Akatsuki (Naruto)

Akatsuki is an organization that features in Naruto.

History

The Akatsuki in Naruto v1 #41.

Akatsuki (Japanese: 暁, meaning "Dawn" or "Daybreak") was a secret organization of shinobi that existed outside the village system that resided on Earth. Their origins were actually traced the millennia long manipulations of Black Zetsu who intended to revive his mother Kaguya Otsutsuki but he arranged events to make it appear that Madara Uchiha came up with the idea. Originally, they were founded during the Third Shinobi World War by Yahiko who alongside his childhood friends Nagato and Konan. The three had been close friends after being orphaned by the Second Shinobi World War and decided to form a group that would brought about peace in their home country of Amegakure that was often trapped in the many global conflicts. During this time, they were approached Tobi who claimed he was Madara Uchiha himself and claimed that Nagato was a reincarnation of the Sage of the Six Paths. He offered to teach Nagato to better control the powers of his Rinnegan eyes but Yahiko distrusted the stranger leading to his friend turning down his offer. Despite this being the case, it was said that this 'Madara Uchiha' had encouraged Yahiko to form the Akatsuki with this being something not known to Konan.

The death of Yahiko came to break Nagato who devoted himself in bringing about the peace sought by his friend. However, Nagato came to believe that the world would never accept such a peace through cooperation. Instead, he believed that the constant cycles of war and destruction wold only end if a catastrophic number of death was brought that would shock people from ever engaging in conflict again. As such, Nagato came to believe that only a lesson born of pain would be understood by the world with him intending to bring about such an event in order to bring about a peace to the world. Taking the alias Pain for himself, he created the Six Paths of Pain where he operated and distributed his power among six corpses among which included Yahiko. Seeking out Tobi, he and Konan came to accept his support where they went about creating a new incarnation of the Akatsuki. After the Third Shinobi World War, the Akatsuki went about recruiting S-rank missing nin where most were strong armed into joining their organisation in exchange for protection and carrying out their respective goals.

Upon reaching 10 members, it was finally decided that the group was to hunt down and captured the Tailed-Beasts that were spread across the world. As the tailed beasts were in the possession of the hidden villages, their capture risked antagonising many of Akatsuki's former clients.

During this search for Orochimaru, the Sanin Jiraiya came to learn of the name of the Akatsuki organization but knew little else about them beyond the fact that they were after the Tailed-Beasts. Sometime afterwards, Itachi Uchiha came to join the ranks of the group after being labelled a rogue ninja when he seemingly murdered his own clan and became a fugitive from the hidden leaf village. During this time, he was paired with Orochimaru though his comrade had long sought to claim an Uchiha as a host body and take his Sharingan. Thus, he ambushed Itachi only to be caught in a genjutsu and defeated though he managed to escape. His actions led to him being forced to leave the ranks of the Akatsuki where he earned the enmity of the organization. At some point, Sasori came to place a sealing jutsu on Kabuto Yakushi and sent him to infiltrate Orochimaru's organization where he was to serve as a sleeper agent and a spy. The Akatsuki later came to find their final member in the terrorist Deidara who after being defeated by Itachi came to join the ranks of the Akatsuki.

Itachi Uchiha and Kisame Hoshigaki were sent to Konogakure after it had endured a joint attack from the sand ninja and Orochimaru's forces. They arrived in the village with the goal of abducting Naruto Uzumaki and extracting the Nine-Tails from his body. Their arrival was detected by Kakashi Hatake but he and his fellow Jonin were unable to defeat the two Akatsuki members. Itachi and Kisame continued their search where they conducted an elaborate plan to separate Jiraiya from Naruto in order to abduct the Uzumakin boy. Despite their plans, Jiraiya managed to arrive at the scene and came to thwart their efforts thus forcing the two Akatsuki members to escape the scene. Afterwards, the Akatsuki gathered for the first time in 7 years since Orochimaru had left their ranks where they noted his plots against Konohagakure by trying to claim Sasuke Uchiha as a new host body. In addition, they were resolved in claiming Naruto Uzumaki for their purposes with them deciding to enact their scheme in the next 3 years. Jiraiya came to learn of this and decided to train Naruto in order to become a better ninja so that he could battle the mysterious organization. This would take two years as the Akatsuki were making their preparations to enact their plans.

