Gamabunta

Rivalling a tailed beast in sheer bulk, Gamabunta counts among the most colossal beings ever called to battle, though the story keeps resizing him from forest-height down to something no taller than a large building. Dull rust red covers his hide, brightened by bolder markings around the eyes and across the lips and chest, and an old scar runs over his left eye. Studs line his tongue in rows. He commonly wears a big blue happi vest with a kanji printed on the back, straps an enormous blade at his hip, and draws on a giant pipe.

Surly, hard-headed, and mostly indifferent, Gamabunta takes orders from no one who has not won his regard; only a scarce handful, Jiraiya, Minato, and Naruto among them, ever ride atop his head unquestioned. His speech carries a rough regional dialect salted with gangster slang, yet under the gruffness he is shrewd, mindful of his own limits, and ultimately a force for good. He guards his fellow toads fiercely, once taking on a Shukaku fight he had branded suicide moments earlier simply because he heard it had harmed his children, and he cannot stand being written off as weak. Toward Naruto he behaves almost like a doting father, and he treats the equally raucous Jiraiya as a friend and drinking partner.

In his youth Gamabunta is locked in a standoff against a snake when Jiraiya reverse-summons himself onto Mount Myōboku and flings the serpent aside; it later falls to Bunta to inform the young man that the Great Toad Sage means to grant him a prophecy. He is judged the strongest of the mountain's giant toads, spitting oil for Jiraiya to ignite as the Toad Oil Flame Bullet, loosing blasts of water, and hewing enemies with the huge blade he carries, quick and durable despite his crushing weight. Minato once drops him straight onto the rampaging Nine-Tails, and Bunta pins the beast long enough for the teleport to finish.

Naruto first calls him up while plunging toward what could be his death during the Chūnin Exams, and the toad, doubting a mere child could have managed it, carries the fainted boy off to a hospital. During the raid on Konoha he confronts Gaara's fully unleashed Shukaku, balking at the fight until Gamakichi reveals that Naruto saved his life; the two then fuse through a combination transformation so Bunta can bring Naruto near enough to jolt Gaara awake. Hunting for Tsunade, he clashes with the snake Manda beside Katsuyu, scorching him together with Jiraiya before Tsunade runs the serpent through using Bunta's own blade.

Later, amid Pain's invasion, Gamabunta stands with Gamakichi, Gamaken, Gamahiro, and Fukasaku to defend Konoha. He gulps down Naruto along with the Animal Path so his summoner can finish that enemy in isolation, but the Deva Path's Shinra Tensei finally hurls every toad past the village edge, leaving Bunta wrecked and certain his bones are all shattered. He mends back on Mount Myōboku, swathed in bandages beside the Great Toad Sage as the two look on at the reckoning between Naruto and Nagato.