Characters / Kitsune No Ken Fist Of The Fox Akatsuki

In the Kitsune no Ken: Fist of the Fox universe, Akatsuki is a group of seven individuals (Yahiko, Kyusuke, Monjin, Deidara, Konan, Kakuzu, Hidan) who want revenge on the Kyuushingai for the events of the 365 days, which resulted in them being personally harmed or having lost friends or loved ones, and who are being supported in their endeavors by a mysterious individual who furnishes them with instructions and information to carry out their mission.

Tropes about them as a group are immediately below; character-specific tropes follow underneath. For other character-lists, go here.

The Group as a Whole

• Adaptational Villainy: Only in the case of Yahiko, Kyusuke, Monjin, and Konan, who in canon were members of the original incarnation of Akatsuki, which was initially formed as a revolutionary group against tyranny in their native Amegakure. Deidara, Kakuzu and Hidan were already villains in canon.
• Badass Biker: Hidan and Kakuzu, most prominently, though Monjin and Kyusuke have also been shown to ride alongside them while storming the Suna City Prison. Yahiko is later shown to own and ride a chopper-style motorcycle.
• Badass Crew: Individual members are capable of fighting members of the Kyuushingai to a standstill.
• Badass Longcoat: The first time they're introduced together as a group, they're all wearing long black trench-coats with hoods. No red clouds on the coats, though.
• Big Bad: Their mysterious backer is a contender for the title, competing against Gaara and the LOVE syndicate while having enough resources to support Akatsuki's members in their quest for vengeance. Ultimately a Big Bad Wannabe, however, as Gaara proves to have henchmen hidden even within Kira's own company.
• Carnival of Killers: Their members include a Trap Master, a Mad Bomber, a Master Poisoner, a Gun Nut, a Torture Technician, a Scarily Competent Tracker, and a Master Swordsman.
• Dysfunction Junction: They're all screwed up in one way or another, either because of personal trauma or because they're criminally depraved.
• Even Evil Has Standards: They may be villains who're out to kill the Kyuushingai, and they may commit murder and kidnapping to get that job done, but even they don't approve of Hidan's Stalker with a Crush tendencies toward his ex-girlfriend. Even Kakuzu, who leads a gun-barrage assault on a police station that results in several casualties, reacts with disdain to Hidan's obsession.
• Evil Wears Black: The aforementioned longcoats they're seen wearing when first introduced as a group.
• Face Framed in Shadow: How the group's backer is portrayed when offering Mizuki a chance to get revenge on Naruto.
• Hero Killer: They almost kill Naruto twice and successfully kill Roshi...at least, until the fifty-first Gaiden reveals him to be alive after all.
• It's Personal: As stated above, the members of Akatsuki want to kill the Kyuushingai because they personally suffered as a result of the 365 days, or they lost loved ones during that time. However...
  • It's All About Me: This tends to be the prevailing attitude of the less-sympathetic members, with Hidan being the worst of the lot and Kakuzu coming a very close second.
• Man Behind the Man: Akatsuki's mysterious backer, whose face is consistently hidden in the shadows.
• Moral Myopia: They all suffer from this in one form or another, especially concerning their desire for vengeance against the Kyuushingai because of what they underwent during the 365 days. While some of them have motives that are certainly sympathetic, they see nothing wrong with causing hurt to others as a means to an end—in a couple of cases, the same kind of hurt they themselves suffered.
• Murder, Inc.: Their specific goal is the murder of the Kyuushingai.
• Oddly Small Organization: They're only seven in number, but their underground activities were notable enough to grab the government's attention to the point that Yugito had to be sent to warn Naruto about them.
• Seven Deadly Sins: Each member embodies at least one of the sins in some way.
  • Pride: Hidan and Kakuzu have the most self-centered reasons for being in the group to begin with, while Konan and Deidara put a great deal of stock into their respective skills as a Master Poisoner and Mad Bomber.
  • Wrath: All of them have rage issues (mostly directed at the Kyuushingai), but Monjin and Kyusuke have the shortest fuses of the lot.
  • Lust: Hidan's Stalker with a Crush tendencies for his ex-girlfriend qualify him.
  • Gluttony: Yahiko has a pretty big physical appetite, as shown in his food order when the other members prepare to go on a food run at one point. As far as a non-food application goes, he, Kyusuke and Konan are perhaps the hungriest for vengeance out of the seven (while also being probably the most sympathetic in their motives).
  • Sloth: Yahiko often reclines on couches when not on active duty, while Kakuzu likes to use others to do his dirty work.
  • Greed: Kakuzu has this in the sense of having high ambition, escalating his notoriety by assaulting a police station.
  • Envy: Yahiko has a sense of resentment regarding what he's lost, and as a result will target others who he feels have things he should have.
• Standard Evil Organization Squad: Except they don't see themselves as evil—see Tautological Templar below.
• Tautological Templar: The members of Akatsuki genuinely believe that the things they're doing to exact revenge on the Kyuushingai for the events of the 365 days will be for the benefit of the wider public in the long run. According to them, the Nine Terrors shrouded the region in darkness with their antics, so Akatsuki will restore light to the people by taking down the Terrors by any means necessary. Note that those means include kidnapping, murder, and torture.
  Yahiko: We'll do what we have to do. The masses will agree with us, if not right now, then eventually. After all...it was the masses who suffered during the 365 days.
• Tragic Villain: Some of them were deeply affected by genuine trauma associated with the Kyuushingai and the 365 days. "Some" because the others are only using their claims of trauma as a convenient excuse to commit crimes.
• Villainous Friendship: They seem to get along well enough for the most part, particularly Hidan and Kakuzu (even if the latter finds the former's obsession with his ex-girlfriend to be unhealthy). They're also able to work well as a team because of this.

