Sasuke Uchiha

Sasuke Uchiha (うちは サスケ Uchiha Sasuke^?) is originally one of the members of Team 7and is the founder and leader of Taka. He was created to be a rival to Naruto Uzumaki, as well as a "cool genius", which Kishimoto believed was an integral part of an ideal rivalry.^[70] He is one of the few remaining members of the Uchiha clan. Sasuke's sole desire is to kill his brother, and he develops a cold and withdrawn personality.^[71] His interactions with his fellow teammates, especially Naruto, make him focus less on revenge at the start of the series. During an encounter with his brother in Part I, Sasuke is easily beaten, which leads him to leave the village to seek more power from the criminal Orochimaru.^[72] His teammates' attempts to recover him from Orochimaru form a major component of the Part II plot. In the Japanese anime, Sasuke's seiyū is Noriaki Sugiyama, and his English voice actor is Yuri Lowenthal.

Pain


The Six Paths of Pain, from left to right: Animal, Naraka, Asura, Deva, Human, Preta.
Pain (ペイン Pein?) is the leader of Akatsuki, partnered to Konan and the principal figure in the Tailed Beast sealing ceremony as he can summon the Gedō Demon Statue (外道魔像 Gedō Mazō?). When first introduced Pain is shown as nothing more than a shadowy outline. As Part II of the series progresses, parts of his face are shown; culminating in the revelation that the Pain that is seen is actually Deva Pain, one of six different bodies collectively known as The Six Paths of Pain (ペイン六道 Pein Rikudō?). Controlled by a single conscious mind, each of the six bodies are individually named after one of the six Buddhist paths of reincarnation.[56] All but one of the bodies have orange hair and a number of body piercings that, from a design standpoint, give Pain a "more dangerous" appearance and relate the pain of their installation to the character's name.[49] Each also has a Rinnegan (輪廻眼?, lit. "Saṃsāra Eye"), the unique eye technique possessed by the Sage of the Six Paths. As a result, the six Paths use the Rinnegan to share visual information and coordinate attacks.[57] Discovering the secret behind Pain forms a major component of the plot in Part II, and through the efforts of ninja from Konohagakure the identity of Pain's base mind is revealed.
The Paths of Pain are controlled by Nagato (長門?) who, like Konan, was an Amegakure orphan that was trained by Jiraiya alongside Yahiko (弥彦?) before he became Deva Pain. During his time with Jiraiya, he awakened his Rinnegan, later revealed to have been provided by Madara in secret, and came to desire peace for the world.[58] After Yahiko dies as a result of the three falling into a trap by Hanzo years later, Nagato came to the realization that peace could only be attained by teaching the world the pain caused by war. To that end he adopted the name "Pain" to conquer Amegakure before killing Hanzo and his loved ones, becoming a "god" in the eyes of Amegakure's citizens.[59]
By fitting corpses with a unique type of body piercing, Nagato can channel his chakra into the bodies to animate and control them remotely, giving them unique abiltites.[57] Controlling six bodies puts a great strain on Nagato, who is frail, emaciated, and confined to a six-legged mobility device. All six bodies are eventually defeated by Naruto. It is ultimately revealed that Nagato is Naruto's de facto namesake, having been the inspiration for the hero of Jiraiya's first book, after whom Naruto was named. Naruto is able to renew Nagato's faith in his late master and in the possibility of peace, prompting Nagato to sacrifice his life in order to revive the people he killed in Konoha. Konan takes Nagato's body, along with Yahiko's, back to Amegakure before Madara takes the body to retireve the Rinnegan. Nagato is a descendant of the Uzumaki Clan having the clan's typical red hair. This in turn makes him a descendant of The Sage of Six Paths as well as a distant relative to Naruto. In the Japanese anime, Pain's seiyū is Ken'yū Horiuchi, while Nagato's seiyū is Junpei Morita. In his cameo appearance in episode 135 of the English adaptation, he is voiced by Dave Wittenberg, and in the Shippuden anime he is voiced by Troy Baker, while Nagato is voiced by Vic Mignogna.

