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Akatsuki began as a small peace movement in the Hidden Rain, founded by Yahiko, Nagato, and Konan. In a later phase, official Naruto material calls it a criminal organization led by Pain, with members assigned missions such as recruiting powerful shinobi and hunting jinchuriki. Its history therefore has to be read as a transformation: the idealistic group from the founders’ youth is not the same organization seen when Itachi, Kisame, Hidan, Kakuzu, and other members operate in the main story.
No official source in the material available here gives calendar years for the founding or the leadership changes. The most reliable timeline uses story milestones and named arcs rather than invented dates.
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Akatsuki’s history in one view
Akatsuki passes through two clearly different phases. The first is a Hidden Rain movement whose stated purpose is peace. The second is the organized criminal group encountered by Itachi and Kisame, operating under Pain and pursuing missions that eventually include the capture of jinchuriki. The Fourth Great Ninja War adds a further revelation: the masked man directing a battlefield force made from reanimated jinchuriki is revealed to be Obito Uchiha.
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| Story phase | What the official material establishes | How precise the placement is |
|---|---|---|
| Founding in the Hidden Rain | Yahiko, Nagato, and Konan form Akatsuki to pursue peace; the movement grows and receives recognition and support, including from Hanzo. Obito, disguised as Madara Uchiha, warns them that their ideals will not be realized. | Broad backstory placement; no calendar date is supplied. |
| Criminal-organization period | Itachi becomes a rogue ninja and joins Akatsuki. Pain and Orochimaru welcome him; he first works with Juzo. He is later partnered with Kisame, while Deidara is recruited for an assigned pursuit involving Orochimaru. | Placed after the founding movement and before the main-story appearances; exact transition dates are not supplied. |
| Search for Tsunade arc | Itachi and Kisame arrive in the Hidden Leaf as Akatsuki members and encounter Asuma, Kurenai, and Kakashi. | Anchored to a named main-story arc, not an in-universe year. |
| Hidan and Kakuzu arc | Hidan and Kakuzu enter the Land of Fire while Akatsuki continues hunting jinchuriki. | Later than the Hidden Leaf visit in the broad arc sequence. |
| Fourth Great Ninja War | A masked man leads a Six Paths of Pain made from reanimated jinchuriki. The masked man is revealed as Obito Uchiha, connecting the wartime leadership to the history he shared with Madara. | Placed during the war; the retrospective does not provide a founding-year calculation. |
This table is a chronology, not a complete membership list. The episode numbers cited by the official pages are release and catalog numbers, not dates inside Naruto’s world.
Who founded Akatsuki?
Yahiko, Nagato, and Konan
The official synopsis for episode 567, “Creeping Shadow,” identifies Yahiko, Nagato, and Konan as the people who formed Akatsuki. Their stated dream was to bring peace to the Hidden Rain. That purpose is the key to understanding the organization’s name and its earliest identity: it was introduced as a response to the suffering and instability of their home region, not as a mercenary group created to collect tailed beasts.
The synopsis describes a small beginning. Other shinobi gradually recognized the movement and offered support. Hanzo is specifically included among those who gave it recognition and backing. This establishes that the first Akatsuki was a growing political and humanitarian movement with an audience beyond its three founders.
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The same official account places an intervention by Obito in this early period. He was disguised as Madara Uchiha when he warned Yahiko, Nagato, and Konan that their ideals would not be realized. That warning is important for two reasons. First, it places Obito in the story of Akatsuki before the organization becomes the criminal group seen in the main narrative. Second, it foreshadows a conflict between the founders’ public goal and the forces that later influence Akatsuki’s direction.
The synopsis does not provide a dated, step-by-step account of every change between the warning and the later criminal organization. A careful timeline should therefore identify the warning as an early intervention without pretending that the official summary supplies a precise year or a complete chain of decisions.
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When did Akatsuki become a criminal organization?
The label changes before Itachi’s membership
By the time Itachi enters the story, official material uses a different description: Akatsuki is called a criminal organization. Episode 676, “The Darkness of the Akatsuki,” says that Itachi becomes a rogue ninja and joins the group. Pain and Orochimaru welcome him, and the episode presents Juzo as his partner for an initial mission in the Land of Water.