Yahiko

The leader of the group.

• Affably Evil: Yahiko can talk quite casually about the incident that led to him disliking the Kyuushingai, and admits to Naruto that he doesn't really hate the blond boy personally, it's just that they're enemies because Naruto happens to be one of the Nine Terrors. He even openly admits that he finds Naruto's insulting humor to be Actually Pretty Funny. Then he leaves Naruto to be tortured by Monjin.
• Big Eater: When Hidan proposes going to buy food for the group in Chapter 62, Yahiko's order for himself consists of a double-patty burger (heavy on the pickles and mayo) with a large serving of fries, plus two fish sandwiches. Lampshaded by Kakuzu moments later.
  Kakuzu: I'm surprised you haven't gotten obese yet, with your eating habits.
• Cold Sniper: He's proven to be very proficient with a sniper-rifle in Chapter 139.
• Composite Character: This version of Yahiko essentially has Deva Path Pain's facial piercings and canon Yahiko's brown eyes and affable personality.
• Crusading Widower: His wife and children were trampled to death during a stampede caused by terror of the Kyuushingai in their town during the 365 days.
• The Dragon: To Akatsuki's benefactor, as he's the one who receives and distributes or carries out the individual's instructions to the group.
• Gun Nut: Not to Kakuzu's extreme, but he's got a fair variety when it comes on to firearms. So far, we've seen him with two Browning 9mm pistols, a sniper-rifle, a pistol-grip shotgun, and a .357 Magnum pistol.
• Guns Akimbo: At one point, he arms himself with two Browning 9mm pistols, and holds one in each hand during a confrontation in Chapter 142.
• Malevolent Mutilation: He's got his familiar piercings through his nose-bridge. In this universe, they were put there as a medical aid to help his facial bones heal after he got trampled by a stampede that happened in Ame Town during the 365 days and that led to the deaths of his wife and children.
• Slouch of Villainy: Yahiko really likes reclining on couches.
• Tragic Keepsake: His black jacket with the red cloud on the back was a gift from his kids.
• Trap Master: He set up a complex trap involving trigger-switches for bombs inside Gaara's family mausoleum and rigged his own house to blow up if it was ever broken into.

Kyusuke

Yahiko's second-in-command and the resident sword specialist.

