Some Notes on Takigakure: Part Two
So, my information ended up requiring a splitting into two posts due to the amount of images involved. Part one will be linked under the cut here, but this post was written under the assumption that you read the first post preceding it - so heads up, there.
To reiterate from part one, the main sources we have (outside manga material) on Takigakure and the country it's in are:
Of course, the various fanbooks databooks
Naruto: Mission: Protect The Waterfall Village! (novel)
Mission: Protect the Waterfall Village! (OVA, based on the novel)
Episode 198 of the original Naruto series (part of a filler arc)
In Naruto's Footsteps: The Friends' Paths (second chuunin exams filler arc from shippuden)
Iruka's Decision (shippuden filler episode 178)
In the first post, we covered the canon material in the manga and anime, as well as the various fanbooks and databooks. Here, we'll be continuing from where Part One left off - starting with the novel.
Naruto: Mission: Protect The Waterfall Village! (novel)
So the novel is an interesting beast, in that on the one hand it gives us the most detail we've ever had as to what Takigakure actually looks like, outside of the OVA based on it. However, the prose is also god awful, it has to be said. But like, in a way that is incredibly hilarious:
"Ready or not, here we come!" the Narutos yelled and, without further ado, beat the heck out of the enemy.
The whole novel is just. Is just like this. Anyway, if taken at least in some respects as canon, this filler material has some interesting material in it.
As far as where it's meant to be placed in the timeline though, it's before the Sasuke Retrieval arc, and after the Search for Tsunade, and so takes place after the Chuunin Exams arc as well. This means there are some elements that make it incongruous with canon though - in the canon, Takigakure was able to send at least six genin to participate in those exams, 12 if you go by the anime. And yet, the novel states that at this point in time there are only two ninjas left in the village specifically:
Ninja in the Hidden Waterfall had always been in short supply; now their ranks dwindled with each new battle. The few survivors that remained had been wounded beyond recovery. Now there were only two ninja left in the village: Senji, who had already retired, and Shibuki, who didn't really want to be one.
This just doesn't match up, especially when you take into consideration that you would need at least two active jounin to be travelling with them, four if you go by the anime's number of genin teams. So on that count, things are already not adding up.
And of course, there's the big Fu sized elephant in the room, which is another result of the writing as we go thing Naruto has going for it - at this point in the series she doesn't exist yet lmao.
Setting that aside though, the order of how I'll cover what is shown in the contents of this novel will be as follows:
Shibuki, and other Characters
Jutsu and Summons of Takigakure
The Natural Features of Takigakure
The Hero's Water and its Effects
ᨒ Shibuki, and other Characters ᨒ
We'll delve into Shibuki a bit more here, as he's the most prominent Takigakure character within this novel. This novel sets up a history of three recent leaders in Takigakure's history at the time it is set. They go in this order, essentially:
Senji
Hisen
Shibuki
Senji actually represents a divergence between the OVA based on this novel, since Senji is not included in that adaptation. Senji however was in charge of Takigakure before we must assume stepping down in his old age for Hisen to take charge, while still being on call as an aide essentially.
Hisen however dies fending off enemy shinobi attacking the village, leaving behind his only son Shibuki as his sole surviving heir. Senji in the novel takes on the aide role to Shibuki as well - again though, he is missing from this role in the anime as he does not appear.
We don't really get Shibuki's age, although he's characterized as on the younger side at this point in the novel. He also clearly has no interest being in charge of the village, interestingly enough:
"What are you saying, Lord Shibuki? Your father is dead. Now you must lead the village and protect the Hero Water!" "Who decided that?" Shibuki snapped. "It's not a question of deciding. You are Lord Hisen's son. From now on, you are Lord Shibuki -" "But I don't care about that stuff!" Shibuki spat out.
"Why me?" the young man wailed. "You know all about the village, Senji! You should be the leader!" Before he could stop himself, the old man reached out and slapped his face. Stunned Shibuki put his hand on his cheek, which had turned dark red like an adzuki bean. The two gaped at each other for a moment. Then Shibuki ran away, pushing through the crowd of villagers who were streaming out of the Holy Tree.
For context these excerpts are right after his father Hisen died, his corpse is literally right there. Shibuki had to watch his father die while hiding in the village's Holy Tree with all the others.
The novel also states that the events we see in the rest of it takes place about six months after the death of his father.
Six months after his father died, Shibuki visited the Hidden Leaf Village. The visit itself wasn't a big deal, just a courtesy call between allies. But when Shibuki asked for a special favor, his story took a different turn.
The novel you'll notice also goes by the logic that Takigakure and Konohagakure are allies at this point in time.
To conjecture further on his age, we do get more description of him that could point to reasonable guesses, as this is how the novel describes him when he is being escorted by Kakashi and company:
Shibuki, the young man who had hired them, walked next to the sensei. He was as tall as Kakashi and had dark hair like Sasuke, but there the similarities ended. Though he was the leader of the Hidden Waterfall Village, Shibuki was not a powerful ninja. Truth be told, he was actually a bit of a wuss.
They use the phrase 'young man' and state he is as tall as Kakashi at this point in time. Around this point in the series, Kakashi is about 26 years old, if that's anything. Shibuki definitely strikes me as younger though at this point at least, but he definitely also appears much older than the genin team Kakashi leads who are around 12-13 years old at this point in time too.
As far as how he is characterized, at this point in the series he is shown to be quite cowardly and constantly on edge. By the time we see him again in Fu's chuunin exam filler arc he's become a much more mellowed out character, but we definitely aren't quite there yet. As stated before he's also characterized by his complete lack of interest in leading the village. The on we see him try to push him the most visibly into this role is Senji in the novelization:
Just then a loud voice boomed out nearby. "You're back, Lord Shibuki? Why didn't you tell me?" Everybody turned to look, even Sasuke. An old man with long white hair shuffled towards Shibuki, gasping for breath with his every faltering step. Shibuki immediately bolted away, but he didn't get far. Soon the old man, whose name was Senki, was clinging to Shibuki's back. "You can't leave now, Lord Shibuki!" he cried desperately. "As the village leader of Hidden Waterfall, you must -" "Shut up, Senji!" Shibuki snapped, wriggling away from him. Before the old man could protest any further, Shibuki quickly made his escape.
