Akatsuki Organization

The "Akatsuki" kanji means daybreak, breaking down the word itself gives us "aka" meaning red and "tsuki" meaning moon. Akatsuki was founded in the Rain Country by Yahiko, Konan and Nagato. Yahiko wanted to bring peace to the bloody, war-ridden country and sought like minded individuals at his side. When he met Rain leader Hanzou to talk peace, he was betrayed by the man and had to kill himself to save Konan's life. After being traumatized by Yahiko's death, Nagato adopted a new harder outlook on how to achieve peace as the group's new leader.

Around this time the group became affiliated with a man claiming to be Uchiha Madara. The masked figure used his power and influence to secretly run the group and draw in new more deadly allies from throughout the world. Under this man, Akatsuki began to attract new S-Ranked criminals. Many of these are missing-nins who fled their villages after causing death and destruction. Over time most of the Akatsuki members were killed or neutralized in battle. There are currently only 2 active Akatsuki members: Tobi (Uchiha Obito) and Zetsu. Most members wear a forehead protector from their hidden village with a scratch through it, and all wear a ring identifying their position in the organization and a black cloak with red clouds. In the early years of the group, they acted as mercenaries for hire, offering their services to villages wary of taxing their own resources. While travelling about, the group members will work in groups of two collecting knowledge of new skills and jutsu.

Akatsuki seeks to capture the Bijuu and their hosts the "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. When the Bijuu is removed from the Jinchuuriki's body, the host dies. All the captured hosts lost their lives save for Gaara, who was later resurrected with a tensei jutsu. The only remaining Bijuu are the Eight-Tails and the Nine-Tails within Naruto. Akatsuki's current base of operation is unknown, however they have multiple bases to which they can travel. These bases are used to summon the gigantic King of Hell statue known as Gedou Mazou. 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.

Akatsuki's ultimate goal is to control the world. This would be accomplished through capturing and sealing away the Bijuu into the Gedou Mazou statue. The tailed beasts were once part of one more powerful creature known as the Juubi. The first ninja, Rikudou Sennin, split the Juubi's soul from its body and sealed it within himself. He then encased its body in rock to create the moon. When his life was nearing its end, he split the Juubi out into 9 separate Bijuu. Akatsuki sought to recombine these Bijuu back into the Juubi. Uchiha Madara would then embue the Juubi into himself, to gain enough power to cast a permanent Genjutsu on the moon known as his "Eye of the Moon" plan. Because Madara's aging body would prevent him from seeing the plan to fruition, he took on a pupil, the heavily injured Uchiha Obito who would carry out his plan. This plan would make them the supreme power in the world and cause "peace" under their rule. To that end, Obito used the genetic material of Shodai Hokage and the captured Yamato, to greatly bolster his army of White Zetsu. Obito then aligned with the Orochimaru tissue-infected Yakushi Kabuto, who was working towards his own ends. With Kabuto's increase in power, he cast Edo Tensei, resurrected scores of dead ninja, including many former Akatsuki members and the deceased Uchiha Madara in his prime age form. Madara, who had planned to be revived by Nagato's Rinnegan powers, was instead brought back in an Edo Tensei form embued with Senju Hashirama's DNA. This granted him the ability to unlock the Rinnegan and eventually free himself from the binds of Edo Tensei, giving him an invincible body. With a combined army of White Zetsu, the resurrected ninja, Madara and Obito, Akatsuki declared war on the world and the Fourth Great Ninja War began.