Chiyo

Chiyo (チヨ) was a retired counsellor of Sunagakure. She was also a famed puppeteer, the leader of Sunagakure's Puppet Brigade and a medical-nin.

Background
Chiyo, often called Honoured Grandmother Chiyo (チヨバア様, Chiyo-baasama) by the Sunagakure villagers, was the village's poison, and puppet expert. She and her brother Ebizo were highly revered in Sunagakure and were known as the Honoured Siblings (御姉弟, Gokyōdai). Chiyo was very knowledgeable when it came to handling poisons and used her skills often during the Second Shinobi World War, only to be countered numerous times by Tsunade's medical expertise. This caused Chiyo to hold a grudge against Tsunade, who she came to call "that slug-girl" (あのナメクジ娘, Ano Namekuji-musume), or the "Slug Princess" in the English translations. During the war, she also fought Hanzo and his salamander numerous times, learning how frequently it can use its venom and eventually developing an antidote against it.

Chiyo was responsible for sealing the Shukaku inside of Gaara under the orders of the Fourth Kazekage, noting that of the Kazekage's three children, Gaara was the only compatible one. Some time after this, Chiyo and her brother removed themselves from the affairs of Sunagakure and spent their time fishing together, where Chiyo would play jokes on her brother by pretending she had died just to scare him.

Chiyo also expressed a desire to kill Hatake Sakumo to avenge the killing of her son and daughter in law, which left her grandson orphaned. After that Chiyo tried to help Sasori ease the pain by caring for him and teaching him the Puppet Technique. Chiyo would later watch Sasori create his first puppets that would resemble his own parents. This was meant to fill the void of his parents dying. In the anime, while still a child, Sasori became very instrumental in the development of puppets and poisons for the village, regularly filling orders from Chiyo herself. As Chiyo watched Sasori continue to immerse himself in puppets, Chiyo became increasingly concerned for her grandson. However, she instead chose to remain indifferent, focusing most of her attention on helping the village. One day, Komushi, a young shinobi and one of Sasori's only friends, was badly injured during a mission, costing him his right arm. Demonstrating a new style of puppet ninjutsu, Sasori replaced Komushi's arm with a fully movable puppet arm, coated with Sasori's newest poison. Later, Komushi died from accidentally ingesting the very poison. As Chiyo's concerns continued to grow, she began noticing a pattern with Sasori and decided to investigate. To her horror, she discovered that Sasori has taken Komushi's corpse and turned it into a human puppet.

Later, to Chiyo's dismay, Sasori left Sunagakure and abandoned his parent puppets, showing that he gave up on them.

Personality
As a veteran, Chiyo and her brother Ebizo possess great wisdom, such that Baki requested their assistance in the village's greatest danger. However, they had little motivation to serve Sunagakure any longer, as they retired and felt that the next generation should look out for themselves. The siblings were rather disappointed when the village was showing to be so reliant on others. Chiyo could be very mischievous, as she enjoyed playing dead or acting senile to fool others. Chiyo would often also jump to conclusions as seen when she attacked Kakashi because she mistook him for his father Sakumo.

Chiyo loved her grandson, Sasori, a great deal despite how much he had fallen, and was fully willing to grant life to the puppets that he created, at the cost of her own; this was said to be her dream. In fact, it was only Sasori's involvement in Akatsuki that she was willing to grant Baki's request for assistance. This love also led her to bear a grudge against Sakumo Hatake for killing Sasori's parents, and as such, she initially tried to kill his son Kakashi, mistaking him for his father. However, in the anime, it was shown that Chiyo's love for her family was also split between it as well as her devotion to the village and her views as a ninja being detached. This was seen from her hesitance to take a simple family picture.

Chiyo showed care and respect for Haruno Sakura, despite the latter being a disciple of Chiyo's rival. She also showed regret and remorse for sealing the Shukaku into Gaara, and gave her life to revive the latter as a way of repentance.

