Nagato (Naruto)
Nagato is a male anime and manga character who features in Naruto.
Contents |
Biography
Nagato (Japanese: 長門, Hepburn: Nagato) was a male human born as the son of Fusō and Ise on the outskirts of Amegakure in the Ninja World. When he was young, he was secretly visited by Madara Uchiha who transplanted his Rinnegan into Nagato without anyone being aware of it. Afterwards, the world was suffering from the events of the Second Shinobi World War with Nagato and his parents taking shelter in their home to avoid the fighting. During this time, two Konoha shinobi broke into their home where they began to look for food. Nagato's parents attempted to sneak out unnoticed but were discovered by the ninjas who attacked his parents with them serving as a distraction to allow their son to escape. Ultimately, the shinobi killed his parents in self-defence only to learn that they were only civilians rather than enemy combatants. The two ninja apologised to the young Nagato who in his grief awakened the Rinnegan for the first time which he used to kill his parents murderers and avenge their deaths.
In the aftermath, Nagato wandered war torn landscape where he left home in search for food and shelter where he came to find two other war orphans like himself named Konan and Yahiko. The three decided to band together where they looked to protect one another as they looked for enough food to survive. During this time, the three often shared their dream of a future where they would gain enough power so that they could eliminate war. Yahiko was particularly passionate about this point with this becoming an inspiration for Nagato who adopted the same goal. However, to accomplish this goal, the three would need training to become a ninja but struggled to find anyone to aid them. One day, they spied on three travellers that were the newly crowned Legendary Sanin of Konohagakure that were Jiraiya, Tsunada and Orochimaru who were heading back to their village after their mission. Yahiko spied on the three in order to see if it was safe to approach them and ask for food where he signalled Nagato and Konan to approach. Jiraiya offered his food as he felt guilt over his participation in the war though Orochimaru suggested killing the three orphans so that they would not suffer anymore. However, Jiraiya decided to remain behind whilst his fellow Sannin returned as he intended to train them to survive. Thus, he watched over them for a time where they came to request that he teach them ninjutsu though he often refused until one day he saw Nagato's eyes that held the Rinnegan. He then decded to finally teach them the way of the shinobi where he began training the three over the course of the next three years. During this time, Nagato excelled in performing any jutsu taught to him despite being only 10 years old at the time. Despite his talent, he was often noted for crying with Jiraiya stating that he would grow stronger and know what to do in life as he matured. Eventually, Jiraiya completed his training of the trio and decided it was time to leave for Konohagakure and allowed Nagato and his friends to forge out their life on their own where he departed on good terms with them
The three formed an organisation they called Akatsuki with Yahiko as leader and they began advocating an end to war. Their message proved popular and they gathered many followers and during the Third Shinobi World War, they were approached by a disguised Obito Uchiha, who was introduced as Madara Uchiha, offering to help them in their pursuits and show Nagato how to unlock the full potential of his Rinnegan. Yahiko refused the offer, suspecting Tobi only meant to use them. Hanzō of the Salamander, the leader of Amegakure, decides that Yahiko's group is a threat to his rule. Hanzō kidnaps Konan and tells Nagato that he must kill Yahiko if he wants Konan to live. Yahiko immediately drives himself onto Nagato's kunai, killing himself for Konan's sake. Nagato is horrified and angered by Yahiko's death and uses his Rinnegan to summon the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path to defeat Hanzō's men and Danzō's Root shinobi, while Hanzō himself escaped. Afterwards, Nagato severed his ties with Amegakure, no longer wishing to be affiliated with Hanzō's village. After Yahiko's death, Nagato take over the name of "Pain",. As the damage he'd received from Hanzō's attack and the link with the Demonic Statue left him frail and immobile, Nagato create his "Six Paths of Pain", which he controlled remotely.
