Akatsuki

The is a criminal organization of S-Class missing-nins, minus Pain and Konan. Their main goal is to collect all of the tailed beasts for their plan of controlling the world. As such, the Akatsuki, despite initially having a minor role during the first half of the series, became the primary antagonists of the series, particularly in Naruto: Shippūden.

The Akatsuki; prior to the execution of their plans, at any given time had ten primary members, all of whom are or were S-Class from their respective villages. The Akatsuki always work in teams of two with the exception of Zetsu, who functions as the organization's spy, and make use of their unique skills to the teams advantage. Team members at the very least have to have functional team work with their partner even if they don't like each other. Despite this, it appears the organization hardly ever has a full meeting with them all together, as when they first met at the end of Part I, one said it was the first time in seven years they were all together.

The Akatsuki is widespread, spanning several countries with many agents possibly in all the ninja villages at least once. When one team finds a tailed beasts and has to begin the job of sealing the demon, they have hidden hideouts with many traps ready, to begin the sealing with Pain's astral projection for a three day long jutsu.

Goal
Main Goal: Although some members joined Akatsuki to further their own goals, all are united in Akatsuki's ultimate goal of gaining domination over the Shinobi world. The leader, Pain, has created a three-step process to work their way towards this goal. First, they plan to obtain a large amount of money to support their organization. Second, they plan to set up a mercenary group loyal only to Akatsuki. To build their reputation, they plan to accept any mission below the usual cost and operate off of the excess funds earned in the first part of their plan. Because there haven't been any wars in some time, the established shinobi villages can't afford to charge such low prices, leading the smaller countries to hire Akatsuki over the more expensive shinobi villages. By using the tailed beasts, Akatsuki can start wars and then immediately quell them, solidifying their reputation and convincing every country to depend on them, thus cornering the market in shinobi labor. Without any business, the other shinobi villages will collapse due to a lack of funds. Finally, after Akatsuki is the only major force of shinobi in existence, they can easily conquer the other countries. Members do not automatically learn of the plan upon joining; Hidan did not find out about it until he had been a member for quite some time.

The tailed beasts, nine gigantic demons of immense power, are the focus of much of Akatsuki's effort and screentime within the series. Each Akatsuki member is assigned to capture one of the nine beasts alive or, in most cases, the person that beast has been sealed into. Akatsuki has so far obtained seven of the nine: the first through the seventh tailed beasts.

However, this plan may just be a ruse as Akatsuki's three most prominent members have two separate goals in mind instead of controlling the world; one of which involves world peace.

Madara's Goal: Madara plans on using Akatsuki to gain the Tailed Beasts for himself and use their power to strengthen his Mangekyo Sharingan. In the past he showed great interest in destroying Konoha.

Itachi's Goal: After the Uchiha Massacre and leaving Konoha, Itachi continued to protect the village by joining the Akatsuki and keeping an eye on them from the inside. During his time in the group, Itachi would delay his own attempts to capture the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox, leaked various information about the organization to Konoha, and attempted to kill Madara through Sasuke. Before his death Itachi gave Naruto some of his "power" through a genjutsu, telling him to carry on his goal of protecting Konoha and Sasuke. The "power" that Itachi gave to Naruto remains unknown.

Pain's Goal: Pain later went into further detail on the tailed beasts' role in his plans. The beasts would be used to create a deadly kinjutsu technique that could wipe out one of the five great nations in an instant, so if countries go to war and do not have ninja villages to fight for them they would turn to the Akatsuki and their technique. Whichever side uses the technique first would wipe out the opposing country, which would scare them into never using their weapon again, and scare the other countries to never start a war or they would be wiped out too. Through the mutual fear, war would cease to exist, and the world would know everlasting peace.

This greatly conflicts with Madara's plan so this goal could in fact be a secret goal that only Pain and Konan are aware of.

Wardrobe
Akatsuki members have a similar way of dress, which could give them away if a village is alerted of their presence. Members wear long, dark cloaks with red clouds, a red interior, and a chin-high collar. All members wear nail polish of varying colors on their finger and toenails, and may wear a conical straw hat with small spike-like balls hanging down to cover their faces. The hats may be used to move around in the general population unnoticed, or for when the weather requires one. Some members tend to wear their village headband with a scar through the middle to show their defection.