Sasaori and Deidara were then dispatched to acquire the One-Tails who was residing in the jinchūriki host Gaara who contained Shukaku. his saw them travelling to the sand village of Sunagakure where they were easily allowed entry due to the sand ninja being betrayed by one of their own who was a subordinate of Sasori. After a battle with Deidara, Gaara came to be defeated and taken by the two Akatsuki members to the nearest secret lair of the organization. Once there, they summoned the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path where they enacted the jutsu to extract the One-Tails from Gaara's body. Meanwhile, ninjas from Konohagakure were in pursuit of the Akatsuki in order to free their ally Gaara from the organization's clutches. The two allied teams of shinobi managed to kill Sasori whilst Deidara was defeated though he managed to survive their encounter. Meanwhile, Gaara himself was brought back to life through a forbidden technique though the Tailed-Beast within him had been extracted. Afterwards, another Akatsuki team that included Kakuzu and Hidan continued their own assignment in hunting down jinchuriki hosts where they succeeded in killing several of them and taking the beasts within them. Their movements took them to the Fire Temple where the two Akatsuki killed Chiriku of the Twelve Guardian Ninja. Their activities drew the attention of Konohagakure who prepared for the next encounter with the Akatsuki. Kakazu and Hidan had travelled to a bounty station in the Land of Fire to claim the money on Chiriku when they were intercepted by a hidden-leaf shinobi team headed by Asuma Sarutobi who were looking to capture one of the two Akatsuki. Despite their outnumbering their target, the Konogakure ninja team could not match the abilities of the Akatsuki leading to the death of Asuma Sarutobi. Kakuzu and Hidan were then recalled to help extract a Tailed-Beast from their jinchuriki host whereupon they continued their assignment only to be ambushed by leaf shinobi headed by Shikamaru Nara wanting revenge for his sensei. As part of his strategy, he separated the two Akatsuki with Hidan being blown up and buried alive deep in the forest whilst Kakuzu's were destroyed as the final blow was made by Naruto Uzumaki thus vanquishing him.

The death of the pair was a notable blow for the organization but they continued their mission where they seemingly recruited a new member in Tobi who was paired with Deidara. This saw the Akatsuki continue their efforts in acquiring the remaining Tailed-Beasts with the Three-Tails and Four-Tails being captured where their power was given to the Gedo Statue. It was decided that they would target the Nine-Tails last as the Akatsuki did not wish to trigger an early response from Konohagakure at this point. Around this time, the Akatsuki also came to learn that Orochimaru had been killed at the hands of Sasuke Uchiha who was looking to hunt down his brother Itachi and kill him for murdering their clan. Thus, he came to be another foe that challenged the organization's goals. In this time, Deidara decided to kill Sasuke himself and confronted the Uchiha where the two waged a long fight against one another. Despite Deidara's power, he was unable to defeat Sasuke and in a last desperate move he blew himself up with the intention of killing his opponent. This saw Deidara and seemingly Tobi being killed as a result thus further depleting the ranks of the Akatsuki. In reality, Tobi had survived and continued to operate alongside the Akatsuki who managed to acquire most of the Tailed Beasts. Around this time, Itachi Uchiha came to be killed in a confrontation with his younger brother Sasuke Uchiha with Tobi revealing the truth about his older sibling. This saw Sasuke ally with the Akatsuki as he sought revenge against the hidden leaf for their treatment of the Uchiha clan. As part of this, he was sent to capture the Eight-Tails whilst Pain and Konan were sent to Konohagakure to acquire the Nine-Tails. Pain's sheer power allowed him to devastate the hidden leaf and kill many of its inhabitants until he fought against Naruto. During the fight, Nagato came to be convinced by Naruto to stop further fighting where he believed that Uzumaki could bring about true peace in the world. He came to sacrifice himself by using the rebirth jutsu to restore everyone killed in the fighting though this required him to sacrifice his own life. With his death, Konan took Nagato and Yahiko's body with her as she abandoned the Akatsuki as well.

