Matatabi

Matatabi is two-tailed, like a nekomata, and is completely engulfed in flames, like a Kasha (though it's flames are an animated cobalt blue and black). It also has heterochromatic eyes, the right being yellow and the left being green, similar to an odd-eyed cat without pupils. When forced to transform by Tobi, Matatabi increased in size compared to when Yugito unleashed it. During the last remaining days of the Sage of Six Paths' life, Matatabi was a young flaming kitten much smaller than its present-day self, but was still much larger than the Sage.

Matatabi and the tailed beasts first came into being in the waning days of Hagoromo Ōtsutsuki, who used his Creation of All Things Technique to divide the Ten-Tails' chakra into nine separate bodies and giving each a name. Some time after being created, the Sage explained to the young tailed beasts that a link existed between them despite their separation. He also foretold of a day when they would be brought together again - though not as they were - and that at that time someone would emerge to show them what true power is. In the anime, before his death, Hagoromo sent Matatabi to live in a temple built for the purpose of protecting it in a canebrake region. Over time, many people came to believe that Matatabi, like Shukaku, was once a human that turned into a living ghost (生霊, ikiryō). At some point after the creation of Konohagakure, Hashirama Senju captured eight of the tailed beasts and sold Matatabi and Gyūki to Kumogakure at the Five Kage Summit, as a sign of friendship, peace, and to ensure a balance of power amongst their new villages. That peace didn't last, and the First Shinobi World War started, In a cavern behind the Falls of Truth, where jinchūriki learn to control their tailed beasts' power, there are wall murals of Matatabi and Gyūki, which indicates how long they were associated with the Land of Lightning. The tailed beast would end up being sealed within Yugito Nii when she was two years old. She was placed into a detestable training programme in order to learn to control Matatabi's power. In the anime, Yugito agreed to have Nekobaa collect Matatabi's paw print for the Paw Encyclopaedia.