Colors of fingers and toenails are:
 * Pain/Konan; black
 * Itachi Uchiha/Kisame Hoshigaki; shade of purple
 * Deidara; black
 * Sasori; teal
 * Kakuzu/Hidan; dark green
 * Zetsu; light purple

What seems to be most important however are their rings. In total there are ten rings given to each of the ten main members of the Akatsuki. It appears these rings are important to being a member of the Akatsuki as when Orochimaru defects, he takes his ring with him and as such wasn't replaced. The rings may be connected to the sealing jutsu used to extract the tailed beasts but it has not been confirmed.

The various rings are:
 * Right thumb: ; currently worn by Pain,
 * Right index finger: ; formerly worn by Deidara. Seiryu's color is teal,
 * Right middle finger: ; currently worn by Konan. Byakko is presumed to be white, due to the ring's name,
 * Right ring finger: ; formerly worn by Itachi Uchiha. Suzaku's color is red,
 * Right little finger: ; currently worn by Zetsu,
 * Left little finger: ; formerly worn by Orochimaru. Kuchin's color is light blue/gray,
 * Left ring finger: ; currently worn by Kisame Hoshigaki. Nanju's color is yellow,
 * Left middle finger: ; formerly worn by Kakuzu. Hokuto's color is green,
 * Left index finger: ; formerly worn by Hidan. Santai's color is orange,
 * Left thumb: ; currently worn by Tobi (Madara Uchiha), formerly worn by Sasori. Gyokunyo's color is purple.

Eight of the ten kanji of the rings are taken from a kuji-in (Nine Syllable Seals): a collection of nine hand postures used in meditation. These kuji-in have found their way into ninja folklore as a kind of magic spells. Pain's "rei" and Zetsu's "gai" are not from this kuji-in. However, the only unused kuji-in kanji,, 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, both in the manga and the data books.

Recently, Team Hawk has allied themselves with Akatsuki. They also wear the Akatsuki cloaks, but they seem to have their high collars folded down. None of them wears a headband, nail polishes, nor the rings; of the latter only the Suzaku, Kūchin, and Hokuto are known to be recoverable, whilst the santai worn by Hidan and the Seiryū worn by Deidara were most likely destroyed in the explosions that defeated them.

Teams
The Akatsuki Teams are put together in teams of two to exploit combined strengths for the Organization's goals to be met. Each team is lead by a senior member of the Organization. Each member of a team seem to have similarities with each other.

Active
Pain/Konan A team that so far, functions very well with each other, evident that Konan is the only member to refer to Pain by name. As the leader of Akatsuki, Pain directs the rest of the organization to their respective goals, his most direct interaction with the organization is using the Illusionary Dragon Nine Consuming Seals. Pain is the leader of Amegakure, and has since been referred to as a god there. Konan, for doing her duties to Pain has been declared God's Angel.
 * Senior: Pain
 * Similarity: This team has three similarities.
 * Divinity titles (God for Pain; Angel for Konan)
 * Childhood Friends
 * Not trusted by Madara
 * Target: Nine-Tailed Demon Fox

Team Hawk Due to the loss of five members, Akatsuki lost most of its former strength, so Madara Uchiha enlisted the aid of Team Hawk, whose mission was also the destruction of Konohagakure. To complete their goals, Madara ordered Hawk to hunt the Eight-tailed Bull while Akatsuki hunts the Nine-tailed Fox. Technically, the members of Hawk are not full members of the Akatsuki, as they do not possess the rings worn by each of the full members.
 * Senior: Sasuke
 * Similarity: This team has two similarities.
 * Former association with Orochimaru.
 * Cursed Seals (Jūgo)
 * Target: Eight-Tails (Failed)

Zetsu Not technically a team, but Zetsu has two personalities, effectively making it a team of two. Since each side has a level of individuality, they frequently argue with each other over which battles to watch, among other things.
 * Status: Active
 * Similarity: Same Person
 * Target: Unknown

Kisame/Tobi After Itachi and Deidara died, they became a team since neither of them had a partner.
 * Senior: Unknown
 * Similarity: This team has one similarity.
 * Previous affiliation to Kirigakure no sato (Mizukage and Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist).
 * Target: Unknown

