Moya Triad

Known also as the Moya Brothers, this threesome insists on calling itself a band of ninja despite lacking any real fighting ability. The oldest sibling, Aniki, sits at the head of the group. Each member wears a forehead protector marked with a stylised haze cloud that looks almost like a question mark, and the brothers are fond of boasting about their supposed wealth. Their translated name renders roughly as the Haze Triad, and their followers are sometimes called Moya ninja.

The feud begins when Aniki resents Kakashi Hatake for stepping in to protect a girl the brother had been stalking. Kakashi handles all three with ease and leaves them strung up in a tree while the girl walks off with him. Years later, during a Team Kakashi mission, the brothers try to settle the score with a hiccup drug slipped into food and darts meant to make their target laugh himself to death. Both plots fail spectacularly. Kakashi's own students, hoping to glimpse their teacher's hidden face, accidentally draw the trio out, and the brothers mistake the pupils for fellow enemies. When they finally reveal themselves with a poison meant to make Kakashi weep forever, he calmly explains that he noticed them shadowing him long ago and had simply been waiting. The rest of the team covers for their unmasking attempt by claiming they had disguised themselves as Moya ninja on purpose. Kakashi then thrashes the begging trio, ties them up in a barn again, and admits he never even recognised them. In a later anime appearance during the blank period, the brothers turn up in disguise at Tomiya Inn, greeting Shikamaru and Temari alongside Okami.

Aniki is the eldest of the three and acts as the group's leader, steering its various schemes. His two younger brothers round out the trio and follow his lead in each failed plot. The Triad also turns up as opponents in Naruto: Path of the Ninja 2, where defeating them yields more experience than any other foe in the game.