Kisame Hoshigaki: The Monster of the Hidden Mist

A blue-skinned giant, a living sword hungry for chakra: Kisame Hoshigaki is one of the most formidable members of the Akatsuki. Nicknamed the "Monster of the Hidden Mist," the partner of Itachi has a chakra reserve worthy of a tailed beast. Profile.

A Rogue Swordsman of Kirigakure

Kisame Hoshigaki belongs to the Hoshigaki clan of Kirigakure, whose every known member displays shark-like traits: pointed teeth and facial contours suggesting gills. He himself sports sharp triangular teeth — a feature shared by most of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist —, three sets of curved markings under his eyes, gills on his shoulders and blue hair styled into a fin. He was the tallest member of the Akatsuki, drawn by Studio Pierrot at 198 cm ever since Part I.

The title of "Monster of the Hidden Mist" falls to him when he joins this elite corps, which also counted Zabuza Momochi and Mangetsu Hozuki among its members; it is with the latter and with Suigetsu that he forms bonds at the time. His defection, for its part, has specific motives: the Land of Water wants him for a plot to overthrow its government and for several assassinations, including that of another country's daimyo. In leaving, he takes Samehada with him and, in the same stroke, deprives the village of one of its seven blades.

Two profile details are worth setting down. The databook credits him with 332 official missions: 3 D-rank, 68 C-rank, 154 B-rank, 78 A-rank and 29 S-rank. His skin tone, next, depends on the medium: the manga draws him pale green — the covers of volumes 41, 50 and 54 show it —, where the anime colors him blue-gray.

Fuguki Suikazan, the Master He Killed

Fuguki Suikazan is a Kirigakure jonin and a member of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen, holder of Samehada before Kisame; his generation of swordsmen is presented as the most powerful in the village's history. He is the one who assigns his subordinate to the Cipher Division (暗号部, Angobu), Kirigakure's secret intelligence squad, with orders to protect his comrades — while hammering home that the codes in their charge are worth far more than the life of any one of them.

When the squad is cornered on a mission by Konoha ninja led by Ibiki Morino, master interrogator, Kisame applies the order to the letter: he slaughters his own teammates so that the codes cannot be extracted under torture. He has nothing but an ordinary katana at the time, and his mastery of it is enough to finish off the entire group.

Later, he discovers that Fuguki was selling information to enemy villages on his own account. He kills him — the corpse is shown impaled by bladed instruments linked to chains — and seizes Samehada, which his master had nonetheless turned against him. The Fourth Mizukage, Yagura, congratulates him on his loyalty to Kirigakure. The irony is complete: the man who preached the primacy of information over human lives was the one selling it off cheap.

The Masked Man and the "World of Truth"

Killing a comrade leaves Kisame disillusioned and leads him to conclude that the whole world is built on lies. His reply to Yagura sums up that shift: having killed a Kirigakure ninja as a Kirigakure ninja leaves him with neither a reason to exist nor a position, friend or enemy, and he says he is aware that his entire life has been nothing but a lie (ch. 507, p. 13).

It is shortly afterward that a masked stranger, who was manipulating Yagura from the shadows and introduced himself as Madara Uchiha, approaches him. Kisame glimpses his Sharingan and demands that he uncover himself; the man then shows him his face. He goes on to lay out his motives and the Eye of the Moon Plan. Kisame remains skeptical at first, but the idea of a world of truth eventually draws him in (ch. 507, pp. 14-15 and 17).

The loop closes after Itachi's death. Tobi comes to meet him and reveals his identity; Kisame recognizes him, calls him "Mizukage" and Madara, and states that he feels much better knowing who was pulling the strings. Tobi then apologizes for having let him — the one he was closest to, no less — be the last member of the Akatsuki to learn the truth.

Samehada, the Living Sword

Samehada ("shark skin") is no ordinary weapon: it is a sentient blade, covered in scales, that shreds flesh instead of cutting it and that detects, absorbs, then transfers an opponent's chakra to its bearer. Its history runs long: the seven blades are handed down from generation to generation, and the Boruto anime traces Samehada back to the era of the First Mizukage. It passes to Fuguki, and Mangetsu Hozuki wielded it for a time in his undertaking to master the seven swords.

Its mechanics are precise. The blade grows in proportion to the chakra it swallows: its scales lengthen until they resemble fins and its mouth, set at the tip, reveals rows of teeth — the bandages wrapped around it serve precisely to curb that growth. It does not, however, pick up ambient chakra: it needs a visible aura or direct contact. Killer Bee notes that it can absorb up to six tails from him at once, and the anime even has it "eat" a Version 2 Tailed Beast Bomb (Bijudama).