Inactive
Orochimaru/Sasori Sasori claimed that he and Orochimaru worked well together during their partnership. However, when Orochimaru defected from Akatsuki after his failed attempt on stealing Itachi's body, Sasori has developed a grudge against his partner.
 * Senior: Presumably Orochimaru.
 * Similarity: This team has seven similarities.
 * Body modification for eternal youth and the use of multiple human bodies for jutsu. (Living Corpse Reincarnation for Orochimaru; Human Puppets for Sasori)
 * Orphaned at young age.
 * Poisonous animal themed names (Snake for Orochimaru; Scorpion for Sasori).
 * Nicknamed ("Orochimaru the Giant Snake"; "Sasori of the Red Sand").
 * Both hate their villages because of the loss of their parents (Orochimaru and Sasori's parents were killed because of The Hidden Leaf Village).
 * Both had Kabuto as their subordinate at one point (In fact Sasori had Kabuto spy on Orochimaru after he left Akatsuki, only to have him change his allegiance to that of Orochimaru later.)
 * Killed the Third Kage of their Villages respectively (The Third Hokage of Konohagakure and the Third Kazekage of Sunagakure.)
 * Target: Unknown.

Itachi/Kisame A team that functioned well together and was unbelievably effective. Mission wise; the team completed almost every assignment Pain gave them with little trouble with the Nine-Tailed Fox being the only known exception. Although with Itachi working as a double agent they may have failed this purposly. Unlike most Akatsuki teams, Kisame and Itachi got along fairly well; Kisame did as Itachi asked unquestioningly and they would often converse casually when not in combat.
 * Senior: Itachi.
 * Similarity: This team has five similarities.
 * Elemental users (Fire for Itachi; Water for Kisame).
 * Animal themed names (Weasel for Itachi; Shark for Kisame).
 * A last name (unlike the other members) (Uchiha Itachi; Hoshigaki Kisame).
 * Wielders of unique Swords (The Totsuka Sword with Susanoo for Itachi; Samehada for Kisame)
 * Have a member of Team Hawk after them (Sasuke Uchiha for Itachi; Suigetsu Hozuki for Kisame)
 * Targets: Nine-Tailed Demon Fox (Failed), Four-Tailed beast (Sealed).

Sasori/Deidara Formed by the two artists of Akatsuki, Sasori and Deidara worked well for the most part but had conflicting ideas on art. Sasori thought all art was to be permanent, such as his puppets, while Deidara thought art was instantaneous and then gone forever, such as his exploding clay. Sasori, having many connections, was able to get a spy into Sunagakure for years before their arrival, to learn the villages defenses for their raid. The team also had several arguments and debates on plans, Sasori being a impatient man and wanting to finish missions quickly as possible though this is compensated by Deidara's way of executing such plans; the battle against Gaara being an example.
 * Senior: Sasori.
 * Similarity: "This team has two similarities."
 * Artistic values (Human Puppets for Sasori; Exploding Clay for Deidara).
 * Both committed a type of suicide (Sasori allowing himself to be killed; Deidara choosing to self-destruct himself).
 * Target: One-Tailed Shukaku (Sealed), Nine-Tailed Demon Fox (Failed).

Kakuzu/Hidan A very effective yet unruly team; usually doing unrelated jobs and always late. Pain decided to put these two together because of their unique abilities. Hidan, as a result of a "Jashin experiment" could not be killed, even by decapitation, and Kakuzu could easily go into a rage and kill anyone around him, including his partner. Therefore, with Hidan, Kakuzu can go into a rage and not worry about his partners' life afterwards. They have shown the most hostility towards each other due to a conflict of interest; Kakuzu sees the rituals and beliefs of Hidan's religion to be a waste of time, and Hidan sees Kakuzu's willingness to do blasphemous things and his greediness to be unbearable, not to mention that Kakuzu's job as a bounty hunter usually gets on Hidan's nerve. Their team was assigned to capture the Two-Tailed Demon Cat, but later decided to also capture unknown target, because they happened to be close to the Land of Fire after capturing Yugito Nii; after the sealing of the Two and Three Tails, they decided to go after Nine-Tailed Demon Fox.
 * Senior: Kakuzu.
 * Similarity: This team has five similarities.
 * Invulnerability (Multiple hearts for Kakuzu; Jashin immortality for Hidan).
 * Murderously violence associated with ways of severing ties with their villages.
 * Dislike for each other's ideals.
 * Murders to maintain invulnerability (Stealing hearts for Kakuzu; Maintaining religion power for Hidan).
 * First kanji of name related with Shogi ("Kakugyo" for Kakuzu; "Hisha" for Hidan).
 * Targets: Two-Tailed Demon Cat (Sealed), Nine-Tailed Demon Fox (Failed), Unknown Target (Failed).

