Zansūru

was the of the Astronomy Research Institute.

Background
Zansūru had long been an ally of the Prime Minister, who assisted the monarch of the Land of Redaku in leading the country. An archaeologist by training, Zansūru spent many years studying at the Astronomy Research Institute, becoming an expert in the dinosaur fossils commonly excavated from the earth surrounding the Institute. From careful study of the Institute's archives, Zansūru was also able to learn how to revive the dead. By using this technique to revive dinosaurs, Zansūru believed a powerful army could be created to benefit the Prime Minister, and incidentally the rest of Redaku.

But to be able to revive the dinosaurs required a great deal of chakra, something only a shinobi would possess. So the Prime Minister recruited Jiji to their cause, offering to let Jiji settle down with his secret lover, Margo, in exchange for a year spent helping Zansūru. Jiji accepted these terms. The first of the dinosaurs to be revived, who would come to be called Menō, was a success. Jiji granted control of Menō to Zansūru, who used Menō to maintain order among the prisoners being used to excavate additional dinosaur fossils. When a new fossil would be found, Zansūru stored it in a secret chamber only accessible from his office; he also raised chickens there, which were to be used as sacrifices for the revived dinosaurs.

As the year of Jiji's service was about to finish, Zansūru had not yet accumulated enough fossils for use in the Prime Minister's army, and in fact had made no efforts to revive additional dinosaurs other than Menō. In order to keep Jiji's cooperation, Zansūru lied to him that Margo - with whom Jiji had been out of contact - had died, a casualty of an unspecified pandemic; he requested the Prime Minister send Jiji a falsified death certificate as proof. Jiji was devastated by the news and lost his will to live. Zansūru proposed using the same technique that revived the dinosaurs to in turn revive Margo: if Jiji would continue lending assistance until the army of dinosaurs was fully assembled, then Zansūru would track down Margo's body so Jiji could revive her. Jiji accepted these terms.

Zansūru rarely ventured away from the Astronomy Research Institute, too intent on seeing his task, and thus the Prime Minister's aspirations, completed. Conditions among the Institute's prisoners steadily declined, as Zansūru had no concern for their well-being beyond their role in furthering his own purposes.

Appearance
Zansūru was a slender man with silver-rimmed glasses. His left eye was a prosthetic, made of glass. His glass eye was so convincing that almost nobody has ever noticed it; Sasuke Uchiha was only able to detect it because of his Sharingan. In the manga, Zansūru had red hair and white purple eyes (red violet in the anime). Zansūru wore a white attire with a black zig-zag pattern on the centre and on the hem and grey trousers, and black boots. In the anime, he also wore grey stud earrings.

Abilities
Though he had at times claimed to be a ninja, Zansūru was only an ordinary person, and as such his chakra reserves were quite small. This fact, or at least that he was not responsible for reviving the dinosaurs intended for the Prime Minister's army, was apparently not something he wishes others to know. He did briefly display Wind Release during his confrontation with Sasuke Uchiha, to help a flying dinosaur remain airborne; blue stripes were described as appearing on his forehead when he does this, though their purpose is unclear.

Because of his glass eye, Zansūru was impervious to ocular genjutsu.

Sasuke Retsuden Arc
Shortly after breakfast one morning, Menō publicly executed two prisoners trying to escape from the Astronomy Research Institute. Despite the gruesomeness of the executions, much of the prison-population couldn't help but watch, as was Zansūru's intention: the greater the spectacle Menō could make of the executions, the more attention the executions would receive and consequently the less likely prisoners would be to make similar escape attempts. Zansūru pretended that this was not actually his intention and ordered the observing prisoners to return to their work the moment the executions concluded. The prisoners quickly complied.

The following day, Zansūru confronted prisoner #487, Sasuke Uchiha, who tried (and failed) to place a genjutsu on Menō during the night. Sasuke was surprised that Zansūru knew about this and immediately responded by activating his Sharingan. He used his Sharingan to try and place a genjutsu on Zansūru, only to notice that Zansūru had a glass eye and that this made him immune to genjutsu. Zansūru complimented Sasuke for his evident skill, but warned that control of Menō cannot be taken from him, which he attributed to his status as a shinobi. For the rest of the day, the prison's guards harassed Sasuke at Zansūru's instruction, finding any opportunity to psychically reprimand him. Sasuke did not resist so as not to draw additional attention to himself, but neither did he show signs that the physical abuse affected him, so as not to give Zansūru the satisfaction.

