Kiba Inuzuka: The Fierce Ninja Dog of Konoha

Kiba Inuzuka is one of the main supporting characters of the anime series Naruto Shippuden. He is a chunin level shinobi of Konohagakure and a member of the Inuzuka clan, a family of dog-users who have a close bond with their canine companions.

Kiba is partnered with Akamaru, a white furred nin dog who can sense chakra and transform into a giant wolf. Together, they form a formidable duo that specializes in taijutsu and collaboration techniques.

All about Kiba Inuzuka

• Birthdate: July 7
• Sex: Male
• Age: Part I: 12–13/Part II: 16–17
• Height: Part I: 151.2 cm–152.5 cm/Part II: 169.1 cm/Blank Period: 173 cm
• Weight: Part I: 43.3 kg–44.7 kg/Part II: 52.5 kg
• Blood type: B
• Occupation: Dog Breeder/Police Officer
• Affiliation: Konohagakure/Allied Shinobi Forces
• Team: Team 8/Sasuke Recovery Team/Konoha 11
• Partner: Akamaru
• Clan: Inuzuka Clan

Deidara’s Background

At a very young age, Akamaru was given to Kiba by his mother, Tsume, and the two became very close soon afterwards. Before entering the Academy, Kiba and Akamaru played together a great deal, resulting in Tsume getting angry because they weren’t training enough.

During Kiba’s time at the Academy, he often cut class with Akamaru, stating that he wasn’t suited to sit still at a desk, or otherwise getting into trouble, along with Choji Akimichi, Shikamaru Nara, and Naruto Uzumaki.

Together, these four would skip class and go to the practice hall (not to practice). They thought that it was fun to also test the patience of Iruka Umino, their Academy instructor.

One day, Kiba fell asleep during class and, upon waking, saw Naruto attempting to use the Transformation Technique to turn into the Third Hokage for the first time, and failing twice. This caused Kiba to find Naruto incompetent, and he became among those who ridiculed him.

At some time in the past, Kiba knew his father but because of his mother’s attitude, Tsume scared him away, leaving him just with her and his sister Hana Inuzuka. Despite this, Kiba stays in a close relationship with his sister and mother, although he seems to agree that Tsume is rather frightening.

Kiba’s Personality

Kiba is often short-tempered and impulsive (in stark contrast to his teammates Shino and Hinata), and can be prone to making mistakes when he becomes agitated in battle.

He also enjoys combat even when facing particularly strong opponents. He cares deeply for Akamaru, and is willing to do whatever is necessary to protect him.

And, despite his rather gruff attitude, many of Kiba’s actions reveal that he is very close to his older sister, Hana, and remains fiercely loyal to his clan and has great pride in it.

Back at his academy days, Shino always considered Kiba a “problem child”, and wanted to be assigned to a team with anyone but him because of how different their personalities were to each other.

Even after becoming a team, Kiba often argues with Shino over what course of action the group should take, particularly when Shino advises caution.

Kiba often sees himself as the group leader, and becomes offended at any of Shino’s actions that he perceives as challenging his leadership. It seems that there was a contest for leadership of Team 8 during the Chunin Exams, as Kiba said Hinata voted for him.

Despite his disagreements with Shino, he is very close to him, and respects his fighting capabilities. Shino on the other hand came to consider Kiba his best friend, and a partner whom he could trust more than anyone else by his side.

Despite Shino’s own stoic personality, he has shown a rather humorous side of his around Kiba, especially when he occasionally teases Kiba whenever he’s boasting about how he’s a suitable candidate for Hokage.

Kiba has became extremely close to his other teammate, Hinata, and acts rather brotherly toward her, but tends to worry about her, urging her to be strong before the second phase of the exam, and to forfeit rather than face a dangerous opponent.

Kiba also seems to be quite protective of her, although he insists that Hinata is not someone who can’t take care of herself. Kiba is also one of the first few people to get to know about Hinata’s crush on Naruto Uzumaki, and has been quite supportive of that.

Kiba likes to playfully tease Hinata about her affections for Naruto. This usually includes telling her that Naruto is nearby, or just mentioning her reactions to him to other people, much to her embarrassment.

Despite this, they have a very strong friendship. Kiba also seemed to be quite excited over Hinata and Naruto’s wedding, and wanted to be the one, along with Shino and Akamaru, to bring them the best present out of all the people attending their wedding, so they could make Hinata happy.

