Ai (Raikage 4)

A (エー, Ē; Viz "Ei", English TV "Ay") is the Fourth Raikage (四代目雷影, Yondaime Raikage; Literally meaning "Fourth Lightning Shadow")[1] of Kumogakure.

A in his younger years alongside his brother.
A is the son of the Third Raikage. At some point in the past, a group of young children were gathered in order to determine who would be A's tag-partner in keeping with a long-standing Kumogakure tradition of the Raikage having a tag-team partner. Only one child was able to successfully match A's power and use the Double Lariat on a training dummy.

As a result, that child was given the name "B", and A stated that they would be brothers from that day on.[2] He and B would eventually be teamed together on a mission with A's cousin, the jinchūriki of the Eight-Tails. While on the mission, he told A that Killer B would need something to fill the void that would be created if he was chosen as the beast's next jinchūriki.

Some time later A's cousin lost control of the beast and it went on a rampage. A was made part of a special team tasked with subduing the rampaging Eight-Tails. When the beast impaled Motoi's father with its horn, A cut it off. After B became the beast's jinchūriki, A, remembering what his cousin had said to him, tried his best to fill that apparent void.


A attacks Minato.
Some time during the Third Shinobi World War, A would clash with Minato Namikaze for the first time. Before Minato retreated he recognised Killer B as the jinchūriki of the Eight-Tails and told A that next time they met it would be to put the title of "Kage" on the line and also offered A the advice of making sure his brother knew who he was before becoming neither human nor jinchūriki. They would clash many more times after that. A was once even told by Jiraiya that he believed Minato was the "Child of Prophecy".[3] When A's father died, he inherited the title of Raikage. Afterwards, out of fear of losing him, he forbade B's continued training in the Lariat and ordered him to complete his training in the Tailed Beast Ball at the Valley of Clouds and Lightning and restricted him to the confines of the village. At some point, he forbade B from fully transforming into his tailed beast due to its extreme power.

In the anime, after an encounter with the Nokizaru Group, A crossed paths with Tsunade and requested her aid in removing the Exploding Insect implanted in his subordinate. After accepting her arm wrestling challenge, realising that he could not beat Tsunade in terms of strength, but at the same time, he needed to help his subordinate, A used speed to defeat her. After Tsunade diagnoses the situation and realises that one of the insects was also inside A, she decided to conduct the surgery. However, when she had Shizune conduct the surgery and later left after blood splattered on her. Shizune explained Tsunade's haemophobia caused by the loss of her two great loves, A dismissed her state of mind as a weakness would not trust his mens' lives to her with Shizune who had successfully completed the surgery, defending her mistress.[4]

Personality

A and B become brothers.
A is very caring and protective towards his adopted younger brother, despite Killer B's status as a jinchūriki, and wept at the news of his younger brother's capture by Akatsuki. However, when Killer B's ploy to use the affair to have a vacation was discovered, A was comically furious (but not surprised), and swore to punish his little brother for it. He claims, that as the Raikage, he has made peace with the idea of having to kill his brother if the situation ever called for it.[5] He also cared deeply for, and respected his father as seen when he was brought to tears at his father's funeral and, upon assuming the mantle of Raikage, swore to protect the village as he did.


A punishing B with his "Iron Claw".
He is headstrong and somewhat easily aggravated, smashing a desk apart when news of his brother being captured arrived. He also seemingly has very little patience as seen when he burst through the window of his office to attend the Kage Summit, smashed the table at the Summit when the conversation was deviating and smashing through a wall to go after Sasuke. His assistant implied that he is prone to such actions whenever he was in that mental state. A also has a method of punishing his little brother with what he calls his "Iron Claw".

