The character page for the cast of Catch Your Breath.

If you want to head back to the main page, click the above link.

This page is currently under construction, with unmarked spoilers.

open/close all folders

Konoha

Team Minato

As A Group

Badass Crew: Team Minato is designated as an all-rounder squad, strong enough to take over for a heavy assault team. The expectation is that any adversary they fight against together is already dead. Every member of the team is an S-class shinobi due to their skills combined with raw power, and they work in nearly perfect sync.
Fire-Forged Friends: Though Kei and Obito were already close friends, Kakashi and Obito's differing skill levels and philosophies cause friction within the team during their early years. Kei, who usually sides with Obito, pushes back where Rin might have tried to mediate. In the end, the team didn't come to a true understanding until the Kannabi Bridge mission and its fallout. By the time Obito comes back, Kei, Kakashi, and Rin refuse to repeat the mistakes of their previous dynamic and are all fiercely protective of each other, and they fold him right back into their ranks.
Generation Xerox: As a group, this team is built in the same mold as the Legendary Sannin; a two-guy, one-girl team led by a legendary jonin-sensei who each grow up to accomplish amazing things.
- Kakashi maps most closely to Orochimaru, the child prodigy who'll burn out soon enough. Instead of becoming disillusioned and leaving the village behind, Kakashi's life takes a turn after Obito's return and allows him to grow up with fewer traumas and become more comfortable trusting the people around him.
- Obito is closest to Jiraiya, being the hothead who originally didn't seem like much at the start. Rather than a slow rise to power (or a Face–Heel Turn), though, Obito's career is in many ways defined by the outcome of the Kannabi Bridge mission, revamping his powers and allowing him a second chance at winning the respect of people around him.
- Kei is closest to Tsunade, as a kunoichi inheritor of an unusual family legacy. Rather than suffering personal losses that drive her from Konoha, Kei clings harder to the people around her and refuses to give up on her bonds.
- Minato, as the mentor, originally only teaches Kakashi as his personal apprentice. After his father's suicide, Minato's concern about the boy's social isolation drives him to form a team with Kakashi and two odd-ends from the Academy that year: Kei and Obito. Unlike Hiruzen, Minato never allows his students to form rifts or drift away from each other, and tends to view the team as family.
True Companions: As is common among Konoha ninja, Team Minato is this. While the members do have their personal problems for the bulk of their early years, there's no doubt in any of their minds that they'll always be there for each other.

Keisuke Gekko

Keisuke "Kei" Gekko

The main character of the story. As the victim of a reincarnation gone wrong, Kei fumbles her way through the Naruto plotline and tries to make things better along the way. Older sister of Hayate Gekko.

Bad Liar: Not that great at outright deception. While she's capable of sarcasm, Kei tends to "deflect" attention by revealing information that makes the person she's talking to not want to pry further, at least to her face. Whether that takes the form of a Metaphorically True statement, You Do Not Want To Know, or even just changing the subject, her most effective method of getting something past another person is simply to stay completely silent. It's when she opens her mouth that she gets in trouble.
Badass Teacher: She becomes Aiko, Roku, and Kaito's jonin-sensei over the course of the story. That said, while she's undeniably a very powerful character, she's not very good at teaching her students personal discipline, and multiple other characters point out that she tends to let them do whatever they want. Even she admits Kaito in particular is a bit of a brat.
Big Sister Instinct: This is Kei's initial motivation. While it's evolved over time and Kei's learned to extend her protective nature over more people as the story goes on, she's still prone to panic and rage if something happens to her brother.
Bifauxnen: A Running Gag is people mistaking her for a boy at first glance. She doesn't seem to mind.
Blow You Away: Kei eventually learns this nature transformation, but it's definitely far weaker than her original one. It mainly shows up in Ocean Stars Falling.
Bodyguarding a Badass: Joins the Hokage Guard at age fourteen alongside Obito, Kakashi, Raido, and Genma.
Boyish Short Hair: Generally, Kei's kept her hair short since childhood. She has a habit of cutting it mostly when it gets in her way, with whatever sharp object she has on hand, and it's a mess as a result. On a couple of occasions, this "hairstyle" actually leads her and her brother being mistaken for each other until he decided to grow his out.
Deadpan Snarker: Kei can manage some pretty good digs on the occasions she actually says them aloud.
Every Scar Has a Story: Kei has a scar that runs diagonally across her face (from right eyebrow to left cheek) as a result of the Kannabi Bridge mission and obtained it before becoming a jinchuriki at fourteen. She tends to fidget by rubbing or scratching it when anxious, even into adulthood.
- The prominence of said scar is one of the things that people notice first about her face, and this actively works against her attempts to blend in at UA High School in Shell Game. Fellow students view it as a Rugged Scar and make a lot of assumptions of how dangerous she is or isn't based on that idea.
First-Person Smartass: Kei specializes in making snappy remarks about the people and events around her as she goes through the story. She only rarely voices any of them, though. It's one of the many ways she comes across as a Socially Awkward Hero.
The Friends Who Never Hang: While Kei is friendly with many of her contemporaries, she has this relationship with Asuma. When left to spend a free afternoon with Asuma, Kei ends up summoning Tsuruya to play shogi with him while Kei herself takes a nap. Asuma admits that the feeling is mutual afterwards.
Game-Breaking Injury: As a result of having to make a Sadistic Choice between hurting herself horribly or being a potential Orochimaru Soul Jar, Kei chooses to destroy vital chakra points in her left shoulder and arm with Isobu's power. This nullifies her ability to use chakra with that arm, and even later assistive fuinjutsu can't fully compensate for the loss. As a result, Kei can no longer access V2 or higher jinchuriki transformations without risking the loss of the arm.
Good Is Not Soft: If Kei ends up with combat with an avowed enemy, she doesn't talk to them, listen to them, or show much mercy. The bandit who made the mistake of taunting her about Hayate's safety during one arc had a continuing lifespan measured in seconds.
Heir to the Dojo: Due to being one of three living practitioners of her family's kenjutsu style, Kei is this as she carries that legacy forward. However, she never learned the succession technique before her mother died.
Heroes Prefer Swords: Kei's early shinobi career lists her as a kenjutsu specialist, though she has other minor knacks for iryo-nin work and making paper bombs. While her focus wavers on the other two aspects, Kei never lets go of her roots because it's what her mother taught her.
- Iaijutsu Practitioner: A major part of the Gekko (actually Uesugi) kenjutsu style.
- Implausible Fencing Powers: Kei has killed older, more experienced shinobi with her plain old katana. Part of it is because she's capable of channeling chakra through her weapons, but she's also just that good. She's been training her whole life with a sword, and it shows.
In-Series Nickname:
- For the most part, she doesn't use her full given name except on official paperwork, preferring "Kei" since her family always uses it. The only characters who actually call her by it are Gai and Tsuruya. Or her enemies.
- Luffy, being who he is, calls Kei "Hei" through most of their offhand interactions in Ocean Stars Falling. Kei realizes she's finally won him over when he uses her preferred nickname instead.
- In both It Must Be a Thursday and A Ninja's Guide to Gotham, English-speaking characters remark that it sounds like she's only got one letter to her name. Jason, despite actually being told what her name is behind the mask, persists in calling her "Spike" for her attitude.
Heroic BSoD: Kei does not deal well with being isolated from friends and family, even for missions. Combine that with her already-existing self-esteem problems, stress, and a badly-timed revelation that she was being pushed out on purpose, and she falls straight into this.
Heroic Neutral: At the beginning of the story, Kei doesn't have any particular interest in fighting for the good of Konoha. Instead, she begins the process of becoming a ninja for the express purpose of protecting her younger brother and her friends. Notably, she never truly leaves this mindset, instead choosing to expand the ring of people she cares for one person at a time. She tends to do her job, get paid, and go home in some form or another, and shinobi are generally not moral exemplars at the best of times. On the other hand, she's willing to fight to the death for those she's close to, who do tend to have heroic streaks.
- Retreats back into this mode during Ocean Stars Falling, due to not really being invested in the overall conflict between pirates and the World Government. She really, really just wants to go home, but unfortunately Can't Refuse the Call Anymore is in full effect.
- Meanwhile, in Shell Game, she and her team are Only in It for the Money on paper. Once again, though, she genuinely bonds with people who would otherwise face the consequences of letting the villains run amok, and thus actually has to do something about the problem. While getting paid.
- In A Ninja's Guide to Gotham, Kei avoids fights wherever possible. Her only goal is to find Hayate and go home. Unfortunately, she's constantly targeted by the League of Assassins and her brother befriends the up-and-coming Red Hood, which draws her into the main conflict in Gotham anyway.
Heroic Self-Deprecation: Kei has been known to berate herself for being lazy, selfish, or useless, though it quickly becomes apparent that she has nasty self-esteem issues. This ultimately comes to a head in the Memory arc, when Minato's mistakes coupled with her issues leave Kei dangerously isolated and badly traumatized. See Heroic BSoD above.
Jack of All Stats: A very, very powerful one once she's in her mid-teens. Kei has multiple skill sets in which she's "pretty good," with the only true standout being kenjutsu. Even then, her style's succession technique never made it to her. She's not the fastest, the strongest, smartest, the best at any ninja skill, or the best at hand seals. However, Kei is good enough at everything to have options to fall back on if her initial tactics don't work.
- In time, she develops into a full-on Lightning Bruiser due to her preexisting combat abilities finally being backed up by expanded chakra reserves. While she's mostly a tank, due to the durability boost inherent to being Isobu's human partner, she has a wide repertoire of techniques that allow her to boost her own speed or manipulate the mobility of opponents who make the mistake of challenging her directly. She also has a number of One-Hit Kill moves that make even that a dicey proposition. Though she's one of the weakest full-grown jinchuriki (bar Yugito) due to a Game-Breaking Injury in her teens, she's still an immensely dangerous jonin.
Like Brother and Sister: Obito is like a brother to her. Kei suspects that her mother would have adopted Obito if given a chance.
Making a Splash: Kei's default chakra nature, though she doesn't learn any relevant techniques until she's in her teens. Eventually, this skill is boosted to inhuman levels by bonding with Isobu, with the added bonus of ignoring Elemental Baggage concerns through sheer brute force.
Master of Illusion: Averted, because while Kei can use genjutsu in theory, she never does so without Isobu picking up the bulk of the workload. Jiraiya even points out once that Kei didn't even know how to use one of the most basic genjutsu until he specifically taught her how. Kei later decides into combine her genjutsu with her sealing techniques so she can prepare everything ahead of time and not have to think about it in the middle of combat.
The Medic: Barely. Kei is Incompletely Trained in both medicine and medical ninjutsu, though she served as Rin's study partner and guinea pig for a while. She is eventually forced to give it up entirely after she becomes a jinchuriki, because her chakra control suffers as a result, and she never wants to unintentionally harm a patient. The only technique she continues to use into adulthood is for diagnosis.
Oblivious to Love: Utterly fails to recognize romantic interest from peers, at least when directed at her. She does notice Obito's attraction to Rin and Rin's interest in Kakashi, but it's likely as much a result of canon-influenced confirmation bias as anything.
Official Couple: With Kakashi.
Power Tattoo: Kei actually has several of these in adulthood, all of which play with the trope.
- The jinchuriki seal on her chest becomes visible when she molds chakra. Since Kei almost always wears a Konoha uniform, people don't usually notice.
- Played with regarding the Flying Thunder God Seal on her collarbone, which allows Minato to teleport to her whenever he needs to. It's come in handy more than once, and she learned enough about its function to subvert or manipulate it, but doesn't gain any specific powers.
- Subverted when it comes to the tattoos on her left arm. The initial fuinjutsu-derived tattoo was to act as magical prosthetic for her destroyed chakra coils, and it cannot survive large quantities of Isobu's chakra. Pushing that limit would destroy the seal and likely cause her left arm to disintegrate. In the end, Kei elected to camouflage that tattoo in a full sleeve depicting Isobu and Tsuruya.
Red Baron: Kei eventually earns the moniker "Tidal Blade" over the course of the story.
- Other jinchuriki in Ocean Stars Falling and its related side-stories make it clear that Kei's reputation is a fair bit more fearsome than she actually is. She at least likes the name well enough to insist it also doubles as her pirate nickname.
Shipper on Deck: Subtly encourages Rin and Obito to get together.
Small Steps Hero: Aside from derailing the October Tenth event, Kei tends to act only where she can challenge the Plot. Regardless, these changes have massive consequences, for good or ill.
The Snark Knight: Kei is prone to sarcastic asides to herself and to Isobu. Sometimes in the very same paragraph that she says something entirely different (or more respectful) aloud.
Socially Awkward Hero: Thanks to her turtle motif from Isobu, Kei is often compared to one even by people who don't realize she's a jinchuriki. Prone to spacing out (usually while talking to Isobu), an incorrigible tomboy, and frequently pressured into things by her friends, Kei doesn't exactly present the self-assured personality some people expect from a jonin.
- In Ocean Stars Falling, Utakata and Yugito are especially quick to point out that Kei is considerably less imposing in person than her reputation suggests.
- In A Ninja's Guide to Gotham, Steph realizes quickly that Kei is only intimidating because of her strength. In social situations, she, Dick, and Tim all separately compare her a turtle that only briefly pokes its head out of its shell. Jason outright describes her as a doormat.
Strong Family Resemblance: Kei and Hayate resemble each other throughout their lives, being generally bedraggled, dark-haired shinobi with prominent eyebags, similar builds, similar faces, a common uniform, and the same kenjutsu style. Strangers occasionally mix them up. However, Hayate lacks Kei's facial scar and mole, and he grows out his hair specifically to combat this.
- This extends to her (human) chakra signature which, according to a samurai sensor-type, takes after the Uesugi clan enough to identify them as family.
Vitriolic Best Buds: With Isobu. The two of them spend plenty of time making sarcastic asides—with Isobu most prone to breaking into Kei's POV with commentary on her thought processes—and definitely didn't get along at first, but they have each other's backs.

