Chamū

Enormous and packed with muscle from nose to tail, Chamu is a sabre-toothed tiger armed with heavy fangs and long, cutting claws. Despite his size he stays remarkably agile, clearing huge gaps in a single bound even with riders clinging to his back.

Wary of humans for most of his life, the tiger opens up to almost no one, saving his affection for the monkey Kiki. His outlook shifts after Hikaru saves him, and he repays the boy with fierce devotion, working tirelessly to shield his owner and the friends around him.

The tiger begins as the star turn of a circus, sharing the ring with the monkey Kiki and refusing to warm to anyone else. When a newly wealthy Hikaru claims the whole troupe and its animals as his prize, the boy's first peace offerings, apples held out by hand, are met with roars and a lunge, and Naruto has to step in before he is hurt. The bond forms during a storm at sea: urged by Naruto to make things right, Hikaru risks his own life to reach the tiger, and when both of them and Kiki nearly tumble into the water, a Shadow Clone Technique from Naruto drags the three back aboard. From that moment Chamu accepts him, padding a slow circle around the boy and allowing himself to be stroked.

Later, with Hikaru's father Michiru condemned to die by Shabadaba, the tiger and Kiki insist on joining the rescue. Kakashi works him into a circus act that has him springing through hoops, and when the assassin Ishidate reaches the rooftop to kill Hikaru, snarls from Chamu hold him off until Naruto steps in. Riding the tiger, Hikaru lines up a bowshot that cuts the rope Michiru dangles from, and clones from Naruto break their fall while pinning Ishidate. As the assassin readies his Petrification Gauntlet, Chamu and Kiki clamp him in place so a battered Michiru and a spent Naruto can strike; the Crescent Moon Rasengan lands the finishing blow. Afterward the tiger boards Michiru's boat for the Land of the Moon as Hikaru waves Naruto goodbye.