Kokuo, the Five-Tails: The Five-Tailed Beast in Naruto

A white horse with a dolphin's head — the strangest silhouette among the nine tailed beasts: meet Kokuo, the Five-Tailed Beast, and his jinchuriki Han. Profile.

A Horse with a Dolphin's Head

Kokuo, also called the Gobi ("Five-Tails"), is one of the nine tailed beasts. His form is startling: a large white horse body , massive, topped by a dolphin's head — a crossbreed Kishimoto wanted. His head bears five horns (two long, three short) with tawny tips, beneath blue-green eyes.

Han, the Jinchuriki of Iwagakure

Kokuo's last host was Han, a shinobi from Iwagakure, the Hidden Stone Village. Tall and silent, he was known for his steam-based fighting style.

The Steam Armor

The Boil Release (Futton) is Kokuo's power, not his host's. By blending water chakra and fire chakra, the beast brings his own chakra to a boil and produces steam.

This is the basis of the steam ninjutsu, which grant overwhelming physical strength to the beast as much as to the one who houses him. The armor with its back-mounted furnace and the pressure adjustment, for their part, belong to the fighting style of Han.

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One of the Nine Tailed Beasts

Like all tailed beasts, Kokuo was born from the division of the Ten-Tails' chakra (the Ten-Tails) by Hagoromo, the Sage of the Six Paths, who named each beast. Later, the beasts were shared out among the villages; that is how the Five-Tails — neighbor of the Four-Tails (Yonbi) and the Six-Tails (Rokubi) — fell to Iwagakure. Like every tailed beast, he can concentrate his chakra into a Bijudama, the tailed beast bomb.

Captured, Then Reanimated

Extracted from his host by the Akatsuki, Kokuo is sealed inside the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path (Gedo Mazo), the vessel where the organization gathers the captured tailed beasts. He joins the other tailed beasts there as the captures go on.

The statue then becomes the reconstituted Ten-Tails , and Kokuo disappears inside it. He only comes back out at the very end of the conflict, free for the first time in generations. His host's own path, meanwhile, is told over on Han.

The Five-Tails' Own Strength

Kokuo does more than supply steam. His physical strength is considerable, and he fights with his horns: his charge wounded Gyuki, the Eight-Tails, and sent him flying a good distance.

Like every tailed beast, he has a colossal reserve of chakra. On top of that, he possesses strong healing abilities, capable of closing wounds within seconds, on himself as well as on others. And he is effectively immortal: once killed, he is eventually reborn in a younger form.

His willpower is his most remarkable trait. During the Fourth Great Ninja War, he was the only one of the nine beasts to break Tobi's control, briefly, and turn against him. Chains immediately brought him back into obedience.

The rest of the time, Kokuo says little. He refers to himself with an old-fashioned "watakushi" that makes him very polite, and he takes badly to being reduced to a puppet. Once the war was over, he chose to withdraw into the forests.

Summary Table

FAQ

• What does Kokuo, the Five-Tailed Beast, look like?
  A large white horse with a massive body topped by a dolphin's head — a horse-dolphin crossbreed Kishimoto wanted — fitted with five horns.
• Who is the jinchuriki of the Five-Tails?
  Han, a shinobi from Iwagakure (the Hidden Stone Village), famous for his steam techniques.
• What is Han's Steam Armor?
  Armor with a back-mounted furnace that harnesses Futton (Boil Release, blending Fire Release and Water Release): by adjusting the steam pressure, Han multiplied his physical strength.
• How did Han die?
  Captured and killed by the Akatsuki before the Fourth Great Ninja War; the exact circumstances are not established. He is then reanimated by Kabuto through Edo Tensei.
• Where does the name "Kokuo" come from?
  The names of the nine tailed beasts are revealed late, during the Fourth Great Ninja War: "Gobi" refers to the number of tails, "Kokuo" is his given name.

In summary

Understated in the saga but striking in shape, Kokuo completes the tailed beast bestiary — a steam horse-dolphin in the silent service of Iwagakure.