Geography

The world of Naruto is the setting of a television anime/manga series of the same name by Masashi Kishimoto.

This page in particular contains (and should only contain) spoilers up to the latest episodes of the anime released and the latest manga.

Countries
Countries operate as separate political entities and are presumably all monarchies, rules by landlords who stand equally in rank with the Hidden Villages' Kages. The Naruto world is similar to feudal Japan in many aspects; those countries maintain balance between themselves through nothing but power. Treaties are periodically signed, but they are generally not even worth the paper they are written on.

The Land of Fire
The is orientated towards the element of fire (typically has very bright and warm weather) and, while not the largest country, has the largest hidden village - Konohagakure.

Twelve years ago (sixteen in Naruto Shippuden or Part II of the manga), the Land of the Fire was attacked by an exceedingly powerful demon - Kyubi (pronounced cube-be), or the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox. This monster destroyed anything in its path and killed countless people, including many relatives of Leaf Village residents who are still alive today. The monster was stopped by the leader of the Leaf Village, a very powerful ninja, Minato Namikaze also known as the Fourth Hokage. He sacrificed his own life to seal the monster inside a newborn child, Naruto Uzumaki.

In the quiet years that followed, the Land of Fire slowly recovered and was getting accustomed to peace. This was seen by other countries - who have been working to increase their military power - as a weakness, and it is one of the factors the conspiring Land of Sound and Land of Wind, trapping Konoha from west and east, rely on in their planned attempt to destroy and overtake it.

Every Hokage of Konoha has died protecting their Hidden Village, except for the latest Hokage, the Godaime, also known as Lady Tsunade of the Senju Clan, or the Legendary Sucker, the last surviving member of the legendary Sannin.

The Land of Water
The is orientated towards the element of water. It's weather is typically cool and full of mist and lakes. Little is currently known about it and it apparently leaves itself out of most political affairs, which is understandable considering that it is an island relatively remote from the continent containing the other four major countries. The Land of the Water is the smallest out of the five great countries, which may be the reason why their Hidden Village Kirigakure used to hold the gruesome graduation tests that it did - employing natural selection in their favor. In their previous graduation exams, Ninja Academy students were paired off to fight to the death; the examination committee tried to pit best friends against each other as often as possible. This lead to many ninja calling the Village hidden in the Mist, the Village hidden in the Bloody Mist.


 * The Land of the Mist was once the victim of a coup d'état attempt by Zabuza Momochi which was dealt with it successfully.

The Land of Sound
The is relatively new and was founded by Orochimaru. It is conspiring with the Land of Wind to launch a surprise attack and hopefully destroy the Land of Fire. It is not clear what environmental slant the Land of the Sound has, if indeed it is even possible for it to have one to fit its name. This country's Hidden Village is called Otogakure.
 * In the anime, the Land of Sound was only indirectly founded by Orochimaru, as it was previously called the

The Land of Earth
Nothing is known about the at this point except that it exists. It is most probably orientated towards the element of earth, full of caves and mountains and barren land. During the Bikochu Filler arc, Naruto, Shino, Kiba, and Hinata fought against three Earth jonin, who claim to be of the fabled Kamizuru clan, who had some war with the Aburame clan two generations ago. This land is home to the Hidden Rock Village.

The Land of the Waterfall
The, like the name implies, consists mostly of a large waterfall which hides the entrance to Takigakure, this country's Hidden Village. This land is beautiful and has a gigantic tree on a small island. This country is not one of the fife major countries, and thus it's village does not have a Kage (highest-ranking ninja). Their only prized possession is the Hero Water, which gives the drinker enormous amounts of Chakra for a period of time, but will cause bodily harm to him/her, or even death. The Hero Water is said to be collected by the giant tree's sap every hundred years. This country is also home to Kakuzu.

The Land of Lightning
Very little is currently known about the, except that it contains Kumogakure. During Hinata Hyuga's third birthday the cloud ninjas had allied with the Leaf Village. Unexpectedly, the lead ninja had abducted Hinata and was later killed by Hiashi Hyuga. More depth in to this village show that the village is host to two Tailed Beasts one of which is the brother to the Kage of the village.

The Land of Wind
The has been relatively uninvolved with politics until recent times, and even had a peace treaty signed with the Land of Fire (For all that was worth). The landlord ruling it, however, has been systematically cutting down its military force and actually addressing missions one would expect he would address to his own country's hidden village to the Land of Fire's Konohagakure.

The Land of Waves
The does not have a hidden village. It is an isolated island but used to be prosperous nonetheless - until Gatô set his eyes on it. He broke the people's will and monopolised the import/export industry, which was crucial for its economy. Eventually, Inari and Gichi rallied the oppressed people to fight for their country once again, and Gato's reign of greedy terror was ended for good.

The Great Naruto Bridge
The expert bridge builder Tazuna started building the while Gatô was still in control of the Land of Waves, so that the country's import and export could open once again, giving its economy a chance to recover. Gatô opted for killing him and hired a team of Kirigakure Missing-nins, which included Zabuza Momochi, Haku and The Demon Brothers to assassinate him. Tazuna turned to the Konohagakure and requested to hire a team of ninjas to protect him, but because he was so poor he couldn't afford hiring Chûnin qualified to deal with B-rank missions such as protection from assassination attempts he lied and said he wanted to be protected from bandits, making it a C-rank mission. The team assigned to protect him - Kakashi Hatake, Naruto Uzumaki, Sakura Haruno and Sasuke Uchiha - decided to keep protecting him even when the mission was exposed for what it was.

