The Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist: The 7 Legendary Blades

Seven legendary blades passed down from generation to generation, wielded by the finest swordsmen of Kirigakure: meet the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist, including Zabuza and Kisame. The guide.

The Elite of Kirigakure

The Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist are an elite organization of Kirigakure, the Hidden Mist Village, reserved for the finest swordsmen the village produces in each generation. The name states the rule: seven members at most, never more. Each one wields one of the group's seven blades, yoto (妖刀), "mystic blades" said to choose their own wielder, passed down from generation to generation since the era of the First Mizukage (chapter 523, page 5).

The position is anything but honorary. The group is presented as the most formidable force in the village behind the Mizukage himself — a post that traditionally goes, moreover, to the finest swordsman of Kirigakure. The novel School Trip Bloodwind Records (pages 75-76) and episode 26 of Boruto offer the same measure: together, the seven are capable of bringing down an entire country. The book Naruto: One Decade, One Hundred Ninja (page 178) recalls for its part that over the course of their history they have fought deadly battles against the ninja of several nations.

The Seven Blades

The Kubikiribocho (Executioner's Blade) is a giant sword shaped like a butcher's knife: 250 centimeters for 30 kilos according to the Rin no Sho databook (page 261). Its blade carries two cutouts, a circle near the tip used for decapitation (chapter 355, page 11) and a notch lower down for the carrying strap; its very long handle detaches for transport before being reassembled in combat (chapter 347, page 16). It reforms itself by drawing iron from the blood of its victims. The Samehada, for its part, is covered in scales: it shreds instead of cutting and devours the chakra of whoever it touches.

The Kabutowari bears the name of a sword without having its shape: an axe and a hammer joined by a flat strap, said to break any defense. You drive the axe into the opponent's guard, then strike its blunt back with the hammer to sink it like a wedge all the way to the target (chapter 523, pages 10-11). The Nuibari is a giant needle trailing a wire, which pierces several bodies in a single throw and "sews" them into clusters when the wire pulls taut. The Shibuki sets a narrow cutting edge against a platform where a scroll unrolls a strip of explosive tags, which ignites on contact and is replaced after the detonation.

The Kiba is a pair of straight double-edged swords, which their charge of Lightning Release makes, according to chapter 523 (pages 9-10), the sharpest blades ever forged; the anime also has them joined end to end by the handles, into a single two-bladed weapon (episode 157). The Hiramekarei, by contrast, is a single blade with two handles: it stores chakra and releases it through the openings at its tip (chapter 466, page 4), as a hammer or as a long sword that grows larger the fuller the reserve is (chapter 562, page 10). The Boruto movie, however, has it split into two single-handled weapons.

Seven Blades, Seven Kanji Code Names

Each blade carries, in addition to its own name, a kanji classification that serves as a second title. The Kubikiribocho is the danto (断刀), the slicing sword; the Samehada the daito (大刀), the great sword; the Nuibari the choto (長刀), the long sword; the Kiba the raito (雷刀), the lightning sword; the Shibuki the bakuto (爆刀), the explosive sword; the Kabutowari the donto (鈍刀), the blunt sword; and the Hiramekarei the soto (双刀), the twin sword. Seven weapons, seven labels, one per blade.

The literal names are more prosaic: 首斬り包丁 means "decapitating kitchen knife," 兜割 "helmet splitter," 縫い針 "sewing needle," 牙 "fangs," 飛沫 "splash," and 鮫肌 "shark skin." The English adaptations, for their part, have never agreed: the Viz manga renders the Kabutowari as Helmsplitter, the Kiba as Boltsword, the Nuibari as Needle Sword, the Shibuki as Splatter, and the Samehada as Great Blade, while the television version says Blunt Blade, Lightning Blades, Long Blade, and Explosive Blade. There the Kubikiribocho becomes Executioner's Blade, and Guillotine Sword in the card game.

