CREDITS: This is a fan-made AU rewrite of the Boruto series. All original characters and the Naruto universe are the property of Masashi Kishimoto, Mikio Ikemoto, and Shueisha. No copyright infringement is intended. This project is created for entertainment purposes only!
Notes: Man I did not expect a flashback to take up half the chapter XD anyway, someone pls teach me to draw backgroundsand dialogue, i'm so sorry they're so wonky. Doku probably had a deathwish bac when he first met Janome. Also is the pacing and exposition okay? Or am I introducing too many characters??
(DO NOT REPOST, IF YOU SEE THIS REPOSTED PLEASE REPORT AND NOTIFY ME)
In another life, the tailed beasts would be great emotional support animals and help young Jinchuriki to deal with their traumatic upbringings.
Also like the idea that they all bring their tailed beasts to the playground, but Gaara is too afraid to let Shukaku go because he might snap at the others.
Most information we have on Takigakure is from scraps in non manga material, but I thought it would be a good idea to consolidate what little we have here anyway. There's at least a little bit from the manga, but what we have from there is mostly just some geographical information, and a waterfall ninja we meet or two. We don't even have a canonic name for the specific country Takigakure is a part of, so for the purposes of this post I'll refer to the hidden village as Takigakure, and the country it's in as "Waterfall Country." Outside of that, the most "canon" information we have is probably from the databooks, out of everything. That being said I have not in fact played any of the video games so if there is further information from those sources, do let me know. I'll be keeping the rest of this post under a readmore cut to save everyone a whole bunch of scrolling. Part Two will also be linked under the cut.
Edit: Link to Part Two is here!
The main sources we have (outside manga material) 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)
I'll share everything we have, starting from the top. If I missed anything, let me know!
The Manga Material, and its adaption into Anime
As a note: thankfully I did not have to dig into the manga chapter by chapter to find wherever the geography was mentioned by myself someone already did that in the past, so go look at where I sourced that information from here if you're interested!
In the manga, the first time we see a map of its world is very early on in chapter 9. Only the great nations are labelled at this point in time, but an area of land that would eventually become Waterfall Country is already delineated about where it's going to be as the series progresses:
Here's the same map in episode 6 of the anime, to compare:
We only really see these smaller countries elaborated on further in terms of geography when we get to the first chuunin exams arc. This is in chapter 39 of the manga, and episode 23 of the anime. This is when Kabuto is sharing his data with the other Konoha genin:
The chart when flipped for readability:
At this point in time, Takigakure itself seems to have sent six genin to participate in that year's chuunin exams. It's the first time we see Takigakure delineated geographically or even named for sure.
The same chart in the anime:
The numbers of participants seem to have increased here, with the anime claiming twelve participants from Takigakure, instead of 6.
Now, it's notable that out of all the nations participating in these Chuunin exams hosted by Konohagakure, the only other Great Nation participating is the Land of Wind, with ninjas from Sunagakure - every other nation participating is a smaller country. One can assume then that Iwagakure, Kumogakure, and Kirigakure host their own Chuunin Exams, possibly amongst each other, or possibly not. Why this is notable is that Waterfall Country, despite sharing a border with Iwagakure's Land of Earth, is choosing to participate in the Land of Fire's Chuunin Exams hosted by Konohagakure instead. This implies a closer relationship with the Land of Fire than the Land of Earth, which is of particular interest given the little history we learn thanks to Kakuzu's entry in the databooks we'll discuss later.
We do see a few of those waterfall genin ninja implied by these charts in background manga panels, but not much more than that (the one from the anime also included):
Only one of these waterfall ninja gets named in the second databook though, if that's anything worth mentioning:
That being "Hoki" apparently, who has a wiki page.
Of course, the series was still figuring a lot of things out at this point. Naruto is a very "write as you go" series in terms of any planning. The chuunin exams arc wouldn't have even happened if the editors didn't push the author into putting a tournament arc into the series, as an example. That info's from the Kobayashi interview interview with Kishimoto actually, back in 2014. Link to a translation as well as other information here regarding the same interview.
