Kahiko

Age shows in his white, neck-length hair and the matching moustache and long beard that frame a swollen, reddened nose. His dress runs to a brown tunic with red sleeves over a dark undershirt, topped by a blue fez from which a single pink feather juts.

Duty and compassion define him. He frets openly when Nerugui, a ferret dear to his caravan, goes missing, and he has given his whole life to keeping the Gelel vein away from those who would abuse it. When persuasion fails to sway Temujin, he steels himself to die destroying the source outright, yet he still worries for the young man's fate once Temujin chooses to make that sacrifice instead.

The disappearance of his ferret Nerugui prompts Kahiko to hire Leaf ninja for help, and after Fugai seizes him for questioning, Shikamaru pulls him free. Once Temujin is captured, Kahiko recounts the grim history of the Stone of Gelel and reveals that the young knight carries the royal blood able to command and seal the vein. Temujin promptly breaks loose, takes a hostage, and marches the elder toward the source.

When Haido and his knights arrive, Kahiko insists the vein is better destroyed than used, rides the stone lift down to the Sealing Room, and even wounds Temujin to draw the blood needed to trigger a Space-Time Hole that would erase the vein along with them both, only for Haido to disarm him in time. Exposing Haido as the man who raided Temujin's village, Kahiko turns the knight against his master. After Naruto and Temujin defeat Haido, a shattered control key sends the vein spiraling toward a blast that could level half the continent, and Temujin gives his own life to seal it, entrusting Naruto's rescue to Kahiko. The elder is there to welcome them both once Naruto brings Temujin back from the void.