Kirigakure

is located at the Land of Water and plays a small role as the home village of Zabuza Momochi in the Mission to the Land of Waves arc. Its village layout is relatively unknown, only seen briefly in flashbacks by Kimimaro. The only major events that are known to have occurred here is the annihilation of a graduation class of Genin by Zabuza himself, and a village attack by Kimimaro's clan about a decade later.

The village, according to Kakashi, was known for a barbaric graduation ritual. Students wishing to move on into the ranks of the ninja there would be pitted against each other in one-on-one duels to the death, thus earning the village the nickname,. This atmosphere led to the emergence of Zabuza Momochi, and after the incident, in which the entire graduating class was killed (and, at the time, Zabuza had not even reached the age of qualification), the graduation ritual was banned. Zabuza was consequently given the name, "The Demon of the Hidden Mist". The village develops strong and ruthless ninja as Kakashi has stated before and Orochimaru once said that the Hidden Mist Village is a powerful military that would not be defeated so easily.

The Mizukage is the official head ninja of Kirigakure. The elite shinobi squad, the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist, hail from Kirigakure as well.

Kirigakure-Kaguya War
Approximately 10 years before the start of the series, the Kaguya clan performed a coup against Kirigakure because of their passion of killing. The entire clan was slaughtered by the village military with Kimimaro being the only known survivor.

Hidden Mist Coup D'etat
Around the same time as the aforementioned war, Zabuza Momochi, ANBU squad captain, had led an assassination attempt on the Mizukage, consisting of several members of the ANBU and other Mist Jonin and Chunin, but were quickly dispatched of by his guard. As to reasons for the rebellion, there are speculations.