Kankurō

is the brother of Gaara and Temari; the middle child of the Fourth Kazekage. Like his siblings, Kankuro is usually seen less often than the other main characters in the series.

Personality
In Part I, one noticeable personality trait he displays is an apparent dislike for children, first seen when he attempts to beat up Konohamaru for running into him. This carries over to many of his interactions with other characters as he is noticeably irritated when in the presence of someone younger than him. This is most evident when he is seen with Gaara, who Kankuro is forced to put up with due to the fear his younger brother imposes on him.

Despite their apparent differences, Gaara and Kankuro become very close over the timeskip as Gaara begins to confide in Kankuro, and shares his dreams of wanting to risk his life to protect Sunagakure. As such, Kankuro has become very protective of Gaara, willing to challenge anyone who puts Gaara down in his presence. When Gaara is captured by Akatsuki, Kankuro rushes to his brother's aid in an attempt to save him. He is quickly defeated and bedridden as a result, though joins Temari in looking for Gaara as soon as he is able to walk. Once Gaara is found and saved, Kankuro joins Temari in thanking Team Kakashi for saving their brother.

In the original Japanese, Kankuro speaks with a distinctive Yokohama accent. He can often be heard ending his sentences with "jaan." This makes him sound tough, as this accent is often used for biker gang members or punk kids (called yankii in Japanese, Yokohama supposedly has many) in manga. It is possible that he was given this accent to make him sound different from the Konoha characters' standard Tokyo Japanese.

Chunin Exam arc
Soon after their arrival in Konoha for the Chunin Exams, Kankuro and his siblings run into Team 7. Although Kankuro is tempted to pick on its members, he is threatened by Gaara in order to stop. During the written portion of the exam, meant to test the examinees' cheating abilities, Kankuro disguised his puppet Karasu as a proctor. After using Karasu to gather answers from other tests, Kankuro asked to go to the bathroom. Karasu went to escort him and gave him the answers.

During the survival portion of the exam, he was seen, only briefly, by Kiba, Shino, and Hinata while Gaara brutally murdered a team of Rain Genin.

During the preliminary matches, Kankuro is paired with Misumi Tsurugi. Misumi quickly wraps himself around Kankuro's body, threatening to break Kankuro's neck if he did not forfeit. Kankuro refused, so Misumi made good on his threat by appearing to kill Kankuro. Before the match could be called in Misumi's favor, the Kankuro that Misumi attacked is revealed to have been Karasu in disguise. Karasu quickly grabs hold of Misumi and constricts him before he can surrender. Misumi survives, but is in no condition to fight and Kankuro is declared the winner.

Invasion of Konoha arc
In the final round matches set to take place a month later, Kankuro is scheduled to fight Shino Aburame. Because he is to take part in Sunagakure's invasion of Konoha, planned to begin before his match with Shino, Kankuro outfits Karasu especially for the invasion. When the invasion is delayed and Kankuro's fight with Shino is to begin, Kankuro forfeits, not wanting to reveal Karasu's new features.

When the invasion begins, Kankuro and Temari escort an injured Gaara out of the village. When they discover they are being followed Kankuro stays behind to buy time. Before he can engage their pursuer, Sasuke Uchiha, Shino arrives to fight him instead, wanting to have the battle he was denied in the finals. Sasuke continues following Gaara while Shino and Kankuro begin to fight. Kankuro has Karasu begin an immediate assault, but Shino avoids the attacks and, unbeknownst to Kankuro, plants a bug on him. Kankuro then launches a poison smoke bomb at Shino. Shino inhales a bit, but is able to escape and use his bugs to trap and restrain Karasu. Before he loses complete use of Karasu he tries to launch a final attack, only to discover that Shino's bugs, guided to the bug placed on him earlier, have found his location and consumed all his chakra.

Kankuro is left unable to move but Shino, because of the poison gas he inhaled, passes out and cannot finish him off. He is later found by Temari, and together they help Gaara get back to Sunagakure. Gaara, having been defeated by Naruto, wearily apologized to both of his siblings. Kankuro, utterly shocked, stammered out words of forgiveness.

Sasuke Retrieval arc
Kankuro and his siblings are sent by Sunagakure to help Konoha retrieve Sasuke Uchiha. Kankuro comes to the aid of Kiba Inuzuka and his dog Akamaru, saving them from Sakon and Ukon. While Karasu protects Kiba and Akamaru from Ukon, Sakon tries to use his Soma no Ko to fuse with Kankuro's body. It is revealed to be Kankuro's new puppet, Kuroari, in disguise, which immediately attacks Sakon. Kankuro has Karasu navigate Sakon and Ukon into Kuroari's body, trapping them. Karasu then splits apart to reveal an assortment of weapons that bombard and pierce Kuroari, killing Sakon and Ukon.

After the battle ended, with Sasuke gone and almost all of the Leaf ninja hospitalized - but alive - Kankuro and his siblings are seen off by Shikamaru Nara.

Rescue Gaara arc
Two-and-a-half years later, when Gaara was defeated and captured by Deidara and Sasori, two members of Akatsuki, Kankuro followed in hot pursuit, determined to stop them from taking his brother. To defeat the Akatsuki pair, Kankuro releases his puppets from their carrying scrolls (Karasu, Kuroari, and his new puppet Sanshōuo) to challenge the Akatsuki members. Sasori agrees to fight, but immediately repels an attack from Karasu, revealing himself to be the puppets' creator and thus knows all of their secrets.

