Akatsuki Leader

its Tobi. not Uchiha Madara. TOBI 'had' the power of the legendary Shinobi and the ultimate Mangekyu Sharingan. Pain was one of his underlings and was acting leader to hide Tobi's true intentions. *spoiler alert* Itachi knows that Tobi had the power of Uchiha Madara thats why he desperately lure Sasuke to battle to awaken the Mangekyu Sharingan. One of the reasons why Tobi wants the Jinchuuriki its because he knows that Naruto was the one the prophecy foretold who had the power to destroy or save the world. Jiraiya realized this when he fought Pain. lol. so much for the no. 1 clumsy ninja!

oh... i haven't reached the part where i get to see who the Akatsuki leader is... Maybe when i get to watch the much later episodes... =)

It would seem as though Madara is the true leader of the Akatsuki and Pein is just the stalking-horse or figurehead, so to speak. Pein is the "leader" and gives the orders to everyone, and yet he backs down to Madara and receives orders to Madara. To me that states right there that the true leader is Madara. I wouldn't be surprised is Madara decided, long ago, to use Pein as a figurehead so that anyone hell bent on challenging the Akatsuki would take on Pein and save him the trouble. As for the fact that Itachi says Madara is weak, well, this is the guy who found it necessary to slaughter his entire clan to test his capacity. Truth be told, I expect he isn't stronger than Madara, despite what he may think. Then again, I don't have a very high opinion of Uchihas anyway. Arrogant punks. LOL!

its kind of weird. itachi says that madara created the akatsuki, (but who is really weak now) according to itachi. pein is the "figurehead" as he gives the orders to other members, yet tobi gives orders to pein. there are 2 sides of tobi (the goofy one who is clumsy, and the more evil one who gives the orders to pein and states that he is madara or has the power of madara... something like that)

This may be a spoiler to some people so you can just skip over it if you do not want to know. I do not have much information on the manga but I do know that Uchiha Madara was the one who started the Akatsuki, and Pein is the current leader. If Madara is the true leader and Pein is just the acting leader, I do not know.