Naruto is home to a variety of characters. It is fair to say that Masashi Kishimoto did not leave any stone unturned in his quest to have a diverse cast of characters. Each Naruto character has been carefully designed to appeal to the viewers.
Some characters were created to evoke fear among the audience, and they managed to do it quite successfully. The designs and the actions of these characters sent chills down the spines of the fans. With that in mind, here is a list of the scariest characters in Naruto.
9 Orochimaru
Introduced in Part I, Orochimaru is one of the strongest characters in the series. He is a member of the Legendary Sannin and at one time, he was the favorite to replace Hiruzen as the Hokage. However, Orochimaru had no interest in becoming the Hokage instead he just wanted to gain immortality.
He had an incredibly sinister aura, which was enough to scare someone like Sasuke. In addition to this, Orochimaru's ability to transform into dangerous-looking snakes made him even scarier. Orochimaru was ruthless, and he did not care how many people died because of his actions. The combination of his strength and his cold-hearted nature made him incredibly menacing.
8 Gaara
Gaara made his appearance during the Chunin Exams arc. He showed a lot of promise and after his impressive victories in the earlier rounds, Gaara was considered the favorite to win the entire competition.
Despite only being a kid, Gaara was able to scare adults with his presence. Gaara had no hesitation to kill any of his opponents if they dared to stand in his way. It was only after he was beaten by Naruto that Gaara realized his mistakes and changed his ways.
7 Hidan
Hidan was a member of the Akatsuki, who was immortal. He was a follower of Jashin, and in order to please his god, Hidan would perform rituals.
These rituals were quite disturbing, and the fans was horrified by them. For the rituals, Hidan would stab himself and use his own blood to appease Jashin. Hidan's scary reputation lasted till the moment his defeat.
6 Zabuza
Zabuza was the first major villain to be introduced in the series. As Team 7 traveled to the Hidden Mist, they weren't expecting that they would have to come face to face against the Demon of the Mist.
Zabuza gained notoriety after he killed all the other students during an exam. He was hired by Gato to kill Tazuna, and he accepted the job without any questions. Zabuza made a great impression on the fans with his sportsmanship. When Zabuza confronted the Hidden Leaf ninjas, Kakashi knew that they were in trouble and Sasuke could feel the strong bloodlust coming from the former Hidden Mist ninja.
5 Danzo
Danzo was an evil character, who was responsible for orchestrating the Uchiha Clan massacre. Despite his claims of doing things for the sake of the Hidden Leaf, Danzo was only interested in getting more power.
He filled Hanzo's mind with poison, which led to Yahiko's death, which in turn led to the creation of Akatsuki. What made Danzo scary was that he had no morals whatsoever. He planted several Sharingan on his right arm which was made up of Hashirama's cells. Danzo didn't feel any kind of remorse for his actions as he believed that he was doing the right thing.
4 Sasori
Almost every Akatsuki member had the reputation of being fearsome, but none of them deserved it more than Sasori. Formerly a ninja of the Hidden Sand village, Sasori did not have the best of childhood, which affected his thinking as an adult drastically.
Sasori grew up being obsessed with puppets, and this led him to become a puppeteer. The scariest part about Sasori was that he turned humans into puppets. With the help of poison, he even managed to kill the Third Kazekage and turned him into a puppet. The huge number of human puppets that he had was enough to scare any opponent as they knew losing to Sasori meant he would turn them into puppets as well.
3 Black Zetsu
No one expected Black Zetsu to be so pivotal to the story, but by the end of the series, everything changed. Black Zetsu was the result of Kaguya's will. It hid in the shadows for an extremely long time and manipulated two of the most powerful characters in the series.
It was an extremely creepy character, who could take control of the bodies of other people. Needless to say, Black Zetsu randomly appearing out of nowhere was enough to startle the fans. The voice of Black Zetsu only made him sound even creepier.
2 Kurama
Kurama was introduced as the "Demon Fox," who was associated with natural disasters due to the destruction that it caused. On the night that Kurama was sealed inside Naruto, it led to the death of numerous villagers including Naruto's parents.
The bright red eyes of the beast were capable of striking fear into the hearts of the fans, and his overall appearance only made him look more evil.
1 Kakuzu
Kakuzu along with Hidan was a part of the Zombie Combo, however, unlike the latter, Kakuzu wasn't blessed with true immortality. Kakuzu prolonged his life by stealing the hearts of his opponents.
Over the years, he had managed to steal many hearts, which also allowed him to use their special Jutsu. Kakuzu was only concerned with getting more money, so he wasn't concerned with the casualties as long as he got paid.