Matatabi; Nibi [The Two-Tails]

[Smyles]

Matatabi

Nibi

The Two-Tails

[ HOST ] Miak Doragon

[ LOCATION ] Kumogakure

[ STRENGTH ] 4th

[ CHAKRA ] 8th

Matatabi first came into being in the waning days of the Sage of the Six Paths, who used his Creation of All Things ability to separate the Ten-Tails' chakra from its body and divide it into nine separate constructs in order to ensure that it would never resurface after his death. Some time after being created, the Sage sat down with all the young tailed beasts and told them that they would always be together even when separated, and that one day they would become one entity again with different names as well as forms than they did then when the time came for them to understand what true power is.

Like Shukaku, many people believed that Matatabi was once a human that turned into a living ghost (生霊, ikiryō). Matatabi eventually fell into the possession of Kumogakure and was sealed within Yugito Nii when she was two years old. She was placed into a detestable training program in order to learn to control Matatabi's power. In the anime, Yugito agreed to have Nekobaa collect Matatabi's paw print for the Paw Encyclopaedia. In a cavern behind the Falls of Truth, where jinchūriki learn to control their tailed beasts' power, there are wall murals of Matatabi and Gyūki, which indicates how long they were associated with the Land of Lightning.

Compared to most of the tailed beasts, Matatabi has shown to be respectful and polite towards others, speaking in a formal manner using 'watashi' (私) when referring to itself and using honorifics when addressing Naruto while introducing itself to the young man.

Matatabi is a bakeneko that is completely engulfed with wild blue flames. It also has a right yellow eye and a left green eye, similar to an odd-eyed cat without pupils. When forced to transform by Tobi, Matatabi increased in size compared to when Yugito unleashed it. During the last remaining days of the Sage of the Six Paths, Matatabi was a young flaming kitten much smaller than its present-day self, but was still much larger than the Sage.

Matatabi has flexible muscles, which grant it great speed despite its large size. Its brute strength is enough to initially pummel Kakuzu who had attempted to use brute force to stop its paw forcing him to use his Earth Release: Earth Spear to survive the attacks. It is able to breathe fireballs which are powerful enough to destroy a sewer and the building above. As a tailed beast, Matatabi is able to create a Tailed Beast Ball.