Naruto has always been a hot topic because of its exceptional characters and plot. The entry of Akatsuki made it worth watching, and all the Akatsuki members rule billions of hearts for multiple reasons. Therefore, I prepared a list ranking the strongest Akatsuki members based on their strengths and specialties.
The entire Naruto Shippuden series revolves around the Akatsuki members and how they collect all the Tailed Beasts to revive the legendary Ten-Tails. And these are the story’s villains that made the show so exciting to watch. I mean, can you imagine watching Naruto if the heroes didn’t have any powerful opponents to fight against?
And the Akatsuki members were so well-written that they also rank pretty high in popularity charts, even higher than many of the heroes in Naruto Shippuden. I am sure you also have several favorite members of Akatsuki that you absolutely love.
But we aren’t ranking them based on their popularity in this article but on their strength. So, let’s not waste any more time and see who the most powerful Akatsuki members in Naruto Shippuden are!
The Strongest Akatsuki Members Of All Time (2023)
16. Jūzō Biwa
Jūzō Biwa is an anime-only character and, thus, not exactly popular when talking about Akatsuki members. But if he is a part of the team, he is worth discussing.
Jūzō was once the partner of the one and only Itachi Uchiha. I am sure you guys must think that his partner was Kisame, which is true, but Kisame was Itachi’s second partner. Jūzō was feared for his brutality and mercilessness when it came to killing his foes. He was a skilled water-release user, and his sword-wielding was impressive, considering he was one of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist.
If we were to rank him among the strongest Akatsuki members, he would be the weakest. Though skillful, he wasn’t strong enough compared to the other members. During one of his missions with Itachi, he lost his life in a fight with the Fourth Mizukage, who was the Jinchuriki of the Three-tailed Beast!
15. Kyusuke
Kyusuke was one of the oldest members of the Akatsuki, actually the founding member along with Yahiko, Nagato, and Konan. He is strong, but not in terms of strength. One hardly finds him doing something extraordinary, though he works incredibly well in gathering intelligence and information.
Besides, he was not brutal at all. He was very introverted and joined Akatsuki after knowing that Yahiko and the team were on a mission to bring peace.
One of his biggest strengths is his swiftness and speed. Speed aside, he was a kenjutsu-user like Jūzō. He was a minor character, so one can’t expect something exceptional from him. However, the title Akatsuki means he was much stronger than an average shinobi!
14. Zetsu
Zetsu is the unique Akatsuki character who played the most significant role in bringing the chaos to life. He is a strange being with two different forms combined, namely “Black Zetsu” and “White Zetsu.”
White Zetsu is generated from the cells of Hashirama and therefore has his qualities. It can easily replicate oneself and take the form of the other so perfectly that no one can feel the difference. Only Naruto could notice the difference because he could sense emotions while using his Nine-Tails Chakra Mode.
On the other hand, Black Zetsu was pretty serious comparatively. Till the end, Black Zetsu kept its true intentions and secrets hidden. He was one of the most significant members of the Akatsuki and used to make sure that their secrets didn’t get out. To do so, he would usually devour the dead bodies of people with information about Akatsuki.
Zetsu wasn’t exactly a strong character, but he survived long enough, played the long game, orchestrated several events that shaped the shinobi world, and eventually achieved his goal of reviving Kaguya Ōtsutsuki.
13. Hidan
Hidan was one of the prominent Akatsuki members; he used to partner with Kakuzu. He was pretty powerful, and his technique of killing his opponents was scary and brutal. Besides, he gives tough competition to the opposition because of his immortality. No matter the type of attack, it wouldn’t harm him anyway.
His deadliest and most powerful attack is by the use of a Triple-Bladed Scythe. This technique was a curse that would start when Hidan tasted the opponent’s blood, and after that, he would draw a circle around him. If he remains in the circle and injures himself with a scythe, it will directly injure the opponent.
This curse technique took Asuma’s life, igniting the fire in Shikamaru, and he planned to avenge his teacher’s death. Shikamaru defeated Hidan after a lot of struggles and proper planning, making Hidan the victim of his own curse.
12. Deidara
The great worshipper of art, Deidara, was a Kekkei Genkai user. It bestowed him with unique abilities, and he was skillful in Explosion Release. His specialty was creating explosives that could cause destruction on a massive scale.
