The Akatsuki Organization

The Akatsuki (meaning "Dawn" or "Daybreak"), breaking down the word itself gives us "aka" meaning red (a common color in the group) and "tsuki" meaning moon. This Organization is a criminal organization composed of ten high-level S-Ranked criminals’ ninja that have defected from their village of origin. Many of these are missing-nins who fled their villages after causing death and destruction. Akatsuki members are characterized by their long, dark cloaks bearing red clouds with a chin-high collar. Each also possesses a unique ring, which seems to symbolize one's membership in the organization. Members are partnered together in teams of two, each team sticking together as they traverse the world. Despite this partnership, members tend to have a strained relationship with their peers, only cooperating enough to complete their assignments and showing little concern when another member is killed.
Akatsuki was founded by Uchiha Madara after he was expelled from his hometown of Konohagakure. Though initially meant only to mask Madara's movements, Akatsuki eventually began taking part in assassinations and espionage. By the start of the current storyline, Akatsuki's ambitions grow to plans of world domination. To mark this more dynamic goal, Akatsuki increases its activity throughout the series as it attempts to capture the nine powerful tailed beasts. Each member is assigned to capture a specific beast or its current host, at which point Akatsuki convenes to extract the beast and seal it away for their grand plan. As the Akatsuki leader, Pain, explains it, once all nine beasts have been captured Akatsuki will be able to harness their great strength to start world wars at their leisure. With the world governments unable to deal with the beasts' power, Akatsuki will be turned to for salvation, teaching the world the meaninglessness of fighting and giving Akatsuki complete control in the process.
Their ultimate goal is to control the world; this will be accomplished through three steps. Step One is for the group to attain money. Step Two is to create the first mercenary group. Shinobi villages make money for their country, and for the money to be steady it requires war. Because there have not been any large scale wars in approximately the last decade, the ninja villages were being reduced in size. The Five Great Shinobi Villages could handle the downtrend, but the smaller villages could not. Akatsuki will form their own fighting force with no country allegiance. With this force they will undercut all the other villages and fight their battles for cheap. Then using the bijuu they can create new battles and new wars and gain a monopoly over the whole market. In the end they plan to control all the wars and be powerful enough to even collapse the shinobi villages of the large countries, forcing them to rely on Akatsuki as well. With all that in hand, the group can achieve Step Three, to control the world. It should be noted their goal and plans have been explained by Pain, the man acting as leader. While Pain was separated from the group, he expressed his own desire for the Bijuu, to use them to create a powerful Kinjutsu. It has also recently been revealed that Pain reported to Tobi, who was revealed to be Uchiha Madara. What Madara wants with the Bijuu and powerful Sharingan of Uchiha Sasuke is unknown. He may share Pain's deadly Kinjutsu plan or have his own goal mind.