A also has a very stern, dead-serious and decisive demeanour, as seen when he was seemingly unaffected by Naruto's pleas for Sasuke's life. In his eyes, respect and strength mean everything in the ninja world, and the weak should and will be crushed. This correlates with his philosophy that a ninja should never compromise or bow down in front of another ninja. A has also been shown to be very suspicious of the other ninja villages, accusing all of them of working with Akatsuki and questioning their loyalties. In battle, A is shown to be physically brutal, as he uses extreme physical force to devastate his opponents, and is willing to sacrifice a limb, rather than lose a chance to defeat his opponent. In spite of all this, A seems to be capable of acknowledging and respecting the skills of other shinobi and is not above accepting defeat should they best him in any way, as seen when he finally allowed B and Naruto to enter the battlefield after they surpassed him, in strength and speed, respectively. And before this, A even once thought that there was no one who could surpass the Fourth Hokage. A is also shown to genuinely care about the well-being of his comrades, including those of foreign villages, as he reprimanded Tsunade for fighting so recklessly and left himself vulnerable to express care for her when she began coughing up blood.

When he learned his brother was alive, his attitude had mostly calmed down since his first appearance. He spoke with civility with the other members of the Alliance, and kept his cool during Tsunade's outburst. However, after learning that Akatsuki reincarnated his father, A became enraged again.[6] Like his brother, the Raikage is a compassionate person as well, as he reassured Darui about his left arm that he lost and told him not to blame himself.[7]

A also holds strongly to the belief that the jinchūriki is not an individual, but instead is a tool of the village they live in and its Kage and as such, have no right to make decisions for themselves, an attitude that put him in direct conflict with Tsunade.[8]

Appearance
He is a tall dark-skinned man with a large muscular build, with his white hair (blond in the anime) combed back, a small moustache and beard. His face is very distinguished with pronounced cheekbones and tear troughs under his eyes, and a prominent crease across his forehead. He has pointed canines and his top lip also has a darker hue than the bottom one; traits he inherited from his father. During his fight with Sasuke Uchiha, he amputated his left forearm after it was burned by the flames of Amaterasu.


A wearing his Raikage uniform.
Unlike other Kage, A seems to wear his Kage haori and hat on a regular basis without a shirt underneath, further displaying his hulking physique. He has black Fūma Shuriken tattoos on both shoulders. Up until his fight with Sasuke, he had gold bangle bracelets on each wrist which have protrusions that can jut out when he attacks. Though he still wore the bracelet on his right arm after amputating the left arm at the Summit and even when he convened the second meeting of the Kage, since the Fourth Shinobi World War started however, he has stopped wearing it altogether.[9] He also wears a gold belt around his waist with a boar's face engraved in the centre. All of these aspects combined give him the appearance of a professional wrestler and boxer.

When he was younger, A wore a purple high-collared outfit with ragged sleeve and matching pants along with a white flak jacket and shin guards.

Abilities
As the Raikage, A is undoubtedly an extremely powerful shinobi. His younger brother Killer B also mentioned in his fight with Sasuke that, before him, only A was able to deflect the Eight-Tails.[10] A's signature fighting style is a combination of taijutsu and ninjutsu to form the powerful nintaijutsu, which circumvented time-consuming hand seals. It is for this very reason that losing his left arm did very little to impede his fighting abilities. Despite the loss of his arm, A was still chosen to be Supreme Leader of the Allied Shinobi Forces, further implying the levels of his might.

Physical Prowess

A destroys his desk while holding a barbell in a single hand.
A possesses a massive amount of physical strength, just below that of Tsunade's according to Madara Uchiha.[11] When introduced, he was shown lifting a barbell which is usually used with two hands, with a single hand and in a casual manner. He was also able to crush a cliff with a single punch.[12] Later, he was also able to snap the Kubikiribōchō in two (although it had been previously damaged) and snap a couple of the ribs of Sasuke Uchiha's Susanoo, once with a backhanded chop and once with a powerbomb[13] respectively. In his youth, A was even able to cut through one of the four horns of Eight-Tails and knock it to the ground by the sheer strength of his blow.[14] While blocking his punch in his Nine-Tails Chakra Mode, Naruto Uzumaki noted that the Raikage's attacks were extremely heavy and if he were ever to take a direct hit from him, the confrontation would be all over.[15] A was also able to inflict substantial damage to Madara's left arm when the latter blocked his punch.[16]


A breaking Sasuke Susanoo's Amaterasu-clad bones.
Befitting his appearance the Raikage seems to prefer taijutsu combat, forgoing any hand seals-based ninjutsu. He has shown tremendous prowess in this field: when Naruto and Killer B tried escaping him, A stalled Naruto and B for a considerable amount of time, even turning B's use of the Eight-Tails' tentacles against him. While possessing powerful and extremely fast punches, A prefers to use wrestling-style moves, than those of standard taijutsu, such as throws, take-downs, leg drops, high-flying strikes and in the anime, dropkicks.


