Jinchūriki

The jinchūriki (人柱力; Literally meaning "Power of Human Sacrifice") are humans that have tailed beasts

300PX-~1 — The nine jinchuriki from left to right: Roshi, Yagura, Yugito Nii, Gaara, Naruto Uzumaki, Killer Bee, Fu, Utakata, and Han.

sealed within them. They exhibit extraordinary powers, and in some cases are more powerful than their tailed beasts, because they have the intelligence to use the beasts' powers effectively.

History [[]][]

The first jinchūriki was the Sage of the Six Paths, who sealed the Nine-Tailed Beast within himself to save the world. However, knowing that his death would release the Ten-Tails back into the world, the Sage used Izanagi to divide its chakra into the nine tailed beasts, before using Chibaku Tensei to seal its body away in what would become the moon.^[1]^[2] By the time of the formation of the shinobi villages, Hashirama Senju, the First Hokage, used his Wood Release techniques to capture and give several tailed beasts to the other shinobi villages as peace treaties, in order to stabilize the balance of power between them,^[3] but after Hashirama's death, the villages had trouble containing the beasts. The Second Kazekage of Sunagakure was the first to research the jinchūriki, with the other villages following soon after, with hopes to use the beasts as weapons in human hosts, or in Konohagakure's case, keep the beasts from doing harm to their village. In order to prevent the jinchūriki from turning traitor, it is tradition for the host to be selected from the family of the village's own Kage. In this way, the jinchūriki not only has strong ties of loyalty to village and their leader, but they also serve to show off the Kage's might.^[4] For example, Gaara is the son of the Fourth Kazekage, and Killer Bee is the brother of the Fourth Raikage.

Sealing[]

Each village has used a different seal when creating their jinchūriki. For example, Konoha used the Eight Trigrams Sealing Style, and Kumogakure used the Iron Armor Seal. Akatsuki, an organization whose role in the series is to capture the jinchūriki, uses the Illusionary Dragon Nine Consuming Seals to extract and seal the tailed beasts within the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path for future use. They have, as of the Fourth Great Shinobi World War, captured seven of the nine beasts.

If the tailed beast is removed from its jinchūriki's body, the jinchūriki will die. Similarly, if the jinchūriki dies with the tailed beast still sealed within them, the beast will die too. Because of this, the tailed beasts tend to be very protective of their jinchūriki, and will take any action whenever their lives are in danger. However, this was not always the case; before the Nine-Tails was sealed into Naruto, it was said that it could survive its jinchūriki's death, with the only consequence being that it would take time for it to be revived.^[5] Also, rare exceptions of a jinchūriki surviving an extraction may occur, if the said host has high enough stamina.

The seal that keeps a tailed beast within its female jinchūriki is at its weakest when she is in childbirth, due to the nurturing of the child in the womb using the power of the seal, weakening the seal in direct proportion. As such, a ninja is required to keep the seal intact during childbirth, and restore the seal back to full power afterwards. A full-term pregnancy for a female jinchūriki is about ten months, presumably because the body has to nurture both the child and the seal simultaneously, as a result the child develops more slowly.^[6]

Personality[]

The jinchūriki are typically lonely people, viewed by those around them as the tailed beast that has been sealed within them, leading to prejudice and being hated and feared. According to Akatsuki, the first two jinchūriki they captured loathed humanity, and their villages were in fact glad to be rid of them.^[7] However, certain jinchūriki refuse to waver, despite being shunned, instead having a cheerful demeanor, and eventually earning respect. Such examples are Killer Bee and Naruto.

Control[]

The jinchūriki have the potential to control their tailed beasts through sheer willpower and concentration, but requires a lot of training in order to retain it. If an inexperienced jinchūriki transforms deeper into their tailed beast's forms, their personality tends to corrode into animal instincts, becoming more ferocious in battle, but increasingly dangerous to their friends and allies. The best training spot for a jinchūriki to control their tailed beast is at the Falls of Truth.

Gaara's control over Shukaku had increased in the beginning of Part II, where he could create and use its giant arms multiple times. Yugito also had shown a high level of control, being able to fully transform into the Two-Tails with ease.^[8] In the anime, Utakata could assume the form of the Six-Tails as well.^[9] However, their control was lacking compared to Yagura and Killer Bee's, as they became the jinchūriki to have complete control of their tailed beasts' power.^[10] While Naruto now has full access to the Nine-Tails' chakra,^[11] he has only recently gained control over it.^[12]

Abilities[]

See also: Tailed Beast Skill The jinchūriki have shown to have access to great amounts of chakra and access to unique fighting styles, depending on their tailed beast: Gaara manipulates sand, Yugito breathes fire, Rōshi creates lava, Killer Bee spits ink, and Naruto has quick regeneration. By training, they can gain additional access to their tailed beast and its chakra, such as Killer Bee being able to synchronize with the Eight-Tails, and transform himself into it; and Naruto accessing the Nine-Tails' Yang chakra only when he needs it, and giving him a chakra shroud that resembles the Sage of the Six Paths.^[11] Tailed beasts can also provide their jinchūriki with constant advantages, such as Gaara's self-activating Shield of Sand which automatically protects him, even from self-injury; and Naruto's healing factor that immediately activates as soon as he incurs wounds.


One-Tailed Shukaku: First Shukaku Jinchūriki^[13]; Second Shukaku Jinchūriki^[13]; Gaara
Two-Tailed Monster Cat: Yugito Nii
Three-Tailed Giant Turtle: Yagura
Four-Tailed Monkey: Rōshi
Five-Tailed Dolphin Horse: Han
Six-Tailed Slug: Utakata
Seven-Tailed Horned Beetle: Fū
Eight-Tailed Giant Ox: Previous Eight-Tails Jinchūriki; Killer Bee
Nine-Tailed Demon Fox: Mito Uzumaki; Kushina Uzumaki; Naruto Uzumaki
Ten-Tailed Beast: Sage of the Six Paths

Similar Cases[]

In the anime, Sora only had a part of the Nine-Tails' chakra sealed into him, which made him a "pseudo-jinchūriki".^[14] Even though he was granted similar abilities to those of a real jinchūriki, his were vastly inferior.

In Naruto Shippūden 2: Bonds, Amaru had the Zero-Tailed Masked Leech sealed within her, but because the Zero-Tails is not an actual tailed beast, Amaru is not considered a jinchūriki.

In the anime, Yūkimaru had the ability to partially control the Three-Tails.^[15] While his appearance is similar to Yagura's, no confirmed connection exists between the two. The Three-Tails was not actually sealed inside of Yūkimaru, and, thus, he was not a real jinchūriki.

Trivia[]

Gaara died when Akatsuki removed Shukaku from his body,^[16] but he was later revived by Chiyo.^[17] Although he no longer has Shukaku sealed within him, he can still control sand. It is unknown if other jinchūriki would have kept their powers under the same circumstances had they survived their beast's extraction.
Kushina Uzumaki was the only jinchūriki known to have survived the extraction of her tailed beast, due to her clan's vitality.^[18]
Takigakure is the only village not belonging to one of the Five Great Shinobi Countries known to have had a jinchūriki.^[19]