This is the clearest supplied marker for the later phase. It does not give a single conversion date, nor does it claim that every member joined at once. Instead, it shows Akatsuki functioning as an established organization with leadership, recruitment, and operational assignments.
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Why the transition cannot be reduced to one date
The available official summaries describe endpoints and selected events rather than every intermediate step. They establish the founders’ peace objective, Obito’s warning, and the later criminal label, but they do not print a calendar date for the moment the organization changed names, leadership, or methods. Any timeline that assigns an exact year to that transition is adding precision the cited material does not provide.
The most accurate explanation is therefore structural: Akatsuki’s identity changes between its Hidden Rain founding period and Itachi’s recruitment. The original movement’s stated mission is peace; the later group is organized around criminal operations and objectives assigned by Pain. The history is continuous, but the purpose and operating model are not.
How Itachi entered Akatsuki
Rogue shinobi and the first partnership
Episode 676 places Itachi’s entry after he has become a rogue ninja. Pain and Orochimaru receive him into Akatsuki, and Juzo is named as his initial partner for a mission in the Land of Water. This detail matters because it shows that the organization did not simply give every recruit the same permanent partner. Pairings could change as members joined, left, or were assigned to different work.
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Kisame, Deidara, and assigned missions
The following official synopsis, episode 677, “Partner,” says that Itachi is partnered with Kisame and begins Akatsuki missions with him. The same account describes Deidara’s recruitment and Pain’s assignment of Deidara and Sasori to pursue Orochimaru. These examples show a functioning command structure: Pain directs operations, members are paired, and recruitment is tied to specific organizational needs.
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Repair common Windows errors and clear accumulated junk for a smoother, more stable PC - no reinstall needed.Free scan · no reinstallThey are examples rather than a complete roster. The supplied episode summaries do not establish every member, every pairing, or the date of each recruitment. They do, however, provide a firm bridge from the founders’ movement to the later group seen in Naruto’s main plot.
A useful reading companion
The official Itachi birthday column from 2024 connects this part of the story with Naruto Volume 16, Chapter 139, where Itachi becomes a rogue shinobi and joins Akatsuki. Readers using the manga can treat that chapter reference as a focused entry point for Itachi’s membership, while remembering that the volume and chapter numbers identify publication order, not an in-universe calendar.
When does Akatsuki first appear in the main Naruto story?
Search for Tsunade: Itachi and Kisame reach the Hidden Leaf
The official Naruto 20th anniversary retrospective No. 2 places the arrival of Itachi and Kisame in the Hidden Leaf during the Search for Tsunade arc. It identifies both as Akatsuki members and recounts their encounter with Asuma, Kurenai, and Kakashi.
This is the clearest main-story placement for Akatsuki’s on-screen or on-page presence in the supplied chronology. It should not be converted into a year or treated as the organization’s founding date. The arc is a narrative milestone: by this point, Akatsuki is already operating as the criminal group described in the Itachi episodes.
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Hidan and Kakuzu: the jinchuriki hunt becomes explicit
A later official retrospective, No. 5, covering the Hidan and Kakuzu arc, says that Hidan and Kakuzu enter the Land of Fire while Akatsuki continues hunting jinchuriki. This places the hunt after the Hidden Leaf encounter in the broad story order and demonstrates that Akatsuki’s objectives extend beyond isolated missions against individual shinobi.
The wording “continues hunting” is significant. It presents the jinchuriki operation as an ongoing Akatsuki campaign, not a one-off assignment associated only with Hidan and Kakuzu. The retrospective does not supply a numeric count, completion schedule, or full operational roster, so those details should not be inferred from this milestone alone.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What happens to Akatsuki during the Fourth Great Ninja War?
The masked man and the Six Paths of Pain
Official retrospective No. 8 describes a masked man leading a Six Paths of Pain made from reanimated jinchuriki. This is a wartime form of Akatsuki-related power: the leader is not merely sending paired members on missions but directing a force built from revived hosts connected to the tailed-beast conflict.
Obito’s identity is revealed
The same retrospective reveals that the masked man is Obito Uchiha. It then recounts the history Obito shared with Madara. This revelation links the person who once appeared in disguise during Akatsuki’s founding-era backstory to the masked wartime leadership that readers and viewers have been following.