In the OVA, this emphasis on recognizing him as the leader is placed more on the children of the village, although this same recognition of the children is still existent within the novel as well. Despite his complete lack of interest and apparent cowardice, the villagers do not appear to treat him badly for it overall - if anything it's the opposite:
"Why do you keep defending him?" Naruto wailed. "We feel sorry for Lord Shibuki," Senji patiently explained. "He may be cowardly, but he's also very kind. Besides, he never wanted to lead or village. He just inherited the post from his father." "Yeah, yeah. He's still a big wuss," Naruto huffed. "Please, Lord Shibuki suffers enough. That's why we leave him alone."
So, this has a lot of implications for Takigakure - one, the post of village leader appears to be hereditary, something passed down from parent to child. This deviates from how Kage are chosen somewhat; a Kage can appoint whoever they want to become their successor to the position, which must pass approval by the Daimyo. And if they are unable to before dying, whoever is chosen next goes through a similar process, but with the village elders making the choice instead. Generally Kage are meant to be the most powerful ninja the village has to offer, although a lot of nepotism tends to go into the selection. Relationships to the previous Kage still tend to be key. With the village leadership in Takigakure, in the novels the relative power of the leader doesn't seem to be as important to them. Shibuki at least appears to be capable of fighting when push comes to shove though in both the novel and OVA, which will be discussed when we get to the jutsu and summons utilized during the storyline here.
Now if we take into account what is more solid canon to the series - the village elders that Kakuzu killed, it is notable that all that is listed is the village elders as far as his kill targets go. If there was a solid leader role at this point in time, whoever had it would have likely also been killed by Kakuzu. If you consider the organization of the village as proposed by this novel canon, as well as what we see in Kakuzu's databook entry, we can maybe extrapolate a few things. The first of course being, at least in the warring states period it is possible Takigakure had no sole leadership position and was instead ruled by a council of village elders instead. It may be that the position came into fruition after Kakuzu's defection instead - now whether this hereditary line of power came from the families of one of these slain village elders, we can't say for sure. It very well could have been an unrelated family who seized power after those events. Regardless, it's something interesting to consider as far as worldbuilding goes.
Now one of the main driving factors that moves this novel's plot is the fact that the enemy ninja currently invading are led by a man named Suien, who is a former ninja that defected from Takigakure himself. His relation to Shibuki is that he was his former teacher.
"Well, Shibuki! You used to be my student. Let's see how you've grown since then..."
The fact that he is a former ninja of Takigakure also comes into play, as he is able to gain access to the village, leading his band of other missing ninja inside. He knows the layout of the village as well as anybody else, which is what adds to his danger here, compared to regular enemy ninja who wouldn't have this knowledge.
The only thing he doesn't seem to know is the location of important secrets, such as where the Hero Water we'll discuss is stored. That appears to be information only the leader of the village, and those close to him are aware of.
Outside of these named characters in the novel, Takigakure apparently has a large civilian population hidden inside as well.
Let's get into the jutsu and summons displayed by the ninja that we see though during this story arc.
ᨒ Jutsu and Summons of Takigakure ᨒ
First, lets break down what is utilized within this story by character, starting with the previous leader of Takigakure before Shibuki, his father Hisen. Now, Hisen was utilizing the Hero Water when using these jutsu and summons, but what we see from him is as follows:
At the start of his fight, he is on top of a water geyser, although the jutsu utilized to create it isn't named:
In the middle of a pristine lake, Hisen stood on a tall geyser, rapidly moving his fingers.
He utilizes this geyser to form the jutsu he uses that actually is named, that will be covered next.
Water Release: Lotus Light Rupture:
The geyser instantly started to rotate, forming drops of water that looked like lotus petals. It was a lovely sight, like something you might see in a Zen garden. The liquid petals got bigger and bigger, then spun off with explosive energy in every direction.
The liquid lotus petals were not as delicate as they looked: Hisen's chakra had transformed them into razor-sharp killing machines.
A few ninja escaped the attack by sliding backward on the lake’s surface, but the watery weapons they thought they had dodged soon hit them from behind. Minutes later, every ninja was gone. Only their leader was still alive, a man in a red mask. "You’re still standing? But that was my best jutsu!"
Summoning Animal: Ryurimaru, the Koi Fish:
"Summoning Jutsu! Ryurimaru, come forth!" he shouted. A huge crimson and white koi fish leaped out of the lake. It was six times taller than a man, but there were even more wonders to come. "Dragon god transform!” Hisen shouted again. The koi instantly vanished behind a cloud of white smoke. Seconds later, a gigantic golden dragon appeared, with Hisen riding triumphantly on its back. The beast’s long, snakelike body quickly wrapped around the masked man—and squeezed tight.
This is actually a summon his son Shibuki is also able to invoke, and we learn when Shibuki summons him that Ryurimaru is capable of speech as well.
"Careful, Shibuki! They’re looking for a chance to attack!" Ryurimaru warned.
It should be noted though, while the summons discussed here appear in the novel, they do NOT appear in the OVA which is a bit of a shame, since they're quite interesting.
Senji also performs a jutsu in the course of the novels events against Suien and his group of invaders:
Water Release: Great Waterfall Technique:
Though his face had more wrinkles than an umeboshi plum, Senji still possessed plenty of power. As an amazing swell of chakra poured forth, a giant whirlpool swirled around his feet.
"Water Style: Giant Vortex Jutsu!" he shouted. The whirlpool that had been circling Senji became a huge tsunami—surging straight for Suien.
