Kazuki Sakamoto

Kazuki Sakamoto (坂本和希, Sakamoto Kazuki) is a chūnin-level shinobi of Konohagakure, a descendant of the Uzumaki clan and a member of Team Kazuma. He possesses the Crystal Release kekkei genkai. Eventually, he marries Anzu Sarutobi and he would father two children, Masaki and Hoshi Sakamoto.

Background
Kazuki is the only child of Tadao and Chinatsu Sakamoto; after the complications of his birth it was adviced that Chinatsu don't plan to bear another child as carrying it would be too dangerous for her, as seen with the amount of complications with her pregnancy with Kazuki (hyperemesis gravidarum).

Kazuki grew up as a spoiled child due to his, but he was taught manners and had to work hard to earn something he wanted, which was mainly under his father's influence as he didn't want his son to grow up to be an arrogant man who thought the world revolved around him.

Kazuki spent most of his time playing with his childhood friend Yoru Matsuda, who was mostly alone due to his own father hating him, and clearly favouring his other child with Yoru's stepmother over him. The two boys hoped to become respected shinobi in the future together.

When he graduated, he was placed on Team Kazuma alongside Anzu Sarutobi and, to his delight, Yoru Matsuda under the command of Kazuma Narai.

Personality
Kazuki is a cheerful character who can often be short-tempered, mostly at his sensei Kazuma for not teaching them properly, and, much like his teammate Anzu, he can hold grudges for a long time.

At the start of the series, Kazuki held a strong friendship with Anzu, which slowly bloomed into genuine love after she showed she was willing to risk her life to protect him during a fight with hunter-nin on one of their first missions outside the village. As the series progressed, so did his feelings for her. His feelings for Anzu have ultimately become his greatest desire, simply to be together with Anzu, as shown through the Infinite Tsukuyomi. This desire would finally become a reality years after the war, when Kazuki and Anzu get married and start a family of their own, with two children that he, like his wife, would love dearly.

Kazuki greatly admires his best friend and rival Yoru, and has an ongoing, somewhat childish rivalry with him. In trying to prove himself superior to Yoru, Kazuki regularly challenges him to competitions of questionable value. They regularly ask Anzu's opinion on who's better.

Appearance
Kazuki has fair skin, red hair- a trait that identified him as a member of the Uzumaki clan- and black eyes.

In Part I, Kazuki wore a medium grey short-sleeved high-collared shirt with beige designs above a purple turtleneck tank top and white shorts. He wore the standard blue shinobi sandals and his forehead protector tied the traditional way around his forehead. He wore beige arm warmers on his lower arms.

In Part II, his colour scheme didn't change. He wears a medium grey short sleeved high collared top with a purple turtleneck, black pants and black boots. His forehead protector is now on a black cloth, and he wears bandages on his right lower arm, which matches with his best friend and rival Yoru, who wears one on his left lower arm.

He later dons the uniform of the Allied Shinobi Forces inclusive of a Konohagakure flak jacket, black pants, black long-sleeved shirt and black shinobi sandals.

Two years after the Fourth Shinobi World War, Kazuki, at age 19, has retained his hairstyle and moved the metal portion of his forehead protector to a simple black elastic headband. He wears a black high collared top with his sleeves rolled up above his elbow. He wears black pants and black shinobi sandals. While off-duty, he wears an black sweatshirt with white hoods and black and beige shorts with sandals.

Kekkei Genkai
Kazuki possesses the Crystal Release, which he inherited from his mother. By using this power, Kazuki can summon and freely manipulate his crystal constructs in a number of ways, such as creating crushing walls or unique snowflake-patterned shuriken. He can crystallise the moisture in the air, therefore giving him an infinite source of weapons. The colour of the crystals vary for the users as it corresponds to the user's nature affinity, which means that Kazuki's crystals are red as it corresponds to his Fire Release affinity.

Nature Transformation
Kazuki has displayed competent use of nature transformation, being able to use Fire Release techniques such as the famous Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique. He has also demonstrated aptitude with other high-level techniques such as the Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique as well as with the generic Body Flicker Technique.

Kazuki possesses a unique ninja art: the Crystal Release. While its specifics are unknown, it is believed into involve an Earth Release usage and made clear by Guren that it could not be copied with the Sharingan. Tsunade also indicates that there were rumours of this ability, although it was never confirmed during any of the ninja wars.undefinedThis could indicate that there have been others with this ability, but its rarity gave little knowledge of it.

Fūinjutsu
Due to his Uzumaki lineage, Kazuki is naturally a specialist at this technique. He is able to perform the Uzumaki Sealing Technique, an Uzumaki trademark sealing technique and he can also dispel any sealing technique using the Secret Technique: Sealing Release. After studying a great variety of different sealing techniques, Kazuki is able to recognise a seal and its properties just by glancing at it.

Intelligence
Kazuki has shown to possess a good level of intelligence by seeing things others would generally miss and great analytical skills.

Teamwork
Kazuki was shown to be able to work well with others. Team Kazuma is one of the teams in Konohagakure who has a good teamwork, although it is nowhere near the Ino–Shika–Chō formation.

