{"id":"kunai","name":"Kunai","japanese":"苦無","category":"tools","subtitle":"The most basic tool is also the most versatile.","summary":"A short-bladed knife with a ring on the handle. It is standard equipment for almost any shinobi: used for throwing, blocking, climbing or attaching tags.","facts":[["Tipo","Common gear"],["Portadores destacados","7 in the archive"],["Límite","The weapon does not define the user"]],"lvl":0,"sections":[{"h":"What it is and how it is used","t":"The kunai is a black knife about the length of a hand, with a wrapped handle and a ring at the end. Along with the shuriken it is the standard gear every Academy student learns to use, kept in the weapon pouch on the leg or hip. It is meant mainly for stabbing and blocking, but it is thrown too. The ring lets the user spin it on a finger, tie wire to it or hang an explosive tag from it. Outside combat it is a work tool: for marking a tree, cutting rope, driving into a wall as a foothold or opening a package. A character carrying kunai says nothing about their clan or level: everyone from fresh genin to the Kage uses them.","lvl":0,"ch":"naruto-1","pos":1},{"h":"Part I scenes","t":"Several memorable early scenes revolve around a kunai. In the Land of Waves, after freezing in fear before the Demon Brothers, Naruto stabs a kunai into his hand to bleed out the poison and swear he will never hesitate again. In the tree-climbing training, the kunai marks how high each of them got. And in the Forest of Death, Sakura, cornered by the Sound ninja who are holding her by the hair, cuts off her hair with her kunai to break free: a gesture with which she stops waiting for others to protect her. In every case, the weapon matters less than the decision of the one holding it.","lvl":0,"ch":"naruto-53","ep":"naruto-8","pos":53},{"h":"Trivia","t":"Historically, the kunai was a farming tool like a garden trowel, cheap to make and easy to pass off as an everyday object. As a thrown weapon it was worse than a throwing knife, but it was good for stabbing, prying, climbing like a piton or mounting on a pole as a makeshift spear. The series takes that multipurpose-tool idea and turns it into the ninja's visual symbol: there is hardly a fight scene without a kunai flying. There are also variants played for laughs, like Iō's useless inventions in the anime, or as tributes, like the “father and son” kunai Tenten sells on a special day.","lvl":0},{"h":"Variants and launchers","t":"The work shows many variations on the basic model. Zabuza uses a kunai curved inward, better for stabbing; Zaku carries some with holes and no ring; in the Chūnin Exams, Tenten pairs two curved kunai joined by a short chain. Kidōmaru makes them from his golden thread, Deidara holds a square-handled one in his mouth, and in the Fourth War there are serrated kunai, chained kunai and giant kunai. There are also ways to throw them in series: Chiyo strings many on a cord to release them in one pull, Tenten welds them to a sphere that bursts, and the films feature kunai mortars and launchers that are almost machine guns. Minato's three-pronged kunai are a separate variant, made for the Flying Thunder God.","lvl":1},{"h":"With chakra and tags","t":"An ordinary kunai gains reach when something is added to it. With an explosive tag tied to the blade it becomes an “explosive kunai”, the series' most repeated trick for attacking from range. With wind chakra, as Asuma teaches, the edge lengthens and can cut wood and stone; Asuma himself fights with Wind Style-charged blades in the battle against Hidan. That upgrade is not a property of the object: it depends on the user's chakra nature and control. That is why the same kunai performs very differently in a genin's hands and in a jōnin's.","lvl":1,"ch":"naruto-325","pos":325},{"h":"A kunai through the void","t":"One of the cleverest uses comes in the Fourth War. Kakashi discovers that his Kamui and the masked man's connect to the same dimension. He throws a kunai, carries it into that space with his Kamui and hits Tobi just when he thought he was safe: it is the first time anyone wounds him. Soon after, a blow from Naruto finishes breaking the mask and reveals his identity: he is Obito Uchiha, the teammate Kakashi believed dead. An object as basic as a kunai thus ends up at the heart of one of the story's biggest revelations. Obito, for his part, also keeps giant kunai in that other dimension and fires them in volleys with Kamui.","lvl":1,"ch":"naruto-599","pos":599}],"characters":["naruto","sasuke","sakura","kakashi","iruka","sarada","boruto"],"related":["shuriken","kibakufuda","kunai-hiraishin","taijutsu"],"reference":"Naruto, chapters 1–8 (Academy and the bell test) and the Land of Waves arc.","sources":[{"title":"Guía oficial de anime: Naruto y Shippuden","url":"https://naruto-official.com/en/anime"}],"figures":[]}