Yamato

is a member of Konoha's ANBU, and a younger peer of Kakashi Hatake. He is introduced as a temporary leader of Team Kakashi, but has since continued to work with the team. "Yamato" is actually a codename given to him by Tsunade for the purposes of joining Team Kakashi. While Kakashi was still in the ANBU, his codename was. Kakashi sometimes still calls him Tenzō, although Yamato prefers his new codename.

Background
Shortly after his birth, Yamato was abducted by Orochimaru and became one of sixty children that became test subjects of the latter. They were injected with the First Hokage's DNA in the hopes that they could replicate the First's ability to use Wood Release techniques, as well as an unquantified ability to control tailed beasts. Orochimaru was forced to flee Konoha before he could finish his experimentation, but believed that all of his test subjects had died. However, Yamato was the lone survivor, and found himself endowed with the First's abilities.

Yamato graduated from the Ninja Academy and became a chūnin at the age of six. He later joined the ANBU, and, for a time, served under the guidance of Kakashi Hatake. Yamato would also come to have the best performance record of any ANBU serving under the Third Hokage, leading the Fifth Hokage to have the utmost confidence in Yamato.

Personality
Like other ANBU members, Yamato projects a calm, stoic demeanor in stressful situations. Despite this, he can also be quite laid back when not on duty, and is not above using his Wood Release techniques for creating comforts, such as making a house to "camp out" in. While he has been good-natured so far, Yamato claims to be a different sort of leader than Kakashi, one who is not above "ruling by the use of terror" when his team misbehaves. Aside from his obviously intimidating skills as a ninja, however, this "terror" has so far primarily consisted of casting a creepy "ghoul-eyes" expression at his charges, which seems more humorous than terrifying. Naruto, however, is easily terrified by it, and stated that it felt like Yamato was controlling him with fear. He is, however, also prone to being a victim of a cruel joke when given misleading information, as witness his visible fear and subsequent annoyance when Killer Bee maliciously joked about the dangers of a jinchūriki trying to control one's own tailed beast.

Yamato is somewhat reluctant to pay for things unless he has to, as he initially protested at having to pay for lunch at Ichiraku Ramen Bar, stating that Kakashi should pay, being the senior ninja, but was flattered into paying when Kakashi said he considered Yamato an equal.

Appearance
Yamato has short brown hair and black eyes. When he first appeared, Yamato wore the standard attire of a member of the ANBU, with a mask of a cat with markings. When he meets up with Naruto, Sakura, and Sai for the first time, however, he has changed into a variation of the standard attire of a Leaf shinobi. The differences between his attire and that of the standard attire is that his does not have the red spirals on the shoulders and the neck of his is form fitting and goes up to his chin. In addition to that, he has a mask style forehead protector that frames his face, similar to that of Tobirama Senju.

Abilities
As a member of the ANBU, Yamato is highly proficient in multiple areas of shinobi combat, including tracking and trapping. During his test of his new team's skills, he demonstrated considerable ability in taijutsu, and clever use of diversionary tactics. Also, thanks to his training as an ANBU, Yamato has keen instincts in battle, allowing him to quickly react to threats.

Wood Element Techniques
Sharing the same DNA as the First Hokage, Yamato possesses the First's signature Wood Release kekkei genkai. This kekkei genkai allows him to combine Earth Release and Water Release jutsu to create trees. These trees can be grown not only from the earth and pre-existing flora, but from his own body as well, transforming the actual cells into a different form of life. He has also proven to be skilled with individual Water and Earth release jutsu.

In addition to simple binding techniques, Yamato has demonstrated multiple unique uses of Wood Release. One such example is his special Transformation Technique known as Wood Release: Transformation, in which Yamato covers his entire body with a wood imitation rather than using an illusion to mask his appearance. Perhaps his most often used technique is the Wood Clone Technique, a clone of him made with wood generated from his body. Because they share the same cells, Yamato is able to track its location, communicate with it at long distances, and absorb any information it has gathered by laying his hand on it. A less battle-oriented use of his kekkei genkai is Yamato's ability to generate wooden structures almost instantly, which he makes use of for his Wood Release: Four Pillars Prison Technique, a large cage used to hold prisoners and intimidate unruly subordinates, and the Wood Release: Four Pillars House Technique, a large house that can be erected at a moment's notice instead of setting up a camp.

