Kankurō

is a supporting character in the series. He is a jōnin-level shinobi of Sunagakure, and is the younger brother of Temari and the older brother of Gaara, being the middle child of the late Fourth Kazekage. He was also appointed as captain of the Allied Shinobi Forces' Surprise Attack Division.

Personality
In Part I, one noticeable personality trait he displayed is an apparent dislike for children, first seen when he attempted to beat up Konohamaru for running into him. This carried over to many of his interactions with other characters, as he was noticeably irritated when in the presence of someone younger than him. This was most evident when he was seen with Gaara, who Kankurō was forced to put up with due to the fear his younger brother imposed on him.

Despite their apparent differences, Gaara and Kankurō become very close over the time skip, as Gaara began to confide in Kankurō, and shared his dreams of wanting to risk his life to protect Sunagakure. As such, Kankurō has become very protective of Gaara, willing to challenge anyone who insults Gaara in his presence. When Gaara was captured by Akatsuki, Kankurō rushed to his brother's aid in an attempt to save him and risked his life for him. But he was quickly defeated by Sasori, though joined Temari in looking for Gaara as soon as he was able to walk. At one point when Kankurō had been poisoned by Sasori he was heard muttering Gaara's name though he was unconscious, which showed how much he cared for Gaara. Once Gaara was found and saved, Kankurō joined Temari in thanking Team 7 for saving their brother.

In the original Japanese, Kankurō speaks with a distinctive Yokohama dialect. He can often be heard ending his sentences with "jaan." This makes him sound tough, as this accent is often used for biker gang members or punk kids (called yankii in Japanese, Yokohama supposedly has many) in manga. It is possible that he was given this accent to make him sound different from the Konoha characters' standard Tokyo Japanese.

Appearance
In Part I, Kankurō wears a black, baggy, full body suit with a red and yellow circle on the front. He also wears a black hood with cat-like ears and his forehead protector on his forehead. This hood covers his hair completely. Both this and later outfits are derived from traditional bunraku puppeteer costumes; bunraku puppeteers usually wear black and often wear hoods so as not to distract from the puppet. When he first made an appearance, Kankurō sported a triangular face-paint design, which changed to a different cross-like design from the Sasuke Retrieval arc up until Part II. He also wears gloves and carries his puppets on his back.

In Part II, Kankurō again changed his face-paint. He also has a new puppet, as well as wearing a black outfit consisting of a long top and trousers with a red tie around his waist. He is revealed to have brown hair in Part II and is seen with no headgear, where he looks a lot like his father. His hood changes later on when seen again and wears a kimono type garment. He carries his puppets on his back still, only they are now in scrolls. He also sports a new face paint. It is now starting from one cheek to the lips and to the end of the other cheek, and another line starting from the top of the upper lip to the bottom of the chip. It looks like it forms the letter T. For a brief time, his face-paint also changed back to the cross-like design and had a new design with a line going across his eyes and a T-shaped design below his upper lip.

Upon the beginning of the Fourth Shinobi World War, Kankurō wears the standard attire of a Sunagakure ninja, along with his hood, which now has the symbol of the Allied Shinobi Forces stitched on to it.

Abilities
Kankurō is a talented puppeteer, indicated when Sasori, a master of the Puppet Technique, complimented Kankurō's abilities. He has great skill in both modifying and controlling puppets, and was physically strong enough to carry around two puppets on his back in Part I, though in Part II he instead uses scrolls to store them in.

As puppeteers are long range fighters who rely on their puppets in combat, Kankurō is weak against close range combat. However, he has come up with many ways of escaping it: he's shown to act quite deceptively, switching places with his puppets using the Body Replacement Technique, also altering their appearances to resemble his, to escape close combat when an opponent gets too close, while at the same time putting his puppets in range of the enemy, allowing Kankurō to catch his foes off guard and kill them.