Later on, his home of Amegakure came to have an intruder from the outside and sent Konan to track them down whilst he decided to deploy his Animal Path. Konan came to report that the intruder was their former sensei Jiraiya with this surprising Pain. The Legendary Sanin had come to the village after his intelligence network informed him that it was the home of the Akatsuki leader. The Animal Path arrived in time to free Konan from restraints that Jiraiya had placed on her with Nagato's former sensei not recognising the Pain body and only determined it was Nagato because of the presence of the Rinnegan. Nagato though stated that he had sine become a god and that he planned to liberate the world through destruction. In the resultant fight, the skill of Jiraiya forced Nagato to bring reinforcements in the form of his Preta Path and Human Path. With the three in pursuit, they managed to keep Jiraiya on the run and defensive where he ended up having to use his Sage Arts in conjunction with genjutsu made by his summoned toads. Paralysed, Jiraiya came to use kill the three aspects of Pain using his Stone Swords making it seem that he won their battle. As he was leaving though he came to be ambushed from behind by the Asura Path who severed his arm. The Naraka Path came to restore the other aspects of him where the collectively the Six Paths of Pain came to confront Jiraiya. The presence of the Deva Path made Jiraiya question whether Pain was either Yahiko or Nagato as he had not determined how all Six Paths came to hold the Rinnegan. The battled continued but Jiraiya came to retreat into the Toad Gourd Prison with the Animal Path in close proximity causing that body to be captured as well. Jiraya stabbed the Animal Path thus neutralising it and contemplated returning to Konohagakure but felt that he only had a single chance at learning the secret of Pain. Thus, he decided to stay behind and battle Pain but was overwhelmed by his foe with the Asura Path crushing his truth just as his former sensei had learnt a secret about his foe. Unable to voice his finding, he had the information burnt on the skin of the toad Fukasaku's back and gave him an opportunity to escape just as Pain launched his final attack. This caused the fatally injured Jiraiya to fall into the sea and with his defeat Pain came to have a moment of silence for his former master.
Afterwards, he came to get a new body to embody the Animal Path thus restoring the Six Paths of Pain to full power. He then continued the Akatsuki's mission of getting the jinchuriki where he captured the Six-Tails host Utakata. Easily overpowering him, he took him to have the Tailed-Beast extracted from his body thus killing him in the process. Similarly, the host of the Seven-Tails had also been captured and the beast inside them extracted of its chakra. Meanwhile, Sasuke Uchiha had been recruited as an ally to the Akatsuki by Tobi and had been sent to hunt the Eight-Tails. Thus, it was decided that the time had come to hunt down the last remaining jinchuriki which was the Nine-Tails that resided in Naruto Uzumaki. As a result, Pain was dispatched for this task where he made his way to the village of Konohagakure. Nagato's real body was placed at a hidden spot in a tree on the highest point around the village so his chakra could be well-received by his Six Path of Pain. They arrived at the outskirts of the village where they ended up killing the guards there after which they bypassed the detection barrier by having the Animal Path thrown above Konoha at which point she used a reverse summoning to transport the rest of the group on site. The Paths then separated and then attacked where they used the chaos to target enemy shinobi and interrogate leaf shinobi about Naruto Uzumaki's whereabouts though many either did not know or refused to tell Pain. In this time, Pain came to battle against Kakashi Hatake who was unable to defeat the Akatsuki leader and in fact died from the stresses placed on his body. The Deva Path came to confront the Fifth Hokage Tsunade where he queried her on Naruto's location but she refused to answer him. However, his Human Path came to discern Naruto's location from the mind of a shinobi and learnt that he was training amongst the toads at Mount Myoboko. Pain then decided that he had no use for the village and decided to teach them a lesson in knowing true pain whereupon he used the Shinra Tensei to level most of the village. This act killed scores of people and left Konoha devastated with only a few band of survivors left.
It was then that Naruto Uzumaki returned via a reverse summoning after contact had been lost with Konohagakure.
Overview
Personality and attributes
In appearance, Nagato was a young male with pale skin and notable red hair. It was said that his red hair was a mark of his Uzumaki heritage. When he as younger, his hair tended to cover and obscure his eyes thus preventing people from seeing the Rinnegan. During his training to be a ninja, he began to part his hair so that only his right eye was covered. His eyes and skill led to him being referred to as the Child of the Prophecy (予言の子, Yogen no Ko). Following the death of his friend Yahiko, Nagato adopted the alias of Pain (ペイン, Pein) as this represented the despair he felt over his experiences in the world. The name Pain was actually just an alias for when he was operating all the six bodies under his control.
