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One of the most distinguishing features of Naruto has always been the headbands. Each village has their own, allowing them to identify each other easily. That probably isn’t the best idea for a group specializing in stealth and reconnaissance, but it makes the Naruto ninja memorable. If you’ve ever wondered what all the different symbols on the Naruto headbands mean, here is our breakdown for you.

Every ninja headband in Naruto and Naruto Shippuden

While the headbands in Naruto are meant to be a form of forehead protection, their real purpose is to tell the viewer a little bit about the character wearing them. Specifically, they tell us where they are from and their standing in their home village.

What does a slash through a Naruto headband mean?

Sometimes a ninja takes a different path than their village. In extreme cases, they can be expelled from their home. When that happens, their headband is given a slash across it. You see this often in the series, particularly with members of the Akatsuki who are almost universally exiled in this way. It doesn’t always make the ninja wearing that headband a villain and sometimes the slash is just for show, as in the cast of Itachi Uchiha, but for the most part, it is a way that the manga and anime shows that someone is a bad guy.

The Village Hidden in the Leaves headband

This is the headband we see most often in Naruto as the main characters and most of their allies hail from the Hidden Leaf Village. Most of the time when people refer to a Naruto headband, this is the one they’re talking about.

The Village Hidden in the Sound Headband

Some of the most interesting antagonists in Naruto, including the Sound Four, who participated in the assault on Konohagakure during the Chunin Exam. Their headband is a simple musical note, which is a bit on the nose for the Sound Village but it is certainly recognizable.

The Village Hidden in the Sand Headband

Aside from the Hidden Leaf Village, the Village Hidden in the Sand is one of the most prominent groups in Naruto and Naruto Shippuden. Gaara, Temari, and Kankuro are all introduced during the Chunin Exam as antagonists but soon shift to staunch allies to Naruto and his friends.

The Village Hidden in the Clouds Headband

The Village Hidden in the Clouds is home to one of the coolest characters in Naruto, Killer B. The jinchuriki of the Eight-Tailed Beast is introduced as a mentor figure to Naruto, helping him master the creature within him but he quickly steals every scene he is in. The headband he wears shows three small clouds, which makes it easy to figure out where he is from.

The Village Hidden in the Stone Headband

While most of the headband designs in Naruto are somewhat abstract, it is pretty easy to see what the Hidden Stone Village is going for here. Those are two boulders overlapping each other. We don’t get to see much of this village in the manga or the anime, but they do take part in the climactic fight against Madara Uchiha at the end of Naruto Shippuden.

The Village Hidden in the Mist Headband

One of the first true threats that Naruto encounters is the deadly Zabuza, who hails from the Village Hidden in the Mist. As the most powerful ninja his village has ever produced, he is capable of going toe-to-toe with Kakashi and even briefly gains the upper hand against the legendary Copy Ninja. This headband is simple – just four lines to represent the mist – but Zabuza makes it memorable.

The Village Hidden by a Waterfall Headband

We don’t get to see many ninja from the Hidden Waterfall Village in Naruto. In fact, the main one we see is Kakuzu of the Akatsuki, who wears this headband with a line through it to mark his break from his home village. Otherwise, we only really see Fu, the jinchuriki of the Seven-Tails Beast toward the end of Naruto Shippuden.

The Village Hidden in the Grass Headband

This is another headband that is seldom seen in the Naruto anime or manga. It is just a set of jagged lines to symbolize grass. There aren’t any notable ninja that we see wearing it other than Orochimaru – and that was only as part of a disguise to sneak back into the Hidden Leaf Village.

The Village Hidden in the Rain Headband

The Village Hidden in the Rain itself doesn’t play a huge role in Naruto, but the ninja from there do. Specifically one; Nagato aka Pain. During the battle against the Seven Paths of Pain, we see the headband from the Hidden Rain Village quite often. It is a simple design of just a few straight downward lines, but it makes you think of rain so it gets the job done.

The Village Hidden in the Hot Water Headband

The headband of the Village Hidden in the Hot Water is very similar to that of the Village Hidden in the Rain – it consists of three vertical lines rather than four. We only see a few ninja wearing it – the most prominent of them was Hidan, the Akatsuki member who killed Asuma early on in Naruto Shippuden.

The Village Hidden in the Snow Headband

This one only shows up in the first Naruto movie, Ninja Clash in the Land of Snow, so we don’t get to find out much about the Village Hidden in the Snow. However, we do see their headband design before the credits roll. It is the most basic one in the mix – it is just three small dots that represent the snow their village is named for.

The Allied Shinobi Headband

When the Allied Shinobi Forces came together at the end of Naruto Shippuden to fight against Madara Uchiha, they needed a way to show that they were all members of the same team. That meant creating a new headband. Keeping things simple, the character on this headband is just the kanji for “shinobi” in Japanese.

"In the ninja world, those who don't follow rules are trash." as Obita Uchiha once said. And while we can't say these are rules, they are the king things you'll want to read next about Naruto: 

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