When initially introduced, Kankurō could only use a single puppet per time. However, he would in subsequent years hone his puppeteer skills and become a puppet master himself, capable of manoeuvring more puppets at the same time. He also displayed the ability to attach his own chakra threads to another puppeteer's, a feat that earned him Sasori's praise. Kankurō claims his Black Secret Technique has surpassed Sasori's Red Secret Technique.

Puppet Master
With each of his appearances in the major arcs, Kankurō is seen with a new puppet in his arsenal. The four puppets that have been introduced were all originally created by Sasori (the fourth actually being Sasori himself), and came into Kankurō's possession some time after Sasori left Sunagakure. His first three puppets are destroyed by Sasori at the start of Part II. After having his puppets destroyed, he took Sasori's body and used it as a puppet after his death. During the Fourth Great Shinobi War, he is seen with the previously destroyed puppets, that have been repaired, plus a duplicate of the Black Ant.

Kankurō's puppets seem to be designed to work together to some degree, as seen when they use the Black Secret Technique Machine One Shot technique, where Crow navigates an opponent into Black Ant's torso. Once trapped, Crow separates its limbs to reveal a number of concealed weapons, which enter the slots on Black Ant's body to impale the opponent. Similar in purpose, though only needing one puppet, the anime-only Black Secret Technique Machine Two Shot calls upon four scythe-like blades to run along the sides of Black Ant's body, reaping the victim inside. Black Secret Technique: Machine Triple Shot is used by Kankurō to trap more people and kill them at the same time. In the anime, Kankurō was also shown combining his puppets' attacks to make them more dangerous, as seen when they use the Poison Mist Hell: Hundred Continuous Hell technique, where Crow blankets the area in a smokescreen while Black Ant fires poisoned needles at the blinded opponent.

Kankurō's last puppet, Scorpion, which he obtained after Sasori's death, had several modifications. It retains its stinger, flamethrower and the blades on its back, plus he installed the mechanism to use Mechanic Light Shield Seal on its right arm and modified its left arm to extend. Kankurō can use the Red Secret Technique: Machinery Triangles with this puppet. After defeating Sasori in the first clash of the Fourth Great Shinobi War, the puppet master passed on his Mother and Father puppets on to Kankurō.

Chūnin Exam Arc
Soon after their arrival in Konoha for the Chūnin Exams, Kankurō and his siblings ran into Team 7. Although Kankurō was tempted to pick on its members, he was threatened by Gaara to stop. During the written portion of the exam, meant to test the examinees' cheating abilities, Kankurō disguised his puppet Crow as a proctor. After using Crow to gather answers from other tests, Kankurō asked to go to the bathroom. Crow escorted him and gave him the answers.

During the survival portion of the exam, he was seen, only briefly, by Kiba, Shino, and Hinata while Gaara brutally murdered a team of Amegakure genin.

During the preliminary matches, Kankurō was paired with Misumi Tsurugi. Misumi quickly wrapped himself around Kankurō's body, threatening to break Kankurō's neck if he did not forfeit. Kankurō refused, so Misumi made good on his threat by appearing to kill Kankurō. Before the match could be called in Misumi's favour, the Kankurō that Misumi attacked was revealed to have been Crow in disguise, while Kankurō was hiding where Crow was supposed to be. Kankurō quickly made Crow grab hold of Misumi and brutally constrict him, breaking his bones before he could surrender. Misumi survived, but was in no condition to fight, and Kankurō was declared the winner.

Invasion of Konoha Arc
In the final round matches set to take place a month later, Kankurō was scheduled to fight Shino Aburame. Because he was to take part in Sunagakure's invasion of Konoha, planned to begin before his match with Shino, Kankurō outfitted Crow especially for the invasion. When the invasion was delayed and Kankurō's fight with Shino was to begin, Kankurō forfeited, not wanting to reveal Crow's new features.

