Suigetsu Hōzuki

was the first member to join Sasuke Uchiha's Taka, and his first step in his ultimate revenge against Itachi Uchiha.

Background
Sixteen years ago, a child prodigy was born in the village of the "Bloody Mist." This is the younger of the Houzuki brothers - Suigetsu. Having the powers unique to his clan and reputed to be the "reincarnation of the Kijin" (refers to Zabuza), Suigetsu, together with his brother Mangetsu, dreamt to inherit the title of Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist and this acted as their motivation to finish cruel missions day by day. Then this dream shattered with the death of his brother, and Suigetsu changed his ambition to "collecting all the swords." With the humiliation of being captured by Orochimaru, his ambition could not be fulfilled. Now that he is freed from his water prison, Suigetsu can once again walk towards his goal.

Personality
Suigetsu appears to be indifferent, caring for only a few things around him. He spends a considerable amount of time mocking and or being beaten by Karin, another member of Taka (formerly Hebi). Despite showing initial dislike towards his teammates, Suigetsu has grown fond of them, and was willing to risk his own life to protect them, even if he still outwardly mocks them.

Suigetsu also shows a desire to collect all the swords of the Seven Mist Swordsmen, of which his senior, Zabuza Momochi, was a member of and which he appears to be a candidate for as well. He is also trying to get Kisame Hoshigaki's sword the Samehada which he is expecting to wield, even though Kisame's sword only allows him to hold it. Possibly hoping by killing Kisame, Samehada would be able to be used by the person who killed it's former master, or being possible that the Samehada can only be wielded by certain chakra types instead of specific people, this being supported by the fact that Samehada has been passed down to one of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen after a new set of swordsmen take their place. It is unknown if he also desires the Lightning Pikes formally wielded by Raiga Kurosuki, as Raiga only appears in the filler arcs of the anime.

Kisame, one of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen, claims Suigetsu is a prodigy at the art of murder, as he has a habit of chopping off his victim's limbs before beheading them. Suigetsu, despite addressing him with the honorific-term "sempai", wants to defeat him and take his sword, noting to Sasuke that he will one day serve him as "shark fin soup" (a reference to Kisame's shark-like appearance) after Sasuke suggests he is not yet strong enough to defeat Kisame.

Suigetsu apparently likes animals, as he is seen playing with several talking cats at one point and also lectured Sasuke on treating animals better after Sasuke used Manda to escape Deidara's ultimate self-explosion jutsu, causing Manda's death.

Forming Hebi
Right after Sasuke defeated Orochimaru, he went into one of Orochimaru's many experimentation labs and freed Suigetsu, who was sealed inside a holding tube in the form of water. Once freed, Suigetsu made it clear that defeating Orochimaru did not make Sasuke his boss, since many of Orochimaru's test subjects, including Suigetsu, were also after his life and sooner or later someone would have killed him. He then threatened to kill Sasuke. When Sasuke replied with complete indifference, Suigetsu backed off saying that he was just testing him and agreed to join him. Once they left, Suigetsu had Sasuke take him to the Land of Waves, to retrieve Zabuza's sword from his grave and hoping to get all the other swords from the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist.

After leaving the Land of Waves, the two continued north to another one of Orochimaru's bases. After finding Karin, Sasuke told Suigetsu to go release the prisoners. Before releasing them however, Suigetsu told them to spread the word that Sasuke killed Orochimaru and would bring peace to the world. As Sasuke hadn't ordered him to say these things, his motives appear to be unclear.

Once Karin was persuaded to join, they headed out to get the catalyst to Orochimaru's Juinjutsu, Jugo. They had to fight their way through an army of people branded with the Juin to reach him, and under Sasuke's orders were told not to kill any of them. When they found Jugo, who attacked them, Suigetsu attempted to kill him. However Sasuke intervened and threatened to kill both of them if they didn't stop fighting. Once Jugo calmed down, and with some persuasion on Sasuke's part, Jugo was recruited. Afterwards Sasuke told them their mission and their new team's name; they would be known as, and their mission was to find Itachi Uchiha.

Search for Uchiha
After tracing Deidara's suicide explosion to Sasuke, Suigetsu tells Sasuke that he should be kinder to animals, after witnessing Sasuke using Manda as a shield to protect himself from the explosion. After they rest and continue on their adventure, Sasuke finds Itachi and goes to challenge him. First, his group encounters Kisame Hoshigaki, who tells them Sasuke must go alone. Leaving "Hebi" behind, Suigetsu challenges Kisame to a battle, who gladly accepts while Sasuke finally makes Itachi's death a reality. It is later revealed that Zetsu interfered in the fight, leaving both Suigetsu and Kisame alive. Suigetsu was next seen with the rest of Hebi as it was renamed Taka, and later attempted to challenge Kisame again. However, this attempt was stopped by Tobi. Afterwards, Sasuke stated that Suigetsu was "no match for Kisame, yet". After this Taka are now unnofficial Akatsuki members. (although they wear the Akatsuki cloaks, they do not wear the rings which would indicate them as full Akatsuki members)

Hunt For the Eight-Tails
He is next seen grabbing a Kumogakure shinobi through a fence, using his liquid body, and try to make him tell him the wherabouts of the Eight-Tailed Beast's Jinchūriki, only to be stopped when Sasuke uses his new Mangekyo Sharingan eyes to make the cloud ninja talk. Afterwards he is seen muttering over the fact that those eyes take away his fun.

