History
The Tailed Beasts have been around before the First Great Shinobi War. Because of their immense power, the shinobi from each nation tried to use the Tailed Beasts as military weapons during the Shinobi Wars. After the Wars, Hashirama Senju, the First Hokage, managed to capture and control them with his Mokuton techniques, and used them as a peace treaty to the other great shinobi nations, in order to stabilize the balance of power between them. After his death, however, the shinobi nations couldn't control these giant demons themselves and they began to run wild. Their attempts to capture them and harness their immense power failed as no nation could control such power. Instead, the nations moved to capture the Tailed Beasts and seal them within humans, which they were called Jinchūriki. This method worked and by the time period of the series, the only known Tailed Beast to have not been sealed into a human was the Three-Tails.
[edit] Jinchūriki
Main article: Jinchūriki The Jinchūriki (人柱力), or hosts, exhibit extraordinary powers, and in some cases are stronger than their Tailed Beasts for the very fact that they are able to control their power.
In addition, if a Tailed Beast goes too long without a host, it can lose its intelligence and become nothing more than a giant animal.
[edit] Known Tailed Beasts
[edit] One-Tailed Shukaku
Main article: One-Tailed Shukaku The One-Tailed Shukaku (一尾の守鶴) or the Shukaku of the Sand (砂の守鶴) is the weakest of the Tailed Beasts. It is said to be a corrupted spirit of a Sand monk from Sunagakure that turned into a demon. It was originally sealed inside a teakettle and then placed inside its first host. It was sealed inside Gaara by Chiyo on the orders of Gaara's father, the Fourth Kazekage, by using Gaara's mother as the sacrifice, but only after being removed from a second host.
[edit] Two-Tailed Demon Cat
Main article: Two-Tailed Demon Cat The Two-Tailed Demon Cat (ニ尾の猫俣) is a fire-breathing, flaming nekomata sealed within Yugito Nii of Kumogakure, the beast was said to be a spirit of vegeance.
[edit] Three-Tailed Demon Tortoise
Main article: Three-Tailed Beast The Three-Tails (三尾) is a gigantic, turtle-like demon that Akatsuki assigns Tobi (with the help of Deidara) to capture.
[edit] Four-Tails
Main article: Four-Tailed Beast The Four-Tailed Beast was sealed within an elderly man of unknown origin who was eventually captured by Kisame Hoshigaki.
[edit] Eight-Tails
Main article: Eight-Tailed Beast The Eight-Tailed Beast is currently one of the two remaining Tailed Beasts that were not extracted by Akatsuki, the other one being the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox.
[edit] Nine-Tailed Demon Fox
Main article: Nine-Tailed Demon Fox The Nine-Tailed Demon Fox (九尾の妖狐) is the most powerful of the Tailed Beasts; a single swipe of one of its nine tails can raise tsunamis and flatten mountains. After the demon fox attacked Konohagakure, Minato Namikaze, the Fourth Hokage, sealed it into his newborn son, Naruto Uzumaki, by using the Dead Demon Consuming Seal, sacrificing his own life to do so.
[edit] Legend of the Tailed Beasts
According to some fans, the "Legend of the Tailed Beasts" is an epic story from Japanese folklore which Naruto author Masashi Kishimoto draws from to create the tailed beasts in his work. However it is an example of internet-based fakelore which originated on Chinese websites, some suspect this chinese site.[1]
The veracity of the legend breaks when it is cross-referenced with non-fandom sources on Japanese folklore. For example, the isonade, which is held to be the three-tailed beast in this account, is in fact equipped with only one large, hook-covered tail, and the "houkou" which is actually a Chinese creature called penghou, named as the five-tailed beast, has no tail at all. The badger was said to be the lord of all these beasts in the original legend, and Naruto fans have claimed certain Bijuu to be a badger instead of it's true form which was a tanuki for Ichibi no Shukaku and a bat for Shichibi no Makumore)
Additionally the author of the story admitted it was not a true legend, unfortunately it has gone largely unnoticed by most fans of the story.[2]