When the invasion began, Kankurō and Temari escorted an injured Gaara out of the village. When they discovered they were being followed, Kankurō stayed behind to buy time. Before he could engage their pursuer, Sasuke Uchiha, Shino arrived to fight him instead, wanting to have the battle he was denied in the finals. Sasuke continued following Gaara, while Shino and Kankurō began to fight. Kankurō had Crow begin an immediate assault, but Shino avoided the attacks and, unbeknownst to Kankurō, planted a bug on him. Kankurō then launched a poison smoke bomb at Shino. Shino inhaled some of the gas, but was able to escape and use his bugs to trap and restrain Crow. Before he lost complete use of Crow, he tried to launch a final attack, only to discover that Shino's bugs, guided by the bug placed on him earlier, had found his location and consumed all his chakra.

Kankurō is left unable to move, but Shino, because of the poison gas he inhaled, passed out and couldn't finish him off. He was later found by Temari, and together they helped Gaara get back to Sunagakure. Gaara, having been defeated by Naruto, wearily apologized to both of his siblings. Kankurō, utterly shocked, stammered out words of forgiveness.

Sasuke Retrieval Arc
Kankurō and his siblings were sent by Sunagakure to help Konoha retrieve Sasuke Uchiha. Kankurō came to the aid of Kiba Inuzuka and his dog Akamaru, saving them from Sakon and Ukon. While Crow protected Kiba and Akamaru from Ukon, Sakon tried to use his Parasite Demon Demolition Technique to fuse with Kankurō's body. It was revealed to be Kankurō's new puppet, Black Ant, in disguise, which immediately attacked Sakon. Kankurō had Crow navigate Sakon and Ukon into Black Ant's body, trapping them. Crow then split apart to reveal an assortment of weapons that bombarded and pierced Black Ant, killing Sakon and Ukon.

After the battle ended, with Sasuke gone and almost all of the Konoha ninja hospitalized, but alive, Kankurō and his siblings were seen off by Shikamaru Nara.

Kazekage Rescue Arc
Two and a half years later, when Gaara was defeated and captured by Deidara and Sasori, two members of Akatsuki, Kankurō followed in hot pursuit, determined to stop them from taking his brother. To defeat the Akatsuki pair, Kankurō released his puppets from their carrying scrolls (Crow, Black Ant, and his new puppet Salamander) to challenge the Akatsuki members. Sasori agreed to fight, but immediately repelled an attack from Crow, revealing himself to be the puppets' creator, thus knowing all of their secrets.

Since their fight went unseen in the manga, the anime adaptation explained the circumstances of Kankurō's defeat. While able to combine the use of his puppets with great effectiveness, Kankurō was unable to bypass Sasori's defences. Sasori captured each of the puppets in turn, disassembling them, before attacking Kankurō with his poison-coated tail. Kankurō collapsed, but with the last of his strength, was able to have a piece of Crow tear off part of Sasori's cloak. Sasori left, giving Kankurō three days before the poison killed him.

Soon after, Team 7 arrived at Sunagakure to help in rescuing Gaara, and while they were there, Sakura Haruno cured Kankurō, and created an antidote from the poison still in his system. Kankurō then provided Team 7 with the part of Sasori's cloak that he had taken, which they used to track down Gaara. He was shown to be very irritated that he could not be the one to rescue Gaara. After a few episodes he was seen attempting to walk, though would have fallen over if Baki had not been passing by his room and caught him. He then attended the meeting with the council and tried to punch a council member for stating the village would be better off without Gaara, though was stopped by Baki. He was seen again when he was in his bedroom and a photo of him and his siblings fell and cracked, an omen signifying Gaara's death. Kankurō later set out with Temari to catch up with Team 7 which was shown to be his idea when Temari stated his plan had fallen apart. When Gaara was found and revived, he was the one who explained to Naruto about the puppet core and the technique used by Chiyo to revive Gaara. Kankurō joined Temari in thanking Team 7 for saving their brother, and personally thanked Naruto.

