All Akatsuki Members in Naruto From Weakest to Strongest

The Akatsuki are one of the most iconic villain groups in anime history, standing proud alongside the likes of Hunter x Hunter‘s Phantom Troupe. On one hand, that’s because of the compelling reading that Akatsuki opens up for Naruto. On the other, it’s because of their impressive, terrifying power.

There are some ground rules for this list to make it fair and fun to read:

1. We’re only talking about the period of Akatsuki proper: in other words, prior to the Fourth Great Ninja War. If we count the events of the Fourth Great Ninja War, then Ten-Tails Obito clears, but that’s not exactly fun (or fair).
2. We’re only including canon members—filler members or members unelaborated in the manga are excluded. Most are pretty disappointing power-wise, and it would basically just waste your time, anyway. Let’s be honest: nobody thinks of Kyusuke when they think of Akatsuki.
3. We’re only talking about stripe-wearing members of Akatsuki: Sasuke (and by extension Taka) might have had an alliance with Akatsuki, but they weren’t Akatsuki members properly speaking.

There are few villainous anime syndicates, if any, that are as impactful as Naruto’s Akatsuki. From their distinctive robes, to their impressive village representation and wild, mind-bending jutsu, there’s plenty to find fascinating about them. With all that in consideration, here is our ranking of Akatsuki members in Naruto!

11) Zetsu

Zetsu earns a mention just by virtue of being a decorated, full-fledged Akatsuki member. Unfortunately, a mention is just about all he gets. Remember, here, we’re talking specifically about skills shown during the period of Akatsuki’s activity. As far as combat prowess goes, Zetsu just doesn’t have a lot going on; when Black and White Zetsu are attached, he has Wood Release. White Zetsu also has the ability to use every Nature, plus his Spore technique to drain chakra and slow movement.

But where Zetsu shines is utility. Because of Mayfly, Black and White Zetsu’s ability to split and communicate as needed, and their astounding transformative abilities, Zetsu is able to extract information, infiltrate, and spy like none other. This can be a double-edged sword when Zetsu’s on your team, since he also purposely blew Sasuke’s infiltration of the Five Kage Summit. But when we’re considering things outside utility, Zetsu isn’t all that strong.

10) Hidan

On paper, Hidan should be unstoppable—and to be fair, in many ways, he is. With his immortality (aside from malnutrition) and his rapid healing, he’s extremely hard to take down. If you don’t take him down, then you have four main things to contend with: his zealous blood lust; his speed and agility; his adept use of his iconic triple-bladed scythe; his ability to turn himself into a voodoo doll of any person he wounds.

However, Hidan is arrogant and not very strategically minded. Although his skill set is great, his lack of forethought and his headstrong will to battle and draw blood make it possible for certain shinobi with the right skill-sets to trap and outwit him. His reliance on his partner, Kakuzu, is also hindered by his unwillingness to be much of a team player. Shikamaru’s battle against the pair wasn’t easy, by any means, but it showed that a sufficiently intelligent ninja could probably find some way to outsmart Hidan.

9) Kakuzu

Zetsu operates as a gatekeeper on this list: once you get past him, you get to people who are truly intimidating. Even Hidan’s powers and skillset, in theory, would be way more menacing if they were given to anybody more capable. As for Hidan’s partner, Kakuzu, on the other hand: this is where things start to get a lot more interesting as the power floor raises significantly. All that to say: Kakuzu and anybody past him should be seen as serious, considerable threats to even the greatest shinobi.

In Kakuzu’s case, the big thing is that he technically has to be killed five times before he’s defeated. Technically immortal because of his ability to extend his life by extracting organs out of others’ bodies, he has four accessory hearts that give him access to the full array of elemental affinities. Earth Release: Earth Spear makes him incredibly durable and ups the damage of any offensive attacks, adding insult to injury for his already unusually wide arsenal of possibilities. Add into this his strategic prowess and his extreme speed, and he’s a terrifying opponent to face up against.

8) Konan

Konan has one of the most interesting jutsu styles in all of Naruto, and the variety of ways she’s able to use paper is one of the things that makes her a huge threat. There are the obvious things: she can entomb and asphyxiate people with people; she can turn paper into weapons with chakra; she can decompose her body into paper for intelligence-gathering, defense, and travel; she can even make paper bombs.

Above all, and most memorably, she can construct extremely sophisticated paper environments. Case in point: her legendary execution of the Paper Person of God technique against Obito, where she perfectly constructed an environment out of paper that swallowed Obito into a chasm where he would have to endure explosions for 10 minutes straight. Obito got out just barely with the forbidden Izanagi; for anybody who didn’t have such luck, it’d be over.

7) Orochimaru

Orochimaru, in theory, is one of Akatsuki’s most intimidating members. His wide-ranging encyclopedic knowledge of the shinobi world’s many jutsu is terrifying on its own in a combat scenario. The few showings that we’ve really seen of Orochimaru in action against dangerous opponents (like Sarutobi or Four-Tails Naruto) show his wide range of abilities and his combat prowess.

Add to that the fact that he was a member of the legendary Sannin crew, implying he’s on the same level as Tsunade and Jiraiya, and it’s clear that Orochimaru isn’t exactly the guy you want to tussle with. The problem with ranking Orochimaru is that we don’t actually see him in battle all that often outside of Naruto‘s first part. Few tournament points would be awarded for just clowning on some children—not that we’ve tried that, or anything.

6) Sasori

Sasori’s power is best demonstrated by one of his trademarks: his intimidating scorpion-like puppet Hiruko, adapted from the corpse of a great shinobi into a mobile defensive and offensive machine—basically a tank. Every weapon in the puppet’s arsenal, from a volley of needles spit from the mouth to its sturdy scorpion tail and beyond, was coated with an excruciating poison which would paralyze and then kill.

