| “ | You're right that Obito and I were convinced that we didn't have a place in this world, and we ended up involving everyone else. But now I know who I am and what I have to do. | „ |
| ~ Kabuto to Suigetsu, about his reformation. |
Kabuto Yakushi is a major antagonist in the Naruto anime and manga series. For most of his life, he worked as a spy working for many different individuals, organizations, and countries during his life. His natural talents in intelligence-gathering and medicine attracted the attention of Orochimaru when he was younger, who made Kabuto his right-hand man. Although Kabuto learns much about the world under Orochimaru, he eventually decides that his life of serving others has prevented him from making an identity for himself.
He thereafter seeks power and becomes a major factor in the Fourth Shinobi World War, using his higher place in the world so that he can find where in it he belongs. After finally finding himself in the world, Kabuto returns to Konohagakure to run the orphanage there, helping others such as himself to find their own way.
In Japanese, he was voiced by Nobutoshi Canna as an adult and Mariko Mizuno as a child. In English, he was voiced by Henry Dittman as an adult and Tara Sands as a child.
Background[]
Kabuto was found as a child by Nonō Yakushi on the outskirts of a city recently destroyed in a battle; he had suffered a head injury, leaving him with no memory of his name or past. Nonō treated his wound and brought him to the Konoha Orphanage. Urushi, another orphan, placed a helmet on his head so he wouldn't be injured again, prompting Nonō to name him "Kabuto". Kakashi's first statement when he sees Kabuto in the hospital with an unconscious Sasuke at scalpel point was "Oh, you're that medic's son" , making Kakashi seem more knowledgeable about Kabuto than he had previously shown.
At some point, he was put under the mind control of Sasori of Akatsuki to spy on Orochimaru. Orochimaru discovered this and freed Kabuto from Sasori, seeing that Kabuto may have had some useful jutsu for him to take advantage of.
Sasori however, would never find out that his jutsu had been broken by Orochimaru, as he would be killed by Sakura and Chiyo and then tell them where to go to meet a spy that he was supposed to meet up with, only to be impersonated by Yamato, who had no idea what Kabuto knew about Sasori. Somewhere along the line, Kabuto joined Orochimaru in Otogakure (the Village hidden in Sound) and became somewhat of Orochimaru's right hand man, and was always Orochimaru's first choice when sending someone on a spy mission, as Kabuto was one of the few people in the Naruto universe who's true thoughts were never revealed anywhere, not in battle, not in speech. It is implied that even Orochimaru doesn't know Kabuto's true allegiances, as when he tells Kabuto to go capture Sasuke, who was in the hospital, that now would be the only chance he would have to stop him, as though he were pndering what Kabuto would do next. Yakushi was next seen as a member of Konoha, attempting to beat the Chunnin Exams along with the "rookie nine", consisting of Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, Ino, Choji, Shikamaru, and Shino, Kiba, and Hinata. This was supposedly his 7th time in attempting to pass the exams.
Story[]
Kabuto's first mention and appearance in the series was that he was seemingly quite a nerdy kid. Upon hearing Naruto Uzumaki proclaim to the rest of the aspiring chuunin in the room that he would one day beat every one of them, he was forced to react to stop him from getting hurt, possibly as another way to force them into thinking he was their friend. Talking to them like a cocky superior, he asked them if they needed any help with the specifics as this had been his seventh time apparently in taking the exams. They were astonished to think that he was actually taking this exam again after all of it had gone by, but he told them that it was harder than they thought. He asked anyone if they wanted information on any of the new ninja, and of course Sasuke was the very first to ask him about Rock Lee and Sabaku no Gaara, but he wondered how Kabuto would possibly know about them.
He pulled out a deck of cards that he infused with his own chakra, and told them that with these he was able to carefully analyze his enemies and collect information on them. He also commented that Sasuke knowing their names made this a much easier process, and first went ahead and told him about the one from the village that they were familiar with, Rock Lee. Lee was a specialist in taijutsu, but nothing else and had gone on multiple C-Rank missions with his team of Guy, Tenten, and Neji Hyūga.
