Hephaestus is the leader and most powerful shinobi in his own village, the Village of Metal. The village is at home under the lava of an active volcano, in the country of fire. It is a small village where the residents live in houses made of ruby red rock, and at the back of the village is a cobalt blue three-story house.
The story behind the village goes way back to when Hephaestus and his wife, then girlfriend, were attending the ninja academy. As Hephaestus became more interested in metal then the lectures being taught in school he started to skip classes, against his girlfriend's wishes, and started to develop new techniques involving the manipulation of metal and making metal by compacting his chakra. After he became proficient in his new skills he and his girlfriend started talking about starting their own village, and getting married. When she said that she would marry him but couldn't make up her mind if she wanted to leave the village or not he told her that he was going to go look for possible location for what he was now calling the village. For weeks Hephaestus was gone and his fiancé started to worry about him, because if The 4th found out he would surely send a team of Anbu after him, but what she didn't know is that Hephaestus had gone to speak with The 4th about leaving, when The 4th gave him permission it was on two conditions, and that condition was that he never reveal any of The Leafs secrets, and that he would be allies with The Leaf. Hephaestus agreed to both conditions and was allowed to leave and search with a team of Anbu to escort him now that he was an E.I.P. When he and the team of Anbu happened upon an active volcano Hephaestus stopped and said "This is the place where my village will be."
Upon coming back to The Leaf, Hephaestus soon told his fiancé all that he had seen then she finally agreed to go with him, but only if they were married by The 4th to which Hephaestus quickly gave into. A few years later Hephaestus and Sapphire got settled into their new volcanic home. Soon people started showing up at the foot hills of the volcano and asked if they could live in the village and Hephaestus graciously allowed them to try but while most failed some were able to make it and they are now living happily in the city.
Most people (even the villagers) will never see the real Hephaestus because he hardly ever leaves his meditation chamber. What people see instead is a perfect clone of him from the way his clothes ripple in the wind to the way a tear runs down his cheek, but every thing on that clone is pure metal. The way he gets the metal to look different colors is by using different blends of metal like using slightly rusted iron and cobalt to make purple clothing.