Akatsuki

Manga
 Anime

They serve as the primary antagonists in Naruto. Originally founded by Yahiko and Tobi who helped him, it was supposed to be a freedom group but after Yahiko's death, Akatsuki has become a group of S-class criminal shinobi led by Nagato (Pain) but is really led by Tobi.

## **Akatsuki**

Akatsuki is a clan or group of Ninja that are all of S-class level missing-nin, and they aim to posses all of the tailed beasts. Originally it was believed that with the tailed beasts they aimed to force the world into war and control it through price fixing missions. Later however it was revealed that Tobi, who was actuality The Founder and Mastermind, wanted to gather the tailed beasts to merge them all into one being. According to Madara, the Sage of the Six Paths was a being who had unbelievable power, and the ability to use all elemental Chakra's effectively, but when on his deathbed he could not decide which of his two sons could inherit his power, and so he divided it. The power within the Sage came from a single beast entity within him, and so he divided that beast into nine smaller beasts. Those beasts would be known henceforth to the ninja world as the nine tailed beasts.

It was founded by Yahiko and Tobi who was working in the shadows at the time. After Yahiko's death Nagato would later become known as Pain and lead Akatsuki in his stead while Tobi would be the benefactor of the group.

Akatsuki has around 10 ninja who work in teams of two, with the exception being Zetsu, who acts as a lookout/spy. These teams work together to ensure survival and a greater percentage of completion in the missions they undertake. Akatsuki members have a very distinct style of clothing. They all wear a long dark cloak with red clouds on it. The cloak has a high collar and they also have straw hats which they wear sometimes. Wearing the hat is not that common as we have only seen 4 members wearing the hat and only on one occasion for each of those four members. The hats are presumably worn to hide their appearance or if there is bad weather. Akatsuki members also wear rings which all have distinct symbols and they are worn on different fingers.

They sealed the Tailed beasts inside the demonic Statue of the Outer Path and their goal was world domination but really the Akatsuki Pain believe to be a weapon of mass of destruction while Tobi the actual leader reveal he wanted revive the Ten-Tails and uses its power for a super genjutsu.

Tobi Declared war against the Five Nations which would later become the Allied Shinobi Forces and Kabuto joined Forces in exchange for Sasuke Uchiha and later Tobi revealed his army of 100,000 clones of White Zetsu as Akatsuki's main military strength and combined with Kabuto's Undead Ninjas include some former Akatsuki members with the six deceased Jinchuriki and the enhancements of Zetsu from a captured Yamato.Akatsuki has march off against the Five Nations to capture Killer Bee and Naruto. Akatsuki also has numbers of assiciotes and unofficial members such as Taka led by Sasuke Uchiha the younger brother of Itachi Uchiha, Suigetsu Hozuki a mist ninja who wants to collect the Seven swords of the mist, Jugo a man who has uncontrollable sage mode and Karin who like Nagato is an descendant of the Uzumaki clan.

## **Members and Teams**

The Akatsuki are rogue ninjas all considered S-rank criminals and ninjas from the various villages have been instructed to kill them on sight. The term Akatsuki means daybreak, or dawn.

### **Tobi**

Tobi was originally disguised as a goofy idiotic ninja and was replacing Sasori as Deidara's parther but it was later revealed that he was actually the true leader of Akatsuki and the one responsible for unleashing the Nine Tails on Konoha as well as control the fourth Mizukage Yagura in the mist Village,given the Rinnegan to Nagato, helped Itachi in killing the Uchiha clan members (except Itachi's younger brother Sasuke), and maid Yahiko form Akatsuki.

He can control time and space with his Sharingan and he uses it to move block incoming attacks. He claims to be Madara Uchiha and wants to collect the Tailed beast back into its original form the Ten-Tails and become it's host to set the world into illusion. He declares the fourth ninja war and later allied with Kabuto for supplying additional fighters. Later his identy as Madara was proven to be a lie as the real Madara Uchiha was revived by Kabuto but hints that the two know each other and working together. He now posses both the Sharigan and the Rinnegan. He is actually Obito Uchiha Kakashi's teammate who was thought to have died in the third ninja war and the one who gave his sharingan eye. He was saved by Madara Uchiha and became his successor and allowed him to continue his plans.

* **Partners:** Deidara and Zetsu.
* **Status:** Active.

