Kage



A is the leader of one of the Five Great Shinobi Nations, the most powerful hidden villages, and are generally acknowledged as the most powerful ninja in their respective villages. They are collectively known as the.

Overview
Each an equal to the rulers of their respective countries, the Kage oversee the activities of their villages, from sending ninja teams out on their missions to making the hard decisions regarding the safety of their people. The first Kage was Hashirama Senju of Konohagakure three generations ago. Following the Hokage title emerged the of Sunagakure, the  of Kirigakure,  of Kumogakure, and  of Iwagakure.

Once a ninja is made Kage, normally by a predecessor, the title remains with that person for the rest of his or her life. While the previous Kage may retire, he may resume his role as leader if his successor dies as was the case with the Third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi. But in the event that a Kage dies without naming a successor, an ideal heir could find a more suitable successor as is the case with the Fifth Hokage Tsunade. But, as seen with Danzō Shimura, a Daimyō has the authority to name a candidate Kage to serve as acting leader. Since obtaining the means to produce jinchūriki, it became traditional for the host to be a relative of the current Kage to not only have very loyal to his village, but also serve as as display of the Kage's might. Two such examples are Killer B, he and his three predecessors related to the Fourth Raikage A and his predecessor, and Gaara, the son of the Fourth Kazekage.

Though the Kage normally act on their villages' agenda, the actions of the Akatsuki abducting jinchūriki, with Gaara surviving his near-death ordeal and Killer B and Naruto Uzumaki the only active jinchūriki not captured, the Kage gather at a summit at the Land of Iron to discuss how to deal with the organisation. However, with Danzō as the Sixth Hokage candidate to represent Konoha in place of a comatose Tsunade, the Kage argue amongst themselves over what course to take until their moderator Mifune proposed an alliance to confront the Akatsuki. Though Danzō is nominated to lead, the appearance of White Zetsu and Taka exposes his cowardice with A, previously thought to be unfit due to his emotions, named leader of the newly formed Allied Shinobi Forces upon learning the goals of the masked ninja identifying himself as Madara Uchiha.

Trivia

 * In the anime, Hoshigakure has unofficially dubbed each of its leaders the, signifying their ambition for Hoshigakure to be recognised as an equal to the five Shinobi Nations. However, seeing the title as only a name, the five Kage do not recognise the Hoshikage as their equal.
 * Though related to the Fourth Hokage Minato Namikaze, Naruto is an exception to the jinchūriki creation mandate as he only became a jinchūriki to stop Kurama's rampage.