Geography

The world of Naruto is the setting of a television anime/manga series of the same name by Masashi Kishimoto.

This page in particular contains (and should only contain) spoilers up to the latest episodes of the anime released and the latest manga.

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' 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 even worth the paper they are written on.

The Land of the Fire
The Land of the Fire 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 Konohagakure.

Twelve years ago, the Land of the Fire 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, a very powerful ninja known only as the Fourth Hokage. He sacrificed his own life to seal the monster inside a newborn child.

In the quiet years that followed, the Land of the Fire 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 the Land of the Sound and Land of the Wind, 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 Chûnin exam. Its basic goal is to test the survival and fighting skills of Ninjas trying to become Chûnins. 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 third test preliminaries are held.

The Land of the Mist

 * The Land of the Mist is oriented towards the element of water. It's weather is typically cool and 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 Land of the Mist is the smallest out of the five great countries, which may be the reason why Hidden-in-the-Mist used to hold the gruesome graduation tests that it did -- employing natural selection in their favor.  In their previous graduation exams, Ninja Academy students were paired off to fight to the death; the examination committee tried to pit best friends against each other as often as possible.


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

The Land of the Sound

 * The Land of the Sound, along with the Hiding-in-Sound, is relatively new and was founded by Orochimaru. It is conspiring with the Land of the Wind to launch a surprise attack and hopefully destroy Land of the Fire. It is not clear what environmental slant the Land of the Sound has, if indeed it is even possible for it to have one to fit its name.

The Land of the Earth

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

The Land of the Rain

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

The Land of the Grass

 * Nothing is known about the Land of the Grass currently except that it exists. It is probably very rich with flora.

The Land of the Waterfall
The Land of the Waterfall, like the name implies, has a huge waterfall which, in fact, hides the entrace to the hidden ninja village of the Hidden-Falls. Not much is known about this land, except that Team 7 had a mission which brings them, and that this village does not have a Kage (highest-ranking ninja). Their only prized possession is the Hero Water, which gives the drinker enormous amounts of Chakra for a period of time, but will cause bodily harm to him/her, or even death.

The Land of the Lightning

 * Very little is currently known about this country- namely that it contains the Hiding-in-Clouds.

The Land of the Wind

 * The Wind Country has been relatively uninvolved with politics until recent times, and even had a peace treaty signed with the Land of Fire (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 Land of Fire's Konohagakure.

The Land of the Waves

 * The Land of the Waves does not have a hidden village. It is an isolated island but used to be prosperous nonetheless- until Gatô 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 Gi'ichi rallied the oppressed people to fight for their country once again, and Gatô's reign of greedy terror was ended for good.

The Great Naruto Bridge

 * While Gatô was still in control of the Land of the Waves, 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. Gatô opted for killing him and hired a team of Kirigakure Missing-nins, which included Momochi Zabuza, Haku and The Demon Brothers to assassinate him. Tazuna turned to the Konohagakure and requested to hire a team of ninjas to protect him, but because he was so poor he couldn't afford hiring Chûnin 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- Hatake Kakashi, Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura and Uchiha 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 Gatô; and after Gatô's death (he was decapitated in the manga and pushed off of a bridge in the anime), Tazuna decided to name the bridge after him- "The Great Naruto Bridge".

The Land of the Snow

 * The land of snow has one ninja village, Yukigakure. Little information is know about this country at the time.

The Land of the Tea

 * The Land of Tea is a country with no ninja village. It was only featured in Naruto anime and not in the manga.

Hidden Villages (gakure)
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.

Konohagakure (Leaf Village)

 * Konohagakure (literally Hidden Among the Falling Leaves Village) is a part of the Land of the Fire. Although Konoha Village, much like the whole Konohagakure, 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 Chûnin exam alone, out of the 153 Genin participating, the Leaf Village had 82 Ninjas trying to become Chûnins, whereas all others had much less (30 from the Hiding-in-Sand, 21 from the Hiding-in-Rain, 6 from the Hiding-in-Grass and 3 from then Hiding-in-Sound.); although this technically could have more to do with the fact that Hiding-in-Leaves hosted the event.


 * Konohagakure is the home to several noteworthy clans, among them the Hyuga 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 branch house members unless the firstborn children are disowned, and specialise in using the enhanced perception granted by the Evil Eye a.k.a. Byakugan 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 insects feeding off of chakra who obey their commands in return) and the Akimichi Clan (Who are usually spatially developed and use their great weight to their advantage).

Kirigakure

 * Little is currently known about Kirigakure (lit. Hiding-in-the-Mist), except that it is a part of the Land of the Mist and its ninjas specialise in water-type jutsu. In the past, the graduation exam for becoming Genin was very different than the standard in Hidden-in-the-Mist: Students who were friends, trained together and ate from the same table were pitted against one another in fights to the death. This gruesome method was cut short, however, when Momochi Zabuza got out of control and killed all of the students in his year.

Otogakure

 * Otogakure (lit. Hiding-in-Sound Village) was founded by Orochimaru as a part of the Land of the Sound, 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, as well as using a curse seal to turn them into a demonic-form.

Iwagakure

 * Iwagakure (lit. Hiding-in-Stone Village) is a part of the Land of the Earth. Nothing apart from that is known about it at this point, but it stands to reason that its Ninjas specialise in earth jutsu. In the past, the village was at war with Konohagakure, but was eventually beaten. One of its S-class missing nin, now part of the organization Akatsuki, has a mouth (with teeth) in her hand, which enables her manipulate ckakra-enhanced clay that enable her to fly as well as create a nuke-like bomb.

Amegakure

 * Amegakure (lit. Hiding-in-Rain) is a part of the Land of the Rain. 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 jutsu. They are also skilled in using umbrella and needle rains as their attacks.

Kusagakure

 * Kusagakure (lit. Hiding-in-Grass) is a part of the Land of the Grass. Nothing apart from that is known about it at this point, but it stands to reason that its Ninjas specialise in jutsu involving flora.

Takigakure

 * Takigakure (lit. Hiding-in-Waterfall Village) is a part of the Land of the Waterfall. 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 jutsu. Also, its leader processed a type of water that was extracted from a tree, which gives the user ten times the power in exchange for part of their life.

Kumogakure

 * Kumogakure (lit. Hiding-in-Clouds) is a part of the Land of Lightning. Nothing apart from that is known about it at this point, but it stands to reason that its Ninjas specialise in electric jutsu.

Sunagakure

 * With the military forces of Sunagakure (lit. Hiding-in-Sand) being scaled down by the Land of the Wind's landlord, the leader of Hiding-in-Sand 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 Konohagakure with requests he should have been making to Hiding-in-Sand. On top of this he began cutting back on the Hiding-in-Sand's budget. Kazekage realised that if he didn't act quickly, Sand Village would be in danger of disappearing. So, joining with Hiding-in-Sound, Kazekage plans to attack Hiding-in-Leaf in order to teach the Lord a lesson and to re-establish the Hiding-in-Sand's military force.


 * The techniques used by Hidden Sand shinobis have obvious Ancient Egypt undertones- sand (Gaara), wind (Temari) and wrapped mummies (Kankuro).

Yukigakure

 * This is the Hiding-in-Snow ninja village that is featured in Naruto the Movie. Little information is known about this village at the time.