Life Force
As a member of the Uzumaki clan, Kazuki is blessed with an especially strong life-force, granting him tremendous stamina and vitality plus an extremely long potential lifespan.

Chūnin Exam Arc

 * Main article: Chūnin Exam Arc

Kazuki and his team are introduced during the Chūnin Exams. The team passed the first and second phase, and because too many teams passed the second stage, they advanced to the preliminary matches. Kazuki battled a shinobi from Sunagakure. Kazuki won the battle, so he passed to the final stage.

During the timespan of one month that the participants received to train and get ready for the final stage, Kazuki trained with his mother in learning how to use his kekkei genkai. When the final stage started, Kazuki was matched against Yoru. The battle ended with a draw, making both of them lose. When the invasion started, he was rendered unconscious by Kabuto's genjutsu.

Invasion of Konoha Arc

 * Main article: Invasion of Konoha Arc

Kazuki can be seen at the Third Hokage's funeral alongside the other villagers, mourning his Hokage's death while attempting to comfort Anzu at the same time.

During the Timeskip
Kazuki trained with his mother to learn his kekkei genkai and to also learn some of the sealing techniques his mother's clan was famous for. At some point Kazuki got promoted to chūnin rank.

Sasuke and Sai Arc

 * Main article: Sasuke and Sai Arc

Kazuki made her first reappearance shortly after Team Kakashi and Team Guy returned from the successful saving of Gaara. He appeared again after Naruto and his team returned from their failed attempt to retrieve Sasuke. Upon meeting Sai, he, alongside Anzu and Yoru, noted that he looks a lot like Sasuke but their personalities are polar opposites.

Hidan and Kakuzu Arc

 * Main article: Hidan and Kakuzu Arc

He was briefly seen at Asuma's funeral, mourning his loss.

Invasion of Pain Arc

 * Main article: Invasion of Pain Arc

When Pain's invasion of Konoha begins, Team Kazuma is away on a mission. They rush to the village and find it to be in ruins, as well as stumbling along a badly injured Hinata. He was then seen to be crouching with his teammates and Tenten besides Hinata whom was being healed by Sakura. Hinata waking up, Kazuki and the others were happy to have her back, with Hinata thanking each and every one of them. Katsuyu later informs them that Naruto was fighting with the last Pain much to everyones shock. Later, he and the rest of the village celebrated Naruto's victory on defeating Pain.

Five Kage Summit Arc

 * Main article: Five Kage Summit Arc

When news reached Konoha of Sasuke's recent dealings with Akatsuki, Kazuki and the rest of the Konoha 11 decided that they should personally kill Sasuke before he involves the village in a war. Ino who was unhappy about this cried and was criticised by Kiba about it. Tenten and Anzu comforted Ino. When Naruto came back to the village along with Sakura, he insisted that dealing with Sasuke be left to him. Tenten got angry and told him that this should not be something he undertook on his own, and that none of them would just stand by and watch. Anzu told him that she agreed with Tenten, and Kazuki inwardly agreed with both of them. Despite this, Naruto firmly stated that he would be the one to handle Sasuke, and that he'd tell them everything when the time came, as he walked off to Ichiraku, leaving Kazuki and the others in mixed emotions.

Shinobi World War Arc

 * Main article: Shinobi World War Arc

During the Fourth Shinobi World War, Kazuki is assigned to the Third Division alongside Sakura, Lee and Guy. When members of the Surprise Attack Division are attacked by the reincarnated shinobi, the Third Division arrives in time to intercept the attack. He is then seen along with the Third Division clashing against the reincarnated ninja. After a long day battling, Kazuki and the recuperates with his remaining division members as night falls.

With the resumption of battle the next day, Lee sticks close to Sai who had been tasked with sealing the reincarnated Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist. Lee tells Sai not to worry and just concentrate on the sealing while he would protect him. When Naruto's shadow clone arrives on the battlefield, Lee exclaims that with him here their numbers would increase. However, Naruto tells them that he wouldn't be able to perform the Shadow Clone Technique in his current state, so they'd have to defeat the new wave of White Zetsu Army clones with quality of techniques instead of quantity in numbers.

After being informed by Inoichi from HQ that Naruto and B were fighting the "masked Madara", Kazuki and the rest of the Konoha 11 rush to his aid.

Ten-Tails Revival Arc

 * Main article: Ten-Tails Revival Arc

Later, he stood alongside the remainder of the Allied Shinobi Forces as they prepared to face their opposition by trapping the Ten-Tails which turned out to be a failure. The Ten-Tails later began its move.

