Suigetsu Hōzuki

Slim and of ordinary height, Suigetsu carries straight white hair that reads faintly blue in the anime, along with narrow, almond-cut purple eyes. Sharp teeth line his mouth in the manner of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen, one fang jutting out even when his lips are shut. His Part II look pairs a sleeveless purple top with blue trousers, sandals, and a waist belt hung with water bottles, while a second strap across his chest holds the massive Kubikiribōchō. Because his body can shift into liquid, he reshapes it at will, and once knocked out he slumps into a gelatin-like mass, recovering inside a tank of water where he takes on a fish-like look. In his later years he switches to a dark, high-collared button-up with pale turned-back cuffs and twin belts, one plain and one carrying a pouch on each side.

Detachment colours most of Suigetsu's manner, and he invests himself in only a handful of things, chief among them his blades. Kisame Hoshigaki brands him a prodigy of murder, a killer who likes to strip the limbs from a victim before the beheading, and Suigetsu does carry a genuine appetite for cutting, whether it is a person or a bond like the one between Sasuke and Karin. He curbs the urge at Sasuke's insistence, though he slips in the odd kill when he thinks it will pass unnoticed, reasoning that he will be forgiven. For all the aggression, he warms to his Taka teammates over time and puts his own life on the line to shield them from the Eight-Tails. His running feud with Karin, whom he loves to needle, ranks as his favourite pastime after sword hunting. He can be sharp and observant one moment and openly cowardly the next, shrinking behind Orochimaru when a stronger presence turns killing intent his way, yet he keeps a dry, sarcastic humour even in grim spots. A lasting dread of Orochimaru, his old jailer, sits oddly alongside a willingness to follow the Sannin's orders once the man returns.

Kisame likens Suigetsu to a reincarnation of Zabuza, and he briefly stands against Killer B, a fully realised jinchūriki, in his beast form. As a Hōzuki, his hallmark is the clan's water technique that melts his frame into liquid and reforms it on command, letting him fire off Water Release without hand seals and swell his limbs to boost their strength. The liquid body makes him hard to hit, since ordinary strikes pass straight through, and split-off water can be steered to smother a foe's head or drown them. He merges with existing water to widen his reach and power large-scale techniques, gathers information through rain, and shoots pressurised water bullets from his fingertips with either hand. That same nature leaves him vulnerable to lightning and forces him to keep drinking to stay hydrated, so he totes water bottles everywhere. Trained among the Mist swordsmen, he wields Zabuza's Kubikiribōchō with skill, though he lacks Zabuza's raw muscle and tires under its weight, offsetting this by expanding his arm muscles. He is fast enough to intercept both Killer B and the Fourth Raikage mid-strike, holds his own against Darui with a half-broken blade, and can carry a fight through taijutsu alone. He also has some command of Wind Release.