Akatsuki

**Akatsuki** (暁, *literally meaning:* "Dawn" or "Daybreak") are a group of shinobi that existed outside the usual system of hidden villages. Over the course of several decades, Akatsuki took different forms and was led by different individuals. Though each iteration is viewed as either subversives or criminals, all seek to make the world a better place through their own means. Each Akatsuki tended to have multiple lairs across the world, inaccessible either due to their remoteness or the various security measures that protected them.

## Akatsuki

### Nagato's Akatsuki

With Yahiko's dying breath he entrusted the pursuit of peace to Nagato. Nagato, grieved by Yahiko's death, came to believe that the world would never willingly consent to peace and that Akatsuki's previously pacifist approaches were therefore futile. He concluded that the only way the world would turn away from its constant warfare would be to experience such catastrophic death and destruction that it could never again stomach the idea of conflict. Intending to be the one to show these horrors to the world, Nagato began using the alias "Pain" and formed the Six Paths of Pain, into which he integrated Yahiko's corpse so that he could symbolically continue leading Akatsuki. Nagato sought out Obito, under the guise of Madara Uchiha, and accepted his earlier offer of support, which he provided in secret.

After the Third Shinobi World War, Akatsuki began recruiting S-rank missing-nin; mostly through strong-arming them and promising protection to carry out their respective goals. Orochimaru and Itachi joined for their own reasons, while Kisame and Zetsu joined to secretly ensure the Eye of the Moon Plan. Once Akatsuki recruited its target of ten members, Akatsuki began following a three-step process to achieve this stated objective:

1. Obtain enough money to support their organisation.
2. Provide mercenary services at well under the competitive rate, using the money gathered in the first step to offset costs. This will make countries increasingly dependent on Akatsuki's services, corner the entire market for shinobi missions, and eventually put all of the shinobi villages out of business because they can't compete with Akatsuki's prices. By capturing and strategically deploying the tailed beasts, Akatsuki could quickly start and then quell wars, thereby speeding up the process.
3. Once all other major shinobi forces have dissolved, Akatsuki will be able to quickly conquer all the countries of the world.

The early years of Nagato's Akatsuki were very successful, as the hidden villages increasingly hired Akatsuki to fight in wars and perform assassinations that the villages themselves were unwilling to get involved in during times of peace. The Fourth Raikage claims that only Kumogakure never hired Akatsuki, while the Third Tsuchikage in particular became a frequent employer. Despite being such a popular and successful group, Akatsuki was largely a mystery to those outside the organisation, with many (incorrectly) coming to believe they operated out of Kirigakure. Akatsuki experienced some turmoil amongst its members over the years: Kakuzu regularly killed his partners in fits of rage and stole their hearts for his Earth Grudge Fear; only being teamed with the immortal Hidan prevented him from continuing to do this. Orochimaru attempted to steal Itachi Uchiha's body after the latter joined the organisation, and when that failed he was forced to defect. Despite this, Akatsuki was able to begin working towards capturing the tailed beasts.

Nagato's actual objective behind acquiring the tailed beasts was to harness the tailed beasts' chakra to create a powerful kinjutsu, using it to wipe out one side in a conflict and, from the display, frighten the other side and the world at large to stop the fighting. If and when the fears abated and conflicts renewed, the kinjutsu would be deployed again, creating small periods of peace in an endless chain of hatred. Because all but one of the tailed beasts were in the possession of the hidden villages, their capture risked antagonising many of Akatsuki's former clients. Despite this, Deidara claims that the previous owners of the first two tailed beasts captured by Akatsuki (indicated in the anime to have been the Five-Tails and the Seven-Tails) were glad to be rid of them.

Tobi pressures Nagato into taking a more active role in capturing the remaining tailed beasts. In the anime, he and Konan are first sent to capture the Six-Tails, which was captured at some earlier point in the manga. They are afterwards sent to Konoha to capture the Nine-Tails, and in the course of the resultant Pain's Assault the village is destroyed. When he finally locates and meets with the Nine-Tails' jinchūriki, Naruto Uzumaki, Nagato begins to doubt the direction he has taken Akatsuki in since Yahiko's death. After Nagato's Six Paths of Pain are defeated except for one, Naruto convinces him that a bloodless peace is worth pursuing no matter how impossible it may seem. To make up for all the missteps he took, Nagato gives his life to revive the Konoha villagers that died during his attack, using his last breath to encourage Naruto to achieve the peace that he was never able to. With Yahiko and Nagato gone, Konan opts to leave Akatsuki.