Madara Uchiha

Madara Uchiha (うちは マダラ Uchiha Madara^?) is one of the founders of the Uchiha Clan and its current leader. Madara Uchiha is as well the "real" leader of Akatsuki, disguised as "Tobi". Madara is a descendant of the Sage of the Six Paths. Long ago, Madara became the first possessor of the Mangekyo Sharingan, a rare form of the eye condition unique to the Uchiha which gave him the strength to take control of the Uchiha clan, though it rendered him blind from overuse until he took his own brother's eyes in order to regain his sight.^[33] Madara eventually banded together with Hashirama Senju to create Konohagakure. The two founders disagreed on who should lead their new village, and after a momentous battle between the two it was believed that Madara had died,^[61] though he later revealed it was a ruse to copy Hashirama's powers. In later years, Madara resurfaced, unsealing the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox from within Kushina Uzumaki and using it to attack Konoha, though he denies it. Once the fox was sealed by Minato, Madara was contacted by Itachi Uchiha and subsequently assisted him in assassinating the Uchiha clan.^[62]

Much of Madara's role in the series has been under the guise of Tobi (トビ^?), who replaces Sasori in Akatsuki after Sasori's death. While acting as Tobi he is carefree and goofy as opposed to Madara's usual serious self. Tobi's tendency to take credit for others' work and undermine his superiors annoys his partner, Deidara, who either blows up or strangles him in comical fashion as punishment.^[63] After Deidara dies during a battle with Sasuke, Madara takes a special interest in Sasuke's development and takes him under his wing.^[42] After Nagato's betrayal, he reveals himself to the five Kage, revealing his intent to become the Jinchuriki of the Ten-Tailed Beast and threatening them with war unless they give him Naruto and Killer Bee to complete his goal. When they refuse him, Madara declares the Fourth Great Shinobi World War and takes his leave. Madara is then confronted by Kabuto and agrees to an alliance after being blackmailed into it. Madara later confronts Konan and kills her before taking Nagato's body to retrieve the Rinnegan, replacing the arm he lost during the fight and the eye he sealed with one of the Rinnegan.

Though Madara's face as it appeared during Konoha's founding has been shown in full at various points in the series, he always wears a mask in the current Naruto storyline with a swirl pattern focused around his right eye, allowing him to suck people into a subspace, though when it is destroyed he replaces it with a mask resembling the Sharingan with the characteristic ripple pattern of the Rinnegan. Kishimoto found Madara to be his favorite Akatsuki member at the time to draw, noting his mask to be easy to make.^[64] His black hair is the only constantly visible part of his face. When asked how Madara could have survived since Konoha's founding generations ago, Itachi states that Madara is immortal.^[65] The specifics of his immortality have yet to be touched upon, though Madara implies the potency of his chakra has something to do with it.^[66] In battle he has been shown capable of making his body intangible for up to five minutes at a time, leaving him visible but otherwise impervious to most forms of damage unless while executing a counterattack. He can also teleport over great distances at will and can use his Sharingan to suck opponents into a world inside him.^[67] Having copied Hashirama's Senju techniques, he is capable of using Izanagi, a technique that converts imagination into reality at the cost of one's eyesight. In the Japanese anime, Madara's seiyū is Naoya Uchida and the seiyū for the Tobi persona is Wataru Takagi. In the English version, he is voiced by Nolan North and his Tobi persona is voiced by Michael Yurchak.

Konan

Konan (小南?) is the only female ninja in Akatsuki. As such, Kishimoto originally wanted her to have an obscene appearance showing more of her bust.[49] Being a partner of Nagato, Konan was also a pupil under Jiraiya after she was orphaned as a child by one of Amegakure's many wars and forced to fend for herself. Because she serves under Pain, she is referred to by villagers of Amegakure as "God's angel". Though she worries for Nagato as he was straining himself from having his Pains battle Naruto, she respects his wishes to stand aside so that he and Naruto might meet face to face. While under Jiraiya, Konan learned to take advantage of her natural talent with origami, using it as a key component in her battle style.[58] Konan can divide her body into countless sheets of paper, which she controls and reshapes remotely to scout out an area, form weapons for attack, or create wings that mirror her title. Whilst Konan's abilities are restricted when the paper is wet; since paper will cling to itself and lose its stiffness, she is able to use this weakness to her advantage as she implements explosive tags into her paper clones. The wetness of her main body is hold together from the force, as well as protect her from the heat coming from the explosions. After Nagato's death, Konan withdraws her position in Akatsuki and leaves the organization.[60] Later, she is confronted by Madara over the location of Nagato's Rinnegan eyes. She fights him, but is killed after being forced to reveal Nagato's resting place. In the Japanese anime, Konan's seiyū is Atsuko Tanaka and in the English anime, her voice actor is Dorothy Elias-Fahn.

