Haku (白, Haku?) is Zabuza Momochi’s right hand man and most faithful follower. He has a heavily androgynous appearance, so much so that when Naruto Uzumaki first meets Haku he ends up mistaking him for a girl, saying that “he’s prettier than Sakura!”.[116] Before he started working for Zabuza, Haku lived as an orphan. His father killed his mother when it was discovered that she possessed a genetic ability, and his father would have done the same to Haku if Haku had not killed his father first. After wandering from place to place for a time he was found by Zabuza, who recognized Haku’s talents and agreed to take him in as a tool. As a result, Haku becomes unquestioningly protective of and loyal to Zabuza, and only by being useful does he find a purpose in life.[117] He ultimately gives his life in his mission to be useful to Zabuza, becoming a human shield to protect his master from Kakashi Hatake’s Lightning Blade.[ጰ] Haku’s genetic inheritance, Hyōton (氷, Hyōton? lit. “Ice Release”), allows him to mix wind and water elements to create ice. He commonly uses this ability to surround an enemy with ice mirrors that he can freely merge with and instantly move between. He then bombards them with needles, and with his superb accuracy he can hit pressure points to put opponents in a death-like state. This reflects his pacifist nature; despite being a ninja and Zabuza’s tool of battle, Haku dislikes fighting and does all that he can to subdue opponents without actually killing them.[118] His seiy« in the Japanese anime is Mayumi Asano,[119] and his English voice actor is Susan Dalian
Characters
Zabuza Momochi
Zabuza Momochi (桃地 再不斬, Momochi Zabuza?) is one of the first antagonists to be introduced in Naruto. He was once one of Kirigakure’s Seven Swordsmen of the Mist, a group of ninja that use particularly large swords in battle. Zabuza possesses a massive sword called Kubikiri Hōchō (首斬り包丁, Kubikiri Hōchō? lit. Decapitating Knife), which is later claimed by Suigetsu Hozuki after Zabuza’s death. After a failed coup d’état wherein he tried to assassinate Kirigakure’s leadership, Zabuza and his followers fled the village and began working as mercenary assassins.[112] Like most Kirigakure ninja, Zabuza is skilled in water-based abilities. His area of expertise, however, is in assassinations; by blanketing an area in mist, Zabuza can blind an opponent, locate them by the sounds they make, and kill them without their ever noticing his presence.[113] His talents lead to him being hired to kill a man named Tazuna, a job he is never able to finish due to interference by Tazuna’s bodyguard, Kakashi Hatake. Because he takes too long to complete the task, his contract is revoked, and his employer tries to have Zabuza killed. Zabuza kills him first, though is mortally wounded in the process due to having lost both arms and most of his stamina and chakra in battle with Kakashi and dies soon afterwards.[114] In the Japanese anime, his seiyū is Unshō Ishizuka,[115] and his English voice actor is Steven Blum
Jugo
Jugo (重吾, Jūgo?) is the final character to be recruited for Hawk. He is mentally unstable, sporadically fluctuating between a bloodthirsty and a docile personality. While in the former mindset, Jugo kills anyone around him without remorse until he somehow returns to his senses, at which point he seeks confinement or solitude to protect others from himself.[110] It is only through Sasuke Uchiha’s promise to keep him in check and the fact that Sasuke reminds him of Kimimaro that Jugo agrees to join Hawk.[100] Sometime in the past, Jugo sought out Orochimaru in the hopes that he could find a cure for his impulses. While examining him, Orochimaru isolated enzymes in Jugo’s blood that caused him to radically transform the appearance and capabilities of his body. By extracting these enzymes, Orochimaru was able to reproduce the transformation in his own subordinates, making the cursed seal.[111] Though Orochimaru’s refined transformations are more controllable, his subordinates are limited to using only one form. Jugo is able to alter his transformed state to suit the situation, and can even isolate the transformation to a single part of his body.[110] He can also fuse some of his own flesh to someone who has, or has had, the cursed seal in order to heal their injuries, but he regresses to a younger age as a side-effect