• Bond Villain Stupidity: Has to learn the hard way that talking is not a free action when one's opponent is a gunslinger.
• Crazy-Prepared: Early in his confrontation with Itachi in Chapter 86, Kyusuke gets shot four times in the chest...only to reveal moments later that he was wearing a bulletproof vest under his shirt. Keep in mind, Kyusuke was there to kill Yugito, but had no prior idea he'd be facing Itachi, much less that Itachi would be packing heat. Not that it keeps him from being shot in the leg later in the fight.
• The Dragon: To Yahiko.
• Master Swordsman: With a katana being his preferred weapon and what he uses to kill Utakata.
• The Nondescript: Aside from his cat-like eyes, Kyusuke's face is largely average-looking, as he himself mentally notes in Chapter 85.

Hidan

One of the stronger and crazier members of Akatsuki, he specializes in scythe-blades and shadowing of persons.

• Ax-Crazy: He's...not all that right in the brain. Even the other Akatsuki members think so.
• Bond Villain Stupidity: Stabs Kakashi in the chest and leaves him for dead without actually checking if he is in fact dead. This comes back to bite him when it's revealed Kakashi's Icha Icha book served as a Pocket Protector.
• Domestic Abuse: In his back-story, Hidan was this toward his girlfriend Nohara Rin; it was so bad she actually had to take advantage of the Nine Terrors' rampage in their neighborhood on one particular night just to get away from him.
• Jerkass: Both in his back-story and in the present day.
• More Despicable Minion: At least the other Akatsuki members have pasts that have varying degrees of sympathy; Hidan doesn't even have that much. For perspective, Kakuzu—who was a career criminal prior to the 365 days and who orchestrated an assault on Konoha Town's police just for the chance to kill a Kyuushingai—has at least a fairly justified reason for his anger at the Nine Terrors, yet Hidan only blames them for losing his girlfriend during that year of terror while conveniently overlooking that it was his abuse of her that caused her to flee from him.
• The Peeping Tom: He set up a hidden camera in his ex-girlfriend's shower for voyeuristic spying.
• Scarily Competent Tracker: His specialty within Akatsuki.
• Screams Like a Little Girl: Getting "a thousand years of pain" with your own knife will do that.
• Sinister Scythe: Although in this story he utilizes two short-handled kama blades instead of his more familiar giant three-bladed scythe. The author's post-chapter commentary explains that he couldn't think of a plausible way to incorporate the giant scythe into the story's setting without it being too cumbersome (note that this was before the Spiral Reaper appeared in the story).
• Slasher Smile: Often.
• Stalker with a Crush: Hidan is this for the reporter Nohara Rin who's also his ex-girlfriend.
• Villains Out Shopping: In Chapter 62, Hidan goes out to buy food for Yahiko and Kyusuke.
• White Hair, Black Heart: His hair is snow-white, and his heart is pitch-black.
• Would Hit a Girl: Whether the girl in question can fight back or not.

Monjin

The group's torture and interrogation specialist.

• Berserk Button: Monjin has two—the Kyuushingai, and anyone insulting his mother. This is because his mother was one of the first casualties of the 365 days. And if you're a Kyuushingai and you trigger that second button...boy howdy.
• Blade Below the Shoulder: Monjin has a wrist-equipped blade on one arm that he normally keeps hidden beneath his sleeve.
• Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Monjin's mother was among the casualties in the initial slaughter that kicked off the 365 days. To this day, Monjin still doesn't take it well.
• Torture Technician: He uses his arm-blade to cut the captive Naruto repeatedly in order to get the names of the people affiliated with the Kyuushingai out of him.

Deidara

The team's explosives expert.

• Blinded by the Light: Deidara utilizes flash-bang grenades that have this effect, as part of his arsenal.
• Carry a Big Stick: Wields a baton for close-range combat.
• Combat Pragmatist: He sees spitting in an opponent's eye as a perfectly viable combat strategy.
• Eye Scream: The reason Deidara joined Akatsuki was because he lost an eye during the 365 days, although we're not told what exactly happened to result in him losing that eye. He covers the injury with an eye-patch.
• Handicapped Badass: He's blind in one eye from his experiences in the 365 days. He's still able to fight two of the Kyuushingai (Naruto and Roshi) simultaneously without strain.
• Having a Blast: Of course.
• Mad Bomber: Natch. Instead of bomb-style jutsus, he uses real grenades and explosives that can be triggered via remote control.
• Verbal Tic: Yes, he still has it, hmm!