Kiba dubbed it as the Team 8’s last mission, something that only members of their team would be involved in, who had been through all the happiness and sorrow with each other.

Kiba is also quite close to his sensei and her daughter. Although he gets a little annoyed by Mirai’s habit of mixing up his and Akamaru’s names, calling him and Akamaru “Akakiba” and “Kibamaru” respectively, which is rather weird considering Kiba and Akamaru frequently came to play with Mirai during their walks. Kurenai also seems to act rather playful with Kiba, teasing him about his newly grown goatee and pinching his cheeks.

In the anime, mostly in the filler arcs, Kiba is shown to also get along well with Naruto, despite their arguments. This seems to be proven when it was shown that Kiba, Akamaru, Naruto, Choji, and Shikamaru skipped classes together and play in the park.

Those three seem to be some of the first true friends he made in the village. Although Kiba was rather rude to Naruto during their fight in Chunin exams, Kiba grew to respect him after being defeated, cheering him on during his battle against Neji and even stating that Naruto is not someone to be underestimated, showing more confidence in him than Hinata, who looked rather worried.

They also have somewhat of a rivalry that stems from childhood. He was shown to have become frustrated with Naruto’s growth and is determined to surpass him. He even showed admiration towards Naruto, stating that he wanted to become like him.

Kiba also dreams of becoming the Hokage someday and expressed this desire both during his fight with Naruto during the Chunin Exams as well as during the Fourth Shinobi World War, where he deduced that if he fought and gained a name for himself during the war, it would be a step in the direction of becoming the Hokage, an ideal he mentions again later on. In his Infinite Tsukuyomi, Kiba dreamed he was Hokage and also desired to have a national holiday for all dogs.

Despite all of Kiba’s wildness and impulsiveness, when Kiba sees Tamaki, he is usually left in a love struck stupor where he freezes and is left at a loss for words.

This is then immediately followed by Kiba politely boasting and controlling his wild personality while making connections between the two that usually make no real sense.

His love-struck demeanour is enough to make Akamaru and Ninneko disgusted and Shino speechless (who sees a “dog-boy” and a “cat-girl” romantically involved).

Kiba Inuzuka’s Appearance

Kiba’s personality and fighting style is further complemented by his wild appearance as, while clearly human, he has several physical traits more akin to animals.

Like most of his clan, he has messy brown hair, sharp black eyes with vertical slit-like pupils, pronounced canine teeth, and nails that he can change into claws. He also has the distinctive red fang markings of the Inuzuka clan on his cheeks.

During Part I, Kiba’s attire consisted of dark greyish pants reaching to his calves and a grey, hooded fur-lined coat, with the hood usually placed on his head, over an apparent plate of armour and fishnet undershirt seen in his fight with Sakon and Ukon, with a blue forehead protector and blue sandals.

During Part II, each piece of his outfit, including his forehead protector, switched to a black colour, with his coat being replaced by what looks like a nowadays leather form fitting black jacket, with zips over the chest and sleeves, along with black pants and sandals, also zipped, matching the jacket. He, along with the rest of the Konoha 11, dons the standard Konohagakure shinobi outfit during the Fourth Shinobi World War.

Two years after the war, he has grown a goatee and his hair has gotten a bit longer, although less spiky. He wears the new standard flak jacket underneath a open fur coat, and black fingerless gloves. He wears grey pants reaching his calves and new sandals with a slight difference to his previous ones.

As an adult, Kiba no longer wears his forehead protector. His hair has also gotten longer and is less unkempt. He wears a jacket similar to his genin outfit, with a mesh shirt underneath. He wears grey pants reaching down to his calves and regular shinobi sandals.

Kiba Inuzuka’s Abilities

Kiba’s fighting style revolves around collaboration techniques alongside his companion Akamaru, but he can also perfectly synchronise with his teammates, as demonstrated with Naruto during their fight against Tobi. Due to his senses, as well as his partnership with Akamaru, he was the only genin to notice an Anbu stationed in the Chunin Exams arena.

He also favours using military pills to increase his chakra and that of Akamaru’s, as well as smoke bombs, which robs the enemy of their vision, and due to his enhanced smell, has no problem pinpointing them.

