Akatsuki

Biodata

Power Progression

Organizational growth includes recruitment milestones recognized by Huo Yuhao’s system; these counts do not represent Akatsuki’s total membership.

Background / History

Huo Yuhao conceived Akatsuki while exploiting Tang Ya’s resentment over the Tang Sect’s destruction and Shrek Academy’s hypocrisy. Although he outwardly promised to help restore the Tang Sect, he privately intended to make Tang Ya and the sect serve his own organization and turn her against Shrek 11.

He selected Rain Village because it lay at the junction of three nations, outside Shrek’s and the major empires’ central surveillance zones. Its difficult terrain and constant rain made it defensible. Tang Ya, who had applied to withdraw from Shrek Academy, accepted responsibility for establishing the outpost and recruiting wandering soul masters into Root 48.

The destruction of the White Tiger and Spirit Cat main families supplied Akatsuki with substantial wealth and personnel. Zhu Li recruited their branch members, whose Paper Tiger Cursed Seals were removed. Huo Yuhao promised complete freedom after thirty years of service, and the recruits swore allegiance to Akatsuki 138 144.

Leadership Identities

• Uchiha Madara — Huo Yuhao’s identity as Akatsuki’s founder and leader. Cheng Gang discovers that Madara and Huo Yuhao are the same person 122 160 161.
• Pain — A separate public-facing identity used in mercenary negotiations. A Wood Clone also appears as Pain while Huo Yuhao maintains his student identity 194 195.
• Menma — Used when meeting Jing Hongchen at Ichiraku Ramen. Yu Mengdi initially believes Menma is another powerful Akatsuki senior 264 265.
• Staged succession — Huo Yuhao performs an apparent handover in which a masked “Madara” entrusts him with the name and leadership before claiming that his remaining soul will enter a long slumber 146.
• Delegated command — During seclusion, Huo Yuhao leaves organizational affairs to a Wood Clone with strength equivalent to a rank-98 Super Douluo 430.

Objectives and Policy

Organization and Membership

Recruitment

• Resolve matters: Huo Yuhao states that Akatsuki members must possess the determination to “sever everything” and withstand the darkness ahead. He refuses Xiao Xiao and Jiang Nannan direct membership while allowing them to help establish the Gotei 13 361.
• Membership and system qualification differ: Yu Mengdi and Hu Liena belong to Akatsuki before the system recognizes them as qualifying core members for its recruitment objective 247.
• Gotei recruitment uses assessments: Jing Ziyan is directed to pass the Ming Capital branch’s assessment rather than receiving immediate admission 396.
• Captaincy can be challenged: Huo Yuhao allows existing 11th Division members to take Ji Juechen’s captaincy if they defeat him 396.

Root Organization

• Leader: Tang Ya 48.
• Position: Affiliated covert division of Akatsuki 48.
• Initial recruitment pool: Wandering soul masters 48.
• Assigned functions: Scouting and assassination 48.

Gotei 13

The Gotei 13 reorganizes Akatsuki’s outer members into thirteen squads. Core inner members serve as captains, while other members receive vice-captain, seated-officer, or ordinary-member positions according to strength 383.

• Early staffing shortage: Most divisions initially have fewer than one hundred members. The 4th and 12th Divisions are nearly empty, while the 3rd, 5th, 8th, 10th, and 13th have not yet selected captains 397.
• Former clan personnel: Recruits from the White Tiger and Spirit Cat families form a substantial part of the early workforce 397.

Other Documented Roles

• Kakuzu — Financial chief; codename “Big Dipper.” Manages and allocates all organizational funds 122.
• Cheng Gang — Covert subordinate. After discovering Huo Yuhao’s identity, addresses him as leader and agrees to follow the organization’s plan upon returning 161.
• Ju Zi — Six Paths of Pain operator. Commands five Paths during the operation against Dai Hao, while Huo Yuhao personally controls the Deva Path 486.
• Han Ruoruo — Infiltrator. Agrees to return to Shrek Academy as an Akatsuki spy after seeing Mu En’s memories of its crimes 467.
• Di Qiulin — Later core recruit. Her killing of Mu En precedes her formal introduction to Akatsuki’s current core membership 370 458 459.

Bases and Facilities

• Amegakure’s construction: Advanced Soul Tool technology supports metal skyscrapers, with Heavenly Rain Pavilion at the center 370.
• Headquarters concealment: Moving the entire village into Soul Society leaves Zhongli Wu’s extermination force facing an empty site 383.
• Planar protection: Gu Yuena finds that Soul Society suppresses her powers 383.

Abilities and Resources

Intelligence, Infiltration, and Assassination

• Root is established specifically to recruit scouts and assassins 48.
• The 2nd Division handles assassination and intelligence, while Nana later leads the intelligence-focused 8th Division 397 434.
• Huo Yuhao uses White Zetsu to infiltrate a Sea God Pavilion conference 361.
• Zhu Li kills more than one hundred ambushing soul masters in a single brief attack outside Star Luo City 213.

Spatial Deployment

• Huo Yuhao uses Kamui to extract recruits and allies into the Kamui Dimension, including Yu Mengdi’s recruitment party 246.
• Spatial movement allows him to appear at Mingde Hall during the Body Sect’s attack 419.
• The Kamui Dimension also stores confiscated Fixed Soul Tool Shells 430.

Communication

• Magic Lantern Body Technique: Links participants’ mental power and projects multicolored phantoms for remote meetings. Akatsuki uses it for its first full-organization conference 397.
• Communication rings: Carry operational reports and projections, including Ju Zi’s coordination with Huo Yuhao during the Six Paths deployment 486.

