Katazu

Black-eyed, Katazu ties his long, shaggy brown hair back in a ponytail and wears a red band beneath bangs that droop across it. A brown robe cinched by a sash, which holds his sword's scabbard, goes over blue trousers and sandals; bandages bind his wrists, ankles, and belly, while special gloves cover his hands.

Katazu stays composed, keeping his easygoing manner even in the middle of a fight. Weighed down by a sense of guilt, he resolves that shielding his brother from another man's vengeance by shouldering that blame himself is a worthy path to atonement. He trusts Kageki's innocence on his brother's word alone, yet that trust runs so deep it plainly shows in his gaze, which is why Tsukado could not bring himself to cut him down in the usual way.

It starts with a loan: Kageki lends Shikazo money and, once his own child arrives, seeks repayment. Shikazo balks, they grapple, and in the tussle he cracks his skull against a stone with fatal force. Turning to his twin afterward, Kageki hands over his name and slips away with his family, while Katazu deliberately lures Shikazo's avengers onto his own trail. A fine swordsman, he can cut down several foes at once and break their weapons; wielding even a deliberately dull blade, he parries the far heavier, chakra-charged sword of Tsukado and strikes it clean out of his grasp. Charged by his clan with the vendetta, Tsukado loses to him thirty-four times before Kanabun hauls Katazu into a fresh bout to make money off it. Naruto's aid tips things Tsukado's way, but Naruto halts the duel on sensing that Katazu could not have been the killer; Katazu lays the truth bare, Tsukado chooses mercy, and when Kanabun's crew tries to reignite the fight, the two swordsmen and Team 7 drive them from town.