Anyway, a lot of the setting was still being figured out regardless. An example of this showing through early on is this random ninja with a moon headband:
And of course who can forget this old man participating in a fucking suit vest and tie number? God I wish we saw his headband...
As far as other Takigakure ninja we see that were notable enough to be named - and appeared in the main manga series, we have in order of appearance:
Kakuzu: Manga Chapter 312 - Shippuden Episode 71
Pain's Human Path: Manga Chapter 376 - Shippuden Episode 127
Agara: Manga Chapter 487 - Shippuden Episode 221
Fu: Manga Chapter 515 - Shippuden Episode 205
All other Takigakure ninja we have that are named are either anime only, or extended materials only.
At least from the presence of Fu though, we can learn that Takigakure was the only ninja village of a small nation to have received a tailed beast. All other jinchuuriki were members of the Great Nations. This is particularly interesting since Fu was the Jinchuuriki of Chomei, the seven tailed beast. The reason as to why is elaborated only in anime filler, but I won't get to that quite yet.
It is worth noting though that of the Jinchuuriki we have, quite a few of them are notably related to the family of their village's kage. The reason as to why is elaborated at least in the manga in relation to Kumogakure:
Killer Bee is the brother of the Raikage, and we can assume Yugito Nii has some form of relation to the Raikage as well because of this manga panel. Naruto was the son of a former Hokage, and the same was the case for Gaara and his father in Sunogakure. We don't have confirmation if this is the case for all the other jinchuuriki however.
As a ninja village in a smaller nation though, Takigakure doesn't have a kage, as that is only a position held in the five great nations. So whether the village also engages in this with their own village leader is debatable. If you take filler material into account though, that concept becomes more and more highly unlikely.
Switching back gears, as far as the geography of Takigakure and the Waterfall Country it resides in, we only really see the map elaborated further on in chapter 515 of the manga and episode 256 of the shippuden anime.
So taking that all into consideration canonically no matter what Waterfall Country is bordered by at least four other nations, and has access to a line of coastal territory. Of the countries that border it, two of them are great nations; Fire Country which houses Konohagakure, and the Land of Earth which houses Iwagakure. The other country we know of it shares a border with is the one that houses Kusagakure. We don't have a name for the nation separating its border from Sound Country - formerly known as Land of Rice Fields. All we really know about that area is that it is home to the infamous Mountain Graveyard in the series.
Anything else that can be gleaned as far as canon material goes is mainly in the fanbooks and databooks, which will be covered next.
The Fanbooks and Databooks
The first mention of Takigakure we have from these sources is in the first fanbook - and it's honestly not much. (Translation Source)
The giant waterfall prevents invasion!
They are surrounded by four other countries, but take pride in never having been invaded! They are proud of their residence.
We also see it on a map in this same fanbook too:
We only start getting more of Takigakure in the databooks with the introduction of Kakuzu in the third databook of the series.
From this databook, we are aware that during the Warring States Period, or the Founders Era, Takigakure assigned Kakuzu to a mission where he was supposed to assassinate the First Hokage. This was at the dawn of the formation of these hidden villages, timeline wise. That means that around this era at least, Takigakure was hostile towards Konohagakure for one reason or another, which clearly changed somewhat when we get to mainline series time period.
Kakuzu fails however, and it is stated that he "barely makes it out alive" - we don't really have much other clues as to how this fight went, other than the databook stating Hashirama used a wood style hijutsu - a hijutsu being a secret technique (also under the Hiden classification), as opposed to something genetic like a kekkai genkai. There's only one wood style jutsu we know of that has been categorized under 'hijutsu' and it's Wood Release Secret Technique: Nativity of a World of Trees.
