| “ | Don't underestimate my puppets! | „ |
| ~ Kankuro |
Kankurō is a supporting character in the Naruto anime/manga series and the Boruto series.
He is the second eldest of the three Sand Siblings and a talented puppet user. He is also a guardian with his older sister, Temari, to protect their younger brother Gaara the new Kazekage. He is known as the only ninja who ever used face paint in Naruto.
He is voiced by Yasuyuki Kase in the Japanese version of the anime, who also voiced Vision from Marvel Cinematic Universe, and by the late Michael Lindsay and Doug Erholtz (who also voiced Asuma Sarutobi) in the English version of the anime.
Plot[]
Kankurō was born and raised in the Hidden Sand Village in the Land of Wind with his younger brother, Gaara, and older sister, Temari. He is one of the children of the Fourth Kazekage. Like most of the kids at the time, he was afraid of Gaara due to having the Shukaku sealed in his body. Kankurō begins to fear Gaara when he embraced his darkness. Kankurō participates in the Chuunin Exam where he manages to pass the preliminary round but his fight against Shino was cancelled due to the Sand-Sound invasion. He manages to fight against Shino in battle but was defeated. He carried Gaara away after the latter fought in battle against Naruto. Over time, Kankurō no longer feared Gaara and began to warm up to him.
He was commissioned by the Hidden Leaf Village to support Leaf ninjas against the Sound ninjas and to help them retrieve Sasuke from Orochimaru's forces. During one of his battles, he uses his three puppets in combat that are named Black Ant, Salamander, and Crow. He was responsible for the deaths of Sakon and Ukon of the Sound Four and saved Kiba from them.
During the time-skip, Gaara became the Fifth Kazekage, and Kankurō works alongside him. After Sasori died, Kankurō acquired the deceased Akatsuki's puppet body into his use as his new favorite puppet. Kankurō later appears during the Kage Summit to help escort Gaara to the meeting. During the Fourth Ninja War, he leads a special division force to fight against a reincarnated division comprised of Sasori, Deidara, Shin, and the other undead ninjas. His team was successful against fighting the division at the start of the war. Kankurō continues to support many ninjas in the battle against Akatsuki forces. However, during the second night of the war, Kankurō along with most of humanity was placed in the Infinite Tsukyomi by Madara Uchiha who planned to put humanity in the dream world as his solution to the world's problem. However, when Madara was defeated, Kankurō along with everyone else was released from the Infinite Tsukyomi by Naruto and Sasuke.
Kankurō continues to reside in the Sand Village to support Gaara.
Personality[]
In Part 1, Kankurō's most notable personality trait was his apparent hatred of children, such as when he tried to punch Konohamaru who had just bumped into him or when he showed irritation in the presence of someone younger than him. He also had a hard time tolerating the presence of Gaara, his younger brother who generated in him as much hatred as disgust. However, after Gaara was defeated in combat by Naruto, their relationship only improved over the years. They became very close and Kankurō even ended up being very protective of Gaara, not hesitating to go to his rescue alone when he was kidnapped.
Kankurō has been shown to be the type of person who avoids pointless fights. He is also very loyal to his village and very pragmatic. He also enjoys collecting puppets and improving them, his greatest desire being to create the ultimate ninja puppet. During the Fourth Shinobi World War, Kankurō proved himself to be a benevolent leader willing to protect his group from all dangers.
Abilities[]
Being one of the Fourth Kazekage's children who underwent the gruelling training of Sunagakure,Kankurō became a highly skilled and capable shinobi. As a genin, he was able to kill Sakon and Ukon, the strongest members of the Sound Four. Kankurō's skills improved considerably over the time-skip, becoming a jōnin and later being chosen to lead the Surprise Attack Division during the Fourth Shinobi World War. He has shown himself to be a capable leader, having his division set up a miniature headquarters before assigning individuals to various roles. In addition, he has shown the tactical sense to call a retreat when outmatched as well as attack accordingly, and synchronise skills with his teammates for the most appropriate outcome.
Ninjutsu[]
Puppet Mastery[]
Kankurō is a highly talented puppeteer, indicated when Sasori, a renowned master of the Puppet Technique, complimented Kankurō's abilities despite anticipating all his attacks (albeit it mainly stemmed from him having made Kankurō's puppets). He has great skill in both modifying and controlling puppets, and was physically strong enough to carry around two puppets on his back in Part I, though in Part II he instead uses scrolls to store them in.
