Aside from great characters and rich world-building, one of Masashi Kishimoto’s coolest inventions in Naruto is the Bijuu, or tailed beasts.
Viewers are first introduced to the Nine-Tails, who wreaked havoc on the the Hidden Leaf Village of Konoha before being sealed inside the infant Naruto. The shinobi who have a tailed beast sealed within them are known as jinchuriki and are a method for controlling the tailed beast’s immense power.
Although these unions can be respectful and beneficial for the jinchuriki, the majority have been a political tool or a way to punish the beasts, who many shinobi thought of as monsters rather than individual beings worthy of respect. Over time, this treatment led the tailed beasts to resent humanity, making them vulnerable to villains who would use their large amounts of chakra for evil.
The legendary Sage of Six Paths, Hagoromo Otsutsuki, was the first to become a jinchuriki after sealing the Ten-Tails inside himself in order to save the world from destruction. Inspired by his son Asura, Hagoromo would later split the Ten-Tails into nine beasts, predicting they would once again be brought together to cooperate with humanity against a great evil. While that hasn’t come to fruition yet, we have seen every tailed beast over the course of Naruto, Naruto Shippuden, and Boruto.
While viewers will know the Nine-Tails the best, each tailed beast has its own abilities and personality. In order to know more about each Bijuu, here is a comprehensive list of each beast in order of how many tails it has. As most of our introductions to the tailed beasts are through their jinchuriki, it’s only fair that we mention them as well.
One-Tails: Shukaku
Shukaku is a tailed beast resembling a tanuki and appears to be made out of sand. The one-tailed beast is incredibly proud and confident, though he has showed to be insecure over his singular tail and views Kurama as his rival. Although Shukaku formed a good relationship with his first jinchuriki, by the time we first meet him, he is terrorizing his current jinchuriki, Gaara. Shukaku had begun to hate humans and threatened to escape from Gaara while he was sleeping, leading the young ninja to develop insomnia.
The One-Tails has nearly perfect defense and attacks using sand manipulation. He can also combine Earth Release with Wind Release to create Magnet Release, allowing him to generate a magnetic force to use in conjunction with Rasengan.
Two-Tails: Matatabi
The Two-Tails resembles a Bakeneko, a supernatural cat in Japanese mythology and is covered in blue flames, much like the Kasha, a yokai that steals corpses. Out of all of the tailed beasts, Matatabi is the most polite and when he speaks to Naruto, he uses honorifics as a sign of respect. The only jinchuriki of Matatabi’s we meet is a Hidden Cloud Village shinobi named Yugito Nii, who was able to transform into the beast at will after undergoing a cruel training program.
Matatabi is incredibly fast despite his large size and is able to use Fire Release, lending his power to his jinchuriki so that they can create fire balls.
Three-Tails: Isobu
The timid Isobu resembles a spike-covered turtle with a crab shell and three tails similar to that of a shrimp. Like the other beasts, Isobu was sold by the First Hokage, Hashirama Senju, to a neighboring village as a peace offering but would make his way back to Konoha when he was forcibly sealed into the young Rin Nohara, as part of a plot to destroy the village.
Rin, fully aware of the plan, chose to sacrifice herself rather than have her home destroyed. A tailed beast gradually reforms after their jinchuriki dies, and after Isobu reformed, he was sealed within the Hidden Mist Village’s Fourth Mizukage, Yagura Karatachi. By the time we first meet Isobu, he is roaming free without a jinchuriki, implying Yagura had died years prior.
Isobu is able to use his spiked body to his advantage and roll into a ball to quickly attack opponents. Other than it’s eye, it has nearly impenetrable defense and is also partial to using Water Release.
Four-Tails: Son Goku
The Four-Tails resembles a giant monkey inspired by the Monkey King from Chinese novel Journey to the West. Son Goku is confident and arrogant, believing apes more intelligent than humans.
He resents humanity for enslaving him and his fellow tailed beasts, but shows respect for humans who show kindness to the bijuu. While his jinchuriki Roshi was able to partially control his chakra, the two never had as close a relationship as Naruto and Kurama. Like many of the tailed beast, he didn’t get nearly enough screen time considering how cool he is.
Son Goku has an in-depth knowledge of taijutsu and is graceful despite his size. By combining Earth and Fire Release, Four-Tails creates the ability Lava Release, allowing him to create volcanoes.
