Haido's Knights

Haido led a group of knights to achieve his dream of conquering the world (or in the warlord's own words, creating a utopia free of war).

Each of them have a piece of the Stone of Gelel lodged in their chest, granting them an increase in stamina, physical powers, regenerative might, and unique abilities for each user. Aside from Temujin, all members can utilise the Gelel Stone's powers to transform into a unique monstrous form.

The organisation's base of operation is a flying castle that doubles as a battleship, and Temujin can send signals of Gelel energy with his sword to the ship. Within the ship is a massive machine that converts a portion of life force of children, those who cannot adapt to the Gelel Stone, into armoured soldiers that work on behalf of Haido; Ranke claimed that once they acquired the Gelel vein, the children will be obsolete and disposed of.

The three female knights all underestimate their opponents, toying around with little sense of seriousness in battle, believing that their Gelel powers made them invincible, which led to all of their downfalls.

Plot Overview
Haido led his knights to invade the Land of Wind, in their quest to search for the Gelel Vein for world domination. Eventually, this brought conflict against Naruto, Sakura and Shikamaru, who were hired by Kahiko to help stop Haido, along with Gaara and Kankurō, who were retaliating against the attack on the Land of Wind.

Ranke was killed by Gaara in an earlier battle, and then later Kamira and Fugai died during the final showdown. The armoured soldiers converted from children's life force ultimately betrayed Haido and blocked his laser blast that was meant for Temujin and Naruto, and the unconscious children were rescued by Kankurō and Shikamaru. The ship and the bodies of Kamira, Fugai and Haido were all sucked into the Space–Time Path along with the Gelel Vein, never to return.

Trivia

 * The transformation brought by the Gelel stone upon the three female knights can be perceived as references to three classical monster movies: Ranke as Frankenstein's Monster, Kamira as Dracula, and Fugai as the werewolf. Haido's transformation is a reference to another famous monster, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
 * The knights' usage of the Gelel stone within their body to boost their own strength is similar to Orochimaru's Juinjutsu, especially when they transform, a parallel to entering Level 2 with the curse seal (minus the body corrosion).
 * While they perform powerful techniques derived from Gelel energy, they have no idea what chakra is, and therefore none of their abilities can be considered to be true ninjutsu. Also, they name their attacks in English, as opposed to most techniques being named in Japanese (though only Temujin and Ranke named their attacks).

Haido-Ritter