“Welcome to Akatsuki”

Akatsuki (meaning "Dawn" or "Daybreak") is a fictional organization of criminal ninja in the anime and manga series Naruto. All members of Akatsuki have betrayed their village of origin and banded together for the ultimate purposes of world domination. The organization is initially introduced midway into the first part of the series, though it does not begin acting as a major antagonist until the start of the second part. Akatsuki, at any given point in time, is composed of no more than ten primary members. The exact criterion for joining the organization is currently unknown, though all known members are S-class criminals, the most wanted and dangerous individuals in the Naruto universe. In order to achieve this status, potential members must possess extraordinary fighting ability and sever all ties with the village they grew up in. Two members, Itachi Uchiha and Sasori are known to have undertaken a challenging task around the time of their joining the organization: Itachi killed almost all the members of his family in a single night, though it is unclear what his true reasons for doing this were. Sasori, during the course of the battle in which he eventually meets his demise, comments that "[he] hadn't had this much difficulty since joining Akatsuki". In Deidara's case, however, he was forcibly recruited by other Akatsuki members as a result of his effective work as a terrorist. Members of Akatsuki work in teams of two. Teams are built to complement each other's abilities and talents to create a formidable duo. For example, Kakuzu and Hidan use Hidan's immortality to their advantage by using large-scale attacks on those Hidan has pinned down; being immortal, Hidan survives what is normally fatal to his opponent. Zetsu is an exception to this, as he operates by himself at all times. Members whose partners have died also operate by themselves until a replacement can be found. At the very least, members maintain 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 will only work with their teammate so long as it furthers Akatsuki's goals, with all other matters being a source of dispute between the two. In general, Akatsuki members are 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. Akatsuki is a widespread organization, with its members constantly traveling between countries and its agents operating out of various villages across the Naruto world. These agents work for specific members for varying purposes; Sasori has a number of agents under a form of mind control that he uses as spies, while Kakuzu has a group of people that take care of his finances. Because the various members are often so far apart, making meeting in person impractical, they can communicate through a form of telepathy. If there is a need for the group to have more of an interaction with each other, members can use a form of astral projection to meet at one of Akatsuki's many secret lairs. When their entire group meets like this at the end of the first part of the series, one member notes that it had been seven years since they had all been together in such a fashion. Their meetings are much more frequent in the second part of the series due to their increased activity. Akatsuki members dress in similar clothing: a long, dark cloak bearing red clouds and a red interior with a chin-high collar. All members also wear nail polish of varying colors on their fingernails and toenails. When starting a mission they wear large conical straw hats with small spike-like bells hanging from them to block their faces, but the hats are discarded once they have been discovered. In addition to this more standard wardrobe, members continue to wear forehead protectors from their former home villages, but scratch a line across the their village's symbol. This is done to indicate that their ties to the village have been severed and they no longer give allegiance to their former homes. Not all members have their headband visible, and Hidan's headband does not correspond to any known village. Each Akatsuki member wears a single, unique ring, and no two members wear a ring on the same finger. In total, there are ten rings, and each seems to have some special significance; Tobi believes that he can become a member after finding Sasori's ring, and although Zetsu claims it's not as easy as that, Tobi does indeed become a member. Deidara reinforces the significance of the rings after losing both his arms by expressing more concern for finding the arm with his ring, rather than finding the arm itself. Likewise, when Orochimaru leaves the organization he takes his ring with him, and in the ten years since then he has yet to be replaced. Each ring bears a unique symbol, the first kanji of its name. Akatsuki initially operated in the shadows, carrying out assassinations and espionage that drew little attention. Some members used their time with Akatsuki to further their own goals; Kakuzu, for example, joined because it makes it easier for him to collect bounties. Soon after the start of the series, however, Akatsuki becomes increasingly more active as its members start to carry out the tasks needed to achieve their ultimate goal: domination over the Naruto world. The leader, Pein, has created a three-step process to work their way towards this goal. First, they plan to obtain a large amount of money to support their organization. Second, they plan to set up a mercenary group loyal only to Akatsuki. To build their reputation, they plan to accept any mission below the usual cost and operate off of the excess funds earned in the first part of their plan. Because there haven't been any wars in some time, the established shinobi villages can't afford to charge such low prices, leading the smaller countries to hire Akatsuki over the more expensive shinobi villages. By using the tailed beasts, Akatsuki can start wars and then immediately quell them, solidifying their reputation and convincing every country to depend on them. Without any business, the other shinobi villages will collapse due to a lack of funds. Finally, after Akatsuki is the only major shinobi force in existence, they can easily conquer the other countries. Despite the severity of this plan, members do not automatically learn of it upon joining; Hidan did not find out about it until he had a been a member for quite some time. The tailed beasts, nine gigantic demons of immense power, are the focus of much of Akatsuki's effort and screentime within the series. Each Akatsuki member is assigned to capture alive one of the nine beasts or, in most cases, the person that beast has been sealed into. Akatsuki has so far obtained seven of the nine: the One-Tailed Shukaku, the Two-Tailed Demon Cat, the three-tailed beast, the four-tailed beast, and three others. The Akatsuki members in their respective positions on the sealing statueOnce one of the demons has been captured it is taken to the nearest Akatsuki lair where the remaining members then assemble through astral projection. Pein summons a giant statue of a humanoid monster while the beast or its host is placed before it. The members then take their place on the finger of the statue that corresponds to their respective ring, and the group prepares to seal the beast into the statue. For the sealing, nine dragon-like effigies pour from the statue's mouth to surround the captured host and forcefully remove the tailed beast from them and seal it into the statue. In the case of an unsealed tailed beast, the same thing happens to the beast itself. The sealing process takes three days to complete. Kisame Hoshigaki notes that the demons must be sealed in a specific order, as he states that sealing the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox before the other eight beasts would destroy the statue. Tobi, the character shown giving Pein orders, hints that the tailed beasts have a purpose beyond global conquest, implying that acquiring all nine would allow his Sharingan to return to full power

Membership: Open
Access: Public
Group Owner: animerp
Category: Anime
Date Formed: 2007-08-16 17:24:02
Members: 976

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