## Wardrobe

Members of Nagato's Akatsuki wear long, black cloaks with red clouds, a red interior, and a chin-high collar; Tobi and the members of Taka wear a similarly-marked hooded mantle. The red clouds represent the rain of blood that fell in Amegakure during its wars, and were viewed as a symbol of justice by its original members. The robes are very distinctive, allowing members of Akatsuki to be identified even from a distance. Though the robes are a standard feature throughout Nagato's tenure (with Konan even continuing to wear it after leaving Akatsuki), the robe falls out of use under Obito's leadership: Kisame stops wearing it owing to circumstances of faking his death, Obito does not replace his when it is destroyed by Konan, and Zetsu ceases using a robe once its two halves begin operating separately. During Shin's attempt to revive the organisation, he is the only individual to wear the robe, as none of his clones wear it.

Another trend started with Nagato is for members to cross out the symbol on their forehead protectors to symbolise the severed ties with their former villages, though some opt not to wear a forehead protector at all. All members also wear nail polish on their fingers and toenails (colours vary in the anime). When travelling, members sometimes wear conical straw hats with small ornamental torques and tassels hanging down over their faces, possibly to go unnoticed by the general population as most are S-class criminals.

### Rings

Under Nagato, each member of Akatsuki is given one of ten rings, to be worn on a specific finger. Other than apparently signifying one's membership, the rings seem to have some role in sealing the tailed beasts into the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path, indicating which of the statue's finger the members should stand on. The rings are apparently important and irreplaceable: when Orochimaru defects he takes his ring with him, and for that reason he is never officially replaced; when Deidara loses the arm that his ring is on, he has greater interest in recovering the ring than the arm itself; Zetsu and Tobi specifically seek out Sasori's ring after his death, needing it for Tobi to replace him. When Tobi takes over, the rings are no longer important, as he simply discards it along with his damaged robe after battling Konan. Despite all this, the rings' exact significance is never explained.

The various rings are:

* Right thumb: "zero" (零, *rei*); worn by Pain. Its colour is purplish-grey.
* Right index finger: "blue", "green" (青, *ao, shō*); worn by Deidara. Its colour is teal.
* Right middle finger: "white" (白, *byaku, haku*); worn by Konan. Its colour is white.
* Right ring finger: "vermilion", "scarlet" (朱, *shu*); worn by Itachi Uchiha. Its colour is red.
* Right little finger: "sign of the boar" (亥, *gai*); worn by Zetsu. Its colour is green.
* Left little finger: "sky", "void" (空, *kū*); worn by Orochimaru. Its colour is slate blue.
* Left ring finger: "south" (南, *nan*); worn by Jūzō Biwa(anime only) and later by Kisame Hoshigaki. Its colour is yellow.
* Left middle finger: "north" (北, *hoku*); worn by Kakuzu. Its colour is dark green.
* Left index finger: "three" (三, *san*); worn by Kakuzu's fourth partner and later by Hidan. Its colour is orange.
* Left thumb: "jewel", "ball", also the black king in shōgi (玉, *gyoku*); worn by Sasori and later by Tobi. Its colour is purple.
* Left ring finger: "scarlet" worn by Josurin. It's color is bright blue

Eight of the ten kanji of the rings are taken from a kuji-in, a collection of nine hand postures used in meditation. Pain's "rei" and Zetsu's "gai" are not from this kuji-in. However, the only unused kuji-in kanji, 玄 (gen, *"mysterious"*), bears a strong resemblance to Zetsu's "gai", suggesting an error. It would be a consistent error, however, since the "gai" kanji has been used in every instance the ring's kanji has been shown.

## Teams

Under Nagato, Akatsuki members are organised into teams of two, usually paired based on perceived similarities (such as Itachi or Kisame) or advantageous combinations (such as Hidan and Kakuzu). Although some pairs get along better than others, few seem to actually like each other; *Sha no Sho* notes that members always have separate rooms when staying at hotels. Hostilities tend to exist even between members who aren't partners, though they so rarely meet that this is rarely an actual problem. Teams travel the world pursuing Akatsuki's goals, only convening when summoned by Nagato, typically to seal a tailed beast.

### Nagato & Konan

* Target(s): Six-Tails (Pain, Sealed, *anime only*), Nine-Tails (Pain, Failed)

As childhood friends and fellow members of the original Akatsuki, Nagato and Konan are the only members who consistently get along. Because Nagato is Akatsuki's leader, Konan tends to defer to him, doing as he instructs even when she personally disagrees. In Nagato's rule of Amegakure, Konan acts as the "angel" to his "god", communicating his will to Ame's villagers. Nagato's true identity is concealed from the rest of the organisation, and instead, the Deva Path is used as his representative.

### Black Zetsu & White Zetsu

* Target(s): None

Black Zetsu and White Zetsu are allies of Tobi who helped him approach Nagato and officially joined Akatsuki seemingly long before Tobi. Although they exist as two separate identities, most of the time they are merged together and act as the singular Akatsuki member, *Zetsu*. The two sometimes argue, but it never interferes with their duties: spying, evidence disposal, and resource acquisition. Zetsu is often the only member of Akatsuki other than their partners that members meet in person. Zetsu typically helps transport a jinchūriki to one of Akatsuki's hideouts for extracting the Tailed Beast.