Tsuruya

Kei's red-crowned crane summoned partner, introduced after the Kannabi Bridge Arc. She often serves as ranged support in Kei's more dangerous battles.

Affectionate Gesture to the Head: Tsuruya enjoys whacking her master in the head with her beak to express herself or emphasize her arguments. Kei gives up trying to fight it after the second time it happens.
Blow You Away: Tsuruya's preferred nature transformation. She's strong enough to shape wind around her, whether that means to give herself a tailwind when flying and create dust devils. Her attacks are often named after moves from a certain other franchise.
A Dog Named "Dog": "Tsuru" is the Japanese word for "crane."
Feather Flechettes: Uses her feathers as projectiles, each one being almost as long as a sword.
Giant Flyer: Tsuruya is noted to be more than three meters tall and capable of carrying two full-grown humans in flight. When Kei needs to get someplace in a hurry and teleporting isn't available, she can call on Tsuruya for a lift.
Lady of War: Basically this trope in the form of a huge bird. She's sweet, polite, practices ikebana, is fond of shogi, and she's a battle summon.
Prefers Proper Names: Tsuruya always refers to Kei as "Keisuke-sama," though Kei's told her that it's not necessary. She's one of very few characters to even use Kei's personal name instead of her nickname.
Razor Wings: Tsuruya's wings are metallic, and she can fight in melee with them and do serious damage with her impressive reach.
Wing Shield: When asked to play a defensive role in combat, Tsuruya can use her wings as this. Projectiles tend to bounce right off of them.

Obito Uchiha

An eager young Uchiha clan member with a lot of baggage underneath his cheerful, clumsy demeanor. Kei often refers to him as her best guy friend.

Alien Blood: More specifically, tree sap (or something like it) oozes from his replacement right arm when it's injured. It doesn't slow him down much.
All of the Other Reindeer: Turns out to have been a victim of this throughout his childhood, because he's a direct descendant of Madara Uchiha. Kei calls him an orphan despite the number of living Uchiha in this timeline, being neglected by his relatives and not considered a valid candidate for adoption out of the clan. While Obito tries his best not to resent them for the years of neglect, he keeps them mostly at arm's length even into adulthood, with the exception of his cousins Sasuke and Itachi.
An Arm and a Leg: When the boulder crushed him, he specifically lost the arm and corresponding shoulder, as well as about a third of his ribcage. If not for the intervention of Madara Uchiha and the number of White Zetsu parts used in his recovery, Obito wouldn't have survived that day. The prosthetic has neither veins nor visible hair, and doesn't have nails. In his own POV sections, Obito admits that his right side gives less tactile feedback and doesn't feel much pain, nor does it bleed normally.
Artificial Limbs: Obito's is referred to as a bio-prosthetic, made primarily out of Zetsu parts and things he doesn't like to think about. Because it encompasses the upper third of his body on the right side, he does get some mileage out of enhanced strength backed by his own chakra, but prefers using its in-built Green Thumb option.
Covered with Scars: Like his canon counterpart, Obito has prominent scarring and discoloration along the right half of his body. He covers the majority of it with long-sleeved shirts and gloves, but doesn't bother when it comes to his face. Instead, he just wears an eyepatch to cover the empty socket.
Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Obito often seems like a complete goofball, and prefers not to be serious outside of fights. Even in them, he's been known to keep comically overreacting to events. But he is definitely more dangerous than he seems.
Eyepatch of Power: Covers his empty left eye socket with a patch, while his Sharingan compensates for his lack of binocular vision.
Face–Heel Turn: Averted thanks to good timing and the butterfly effect.
Genius Ditz: Obito has one of the best-suited skillsets for espionage, is a bodyguard to the Hokage and an incredibly dangerous opponent when he decides to take a fight seriously. He has all the expertise necessary to become his world's version of a murderous supervillain and world-ending threat. And at one point he's laid out because he forgets that drinking untreated water in the field is a bad idea, and often comes across a goofball.
Green Thumb: As a result of his Zetsu prosthetic, Obito has access to the Wood nature transformation and can grow the infamous Hashirama trees about as well as Yamato can. He mostly uses it to make disposable javelins for melee and mid-range combat.
The Heart: During the period where he's presumed KIA, the remainder of Team Minato basically shuts down emotionally. Later on, he also shows a penchant for peacemaking, including forging an uneasy truce between Kakashi and Isobu. Obito may be as subtle as a sledgehammer, but his method works.
Nice Guy: Obito has a genial, outgoing personality and enjoys spending time helping the people of Konoha, even if he occasionally loses track of things like deadlines. Aside from people he's actively antagonized, everyone agrees that he's a goofy, well-meaning sweetheart.
Not His Sled: Obito's fall into madness and villainy by Madara's scheming is one of the key plot points of Naruto canon. That he does not is perhaps Kei's single greatest victory.
Official Couple: With Rin.
Parental Abandonment: Kei mentions the apparent incongruity of Obito being an orphan while also being an openly acknowledged member of the Uchiha clan. According to his personal records, his parents died when he was a baby and his clan left him mostly to his own devices for being Madara Uchiha's last living direct descendant.
Playing with Fire: His first nature transformation and his clan's specialty.
Sad Clown: In some ways, Obito isn't nearly as cheerful as his enthusiasm and excitable nature suggest. He still deals with self-worth issues and Madara's isolation and manipulation, even years later. And anything seen through his Sharingan never goes away, which means his most traumatic memories don't lose clarity, and some of his POV sections include offhand references to terrible things he's seen, such as all of the tactics of massed Zetsu clones.
Thinking Up Portals: His Mangekyo Sharinga's power, Kamui. Gained from the trauma of seeing his foster mother killed in front of him, which also sets off a sympathetic reaction in the eye he gave to Kakashi.
- Portal Cut: Weaponizes this in combat to neutralize enemies. The first time Kei heard of him killing with it, he cut a Kiri assassin in half vertically, and had to spend time cleaning up the mess on both sides of the portal.
- Teleport Spam: He can use Kamui far more than most people can use their dodging abilities, and has a passive mode to achieve this effect.
Took a Level in Badass: After coming back to Team Minato, it becomes apparent that Obito has definitely taken advantage of the modifications Madara slapped onto him.
Two-Faced: The right side of Obito's face is badly scarred as a result of the injuries he survived at Kannabi. He's still a Nice Guy, though, thanks to his other canon traumas being butterflied away.