A attacking Jūgo.
Despite his large physique, the Raikage is noted for being incredibly fast, grabbing Zetsu by the throat before he had a chance to react and evading a point-blank Amaterasu flame.[17] A has claimed that since the Fourth Hokage passed away, there is no shinobi that is faster than him in the world, until Naruto Uzumaki surpassed him in speed with his Nine-Tails Chakra Mode and became the second person to ever dodge his top-speed attack.[18][19]


A preparing to use his Liger Bomb technique.
A has shown to have inherited his father's immense durability, able to take three Lariats to the chest from B without getting damaged.[20] He also survived being transported by Mabui's Heavenly Transfer Technique unharmed.[21] A also has an immense tolerance for pain, as he was able to withstand having his arm set on fire by Amaterasu and was even able to cut it off himself, all without flinching.[22] A has been noted for an extremely high amount of stamina and strong chakra compared to other shinobi, with Karin noting that his chakra level is comparable to that of a tailed beast.[23] By unleashing a full burst, he can repel everything around him and demolish the ground under him.

Ninjutsu
Nature Transformation

A in his Lightning Release Armour.
On top of his physical capabilities, A is also skilled in lightning-based techniques, able to focus lightning chakra into a point sharp enough to neatly cut through the horn of the Eight-Tails.[14] or with in unison with another's Water Release and strong enough to paralyse enemies like Madara Uchiha.[24] His signature technique is releasing a continuous surge of electricity from his body to form the Lightning Release Armour, augmenting his already formidable natural physical strength and speed. Because of this, he is considered a master of nintaijutsu. His speed reaches a point where A claims not even the Sharingan should be able to keep up with his movements. This is due to electricity stimulating his nervous system and speeding up his neural synapses, amplifying his reflexes and reaction time, reaching comparable levels to Minato Namikaze, as noted by C.[25] While using this ability in combination with the Body Flicker Technique, he is able to dodge Jūgo's multiple chakra blasts and Amaterasu at point-blank range. The electric armour can also work as a powerful defence, receive only a minor wound on his chest from a direct Chidori strike. By momentarily increasing the electrical surge, A was able to deflect a strike from Sasuke's Sword of Kusanagi: Chidori Katana from behind[26]

Part II
Invasion of Pain Arc
He was first seen when he received news of Killer B's capture by Akatsuki. Enraged that his own brother had been lost so soon after Yugito Nii, A called for a meeting of the five Kage to discuss Akatsuki. Because B's captor was Sasuke Uchiha, a former Konoha ninja, A had Team Samui take a letter to the Hokage to inform Konoha that he would personally deal with Sasuke.

Five Kage Summit Arc

The Raikage and his two bodyguards depart.
A departed for the Kage summit with two bodyguards: Darui and C. On their way to the Land of Iron they reunited with Team Samui, who provided them with information on Sasuke acquired in Konoha. C quickly discovered that Team Samui had been followed by Naruto Uzumaki. A kept his men from attacking Naruto and agreed to listen to what he had to say. Naruto pleaded with the Raikage to spare Sasuke, but his request was flatly refused and the Raikage berated him for sticking up for a criminal.

When the Kage Summit began, A quickly showed his disapproval of the other villages by smashing the table in front of him, prompting all of the bodyguards to come to their Kage's aid. After they returned to their position, A voiced his suspicions of the other Kage: that Sunagakure used Akatsuki in order to destroy Konoha; that the Third Tsuchikage employed Akatsuki in the past; that the Fifth Mizukage and the rest of her village is the least trustworthy due to suspected ties with Akatsuki. He pointed out that only Kumogakure has never had an Akatsuki representative, nor has it ever employed Akatsuki for a battle. He insinuated that Danzō Shimura used Akatsuki to dispose of the Third Hokage and the Fourth Kazekage.

