Group: Seven Ninja swordsmen of the mist

The Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist (霧の忍刀七人衆, Kiri no Shinobigatana Shichinin Shū) is an organisation consisting of only the greatest blade wielding shinobi of their generation that Kirigakure can produce. There can only be seven members at a time — hence the name. The swords of the Seven Swordsmen are passed down from generation to generation.

The members of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen were the people who came from the Bloody Mist's graduation exams with the greatest battle skills. However, the members also had a great lust for power, which led some of them to defect and become missing-nin, one example is Zabuza Momochi. Kisame Hoshigaki became a member after killing Fuguki Suikazan, who was revealed to be a traitor leaking information to the enemies, but Kisame later became the first of the seven to abandon Kiri after committing several unauthorised assassinations, and attempting to overthrow the government, then joining Akatsuki afterwards. Zabuza Momochi would later defect as well after a failed coup d'etat and assassination attempt on the Mizukage. Before leaving however, he encountered a boy named Haku with a unique kekkei genkai and decided to take him along, as well as the Demon Brothers, Gōzu and Meizu. Since then, the total number of the group gradually decreased, as the swords one by one fell out of Kirigakure's possession. Eventually, Kirigakure was left with only one sword, and Chōjūrō became the only member of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist.

According to a ninja from the Allied shinobi forces, the generation closest to the Fourth Shinobi World War was the strongest of the Seven Swordsman in the entire group's history, having been composed of the most powerful seven among the ninja that had ever been a part of this group; they are all dead by the time of the war for various reasons.

The Hōzuki brothers, Mangetsu and Suigetsu, both trained with the intention of joining the Seven Ninja Swordsmen together. Mangetsu did eventually join, and mastered use of all seven of the swords, rather than one. However, he later died, and Suigetsu was captured by Orochimaru. Suigetsu now shows an interest in collecting all seven swords, in order to restore the group to its original power and become its new leader.

In the anime, it hasn't been confirmed when or why Raiga Kurosuki left Kiri, but it was around the same time when he discovered a boy named Ranmaru, who ended up having a similar relationship with Raiga to that of Zabuza and Haku. Ranmaru also had a special dōjutsu which Raiga used for his own purposes, furthering their similarity to Haku and Zabuza.