The world of Naruto was haunted by nine colossal Tailed Beasts, all of whom could crush mountains and cities alike with their size and strength. It was possible to kill the Tailed Beasts, but they wouldn't stay dead for long, as they would just reappear somewhere else in the world.
The most effective way to keep the Tailed Beasts out of trouble was by sealing them up inside a living person. These people were referred to as Jinchuriki and they were often feared by the villages that created them.
It was possible for the Jinchuriki to tap into the limitless reserves of chakra that the Tailed Beasts provided them with, but there was also the possibility that the Beast would take control over its host and run amok in the world once more.
We are here today to look into the lives of the nine most powerful characters in the world of Naruto. From the Four-Tails' numerous references to Dragon Ball Z to the final fate of the Tailed Beasts, here are the 15 Things You Never Knew About The Jinchuriki in Naruto!
Naruto Was The Son Of Kurama In The Pilot Of The Series
The idea of a magical fox with nine tails is something that comes from Chinese mythology. A nine-tailed fox has appeared in several different anime and video game franchises, such as Digimon and Okami, though the one in Naruto is likely the most famous version of the concept.
It seems that Masashi Kishimoto had the idea of mixing the nine-tailed fox with a world full of ninjas since the beginning, though it appeared in a very different way. While Kishimoto was trying to get a manga serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump magazine, he created a one-shot for Naruto which is often referred to as the "Pilot" by fans. This version of Naruto is very different from the final series, as it has a contemporary setting, even though ninjas and magical creatures are still part of the world.
In the Naruto Pilot, Naruto was actually the son of the Nine-Tails, though he preferred to use a human form. The village still didn't trust him and treated him like an outcast, though this is slightly more understandable than what happened in canon.
It's Possible For Other Creatures To Create Jinchuriki
Naruto gave a lot of speeches about how great he was at being a ninja, yet several of his important battles were only won because the Nine-Tails gave him some of its chakra. He would have lost to Haku, Neji, Gaara, and Sasuke if it weren't for Kurama's help, which the fox actually brought up to Naruto at one point.
Having a Tailed Beast inside of you is a great way to access a lot of chakra at a short notice. The Tailed Beasts aren't the only creatures in the world that possess this ability, as the Naruto anime created several evil beings that could grant their power to others, in a similar manner to the Tailed Beasts and their Jinchuriki.
Naruto Shippūden the Movie: Bonds introduced a creature known as the Zero-Tails, though it had no relation to the other Tailed Beasts. This was a horrific leech-like creature that possessed an evil chakra of its own, which was used by Shinno to increase his strength.
Naruto the Movie: Blood Prison introduced a demonic creature called Satori that could possess others and grant them new powers, such as the ability to fire razor-sharp feathers from their mouths. It did this to Muku, who became stronger with Satori's help.
The Four-Tail Jinchuriki Is A Reference To Dragon Ball Z
Masashi Kishimoto was a huge fan of Dragon Ball Z when he was a boy. He discussed his numerous inspirations in blurbs that appeared in the collected volumes of Naruto. This list also included series like Fist of the North Star, which was a clear inspiration for the fighting style of the Hyuga Clan.
Naruto featured occasional nods to Dragon Ball Z, like when Naruto visited a carnival stall that was selling a mask that looked like Chiaotzu. By far the biggest reference to Dragon Ball Z came in the form of the Jinchuriki of the Four-Tails, who was named Roshi.
Roshi was the oldest of the Jinchuriki, which makes him a clear nod to Master Roshi from Dragon Ball Z. His Tailed Beast was a giant monkey named Son Goku, which is an obvious reference to Goku and his Oozaru form.
Son Goku has four tails, which is also a reference to the Four-Star Dragon Ball, which was Goku's favorite in Dragon Ball Z as it belonged to Grandpa Gohan.
Gaara Wasn't Originally Going To Be A Jinchuriki
The concept of the Jinchuriki was first introduced after the time-skip in Naruto. Up until this point, it seemed as if Gaara and Naruto were the only people with monsters sealed up inside of them. It was eventually revealed that all information pertaining to the Tailed Beasts was considered classified information in Konoha and that nine of them existed in the world. The demon within Gaara was also retconned into being the One-Tail.
Gaara's status as a Jinchuriki was a late development, as Masashi Kishimoto originally had a very different design for the character. The original design for Gaara was a seven-year-old boy named Kumomaru.
This boy used drugs in order to make himself stronger, rather than relying on the power of a creature sealed within him. Kumomaru also had a dog named Manji, who had the Manji symbol on his forehead. It's fortunate that this design wasn't used, as the Manji is a reverse Swastika (though it is far older), which would have meant that the dog would have needed to have been censored.
We know this because the symbol on Neji's head is a Manji in the manga and that was censored in all versions of the anime.
Killer B Was One Of Masashi Kishimoto's Favorite Characters
One of the best ways to make a character popular is by having them beat up someone that the audience doesn't like. This was the way that Killer B became such a beloved character to many Naruto fans.
