Kurama (Naruto)

Kurama is a character from the Naruto anime and manga.

Kurama more commonly known as the Nine-Tails (Kyūbi), is one of the nine tailed beasts. Centuries of being regarded as a mindless monster and sought after as a tool for war caused Kurama to hate humans. After being sealed into Naruto Uzumaki, Kurama attempts to maintain its negative opinions about the world, but with Naruto's insistence on treating it with respect, the fox overturns its hatred and willingly strives to use its power for the world's salvation.

In the AWA fics, Kurama debuted in Chapter 34 of the All Worlds Alliance Stories fic.

Appearance
Kurama is a kitsune with nine long swiping tails. It has red-orange fur with black fur around its eyes that stretches to its ears, red irises with black slits for pupils and the upper-body structure of a human, complete with opposable thumbs on its clawed hands. During the last remaining days of Hagoromo, Kurama was much smaller in size, but still dwarfing the Sage. Its overall appearance was leaner and softer while less-defined in shape with a rounder face, akin to a fox cub. Over time, Kurama's size increased tremendously, roughly equaling the Hokage Rock, and Gamabunta being only the size of Kurama's torso. Its pupil alone is bigger than a tall human. When Minato separated Kurama's Yinchakra and Yang chakra, it was split into two entities, both of which are shrunken more than half its original size, yet still roughly the size of other massive tailed beasts. While the two are basically identical to the other, Yang-Kurama retains its original colouring while Yin-Kurama is darker coloured.

While manifesting its Nine-Tails Chakra Mode, the fox's entire body takes on a golden colour, its whiskers are much thicker, and black circular markings appear on its shoulders, stomach, as well as the front and back of its paws. Black lines also run the length of its spine, arms, legs and tails. Additionally, while Naruto is in Sage Mode, Kurama gains similar thick dark patches circling around its eyes. Upon gaining Naruto's Six Paths Chakra, Kurama's Tailed Beast Mode avatar grew to tremendous proportions, roughly the same size as Sasuke Uchiha's Six Paths Chakra-enhanced Complete Body — Susanoo, with its tails becoming bushier. After both halves of Kurama were reunited, the fox grew even larger than ever before, to the point it was towering over a stump of a God Tree.

Personality
Kurama is a cynical and shrewd individual, along with a somewhat twisted sense of humour. It uses "washi" when referring to itself, which is generally used by older men. Kurama expresses great pride in its power, believing itself to be the strongest of the tailed beasts due to its belief that their strength is determined by their number of tails, which earned Kurama nothing but disapproval from its brethren, especially Shukaku. Conversely, Kurama openly acknowledged the fact that it alone doesn't stand a chance against the Ten-Tails, and from its past experience with Madara, knew full well he is not an opponent to be underestimated, even though he was seemingly pushed into a corner at the time. However, it does easily get annoyed when Naruto uses a power other than its own, claiming its jinchūriki needs no other power than its own. It is also shown that Kurama deeply cares about Hagoromo Ōtsutsuki, viewing him with great respect and even shed tears after the Sage had imparted his final words to them.

Centuries of receiving humanity's negative treatment caused Kurama to develop intense hostility and distrust against them, even going as far as proclaiming itself to be the living embodiment of hatred. Ever since its sealing within Naruto, Kurama plotted to use the young shinobi's dependence on its power to break free from the seal. Eventually, after Naruto managed to best Kurama in combat, the young shinobi then told the fox that he hoped to resolve its hatred someday. Despite audibly reproaching him for making such a claim, Kurama nevertheless had developed a level of respect for Naruto and his determination, even noting that he was different from the humans it had previously encountered, therefore allowing its jinchūriki to utilise the Nine-Tails Chakra Mode without consequence during the early stages of the Fourth Shinobi World War. Later on, as Naruto told Son Gokū of his desire to save the tailed beasts and become friends with Kurama, the fox — having witnessed all of the challenges and endeavours Naruto had in his life — silently told the young shinobi that if he truly intended to help them, he would have to prove it through his actions. When Naruto successfully freed Son Gokū from Obito's control, Kurama finally became convinced of Naruto's word and offered to meld its chakra with his as a coalition, to which Naruto then removed the seal that restrained it and happily acknowledged the fox as his teammate and a member of Konoha.

Within that short space of time, the two had begun to express trust in one another, even to the point where Naruto would allow Kurama to take control of his body without worry, and switch back without hesitation. Kurama later admitted that it had the utmost faith in Naruto being able to defeat Obito and to carry on the legacy Minato and Jiraiya had left him, which also means that it no longer holds a grudge against Minato for sealing it inside of Naruto. Kurama is also shown to be more caring about its comrades now as it put itself in harm's way to save B and Gyūki and even expressed concern for Naruto managing so many chakra cloaks at once. Kurama has also shown a more comical side of itself when it argued with Naruto about each other's stubbornness, teasing Naruto about his first kiss from Sasuke, and later when it nervously lashed out at a joyful Naruto after the tailed beasts were freed from Kaguya Ōtsutsuki while flipping him off. Ultimately, Kurama formed a strong bond with Naruto; even after its Yang half was freed from its seal in Naruto, the fox accepted Hagoromo's request for it to return within Naruto without argument, showing it had grown to like Naruto's companionship, despite refusing to admit it to others. Even more, Kurama has made such peace with the arrangement that it can casually sleep inside Naruto. In the anime, Kurama came to fear Himawari after being incapacitated by a Gentle Fist attack used by her during an incident where Naruto had to shield Boruto from Himawari, who attacked him in anger for damaging her plushy.