Zetsu came to inform Tobi of this development with the Akatsuki suffering from a shortage of numbers. Furthermore, Sasuke's attempts at gathering the Eight-Tails failed as it turned out his captive was a substitution. Another obstacle to the Akatsuki's plans was a summit that would bring all five Kage to discuss global events. Sasuke was dispatched to help disrupt the summit though he intended to assassinate the new Hokage Danzō Shimura for his crimes against the Uchiha. At the summit, Tobi appeared before the Kage where he claimed to be Madara Uchiha who had intended to get the Tailed-Beasts in order to place the world under an Infinite Tsukuyomi (無限月読­, Mugen Tsukuyomi) claiming that this would bring a lasting peace to the Ninja World. As such, for his purposes he required the remaining jinchuriki and demanded that they give up the Eight-Tails and Nine-Tails that were the last Tailed-Beasts remaining to be captured. However, the Kage refused leading to the Masked Madara declaring a war against them and started the Fourth Great Shinobi War where he said that the next time they met it would be on the battlefield. After departing, Tobi decided to help Sasuke in achieving his revenge and teleported to the location of Danzō Shimura and helped remove his bodyguards. This allowed the young Uchiha to battle Danzō in order to avenge the death of his brother and clan. After claiming the Uchiha eyes from him, Tobi then made his way to Amegakure in order to claim the Rinnegan from Pain where he was responsible for killing Konan after she had abandoned the Akatsuki. It was then that the Akatsuki's headquarters was visited by Kabuto Yakushi who offered his services to Tobi after having mastered the reanimation jutsu. This allowed him to reanimate slain shinobi including many of the slain Akatsuki members where they would prove useful in the coming shinobi war.

Sometime afterwards, the Fourth Shinobi World War began as the Allied Shinobi Forces moved to confront the Akatsuki. This saw Tobi deploying 100,000 strong White Zetsu army along with the reanimated shinobi that were brought back by Kabuto. Several of the reanimated Akatsuki were deployed onto the battlefield where most were allowed to retain their minds. Deidara and Sasori were part of a commando unit sent to engage the enemies scouts whilst Kakuzu was part of an assault on the coast. Meanwhile, Itachi and Nagato were sent to take a particular position where they ended up engaging Naruto and Killer B. During the fight, Itachi managed to free himself from the control of the reanimation jutsu where he helped in defeating Nagato. Similarly, Sasori and Deidara were defeated where they were sealed away and the effects of the reanimation were stopped on the former. Finally, Kakuzu was defeated and he ended up being sealed away until a time when the reanimation jutsu could be removed from him. In this time, Itachi managed to track down Kabuto and alongside Sasuke the two brothers helped defeat Yakushi. Trapped in a genjutsu, Kabuto was forced to release the reanimation jutsu thus forcing all the undead shinobi to die once again. In the two days of the war between Akatsuki and the Allied Shinobi Forces, both sides suffer heavy casualties, yet Naruto and Killer B elude capture. When most of the White Zetsu are defeated and Kabuto is made to end the Impure World Reincarnation, Obito, having no more options, prematurely revives the Ten-Tails. Madara, having escaped Kabuto's influence, lends a degree of support, eventually leading Obito to become the Ten-Tails' jinchūriki. He is defeated by Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke before he can perform the Infinite Tsukuyomi, and as a result Obito stops pursuing the Eye of the Moon Plan. With Obito's surrender, Akatsuki's schemes officially end. Following his defeat, Obito undergoes a change of heart, thanks to both Naruto and Kakashi's influence, and Obito attempts to redeem himself by using the Samsara of Heavenly Life Technique to revive everyone he killed during the war. However, his attempts are foiled by Black Zetsu, who latched itself onto Obito and forces him to indeed utilise the technique, but instead of reviving those killed during the war, Black Zetsu successfully forces Obito to fully revive Madara. Madara's plans are momentarily set back, however, as his Rinnegan eyes start to crumble away as his reincarnated eyes were merely part of his reincarnated body.