It has tastes: it is wild about Killer Bee's chakra, which Kisame says tastes of octopus, and it rejects Fire Release chakra, "far too hot." It also chooses its bearer — spikes shoot out of the handle for anyone it dislikes — and will end up preferring Bee's chakra to its master's. Chojuro describes it as the most terrifying of the seven blades; outside the Uchiha hideout, Suigetsu Hozuki, an old acquaintance from Kirigakure, in fact goes after Kisame to take it from him, until Zetsu breaks up the fight.

🦈 A fan of the Akatsuki members? Find them in our Naruto figures.

The Tailless Tailed Beast

Kisame's chakra reserves stand well above those of the other Akatsuki members, and 30% of them have been compared to Naruto's (ch. 260, p. 16). That superhuman level, combined with Samehada, earns him the nickname "tailless tailed beast" — without his being a jinchuriki for all that. A master of Water Release (Suiton), he reshapes an entire battlefield by pouring great volumes of water onto it, and can merge with his blade into a half-shark form.

He absorbs chakra by simple contact: by gripping Samehada, but also by turning Aoba Yamashiro's paralyzing technique back on itself. Merged with the blade, he heals his wounds, replenishes his reserves, breathes underwater through gills that appear on his neck and slips past sensors. His formula to Killer Bee fits in one sentence: he grows stronger in direct proportion to his opponent's strength, never tires and cannot be defeated (ch. 471, p. 15).

His endurance is measured by what he takes: Killer Bee's Version 2 Lariat, which destroys his entire rib cage, then Might Guy's Daytime Tiger — after which he still has enough strength left to break the chakra-suppressing wood bindings of Yamato. The fourth databook further credits him with Fire Release (Katon) and Wind Release on top of Water Release and Earth Release (Doton), the latter serving him to travel underground, with Samehada's tip sticking out like a fin.

Two Killers of Their Own Kin: The Duo with Itachi

Kisame is paired with Itachi Uchiha precisely because of his past as a killer of his own kin and of traitors: the organization counts on him to keep watch over Itachi, and the two men greet each other with hostility at first. His opening speech sets the tone — sharks hatch inside their mother's belly and devour one another there, killing their brothers the moment they come into the world —, hence the warning he gives him: be wary of him (ch. 508, p. 7).

The duo holds together nonetheless, and Kisame willingly takes second place in it. He acknowledges Itachi as the stronger and the smarter of the two, says he is no match for Jiraiya where Itachi could face him, and acts only after an order or a permission: he obeys without argument when told to capture Kakashi, then to withdraw. His sadism is not for show, though — he suggests cutting off Naruto's legs to carry him away, then his arms.

Macabre humor completes the picture: he nicknames Hidan and Kakuzu the "zombie duo" in reference to their longevity, and the anime goes further by implying that he hated them. In the field, he captures Roshi, jinchuriki of the Four-Tails (Yonbi), without a scratch, and calls himself the best in the organization at bringing a target back alive. Itachi, for his part, describes him as a drifter unable to find his place; the anime shows him saddened on learning of his death.

Three Clashes with Might Guy, Not One Memory

The first encounter takes place on the outskirts of Konoha, where the duo has come to abduct Naruto. Asuma Sarutobi keeps Kisame busy while Itachi fights Kakashi, then Itachi orders his partner to capture Kakashi and to kill Asuma and Kurenai; Might Guy then bursts in and lands a kick to his face. Kakashi falls unconscious and Might Guy carries him to safety; Itachi orders a retreat rather than commit to a large-scale battle, and the two men slip away without fighting, much to Kisame's frustration.

The second plays out during the extraction of Shukaku. Kisame volunteers to hold back Team Guy, and Nagato shapes, through the Shapeshifting Technique, a double of his body that Kisame pilots from a distance. The double turns the desert into a lake, traps Rock Lee, Neji and Tenten in Water Prisons, then pushes Might Guy to open the sixth of the Eight Inner Gates; the Morning Peacock puts an end to it. Kisame will later regret that these doubles had only 30% of the chakra of their originals.

The third takes place on the island in the Land of Lightning. It is Kisame who comes out of the Falls of Truth, and there he runs into Might Guy, who first takes him for his own inner self, then for a pufferfish. Kisame launches the Great Shark Bullet, which grows on the chakra it absorbs, but the Daytime Tiger — pure taijutsu, nothing but air pressure — goes straight through it without slowing down. What wounds him is not the defeat: he has hated Might Guy since their first encounter, and Might Guy, by his own admission bad with faces, has never placed him. After his death, Might Guy will swear to remember that name for the rest of his life.

