Yahiko

was a shinobi from Amegakure and founder of the original Akatsuki. His body acted as the Deva Path of Nagato's Six Paths of Pain as well as his representative in Akatsuki.

Background
Yahiko was orphaned during the Second Shinobi World War, and thus he started fending for himself, stealing food from others. He later encountered Konan, also an orphan, and the two began to work together to survive. After this, Konan brought another orphan, Nagato, and his dog, Chibi, into the group. At first, Yahiko was upset that she was bringing more people, but he later accepted Nagato and Chibi into his gang. Angered by how unfair the world was to them, Yahiko declared he would become a god to end the fighting.

The three eventually encountered Jiraiya, who looked after them and taught them basic ninjutsu. At one point, Nagato saved Yahiko after an Iwagakure chūnin attacked them. Afterwards, Yahiko vowed to become strong enough to protect Konan, Nagato, and eventually all of Amegakure.

During their time with Jiraiya, he created a defence system to protect themselves should enemy ninja find their hideout composed of four planks, each with one red side and one white which had a frog picture on it. The four planks were attached to a part of a wall of the hideout with their names underneath each respective plank (Nagato's on the left, Yahiko's in the middle and Konan's on the right while Jiraiya's was on a separate wall). The purpose of the planks was a defence mechanism. If one of them were in the hideout they would simply turn their plank to the red side. If for some reason the red plank was turned yet the person was not there it could alert the others that that member had been kidnapped. If one of them were to leave the hideout they would simply have to flip their plank to the white side. If it should happen that a plank is turned on to the white side yet the person is in the hideout it could mean that an enemy has transformed into said person and has infiltrated the hideout. Jiraiya had also built a trapdoor hidden among the floorboards leading to an hidden room and emergency escape route, just in case.

Yahiko asked why Jiraiya always tried to force his frog ways on them and that they only tolerated it because he was the "Frog Sage". Konan then explained the possible reasons for implementing a code like that which Jiraiya praised her for. He then declared that it was time for training to which Yahiko responded to enthusiastically claiming that one day he would get stronger and change the country before running outside. After hearing his words Konan blushed at him to which Yahiko responded with a perverse smile reminiscent of that of his master's. This also demonstrated his benkei persona where he was a braggart while in his own home, but demonstrated a more reserved demeanour in public. Over time the three would train to be talented shinobi and it is hinted that Yahiko and Konan developed romantic feelings for each other.

Some time after Jiraiya's departure from Amegakure, the three gained a reputation as a talented shinobi team. Still desiring to create a world of peace, Yahiko and his friends went on to become fully fledged Ame ninja, and gathered many supporters who shared their hope to save their village and the world. Yahiko eventually united them together with the name of Akatsuki, an idea Tobi claims to have been the one to give to him. Akatsuki spread their beliefs to stop war without violence, and news of their actions would reach Jiraiya from time to time. When their group became too big, they were forced to find another hideout, and leave their current one where they once lived with Jiraiya. When they were about to leave and flip over their "Hop-In" planks, a ninja squad attacked the hideout creating an explosion which resulted in a hole in the roof which they used to infiltrate the hideout. Yahiko (after Konan flipped her plank and just before he was about to flip his), noticed the attack in time and used the escape route just before ninja entered the hideout. Their group became so well renowned that even the then leader of Amegakure, Hanzō, started to view Yahiko and his supporters as a threat to his power. Working with Danzō during the Third Shinobi World War, they captured Konan and forced Nagato to choose to let Hanzō kill Konan or for Nagato to kill Yahiko himself. Without hesitation, Yahiko drove himself into a kunai that Nagato was holding. With his final breath, he told Nagato to continue their mission of finding peace.

With his death, Nagato used his body as the Deva Path of his Six Paths of Pain. It represented him to the rest of Akatsuki as very few were aware of Nagato's real body. Even when all Six Paths were in active use, Nagato tended to speak only through the Deva Path, as well as the willingness to sacrifice other Paths to keep it safe, suggesting that Nagato had some partiality to the Path.

Personality
Yahiko's personality was similar to Naruto's. His dream was to be a leader of his village, and he never gave up no matter what. When he was alive, Yahiko had a strong "eye for an eye" philosophy. He hated the way Amegakure was looked at by the rest of the world, and hated what it had become. He was defensive of the village, saying that it was his dream to stop the endless rain, which he compared to tears, and protect the nation's citizens. Yahiko wanted to become the ruler of the world so there wouldn't be any more wars. Many of these traits were adopted by Nagato after Yahiko's death.