Regardless, upon failing it is stated that Kakuzu was severely punished. This is actually reflected by a design detail he carries, that being his distinctive arm tattoos. I'm going to take an excerpt from this post on the subject which I'm linking here as well:
Irezumi is a traditional Japanese form of tattooing. It is usually made to be decorative, and has a long history, and though it started out as something which was associated with wealth or spirituality, during the Kofun period (300–600 AD) things changed, and the tattoos became associated with criminals.
Following is a list of irezumi markings used as punishment, and you can clearly see Kakuzu’s markings there.
They sourced this further information on the matter from this article:
“For the crime of treason Azumi was punished in the traditional Chinese way – having his face tattooed. In any event this type of punishment did become popular for the Japanese authorities to use and surly would have been replicated from China. Forehead and arms was typically the chosen body area for the tattoos to be applied. Though widespread throughout Japan, punishing a person by such methods was used sparingly. For Japanese and Chinese people, to be branded in a way for others to see would be a far greater punishment than going to prison and for many even death. Your social ties with family and friends would be crushed and dishonored by wearing a tattoo for a crime considered serious enough to be punished in this way. Unquestionably, unless in close village like conditions where few families live; you would not be tolerated in communities and therefore unable to remain or face serious consequences.”
We can infer then not only did Takigakure practice this method of branding what it believes are its worst criminals, but that such markings would likely be recognized for what they were throughout the rest of the country the ninja village resides in, at least during this time period in the history of this setting specifically.
It's probably no surprise then that Kakuzu defects, breaking out of prison. The databook makes clear though in his leaving the two things he does are kill his village elders, in the process stealing their hearts, and taking with him the village's prized forbidden jutsu. As far as revenge goes its very surgical in its precision. It's not stated that he goes on a rampage of some kind, or kills anyone else in the process. The only people we know for sure he killed in his escape are, well, the village elders.
We don't know exactly how many forbidden jutsu he stole either - the phrasing could imply singular or plural jutsu stolen from Takigakure. Among these jutsu though, one of them very well could have included his signature Jiongu technique, which is classified in that same databook as one that is a secret technique (Hiden).
There are varying reasons that could get a jutsu classified as a "forbidden" jutsu - for example, Rock Lee's Reverse Lotus is considered a forbidden technique because of the way it endangers the users life. Others such as Edo Tensei are considered forbidden techniques for ethical reasons. If Jiongu was considered a forbidden jutsu by Takigakure, it would have most likely been due to the danger posed to the users life. In which case, to utilize it to its fullest potential, Kakuzu would have risked his life activating it if you follow that line of logic. If you choose to take filler material into account, such as the concept of the 'hero water' that will be discussed later in part two, Takigakure both having and utilizing a jutsu that dangerous to the user's life isn't too out of their purview.
It's interesting to consider how much of Takigakure's later relation with Konohagakure may have been influenced by these very early events in its history with Kakuzu. They went from a hostile border nation to what is essentially an ally state, after all. Although how good that ally relationship is will be discussed more in part two. One has to consider if Takigakure receiving Chomei was in any way related to these events as well. In chapter 648 of the manga, we KNOW that the bijuu are distributed amongst the villages after they are collected by Hashirama. They were having a discussion about it during the first Kage summit in relation to a treaty. There is an implication Chomei could have been one of these bijuu as well.
We further see the suggestion that the bijuu be allocated based on power balance, price or no price for them notwithstanding.
This would have taken place after Madara attempted to attack Konohagakure with Kurama, as the fact that bijuu could be sealed into humans was not known until Mito Uzumaki sealed Kurama within herself during these events, essentially becoming the first jinchuuriki. So, it's highly likely that if Chomei was distributed by Hashirama to Takigakure it would have most likely been after that assassination attempt which is implied to have happened very early on in the timeline. The only reason Chomei would not have been among the bijuu distributed that I can think of is if Takigakure already captured Chomei themselves, similar to how Sunagakure already captured Shikaku which they tried to use as a bargaining chip during this same kage summit.