One case stands apart. The Hiramekarei is the only one of the seven whose name is written in katakana, and therefore the only one without a direct kanji translation. Hirame (鮃) and karei (鰈) designate two groups of flatfish that Japanese distinguishes by the side of the body where the eyes sit: on the left for the former, on the right for the latter. The blade takes on their silhouette, wide and flattened. The novel Sasuke Shinden: Book of Sunrise gives it yet another name, Daisoken (大双剣).

The Mist and Silent Killing

Silent Killing is written 無音殺人術 but pronounced the English way, sairento kiringu; the Japanese reading of the same kanji would give Muon Satsujin Jutsu, "soundless killing technique." The principle fits in one sentence: strike the vital points without a sound, generally from behind and with a blade, often by cutting the throat to prevent the slightest cry. Some add a screen that deprives the opponent of sight, mist or sometimes frost. Kakashi gives the clearest definition: the victim dies before even realizing it (chapter 12, page 11).

What ties the method to the group is the degree. The Seven Ninja Swordsmen are held to be its masters, capable of tracking and killing by sound alone (chapter 522, page 8; chapter 523, page 7), which they demonstrate during the Fourth Great Ninja War by operating under the Hiding in Mist Jutsu deployed by Zabuza: as long as the mist holds, the opposing division takes the blows without seeing where they come from. The book Naruto: One Decade, One Hundred Ninja (page 74) makes it, moreover, Zabuza's favorite assassination method.

The consequence goes beyond the seven holders. The novel Shikamaru Hiden argues that the mere existence of this tradition pushes every inhabitant of Kirigakure to work on kenjutsu from childhood: the whole village trains with the sword because seven seats exist. The technique itself is nothing like a clan secret — Haku uses it, so does Kakashi, and the anime even attributes it to Mizuki — but it does belong to that school of ninja weapon handling that Kirigakure has made its specialty.

Legendary Wielders

Each blade has its genealogy. The Kubikiribocho passes from Juzo Biwa to Zabuza Momochi, who makes it his signature weapon, then stays planted near his grave until Suigetsu takes it back three years later. The Samehada goes to Fuguki Suikazan, then to Kisame Hoshigaki, his subordinate, who kills him once he discovers that he was handing confidential information to other villages (chapter 507, pages 11-12), before passing to Killer Bee. Chapter 468 (page 9) holds it to be the most terrifying of the seven blades.

The rest follows the same logic. The Kiba's first known wielder is Ameyuri Ringo, then it passes to Raiga Kurosuki, whose defection takes it out of the village; the two swords end up at the bottom of a ravine in the Land of Rivers before being recovered by Kabuto. Kushimaru Kuriarare holds the Nuibari, Jinin Akebino the Kabutowari, Jinpachi Munashi the Shibuki, and the Hiramekarei, which Mangetsu Hozuki is presumed to have carried, goes to Chojuro. With deaths and desertions, the village thus emptied itself of its own arsenal: at the opening of the Fourth Great Ninja War, the Hiramekarei was the only one of the seven blades still in Kirigakure's possession (chapter 523, page 5).

🗡️ A fan of the swordsmen in Naruto? Find their gear in our collection of Naruto weapons.

Mangetsu, Master of the Seven Blades

Only one member is said to have mastered all seven blades: Mangetsu Hozuki, Suigetsu's older brother, who joined the group and learned to wield each of the blades (chapter 523, page 14). The detail that gives the measure of the feat comes down to the Samehada: the weapon chooses its own wielder and is considered notoriously difficult, yet Mangetsu wielded it like the other six. He is also the one entrusted with transporting the blades, sealed in a scroll until battle.

This sword prodigy was nicknamed the "Second Coming of the Demon" (鬼人の再来, Kijin no Sairai), echoing Zabuza's nickname, the Demon of the Hidden Mist. The title is not his alone: his younger brother Suigetsu carries it as well, with Kisame describing him in chapter 353 (page 16) as a prodigy of the art of killing, one who severs his victims' limbs before decapitating them. Mangetsu's premature death, moreover, discouraged his brother from the dream they shared, joining the Seven together.