A few days later, Fundaru, a messenger of the Prime Minister, visited the Institute to meet with Zansūru. Unbeknownst to Zansūru, Fundaru was intercepted and impersonated by Sakura Haruno, the Institute's new doctor. When Sakura arrived at his office, Zansūru invited her to sit down as they exchanged pleasantries. Sakura drew Zansūru's attention to the weather visible through the nearby window, and while he's distracted rolled Fundaru's cane (actually a disguised Sasuke) into Zansūru's bedroom. To give Sasuke time to investigate Zansūru's chambers, Sakura engaged Zansūru in conversation, using as much information as she was able to get from Fundaru when she met him earlier. Although Zansūru allowed this conversation for a time, he eventually grew impatient and demanded to know what message the Prime Minister had for him.

Sakura inquired about "progress", to which Zansūru responded that the project he's been working on should be completed shortly, just in time for the Prime Minister's plans in Nagare Village. Sakura, unaware of what these plans pertain to, asked for more information. Zansūru refused, explaining that the Prime Minister would know what he's referring to. He noticed that Fundaru's cane is missing and asks where it's gone. At the same moment, Sasuke successfully unlocked a secret door in Zansūru's bedroom, causing a sound. Sakura covered this up by tapping Fundaru's cane (previously hidden on her person) on the floor. The meeting shortly afterwards concluded, Zansūru never having noticed Sakura's ruse or Sasuke's presence.

On the night that the Prime Minister was to launch an attack against Nagare, Zansūru has Jiji revive all of the dinosaurs whose fossils they've excavated thus far. Sasuke, having realised what Zansūru's plans were only moments before the dinosaurs were resurrected, immediately began to pursue the dinosaurs, determined to stop them from leaving the Institute. He was quickly intercepted by Zansūru. Sasuke, believing that Zansūru was in control of the dinosaurs, questioned his motivations in order to evaluate whether he can be convinced to change his mind. In the course of his answers, Zansūru expressed his belief that he is a power of the country, and that the Prime Minister, as the head of the country, can use that power in whatever way he pleases, even killing the country's own citizens living in Nagare Village.

Zansūru's words make clear to Sasuke that he would not be convinced. But Sasuke also became suspicious; he activated his Sharingan and studied Zansūru's chakra, determining that, despite his earlier claim, Zansūru was not a shinobi and therefore can't be responsible for reviving the dinosaurs. Meanwhile, Menō sneaked up behind Sasuke and began to attack him. Zansūru instructed Menō to kill Sasuke and left to join Jiji, who was now riding atop a giant dinosaur nicknamed "Titan". Zansūru marvelled at the dinosaurs now tearing through the Institute's prisoners. Zansūru shared his satisfaction with Jiji and instructed him to mobilise the dinosaurs to the Prime Minister's location as soon as the prisoners are all dead. Jiji agreed, but reminded Zansūru to uphold his end of their agreement, which Zansūru promised to do as soon as the attack is completed.

To Zansūru and Jiji's surprise, Menō joined the battle in defence of the prisoners. Zansūru demanded an explanation from Jiji, who reported that he's lost control of Menō, presumably because of Sasuke. Though irritated by this, Zansūru expected Menō would not last long against the larger dinosaurs still under Jiji's control. But Menō ended up prevailing against these larger dinosaurs thanks to the additional strength gained from Sasuke's control, a possibility Jiji had never previously shared with Zansūru. Sasuke soon joined Menō and Sakura, meanwhile, began fighting the dinosaurs on the opposite side of the Institute. Jiji volunteered to deal with Sakura and passed control of all the revived dinosaurs to Zansūru, to use as he saw fit against Menō and Sasuke.

Menō, with Sasuke's help, was able to get onto the Titan's back and started running towards Zansūru. Zansūru called a flying dinosaur to his side before Menō reached him and took flight upon it, beyond Menō's reach. Zansūru, angry that he's lost control of Menō after all their time together, instructed all the dinosaurs to kill Sasuke. In the course of fending the dinosaurs off, Sasauke managed to strike the dinosaur that Zansūru was riding with a bolt of lightning, but Zansūru stoped it from crashing to the ground with a gust of wind. Menō, meanwhile, attacked the Titan's legs, causing it to topple over; because of its large size, it had difficulty getting up. Zansūru instructed the flying dinosaur he's riding to help it get up. Because he was not its original summoner, the flying dinosaur could only accept one command from Zansūru at a time, and this instruction to help the Titan replaced his previous instruction to let him ride it. Thus, as the dinosaur headed towards the Titan, Zansūru fell off, dying upon impact with the ground.

Zansûru Zansūru