Gyūki

, more commonly known as the, is one of the nine tailed beasts. It has been in the possession of Kumogakure for decades, where it has been sealed into many jinchūriki. Its most recent jinchūriki, and the first to have any success in cooperating with it, is Killer B.

Background
Gyūki first came into being in the waning days of Hagoromo Ōtsutsuki's life. Using the Creation of All Things, Hagoromo separated the chakra from the Ten-Tails and divided it into nine separate constructs: the tailed beasts. Some time after being created, Hagoromo sat down with all the young tailed beasts and told them that they would always be together, even when separated, and that one day they would become one entity again with different names and forms. Then, when the time came, they would know what true power was.

Gyūki eventually fell into the possession of Kumogakure. However, its ferocity was so great that none of its former jinchūriki - such as Fukai, and his uncle and father before him - could control it. They would lose control and Gyūki would go on a rampage, destroying the village and killing many villagers, requiring the Third Raikage to form a special coalition to subdue and seal it in the Kohaku no Jōhei. During one of its rampages, the Third fought Gyūki one-on-one until they both collapsed from exhaustion. During another, Gyūki had one of its four horns lost to A, the offending horn having killed Furui. In the anime, Fukai's rampage was stated to be orchestrated by Orochimaru, who gave Fukai genjutsu-inducing pills to draw out Gyūki. Due to the pills, Gyūki had no recollection of the rampage.

Gyūki was ultimately sealed within Killer B, who was five at the time, through the Iron Armour Seal. B would go on to tame and control Gyūki through rigorous training within the Falls of Truth.

At some point in the past, one Kumo-nin attempted to mimic the Gold and Silver Brothers by eating one of Gyūki's chakra meat tentacles in the hopes of gaining jinchūriki-like power, but died in the process.

Personality
Gyūki is characterised as a tough and serious individual. It uses when referring to itself and often speaks in a somewhat rude dialect. Gyūki was also shown to have a good analytical ability, as it told Killer B that if he left Ponta and Sabu and ran away from them, Kisame and his water dome would follow him and they (Sabu and Ponta) would be freed. With regards to its relationship with the other tailed beasts, Gyūki mentioned that it and its brethren disliked Kurama for its habit of ranking their strength based on their number of tails. However, it insisted that was no reason for not helping Naruto to control Kurama's power, hinting a benevolent side. Since then, both Gyūki and B have taken a liking to Naruto.

In the past, Gyūki was infamous in Kumo for being wild and violent, as it went on countless rampages whenever its former jinchūriki would lose control of it. This was most likely due to its hatred against humans for oppressing and sealing it away many times. Gyūki maintained this behavior until it was sealed within B, who would later change it after he bested it in one-on-one combat. Since then, Gyūki's personality has become much more relaxed, becoming close friends with B; even allowing him to sit on top of its muzzle while talking to it leisurely. However, B tends to annoy Gyūki to comical effect, as its no-nonsense demeanour often contrasts with B's tendency to goof off whenever he likes, adding fuel to Gyūki's irritation to its vessel. As a result, Gyūki is not above bad-mouthing B and is also known to reprimand him in serious occasions. This was seen when Gyūki criticised B for rapping in his fight with Kisame when he should have been completely focused on their opponent, and later when it comically bumped B in the head when the latter started to mention in a perverted manner how Yugito's chakra receivers were embedded in her left breast. Because of this, Gyūki appears to be much more noteworthy than B as far as responsibility is concerned. Nonetheless, Gyūki's bond with B became so strong, that after being released from Kaguya, it expressed a desire to return to him, noting it had gotten used to his awful rapping and felt odd not hearing it.

While his relationship with B's predecessor Fukai was unknown in the manga, other than the fact that Gyūki would pounce on the "hole" in Fukai's heart and assume control over him, in the anime, Gyūki stated it had high hopes for him, indicating it bore no ill will towards its former host.