Ultimately, though, he simply wanted to protect his friends no matter what pain he was forced to endure in his life.
It was his harsh life that shaped his thinking as he grew up where he came to consider that maturity could only be achieved through experiencing pain. This philosophy came to extend to his view on how to end conflict in the world which was by making everyone experience pain together. As the seeming leader of the Akatsuki, his goal was to create powerful jutsu using the Tailed-Beasts and leave these weapons of mass destruction with each of the nations. This was knowing that each nation would intend to use it and the power of the jutsu would result in the death of millions. He believed that the pain caused by the use of such weapons would lead to humanity maturing and help bring about an end to further war. In fights, he looked to inflict as much pain onto his enemies so that they would hate him and thus understand his own pain. Despite that, he came to state that his pain was far greater than his opponents.
As Pain, Nagato came to believe that he had transcended his humanity and matured into a god. In this role, he believed that he had the find a way to end conflict within the ninja world. To that end, he determined that the only way was enforcing his view on others.
He came to know his former sensei's capabilities that included his weaknesses such as his lack of talent in the use of genjutsu. It was shown that he acknowledged the fact that Naruto Uzumaki was also a fellow student of Jiraiya with this making them kin. However, this did not stop him from attempting to achieve his goal of ending conflict in the world.
Powers and abilities
A descendant of the Uzumaki clan, Nagato was born was a naturally resilient chakra and whose actual reserves were unusually vast. This allowed him to perform multiple techniques that were taxing on his chakra with him able to do several such acts in a day. He was noted for having an incredible level of control over his chakra to the point that he could alter its characteristics and negate the chance of a sensor finding him. Nagato could also cause it to rain over a large area around him with him able to use the raindrops to sense the chakra of anyone inside its range. One form of jutsu he was able to enact was to create constant rain across a wide area where he was able sense anything the rain touched. Thus, such areas were engulfed in constant rain and allowed him to detect the presence of intruders. However, he had to dispel the jutsu in order to find and track down such individuals. This allowed him to attain a near god-like level of omniscience and detect any stealthy infiltrations of his territory. Initially, he was untrained until he went under the tutelage of Jiraiya who taught him everything he knew about ninjutsu.
Nagato came to gain a transplanted pair of Rinnegan (輪廻眼, literally meaning: Saṃsāra Eye) that were one of the three most famous eyes. It was in fact said to be the greatest of the ocular jutsu with it having been used by the Sage of the Six Paths.
Among the techniques known to him inclued:
- Rain Tiger at Will Technique (雨虎自在の術, Ukojizai no Jutsu) :
- Chibaku Tensei (地爆天星, Chibaku Tensei) :
- Outer Path — Samsara of Heavenly Life Technique (外道 輪廻天生の術, Gedō — Rinne Tensei no Jutsu) :
He was able to use the Outer Path technique known as the Six Paths of Pain (ペイン六道, Pein Rikudō) whereby his Rinnegan allowed him to manipulate up to six bodies as though they are their own. This involved implanting black receivers within the bodies of six corpses with these resembling body piercings. Once done, each allowed Nagato to control them remotely as though they were extensions of his own body. He was able to control the Path's across great distances though techniques that demanded more chakra required the Path's to come to close proximity to one another. Alternatively, Nagato could instead devote his full control to one of the Path's and placed all his chakra into that corpse. As they were corpses, these bodies did not react to anything but the most debilitating of damage and Nagato could cause of the Path's to react to threats in a matter of seconds. Through Nagato's Rinnegan, he was able to have each of the Path's share visual information allowing him to coordinate their attacks. He limited each body to one branch of the Six Paths Techniques thus making each specialised in a particular form of attack ranging offensive, defensive, reconnaissance or repair. If a body was destroyed, Nagato was known to replace it in order to keep the Six Paths at full strength.
