Nekomata

Nekomata is giant cat who is the boss of the ninja cat underworld. During Sasuke Uchiha's youth, Itachi Uchiha made a game of collecting paw prints of quick, nimble cats from a normal cat to a lion and the last paw print to be collected was Nekomata's. Itachi once defeated Nekomata and his ninja cats and requested him to fight Sasuke with all his might when he got older. Years later, Team 7 was assigned to get Nekomata's paw print and infiltrated his fortress. Sasuke challenged him but seemed to be too much for him until Naruto Uzumaki arrived and saved him. Sasuke decided to defeat Nekomata himself and revealed dozens of kunai with explosive tags on the ceiling above Nekomata and detonated, having the ceiling on top of him collapse. With Nekomata defeated, Sasuke collected the last paw print for the Paw Encyclopedia. After the time-skip, Nekomata visited Nekobaa to buy tools from her and sees a picture of Sasuke with his paw print, reminiscing of his battle with Sasuke.

Influence
Cats are the common species throughout the world, and stories of are popular throughout Japan. In myth, when a cat reaches a certain age, it grows larger, and its tail becomes longer and forks in two, and is then called a. These cats were said to have the ability to manipulate the dead like as if they were puppets, and had been associated with strange fires and occurrences.