The wiki appears to classify this 'giant vortex jutsu' to be the same as the great waterfall technique, since it can also be utilized as a vortex and behaves in pretty much the same way. This brings us to Suien and his jutsu - for example, the one he utilizes to counter what Senji here throws at him.
Water Style: Water Barrier Formation:
"Water Style: Water Barrier Formation!" Suien’s voice boomed. An invisible wall instantly surrounded him, and not a second too late. The huge tsunami crashed into the wall, but Senji's jutsu wasn't wasted. "Waaaaah!" the henchmen screamed as the giant wave chased them down. Suien looked over and groaned. He could really care less about his cohorts, but now his prized hostages were in danger.
This jutsu might be something similar to Water Release: Water Formation Wall, a jutsu utilized in the mainline series.
Suien also had a jutsu to amplify his voice, allowing it to be heard in a large area of effect - it's labelled as Echo Technique on the wiki:
"I know you can hear me, Shibuki," Suien continued. "I used the Echo Jutsu to blast my voice all over this village. Or would you prefer to hear this?"
Suien was also the one to place down the Maze Shield that kept Kakashi occupied trying to return back to the village:
"They put a Maze Shield here? Guess they really don’t wanna see me again,"”he muttered. True to its name, a Maze Shield transformed even the most boring stretch of land into a complicated maze. Whoever entered the area immediately got lost, even if they previously had a good sense of direction. The jutsu itself was pretty simple, though blanketing an entire mountain with it must have taken some sweat.
Suien had created the Maze Shield hours before, in the deep dark still of the night. After he blew up the mountain, he hammered a line of stakes into the ground, each marked with a special jutsu. Suien poured his chakra around the stakes like fertilizer, then stood back to admire his work.
Most of the other jutsu he utilized in comparison are for the most part water based jutsus, which we'll go into.
Water Release: Water Armour:
Suien quickly covered his body with chakra-infused water, which deflected Sasuke’s attacks like a sturdy suit of armor.
All of a sudden Sasuke felt a chill. He looked down to see a stream of muddy water slithering up his legs. "Nice trick, huh?" Suien gloated. "Every time you came at me, I passed on some of my water armor! I just pretended to be fooled by your fake attacks!" Sasuke desperately tried to repel the jutsu, but the water stuck to his body like glue. The liquid kept rising until it completely covered his head.
Water Release: Transform-at-Will:
Too late! Several water vines swirled up from the ground, wrapping around Naruto from his ankles to his chin. "Wh-what is this stuff?" Naruto cried, furiously squirming inside the liquid cocoon. "Water Style! Transform-at-Will!" Suien snickered. He was still sprawled on the ground, but the fight was far from over. While Naruto was celebrating his big win, Suien had gathered up bits of his broken sword and pumped them full of chakra, turning the water into vines.
"That jutsu should have strangled you to death. I must be losing my touch," Suien muttered, diving into his pocket for some food pills. He stuffed his mouth full and ground them between his teeth.
Takigakure Style: Watercutting Sword:
"No comment, huh?" he barked, lifting one hand. Inside his cupped palm was a spoonful of water. Suien added a dash of chakra, turning the liquid into a long, sharp sword. "Water Style: Water Blade Manipulation Jutsu!" he yelled. He swung the sword samurai-style, straight through the line of clones. Most of them popped and disappeared, leaving only two stragglers behind.
This technique isn't named, but Suien also pierces Shibuki with a wire of razor sharp water:
"Playing fishy with you was fun! Please accept this little token of my gratitude," Suien snickered, holding out his hand. A thin wire of water flowed out and jabbed through Shibuki's shoulder like a metal spike. He screamed and writhed in agony.
Water Style: Giant Waves:
"Water Style: Giant Waves!" Suien suddenly hollered. The water instantly swelled up into giant waves that crashed toward Shibuki. But he quickly shielded himself with his chakra, tossing the waves right back at Suien.
Suien also has summons of his own, both of which can speak as well; they're catfish summons. The first we meet is named Konenmaru:
"Come forth, Konenmaru!" Suien yelled, quickly making signs. He set the scroll on the water and took a deep breath. Just then an enormous black catfish surged out of the lake, glistening in the sun. Its huge gaping mouth was set off by a pair of long spiny whiskers. Konenmaru quickly spewed a torrent of water, which Sasuke deftly managed to dodge. But Sasuke couldn’t escape the whiskers, which the catfish coiled tightly around his legs.
"Konenmaru?" they gasped in unison. Suien’s giant catfish instantly spat a torrent of water at Kakashi. Strangely, he didn’t even try to miss his master’s henchmen. Konenmaru just didn’t seem to care if they got wet, or hurt, or torn to tiny pieces.
"Konenmaru! What’s going on?" he croaked. "You three are no longer needed. I have orders to kill you along with Kakashi," the giant catfish calmly replied.
Kakashi ends up killing Konenmaru, which Suien becomes immediately aware of:
Suien was touching down near the Holy Tree when he suddenly clutched his chest. "Konenmaru…is dead," he choked. "And Kakashi is on his way…"
He still has one more catfish summon in him though, leading to the summoning of Rainenmaru:
He smeared the scroll with blood and threw it on the lake. Seconds later, a giant black catfish appeared, even larger than Ryurimaru. "My name is Rainenmaru!" the catfish said. "Did you summon me?" "I’m your new master! Obey me!" Suien said gruffly, jumping on its back. The catfish dove underwater.
Suddenly the huge catfish rose up right in front of them, swinging its long whiskers. Ryurimaru gracefully dodged the assault while Shibuki made more signs.
Then all of a sudden, the catfish grazed the dragon with its whiskers. After a blinding flash, the dragon let go, spurted out some black smoke—and became a fish again.
