Ajisai

was a young woman whose corpse replaced the First Animal Path in Nagato's Six Paths of Pain. In the anime, she was a kunoichi of Amegakure and a team-mate of Suiren and Fuyō.

Background
In the anime, during the start of Amegakure's civil war, Ajisai became one of many to become left in awe at "Pain" and the "Angel"'s power, truly committed to their goals of bringing peace and prosperity to the world for all villages by teaching them of hardship and pain.

Some time after Hanzō was usurped and killed by Pain, Ajisai and her team-mates were sent to Konohagakure to join in the early Chūnin Exams co-sponsored by Sunagakure. As per the orders of Konan, Ajisai and her team were to keep quiet of Hanzō's demise and during the exam gather as much intel as possible about shinobi with especially high chakra levels in the possibility they are jinchūriki.

When arriving at Konohagakure for the first exam, Ajisai and her team-mates were randomly split into different rooms, with her being placed in room 3. Shikamaru Nara as the first exam proctor explained the goal of the written test. Her team ultimately passed the first round since their combined score equalled 100 points as it was supposed to, and by leaving the bonus question unanswered. However, a preliminary round was issued to lessen the many participants there were. The preliminary round involved a race to Sunagakure where only the first 30 teams to arrive at the destination would qualify for the second phase. Ultimately, her team were among the first 30 teams to make it to the Demon Desert.

On the second day of the exam, Ajisai's team encountered Team Komugi and fled after they realised a jinchūriki wasn't amongst their team. The following day in the exam grounds, Ajisai and her team continued looking for shinobi of high chakra levels as ordered and eventually came across Team Guy. When realising their chakra levels weren't high enough to be jinchūriki, they attempted to retreat, only for their enemies to follow with the intent of taking their scroll. As the fight continued within a ruins, the ground collapsed, swallowing Ajisai and Tenten. As Tenten recovered and went to check on Ajisai, the Ame-nin feigned unconsciousness, waiting for Tenten to get close enough to strike.

Tenten, however, calmly asked Ajisai to put her weapon away and offered her some water. Ajisai refused "charity" from one of the Five Great Shinobi Countries, instead summoning her own water. While making her dislike of later nations known, Ajisai agreed to a truce and work with Tenten to escape the ruins. Along the way, while Tenten tried to be friendly, Ajisai simply noted how ignorant the larger nations were of the struggles Amegakure and the smaller villages have to go through. Tenten noted that it would be hard to understand a village like Amegakure with its exceedingly secretive nature. Soon, they discovered that the ruins were home to a colony of giant ants. As the duo tried to reach the surface, only to find it blocked by rubble and sand, Ajisai began using her sealing technique to remove as much sand as possible. Unable to finish the job due to exhausting, she encouraged Tenten to do it. Determined to make her training show results, Tenten unsealed a vast amount of water to forcibly wash away the obstacle. Once on the surface and reunited their respect team-mates, they agreed to not continue fighting and hoped instead to meet each other again in the third exam.

Sometime later, after Ajisai's death, her corpse among others were later delivered to the highest tower in Amegakure by Ryūsui and Yūdachi, where Konan was waiting. Following Pain's fight with Jiraiya, Nagato used her corpse to become his new Animal Path.

Personality
While alive, in the anime, Ajisai was a very solemn and stoic person. She rarely talked more than she needed to and was very committed to her mission. A strong supporter and believer of Nagato and Konan's views of the world and their plans to change it, Ajisai looked to them with unwavering trust and faith. To which end, Ajisai had noticeable disdain to the Five Great Shinobi Countries, blaming them for the hardships of smaller nations because of the wars that they dragged others into. Despite this, Ajisai is open-minded, learning that the structure of the Five Great Shinobi Countries does not define each individual that comes from them, as seen from Ajisai developing respect for Tenten.

Appearance
The body of the second Animal Path belonged to Ajisai, making it Pain's only female body. Like the first Animal Path, it was outfitted with chakra receivers: one above the nose, two on either side of the neck, a row of three vertically down each cheek, and two studs on each forearm. Its hair is dyed orange and tied together in a sort of onion-like bun at the top of the head, with spikes of hair protruding out of it. Prior to her death, as a genin, Ajisai had purple hair in an onion-like bun style. She had light green eyes with black pupils. Ajisai wore a light purple neck-collared kimono jacket with an brown orange sash around her waist and lavender pants, and her forehead protector was covered by her bangs.

Abilities
Having been chosen by Konan for a mission to search for jinchūriki, Ajisai seemed to be skilled kunoichi. She showed noticeable skill in taijutsu, as she was able to defend herself during an all-out brawl with other genin without getting hit. She also showed quick reflexes, able to calmly dodge a kunai thrown at her. Much like her Animal Path counterpart, Ajisai had shown the ability to use the Summoning Technique, which she could use to summon a strong defensive gate that could block and withstand taijutsu attacks or a giant panda to aid her in battle.

Fūinjutsu
Similar to Tenten, Ajisai specialised in fūinjutsu showing considerable proficiency in storage-style scroll sealing. She also showed rather large reserves a of chakra, able to store large masses of the landscape that impede her path. In battle, she carried multiple small sealing tags, each storing a variety of weapons and tools to such as ropes, confetti, and shuriken. She was able to quickly summon her tools and surprise her enemies with a barrage of attacks or concealing her escape.

Six-Tails Unleashed
In the anime, after Nagato tracked down the Six-Tails' jinchūriki, she along with the other paths killed Tsurugi and the hunter-nin's he was with. Afterwards, she and the other paths confronted Utakata where he transformed into his Version 2 form. As the fight began, she summoned her chameleon to restrict the jinchūriki. After her summon is defeated, she collected the human path after he is killed and retreated. After the six paths of pain successfully capture Utakata, the Akatsuki extracted the Six-Tails from him.

Pain's Assault
She is seen as she approched Konoha, as Pain was getting ready to retrieve the Nine-Tails' jinchūriki, Naruto Uzumaki. On the outskirts of the village, the Animal Path is launched through the village's barrier by the Asura Path. As one of the Paths tasked with creating diversions, the Animal Path summons several animals to trample the village. Later mobilising with the Human Path, the Animal Path sets its sights upon the Konohagakure Intelligence Division where it tracks down a chakra receiver.

When Naruto returns to the village, the Animal Path summons the other Six Paths of Pain to the Deva Path's side and then calls forth several summons which are defeated by Gamabunta, Gamaken and Gamahiro. The Path is then subsequently decommissioned by Naruto using his Sage Technique: Spiralling Serial Spheres inside Bunta's mouth.

Trivia

 * is the Japanese term for the Hydrangea macrophylla.
 * She was the only female member of Nagato's Six Paths of Pain, and was also the only one to keep her voice instead of speaking through Yahiko's voice.