Sasuke began to draw the ire of many Naruto fans as the series went on. This is because he slowly stole the focus away from Naruto, to the point where he may as well have been the main character. The Sharingan had also grown over-powered to the point where it was gaining new abilities out of thin air.
Killer B absolutely dominated Sasuke for most of their battle, as he kept pulling out counters to all of the Sharingan's abilities. This made him very popular with the people who were growing sick of the Uchiha Clan storyline.
Masashi Kishimoto stated that Killer B became his favorite character in the story for a while. This might explain why he survived until the end of the story when it seemed as if he was going to be killed along with the other non-Naruto/Gaara Jinchuriki.
Masashi Kishimoto Wasn't Sure If Fu Was A Boy Or A Girl For A Long Time
We got our first look at all of the Jinchuriki in a color spread that appeared at the start of the four hundred and twentieth chapter of the Naruto manga. We had already seen Naruto, Gaara, Yugito, Roshi, and Killer B in the story, so this gave us our first glimpse at the other Jinchuriki, most of whom were reported to have been captured and killed by Akatsuki.
The Jinchuriki of the Seven-Tails was someone named Fu. Their design made it very difficult to determine what their gender was. This was a problem that had cropped up a few times for people who were performing fan translations into English, as the Japanese language doesn't always use gender-specific pronouns. Fans weren't sure of the gender of Deidara or Sai when they were first introduced, due to their androgynous appearance.
Masashi Kishimoto was also unsure of Fu's gender. This was partly because he wasn't sure whether Fu was going to appear in the story again at that point. He later decided that Fu was a female.
The Anime Gave A Lot More Backstory To The Jinchuriki
When introducing someone to Naruto, it can be hard to recommend the anime over the manga. The reason for this is due to the sheer amount of filler episodes that you have to sit through.
Over one-third of the Naruto anime is composed of filler, which doesn't even account for the canon battles and segments that were pointlessly stretched out in order to extend the length of the show.
One of the ways in which the Naruto anime padded its runtime was by creating filler arcs based on the Jinchuriki who never had a chance to appear in the story before they died. We got to see more of what happened to Fu and Utakata before they were captured and had their Tailed Beasts extracted.
Utakata actually ran into Naruto during the Six-Tails Unleashed filler arc. This gave us a chance to see Utakata's last stand, where he battled against Pain. He was no match for the leader of Akatsuki and Utakata wound up with the same fate as he had in the manga.
One Of The Naruto Video Games Contained An Exclusive Rap Song Performed By Killer B
It's not unusual for the people involved with the production of an anime to contribute materials to any official video game adaptation of the series. Akira Toriyama has produced numerous original character designs for many Dragon Ball Z games, while the voice actors from Pokémon have performed in several of the games.
The vast majority of the Naruto games have been well-received, which is helped by the fact that the anime staff and voice actors have usually helped in their production. One of the best examples of this happened with Naruto Shippūden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Generations, as the game contained numerous cutscenes that were produced by the creators of the anime.
Naruto Shippūden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Generations featured exclusive cutscenes that become a music video when edited together. These scenes feature Killer B rapping about all of the opponents he has battled throughout his life, which include Naruto, Guy, Sasuke, and Kisame. You get to see them all turned into his backup dancers as the song progresses. This video appeared in both the English and Japanese versions of the game.
The Non-Canon Pseudo-Jinchuriki (Which Accidentally Became Canon)
The Naruto anime created lots of filler characters with powers that were connected to the Tailed Beasts, as well as other powerful entities in the world which acted in a similar manner, such as demons.
One of these anime-only characters was Sora, who was a Pseudo-Jinchuriki. This means that he has similar powers to a Jinchuriki, even though he doesn't have a Tailed Beast. Sora gained these powers because his father managed to collect some of the Nine-Tails' chakra, which was then placed into the infant Sora. This act allowed him to use some of the powers of the Jinchuriki, including the ability to cloak himself in Nine-Tails chakra.
It turns out that the idea behind Sora's creation actually appeared in canon. It was revealed that Kabuto raised two ninjas from the Hidden Cloud village back from the dead. These were the Gold and Silver Brothers, who became Pseudo-Jinchuriki by eating some of the Nine-Tails' flesh after it had devoured them.
They survived for two weeks before Kurama spit them out. This granted them the same abilities as Sora. It was later established that the only reason this worked was that the Gold and Silver Brothers were related to the Sage of Six Paths.
The Jinchuriki Drug
The Naruto manga ended in a similar manner to Harry Potter, with an epilogue that followed the main characters with their young children. The final chapter of Naruto was set fifteen years after the final battle between Naruto and Sasuke. We see Konoha in peaceful times, with Naruto as the Hokage and his son, Boruto, causing trouble. Boruto would later get his own series.
A series of light novels were released which detailed the events between the end of Naruto and the beginning of Boruto. This is known as the Naruto Hiden series and it follows characters like Gaara, Kakashi, and Shikamaru.
