Clans (A Land Divided)

A, in the loosest sense of the term, refers to a family or group of shinobi who form a basic unit of a shinobi village. Majority of these clans were known to have started out as mercenary military forces even before the First Shinobi World War. The Senju clan and Uchiha clan were the first known clans to have agreed to settle and form a shinobi village, facilitated by creating agreements with the daimyō of the land they inhabit. Many clans would follow the example of the Senju and the Uchiha, later establishing the Five Great Shinobi Countries as they are known today.

Membership in a clan is usually determined by blood relations and genetics, which is vital in the usage of kekkei genkai and secret techniques. These attributes and abilities made many clans feared and renowned throughout many villages. While clans may be composed of many individuals and extended families (such as the Kaguya and the Hyūga), many clans mentioned and seen in the series were somewhat limited to a nuclear family.

Aburame Clan
The is one of the four noble clans of Konohagakure. They are characterised by their use of insects as weapons. The insects live in symbiosis within the body of the shinobi. At birth, members of this clan are offered to a special breed of insects called kikaichū as a nest, residing just under their host's skin.

Akimichi Clan
The is one of the four noble clans of Konoha. It has had fifteen family heads, with Chōza Akimichi being the fifteenth and his son Chōji slated to become the sixteenth in the future.

Members of the clan possess great physical strength and are able to quickly convert calories into chakra, which they then use in their various secret techniques. Most of these techniques rapidly consume the user's chakra during use, and maintaining them during a prolonged battle can be tiring. For this reason the Akimichi have high chakra levels and eat a lot in order to build up or replenish their chakra reserves.

Hakkō Clan
Main article: Hakkō Clan The is a reclusive clan located within the background of Iwagakure in the Land of Earth. The majority of the members in this clan are born with the ability to mold Fire and Lightning chakra, though a rare few within its numbers are born with access to a third chakra nature, that of wind, and the ability to meld these three natures to create the Plasma Release Kekkei Tōta.

Hyūga Clan
Main article: Hyūga Clan The is one of the four noble clans of Konohagakure. All members born into this family possess the Byakugan, a Kekkei Genkai that gives them extended fields of vision and the ability to see through solid objects and even the chakra circulatory system, amongst other things.

Jisei Clan
A small clan, the Jisei are as much at home on the battlefield as they are in the hospital. Their unique kekkei genkai, the Body-Chemical Mastery, allows them a sort of flexibility unseen in many other ninja.

Kazemaru Clan
A clan originating from the land of Iron, they were a Samurai clan with highly developed sword techniques, and especially noted for their ability with elemental sword techniques. Eventually though, the Samurai fell from power and rather than remain master less and segregated within the Land of Iron, the Kazemaru clan set out and eventually sought refuge within the Konohagakure. They became renowned for their prowess with swords and interesting incorporation of techniques involving Kenjutsu (The Art of the Sword) along with Taijutsu and Ninjutsu.

The Shinobi sect of the clan itself is still considerably small as it produces many heirs and sons, however many tend to branch off along their learning and following of Bushido and become monks rather than siring sons of their own. Many also tend to die in combat; living life by the blade and seeking greater knowledge and enlightenment through the mastery of the sword and combat tends to have many risks. Despite this, like many Samurai the Kazemaru clan members still study Buddhism and Zen and often take it upon themselves to impose their way of life onto these philosophies and continue from there.

Kurama Clan
The is a clan of extremely skilled genjutsu users. This talent in genjutsu is due to the unnamed kekkei genkai that the clan possesses. However, once every few generations, a member of the clan will be born with such enormous skill in genjutsu that their illusions can actually produce tangible effects that occur in reality. The genjutsu is so powerful that it causes the brain to make anything that happens to the victim within the genjutsu physically real, allowing the clan member to potentially kill their opponents with genjutsu.