Appearance
Gyūki is an ushi-oni with four long horns on its head, similar to that of a Jacob sheep. Like all tailed beasts, its an extremely massive creature, so much so that it dwarfs entire forests and towers over large rock formations and buildings. The lower left part of its horns was permanently sliced off in a battle with A, and the right horns were destroyed by its own point-blank Tailed Beast Ball when fighting the Ten-Tails. It also has straight teeth, one of which was blown off during the point-blank Tailed Beast Ball. It has a muscular upper-body structure, with a hunched back similar to an American bison, arms with spiked protrusions on the elbows, and hands with opposable thumbs like that of a human. It has no hind-legs, instead its lower half is made up of its tails which consist of eight tentacles that resemble the cephalopod arms of an octopus. These tails will grow back in the event that they are sliced off. It is also extremely massive, matching the Giant Squid in size. During the last remaining days of Hagoromo Ōtsutsuki, Gyūki was smaller and its horns were much shorter.

Abilities
As a tailed beast, Gyūki possesses a massive supply of strong chakra and can use the Tailed Beast Ball, firing it as a massive wave explosion or as multiple spheres in rapid succession at a target. A single Tailed Beast Ball from it could penetrate nine of the thirty-six barriers without even exploding. According to Kisame Hoshigaki and Kurama at one point, it is the second most powerful of the nine tailed beasts. . Going with its octopus theme, Gyūki can also produce ink to blind its enemies as well as form ink clones to bind them. It can also generate enormous tornadoes which can level an entire forest with ease. Its enormous horns are incredibly sharp, capable of easily impaling a human being.

Gyūki has immense physical strength, being able to temporarily restrain Kurama and contain a direct Tailed Beast Ball from the fox, and completely stop Isobu in full motion using only its extended tentacles, along with swiping Kokuō‎ aside at the same time. Gyūki also possesses high durability as it was able to endure being burned by Sasuke's Amaterasu for a considerable amount of time, continue battling after being gored by Kokuō‎ and slammed by Son Gokū, and even survive its own Tailed Beast Ball that was deflected by the Ten-Tails. Its head could also endure a direct hit from a combined explosion of Tailed Beast Balls from itself and the Ten-Tails that are condensed within the mouth of the latter, losing only one of its teeth and horn.

Its tentacles offer it several additional appendages with which to interact with its surroundings and strike targets and can be used for defence tactics. They are shown capable of blocking explosions and shock waves from a collision of gigantic Tailed Beast Balls by several tailed beasts, or slowing down the velocity of a massive Tailed Beast Ball by the Ten-Tails. Although versatile, they are also easily severed by techniques of great sharpness such as the Chidori. Even with its immense size and despite lacking a terrestrial form of hind legs, Gyūki has shown a high level of speed and mobility on land as shown when it attacked Team Taka with its tentacles, and was even fast enough to block Amaterasu with its fist. Its severed tails can be used as a medium for its chakra, such as creating a clone of its host, or be used to transfer chakra to said host should Gyūki be extracted; a Kumo-nin who ate it in an attempt to gain jinchūriki-like powers died from the chakra instead.

Gyūki has been shown to be very intelligent, explaining the mechanics of the Tailed Beast Ball to Naruto, the weaknesses of his Nine-Tails Chakra Mode, as well as pointing out that until he and Kurama reach a formal agreement, Naruto will not be able to fully transform or perform the Tailed Beast Ball. Gyūki even coached B in tactics on how to counter Kisame's water-based techniques. It is also very perceptive as it later worked out that the Gold and Silver Brothers were reincarnated, after witnessing Naruto sense Kurama's chakra coming from outside of the training place that he and B were confined in, correctly deducing that Orochimaru's kinjutsu was being used by someone participating in the war.

Invasion of Pain Arc
When Taka arrived at Kumogakure in an attempt to capture Killer B, he battled them to the point of annoyance. With his great control over his tailed beast, Killer B transformed himself into the Eight-Tails, and proceeded to terrorise Taka. As B attacked, Suigetsu commanded a wave of water, attempting to defeat it. B understood that Suigetsu had the advantage given that they were surrounded by water, so it then charged a Tailed Beast Ball and fired it at Suigetsu, defeating him.