Nevertheless, Madara quickly regains possession of his right eye, and successfully perseveres, sealing the Ten-Tails into his body. Afterwards, Madara engages in battle against Might Guy, who received a boost in power from opening the Eight Gates Released Formation, whom Madara barely manages to survive against. Madara subsequently battles against both Naruto and Sasuke, who gained Six Paths Senjutsu and Rinnegan, respectively, from Hagoromo Ōtsutsuki, during which Madara regains possession of his left eye from Obito. With both eyes returned, Madara subsequently awakens the Rinne Sharingan and successfully launches the Infinite Tsukuyomi. However, he is afterwards betrayed by Black Zetsu, who has been scheming for centuries to revive Kaguya Ōtsutsuki, with first Madara, then Obito, and then Akatsuki itself being mere pawns used in pursuit of that goal. Kaguya is restored using Madara as a medium but, with Obito's and Team 7's efforts, she and Black Zetsu are defeated by Naruto and Sasuke, after which Madara succumbs to having the Tailed Beasts extracted, and the Infinite Tsukuyomi is ended by the combined efforts of Naruto and Sasuke.

Years later, one of Orichimaru's former experiments left his care and took the name Shin Uchiha after admiring Itachi Uchiha's exploits. Shin took with him an army of clones of himself where he became obsessed with a philosophy of the strong dominating the weak under the basis of genetics. He intended to expand this view to the rest of the world where he intended to accomplish this by reviving the Akatsuki organization. Part of his goals saw him targeting Sasuke Uchiha and claiming his Sharingan eyes with this attracting the attention of the Seventh Hokage Naruto Uzumaki. Alongside their allies, they succeeded in thwarting the actions of Shin Uchiha who was ultimately killed by his younger clones after they deemed him a failure. In the aftermath, the clones were deemed to had simply been victims of the older Shin's machinations and were taken to the Hidden Leaf village's Konoha Orphanage in order for them to be raised properly and allow for them to be reintroduced into society.

Overview

In appearance, the Akatsuki were a secret organization that operated in the ninja world in the aftermath of the Third Shinobi War. At any given point in time, it was composed of no more than ten primary members with the majority of them being S-class criminals. All known members had betrayed their villages they grew up in and had become the most wanted and dangerous individuals in the world. They all wore a common uniform that consisted of a long black-cloak that was decorated with numerous red clouds and a red interior with a chin-high collar. All members also wore nail polish of varying colors on their fingernails and toenails. When starting a mission, they wore large conical straw hats with small spike-like bells hanging from them to block their faces, but the hats were discarded once they had been discovered. Some members continued to wear forehead protectors from their former home villages, but scratch a line across their village's symbol with this being worn in addition to their standard uniform. This was done to indicate that their ties to the village have been severed and they no longer gave allegiance to their former homes. Each Akatsuki member also wore a single, unique ring, and no two members wore a ring on the same finger. In total, there were ten rings, and each seemed to have some special significance. Each ring bore a unique symbol with the the first kanji of its name.

The various rings were:

• Right thumb: 零 rei, "zero"; worn by Pain.
• Right index finger: 青龍 Seiryū, the Azure Dragon; formerly worn by Deidara.
• Right middle finger: 白虎 Byakko, the White Tiger; worn by Konan.
• Right ring finger: 朱雀 Suzaku, the Vermilion Bird; formerly worn by Itachi Uchiha.
• Right little finger: 玄武 Genbu, the Black Tortoise; worn by Zetsu.
• Left little finger: 空陳 Kūchin, the Void; formerly worn by Orochimaru.
• Left ring finger: 南斗 Nanju, Sagittarius (lit. Southern Star); worn by Kisame Hoshigaki.
• Left middle finger: 北斗 Hokuto, the Big Dipper (lit. Northern Star); formerly worn by Kakuzu.
• Left index finger: 三台 santai, "three levels"; formerly worn by Hidan.
• Left thumb: 玉女 gyokunyo, the Virgin; currently worn by Tobi, formerly worn by Sasori.

