Jigen

is the leader of Kara and the current vessel for Isshiki Ōtsutsuki.

Background
At some point in his life, under unknown circumstances, he was given a Kāma and became the vessel of Isshiki Ōtsutsuki. During Kawaki's childhood, Jigen bought the boy from his father with a large sum of money. After taking custody of him, Jigen introduced himself as Kawaki's new father, while telling him he could make himself at ease now. He would later attempt to transfer Kāma to Kawaki and fourteen other boys, with Kawaki being the only known success and thirteen dying outright. Jigen put Kawaki through gruelling training so he'd master the Kāma, and would constantly berate him as only having value as a vessel for the Kāma, striking the boy whenever he questioned him.

Personality
While it is unclear how much of Jigen's nature is his own and how much is influenced by Isshiki, Jigen appears to be formal and courteous, addressing the fellow members of his organisation politely before beginning their meeting, and even extends his manners to his enemies, as he politely greeted Naruto Uzumaki, and apologised for having not removing his shoes when entering the Uzumaki household. He also lacks the confrontational tendencies of Delta, preferring to only incapacitate enemies when not necessarily having to kill them and even willing to avoid conflict if potential adversaries are agreeable to his terms, as shown by how he merely left Naruto pinned down after he easily knocked him aside and was willing to accept Kawaki's deal of sparing Naruto if he returned willingly. He does have a serious and authoritarian side to himself, as he is fully capable of commanding respect among the group, to the point even the prideful elderly Inner and hot-tempered Delta are easily silenced by him. He is very composed and systematic in his approach to matters at hand. Even when dealing with momentary failure, he remains determined as ever, convinced that all will fall into place as he designed it. Although he may prefer to avoid battles, when he has to fight he is shown to be very confident in his abilities, bordering arrogance, calmly declaring his intentions to eliminate the Seventh Hokage, the so-called strongest shinobi in history who had earlier defeated Delta, for his interference and even being unfazed at the prospect of facing both him and the equally powerful Sasuke Uchiha, going as far as to laugh at them for believing they could defeat him, but this self-confidence doesn't prevent Jigen from praising his opponents and also remaining calm when cornered, commending Sasuke Uchiha for his intellect and mastery of his dōjutsu along with actually thanking them for revealing the weakness of his absorption abilities instead of lashing out. At the same time, he has shown an irritable side, as when tasks fail to reach his expectations, he can lash out, as he kicked a broken tank after another setback to his plans. He is also shown to be a perfectionist, viewing his work on Kawaki and his Kāma as work of great importance and expressing disgust to see his adopted son's preference of his prosthetic right arm over the left arm that held the seal and quickly expressing his desire to restore his right arm.

He is also shown to have a very amoral and remorseless side, caring not in the slightest at how many innocent lives he must sacrifice to obtain his goals. His single-minded nature views all his actions towards Kawaki, no matter how harsh, as truly in his best interest. Apparently, he views those who value peace as the utmost priority as being cowardly and foolish, likewise considering Naruto Uzumaki a peace-obsessed idiotic coward who only cares for the peace of his village. Arrogant as he appears, Jigen is very cautious and secretive, capable of keeping the full scope of his abilities secret even from his allies. He's very perceptive and deceptive, as he had suspicions about Koji Kashin's loyalty, yet still hid it fully from the other Inners, feigning complete trust to the point of admonishing Delta for not following Koji's way of executing the mission of retrieving Kawaki, and was able to easily trick him into revealing his desire to know Jigen's secrets.

As long as it obtain results, Jigen seems to be fine when solving problems that involves financial related solutions, where Delta noted that money Jigen had invested for his experiments, where the final result was Kawaki being turned into the "vessel," was enough to buy an entire country.

Appearance
Jigen has long black hair tied in a ponyhawk style, a broad nose, eyes with large black irises that seem to blend with the pupil, and slightly pale skin. He bears a diamond-shaped Kāma mark on his chin, which when activated spreads across his chin, eyes, and body in vertical sunburst patterns. Below his left eye, he has a Roman numeral "Ⅳ" tattooed. In his first appearance he wears the black hooded cloak with maroon lining typical of Kara members, along with light-coloured capri pants and sandals, and a dark collar.

In later appearances, he dons a flowing white robe with black vertical lines on the sleeves and coattails and his personal crest on the back, loosely fastened at the waist with a tasselled belt, worn with matching red hair tie, hairband, collar, waistband, bracers, and pants, all decorated with red pearl studs, and simple sandals.

Abilities
Being the leader of Kara and vessel of Isshiki Ōtsutsuki, Jigen is a complete monster in terms of power and ability, well-regarded as by far the strongest of his organisation, far surpassing even the other Inners. While it is unclear if he actually wields the man's power or is simply a puppet of the latter, from just sensing his power, Ino Yamanaka opted that Naruto Uzumaki confront him with aid. Even while still holding back, he proved capable of pressuring Naruto and Sasuke Uchiha simultaneously, showing Koji Kashin and Kawaki's belief that the Hokage alone not being enough to defeat him wasn't exaggerated. Despite Naruto and Sasuke being forced to go full power by Jigen, he was able to defeat both of them with ease upon accessing Isshiki Ōtsutsuki's power, sealing the former while nearly killing the latter, all the while holding back.