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The connection does not erase the founders’ role. Yahiko, Nagato, and Konan remain the people identified as forming Akatsuki for peace in the Hidden Rain. Obito’s later influence and wartime leadership belong to a subsequent phase of the organization’s history.
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Why did Akatsuki change?
The safest canon-oriented answer is that the organization’s purpose and leadership context changed over time, while the official summaries leave the exact transition between those states broad. The founding account gives a peace objective and names the three founders. The Itachi-era accounts call Akatsuki criminal, place Pain in a leadership role, and show assigned missions, recruitment, and pairings. The war retrospective adds Obito’s revealed identity and his connection to Madara.
That evidence supports three conclusions:
- Akatsuki was not founded as the criminal organization seen in the main story.
- The later group retained the Akatsuki name but operated through criminal missions and the jinchuriki hunt.
- Outside manipulation and leadership changes are part of the organization’s history, but the supplied official summaries do not provide a dated ledger of every step between the original movement and the later command structure.
In other words, “Why did Akatsuki change?” has a documented thematic answer—its ideals gave way to a militarized criminal operation shaped by later leaders and interventions—but not a single official timestamp that can be printed as a year.
Akatsuki timeline by story milestone
- Founding period: Yahiko, Nagato, and Konan form Akatsuki in the Hidden Rain to pursue peace.
- Growth: The movement attracts recognition and support from other shinobi, including Hanzo.
- Early intervention: Obito, disguised as Madara Uchiha, warns the founders that their ideals will not be realized.
- Later criminal phase: Itachi becomes a rogue ninja, joins Akatsuki, and is welcomed by Pain and Orochimaru.
- Initial assignment: Itachi works with Juzo on a mission in the Land of Water.
- New pairing and recruitment: Itachi is partnered with Kisame; Deidara is recruited; Pain assigns Deidara and Sasori to pursue Orochimaru.
- Search for Tsunade arc: Itachi and Kisame arrive in the Hidden Leaf and encounter Asuma, Kurenai, and Kakashi.
- Hidan and Kakuzu arc: Hidan and Kakuzu enter the Land of Fire as Akatsuki continues its jinchuriki hunt.
- Fourth Great Ninja War: A masked man leads a Six Paths of Pain made from reanimated jinchuriki.
- Identity revelation: The masked man is revealed as Obito Uchiha, and the narrative connects him with Madara’s history.
Common Akatsuki timeline mistakes
Calling Yahiko, Nagato, and Konan “criminal founders”
The founding synopsis gives their purpose as peace in the Hidden Rain. The criminal label belongs to the later phase described around Itachi’s recruitment. Combining both descriptions into one unchanging organization hides the central historical contrast.
Treating Pain as one of the three original founders
The founding account names Yahiko, Nagato, and Konan. The Itachi-era material names Pain as a leader who welcomes Itachi and assigns missions. Those are different labels in different phases. A timeline should preserve both facts rather than replacing the founders with the later leadership title.
Using episode numbers as in-universe dates
Episodes 567, 676, and 677 identify catalog positions in the anime. They do not mean that the founding happened in year 567 or that Itachi joined in year 676. Arc names and relative placement are the appropriate dating system for this history.
Assuming the listed members are the complete roster
The official summaries select Itachi, Juzo, Kisame, Deidara, Sasori, Pain, Orochimaru, Hidan, and Kakuzu for particular events. They do not present a comprehensive membership register. The chronology can be complete about the supplied milestones without claiming to list every operative.
What the official timeline does and does not establish
- Established: the founders, the Hidden Rain peace goal, support including Hanzo, Obito’s warning, Itachi’s recruitment, Pain’s operational authority, the Itachi–Kisame pairing, Deidara’s recruitment, the jinchuriki hunt, and Obito’s wartime identity reveal.
- Not established in the cited material: an exact founding year, exact dates for leadership transitions, a complete chronology of every member, a complete list of missions, or a numerical statistic about Akatsuki.
- Best practice: describe events with relative markers such as “during the founding period,” “before the Search for Tsunade arc,” “during the Hidan and Kakuzu arc,” and “during the Fourth Great Ninja War.”
That approach gives readers a dependable history without turning anime episode numbers into false calendar dates or presenting selected official summaries as if they were a complete administrative archive.
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