Among the three Ame Orphans, Yahiko seemed to act as the leader of the group. It was Yahiko who first approached the Sannin to ask for food, and was the first to ask Jiraiya to teach them ninjutsu. With Jiraiya's influence on them Yahiko even seemingly started to adopt some of Jiraiya's mannerisms such as his boastful facial expressions. He also seemed to act as an older brother for Nagato and Konan, reminding Nagato to not cry and to act more manly (although Yahiko was the one who cried when Jiraiya left them). He also wished to become stronger so as to protect Nagato and Konan. He had faith in Nagato, when he got older. Yahiko was willing to commit suicide rather than endanger Konan's life, displaying a very high level of loyalty to those he cared for. He also had romantic feelings for Konan which were reciprocated.

Appearance
Yahiko had short spiky orange hair and blue eyes (depicted as brown in the anime). Under Jiraiya's tutelage, he wore a short black shirt robe with green trimmings, dark pants, a black and white belt that he tied in front with mesh armour underneath. As an original member of Akatsuki, he wore a long black robe with a red line running down the centre along with a armour that covered only his mid-section with a pouch attached to it. He also carried a relatively large sword during this time. It was also shown that Yahiko had inherited his master's perverted smile something that ironically enough, embarrassed Jiraiya.

As the Deva Path was the body of Yahiko, it had retained all of his physical features from when he was alive, most notably his medium length spiky orange hair. As the Deva Path, the body possessed Nagato's Rinnegan, bore six piercings, a metal bar through each ear, three studs through the side of its upper nose, and one spike stud on each end of the bottom lip. It also had three piercings on each wrist, at least one on its upper wrist and some just under his neck. He also wore a necklace, which was somewhat similar to the one worn by the Sage of the Six Paths.

Abilities
Yahiko had the ability to use water-based techniques, although the only example of this shown in the series was Water Release: Wild Water Wave, in which he was able to shoot a jet of water from his mouth. The Deva Path also had the ability to control rain, presumably Nagato fulfilling Yahiko's desire of "stopping the endless tears". The fact that he was seen carrying a large sword in the flashbacks implied that he was skilled in kenjutsu. He also had good leadership skills, was respected by all the Akatsuki members of his time, and although he viewed Nagato as the bridge of peace, everyone else viewed him to be the person who would lead them to true peace.

As the Deva Path, he was regarded as Nagato's most powerful and cherished of the Six Paths. Its main abilities revolved around the manipulation of attractive and repulsive forces, allowing it to repel or attract objects or people. However, it could not perform these techniques in rapid succession, leaving it vulnerable for a short period of time after each use. This period of time between usages varied from five seconds to several minutes, depending upon the force of the repulsion or attraction that the Deva Path had used. When performing a large-scale attack, Nagato had to first sever his connections with the other Paths and then employ his chakra only to the Deva Path for the attack. However this is considerably risky as the other Pains are slow to recover and leaves the Deva Path vulnerable. The Deva Path's Chibaku Tensei allowed it to release a black orb of energy that could attract all surrounding matter to form a huge makeshift terrestrial body. The Deva Path's most infamous and one of his greatest feats was single-handedly wiping out Konohagakure with one powerful Shinra Tensei.

In addition to gravity manipulation, Nagato was able to use a number of other miscellaneous techniques through the Deva Path, something none of the other bodies had been shown doing. He was able to use the Shapeshifting Technique through the Deva Path to make body doubles of others with human sacrifices. Other techniques used included astral projection, barriers to protect hideouts, and the ability to control rain, a possible throwback to Yahiko (who wanted to be able to stop the rain in Amegakure), which even allowed him to sense the chakra of everyone in Amegakure, making stealthy entrances by enemies impossible. In the anime, the Deva Path also shows more Water Release techniques, possibly homage to Yahiko's affinity in his childhood, such as Water Release: Exploding Water Colliding Wave and Water Release: Wild Water Wave. In addition, like most of the other Paths, it possessed considerable strength and speed, as seen with its fight with Jiraiya, Kakashi Hatake and Naruto Uzumaki.

As Pain's main body, the Deva Path was the primary body used for performing the Sealing Technique: Phantom Dragons Nine Consuming Seals, which Akatsuki used to seal the tailed beasts. The members would convene to forcibly extract the beast from its jinchūriki's body over a three day period, depending on the number of people assisting with the sealing, and would then store it in a giant statue. He was not the only one who could use this technique, however. Tobi and the remaining Akatsuki members have been shown to initiate the extraction without using the Deva Path while it was occupied with invading Konoha.

Part I
As Nagato's Deva Path body, Yahiko's corpse functioned primarily as Pain's Akatsuki representative. As each Path of Pain is an extension of Nagato, the Deva Path below will be referred to as Pain where necessary.

Sasuke Retrieval Arc
At the end of Part I, the Deva Path made a cameo appearance as a silhouette during an Akatsuki gathering where they discussed Orochimaru's taking of Sasuke Uchiha, as well as the capturing of the Nine-Tails and the furthering of their plans.