She has also shown respect for Uzumaki Naruto,despite learning from Kakashi that he was also a jinchuriki. She starts to see that since Naruto was the Jinchuriki of the Nine Tails, that he and Gaara are similar. She finds out Naruto's dream of becoming Hokage,and realizes that Naruto truly cares about Gaara. Despite that Both of them are from a different Village,and having a trustforthy relationship with one other. She then tells Naruto to look after Gaara, before she dies from reviving him. A task that Naruto carry out for her,after she died.

Abilities
Despite her age, Chiyo was still a very powerful ninja, and was well respected throughout Sunagakure. Even her rival,Tsunade, had great respect for her. With Sakuras assistance, she was also able to defeat Sasori. Her skills and renown were great enough for Kabuto to reincarnate her for the Fourth Shinobi War.

Puppet Master
Chiyo was a renowned master of the Puppet Technique, famous for her abilities in both creating and controlling them, to the point of being an invaluable icon for Sunagakure. She passed such skills on to her grandson, Sasori, claiming that the technique was traditional in their family. She modified two normal unarmed puppets to have intense battle capabilities, to the point where they were capable of standing up against the Third Kazekage (known as the strongest Kage in the history of Sunagakure) who was converted into a Human Puppet by Sasori. These puppets were equipped with wire strings that extend from both of the puppets hands. When connected they have the ability to cut through most things, including Sasori's, Thousand Hands Manipulation Force. She also could use the Puppet Performance: Skilful Achievement with a Human Body technique, which allowed her to effectively control a human if she had no puppets left in her arsenal; this tactic had proven to be highly effective as she was able to fight effectively, without getting sealed until she died again in the release of Impure World Reincarnation, during the Fourth Shinobi War while using only a samurai as a substitute. In the anime, she also showed the ability to control up to ten living people at once with this skill, each of them with only one finger per puppet — a skill which signified her as a master puppeteer.

She had great skill with chakra threads, as she could place them onto other puppets without her opponent noticing and suppressing them to the point that they became invisible, as well as using them to control and fire weapons.

Her strongest puppets, however, was the full set of 10 puppets known as the Chikamatsu Collection created by the first Puppet Technique user, Monzaemon Chikamatsu with which she was able to to control each of them at once. These puppets were extremely powerful, using teamwork to perform powerful attacks, and were equipped with powerful techniques such as the Three Jewels Suction Crushing and the Sealing Technique: Lion Closing Roar. With the assistance of Sakura, Chiyo's ten puppets were able to overpower Sasori's one hundred puppets, though in the anime, most of the Chikamatsu Collection was destroyed in the process. Like Sasori, Chiyo modified a part of her body and turned her right arm into a mechanical one. She normally kept it outfitted with a chakra shield, and could replace it with any puppet arm if something were to happen to it. She also installed this shield on the Mother and Father puppets.

Medical Ninjutsu
Chiyo was also a highly capable medical-nin, and while having some healing skills, she mainly used her medical knowledge as a poison expert, which allowed her to create powerful poisons that in her entire life have only been countered by Tsunade, who is herself renowned as the world's greatest medical-nin. Likewise, she has stated that she used to fight with Hanzō and his salamander all the time; allowing her to know how long it takes for the beast to produce its poison and the antidote ingredient list to counter the poisonous gas released by the salamander. She created a life-giving technique, one that would result in her own death if it were used, that she wanted to use for Sasori in order to give life to his puppet parents. But she decides to use on Gaara,after she sees that Uzumaki Naruto,Team Kakashi, Team Guy and the rest of Suna truly do care about him.

Other Skills
While preferring to use puppets in battle, Chiyo demonstrated during her misjudgement towards Kakashi's identity that she was highly skilled in taijutsu from how easily she fought back Naruto and his clone. She possessed advanced knowledge of fūinjutsu as she was the one responsible for sealing Shukaku into Gaara. She has also remarked to have faced Uchiha Clan members in the past and knows how to deal with genjutsu.

Kazekage Rescue arc
After Gaara is kidnapped and Kankuro is poisoned by Sasori,Baki requests that Chiyo help in curing the poison. Chiyo initially refuses, no longer concerned with the fate of the village, but Sasori's involvement persuades her into helping. In spite of this, Sasori's poison is beyond her expertise to cure. Much to her own dismay, she admits that Tsunade would be the only one capable of healing him. Even with such an admission, she is not willing to contact Tsunade, believing firmly that asking other villages for help makes their own look weaker.

