The long-lived and legendary leader of Amegakure ("The Hidden Rain Village"). The reason the Sannin are recognized as the Sannin is the fact that they were able to fight this guy to a draw. Pain later kills him and takes over Amegakure for his own goals, not that it prevents Kabuto from bringing him back to life with Edo Tensei...

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• Animal Motifs: Salamander
• Asshole Victim: Pain destroyed him and everything ever connected to him. He personally had it coming, though maybe not everyone else connected to him.
• Authority Equals Asskicking
• Badass
  • Badass Cape
  • Badass Grandpa
  • Badass Long Hair
• Black Eyes of Evil: Manga only.
• Blond Guys Are Evil
• Cool Mask
• Crazy Survivalist: Paranoid and frequently takes extreme measures to neutralize anything he sees as a threat. Antagonizes a group of very powerful but non-violent ninja out of paranoia they might try to usurp him. This eventually comes back to bite him when he and everyone he's ever known gets killed in revenge for his Moral Event Horizon.
• The Dreaded: Again, the reason the Sannin are revered throughout the world is because they were able to survive - that is, not win, but survive - a battle with him.
• Fallen Hero: Hanzo used to believe in peace, and wanted to unite the Five Great Ninja Villages, but then he got cynical around the Second Shinobi World War, and became only interested in protecting his nation, and specifically himself, and maintaining his power. Even Nagato used to respect him, but after the Akatsuki hostage situation which killed Yahiko, he returned (in Yahiko's body, no less) dismissing him as a coward, and killed him.
• Lowered Monster Difficulty: Mifune even notes that his attack isn't as sharp as it used to be.
• Master Poisoner
  • Poisonous Person: Implanted the venom sac of a rare and dead black salamander into his body, giving him resistance to poison and making his entire body toxic.
  • Poisoned Weapons: The kama of his kusari-gama is coated with salamander poison.
• Old Soldier
• Playing with Fire: His one jutsu shown (which uses exploding tags), other than his salamander summon, is stated to be a fire release.
• Posthumous Character: At least he was one until Kabuto revived him, anyways.
• Rapunzel Hair
• Redemption Equals Death: Having been revived by Kabuto and then lost to Mifune, who lectured him about his lost faith, he regains his faith in peace and decides to cut open the salamander venom sac implanted in his body so he can be sealed, preventing Kabuto from taking control of him.
• Scars Are Forever: Has one across his right cheek.
• Seppuku: He cuts open his own stomach after his second fight with Mifune. However, the actual reason isn't suicide, but to cut open the salamander venom sac implanted in his body, thus allowing him to be sealed.
• Sinister Scythe/Epic Flail: His weapon of choice is a kusari-gama.
• Sparing The Aces: He used to spare the lives of enemies strong-willed enough to give him a good fight; he did this with both the Sannin and Mifune.
• Super Speed: His speed was said to be unsurpassed over water.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: While he was interested in uniting the Great Ninja Villages, Nagato mentioned that Hanzo's war efforts are part of the reason the Land Of Rain became such a hellhole in the first place. Once Hanzo gave up on peace, his people continued to suffer because of him until Nagato took him down. Hanzo is a case of this trope not being played sympathetically, as we've seen that the good intentions Hanzo had starting out did not make him any less of a bastard later in life.
• The Worf Effect: While he managed to fight the Sannin to a draw and once fought and won against Mifune, he is killed off-panel by Pain, to show how dangerous he is. Then when he is resurrected by Edo Tensei, he is beaten by Mifune to give the series' samurai some credit. However, it's justified when you consider that Pain is a Six Man Army who pretty much worfs everyone, including the entire Hidden Leaf Village. Mifune also implies that Hanzo's been somewhat out of practice since his prime.
• Worthy Opponent: To Mifune.

The general in charge of the Land of Iron, which is a neutral country with its own culture. It is unique among the countries, in that it is protected by samurai instead of hired ninja. He is a veteran soldier and a master swordsman, with a skillset that focuses on the use of Iai; the art of quickly drawing a sword for a slash before sheathing the sword again. He is so skilled with this technique that he is capable of interrupting ninja hand seals before they can be completed. As befitting a samurai, he is a poetic and philosophical man, and is not shy about sharing his ideals during fights with a Worthy Opponent.

He acts as host and mediator during the Kage Summit that the Raikage calls forth in response to the threat of Akatsuki. During this summit, he puts forth the idea of forming an alliance between the Great Ninja Villages in response to the Akatsuki threat. He suggests Danzo be appointed leader of the alliance, as his village has the last remaining tailed-beast host, but when Ao accuses Danzo of using a Mind Control technique (which he admits to) he is outraged. When Sasuke invades the meeting room, he's the first to try to attack Sasuke, though Sasuke blocks it and runs after Danzo. After hearing of Madara's plan, he agrees to have his nation join the alliance against him. In the war against Madara, he is the commander of Division 5 AKA the Special OPS Division.

