Yagura, the Fourth Mizukage of the Hidden Mist

A puppet Mizukage, whose terror concealed a manipulator: meet Yagura Karatachi, the Fourth Mizukage of the Hidden Mist, jinchuriki of Isobu. Here is his profile.

The Fourth Mizukage

Yagura is the Fourth Mizukage of Kirigakure and the jinchuriki of Isobu, the three-tailed demon. He does not inherit the post: he is elected as the strongest shinobi of his village. Having mastered his beast very young, he becomes the third known individual to fully control a tailed beast — the third, and not the first: only four jinchuriki reach that level, along with Minato, Killer Bee and Naruto.

Databook 4 lists him at 143 cm and 38.8 kg; he appears in chapter 458 of the manga and in episode 200 of Shippuden. Those 143 cm make him the shortest known Mizukage, and not the shortest of all the Kage: Onoki is listed at 130 cm. Despite those youthful features, he was a grown man. The anime adds that the islands of the Land of Water were unified under his authority.

From the Kirigakure Academy to the sealing of Isobu

The Boruto anime shows him undergoing, as a child, the graduation ritual of the Kirigakure Academy, where students had to kill one another to pass. The novel Kakashi Hiden specifies that only part of the population was subjected to it: the families annexed by Kirigakure, or the lowest caste depending on the source. Either way, his presence points to a conquered or lower-ranking lineage.

Isobu had a long history in Kirigakure: Hashirama Senju captured eight of the nine tailed beasts and redistributed them at the very first Kage summit, where the village, represented by the First Mizukage Byakuren, received Isobu and Saiken. Decades later, manipulated by Madara, Kirigakure sealed the beast inside Rin Nohara. Rin died with the tailed beast inside her: Isobu is the first known tailed beast to die and then come back. It was after that resurrection that he was resealed inside the young Yagura.

Manipulated by Obito

During his reign, Yagura was in fact held by a Sharingan genjutsu cast by Obito, hidden behind the identity of "Madara." That distinction is the most common mistake about the character: the Mizukage's puppeteer is Obito, while the plot that made Rin the jinchuriki of Isobu is indeed attributed to Madara, at an earlier time.

The motive comes from a Boruto novel: Obito was diverting money, information and resources from Kirigakure to the benefit of the Akatsuki, the terror serving to mask those withdrawals. The missing link appears in chapter 507, when Yagura congratulates Kisame Hoshigaki for killing his superior Fuguki Suikazan: it is immediately after that scene that "Madara" reveals himself to Kisame and lays out the Eye of the Moon Plan. Neither the date of the takeover nor its duration is ever specified.

The Bloody Mist and Zabuza's coup

The reign known as the Bloody Mist covers specific facts: extortion of the weak, zero tolerance for dissent, corruption among the leadership and a race for power. Its heaviest consequence is a hemorrhage of defections: several of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist leave the village, like Utakata, the jinchuriki of Saiken. Kirigakure lost six of its seven blades there and had only Hiramekarei left by the time of the Fourth Great Ninja War.

The deadly graduation ritual, for its part, is not an invention of his tyranny: it predated his term and was abandoned after Zabuza Momochi single-handedly killed more than a hundred students. Zabuza's coup was no more a solitary act: he had gathered supporters, and the attempt failed because one of his own betrayed him. He fled with Kubikiribocho and entered Gato's service.

The club, the Water Mirror and the Coral Fist

Databook 4 names as his favorite weapon a club taller than he is, with hooks at both ends. It is a bludgeon, never a blade: Kubikiribocho belongs to Zabuza. The name "Claw Club" comes from a video game, not from the databook.

His Water Release (Suiton) – Water Mirror is classed as a Hiden jutsu: a wide circular sheet of water reflects the attackers, and the club is used to hook the mirror and swing it 90°, which makes the reflections real. Those copies replay the received technique exactly: this is not a simple reflection of jutsu. The Coral Fist, the official French name even though the Japanese literally says "palm," grows coral, in transformed state, until the target is immobilized. His Wind Release affinity, for its part, exists only in the anime, like the fight in episode 456 of Shippuden, where he joins a hunter-nin unit decimated by Itachi.