After Sasuke activated his Mangekyō Sharingan and released Amaterasu on B, it fell into pain by its flames. As one of its tails was about to fall on Karin, Sasuke cut it with Chidori Sharp Spear. Killer B disguised himself as the cut part of the tail and escaped. Killer B was then seemingly captured by Taka and was given to Tobi. Killer B's brother, the Fourth Raikage, swore that Akatsuki would pay for what they had done.

It was later revealed that Killer B faked his capture. After Taka left, he and the Eight-Tails left the lake and Killer B took this opportunity to take a "vacation" from being a guardian. As the Eight-Tails commented that a new era was coming, Killer B thought it was going to be his singing career.

Five Kage Summit Arc
As Kisame attacked Killer B, the Eight-Tails demanded B to let him out. However, B reminded him that he would just kill Sabu and Ponta in the process of protecting itself. With this, the Eight-Tails begrudgingly let B use the Version 2 form, as well as giving B advice during the battle. However, as Kisame knocked B out, the Eight-Tails yelled at him to wake up, as both B and it were nearly out of chakra. As Kisame then prepared to finish the battle, the Raikage and his bodyguards arrived and helped B kill "Kisame".

Confining the Jinchūriki Arc
As Naruto Uzumaki and Yamato entered the Land of Lightning, in the Allied Shinobi Forces' efforts to keep the jinchūriki away from Akatsuki, they were attacked by a giant squid. Killer B, in his full Eight-Tails form, forced the squid back and saved the ship. Upon seeing it, Naruto realised that the Eight-Tails and B were the "octopus" he had been looking for to guide him to control the Nine-Tails' power. He asked B to train him, but B refused. After B was done training with some bears in the forest, the Eight-Tails tried to convince B to train Naruto, stating that even though it wasn't fond of the Nine-Tails, it still thought B should train him since they are both jinchūriki.

Shinobi World War Arc
When Naruto failed to fully transform into the Nine-Tails, the Eight-Tails requested that B let it speak with Naruto. It explained the risks of using a tailed beast's chakra, and how using it meant that the fox could deplete Naruto's chakra, because when Naruto uses the Nine-Tails' chakra, it can take his. It explains that Naruto won't be able to transform fully until he can reach an agreement with Nine-Tails, which it recognises as unlikely, noting that it and B used to be like that. It also says that because of that, he won't be able to learn the Tailed Beast Ball. When it is done, B changes back to his normal self.

The Eight-Tails was later surprised at how Naruto was able to discern the chakra coming from Kinkaku and Ginkaku despite being secured in the training zone and then told B to stop Naruto from leaving the temple, but failed as Naruto was able to trick B into letting him out. Later, after B and Naruto encounter Nagato and Itachi Uchiha on the battlefield, a battle starts and Itachi traps Killer B in a genjutsu. the Eight-Tails breaks the genjutsu for B, telling him to "snap out of it". Ultimately, Itachi is able to break free of his control thanks to one of his crow that he stored inside Naruto using a powerful genjutsu. Itachi then aids Naruto and B against Nagato, ultimately sealing away Nagato. After Itachi explains the situation, he leaves Naruto and B to stop the Impure World Reincarnation.

Gyūki later reprimands B for taking too many breaks to urinate and for letting Naruto go ahead of them. When Naruto contacts them through Inoichi, the Eight-Tails talks to him about the time he fought the Third Raikage. When asked about the Third's scar, it initially thought that it had caused the scar with his Tailed Beast Ball, but then remembers that they both ended up collapsing from exhaustion during the battle, with both of their techniques still intact. Later, in the anime, Motoi arrived to aid B. They were then approached by the reincarnated Fukai, B's predecessor as Gyūki's jinchūriki. Fukai revealed to Gyūki's shock the ability to still use the Eight Tails' demon cloak, entering "Version 2" mode. As B entered "Version 2" and clashed with Fukai, Gyūki insisted to know how Fukai can still use this power. Fukai explained that the rampage of Gyūkai from thirty years ago was in fact manipulated by Orochimaru, using a genjutsu-inducing drug to force out Gyūki. During the chaos, the Sannin member also harvested some of Gyūki's severed horn. It was from the genetic material that Fukai obtained a recreation of Gyūki's chakra. As they battled, Motoi is defeated but saved by B. Seeing that B accomplished what he could not, Fukai is able to let go of his past and return to the afterlife.

