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| This is the article on the tailed beasts featured in Naruto: A Shinobi Story. If you are looking for the article on list of other articles related to the tailed beasts, canon or fanon, then you should head to 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)[2], 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.
History[]
Warring States Period[]
The young tailed beasts with the Sage of Six Paths.
Long before the founding of the hidden villages, the Sage of Six Paths saved the world by sealing the Ten-Tails into his body, becoming its jinchūriki. Sometime later, the Sage was inspired by his youngest son, Asura, to use his Creation of All Things ability to divide the Ten-Tails’ chakra into nine living entities, what would become the tailed beasts.[3][4] The Sage named the nine and explained to them that a link existed between them despite their separation. He also foretold of a day when they would be brought together again — though not as they were — and that at that time someone would emerge to show them what true power is.[5] Also before his death, the Sage and his followers built temples in nine different regions of the world where the tailed beasts could live and be protected.[6] The tailed beasts were originally created not only to prevent the Ten-Tails’ resurrection, but also to maintain and balance peace.[7] The first person to come close to their original usage was Hashirama Senju, who had captured several of the tailed beasts with his Wood Release, distributed the beasts amongst the new shinobi villages to stabilize the balance of power between them; however, Hashirama’s usage of the tailed beasts were forceful rather than earning their willful cooperation.[8] This method would be realized in Naruto Uzumaki.
Shinobi World Wars[]
Over the centuries, humanity failed to recognize the tailed beasts as sentient individuals, instead seeing them only as demons, malignant spirits or mindless beasts worthy of fear and disdain. Because of their immense power, the tailed beasts were sought out by humans to be used as weapons in times of war. The beasts resented this treatment and came to hate humans, at times willingly becoming the monsters they were viewed as.[9] To harness the beasts’ power, the villages began sealing them into humans, creating their own jinchūriki.
The tailed beasts sharing their chakra with Naruto.
Decades later, after the Third Shinobi World War, an organization known as Akatsuki begins capturing the villages’ jinchūriki to extract their tailed beasts and seal them into the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path for the purposes of reviving the Ten-Tails. By the time of the Fourth Shinobi World War, Akatsuki has captured the first seven tailed beasts.[10] To capture the last two, the Eight-Tails and Nine-Tails, Tobi seals the beasts back into their reincarnated jinchūriki and forces them to fight the Eight-Tails’ and Nine-Tails’ jinchūriki: Killer B and Naruto Uzumaki, respectively. From Naruto’s determination to free them from Tobi and his desire to learn their names, the tailed beasts collectively decide that Naruto is the person the Sage of Six Paths foretold of. They give him portions of their chakra, enabling him to release them from Tobi’s control.
The tailed beasts reunite with Hagoromo and Naruto.
Tobi is able to reclaim the freed tailed beasts and attempted to extract the Eight-Tails and Nine-Tails from their hosts to revive the Ten-Tails. He gets, however, defeated by the Allied Shinobi Forces and the rest of the tailed beasts were freed from the statue. They joined forces against Tobi’s coconspirator, Madara Uchiha, but gets quickly defeats them all, sealing them all again into the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path, including the Eight-Tails and Nine-Tails, and revives the Ten-Tails. Madara and Tobi then use the Ten-Tails’ against the Allied Shinobi Forces, destroying their headquarters and killing hundreds more shinobi at once. Ten-Tails’ jinchūriki and attempts to use cast Infinite Tsukuyomi on the world. Naruto uses the tailed beasts’ earlier donations of chakra to try and defeat him, but is unable to do so in time. Madara is afterward attempt to take what portions of the tailed beasts’ chakra Naruto still has.
The nine tailed beasts being freed from the Ten-Tails.
