Zaku Abumi

Zaku has spiky black hair and dark eyes. His beige shirt carries two black stripes and, running down the front, three printings of the kanji for death. The metal plate of his forehead protector attaches to a happuri tucked beneath the cloth, a setup resembling Yamato's, and like his teammates Dosu Kinuta and Kin Tsuchi he wears a snake-patterned scarf.

Zaku brims with overconfidence, especially about the weapons in his arms, and happily spells out his techniques in detail while assuming no one can beat him. That arrogance leaves him blind to an opponent's plan until too late, as Shino Aburame proves. He also blurts out whatever crosses his mind, needling Chōji Akimichi over his weight and boasting to Sasuke about hurting Sakura. He shows flashes of concern for his squad, cushioning Dosu's fall after Lee's attack, yet feels no such loyalty toward Kin, ready to kill her when Ino takes her hostage. Beyond that he is proud of Otogakure, a loyal show-off who bristles at anyone slighting his village.

Like many Oto ninja, Zaku was surgically altered: hollow tubes run the length of his arms and vent through his palms, letting him fire blasts that blend air pressure with ultrasound in varying measures, all steered by his chakra. The design carries a fatal flaw, since a blocked tube traps the force inside and ruptures the arm from within.

At the Chūnin Exams, Team Dosu came to kill Sasuke Uchiha. In the Forest of Death they cornered Sakura, and Zaku beat her bloody after she managed to cut him, then insulted his way into a losing brawl with Chōji. When Sasuke awoke with his curse mark and Zaku boasted of wounding Sakura, the Uchiha dislocated both his arms. Later, matched against Shino in the preliminaries, Zaku attacked despite an injured arm, only to find Shino had packed his tubes with insects. His blast had nowhere to go and detonated inside his arms, blowing his hand off in the manga and ending the fight. During the Konoha Crush, Orochimaru sacrificed Zaku along with Kin to summon the souls of the First and Second Hokage, which cost him his life.