If that's the case Chomei may have already been residing within waterfall country territory. Shippuden episode 464 could be taken into consideration here, as it does show Hagoromo sending Chomei to live in a temple built to protect it, as he did with all the other bijuu - if this temple is within waterfall country, that's something to consider if you follow this line of logic. Of course, this episode is anime filler, but this is basically all based on a lot of conjecture anyway. Take what you want into consideration as you will.
This is where this filler anime episode shows Chomei was sent to reside in. It should be noted the other bijuu are shown in areas that roughly match where their own jinchuuriki would end up being, so take that as you will too:
If that's the case, Chomei might have been captured before the events of the first Kage Summit, similar to how Shukaku was.
Again, this is all just conjecture at this point.
Unfortunately, Kakuzu's entry in the fourth databook doesn't elaborate much further on his backstory to add more details on this period of history, but you can view his entry here.
Fu does have an entry in this databook however, which I'll link here.
Honestly, the only background info on Kakuzu we are really able to speculate on besides this, is that he was shown to recognize who the gold and silver brothers were during the war arc in shippuden. Relevant clip from my rewatch is linked here. I did later joke that if you believe Kakuzu teamed up with these two, you could extrapolate this concept farther to say he was involved in their kage assassination attempt, but that's barely relevant to the focus of these posts other than the fact that an infamous Takigakure ninja could therefore have been involved in this piece of history.
Given the image limits per post, I will continue discussing the rest of what we have on Takigakure in Part Two.
26. Getsugakure (manga) and Tsukigakure (game) are the same place, a hidden ninja village in the Land of the Moon (movie).
27. Takigakure and Hoshigakure had a similar origin, both were built around a fallen meteor when the age of hidden ninja villages started. In the Land of Bears, most of the star fragments fell into a ravine that became toxic, but in the Land of Waterfalls they fell into a lagoon, energizing the water and the great tree that fed from it (thus Hero's Water).
28. Because of this, originally both villages used to help each other in the past. Their ninja used to do missions collaboratively, and even their (unofficial) kages diplomatically trained together from time to time (fanart).
29. Mizura is second hoshikage lady Kirinza's great-grandson.
30. Kakuzu actually betrayed Takigakure by attempting to kill Hashirama. There was never such a mission (=nonsense), Kakuzu decided it on his own. Taki was in good terms with Konoha and they greatly respected each other, that's how they were given a bijuu too despite being a minor ninja village.
31. Ningendō's identity was Hisei's right-hand man, Senji (because I fanonize that certain resurrection stuff happened after canon, and…).
32. Danzou somehow killed Kagami for his eyes, I have no proof but neither doubts since the elders' conversation during ep.Sh.358.
33. Jiraiya had half a dozen of bastards or so, of which he was probably unaware.
34. Hiruko had a crush on Orochimaru from a young age, that's why he imitated his jutsus and science as much as he could while researching how to improve his weak body.
35. Dan Katou was the sensei of the previous InoShikaCho generation (Shikaku, Inoichi and Chouza).
36. The one and only reason Tsunade left the village with Shizune when Dan died was so Danzou couldn't snatch her away to Root after being orphaned.
37. Sakumo's sleeve is a homage to his wife's clan of origin (fanart).
*(Original artist link seems not to be working lately... In case it happens, you can still see the art here).
38. Hatakes have white chakra by default, it's not something solely from Kakashi's inherited tantō.
39. Sasori was the third kazekage's student at some point. I don't see how else could he have gained either the knowledge or the opportunity on how to defeat him otherwise.
40. Nagato's father was a Senju, since Zetsu itself canonically stated that he was of Senju descent and the mother was likely the Uzumaki.
41. Aburame clan has an "ant colony" structure, that's why no woman has appeared. There's the queen ant and the rest are male drones. Meaning, female births are extremely rare because they will become the next "queen".
42. Muta Aburame was female (because we deserved one, geez!)
43. Gaku Inuzuka was Kiba's father, just because there's no other shown options to choose from. That means he was 9 years older than Tsume (which is quite a big age gap I'm not comfortable with).