However, as the technique was not originally his, Yamato has realized that he cannot use the Wood Release techniques to its full potential, resulting in his full power paling in comparison to that of Hashirama Senju.

Tailed Beast Suppression
Using the First Hokage's special necklace to amplify his powers, Yamato can suppress the power of a tailed beast. It is because of this legendary ability that Hashirama Senju was made Hokage in the first place, and it was greatly coveted by Orochimaru. Although the First Hokage could suppress entire tailed beasts, Yamato has admitted to not being as strong as the original, so it is unknown what the limits of his suppression ability are. However, he was able to suppress Naruto's four-tailed transformation in seconds. He also added a seal to the Hokage's necklace that would activate and reveal a number on his palm corresponding to the tails Naruto has active when Naruto called upon too much of the Nine-Tails' chakra, attempting to restrain him and alerting Yamato to what was happening. With the destruction of the necklace, however, Yamato claims that he can no longer help suppress tailed beasts. However, this might not be fully true, as he went with Naruto into the Falls of Truth for taming the Nine-Tails, and when Naruto was losing, Yamato tried to suppress it once again.

Sasuke and Sai arc
Yamato was assigned to lead Team 7 in meeting with one of Sasori's spies within Orochimaru's ranks. Naruto and Sakura found it difficult to work with their newest team member, Sai, and much of Yamato's time was spent trying to get them to cooperate. Upon arriving at the arranged meeting place, Yamato went ahead dressed as Sasori, to make meeting with the spy easier. After the spy arrived, who turned out to be Kabuto Yakushi, Yamato was able to learn a great deal of information until Orochimaru showed up. Just as Yamato started to contemplate how he would fight Orochimaru whilst keeping up his act as Sasori, Kabuto cut off the head of the Sasori costume, having hoped to kill the real Sasori.

Faced with a combined attack from Kabuto and Orochimaru, Yamato created a wood clone to escape, causing Orochimaru to realize that one of his test subjects had survived. A battle between Orochimaru and Naruto ensued, and Yamato spent much of his time protecting Sakura. When the battle was over, Sai was found to be missing, although a wood clone that Yamato had had following Sai revealed that the latter had joined with Orochimaru. As the clone followed Sai to Orochimaru's hideout, the rest of Team 7 followed the clone. Once they arrived, Yamato used his Wood Release abilities to infiltrate the base. When they eventually found Sai, they restrained him, and were able to learn about Sai's real mission: to join forces with Orochimaru on behalf of his organization, Root, in an attempt to destroy Konoha.

Sai was eventually freed by Kabuto, who in turn was restrained by Sai. Sai, touched by Naruto's words about Sasuke Uchiha, rejoined Team 7 in their other mission of retrieving Sasuke. When the group split up again, Yamato discovered a bingo book whilst going through some of Sai's belongings. In doing so, Yamato learnt that Sai once again had an ulterior motive: to kill Sasuke Uchiha. In desperation, Team 7 went looking for Sai, hoping to stop him from fulfilling his mission. Sai, however, had actually had a change of heart, and attempted to convince Sasuke to come back to Konoha on Naruto's behalf. Due to Sasuke's exponential growth in fighting abilities, however, Sai was no match for him.

Due to an explosive attack from Sasuke, Team 7 was able to find Sai and learn that he had really allied with them. Upon failing to persuade Sasuke to return to Konoha, the team decided to use force instead. Sasuke's growth, however, was too much for the four's joint effort, and he was able to repel them all. After a brief confrontation between Naruto and Sasuke, Yamato attempted to capture Sasuke with his Wood Release: Wood Locking Wall, although Sasuke was able to escape. As an answer to this, Yamato declared that he had no intention of getting too rough on him in front of Naruto and Sakura, but had no choice. Despite this, Sasuke prepared what appeared to be a finishing move. Orochimaru and a freed Kabuto arrived to stop him, however, and they disappeared, leaving Team 7 defeated which made them unsuccessful in their mission.