His strength can be determined by the fact that he gave Gaara a near-death experience. Strength and jutsu aside, he was very intelligent. There weren’t that many shinobi who could fight him and come out unscathed; he even died at his own hands when he turned himself into a suicide bomb in an attempt to kill Sasuke.
His last explosive was so destructive that it forced Sasuke to summon and sacrifice his strongest snake summon, named Manda, to evade the bomb. Otherwise, Sasuke would have been a victim of grave consequences.
11. Sasori
Sasori was one of the best puppet masters, and his specialty lay in creating the strongest human puppets. Most of his puppets were once humans; he even turned his parents and himself into puppets. Whatever human body he has turned into a puppet, he would have their techniques at his disposal.
He learned to create puppets from his granny, and in the end, his granny and Sakura defeated him with combined efforts. It was a deadly fight that required the ultimate best of Granny Chio and Sakura together.
He was so skilled that he created an army of his puppets, and each one of them was difficult to defeat. To top it off, he can even control living humans and turn them into his living weapons.
10. Orochimaru
Orochimaru is one of the three legendary Sannin and undoubtedly one of the strongest Akatsuki members. He is a genius who has mastered different jutsus and ways to keep himself immortal. His curiosity, strength, skillsets, and struggle make him one of the most knowledgeable and powerful shinobi of all time.
It’s not easy to go against him; even the third Hokage had to sacrifice his life in an attempt to seal him, which of course, didn’t work. You heard it right; even after sacrificing his life, the third could only seal his arms.
His chakra reserves are enormous; to top it off, he can absorb the opponent’s chakra. One of his deadliest techniques includes placing a cursed mark on a strong target to make them his vessels.
9. Kakuzu
Kakuzu was a formidable opponent to defeat for Kakashi, even with the help of Choji and Ino. Killing a person with five hearts and five chakra natures is no easy feat. He was an S-rank Akatsuki member. If it weren’t for Naruto’s underdeveloped Rasen-Shuriken, Kakashi and the team would have long lost against this immortal being.
Once he was given a mission to assassinate Hashirama, though that’s obvious no one can be on par with Hashirama, Kakuzu somehow survived the battle. Intelligence aside, thanks to his five hearts, he was highly skillful in nature transformation and ninjutsu.
He partners with Hidan, and they are believed to be the best and the craziest duo in Akatsuki, who lust for blood and money. Kakuzu can’t tolerate anyone and believes in killing. Still, due to his immortality, Hidan was the only one who could stay with him alive.
8. Konan
Beauty with brains and exceptional power is the best way to describe the ever-so-charming Konan. Konan is the only female Akatsuki member and was stronger than many top-ranked Akatsuki members. She was skilled in paper ninjutsu; this technique of hers helped her gather and transfer information. Konan could shape the papers in any shape she desired, and one of her moves was to transform the papers into different types of shuriken.
One can easily get an idea of how strong she was from her fight against Tobi, aka Obito. She was the first ever shinobi to force Tobi to use his Izanagi against her.
7. Shin Uchiha
Though he was not a part of Naruto Shippuden’s Akatsuki team, he is worth mentioning on the list. He debuted in Boruto: Naruto Next Generations with an aim to bring back the Akatsuki. He was capable of fighting against both Naruto and Sasuke and gave them a pretty hard time together.
Shin was unique as he was the experimented test subject of none other than the genius Orochimaru. Therefore his genetic build-up was far superior to many as he could perfectly do organ and tissue transplantation. His multiple Sharingans made him a worthy opponent against both Sasuke and Naruto. To top it off, he even mastered the Mangekyou Sharingan!
6. Kisame Hoshigaki
Kisame was the partner of Itachi Uchiha. He was strong enough to capture the Four-tails with little effort. Well, this guy alone is enough to give a stressful time to the top shinobis of Konoha. Killer Bee, the Jinchuriki of the eight-tails, and Might Guy had a tough time dealing with this shark-faced guy.
Both of them were forced to fight against Kisame’s clone at their best potential. Might Guy even had to open his six gates to cope with his clone only, and then later, he opened his 7th gate to go against the original Kisame.
Kisame was believed to be the strongest and a highly-skilled shinobi, even without his sword Samehada. He could hide so perfectly that even Killer Bee and many other top-class sensory-type shinobis couldn’t sense his presence. At last, no one succeeded in killing him, and he killed himself.
5. Sasuke Uchiha
Sasuke is the epitome of strength, and on par with Naruto, no one can win against each other. He alone went against the five Kage together though he had a tough time against them, but he survived the battle. Raikage, who is believed to be one of the strongest due to his immense chakra reserves, lost his arm while fighting Sasuke.