When Team 7 arrives after learning of Gaara's kidnapping, Chiyo instantly attacks Hatake Kakashi under the mistaken impression that he is his father: Konoha's White Fang, who had killed Sasori's parents. Naruto blocks the attack and Ebizo clears up the confusion, after which Chiyo plays the attack off as senility. With that over, Sakura is able to heal Kankurō, much to Chiyo's surprise. Once Kankurō is healed, Team Kakashi prepares to go after the Akatsuki to rescue Gaara, and Chiyo joins them as an adviser from Sunagakure. She explained to Naruto what a tailed beast was, and confessed to sealing the One-Tail into Gaara. When Team 7 encountered Uchiha Itachi, she remained in the rear in order to cancel any genjutsu that was cast on her comrades.

After reaching the Akatsuki hideout, Team 7 splits up to pursue the only two members present; Kakashi and Naruto go after Deidara, leaving Chiyo and Sakura to fight against Sasori. The battle goes in their favour at first, with Chiyo controlling Sakura to help her avoid Sasori's attacks and smash his "puppet armour", Hiruko. The destruction of his puppet forces Sasori to reveal himself, which also reveals the fact that he hasn't aged a day since departing the village twenty years earlier. Now unmasked, Sasori brings out the first of his human puppets: the Third Kazekage. This puppet is decidedly more powerful than Hiruko, and Chiyo is forced to summon Sasori's mother and father puppets just to fend off its powerful attacks. Even with the two puppets, Chiyo is overwhelmed by the Third's Iron Sand techniques, which prove to be the puppet's biggest weakness, leaving Sakura to be the one to destroy the Kazekage puppet.

Down another puppet, Sasori reveals the secret of his youth: he has converted himself into a puppet. The only living part of him remaining is his heart, making him difficult to kill. Since neither she nor Sakura can destroy his puppet body, Chiyo summons the Chikamatsu Collection. To mock the summoning, Sasori summons one hundred of his puppets, a feat only possible thanks to his unique body. In the ensuing battle, Chiyo destroys many of Sasori's puppets and vice versa. Both collections seem to be about equal in power because, despite the fact that Sasori's overwhelm Chiyo's in numbers, the quality and teamwork of her puppets far surpass his. She is wounded and poisoned by one of Sasori's puppets that slashes her right shoulder, but the puppet was quickly disposed of by Chiyo's puppet and she continued to fight while enduring the pain.

Using a special chakra-sealing orb given to her by Chiyo, Sakura tries to seal Sasori's Chakra Pathway System, only to catch his empty puppet body. Sasori, having ditched it mere moments before, simply goes to a spare body and tries to stab Chiyo with a poisoned sword. Sakura takes the blow in her place, giving Chiyo a chance to stab Sasori through the heart with his parents' puppets in the form of a hug. Before Sasori dies, he insists that at least Sakura cannot be saved. Chiyo disagrees, and uses a special life force-transferring technique to heal her. While this would normally be fatal for the average shinobi, Sakura was not quite dead, thus Chiyo does not die in the process. After Sasori dies, Chiyo speculates that he had actually taken the attack willingly, since he simply wanted his parents to hug him.

After reuniting with Kakashi and Naruto, who have succeeded in retrieving Gaara, Sakura pronounces Gaara dead, causing Naruto to break down in tears. Although Chiyo tries to calm him down, Naruto lashes out and blames her for his death, saying that if she had not sealed Shukaku within Gaara he would not have died. In an attempt to apologise for what she had done, Chiyo tries to revive Gaara. Although she initially has too little chakra left to do so, Naruto donates some of his own to help finish the resurrection. With Gaara's revival, Chiyo realises that the future of Konoha and the Sand will be much better than things were back in her day, and then dies peacefully, with her view of the world changed thanks to Naruto.

Invasion of Pain arc
seen in a flashback by Tsunade,and mention by her.

