The Naruto series became popular because of its action, characters, and storytelling, but it also taught fans the value of hard work, determination, and never giving up. By the time the series was over, it had introduced more than one hundred characters, most of whom were good, but like every long-running anime, it had its fair share of villains too, and for the majority of the series, the Akatsuki were the main villains.
The Akatsuki was a group of powerful S-ranked rogue ninja who worked as mercenaries, but their true goal was to capture the Tailed Beasts in order to change the world. Aside from Zetsu, every single member of the group was a Kage-level ninja, which means that they were both strong and smart, but when it comes to pure intelligence, some members were smarter than others.
10 Hidan Just Liked To Charge In & Cut Things
Every Akatsuki member has a unique quality that sets them apart from all the rest, and Hidan's best quality is by far his immortality. Anytime he cut someone and licked their blood, he would activate a special curse that essentially turned him into a living voodoo doll.
Hidan was a foul-mouthed and disrespectful shinobi, and his immortality made him extremely arrogant, which is why he simply charged at his opponents in order to get a small amount of their blood. This is why his intelligence stat is the lowest amongst the organization.
9 Kisame Was Easily Manipulated & Relied Entirely On His Sword
Kisame was extremely loyal, and if things had gone differently, he might have made a great Kage, but when it comes to intelligence, he ranks near the bottom. He wielded Samehada, which happens to be one of the strongest swords in the series, and thanks to its ability to absorb chakra, he was able to take on a Jinchūriki by himself.
Unfortunately, he relied on that sword way too much, and when it abandoned him for a better owner, his massive chakra supply no longer mattered. His loyalty may have been an admirable trait, but it allowed him to be easily manipulated, first by his own village, and then by the fake Madara who promised him a fake world filled with truth.
8 Konan's Keen Intellect Allowed Her To Stand Up To The Fake Madara
Konan was one of the Akatsuki's founding members, and after Yahiko's death, she never left Nagato's side. She wished to help Nagato achieve his dream of true peace by capturing all the Tailed Beasts, and it helped that she was stoic, calm, and level-headed in virtually every situation.
She loved origami, and she managed to develop an entire fighting style around it, which shows just how smart she was. It was thanks to her keen intellect that she was able to figure out how Tobi's space-time ninjutsu worked, and she would have defeated him if it was not for the Izanagi ability.
7 Deidara Specialized In Tricks, Misdirection, & Calculated Gambles
Each Akatsuki member joined the organization in a different way, and Deidara joined after Itachi defeated him in battle. Deidara possessed Explosion Release, which is a rare chakra nature that allows its user to create explosive chakra, and that is why he was part of the Stone Village's Explosion Corps.
Deidara stole a forbidden jutsu from his village when he defected, and it allowed him to mold clay with mouths on his hands and chest. He used those mouths to mold the clay into animals and other things that he was able to control and detonate, and it was because of these clay creations that he was able to trick and misdirect his opponents.
6 Kakuzu's Advanced Age Made Him A Keen Analyst
Plenty of shinobi use forbidden jutsu, and Kakuzu's mastery of the Earth Grudge Fear Technique made him one of the Akatsuki's most terrifying members. According to his stats, Kakuzu's intelligence ranks near the top, which is to be expected seeing as he lived for more than 100 years.
Living that long means that he has more battle experience than anyone else in the organization, which is why he became an expert at judging an opponent's skill level. He managed to live so long because of his forbidden jutsu, as it allowed him to steal the hearts of other shinobi and use them as his own. He was also able to create four masked beats which allowed him to use all five basic chakra natures simultaneously.
5 Sasori Was Able To Kill The 3rd Kazekage & Become A Living Puppet
Sasori may have been the first Akatsuki member to die on screen, but that does not mean that he wasn't one of the smartest shinobi of his era. According to his stats, Sasori possessed the highest level of intellect possible, and it all stemmed from his mastery of poison and puppetry.
It was thanks to this intelligence that he was able to kill the 3rd Kazekage, who is regarded as the strongest shinobi that the Sand Village has ever produced, and he did this on his own. He revolutionized his village's puppet unit, and he was even able to successfully turn his entire body into a living puppet without killing himself.
4 Tobi/Obito Learned Everything From Madara
When he was part of Team Minato, Obito was pretty dumb and foolish, but everything changed when he saw Rin die before his eyes. From that moment on, he decided to join Madara, and he then pretended to be the legendary shinobi in order to enact his grand plan to trap the entire world in an eternal dream world.
Obito played multiple personalities perfectly, and he managed to manipulate things from the shadows as the true leader of the Akatsuki, and it was ultimately thanks to him that the entire ninja world was thrown into disarray. If the real Madara and Black Zetsu hadn't both been manipulating him from the start, he would definitely rank higher on this list.
3 Itachi Sports The Highest Intellect In The Organization
Like everyone else, Itachi has made his fair share of mistakes, and most of them revolved around his love for Konoha and Sasuke. After killing his clan to prevent a coup, Itachi joined the Akatsuki in order to look like a real criminal, but he also did it to spy on the organization for the 3rd Hokage.
Itachi's intelligence was evident from a very young age, as he scored the second-highest score on the written portion of the Chūnin Exams, which is part of the reason why he became a Chūnin at 10. Itachi was constantly composed, observant, methodical, and calculating, even during fights, which is why he left very little room for error.
2 Nagato Was Able To Control 5 Bodies At Once
Nagato experienced a great deal of pain throughout his life, but it was Hanzō's betrayal and Yahiko's death that pushed him over the edge. For the most part, Nagato served as the Akatsuki's leader, but he also governed over the Hidden Rain Village from the shadows along with Konan.
Nagato wanted to use the Tailed Beasts to incite a cycle of war that would leave every nation weakened and primed for conquest, thus ushering in an era of peace through pain. What truly made Nagato a genius though was his usage of the Six Paths of Pain, as he was able to control 6 bodies at once while using all their special abilities in perfect synchronicity during battle.
1 Black Zetsu Manipulated Events For Centuries
Zetsu was technically two beings in one body, and White Zetsu was more or less an Infinite Tsukuyomi victim who became a mutant who did whatever he was told. Black Zetsu is a completely different matter though, as he was actually the physical manifestation of Kaguya Ōtsutsuki's will.
Zetsu is by far the smartest Akatsuki member, and that is because he managed to manipulate events for hundreds of years, to the point that he was technically responsible for most of the ninja world's longstanding conflicts.