Sōkōgakure

Sōkōgakure (meaning Village Hidden in Armor) is a ninja village located within the Land of Ore. Soko Was originally a breakaway faction from Iwagakure. This in addition to their highly mercenary nature and willingness to use dishonorable tactic to complete their missions has resulted in Soko having a bad reputation amongst other ninja villages and countries. However they have a good reputation amongst their clients, which have many Guilds, wealthy businesses and criminal groups among them.

The village has a reputation for doing shrewd business, and for looking out for the interests on their clients, their fiscal interests in particular. The village has a highly mercenary outlook even for ninja with a general "the client doesn't matter, the job doesn't matter, just so long as the pay is right" mentality. As a result they will do any job they are given without reservation, and will take any client, even other ninja villages, so long as they deem the price to match the deed. They do have one scruple however. They do not take jobs that bring harm, physical or otherwise, to long term clients. This strict "never bite the hand that feeds" policy is their only rule when it comes to taking missions.

The village is not particularly well known for their skill in Ninjutsu. They possess jutsu by all means, but their are virtually no Hiden kept by the village, and even their Jonin usually only have a few high level jutsu at their disposal. However their ties with the various smithing and crafting guilds of their home county combined with their skill at accruing funds means that ninja from Soko are usually equipped with high quality and/or unique ninja gear, and they make ample use of this in their missions.