Five Kage Summit Arc
Kankurō was seen coming late to escorting Gaara to the five Kage meeting called for by the Fourth Raikage. Temari was also there, scolding him for being late, as they were escorting Gaara to the Summit of the Five Kage together. Kankurō countered that he was only late because it had taken him a "while to figure out [a] new trick" and that it wasn't like Gaara needed bodyguards. Kankurō's facial make-up and outfit had once again changed.

Kankurō and his siblings were all later seen as having made it to the Five Kage Summit, being hosted in the Land of Iron, safely without incident, and were greeted by Mifune and his samurai. He made a comment that it was cold and that the weather there was the opposite of what it was like in the Land of Wind. Kankurō, along with Temari, watched as the Kage held their meeting, becoming annoyed with the Third Tsuchikage's comments towards Gaara's youth and inexperience as a Kage. He was later seen going on the offensive momentarily along with the other escorts when the Raikage crushed the section of the table in front of him, revealing an unknown cloaked puppet; but was stopped at Gaara's request. When the white half of Zetsu appeared, he went on the defensive, bringing out his cloaked puppet again.

Later on, Kankurō joined his siblings in joining the Raikage's fight against Sasuke. As they made their appearance, Kankurō used his Chakra Threads to first pull the burning armour off of a samurai, and then to puppeteer his new white-cloaked puppet once more, then revealed to be the puppet body of Sasori. The Sand Siblings and Darui attacked Sasuke simultaneously, with Kankurō in particular showing off his new Red Secret Technique: Machinery Triangles, though it proved to be useless against Sasuke's upgraded Susanoo. Sasuke escaped and got inside the Summit. Kankurō was protected from the collapsing room by Gaara's sand, like his sister and Darui, and the group chased Sasuke back up to the Summit.

When they arrived there, Madara was seen holding an unconscious Sasuke, and explained his "Eye of the Moon Plan". When the Kage refused to give Akatsuki the two remaining Jinchūriki, he declared the Fourth Shinobi World War, and left. The Kage later agreed that the Raikage should become the leader of the new Shinobi Alliance, and Kankurō, along with the others present, bore witness to the birth of this alliance.

Later on, the siblings interrupted Naruto and Sai's conversation regarding Sakura, and explained what had happened in the Five Kage Summit. Kankurō then left with Gaara and Temari to return to the Land of Wind.

Shinobi World War Arc
Kankurō is placed in the Surprise Attack Division alongside Sai and Omoi as their captain. Omoi questions if Kankurō will make a good captain as he's so young. Once again, he sports a new face paint design, similar to the style he had during the Sasuke Retrieval Arc, but without the stripe going down the bridge of his nose. He also once again has three scrolls on his back, as during the Kazekage Rescue Arc. The squad later moved out on Sai's ink birds.

Omoi begins to worry about the war, and when he comments he and Kankurō are almost the same age and asks if it is Kankurō's first time fighting in a war, Kankurō says it is. Omoi then asks him if he's worried, and Kankurō says that because how they perform will make a huge impact on the outcome of the war the only thing he should be thinking about is how to make the operation a success. That is, if Omoi wanted to protect his family and friends.

After landing in enemy territory, Kankurō immediately gives out orders and the party sets up base. However, they soon encounter an injured Muta Aburame, but Kankurō easily sees it as a trap recognizing Muta's movements as being odd. He quickly saves Zaji, and thanks to Ittan, they escape the ensuing explosion. When Deidara reveals himself, he calls out for Sasori to reveal himself also, knowing that it was him controlling the ninja. Both Deidara and Kankurō identify each other as Ambush Divisions and Kankurō claims that it's rare for two Ambush Squads from opposite sides to encounter each other. When Omoi cuts Sasori's chakra threads from Tokuma and Ranka, Kankurō attaches his own to Sasori's and pulls him into the battlefield, telling Ittan to raise the earth again, causing Sasori to hit it hard. Sasori praises him for the improvement of his technique, and Kankurō says he's flattered, but that his Black Secret Technique has surpassed Sasori's Red Secret Technique before revealing Sasori's former puppet body. He then commands Ittan to protect the injured in a protective dome. Kankurō fights Sasori, who uses Shin as a puppet.

