Tanzō

Cropped black hair sits atop Tanzō's head, and rather than tying his forehead protector at the brow, he fastens it low around his neck so that it shields his chin. His top is a high-collared shirt divided down the middle into black and grey halves, paired with grey trousers. A holster for his shuriken is fixed to his right thigh.

He tends to fret over the wellbeing of his squadmates and grows uneasy at the thought of coming out on the losing end.

On his first run at the Chūnin Exams, Tanzō advances to the second stage with his cell, Team Shibire. While he is away hunting, teammates Shibire and Minoji open their scroll and are knocked out by its contents; he returns to find them unconscious and, unable to wake them, the team is disqualified.

The anime revisits him about two years later, when his squad enters another Chūnin Exams co-sponsored by Sunagakure. For the written stage the teams are separated into rooms, and Tanzō ends up in room three under proctor Shikamaru Nara, who explains that each genin answers one question but a squad must total exactly one hundred points to pass. Unsure how to proceed, he copies rivals in other rooms by shouting his teammates' names. A bonus question asks which member they would give up as a decoy, and leaving it blank turns out to be the right call, qualifying them. A thinning race to Suna follows, admitting only the first thirty teams, and Tanzō's group misses the cut.