The Akatsuki kanji means 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 collection of S-Ranked criminals. Many of these are missing-nins who fled their villages after causing death and destruction. With the departure of Orochimaru, the deaths of Sasori, Kakuzu, Deidara and the neutralization of Hidan, there are 6 active Akatsuki members. The group replaced Sasori with "raw" recruit Tobi, who was eager to do his part. Most members wear a forehead protector from their hidden village with a scratch through it, and all seem to wear a ring identifying their position in the organization and a black cloak with red clouds. When the organization members leave to travel the country they will work in groups of two collecting knowledge of new skills and jutsu.

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. However it has recently been revealed that Pain and the female member reported to Tobi. Tobi was revealed to possess the Sharingan and even possibly be Uchiha Madara himself. What Tobi wants with the Bijuu and powerful Sharingan of Uchiha Sasuke is unknown.
~ripped from LeafNinja.com

Akatsuki members dress in similar clothing: a long, dark cloak bearing red clouds and a red interior with a chin-high collar. All members also wear nail polish of varying colors on their fingernails and toenails. When starting a mission they wear large conical straw hats with small spike-like bells hanging from them to block their faces, but the hats are discarded once they have been discovered. Each Akatsuki member also wears a single, unique ring, and no two members wear a ring on the same finger. In total, there are ten rings, and each seems to have some special significance. Each ring bears a unique symbol, the first kanji of its name. The finger these rings are worn on also indicate where they stand on the sealing statue

The various rings are:
* Right thumb: rei, "zero"; worn by Pain.
* Right index finger: Seiryū, the Azure Dragon; worn by Deidara.
* Right middle finger: Byakko, the White Tiger; worn by Konan.
* Right ring finger: Suzaku, the Vermilion Bird; worn by Itachi Uchiha.
* Right little finger: Genbu, the Black Tortoise; worn by Zetsu.
* Left little finger: Kūchin, the Void; formerly worn by Orochimaru.
* Left ring finger: Nanju, Sagittarius (lit. Southern Star); worn by Kisame Hoshigaki.
* Left middle finger: Hokuto, the Big Dipper (lit. Northern Star); worn by Kakuzu.
* Left index finger: santai, "three levels"; worn by Hidan.
* Left thumb: gyokunyo, the Virgin; currently worn by Tobi, formerly worn by Sasori.