Twelve Guardian Ninja arc
In the anime, Yamato led Team 7 on a mission to the Fire Temple. Upon arrival, Chiriku informed them that the tombs belonging to a former member of the Twelve Guardian Ninja had been robbed of its corpse. While Yamato pondered the motive for this, word reached them which had reached the Fire Temple that the graves of three other former Ninja Guardian members had also had their corpses stolen. Yamato, his team, and Chiriku went to investigate and find the four coffins. While Yamato knew it was clearly some sort of trap, he knew they had no choice but to play along if they wished to retrieve the bodies.

As they neared the coffins, the trap was sprung, and the team became trapped in a rocky cavern. While searching for the way out whilst dodging more traps, Yamato was approached by one of the thieves, Fudo. Caught off guard and completely unprepared for an opponent such as this, Yamato was overpowered by Fudo's unique earth-jutsu prowess and indestructible body, forcing him on the defensive. Eventually, Fudo caught him in a rock-crushing jutsu, but deceived Fudo by merging with the rocks. Yamato regrouped with his team and, having failed to recover the stolen corpses or capture the tomb robbers, returned to Konoha with Sora.

Later, when the tomb robbers emerged again to attack Konoha, Yamato was one of the few Jōnin still available to defend the village. He was then sent out to stop one of the resurrected Ninja Guardians from completing the Limelight jutsu, but was intercepted by Fudo. After feeling out Fudo's attack patterns, Yamato used Fudo's blunt attack methods to set up the area for a water jutsu to trap Fudo in mud. He then proceeded to finished off Fudo by crushing him with a wood-jutsu. He went to join Asuma and the others in stopping the bandits' leader, Furido, who released Sora's Nine-Tailed Demon Fox chakra. Because Yamato's wood release was not as refined as the First Hokage's, he couldn't suppress Sora's spliced demon chakra. Yamato instead used his wood jutsu to protect his allies from Sora's attacks.

Hidan and Kakuzu arc
Kakashi recruited Yamato to help with Naruto's training in creating a new jutsu. In addition to being able to create training devices for Naruto with his Wood Release abilities, Yamato was also able to subdue Naruto if he lost control of the Nine-Tails' chakra. Once Naruto completed the initial stages of his training, he moved onto perfecting his pre-existing Rasengan. Kakashi, however, was not able to oversee Naruto in these final stages, due to his volunteering to help Team 10 in the fight against Akatsuki. As such, he left Yamato in charge of the jutsu's perfection. Yamato was able to give advice in the jutsu's creation, and eventually bore witness to the fruits of Naruto's training.

Once Naruto had perfected his jutsu enough to be used in battle, Yamato, Naruto, and the rest of Team 7 joined Kakashi and Team 10. After teaming up with Naruto to stop an attack by Kakuzu, Yamato convinced Kakashi to allow Naruto to fight Kakuzu alone. Once Naruto was successful in defeating Kakuzu, Yamato joined everyone else in returning to Konoha.

Three-Tailed Beast arc
In the anime, Team Kakashi was sent to provide back-up for Team 8 and Kakashi. When they located the team, Yamato assisted in rescuing Hinata. They pursued the opposing Team Guren to a lake, where they located the Three-Tailed Beast. The two teams shifted objectives and, once back-up from Konoha arrived, began trying to seal the beast. Yamato was put in charge of a team meant to stop any attempted interference, but ultimately proved unsuccessful. He made a hideout for the teams to regroup in, and later facilitated in Naruto's rescue from the Three-Tails. After another failed sealing attempt, Yamato returned to Konoha with the others.

