{"id":"senbon","name":"Senbon","japanese":"千本","category":"tools","subtitle":"Fine needles for precise strikes.","summary":"Long metal needles. They are used for precision attacks on specific points of the body, with or without poison.","facts":[["Tipo","Common gear"],["Portadores destacados","4 in the archive"],["Límite","The weapon does not define the user"]],"lvl":0,"sections":[{"h":"What they are","t":"Senbon are long, thin metal needles, pointed at both ends. They have little killing power on their own, but they are thrown with great precision and, being so slender, are harder to see and dodge than a kunai or a shuriken. Their original use is medical: they serve to press acupuncture points. In the hands of someone who knows anatomy they can paralyze, put to sleep or kill if they hit the right spot, and their effect multiplies when the tip is poisoned. They demand aim and study: they are not a brute-force weapon and do not replace medicine.","lvl":0},{"h":"Haku and apparent death","t":"In the Land of Waves, a supposed Mist hunter-nin finishes off Zabuza by sticking needles into his neck and carries off the body. Kakashi later goes over what happened and sees through the ruse: senbon do not kill, but induce a state of apparent death if applied to precise points. The hunter was really Haku, Zabuza's ally. Later, on the bridge, Haku fires clouds of needles from his ice mirrors and leaves Sasuke covered in senbon. The makeshift healer and the assassin are the same person: the weapon perfectly reflects the character's contradiction.","lvl":0,"ch":"naruto-17","ep":"naruto-9","pos":17},{"h":"Kin and Shizune","t":"In the Chūnin Exam preliminaries, Kin Tsuchi ties bells to her needles with nearly invisible threads. Shikamaru starts to get confused between the needles that ring and the ones that do not, and explains the trick: the sound distracts and hides the real attack. Even so, he catches her with his shadow. Shizune, Tsunade's assistant, is another great user: she fires poisoned needles from a mechanism hidden in her sleeve, as when she attacks Orochimaru during the search for Tsunade. Genma Shiranui, the finals proctor, always has a needle in his mouth, a character detail that also serves him as a backup weapon.","lvl":0,"ch":"naruto-156","pos":156},{"h":"Trivia","t":"The word “senbon” means something like “a thousand pieces” and is used in Japanese to count long, thin objects. The weapon is inspired by real bō shuriken, straight iron spikes thrown by hand. The series gives them a very clear profile: they are used mostly by characters linked to medicine or stealth, like Haku, Shizune or Kabuto in the anime. A detail of their first appearance is easy to miss: Haku chooses to strike Zabuza's neck, an area where a medic knows exactly where to aim, and that is why Kakashi ends up suspicious.","lvl":0,"ep":"naruto-9","pos":16},{"h":"Needles in Part II","t":"In the rescue of Gaara, Sasori uses poisoned needles as part of his puppet arsenal: he fires volleys from Hiruko's tail and from his puppets, with a poison able to kill in a short time. Sakura and Chiyo have to dodge every needle and prepare antidotes on the fly. Tenten also turns to needles as part of her arsenal. The anime has many more users, from Sakura and Kabuto to filler characters, and techniques like Needle Rain. In every case the same rule applies: the threat lies in precision and poison, not in the force of the blow.","lvl":1,"ch":"naruto-274","pos":274}],"characters":["haku","shizune","genma","kin"],"related":["hyoton","taijutsu","kunai"],"reference":"Naruto, chapters 18–33 (Haku), 41–44 (Kin in the Forest of Death) and 151–170 (Shizune during the search for Tsunade).","sources":[{"title":"Guía oficial de anime: Naruto y Shippuden","url":"https://naruto-official.com/en/anime"}],"figures":[]}