### **Pain**

Pain was the figurehead leader of the Aktasuki take orders from Tobi the real leader who gave him the rinnegan. His true name is Nagato, a pupil of the Sannin Jiraiya. Nagato was an orphan of the Second Ninja War from the land of the Hidden Rain Village. Along with his friends **Yahiko** (the original founder of akatsuki and was inspired by Tobi) and Konan, they were trained by Jiraiya alone to allow them to survive in this harsh land filled with war. Nagato possesses an extremely rare Kekkei Genkai (an inherited genetic skill) called Rinnegan Eyes who was given by Tobi. With these he can reincarnate the bodies of the dead and control them. After the death of Yahiko, Nagato used Yahiko's body to become the Deva path and the main body of the Six Paths of Pain. He works to gather all the Tailed Spirits to destroy the world and make this self a god to exact revenge for the murder of his parents and his best friend. Other than Yahiko's body, Nagato controls the bodies of six others, each with a specialty in Ninjutsu.

* **Partners:** Konan and Yahiko.
* **Status:** Sacrificed himself to revive those he killed in the Hidden Leaf Village then revived by Kabuto.

### **Konan**

Konan is a kunoichi whose parents were killed during the Second Great Ninja War. She was a student of Jiraiya along with two other kids, who would later come to be known as Pain. She is the only member of the Akatsuki to refer to Pain by his real name, Nagato. She hails from the Village Hidden in the Rain. They were with Yahiko (who she shares romantic feelings with). After Nagato's death she left the Akatsuki.

* **Partner:** Pain (Nagato) and Yahiko.
* **Status:** Defected, Killed by Tobi.

### **Itachi Uchiha**

Itachi is Sasuke's older brother and the wielder of the Mangekyou Sharingan. He hails from the Leaf Village, and Sasuke has vowed to kill him.

* **Partner:** Kisame.
* **Status:** Killed by Sasuke Uchiha and revived by Kabuto.

### **Kisame**

Kisame is a man resembling a shark, he is one of the seven swordsman of the mist and wields a sword named Samehada that can drain the enemies Chakra. Kisame hails from the hidden Mist Village.

* **Status:** Suicide

### **Sasori**

Sasori is a puppet master who created the three puppets currently in Kankuro's possession; Crow, Black Ant, and Salamander. He is known as Sasori of the Red Sand and hails from the Sand Village.

* **Partner:** Orochimaru and Deidara
* **Status:** Killed by Sakura Haruno and Chiyo. Revived by Kabuto

### **Deidara**

Deidara has a mouth on each palm of his hands, each of which can chew on his clay and infuse it with Chakra, which he then forms into different animals and uses them as explosive weapons. He hails from the Village Hidden in the Rocks.

* **Partner:** Sasori and Tobi.
* **Status:** Killed by Sasuke Uchiha then revived by Kabuto.

### **Hidan**

Hidan is a ninja wielding an enormous scythe who seemingly has made a pact with a dark god, and promises to kill all who stand in his way, per the rules of his religion. He is very disrespectful towards even the leader of the Akatsuki, all he craved was death. His religion named Jashin also grants him what seems to be immortality. Hidan Hail s from the Village Hidden in Hot Water.

* **Partner:** Kakuzu.
* **Status:** Killed by Shikamaru Nara, though actually still alive.

### **Kakuzu**

Kakuzu is seemingly strung together from multiple body parts, Kakuzu can use many different elemental attacks, as well as having multiple hearts, meaning he can survive many deathly encounters. He is heavily interested in money. Kakuzu is from the Hidden Waterfall Village.

* **Partner:** Hidan.
* **Status:** Killed by Naruto Uzumaki, then revived by Kabuto.

### **Zetsu**

Not much is known about Zetsu and even which village he originates from is a mystery. He has the ability to morph into plant life, and use his surroundings as camouflage. He is easily recognized by the two Venus fly trap like things surrounding his multi-coloured head. He functions as the Akatsuki' s information seeker and spy. He is also knows Tobi as the real leader and possibly knows his true identity. Also Zetsu or at least his white half was created with the first hokage's cells and created an army of 100,000 Zetsu's during the Fourth Ninja war.

* **Partner:** Himself and Tobi
* **Status:** Black Zetsu: Active, White Zetsu: Killed by Sasuke Uchiha.