Now, onto Shibuki. As discussed before, he can also summon koi fish like Ryurimari, as his father did. He's also a water jutsu user as well. Of the ones he uses that are OVA only, they are:
Tornado of Water
Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet Technique
Takigakure Style: Watercutting Sword
In the novel, he still utilizes quite a few water jutsu however. Suien in general also states he knows all the jutsu Shibuki knows, given that he taught Shibuki:
"There’s no way you can win! I know every jutsu that you do!" Suien bragged.
Which again, implies a lot of water jutsu from what we've seen so far. Of what Shibuki utilizes that isn't necessarily water based in the novel, he was able to use his chakra to shield himself just in general, like when he did so from Suien's Giant Waves jutsu. Of the other techiques we see him utilize, both are also water based.
Water Shadow Blade:
"Water Shadow Blade!" he yelled. Giant waves as sharp as razors rolled toward Suien, but he just snorted and put his palms on the lake. The water instantly cascaded upward, forming a sturdy wall that blocked Shibuki’s jutsu.
Unnamed jutsu that he could use as Suien did, allowing him to form tall columns of water:
Shibuki and Suien jumped up at exactly the same time, scattering their chakra around like confetti. Soon towering columns of water popped up all over the lake.
The common denominator that we see with all these ninjas so far? Water based jutsu. It's fascinatingly similar to what we see in kiri, which also utilizes water based jutsu. The novel's focus on summons though gives Takigakure's water based jutsu however a more freshwater slant. While ninjas we see from kiri have summons such as sharks or giant clams that are known for living in saltwater, in takigakure we see freshwater species such as koi and catfish in the novel. This tracks with what we see of Takigakure's terrain within the village itself - it's a lot of freshwater, which we'll go into in the next section. While Takigakure's home country also has a sea coast as discussed in Part One, the focus on water jutsu in tandem with its freshwater fish summons may imply more freshwater terrain within its territory - think rivers, lakes, lagoons, etcetera.
ᨒ The Natural Features of Takigakure ᨒ
Here's how the novel describes features of Takigakure, starting with its namesake waterfall:
"Whoa! Look at that!" he gasped, pointing at the breathtaking scene before him. A spectacular waterfall splashed down a high cliff into a shimmering pond below. This pond fed the stream they had followed on their trek through the valley. "Amazing! I've never seen anything like this, have you?" Sakura exclaimed, smiling back at Sasuke. Sasuke was also transfixed by the incredible sight - until he noticed Sakura gawking at him with her jade green eyes.
The water is apparently filled with trash which the genin team is tasked with cleaning up, and this is the reasoning given as to why:
"All that trash was in the water for a reason. The village must lie above the waterfall. There's definitely a path up to that cliff."
The novel also describes a road block that enemy ninjas engineer, by blowing up a mountain - the road this explosion blocks is the only one available to the village apparently. Based on descriptions, this means according to the novel that Waterfall Country also has mountainous terrain, as well as the forested areas described.
"This definitely was not an act of nature," he said quietly. "Somebody blew up that mountain." "Why? Why would they do that?" Naruto asked desperately. "Beats me," Sasuke shrugged. "But one thing is crystal clear: something really bad is about to happen." Sakura came down from the rock with a worried look on her face. She excelled at quickly grasping situations, and what she grasped now really bothered her. "Now the only road to the village is blocked," she pointed out.
The features that were destroyed were described a bit further during this excerpt where Kakashi tries to return back to the village:
Squad Seven was right. Kakashi was on his way, albeit at a snail's pace. He had hoped to reach the Hidden Waterfall in a few hours. Now, after one whole night on the road, Kakashi dangled from a cliff, considering his next move. Destruction was everywhere he looked: knocked-out bridges, blown-up hills, tree trunks strewn here and there like chopsticks. "They sure made on colossal mess," he sighed. He let go of the cliff, softly landing near a guidepost they'd passed the first time around. Kakashi kicked up speed until he reached the next cliff, but the view from there really surprised him. Was the Hidden Waterfall Village in the distance? He thoughtfully stroked his chin through his mask. "I sure don't remember this from the first trip," he mused out loud. Before, the village wasn't even visible until they had entered the valley. Now all the trees and ledges had been blasted away, courtesy of Suien. Just yesterday, this cliff had been a mountain.
The way to get inside the hidden village itself though is described starting in the following excerpts:
Soon he reached the top, right near the spot where the villager fell. Naruto quickly spotted a small opening to what appeared to be a cave. "Bingo!" he crowed, hustling inside. In contrast to its tiny entrance, the cave was actually quite large, with several small ponds glowing with greenish water.
Note - the villager mentioned here had fallen from about the top of the cliff, to give context. The way to get inside doesn't just stop with a steep climb however.
"This way. Hurry," he said tersely, before jumping into the nearest pond. The water looked to shallow to hide anyone, but Shibuki quickly disappeared from sight. Naruto was squinting at the pond, trying to see underwater, when he felt two strong hands placed firmly on his back.
Yeah, they got to swim now too, lmao. You need lungs of steel if you live inside Takigakure if you need to leave regularly, it seems.
Naruto followed him through the murky depths until a tunnel appeared on one side, illuminated by an eerie light. Shibuki entered the tunnel first, followed by Senji and Naruto. They swam a short distance, until the tunnel emptied into a large lagoon filled with gigantic tree roots and rotting leaves. Naruto had been swimming underwater for a while, and his lungs were crying for mercy. He zoomed to the surface, stuck his head out - and gaped in utter astonishment.
Its once we get inside to the village that we get our first real description of Takigakure's "Holy Tree" in this novel, although it was mentioned earlier which you've seen in my Hisen excerpts.
"What...what is this place?" Naruto whispered, looking around with wonder. The view was indeed magnificent. They were now in a lake at the top of the cliff. On a small island in the center stood the biggest tree Naruto had ever seen. Its stately branches formed a giant umbrella that blocked out half the sky.