Hunt for Itachi arc
When Kakashi received permission from Tsunade to lead a special team to capture Itachi Uchiha in order to bait Sasuke, Yamato joined him as acting head of Team 8, with the pregnant Kurenai remaining behind in the village. Following a confrontation with Sasuke's cohorts in Hebi and members of the Akatsuki, the group was forced to abandon the mission and return to Konoha.

Six-Tailed Beast arc
In the anime, on their way back to the village, Katsuyu appears and gives the team orders for a new mission, to help the Tsuchigumo clan protect their infamous and forbidden jutsu from being taken by ninja bandits. While Kakashi returns to the village for more information, Yamato is put in charge of the team. Yamato and his team unfortunately arrive at the clan's base to late, as the bandits had already broken through its defenses and forced the former clan leader's granddaughter, Hotaru to retreat into the woods. Upon finding her, they discover that she was traveling with a stranger named Utakata who seemed indifferent to Hotaru's well-being as he decided to leave her in the Leaf Ninja's care. After successfully bringing Hotaru to her village, despite the mission being completed, Naruto refused to leave yet as he felt something was wrong from how the village was so hesitant to let Hotaru return. Upon investigating, it was discovered that the bandits tracked Hotaru down and drove her back into the woods.

While searching for her, they discovered Utakata had returned and was being attacked by Mist ANBU Hunter-nin who were holding Hotaru hostage. After managing to calm Naruto down, Yamato tried to talk with the ANBU, explaining the situation and asking them to release Hotaru. The ANBU initially agreed under the condition they hand over Utakata, Yamato refused as he knew Hotaru would refuse to go with the Leaf Ninja if Utakata didn't come along. Suddenly, the ANBU's squad captain appeared to make a deal with Yamato, not wanting things to become a war between the two villages. It was then agreed that the ANBU would release Hotaru and not pursue Utakata until the Leaf ninja's mission was complete, as long as the Leaf Ninja agreed not to interfere with their pursuing of Utakata afterwards.

Later, the shocking truth is revealed that Hotaru has the clan’s forbidden jutsu embedded in her back. After learning that Hotaru asked for this to help restore the clan, it is acknowledged the just will only cause more harm and preparations are made to safely remove the jutsu from Hotaru’s back and destroy it. Not wanting to give up just yet, Hotaru insists they find a man named Shiranami‎‎ who should be able to help protect the jutsu, who Naruto goes off to find. Unfortunately, Hotaru runs off when Utakata suddenly leaves. Yamato has Sai track her down back to her clan's village, which has been taken control of by Shiranami himself, who is also the bandit's leader. Yamato and the others arrive in time to hold off the possessed villagers while Naruto and Utakata goes on to save Hotaru.

Invasion of Pain arc
When the invasion began, Yamato was away on a mission with Sai and Anko Mitarashi, trying to locate and capture Kabuto. Just when they located Kabuto, Yamato detected that Naruto had broken the seal he had placed on the First Hokage's Necklace, and was about to completely release the Nine-Tails. He rushed back to Konoha to try and stop Naruto, but Naruto was able to come to his senses through other means. He was later seen using his Wood Release to help rebuild Konoha, putting a lot of strain on to him.

Five Kage Summit arc
When Naruto states that he wants to meet with the Fourth Raikage, Yamato advises against it; leaving the village is forbidden because of the Kage Summit, Yamato can no longer suppress the Nine-Tails because of the First Hokage's Necklace's destruction, and Yamato needs to help with the village's reconstruction. However, Naruto manages to convince Kakashi, who forces Yamato to go too. Yamato plants a Wood Clone seed on Team Samui, allowing him, Naruto, and Kakashi to follow them to the the Raikage in the Land of Iron. When Naruto is unable to sway the Raikage, the three of them rest at a local inn. Madara Uchiha confronts Naruto while there and Yamato and Kakashi, having expected him, try to restrain him. Their attempts do not work and, after telling them the truth about the Uchiha clan and Sasuke's current motives, he leaves.

