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BijuuComplete

The nine tailed beasts and their most recent jinchūriki.

The tailed beasts (尾獣, bijū), sometimes referred to as "Chakra Monsters" (チャクラのバケモノ, Chakura no Bakemono),[1] are the nine titanic living forms of chakra created by the Sage of the Six Paths.[2][3] They are differentiated by the number of tails they have, ranging from one to nine.

History

Young Bijuu and Hagoromo

The young tailed beasts with the Sage.

Long before the founding of the hidden villages, the Sage of the Six Paths saved the world by sealing the Ten-Tails into his body, becoming its jinchūriki.[4] Sometime later, the Sage was inspired by the ideals of 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.[5] 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.[6] After the Sage's death, the tailed beasts drifted apart, apparently due to the Nine-Tails' belief that their number of tails was an indication of their strength.[7]

Over the centuries, humanity failed to recognise the tailed beasts as sapient individuals, instead seeing them only as monsters, demons, or mindless beasts worthy of fear and disdain. Because of the beasts' immense power, they were sought out to be used as tools, controlled by humans in times of war. The tailed beasts resented this treatment and came to hate humanity, at times willingly becoming the monsters they were viewed as.[8] Shortly after the hidden villages were created, Hashirama Senju, who had captured several of the tailed beasts with his Wood Release, distributed the beasts amongst the new villages in order to stabilise the balance of power between them.[9] In order to harness the beasts' power, the villages began sealing them into jinchūriki.

FistBump

The tailed beasts sharing their chakra with Naruto.

Decades later, after the Third Shinobi World War, an organisation known as Akatsuki began capturing the villages' jinchūriki in order 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 had captured the first seven tailed beasts.[10] In order to capture the last two, the Eight-Tails and Nine-Tails, Tobi sealed the beasts back into their reincarnated jinchūriki and forced 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 decided that Naruto was the person the Sage of the Six Paths foretold of. They gave him portions of their chakra, enabling him to release them from Tobi's control.

Biju Chakra Leaks Out

The tailed beasts freed from Obito.

Tobi was able to reclaim the freed tailed beasts and, using fragments of the Eight-Tails and Nine-Tails' chakra,[11] prematurely revived the Ten-Tails.[12] Tobi then became the Ten-Tails' jinchūriki, but he was defeated by the Allied Shinobi Forces and the tailed beasts were removed from his body.[13] The nine tailed beasts joined forces against Tobi's co-conspirator, Madara Uchiha, but he quickly defeated them all and sealed them, including the Eight-Tails and Nine-Tails, into the Demonic Statue and reformed the Ten-Tails yet again.[14]

File:671 bijuu reunion.png

The tailed beasts reunite with the Sage and Naruto.

Madara became the Ten-Tails' jinchūriki and attempted to use Infinite Tsukuyomi on the world. Naruto used the tailed beasts' earlier donations of chakra to try and defeat him, but was unable to do so in time. Madara was afterwards unwittingly used to restore Kaguya Ōtsutsuki, who tried to take what portions of the tailed beasts' chakra Naruto still had. Naruto and Sasuke Uchiha sealed Kaguya away and the tailed beasts were extracted from her body, ending the war. Sasuke, however, realising that the struggle for the tailed beasts started the war in the first place, imprisoned them with Chibaku Tensei and intended to kill them so the world couldn't fight over them any longer. Naruto convinced him not to in the end and the tailed beasts were finally released for good.[15]

The tailed beasts spread out through the world, free to live as they want; both Gyūki and Kurama decide to return and stay with B and Naruto. However, though they are apart, the tailed beasts' chakra fragments remain within Naruto, allowing his body to act as their "meeting ground".[16]

Abilities

Tailed beasts are widely believed to be bestial in nature, incapable of the intelligence needed to fully utilise their immense strength. It is thought that only when sealed within humans are they able to benefit from the knowledge of their hosts to use their powers effectively.[17] This is not actually true. However, unless sealed in a jinchūriki, a tailed beast's power is rather randomly thrown around instead of being focused, as was the cases with Isobu, Gyūki, Kurama, and the Ten-Tails itself.

While all the tailed beasts have unique attributes, powers, and chakra levels, there are some attributes they all share. Each has massive quantities of chakra - coloured red - far greater than what most shinobi have. The tailed beasts are also able to freely transfer their chakra to whomever they choose,[18] a process that is less complicated for them than it is for humans.[19] Offensively, only tailed beasts can use Tailed Beast Balls, which can vaporise entire mountains at its "standard" level. Because tailed beasts are pure chakra, they cannot actually be killed; if they or their jinchūriki die, their chakra will re-coalesce in time.[20]

The tailed beasts can communicate telepathically with each other and their jinchūriki, and possess several levels of consciousness. There is the initial level where the beast may appear in a habitat of sorts seemingly imprisoned in some way by whatever fūinjutsu that sealed them.[21][22] The second level is where all the tailed beasts can convene, free of any restrictions and communicate with one another. The jinchūriki are also able to enter there, but in order to do so, they must be completely linked with their tailed beasts.[23]

The Tailed Beasts

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
  10. Ten-Tails

Similar Cases

Trivia

  • Shukaku, Matatabi, Gyūki, and Kurama are based on popular animal yōkai from Japanese myth (tanuki, nekomata, ushi-oni, and kitsune respectively). The others are original creations by Masashi Kishimoto, mixing together various elements from certain species of animals.
  • 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, while Gyūki has eight cephalopod limbs that serve as tails.
  • Despite having names, the 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 offence to the monikers.
  • 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 blood-lust is especially strong during a full moon.[24]
    • In the anime, Blue B, during his time as Gyūki's jinchūriki, noted that he would have trouble sleeping during the nights of the full moon, because anytime he would stare at it, it would reflect the loneliness in his heart. Gyūki would take advantage of those moments of weakness and try to control over Blue B's body. Blue B was also shown to take sleeping pills to help with this side-effect.[25]
  • Several non-jinchūriki shinobi have been said to hold chakra levels or strength comparable to that of a tailed beast. Such individuals include Kisame Hoshigaki,[26] Madara Uchiha,[27] Hashirama Senju, the Third Raikage, and the Fourth Raikage.
  • In the anime, the six tailed beasts that were used by Tobi shared a voice actor with one of each other's respective jinchūriki.
  • How the tailed beasts speak has been depicted inconsistently throughout the series, where sometimes their mouths move with their words and sometimes they don't.

References

  1. Chapter 404, page 14
  2. Chapter 256, page 14
  3. Chapter 467, pages 14-17
  4. Chapter 670
  5. Chapter 510, pages 11-12
  6. Chapter 572, pages 12-13
  7. Chapter 567, page 10
  8. Chapter 568, page 13
  9. Chapter 648, pages 10-12
  10. Chapter 468, page 6
  11. Chapter 592, pages 10-11
  12. Chapter 609, pages 13-17
  13. Chapter 654, pages 14-15
  14. Chapter 660
  15. Chapter 699
  16. Chapter 692, pages 6-7
  17. Chapter 318, page 11
  18. Chapter 572, page 10
  19. Chapter 609, pages 13-14
  20. Chapter 503, pages 14, 17
  21. Chapter 496, page 10
  22. Chapter 568, page 10
  23. Chapter 572, pages 6-7
  24. Chapter 91, page 19
  25. Naruto: Shippūden episode 318
  26. Chapter 468, page 9
  27. Chapter 589, page 7
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