Kakuzu

Kakuzu (角都^?) is the partner of Hidan and a former ninja of Takigakure, the Village Hidden in the Waterfalls. Kakuzu is motivated by greed and joins the Akatsuki to seek out valuable bounties. However, his extreme temperament led Kakuzu to dislike having a partner and eventually killing whoever he is partnered with in a fit of rage, being paired up with the immortal Hidan as a result.^[53]Kakuzu's body is composed of large amounts of black threads, allowing him to reattach any bodypart, his or another, back onto its owner. The threads are also capable of piercing flesh, which Kakuzu uses to remove the still-beating hearts of his opponents for his personal use while executing a forbidden Jutsu called Jiongu (地怨虞^?) to integrate their hearts into his body to cheat death and extend his life indefinitely.^[49] Claiming to have lived since the time of Hashirama Senju, Kakuzu can store up to four spare hearts in animal masks that are sewn to his back. The masks can be detached during combat situations to shoot elemental blasts at his opponents, and can quickly be recalled to his body if he needs a replacement heart.^[54] Kakuzu's hearts are systematically destroyed soon after his introduction by a group of Konohagakure ninja. After Naruto Uzumaki leaves his final heart on the brink of failure, Kakuzu is easily finished off by Kakashi.^[55] In the Japanese anime, Kakuzu's seiyū is Takaya Hashi and in the English version he is voiced by Fred Tatasciore.

Hidan

Hidan (飛段^?) is the immortal, foul-mouthed, and sadomasochistic partner of Kakuzu and a former ninja of Yugakure, the Village Hidden in Boiling Water.^[49] He is a member of the Jashin (ジャシン^?, lit. "evil god") religion, a religion that worships a deity of the same name and where wreaking anything less than death and utter destruction in battle is considered a sin.^[50] His religion's experimentations have led to the creation of his unique abilities; by consuming an opponent's blood and then drawing Jashin's triangular-design on the ground, Hidan can create a voodoo doll-like link with his opponent. Once this link is created, any damage done to Hidan's body is reflected on his opponent, allowing him to kill them by giving himself fatal injuries. Because he is immortal, Hidan is not impaired while doing this, instead finding pleasure in the pain it causes him.^[51] After Hidan uses this ability to kill Asuma Sarutobi, Shikamaru Nara fights him to avenge his teacher. Their battle culminates in Hidan being blown up, and Shikamaru burying his still-speaking remains in a place Akatsuki will never be able to reach.^[52] As such, Hidan is no longer considered a member by the rest of Akatsuki.^[32] In the Japanese anime, Hidan's seiyū is Masaki Terasoma. In the English anime he is voiced by Chris Edgerly and in Naruto Shippūden: Clash of Ninja Revolution 3 by Wally Wingert.

Zetsu

Zetsu (ゼツ^?) is the only member of Akatsuki to regularly act without a partner. This is in part a result of his ability to merge with any object and quickly travel to a new location, something that few other ninja are capable of. He usually never fights people because he is too weak to fight in his plant form. Because of this ability Zetsu serves a variety of different positions in Akatsuki, such as a spy that observes and reports on battles of interest or a lookout during Akatsuki's meetings.^[46] He is cannibalistic, and is often sent to dispose of bodies Akatsuki does not want found, mirroring the large venus flytrap that envelops his body.^[47]Zetsu's body is split into two different colors, his right side being black and his left being white. Similarly, the two sides have their own personalities and knowledge bases, frequently leading to discussions and arguments between the two. But this proved useful as one personality can help in the Tailed Beast sealing process as a projection while the other remains in the body to act as a guard. If necessary, the two halves can split apart and act independently with the white half able to create perfect clones of himself or whoever he touches.^[48] As Kishimoto originally planned Akatsuki to be a group of individuals with close to no human characteristics, he decided to make Zetsu half black and half white to better show his double personality.^[49] The black half's dialogue is written in katakana in the Japanese manga, and the white half's dialogue is written in kanji and kana. In the Japanese anime, Zetsu's seiyū is Nobuo Tobita,. In his cameo appearance in episode 134 of the English adaptation, Zetsu has two voice actors: the black half is voiced by Michael Sorich and the white half is voiced by Brian Beacock, and in the English Shippuden anime he is voiced by Travis Willingham.