Gaara, however, the mysterious ninja from sand was a different story, he had done multiple D-Rank missions, several C rank, and even one B-Rank mission with his team of Temari, Kankuro, and his sensei. Kabuto commented that there are very few genin that ever go on B missions, as often they're just simply far too tough for them. The thing that scared Kabuto the most though, and the others around him, was the condition that he had come out of all of these missions, unscathed. With this, Sasuke and Naruto felt slightly chilled, until Kabuto quickly changed the subject, talking about how there was also a new village in the midst of their ranks, Otogakure, aka the Village Hidden in Sound. Kabuto stated that the three genin from there (Dosu, Kin, and Zaku) were simply just representatives of the no name backwater country of Sound.
Upon hearing this, the three became violent, and attacked Kabuto where he stood. He dodged the kunai thrown from one, and wehn one blow was thrown towards his face he was able to carefully but swiftly move out of the way, his glasses broken. Looking at them, he wondered what had happened, in a slightly amused fashion, until he felt sick and began to vomit. The sound ninja bandaged up told him the secret to this, the amplifier on his arm, the sound from it had been directed by Dosu's chakra into Kabuto's ears, and thus disrupting the flow of some of the water and causing him to lose his balance and just go nausious. Kabuto picked up his glasses, and simply walked away after being told by the three patriotic genin that they would be the "next big thing" and that he would be killed if he got in their way again.
Little did the genin know, Kabuto was more in on their plan than they were as compared to their relationships with Orochimaru, Kabuto was second to none. It was unrevealed what or how Kabuto did in the first part of the Chuunin exams, the written section, other than that he passed it, as he was able to assist Naurto and his friends in the Forest of Death, the second part of the exams. He had apparently strayed away from his team, which had already gotten their scrolls it would seem. Since he had no idea where they had been split up, apparently, he decided that he would help out Naruto and co. while they ran through the death filled woods on their way to the tower in the center of the forest with their scrolls. Along the way, Kabuto and Sakura noticed that they were going around in circles, as there had been the same branch pattern and rocks for the past few miles...it took the others a while to understand what this meant, but Kabuto knew what they were doing immediately: another genin was attemping to confuse them with genjutsu, to wear them out without fighting for their scrolls. A sly movement, if it weren't for them discovering what was going on due to Kabuto's smarts and the genin's miscalculations...they had thrown their kunai too early to try and take them down, and it was quickly stopped.
Naruto went out and called out their opponent, only to be warned by Kabuto that this was not a good idea, as there appeared to be a lot of them. In reality this was just another trick from the genjutsu using genin, and the multiple kunai were simply being thrown from one point in synchronization with his clones to make it seem as though there were many of them, from one point. Kabuto was about to tell them a plan to devise in order to make their strategy fall apart, when suddenly from out of the blue a kunai was thrown into his face, he was quick enough to dodge it, but it still scraped his face, and broke his glasses. It was in this moment that Kabuto's character went in depth, as his eye color changed to red, and he looked enraged with a passion. He has only mentioned this red eye technique once since this instance, only a few chapters later, saying that it was too dangerous for him to be a part of the third round of the chuunin exams with his red eyes. It was still unknown if there was some truth in this statement, but for the most part Kabuto only left the exam to fulfill the orders of his true master...Orochimaru.
