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. While Pain was separated from the group, he expressed his own desire for the Bijuu, to use them to create a powerful Kinjutsu. It has also recently been revealed that Pain reported to Tobi, who was revealed to be Uchiha Madara. What Madara wants with the Bijuu and powerful Sharingan of Uchiha Sasuke is unknown. He may share Pain's deadly Kinjutsu plan or have his own goal mind.

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, Hachibi is an Eight-Tailed Demon and Kyuubi is the Nine-Tailed Fox. The only known Jinchuuriki are Uzumaki Naruto, Gaara of the Sand, Nii Yugito and two other unnamed Jinchuuriki have also been seen. 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. The only remaining Bijuu are the Eight-Tails and the Nine-Tails within Naruto. 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. With the reduction in members, the largest gathering of members has happened at Pain's compound in the Rain Country.