So, when you hear someone say “Naruto”, what’s the first thing that comes to your mind?
This guy with blonde, spiky hair, blue eyes, and one of his most distinct features, the whiskers or so as they are called.
But, have you ever wondered what those whiskers-looking things might be? Those are not mere designs by the artists but have more symbolic meaning.
The whiskers that we see aren’t whiskers like the real whiskers, but rather marks that look like whiskers. The marks are designed to look like the whiskers of a fox.
How did he get the marks?
Although the series has never mentioned or given a back story about the marks, many believe that it is because of the Nine-Tailed fox’s chakra sealed into him.
The nine-tailed beasts, Kurama were often only sought out as a tool for wars, which developed this sense of anger inside it. When it was unleashed into the leaf village, Minato tried to stop it and in the final moment was able to seal half of Kurama into his newborn child, Naruto.
In this part, we can see that baby Naruto is already born with the marks. This proves that the sealing of Kurama in him might not really have any connection with the marks whatsoever.
According to some fans, the reason behind his marks is believed to be because of his Junchurikki parent. As Kushina was a Jinchurikki, she passed down the marks but she herself didn’t get it as either of her parents was one.
Before we discuss his whiskers, let us know a few more things.
How did Kurama get into the leaf village?
As the series explains, there are ten-tailed beasts also known as The Chakra Monsters. Among the tailed beasts, Kurama is the nine-tailed beast and is in the top three strongest Tailed beasts.
The tailed beasts existed for a long time before humans came to know of their existence. With time, they started to misuse the mighty power of the beasts and started using them in wars. However the tailed beasts were nearly impossible to control, so the humans came up with the idea to seal them into strong individuals who could withstand the immense power of the tailed beasts. The vessels were referred to as Jinchuriki.
Each Tailed beast had their own Jinchuriki. Kushina, Naruto’s mother, was the Jinchuriki of the Nine-Tailed beast. Since the beasts were sealed using special sealing techniques, keeping the seal intact was a must. They were afraid that Kurama might try to break the seal and get out, as during childbirth Kushina was relatively weaker. Hence, The Third Hokage and his wife promised to take Kushina during childbirth.
But things didn’t go as planned. Obito already knew about Kushina and planned to take Kurama out of her. Taking childbirth as an opportunity, when Kushina was weak, Obito broke the seal and released Kurama.
By using Genjutsu, Obito was able to summon Kurama to the Leaf Village and make him destroy the village.
How was Kurama sealed into Naruto?
When Kurama was released, he began to destroy the village. The shinobis tried their best in keeping the beast at bay. But the attacks of some mere shinobis were of no use against the mighty beast. At that time, who was able to stand up against Kurama was Minato, The Fourth Hokage.
With just little remaining of her chakra, Kuhsina tied up Kurama. In the meantime, Minato decides to use the Eight Trigrams Sealing Style in order to seal the beast. But the side effect of using such a special seal would cost Minato his life.
Since Kushina couldn’t seal Kurama inside her, with a heavy heart they decided to put the beast inside of their newborn child. As Naruto was just a child, he would be unable to withstand the beast’s immense power.
But it had to be done. Minato used the Reaper seal first in order to seal half of Kurama’s power into him. He then used the Eight signed seal to seal the remaining and the rest of Kurama’s power in Naruto.
What changed after Naruto got Kurama?
After getting Kurama sealed in him, he received Kurama’s power, although just half of it. But having a beast inside him made him an outcast in the village.
The villagers were scared of him, believing the beast would get out and attack them. Having no family or friends, Naruto got used to being alone but was looked after by Iruka.
Over time, Naruto starts to understand Kurama more. He is able to relate to Kurama as just like him, Kurama was always alone and never really understood.
The Jinchurikis before him have always looked at Kurama as only a monster, keeping him tied up. But in Naruto’s case, it was different. He tried to understand him and finally after a long time he links with Kurama.
Are the marks permanent?
The marks are indeed permanent. Since he inherited them from his mother, it won’t disappear as long as he is alive.
Many fans did believe that the marks were due to Kurama’s chakra and expected them to fade away once Kurama dies as we can see in the latest part of the new Boruto series.
If this theory was true, it wouldn’t be wrong to assume the fact that they could disappear in the near future.
But saying Naruto will become useless after Kurama’s death is a bit harsh, don’t you think so too?
Why doesn’t Kushina have them?
Now you might be wondering, why did only Naruto get the marks?
Well, don’t you worry, cause we’ve got you covered!
It is quite interesting, you see, the Jinchurikis of the nine tails before Naruto were Kushina and Mito. But we see that neither Mito nor Kushina have the marks on their faces.
The reason behind it, as speculated by many fans, could be explained by the fact of having either parent as a Jinchurikki.
We do know that Mito was the first one to seal the tailed beast in herself, so she doesn’t have the marks. The case with Kushina is that neither of her parents was Jinchurikki. And lastly Naruto, he got Kushina.
Do his kids have the marks too?
Yes, they do!
Later in the series, Naruto marries Hinata and goes on to have two kids, Boruto and Himawari. Just like their father they too have marks on their faces. The kids did get the marks from their father but they only have two lines on each side, unlike Naruto who has three.
Here, because the kids inherited the marks from their Jinchuriki father, it adds some proof to the theory that one of the parents must be a Jinchurikki in order for the kids to have to get marks.
Will Boruto’s and Himawari’s kids have them too?
It is for sure that they will have whiskers too, just like their parents. Now we can’t be so sure that they will have the same number of lines as their parents. The “whiskers” sure do provide a unique look, but apart from that Naruto has powers and a great personality.
