Nagato (Naruto)

Nagato is a male anime and manga character who features in Naruto.

Biography

Origin

The Six Paths of Pain in Naruto v1 #45.

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. When he awoke, he found the ninja dead and was unaware of the fact that his power was responsible for their deaths. In the aftermath, he was forced to leave his home in order to find food and shelter where he begged them for any food that they could spare. However, no household would give the orphan anything and he wandered the lands starving. During this time, he encountered a puppy that he had accompany him where he named the dog Chibi. As the two wandered, Nagato was on the brink of death by starvation where he collapsed and readied himself for his death. It was then he was approached by Konan who was a war orphan as well where she gave him some food which Nagato shared with Chibi. Konan took him to her shelter that she shared with another orphan who was her friend named 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 were travelling back to their hideout when a stray paper bomb struck at their location and exploded. The orphans barely survived but the dog Chibi had died from wounds sustained in the blast. They spied on three shinobi that were the newly crowned Legendary Sanin of Konohagakure that were Jiraiya, Tsunada and Orochimaru involved in a fight against Hanzo of the Salamander. Their opponent was impressed at their fighting skill where he let his opponents to depart and upon witnessing the battle Yahiko believed that they needed to apprentice themselves to these shinobi. However, they needed to find these sanin where they gave away their surplus supplies back to their village as they went out to search for the Konoha ninja. The journey was perilous where the three nearly died but ultimately they came to find their quarry 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

Six Paths of Pain

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, decided that Yahiko's group was a threat to his rule. Hanzō kidnapped 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 created his Six Paths of Pain, which he controlled remotely. For the Deva Path he used Yahiko's body — still wanting him to lead the organisation in spirit — and for the other five he used the corpses of other miscellaneous shinobi that, without his knowing it, had met Jiraiya when they were alive. Pain began leading Akatsuki in a new direction, secretly accepting Obito's earlier offer of support. Akatsuki composed itself with S-rank missing-nin and started offering its services as a mercenary group to ninja villages, earning the money necessary to fund its long-term plans. Years later and still loyal to his own version of Amegakure, Pain and Konan began a civil war in the village to overthrow Hanzō. Much of the village rallied behind Pain, believing him to be a god because of his immense power. The Six Paths of Pain eventually cornered and killed Hanzō, earning control of the village, but not before expressing his disgust with how Hanzō had fallen from the man he admired and the fact he cannot even understand how, in his self-preservation, his skill and conviction have diminished. In order to prevent anyone from challenging him, Pain proceeded to eliminate everyone even remotely connected to Hanzō, from members of his family to distant acquaintances. Because of Amegakure's already secretive nature, news of Hanzō's death never made it outside of Amegakure and the village was believed to still be divided by the civil war. Pain embraced the villagers' idea of his being God and single-handedly crushing remnants loyal to Hanzō whenever they surfaced. Every Sunday, Pain would make it rain within Amegakure or if he had to be away.

Pain came to gather the members of Akatsuki to discuss Sasuke Uchiha's recent alliance with Orochimaru, as well as the anticipated completion of their plans three years hence. After Gaara is captured by Deidara and Sasori, Pain convenes Akatsuki to begin extracting the One-Tail from Gaara's body. Konoha ninja start to convene on their location during the three day process, so Pain uses the Shapeshifting Technique to send copies of Kisame Hoshigaki and Itachi Uchiha to distract them. The copies are defeated, but they buy the necessary time and the One-Tail is sealed. As the rest of Akatsuki disperses, Pain instructs Deidara and Sasori to deal with the Konoha ninja that have arrived outside their lair. Following the captures of the Two-Tails and Three-Tails, Pain once again gathers Akatsuki to seal them. Because Pain's summons interrupted a fight he was in the middle of, Hidan, the second-newest member, demands an explanation of Akatsuki's ultimate goal. Pain obliges him, remarking on the state of the world and how Akatsuki plans to capitalise on that to take control. Before Akatsuki prepares to seal the Four-Tails, Pain informs its members of the deaths of Hidan and Kakuzu, as well as news that Sasuke Uchiha has killed Orochimaru. Shortly after the Four-Tails is sealed, Zetsu reports the deaths of Deidara and Tobi in a fight with Sasuke. Pain expresses no love lost over Tobi, but encourages the remaining members of Akatsuki to mourn Deidara. As soon as they adjourn, Pain and Konan meet with Tobi in Amegakure. Tobi instructs him to go after Naruto Uzumaki, the jinchūriki of the Nine-Tails.

