Akatsuki
Groups
Deidara and Sasori were known for being artists. Deidara uses clay to model his explosive animals and Sasori was a master puppet maker. Deidara acted as the junior in their partnership, deferring to Sasori as the stronger ninja. This did not stop them from getting into spats about the nature of art though. After Sasori's death, Tobi assumed his position and role as Deidara's partner. Deidara was assigned to capture the Ichibi and Tobi the Sanbi. Sasori did not know where his Jinchuuriki was. It is unknown if this was the Sanbi or some other individual.
Deidara and Tobi share a very strained relationship. Always eager to impress his new teammates, Tobi is prone to excitement. This often annoys Deidara who tries to do his best to show Tobi what it means to be an Akatsuki member. Tobi was assigned to capture the Sanbi. Though he boasts that he took out the beast himself, he was helped in his assignment by Deidara.
Hidan and Kakuzu work together and share a somewhat testy relationship. Hidan follows a very strict religion, which annoys Kakuzu with its long rituals. Hidan is very defensive of the religion, causing Kakuzu to often get tired of his partner's diatribes. Kakuzu on the other hand often makes side-trips to collect bounties, which annoys Hidan. Hidan was assigned to capture the Nibi. It is unknown what tailed beast Kakuzu was assigned.
Itachi and Kisame work together and form a rather strong partnership. Both men seem to respect each other and Kisame seems to act as the junior in the group, deferring to Itachi's decisions. Itachi was assigned to capture the Kyuubi. It is unknown what tailed beast Kisame was assigned.
Underlinks
Yuura has served as a trusted member of the Kazekage advisory council for four years. Little did Yuura know that he had been placed under a memory block jutsu for over a decade. This block was placed by his former master Sasori. The block made Yuura forget that he was actually gathering data and serving as a plant to wipe out the Sand's defenses. When Sasori returned to Hidden Sand, he activated Yuura and removed the memory block. Returning to his masters commands, Yuura wiped out the Sands defenses, allowing them easier access to capture Gaara. Yuura was later used in a sacrifical jutsu to provide a host body for Uchiha Itachi to inhabit when he fought Kakashi and Naruto. Zetsu later ate his body for sustenance.
This Sand ninja served was an underling of Akatsuki member Sasori. He was used as a sacrifice to take on the form of Hoshigaki Kisame in the Akatsuki leaders Shouten no Jutsu. Kisame fought Gai and managed to imprison Neji, Lee and TenTen. Gai was forced to open several gates and used his Asakujaku technique to pummel "Kisame" and defeat him. In the rubble the body lost its appearance and revealed to Gai that they had not actually been fighting Kisame at all.
Several years before the series started, Kabuto was already working for Sasori as a spy. He last saw Sasori during this period and operated under Sasori's memory block jutsu for a period of time. Sasori placed Kabuto into Orochimaru's confidence in the hopes of learning more about Orochimaru's body transfer jutsu. However, Orochimaru removed the memory block jutsu from Kabuto and the young man was impressed enough by Orochimaru that he chose to still stand beside him. Sasori was apparently ignorant of this fact, and had scheduled a meeting with Kabuto to give him some item. Sasori was killed before this meeting and Konoha ninja went in his place and impersonated him. Kabuto went to Sasori playing the part of his loyal spy, but he turned against Sasori and planned to kill him with the help of Orochimaru. When it was revealed not to actually be Sasori, they chose to fight the Konoha ninja, including Naruto, anyway.
