Nagato

is the recognized leader of the Akatsuki and Amegakure, and is a major antagonist in the series. He is referred to as "leader" by all Akatsuki members except for Konan, who refers to him by his name. Although he directs the actions of the other members and maintains authority over them, Pain takes orders from Tobi, who is actually Madara Uchiha. In addition to acting as Akatsuki's leader, Pain was the leader of the winning faction in the Land of Rain's latest civil war.

Background
The original body of Pain was a boy named, who, like Konan and Yahiko were orphans from Amegakure, forcing them to fend for themselves. The three eventually encountered the Sannin, who at first were less than willing to help them. Orochimaru even suggested to kill them as they were orphans of war and as such would only live their lives full of misery. Jiraiya, however, decided he would care for the three and took them in. One night at dinner, Nagato cried because eating together reminded him of his family, and later that night he ran away with Yahiko.

The two were attacked by a Rock chunin, who injured Yahiko. Seeing this, Nagato activated his Rinnegan, and killed the ninja, a feat that is normally impossible for someone who has never trained as a ninja or never had any military or martial arts training. Jiraiya decided then and there he would train them in Ninjutsu. Nagato was very emotional about killing the shinobi, and asked Jiraiya for help so he can protect Konan and Yahiko, where Jiraiya said he must grow up. After three years, Jiraiya felt they were strong enough to fend for themselves and told the three he would see them again when they grow into adults. Jiraiya believed Nagato to have died with the others under unexplained circumstances, but has told Konan that whenever their names were mentioned outside their village, it was always about someone being killed when they opposed them.

Pain has since led one side of the Amegakure civil-war and took over the village, he has become a greatly respected leader in that village. The members of Pain's faction wear their Amegakure forehead protectors with a scratch through it the way the full members of Akatsuki do, despite the fact that none of them are rogue ninja any more, as the scratch symbolizes, because they won the civil war

Personality
As a child Nagato was a sensitive but kind boy, prone to crying, and was traumatized by the idea he had killed another man, 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. Nonetheless, he became a talented and gifted student, mastering every technique Jiraiya taught him.

As Pain, his personality is very different having become a calm, serious, aloof, and detached man. Apparently believing his childhood trauma had enlightened him to the true meaning of pain and suffering, he now considers himself a deity and evolved beyond a mere human. He now seeks to show the world the meaning of suffering by using an ultimate weapon to deter future wars by means similar to "mutually assured destruction". He shows no moral qualms about his actions. He is willing to kill his own teacher in cold blood and brutally execute all of Hanzō's friends and family to ensure the Amegakure's compliance to his takeover. He even goes so far as to proclaim himself a "god of peace" come to guide the world to maturity through pain.

Nonetheless, he can be quite respectful, particularly to the fallen. Given Akatsuki members' frequent bickering, he often restrains them and encourages better relations between the other members, even suggesting they mourn Deidara after his passing. After his battle with Jiraiya, he holds a moment of silence for his former teacher out of respect for his power.

Pain is also very respectful and kind to his childhood friend, Konan, who has been declared his "angel". He was shown protecting her without request or hesitation from Jiraiya before his battle with his former teacher. She apparently is the only member of Akatsuki, aside from Madara, that addresses him by "Pain", and is the only one that calls him by Nagato.

Akatsuki's Goal
For the most part, Pain has kept away from active Akatsuki business, only revealing himself whenever they have captured a Tailed Beast and even then he only appears as a shadowy illusion. However after Deidara's suicide, Pain was ordered by Tobi that it is his mission to now capture the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox (this for unknown reasons drew an emotional response from him). Before the mission could begin however, Jiraiya infiltrated the village to try to get more information on the Akatsuki. After feeling this threat because it disturbed his rain, Pain sent Konan to deal with it while he changed bodies. When Jiraiya fought Konan, Pain appeared with murderous intent, his eyes set on Jiraiya.

Fight with Jiraiya
During the first half of his battle with Jiraiya, Pain fought the Sannin off with unique summons. It wasn't until Jiraiya activated Hermit Mode and summoned two toads to help him fight did Pain reveal two more of his bodies and quickly began to fight Jiraiya back personally. Jiraiya attempted to bring down all three of the bodies using the toad elders to perform a Genjutsu, then pierced each body through the heart with a giant sword. When Jiraiya prepared to go back to Konoha, Pain reappeared and attacked him, cutting off his left arm. When Jiraiya looked back up, he looked at the Six Paths of Pain, and all six bodies attacked. Not long after, Jiraiya managed to kill the long haired body of Pain, only to have his throat crushed by one and then be impaled by all five. As Jiraiya died, he sent the message of Pain's identity. Though the toad escaped, Pain called for Zetsu to come out and filled him in on his order to hunt the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox.