Hoheto alerts Kankurō that Shin has Deidara's clay inside him. Kankurō uses Salamander, which was hidden underground, to smother the blast. When Sai attacks Deidara and Sasori, he uses two Black Ant puppets to capture them, using Crow to impale Sasori. Kankurō then uses the coil of Sasori's puppet body to make sure the Black Ant puppets will remain closed. He then tells Sasori that his strength came from his soul not in spite of it and that the way he should have been immortalized was through the puppets he'd leave behind that he put his heart and soul into making.

He then says that he should have been a top class puppeteer not someone that allows someone else to manipulate him, and that one's soul forever remains in his creations. Sasori acknowledges Kankurō's words and as his soul begins to return to rest, he calls out to Kankurō, entrusting his Mother and Father puppets to him, and leaving him with instructions to pass them on to the next generation. As Sasori's form reverts to dust and ash, Kankurō explains that it looks like their enemy's technique has a hole in it, pointing out that people's inner emotions aren't so easy to restrain.

Later, Kankurō faces the backup group consisting of Hanzō, Chiyo, Chūkichi and Kimimaro. Chiyo commends him on his victory over Sasori. He tells his men to retreat, realising that they could not face such powerful opponents by themselves. As they retreat, Hanzō summons his Salamander. It then releases a smoke poison that makes Kankurō and his team's bodies go numb. As Hanzō moves to finish off Kankurō, Mifune arrives and clashes with Hanzō, saving him.

Trivia

 * In addition to his Kabuki-like make-up, the fact that he uses puppets as well, as the black outfit and cap he wears, are possibly an allusion to Bunraku, Japanese puppet theatre. His entire character seems to be an allusion to stage arts. One of Bunraku's most prominent artists is Kanjuro Kiritake III.
 * Whenever Kankurō appears in a new arc of the manga, he sports a new design of purple face paint. This could be a nod to Kabuki theatre, where face paint is often used. In the art of putting on make-up, each of the colours mean something, purple representing nobility and loftiness.
 * In the omake, Temari said if Kankurō keeps talking to his puppets like they are alive, friends won't hang out with him anymore.
 * Kankurō was ranked as the 19th most popular character in the sixth and most recent Naruto character popularity poll. He placed 30th in the fifth poll.
 * According to the Naruto databook:
 * Kankurō's hobby is collecting puppets, and installing and upgrading the mechanisms in them.
 * Kankurō wishes to fight with anyone but Gaara.
 * Kankurō's favourite food is hamburger steaks, while his least favourite food is spinach.
 * Kankurō has completed 43 official missions in total: 0 D-rank, 9 C-rank, 10 B-rank, 23 A-rank, 1 S-rank.
 * Kankurō's favourite phrase is.

Quotes

 * (To Kiba about Sakon and Ukon) "I can't back down when they show me no respect."
 * "I'll show you the real power of the battle puppet Crow."
 * (To Naruto) "Naruto... please save my little brother."
 * (To Naruto) "Aww, don't sweat it. Women always go weak in the knees for that cool, elite type of guy. So what can you do, am I right?"
 * (To Gaara about Sasuke) "Don't make this personal... You're the Kazekage."
 * (To Omoi) "How well or poorly we execute our ambush will have a huge impact on this war and how many casualties we suffer. If you wanna protect your friends and family, the only thing you should be thinking about is how to make this operation a success!"
 * (To Sasori) "Sasori... your strength came because of your soul, not in spite of it. You tried to erase it, to become a puppet yourself, but couldn't change completely. Now you've got your immortal body but you've fallen, sunk to the level of the puppets you used to control. You were supposed to be a top class ninja puppeteer, not a worthless nobody who lets someone else pull the strings."