After joining the Akatsuki, Taka locates the Eight-Tails Jinchūriki, Kirābī, he is the first to attack him, and is defeated and disarmed by him. He then saved the critically injured Sasuke by placing the Executioner in way of Kirābī's blade. He then started fighting Kirābī with Jugo as a distraction, while Sasuke was healed by Karin. After Sasuke was healed, Suigetsu stated that fighting Kirābī while trying to keep him alive would lead to their defeat, and they would have to fight to kill. He then joined Sasuke and Jugo in a group effort against Kirābī; it failed miserably. After that, Suigetsu attempted to save both him and Karin from Kirābī's demonic charged attack, but he fell and diluted into a puddle of water with a head. He, like all members of Taka, was shocked to see Kirābī nearly kill Sasuke easily a second time.

He then watched in horror as Kirābī transformed into the Eight-Tails. Suigetsu attacked head on with a powerful water jutsu but he was thrown aside very easily by the Eight-Tails and badly hurt. He then went into a state between his solid and liquid forms, probably his form of unconsciousness. After the fight was over, Jugo carried Suigetsu away, leaving behind the latter's stolen sword due to the weakened state of the group's members.

The Wait for Pain
As his team rest, Suigetsu openly questions in anger why his sword was left behind. He gets his usual scolding from Karin about how he's lucky they even helped him, but he remarks about her injuries from the fight too. He then asks Sasuke Uchiha if they'll get to have the power of the Eight-Tails but he is shocked to hear that Sasuke might not want it. Later, Suigetsu retrieved and repaired his sword while in healing. Sasuke later ordered him to move out to Konoha alongside the others. At this time, Suigetsu's Decapitation Sword is seen with him although it was lost during the fight with Kirabi. How he got it back is still unknown.

Abilities
Suigestu is arguably quite powerful, or at least very confident in his abilities, since he has threatened Sasuke on more than one occasion. Kisame has noted him to be a child prodigy in the art of murder, and is practically the reincarnation of the Demon (Zabuza).

Liquid Form and Water Release
Suigetsu is able to reduce himself to liquid form and to return to bodily form at will. This ability also allows him to change his body shape, giving him the ability to increase the size of his limbs, proportionally increasing his strength, if necessary. It also makes striking him somewhat difficult; since he is made of liquid, any regular strike will go right through his watery form. As his body is water, he is also capable of merging with already existing water to increase his attack range, and use Water Release techniques. It is unknown if this is some sort of bloodline trait, or if it is due to Orochimaru's experimentation, although it may be the latter if only for its powers side effects.

Suigetsu is also the first ninja seen carrying water bottles on his outfit. Given his somewhat frequent desire to consume water, Suigetsu may require regular hydration to sustain his watery form. He is, however, weak against lightning-based techniques.

Sword Fighting
From his training days with the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist, Suigetsu is also quite adept with wielding Zabuza's sword, but seems to tire out when traveling with it for long distances. He can also expand the muscles in his arms to help him wield swords better. However, carrying Zabuba's sword for longer distances seem to tire him out, and make him require to drink more water.

In addition to his own skills, Suigetsu also has a good perception for swordsmanship skills, as he saw Kirābī is a skilled swordsman with his seven swords.

Trivia

 * is a poetic term for the moon reflecting on the surface of the water. As an extension of this, the word can also refer to something illusionary, without true substance. Perhaps referring to Suigetsu's ability to turn his body into water.
 * is the Japanese word for the Chinese Lantern, a plant bearing fruit which resemble Chinese paper lanterns. It can also refer to the fruit of this plant. All known family names from Kirigakure are related to fruits: and.
 * Suigetsu has many similarities to an immature Naruto in terms of his relationship with Sasuke:
 * They both seem to annoy Sasuke to a certain degree.
 * They both believe themselves to be Sasuke's rival, something Sasuke doesn't pay any attention to.
 * They both seem to have the same immature traits such as being too cocky and overconfident.
 * They both are constantly getting beaten by the female member of their group (Karin and Sakura)
 * They both have an ambitious dream: Naruto to become Hokage, Suigetsu to become the one of the Seven Mist Swordsmen (although this dream shattered when Mangetsu died).
 * Several fans speculated in the past that Suigetsu is Sai's adopted brother Shin whom was presumed deceased, due to similar appearances, personalities as well as sharing the same blood type.