Kakuzu

Background

Driven by greed, Kakuzu joins the Akatsuki to chase valuable bounties. His extreme temperament and fits of rage led him to murder whoever he was partnered with, so he was finally paired with the immortal Hidan.

As a Takigakure ninja he was sent to assassinate Hashirama Senju, the First Hokage; Hashirama was far too strong and Kakuzu barely escaped with his life. Despite the danger he had faced, his village dishonoured and severely punished him for the failure. Hating his village for that treatment, he broke out of prison, stole its forbidden techniques, murdered the elders and cut out their hearts, and became a rogue ninja.

His body is made of countless black threads that let him reattach any body part, his or anyone else's. The threads can pierce flesh, and he uses them to tear the beating hearts from opponents and add them to his own body, extending his life indefinitely. He stores up to four spare hearts in animal masks sewn to his back, which can detach in combat to fire elemental blasts and be recalled when he needs a replacement heart. Konohagakure ninja destroy his hearts one by one soon after he appears; once Naruto leaves his last heart on the point of failure, Kakashi finishes him. Kabuto later resurrects him for the war until he is sealed. Takaya Hashi voices him in Japanese and Fred Tatasciore in English.