⚔️ Did the hooked club leave an impression? Discover our selection of Naruto weapons.

The end of the bloody era

At the Five Kage Summit, and despite the objections of Ao — the same veteran who would later go over to Kara —, Mei Terumi publicly admits that many in Kirigakure believe her predecessor was manipulated. Ao states that he saw through the genjutsu thanks to his Byakugan — an eye taken from a Hyuga he defeated during the Third Great Ninja War.

Kirigakure has nevertheless never identified the manipulator. As for Yagura's death, canon only says that the dispelling of the genjutsu "had a fatal effect shortly afterward": exhaustion and execution alike are reconstructions, and Ao did not kill him. Mei Terumi succeeds him, but does not erase the bloody era with a single gesture: she inherits a burden and reforms over years. It is only fifteen years after the war, under the Sixth Mizukage Chojuro, that Kirigakure becomes prosperous again and recovers its blades.

🌫️ A fan of the Hidden Mist ninja? Find them in our Naruto figures.

Reanimated for the war

Reanimated by Kabuto's Edo Tensei (Reanimation Jutsu), Yagura becomes one of the six customized Pain bodies used by Obito: Sharingan in the right eye, Rinnegan in the left eye, tailed beast resealed inside him and a chakra receiver hidden in his chest. Not to be confused with Nagato's Six Paths of Pain: Obito does not use the Six Paths Techniques on them.

The Water Mirror first turns the assault back, a tail manifests, then the Octopus Hold of Killer Bee pins him down; he pulls free in Version 2, plants a Coral Fist in Naruto's back and transforms into the Three-Tails on Obito's orders.

In the shared consciousness of the tailed beasts, however, he is the one who welcomes and thanks Naruto on behalf of all the jinchuriki, before losing his temper because Naruto, in tears, takes him for a child who died too young: "I'm an adult too!" Touchy and talkative, he waves goodbye to Naruto and Bee when the Edo Tensei is undone.

A legacy Kirigakure has never rehabilitated

After Kaguya's sealing, Yagura is summoned from the Pure Land by Hagoromo, along with the other deceased Kage, to bring back Team 7, Madara and the tailed beasts. Isobu, for his part, comes back to life once more but is not taken back in by Kirigakure: he lives free in the wild and will only be captured much later, by Deidara and Tobi. The Akatsuki therefore never extracted the beast from Yagura's body.

He had a child before he died, never named or shown, the parent of his grandson Kagura Karatachi — an anime and novel character, not a manga one, ostracized because of his ancestry and killed during the Funato arc. According to the novel Boruto, Yagura's name alone still frightens people: everything associated with him is discredited and his descendants stopped bearing his family name.

Summary Table

FAQ

• Who really controlled Yagura and Kirigakure's bloody era?
  Obito, hidden behind the identity of "Madara," kept Yagura under a Sharingan genjutsu and dictated his decisions behind the scenes. Kirigakure's bloody reputation partly predates him.
• Which tailed beast did Yagura seal?
  Isobu, the three-tailed demon, whose second host he was after Rin Nohara. Having mastered its chakra very young, he ranks among the rare "perfect jinchuriki."
• How was Yagura freed, and why does he die?
  Ao's Byakugan dispelled Obito's genjutsu, but the prolonged manipulation had worn out his body: Yagura died shortly afterward. The manga remains vague on this point.
• Who put an end to the Hidden Mist's bloody era?
  Mei Terumi, who succeeded him as Fifth Mizukage, broke with the brutal practices and reopened Kirigakure to the world.
• Does Yagura reappear during the Fourth Great Ninja War?
  Yes: reanimated by Kabuto's Edo Tensei and then re-controlled by Obito, he faces Naruto and Killer Bee with his water and coral techniques.

In summary

A tyrant in spite of himself, Yagura reveals the true face of evil in Naruto: an invisible hand pulling the strings, turning even a Kage into a puppet.