Prajñā Group

The Prajñā Group forms a regiment within the Anbu of the Land of Woods. Its name carries heavy symbolism: prajñā is a Buddhist term usually rendered as wisdom, the insight said to dispel affliction and lead toward enlightenment. The word also connects to the hannya, a mask from noh theatre depicting a jealous female demon, which explains the fearsome masks every member of the regiment wears. In some versions of the localisation the unit is called the Hannya Black Ops.

In the anime, roughly six years after the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox's attack, Konoha pursues a possible alliance with the Land of Woods, and both sides agree to exchange special scrolls as a token of good faith. The Prajñā Group is assigned to the handoff, but instead of honouring the deal, they turn on the Konoha ninja and try to kill them once they have the enemy's scroll. A Konoha Anbu team dispatched by Danzō Shimura of Root intervenes and nearly wipes the regiment out. Nine years afterward, as Danzō travels toward the Kage Summit, the group's survivors resurface hoping to take revenge on him. Despite his advanced age, Danzō cuts down every last one of them, erasing the Prajñā Group for good. In the manga they wield unusually long, ringless kunai, while the anime instead shows them dropping massive slabs of rock on their foes with Earth Release.

The regiment operates largely as a masked collective rather than a cast of named individuals. In the anime its leader is revealed to be a woman who summons her comrades with a chilling, demonic laugh, reinforcing the group's hannya theme. One of its members also appears as a boss in Naruto Shippūden: Ultimate Ninja Blazing.