Among the Six Paths included:
- Deva Path of Pain (天道, Tendō) : considered Nagato's most treasured Path that was created from Yahiko's dead body and was held as the mightiest of the six with the highest chakra levels along with fighting skill. It wielded Nagato's power to control gravity allowing him to perform telekinesis and to levitate at will with it being known for its three powerful techniques. Among these included Banshô Ten'in (Universal Pull) that allowed him to pull anything towards him at variable force where he could bring in a person at close range to deliver a fatal strike or to attract something to strike his target. Another technique was the Shinra Tensei (Almighty Push) that blew anything in front of him at variable force either creating a frontal blast or a powerful shockwave. This could be used defensively to deflect attacks or to destroy everything around him. Nagato could gather all his chakra into the Asura Path and destroy everything over an immense area though this came at a great cost to his chakra reserves.
- Asura Path of Pain (修羅道, Shuradō) : wielded Nagato's power to duplicate body parts and transform them into mechanical ones that contained chakra-powered weaponry. After undergoing a full transformation, the Asura Path looked like a three-faced six-armed humanoid with it being physically strongest and most resilient of the six.
- Human Path of Pain (人間道, Ningendō) : wielded the power of Soul Removal with this body able to read the minds of victims grabbed by it and transfer knowledge gained to Nagato. The process saw the victims souls removed from their bodies which killed them instantly. The Human Path could extract the soul of anyone it had touched thus killing them quickly. In addition, it was held as the fastest of the Six Paths that even sensor ninjas could not sense it quick enough allowing the body to catch people off-guard before they could react.
- Animal Path of Pain (畜生道, Chikushōdō) : possessed the power of Summoning with it having the power of calling upon many giant monsters and even places unique to Nagato.
- Preta Path of Pain (Preta Path (餓鬼道, Gakidō) : wielding the power of Energy Absorption whereby through physical contact it could absorb another person's chakra that was used to replenish Nagato's strength. This Path often caught its target and drained their energy until they died. It was also able to absorb any Ninjutsu technique with a matter of seconds making it a potent form of defence. In addition, it could create a barrier spell around its body allowing it to absorb chakra-based attacks from all sides.
- Naraka Path of Pain Naraka Path (地獄道, Jigokudō) : controlled Life and Death where it summoned the King of Hell (冥府の王, Meifu no Ō) that could only be seen by its victims or those with perception power. As it possessed the Rinnegans, Nagato was able to see through the sees of the King of Hell. It could devour the life of people and also store the souls of the dead with it able to resurrect those consumed by it such as the other Paths of Pain. When it manifested, the King of Hell unleashed tendrils from its mouth to question them with it devouring the life of those that lied or refused to talk but released those that spoke the truth. The jutsu when used in conjunction with the Samsara of Heavenly Life technique allowing for it to resurrection large numbers of people but this came at the caster's own life.
His weapon of choice was using the black chakra receiver rods as blades that emerged from the body of the Six Paths of Pain. With them, he could use them defensively such as by deflecting ranged weaponry or offensively such as by stabbing his opponents with the rods.
Among the Akatsuki, he was regarded as its most powerful fighter which was why he served as their leader. In reality, 'Madara' was the true mastermind of the group where it was said that he manipulated Nagato's hatred for his own ends.
He based himself at his original home village of Amegakure which he ruled in secret and kept strict control over it where he watched from the shadows. To the outside world, it was believed that the land was torn apart in a civil war but in reality no such conflict was waged and everything was under Pain's rule. The inhabitants were fearful of him but also came to worship him as a god.
Notes
- Pain was created by Masashi Kishimoto where he featured in the Naruto universe.
- In Sha no Sho, Kishimoto briefly explains the philosophy behind Pain's design, stating, "He's Akatsuki's leader, so he has to look fairly cool, but I still wanted him to look dangerous. Since his name is 'Pain', I decided to add some piercings to his body, like he's the kind of guy who would inflict pain upon himself". Notable among the few unused concept designs is a small sketch in which Pain appears to wear a partial mask and feather, or horn-like accessories fitted to his forehead protector.
In other media
Television
- In Naruto, Nagato appeared in the setting of the anime television adaptation of the series where he was voiced by Japanese actor Junpei Morita and by English actor Vic Mignogna in the dub.
Video games
Appearances
- Naruto:
External Links
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