When the idea of a Shinobi Alliance was raised, Danzō was nominated to lead it. A was outraged, but before he could raise much of an objection Zetsu appeared and revealed that Sasuke was nearby. A immediately grabbed Zetsu by the neck and demanded information on Sasuke's location, and later broke his neck when he took too long to respond. He then left with C and Darui to track Sasuke down. Upon finding them, A tried to attack Sasuke but he was instead drawn into battle with Sasuke's team. He first snapped Suigetsu's damaged sword and then engaged a transformed Jūgo, A overpowering him after a brief fight. With his team out of the way, A was able to attack Sasuke uninhibited.


Sasuke and A clashing.
Sasuke had difficulty breaking through A's Lightning Release Armour, with his Chidori only managing to cause a minor wound to A. A went on the offensive with his Liger Bomb, but he too had difficulty damaging Sasuke due to the latter's Susanoo. Sasuke tried to hit him with Amaterasu, but A was too fast. Sasuke then coated his Susanoo with Amaterasu's flames to deter additional physical attacks. In his growing rage, A ignored this and attacked through the flames to smash through the defence and hit Sasuke. Although his arm was caught ablaze he continued the assault, only to be stopped by the Fifth Kazekage. The Kazekage asked for a chance to speak with Sasuke. Although irritated, A used this as an opportunity to deal with his arm; he cut it off to prevent Amaterasu from spreading to the rest of his body and then had C stop his bleeding.

While A was being healed, Sasuke caused a cave-in to cover his escape. A smashed the falling debris and joined the Kazekage in pursuing him back to the Summit hall. When they arrived, they were met by Tobi, who sent Sasuke to safety before telling them about his Eye of the Moon Plan, in the process revealing that B eluded capture. Tobi then requested that B, along with Naruto be handed over to him. A and the other Kage refused, prompting Tobi to declare the start of the Fourth Shinobi World War. A Shinobi Alliance was suggested again, this time with A as the proposed leader of the alliance. The Kage agreed to this before returning to their respective villages to prepare for war.


A and Killer B finish off "Kisame".
Before going back to Kumo, A and his men tracked down B. They found him in the middle of a fight with Kisame Hoshigaki. A and B teamed up to decapitate "Kisame" with a Double Lariat. Later, A angrily scolded B for pretending to be captured on their way back to the village. They were informed that the daimyō had agreed to the Shinobi Alliance's formation when they returned. A then convened a war council to assess the village's military-readiness.

Confining the Jinchūriki Arc

The heads of the Alliance meet.
Three days later, the other Alliance heads met with A in Kumogakure to discuss the Alliance's organisation. As their first matter of business they discussed what to do with the jinchūriki. The recently-reinstated Fifth Hokage, believed that Killer B and Naruto Uzumaki should be allowed to fight on the front lines, whereas A and the other leaders believed they should be sent into hiding, to prevent the enemy from capturing them.

The Hokage eventually agreed with their decision, albeit reluctantly. A selected the Island Turtle as the hiding place and assures them of its security. When Akatsuki later discovered this location, A refused to have B and Naruto moved. He instead sent the Tsuchikage as extra protection and had him bring the island back to Kumo. In the anime after the meeting with the other heads of the Alliance the Hokage asked to speak with A privately and requested that B teach Naruto to achieve the control over the Nine-Tails.

Shinobi World War Arc

The Kage prepare for war.
A remained at headquarters with the Hokage and the Tsuchikage while the Alliance's armies mobilised. Shikaku Nara provided a great deal of input on how to organise the army and engage Akatsuki's White Zetsu Army, forcing A to acknowledge the calibre of Konoha's ninja. Despite being the leader of the Alliance, A was uncomfortable not being on the front lines; when news reached headquarters of his father's reincarnation, A wished to go and confront him, but opted to send the Tsuchikage instead after learning that Mū was also amongst the reincarnated.

He had a similar response when the First Division engaged the Gold and Silver Brothers. A explained to the people at headquarters about the brothers and made preparations to deal with them should they begin using their Nine-Tails chakra. He had Mabui send the Kohaku no Jōhei to Darui and called in reinforcements from other divisions to help out the First Division. His plans paid off and the brothers were sealed.