Five-Tails: Kokuo
Kokuo, the five tailed beast, has the body of a horse but the head of a dolphin. He is a quiet beast who prefers to keep to himself and is one of the most polite Bijuu. When we first meet Kokuo and his jinchuriki, Han, it is when the Akatsuki have arrived to extract Kokuo. Little is known about Han other than him being from the Hidden Stone Village and that he dies once Kokuo is taken from him. After the beasts were freed by Naruto, the non-confrontational Kokuo decides to live a quiet life away from humanity.
His specialty is a steam-based jutsu, created by combining Fire and Water Release to raise his chakra to a boiling temperature. This is known as Boil Release.
Six-Tails: Saiken
The Six-Tails resembles a bipedal slug oozing a slime-like substance. Although Saiken speaks in an energetic and confident way, he doesn’t appear to hate humanity like many other beasts do. He and his last jinchuriki, Utakata, had a respectful relationship and Saiken was willing to work with his jinchuriki when necessary. This isn’t to say Saiken isn’t capable of great harm; in the anime, Saiken kills Utakata’s teacher when he feels threatened.
The ooze covering Saiken is corrosive so touching him even while not in battle is extremely dangerous. Additionally, Six-Tails can create a corrosive gas and spit an adhesive substance that can trap his enemies. It is also known to favor Water Release.
Seven-Tails: Chomei
Chomei is a tailed beast resembling a rhinoceros beetle. He has a dark blue armored shell covering his body and head, similar to a knight’s armor. Six of his seven tails resemble insect wings and allow him to fly while the seventh is a more standard tail. Like his only known jinchuriki, Fu, Chomei has a friendly and bright personality; he has a habit of peppering the word “lucky” throughout his speech and is much more laid back than the other tailed beasts. While a lot of that is no doubt due to his innate personality, this could be partially due to Chomei residing in the Hidden Waterfall Village, a more low-key village located outside of the five major nations.
As the only tailed beast capable of flight, Chomei is one of the quickest bijuu and with his strong shell, he’s also one of the most durable. Shino notes that his abilities are similar to those of the Aburame family.
Eight-Tails: Gyuki
The Eight-Tails is one of the strongest tailed beasts and resembles an Ushi-oni, a Japanese demon with the body of an octopus and the head of an ox or sheep. Gyuki is a very proud tailed beast and speaks in a tough, serious manner, using slightly rude language. Before he was sealed in his current host, Killer B, none of his former jinchuriki had been able to control him, and Eight-Tails would go on violent rampages across the Hidden Cloud Village. Killer B, who aspires to be the greatest rapper in the world, essentially harnessed the power of rap to defeat and ultimately befriend Gyuki, and the two have a close relationship as a result.
Gyuki not only has incredible speed and strength, but possesses an analytical mind; he is able to quickly adjust tactics mid-battle and explain complicated jutsu. When Gyuki creates a Tailed Beast Ball, he can supercharge it and make it strong enough to level mountains. Befitting his tentacles, Gyuki can use Ink Creation and even make clones out of ink.
Nine-Tails: Kurama
The most well-known of the tailed beasts is Kurama, the nine-tailed fox (a kitsune, a supernatural fox in Japanese folklore) who was sealed inside Naruto on the night of his birth. Kurama believes that a Bijuu’s strength is connected with how many tails he has, a theory that’s easy to buy into given how strong the Nine-Tails is. Cunning and confident, Kurama is highly intelligent and would frequently try to manipulate Naruto into using his chakra so that he could escape his seal. After suffering centuries of mistreatment at the hands of humans, Kurama had a deep mistrust of all people and wanted revenge for him and all tailed beasts. Despite this, Naruto was able to gain his respect and friendship over time.
Kurama has immense chakra reserves and is incredibly fast. He is known as the most powerful of the tailed beasts, and as a last resort, he can enter Baryon Mode and use his chakra in a way similar to nuclear fusion. Kurama is partial to using Fire Release and can combine fire energy with wind energy to make powerful twisters.
Ten-Tails
The strongest and creepiest tailed beast is the Ten-Tails, a creature formed when Kaguya Otsutsuki merged with the God Tree. Ten-Tails is a godlike being and its sole objective is to consume all chakra, believing it to be rightfully Kaguya’s. All of the tailed beasts are born out of the Sage of Six Paths splitting this beast into nine parts. Thankfully, Ten-Tails can only use its full strength when sealed within a jinchuriki, of which there have been few; known jinchuriki of the beast are the Sage of Six Paths, Obito Uchiha, and Madara Uchiha.
As the Ten-Tails is believed to be chakra’s origin, it has essentially limitless chakra reserves and is capable of destroying entire worlds. Every tailed beast only contains a fraction of its unfathomable power and if allowed to reach its full form, it would be unstoppable.