Mizuki

was a chūnin-level shinobi of Konohagakure and a former instructor at the Academy. He is the first antagonist shown in the series.

Background
Though not revealed in the manga, the anime expanded on Mizuki's background. He was originally a childhood friend to Iruka Umino and stood up for him until he was overwhelmed by sheer jealous rage when Iruka was getting better treatment by everyone else. Despite his new-found hatred towards Iruka, Mizuki pretended to be his friend to be noticed and to discreetly keep Iruka miserable. Despite obtaining the rank of chūnin, being initially turned down from a position as an Academy instructor of being suspected of killing a team-mate on a previous mission, caused Mizuki to despise Konohagakure even though he eventually got the job. Later on, he decided he would do whatever it took to rise to power and glory, even becoming a secret follower of Orochimaru, who gave him the means to develop the Animal Cursed Seal.

Personality
Originally, Mizuki appeared to be very polite and kind-hearted, and was described to be a sweet man by his former lover, Tsubaki. In reality, he does not care for anything or anyone beyond his own rise in power. He takes pride in the fact that he is not bound by things like morals or teamwork, and is willing to sacrifice whatever he has to in order to complete his goals. His desire for power seems to come from what appears to be an inferiority complex, as he cannot stand having anyone look down on him. In what is perhaps an attempt to make him even more of an antithesis to Naruto, Mizuki's least favourite food is ramen, which happens to be Naruto's favourite. Mizuki also has a particular hatred for Naruto, seeing him only as the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox. It is unknown if Mizuki had started off with these negative traits and was merely hiding it with the façade of a sweet man, or was indeed once the sweet man Tsubaki claimed, but became corrupted as time passed. Mizuki is, overall, greatly ambitious and dishonourable.

Appearance
Mizuki had shoulder-length, white hair that has a slight hint of blue to it and green eyes. He wears the standard attire of the Konoha-nin before his defection, which included flak jacket and forehead protector which is worn like a bandanna. In the anime, after his time in prison, he became much more virile to the point Naruto didn't recognise him at first. For Mizuki's new virile appearance, he wears a short opened blue vest with sleeves torn off and tight black pants with a dark gray belt with a silver rectangular belt buckle. His cursed seal which took the form of tiger-like stripes also gave him a more feral look.

Abilities
At the beginning of the series, Mizuki did not seem very skilled beyond proficiently wielding large shuriken. His abilities were expanded upon in the anime, where he was revealed to have always been considered a very clever and talented ninja with a knack for learning advanced jutsu. He was even strong enough to defeat a jōnin such as Shizune when under the influence of the Animal Cursed Seal. In truth, the reason he had never advanced beyond chūnin was because there were suspicions on his conduct while in the field. He was also shown to be a very cunning manipulator from how he so easily deceived Naruto and then later the Legendary Stupid Brothers (although both cases were not too difficult, as Naruto was considered to be a little naive at the time, while the Legendary Stupid Brothers were simply unintelligent).

After Mizuki's life in prison, he seemed to be much more muscular and had an extreme amount of strength. During his battle with Iruka, he demonstrated a new mastery of a random assortment of jutsu. While mostly improvised, he proved very capable of using them in clever combinations that Iruka just barely survived.

Animal Cursed Seal
Orochimaru has granted Mizuki a special tattoo which was a prescription of a potion that initially transformed him into a muscle-bound behaemoth of himself, with tremendous raw speed and strength. It also allowed him to gain the appearance of a tiger-like being with even greater strength but with much weaker speed, but since the potion was incomplete, his body was eventually destroyed, turning him into a shrivelled up old man. Although Tsunade managed to save his life and restore his body, Mizuki lost all of his battle and physical prowess and was never able to become a ninja again.

Introduction Arc
At the series' start, playing on the youth's desire to graduate, Mizuki duped Naruto Uzumaki into stealing Konoha's Scroll of Seals for him. Originally, Mizuki had the plan set up to have Naruto as a scapegoat and kill him to hide the truth of his deception and secretly leave the village with the scroll in his possession. However, Mizuki's plan is derailed when Iruka found Naruto first and decided to reveal Naruto's identity as the Nine-Tails's jinchūriki to ensure he runs off disillusioned. However, overhearing Iruka standing up for him, Naruto comes to his teacher's aid and uses the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique he had learned from the scroll to beat Mizuki to a bloodied pulp for harming Iruka.

Mizuki Strikes Back Arc
In the manga, Mizuki claimed that he wanted the Scroll of Seals to gain infinite power for himself. However, the anime's filler arc showed that Mizuki intended to give the scroll to Orochimaru. Ending up at the Konoha Strict Correctional Facility after his defeat by Naruto, Mizuki bulked up by the time he stages a prison riot to escape from jail, intending to use the instructions given to him by Orochimaru to create a potion to increase his power and get his revenge on both Naruto and Iruka. Before that, he visited his lover, Tsubaki, who claimed that Mizuki used to be a sweet man, but that, ever since he got involved with Orochimaru, her relationship with Mizuki had faltered. Mizuki knocked out Tsubaki, whom he apparently did not love any more, and travelled to a cave where he could find the ingredients to the potion.

After consuming the potion, Mizuki obtained enhanced strength and power, stripes along his body, and enlarged arms. Later, as he added extract of a tiger into the potion, Mizuki assumed a tiger-like appearance but deceased his speed as Naruto managed to defeat him with the Rasengan. By that time, the flawed side effects of the Animal Curse Seal take effect with the defeated Mizuki reduced to a frail old man. Although his life was saved by Tsunade as she restored him to his original form, having no information on Orochimaru's whereabouts while being interrogated, Mizuki loses his ability to ninjutsu for what is later revealed to be have been a failed experiment of Orochimaru's.

Trivia

 * Mizuki's name means "cornel", a variety of the dogwood shrub.
 * According to the first databook:
 * His favourite food is chirashizushi while his least favourite food is ramen.
 * His favourite phrase is.
 * His dislike of ramen is likely a metaphor for his dislike of Naruto and Iruka.