Zabuza Momochi

A mercenary swordsman who treated his apprentice as a tool and cared for him in the end.

Zabuza Momochi is a missing-nin from the Hidden Mist who served as a major antagonist in the early Naruto series. He was voiced by Unshō Ishizuka in the Japanese anime. A former member of Kirigakure's Seven Swordsmen of the Mist, he fled the village with his followers after a failed coup d'état in which he tried to assassinate the Fourth Mizukage, Yagura Karatachi. He carries the sword Kubikiri Bōchō and works as a mercenary assassin, hired by the criminal Gato to kill the bridge builder Tazuna in the Land of Waves. His cold philosophy that ninjas are tools is challenged by his bond with the orphan Haku, culminating in a tragic final stand on the bridge in the Land of Waves where he confronts his own humanity.

Lore & Background

After the failed coup against the Fourth Mizukage, Zabuza and his followers left Kirigakure and became mercenary assassins. He took in a young boy, Haku, as his apprentice, mostly treating him as a tool although he ultimately cared for him. Gato hired him to kill Tazuna, a job blocked by Kakashi Hatake's Team 7; when the task took too long, Gato revoked the contract and tried to have Zabuza killed.

Reader's Guide

Zabuza is one of Team 7's first opponents. He is skilled in water-based techniques, and his speciality is assassination in areas covered by mist. After Naruto's words reach him he kills Gato, is mortally wounded and dies soon afterwards; Team 7 buries him and Haku with the Kubikiri Bōchō as a grave marker.