He was on such a level that even the legendary Madara Uchiha complimented him, and he wished to make him his apprentice. Over time, he became much more powerful! While being an Akatsuki member, he might be lower in strength than others, but by the end of the series, he was the strongest!
4. Obito Uchiha
What to say about the guy who built Akatsuki from scratch? Obito Uchiha, the apprentice of Madara Uchiha and the first person who became the Jinchuriki of the Ten-Tails without anyone’s help. He splendidly used the powers of the Ten-Tails to demonstrate his dominance. Obito manipulated the Jinchurikis and their Tailed Beasts through his Sharingan and Rinnegan combo.
Plus, his role-playing as Tobi was one of the biggest plot twists at Akatsuki’s end. The power of his Dojutsu was an exceptional asset throughout all his battles. His ocular technique even helped traverse the multiple dimensions that Kaguya Otsutsuki had in her control.
If it weren’t for him, there would be no 4th Great Ninja War, and Madara would have never returned to life. Additionally, let’s pay tribute to this guy who sacrificed himself twice for his friends.
3. Itachi Uchiha
Itachi Uchiha is the man who made the anime fandom cry over his loyal actions and made them fall in love with his genuine demeanor. The genius prodigy who became one of the youngest Anbu Ops. His calm analysis and level-headed thinking placed him above many of the strongest Akatsuki members and other prominent shinobis.
His dojutsu was so well-developed that he even captured Kakashi in his genjutsu in less than seconds. Itachi also had the power of the famous black flames, aka Amaterasu, that even Jiraya couldn’t handle. He never fought any battle with his true potential because he wasn’t a fight-oriented person.
Even Sasuke shivered in fear at the sight of Itachi coming towards him. He was skillful enough to remove the hidden Orochimaru from Sasuke’s cursed seal. The remarkable power of his Susano and the Sealing Sword of Totsuka was an incredible asset at his disposal.
2. Nagato/Pain (Six Paths of Pain)
The man who introduced the highest-ranking dojutsu, Rinnegan, and made people shiver with only his name is none other than Nagato, aka Pain. Nagato was the face of Akatsuki and was known as the God in the village hidden in the Rain. After awakening the true potential of his Rinnegan, he never lost a single battle until he confronted Naruto.
He was the first ever person who pushed Naruto to his limits going from the Sage Mode to Eight-tails mode and breaking the seal ultimately. Even the best of the best, Naruto, had a tough time against him, given that Nagato was never at his full potential.
He destroyed Konoha with a snap by using his Shinra Tensei jutsu. His God-like ocular powers were so dominating that no other shinobi could even come close to defeating him. And when he was brought back using the Edo Tensei jutsu, it took the combined might of three highly-skilled and powerful shinobi like Naruto, Killer Bee, and Itachi, to pin this guy down.
1. Madara Uchiha
Mere words can’t describe his dominance and the might of Madara Uchiha. It took Masashi Kishimoto years to build his ultimate best character, whose name still instills fear among the whole Naruto fandom. He was the only person who made Hashirama use his Sage Mode.
Madara had a remarkable and deadly battle against Hashirama, the God of shinobi. Madara Uchiha was the first one ever to awaken the Rinnegan! So one can now determine the level of greatness of this man.
His manipulative mind made puppets of the strongest shinobis, including Obito and Pain. His genius created the army of White Zetsu. He alone dominated the elite shinobi forces as well as the Tailed Beasts. With only one Rinnegan, he took over the Tailed Beasts effortlessly, becoming the second Jinchuriki of the Ten-tails.
He forced Might Guy to use his full potential to open the Eight Inner Gates in a near-death experience. Without a doubt, he is the best villain in the history of Naruto and one of the best anime characters ever. It took Naruto and Sasuke their ultimate best to give him a challenging fight.
And while one may argue about him being an Akatsuki member, he was the one who set the plans in motion by manipulating both Obito and Nagato, who ultimately created the team!
Conclusion
There is considerable debate regarding ranking all the Naruto characters; all Naruto fans would rank the characters from different perspectives. But the beauty of the series is that each character is incomparable and superior to others in one way or the other.
So, let me know your thoughts and opinions about the rankings of the most powerful Akatsuki members! Also, share your opinion and let me know if I did a good job with this article or not!
Featured Image Credits: Reddit