The Generation Might Duy Stopped

Some time after the Third Great Ninja War, the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the time corner a Konoha team made up of three genin: Might Guy, Ebisu, and Genma Shiranui. None of the three has the means to stand up to them. It is Might Duy, Guy's father, who steps in: he opens the Eight Gates Released Formation and holds off the seven long enough for the boys to escape, at the cost of his own life (chapter 668, pages 12-13).

The makeup of this generation is only partly known. Fuguki Suikazan carries the Samehada, Jinin Akebino the Kabutowari, Kushimaru Kuriarare the Nuibari, and Juzo Biwa the Kubikiribocho, to whom Raiga Kurosuki and his Kiba are added. Two swordsmen have never been named: the wielder of the Hiramekarei, short, with spiked hair, ninja headband worn as a collar and blade strapped across his back; and the one with the Shibuki, a slender figure, cloth mask leaving only the eyes visible. Neither the manga nor the anime has given them an identity.

The medium changes the story here. The manga establishes only Fuguki's survival; the anime also has Juzo and Raiga survive and shows Duy cutting down four members of the group, Jinin, Kushimaru, and the two anonymous swordsmen (Naruto episode 152; Naruto Shippuden episode 456). The Eight Gates Released Formation he opens that day is a forbidden technique he had taken twenty years to master, and had already passed on to his son.

The Return Through the Edo Tensei

During the Fourth Great Ninja War, the swordsmen of the generation that chapter 523 (pages 1-2) holds to be the strongest in the village's history are brought back by the Edo Tensei: the summoning is performed by Pakura and Gari on the orders of Kabuto (chapter 522, pages 15-17). Mangetsu draws four of the blades from his scroll, and only five swordsmen recover their weapon (chapter 523, page 6): Mangetsu and Fuguki remain unarmed, the Hiramekarei belonging at that point to Chojuro and the Samehada to Killer Bee. Fuguki therefore fights without a blade, hardening his hair into senbon (Shippuden episode 285). Kisame, for his part, is not reanimated.

The group attacks the Third Division under cover of the Hiding in Mist Jutsu deployed by Zabuza, who cuts down enough soldiers to reforge his broken blade with the iron in their blood (chapter 523, page 15). The Kubikiribocho is nevertheless not fully restored until after it wounds Kakashi, immobilized by Haku (chapter 524, page 5). Defeated, Zabuza leaves the weapon to his opponent, who takes it up as his own and runs lightning chakra through it (chapter 559, page 7); the anime, for its part, does not charge the blade (Shippuden episode 321).

It all ends quickly. The seven are sealed as early as the second day of the war (chapter 559, pages 7-9): the manga shows Kakashi cutting through Fuguki's torso with the Kubikiribocho before Sai completes his seal (chapter 559, page 8), while the anime additionally details the sealings of Jinin and Kushimaru (Shippuden episodes 284 and 288). When the Edo Tensei (Reanimation Jutsu) is lifted, their souls return to the Pure Land (chapter 589). After the war, Chojuro, the only swordsman Kirigakure still had, becomes the Sixth Mizukage, successor to Mei Terumi.

After the War: Kirigakure's Vault and the New Seven

A note on the medium is needed: none of what follows belongs to the Naruto manga, it all comes from the Boruto anime series. After the conflict, the six scattered blades return to Kirigakure — the Kubikiribocho taken back from Kakashi, the Samehada held by Killer Bee, the Kiba having passed into the hands of Omoi — and are stored in a locked armory, with the idea of training a new generation there (episode 28). The unit is reestablished, and Chojuro personally chooses Kagura Karatachi to succeed him in the post.

