Konohagakure

, or Konoha for short, is one of the five great ninja villages. As such, it is one of five villages with a Kage as its leader, known as the Hokage. There have been five Hokage, the most recent being Tsunade. On a mountain overlooking the villages from the north exists the Hokage Monument. The village resides in the Land of Fire. Although Konoha, much like the country in which it resides, has been relatively peaceful since the end of the Third Great Shinobi World War, it remains one of the most powerful villages in existence, and has great military power and influence.

The Birth of Konohagakure and Madara's Revolt
Before Konoha was founded, shinobi were merely individual clans working as mercenaries for various daimyo. Of the countless ninja clans, the Uchiha clan and the Senju clan were the strongest at the time. After much bloodshed, the Senju clan offered a truce with the Uchiha. Despite their leader, Madara Uchiha's, protests, the clan overruled him, and he reluctantly agreed. Thus the Hidden Leaf Village was born. Soon, other countries began to adopt this system, leading to the birth of other villages, and peace was attained. However, when the leader of the Senju clan, Hashirama Senju, was chosen to be the leader of Konoha, Madara decided to challenge him for the sake of his clan. No Uchiha, however, would help him, for they despised him for trying to reignite the flames of war. Betrayed by everyone, Madara left the village so that he could challenge Hashirama by himself.

During their legendary battle at the [alley of the End, Madara was defeated, presumed killed, and was thereafter lost to history. Hashirama's younger brother, who became the Second Hokage, formed the Konoha Police Force, and gave it to the Uchiha clan supposedly as a symbol of trust; Madara claimed it was so that Konoha could easily keep an eye on the Uchiha, and keep them out of Konoha's governing. Many of the Uchiha clan members, who figured out this gesture's ulterior motive, began to rebel like Madara had. However, it was too late; the Senju clan became superior in the entire village, and the Uchiha clan was discriminated against and secluded, just as Madara had predicted. It was this grudge that led to the Uchiha clan's attempted coup d'état decades later, and, eventually, their demise.

Nine-Tailed Demon Fox Attack
he attack of the Nine-Tails coincided with Kushina Uzumaki, the second jinchūriki of the Nine-Tails, giving birth to Naruto on the night of October 10th. With the previous jinchūriki's seal almost breaking during childbirth, the village took multiple precautions; it was carried out in secret, with Biwako Sarutobi, the Third Hokage's wife, as her midwife, a few ANBU as security, and with Minato keeping the Four Symbols Seal holding the Nine-Tails secure, along with one of the most powerful and secret barriers that the village had to protect them.

The location was eventually discovered by Madara Uchiha, who then killed the ANBU and Biwako, and held the newborn Naruto hostage. While holding Naruto at knife point, Madara ordered Minato to walk away from Kushina. Minato tried to negotiate with Madara, as the seal began to weaken. Kushina pleaded with Minato to protect Naruto. It was at this moment that Madara attempted to stab Naruto. Before the knife could hit Naruto, Minato was able to snatch Naruto away from Madara. But to his surprise Naruto's baby clothes were filled with exploding tags, forcing him to use the Flying Thunder God Technique and transport himself and Naruto away from the explosion but also away from Kushina.

With Minato away from Kushina, Madara used a technique to extract the Nine-Tails from Kushina. He hurried the extraction as he noted that the seal holding the Nine-Tails also had carried the Flying Thunder God technique seal, so Minato would not be far behind him in trying to rescue Kushina. As the Nine-Tails emerged from the seal, Madara used his Sharingan to gain control of the Nine-Tails. Before he could set off to destroy Konoha, Kushina, barely alive from having a tailed beast extracted from her body, struggled to speak and begged Madara to stop. Madara directed the Nine-Tails to crush her but was rescued from being crushed by the large paws of the Nine-Tails by the arriving Minato. They soon escaped back to Naruto's secret location where he set Kushina beside Naruto before heading off to protect the village of Konoha.

The Nine-Tails' strength at this point was so great, that even far away from the village, a young Itachi Uchiha, along with several other shinobi, were able to sense its presence. Madara, under the cover of night, sneaked into the village, and with the use of the Summoning Technique, summoned the Nine-Tails into the village without warning. Shinobi and villagers inside of Konoha were frightened as they recognized the Nine-Tails as it caused destruction and casualties instantly. When the Third Hokage felt the familiar power and malevolence of the Nine Tails, he immediately prepared for battle, even as the ANBU arrived to inform him of the Nine-Tails attack. He orders shinobi nearby to prepare to defend the village.

Minato arrived on top of the Hokage Monument, and the Nine-Tails quickly noticed him, and attempted to kill him using a large blast of chakra. Minato, using a Space-Time jutsu, teleported the blast away from the village, causing other shinobi to be aware of his presence. Before Minato could tell the Third of what had happened to Kushina, Madara teleported to his location and attempted to use his own jutsu on Minato, with Minato barely escaping by using the Flying Thunder God Technique to teleport away from the village. Madara followed him, and after analyzing his abilities, Minato asked if he was Madara Uchiha. Giving no definite answer, Madara attacked Minato, both of them using their own Space-Time jutsu to avoid capture. Eventually, using a kunai that he barely threw behind Madara, Minato teleported behind Madara and got a hit using the Rasengan.

Nobody was able to stop the Nine-Tails, only stall it, until Minato arrived to apply the seal on the Nine-Tails; sealing the Yang portion of the Nine-Tails' chakra into Naruto while keeping the Yin portion within the Death God. Kushina's involvement in the sealing process is yet to be seen, as she seemingly had contributed her chakra and soul into the sealing of the Nine-Tails into Naruto.