He met up with Orochimaru in an uninhabited area of the Leaf village at the moment, and discussed their plan. Sasuke was ill stricken in the hospital because of the curse mark set upon him by Orochimaru, and that now was the time to take him with them. Kabuto's mission was to kidnap the young boy and then bring him back for good. He also noted that if Kabuto was ever going to try and stop him, that the only way he could would be to kill Sasuke now, meaning that Orochimaru didn't even know what side the young boy was truly on. Kabuto froze for a moment at these words and looked at him with a very strange look in his eyes, only to tell him that he would never betray him. Upon arriving at the hospital he murdered all of the Anbu Stationed out side of Sasuke's hospital room, who was still quite fast asleep from the effects of the attempted curse mark seal from the elite jonin Kakashi, also his master. Finally, after all of the Anbu were actually dead, he came up to Sasuke, with a scalpel at his unconscious throat, ready to clip the tube that was over his mouth. Right when he was about to take him (or so we assume, he may have been trying to kill him and stop Orochimaru, or just do something else altogether, we still don't know his true motives) , he was suddenly stopped by Kakashi. Kabuto commented that maybe next time they may want to leave about ten Anbu as opposed to six, as it was far to simple to kill them. Kakashi began fighting Kabuto in hand to hand combat, but it turned out that what Kakashi was fighting was an animated Anbu corpse made to look like Kabuto, using one of Kabuto's signature techniques it would seem, the Art of Dead Souls. In actuality the real Kabuto had been postering as one of the many dead Anbu on the ground, and when given the chance and Kakashi realized that he was just a shadow clone, Kabuto leapt out of the window, revealing the face under the Anbu mas to be his.
Personality[]
At times, Kabuto can seem quite agreeable, more than willing to approach people and always confident in his own words and actions. By his own admission, he is an introvert who doesn't like to be looked at and who wants to stick to the background. He can be very critical of others, dismissing their personal desires and emphasizing all their flaws he perceives them to be making. To those he feels are deserving, he is very affable, regarding them with deference, using the appropriate honourifics, and chastising those who don't do the same. He can be scathing, preying on sensitive topics in order to rile someone up and punctuating his comments with sarcasm. Other times he is kind, putting his life at risk and being helpful for no immediate benefit to himself.
The many contradictions of Kabuto's personality are a result of his frequent role as a spy, having spent most of his life changing identities and loyalties in order to gather information for some organization. Although he's been serving Orochimaru for the longest period of time, even Orochimaru isn't always sure what Kabuto's true feelings are: he trusts Kabuto implicitly, yet secretly suspects that Kabuto might intentionally undermine him. When Kabuto begins working with Tobi, Tobi is careful to be on guard with Kabuto and keep him on a short leash, aware that Kabuto does not always act for the reasons he claims to; even so, Kabuto is able to make himself simultaneously so valuable yet so dangerous that Tobi can't really do anything about it.
Kabuto feels indebted to Itachi for restoring to him the knowledge of who he is and where in the world he most belongs; he later returns the favour to Itachi by saving Sasuke's life. After the war, Kabuto returns to the orphanage where he was raised - his long-neglected true home - and resumes the life he once had there. He believes it is vital that the orphans have identities of their own and not allow themselves to be defined by their past associations. In the anime, Orochimaru expressed his confidence that Kabuto's chance of slipping back to his old days are even lower than himself.
List of summoning of the Reanimation Jutsu[]
- Itachi Uchiha
- Chiyo
- Hanzo
- Torune Aburame
- A
- Mū
- Gengetsu Hōzuki
- Hayate Gekko
- Kakuzu
- Deidara
- Nagato
- Rasa
- Shin (Anbu)
- Zabuza Momochi
- Yugito Nii
- Yota
- Fukai
- Yagura Karatachi
- Tonika Village Head
- Toroi
- Roshi
- Fu
- Madara Uchiha
- Kinkaku and Ginkaku
- Gari
- Daimaru
- Pakura
- Sasori
- Osoi
- Mangutsu Hozuki
External Links[]
- Kabuto Yakushi on the Naruto Wiki
- Kabuto Yakushi on the Boruto Wiki
- Kabuto Yakushi on the Villains Wiki
- Kabuto Yakushi on the Inconsistently Heinous Wiki
- Kabuto Yakushi on the Heroic Benchmark Wiki
- Kabuto Yakushi on the VS Battles Wiki