Fourth Shinobi War arc
In preparation for the Fourth Shinobi World War, Chiyo is reincarnated by Kabuto to fight against the Allied Shinobi Forces. In the anime, it was revealed that Kabuto intended on obtaining Sasori's DNA to reincarnate him, but mistakenly reincarnated Chiyo instead, though still recognised her a famous and useful reincarnation. After being mobilised, she becomes part of the group that Chūkichi requests assistance from, alongside Kimimaro and Hanzō. With this, Chiyo notes that the technique had been improved since Tobirama Senju's time and that the one who reincarnated them must be something else, to bind so many souls at once.

Encountering the remnants of the Surprise Attack Division, where Deidara was imprisoned, Chiyo compliments Kankurō on defeating Sasori. When the opposition begins their retreat with her group in pursuit, she swears to take revenge against whoever reincarnated her, while concerned about being embarrassed if they forced her to play dead. This results in an argument with Hanzō, who calls her a "puppet hag", to which she retorts that he was a "big snorkel geezer".

After Hanzō summons his salamander and recognising the poisonous gas it exhaled, Chiyo informs Kankurō that the creature requires five minutes to generate and use the toxin, but that she knew the antidote, having fought with Hanzō before. Engaging the reinforcements from the Fifth Division with Kimimaro the following day, Chiyo takes control of a samurai to use as a puppet. In the anime, Kankurō intervened and freed the samurai from her control. By that time, learning that Kankurō has the Mother and Father puppets alongside the Scorpion puppet, Chiyo's guilt for her inability to save Sasori is brought into light. But finding good memories of her grandson along with the bad, Chiyo admits that the puppets are in good hands yet continues investing over him. Later observing the arrival of one of Naruto's shadow clones, remarking that the youth has changed in ways besides his height, Chiyo is then seemingly struck by Naruto's Wind Release: Rasenshuriken, but in the anime along with Kimimaro managed to dodge it before being struck.

When the Impure World Reincarnation was released, Chiyo — who had still been battling the Alliance's members — was enveloped in a light of sorts before beginning to deconstruct. As her spirit ascended, she asserted that she could finally die once again as her soul returned to the afterlife.

Video Game
Chiyo is a playable character in the following video games: In many of her game appearances, Chiyo uses the Mother and Father puppets.

Quotes

 * (To Ebizo) "Just kidding! I was playing dead!"
 * (To Baki about Konoha) "Improving your own village's capability should always be top priority. They are them, and we are us! True alliances are nothing more than pipe dreams. At difficult times, when you really need them, the best you get are useless foot soldiers."
 * (To Baki) "Don't treat me like an old lady!"
 * (To Sasori) "Even retired and a foot in grave, I'll still take action. I've too many regrets to die yet."
 * (To Naruto) "I'm happy that someone like you has appeared in the world of shinobi that we foolish old people created. Everything I've ever done was a mistake. But now, at the end, it looks like I'll finally be able to do the right thing. The Sand Village and Konoha. Their future will be much different than the way things were back in my day. That strange power of yours that Kakashi mentioned… That power will have a strong influence on the future. Become a Hokage like none before you."
 * (To Sakura) "And Sakura… Next time, save the people who are dear to you, not some old hag. You and I are very similar. There aren't many girls as chivalrous as you around. You might become a kunoichi who surpasses her master."
 * (Last words to Naruto) "Naruto… a request from an old woman. You are the only one who knows Gaara's pain… Gaara also knows your pain. Help Gaara out…"

Knownable Relatives

 * Ebizo (little brother)
 * Sasori's father (son/decreased)
 * Sasori's mother (daughter in law/decreased)
 * Sasori (grandson/decreased)
 * Tsunade (rival)

Trivia
According to the databook(s):
 * Chiyo's hobbies were pretending to be dead, playing senile, and fishing.
 * Chiyo's favourite foods were dishes with beans, and potatoes. Her least favourite was sashimi.
 * Chiyo wished to fight Kakashi's late father.
 * Chiyo's favourite phrase was "Trained by a hundred battles" (百戦錬磨, Hyakusen Renma). This idiom refers to a richness in experiences gained through battling through many adversities.

Voice Actresses
Japanese  : Ikuko Tani

English : Barbara Goodson