When initially introduced, Kankurō could only use a single puppet at a time. However, he would in subsequent years hone his puppeteer skills and become a puppet master himself, capable of manoeuvring more puppets at the same time. He also displayed the ability to attach his chakra threads to catch enemies or another puppeteer's threads, a feat that earned him Sasori's praise. Having studied the chakra pathway system later in life, he has developed the ability to secretly attach chakra threads on his target and use them to disrupt their flow of chakra, hindering their ability to use techniques and causing them extreme pain. Kankurō utilizes what he calls the Black Secret Technique (黒秘技, Kurohigi) — a name not unlike Chiyo's White Secret Technique (白秘技, Shirohigi) and Sasori's Red Secret Technique (赤秘技, Akahigi) — the latter of which he claims has been surpassed by his own style. With each of his appearances in the major arcs, Kankurō is seen with a new puppet in his arsenal. The four puppets that have been introduced were all originally created by Sasori (the fourth actually being Sasori himself), and came into Kankurō's possession some time after Sasori left Suna. His first three puppets are destroyed by Sasori at the start of Part II. After having his puppets destroyed, he took Sasori's body and used it as a puppet after his death. During the Fourth Shinobi World War, he is seen with the previously destroyed puppets, that have been repaired, plus a duplicate of the Kuroari. Later in life, he made and began wielding additional copies of his signature puppets. He could also make his puppets self-destruct in a powerful explosion as a last resort.
As puppeteers are long-range fighters who rely on their puppets in combat, Kankurō is weak against close-range combat. However, he has come up with many ways of escaping it: he's shown to act quite deceptively, switching places with his puppets using the Body Replacement Technique or by hiding underground. He is also capable of talking through them, or in some cases independent of his own speech,and altering their appearances to resemble real people, including himself, for espionage or to trap an opponent. For gathering information, he also seems to be aware of his puppets surroundings. In battle, Kankurō commonly uses these diversions to escape close combat when an opponent gets too close, while at the same time putting his puppets in range of the enemy, allowing Kankurō to catch his foes off guard and kill them. After studying the Ōtsutsuki Clan's unique puppets, Kankurō learned to manipulate his puppets in a way that achieves a similar effect by using imperceptibly thin chakra threads. Although this only gives the appearance of his puppets operating autonomously, he doesn't require noticeable hand gestures to manipulate them and can do so from a significantly increased range.
Kankurō's puppets seem to be designed to work together to some degree, as seen when they use the Black Secret Technique Machine One Shot, where Karasu navigates an opponent into Kuroari's torso. Once trapped, Karasu separates its limbs to reveal a number of concealed weapons, which enter the slots on Kuroari's body to impale the opponent. Black Secret Technique — Machine Triple Shot is used by Kankurō to trap more people and kill them at the same time. In the anime, Kankurō was also shown combining his puppets' attacks to make them more dangerous, as seen when they use the Poison Mist Hell: Hundred Continuous Firing technique, where Karasu blankets the area in a smokescreen while Kuroari fires poisoned needles at the blinded opponent.
Kankurō's puppetry skills are also highly adaptable as shown through his latest puppet, Sasori — which he obtained after Sasori's death and made several modifications to in order to apply his own Black Secret Technique style. It retains the coil in its stomach cavity, flamethrower and the blades on its back, plus he installed the mechanism to use Mechanical Light Shield Block on its right arm and modified its left arm to extend. Kankurō can use the Red Secret Technique Machinery Triangles with this puppet. After he defeated Sasori in the Fourth Shinobi World War, the puppet master passed his mother and father puppets on to Kankurō. Somehow Kankurō managed to distinguish Chiyo's feelings through her chakra threads.
Other Skills[]
He is well versed in terms of nature transformation, as he is able to use Wind, Lightning, Earth, and Water Release. In the anime, Kankurō claimed to have a resistance to poison, though not enough to withstand the effects of Ibuse's Poison Mist. In the anime, during the Fourth Shinobi World War, his taijutsu was at least good enough to keep up with another skilled puppet user.
Trivia[]
- His first English voice actor, Michael Lindsay is best known voicing as Kisuke Urahara from Bleach episodes 1-230, Agumon for episodes 1-2 from Digimon Adventure, Joe Kido, Greymon from Digimon Adventure/02 and Gotsumon from Digimon Data Squad.
- His second English voice actor, Doug Erholtz is best known voicing as Asuma Sarutobi from Naruto series, Kisuke Urahara from Bleach episodes 231-366, T.K. Takaishi from Digimon Adventure 02, Daigo Nishijima and Koromon from Digimon Adventure Tri.
External Links[]
- Kankuro on the Naruto Wiki
- Kankuro on the VS Battles Wiki