Matsuda Clan
The Matsuda clan were once a large branch from Amekagure's normal branch. Kivasu 'Target' Matsuda, who founded the clan during the second Shinobi war, was plagued with schizophrenia, which often impeded missions during that period. He, like others in his clan, were not skilled with ninjutsu or genjutsu, but their skills in calligraphy and mild team based taijutsu have compensated for their many faults in the jutsu field. But aside from that; what truly gives them credit is what they've done. Kivasu created a contract that each member must sign before departure to the academy. This contract is the embodiment of their clan and prowess. It allows their personalities to co-exist and manifest themselves in physical form. Known for immense chakra pools and magnificent chakra control, Matsuda clansmen/women can due this at a young age. Though most find it hard to comprehend, they place their sub-conscious personalities into these chakra clones. Due to the contract, for being gifted these new bodies they are bound by a truce with the Matsuda clan to aid their 'handler' in combat. Through the contract and the handlers chakra, they are gifted with souls and physical bodies made entirely of chakra. And with this, lies the power of the Matsuda clan. In addition, they have been known to create scrolls of various types. On occasion, they are associated with the Steel Release. Though it isn't entirely certain, their calligraphy and chakra control combined have been known to manifest weapons from nothing. With the conversion of micro irons in the ground, proper symbols to support a substitution for hand seals, and a gift of chakra control Matsuda's have managed this task.

Nara Clan
The or  is known for their manipulation of shadows and tending of deer, which graze in a large area of Nara clan forest. The current head of the clan is Akuhana and Shikai Nara's father.

Reigen Clan
The Reigen clan is well known for making some of the most professional and emotionless soldiers the Leaf Village has ever seen. Unlike other clans, they focus as little as possible on freedom, individualism, and mercy, and opt to instead teach their children that emotion is a weakness.

Sanada Clan
Main article: Sanada Clan The is a clan in the Land of Iron known for its skill in the art of craftmanship and for its numerous Kenjutsu styles, including the infamous Blood Typhoon. Once numbering in the hundreds of members, it has currently entered into a stage of decline with very few members being born to suceed each generation. Although the clan's presence is still large due to its connections to other clans such as the Tsubaki clan.

Sarutobi Clan
The is an influential clan from Konohagakure. It has produced several notable members who have held positions of high authority, such as Hokage, or membership in the Twelve Guardian Ninja. All known members have been observed devotees of the Will of Fire.

Shikaku Clan
A small clan in Amegakure known for producing nin of very little talent. However once every several hundred years one emerges from their clan with their rare and powerful Kekki Genkai, the Tears of Blood.

Tachinai Clan
Main article: Tachinai Clan The was a clan of shinobi that resided within Sunagakure of the Land of Wind. While it was once considered a powerful clan, its numbers declined after the Third Shinobi World War until only a very small number of clan members remained. The secrets of the clan vanished alongside their deceased and the clan was officialy considered dead after Kenshi Tachinai passed away, and, Kaasage Tachinai betrayed Sunagakure becoming a Missing-nin.

The Kōkan
The Kōkan, literally and rather bluntly meaning "Replacement", are a Sunagakure clan of fairly typical ninja. They are very connected with the common people and as such are also quite hospitable. It is common to see them taking the homeless off the street or assisting anyone that they see are in need. There are some... peculiarities to the family, though.

The biggest point would have to be that children of the family are put together in the Kōkan-handled and run orphanage along with the true orphans gathered from Suna. There, they are taught that all people are family, which leads to the values of the Kōkan clan themselves. As a result, there is no nuclear family to most of this clan and its blood is, by the more prestigious clan view, muddied and diverse. There is, however, a higher tier to the Kōkan that preserves the name itself. While not seeing themselves as 'royalty', they do control the functions established and preserve a more 'pure-blood' lineage, even if the members of the higher tier themselves mingle daily with the commoners and lower tier.

Among the pure-bloods, the signature practices of the Kōkan come about. As their name may imply, their jutsu specialty is replacement, but none of what they practice are technically blood-limited, instead classified as Hiden, methods kept secret. These methods have allowed the most talented of the Kōkan to perfect the clone jutsu, much like the coveted 'shadow clone' of Konoha, among other specialties like disguises, and even doppelgangers. A smaller sect of puppeteers within the clan often work for years to make a perfect copy of themselves, almost real if not lifeless. Incredibly few have reached any of the array of perfections listed.

Uchiha Clan
The was one of the four noble clans of Konohagakure, but is now almost extinct after the events of the Uchiha Clan Massacre.

Yuki Clan
The lived in the Land of Water. Some time ago, the country was in the midst of a civil war. In this war, different sides battled each other using ninja, some of whom possessed Kekkei Genkai. After the war ended, memories of the horrific battles still lingered in the minds of the people, causing wide-spread persecutions against those with kekkei genkai. Because of this, the Yuki clan, whose members carried the Ice Release kekkei genkai, went into hiding.