Sasori had developed such a reputation as a fighter that he became infamous during the Third Great Ninja War, earning the nickname of “Sasori of the Red Sand” for the blood he would spill. With an intimidating arsenal of seemingly endless, diverse puppets at his disposal, Sasori is a next-to-impossible challenger who was only brought down by virtue of coming up against two very particular shinobi—Sakura and Chiyo—whose skill-sets made a battle of attrition possible and winnable.

5) Deidara

Deidara is often underrated in terms of his strength. When we say underrated, we mean underrated. Everybody knows that Deidara is strong—the image of his nuke jutsu during his battle with Sasuke isn’t the kind of thing that easily fades from your memory. But his C4 is one of Naruto‘s best ninjutsu. On top of that, there are some pretty extreme implications of him only really being weak to lightning jutsu that a lot of people don’t consider.

Start with the fact, for example, that of Naruto‘s many Kage, only those who work with lightning jutsu pose a threat to him. The rest can get steamrolled by his microscopic bombs. There’s a big reason that, when Deidara finally hits the bucket, it’s his own doing—most people in Naruto‘s world don’t stand a chance. Combine that with the fact that he’s a pretty decent strategist and he’s so passionate about his “art” that he’s willing to go to extremes others might not, and you wind up with a seriously dangerous Akatsuki member.

4) Tobi/Obito

As stated before, we’ve decided to forego Obito’s Ten-Tails form since it would just make things no fun and since it wouldn’t really speak to his power while he was a member of Akatsuki proper. Leaving that out of the equation, where does Obito (or Tobi) land? First, he’s awakened his Mangekyo Sharingan (complete with the overpowered Kamui) and he’s an extremely strong genjutsu user, which already ranks him fairly high.

Competent use of genjutsu already says a lot about a person: as Jiraiya once described, the use of genjutsu requires an impressive knowledge of anatomy and an otherwise high intelligence. Add onto that the fact he can phase through objects, and he becomes both incredibly slippery and incredibly threatening. His fight with Konan before his Rinnegan and Jinchuriki buffs is a perfect example of his oppressive power, surviving her impossible onslaught with Izanagi.

3) Itachi

One of Naruto‘s most legendary moments is Itachi putting Kakashi in his Tsukuyomi; Kakashi’s inability to break free is the moment where fans became fully aware of the impossible threat he would prove even to Konoha’s most skilled shinobi. This feeling never abated—not that it was ever given reason to. Even his earliest moments on-screen where he shows off skills like his Shadow Clone Explosion leave an indelible impression.

In fight after fight, Itachi proves himself as someone who can absolutely trounce all the competition. From Susanoo to Tsukuyomi to even his little crows, Itachi has a diverse arsenal of abilities that make him pretty impenetrable. His use of Izanami also shows that he has an extensive knowledge of the Uchiha’s forbidden jutsu, ready to weaponize them whenever necessary. His coldness is a key character trait that betrays a much deeper calculation. When he’s on your side—like when he programs Sasuke’s Sharingan to release Amaterasu against Obito—that can be an amazing asset. When he isn’t on your side—well, suffice to say that you’ll wish he was.

2) Kisame

Nonetheless, in terms of raw power, Itachi is outshined by his devoted partner, Kisame. Everybody says this, but it bears repeating: he’s called the Tailless Tailed Beast for a reason. His chakra pool is patently bonkers, and it’s only bolstered by his chakra-absorbing Samehada. Because he absorbs chakra, only extremely adept taijutsu users like Might Guy—and possibly genjutsu users, depending on whether he can absorb something like Itachi’s Tsukuyomi—stand a chance.

It’s worth mentioning that, during their confrontation with Team Guy in the “Kazekage Rescue Mission” arc, Kisame still pushed Guy to open up Six Gates despite his and Itachi’s shadow clones only possessing 30% of their chakra. Kisame is a big, beefy master of Water Release jutsu who can summon an ocean at will and absorb enemy attacks. In the end, the only one who could take him down was himself, committing suicide to prevent Konoha from gathering intelligence on Akatsuki.

1) Nagato/Pain

What is there even to say here? Prior to the Fourth Great Ninja War when Kishimoto throws caution to the wind and starts letting things go off the wall, Naruto‘s universe was peculiarly grounded. When we consider that grounded period, which coincides with the last time Akatsuki really acts as a group in itself, the “Pain Assault” arc sees the closest thing to a world-level threat that had ever really existed in the series up until then. On his own, without even considering the Rinnegan, Nagato’s chakra pool was nothing short of remarkable.

His aptitude for countless varieties of ninjutsu and his deep chakra was only compounded by his Rinnegan. When he was later reincarnated, it took Naruto, Killer B, and Itachi to seal him—without even considering his Six Paths. The Six Paths of Pain are devastating: six corpses each specialized in a certain set of techniques. Nagato was, simply put, unstoppable; even Naruto’s victory is thanks to the combined efforts of village-wide intelligence, Nagato’s drained chakra, Hinata’s activation of Kurama, and Minato’s seal. Nagato leveled Konoha losing only one Path along the way; he made the world fear him; no Akatsuki member comes close. Pain is among Naruto‘s best villains, and it’s obvious why.

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That’ll be it for our Akatsuki ranking, but here’s the surprise: part of the reason for the rules up top is so you can join in on the fun. Feel free to drop some thoughts on where Sasuke might place, or let us know if (for example) you think Madara should be counted as Akatsuki.

Finally, if you want to read about characters who show the dark side of the shinobi world, then click through to the list below!