Later, when Naruto and Killer B encounter Tobi and his Six Paths of Pain, the Eight-Tails recognises Yugito Nii among them and figures out the others are the other deceased jinchūriki. After the initial assault from the dead jinchūriki, it warns B to be careful or he will end up just like them. After the revived jinchūriki enter their tailed forms, the Eight-Tails tells a bewildered Killer B, that Tobi must have turned them back into jinchūriki after reviving them. As B heads out to attack them, it tells him to be careful as he sensed a change in the other tailed beasts. After escaping Yugito's onslaught, the Eight-Tails surmises that with the aid of the Sharingan and the Rinnegan, the jinchūriki's abilities had been greatly enhanced. It asks to speak to Naruto as well begin to formulate a counter strategy. After B reveals the location of the chakra receivers and Naruto's failed attempt to destroy Rōshi's, the Eight-Tails tells B that the forest was a hindrance for their side and as such, B knew what he had to do. With that B transformed and leveled the entire forest. He then attempted to seal them, but Tobi forced his Paths to enter their "Version 2"-like states, freeing themselves, and they started attacking Naruto and B. The latter catches a transformed Utakata, who however frees himself oozing alkaline. Next, B is attacked with lava from below by Rōshi and then knocked out by Han who had fully transformed into the Five-Tails.

As B and the Eight-Tails try to find out if each other were all right, it later asks Naruto if he heard the Five-Tails' voice. It then declares that the tailed beasts had their own emotions and watching one of their own being treated like that irritated them. The Nine-Tails, however, retorts that ninja have always treated them like pets and that it and B were the only exceptions to this, causing the Eight-Tails to contemplate on his statement. Kurama then goes on to state that according to number of tails he is second after him so he should just hurry up and finish things and then proceeds to fake going to sleep. After being cut off from revealing what was going on with the Nine-Tails, the Eight-Tails then chastises the beast for always ranking them based on their number of tails, something that Shukaku resented it for. As Naruto decides to reactivate the Nine-Tails Chakra Mode and B advises against the use of shadow clones, the Eight-Tails tells B that Naruto should have been in critical condition after using so much of the beast's chakra, leading the Eight-Tails to believe that it had stopped taking Naruto's chakra at some point. As the Eight-Tails asks the Nine-Tails what happened between the two of them, the fox remembers Naruto's words to remove its hatred as well as his statement that having the fox sealed within him wasn't always bad.

Rebounding from being flipped over, B attempts to stop the Four-Tails from swallowing Naruto, wrapping its tentacles around the beast. Gyūki beseeches the Nine-Tails to lend Naruto its power as it did with one of his clones. The Nine-Tails, however, states that he would not wag his tails at a jinchūriki in the same way that it did with B, causing the Eight-Tails to question whether Nine-Tails cared at all about what happened to Naruto. The Eight-Tails later watches in horror as Naruto is swallowed by the great monkey. After Naruto successfully removes the chakra receiver, the Eight-Tails watches on with shock as the beast is resealed into the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path in the blink of an eye. As Naruto rallies, telling the beast and B to get ready, it tells him that it and B would be taking to front-line while Naruto acted as support because he was still unable to transform. After Naruto tells them it'd be fine because they were a pair of duos, entering his Tailed Beast Mode.

When Naruto transformed into Kurama, Gyūki got shocked that it decided to collaborate with Naruto. Leaping into action to aid Naruto, who was already battling the opposing five beasts, B uses his tails to stops the Three-Tails who attempted to attack Naruto's blind spot. Simultaneously B buffets the Five-Tails, telling it that the same attack would not work twice. As the Three-Tails frees itself from the beast's tentacles, it watches on in shock as the five beasts prepare a collaborative Tailed Beast Ball and wonders if Naruto was planning to negate the attack with a Tailed Beast Ball of his own even though he had never used it before.

