Nagato

, better known as, was the recognized leader of Akatsuki and Amegakure and was a major antagonist in the series. Referred to as "Leader" by all Akatsuki members, except for Konan, he directed the actions of the rest of the members and maintained authority over them. However, he had secretly collaborated with Madara Uchiha.

Background
During the Second Great Shinobi World War, Nagato lived with his parents in a village near Amegakure. One day two Konoha shinobi broke into their home looking for food, unaware that the place was still inhabited. Nagato's parents, believing they were going to be killed, attacked the two so that Nagato could escape. Having mistaken them to be enemy ninja, the Konoha ninja killed his parents. In his grief, Nagato awakened his Rinnegan and killed the assailants. He would come to consider this incident the first great pain of his life.

His family gone, Nagato wandered the country, going from house to house asking for food. In time he met a dog named Chibi and, later, Konan and Yahiko, who began traveling with him in his search for food. One day, Chibi was killed in the crossfire from Hanzō's fight with the soon-to-be Sannin. Nagato mourned his death and promised himself that he would change the world. When the war ended, the three orphans ran into the Sannin. Rather than return to Konoha with his team-mates, Jiraiya decided to teach the three how to look after themselves.

Soon after Jiraiya began living with the orphans, Nagato and Yahiko were attacked by an Iwagakure ninja. Nagato reactivated his Rinnegan to defend Yahiko, killing the ninja. When Jiraiya found out about this, he decided to train them in ninjutsu. Nagato was very emotional about killing the ninja, and asked Jiraiya for help so he could protect Konan and Yahiko. Jiraiya's response was for Nagato to grow up and to use his eyes to find the peace that they both desired for the world. Three years later the orphans had become competent ninja, so Jiraiya returned to Konoha.

Over the years, news of the three's exploits would reach Jiraiya. This often consisted of the death of someone who opposed them; eventually he received word that they had all died. In truth, Nagato, Konan, and Yahiko began a quest to find peace. They became full-fledged Amegakure ninja and gathered followers who shared their philosophies of an end to war. Hanzō, the leader of Amegakure, viewed the group as a threat to his rule and schemed with Konoha's Root to eliminate them. Claiming to want to discuss peace, Hanzō lured Nagato, Yahiko, and Konan to an ambush. There he forced Nagato to choose between killing Yahiko or Konan. Not wanting to force Nagato to make the choice, Yahiko impaled himself with a kunai that was placed in Nagato's hand. With Yahiko's dying breath, he told Nagato to survive, because he believed in Jiraiya's words that Nagato would become the world's savior. This would become the second great pain of Nagato's life.

Devastated, Nagato retrieved Konan and Yahiko's body and launched an attack against Hanzō's men. With the Summoning: Demonic Statue of the Outer Path he was able to kill all but Hanzō. However, the technique left Nagato emaciated, with numerous chakra rods embedded in his back. He severed his loyalties with Amegakure by scratching through the symbol of his Amegakure forehead protector, resolving to teach the village and the world his pain. Yahiko's body would later be incorporated into the Six Paths of Pain as the Deva Path.

Upon adopting the alias "Pain", Nagato led the rebelling forces in the Amegakure civil war, and took control of the village by assassinating Hanzō. He then solidified his leadership by systematically killing anyone who had ties to the former leader. At some point he assisted Madara Uchiha in the creation of Akatsuki, using Amegakure as his base of operations.

Appearance
Nagato is a fair-skinned man with chin-length red hair whose most noticeable trait is his Rinnegan eyes. As a child, his hair would regularly hang off his face blocking the view of his eyes; his normal eyes are never seen. Nagato grew into a tall man, but after subjecting himself to the Summoning: Demonic Statue of the Outer Path, Nagato was reduced into a withered version of his former self with chakra receivers implanted into his back and smaller ones in his forearms. Nagato uses a mechanical walker for mobility, which could fire Chakra Disruption Blades for personal defense. Nagato is the only Akatsuki member never seen wearing the organization's uniform. However, his Six Paths of Pain wear it in his stead.