Sakura had her own light novel, called Sakura Hiden: Thoughts of Love, Riding Upon a Spring Breeze. In this story, Sakura discovers that someone had collected the DNA of several Jinchuriki in order to create a drug that could mimic their power. The Tailed Beast Drug allows its user to create a Jinchuriki chakra cloak of their own, without needing a Tailed Beast sealed up inside of them.
Yagura Was The First Person To Kill A Member Of Akatsuki
We first got a glimpse of all of the members of Akatsuki near the end of the first part of Naruto, as we saw all of their silhouettes when they gathered in secret to discuss their plans. Their outlines didn't totally match their final designs, which is likely because Kishimoto hadn't finished them yet.
The Naruto anime introduced two new members of Akatsuki who existed before the events of the series that were killed in the past. The first of these we know little about, except that Kakuzu killed him in a fit of rage. The second was a former Hidden Mist ninja named Juzo Biwa, who was Itachi's first partner when he joined Akatsuki.
Juzo Biwa and Itachi were given a mission in the Land of Water, which prompted the Mizukage to lead a mission to kill his former servant. Yagura was the current Mizukage at that point, as well being the Jinchuriki of the Three-Tails. He caught up with the members of Akatsuki and used the Tailed Beast Bomb to kill Juzo Biwa before Itachi defeated him.
This act means that Yagura was the first person to kill a member of Pain's version of Akatsuki.
The Anime Made Orochimaru Responsible For The Death Of The Previous Eight-Tail Jinchuriki
The Tailed Beasts generally don't like to be sealed up inside a prison cell, which makes them uncooperative and vicious to their hosts. This can lead to the Jinchuriki having severe personality problems, due to the presence of the Tailed Beast inside of them. This isn't helped by the fact that people generally don't trust Jinchuriki and will avoid them if possible.
The previous Jinchuriki of the Eight-Tails was a man named Blue B, who lost control over the Tailed Beast and allowed it to possess him. This caused the Third Raikage to kill him by removing the Eight-Tails and sealing it within a container.
In the anime, it was revealed that Blue B wasn't responsible for letting the Eight-Tails loose. It was actually one of Orochimaru's plans. He was secretly responsible for paralyzing Blue B and using the Five Elements Unseal technique, as he wanted some of the Eight-Tails' DNA for his experiments.
The False Jinchuriki Seal Tag
The PlayStation Portable wasn't a huge success outside of Japan. This was partly due to the rampant piracy that was involved with the system, as well as the fact that the console had a tendency to break easily.
The PSP was incredibly popular in Japan, which can be attributed to the success of the Monster Hunter franchise. People all over Japan would play local games of Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G in public places with strangers.
The popularity of Monster Hunter led to other games copying its style, which even included ones from big franchises, such as Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker and Final Fantasy Type-0. The Naruto franchise did the same thing with a game called Naruto Shippūden: Kizuna Drive.
The villain of Kizuna Drive created a sealing tag that transformed a person into a copy of one of the Tailed Beasts, which briefly turned them into a false Jinchuriki. The change lasted for as long as the user had enough chakra to maintain the form. This was just a lame excuse to use copies of the Tailed Beasts as villains who could be battled in a similar manner to the creatures from Monster Hunter.
Killer B's Name Is A Reference To The Wu-Tang Clan
Killer B's name seems like an obvious reference to Mohammed Ali, who famously said "Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee", which referred to his fighting style. Killer B actually references this quote when he battles Sasuke and the other members of Hawk.
There is another meaning to the name Killer B, which relates to the famous rap group known as the Wu-Tang Clan. The term "Killa Beez" is one of the names used to refer to all of the acts that are affiliated with the Wu-Tang Clan, of which there are many. This was the reason why the 1998 Wu-Tang Clan compilation album was called The Swarm, as it referred to all of the members of the Killa Beez that appeared on it.
It's not that unusual to see American and European musical acts referenced in anime and manga. Jojo's Bizarre Adventure is full of references to Western bands, to the point where it is one of the most recognizable aspects of the series. One Piece also featured characters based on Michael Jackson and Eminem.
The Final Three (And The Fate Of The Other Six)
When Naruto ended, there were only three Jinchuriki still alive; Gaara, Killer B, and Naruto himself. The One-Tail had been returned to Gaara, while Killer B and Naruto retained the Eight-Tails and Nine-Tails respectively.
The fans were left wondering about the fates of the other six Tailed Beasts. The manga gave no explanation as to their whereabouts and their Jinchuriki all returned to the grave after the end of the war.
According to Masashi Kishimoto, the Tailed Beasts are all now living comfortable lives and are happy, which sounds suspiciously like something a parent would say about the dog who was sent to live on a farm. We know nothing of their locations, except for the fact that they are still alive out there somewhere.
With Boruto continuing the story of the world of Naruto, will we see the return of the Tailed Beasts? Will we see brand new Jinchuriki as well? Only time will tell....
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Can you think of any other interesting facts about the Jinchuriki in Naruto? Let us know in the comment section!