Members of Akatsuki usually operated in teams of two. Such teams were built to complement each other's abilities and talents to create a formidable duo. Members whose partners had died also operated by themselves until a replacement could be found. At the very least, members maintained a functioning working relationship with their partner, with some form of loyalty to one another being present in most cases. In other instances, a member would only work with their teammate so long as it furthered the Akatsuki's goals, with all other matters being a source of dispute between the two. In general, Akatsuki members were unconcerned with the fate of their other comrades, their only point of interest concerning someone's death being who was strong enough to kill them. Some even celebrated the death of their compatriot though their leader often demanded that they mourned the loss of one of their members. As an organization, the Akatsuki was widespread with its members constantly traveling between countries and its agents operating out of various villages throughout the world. As their activities meant that they were far apart it meant that meetings in person tended to be impractical. Thus, to coordinate with one another, they came to use a jutsu that allowed for telepathic contact so that information could be exchanged among them. On matters of more importance, the Akatsuki could project their presence astrally at one of their many secret lairs that allowed for more interaction with one another. A technique that they performed as a group and required all its members was the Sealing Technique: Phantom Dragons Nine Consuming Seals (封印術・幻龍九封尽­, Fūinjutsu: Genryū Kyūfūjin) that allowed them to extract the sealed Tailed-Beast from its jinchuriki host with this being done by the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path. The chakra of the beast was then placed in the statue and collected within the statue.

The goals of the Akatsuki were manifold and consisted of various steps and stages. Their organization was founded by Madara Uchiha where they were set up as a mercenary group who dealt in assassination and espionage whilst drawing little attention. Many of its members complied with this goal though ultimately used the Akatsuki to satisfy their own personal agendas. However, they were allowed to do so as long as they accomplished the goals of the Akatsuki first with their primary objective being bringing about complete domination of the planet. Multiple stages were involved in bringing about this goal with the first being to complete their numbers as the Akatsuki were intended to be a group consisting of 10 S-rank ninjas. Once done, a three-step process was needed to bring about their plans with the first being attained a large sum of money to support their organisation. This was followed by step two where they planned to set up a mercenary army loyal only to them. They would use this time to build their reputation and accept any mission below the usual cost and operated off their excess funds obtained as part of their first step of the plan. This required that a steady stream of conflicts emerging between the nations but a peace had settled between the villages for some time. Thus, the villages lacked the funds need to support their operations with only the larger nations able to continue funding shinobi operations. This would force the smaller countries to hire the Akatsuki over the more expensive shinobi villages. The next part of the Akatsuki's plan was to acquire the Tailed-Beasts and use them to start wars which they would immediately quell thus solidifying their reputation and encouraging every country to depend on them. Thus, they would hold a monopoly over the shinobi villages that would eventually collapse due to lack of funds. Once they were the only major shinobi force in the world then the Akatsuki would set about to easily conquer the other nations and rule the world. The true goals of the Akatsuki were not widely known nor advertised to its members who instead believed that they operated only as mercenaries that worked for profit. In reality, even this plan was not the goal of its hidden mastermind with the gathering of the Tailed-Beasts being made with the intention of reforming the Ten-Tails and use its power to create an Infinite Tsukuyomi reflected from the Moon that would place the people of the entire world under a genjutsu.

As such, the target of the Akatsuki were the Tailed-Beasts that were gigantic creatures all of whom possessed incredible levels of chakra. These targets were typically found bounded to a human host that were the jinchuriki and their power meant that the Akatsuki members being sent to acquire them had to be powerful S-rank ninja. Pairs of Akatsuki were assigned the mission of capturing one of the Tailed-Beasts hosts and return with them alive where they were brought to the nearest base. Once there, a gathering was brought among the Akatsuki with the other members not at the scene attending through astral projection. Pain initially headed the ceremonies that involved the extraction of he Tailed-Beast where he summoned the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path (外道魔像, Gedō Mazō, English TV: Gedo Statue). The jinchuriki was placed before the statue whilst all the Akatsuki members performed the jutsu by taking their place on a finger of the Gedo Statue that corresponded to their respective ring. Their chakra was then used to help seal the beast into he statue which resulted in nine dragon-like effigies pouring out from the Demonic Statue's mouth to surround the captured host where it began to forcibly remove the Tailed-Beast from them. It was said that the sealing process took three days to complete and that the Tailed-Beasts needed to be sealed in a particular order as an improper sealing order could result in the destruction of the Gedo Statue.