Personality
Nagato was a sensitive, but kind boy, prone to crying, and was traumatized by the idea of killing others, even to save his friend Yahiko. Scared and unsure of his place in the world, he desired to help those he cared about, but never knew how. He was consistently respectful and kind to Konan, who he claimed to be his "angel" in Amegakure. He was shown protecting her, without request or hesitation from Jiraiya before his battle with his former teacher. Apparently, she was the only Akatsuki member that addressed him by name.

As Pain, his personality was very different, having become a calm, serious, aloof, and detached man. Apparently believing traumas he experienced in his youth had enlightened him to the true meaning of pain and suffering, he considered himself a deity, and believed he had evolved beyond a mere human being. He sought to show the world the meaning of pain by using an ultimate weapon to deter future wars, by means similar to "mutually assured destruction", and showed no moral qualms about his actions. He was willing to kill Jiraiya to ensure the completion of his plans. He even went so far as to proclaim himself a "god of peace", that had to guide the world to maturity through pain. Finally, he felt that no-one could understand true peace unless they understood "true" pain, something his childhood friend Yahiko believed. Minato Namikaze believed Madara Uchiha to have been using this philosophy in his favor, in order to manipulate Nagato.

In the anime, Nagato is shown to be sensitive when it comes to talk about "pain"; when Ibiki Morino used a special summoning jutsu that "linked them by pain" Nagato got furious (through the Animal Path) and shouted that "he had no idea of what true pain was" releasing itself from the jutsu and attack Ibiki violently.

Nonetheless, he was seen to be quite respectful, particularly to the fallen and the dead. Given the Akatsuki members' frequent bickering, he often quelled them and encouraged better relations among members. He even suggested that they mourn for Deidara after his passing, and reprimanded Kisame for calling Hidan and Kakuzu the "Zombie Brothers". After his battle with Jiraiya, he held a moment of silence for his former teacher, out of respect for his power.

Because Konohagakure was partly responsible for the tragedies in his life, he held some form of animosity for the village. Although Jiraiya's influence improved his opinion of the village during their time together, he eventually came to believe that Konoha profited from the tragedies of others and hated it and his former teacher.

Abilities
As the leader of Akatsuki, and one of the two sides of the Amegakure Civil War, Nagato was an extraordinarily powerful shinobi. It has been noted at several points in time that Nagato possessed an unusually large amount of exceptionally strong chakra. His partner, Konan, had stated that he had never lost a single battle, and that he is "unbeatable." Even Fukasaku stated that without understanding Pain's power, no one could beat him. Nagato attributes his ability to defeat Jiraiya to the secret of his Six Paths of Pain, stating he might not have won if Jiraiya knew the secret to his techniques. It wasn't until his fight with Naruto that he encountered an opponent capable of matching him.

Rinnegan
Nagato's incredible power stemmed mainly from his kekkei genkai, the legendary Rinnegan. This was originally possessed by the Sage of the Six Paths, the world's first ninja, and the founder of modern ninjutsu. The Rinnegan's abilities are largely unknown, but it did permit the user to use all types of elemental chakra, and allowed Nagato to master every technique Jiraiya taught him at the age of ten. According to Ibiki, the Rinnegan allows Nagato to use any technique he wishes. It also enhanced his vision of chakra in a similar manner to the Uchiha clan's Sharingan and the Hyūga clan's Byakugan, allowing him to see the chakra of barrier techniques around the perimeter of his location, and the chakra gathered at a shinobi's feet.

Six Paths of Pain
Nagato's most powerful and most used technique was the. This technique allowed Nagato to control six separate bodies as though they were his own. Each of these bodies were reanimated corpses that were both kept mobile by and made use of Nagato's chakra. While controlling them, Nagato used the alias "Pain", yet still regarded them as separate entities from himself. The Pains can't feel physical pain, as Ibiki Morino discovered when he tried torturing the second Animal Path.

