Quote Originally Posted by DB_Hunter
Infact I would say you need one as a necessaty, since you need to be able to direct such a gathering of power for a specific purpose. Otherwise they could always be arguing and never get anything done.
We don't actually yet know the purpose, so we don't know how complicated or simple it is. From what we have seen so far, the Akatsuki dudes are just moving around in pairs doing little things, if anything at all, like observing Naruto and performing a half-hearted attempt to kidnap him. So, if their ultimate goal is pretty simple as well, they don't really need a leader to coordinate things. In fact, not having a leader would ensure they wouldn't fight so much with each other, because nobody would (seriously) think he should be the leader and somebody else not. No power struggle, that is. And simple things can be agreed on whenever they have their meetings.

Well, like I said, that of course assumes whatever they are doing isn't so complicated it would require a leader.