Deidara/Tobi Formed after the death of Sasori, Tobi was introduced as his easily found replacement. Despite Tobi's eagerness to please his "senpai", his childish attitude was seen as a annoyance to Deidara's expectations of the organization. Beyond this, the two worked well together, with Tobi planting much of Deidara's explosive clay underground during their fights. When Deidara was about to blow himself up to kill Sasuke Uchiha, he apologized to Tobi, saying that he too would be caught up in the blast.
 * Senior: Deidara.
 * Similarity: "This team has two similarities."
 * Both annoying to senior (Deidara to Sasori, Tobi to Deidara).
 * Both have a vendetta against the Uchiha (Deidara: Itachi and Sasuke for insulting his art; Tobi as Madara: For being abandoned and betrayed by his clan.)
 * Target: Three-tailed beast (Sealed).

Similarities and Unique Traits
Aside from the similarities noted above, certain Akatsuki members have similarities and unique traits among the group.

Immortality/Eternal Youth

 * Orochimaru: uses Living Corpse Reincarnation to switch into healthier bodies indefinitely roughly once every 3 years.
 * Itachi Uchiha: claimed to want to obtain his Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan to become immortal (though it turned out he lied to protect Sasuke).
 * Sasori: changed his own body into a Human Puppet, thus maintaining his youthful looks (though his heart may stop beating of old age as well his brain could stop functioning ).
 * Madara Uchiha/Tobi: obtained the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan and achieved immortality, as seen from his advanced age and ability to survive fatal strikes.
 * Kakuzu: uses Earth Grudge Fear to pluck out the hearts of his opponents and integrate them into his own body to maintain his long lifespan.
 * Hidan: became the "successful experiment of the Jashin religion's secret jutsu", and can survive even decapitation.

Hatred for the Villages

 * Orochimaru: rejected for the Hokage position and hates the village because of the loss of his parents
 * Sasori: loss of his parents.
 * Deidara: village restricts his artistic capabilities.
 * Madara Uchiha: rejected for the Hokage position, betrayed by his clan.
 * Kakuzu: unfairly harsh punishment for his failed attempt to kill First Hokage.
 * Hidan: peaceful ways of his village that clashes with the Jashin ways.
 * Itachi Uchiha: murdered his clan
 * Sasuke Uchiha: prejudice and murder of his entire clan and elder's part in it.

Unique Abilities/Weapons

 * Orochimaru: only person capable of using Living Corpse Reincarnation and various self-created techniques, wielding the Kusanagi Sword.
 * Itachi Uchiha: few surviving users of the Sharingan and Mangekyo Sharingan, only wielder of the Totsuka Sword.
 * Kisame Hoshigaki: only wielder of the Samehada Sword along with very large chakra reserve.
 * Zetsu: dual personality.
 * Sasori: only person capable of creating Human Puppets.
 * Deidara: only person capable of using Exploding Clay.
 * Madara Uchiha/Tobi: few surviving users of the Sharingan and Mangekyo Sharingan, only wielder of the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan.
 * Kakuzu: only user of the Earth Grudge Fear technique.
 * Hidan: wields a triple bladed scythe and immortality.
 * Pain: only user of the Rinnegan, six bodies and mastery of all six types of Chakra Nature Transformation.
 * Konan: only user of a paper-style ninjutsu.
 * Team Hawk
 * Sasuke Uchiha: few surviving users of the Sharingan and Mangekyo Sharingan.
 * Suigetsu Hozuki: only wielder of Zabuza Momochi's Guillton sword, unique liquid body.
 * Karin: only user of Mind's Eye of the Kagura and Heal Bite.
 * Jugo: origin of Orochimaru's Juinjutsu.