In order to use the technique, Nagato remained in a machine that moved with six relatively small mechanical legs and used several large chakra rods on his back to transmit chakra. From his location, the chakra was picked up by the numerous receivers, modeled as body piercings on each body. To control them, Nagato had to be close by, and ideally at the highest possible point, so he could have the best possible range.

Based on the six Buddhist paths of Reincarnation, each body was named after one of the different "paths": Deva, Asura, Human, Animal, Preta, and Naraka. The only common feature shared by these bodies was their bright orange hair and their Rinnegan. Each also had a vast number of body and facial piercings of various shapes, sizes, and patterns. Each body seemed to serve a specific purpose in battle, such as summoning, repairing, and defensive capability. There is also a seventh body, the Outer Path, with control over the forces of life and death. Fukasaku stated, the best way of fighting Pain is to take out the paths one at a time as they were most formidable when fighting together in combos.

As stated by Konan, Nagato is able to use all the powers of the Paths himself, as they are all powers of the Rinnegan.

Part II
Pain appears frequently as a hologram during the early arcs of Part II, convening the Akatsuki members whenever a tailed beast needs to be sealed. As Part II progresses, portions of his face are shown before culminating in his full debut alongside Konan.

Hunt for Itachi Arc
Madara Uchiha instructs Pain to go to Konoha and capture Naruto Uzumaki, the jinchūriki of the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox, but Pain detects Jiraiya infiltrating the village before he can depart. He sends Konan to distract Jiraiya while he switches to his Animal Path, and then confronts his old master. During the first half of their battle, Pain fought with unique summons. It wasn't until Jiraiya activated his Sage Mode and summoned Shima and Fukasaku to help him fight that Pain revealed two more of his bodies: the Preta Path and the Human Path. After a short fight, Pain gained the upperhand against Jiraiya, forcing him to flee. Jiraiya lured the three into a trap and caught them in a genjutsu, immobilizing them and allowing him to pierce each body through the heart with a sword.

When Jiraiya prepared to head back to Konoha, Pain introduced his Asura Path and attacked Jiraiya from behind, severing his left arm. When Jiraiya looked back up, he discovered all of six Pains, including the three he had just defeated. The Six Paths of Pain attacked him and Jiraiya was only barely able to capture the Animal Path. He sent it to Konoha for study and, suspecting that none of the Pains were the real Nagato, faced them to confirm his theory. He found that all of the Pains were ninja he had met before, and thus learned the nature of Nagato's ability. However, the remaining Six Paths of Pain surrounded him and crushed his throat, leaving him unable to move or speak. Believing his teacher to be dead, Pain prepared to leave, but Jiraiya was still alive, and used his chakra to make a coded message regarding Pain's true identity on Fukasaku's back. Pain tried to attack the toad, but Fukasaku managed to escape. Jiraiya died, sinking into the watery depths of the battlefield. Afterwards, Pain held a moment of silence in respect for his former teacher.

Six-Tails Arc
In the anime, after getting a replacement for the Animal Path, Pain is shown to have been assigned to capture the Six-Tailed Slug, which was sealed within Utakata, a missing-nin from Kirigakure. During his search, the Animal Path had his Giant Multi-Headed Dog scout the area, where it found and killed a group of Kirigakure hunter-nin led by Tsurugi. When Utakata later sought out Tsurugi and his men to turn himself in, he instead found Pain; Pain told Utakata that he would be needed to create his world, and informed the jinchūriki that he would be taking the Six-Tails. The Six Paths of Pain quickly captured him.

Invasion of Pain Arc
With only the Nine-Tails remaining, Pain and Konan set out for Konoha. After eliminating the border guards upon their arrival, they infiltrated the village and dispersed, with each of the six Paths having a specific task: the Asura, Preta, and Animal Paths served as diversions, while the Deva, Human, and Naraka Paths looked for Naruto, with Konan aiding the latter team. While exploring and laying waste to the village and its inhabitants, the Deva Path was confronted by Kakashi Hatake. The Asura Path came to its aid and together they overwhelmed Kakashi and his allies, but the Asura Path was destroyed.