Under the lake itself, you can actually access the inside of the tree through the roots system, and its described in the following passages:
When Naruto finally opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was a wooden ceiling. He was lying flat on his back in what seemed to be a cave, though the floor felt nice and warm. It was quiet as a tomb, except for the faint sound of rushing water.
Soon he was climbing up a narrow, twisted passage, so steep some places were almost vertical. Naruto saw wood everywhere, and had a sudden realization. "Hey! Are we inside that big tree in the middle of the lake?" he said with awe. "Yes," Shibuki answered without looking back.
The path they are following in this excerpt leads to the where the 'Hero Water' is stored, which will be discussed later. Given that this is where it is hidden though, the Holy Tree might also be where they hide other notable village secrets - the forbidden jutsu Kakuzu stole may have also been hidden somewhere within this tree as well.
When the narrow passage finally ended, they entered a small open area. "About time!" Naruto groaned, stretching his arms. He looked around with interest. There were no lights, but it wasn't pitch black. Naruto squinted through the dim light and saw a small window. "Here it is," Shibuki said quietly, approaching a small wooden shrine the size of a closet.
Outside the tree itself though, an area at the bottom of its trunk people can walk up to is also described by the novel. Here is apparently the location of an important shrine:
Under the Holy Tree in the Hidden Waterfall stood a small building with a peaked roof. It was a Shinto shrine, the holiest place in the village. On special days, the villagers went there to pray.
A dark red torii gate stood before the shrine: two tall posts linked together at the top by another post.
The inside of the tree is also described, giving more details as to how its used to protect civilian villagers when the need arises:
Their plan was simple enough: while Senji distracted Suien, Naruto would zip down and untie everybody. The villagers would scramble into the Holy Tree, followed by Squad Seven, who could protect them from behind. The narrow passages inside formed a convoluted maze, but the villagers knew the maze well. Even if the enemies entered, they could only fight them one at a time.
ᨒ The Hero's Water and its Effects ᨒ
Here is how the Hero Water is described:
Shibuki opened the double wooden doors. A glass bottle danged from a rope tied to the ceiling. It was shaped like a bottom-heavy hourglass, filled with clear liquid instead of sand. "This is the Hero's Water," he said solemnly, holding the bottle up to the window. The liquid glistened in the light. It was a splendid sight, but Shibuki just grimaced.
Shibuki elaborates further:
"A secret elixir that has been passed down from generation to generation." He took a deep breath before he continued.
And the novel also makes the assertion that this water has been a vital key to the village's independence:
"The Hidden Waterfall Village is surrounded by four of the Five Great Nations. We've never had a kage, or a ninja army. But we've always been independent, even through the time of the Great Ninja War."
"The secret to our independence is inside there." Naruto looked dumbfounded. Must be some wacko water jutsu, he thought.
Now you might ask yourself "hey what about the jinchuuriki they have, the one that notably no other small nation has except them?" and this is where 'this is a product of the time it was written' comes into play again, because at this point that the mainline story was being serialized, the concept of there being multiple jinchuuriki didn't exist yet. Naruto was meant to be one of a kind - Gaara's bijuu Shukaku was not originally a 'tailed beast' at this point in time, this is how he was described around Gaara's earliest appearance in the manga in chapter 97 specifically:
The inspiration for this early concept is actually based on a pre existing yokai tale. This was later retconned though to make Shukaku one of the bijuu. So at the point that this novel was being written, other bijuu, including Chomei and their jinchuuriki weren't taken into account because they just didn't exist and weren't planned for yet.
Let's get back to the novel though, specifically the concept of the 'Hero Water' described within it. Of course, this novel also highlights that people have attacked Takigakure explicitly to gain it:
"Oh! So those guys attacked the village because -" "Yes. They want the Hero's Water. So have many, many others. In fact, Lord Shibuki's father lost his life trying to save it."
The reason as to why is explained as such:
"Every hundred years we extract a special water from this Holy Tree. One drink and any ninja instantly becomes a hero, with a hundred times more chakra at his disposal.
Although with its power comes massive drawbacks:
"My father was a fool!" Shibuki suddenly burst out. "The villagers cheered him as a hero. But he knew exactly what would happen if he drank the water." "What happened?" Naruto asked innocently. The old man looked at the ground. "Hero's Water is a powerful weapon, but that power comes at a terrible price. The water increases a ninja's chakra, but also consumes his life force. Someone young and strong like you might survive, but most ninja perish."
Drinking too much of the Hero Water can have even more dire consequences after its use:
"Look at me, boys! I’m a hero!" Suien bragged. Those were his last words. All of a sudden, Suien started to shrink like someone had popped him with a pin. His chakra hissed and crackled and threw off bright blue sparks. Seconds later, the chakra exploded with a deafening roar. Suien’s body blew away like a leaf in the wind—and disappeared.
Soon a shriveled-up something dropped below the waterfall, where Kakashi stood with the terrible trio. “What’s that?” Kakashi wondered, as the thing floated to the edge of the pond. He reached out to pull it ashore — and gaped in amazement. “It’s…it’s you,” the thing muttered. Kakashi did a double take. What had looked like a dead fish was actually a human body!
"So Suien died," Shibuki said quietly. "Yup. I witnessed his demise with my own eyes,” Kakashi assured him. “A truly gruesome sight. Was that the usual side effect of the Hero’s Water?" Shibuki shook his head. "Not really. Suien drank way too much of it."
Many of these elements stay the same in the OVA, although there are some noticeable differences, which we'll also discuss next.
Naruto: Mission: Protect The Waterfall Village! (OVA)
The OVA first things first, does not make the same assertion that the novel does regarding the amount of ninjas within the village being down to only two - there is still a lack of shinobi for sure, but that's mostly presented visually by what's happening on screen rather than anything stated outright. The OVA does state though that use of the Hero Water is what saved the village from destruction during the Great Ninja War, and that many of their shinobi died not from battle, but from the water's effects. There is the implication that Takigakure might have a shortage of shinobi at this point in time because of this.