Since their fight goes unseen in the manga, the anime adaptation explains the circumstances of Kankuro's defeat. While able to combine the use of his puppets with great effectiveness, Kankuro is unable to bypass Sasori's defenses. Sasori captures each of the puppets in turn, disassembling them before attacking Kankuro with his tail. His tail being coated with poison, Kankuro collapses, but with the last of his strength is able to have apiece of Karasu tear off part of Sasori's cloak. Sasori left, giving Kankuro three days before the poison kills him.

Soon after, Team Kakashi arrived at Sunagakure to help in rescuing Gaara, and while they were there, Sakura Haruno cured Kankuro and created an antidote from the poison still in his system. Kankuro then provided Team Kakashi with the part of Sasori's cloak that he had taken, which they used to track down Gaara. Once well enough to walk around, Kankuro set out with Temari to catch up with Team Kakashi. When Gaara was found and revived, Kankuro joined Temari in thanking Team Kakashi for saving their brother.

Abilities
Kankuro is a talented Puppeteer, indicated when Sasori, a master of the Puppet Technique, complimenting Kankuro's skills. He is physically strong enough to carry around two puppets on his back in Part I, though in Part II he instead uses a scroll to store them in. Because puppeteers are meant to rely on their puppets in combat, Kankuro has little taijutsu skill and has shown only a basic use of ninjutsu. He is, however, very deceptive, regularly tricking his opponents to believe that his puppets are him.

Puppets
With each of his appearances in the major arcs, Kankuro is seen with a new puppet in his arsenal. The three puppets that have been introduced were all originally created by Sasori, and came into Kankuro's possession some time after Sasori left Sunagakure. Similarly, each puppet is destroyed by Sasori years later, and it is unknown if Kankuro will rebuild them. Each of these puppets is characterized for the excessive clicking noises they make when moving, making them less than suitable for stealth purposes.


 * - The first of Kankuro's puppets to make an appearance, Karasu resembles a three-eyed, four-armed humanoid with jagged teeth and spiky black hairstyle protruding from the top of its head and framing the sides. In Part I, Kankuro typically keeps Karasu wrapped in bandages on his back, and he is able to switch places with it at will using the Body Replacement Technique. Because of Kankuro's enjoyment in installing mechanisms into his puppets, Karasu is very offensive, having numerous concealed weapons, including poison-tipped darts and smokescreens in order to blind its opponents. The smokescreens can be made up of poisonous gas to serve a secondary purpose. Karasu is also able to detach any of its body parts for separate attacks. In the video games, Karasu is shown to be armed with a special flight mechanism that enables it to maneuver high into the air where it could bomb targets from above.
 * - The second of Kankuro's puppets to make an appearance, Kuroari has a much longer head than Karasu with a bucket-shaped face sporting two red horns and six arms; its facial features include three eyes similar to Karasu, a dark disheveled hairstyle. Its overall body-frame somewhat resembles a large barrel. While Kuroari does not contain as many hidden weapons as Karasu, each of its arm segments contain a hidden saw-blade which can be used to inflict large slicing wounds to opponents. Kuroari's primary function is to trap opponents within itself while weapons enter the slots along its body to puncture the opponent. Like Karasu, Kuroari is able to detach any of its body parts for separate attacks.
 * - The third of Kankuro's puppets to make an appearance, Sanshōuo, unlike Kankuro's other puppets, stays true to its name and resembles a salamander. Its abilities are unseen in the manga, but in the anime, Sanshōuo is shown to have incredible defensive power. It has a frill that swings up to defend against attacks from the front as well as the tail being able to tuck up to reach the frill and guard the rear followed by an iron cloak immediately covering all sides, and a hollow body Kankuro and up to two other people can take cover in to defend against attacks coming from other directions.

Kankuro's puppets seem to be designed to work together to some degree, as seen with Poison Mist Hell: Hundred Continuous Hell, where Karasu blankets the area in a smokescreen while Kuroari fires poisoned needles at the blinded opponent. Black Secret Technique Machine One Shot also displays the puppets' abilities to work together, where Karasu navigates an opponent into Kuroari's torso. Once trapped, Karasu separates its limbs to reveal a number of concealed weapons which enter the slots on Kuroari's body to impale the opponent. Similar in purpose though only needing one puppet, Black Secret Technique Machine Two Shot calls upon four scythe-like blades to run along the sides of Kuroari's body, reaping the victim inside.

Trivia

 * Whenever Kankuro appears in a new arc of the manga, he sports a new design of purple face paint. This could be a nod to Kabuki theatre where face paint was often used. In the art of putting on make-up, each of the colors mean something, purple representing nobility, and loftiness.
 * In addition to his Kabuki-like make-up, the fact that he uses puppets as well as the black outfit and cap he wears are possibly an allusion to Bunraku, Japanese puppet theatre. His entire character seems to be an allusion to stage arts.
 * Kankuro was ranked as the 19th most popular character in the sixth and most recent Naruto character popularity poll. He placed 30th in the fifth poll.
 * His name means "black cap," which is an allusion as to how he dresses.
 * Although he rarely removes his hood, his hair color is brown, seen when Sakura tried to restrain him for treatment against Sasori's poison. His hair appears to be the most adherent of their family's heritage.