Across the village, the remaining Paths continued their tasks, fighting whatever Konoha ninja they came across. The Deva Path met with Tsunade, the Fifth Hokage, who refused to reveal Naruto's location. Elsewhere, the Human Path used its unique interrogation techniques on Shizune to learn that Naruto was at Myōbokuzan. Declaring that he would teach Tsunade the pain that Konoha had been so ignorant of, Nagato had the Deva Path use Shinra Tensei to obliterate the village while Konan and the other Paths withdrew.

As the smoke cleared, the Deva Path found that Naruto had returned with his toad allies. In retaliation for the village's destruction, Naruto swiftly crushed the newly-restored Asura Path and began his fight with the remaining Paths of Pain. The Animal Path called upon its summons to attack Naruto, who parried them with the aid of his toads and proceeded to defeat the Preta Path. Soon afterwards, Naruto eliminated the Human Path with his Wind Release: Rasenshuriken, and then teamed up with Gamabunta to defeat the Animal Path.

With four of the Paths gone, the temporarily powerless Deva Path protected the Naraka Path, which restored the Preta Path. The Preta Path absorbed a second Rasenshuriken, but it had only been a diversion to give Naruto an opportunity to finish off the Naraka Path. The Deva Path, its power returned, detained Naruto so that the Preta Path could capture him and absorbed his chakra to immobilize him. Doing so caused it to absorb senjutsu chakra, which had the side effect of turning it to stone. Naruto escaped its clutches, but was seized once again by the Deva Path, who pinned him to the ground with chakra disruption blades. The Deva Path lectured Naruto about the chain of hatred, pain, suffering, and war that the ninja system brought to the world, and how he planned to use the tailed beasts' power to achieve peace and end conflict. He asks if Naruto can think of a better solution, but Naruto does not respond.

Before the Deva Path could take Naruto away, Hinata Hyūga came to his defense. When she is apparently killed, Naruto became enraged and entered his six-tailed form, with which the Deva Path could not compete in its current condition. The Deva Path retreated to a location closer to Nagato, who had secluded himself nearby in order to control the Six Paths of Pain. This allowed the Deva Path to use Chibaku Tensei, trapping Naruto in a massive orb of earth and debris. This victory was short-lived, as Naruto soon progressed to an eight-tailed form and broke free of the Chibaku Tensei. The sphere of rubble created by Pain's Chibaku Tensei crumbled, and Naruto, reverting to his normal form, emerged from the ruin.

Reflecting on the earlier lecture, Naruto demanded an opportunity to speak with Nagato, but was denied and attacked by the Deva Path. By taking advantage of the five second gap between the Deva Path's ability, Naruto was able to defeat it with a well-timed Rasengan. He removed one of its chakra receiver and inserted it into his skin to track the signal back to Nagato. Naruto goes to see him, but when he arrives Nagato fires another chakra receiver at him to try and control him. Naruto resists it despite his close proximity to Nagato. Although angry with Nagato for killing Jiraiya and destroying Konoha, Naruto asks how, as a fellow student of Jiraiya, he could have strayed so far from their master's teachings. Hoping that Naruto would come to agree with his solution for peace, Nagato told him his past and how he came to believe pain would save the world.

Although Naruto agrees with Nagato's ultimate conclusion, he rejects it for differing with Jiraiya's ideals. In doing so, he answers Nagato's earlier question about how to attain peace: by "breaking the cycle of hatred". He decides not to kill Nagato, as that would only lead Konan to seek revenge, and in turn, lead others to seek revenge because of her actions. Amazed by Naruto's resolve and remembering Jiraiya's teachings, Nagato decides to put his faith in Naruto's method. Nagato used the Outer Path: Samsara of Heavenly Life Technique to revive all the Konohagakure citizens that had been killed during his invasion. The strain of the technique costs Nagato his life, so with his final breath he wishes for Naruto's dream of peace to come true.

Confining the Jinchūriki Arc
Nagato is later revived by Kabuto in an attempt to convince Madara to accept an alliance. His hair was visibly gray, as it was upon his death, as opposed to the bright red that he had sported in life, and his body was likewise emaciated. Despite this, he lacked the chakra transmitters that were formerly embedded in his back, and could stand without the support machine he had once used to move around.