The OVA also adds some extra information to the characters it adapts that aren't necessarily revealed in the novel. For example, Suien is stated to have been a jounin of Takigakure before defecting, which wasn't confirmed in the contents of the novel itself.
The OVA notably also has less death than in the novel. Hisen, Shibuki's father doesn't have his fight shown in this OVA, the one where he dies in front of Shibuki.
The villager who dies trying to warn Shibuki in the OVA is also replaced with the mother of the children in the opening sequence, and instead of dying she manages to survive thanks to Sakura's care.
Given that the summons aren't included in this OVA either, that means we also don't see any of their deaths too. The part where Suien's corpse is shriveled at the end due to drinking too much of the Hero Water is another detail that is cut, for probably good reason.
We do see Shibuki brutally stabbed through the stomach in this OVA though during his fight with Suien, which is not something that happens in the novel. He still manages to survive both this and drinking the Hero Water regardless, just like in the novel.
In the OVA, we actually get to see much of the geography as it is described in the novel, starting with its signature waterfall.
You can also see the body of water at the bottom, with our characters shown at the edge to give a sense of scale.
We also get an overhead view of the village's waterfall and protective canopy from this OVA as well:
So, is getting inside the village from here shown to be the same? Well, just about. There does still appear to be a bit of climbing up the cliff face, but the anime adds that the specific opening spot they're looking for is behind the waterfall itself:
After this point, the details are about the same. We see a cave area with pools of water, one of which is the actual entrance to Takigakure. And the amount of swimming after the fact appears to be unchanged, with them swimming through the tunnels after diving in. Surfacing is still about the same as well, in the village's lake itself:
This is where we also get the first views of Takigakure's Holy Tree:
The shrine mentioned in the novel is still at the tree's base as well - some other views of it in the OVA:
We get views of the inside of the tree too during certain points:
Further detail is given thanks to the visual nature of the OVA of the architecture of Takigakure - we actually get to see what the buildings within its area look like:
Now the wiki states that Takigakure's aesthetics is based on southeast asian ones, and I can see why based off the architecture.
Compare the houses above to this one credited on wikipedia as such: Thap Khwan Residence and garden, one of the residence in Sanam Chan Palace, Nakhon Pathom.
You can read more about this kind of house architecture from Thailand specifically on the wiki here.
All that being said, this is not an area I have particular expertise on. I don't really know that much about Southeast Asian architecture, I literally just checked the architecture pages of some countries that had them on wikipedia, lmao. If anyone has more information on this particular subject feel free to message me, and I'll be sure to update this post with whatever you have.
Getting back to the OVA, the root system underwater that Shibuki swam to is also depicted in the animation here:
We cut right to where the shrine holding the Hero Water is though, instead of going through a maze inside the tree itself:
Out of all the material we have, the novel and the OVA give us the most visual reference for what Takigakure might look like from the inside out of anything else in the series - even if not all material from both these versions of the same story is taken into canon, it's still valuable to have regardless, considering we don't have much at all.
The anime at least treats many of these elements as canon whenever Takigakure is featured in the rest of the series. For example, we do also see Shibuki briefly again in episode 198 of the original Naruto series as well. He shows up in the chuunin exams filler arc of shippuden too as an important character.
Naruto Original Series Episode 198
This episode has a synopsis page on the wiki, that goes into what the details of its plot are about, but I'll go further into detail here. It's part of a larger filler arc, known as the Konoha Plans Recapture Arc.
The details of this arc are relevant to understanding what we can glean here, so I'll quote the basics of what you need to know:
With so much new construction and expansion going on in Konoha, workers from outside the village were also being hired to help in the project, including an old man named Gennō. Shortly after meeting each other at Ichiraku, Naruto and Gennō became close. It turned out that Gennō was in fact a legendary ninja from Kagerō Village, who was infamous as a strategist.
One night, Gennō finally began his plan against Konoha and stole several building blueprints. After being cornered by the Anbu, Gennō decided to end things by blowing himself up. Later, after Tsunade sent every available ninja above genin rank (except Shikamaru) on a mission to secure the Land's of Fire border from a possible attack that Gennō spoke of from Takigakure. Tsunade assembled Naruto and the other genin to aid Shikamaru in locating the stolen blueprints.
Later, Naruto was taken in for questioning with the Anbu as he possibly would be the best lead to discovering Gennō's plans. Even with hypnosis the Anbu were unable to gather any useful information beyond that Gennō was nice to Naruto because he reminded Gennō of his grandson. Later, questions about Gennō's supposed death came up. It was then discovered that Gennō faked his death with a fake corpse. It was also discovered that the Takigakure had nothing to do with Gennō, meaning Gennō tricked Konoha into making itself almost completely unprotected.
So, you can see where Takigakure factors into the plot of this arc just from these pieces of this synopsis. Now in the relevant episode here of this arc, we actually do briefly get a glimpse of Takigakure again. And in this glimpse, we get to see Shibuki in front of a sizeable crowd of ninja, implying that during his time as leader already he's done a lot to beef up their numbers since the Hero Water fiasco that we saw in the anime's OVA if both are taken at least on some level into canon:
Tsunade in a scene states that the village has moved all their ninja into battle ready positions, and states "apparently they're claiming it's just a normal training exercise." Both her and Shikimaru in this scene seem very doubtful that this is all that they're doing however.
Tsunade continues, stating that "they've used this tactic before; assemble all their forces under the guise of a big practice run, and end up invading another land."
So, some things to note here - whatever alliance Konohagakure and Takigakure has had in the past became strained since the events of the OVA and novel. This probably is directly related to the fact that Takigakure, as a nation state on Konohagakure's border has become a lot more militant since we last saw them, which is interesting. Given the events we saw in both the OVA and the novel however, this does make sense as a series of events. The village was practically invaded and had almost nobody left to protect it. Why wouldn't Shibuki do his damndest to change things after that?