Rin Nohara

A bright young medic-nin with a kind heart and a hidden morbid side, Rin is the first female friend Kei makes over the course of the story. Although she is not an actual member of Team Minato, she is treated as one.

Combat Medic: Rin, while not being a student of the Tsunade school of combat, is an deft hand with chakra scalpels on the occasions she has to be. She later devotes herself to becoming a specialist in both poison treatments and Uchiha eye overuse, among others. And she later makes up the difference between her damage potential and Tsunade's by obtaining Super-Strength.
Demoted to Extra: Averted. Rin continues to appear in nearly every arc after her initial team assignment, offering guidance and medical treatment to her friends. Her presence is nearly critical to the good guys winning in the Commencement Arc.
For Science!: One of Rin's quirks as she gets deeper into the medical field. She really enjoys being able to educate people and to work out new discoveries, but she's not malicious about it. When she is turned into an aasimar in It Must Be a Thursday, her first thought is to run down every list of changes and explore her new options with clinical thoroughness, and she takes much the same route in exploring the magic system.
Freaky Is Cool: As a result of her long medical career, Rin has basically been desensitized to most problems with the human body and the world she lives in. She's much more likely to approach new concepts with an investigative mindset than quail at what she finds.
Friend to Bugs: Rin's very fond of her summon contract animals, which are scorpions in a dozen shapes and sizes. The largest of them rivals Katsuyu in sheer size.
Happily Adopted: Rin is, at the age of fourteen, formally adopted by her medic-nin teacher Akihito Yamaguchi.
Nice Girl: Rin is consistently one of the more compassionate and considerate characters, and rarely acts out of anger or malice.
Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant: Can sometimes be this when talking about her medical caseload.
Oblivious to Love: Had no idea that Obito was in love with her, per canon, only to find out when Kei and Kakashi carry his confession home from Kannabi. Rin breaks down in tears. A good long while after Obito comes back, the two of them start dating.
Official Couple: With Obito.
Parental Abandonment: Rin starts the story as an orphan, with no information given about her parents. She is later adopted by her teacher, Akihito Yamaguchi.
Silk Hiding Steel: Rin can and will show off her core of iron in defense of her loved ones, but otherwise is exactly as mild-mannered and sweet as she appears to be. She later masters a version of the White Strength Seal and obtains Super-Strength.
Summon Magic: She has a contract for a clan of sapient scorpions.
There Are No Therapists: Deliberately averted with Rin's summon contract; her clan of scorpions encompasses a number of combat and support roles, one of which is mental health counseling.
Took a Level in Badass: After a series of disasters for her friends, Rin becomes frustrated with her lack of combat prowess and elects to make up the difference by through training and obtaining a summoning contract. And eventually, she is the one to kill Sasori after fighting in tandem with Kei and her scorpion summon partners.

Kakashi Hatake

Referred to as Team Minato's mini-jonin, Kakashi is the long-established student of Minato Namikaze and rarely seems to lack for a smart remark or insult toward those he doesn't respect.

Badass Transplant: While Kakashi was already a prodigy ninja, the Sharingan transplant helped Kakashi perfect his Chidori and made him that much more dangerous in battle.
Broken Ace: Immensely talented, clever, and badly traumatized by his father's death. And then there's the guilt over both the Kannabi mission and the one where Kei became the host of the Three-Tailed Beast.
Cannot Spit It Out: Kakashi's attraction to Kei has reached Everyone Can See It levels of obvious to everyone but her, but he can't seem to make it plain to her. As of chapter 115, he's finally managed to get his feelings across to her...while high on pain medication, and just after she figured it out for herself.
Child Prodigy: Kakashi graduated from the Academy at age five, was promoted at six, and became a jonin by thirteen. Even with Lowered Recruiting Standards, it's viewed in-universe as a sign of great skill. Kei's assessment is that he's a traumatized child soldier and their society refuses to admit it.
Cold-Blooded Torture: Put through this after being captured on the Kannabi mission. Kei specifically notes his missing left eye and a hand missing all its nails.
Cute Little Fangs: His mother was an Inuzuka, so he inherited those.
Deadpan Snarker: A trait he's had since childhood, usually aimed at criticizing Obito as the nearest target.
Defrosting Ice King: The author's notes on the subject point out that Minato didn't really seem to know how to help Kakashi socialize, but he still recruited two more genin in the hope that they'd be able to break him out of his shell. Obito's "death" shocks him into becoming much more considerate of his remaining teammate in their shared grief, and Kei reciprocates that care better than the callousness. Thus, being with Team Minato serves as a Defrosting Ice King arc for him.
Flash Step: Already capable of it as a shinobi, Kakashi develops a line-of-sight ninjutsu that practically teleports him from point to point. It doesn't have the range of the Flying Thunder God jutsu, but he doesn't need it.
Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Courtesy of Kakuzu, but he survives through a reflexive Kamui teleport and near-immediate medical intervention.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Heavier on the "jerk" part at first, to the point that Kei's initial impression of him can be summed up as "he's a pint-sized jackass."
Official Couple: With Kei, after quite a lot of pining on his part.
Parental Abandonment: His father was the White Fang of Konoha, who commits suicide as a result of a horribly botched mission. His mother died before then, on a mission outside of the village along with her shinobi hound.
Pretty Boy: When he ditches his mask, to Obito's great dismay. Kei is also struck by how cute he is when she first sees him without a mask, but tries to put it out of her mind afterward.
Pungeon Master: He discovers a lame joke book in one of the later chapters, and proceeds to mercilessly troll Obito with it. Later, he comes up with original ones.
Shock and Awe: Kakashi's chakra nature, which gives eventual rise to the Chidori and Raikiri. Further tinkering produces a nonlethal effect called the Stunning Flash, as well as a transportation jutsu referred to as the Arc Jump.
Took a Level in Kindness: While Kakashi can still be rather abrasive, he becomes kinder and more empathetic after Obito comes back. Mostly.

Minato Namikaze

Future Fourth Hokage and father to Naruto Uzumaki, Minato is the leader of the eponymous team and acts as both mentor and commanding officer to his students.

The Ace: In combat, Minato has few relative peers and even fewer true equals. He's also friendly, polite, and viewed as a paragon by most of the village.
Action Dad: As the father of both Naruto and Tatsumaki, and the Fourth Hokage, he is automatically this.
Anime Hair: Spiky blond, same as his son, and he doesn't appear to use any product to keep it that way. Kei thinks it only selectively obeys gravity.
- Downplayed Trope in Dig Two Graves, where his hair is a duller shade to fit in with the more grounded setting. He likewise has darker eyes.
Badass Teacher: As the Yellow Flash and jonin-sensei to Team Minato, the man qualifies. Those who threaten his students generally die for the attempt if he's within teleportation range.
- When he arrives on the battlefield in Shell Game, he makes a mockery out of the other person called "Sensei" in the fight: the ancient supervillain known as All For One.
Blow You Away: His chakra nature. On the occasions where he gets serious, he shows off the Wind Release versions of the Rasengan he couldn't create in canon.
Broken Pedestal: In the immediate wake of the Memory Arc, it becomes clear that he's become this for Kakashi. They later hash things out and he becomes a Rebuilt Pedestal to Kei and Kakashi later on.
The Cavalry: Fulfills this role on the battlefield in general, being a One-Man Army with teleportation powers.
The Dreaded: There are very few people willing to fight him on the battlefield once they realize who they're dealing with.
Giver of Lame Names: And was banned from naming his children.
Good Is Not Soft: For all that he's a very kind person, Minato has the largest kill-count in the entire story and has never been afraid to throw down with truly abhorrent enemies.
Lightning Bruiser: Minato is by far the fastest character in the story, and his powerful A- and S-rank jutsu make him a formidable opponent even to the rare few who think they can keep up.
A Minor Kidroduction: Introduced as a child in Dig Two Graves, where he and Kushina are two of the junior shinobi Sakumo is trying to resettle to keep them away from the conflict in their homeland. Even as a kid, he's already a bright spark and willingly helps his guardians with their jobs once he's sure they've got his best interests at heart.
One-Man Army: While Kei cites Minato as having killed two hundred enemy combatants in a single battle, canon states the number is a thousand. Either way, he's leagues above most other characters in terms of threat level and everyone knows it.
Papa Wolf: Minato is ferociously protective of his family and his students. While he doesn't fly into a rage, people die if he has reason to think it will get his loved ones to safety marginally faster. Because of his sheer speed, most threats die before they even realize they've been detected.
Pen-Pushing President: Can claim alongside his more fearsome monikers the title of "paperwork ninja"—he's notable for being one of the few ninja to tolerate or even enjoy doing the vast amounts of paperwork involved with running the village.
- In Dig Two Graves, he takes it up more as a hobby than anything while living in Wataru's safehouse as a genin.
Pretty Boy: Minato often takes advantage of his pretty face and perfect manners to make others underestimate him, which succeeds surprisingly often given his reputation.
Shipper on Deck: For Raido and Genma, to the point of shutting the two in his office together until they sort out their relationship.
Supernatural Sensitivity: Of the Activity Detection subtype, and a Required Secondary Power to use his teleportation in battle. Minato can detect the intention, power, and positioning of anyone marked by the Flying Thunder God Seal within his range, but he doesn't have a particular knack for tracking outside of it. By the reckoning of other shinobi, his sensitivity outside of that technique is about a dozen kilometers, and no one in-story is entirely sure what technique he might otherwise use to achieve that.
Teleport Spam: A major component of Minato's combat repertoire. While Kei's figured out a way to work around the seal placed on her, their highly public sparring match makes it clear that this isn't remotely the same thing as actually boxing him in. Even without being able to inflict an immediate One-Hit Kill from melee range, he's incredibly hard to hit and can strike back almost unimpeded.