Soul Tool Research and Manufacturing

• Scientific Ninja Tools: Kakuzu combines Mingde Hall blueprints, his Soul Tool knowledge, and Huo Yuhao’s concepts to create a bracer that releases stored ninjutsu without hand seals or the user’s own Chakra—even for an ordinary person 265.
• Soul Tool Development Bureau: Operates under Kakuzu’s 12th Division 397.
• Technical acquisition: Akatsuki obtains two ninth-level Soul Tool blueprints and an exchange-student place for a core member in return for Jing Hongchen’s four recovered shells 344.
• Bombardment doctrine: The 2nd and 12th Divisions attack the Body Sect with saturation fire from Fixed Soul Tool Shells rather than contesting its specialists in close combat 548.

Medical Support

• Tang Ya can store absorbed life force and transfer it to companions to heal injuries and restore Soul Power 43.
• Her 4th Division oversees medical treatment 397.
• Akatsuki maintains a rear medical station during the Douluo Summit War 555.

Uniform and Equipment

• Black robes with red clouds: Akatsuki’s recognizable uniform, worn by recruits and senior members 48 195 246.
• Inscribed rings: Tang Ya receives a red-character ring; Kakuzu receives a ring engraved with “north” 48 122.
• White captain’s haori: Worn over Akatsuki robes to indicate Gotei 13 captain status 388 397.
• Captain’s tablets: Issued with appointment, including Ji Juechen’s induction 396.
• Explosive Tags: Sold and promoted to the Star Luo Imperial Family; Huo Yuhao supplies ten for testing and requests that another ten be auctioned 194.
• Zanpakuto and Asauchi: Soul weapons associated with the Gotei 13; obtaining standard Asauchi for guiding dead souls remains an early organizational problem 396 397.
• Six Paths of Pain: Six Rinnegan-bearing bodies wearing Akatsuki robes and embedded with black receivers, deployed under Huo Yuhao and Ju Zi’s control 486.

External Relationships

• Shrek Academy — Principal enemy. Akatsuki attacks Sea God Pavilion, recruits former Shrek personnel, captures Yan Shaozhe and Beibei, and targets the academy in the Second Soul Hunt Operation 341 369 456 459.
• Star Luo Imperial Family — Initially investigates Akatsuki, then purchases its goods and considers hiring it against the Evil Eye Holy King 150 194 234.
• Mingde Hall / Jing Hongchen — Develops from secret negotiations and technical exchanges into incorporation. Jing Hongchen also hires Huo Yuhao to intervene against the Body Sect by offering half the recovered goods 265 344 419 430.
• Body Sect — Repeated military opponent; suffers losses during an interception attempt and later becomes a declared target of Akatsuki’s war 306 467 548.
• Holy Spirit Cult — Enemy whose leaders attempt to strike Amegakure and later confront Akatsuki over Yan Shaozhe 383 544.
• Clear Sky Sect and Sea God Island — Join the forces confronting Akatsuki outside Ming Capital 544.
• Extreme North — Snow Empress agrees to represent its submission to Akatsuki 456.
• Beibei — Initially insists that Akatsuki abducted Tang Ya and demands her return; later becomes its captive 139 456.

Major Campaigns

Rise to Continental Prominence

• White Tiger Family destruction: Akatsuki destroys the main family’s power base, acquires wealth and recruits, and draws an imperial intelligence investigation. Cheng Gang reports that the attack did not extend to other Star Luo forces or civilians 138 144 150.
• Nine Treasures confrontation: Akatsuki defeats the Nine Treasures Glazed Tile Sect and forces Xuan Zi to flee; Mu En compromises to save him 234.
• Sea God Pavilion assaults: Huo Yuhao’s clone destroys much of the pavilion, while Huo Yuhao attacks Mu En and breaks with Shrek. A subsequent confrontation and Di Qiulin’s killing of Mu En establish Akatsuki as a great continental power 341 361 370.

Second Soul Hunt Operation

• Launch: Huo Yuhao announces a campaign modeled on Spirit Hall’s historical Soul Hunt Operation, targeting Shrek and the old sect order 459.
• Declared targets: Nine Treasures Glazed Tile Sect, Star Crown Sect, Heavenly Armor Sect, Iron Sword Sect, Proud Sword Sect, and Body Sect 467.
• Western Group Army operation: Huo Yuhao and Ju Zi deploy the Six Paths against Dai Hao. Their Super Shinra Tensei destroys the army camp and part of the Mingdou Mountain Range; the Dai father and sons are captured, and White Tiger Martial Souls are extracted 486 490 493.
• Continental confrontation: Huo Yuhao’s Wood Clone declares the aim of ending imperial division and using Infinite Tsukuyomi 499.

Douluo Summit War

• Assembly outside Ming Capital: Tang Ya refuses the coalition’s demand to release Yan Shaozhe and calls Akatsuki’s core fighters to her side 544.
• Meteor strike: Huo Yuhao uses Tengai Shinsei and Chibaku Tensei to annihilate three defected Soul Engineer legions 555.
• Protection of allied forces: He warns Akatsuki members to shelter, then directs the meteor fragments away from them and into Shrek’s forces and the Sea Spirit Beast army 555.
• Defense of the medical rear: Huo Yuhao confronts the Sea Princess and Sea God Island’s High Priest after discovering that they were heading toward Akatsuki’s medical station 555.

Notable Quotes

“Our only stance... Is absolute loyalty to—money!”
— Kakuzu, explaining Akatsuki’s public position 194

“Members of the Akatsuki must possess the resolve to sever everything. Only then can they withstand the darkness to come.”
— Huo Yuhao, refusing direct admission to Xiao Xiao and Jiang Nannan 361

“From this day onward, this place is Akatsuki’s exclusive world—Soul Society!”
— Huo Yuhao, announcing the relocated headquarters 383