Kakuzu

- Kakuzu's appearance before joining the Akatsuki. - Kakuzu's appearance after joining the Akatsuki. - Kakuzu's appearance underneath his Akatsuki attire. - Kakuzu's appearance after being reanimated. 1/4 Kakuzu was a very tall (easily standing as the second tallest member of Akatsuki), tan-skinned man with long dark-brown hair. His eyes had an unusual colouring: green irides, no pupils and red sclerae. Noticeably, despite his advanced age, he still appeared as a man well within his prime, retaining a very muscular build. Before joining the Akatsuki, he let his hair hang loose, his sweatband covering his forehead, and a black-coloured mask covering his lower face (only revealing his eyes), where underneath it his mouth was stitched together at the edges (giving him a glasgow smile). He wore: no shirt (revealing all the stitches on his torso), dark-green, ruffed up pants and black shinobi sandals. After joining the Akatsuki, he retained the black mask over his lower face but had several changes. He donned a grey hood which covered his hair. His clothing included the traditional Akatsuki cloak, the Takigakure forehead protector with a scratch in the middle which symbolised that he was no longer loyal to it, and grey pants with matching shinobi sandals. He also wore brown nail polish and a dark green Akatsuki ring with the kanji for "north" (北, hoku) was placed on his left middle finger. The various stitches on his body was the result of the unique technique that he possessed — the Earth Grudge Fear. After being reincarnated by Kabuto Yakushi and restored by a talisman, Kakuzu gained dark grey sclerae, but retained his green, pupil-less irides. He no longer wore his forehead protector, hood or mask, causing his hair to be visible as it had been at the time of his death. He also no longer wore his vest, instead wearing a dark-red cloak with white lining, but still wore four masks on his back. In the anime, during the Power arc, Kakuzu wore a black cloak with red lining in place of the cloak he would later wear.

When under the servitude of Takigakure as an elite ninja, Kakuzu took on a mission to assassinate Hashirama Senju, the First Hokage. This mission, however, ended in failure against the God of Shinobi. Despite the insurmountable danger faced on the mission, what awaited his return to his village was the stigma and harsh punishment associated with the failure of his objective. In response to this treatment, a wrong levied against a shinobi who had put life and limb on the line for his village, Kakuzu came to hold a violent hatred for Takigakure as he escaped from imprisonment. In his flight from the village, Kakuzu killed the village elders, took their hearts, and fled with knowledge of the village's most prized forbidden techniques. He made a living off bounty hunting on the black market, and tearing out the still-beating hearts of powerful shinobi to extend his own lifespan and arsenal. At some time in the past, he apparently encountered the Gold and Silver Brothers and witnessed Kinkaku's jinchūriki transformation. Some time after his defection, while defeating a group of shinobi, he was confronted by Pain and Zetsu, who came to recruit him into the criminal organisation, Akatsuki. Initially uninterested, after being defeated by Pain, he agreed to join. During his early years in Akatsuki, he had at least four partners that he eventually ended up killing due to his short temper, and would come to use their hearts for his Earth Grudge Fear. In the anime, he, Itachi and Konan were tasked with killing an apparent immortal spree killer, who turned out to be Hidan. He managed to destroy one of Kakuzu's hearts. Taking an interest in his abilities, Akatsuki recruited Hidan instead. Kakuzu was eventually paired with Hidan, who took an interest in Kakuzu after thinking of him as a pioneer for immortality, despite a mutual dislike. He was deemed a fitting partner for Kakuzu as he could not be killed because of his own, similar immortality.