Jūzō Biwa

Lean and tall, Jūzō stood roughly as high as the blade he carried. He had no eyebrows, folds under his eyes, and a cross-shaped scar on his right cheek, with dark grey hair worn short and spiky, matching grey eyes, and lightly tanned skin. A red grid-like pattern covered his jaw, and bandages wound around his neck and face, hiding his ears, above a mouth of pointed teeth. His usual dress was a snug black sleeveless shirt marked with two thin chest stripes, a striped cloth belt, light trousers, and black arm covers reaching from his hands to his biceps. Once in Akatsuki he added the group's cloak, a Kirigakure headband scored through to mark his severed loyalty, and green-painted nails.

Jūzō earned worldwide notoriety for sheer brutality. Away from the battlefield, the anime shows a more relaxed man who cracked jokes with his comrades and patiently taught newcomers how Akatsuki operated. He obeyed Pain without hesitation and approached each assignment with caution and care, even devising formations to better coordinate with his partner. His loathing for his old village ran deep enough that he refused missions in the Land of Water. A solitary figure with no one to call his own, he left Itachi no parting words as he died, sparing his affection only for his cherished sword, though he did show Itachi some concern by urging him to flee before enemy reinforcements arrived and by asking that each kill the other rather than let their home villages take them alive.

As one of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen, Jūzō ranked among the most powerful shinobi Kirigakure ever produced, a peer of those who could aspire to become Mizukage. He was a gifted swordsman who wielded the Kubikiribōchō, a blade that mends itself from the iron drawn out of its victims' blood, and his savagery painted battlefields crimson and spread his name across the shinobi world. He was also a capable Water Release user, able to form water clones and blanket a field in dense mist. Sometime after the Third Shinobi World War, he and his fellow swordsmen cornered a Konoha squad of Might Guy, Genma Shiranui, and Ebisu, only for Might Duy to open the Eight Gates Released Formation and give his life so the young ninja could escape.

In the anime Jūzō lived through that clash, later deserted, and entered Akatsuki, where Pain paired him with the freshly recruited Itachi Uchiha. The two completed a string of missions before an assignment in the Land of Water drew a band of hunter-nin led by Yagura, the Fourth Mizukage. Jūzō and Itachi cut down most of the pursuers, but Yagura shifted into his Version 2 form and hurled a Tailed Beast Ball. Jūzō tried to turn the blast aside with the Kubikiribōchō and failed, taking a fatal wound. After Itachi brought down the Mizukage, Jūzō mourned dying in that hated land and reached for the blade he called his only true ally. In respect, Itachi set the sword's remains in his hand, and it afterward passed back into Kirigakure's keeping.