Village Head

A Village leader, as the name implies, is the leader of a ninja village. They lead lesser ninja villages who who are either too weak, or too poor to have a Kage as their leader. However that does not always means that they are weaker. The recirrements to achieve this position are currently unknown but probably vary between villages and are most likely close to the same requirrments a Kage. Though Village Leaders are not officially considered Kage, most if not all are ninja of Kage-level, such as Amegakure's Pain and recently, Hanzo the Salamander. Village Leaders are sometimes also referred to as Kage, like Hoshigakure.

Some examples of village leaders are:

Shibuki of Takigakure

Orochimaru/Kabuto Yakushi of Otogakure

Pain of Amegakure

Akahoshi of Hoshigakure