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. As the smoke clears, the Deva Path finds Naruto has arrived in the village with several toad allies. After the Naraka Path restores the Asura Path, the other Paths join the Deva Path; Konan withdraws to attend to Nagato. When the Hokage angrily confronts Pain for destroying the village, the Asura Path moves to kill her, but is destroyed by Naruto before it can land a blow. The remaining Paths take formation around the Deva Path during its prolonged recharge. The Animal Path sends its summons to attack Naruto, but the toads confront them instead. Using Sage Mode, Naruto quickly neutralises the Preta Path, the Human Path is destroyed getting the Animal Path out of the way of Naruto's Rasenshuriken, and the Animal Path is shortly afterwards trapped within Gamabunta's mouth and defeated with Spiralling Serial Spheres. Naruto begins focusing on the Deva Path. He nearly succeeds in hitting it with another Rasenshuriken, but a restored Preta Path absorbs it. Seeing what the Naraka Path can do, Naruto prioritises it, distracting the Deva and Preta Paths while he hits it with another Spiralling Serial Spheres. Although the Naraka Path is gone, the Deva Path's powers are restored. It expels the larger toads from the village and helps the Preta Path capture Naruto. As the Preta Path absorbs his senjutsu chakra to immobilise him, it finds itself unable to balance the natural energy and turns to stone. Shima and Fukasaku, meanwhile, prepare to cast a genjutsu like they did before. The Deva Path kills Fukasaku and, in the same motion, pins Naruto down with black receivers. With Naruto no longer able to offer resistance, Pain lectures him on the cycle of hatred the world suffers under and the endless conflict that produces. His plans to gather the tailed beasts will be used to cause overwhelming destruction and achieve peace through fear. Because peace is what Jiraiya, who both of them trained under, always wanted, Pain asks if Naruto has a better solution, but Naruto does not respond. As they talk, Pain was attacked by Hinata Hyūga, who makes a desperate attempt to save Naruto. The Deva Path deals with her easily and apparently kills her. Her seeming death enrages Naruto, causing him to enter a version 2 state. Unprepared to fight Naruto in this state, the Deva Path leads Naruto closer to Nagato's location so that it can use Chibaku Tensei. Naruto enters a nearly full Tailed Beast Mode and escapes its confines, forcing Pain to let the Chibaku Tensei dissolve.

Having regained his senses, Naruto attacks the Deva Path. He takes one of its black receivers and briefly interfaces with it in order to trace Nagato's location. As his attack continues, he has numerous disguised shadow clones emerge from the rubble of Chibaku Tensei and attack during the Deva Path's short cooldown, but they don't make it in time and it repels them. With so many clones, however, the Narutos are able to resist the Shinra Tensei, enabling Naruto to strike with a Rasengan. Now that all of his Six Paths are defeated, Nagato permits Naruto to come meet with him. He shoots Naruto with a black receiver as soon as he arrives and tries to control his body, but Naruto successfully resisted him. Naruto has been thinking about the question he was asked earlier, about how he would accomplish peace. He thinks he has an answer finally, but first wants to hear more about Nagato, especially since they both trained under Jiraiya yet turned out very differently. Curious, Nagato indulges him and tells him about the tragedies he experienced in his life and how they drove him to seek peace through pain. Naruto understands Nagato's logic and even sees some merit to his conclusion, but rejects it. His method to achieve peace is to no longer continue the cycle of revenge that fuels the shinobi world. Although he was angry with Nagato for killing Jiraiya and destroying Konoha, Naruto will not harm him, as that would only cause others to seek revenge against him and repeat the cycle. Seeking to atone for his actions, he decided to conduct the Outer Path — Samsara of Heavenly Life Technique whereby he restored to life everyone that had died in Konoha. The power of the technique though drew on the caster's life which ultimately killed Nagato. His body and that of Yahiko's were then taken by Konan who left the Akatsuki where she said that her along with Nagato's dreams were now embodied by Naruto Uzumaki.