### Jūzō & Itachi

Jūzō and Itachi worked very well with each other, being involved in at least three missions together, which involved assassination and sabotage. The two partners had an unique system of formations in order to better synchronise with each other. Formation A was used when both shinobi attacked individually using whichever ability they preferred, Formation B had Itachi open up with an attack involving genjutsu or shurikenjutsu while Jūzō killed the incapacitated shinobi with his sword, Formation C was a personal request by Jūzō to be killed by Itachi if he would be captured by Kirigakure and Formation D was to be proposed by Itachi but he refused to do so. Eventually, Jūzō was killed by the Fourth Mizukage during an assassination attempt of the two Akatsuki members against a Land of Water citizen and, after severely injuring Yagura, Itachi put the remains of Kubikiribōchō into his partner's hands, showing respect to his fallen comrade.

### Itachi & Kisam

* Target(s): Nine-Tails (Itachi, Failed), Four-Tails (Kisame, Sealed), Eight-Tails (Kisame, Failed)

Kisame thought their partnership was appropriate as both were notorious for killing their fellow countrymen. Despite conflicting personalities, Itachi and Kisame get along well: Kisame has a greater predisposition towards violence, but always follows Itachi's instructions, even when it denies him an opportunity to kill someone. Kisame is sad after Itachi dies, and Itachi, once reincarnated, displays some regret on learning of Kisame's own death.

### Sasori & Deidara

* Target(s): One-Tail (Deidara, Sealed)

Deidara is forcibly recruited (with help from Itachi) to replace Orochimaru as Sasori's partner. Each view themselves as an artist, though has little respect for the other's preferred art form: Sasori believes art is eternal, as in a puppet, while Deidara believes art is fleeting, as in an explosion. Deidara pays some deference to Sasori since he's more experienced, but is very disappointed by Sasori's death.

### Kakuzu & Hidan

* Target(s): Seven-Tails (Kakuzu, Sealed, *anime only*), Two-Tails (Hidan, Sealed)

After Kakuzu killed all of his previous partners in fits of rage, he was paired with Hidan, an immortal he couldn't kill. Whereas other teams at least have moments of cooperation, Hidan and Kakuzu actively hate each other: Hidan believes Kakuzu's obsession with money is sacrilegious and Kakuzu desperately wants to kill Hidan because his habits constantly waste Kakuzu's time. Despite this, the two are arguably the most effective of Akatsuki's teams, variously called the "Immortal Combo" (不死コンビ, *Fushi Konbi*) and the "Zombie Combo" (ゾンビコンビ, *Zonbi Konbi*). If Hidan is dismembered, Kakuzu can sew him back together. Kakuzu, meanwhile, can launch indiscriminate attacks without needing to worry about Hidan being killed in the crossfire. Shikamaru Nara believes they are unstoppable so long as they are together.

### Deidara & Tobi

* Target(s): Three-Tails (Tobi, Sealed)

When Tobi replaces Sasori in Akatsuki he also becomes Deidara's new partner. Per the persona he assumes, Tobi regularly annoys Deidara, either through open disrespect or out of apparent ignorance. Deidara attempts to kill Tobi several times out of irritation, but never manages to succeed, or at least follow through. Deidara, unaware of Tobi's true identity, takes him on as a sort of disciple, instructing him on the ways of the world and how to succeed in Akatsuki. Deidara even displays a certain fondness for Tobi at the end of his life, instructing him to get to a safe distance from his C4 and then apologising for what he assumes will be Tobi's death prior to using C0.

### Kisame and Josurin

* Target(s): Any (Pending)

Rarely often with Itachi, lovers Kisame and Josurin are often seen as partners among the Akatsuki

## Associates

In addition to its core members, Akatsuki has several affiliates spread across multiple countries. Almost all of them associate only with specific members rather than the entire organisation.

* Amegakure - base of operations for Pain
* Kirigakure - previously controlled by Madara, and later Obito
* Yūra - Sasori's underling
* Mukade - Sasori's underling
* Funari - Kakuzu's subordinate
* Ginji - Kakuzu's banker
* Kyōya - Kakuzu's accountant
* Zangei - Kakuzu's bounty collector
* Taka - affiliated group
* Kabuto Yakushi - Sasori's spy, later collaborator with Obito
* Madara Uchiha - collaborator with Obito
* Tobi - ally of Madara, Obito, White Zetsu, and Black Zetsu
* Suicide Squad - close ally

## Further Members

* Akio
* Himari
* Airi
* Ayako
* Ayane
* Heruko Uchiha
* Hiyori Uchiha
* Asaka Uchiha