Kitane

was once a member of the Twelve Guardian Ninja. 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. Ten years before the start of the series, 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 other lightning users tried to use Limelight on Kazuma.

Personality
Kitane never made a move unless it was a carefully thought out one. He would calculate every possible outcome of things during battle.

Appearance
Kitane had brown hair and black-coloured eyes. He wore a black vest jacket un-zipped over a blue long sleeve shirt. He also wore the Twelve Guardian waist cloth around his waist. He was usually seen walking around with his staff.

Abilities
As a former member of the Twelve Guardian Ninja, Kitane was one of the strongest ninja in the land of Fire during his time. His abilities were recognised enough that his corpse was hidden with great care in fear of it being used unjustly. Likeiwse, he was later resurrected to be used for Kazuma's plans of destroying Konohagakure.

Bukijutsu
Like Asuma, his battle style revolved around combining superb taijutsu skill with his elemental affinity through a unique weapon. He was skilled in bōjutsu, using a three-parted metal staff that could conduct his lightning based attacks. He was skilled enough to fight on par with Asuma, another skilled practitioner of bukijutsu, and achieving victory in the end, although Kitane did believe that Asuma's skills had diminished somewhat.

Nature Transformation
He along with Nauma, Tōu, and Seito were known as the greatest lightning-chakra masters of their time. 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 Lightning Release: Thunder Binding to form a barrier around a target. When in one of the four cardinal directions, he along with Nauma, Tōu, and Seito could use a technique called Limelight to destroy everything within that area to ash.

Twelve Guardian Ninja
His, Nauma's, Tōu's, and Seito's corpses are stolen by grave robbers, and later revived using lightning. After being revived, they were all approached by Asuma, who had figured out the scheme of the robbers. There, he tries without luck to stop the three who seem to have become mindless puppets, while Kitane, the only one of them who still seems to think clearly, attacks Asuma, saying that he cannot go against his summoner's orders. Kitane uses his separated staff and Lightning Release: Thunder Binding to trap Asuma inside of a barrier so he can carry out his summoner's orders.

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

Kitane