In one of Madara’s dimensions, Naruto and Sasuke Uchiha seal Madara away and the tailed beasts are extracted from her body, ending the war. Sasuke, however, realizing that the struggle for the tailed beasts started the war in the first place, imprisons them with Chibaku Tensei and intends to kill them so the world cannot fight over them any longer. Naruto convinces him not to in the end and the tailed beasts are finally released for good.[11] The tailed beasts spread out throughout the world, free to live as they want; Kurama decided to return and stay with Naruto; however, though they are apart, the tailed beasts’ chakra fragments remain within Naruto, allowing his body to act as their “meeting ground”.[12]
Abilities[]
The tailed beasts performing their signature technique.
Tailed beasts are widely believed to be bestial in nature, incapable of the intelligence needed to fully utilize 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.[13] 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.[14]
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 — each with a unique color — far greater than what most shinobi have, can easily transfer their chakra to whomever they choose,[15] and can use the Tailed Beast Ball.[16] Because the tailed beasts are pure chakra, they cannot permanently die; if they or their jinchūriki die, their chakra will reform in time.[17] Additionally, 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;[18] however, 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.[19]
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.[20][21] 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.[22] 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.[23]
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 Gyūki are present in the real world, while all eight were inside Naruto as well, where they hold meetings.
Tailed Beasts and Jinchūriki[]
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
Trivia[]
- Four tailed beasts are based on popular animal yōkai from Japanese mythology, with Shukaku as a tanuki, Matatabi a nekomata, Gyūki an ushi-oni, and Kurama a Kyūbi no Kitsune. All the other creations by Massashi Kishimoto, a mixture of various other species of animals and their respective characteristics.
- Kurama even likens the true nature of tailed beasts to that of yōkai.
- 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 which allow it and its jinchūriki to fly while Gyūki has eight cephalopod limbs that serve as its tails, possessing ox and cephalopod properties.
- Shukaku and Matatabi are the only tailed beasts made from an inorganic material. Strangely, both were believed to be a living ghost (生 霊, Ikiryō).
- Despite having names, the nine 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 offense to the monikers.
- Shukaku also refers to itself only by its name; however, it is never bothered being called 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 bloodlust is especially strong during a full moon.
- Several non-jinchūriki shinobi have been said to hold chakra levels and/or strength comparable to that of a tailed beast. Such individuals include Madara Uchiha, Hashirama Senju, the Third and Fourth Raikage, Kisame Hoshigaki, and most notably, the legendary Clan of Zero-Tailed Beasts (零尾獣の一族, Reiojū no Ichizoku, Viz: Zero-Tailed Beast Clan) who can physically match all nine tailed beasts individually.
- Madara Uchiha’s Complete Body — Susanoo, Hashirama Senju’s Wood Release: Wood Human Technique, and the Shunsoku clan’s Lightning Mode are said to have destructive powers rivaling those of the tailed beasts.
- How the tailed beasts speak has been depicted inconsistently throughout the series, where sometimes their mouths move with their words and sometimes, they do not.
- Due to the death of its jinchūriki, Isobu is the first known tailed beast to have “died” and revived, not once but twice.
References[]
- ↑ Naruto chapter 404, page 14
- ↑ Naruto chapter 404, page 14
- ↑ Naruto chapter 510, pages 11-12
- ↑ Naruto chapter 670
- ↑ Naruto chapter 572, pages 12-13
- ↑ Naruto: Shippūden episode 464
- ↑ Naruto chapter 671, page 8
- ↑ Naruto chapter 648, pages 10-12
- ↑ Naruto chapter 568, page 13
- ↑ Naruto chapter 468, page 6
- ↑ Naruto chapter 699
- ↑ Naruto chapter 692, pages 6-7
- ↑ Naruto chapter 318, page 12
- ↑ Naruto chapter 638, page 13
- ↑ Naruto chapter 572, page 10
- ↑ Naruto chapter 519
- ↑ Naruto chapter 503, pages 14, 17
- ↑ Naruto chapters 642-643
- ↑ Fourth Databook, page 93
- ↑ Naruto chapter 496, page 10
- ↑ Naruto chapter 568, page 10
- ↑ Naruto chapter 572, pages 6-7
- ↑ Naruto chapter 698, page 4