Kazekage

The is the Kage of Sunagakure, a title bestowed on the village's leader. The Kazekage is generally regarded as the strongest shinobi in the village, responsible for keeping Suna on an even footing with the other villages despite its small size. Gaara Hiden suggests that the Kazekage position is hereditary, or at least that relatives of the Fourth Kazekage are most suitable for the position; this lineage is referred to as the "Kazekage Clan".

The Kazekage title is sometimes considered cursed, as all the Kazekage, including the current, have met untimely deaths at the hands of assassins; the village's affairs are decided by the Suna Council in the interim between Kazekage. Full-bodied statues of all the former Kazekage are kept in council's meeting chambers.

Fourth Kazekage Impersonator
After killing the Fourth Kazekage, Orochimaru took on his guise and acted as the Fourth Kazekage for several weeks in order to have Sunagakure assist him in the Konoha Crush. He dropped the guise at the start of the battle when beginning his battle with his former master Hiruzen Sarutobi.

Trivia

 * The colour of the Kazekage's garbs was originally depicted as blue in the anime, but was changed to the manga's green colour in Naruto: Shippūden episode 199.
 * In the third databook, the First and Second Kazekage are mistakenly switched.
 * In Gaara Hiden, before Shikadai Nara was born, the Suna's counsellors state that if his uncles die without heirs, Shikadai, as a descendant of Rasa's bloodline, would become the next Kazekage; Suna considered it a crisis for a Konohagakure-born shinobi to become Kazekage, and this reasoning was used to force Gaara into taking a wife.