Utakata

was a shinobi from Kirigakure and the jinchūriki of the Six-Tailed Slug. The Six-Tails has been captured and sealed by Akatsuki, causing Utakata's death when the beast was extracted. While the events surrounding his capture and death are unknown, Utakata was featured in an anime-only arc detailing his capture.

Background
Prior to the events of the Six-Tailed Beast arc, Utakata trained with his master Harusame, who Utakata claims eventually betrayed him. According to a member of Kirigakure's ANBU, his master didn't betray him, but was rather trying to extract the Six-Tails from Utakata. The process didn't go as planned, turning him into the six-tailed slug and resulting in his master's death. After this, Utakata gained a fear of the relationship between master and student, and became a wanderer, constantly fighting off people who were after him, particularly the Hunter-nin sent from Kirigakure to retrieve him.

One day, he was attacked again in front of a girl named Hotaru. While defeating his attackers, he was injured. Believing that Utakata had saved her, Hotaru took him to her family's fort for treatment. After he recovered, Hotaru begged him to train her in his ninjutsu, to which he refused, not wanting to become anyone's master.

Personality
Kishimoto described Utakata as "charming". Utakata is usually depicted with a stoic, emotionless look. The only time he has shown any emotion at all, that emotion being anger, was from his desire not be called, later saying he is not foolish enough to be titled "master". He also admits to being flustered by Hotaru constant attachment to him. Utakata is a loner who shows no emotional attachment, yet has a strong sense of honor, and is determined to repay his debts to others. Tonbee also commented that he lacked "greed". As he floated away in a bubble using his jutsu, he said " I told you not to call me master" which depicts his utter hatred for the word due to past experiences. He was also horrified by the forbidden jutsu on Hotaru's back.

Appearance
Utakata is a tall, thin young man with dark brown, shoulder-length hair with bangs that cover the left side of his face and amber-colored eyes. He wears a long blue kimono with an orange sash belt, sporting a small crest near the back of his neck that appears to be a simplified image of three bubbles. He carries a bamboo jug which is filled with a soap solution.

Abilities
Utakata fights using ninjutsu from the  of ninjutsu, using a unique kind of bubble-blowing relic. In the anime, this style of ninjutsu is shown to be very versatile having many variants that can be used for distraction or offense. He can also use the bubble as a means of transportation. In battle he was shown to be very fast and evasive, effortlessly dodging and out-maneuvering all of Naruto's attacks and the assaults from Nangō, Akaboshi, Benten, and Chūshin. He as also very observant as he noticed that Akaboshi and his group had a change in their chakra flow and is knowledgeable of herbal remedies. He is also shown to have an affinity to water-chakra.

As the jinchūriki of the Six-Tailed Slug, Utakata has access of high level chakra from his tailed beast. However, he lacks control, as when Harusame tried to extract the beast, he transformed and unintentionally killed his master.

Six-Tailed Beast arc
Wishing to repay the debt of having his life saved, Utakata agreed to make sure Hotaru and her grandfather's secret jutsu would safely be delivered to her clan's village.

Along the way, though, he met Naruto Uzumaki and his team, who had also been assigned to protect Hotaru. Seeing that the Leaf ninja were strong, he felt that he could trust them to guard Hotaru without him, freeing him from his debt. He then left, despite Hotaru's pleas for him to stay, as he noted that he was not foolish enough to want the title of.

Later on, he was seen resting under a tree, eventually falling asleep and having a dream regarding his past with Hotaru at the fort, which turned into a nightmare about his own master's betrayal. Shortly after awaking from this nightmare, Utakata spotted a flicker of a shadow, and decided to investigate. He came across a group of bandits, none other than Akaboshi's team, who were talking about the forbidden jutsu. Utakata confronted them and mused about taking the jutsu for himself, if it was so tantalizingly powerful. He then proceeded to fight them, easily besting them and their jutsu, until, however, they cornered him with a barrier, which then exploded with Utakata still inside.

When Akaboshi and his group managed to find Hotaru and surrounded her in the forest, Utakata arrived and saved her from the group, who were shocked to see Utakata still alive and unscathed from their jutsu. Utakata fled with Hotaru in a bubble, and they went somewhere nearby, but safe. Utakata was about to leave Hotaru again, but Hotaru, trying to convince him not to leave her alone, partially took off her shirt, showing him something on her back that shocked him. All of a sudden, the Kirigakure ANBU found Utakata and wrapped him up with their Water Release: Water Whip jutsu and began subduing him with their Lightning Release: Electromagnetic Murder. The captain revealed to Hotaru, who he was holding hostage, that Utakata was in their bingo book, and was wanted for killing his master. Naruto and his team arrived and managed to loosen one of the water whips holding Utakata. Both parties began to fight, but the leader of the Kirigakure ANBU appeared, and discussed the situation with Yamato. Due to Hotaru's insistence to be with Utakata, it was agreed that until she was safe, they wouldn't hunt him, but afterwards, they'd resume tracking Utakata down. Tsurugi, the leader, asked Utakata to return to Kirigakure, saying that the village changed, no longer earning the nickname of Village of the Bloody Mist. Utakata refuses, and says that he'll keep doing as he pleases.

After the groups part ways, Hotaru begins hurting from an injury sustained during the earlier altercation. Utakata has Naruto collect medicinal herbs. When Naruto returns, he witnesses what was done to Hotaru's back, where her clan's kinjutsu was put. Utakata voices his absolute disdain for people who selfishly take advantage of people's loyalty, only to treat them as tools.

Utakata is shocked to learned that Hotaru actually requested for the jutsu to be sealed in her. After she explained that she wanted her grandfather's dream to restore their clan's glory to come true. When Tonbee voiced his sorrow that by now the clan had probably lost too much strength to ever return to such a status he suggested they end the potential danger of the forbidden jutsu by destroying it. Utakata was surprised that Hotaru's grandfather had created a way to safely remove it from Hotaru's body. When Tonbee insisted that no true master would do such horrific things without a way to undo them, Utakata wondered if the same was true for his master. Once Hotaru was convinced to have the forbidden jutsu removed and destroyed Utakata resolved to find Tsurugi again to learn some answers about his late master.

Trivia

 * refers to bubbles on the surface of a liquid. Idiomatically, it also means "transient", "ephemeral".
 * In the anime, Utakata and the Six-Tails remain yet to be captured by Akatsuki, as the sealing statue wasn't shown having 7 of 9 eyes yet (2 others had to be captured in the manga). In order to avoid conflict with the manga, it seems inevitable that, by the end of the arc, Utakata will have been captured and the Six-Tails extracted, resulting in his previously-unseen death, in a manner similar to the Three-Tailed Giant Turtle.
 * He has two musical themes that are remixes of Guren's theme. One is the end part of the theme called Guren, and the other is called Reflection.
 * Kirigakure's Bingo Book states that Utakata is worth a bounty of 50 million ryo.

Quotes

 * (To Naruto) "They think of us... as mere tools. Tools... who don't speak."