Anime fandom has often been treated to the expansive world of Naruto, especially when it comes to the Five Great Shinobi Nations. These great Shinobi villages have been the home to some notable heroes who utilized a diverse arsenal in the series. But within these nations, there were some hidden gems that didn’t receive as much attention as the great large villages.
Outside of the spheres of powerful ninja villages such as the renowned Hidden Leaf, Sand, Stone, Mist, and Cloud Villages, there are other small ninja villages that contribute greatly to the rich tapestry of one of the most popular shonen. So ranking these hidden gems based on their influence, here are some of the lesser-known ninja villages of Naruto.
Hidden Village of the Land of Hot Water (Yugakure)
The hidden steam village decided to cease its Shinobi services and rebrand the village itself as a tourist hub due to the abundance of natural hot springs. After a certain period, the Hidden Steam didn’t even produce Shinobi anymore and even when they did, they were considered to be one of the weaker, more irrelevant nations.
The only Shinobi that we know from that village is Hidan. Even though Hidan is not weak, he still pales in comparison to Shinobi from the other villages, and even then he was like, the strongest to hail from the Hidden Steam village. So the average Hidden Steam ninja was not at the same level as Hidan.
Minor Shinobi Village located in the Land of Grass (Kusagakure)
The Hidden Grass village is pretty obscure and has always been considered one of the lesser-known villages in Naruto. It’s also has been one of the weaker nations. Let’s not forget that the Hidden Grass was invaded during the third ninja war by the Hidden Stone, and they were completely helpless to fight off the greater nation.
We also get to see a few more glimpses of the village in the anime, when we see Karin’s backstory as she apparently grew up there. It was pretty awful there as Shinobis in the village seemed to sustain so many injuries and casualties whenever they engaged an enemy.
The only ninjas we know from there were those Chūnin Exams participants whose faces were stolen by Orochimaru. In the Blood Prison movie, the grass apparently possessed some ancient super weapon that propelled the old hidden grass to be seen as a powerful force. But even after considering this, it was an ancient, forgotten weapon.
Village hidden in the Waterfalls (Takigakure)
The Waterfall Village is objectively better or more prestigious than the two aforementioned ones. Let’s not forget that it’s the only one, not from the five great nations that still possess a tailed beast, the Seven-Tails. if you look at the anime, the reason given for their possession of Chōmei is the village’s reputation for producing highly skilled Chōmei.
Unlike the hidden grass, the hidden village in the waterfalls is more capable of fending off invasions. The village itself was home to a multitude of powerful natural resources and techniques, like the Hero Water that was produced once every hundred years that apparently gives whoever drinks it ten times their original Chakra level.
Speaking of ninjas hailing from the village, Kakuzu was a rogue ninja who became a member of the Akatsuki.
The Hidden Sound Village (Otogakure)
Now the Hidden Sound village is very different from all the other villages in the sense that it wasn’t really a hidden village, but kind of a place for Orochimaru’s human experimentation and scientific development empire. So if you couldn’t even hire Shinobi for emissions from the sound, why bother including it?
Well, apparently, after Orochimaru’s help and redemption in the fourth war, the Hidden Sound village was re-established as a legitimate Shinobi Village, despite the fact that it was a small nation.
The Hidden Sound excelled in Jutsu development, not only because it was led by the scientific, mad genius, but also because Orochimaru personally sought out skilled Shinobi, or Ninja with unique abilities to work under him, and due to all of his experiments, Orochimaru developed the curse mark, which he would gift to his more talented followers. The curse mark would solidify Orochimaru’s control over them.
Village Hidden by Rain (Amegakure)
Despite the fact it was always getting invaded by foreign lands, the Hidden Rain Village made a major impact in the series. The reason behind the frequent invasions was the village’s unfortunate location. It was literally right in between three of the five great nations, so it was almost inevitable for it to become war-torn.
The Hidden Rain still performed a lot better than the Grass Village and didn’t just roll over and submit to the great nations. For example, Hanzō was able to face an entire platoon of leaf ninjas and kill them all and then he spared the Sannin. He’s actually the one that gave them the title.
They were legends, just because they survived an encounter with Hanzō. And even after the revolution in the Civil War, in the hidden rain, the next in line was even more powerful than Hanzō. The village always isolated itself from the outside world, which made its defenses impenetrable during the more recent eras.
Comparing them to the major powerful ones, these villages didn’t receive much attention and screen time. However, the lesser-known villages still have managed to add a significant level of depth and intrigue owing to their unique paths and philosophies.
This post belongs to FandomWire and first appeared on FandomWire