Now, Tsunade's claim that they've been invading other lands is also interesting because there are only three possible targets borderwise besides Konohagakure who we have to factor out here. There's the land of Earth, one of the great nation states that houses Iwagakure, and the smaller nation state that houses Kusagakure. The only other nation that borders Takigakure's territory that could be a possible invasion target is the unnamed one that has the infamous Mountain's Graveyard - we don't really know much about that territory besides that. Takigakure bothering Iwagakure seems highly unlikely, given that's a much bigger fish than them in this region. That leaves us with Kusagakure, and the Mountain's Graveyard Territory.
Now because in this arc, Konoha has intel that the main antagonist here, Genno, briefly stayed in Takigakure, they are under the impression that Takigakure's moves may be in relation to that.
Tsunade states in this same meeting that she's already mobilized most of Konohagakure's ninja, and that they're already on their way to Takigakure as of their discussion during this meeting. She states if they see anyone crossing the border, Tsunade ordered them to treat it as a full scale enemy invasion. She's meeting with Shikimaru because she wants him to take his own team over to the border to assist. Shikimaru however thinks there is no reason to go, but what's most relevant here is that relations between Konohagakure and Takigakure have deteriorated so much at this point in the series that they legitimately brushed very close to getting into armed conflict with each other.
Of course, this was all a ploy by Genno to trick Konohagakure into moving most of its ninja out of the country - he actually had nothing to do with Takigakure, and had fed them false information. But because relations between them seem to be as they were, it clearly worked as a gambit. This evolution of the hidden village is pretty interesting, all things considered.
The Chuunin Exams Shippuden Filler Arc
Shibuki continues to be the leader of Takigakure when we reach this point in the Shippuden anime, and his character is noticeably different from the novel and OVA. In the novel and OVA, he exhibited a lot of cowardice before finally getting it together to fight Suien, and his reluctance when it comes to being the village leader was very pronounced in both adaptations. In this shippuden arc though, he appears to have grown a lot more into his role leading the village.
What's most interesting is the relationship built between him and Fu during this arc; it definitely feels like the writers wanted to give him a role in relation to her similar to how Iruka's is characterized with Naruto. Shibuki clearly cares about Fu as more than just a village asset, but as a person, and it shows.
Here's a clip from when we first see him in the anime, talking with Fu.
What Shibuki chooses to do during this arc is quite funny, and exhibits some massive balls on his end - as I said in that post I linked, the man is willing to risk an international incident by sending jounin disguised as genin to keep his girl safe, lmao. In charge of a smaller village and risking pissing off the bigger nations with the move of ‘actually you know what I’m not letting my walking nuclear bomb of a teenage daughter risk dying from getting jumped for that sweet sweet nuclear bomb. I’m sneaking fucking jounin level ninjas into the chuunin exams with her.’ Like you have to respect it, given the risks of international incident potential there.
If Shibuki is the Iruka to her Naruto, he is like if Iruka actually had institutional power within Konoha and I kind of love that.
Fu herself was given a lot of character too during this arc; she's quite the lively, friendly character, with a lot of weird girl energy to her.
I will say though. How did we not have any real interactions between Shino and the BUG JINCHUURIKI this filler arc actually when they are both here at the same time. It's criminal actually.
Some other relevant clips from this arc I took during this rewach:
A letter back to the Hokage 'stunning in its brevity'
The perks of having jounin on your team during the chuunin exams
Overprotective jounin put silly girl under house arrest
Fu interrupts a food fight and is funny about it
Fu's giant scorpion rodeo moment
Local silly girl propositions head of state to bathe together
Fu getting away with a lot actually
Local Kazekage realizes Fu is just like him, fr fr
Fu really cares about Shibuki and doesn't want to disappoint him
Bar for bar scene parallels with Iruka and Naruto
More similarities between Fu and Naruto get emphasized
Takigakure doesn't pay their jounin enough for this shit
Fu weaves a giant cocoon
Local head of state trauma dumps to silly girl
Taki jounin this close to dusting some genin
Ending scene where Fu meets Kakuzu
So we know Fu and Shibuki have a good relationship to one another; well, how about the rest of the village? Well, everything we have points to things being as bad there as it is for jinchuuriki in every other village. In the Bar for Bar scene where we see Shibuki protect Fu from shuriken that were thrown at her, we can only assume that these were thrown at her from inside Takigakure - she has never left the village before the chuunin exams. This means someone from Takigakure, maybe more than one person, has tried to assassinate her, or at the very least harm her in some way.
The manga also doesn't help this, with Deidara possibly implying that she was mistreated by the village too, as most jinchuuriki also are.
Now, during this filler arc, Fu was captured on her way back home from these chuunin exams. This chuunin exams arc would have taken place before this Gaara rescue mission, as it was created to show how all the other genin from Naruto's class ranked up to chuunin or even jounin during his absence. If taken into canon, this means that one of the two jinchuuriki Deidara is referring to, would have in fact been Fu following the timeline logic in place here.
The only thing that doesn't match up here, is that everything we know about Shibuki screams that he would not in fact have left her to die had he known she was captured. If he is the kind of man that would sneak fucking jounin into the chuunin exams to protect her and risk an international incident, he is absolutely the type to have gone after her once she was captured, just as the raikage did for his own captured jinchuuriki. It might be possible that he did not know she was captured, or even by who until it was too late though.
Regardless, this mistreatment may inform the good opinion she seems to have of Kakuzu, as she knows quite a lot of details about his backstory. One wonders what would have happened to her if Shibuki wasn't there for her. Would she have even stayed in the village itself if not for him? Unlikely, given her great interest in the outside world she displays; she very likely would have defected on her own. She wouldn't exactly be the first jinchuuriki to have done so either, given we have Utakata as an example of just that kind of thing.
