Kakuzu

Kakuzu stands as one of the tallest figures in Akatsuki, a tan, powerfully built man whose vigor hides his true age. His oddest feature is his eyes: green irises with no pupils, set against red sclerae. Grey threads known as the Earth Grudge Fear lace his entire body like the seams of a rag doll, and stitching tugs the corners of his mouth into a permanent gash.

He conceals the lower half of his face behind a black mask, tucks his long dark-brown hair beneath a grey hood, and wears the group's cloak over a Takigakure forehead protector scored with a line to mark his defection, finished off with brown nail polish and the ring bearing the kanji for north. Once Kabuto revives him during the war, he drops the hood and mask, letting his hair show, and turns up in a dark-red cloak while still hauling four masks on his back.

Greed defines Kakuzu. He weighs every goal by the profit in it, dismisses foes who carry no bounty, and flatly calls money the only thing in the world he can trust. That fixation earned him the role of Akatsuki's treasurer, bankrolling his comrades while chasing bounties on the side, often to Hidan's annoyance. The two held the bitterest rivalry in the organisation, forever trading barbs, yet their opposite talents meshed into near-flawless teamwork, aided by the fact that neither could easily be killed.

His rages proved lethal to anyone nearby, which is exactly why an unkillable partner suited him. Even so, he was the cooler head of the pair, quick to obey orders and to warn Hidan against dropping his guard, though his own fury could make him forget the group's larger aims, as when he tried to kill Naruto outright. Underneath the miserly obsession burned a hatred for Takigakure, the village that repaid his loyalty and risk with harsh punishment.

An S-rank talent once chosen to assassinate the First Hokage, Hashirama Senju, Kakuzu lived through that failed mission and, embittered by his village's cruelty, fled after slaughtering its elders, seizing their hearts, and carrying off Takigakure's forbidden techniques. His whole fighting style rests on the Earth Grudge Fear, hundreds of thick grey threads woven through his flesh that hold him together, let him detach and hurl his limbs from a distance, stitch shut nearly any wound, and even repair the bodies of allies.

Those threads grant a borrowed immortality: he rips the still-beating hearts from powerful enemies and folds them into himself, keeping five at once, so a foe must kill him five separate times before he actually dies. Four of the extra hearts ride on his back inside beast-shaped masks, each bound to a different element and able to break loose and unleash fire, lightning, wind, or water on its own. Beyond that, he hardens his skin with Earth Release, moves with sudden speed, overpowers opponents in raw strength and taijutsu, and reasons like a cold pragmatist sharpened by decades of experience. His run ended when Naruto's Wind Release: Rasenshuriken tore apart his remaining hearts and Kakashi's Lightning Cutter dealt the finishing blow; Kabuto later reincarnated him for the Fourth Shinobi World War before his soul was sent back to the afterlife.