Other Residents

The Gekko Family

Kei's family, a group of non-clan shinobi.

Ascended Extra: All of them, in various ways.
- In comparison to canon, Hayate actually has a backstory and a family. He's Kei's most precious person even if she spends more time around her team.
- Wataru and Miyako/Tomoe have more prominent roles in the prequel/Alternate Continuity Dig Two Graves.
Big, Screwed-Up Family: Not actually the case with Kei's direct family, but the Kitano Town extended Gekko family turns out to be this. The matriarch is planning on killing her eldest daughter and grandchild to give her only son control of the family, to the point of hiring bandits to kill them. Kei and Hayate's team intervene to cut the plot short.
Dark and Troubled Past: Both Wataru and Miyako have one, which makes them both extremely close-lipped about their family histories. Kei and Hayate have no idea about their link to the Land of Iron's fallen Uesugi clan until after their mother's death and her records being unsealed. Likewise, their relationship to the Kitano Town main branch of the Gekko family wasn't fully explored until they were in their later teens.
A Day in the Limelight: Wataru and Tomoe have their own chapters in The B-Plot.
Exhausted Eye Bags: To the point that it's one of the ways people can identify that they're related.
- Kei has these as a result of frequent nightmares and not sleeping.
- Hayate gets them early on due to breathing problems. Word of God confirms that while Hayate is healed from his childhood illness, they never really go away.
- Miyako has them due to her chronic poor health.
- Wataru's just got deep-set eyes.
Supernatural Sensitivity:
- Kei's a passive chakra sensor, which means she doesn't have an actual technique and can't teach anyone how she does it. It's dependent on being a reincarnation. As she gets older, she eventually increases the range to fifty kilometers as her development with Isobu progresses.
- Miyako has a range of less than fifty meters, but has honed her abilities into what is nearly Combat Clairvoyance. She can pick out Zetsu clones, unlike almost anyone in Konoha.
- Hayate is an extremely adept sensor, to the point of being The Empath. But only for five to ten meters.

Miyako Gekko/Tomoe Uesugi

Kei and Hayate's mother. A woman with a mysterious past, at least as far as her children are concerned. Retired special jonin.

Action Mom: Miyako proves she's still got it during the Commencement Arc.
Arranged Marriage: Back when the Uesugi clan still existed, Shinta was supposed to be her husband. The Asakura clan's subsequent destruction of her clan resulted in Tomoe's transformation from mere samurai scion to The Dreaded.
Ascended Extra: Becomes a main character in Dig Two Graves, because her revenge drives her involvement in the plot.
Blood Knight: A trait she has for most of her adolescence. She grows out of it after retiring in Catch Your Breath.
Broken Bird: Her general state of being during her late teens and early twenties. She gets better after the events of her side-story with the help of her future husband, Wataru Gekko.
Cool Big Sis: To Shinta in Dig Two Graves, though she is fairly emotionally reticent.
Dark and Troubled Past: Miyako is a very secretive Retired Badass; her combat skills that don't match anything in Konoha, she has a very potent Death Glare, and her Killing Intent that is out of proportion to her power. The truth finally comes out after her death in the Commencement Arc. Turns out she's the Sole Survivor of a clan massacre, and killed dozens of people for the sake of revenge in the Land of Iron. She then fled the country and changed her identity in the Land of Fire.
A Day in the Limelight: Has her own POV sections in The B Plot and fights alongside the main characters during the Commencement Arc.
Death Glare: Miyako pulls this off well enough to throw Minato and Jiraiya off their game when tapping into the memories of her life as Tomoe Uesugi.
Eloquent in My Native Tongue: Tomoe embodies this the most in Dig Two Graves, having been raised in a samurai family to be a Cultured Warrior. She still spends most of her conversations with cultivators trying to communicate through gestures and clipped, single-word sentences, if she talks at all.
Expy: Miyako is a clear nod to Tomoe Yukishiro, from her physical description to scraps of her personal history. Her combat style is drawn from Kenshin himself.
Fantastically Indifferent: Is this regarding ghosts and the fierce corpses in Dig Two Graves. It helps that the undead mostly ignore her. She also doesn't care that her katana, Yukishiro, is extremely haunted.
Heroic Neutral: Mostly cares about the people closest to her, instead of causes or countries. In Dig Two Graves, she ignores the buildup to a war between cultivation sects until dragged into the conflict by the need to protect her more-proactive allies.
Hitman with a Heart: While she's devoted to her revenge, Tomoe is deeply protective of what True Companions she has in Dig Two Graves. As soon as Shinta gets himself into trouble with his Good Samaritan tendencies, Tomoe leaps to his defense and throws her lot in with the Sunshot Campaign's efforts.
Honor Before Reason: Only in regards to the pursuit of revenge itself, which she refuses to give up despite having to leave her home country in Dig Two Graves. In all other arenas, it's a Downplayed Trope because her methods are ruthlessly practical. She attacks from ambush, has no issue with poison or powerful curses that take out her targets before she can, and has a policy to Leave No Witnesses to avoid any chances that her enemies might be tipped off.
Iaijutsu Practitioner: Uses what Kei refers to as "Gekko-style Leaf Kenjutsu," which is heavily dependent on quick-draw techniques. Her own point of view and later chapters of Catch Your Breath reveals that the original name of the style is Hiten Mitsurugi-ryu.
Ice Queen: Her primary characterization during her side-story. She rarely embellishes her narration and seems to react with dutiful silence to most of the events therein.
Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: How Spiral Zetsu killed her in Catch Your Breath.
In Harm's Way: During the time the Dig Two Graves group spent effectively on break in Yunmeng, having lost any trace of Tomoe's next targets, Tomoe fell into a deep apathy for months. She only snaps back to "normal" after Shinta's actions involve them in the war, giving her a reason to fight again.
Killing Intent: Proficient in this out of proportion with her actual combat ability, at least nowadays.
Lady of War: As the fourth child of a samurai clan, she trained in more arts and music than most of her peers and still learned to fight using most traditional samurai weapons.
Parental Substitute: To Obito, who thought of her the same way. And as a result, her death traumatized him badly enough to activate his Mangekyo Sharingan.
Raven Hair, Ivory Skin: Tomoe's general look, and Wataru falls for her immediately.
Red Baron: Miyako was once the feared Ghoul of Three Wolves, a serial killer who stalked the Land of Iron and sought revenge on those who killed her family.
- In Dig Two Graves, she has the comparatively milder nicknames "Wuya-jie" and "Wu Xue." The former is given by Wei Wuxian, who thinks of her figuratively as another of the Creepy Crows that follow him around. The latter is her name while living in a foreign country.
Retired Badass: Despite being only thirty-eight at the time of her death. It's eventually revealed that Miyako was forced to retire due to accumulated stress injuries from her most powerful techniques.
Sole Survivor: The only adult survivor of her clan's destruction.
Stealth Expert: Capable of almost entirely suppressing her presence and showing up unexpectedly, even around people with enhanced senses.
Strong Family Resemblance: Her children both take mostly after her, barring a few details. They both get their height from her husband, and Kei in particular inherited her husband's complexion and hair texture.
10-Minute Retirement: In the beginning of Dig Two Graves, she's in the middle of a season-long apathetic melancholy when unable to pursue her still-incomplete revenge.
Vengeance Feels Empty: Knows this is the end result of pursuing the deaths of those who killed her family, but feels compelled to continue anyway in Dig Two Graves. In Catch Your Breath proper, she abandons the Land of Iron entirely after completing her revenge and takes up the Rōnin lifestyle until meeting Wataru.
Violently Protective Girlfriend: Gets very touchy when Wataru is threatened, even before they make it official. Yatsu is on the receving end of her Death Glare as early as The Canine Warriors and finds her viscerally unsettling. While she plays it off in Dig Two Graves as being a matter of their entire group's security, Wataru still looks fondly back on the time she stabbed a man to death with a hairpin for mugging him.
Widowed at the Wedding: In Catch Your Breath, her husband of only a few hours is killed as they make their escape from the burning castle.
Yamato Nadeshiko: Appears to be this during Kei's childhood, if one with a lot of combat expertise.

Hayate Gekko

Kei's younger brother. Identified off the bat as the future special jonin in charge of the third phase of the Chunin Exams. Kei's primary motivation is keeping him safe.