Yamato repairs the damage he and Kakashi did to the inn. Soon afterwards Sakura arrives with Sai and tells Naruto that she loves him, shocking Yamato. He tries to ask why she would say that, but was stopped by Kakashi before he could. As he watched and listened to Sakura's talk to Naruto, he could tell she wasn't being sincere, and like Kiba, looked upon it both questioningly and disapprovingly. She leaves when Naruto says he doesn't believe her, after which one of Sai's Ink Clone's approaches them and tells them Sakura's plans to kill Sasuke. Before Kakashi can go to stop her, Gaara appears and tells them about the outbreak of the Fourth Great Shinobi World War and Danzō Shimura's actions during the Kage Summit. Because the other Kage would prefer Kakashi were Hokage, Yamato encourages him to comply. Naruto passes out shortly afterwards and Yamato is left in charge of looking after him while Kakashi finds Sakura.

When Naruto finally awakens, he tries to go after Sakura, but Yamato stops him and insists that they return to the village. Naruto asks to rest some more and Yamato lets him, unaware that Naruto is sneaking out, leaving a Shadow Clone behind so that he wouldn't notice.

Fourth Great Ninja War arc
Yamato is one of the Konoha ninja sent to an isolated island in the Land of Lightning as Naruto's bodyguard. When Naruto expresses an interest in finally taming the Nine-Tails, Yamato accompanies him to the Falls of Truth. After Naruto is able to overcome the darkness within him, he, Yamato, and Killer Bee visit the ruins behind the Falls. Naruto pretends to be decapitated soon after entering, first distressing Yamato and then infuriating him. Naruto begins facing the Nine-Tails within his subconscious. When the Nine-Tails starts gaining the advantage and a chakra cloak develops around Naruto, Yamato tries to suppress it. It eventually stops on its own, surprising him.

Naruto Shippūden 2: Bonds
Yamato made a cameo alongside with Kakashi when Tsunade summoned them during the war against the sky ninja. Later, Yamato reappeared with Neji, Chōji, and Sakura while watching Naruto destroy the Soragakure with his Rasengan.

Trivia

 * Yamato is an ancient name of Japan, and is also the name of a World War II era Japanese battleship.
 * According to the Naruto databook:
 * Yamato's favorite food are walnuts, while his least favorites are any food that is oily.
 * His hobby is reading books about architecture.
 * Yamato has completed 996 official missions in total: 80 D-rank, 176 C-rank, 400 B-rank, 305 A-rank, 35 S-rank.
 * Yamato, possessing the Wood Release, is one of four people to possess a kekkei genkai despite not being a member of the appropriate clan, the others being Kakashi Hatake, Danzō Shimura, and Ao.
 * Although Yamato became the temporary captain of Team Kakashi, he was never Naruto or Sakura's teacher, and was referred to as "Yamato-taichō or "Captain Yamato". Despite this, various translations have mistranslated this having him referred to as "Yamato-sensei".
 * For some unknown reason, Yamato's card in the trading card game was never printed with ANBU status.
 * Yamato is often affected by running gags in the series:
 * The prime running gag is that people over work him because of his wood abilities. Best seen when he rebuilt some of Konoha and everyone wanted him to do more despite being out of energy after making a street of houses.
 * A running gag in two omakes is that whenever his teammates stop for the night, they constantly attack Yamato while still asleep. He was almost hit by Naruto's weapons and a Rasengan, Kiba's Dual Piercing Fang and even Shino's kikaichū swarm. Such assaults always force him to use Wood Release: Wood Locking Wall to protect himself and getting little to no sleep, making him look terrible in the morning.

Quotes

 * (To Sakura) "It's not important whether the things you do are large or small, what's important... is the magnitude of the feelings you have for Naruto."
 * (To Team Kakashi) "I like being nice and friendly but I don't have any problems with ruling by fear either."
 * (To Naruto) "If you want to save Sasuke, then do it with your own power. If you want to see Sasuke again, then look at him through your own eyes, not the Nine-Tails'. If you want to protect Sakura, do it with your own strength, not the Nine-Tails'."