Hyūga Affair
Nine years prior to the start of the series, Kumogakure and Konohagakure were at war. To end it they agreed to a peace treaty on the day of Hinata Hyūga's third birthday. The treaty was soon revealed to be nothing more then a cover when the Head Ninja of Kumogakure at the time, who was in Konoha to sign the treaty, attempted to kidnap Hinata in order to obtain the Byakugan and its secrets. The Head Ninja was killed in his attempt by Hinata's father, Hiashi Hyūga.

Kumogakure denied all accusations, and demanded the dead body of Hiashi as compensation for the death of their Head Ninja. At the request of Hiashi's twin, Hizashi Hyūga, as well as the Hyūga clan and the Third Hokage, who didn't want to lose the heir to the clan, decided to send Hizashi's body instead. This had another advantage, besides saving the life of the Hyūga heir; Hizashi's Cursed Seal would seal his Byakugan after his death, safeguarding its secrets.

The details surrounding Hizashi's death are quite well-known among the high-ranking ninja of Konohagakure, most of them taking it as a serious infraction of Kumogakure. This was shown when Yamato called out the Fourth Raikage for his relentless pursuit of Sasuke Uchiha, comparing the latter's supposed theft of Killer Bee to their attempted theft of the Byakugan and noting that Konohagakure remained magnanimous while they were vindictive. While they are not allies, Konohagakure and Kumogakure seem to have come to friendly terms. Nowadays, this affair is known as the Hyūga Affair (日向の件, Hyūga no Ken) in Kumogakure.

Uchiha clan Revolt and Massacre
Five years before the start of the series, Fugaku Uchiha, leader of the Uchiha clan, began forming plans for a coup d'etat, after the villagers blamed them for the Demon Fox attack and shunned the clan into the corners of the village. He placed his son, Itachi, in the ANBU as a spy for the clan, to act as a pipeline and feed the clan information about Konoha. However, Itachi, a pacifist due to the violence he had witnessed in the Third Great Shinobi World War as a child, began working as a double agent. Subsequently, he was ordered to eliminate the Uchiha to prevent a bloody conflict after talks between them and the Third Hokage had broken down, and the council became impatient. He did as instructed - it is implied he received help from Madara Uchiha as well - but could not kill his younger brother, Sasuke Uchiha. He convinced Konoha's leadership to keep Sasuke safe, threatening to go public with his information on Konoha if this deal was broken. He then fled the village as a criminal, and joined Akatsuki, mainly to keep an eye on Madara, and prevent an attack on Konoha.

Otogakure and Sunagakure Invasion
Twelve years after the Nine-Tails attack, Konoha held a relatively standard Chūnin Exams until Orochimaru, a former ninja of Konoha, attacked the Third, and initiated Otogakure and Sunagakure's invasion of Konoha, during a match between Sasuke Uchiha and Gaara. Konoha was able to repel most and kill some enemy shinobi, and Orochimaru was warded off at the expense of the Third Hokage's life. The Third Hokage was replaced by Tsunade, one of the legendary Sannin, and granddaughter of the First Hokage.

Pain's Invasion
A few years after the Sand and Sound's failed invasion, Pain of Akatsuki attacked the village in search of Naruto Uzumaki. In the course of his search, most of the village was destroyed. After a talk of peace with Naruto, Nagato sacrificed himself to revive the villagers, in apology for murdering Jiraiya. Tsunade is left comatose after the invasion, so Danzō was selected as the Acting Sixth Hokage.

Because of the attack, Konoha loses much of its economic and military capabilities, falling behind Iwagakure. Konoha's status of being the most powerful village has been passed onto Kumogakure.

Five Kage Summit
After Pain's death, Danzō was summoned by the Fourth Raikage to attend the Kage summit at the Land of Iron, while the rest of the villagers begin rebuilding. Sai has noted that due to this massive loss from Akatsuki, the village will now never accept Sasuke Uchiha to return as a citizen of the village due to him siding with Akatsuki, attacking Kumogakure, abducting Killer Bee, and partially responsible for igniting a new war. Indeed, the village has broke ties with him and have decided to kill him, but Naruto has managed to persuade them that he alone will deal with Sasuke. Sasuke, in turn, has aimed to destroy the entire village due to his hatred, but only after killing Naruto.

Fourth Great Shinobi World War
Upon Tsunade waking up from her coma, she returned to her station as the village head, and held a war council to prepare the village against Akatsuki.

Clans

 * Aburame clan
 * Akimichi clan
 * Hyūga clan
 * Inuzuka clan
 * Kurama clan (Anime only)
 * Nara clan
 * Sarutobi clan
 * Senju clan (clan name seemed to be lost throughout generations)
 * Uchiha clan (Sasuke and Madara are the only Uchihas alive, both defected from the village)
 * Yamanaka clan

Trivia

 * The second fanbook gives Konohagakure a population size of five out of five stars, a military strength of three out of five stars, and an economic strength of two out of five stars. It has the greatest population of all the five main shinobi villages.
 * The hiragana あん (an) is painted on the entrance gates of the village (one hiragana on each door). This means hermitage or retreat. In Kanji, the character is 庵.
 * Masashi Kishimoto stated, "Yes, there is [a model for Konoha]; it's my hometown."
 * Konohagakure has three Akatsuki representatives, the most of any village: Madara Uchiha, Orochimaru, and Itachi Uchiha. Also, Sasuke Uchiha has formed an alliance with Akatsuki through his own team, Taka, and Kabuto Yakushi later allied himself with the organization as well. Also, in the card game, Zetsu is said to be from Konoha.