Tatewaki

Grey eyes sit under deep tear-troughs on a long, high-cheekboned face, and a lengthy scar runs down across the left one. Tall, lean, and middle-aged with fair skin, he binds his wavy black hair into a ponytail, a few strands drifting over his brow beside thick sideburns, and stubble shadows his chin and upper lip. Ordinary days call for plain samurai garb, a muted green robe over beige trousers; battle calls for classic armour, its breastplate marked by two crossed slashes, with several faulds and a single shoulder guard.

He keeps to himself and speaks only when it serves a purpose. The title of samurai is one he has laid down, yet its values still guide him, so he ranks peace above everything and turns from violence wherever he can. His sense of duty runs deep enough that he will trade his life to carry it out, and his keen eye cuts through disguises that slip past everyone else. His feeling for Shū and Chiyo goes far past a bodyguard's role; he would die to win them a chance at escape. Brought back through reincarnation, he is glad the children have grown, yet stays out of sight rather than pain them with the sight of his undead form, and that restraint finally grants him the peace to move on to the Pure Land.

Leaving the Land of Iron behind, Tatewaki drifts into a rōnin's life and rents out his sword as a mercenary. The road brings him to a small country, the Land of This, where he protects its ruler together with the daimyō's daughter, Chiyo. During the nation's yearly eating contest he is stationed over Shū, a kidnapped boy who is the son of a rival daimyō, and he schools the child in swordplay. One morning mid-lesson he notices 'Shū' outperforming his usual self and exposes the boy as a disguise worn by Naruto Uzumaki. The rest of the guards were taken in, but Tatewaki was not; learning that Naruto's team means to bring Shū home, he feels only relief, since the child's wellbeing is his sole concern. Then the Akatsuki's raid on the country breaks the peace.

He implores Naruto to keep Chiyo safe while he tends to his own charge. Back inside the castle he meets Sasori of the Akatsuki, who boasts that the ruler is already dead by his hand. Tatewaki still means to make him answer for it; his skill is enough to shatter several of Sasori's puppets and draw praise from the killer, but the fight leaves him poisoned. Sensing the end, he flings himself into one last strike before he dies. Some time afterward, Kabuto Yakushi takes a DNA sample from the fallen samurai.

During the Fourth Shinobi World War, Kabuto raises him again with the Impure World Reincarnation, and his blade work lets him overwhelm even seasoned swordsmen of the Allied Shinobi Forces. On the war's second day Naruto reaches him, and Tatewaki asks what has become of the two children he once guarded. Told that Shū and Chiyo were carried safely to Shū's own land, that Shū's father took Chiyo in, and that the pair have travelled together ever since, he lets go of his last regrets; the summoning's grip breaks, and he returns to the afterlife.