Members

• Deidara : a blonde-haired male who was an S-rank missing-nin from Iwagakure who was formerly a member of the Explosion Corps. He was ultimately killed in a battle against Sasuke Uchiha where he used his jutsu to blow himself up in an effort to take out his opponent.
• Sasori : a red-haired male known as Sasori of the Red Sand (赤砂のサソリ, Akasuna no Sasori) who was a former member of Sunagakure's Puppet Brigade and said to be a puppeteering genius. He ultimately allowed himself to be killed in a battle against Sakura Haruno and his grandmother Chiyo.
• Hidan : a grey-haired male from Yugakure and who was a follower of Jashin where his god demanded death and sacrifices with Hidan obliging after he attained immortality. He was buried alive in a pit by Shikamaru Nara who came to avenge his master Asuma Sarutobi who had died by Hidan's hands though the ninja's immortality meant that he could never die but instead he was trapped deep underground.
• Itachi Uchiha : a dark haired male member of the Uchiha clan from Konogakure who massacred his clan and joined the Akatsuki where he made use of the power of the Mangekyo Sharingan in battle.
• Kakuzu : a male who was said to had taken the secret of immortality from the Hidden Rain and became an immortal where he served as a bounty hunter. It was noted that he served as the treasurer of the Akatsuki and watched over their finances and gathering of money. He was ultimately killed in a fight against Naruto after all his hearts were destroyed following a long prolonged fight against the hidden leaf shinobi.
• Jūzō Biwa : a male jōnin from Kirigakure and a member of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist where he became the wielder of the Kubikiribōchō, which he used many times to dye the battlefields red with the blood of his enemies. After abandoning his village, he joined the Akatsuki where he was originally partnered with the new recruit Itachi Uchiha. He would later die in battle and his position filled by the newly recruited Kisame Hoshikage.
• Kisame Hoshigaki : a dark-haired male who was called the Monster of the Hidden Mist (霧隠れの怪人, Kirigakure no Kaijin) from Kirigakure's and a former member of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist where he was an S-rank missing nin who specialised in water jutsu and wielded the living sword Samehada.
• Konan : a female who was a close friend and associate of Pain with her having the jutsu that manipulated paper.
• Orochimaru : one of the Legendary Sanin, he learnt of the Akatsuki and sought them out where he was reluctantly given a rank within their group though it as expected that he would betray them. He later left their ranks and was considered an enemy of the Akatsuki.
• Pain : the red-haired Nagato controlled six bodies that were collectively known as Pain and held as the Akatsuki's most powerful fighter with him being the seeming leader of the organization.
• Tobi : a masked male member who claimed to be Madara Uchiha but in reality was Obito Uchiha and the hidden mastermind of the Akatsuki on behalf of the real Madara.
• Zetsu : the shadowy entity named Black Zetsu was bonded to a White Zetsu.
• Shin Uchiha : a white-skinned male clone who was an experiment of Orochimaru that escaped years after the Fourth Shinobi War where he came to admire the exploits of Itachi Uchiha. He then declared himself a member of the Akatsuki and sought to revive the organization and continue its goals.

Notes

• The Akatsuki were created by Masashi Kishimoto where they featured as antagonists in the setting of the Naruto universe.

In other media

Television

• In Naruto, the Akatsuki appeared in the setting of the anime television series adaptation. It was shown that the original members of Akatsuki were tipped off to Hanzō's plan via a message from one of their teams near the border to Konoha and left their headquarters, attempting to provide backup to Yahiko and the others. However, Tobi and Zetsu intercepted them and after a long battle, Tobi killed the remaining members of the group. With all the members including Yahiko dead, Nagato and Konan were the only two survivors of the original Akatsuki left. The Hidden Mist jonin Jūzō Biwa had been a member where he was paired off with Itachi Uchiha on a mission. The pair were later ambushed by Hidden Mist shinobi where Biwa was killed by the Fourth Mizukage. Deidara and Tobi were shown to be part of the Akatsuki team sent to capture the Three-Tails. Nagato and Konan were later shown to had been shown to capture the Six-Tails. During the Infinite Tsukuyomi, Tsunade experienced a dream that showcased a different chain of events. Within it, the Akatsuki remained a danger to the world but their motivations were different with them instead being led by Sasori who took over after Nagato's defection.

Video games

• In Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4, the Akatsuki appeared in the setting of the fighting video game.

Appearances

• Naruto:
• Boruto: Naruto Next Generations:

External Links

• Naruto Wiki Entry
• Comicvine Entry

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