Jigen appears to be skilful in genjutsu, as he was able to use it as a means to communicate with many over a large distance at once. Jigen also has considerable senses, as he was easily able to sense the presence of Koji's toad that went unnoticed even to Naruto. Jigen also can seemingly manifest items as he sees fit, replacing destroyed furnishings and chemical reactions, such as a table, food and drink, and even lit candles.

Ninjutsu
Jigen is able to shrink matter to microscopic levels and just as easily return it to normal so rapidly that it appears as if he conjures and vanishes objects from thin air, which he can perform with the most minute of gestures such as a mere wave of his hand or even just a flick of his fingers. He utilises this ability to launch microscopic black rods into the bodies of his foes, which then inflict catastrophic injuries and drain chakra from the victim when returned to their original size and also to enlarge them whenever necessary to counter armed blows from enemies. He can also apply the ability to his own body, allowing him to disappear from sight and manoeuvre around the battlefield, as if teleporting, fast enough to catch the likes of Naruto and Sasuke off-guard. The limitations of this ability remain unknown, but Sasuke was able to track his movement even at a microscopic level thanks to the Sharingan.

Apart from that, he can travel through dimensions with Space–Time Ninjutsu and levitate in the air. He can also perform those feats while in microscopic size to suspend himself, and teleport out of attacks he couldn't dodge. He appears to have access to his own dimension, a world with roiling purple storm clouds and desiccated white land, which he can use to strand his victims. The crater-shaped battlefield which he chooses to teleport foes into is actually a gigantic sealing coffin, with its lid suspended above the clouds. In a pinch, he can lower the lid from the sky and seal his foes within the coffin, then reduce it to a normal size.

Physical and Chakra Prowess
Jigen is an extremely skilled melee-combatant, both with weapons and hand-to-hand combat, having personally brutally trained Kawaki into becoming a specialist in close-quarters combat. He has shown tremendous speed and strength, easily kicking Naruto away, impressing the Hokage with his reaction, and effortlessly caught a punch from Kawaki when he had Kāma activated with a casual grip on his wrist, even effortlessly causing Kawaki visible pain by merely lightly twisting his arm. He is also highly durable, suffering no injuries from a kick to the jaw from Naruto in his Six Paths Sage Mode. While he had Kāma activated, Jigen was easily capable of handling Naruto in his Six Paths Sage Mode in physical combat and would have dealt a lethal blow had Sasuke not interfered in both times. Upon accessing Kāma's enhanced state, Jigen effortlessly defeated Naruto and overpowered his shadow clones within a matter of moments. He has also displayed remarkable proficiency with a large black rod to easily parry blows from Sasuke despite his skill in kenjutsu and said attacks being when he was either briefly knocked off or surprised.

Jigen wields tremendously powerful chakra, compared to Naruto in his Six Paths Sage Mode form by Kawaki. When he activated Kāma's transformed state, his chakra was such that it intimidated Sasuke into fleeing and later on unnerved both him and Naruto. Even without Kāma, his sinister chakra was already strong enough to terrify Ino Yamanaka to the point of near-collapse, whereas she only felt a slight reaction upon sensing Delta's chakra.

Kāma
Jigen possesses a Kāma mark on his chin, which he can activate at will, causing it to spread across his entire body in nearly symmetrical sunburst patterns. He is able to pass a Kāma on to other individuals through the aid of science, albeit with a low success rate, more often resulting in death, and with Kawaki's coming from him, he can synchronise with the latter's Kāma to open a portal to his current location. Jigen is also skilled enough in its usage to have taught Kawaki proper usage of its power, with Kawaki noting he knows everything about Kāma.

With his Kāma activated, even without accessing its transformed state, Jigen's power is already amplified to such levels that he was able to pressure both Naruto and Sasuke at once for an extended period of time. His physical parameters are greatly enhanced, his strength being such that his blow pushed back Naruto noticeably despite him having properly blocked it, shocking the Hokage by the feat, resilient enough to be completely uninjured and instantly recover from being harshly kicked to the jaw by Sasuke. His prowess with the absorption can absorb large quantities of chakra from tailed beast-like entities, and effortlessly neutralise Naruto's powerful Rasengan techniques and Sasuke's Amaterasu, being unaffected even while in his microscopic state. However, he can not manoeuvre as efficiently while absorbing.