The Apprentice:
- Hayate learns the tricks of the shinobi trade from multiple teachers: his mother, Kei, and Kakashi. He also has a formal mentor in the form of Inoichi Yamanaka, his genin team's sensei.
- Per A Ninja's Guide to Gotham, Kei also asked her friends to look after him, and this results in Hayate learning from Genma, Raido, and Gai.
Brandishment Bluff: Hayate clearly learned something from Kei's previous experiences with the Chunin Exams. He demonstrates this by faking out his first tournament opponent with essentially-harmless versions of deadly explosive tags, convincing her to surrender.
Big Sister Worship: Oh, he'll snark back and tease her, but he clearly thinks the world of Kei.
A Day in the Limelight: Hayate has a much more prominent role in A Ninja's Guide to Gotham, being one of several POV characters and a budding rogue under the unwilling aegis of Red Hood.
The Empath: Hayate has extremely accurate chakra and body language reading abilities, similar to his mother. However, he sacrifices range for precision; Hayate's reading within five meters is flawless, but it fizzles out quickly after that. As a result, he mostly uses it for close combat purposes.
Kid Samurai: Hayate's approximate characterization and skill level for much of the story. He's quite talented at kenjutsu, but doesn't have as much training in other shinobi fields as some of his seniors.
Instant Expert: It takes him basically no time to learn and use the Shadow Clone Jutsu, which annoys Kei.
Morality Pet: Serves as this during A Ninja's Guide to Gotham for Jason Todd.
Protectorate: Hayate is unambiguously Kei's most important person. She spent much of her childhood haunted by nightmares of his horrible demise, and it cranked her protective instincts up to eleven. Anyone who regularly interacts with Kei knows that hurting Hayate is a guaranteed way to set her off.
The Rival: To Tenzo/Yamato, out of sheer competitiveness.
Sensor Character: A close-range-only version. As a result of that precision, though, he has the skill to suppress his chakra signature down to nothing and keep fighting, which makes it easier to sneak up on other sensors.
Shipper on Deck: Thinks that Kei and Obito are dating for most of their teen years, despite their assertions to the contrary. The bubble gets busted in chapter 96, but he takes it in stride.
Shock and Awe: His chakra nature, though he doesn't have large enough energy reserves to go for big, flashy ninjutsu.
Strong Family Resemblance: Both he and Kei look enough like each other for strangers to mix them up, with their main differentiating features being Kei's darker hair, scar, and undereye mole. They also grow to the same height as adults.
- On one occasion, this leads to Hayate being attacked when enemy shinobi mistake him for Kei. He decides to grow his hair out after that.
- In Shell Game, Hitoshi Shinso notices the resemblance immediately and finds it uncanny. He also calls them both "a pair of Eraserhead lookalikes" for their superficial similarity to the hero.

Wataru Gekko

Kei and Hayate's father, who died when they were young.

Abusive Parents: His aunt's mistreatment drove him out of the larger Gekko family in Kitano Town. He never returned, and none of the characters have any further information about his past until the day Kei and Hayate meet their teenaged paternal cousins in Konoha.
Amazon Chaser: One of the many traits that points him toward Tomoe/Miyako.
Ascended Extra: Has POV sections in The B-Plot chapters that focus on the time before Kei was born, and becomes a main character in Dig Two Graves. The Geneology arc in Catch Your Breath also focus on his side of the family.
Beneath Notice: How Wataru functions as a spy, as do most of the agents he works with. While he's much taller than average for the time period (around 6'), he has a forgettable face, a not-particularly respected occupation, a subservient manner, and tends to describe his own appearance as "boring."
Bunny-Ears Lawyer: People who knew Wataru do not question Kei's weirdness in the slightest. Including her mother. While his effectiveness in battle varies by timeline, and Wataru is a generally silly individual, he always has at least one skill that no one else in the group can easily replicate. In Dig Two Graves, it's finance, cooking, and being a Beneath Notice spy. In Catch Your Breath, it's explosive fuinjutsu and trap-making.
Dark and Troubled Past: What little is known about his childhood suggest he was a victim of verbal and physical abuse. This led to his arrival in Konoha at age twelve, where he worked hard and grew up to be a chunin during the Second Great Shinobi War.
Deadpan Snarker: With a few Cloud Cuckoo Lander tendencies. He doesn't like to let other characters' transgressions or mistakes go unremarked, and he enjoys mocking people he dislikes.
Death by Irony: In Catch Your Breath, he's an explosives and trap specialist who dies because of a bomb.
Endearingly Dorky: Has a tendency to immediately voice his passing thoughts, including a tangled love confession that resulted in him gushing over a katana. Other characters note he's mostly like this around Tomoe/Miyako. When she's not present, he's still silly, but more grounded.
Fool for Love: In Dig Two Graves, Hatake Sakumo effectively calls him one of these because he goes as far as avoiding his work to rush off and support her vengeance.
The Handler: In Dig Two Graves, he's this to Hatake Sakumo's Spymaster.
Love at First Sight: He fell for Miyako the moment he saw her, in both continuities.
- In Catch Your Breath, they met in a roadside restaurant while he was returning from a mission. When she fought off Suna-nin alongside his team after the place was attacked, he was already head over heels.
- In Dig Two Graves, he met Tomoe and Shinta when she saved him from bandits. He's particularly fond of the moment she stabbed one of them with a hairpin. And he views the moment Tomoe appeared out of nowhere to save him as a Samaritan Relationship Starter.
Non-Action Guy: Only the case in Dig Two Graves, where the shinobi nations don't exist and he's a mostly-nonviolent spy. He explains that by the standards of the Iga-born training masters, he was too old to begin their signature training when he arrived.
Not Enough to Bury: As a result of being killed in a battle with Kumogakure ninja in Catch Your Breath.
The Scrounger: Fulfils this role in Dig Two Graves from Tomoe and Shinta's point of view. From the perspective of his fellow agents, he's more like a very unorthodox accountant, middle manager, and acquisitions specialist, but they need him mostly for the ability to balance the expense books.
Stuff Blowing Up: Ranked as a chunin with a penchant for explosives, which was the only type of fuinjutsu he knew.

The Namikaze Family

Kushina Uzumaki

Host of the Nine-Tailed Fox. A proud special jonin of Konoha who hails from the Uzumaki clan, and probably the single most powerful character in the first half of the story.

Action Mom: Starting from the very moment Naruto is born.
- Right after giving birth to Naruto, she proceeds to stomp to the Barrier/Sensor Squad and stage a non-hostile takeover.
- When she and Tsunade proceed to obliterate Danzo while Minato and the gang are in Suna. Kushina held Danzo down for Tsunade's finishing blow, and Yin Kurama even praised her ferocity.
- Right at the end of Chapter 99 Kushina is the first person sent directly from Konoha to help Kei fight Orochimaru, powering right up to six tails before she even leaves Kamui.
- In Ocean Stars Falling, Kushina joins the Red Hair Pirates alongside Killer B to get around the New World, meaning she's on one of the Four Emperors' crews.
Chain Pain: Kushina's Adamantine Chakra Sealing Chains are the single strongest barrier jutsu in the story, and can be used on offense as well as defense. And they get a power-up with Kurama's chakra.
Empathic Healer: Saves Kakashi's life by using the Heal Bite technique. As Kurama's host, she heals quickly from it.
Genius Ditz: Kushina is a cheerful, optimistic woman with a noted silly streak. She is one of the best fuinjutsu users on the entire continent (saying that she forgot more about fuuinjutsu than most people will ever learn), barring her husband and his teacher in very specific areas. Despite this, she admits to being middling-to-poor when it comes to ninjutsu, which does not make her any less deadly.
A Minor Kidroduction: Introduced as a child in Dig Two Graves, where she and Minato are two of the junior shinobi Sakumo is trying to resettle to keep them away from the conflict in their homeland. It's especially important for Kushina who, as an Uzumaki, is hunted as Human Resources by those who know about the clan's healing powers.
Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl: Plays the Energetic Girl to Minato's Savvy Guy.
Sealed in a Person-Shaped Can: Kushina is Kurama's original host in the story's timeline. Nowadays, she only hosts Yin Kurama.
You Wouldn't Like Me When I'm Angry!: Everyone treats Kushina's anger with extreme caution, whether they know about Kurama or not. And she later proves that she has the power necessary to back this up, by maintaining cognitive coherence and power in a six-tailed V2 cloak.

Naruto Namikaze

The son of Minato and Kushina, and Yang Kurama's host. During the events of Ocean Stars Falling, he joins the Revolutionaries.

Alliterative Name: Naruto Namikaze.
Keet: Naruto is hyperactive and cheerful.
Magnetic Hero: Kei often says Naruto could make friends with anything. In Ocean Stars Falling, he befriends the Revolutionaries, the Straw Hat Pirates, and about anyone else who isn't instantly hostile to a smiling blond kid.
The Nicknamer: Has a tendency to call other people by nicknames as he gets to know them better, primarily by shortening them. As such, he calls Yugito "Yugi" and Utakata "Uta" during Ocean Stars Falling.
Strong Family Resemblance: He basically looks like a smaller version of his father with Kushina's bone structure, to the point that he's the only person half-Uzumaki by blood to not have red hair. He also has nearly the same personality as his mother.

Tatsumaki Namikaze

Daughter of Minato and Kushina, younger sister to Naruto, and proud owner of a pair of whisker marks.

Kid Samurai: Seems to want to become one, if shinobi-flavored.
Original Character: Naruto doesn't have a sister in canon.
Strong Family Resemblance: Looks like a smaller version of her mother, but with her father's personality, cheek markings, and wilder hair.
Theme Naming: Named after a natural phenomenon with a spiral in it, like her brother. Specifically, tornadoes.

Friends and Associates

Akihito Yamaguchi

A chain-smoking Gekko family friend who taught Kei some medical ninjutsu. He takes Rin as an apprentice after flunking her genin team, and eventually makes her his heir.

Expy: Pretty much confirmed to be Gregory House as a ninja.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He's rude and abrasive, but he pretty much adopts Rin and makes her his heir.
The Mentor: For Rin.
Running Gag: A meta version, but the author and beta reader insist that they've been trying to kill this guy off since the Commencement Arc, but keep forgetting to do so. At this point, it looks like he's sticking around for the long haul.
Snark-to-Snark Combat: A signature part of his and Kei's interactions as she gets older.

Maito Gai

The Green Beast of Konoha and Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass par excellance, Gai is the go-to guy for Big Damn Heroes moments. Youngest member of Team Choza.

Badass Teacher: Becomes this once he gets his own formal students, but he dabbles in teaching taijutsu as early as his teen years. Whenever anyone needs some help with their hand-to-hand skills, he's all in.
Bare-Fisted Monk: Gai doesn't use any weapons when he fights.
Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Starting from the tender age of nine. And he has never looked back.
The Big Guy: Is primarily a damage-dealer with ridiculous taijutsu proficiency. Very few people have ever gotten up from a confrontation with him, but he serves primarily on other squad arrangements.
Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Of course.
Large Ham: Undoubtedly.
Nice Guy: Goes way out of his way to help people feel better and make certain those around him are doing well. The idea of abandoning a comrade for any reason is anathema to him.
The Pollyanna
The Rival: To Kakashi, but it quickly becomes obvious that the two of them are best friends as well.

