Tenma Kodon

was the leader of the Kodon clan.

Background
After the invention of blue fire powder, the Howling Wolf Village wanted to end its status as a hidden village by discontinuing shinobi services. Tenma disagreed with this, as he believed death and violence would always exist and as such it was necessary to have shinobi, who were best-suited to understand that. To try and sway the villagers against neutrality, Tenma released the monster, Rōen, from its prison within the Kodon clan's shrine. He expected that he would be able to keep it under his control with his Kotarō and that the village wouldn't be able to muster much opposition.

Although Tenma was indeed able to control Rōen, new innovations in the use of blue fire powder were powerful enough to sever his influence over it. When he could not regain control, he and his wife tried to seal it back into the shrine, but his wife died before the seal could be applied. Unable to perform the seal alone, and with most of the villagers incapacitated in the attack, Tenma's only option to save the village was to seal Rōen into one of his sons. His oldest son, Reishi, wasn't compatible with Rōen, but his infant son, Kina, was. Tenma died in the process of performing the seal, but not before entrusting Kina's care to Reishi.

In the aftermath, only Reishi remembered exactly what happened during the attack; Kina was too young and the other villagers' memories were made hazy from inhaling Tenma's Kotarō. Although everybody understood that Tenma stopped the attack, it was commonly suspected that he initiated the attack as well. The Howling Wolf Village became neutral and the villagers ostracised Reishi and Kina: most did so because their father attacked the village; unemployed shinobi ostracised them because Tenma's attack failed to preserve their livelihoods. Only Kina believed his innocence, and wore Tenma's hawk-shaped Anbu mask in his memory.

Abilities
Tenma was a capable fūinjutsu user, having the skill to seal Rōen inside a shrine, although with the cost of his own life. Like the rest of the Kodon clan, he was also experienced in the use of saigenzai.

Trivia

 * Tenma has several meanings:
 * When written as 伝馬, it means "post horse".
 * When written as 天馬, it means "flying horse".
 * When written as 天魔, it means "demon".
 * When written as 天麻, it means the "Gastrodia elata", an herb used in traditional Chinese medicine