When accessing the full power of the Kāma, his enhanced state progresses it far enough to make a horn protrude from his left temple and wrap around the back of his skull, resembling a crown. In this state, Jigen gains an even more tremendous boost in power, able to easily defeat both Naruto and Sasuke. He was so fast and strong he could easily dodge Sasuke's Complete Body Susanoo's sword slash and then penetrate it with a single kick to send Sasuke flying, also doing the same to Naruto's Tailed Beast Mode. Along with that, he was able to make Naruto and Sasuke bleed severely with just a few punches, even reverting Naruto back to his base form.

Ao Arc
Upon his organisation's vessel being lost, Jigen held a meeting with the other members of Kara to discuss the urgent situation, during which Koji was given the task of recovering Kawaki. As he dispelled the genjutsu, Jigen voiced that their group must recover the vessel at all costs.

Kawaki Arc
While eating a meal with Delta, she voiced her frustrations about the time it was taking to recover Kawaki, during which Jigen gave her permission to partake in the recovery of the vessel. Later, after Delta's decisive defeat by the Seventh Hokage, she reported that Koji was holding off on retrieving Kawaki to study Boruto Uzumaki after learning that the boy obtained his own Kāma. Smirking at this development, Jigen deduced that Momoshiki Ōtsutsuki was behind this. Later, Jigen went to an undisclosed location accessible only through space–time ninjutsu to see an immobilised beast. He spoke nonchalantly to it, hovering above and addressing it as Ten-Tails. The "Ten-Tails" tried to eat Jigen, but failed to do so as Jigen was out of reach. Jigen stated that it was too soon as he needed to complete the vessel. Jigen then used his Kāma to absorb more of its chakra and his physical form changed into an Ōtsutsuki who supposedly partnered with Kaguya Ōtsutsuki briefly. After absorbing the beast's chakra, Jigen intended to visit Boruto and Kawaki.

Using the connection between his and Kawaki's Kāma, Jigen teleported to Naruto Uzumaki's house instantly to bring back Kawaki. He noticed Koji's toad and watched suspiciously as it was incinerated by Koji before apologising to Naruto for his rude arrival. When Naruto rebuked his politeness with hostility and attacked him, Jigen easily subdued Naruto by pinning him down with rods and proceeded to easily restrain Kawaki and tried to reason with his wayward adopted son, noting how his prosthetic arm was merely a tracking device no different than Kāma, to him a disgusting object that he would fix when they returned to the base, and that the village was merely using Kawaki as a bait for Kara. Kawaki's Kāma activated and a horn grew out of it, surprising how much the mark advanced. Naruto then kicked him away and Jigen, seeing his foe won't back down, activated his Kāma to begin fighting the Seventh Hokage, intent on killing him for his interference. When Kawaki offered himself up in exchange for Naruto not being hurt, Jigen was willing to agree as long as he was cooperative but seeing Naruto's determination quickly changed his mind, seeing no compromise.

He then teleported Naruto to another dimension and attempted to strand him there but Sasuke arrived and kicked Jigen away. Jigen calmly identified Sasuke's identity based on his Rinnengan and criticised him for having a lousy timing that made them now pitted up against him, unfazed at facing the two without restraints. As he pressured the two legendary shinobi with his various techniques, including chakra absorption and black rod manifestation, the repeated performance ultimately let Sasuke deduce the true nature the latter. Jigen simply praised Sasuke for his analysis before deeming him the first one he should eliminate. As the two Konoha-nin began anticipating his patterns and pressured him into a retreat, Jigen praised his foes performance and thanked them for revealing his weaknesses to him before warning them in return that they would never have that same luck again as he revealed his true power and completely progressed his Kāma.

While Naruto was unimpressed by Jigen's new look, Sasuke revealed his findings, knowing about the existence of Isshiki and his juvenile Ten-Tails, knowing about the new Ōtsutsuki's goal to drain the entire planet of all its chakra. This prompted the two shinobi to fight with their full power. Despite their strong avatar forms and team-work, Jigen, now seemingly being controlled by Isshiki, easily ploughed through their defences. As he swiftly wore down and pummelled his foes, the black centre of his abdomen showing visible cracks to it, causing Isshiki to scoff at the limits of Jigen as a vessel and voiced his desire for Kawaki. Deciding to finish things quickly, he restrained the two foes by impaling them with his black rods and decided to keep Naruto alive for the time being cause of Kurama in him while killing Sasuke due to his Rinnegan's Space-Time Ninjutsu. Accepting the truth, Naruto had his clones hold off Jigen while he convinced Sasuke to escape despite his friend's protests. Jigen revealed that he was after Boruto Uzumaki for his Kāma and sealed Naruto in a giant kettle-like jar. Isshiki Otsutsuki later finds out that he is a useless vessel and teleports away.

Trivia

 * As the vessel for Isshiki, Jigen's powers draw inspiration from Issun Kotaro, a fairy tale hero from Japanese folklore who was only an inch tall. As a boy he went on an adventure to rescue a girl from an ogre, triumphing after being swallowed by it and using his sword — a needle — to attack it from within. He then claimed the ogre's magic hammer, Uchide no kozuchi, and used it to transform into a full-sized adult.