Ninja Monk

The ninja monks (忍僧, Ninsō) are a group of shinobi serving in a ninja temple. As with normal monks, there are several levels a ninja monk can have, such as monk-in-training (修業僧, shugyōsō) and elder monk (老僧侶, rōsōryo).

Location
The Fire Temple (火ノ寺, Hi no Tera) was a large ninja temple or shinobi monastery in the Land of Fire that strongly resembled the Shaolin Monastery except that it only housed ninja monks. It was particularly famous among ninja temples.

The monks were led by former Twelve Guardian Ninja Member Chiriku. The Temple was located in an area surrounded by forests and was said to overflow with nature. In the anime, the temple was surrounded on three sides by mountains and a large field to the south. The graves of four of the Twelve Guardian Ninja lie in each of the cardinal directions with the temple in the centre.

There were many statues and images of Tengu and Yamabushi, including two statues on either side of the front gates. This was significant as in legend Tengu and Yamabushi taught humans the arts of ninjutsu. The monks had access to a special ability known as the Gift of the Hermit Group.

The grounds of the monastery were surrounded by, under normal circumstances, impenetrable Sealed Iron Walls that had only been breached twice. The first was when Sora unleashed the Nine-Tails' chakra after it was first sealed into him as a child. The second was when Akatsuki members Hidan and Kakuzu launched an assault on the temple to collect the head of Chiriku. Chiriku and most of the monks were killed in the latter attack, and the temple itself was destroyed.