Naruto was the one who inspired Inari (Tazuna's grandson) to stop crying, get over the trauma of the death of Kaiza and in turn inspire the rest of the country to rebel against Gatô. After Gatô's death, Tazuna decided to name the bridge after him - "The Great Naruto Bridge".

The Land of Snow
The hosts ninja village Yukigakure. Little information is known about this country at the time. If they continue the process started in the first Naruto movie the land will soon be Land of Spring.

The Land of Tea
The is a country with no ninja village. It was only featured in the Naruto anime and not in the manga.

The Land of the Whirlpool
Not much is known about the. Kushina Uzumaki was a kunoichi who hailed from this country, though it is unclear if she was a ninja in a village located in this country or elsewhere. The current status of Whirlpool is also unclear, as it has been referred to in the past tense.

The Land of Bears
The  harbors a shinobi village called Hoshigakure. The exact location of Bear Country is unknown but it is marked by many forests and mountains. A chakra-enhancing meteor hit the country-side approximately 200 years ago. Those who found the meteor referred to it as a fallen star. A hidden village developed in the country based around the usage of this meteor's powers. The border of the country is marked by a crevice with poison fumes at the bottom. This crevice and poison helps deter any outsiders from invading and stealing the meteor.

The Land of the Stone
The is so named because of its craggy desert and wasteland regions. The country is similar to the Land of Earth, however it does not harbour a Hidden Village itself and is ruled by a priest.

The Land of the Mountains
The Land of the Mountains once harbored a shinobi village, Kagerougakure. The exact location of the Mountain Country is unknown but it is marked by mountainous terrain. After a protracted war with Konoha thirty years previously, their Hidden Village was weakened. Though they made peace with Konoha, ninja from another country swooped in to wipe out the weakened Hidden Village and its ninja. At present it appears no other village was ever established.

Hidden Villages
Hidden Villages are parts of countries in which the country's ninja reside. Their leaders stand equally with the landlords ruling the countries they are a part of. A Hidden Village maintains its economy by training its citizens to be Ninjas from a young age and using them as manpower in various missions others would be willing to pay for, from weeding a garden for a single payment to receiving a constant budget from the country it resides in for being soldiers in case the country is involved in a war.

Konohagakure (Leaf Village)
is a part of the Land of Fire. Although Konoha Village, much like the whole Konohagakure, has been peaceful for the past twelve years or so and has grown accustomed to it, it is a village with a very high population of Ninjas and, therefore, has great military power. In the chûnin exam alone, out of the 153 Genin participating, the Leaf Village had 82 Ninjas trying to become Chûnin, whereas all others had much less (30 from Sunagakure, 21 from Amegakure, 6 from Kusagakure and 3 from Otogakure.); although this technically could have more to do with the fact that Konohagakure hosted the event.

Konohagakure is the home to several noteworthy clans, among them the Hyuga Clan (split into the main house and a branch house - only the firstborn child of a main house member becomes a main house member itself with any other children becoming branch house members unless the firstborn children are disowned; they specialise in using the enhanced perception granted by their advanced bloodline, the Byakugan and their excellent chakra control to their advantage), the Uchiha clan (Who are extinct save for Uchiha Sasuke and Uchiha Itachi, who is responsible for killing the rest of the clan), the Aburame clan (Who infuse their children with insects feeding off of chakra which obey their commands in return) and the Akimichi clan (Who are usually spatially developed and use their great weight to their advantage; Never call an Akimichi "fat"). The Akatsuki founder Madara Uchiha also hails from Konohagakure.

Kirigakure (Mist Village)
Little is currently known about, except that it is located in the Land of Water and that its ninja specialize in water-type jutsu. In the past, the graduation exam for becoming a Genin differed greatly from the standard: Students who were friends, trained together and ate from the same table were pitted against one another in fights to the death. This gruesome method was cut short, however, when Momochi Zabuza got out of control and killed all of the students in his year. The Akatsuki's Kisame Hoshigaki hails from here.

Amegakure (Rain Village)
is a part of the Land of Rain. Its Ninja specialize in water-type jutsu and are also skilled in using umbrella and needle rains in their attacks. The village is also the base of the Akatsuki-leader Pain and his partner Konan.

Takigakure (Waterfall Village)
is a part of the Land of the Waterfall. Nothing apart from that is known about it at this point, but it stands to reason that its Ninjas specialize in water-type jutsu. Also, its leader posessed a type of water that was extracted from a tree, which gives the user ten times the power in exchange for part of their life. The Akatsuki member Kakuzu comes from this village.

Kumogakure (Cloud Village)
The inja from this village are more relaxed and calm, cool and collected.

Yukigakure (Snow Village)
The village was featured in Naruto the Movie. Little information is known about this village at the time.

Hoshigakure (Star Village)
is an anime-only village introduced during the Star Village Filler arc. It's leader is the Hoshikage, though he is a Kage in name only. Hoshigakure is generally regarded as a joke in other Hidden Villages and, truth be told, there is not really a ninja worth his or her title in the village.

Kagerougakure/Tonbogakure (Dragonfly Village)
was at war with Konohagakure thirty years prior to the beginning of the series and was ultimately wiped out by another unknown force after making peace with Konohagakure.