Kitane

was once a member of the Twelve Guardian Ninja. He was killed ten years prior to the start of the current storyline, fighting against the members of the attempted coup d'etat. He appears to have once been friends with Asuma Sarutobi before his death.

Background
While he was still alive he was part of the Twelve Guardian Ninja. When six of the members tried a coup d'etat he alongside Asuma Sarutobi, Chiriku, Nauma, Tōu, and Seito fought against them, only to be killed by Kazuma when Kitane and the three later of the 12 Ninja Guards tried to use Limelight on him.

Fire Temple Filler arc
During the beginning of the filler arc is his, Nauma's, Tōu's, and Seito's corpses stolen by grave robbers, and later revived using lightning. After being revived they were all four approached by Asuma who had figured out the scheme of the robbers. There he tries without luck to stop the later three who seems to have become mindless puppets, while Kitane, the only one of them who still seem to think clearly, attacks Asuma, saying that he cannot go against his summoners orders.

He was later "killed" again, now by his friend Asuma, before he got to the limelight spot. When Kazuma's plan failed he decided to release the summoned Nauma, Tōu and Seito.

Abilities
He along with Nauma, Tōu, and Seito were known as the greatest lightning-chakra masters of their time. Like Asuma, his battle style revolved around combining superb taijutsu skill with his elemental affinity though a unique weapon. He used a three parted metal staff to fight with, that is also able to conduct his lightning based attacks. Kitane could send lightning through the ground to attack by striking his staff into the ground. When separating his staff into three pieces he can use his jutsu Lightning Release: Thunder Binding to form a barrier around a target. When in the four cardinal directions, can he, Nauma, Tōu, and Seito could use a jutsu called Limelight to destroy everything within that area to ash.