Genma Shiranui

A wisecracking but level-headed young man who specializes in a slightly less murderous fuinjutsu specialty than Kei does. Oldest member of Team Choza.

Ascended Extra: While not exactly a main character, he's even more of a background ninja in canon.
Barrier Warrior: Specializes in creating barrier seals for field operation security purposes.
Big Brother Mentor: As the oldest member of Team Choza, he served as this to Gai early on, though the younger shinobi has long since outstripped him in terms of power. Nowadays, he's more in the role of the voice of reason and general easygoing authority figure.
Deadpan Snarker: Genma has a smart remark for all occasions.
Distressed Dude: Gets sidelined in two arcs due to life-threatening injuries. The second is at the hands of Orochimaru, and results in an actual rescue mission.
Fatal Flaw: He tends to assume he has a situation in hand by default, which sometimes cedes initiative to the enemy. It nearly gets him killed when he runs into Orochimaru during the Memory Arc.
Geometric Magic: Fuinjutsu is something he studies and uses in combat. He's not nearly as quick on the draw as Kei is, preferring his senbon needles on the whole.
Oral Fixation: Has a senbon in his mouth and, on one occasion, complains when he doesn't.
Those Two Guys: Usually appears alongside Raido, his boyfriend, when encountered in his down time. If on the job, he's usually on his own.

Raido Namiashi

An ANBU captain with a kenjutsu specialty and a lot of field experience, who tries his best to take the events of the story in stride.

Ascended Extra: Is now a full supporting character, rather than a background prop.
The Captain: Raido is promoted to ANBU captain of his own squad over the course of the story.
Not So Stoic: Has a few moments, mostly verging into Gibberish of Love and related to his relationship with Genma.
Only Sane Man: Feels like this rather often, particularly with regard to what the members of Team Minato get up to. Kei later points out that he's probably the closest thing to a normal person any of them know.
Relationship Reveal: While several characters already knew, Kei did not know he was with Genma until she accidentally visited Genma's apartment and found him there, too.
Stealth Expert: With a heaping helping of camouflage genjutsu, flexibility, and patience.
Those Two Guys: Generally appears either on duty as an ANBU agent or alongside Genma.

Fuse and Yatsu Inuzuka

A married couple who first appeared during the Hokage Guard initiation mission. They own the apartment building Kakashi lives in.

Animal Motif: Dogs, unsurprisingly. Fuse styles her hair into an updo that resembles upright dog ears, while Yatsu has two long hair loops over his ears that look like floppy ones.
Ascended Extra: Comparatively. In Dig Two Graves, they're a pair of exiled shinobi who work for Wataru in Lanling after he's reassigned. While he complains about their lack of maturity (and calls them "children" despite being barely six years older), they're effective and reliable agents in the field.
The Beastmaster: As an Inuzuka, Fuse is this regarding dogs. She has eight of them in Catch Your Breath, mostly made up of ninken who've outlived their masters.
- In Dig Two Graves, Fuse only considers Teiko a combat partner, but can command stray dogs anywhere she goes.
Beneath Notice: How Yatsu keeps his cover a spy. Though a trained shinobi, the cultivators he works against barely notice the existence of a blind beggar in the streets of Lanling. Even when caught helping other agents rob an outpost, the authorities merely beat him out of frustration rather than actually thinking he's a part of the plot.
The Caretaker: A Deconstructed Trope in The Canine Warriors. Yatsu is an active-duty shinobi, a member of the Hyuga clan's Branch House, and his mother's primary caretaker while at home. The pressure of all these responsibilities has the unfortunate side effect of shortening his temper to almost nothing and making his natural impulsiveness even worse, even though he does everything he can to balance them. The fact that some particularly cruel members of the Main House freely abuse the Caged Bird Seal does not help.
A Day in the Limelight: During The Canine Warriors, where they're assigned a mission alongside Miyako, Wataru, Sakumo, and Satomi to retrieve an Kirigakure informant whose cover has been blown.
Expy: Yatsu is confirmed to be based on the Head Priest of the Gale Shrine in Ōkami, while Fuse is based on Fuse-hime from the same game, down to the number and variety of dogs they have.
Everyone Went to School Together: As revealed in flashbacks, Yatsu and Fuse knew both Kei's and Kakashi's parents and went on at least one mission with them.
Eye Scream: Yatsu was a branch member of the Hyuga Clan who was a victim of bloodline theft.
- In Dig Two Graves, Wataru theorizes that Yatsu got his eyes ripped out by his own clan, though he never asks directly.
Happily Married
Like an Old Married Couple: Bickering and banter has formed a core of their communication style since they were young. It was genuine antagonism in their youth, but they've long grown past it in Catch Your Breath.
Little Bit Beastly: Common for Inuzuka, especially after they use their Man Beast Clone technique. Fuse actually has smaller fangs than average.
- In Dig Two Graves, Wataru notes that Fuse appears less wild than the other Inuzuka he's met, but only because she trained to pass for a high society lady. In terms of her behavior and pedigree, she's as much of The Beastmaster as any of her relatives as soon as she cuts loose.
Mama's Boy: Yatsu was this as a young man. His father is never mentioned.
Retired Badass: Once the new Hokage Guard is formed, Fuse officially retires from duty to go back to managing her apartment complex with Yatsu.
Upper-Class Twit: Yatsu pretends to be one for the sake of giving the Escort Mission a client. However, he was actually a member of the Branch House in his younger years, meaning the has more of a servant's skill array than a noble's.

The Uchiha Clan

One of the major clans in Konoha, who seem to have survived to the present day where in canon they didn't.

Badass Teacher: Itachi decides to become a chunin sensei at the Academy after doing a stint in ANBU.
Demoted to Extra: While they're still important politically and a few Uchiha are major and minor characters, Kei's distaste for clan politics mean they definitely lack canon's spotlight.
Off with His Head!: Honoka's head was cut off by Root agents.

Team Kei

Kei's trio of genin students, originally from the mountain village of Sorayama. After the events of the Memory Arc, all three are relocated to Konoha and eventually join the shinobi corps over the course of the next two arcs.

Kaito Yuki

Born in Sorayama during the story's timeline, Kaito is Shirozora Yuki and Nanami Hozuki's son. Later joins Konohagakure's shinobi forces as one of Kei's students.

An Ice Person: Inherited the Ice Release bloodline from his father. As a teenager, he's proficient enough to create midair bridges and stairs, as well as just attack with ice in all different forms.
Following in Their Rescuer's Footsteps: One way of viewing Kaito's motivation for becoming a shinobi. While Kei did throw herself into saving Kaito during the Sorayama incident, she never specifically intended to take him on as a student. Later, lingering admiration from that rescue combined with Never Be Hurt Again to form Kaito's core ambition for becoming stronger.
- In a lighter take on this, Kei has to be told that Kaito clearly copied her messy hairstyle.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Abrasive and rude at first glance, he genuinely does just want to protect his friends and teacher from being hurt. He just doesn't always go about it in the best way.
The Napoleon: Shortest member of his team and by far the most aggressive.
Trans Nature: Kaito is AFAB, but his family supported his transition from the start. By the time Kei met him, the whole of the Chinatsugumi were on board with it.

Aiko Kasai

Daughter of Misaki Kasai and Raiden (a merchant in Konoha), born to the Kasai clan during the story's timeline. Later joins the Konohagakure shinobi forces as one of Kei's students, against the wishes of her father.

Braids of Action: Wears her hair in a single braid down one side of her face.
Cheerful Child: Generally one of these, as far back as Kei remembers knowing her.
Doesn't Know Their Own Child: A problem faced by Aiko once she meets her birth father, who has remarried and since had more children. While Aiko and her teammates live in his house during their residency in Konoha, none of them seem to really understand each other.
Glacier Waif: Her specialty is converting accumulated kinetic energy in massive, single bursts. While she does specialize in taijutsu, it's more geared toward dishing out those rare huge hits than the rapid-fire strikes that other hand-to-hand combat specialists prefer.
Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: A cheerful blonde on the protagonist's side. Generally well-meaning, if occasionally clumsy about it.
Parental Neglect: An Implied Trope with Aiko and her mother, from Kei's point of view. Her aunt takes over as soon as she spots the problem, nipping as much of it in the bud as she can.
Playing with Fire: Her first proficiency with nature transformation ninjutsu.
Plucky Girl: Is this despite the destruction of her home village by Otogakure and Mizugakure forces when she was a child. While she was clearly upset at the time, she's otherwise taken to shinobi training like a duck to water. Seems to use Gai as a role model.

Roku Chigami

Adopted son of Chinatsu Kasai and Akira (later revealed to be an Uzumaki), which makes him Aiko's cousin. Found in the burned-out husk of a border village alongside the infant Tayuya. Later joins the Konohagakure shinobi forces as one of Kei's students.

Deadpan Snarker: Kei's been a bad influence for the last half-decade.
Declining Promotion: Despite being older than his teammates and much more responsible, he's refused promotion opportunities to stay with them.
Doomed Hometown: Twice over, with his home village and Sorayama.
Magnetism Manipulation: Carries the Magnet Release bloodline and is a proficient fighter with it, to the point of sculpting his own weapons out of iron sand and using them in battle. While none of the characters know for sure, Kei suspects he has ancestry leading back to the Land of Wind.
The Quiet One: Compared to his teammates. He gets a few good shots in, mostly at Kaito's or Kei's expense.
Sole Survivor: Regarding his home village and birth family. His adoptive parents are also dead, and while his sister may have survived due to being a Canon Character All Along, Tayuya disappeared in the wake of the attack on Sorayama and left Roku to grow up alone in Konoha.

Other Characters

Ame

Nagato Uzumaki

Only known holder of the Rinnegan, a long-lost Uzumaki clan member re-adopted as Kushina's brother, and basically heading up the Uzumaki clan in Amegakure.

