Giant Drill-Beaked Bird

The bird cuts an odd figure. A pointed, saw-toothed beak in vivid yellow leads the body, which rests on three separate legs beneath its wings. Piercings mark it as Nagato's, including one large chakra receiver punched through the right of its back and a second lodged in the left side of its neck. Later depictions redraw it with four legs and four wings rather than three and two.

Its greatest weapon is sheer velocity: it rockets through the air and channels that momentum into brutal dive-bombs, driving its beak into whatever lies below. The anime widens its arsenal, letting it drop clutches of eggs that burst like bombs and trail lightning-laced dust clouds as it skims low over Konoha. For all its bulk it flies with real grace and agility.

It first appears in the fight between Pain and Jiraiya, sent to tackle Gamaken. Diving on the airborne toad, it drove its beak down only for Gamaken to catch the blow on his shield, after which one of Jiraiya's Fire Release techniques forced it away. During Pain's assault it returns to strike at Naruto in the wake of his perfected Rasenshuriken. In the Fourth Shinobi World War the revived Nagato summons it beside the Giant Multi-Headed Dog as a mount, and Itachi climbs atop its head with him. Once Itachi shakes off Kabuto's control, he turns Amaterasu on both bird and master, crippling the pair. Its trio of legs recalls the three-legged crow Yatagarasu of Amaterasu, the sun goddess, an irony given what ends it.