Legacy
With Nagato's death, Konan left Akatsuki, no longer having a reason to work with the organization. She took his body and the Deva Path (Yahiko) back to Amegakure with her for burial. Because Nagato gave his life to help Naruto achieve peace, Konan vows Amegakure's allegiance to him in this pursuit.

Madara is surprised by news of Nagato's death and, moreso, his "betrayal", having wanted Nagato to save the Samsara of Heavenly Life Technique for him. He later confronts Naruto about this, wishing to know how he could have swayed Nagato. Madara has since expressed an interest in taking the Rinnegan for his own purposes.

Creation
In Naruto Hiden: Sha no Sho Character Official Data Book, Kishimoto briefly explained 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 he appears to wear a partial face mask and feather, or horn-like accessories fitted to his forehead protector.

When first appearing in the anime, Pain's eyes were depicted with an incorrect color scheme; the two center rings of the Rinnegan were colored separate shades of grey, while the outermost ring was flesh-colored, and the ring in between was white. Following his appearance in chapter 377 of the manga, which featured the first official color illustration of his face, the color scheme was corrected.

Several of Nagato's abilities were inspired by Buddhist beliefs and terminology, and he thought that enlightenment was reached through experiencing and understanding pain and suffering, similar to a path the Buddha took but then later rejected.

Trivia

 * His name means "long-lasting gate".
 * The original Six Paths of Pain were composed of individuals associated with Jiraiya.
 * As Nagato's Six Paths of Pain were all deceased ninja, it could also be assumed that Animal Path's summonings were reanimated corpses as well, as they too had several body piercings and Rinnegan (possibly meaning that Nagato could see through their eyes as well).
 * When he was young, Orochimaru offered to kill him and his friends so they would not have to suffer the horrors of war (at least, any more than they already had), but many years later he let Orochimaru join Akatsuki. It is unknown if Orochimaru is aware that two of the Ame orphans he tried to kill became his superiors.
 * Three of the Six Paths of Pain appear as playable characters in Naruto Shippūden: Ultimate Ninja Heroes 3, with the other three as support characters, allowing all six to appear simultaneously in three-versus-one match-ups. All Paths of Pain are playable in Naruto Shippūden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 2.
 * According to the third Naruto databook:
 * His hobby was practicing ninjutsu.
 * His desired opponent was anyone in order to protect his friends.
 * His favorite food was grilled fish and stew.
 * Nagato's favorite phrase is "The stars are hidden on a rainy night". As a child, his favorite phrase was "Growing up".

Quotes

 * "We're both of the same breed, after all ... motives for war are of no concern. Religion, Ideology, Resources, Land, Grudges, Love, or 'A whim ...' No matter how pathetic the reason, it's enough to start a war."
 * (To Jiraiya) "We are Pain! We are God!"
 * "Those who do not understand true pain can never understand true peace."
 * (To Naruto) "We are but men, drawn to act in the name of revenge we deem to be "justice". But when we call our vengeance "justice", it only breeds more revenge ... forging the first link in the chains of hatred."
 * (To Tsunade) "I want you to feel pain, to think about pain, to accept pain, to know pain."
 * (To Jiraiya) "But someday I'll break the curse. If there's such a thing as peace, I will find it!"
 * (To Tsunade) "You think you're the only ones who matter. You think you can put off death. But that peace made you foolish and thoughtless. If you kill someone, someone else will kill you... this hatred binds us together."
 * (To Naruto) "I see... That is noble of you. That is Justice indeed. However... My family...My friends... My village... They suffered the same fate as this village by you ninjas of Konoha. How is it fair to allow only you people to preach about peace and justice?""
 * (Last Words to Naruto) "Dying like trash... never ending hatred... pain that never heals... that is war... Naruto... this... is what you must face... The book... and you... It's like... someone... set this all up... Or... maybe... this... is... the hand of the real god... My role is over now... Naruto... you... can really--"