Ame Orphans

The Ame Orphans were three children who lost their parents because of Amegakure's involvement in the Second Shinobi World War. They looked after themselves until they were found by the Sannin with Jiraiya remaining behind to give the children food and shelter while teaching them ninjutsu to defend themselves. After three years of training, Jiraiya was happy enough with their development that he returned to Konoha, leaving them to forge their own future. The three quickly gained a reputation to the point that news of their deeds even reached Konoha. Any group that opposed them would "wind up dead". Their group recruited new members, and with Yahiko as the leader, they planned to bring peace to Amegakure and the rest of the world. This group would be known as the original Akatsuki, the creation of which was supposedly encouraged by Obito Uchiha as he introduced himself to them as "Madara". Though the three were sceptical, with Yahiko warning him to stay away from them, Obito states that he would revisit that spot everyday until they understand his ideals and come to him willingly.

The orphans' dreams of peace made Hanzō of Amegakure nervous that Yahiko might usurp his rule. During the Third Shinobi World War, Hanzō teamed up with Danzō Shimura in order to defeat the three of them, taking Konan hostage and ordering Nagato to kill Yahiko or forfeit Konan. Yahiko jumped on the kunai Nagato was holding so that Nagato wouldn't need to make the choice, resulting in his death. Hanzō and his men then tried to kill Nagato. Nagato easily deflected their attacks with Shinra Tensei. He rescued Konan at the cost of his legs, which had been burnt by Hanzō's explosive tags. Nagato resorted to the Summoning: Demonic Statue of the Outer Path to kill all of Hanzō's men. Hanzō himself managed to escape the attack. The side effect of the technique impaled several chakra rods on Nagato's back, which he would later use to his advantage in creating Six Paths of Pain, with Yahiko's corpse made into the Deva Path vessel, after being crippled. At some point, news of the his former apprentices being attacked reached Jiraiya and he believed that they had all died that day.

After Yahiko's death and conversion into main body of his Pain alias, Nagato took over the group as their goal of bringing peace continued though in a perverse way when he and Konan turned to Obito who turned the Akatsuki into a criminal organisation for his own agenda. After the invasion of Pain, spurred by their fellow apprentice Naruto Uzumaki's words, Nagato sacrificed himself to undo the carnage he caused with Konan the sole surviving member of the Ame Orphans as she become Amegakure's new leader while creating a shine for her fallen friends. However, Konan later died fighting Obito before he raided the shine to take Nagato's body and extract his Rinnegan.