Geography

Warning: ''Wikipedia contains spoilers. This page in particular contains (and should only contain) spoilers up to the latest episodes of the anime released, or a bit beyond that at most.''

Map of the Naruto World

Naruto Geography
The world of the anime/manga Naruto contains various locations that have been introduced to the audience so far.

Countries
Countries operate as separate political entities and are presumably all monarchies, rules by landlords who stand equally in rank with the Hidden Villages]' [[Naruto ninja ranks#Kage|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 worth more on paper than they are outside of it.

The Fire Country
The Fire Country is oriented towards the element of fire (typically has very bright and warm weather) and, while not the largest country, has the largest hidden village- the Hidden Leaf Village.

Twelve years ago, the fire country was attacked by an exceedingly powerful demon- the Kyubi, or the Nine-Tails Demon Fox. This monster destroyed anything in its path and killed countless people, including Iruka's parents and many other relatives of Leaf Village residents which are still alive today. The monster was stopped by the leader of the leaf village as of then- a very powerful ninja known only as the Fourth Hokage sacrificed his own life to seal the monster inside a newborn child.

In the quiet years that followed, the Fire Country slowly recovered and was getting accostumed 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 Sound Country and Wind Country, trapping Konoha from west and east, rely on in their planned attempt to destroy and overtake it.

Forest of Death
The stage for the second test of the Chuunin exam. Its basic goal is to test the survival and fighting skills of Ninjas trying to become Chuunins. It is a very dangerous place filled with hoards of flora and fauna which are often gigantic, poisonous or both- hence its name. Its perimeter is surronded by a metal fence with 44 gates equally spaced around it; this is where the Ninjas enter to start the test. Inside it is a river, the forest and a tower; its radius is about 10 Kilometers. The tower is the destination of the Ninjas after they have collected the two scrolls (one of which they have to pry from the hands of another team in battle). Located inside the tower is the large arena in which the the third test preliminaries are held.

The Water Country
The Water Country is oriented towards the element of water, cool, 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 Water country is the smallest out of the five great countries, which may be the reason why its Hidden Mist Village used to hold the gruesome graduation tests that it did- employing natural selection in their favor.

The Water country was once the victim of a coup d'état attempt by Momochi Zabuza, but dealt with it successfully.

The Sound Country
The Sound Country, along with the Hidden Sound Village, is relatively new and was founded by Orochimaru. It is conspiring with the Wind Country to launch a surprise attack and hopefully destroy the Fire Country. It is not clear what environmental sland the Sound Country has, if indeed it is even possible for it to have one to fit its name.

The Earth Country
Nothing is known about the Earth Country currently except that it exists. It is most probably oriented towards the element of earth, full of caves and mountains and barren land.

The Rain Country
Nothing is known about the Rain Country currently except that it exists. It is probably geared towards the element of water much like the Water Country, but whether it deviates from the inclination and in what way is unclear.

The Grass Country
Nothing is known about the Grass Country currently except that it exists. It is probably very rich with flora.

The Waterfall Country
Nothing is known about the Waterfall Country currently except that it exists. It is probably geared towards the element of water much like the Water Country, but whether it deviates from the inclination and in what way is unclear.

The Lightning Country
Very little is currently known about this country- namely that it contains the Hidden Cloud Village.

The Wind Country
The Wind Country has been relatively uninvolved with politics until recent times, and even had a peace treaty signed with the Fire Country (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 Fire Country's Hidden Leaf Village.

The Wave Country
The Wave Country does not have a hidden village]. It is an isolated [[island but used to be prosperous nonetheless- until Gatou 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 Giichi rallied the oppressed people to fight for their country once again, and Gatou's reign of greedy terror was ended for good.

The Great Naruto Bridge
While Gatou was still in control of the Wave Country, an expert bridge builder named Tazuna started building a bridge that would open the country for free import and export once again, giving its economy a chance to recover. Gatou opted for killing him and hired a team of Hidden Mist Missing-nins, which included Zabuza, Haku and The Demon Brothers to assassinate him. Tazuna turned to the Hidden Leaf Village and requested to hire a team of ninjas to protect him, but because he was so poor he couldn't afford hiring Chuunin 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, Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke- 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 Gatou; and after Gatou's death, Tazuna decided to name the bridge after him- "The Great Naruto Bridge".

Hidden Villages
Hidden Villages are parts of Countries, which's 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.

Hidden Leaf Village
The Hidden Leaf Village is a part of the Fire Country. Although the Hidden Leaf Village, much like the whole fire country, 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 Chuunin exam alone, out of the 153 Genin participating, the Leaf Village had 82 Ninjas trying to become Chuunins, whereas all others had much less (30 from the Hidden Sand Village, 21 from the Hidden Rain Village, 6 from the Hidden Grass Village and 3 from then Hidden Sound Village.); although this technically could have more to do with the fact that the Leaf Village hosted the event.

The Hidden Leaf Village is the home to several noteworthy clans, among them the Hyuuga Clan (Who are split into the main house and a branch house- only the firstborn child of a main house member becoming a main house member and the rest becoming brnach house members unless the firstborn children are disowned, and specialise in using the enhanced perception granted by the Byakuugan 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 bugs feeding off of chakra who obey their commands in return) and the Ikimichi Clan (Who are usually spatially developed and use their great weight to their advantage).

Hidden Mist Village
Little is currently known about this village, excpet that it is a part of the Water Country and its ninjas specialise in water-type jutsus. In the past, the graduation exam for becoming Genin was very different than the standard in the Hidden Mist Village- students who were friends, trained together and ate from the same table were pitted against one another in fights to the death. Thie gruesome method was cut short, however, when Zabuza got out of control and killed all of the students in his year.

Hidden Sound Village
The Hidden Sound Village was founded by Orochimaru as a part of the Sound Country, and is run by him. Not much is known about it other than that and the fact that its ninjas specialise in techniques involving manipulation of sound waves.

Hidden Stone Village
The Hidden Stone Village is a part of the Earth Country. Nothing apart from that is known about it at this point, but it stands to reason that its Ninjas specialise in earth jutsus.

Hidden Rain Village
The Hidden Rain Village is a part of the Rain Country. Nothing apart from that is known about it at this point, but it stands to reason that its Ninjas specialise in specific types of water-type jutsus.

Hidden Grass Village
The Hidden Grass Village is a part of the Grass Country. Nothing apart from that is known about it at this point, but it stands to reason that its Ninjas specialise in jutsus involving flora.

Hidden Waterfall Village
The Hidden Waterfall Village is a part of the Waterfall Country. Nothing apart from that is known about it at this point, but it stands to reason that its Ninjas specialise in specific types of water-type jutsus.

Hidden Cloud Village
The Hidden Cloud Village is a part of the Lightning Country. Nothing apart from that is known about it at this point, but it stands to reason that its Ninjas specialise in electric jutsus.

Hidden Sand Village
With the military forces of Sand Village being scaled down by the Wind Country's landlord, the leader of the Hidden Sand Village realised that they must increase the quality of each Ninja to maintain a military force (stopping at nothing to achieve that- see Gaara). As more time passed, the Lord started commissioning Leaf Village with requests he should have been making to Sand Village. On top of this he began cutting back on the Sand Village's budget. Kazekage realised that if he didn't act quickly, Sand Village would be in danger of disappearing. So, joining with the Sound Village, Kazekage plans to attack the Leaf Village in order to teach the Lord a lesson and to re-establish the Sand Village's military force.

The techniques used by Hidden Sand shinobis have obvious ancient egypt undertones- sand (Gaara), wind (Temari) and wrapped mummies (Konkaru).