Kusanagi/Story

The King of Fighters 2002
This section is non-canon.

Kusanagi debuts in the Dream Match game, The King of Fighters 2002: Challenge to Ultimate Battle. In KOF 2002: Unlimited Match he is a Kyo clone created by NESTS. He shares an ending with the other two Kyo clones depicting the clones awakening in a destroyed NESTS facility.

The King of Fighters 2003
Kusanagi canonically debuts in The King of Fighters 2003. During the 2003 tournament, Kusanagi was created as a product of Chizuru Kagura's magic, used to test the strength of the tournament's contestants. His evil appearance is possibly due to the fact that he was created by Chizuru while under the control of Mukai (the leader of the KOF 2003 operation) and Botan (the puppeteer controlling Chizuru and Rose Bernstein). During the tournament, Kusanagi attacks the K' Team (K', Maxima, and Whip) in the Middle East, but is ultimately defeated. It is currently unknown where Kusanagi is after the events of 2003.

Spin-Offs
His role in KOF Sky Stage and Neo Geo Heroes: Ultimate Shooting is similar to his 2003 counterpart, however he is sent by Chizuru to guard a certain area from any intruders such as the player. The player has to fight their way through Kusanagi in order to advance to the next level. He utilizes his moveset from previous games to launch projectiles or in some cases literal red flames at the player (even summoning white silhouette copies of himself to throw projectiles). His finisher is the Orochinagi which can send an entire wave of projectiles that can almost instantly kill the player's character.