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• Acquired Poison Immunity: From surviving Hanzo's lethal salamander poison through a given antidote. It's put to great use when Hanzo is later Back from the Dead.
• Authority Equals Asskicking
• Badass
  • Badass Beard/Badass Mustache: A fu manchu/goatee combination more specifically.
  • Badass Grandpa
  • Badass Long Hair
  • Badass Long Robe
  • Four Star Badass: General of the samurai and a more than capable fighter himself.
• Cool Old Guy
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Hanzo may have taken on all three Sannin by himself, but he can't even touch Mifune in their battle. Granted, Hanzo was much, much stronger and the Sannin much weaker back then, but it still shows how good Mifune is.
  • There's also the very important factor of Hanzo having lost the drive he had in life.
• Helmets Are Hardly Heroic: Mifune goes helmetless for the Fourth Shinobi World War while still wearing armor.
• Iaijutsu Practitioner: A master of the technique and fast enough with it to intercept a ninja about to perform hand-seals.
• I Was Quite a Looker
• Katanas Are Just Better
• Mage Killer: Sort of, in that he doesn't have ninjutsu or genjutsu, but just plain uses his mastery of Iai to stop enemy ninja from performing jutsu.
• Master Swordsman: Specifically known as a master of Iai, he's shown to be one of the best swordsmen in the series.
  • Implausible Fencing Powers
• Named After Somebody Famous: His name comes the actor Toshiro Mifune, who is famous for his numerous roles as samurai and ronin. As well as that, his sword Meitou Kurosawa is named after the director Toshiro Mifune frequently worked with, Akira Kurosawa.
• Named Weapons: His katana is named Meitou Kurosawa.
• Name's the Same: Shares a name with another samurai with Implausible Fencing Powers
• Old Master
• Old Soldier
• Rapunzel Hair
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Mifune is a calm and wise leader with a neutral viewpoint upon the conflicts of the ninja villages. During the Kage Summit, in which he is host, he suggests the Kages form an alliance against Akatsuki. He also decides to join this alliance with his samurai after hearing of Tobi's plans.
• Samurai
• Single Stroke Battle: Mifune and Hanzo engages each other in one twice. Once in the distant past, where Hanzo won, and now in the current time, where Mifune wins.
• Spellblade: He and the other samurai are capable of channeling chakra through their swords into various shapes.
  • Laser Blade: Not completely straight, but the chakra surrounding their blades have essentially the same qualities as one.
  • Sword Beam: The chakra can be used against foes for a devastating ranged attack.
• The Stoic
• Talking Is a Free Action: Engages in a little philosophical debate in his first fight, which does not appear to impede him much.
• Warrior Poet: Quite appropriate seeing as he is a samurai, also has shades of The Philosopher; when we finally see him in battle, Mifune explains his philosophy on the nature of violence, peace, and heroism as he fights. The time spent making these points didn't seem to give his opponent much of an edge.
• Worthy Opponent: To Hanzo.

Okisuke (オキスケ, Okisuke) is a samurai from the Land of Iron and one of Mifune's right-hand-men and bodyguards alongside Urakaku.

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• Badass Long Robe
• Bald of Awesome: Along with scars and a dragon tattoo.
• Bodyguarding A Badass: The bodyguard for Mifune.
• Cool Helmet: Shown to wear a horned samurai helmet in the anime.
• Dual Wielding
• Genre Savvy: Okisuke is well aware of how easy it would be to disguise yourself as a samurai in full armor, so when he encounters Jugo and Suigetsu disguised as samurai he immediately orders them to take off their helmets before apprehending them. In the anime he also makes good use of a password to trick a Zetsu trying the same into revealing himself.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: Has a cross shaped scar on his head.
• Katanas Are Just Better: Two of them.
• Number Two: Mifune's right-hand-man.
• Samurai
• Satellite Character: His character revolves almost completely around serving Mifune.
• Scarf of Asskicking: A dark red one which almost completely obscures his mouth and neck.
• Spellblade: He and the other samurai are capable of channeling chakra through their swords into various shapes.
  • Laser Blade: Not completely straight, but the chakra surrounding their blades have essentially the same qualities as one.
  • Sword Beam: The chakra can be used against foes for a devastating ranged attack.
• The Stoic: Shows little to no emotion in all of his apperances.

The creator of ninjutsu and founder of the ninja way. Defeated the Ten-Tailed Beast and sealed it with himself, becoming the first jinchuuriki. Split it into nine pieces on his deathbed, which became the tailed beasts. His two sons were the ancestors of the Senju and Uchiha clans.

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• Anime Hair
• Big Good
• Exotic Eye Designs: Rinnegan
• Feuding Families: Started the feud between the Uchiha and the Senju when he chose the Senju Clan's ancestor as his successor over the elder brother, the Uchiha Clan ancestor.
• Folk Hero
• Heroic Lineage: Started one. His descendants are the Uchiha and Senju/Uzumaki Clans.
• Horned Humanoid: Played with. His horns are actually his hair.
• The Messiah
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Ultimately the one responsible for all of the crap in the present day, and therefore:
• Neglectful Precursor
• Parental Substitute: To the young Bijuu.
• Physical God: The most powerful character in the whole manga.
• Posthumous Character: Virtually everything we know about him is stated by other characters, most prominently Jiraiya, Pain, Tobi, Madara. Kurama also has a short flashback about him right before his death.
• Reality Maker: His power of "Creation of All Things" inspired Izanagi. Heck, he invented Ninjutsu.
• Superpowerful Genetics: So super-powerful, in fact, that pretty much all the bad guys' master plan to become unstoppable is to attain his genetic components (the only one to attain all, the real Madara Uchiha, is easily the strongest ninja the world has ever known. After this guy).
• World's Strongest Man: Many characters regard him as the strongest being to ever live.

The guy who wrote the Naruto manga (but only in Real Life). In chapter three of the manga, a billboard with him on it is shown in Konoha.

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• Creator Cameo: His face appears on a billboard.
• Famed in Story: Judging from the billboard, he's quite famous.
• The Ghost: He never actually appears. All we see of him is the billboard.