He could also use the smoke bombs to set up a trap, like creating a fake Akamaru that explodes and releases dozens of kunai, as seen during his fight against Ukon. By adulthood, Kiba is regarded as the closest Ninken user to becoming Hokage, with his skills being respected since he was in the Academy.

Ninjutsu

He can use the Shadow Clone Technique, and an advanced version of the Transformation Technique, using them to perform his clan’s advanced techniques. He is also capable of using Earth and Yang Release.

Inuzuka Clan Abilities

Kiba fights and attacks with the ferocity of a beast, utilising his sharp claws and other attributes he gains from his Four Legs Technique. He can also turn Akamaru into an identical clone of himself so they can use the Fang Passing Fang, attacking the target at high speed with excellent coordination.

In dire circumstances, they can transform together into a two-headed wolf, and attack by using the Fang Wolf Fang, which is almost impossible to avoid, let alone block. By adding a shadow clone, they can transform into a three headed wolf and use the more powerful Tail Chasing Fang Fang Rotating Fang.

According to the third databook, Kiba learned how to use the Whirlwind Wolf Fang (旋風狼牙, Senpu Roga) between Part I and Part II. Other than giving him the power to protect someone he cares about, it is unknown what it does or even if it is a weapon or a technique.

In Konoha Hiden, Kiba had developed a new powerful jutsu, which he used to destroy one of the meteorites breaking off from the Moon.

Enhanced Senses

As an Inuzuka, Kiba has enhanced canine related senses, his most powerful trait being his sense of smell, surpassing that of a ninja hound. By concentrating his chakra to his nose, Kiba can increase his sense of smell a thousand fold, allowing him to easily distinguish people by their scent.

It can clearly determine the physical condition of an individual, even from a considerable distance. Naturally, Kiba is the ideal choice to be included in all reconnaissance and tracking missions, as he can actively keep track of targets, identify traps that others would miss, and detect any nearby enemy shinobi.

However, Kiba’s powerful sense of smell can’t detect stuff like a double edged sword, as being exposed to strong odours can incapacitate him. This weakness resulted in his defeat by Naruto during the Chunin Exams after the latter farted in Kiba’s face.

In his two-headed wolf transformation, his revolution speed is so fast that he cannot see anything, but he can target his enemy with his sense of smell after Akamaru uses Dynamic Marking.

Physical Prowess

Because of his clan’s practised fighting style, Kiba has a quick reaction time, honed reflexes, and great physical strength and speed. He practises his clan’s famed “hit-and-run” tactics where he delivers powerful attacks to the opponent, moving at speeds that they can hardly keep up with.

In Part II, during his fight against Tobi, not only was Kiba the only one able to discover where Tobi had teleported to, but fast enough to surprise Tobi and attack him from behind, without anyone noticing.

In the anime, he had shown impressive strength during the Fourth Shinobi World War, being able to take out a disguised White Zetsu clone with only a few blows, despite the latter being extremely durable.

Kiba’s techniques

As a member of the Inuzuka clan, Kiba has inherited their enhanced senses of smell and hearing, as well as their affinity for animals. He can communicate with Akamaru and other dogs, and use them as allies in battle. He can also perform various jutsu that involve his clan’s signature four legged style, such as:

• Beast Human Clone: Kiba creates a clone of himself that resembles Akamaru, or vice versa. They can then switch places to confuse the enemy or attack from different angles.
• Passing Fang: Kiba and Akamaru spin at high speed and charge at the enemy with their fangs, creating a powerful drill-like attack that can pierce through most defenses.
• Fang Rotating Fang: A stronger version of Passing Fang that involves multiple rotations and increased speed.
• Fang Wolf Fang: Kiba and Akamaru combine their chakra and transform into a giant two headed wolf. They then launch a barrage of fang attacks that can shred the enemy to pieces.
• Human Beast Combination Transformation: Double-Headed Wolf: A variation of Fang Wolf Fang that creates a more monstrous and ferocious wolf form with three heads and six legs.
• Human Beast Mixture Transformation – Three Headed Wolf: A further variation of Human Beast Combination Transformation: Double-Headed Wolf that creates an even larger and more powerful wolf form with four heads and eight legs.

In addition to his clan’s techniques, Kiba can also use basic ninja skills such as shurikenjutsu, ninjutsu, taijutsu, and genjutsu. He can also use earth release and yang release to manipulate the terrain or enhance his physical abilities.