As the two Tailed Beast Balls collide, B grabs Rōshi's body and shields itself from the after-effects of the attacks. After Naruto successfully frees all the remaining tailed beasts, Gyūki congratulates him. Later, as Naruto mocks Tobi with the information he had just learned, B and, by extension, Gyūki looks on smirking. As the battle continues, B and Naruto launch a combination attack on the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path with a double uppercut knocking the statue to the ground following Kakashi Hatake and Might Guy's respective attacks. Gyūki later looks on as Tobi seemingly prepared to revive the Ten-Tails. After hearing Naruto's speech about his dreams, B revealed his sexual desires — leading Gyūki to be embarrassed for his host.

Ten-Tails Revival Arc
While the shinobi regroup and discuss the gash in Tobi's mask, Gyūki uses the opportunity to attack the statue. Moving in with a punch, it declared that the statue was wide open. However, his attack was deflected by Tobi's Uchiha Flame Formation barrier which burned its hand. Telling Naruto that its hand was okay, Gyūki prepared to launch the strategy that Kakashi had developed. Holding all the shinobi in his hands, Gyūki threw the trio towards Tobi. When they regroup after Tobi's arm is hit by a seemingly unseen attack, B listened to Kakashi's explanation of Tobi's technique and then enquired if all Space–Time Ninjutsu shared the same dimension. When told no, B told Naruto that it still would not be easy to land an attack on an intangible person. When Kakashi stated that their belief that Tobi was becoming intangible was incorrect, B enquired once again how it was possible for their two Sharingan to share the same dimension. With Gyūki bound by Tobi's giant chakra receivers, the beast is shocked to see Madara arrive on their battlefield. When Naruto questioned Madara as to what had happened to the Kage, Gyūki surmised that if he was here, then the Kage must be in a bad situation. The beast later thanked Naruto as the young man freed him from the stakes. As the battle with Madara ensued, Gyūki was seemingly knocked to the ground, leading it to comment on Madara's power. When an injured Guy told it that was why Madara was worth fighting, the beast told him that he shouldn't be pushing himself so hard.

As the battle waged on, the beast and Guy were restrained by Madara, before the Uchiha can land the finishing blow, he is intercepted by Naruto. After Might Guy's Daytime Tiger sends the legendary ninja flying away from them, Gyūki noted that Guy wasn't just acting tough. After breaking free of its constraints, Gyūki warned Naruto that the wood could suppress a tailed beast's power before turning its attention to the statue. Forming a collaborative tailed beast ball with Naruto, Gyūki fires it at the statue and believed it to be destroyed. Their celebration, however, was cut short when the smoke cleared and the Ten-Tails appeared on the battlefield. Questioning Kurama whether or not it really wanted to fight what stood before them, the ushi-oni is told by the fox that hiding wouldn't help anything. Standing alongside Kurama, who had taken charge of the situation, the beasts were attacked by the Ten-Tails before they could follow through with their strategy. Launching a continuous stream of Tailed Beast Balls at the beast, their attack was thwarted by the Ten-Tails and when the smoke cleared, Gyūki was missing. It was later revealed that it was warped away by Kakashi who releases the beast above the tailed beast launching a point-blank Tailed Beast Ball overhead the beast. After the Ten-Tails flicked the Tailed Beast Ball right back at Gyūki, Kurama was able to save both Gyūki and B before both tailed beasts ran out of power and proceeded to recuperate in order to regain their powers.

Having generated enough chakra, Gyūki and B jumped into action to protect the shinobi from a Tailed Beast Ball that the Ten-Tails was going to launch at them. Now fully transformed, B recklessly stuffed Gyūki's head into the Ten-Tails' mouth and launched his own Tailed Beast Ball, both of which detonated in the beasts' body causing it to fall and writhe in pain.

