Rōshi

Red runs through Rōshi's hair, moustache, and tapering beard. A bulky headpiece sits atop him: a three-pronged, crown-like ridge holds his Iwagakure forehead protector and a ring, while a plate of black armour lies over his cheeks and the nose bridge, the whole assembly modelled after his tailed beast. He wears a long-sleeved magenta kimono top with matching trousers, layered over mesh armour and a snug black suit, plus sandals reaching mid-calf. A brown sash at his waist secures a front breastplate and pouch, a rear plate linked by mesh, and armoured flaps hanging to either side. After walking away from his village he drops both the forehead protector and the heavy plating, keeping just the kimono above a mesh shirt. Earlier, in the Third Shinobi World War, only faint stubble marked his lip.

Son Gokū likened Rōshi's stubbornness to that of Ōnoki, the Third Tsuchikage. Even so, after watching Naruto stand against Tobi and the Six Paths of Pain, and recalling what he knew of the beasts' last gathering with the Six Paths Sage, Rōshi came to think with regret that every jinchūriki might have found the right road had they carried themselves as that youth did. Though he hosted Son for over forty years, he refused to speak the beast's real name, insisting he had not gone soft enough for that. Yet before Son was drawn away and sealed, he confessed he had never actually forgotten it, and the two made their peace.

Rōshi took Son Gokū into himself as a boy, more than forty years ahead of the Fourth Shinobi World War. Come the Third Shinobi World War, he fought alongside Han, another Iwa host, against Team 6; as the two of them each let fly a Tailed Beast Ball, Minato Namikaze whisked his squad away. In time Rōshi left Iwagakure behind to get a firmer grip on the power he carried.

Strong enough that Kisame Hoshigaki refused to take him lightly, Rōshi wielded a curved kunai with skill and, fusing Fire with Earth Release, commanded Lava Release. From his mouth he could hurl a spread of molten stones and wrap himself in burning lava that scorched anything it met, hot enough to sear Naruto's Nine-Tails Chakra Mode without a touch. As Son's host he held a deep reserve of the beast's chakra and could bring it forth whole to fire a Tailed Beast Ball. His hunt ends when Kisame and Itachi Uchiha corner him; leaning on his frailty against Water Release, Kisame wears him down after a hard bout and hauls his body off, where the Four-Tails is torn out and Rōshi dies.

Kabuto Yakushi later drags him back through reincarnation to fight the Allied Shinobi Forces, and Tobi remakes the revived hosts into a personal Six Paths of Pain, each fitted with a Rinnegan and Sharingan, its beast resealed inside, and a chakra receiver driven into the flesh. Trailing after Naruto and Killer B at Tobi's side, Rōshi opens the assault with gouts of molten rock, then raises a first tail. He lands a lava-clad strike that burns Naruto's face, only for Han to block his follow-up. B's sealing hold nearly pins him, but he breaks loose in his Version 2 form and torches the Eight-Tails. Forced at last into full Four-Tails shape, he swallows Naruto whole, yet loses him when the boy multiplies, and a joined counter-strike knocks Rōshi's body aside as Son is pulled into the Outer Path's Demonic Statue. Before that, Rōshi asks Son whether they too had gone astray in life and admits he never forgot its true name, smiling as he wonders aloud if 'Son' would suit. When the reincarnation breaks, his corpse settles in Gyūki's tentacles and his soul goes back to rest.