After facing several attacks from the Ten-Tails, Kazuki later learned of Neji's death, and he silently mourned his death. Having received chakra from Naruto, Kazuki and the other members of the Alliance charged towards the Uchiha and the Ten-Tails. With the situation later turning grim as the Alliance was trapped in a barrier with a Tailed Beast Ball-firing tree, Kazuki and the other shinobi soon found themselves shrouded in the previous Version 1 mantles again. He and the others subsequently found themselves on the outside of the barrier, escaping the near-fatal attack thanks to Naruto and Minato's action. The Ten-Tails transformed into its final form, the God Tree, and ravaged the Alliance. Kazuki was able to escape its chakra absorbing attacks. Hashirama Senju then had Ino link-up everyone telepathically. While his words fail to inspire anyone, Naruto's senjutsu-enhanced Tailed Beast Mode combined with Ino's telepathy caused his emotions and personal memories to be transferred to everyone, spurring them on.

Kazuki and his comrades later assisted Naruto with wresting control of all the tailed beasts' chakra from Obito's control in order to stop the Shinju from blooming.

Final Arc

 * Main article: Final Arc

The Alliance was ultimately successful in stopping Obito, however, their victory is short lived as Madara was able to revive himself via the Outer Path: Samsara of Heavenly Life Technique and Guruguru appeared on the battlefield launching a renewed assault. Kazuki regrouped with Anzu and Yoru, as the team saw Gaara, Sakura and a dying Naruto fly over them from above.

Later, when Madara Uchiha finally succeeded with the activation of the Infinite Tsukuyomi, much like the rest of the world, he too fell under the genjutsu's power. Inside the genjutsu, Kazuki dreamt of being a couple with Anzu, while his parents watched from afar.

After Naruto was able to defeat and reform Sasuke, Kazuki and everyone else were released from the Infinite Tsukuyomi. He later attended Neji's funeral alongside Naruto and the rest of the Konohagakure shinobi.

Epilogue
Years later, Kazuki married Anzu and together they had two children, Masaki and Hoshi, who was named to honor his mother-in-law Kotori's clan name and symbol. In the epilogue, Kazuki is seen training with Yoru, indicating that their childish rivalry didn't end, even if they're already adults.

Naruto Shippūden 3: Inheritors of the Will of Fire
Kazuki was first seen with the rest of Konoha 11 eating barbecue to celebrate Naruto and Sai's recovery. After Naruto and Sai arrive, Naruto exclaims that Shikamaru is paying for everyone. He and the others quickly thank Shikamaru before he can protest. After Hiruko announced a fourth ninja war will occur, he was one of Konoha 11, except Naruto, assigned by Tsunade to secure the village. After Naruto and Sakura left the village, he and the others were ordered to go after them and bring them back. When they encountered them they all got ambushed by Ichi. Kazuki and the rest of the team, except Team Guy, went ahead.

In the end when Hiruko revealed his true form to Naruto and Kakashi, he and the others all defeated his chimera together with Kazuki using his kekkei genkai to unleash on the beast. He and the others praise Naruto for defeating Hiruko and witness the strange moment between Naruto and Kakashi that occured because of his creepy smile after remembering Obito.

Naruto 5: Blood Prison

 * Main article: Naruto 5: Blood Prison

Kazuki, along with the rest of the Konoha 11, Guy, Tsunade, Shizune, Kakashi, and Yamato, went to Hōzukijō to free Naruto. He and the others held off Satori while Naruto went into Sage Mode.

Naruto 6: Road to Ninja
In the alternate world, Kazuki is the arrogant boy who his father didn't want him to be. He is very lazy and his feelings of love and affection towards Anzu were converted to hate instead.

Naruto 7: The Last

 * Main article: Naruto 7: The Last

Kazuki will make an appearance in this film, canonically set two years after the battle between Sasuke and Naruto.

Video Games
Kazuki Sakamoto is a playable character in the following video games: In several of the Ultimate Ninja Storm games, the team combination of Kazuki and Anzu is titled "Secret Lovers".

Trivia

 * Kazuki literally means 'harmonious hope' (和希). If written with another kanji (一輝), it would mean 'one/first shine'.
 * Kazuki's voice actors are the same as Natsu Dragneel from the Fairy Tailanime.
 * Despite being directly descended from the Uzumaki clan, he doesn't wear the clan symbol until the Fourth Shinobi World War when he wears the unifrom. He proudly wears it after the war.
 * According to the databook(s):
 * Kazuki's hobbies are drawing and watering plants.
 * Kazuki wishes to fight Yoru Matsuda.
 * Kazuki likes Anzu's homemade cooking, and his least favourite is anything sour.
 * Kazuki has completed 45 official missions in total: 22 D-rank, 14 C-rank, 9 B-rank, 0 A-rank, 0 S-rank.
 * Kazuki's favourite phrase according to the first, second and third databooks is "the energy we give heals our own wounds" (私たちが与えるエネルギーは私たち自身の傷を癒す, Watashitachi ga ataeru enerugī wa watashitachi jishin no kizu o iyasu).

Quotes

 * (To Anzu) "Anzu, you know what I feel, and all I ever wish for is that one day you'll return it."
 * (To Chinatsu) "Kaa-chan, teach me how to use the crystals!"

Reference
Kazuki Sakamoto is an OC/RPC for the Narutoverse created by BlossomsCherry on deviantART. Naruto and Naruto Shippuden belongs to Masashi Kishimoto.