With the chakra shrouds protecting them dissipated, Naruto being healed, and Kurama kneading more chakra, B and Gyūki announced that it was time for them to take centre-stage once again to buy the duo some time to recover as Gyūki noted that the Ten-Tails would become unstoppable if it underwent its final transformation. With Shikamaru's strategy initiated, and the shinobi begin to construct earthen — albeit feeble — defences, B interceded and attempted to throw the attack off-trajectory. However, with none of their combined efforts seemingly working, and the situation looking dire, the Alliance is saved by the arrival of the Fourth Hokage, unbeknownst to them as B looked on puzzled that the attack had seemingly just vanished.

As Obito emerged within the barrier some time later after sealing the beast inside himself, B asked Gyūki whether or not that was the beast's final form. It told him that it was not and that from all appearances, it seemed that the beast had been sealed before reaching its final form. When B asked if he could feel Kurama's Yin and Yang chakra, Gyūki noted that it wasn't just Kurama's chakra. When Obito recreated a full-blown replica of the Ten-Tails' tree form, its roots started chasing and absorbing chakra from anyone in its path. Ultimately, while worn out, B with Samehada's aid was able to destroy the roots that had confronted him. After Naruto, with the help of Sasuke and the Konoha 11, delivered a devastating blow against Obito, it forced the chakra of all the tailed beasts to come out of his body. B then grabbed Gyūki's chakra while Naruto, Gaara, and the rest of the Shinobi Alliance pulled the others to reduce Obito to a shell of the Ten-Tails' tree form and prevent the flower atop the tree from blooming.

After evacuating the wounded shinobi from the battlefield, Gyūki and the other tailed beasts joined Naruto and Kurama in assaulting Madara, but the Uchiha survived their attacks and retreated to a safe distance. After he received his own right Rinnegan eye from a White Zetsu clone, Madara quickly summoned the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path from Obito's body, and used the Rinnegan to repel the tailed beasts. With the tailed beasts stunned, Madara then proceeded to chain them up and prepared to remove Yang Kurama and Gyūki from their jinchūriki. Struggling against his confines, Gyūki apologised to B as it was extracted and sealed within the statue along with the other tailed beasts, but not before cutting off one of its tentacles, letting B survive through the chakra within it.

Final Arc
Later, after Madara succeeded in becoming the Ten-Tails' jinchuriki, a reformed Obito managed to steal some of Gyūki's chakra along with some of Shukaku's. When Obito sealed Yin half of Kurama into a dying Naruto to save his life, Obito also sealed the Gyūki and Shukaku's chakra portion into Naruto. Inside Naruto's subconscious, Gyūki and Shukaku and both Kurama found the Konoha-nin talking with the spirit of Hagoromo Ōtsutsuki. They then voiced their unanimous belief to the Sage that Naruto is the child of prophecy. The other six tailed beasts chakra then manifested to join in the meeting. Ultimately, Kaguya Ōtsutsuki who had taken control of Madara was defeated by Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha and sealed using the Six Paths Chibaku Tensei technique. The beasts were all ejected from the statue and then summoned back to the real world by Hagoromo and the previous Kage. After the past Kage return to the after life, the tailed beasts begin discussing their plans for the future now that they are finally free. Gyūki expresses its desire to return to within B. Sasuke however makes his plans known. Desiring to kill the current Kage and seize control of the tailed beasts for his plans of revolution in the shinobi world, he quickly accomplishes the latter with his Rinnegan. With the tailed beasts subdued by his genjutsu, Sasuke then seals them away within his Chibaku Tensei.

Later, after Naruto was able to defeat and reform Sasuke, Gyūki returned as it desired to B, getting resealed within its partner.

Video Games
Although Gyūki itself is not playable, B takes on its form as his awakening in Naruto Shippūden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 2, Naruto Shippūden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Generations, and Naruto Shippūden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3.

Trivia

 * , which literally means 'ox ogre', is an alternate pronunciation for the name of the ushi-oni.
 * In Japanese folklore, an ushi-oni is a massive, brutal yōkai with the horned head of a bull and the body of an octopus, a crab, or a spider. One legend says that it lives off the coasts of Japan and attacks fishermen.
 * Gyūki is the tailed beast with the most known jinchūriki, most of whom are also from the same family.
 * Gyūki is the only tailed beast that apparently has been shown to have a permanently damaged body.

Quotes

 * (To Kurama)