Mizuki

is a chūnin-level shinobi of Konohagakure and a former instructor at the Academy. He later becomes the first antagonist of the series.

Background
Though not revealed in the manga, the anime expanded on Mizuki's background. His childhood friend was Iruka Umino. Mizuki often stood up for Iruka when Iruka felt bad about losing his parents. However, he began to hate Iruka when other people began treating Iruka better than him, including their friends, the Third Hokage, and even people they didn't know. Eventually, his kindness towards Iruka became only a front to make other people notice him and find ways to discreetly keep Iruka miserable. Despite obtaining the rank of chūnin he initially failed to become an Academy instructor as he was suspected of killing a team-mate on a previous mission. This caused Mizuki to despise Konohagakure even though he eventually became an Academy instructor. Later on, he decided he would do whatever it took to rise to glory, even joining ranks with Orochimaru.

Personality
Originally, Mizuki appeared to be very polite and kind-hearted, and was described to be a sweet man by his former lover, Tsubaki. In reality, he does not care for anything or anyone beyond his own rise in power. He takes pride in the fact that he is not bound by things like morals or teamwork, and is willing to sacrifice whatever he has to in order to complete his goals. His desire for power seems to come from what appears to be an inferiority complex, as he cannot stand having anyone look down on him. In what is perhaps an attempt to make him even more of an antithesis to Naruto, Mizuki's least favourite food is ramen, which happens to be Naruto's favourite. Mizuki also has a particular hatred for Naruto, seeing him only as the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox. It is unknown if Mizuki had started off with these negative traits and was merely hiding it with the façade of a sweet man, or was indeed once the sweet man Tsubaki claimed, but became corrupted as time passed. Mizuki is also greatly ambitious and dishonourable.

Appearance
Mizuki had shoulder-length, white hair that had a slight hint of blue to it and green eyes. He wore the standard attire of the Konoha-nin before his defection, which included flak jacket and forehead protector which he wore like a bandanna. After his time in prison, he became much more muscular and wore a short, open, blue vest with the arms torn off and pants. His cursed seal which took the form of tiger-like stripes also gave him a more feral look.

Abilities
At the beginning of the series, Mizuki did not seem very skilled beyond proficiently wielding large shuriken. His abilities were expanded upon in the anime, where he was revealed to have always been considered a very clever and talented ninja with a knack for learning advanced jutsu. He was even strong enough to defeat a jōnin such as Shizune when under the influence of the Animal Cursed Seal. In truth, the reason he had never advanced beyond chūnin was because there were suspicions on his conduct while in the field. He was also shown to be a very cunning manipulator from how he so easily deceived Naruto and then later the Legendary Stupid Brothers (although both cases were not too difficult, as Naruto was considered to be a little naive at the time, while the Legendary Stupid Brothers were simply unintelligent).

After Mizuki's life in prison, he seemed to be much more muscular and had an extreme amount of strength. During his battle with Iruka, he demonstrated a new mastery of a random assortment of jutsu. While mostly improvised, he proved very capable of using them in clever combinations that Iruka just barely survived.

Animal Cursed Seal
Orochimaru has granted Mizuki a special tattoo which was a prescription of a potion that initially transformed him into a muscle-bound behemoth of himself, with tremendous raw speed and strength. It also allowed him to gain the appearance of a tiger-like being with even greater strength but with much weaker speed, but since the potion was incomplete, his body was eventually destroyed, turning him into a shriveled up old man. Although Tsunade managed to save his life and restore his body, Mizuki lost all of his battle and physical prowess and was never able to become a ninja again.

Introduction Arc
At the series' start, he tricked Naruto Uzumaki into stealing Konoha's Scroll of Seals, which contains a number of forbidden jutsu. He convinced Naruto to do it by appearing sympathetic towards him, and told him that it would help him graduate from the Academy, but, in actuality, he despised Naruto. While he intended to steal the scroll from Naruto and to use Naruto as a scapegoat in the meantime, Iruka eventually figured out what he was up to and quickly caught up with Naruto and Mizuki. Realizing that it would be harder to get the scroll from Naruto if he teamed up with Iruka, he decided that he had to get Naruto to not trust Iruka. Mizuki then revealed to Naruto the truth about his past and why the village despised him: that he is the container for the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox.

As Naruto was frozen in shock by this knowledge, Mizuki used this to his advantage by hurling a giant shuriken at the frightened Naruto. Iruka jumped in at the last second to block the shuriken with his own back, wounding him. Later, because of Iruka's kind, caring words and selfless action, Naruto had the courage to use the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique he had learned from the scroll to defeat Mizuki as punishment for harming Iruka, which inevitably greatened Mizuki's hatred for Naruto.

Mizuki Strikes Back Arc
In the manga, Mizuki claimed that he wanted the Scroll of Seals to gain infinite power for himself. However, the anime's filler arc showed that, as another supporter of Orochimaru, he intended to give the scroll to his master. During the filler arc, a much bigger and more muscular Mizuki was seen in a prison of the Leaf village. After leading a prison riot to escape from jail, Mizuki used the instructions depicted on a tattoo on his right elbow, given to him by Orochimaru, to create a potion. Before that, he visited his lover, Tsubaki, who claimed that Mizuki used to be a sweet man, but that, ever since he got involved with Orochimaru, her relationship with Mizuki had faltered. Mizuki knocked out Tsubaki, whom he apparently did not love any more, and travelled to a cave where he could find the ingredient to the potion.

After consuming the potion, Mizuki obtained enhanced strength and power, stripes along his body, and enlarged arms. Later, the potion gave him a tiger-like appearance, but he became much slower. Naruto managed to defeat him with the Rasengan, and Iruka noticed that Naruto had surpassed him. Mizuki was yet another victim of Orochimaru's manipulation, and turned into an angry, shrivelled, and powerless old man when the potion dissipated, due to the fact that the ingredients were incomplete. Although Mizuki would have died from the potion's side-effects, Tsunade prevented the worst and eventually returned him back to his normal state (although he wouldn't be able to be a ninja any more) and interrogated him about the whereabouts of Orochimaru, but learned nothing of any use.

Trivia

 * Mizuki's name means "cornel", a variety of the dogwood shrub.
 * According to the first databook:
 * His favourite food is chirashizushi while his least favourite food is ramen.
 * His favourite phrase is.