Naruto Headbands

Throughout the series of Naruto there is many shinobi villages and countries. Each shinobi village uses headbands to represent and show that they are apart of that village.  The headbands are only warn by the Ninjas of each shinobi village. Once you graduate from the Ninja Academy your instructor usually gives you a headband to show for all your hard work. If a Shinobi / Ninja happens leave the village or abandon it sometimes they will put a line through their icon on the top of the headband to show that they no longer hold any connection to the villages and that they have discarded their past lives. The line through the symbol on their headband also could mean they are apart of Akatsuki.