Affiliation
Each member of Akatsuki is known to be (or have been) affiliated with another group, except for Zetsu. Some fans believe that Zetsu comes from Kusagakure village because of his plant-like appearence. However, Zetsu's profile's "village of origin" section the data book is left blank and furthermore he dosn't wear a Grass headband with a slash mark on it.
 * Orochimaru: Konohagakure village (former), Legendary Sannin, Akatsuki (former), Otogakure village (founder, leader).
 * Itachi Uchiha: Uchiha Clan (former, ender), Konohagakure village (secret).
 * Kisame Hoshigaki: Kirigakure village (former), Seven Swordsman of the Mist (former).
 * Sasori: Sunagakure village (former).
 * Deidara: Iwagakure village (former), Terrorist for hire.
 * Madara Uchiha: Uchiha clan (leader, former, ender), Konohagakure village (founder, former), Kirigakure village (Mizukage, former).
 * Kakuzu: Takigakure village (elite ninja, former), Bounty hunter.
 * Hidan: Yugakure village (former), Jashin religion.
 * Pain: Amegakure village (leader, "God").
 * Konan: Amegakure village (second-in-command, "Angel").
 * Team Hawk
 * Sasuke Uchiha: Uchiha clan, Konohagakure village (former), Team 7 (former), Otogakure village (former), Team Snake/Hawk (founder, leader).
 * Suigetsu Hozuki: Kirigakure village (status unknown), Seven Swordsman of the Mist (trainee), Otogakure village (experiment, former), Team Snake/Hawk.
 * Karin: Otogakure village (guard, former), Team Snake/Hawk.
 * Jugo: Otogakure village (experiment, former), Team Snake/Hawk.

Crimes that led to Defection

 * Orochimaru
 * (from Konohagakure): caught practicing inhuman forbidden techniques, abducting villagers for experiments.
 * (from Akatsuki): failed attempt to steal Itachi Uchiha's body.
 * Itachi Uchiha: murdered the entire Uchiha clan. (under the secret orders of the Konoha elders)
 * Kisame Hoshigaki: a Daimyo killer, Esponage.
 * Sasori: practicing on the inhumane desecration of corpses, and the murder of the third Kazekage (villiage unaware of participation)
 * Deidara: became a terrorist bomber for hire.
 * Madara Uchiha: attack against his village.
 * Kakuzu: stealing the Earth Grudge Fear technique, along with the hearts of every elder of his village.
 * Hidan: murdered his neighbors for their ways of peace.
 * Sasuke Uchiha
 * (from Konohagakure): left for seeking Orochimaru for power.
 * (from Otogakure): left after "killing" Orochimaru.

Current Members

 * Madara Uchiha/Tobi (Akatsuki Founder/Benefactor)
 * Pain (Akatsuki Leader)
 * Konan
 * Kisame Hoshigaki
 * Zetsu
 * Team Hawk
 * Sasuke Uchiha
 * Suigetsu Hozuki
 * Karin
 * Jugo

Former members

 * Orochimaru (Defected, Replaced by Deidara, Presumed Deceased, Sealed within Kabuto)
 * Sasori (Deceased, Replaced by Tobi)
 * Hidan (Incapacitated, Unreplaced, Presumed Deceased)
 * Kakuzu (Deceased, Unreplaced)
 * Deidara (Deceased, Unreplaced)
 * Itachi Uchiha (Deceased, Unreplaced)

Associates

 * Yura (Deceased)
 * Mukade (Sasori Underling) (Deceased)
 * Genji (Kakuzu's Banker)
 * Zangei (Bounty Collector) (Captured)
 * Kabuto Yakushi (Defected)
 * Amegakure no Sato
 * Hawk
 * Kirigakure no sato

Creation and Conception
In the Naruto Hiden: Sha no Sho Character Official Data Book, Masashi Kishimoto stated that he had originaly planned on making the Akatsuki a group of monsters with almost no human characteristics. He also states that the Akatsuki teams get two single rooms to sleep in.

Trivia

 * The robes that the Akatsuki wear are the colors of the Sharingan.