Good Is Not Soft: Deals with threats to Amegakure with the full extent of his Rinnegan powers.
Gravity Master: Uses the Deva Path's push-pull ability to launch the dormant Ten-Tails into low earth orbit.
Person of Mass Destruction

Yahiko

Leader of Akatsuki and Amegakure, though he doesn't make as many appearances as his compatriots do.

Heroes Prefer Swords: Uses a katana in combat, which he may have taken off the ROOT agents originally ordered to kill him and the rest of Akatsuki.
The Heart: Explicitly identified as such by Kei, who's seen one version of Akatsuki go downhill as a result of his death, though he may not be aware of it.
Making a Splash: Uses Water nature transformation ninjutsu.
Spared by the Adaptation: Jiraiya and Tsunade's intervention saved him from his canonical fate.
Summon Magic: He got his hands on Hanzo's salamander contract and uses it for security purposes.

Konan

Third member of the Akatsuki trio, and their public face to other countries more often than not.

Action Mom: She has four children with Nagato and Yahiko by the time Naruto graduates from the Academy.
Even the Girls Want Her: The first thing Kei thinks when she sees Konan in person is that she's extremely attractive.
Flight: One of the very, very few people in-setting who can fly under her own power.
Paper Master
The Spymaster: Explicitly called Amegakure's head of intelligence.
Stuff Blowing Up: As a direct consequence of her control over explosive seals. She is also the one who tried to destroy the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path with sheer explosives alone.

Suna

Gaara

The Fourth Kazekage's youngest child and Shukaku's host.

All of the Other Reindeer: Still gets this treatment from Sunagakure, but has Kei and Naruto to soften the blow within canonical CYB. In Ocean Stars Falling, joins the Straw Hat Pirates and finds True Companions too.
I Just Want to Have Friends
Red Baron: In Ocean Stars Falling, he joins the Straw Hat pirates and is known as "Red Sand" Gaara.
Red Oni, Blue Oni: Far more taciturn than Naruto or the Straw Hat Pirates, he has this dynamic in particular with Fu and Luffy.
True Companions: As a member of the Straw Hat Pirates, he's already included.

Kiri

Mei Terumi

The Fourth Mizukage and current leader of Kirigakure.

Lady of War: Helped organize the coup that put her in the Mizukage's robes.
Pun: When Utakata refers to Mei being "hot," he's referring to both her bloodline limits and her attractiveness.

Utakata

The Third Mizukage's nephew and Saiken's host. In Ocean Stars Falling, he joins the Crimson Carnation Pirates and later earns the nickname "Carnation Prince" Utakata after the destruction of Impel Down.

All of the Other Reindeer: Ostracized for both being a jinchuriki and being the Third Mizukage's nephew in the wake of the chaos in Kiri after the Rashomon Arc.
Arranged Marriage: To Mei Terumi.
Broken Pedestal: Has two in the form of his childhood mentor Harusame and his uncle Renge, the Third Mizukage.
Defrosting Ice King: Over the course of Ocean Stars Falling, the other characters (especially Naruto) manage to gently wear him down and get him to participate in their games. The first sign of this is his brief flash of sympathy when he realizes Naruto is one of the jinchuriki. Later, he even speaks civilly to Kei and willingly joins the mission to take on Impel Down.
Making a Splash: Water nature transformations are his bag.
Red Baron: "Carnation Prince."
- Fluffy the Terrible: "Carnation Prince" doesn't sound very menacing, but he's a Person of Mass Destruction who killed Magellan in single combat.
Used to Be a Sweet Kid: When he was very young, he was an eager-to-please child absolutely devoted to his only remaining family, few friends, and mentor. That changed as he got older, due mainly to betrayals, deaths, and trauma.

Kumo

Killer B

Gyuki's host and the Fourth Raikage's younger brother. In Ocean Stars Falling, he joins the Red Hair Pirates on a lark.

Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Incredibly competent shinobi, and probably the quirkiest of the native Naruto cast.
Odd Friendship: With Kushina, given Kumogakure's history of attempted bloodline theft.

Yugito Nii

Matatabi's host and C's cousin. In Ocean Stars Falling, she becomes known as "Cobalt Lioness" Yugito.

All of the Other Reindeer: A victim of this treatment, much like the other jinchuriki.
Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: A bit, when her shinobi skills are questioned. She and Kei butt heads early on as a result.
Enemy Mine: In OSF, she only joins Kei and Ace to get off the island and regain her strength. Fighting Blackbeard and rescuing Ace from Impel Down turns them into Fire-Forged Friends.
Fire-Forged Friends: With Kei, Ace, and Utakata (as a very distant third).
In-Series Nickname: In addition to her title, Yugito's name is routinely shorted to "Yugi" by Naruto.
Not So Above It All: In OSF, she plays Rock-Paper-Scissors with Luffy and Zorro to decide who gets to fight Minotaurus. And wins!
Playing with Fire: Her primary nature transformation.
Ship Tease: With Ace and occasionally Thatch.
Shock and Awe: Her secondary nature transformation. Her word on the subject is, "I am not from the Land of Lightning for nothing."

Sorayama

Home to group of merchants known as the Chinatsugumi, who live in the shadow of Mount Soragami.

Tropes applying to the Chinatsugumi in general:

Cruel and Unusual Death: Most of them, when Sorayama is attacked by Otogakure.
Dangerous Deserter: Rikuto, who faked his death in order to escape a seemingly endless conflict between Iwagakure and Sunagakure decades before the start of the story.
Doomed Hometown: Sorayama, for Team Kei.
Last Stand: All of the dead Chinatsugumi show evidence of having gone down fighting.
Superpowerful Genetics: Sort of a running theme with them, and why they're targeted by Orochimaru.
- Barrier Maiden: Chinatsu, whose family seals make her a living stopper on Mount Soragami. She transferred the seals to her niece, Aiko, shortly before her death.
- Elemental Shapeshifter: Nanami, as a runaway from the Hozuki clan.
- An Ice Person: Shirozora, as a runaway member of the Yuki clan.
- Magma Man: Rikuto's kekkei genkai ability.

Land of Iron

The samurai-dominanted snowscape in the north, where shinobi are foreign influence. Prominently featured in Miyako Gekko's backstory chapters of The B-Plot and later chapters of Catch Your Breath.

Isshinta Asakura/Shinta Uzumaki

A teenager adopted by the Asakura clan in Miyako/Tomoe's Land of Iron side-story, ordered to marry Tomoe by his new family. He's actually a survivor of the destruction of Uzushiogakure.

Arranged Marriage: To Tomoe not long after he turned fifteen. Both parties were reluctant at best, and it ended up being a ploy to commit murder, so the whole thing was moot.
Ascended Extra: Survives the Uesugi clan bloodbath in Dig Two Graves and becomes a main character.
Because You Were Nice to Me: Why he decided to betray the Asakura clan's plot and save Tomoe and her little nephew. In The B-Plot, he dies as a result.
Cast from Hit Points: His healing ability comes with a massive energy cost, and the last usage heals Tomoe's otherwise-lethal injuries at the cost of his life.
Chronic Hero Syndrome: How Tomoe comes to view his generosity and moral character in Dig Two Graves. She thinks it's a distraction, but nonetheless backs him every time.
Color-Coded Eyes: Has dark violet eyes, like Kushina does.
Death by Origin Story: Dies in The B-Plot chapter in which he debuts, but Tomoe only survives her family's massacre because of his presence.
Empathic Healer: Can heal people by allowing them to bite him.
Expy: Of a pre-badass Kenshin Himura.
Grew a Spine: With regard to his morals and standing up to his abusers. In The B-Plot, he dies after standing up for what he believes in.
- He retains some Shrinking Violet tendencies Dig Two Graves, being self-effacing and prone to downplaying his skills, but he's more willing to deal with people and stand up for himself.
Good Samaritan: Tries to help even total strangers, though it can quickly escalate from there.
Heroic Sacrifice: In The B-Plot, he's mortally wounded in the battle against the Asakura clan and gives the last of his chakra to heal Tomoe so she can escape.
Humble Hero: Shinta is one of the most devastating fighters available in Dig Two Graves' version of the Sunshot Campaign, but always makes sure to praise others before himself and never brags about his accomplishments.
Implausible Hair Color: His hair is bright Uzumaki red in Catch Your Breath's timeline, which makes him stand out among the relatively realistic hair colors more common in the Land of Iron. This is a Downplayed Trope in Dig Two Graves, where his natural hair color is darker by default (comparable to dried blood) and Tomoe tries to get him to use dye to blend in better.
Like Brother and Sister: Even in his debut chapter of The B-Plot, he admits he's not interested in Tomoe romantically. While he doesn't live long enough for further details in that timeline, Tomoe and Shinta's relationship settles into this before the events of Dig Two Graves.
Older Than They Look: Something shared with other Hiten Mitsurugi-ryu practitioners. Specifically, Shinta is much shorter than most of the cultivators in Dig Two Graves, can't grow facial hair (according to Wataru), and is almost always mistaken for a young teenager. He's twenty.
Sacrificial Lamb: In Tomoe's POV chapter of The B-Plot, he's the only decent Asakura clan member and dies at the end.
Scars Are Forever: While he can heal others if they bite him, each of those bites leaves a permanent scar. Jiang Cheng notes that none of them look like they came from animals or fierce corpses.
Shrinking Violet: Is this in the chapter of The B-Plot where he appears.
Sole Survivor: As far as he knows, he's this for the Uzumaki clan. He's wrong. In Catch Your Breath's continuity, he never has a chance to meet any other survivors. In Dig Two Graves, he goes missing during a battle shortly before Wataru would've been able to tell him about Kushina.
Spared by the Adaptation: Survives the night of the Uesugi clan massacre in Dig Two Graves.
Sudden Principled Stand: Happens in his debut chapter, which results in the Asakura clan deciding to simply kill him alongside the Uesugi they've already murdered.
Superhuman Trafficking: As an Uzumaki, he can heal people if they bite him. After the destruction of Uzushiogakure displaced most of his clan members across the continent, he was captured by traffickers as a child and eventually sold to the Asakura. His "adoptive" mother outright accuses him of being a waste of money for trying to defend Tomoe.
Supernatural Martial Arts: Hiten Mitsurugi-ryu results in the following combat benefits:
- Super-Speed: He can move faster than even other Kung-Fu Wizard-types (cultivators in this case) can follow.
- Super-Reflexes: To the point of being able to perform an Arrow Catch, though it hurts his hand.
- Combat Precognition: Though only against fellow qi-users, not ghosts or monsters.
Translator Buddy: Since he doesn't have the same trouble with the Language Barrier Tomoe does, he translates or intercedes for her when he can.
Took a Level in Badass: In Dig Two Graves, he's trained by Tomoe after they survive the massacre, which is a backwards way of reuniting him with his destined sword style.

