw themselves in front of Shizune, Ino and Inoichi before the Animal Path’s rhino summon even managed to hit them. Due to its ability to divide, a summoner is able to separately summon her divisions so portions of Katsuyu can be in more than one place at any given time. Also due to this physical make up, the slug is able to alter its bodily form and is able to deconstruct entirely into nothing more than a pool of body fluids. This does not render it incapacitated and Katsuyu is still able to function just as it would if it were corporeal.

Katsuyu has also noted that its power is directly tied in to that of its summoner and their Strength of a Hundred Seal. For that reason, when Tsunade summoned the slug in her weakened condition during the Fourth Shinobi World War, the healing proceeded slowly, as not only was Katsuyu multitasking, but Tsunade’s chakra reserves were extremely low.

Part I

Search for Tsunade Senju

Main article: Naruto: A Shinobi Story/Search for Tsunade Senju

Katsuyu escapes Manda’s hold.

After Tsunade healed herself from what should have been a fatal attack, all three Sannin decided to use their most powerful summons and all three succeeded at the same time. Katsuyu was summoned and when the battle begun, it was constricted by Manda but escaped using the Slug Great Division technique.

Part II

Pain’s Assault (Arc)

Main article: Naruto: A Shinobi Story/Pain’s Assault (Arc)

Fourth Shinobi World War (Arc)

Main article: Naruto: A Shinobi Story/Fourth Shinobi World War (Arc)

Birth of the Ten-Tails’ Jinchūriki

Main article: Naruto: A Shinobi Story/Birth of the Ten-Tails’ Jinchūriki

Trivia

• The name Katsuyu apparently comes from slug (蛞蝓) in on’yomi.
• The first part of Katsuyu’s name: Katsu (割), means means “split” or “divide”. This could be a reference to its ability to divide into many smaller bodies.
• A variation of the worldwide game “Rock, Paper, Scissors” in Japan presented in the early 1640s was the “Slug, Snake, Frog” variation. In this variation, the Frog is afraid of the Snake, the Snake is afraid of the Slug, and the Slug is afraid of the Frog. This is influenced by the Sansukumi way of thinking where it keeps the three objects in a deadlock. This concept was referenced and joked upon in an omake of episode 164 of Naruto: Shippūden, where Katsuyu feared that with Manda deceased, Gamabunta and the toads of Mount Myōboku would now try eating it. This was also played for in episode 8 of Rock Lee no Seishun Full Power Ninden where after Tsunade and Naruto summoned Katsuyu and Gamabunta, the latter swallowed the former shortly after appearing, much to Tsunade’s horror.
• In English translations of the series, Katsuyu is referred to with female pronouns. In the original Japanese, Katsuyu is only referred to with gender-neutral pronouns which could relate to slugs being naturally hermaphroditic.

References