Kakuzu is a member of Akatsuki and the partner of Hidan. Despite their mutual dislike of each other, their teamwork was almost flawless, because they complemented each other's abilities extremely well. Kisame laughingly referred to Hidan and Kakuzu as the "Zombie Brothers" due to the fact that they could not die in a sense.

Kakuzu was a very powerful ninja, as every opponent he had been seen fighting had been defeated with little effort. He had extremely high taijutsu prowess (due to his raw power and swiftness), vast supply of ninjutsu techniques of multiple elements (due to his unique jutsu Earth Grudge Fear and decades of experience) and a highly analytical mind. Those traits allowed him to fight several high-level opponents while generally controlling the pace of the fight.