Enlightened Ones

Also rendered as the Revolutionaries, the Enlightened Ones drew together former shinobi who had walked away from their hidden villages to follow Gengo in the wake of the Fourth Shinobi World War. Their ranks leaned heavily toward young unmarried men, though women were welcomed as well. Much like the Akatsuki before them, they rejected the established order and wanted the shinobi class to rule the world in place of the ordinary daimyō who held authority.

To pull work away from the rival Shinobi Union, the group undercut it by taking on missions for far lower fees. Their ambitions ran deeper than economics, however. On Gengo's orders they slipped agents into all Five Great Shinobi Countries, seeking to stir unrest among the populations and shake the Union apart from within.

Members were recognisable by their long black cloaks and their fierce devotion to Gengo, a loyalty many owed to his voice-driven genjutsu, which reduced them to compliant followers. They ran their operations out of the Land of Silence, where Gengo had installed himself after removing the region's former daimyō. The faction came apart once a joint force of Konohagakure and Sunagakure shinobi under Shikamaru Nara captured Gengo and released his brainwashed recruits from his hold.