Fifteen years after the war, Shizuma Hoshigaki founds the New Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist (新・忍刀七人衆, Shin Shinobigatana Shichininshu), a band of malcontents determined to overthrow the Sixth Mizukage, to put Kagura in his place, and to bring the village back to the era of the Bloody Mist. He wins Kagura over, uses his key to empty the armory, and distributes the blades: the Samehada for himself, the Kiba for Buntan Kurosuki, Raiga's daughter, the Nuibari for Hebiichigo, the Kabutowari for Kyoho Fuefuki, the Shibuki for Ichirota Oniyuzu, and the Kubikiribocho for Hassaku Onomichi (episodes 28-29).

The revolt is short-lived. Boruto, Sarada, and Chojuro intercept the group in front of the Kirigakure memorial, the affair being deliberately treated as a kids' brawl so the news does not spread; along the way the Samehada takes control of Shizuma, too inexperienced for it, before being separated from him (episode 31). Later, three of the convicted are lent their blades against the Funato Clan in exchange for a reduced sentence (episodes 234-235). Kagura is killed by Funamushi, and the Hiramekarei goes back to Chojuro (episode 245).

Produce Names and Filed Teeth

The group is recognizable by two details of appearance. The teeth filed to points are considered a tradition among members and hopefuls alike, with a single noted exception, Raiga in the anime; and every swordsman of the reanimated generation wears loose bandages around the neck (chapter 523, page 2). The New Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist in Boruto take up the filed teeth but drop the bandages, a continuity detail that separates the imitators from the originals.

The second marker is onomastic: the surnames all derive from a fruit or a vegetable. Suikazan (西瓜山) is a pile of watermelons, Munashi (無梨) a nashi pear tree, Akebino (通草野) a field of akebia, Kuriarare (栗霰) a hail of chestnuts, Biwa (枇杷) the Japanese loquat, Ringo (林檎) the apple, Hoshigaki (干柿) the dried persimmon, Hozuki (鬼灯) the Chinese lantern plant, and Momochi (桃地) peach-tree ground. Chojuro is an exception in the mechanism: it is his given name (長十郎), not his surname, that designates a nashi cultivar. Raiga Kurosuki, for his part, escapes the rule entirely.

Two parallels remain, which must be taken for what they are, parallels and not stated intentions of the author. The formation recalls the Seven Spears of Shizugatake, seven samurai of 1583 lined up behind the daimyo Toyotomi Hideyoshi. And the given name Jinpachi points to Jinpachi Nezu, one of the Sanada Ten Braves, legendary ninja in the service of the daimyo Yukimura Sanada during the Warring States period, the given name Juzo pointing likewise to Kakei Juzo, from the same group.

Summary Table

FAQ

• What are the seven blades of the Swordsmen of the Mist?
  Kubikiribocho (Zabuza), Samehada (Kisame), Kabutowari, Nuibari, Shibuki, Kiba, and Hiramekarei (Chojuro). Each blade is unique and passed down between generations.
• Who mastered all seven blades?
  Mangetsu Hozuki, Suigetsu's older brother: the only one to have wielded all seven blades, nicknamed the "Second Coming of the Demon," in reference to Zabuza.
• What is the difference between the Kiba and the Hiramekarei?
  The Kiba ("the fangs") refers to two twin swords charged with lightning; the Hiramekarei is a single large sword with a double handle that stores chakra. The double grip is often what causes the confusion.
• What becomes of Zabuza's blade after his death?
  The Kubikiribocho, which regenerates by absorbing the iron in blood, is recovered by Suigetsu Hozuki after Zabuza's death in the Land of Waves.
• Do the Swordsmen return during the war?
  Yes: Kabuto reanimates seven of them via the Edo Tensei to face Kakashi's division. Kisame, for his part, is not reanimated.

In summary

From the mists of Kirigakure to the fields of the Fourth Great Ninja War, the Seven Ninja Swordsmen embody the most feared warrior tradition in the ninja world — seven blades, seven legends.