His remains were returned to his village where they were being guarded by Konan who was aware that Tobi might return in order to claim the Rinnegan from Nagato. Thus, she made preparations for a confrontation with the hidden mastermind of the Akatsuki where she waited for him. Just as she predicted, Tobi leading to an intense battle between the pair where Konan had placed traps all over the landscape to defeat her foe. She nearly succeeded in killing Tobi but he had a second Sharingan implanted in his eye that gave him the power to avoid certain death an he dealt a fatal blow to Konan leaving her to die. He then found Nagato's corpse and took it back with him where he extracted the eye for his own use. By this point, Tobi had formed an unlikely alliance with Kabuto Yakushi who had perfected the reanimation jutsu with him joining the ranks of the Akatsuki. With this power, he was able to revive many slain shinobi including most of the Akatsuki back as reanimations to help fight in the Fourth Shinobi World War. Nagato came to be among them where he was returned to the peak of his power where he was dispatched alongside the revived Itachi Uchiha to fight against the Allied Shinobi Forces where the pair were forced to act against their will. Nagato and Itachi were found by Naruto and Killer B. Upon their reunion, Nagato was glad to see Naruto had finally gained control of the Nine-Tails, but is not actually surprised since they both trained under Jiraiya. Kabuto forces Nagato and Itachi to attack them, with Nagato summoning various animals to help him move around. Because their personalities are intact, Nagato gives Naruto and B advice about how to counter his summons and jutsu and warns them about Itachi's own. Itachi is able to implement a fail-safe he left on Naruto before his death, which frees him from Kabuto's control. Fearful that Nagato may also break his control, Kabuto suppresses his personality and sends him into battle against the trio. Itachi joins forces with Naruto and B against Nagato. Nagato hides within his chameleon so he can move around undetected and attacks B with Shinra Tensei. B immediately counters with a version 2 Lariat, resulting in Nagato absorbing B's version 2 chakra. The Eight-Tails' chakra he absorbs has a rejuvenating effect on him, restoring his mobility. He begins removing Naruto's soul, prepares to kill B, and readies the King of Hell to restore them to life when Kabuto is ready for them. Itachi interrupts him with Susanoo, releasing Naruto and B. Needing to deal with all three at once, Kabuto has Nagato use Chibaku Tensei. Itachi, Naruto, and B simultaneously use their strongest long-range attacks to destroy the growing planetoid. As Kabuto's attentions are distracted by its destruction, Itachi stabs him with Susanoo's Sword of Totsuka, which also restores his consciousness to him. Nagato apologises to Naruto for not only this fight after death, but his actions during life, believing his story was unworthy of following Jiraiya's. He expressed his hope that Naruto's story will conclude so spectacularly that nobody will remember the disappointment of his own where he bid his farewell as his body was sealed away.

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.

As a child that grew up in the middle of other countries' wars, Nagato did not like killing and was horrified by his early acts of violence against those who had harmed his friends and family. He supported Yahiko's Akatsuki because it wanted to end the wars and deaths that he hated so much. After Yahiko's death, Nagato compromised his aversion to killing to a large extent, believing the deaths of specific individuals or even hundreds at a time could be justified if it served a greater and/or long-term purpose. But Nagato remains very clear in this distinction, as he shows mercy to those willing to cooperate with him and discourages others from defying him because it will only force him to strike them down. Minato Namikaze believes that, at some point along the way, Nagato's views were corrupted and subsequently manipulated by Tobi.

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. He claimed that he was defined by two moments with the first being the death of his parents whilst the second being the death of Yahiko. 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.

As a child, he came to be a student of the Legendary Sanin Jiraiya of the Hidden Leaf village. At first, Nagato claimed that he could never accept Jiraiya as his sensei on account that he was a Konoha ninja and because he blamed them for the death of his parents. This changed though over time and he came to gradually accept Jiraiya as a mentor and a father-figure. 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.

