10 Naruto Characters Who Had Every Right to Join the Akatsuki, Ranked

The Akatsuki members weren’t just a collection of random villains. It was a sanctuary for those broken by the cyclical brutality of the shinobi system. Their crimes were unforgivable, yet their reasons for rejecting the system were often rooted in genuine suffering. That raises an intriguing question: which other Naruto characters had every reason to walk the same path?

For this ranking, we’ve evaluated characters based on the severity of their trauma, how deeply the shinobi system failed them, how closely their worldview aligned with the Akatsuki’s ideology, and how believable it would have been for them to join the organization.

Here are 10 Naruto characters who had every right to turn their backs on the hidden villages and walk the path of the Akatsuki:

10 Tsunade Lost Everyone She Loved Before Losing Faith in the World

Tsunade’s grief was so profound it manifested as crippling hemophobia (fear of blood), an ironic fate for the world’s greatest medical ninja. After watching her little brother Nawaki die on the battlefield and failing to save her lover Dan Katō from bleeding out, Tsunade completely abandoned Konoha. She spent decades gambling away her sorrows, utterly disillusioned by the endless cycle of ninja warfare.

If Nagato’s path of pain had crossed her wandering years, she easily could have joined him in seeking an absolute end to shinobi suffering, which is why she is rounding up the list.

9 Killer B Endured a Lifetime of Isolation as a Jinchūriki

Before he was Kumogakure’s beloved guardian, Killer B was treated with the same cold, isolating fear that haunts every Jinchūriki. Flashbacks reveal villagers throwing eggs at him, terrified of the Eight-Tails sealed within his body. B masked his pain with rap and rhythm, but the emotional scars of being viewed as a biological weapon rather than a human being were deep.

But B overcame that hatred through his friendship with Gyūki and support from the Fourth Raikage. Had he lacked Motoi’s eventual validation, Bee could have easily gravitated toward the Akatsuki’s vision of dismantling the oppressive village hierarchies, earning him the ninth spot.

8 Sai Was Raised Without Emotions as Root’s Perfect Weapon

Sai sits in eighth spot because, as an orphan raised by Danzō Shimura’s ruthless Root division, Sai was subjected to a psychological meat grinder designed to completely erase his identity. Root expected him to kill his closest companion if ordered. Although Shin ultimately died from illness, the organization was designed to sever every human bond Sai formed.

Stripped of a name, feelings, and moral agency, Sai existed solely as a tool for political assassinations. The Akatsuki’s detached, cold-blooded methodology would have felt intimately familiar to him, providing an ultimate purpose for his expertly conditioned lethality.

7 Haku Was Feared for Existing and Lived Only to Be a Tool

Earning the seventh spot, Haku’s childhood was a horror story born of genetic prejudice. When his father discovered Haku possessed the Ice Release Kekkei Genkai, he slaughtered Haku’s mother and attempted to murder his own son. After killing his father in self-defense, Haku was left to starve on the freezing streets of the Land of Water, treated as an abomination.

Believing his life had zero intrinsic value, Haku only found purpose as Zabuza’s weapon. To Haku, the Akatsuki’s worldview would simply mirror the harsh reality he already lived.

6 Zabuza Was Betrayed by the Cruel Bloody Mist That Created Him

Zabuza was the ultimate byproduct of Kirigakure’s “Bloody Mist” era, famously earning his graduation by slaughtering over one hundred of his fellow academy students. Yet, despite giving his humanity to the village, he was utterly betrayed by its corrupt leadership. After rising through Kirigakure’s ranks, he attempted a coup against the tyrannical Fourth Mizukage, only to fail and become a missing-nin.

Like Kisame, he was forged by one of the bloodiest shinobi systems imaginable. Disillusioned by the hypocrisy of hidden villages that breed monsters only to discard them, Zabuza possessed the exact cynical, anti-establishment mindset that defined the Akatsuki, which is why he ranks sixth overall.

5 Neji Was Born Into a Destiny Built on Hatred, Torture, and Sacrifice

Neji’s childhood was governed by a brutal caste system that literally branded him a slave. Forced to wear the Hyuga Main House’s “Caged Bird” curse mark, Neji watched his father, Hizashi, forced into a fatal sacrifice to protect the ruling lineage. The mark allowed his own family to destroy his brain cells at a whim, a form of systemic torture that shattered his spirit.

Believing destiny was an inescapable prison, Neji’s dark philosophy perfectly mirrored the Akatsuki’s desire to rewrite the world’s unfair rules, ranking him fifth. Neji might’ve joined the Akatsuki, but maybe his arc got similar to Sasuke’s, which is why Kishimoto killed him.

4 Kimimaro Knew Only War, Pain, and a Life Without Freedom

The Kaguya clan saw Kimimaro’s terrifying Shikotsumyaku bone-manipulation ability not as a gift, but as a weapon to be feared. They kept the young boy locked inside a dark, isolated cage for most of his life, only letting him out to slaughter their enemies.

When his clan was wiped out during a reckless assault, Orochimaru gave him purpose, but only as another expendable tool. A life defined entirely by exploitation made him one of the series’ most believable candidates to abandon the shinobi world’s ideals altogether.

3 Gaara Was Raised as a Weapon of Hatred Instead of a Human Being

Gaara’s upbringing was a psychological experiment in creating a monster. Sealed with the One-Tailed Shukaku before birth, he was treated as a terrifying outcast by Sunagakure. The breaking point came when his own father, the Fourth Kazekage, ordered six separate assassination attempts against him, including one carried out by Yashamaru, the only person Gaara ever loved.

Left with the belief that he could only validate his existence by killing others, Gaara was practically a mirror image of the Akatsuki’s most ruthless members. That’s what earns him a place in the top three.

2 Naruto Was Hated by the Same Village He Spent His Life Protecting

Naruto’s early life was a masterclass in psychological isolation. His parents (Minato and Kushina) died trying to protect Konoha. But the villagers of Konoha did not see a heroic orphan. They saw him as the literal reincarnation of the Nine-Tails that destroyed their homes and families.

He was met with cold glares, denied service at shops, and left completely alone in an empty apartment. He ranks second because had Naruto let that deep-seated resentment fester, his isolation would have aligned flawlessly with Pain’s ideology.

1 Kakashi Lost His Father, Mentor, Friend, and Students to a Cruel Shinobi World

No character was systematically stripped of their sanity by the shinobi system quite like Kakashi. He discovered his father’s body after his suicide, watched Obito get crushed by a boulder, and was forced to accidentally kill his teammate Rin with Chidori. Later, his mentor Minato died, his former comrade Itachi turned into a mass murderer, he witnessed his dead best friend (Obito) as a homicidal maniac, and his own students (Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura) fractured into tragedy.

Kakashi ranks first because no one was broken by the shinobi world quite like him. It’s heartbreaking that he still chose to protect the very system that ruined him.

Here is a ranked table:

RankCharacter

1	Kakashi Hatake
2	Naruto Uzumaki
3	Gaara
4	Kimimaro
5	Neji Hyuga
6	Zabuza Momochi
7	Haku
8	Sai
9	Killer Bee
10	Tsunade

Share your ranking and reasoning in the comments below!