Zaku Abumi

was a Genin-level ninja from Otogakure. He was part of the team that took the Chunin exam in order to assassinate Sasuke Uchiha.

Background
Unlike his partners, a glance into his past and how Orochimaru recruited him was given, making him a far more dramatic character. The anime shows that he was an orphan living on the streets who hustled by stealing for a living, and was almost always beaten for it. Orochimaru had told him he had potential and liked the strength in his eyes. He refuses to give up, even at the cost of his own life.

Abilities
Like many Sound ninja, he has been physically altered with unnatural enhancements that enhance his abilities; in his case, he was fitted with hollow air tubes that extend through his arms and open through his hands, allowing him to propel a combination of air pressure and sound in various ratios, controlled by his chakra. In his fight against Chouji, Zaku claimed to be able to control the sound more precisely than simply firing it in one direction but this was never shown.

Chunin Exam
After saving his partner Dosu from Rock Lee's lotus attack, he brutally fought off Sakura who attempted to prevent him from killing Sasuke. After the helpless Sakura lay beaten on the ground, he and his team had to fight Team Asuma. During the fight, Sasuke finally regained consciousness, and asked Sakura who had injured her. Zaku took the credit, and Sasuke proceeded to dislocate and greatly injure Zaku's shoulders. He was the only Sound ninja to fight Sasuke, as the others retreated. During his fight with Shino Aburame in the preliminary exams, he overcame the injuries to his shoulders and was able to use his arms to defend himself against Shino. Due to his cockiness, he attempted to attack both Shino and his approaching army of kikai insects, not noticing that the chakra-eating bugs had already filled the tubes in his arms, preventing him from attacking and even more brutally crippling and preventing him from doing any damage in the future (In the manga, his right arm was blown off due to the kikai bugs Shino used to fill up Zaku's air tubes, and the left was kept intact but halfway sliced. In the anime both of his arms are left intact, but have numerous holes in them, achieving the same, albeit less gruesome, result). Dosu says he would avenge him (or rather, his severed arms), but failed to do so due to being killed by Gaara before the finals even took place.

Konoha Invasion
Zaku, along with Kin Tsuchi, is later murdered as a sacrifice for Orochimaru's Impure World Resurrection for the First and Second Hokages against the Third Hokage.

Trivia

 * Zaku's name is derived from "to cut," which relates to his "air cutter" attack. It is also the sound of a person walking on snow or sand. With the former name meaning, he and his two teammates have names relating to swords, fitting based on their aggressive behavior and deadly intentions. However, based on the latter meaning, he and his two teammates all have names that come from onomatopoeias, fitting since they come from the Hidden Sound Village. Their naming pattern (Slash, Clang, and Crunch) is similar to that of Snap, Crackle and Pop.


 * The kanji on Zaku's shirt is 死 ("Shi", death).


 * Abumi means stirrup. It's also the Japanese name for one of the three ear bones, stirrup.


 * Zaku is the only Sound-nin so far that was never affiliated with a previous village whose past is explored.