Mito Uzumaki

was a kunoichi who originated from Uzushiogakure's Uzumaki clan. After migrating to Konohagakure, she married Hashirama Senju, the village's First Hokage, and later became the first jinchūriki of the Nine-Tails following the events at the Valley of the End.

Background
The Uzumaki and Senju clans — being distant relatives — have always had close ties. Mito ended up marrying Hashirama Senju, who would help found Konohagakure and became the village's First Hokage.

After Hashirama's victory against Madara Uchiha at the Valley of the End and obtaining Kurama from him, Mito sealed the tailed beast within herself, becoming its first jinchūriki. Despite the seal's strength, it almost broke when she was going through childbirth.

Towards the final years of her life, it was decided that a new host for Kurama would have to be found. Kushina Uzumaki, one of Mito's clansmen, was then selected for the role due to her special chakra. Terrified by the idea of having been taken from her home to become a jinchūriki, Mito comforted Kushina, and told her that in order to counter the fox's hatred, she needed to fill herself with love. She elaborated on the topic by comparing their situation with their clan symbol and their residence, that while a spiral is two-dimensional, staying in one place, they need to be a three-dimensional helix, capable of rising by filling themselves with love. Some time after this, the beast was presumably extracted from within Mito and sealed into Kushina, resulting in Mito's death.

Personality
Mito seemed to be a very calm and composed individual with a dignified air about her. She also had a strong sense of duty to her husband and the village as seen when she turned herself into a jinchūriki by sealing Kurama into herself in order to gain power for her husband. During the time when Kushina discovered that she was to be made a jinchūriki, Mito comforted her, and told her about how to cope with being a jinchūriki, sharing how she usually climbed the stairs of her residence in order to see her husband's face on the Hokage Rock. Mito was also described as gentle and reassuring.

Appearance
Mito had long, bright-red hair and large, black pupilless eyes. She wore an elaborate, high-collared kimono with the Uzushiogakure symbol on the back of the obi which was tied around her waist. Her hair was arranged in buns with hair pins in them and three clips in the front. She also wore a dark shade of red lipstick and had a rhombus marking reminiscent of the Strength of a Hundred Seal on her forehead. She also wore tags with kanji written on them in her hair decals. In her old age, her hair had grown much longer some of which she allowed to hang into her back (in the anime her hair was depicted as maroon in her old age). She, however, maintained the two buns in her hair and wore a simple loose fitting kimono held closed by a simple dark-coloured obi.

Abilities
Not much is known about her fighting skills, but Kushina hailed her as a powerful kunoichi. She was exceptional at fūinjutsu, able to seal the entirety of Kurama within herself. Even for an Uzumaki, she also had an especially powerful and unique type of chakra, making her well-suited to suppressing the Nine-Tails. After becoming a jinchūriki, she gained access to even greater reserves of extraordinarily strong chakra.

Being a member of the Uzumaki clan, Mito had the potential to live an exceptionally long life. This was seen in part from her having lived her adult life through the reign of the first three Hokage. While never gaining full control over Kurama itself, Mito was able to access Kurama's ability to sense negative emotions.

Legacy
Mito made great contributions in the way of protecting Konohagakure after becoming the beast's jinchūriki. She was also the one who realised that in order to counter Kurama's ability to overwhelm his jinchūriki with negative emotions, thus taking control of them, love was needed. This was information she passed on to Kushina Uzumaki, which in part helped the young woman to be able to subdue the beast within her and later helped Naruto Uzumaki to subjugate the beast.

Trivia

 * Mito's name may be taken from the name of the capital of one of the prefectures in Japan.

Quotes

 * (To Kushina)
 * (To Kurama) "If you use your power, only hatred will come from it. Stay tranquil deep inside me."