Yuki Uesugi

A member of the samurai corps under General Mifune, and the other survivor of the Uesugi clan's destruction in Catch Your Breath's timeline. Suspected of being a member of the villainous organization Shinjitsu by Konoha's Intelligence corps.

Aura Vision: Strong enough in this that a combination of it and his deduction skills allow him to work out that Kei's his cousin.
By-the-Book Cop: Tries to arrest Raiga legitimately before the fight started.
A Minor Kidroduction: Introduced as a toddler in The B-Plot.
Supernatural Martial Arts: Also practices Hiten Mitsurugi-ryu, which Kei knows under a different name.

The Tailed Beasts

Isobu

The Three-Tailed Beast of the nine in total, Isobu appears to be a greenish-gray turtle-crab-shrimp that dwarfs most buildings.

Adaptation Personality Change: Though Isobu gets very little screentime in Naruto, he comes across as a far more childlike character than he does in this story. The only explanation anyone can find is that Kei is a bad influence.
Because You Were Nice to Me: The main reason he hasn't tried to escape Kei's seal since the early days—Kei is the kindest host he's had.
Big Brother Instinct: Feels this way toward the other Tailed Beasts, though they're all technically the same age.
Blood Knight: Has some aspects of this, when fighting particularly challenging opponents like Minato or Orochimaru. His chakra can also make this attitude slightly contagious.
Humans Are Bastards: Holds this view the first time he appears, and for good reason (see below).
Go Mad from the Isolation: Reveals that this is the result of sealing a Tailed Beast into an inanimate object, and underwent this before being sealed into Kei. Any longer and the result might have been even worse.
In-Series Nickname: Due to Luffy being...Luffy, Isobu picks up the nickname "Wasabi."
Making a Splash: An elemental affinity that he and Kei both share.
Master of Illusion: While most Tailed Beasts are known simply for overwhelming power, Isobu has some talent in casting and maintaining genjutsu.
Me's a Crowd: In Ocean Stars Falling, Isobu can spit up miniature clones of himself from inside his stomach.
Murder Is the Best Solution: He's quick to advocate murder and has difficulty with with more complicated solutions.
Sealed in a Person-Shaped Can: Generally not happy about this state of affairs, despite liking Kei.
Stomach of Holding: Though it's one of Isobu's less-used abilities prior to Ocean Stars Falling, it turns out he can safely swallow small ships to store them without a problem.
Vocal Dissonance: Isobu actually has a relatively high voice and speaks using "boku" as a personal pronoun, but can employ his cavernous insides to lower his pitch and increase volume at will. Kei, when using his chakra, gets the latter effect.
What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Forces the other characters to confront this issue time and again, because he is perfectly capable of acting to the betterment or detriment of whomever pisses him off. Don't assume that he doesn't have feelings just because he doesn't look like a human.
You Didn't Ask: His attitude toward some of his more esoteric (but highly relevant) knowledge about the Ten-Tails and similar phenomena.

Kurama

The Nine-Tailed Fox, by far the most powerful of the Tailed Beasts and all too aware of it. Got split in two during the Commencement Arc. He and Naruto temporarily join the Revolutionaries during Ocean Stars Falling.

Blow You Away: One of Kurama's two nature transformations.
Did We Just Have Tea with Cthulhu?: The Revolutionaries like Naruto well enough in Ocean Stars Falling, but are completely baffled and terrified by "Old Man Yang" who follows him around. This is only partially due to the suspicion that he could and would glass all of Baltigo if the whim struck him.
The Dreaded: While a signature of Tailed Beast reputations, Yang Kurama invokes this harder than the others because he's the most aggressive half of the strongest known Tailed Beast. He doesn't need supernatural methods of causing fear as a result.
Intergenerational Friendship: Yang Kurama with Naruto. Naruto affectionately calls him "Old Man Yang" when other characters are too terrified of him to speak, and Yang Kurama puts Naruto's safety on his priority list.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Despite his callous attitude and his tendency to pick on his siblings, Yang Kurama actually does care about them and about very specific humans.
Literal Split Personality: Yin Kurama and Yang Kurama are this to each other, since neither mentions seniority and they were originally one being. Of the two, Yang Kurama is generally the jerk and Yin Kurama is generally the more mild-mannered one.
Not So Above It All: Both halves of Kurama have terrible handwriting, which they're sensitive about. Yang Kurama, however, doesn't let that stop him from carving badly-spelled graffiti into things.
Playing with Fire: His less-used nature transformation type.
Sealed in a Person-Shaped Can: Yin Kurama is still sealed inside Kushina, while Yang Kurama once again went to Naruto. This time, Yang Kurama went willingly and later befriends Naruto.

Shukaku

The One-Tailed Beast, generally in the shape of a tanuki made from sand. In Ocean Stars Falling, he and Gaara join the Straw Hat Pirates in Loguetown (Gaara) and Alabasta (Shukaku, officially).

Big Brother Instinct: Over Gaara, and exactly no one else.
Blow You Away: For range, Shukaku likes launching devastating air bullets at his targets.
Boisterous Bruiser: Really eager for a fight, and generally advocates getting in them as often as possible. He also refers to himself as "the great Shukaku" and has been known to burst into fits of laughter upon spotting a new opponent who doesn't know what they're dealing with.
Curb-Stomp Battle: Takes on the hazards of the Alabasta desert with such force that Kei barely makes a footnote of the encounters. Later, he's instrumental to the Straw Hats escaping Sabaody together, because he took on Admiral Kizaru, Sentomaru, and Bartholomew Kuma to turn the curbstomp into a delaying action.
Dishing Out Dirt: Earth and Magnet Release jutsu are some of his favorite types.
Inferiority Superiority Complex: Feels this way toward both Yin and Yang Kurama, but more the latter.
In-Series Nickname: Because of Luffy's Malaproper tendencies, he is nicknamed "Shumai."
Me's a Crowd: Can create sand clones that act nearly independently of him.
Nigh-Invulnerable: Unlike the other Tailed Beasts, he's more than just durable—he can be blown to pieces and still reassemble himself out of loose grains of sand and crushed rock. His first appearance started with him getting his head shot off and being pounded into paste, to zero lasting effect.

Matatabi

The Two-Tailed Cat, a poised and even-tempered being with a very long fuse. Joins Kei and Ace with Yugito during the hunt for Teach in Ocean Stars Falling.

Fire-Forged Friends: With Yugito, though more enforced by circumstances than because either of them were especially interested in collaborating. Being trapped on an island with only one other sapient being can lead to some relationship changes.
In-Series Nickname: Due to Luffy's inability to get names right, she's nicknamed "Tabby" during Ocean Stars Falling.
My Instincts Are Showing: Matatabi really, really dislikes water. It becomes a problem in Ocean Stars Falling when she and Yugito end up stuck on an island for months in the Grand Line.

Playing with Fire: Being a cat apparently made of fire, the only surprise here is that she can choose who she burns.
Master of Illusion: One of two Tailed Beasts noted for genjutsu, she can put up a Somebody Else's Problem field in the middle of one of the most crowded archipelagos in the Grand Line and have people not notice the giant flaming cat.
Team Mom: Acts as this toward Team Jinchuriki during Ocean Stars Falling, even Yang Kurama. Most of her concern is focused on Yugito, though.

Saiken

The Six-Tailed Slug, a powerful but immature Tailed Beast devoted to his family and to his host. Sensitive and silly in one. Joins up with two other jinchuriki-Tailed Beast partner pairs to form Team Jinchuriki during Ocean Stars Falling.

Beware the Silly Ones: Be party to anyone or anything hurting Utakata, and Saiken will kill you.
Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Saiken has a childish mindset and often follows strange logic to get to the conclusions he wants. A disturbing number of said conclusions tend to involve murder.
The Fool: More so than any other character, Saiken's cheer is partly a result of ignorance and partly a consequence of basically being invulnerable to anything the world he's in can throw at him. Even being hurled across the length of the Ryugu Kingdom by Vander Decken IX doesn't do more than cause momentary confusion, though his bulk hitting a building would have killed absolutely everyone inside.
Keet: Immediately proves himself to be this.
Making a Splash: Yet another Tailed Beast with control over water, which can take the form of "turning the ocean to slime" or "water cannons" as he wishes.
Malaproper: Much like Luffy, he rarely bothers getting the formal names for anything or anyone correct.
Protectorate: Extremely concerned about Utakata's safety.
Right for the Wrong Reasons: A signature of his thought processes. He immediately hits on the idea of killing Celestial Dragons to attract Admirals once he's told that the former exist, which is usually the deterrent used for most people to never attack the nobility in the first place. But it's all the same to a Tailed Beast.
Vocal Dissonance: As noted by Kei when he first appears, Saiken has a squeaky voice that clashes harshly with his size and power, and doesn't so much roar as shriek.
Wowing Cthulhu: Saiken is very easily impressed.

Characters / Catch Your Breath

Edit Locked