Now, in this filler arc Shibuki states that the reason Takigakure has a tailed beast, is that they were allotted one due to their reputation of producing skilled jonin. Now, if this information is false, we could chalk it up to Shibuki simply believing what was told to him over the years regarding the village's history. If it is true though, that means what we discussed regarding the first kage summit comes into play, as that is when the tailed beasts were allotted originally to each nation that would come to house them as jinchuuriki. If that is the case, Kakuzu's presence during this time period may be more of an influential factor here possibly.
As far as other Takigakure characters shown in this arc though, the two jounin sent to escort her have names - they're Kegon and Yoro. And would you believe it, Kegon also uses water based jutsu in this arc, water shuriken specifically. Yoro meanwhile uses shuriken shadow clones, notably without using hand signs to do so.
Something else worth mentioning about this episode is that we briefly do get to see more architecture from within Takigakure - this is the building that we see Fu meeting Shibuki inside at the start of it:
Again, very southeast asian in terms of its style, from what we can see here. Unfortunately we don't get more glimpses inside after this point, as the chuunin exams take place in Sunagakure this arc.
The sign on it apparently has the kanji for 'taki' - 滝 - meaning quite literally 'waterfall' in english. It's likely this is meant to be a building that would be analogous to Konohagakure's Hokage Tower.
Episode 178 of Shippuden (Filler Episode)
Now this one is actually a flashback episode, from back when Naruto was still a child in the academy. Looking at the timeline of Takigakure, the leader likely in charge of the village during this time if we go by the filler content would have been Shibuki's father, Hisen. Hisen did not die after all, until the six months before the events of the OVA series when Naruto and company had already made genin.
To go over it briefly, in the events of this episode, Naruto as a child manages to find a kunai in the forest that has a secret intel report tied to it, meant for Takigakure. He of course gets ambushed by three ninjas from Takigakure because of this:
Now Naruto tries to use sexy no jutsu to distract them, which doesn't work - they are incredibly unimpressed and decide to explain to him how stupid they thought it was by removing their masks and reveal to this child that all three of them were in fact women:
Notably these are also the only Takigakure ninja we see who use fire style jutsu. They do also appear to be sword users too, which seems to be another repeating pattern we've seen with other Takigakure ninja in the series. Suien and Shibuki both for examples used swordfighting in their battles, although both were utilizing water swords at the time. Another funny similarity to kirigakure, if this conjecture does turn out to actually mean something.
Naruto of course gets saved in this episode by Iruka and Kakashi, but what's interesting here is the intel they were intending to procur here; it apparently was revealed to contain the patrol patterns of Konohagakure. Takigakure and Konohagakure should be allies around this point in time, and yet under the surface there is still a clear level of distrust between the two entities.
This does make sense though; as far as smaller nations go, Takigakure appears to be much harder to push around then others of its caliber, even when it was at its weakest. For a nation state bordering Konohagakure's Land of Fire, this has probably been an annoyance to the larger country. Takigakure just doesn't have the same characteristics as other small nations that make them easier to fall under stronger influence of the larger nation states.
From a purely geographic standpoint, it is incredibly hard to infiltrate the hidden village - it's probably one of the most hidden of the hidden villages out there. And invasion? Good fucking luck getting your whole army inside without them getting smoked out or worse in the underwater tunnels necessary to swim through. You are essentially trying to invade a ninja village with an emphasis on water style users by navigating through water, and entering into a village that has a lot of terrain of you guessed it, water.
On top of this they have an incredibly powerful bijuu under their control as a jinchuuriki - the seven tailed beast, Chomei. Add to that the wild card factor that is the Hero Water - something that allows them to turn even their most average shinobi into something superhuman - and the fact that they've been so strangely resilient starts to make more and more sense, all factors taken into account.
Economically, it's probably hard to control them as well. Their country has coastal territory, which could allow for greater trade access with even the Land of Lighting being accessable by ship from where they are. The also have access to a lot of valuable natural resources, with forestry and arable land for agriculture. Between their coastal line and what is likely to be a lot of freshwater features within their borders, there's probably a lot of fishing in their territory too. The fact that they do have mountainous regions could also open access to mining as a possibility as well.
So, we end up with a situation where Takigakure may not trust Konohagakure, and rightfully so, given how Great Nations have proven to treat smaller nations in the past. At the same time, Konohagakure definitely wants to be on alert about Takigakure given their shared borders - Konohagakure on the mainland is surrounded on its borders by smaller nations almost exclusively, meaning any Great Nation would have to pass through a smaller country to get to them. This allows for a bit of a buffer zone. Out of every other nation on its border though, Takigakure is the one with the most wild card factor, given it is not as easy as the others, once again, to influence and exert control over.
If you were to compare it to the other small nations on its borders, here's what you've got. Starting first, you have the land of steam which is demiliterized at this point and very much under the Land of Fire's influence. You also have the country housing amegakure which konohagakure has famously treated like a punching bag in the past. We of course know their importance in the mainline story, but Konohagakure is unaware until much, much later in the shippuden game. The country hosting Kusagakure is mainly known for excelling at diplomacy, and doesn't seem too interested in causing trouble on its own. In fact they might favor the Land of Fire as an ally given that during the wars they were successfully invaded by Iwagakure and became an important war front because of that. The Land of Rivers? A nonfactor entity here. The Land of Rice Fields also didn't cause any trouble before Orochimaru essentially took it over. Discounting whatever mystery nation controls the zone that houses the Mountain Graveyard location, all we have left is Takigakure, which is the most capable out of all the smaller nations bordering Konohagakure's Land of Fire of becoming a problematic entity for the larger nation in their eyes.
The relationship between Takigakure and Konohagakure when it is good is 'frenemies' at best, but it also seems clear that Takigakure would rather play nice with Konohagakure than with Iwagakure, if their participation in whose chuunin exams is anything to go by.
This is all just speculation of course; but when you don't have much to go by in the first place you'll have to forgive me for that. I hope you find this consolidation of material useful either way.
