PAIN

First Manga Appearance: Ch. 363
First Anime Teaser Appearance: Ep. 135
Hidden Village: Rain
Ring: Rei (Zero)
Finger Position: Right Thumb
Info: Pain acts as the leader of the group, though he and Konan secretly report to Tobi. He has been adamant that the group can fulfill their desires if they finally possess the bijuu. He also was responsible for summoning the huge statue which holds the spirits of bijuu withdrawn from Jinchuuriki. Pain is also calm and tries to bring order to the group. It is said he’s never lost a battle.

AKATSUKI

The Akatsuki kanji means daybreak, breaking down the word itself gives us “aka” meaning red (a common color in the group) and “tsuki” meaning moon. This Organization is a collection of S-Ranked criminals. Many of these are missing-nins who fled their villages after causing death and destruction. With the departure of Orochimaru, the deaths of Sasori, Kakuzu, Deidara and the neutralization of Hidan, there are 6 active Akatsuki members. The group replaced Sasori with “raw” recruit Tobi, who was eager to do his part. Most members wear a forehead protector from their hidden village with a scratch through it, and all seem to wear a ring identifying their position in the organization and a black cloak with red clouds. When the organization members leave to travel the country they will work in groups of two collecting knowledge of new skills and jutsu.

Their ultimate goal is to control the world; this will be accomplished through three steps. Step One is for the group to attain money. Step Two is to create the first mercenary group. Shinobi villages make money for their country, and for the money to be steady it requires war. Because there have not been any large scale wars in approximately the last decade, the ninja villages were being reduced in size. The Five Great Shinobi Villages could handle the downtrend, but the smaller villages could not. Akatsuki will form their own fighting force with no country allegiance. With this force they will undercut all the other villages and fight their battles for cheap. Then using the bijuu they can create new battles and new wars and gain a monopoly over the whole market. In the end they plan to control all the wars and be powerful enough to even collapse the shinobi villages of the large countries, forcing them to rely on Akatsuki as well. With all that in hand, the group can achieve Step Three, to control the world. It should be noted their goal and plans have been explained by Pain, the man acting as leader. However it has recently been revealed that Pain and the female member reported to Tobi. Tobi was revealed to possess the Sharingan and even possibly be Uchiha Madara himself. What Tobi wants with the Bijuu and powerful Sharingan of Uchiha Sasuke is unknown.

The stated goal of the group is far reaching and it requires the capturing of the bijuu and “Jinchuuriki,” meaning the power of human sacrifice. These are the individuals possessing bijuu (tailed beasts) within their bodies. The demons are known by the number of tails their body possesses. Shukaku is the One-Tailed Tanuki, Nibi is the Two-Tailed Cat, Sanbi is the Three-Tailed Turtle, Yonbi is a Four-Tailed demon and Kyuubi is the Nine-Tailed Fox. The only known Jinchuuriki are Uzumaki Naruto, Gaara of the Sand, Nii Yugito and an unnamed elder Jinchuuriki. Yugito, Gaara and two or possibly three other unknown Jinchuuriki have had their Bijuu removed. All lost their lives save for Gaara, who was later resurrected with a tensei jutsu. At some point after Gaara’s capture and before Yugito’s, the group managed to capture and seal away another Bijuu. It is unknown if this was a wild bijuu or a Jinchuuriki. Akatsuki’s current base of operation is unknown. Previously they met at a cave in the River Country, which was later destroyed. They then moved on to a new base. These bases are used to summon the gigantic King of Hell statue.

The statue’s mouth is bound and his hands are cuffed. Each respective finger of the statue’s hand represents the Akatsuki member. Each statue finger thus represents the kanji and ring finger of the member. The members have the ability to project their presence to their base, this allows them to remain out and about and still conduct the business of Jinchuuriki demon extraction. This process takes three days and nights due to the absence of Orochimaru. This length of time goes for both free roaming bijuu and bijuu enhanced Jinchuuriki. To begin to leach the power from the Jinchuuriki, the members will use the sealing technique of GenryuuKyuu Fuujin (Mystical Dragon Nine Exhaustion). This causes the mouth of the statue to open. Nine spectral dragons will emerge to coalesce around the Jinchuuriki to begin the extraction process. When extraction is completed, the bijuu spirit will be sealed within the statue and one of its eyes will open denoting a captured bijuu spirit. The Jinchuuriki themselves will fall back to the earth, dead.

UCHIHA ITACHI

First Manga Appearance: Ch. 139
First Anime Appearance: Ep. 80
Hidden Village: Leaf
Ring: Shu (Scarlet)
Finger Position: Right Ring
Info: After murdering everyone in his clan, Uchiha Itachi fled his village and joined Akatsuki. Itachi is partnered with Hoshigaki Kisame. They have been assigned to capture the Nine-Tails Jinchuuriki Naruto. They have attempted to capture Naruto once, and are likely waiting for the right moment to try again.