44. Kakashi is not an Inuzuka. He was supposed to learn how to summon Hatake wolves, but Sakumo died too soon to teach him that. So Kakashi took the most similar thing he found on his own, the ninken.
45. As a child, Kakashi started to wear a mask in order to stop people comparing him to Sakumo and stand out for himself. After his shame happened, he kept wearing it to detach himself from his father's shadow.
46. Kakashi was the one who found Anko in that hut in the Land of Waves, after she decided to abandon Orochimaru.
47. Honoka is an Uzumaki. She's indeed alive, now freed from guarding the bakemono's seal, and in a relationship with Aoba Yamashiro.
48. Raidou Namiashi's scar was caused accidentally by Genma Shiranui during their childhood, when Minato Namikaze was trying to teach them and Iwashi Tatami the hiraishin. Genma still feels bad for it even nowadays.
49. Mawashi Dokuraku and Mozuku were originally the same manga character, period. Someone just messed up big in the databooks -_-!
50. IzuKote is totally a thing XD. They live together as a couple.
Since Kakuzu killed the council or whatever when he defected I wonder who was in-charge after he left.
Was it like a power vacuum situation or like a secretary of state succession type vibe
Did Kakuzu care at all what happened after he left, or was it like 'cousin Itoko I leave the rest to you' type vibe. (probably just left tbh, i imagine his family disowned him if he wasn't some kind of orphan. oof not getting disowned by his parental figure who was also on the council...)
Like they got it back together enough to not completely fall apart after everyone died (and I mean what kind of terrible plan is -> order your [unofficially] strongest shinobi to kill the undefeatable strongest shinboi -> punish him cruelly when he manages to escape and loyally return to the village -> act *surprised* when strongest shinobi steals forbidden jutsu and kills you all
So maybe the townspeople were like finally those stupid assholes are dead (even tho, they probably were pro-punish the ace shinobi) but I mean the era was chaotic as hell anyway so they were probably running through councils like wet tissue
But the next question is how did they make everything seem casual when they got the 7-tails. Like Hashirama was just like "man i fw y'all for trying. Now for PEACE I will give you the third most tailed beast. BTW where is Kakuzu" and they just pretended he was on a mission or something or did Hashirama know about the internal chaos and gave Taki the 7-tails anyway
The moment the executioners cut his mouth into an eerie, grotesque semblance of a smile and saw that look in his eyes, it became crystal clear to everyone that the peace was never an option.
Naruto Headcanons - Which Villages are you From? (Celebrity Edition)
a fun and quick idea that came to mind today...
Tinashe - Konoha
Donald Trump - Konoha. A direct relative of Danzo.
Joe Biden - Konoha
BTS:
RM - Kiri
Suga - Kiri
J-Hope - Iwa
Jimin - Konoha
Jin - Konoha
Jungkook - Konoha
V - Suna
Carbi B - Puts Kumo on her resume but comes from Takigakure.
Jaejoong & Taeyong - Kiri
Enimem - Iwa but lives both in Konoha and Kumo on an illegal visa.
Fergie - Kumo
Taylor Swift - Amegakure but pretends to be from Konoha. Actually come from the ruling class of Ame and live comfortably with the money made from the conflicts plaguing the country.
Hadid Sisters - Suna
Ice Spice - Otogakure (Land of Sound)/Orochimaru's Easter Hideout. One of his disciple grifting as a Kumo resident.
Drake - Mount Myoboku
Kendrick Lamar - Kumo. Supposed to be Gyuki's jinchuriki but they chose Killer Bee instead.
Kanye West - Otogakure/Land of Sounds. Took control of the region after kicking the snake out
Madonna - One of Orichimaru's skinsuit
Megan thee Stallion - Kumo. The Hot Girl Kunoichi
Olivia Rodriguo - Takigakure
Pinkpantheress - Otogakure/Land of Sound. She was working for Orochimaru until she found a keyboard in the hideout. Mastered it and left to become a sound ninja (musician).