A and Tsunade confronting B and Naruto.
Upon learning that B and Naruto had escaped from confinement, A and Tsunade decided to personally stop them, leaving Shikaku in charge while they were gone. Upon intercepting them, A tried to impress upon them the importance of keeping them out of Akatsuki's grasp. Naruto tried to flee using his Nine-Tails Chakra Mode, but A was able to keep up with him and block his escape. Feeling that he wouldn't be able to sway Naruto, A tried to kill him to prevent his capture. B blocked his attack and informs his brother that he would have to be willing to kill both of them. A claimed to have no problem with this, but B unbelieving, bumped fists with him to remind him of all they had been through together. When A still wouldn't listen to words, B attacked and defeated him with a Lariat, proving his strength. Despite his defeat, A still refused the pleas of B and Tsunade, prompting Tsunade to decide to battle A as well.


A uses his max speed to test Naruto.
B however tried once more to reason with his brother, telling him that the tailed beasts weren't the only thing that made them strong but also the people who cared about them, referring to them as "suns". B told A that Naruto had two of them. A then asked him about it and Naruto told him about his parents, and that despite them dying shortly after he was born, they made him strong. After hearing this, A fully charged his lightning armour and attacked, however, Naruto was able to completely evade the attack. With this as proof of Naruto's power, A allowed Naruto to enter the battlefield stating that the "saviour" might still be alive in the form of him. After returning to headquarters, he was briefed about the White Zetsu Army. As Tsunade diagnosed the situation, A asked her if there were any hints on how to defeat Tobi to which she declared that he might just be the true definition of an immortal.


A and Tsunade attacks Mū and Madara as soon as they arrived on the battlefield.
When news from Inoichi of Naruto's arrival to each battlefield gave the Allied Forces a huge upper hand, Tsunade teased A, who stubbornly smiled in response. After hearing that the real Madara Uchiha had been summoned to the battlefield, he and the others at headquarters tried to decipher who the masked man really was. However, after hearing Inoichi's report of the onslaught that was taking place on the battlefield, and Tsunade's intention to have Mabui teleport her there, he told Mabui to prepare her Heavenly Transfer Technique for two people instead of for just Tsunade. Despite Mabui's initial protest, since the technique could potentially kill humans it was used on, they were transported to the battlefield where A immediately attacked Mū with a powerful punch sending him flying into nearby rocks.


The five Kage confront Madara.
After asking if Tsunade was all-right, as well as remarking that he was finally able to cut loose, an opportunity he said he had waited days for, he stood together with the other Kage to face Madara. Covering Tsunade while she healed Gaara and Ōnoki, A and Mei faced Madara head-on. Punching Madara into Mei's lava after he evaded it, A crashed into Madara's Susanoo using his Lightning Oppression Horizontal Chop technique. This failed to have any effect, and A realised that he would have to up the speed of his attacks in order to break through Susanoo's defence. As Madara retaliated with his Yasaka Magatama technique, they were protected by a combination of Gaara's sand and Ōnoki's giant Rock Golem. Combining their skills, Ōnoki first made A lighter so as to increase his speed and then as he attacked Madara increased the weight behind his attack, breaking through Susanoo and punching Madara. Before Naruto's clone disperses A and the other Kage left him with one final message: "win".


A, Ōnoki and Tsunade attack Madara.
As the battle between the Kage and Madara waged on, A stood atop Ōnoki's golem which beared down on Madara. The golem was however destroyed by Madara and A took to the skies with Ōnoki to avoid the pollen being released by Madara's attack. The Kage were however ambushed by a twofold attack from Madara, fell prey to the pollen, and were knocked unconscious. After Ōnoki destroyed the forest and part of Madara however, A and the others regained consciousness in time to see the face formed from the DNA of the First Hokage jutting out from a regenerating Madara's chest. As Madara regenerated, A, who was noticeably irritated, told Madara to stop ranting while making himself sound important after listening to him berate Tsunade and her lineage and then praise it all in the same breath. With Ōnoki still allowing A greater manoeuvrability, A assisted Tsunade in a two fold attack on Madara which sent the latter plummeting into the ground. A then calls out to Gaara who seemingly bound and sealed Madara. A later watched in shock as Tsunade was impaled by a Susanoo Sword and Madara revealed that they had sealed a wood clone.