In one form or another, Nagato spent his entire life placing the needs of others before his own: his main motivation for becoming a ninja in the first place was so that he could protect Yahiko and Konan; he viewed his role in the original Akatsuki as a powerful tool meant to help Yahiko bring peace to their country; as leader of his own version of Akatsuki, he felt it was his responsibility to save the world from itself, inflicting pains of such magnitude that nobody would ever harm anyone else ever again. While this indicates a growing self-importance Nagato regarded himself with, it was encouraged by the similarly growing esteem others regarded him with due to his Rinnegan: Jiraiya believed he was the reincarnation of the Sage of the Six Paths; Yahiko and the rest of Akatsuki believed he was the "Saviour of the World"; the villagers of Amegakure believed in him as if he were a 'God'.

Nagato came to consider himself and Naruto to be sibling-students of the same mentor. At first, he meant this as a joke but came to feel that the two should understand one another.

Powers and abilities

Nagato was a human born with the ability to manipulate Chakra and use it to achieve various feats. A descendant of the Uzumaki clan, Nagato was born was a naturally resilient chakra and whose actual reserves were unusually vast. Even as a child, he demonstrated the ability to kill trained shinobi in moments of rage but in this state he was not trained in ninjutsu. 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. He was not the eyes' original owner where his Uzumaki descent allowed Nagato to wield both eyes without drawbacks, whereas Obito could barely handle a single eye despite his various modifications and in-depth knowledge of the dōjutsu. Ultimately, Nagato's skill was great enough to earn recognition as the "Third Six Paths" (三人目の六道, Sanninme no Rikudō). The greatest advantage of the Rinnegan was that it gave Nagato access to all of the Six Paths Techniques.

Among the techniques known to him incluedd:

• Rain Tiger at Will Technique (雨虎自在の術­, Ukojizai no Jutsu) : a technique whereby he was able to infuse chakra into rain that constantly dripped over the landscape and allowed him to detect the presence of any intruders within it. He could dispel the technique in order to allow a more thorough in-depth search for any intruders that breached his territory.
• Summoning Technique (口寄せの術­, Kuchiyose no Jutsu) : a teleportation jutsu whereby he was able to summon creatures or people at a set location. He was able to summon the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path (外道魔像, Gedō Mazō, English TV: Gedo Statue) that was an incredibly powerful summons though it required the creature to link with him and draw on his life reserves. The power of the Gedo Statue was enough to devastate armies but the effort placed such an incredible strain on Nagato that it ended up crippling him. He later came to delegate the summoning jutsu to his Animal Path among the Six Paths of Pain.
• Wind Release: Gale Palm (風遁・烈風掌­, Fūton: Reppūshō) :
• Blocking Technique Absorption Seal (封術吸印­, Fūjutsu Kyūin) :
• Mirrored Sudden Attacker Technique (鏡面襲者の術­, Kyōmen Shūja no Jutsu) :
• Magic Lantern Body Technique (幻灯身の術­, Gentōshin no Jutsu) :
• Banshō Ten'in (万象天引­, Banshō Ten'in) :
• 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) : a reincarnation jutsu that was tied to the summoning of the King of Hell ((冥府の王, Meifu no Ō) whereby he was able to restore to life the recently deceased and return their souls to their bodies. Such was the power of this technique that he was able to restore an entire village that had been devastated in an attack. However, the jutsu required the use of the caster's chakra and ultimately their life.

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.

Nagato was one of the founding members of the Akatsuki (暁, literally meaning: "Dawn" or "Daybreak") that were originally a band of ninja that opposed the tyranny that afflicted their home in Amegakure. This changed when most of their number were killed with the group being reformed by the Masked Madara. Officially, Pain was seen as the leader of the Akatsuki and managed its operations in line with his goal in stopping conflict within the ninja world. 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.

Appearances

• Naruto:

External Links

• Naruto Wiki Entry
• Comicvine Entry
• Wikipedia Entry

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