Kazekage Rescue Arc
Assembling the members of Akatsuki, Pain begins the sealing of the One-Tail. Ordering Zetsu to function as a lookout as well, he dispatches Kisame Hoshigaki and Itachi Uchiha to take care of their incoming Konoha shinobi. Using the Shapeshifting Technique, he transforms two underlings of Akatsuki into replicas of the men. These are defeated however but coupled with the trap in his Five-Seal Barrier, were able to buy enough time to seal the One-Tail and dissipate, leaving Sasori and Deidara behind to deal with the shinobi.

Hidan and Kakuzu Arc
During Hidan and Kakuzu's fight with Team Asuma, Pain contacts them mentally, notifying them that they were required to assemble with the other members as they needed to seal another tailed beast.

Itachi Pursuit Arc
Sensing that someone had infiltrated the village, Pain stops the rain before dispatching Konan to find the intruder. After-which it enters a chamber and the Animal Path awakens. The Deva Path appears alongside the other Six Paths of Pain after Jiraiya was able to defeat three of the Six Paths of Pain. Attacking in unison with the others, they are able to ultimately defeat Jiraiya though he sinks into the ocean before they are able to kill him completely. Resolved to the fact that Jiraiya no longer posed a threat to them, Pain has a brief conversation with Zetsu who had been watching close-by.

Tsuchigumo Kinjutsu Arc
After capturing Utakata along with the other Paths, the Deva Path and the other Akatsuki members later extracted the Six-Tails from him.

Invasion of Pain Arc
Taking on the task to retrieve the Nine-Tails' jinchūriki personally, the Six Paths of Pain along with Konan are dispatched to Konohagakure. Here the Deva Path, notes that the village was covered by an intricate barrier. Nagato assigned the other Paths and Konan to their duties, with the Deva Path as part of the interrogation team, had the group summoned into the village by the Animal Path, the Deva Path immediately starts interrogating the shinobi of the village. Confronted by Kakashi Hatake, the Deva Path battle the shinobi with aid from the Asura Path. Even after defeating the Konoha reinforcements, and seemingly defeating Kakashi — believing him to be dead after firing a nail into his skull — the Deva Path departs.

Finding the Fifth Hokage whom he recognises from his early encounter with the Sannin in Amegakure, the Deva Path has a conversation with her, demanding that she tell him where Naruto was in order to attain peace. As she refuses to comply, the Deva Path soars high into the air and unleashes a devastating Shinra Tensei which decimates the village. Shortly afterwards, Naruto Uzumaki returns to the village and the Deva Path goes out to confront him with the other Six Paths of Pain. As the battle ensues all the Paths are ultimately decommissioned and the Deva Path and Naruto Uzumaki have an all-out brawl. Taking advantage of the window of opportunity granted between the Deva Paths use of techniques, Naruto Uzumaki is also able to defeat the Deva Path. In the end, this corpse is taken back to Amegakure alongside Nagato's where it was enshrined.

Legacy
Nagato, using his Rinnegan and chakra receivers, incorporated Yahiko's corpse into his Six Paths of Pain technique. As the Deva Path, Yahiko's body had acted as Pain's main body, it being the one he most commonly used and spoke through. The Deva Path was held in higher regard during combat, some of the other bodies being sacrificed to ensure its survival. It has a wide variety of ninjutsu, the most prominent being able to attract and repel objects by manipulating gravity. Following Deva Path's defeat and Nagato's death, Konan took both of their bodies back to Amegakure and created a shrine for them, placing their bodies on a bed of paper flowers. It was however later desecrated by Tobi who took Nagato's body. Yahiko's corpse is currently the only one that is lying in repose there.

Trivia

 * Yahiko shared his birthday and blood type with his former team-mate, Konan.
 * Yahiko's eyes are shown to be a light blue in the manga. In the anime, his eyes are depicted as brown.
 * When split into its separate kanji, means increasing, while  means boy.
 * According to the databook(s):
 * His hobby was fishing.

Quotes

 * (To Jiraiya) "If we're gonna "understand" each other, first we gotta make 'em suffer like we're sufferin'! Like when they stop a fight because someone got injured! But I know that'll never happen… that's why there'll always be war. It always rains here and I hate it. It's like this whole country is a big crybaby. I'm going to change it… and protect everyone!"
 * (To Nagato) "I'm gonna rule the world!!"
 * (Thinking out-loud) "If war is going to continue - I will become the god of the world!!"
 * (To Konan) "Our country's still crying… still enduring all this pain. I used to hate it so much… but now I want to save it from the bottom of my heart. Its a big crybaby, like I used to be… I can't just leave it."
 * (To Nagato) "Nagato… If you just keep crying nothing will happen… Just like the rain!"
 * (Last words to Nagato) "You and Konan… you've gotta stay alive somehow… You're… the saviour of… the world… You… can… bring… real--"