A was later shocked even further to see Tsunade launch a surprise attack on an unsuspecting Madara and then spured the Tsuchikage on as Ōnoki launched a surprise attack of his own. As Madara later sent his wood clones to confront each of the Kage, A looked on in shock as Madara asked them whether or not they'd prefer his clones use Susanoo.


The five Kage stand against Madara's Susanoo army.
Fending off an attack from one of the Susanoo-clad clones, A reprimands the Hokage for her reckless fighting, A loses concentration long enough for the clone to grab him and put him under genjutsu much to A's dismay. Saved by the quick-thinking of the Tsuchikage and freed from the genjutsu, A is spurred on to fight more still as the other Kage rally to each other's side. Waiting for the opportune moment to strike the real Madara after Ōnoki annihilates the clones, A infuses Mei's Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet Technique with lightning to create a numbing effect on Madara, slowing his responsiveness. Before their assault is able to completely seal Madara, however, their opponent manifests his complete Susanoo. As Madara's Susanoo stabilises, A along with the other Kage stare in shock at the giant construct before being knocked down by a single swing from its sword. Despite this, the Kage stand and face Madara once again.

As the Mizukage remarked that situation looked grim for the Kage, A unceremoniously told her to shut up as he wasn't going to give up just yet. As Madara's attack failed to land due to his Susanoo de-materialising, A watched on as Madara is enveloped in a light of sorts. Shocked to hear that the Impure World Reincarnation technique had been released, A and the other Kage discuss how such a feat was possible in the short time that they had begun searching for Kabuto and the Tsuchikage noted that regardless of who undid the technique, they were a hero to the shinobi world. The Kage are then attacked by Madara in a desperate final attempt. With Mei unable to counter in time, Tsunade moving to counter Madara's Fire Release: Dragon Flame Release Song Technique with her bare fist. After she fell unconscious, A and the other Kage rush to her aid when Madara tried to impale her with his Susanoo's sword but was surprised to see Tsunade dodge the attack. With Tsunade all-right, A questions why Madara didn't disappear since the technique had been cancelled. Madara then revealed that he had broken the contract between himself and his summoner and as such was acting on his own with an immortal body.

Ten-Tails Revival Arc

A and the other Kage revived.
Despite their attempt to stop Madara from leaving their battlefield, A and the other Kage were ultimately defeated and left severely wounded. Later, upon the arrival of Karin, Suigetsu and Orochimaru at the battlefield, Tsunade was healed by Karin. After being healed considerably, she in turn helped in healing A and the other Kage. With no time to lose, they all made their way to the battlefield atop Gaara's sand. While closing in on the battlefield, they first see the Shinju and are informed by Katsuyu about the most recent developments before being contacted telepathically by Hashirama Senju who informed every one on the battlefield about what he had learned about the tree from his battle with Madara. As Naruto's anger at the loss of the comrades he had fought so hard to protect grew, his emotions and memories were conveyed to everyone via Ino Yamanaka's technique.


The five Kage arrive on the battlefield.
A would later view Hashirama's memories of the first Summit of the five Kage before arriving on the battlefield as Hashirama declared his wishes for the future of the world. Responding to Hashirama's mention of dreams, A noted that in their generation, the mention of preserving dreams was a moot point. He later relocated to where B was where he contemplated that despite what he thought of it, those who would become Hokage had a proclivity for lowering their heads to others mulling over whether this in itself was a sign of power. In rallying the troops around him and his brother, A exclaimed that they better get ready to wreak havoc.

Return of Madara Arc
Though the Alliance is able to defeat Obito through the collaborative efforts, the battle takes a turn for the worst when Madara is revived via the Outer Path: Samsara of Heavenly Life Technique. The battlefield is soon assaulted by Guruguru and a miniature version of the Sage Art: Wood Release: True Several Thousand Hands technique. Cloaked in his Lightning Release Armour, A was one of the few shinobi still able to fight.

As the battle waged on, A and th Alliance started to feel tremors which were revealed to be more meteorites hitting the ground. He and the others would later fall prey to the Infinite Tsukuyomi.