Konan

The group's poison expert.

• Bond Villain Stupidity: She managed to ambush Naruto and poison him. If she hadn't stuck around afterward to try and kill him up close, he'd have been dead right there.
• Broken Bird: Konan lost her husband and her unborn child during the 365 days.
• Crusading Widow: Her husband's death, the legal system doing nothing to rectify it, and the subsequent miscarriage she suffered from the stress of that event, led to her joining Akatsuki to get revenge.
• Cynicism Catalyst: Given the reason for her being a Broken Bird, and the fact that the legal system did nothing to rectify it, Konan doesn't hold much faith in said system as a result.
• Dark Action Girl: A trait that's imported from canon.
• Flowers of Femininity: She wears a white rose in her hair during her spotlight appearance in Chapter 46.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Konan was an ordinary nurse before the 365 days. Following that incident and the trauma she underwent as a result of it, she put her medical skill to use as an assassin in Akatsuki's employ.
• Master Poisoner: It's a skill she developed from her time as a nurse. She concocts a poison which she uses on Naruto (via dart to the neck) during their confrontation in Chapter 46 and which she'd used to kill Roshi in the previous chapter.
  Konan: The weakness you're feeling and your loss of voice are only the first symptoms...in another minute, you'll experience nerve numbness; in five minutes, inability to swallow; in ten minutes, gradual bodily paralysis beginning with the hands and spreading elsewhere. In fifteen minutes, you'll die without the antidote.
• The Smurfette Principle: As in canon, Konan is the only female in the Akatsuki group.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: With the Kira-Killers, since Fuu and Utakata—both Kyuushingai, who she despises—are part of the group.
• True Blue Femininity: Her hair is blue, and she's quite feminine even as a Dark Action Girl. There's also the "loneliness" aspect to her character considering she lost her husband and unborn child during the 365 days.
• Two Girls to a Team: With Fuu, for the Kira-Killers.
• Wolverine Claws: Wears black gloves with clawed fingertips during her fight with Naruto in Chapter 46.

Kakuzu

The team's gun enthusiast, he also excels at photographing targets.

• BFG: M60 machine gun.
• Covert Pervert: Kakuzu expresses a wish to see the camera footage of Hidan's ex-girlfriend in the shower...moments after scolding Hidan for breaking into the woman's house to set up the hidden camera in the first place.
  Hidan: Hypocrite.
• Gatling Good: Makes good use of an M60 machine gun during his calculated assault on the Konoha precinct.
• Glasgow Grin: As in canon. In this story, his scars are stated to be as a result of his being a victim of the 365 days.
• Gun Nut: He comes to the impending siege on the Konoha Town police station with a whole pickup truck full of guns, not only for his own use, but also to provide weaponry to the Hawks gang.
• Manipulative Bastard: Granted, it didn't take the Hawk gang much to agree to help him besiege the Konoha precinct, considering the police were holding the Kyuushingai who happened to shoot up several of the gang's members sometime earlier.
• More Dakka: Kakuzu carries an Uzi as his sidearm, and in his fight with Fuu wields an M60 machine gun.
• Villain Has a Point: While holding Hotaru at gunpoint in Chapter 83, Kakuzu tells her that the police haven't done anything to even arrest the Kyuushingai for the events of the 365 days despite the number of people who died during that time, not to mention survivors of that year's atrocities who have been physically and/or psychologically scarred. He may be a member of Akatsuki, and one of the more violent members at that, but considering how many of the Akatsuki suffered losses during the year of chaos (with Kakuzu himself being horrifically scarred due to a false rumor in his hometown during that period), plus the number of people who did in fact die during that time, and the fact that most of the civilian populace sees the Nine Terrors as having escaped justice, it's hard to argue against his point.