Abilities
Kurama is widely known as the strongest of the nine tailed beasts. Hashirama Senju, who could subdue the fox, viewed it as too powerful and dangerous to be left roaming. Even with only half its power, Kurama remained strong enough to defeat five other tailed beasts at the same time. After the Fourth Shinobi World War, Kurama's full power was restored once its two halves reunited inside Naruto, which could defeat Toneri's giant golem and Momoshiki Ōtsutsuki's elemental construct. Kurama later became able to manifest itself outside of Naruto, allowing the two to fight independently and away from each other.

Chakra and Physical Prowess
Even for a tailed beast, Kurama possesses massive reserves of powerful chakra, required to be sealed last into the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path to avoid overloading it. It can also accumulate a huge amount of chakra shortly after it has used up most of its own, enough to be passed on to the entire Allied Shinobi Forces and be felt countries away by non-sensors. Due to Naruto's compatibility with Kurama's chakra, any chakra it possesses is limited for its jinchūriki alone, unless it was moulded to fit the recipient's unique chakra signature. When used by others, the chakra becomes dense enough to be seen as a visible shroud than can further protect the wearer. Using its chakra, Kurama can shroud itself within its Nine-Tails Chakra Mode to increase its power.

Kurama has a great deal of brute force, reputedly able to raise tsunamis and flatten mountains with just a single swipe of a tail. Even with half its strength, it could overpower Obito's controlled tailed beasts, smash Madara's senjutsu-enhanced Susanoo with a tail, and with the Six Paths Chakra, battle Sasuke's Tailed Beast-enhanced Complete Body — Susanoo. Kurama is deceptively quite fast, able to catch Naruto in Sage Mode. The fox is also durable enough to withstand several senjutsu-enhanced attacks, and block a Tailed Beast Ball from the Ten-Tails' initial form.

Ninjutsu
As a tailed beast, Kurama can create a Tailed Beast Ball, and is able to fire it as a beam or rapid blast of spheres. Unlike most tailed beasts, Kurama can supercharge it, creating one many times its own size for much greater power, even on low chakra. One of these was powerful enough to counter a collaborated Tailed Beast Ball from five tailed beasts. At full power, Kurama's Tailed Beast Ball could blast Toneri's giant golem through the moon and into orbit.

Kurama can create destructive shockwaves, capable of dispersing a massive Rasengan, knocking back five tailed beasts at once, and destroying entire city blocks as shown when he used it against Konoha. Even when limited through Naruto's Version 1 and 2 states, they were strong enough to destroy an entire bridge and repel Pain's Shinra Tensei respectively. Kurama also had adept sensor skills, able to detect chakra from great distances and uniquely able to sense negative emotions, as well as natural energy, which it can accumulate and transfer to Naruto. In the anime, it is shown using Wind and Fire Release nature transformations, being able to generate twisters and breathe fire.

Intelligence
Kurama is very cunning and can formulate strategies in the midst of battle. Through Naruto's body, the fox tricked Obito into using Kamui to absorb Kakashi into Kamui's dimension, only for Obito to become vulnerable to Kakashi's attacks as he phased through Naruto's punch. Kurama has also shown remarkable leadership skills, being able to calmly and effectively instruct its allies on how best to engage the Ten-Tails. In the anime, it has enough knowledge of fūinjutsu to determine the natures and weaknesses of the Eight Trigrams Seal that bound it inside Naruto.

Trivia

 * 'Kurama' literally means 'nine lama'. Kishimoto was mainly inspired to create Kurama based on the character with the same name from the manga series Yū Yū Hakusho. The name may also reference Mount Kurama (Kurama-yama), the sacred mountain said to be the home of Sōjōbō, a tengu who taught the arts of swordsmanship to Minamoto no Yoshitsune.
 * A kitsune (fox) is a popular animal yōkai in Japanese folklore, and is very well-known to be a cunning trickster with shape-shifting abilities, to which on occasions, use to transform itself into a beautiful woman in order to seduce men (possibly the inspiration for the Sexy Technique; Naruto even thought Kushina would be Kurama, when they first met). They are also said to be rivals to the tanuki, which created an old Japanese proverb: "A fox and a tanuki matching their cleverness" (kitsune to tanuki no bakashi ai), meaning as much as two sly characters trying to outsmart one another. However, kitsune are known to keep their promises, a trait Naruto has; his nindō is to "never go back on his word". Stories often depict that a kitsune can grow additional tails as it ages, which increases its magical power and abilities; once a kitsune reaches 1,000 years of age and grows its ninth and final tail, its fur turns gold and becomes a tenko (celestial fox), making it equivalent to a kami.
 * In the manga pilot, Kurama was actually Naruto's father, who attacked the ninja village and needed nine shinobi to defeat. Hiruzen was the only survivor and had taken pity on Naruto, who had taken human form, and allowed him to live in the village.