The Two Decoys and the Real Death

Two distinct devices made people believe he was dead, and they must be told apart. During the Kazekage rescue, what Team Guy brings down is a remote-controlled double, shaped by Nagato's Shapeshifting Technique and holding only 30% of his chakra. During the Five Kage Summit arc, on the other hand, Zetsu will reveal that the body decapitated by the Double Lariat of Killer Bee and the Fourth Raikage was one of his white clones, swapped in for Kisame under cover of the ink with which Bee had darkened the water dome.

His true end comes on the island. Brought back unconscious, he is bound by Yamato while Aoba Yamashiro reads his memory to draw out intelligence on the Akatsuki. When the reading reaches Tobi's face and his promise to be done with the world of lies, Kisame bites his tongue to wake himself up and breaks his bonds. Konoha and Kumogakure try to subdue him; he seals himself inside a Water Prison so that no one can stop him, then summons three sharks that devour him.

His last thoughts go to Itachi and to their first meeting: he dies smiling, convinced that he is not so wretched after all, since he gave his life rather than hand over what he was protecting. Yamato will have trouble believing in a death that noble, which he nonetheless witnessed. Samehada, left with Killer Bee, mourns its master; later, an Itachi brought back by the Edo Tensei (Reanimation Jutsu) understands at a single glance, on seeing the blade in Bee's hands, that his partner is dead.

The Scroll That Outlived Its Bearer

The hiding place was perfect: Kisame claimed that his chakra and Samehada's had become identical from sheer cohabitation, to the point that no sensor could detect him. So it was Killer Bee himself who carried the blade — and its passenger — back to Kumogakure. While Bee half-listens to a tactical meeting preparing for the Fourth Great Ninja War, Kisame takes note of the village's plans and its military strength.

On the island, Naruto eventually senses his hatred inside the sword despite the identical signatures. Discovered and outnumbered, Kisame tries to flee; Samehada abandons him to return to Bee. He reaches the shore, summons a shark and entrusts it with the scroll, then drowns the scene under a thousand devouring sharks so that the messenger can escape. The scroll was booby-trapped as well: those who open it each find themselves locked in a Water Prison with a shark, while another shark leaves with the document.

The scroll did indeed reach Zetsu, and that is what makes this death a victory. It contained the complete organization of the Allied Shinobi Forces as well as the position of Naruto and Killer Bee, which allowed Kabuto Yakushi to set off in pursuit of them. The same information served Tobi in building the strategy meant to draw the jinchuriki out of hiding.

The First Chapter of the Akatsuki Hiden Novel

The novel Akatsuki Hiden: Evil Flowers in Full Bloom, written by Shin Towada and illustrated by Masashi Kishimoto, is the sixth and final volume of the Naruto Hiden series. Its first chapter, "Hypericum Erectum," opens on Itachi and Kisame taking shelter for the night in a cave, on the evening of the anniversary of the Uchiha Clan's fall. Kisame comes to make sure his partner is not thinking of deserting — the very reason, he jokes, that every Akatsuki pair exists —, before adding that he would stand no chance against him anyway, but that he would gladly die by his hand.

A mist then invades the place: hunter-ninja from Kirigakure. Caught in a Water Prison before he can draw, Kisame frees himself with an Exploding Water Shock Wave and kills them all. Two mercenaries take over, Kiiro and Kodaka: the first blinds him under a dark rain, the second riddles him with lightning needles that leave swollen pustules. Kisame realizes from the look of the wounds that he is poisoned and shreds the affected flesh off himself with Samehada, a sight that chills Kodaka. Tsukuyomi , cast by Itachi, puts an end to the assault.

It is his past in the Cipher Division that unravels the affair. The next day, the two men come across a venomous bee carrying a blank sheet of paper; Kisame recognizes the method, saturates the sheet with his chakra and brings out a letter addressed to a family. They deduce that one of the brothers controls the bees in the manner of the Aburame Clan, and that the poison only becomes lethal on the second sting. Since Kisame has already been stung once, Itachi gives up on letting them get away.

Summary Table

FAQ

• Who is Kisame in Naruto?
  An S-rank rogue ninja from Kirigakure, a former member of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist, an Akatsuki member and Itachi's partner.
• What is Samehada?
  A living, sentient sword that absorbs an opponent's chakra to transfer it to its bearer, and that chooses its own master.
• Why is Kisame called a "tailless tailed beast"?
  Because his colossal chakra reserves, combined with Samehada, rival those of a jinchuriki, even though he is not one.
• Did Kisame really die by decapitation?
  No: that first death was a decoy (a clone). The real Kisame was hiding inside Samehada; he will later take his own life by summoning sharks.
• Who was Kisame's partner in the Akatsuki?
  Itachi Uchiha, with whom he formed one of the organization's most feared pairs.

In summary

A brute loyal to his cause more than to any person, Kisame is one of the most physical opponents in Naruto — and proof that a mere sword can steal the show from its bearer.