Invasion of Pain
After the fight, Madara returns to inform Pain of Sasuke and Team Hawk going after the Eight-Tailed Beast (something Pain being doubtful that they could accomplish), and orders Pain to go after Naruto fast because Konoha knows he killed Jiraiya and it makes it harder to get to Naruto. When Madara leaves, Pain prepares to set out to Konoha and reveals a new body, once again completing the Six Paths of Pain. When the six bodies and Konan are about to leave, Pain's Deva Path tells Konan to spare no one. When they finally arrive in Konoha, they kill a patrol of shinobi and Pain quietly says that they will unleash pain upon the world. Beginning his invasion, Pain sends his Animal Path through the barrier surrounding Konoha for misguiding the villagers about their numbers. Once inside, she summons the other bodies of Pain. The Asura Path body uses his Flaming Arrow of Amazing Ability to destroy the surrounding buildings. Elsewhere the Human Path grips the head of a Konoha ninja and senses that the man does not know the demon fox's location. He pulls out the man's soul and the body collapses. Meanwhile, the Deva Path tries to interrogate Iruka about Naruto's whereabouts, but upon refusal tries to kill him. Kakashi intervenes and the battle between Pain and him commences. Even with the help of Choji and Choza Akimichi, Pain's Deva Path and Asura Path (the latter of which is severely wounded) defeat the shinobi. During the fight, Choza was seemingly killed while protecting Choji, and with Kakashi seemingly defeated, Deva Path departed. When Kakashi told Choji to send word to Tsunade about Pain's ability, the wounded Asura Path opens fire on Choji. Kakashi used his Kamui ability to transport the projectile, but loses consciousness and possibly has died.

The Preta Path of Pain later enters the autopsy room where the previous animal path body was being examined: the one killed by Jiraiya. While he was removing the black body piercings, he is attacked by Kiba Inuzuka, Akamaru, Tsume Inuzuka and Kuromaru. However, Preta Path uses the previous Animal Path body as a shield and escapes.

Still elsewhere in the village, Pain's Human and Animal Path bodies attacked Inoichi Yamanaka, his daughter Ino, and several of Inoichi's intelligence comrades as they interrogated one of Pain's henchmen and examined his defeated body from the fight with Jiraiya. The Yamanakas and others escaped, however, when Pain's bodies were engaged by Ibiki Morino. Meanwhile, the Deva Path has found Tsunade and engages, demanding the location of Naruto. While Pain and Tsunade argue about each other's ideals, the Naraka Path is challenged and seemingly defeated by Konohamaru's Rasengan. Also elsewhere, Ino, Inoichi, and Shizune have deduced the secret behind Pain's six bodies. But before they could relay their theory to Tsunade, Human Path ambushes them and takes Shizune hostage, during which he discovers Naruto's location at Myobokuzan by reading Shizune's mind and transmits it to the Deva path.

Without a single hesitation, Human Path yanked Shizune's soul out while Deva Path flew to the sky and form a single jutsu. It was to be noted that the jutsu was so dangerous that it would shorten Nagato's life span but in return, it's power was devastating enough to destroy most of Konohagakure. As he fell to the ground, he noticed something big appear in a poof of smoke, which turned out to be Naruto along with Fukasaku, Gamakichi and several big frogs (among them, Gamabunta Boss, Gamaken, and Gamasushi). Deva Pain then prepares to confront Naruto, saying he was saved the trouble of looking for him.

Meanwhile, in the forest outside of Konoha, Naraka Path restores the Asura Path, who then projects the Animal Path back to the ruins of Konoha, where he summoned the other four bodies together. When Tsunade, who used most of her chakra to protect the villagers, challenged him, she was attacked by the Asura Path to finish her. It failed when Naruto destroyed the Asura Path with his rasengan in Sage mode.

Abilities
As the leader of Akatsuki and one of the two sides of the Amegakure Civil War, Pain is an extraordinarily powerful ninja that can easily be considered Kage-level; his partner Konan has stated that he has never lost a fight. He was able to single-handedly defeat and overthrow the former Amegakure leader, Hanzō, and made short work of Jiraiya after unveiling all six of his bodies (though Pain admitted that killing Jiraiya would have been very unlikely had Jiraiya had prior knowledge of his six separate bodies).The black body piercings on each of his bodies may be how he controls each body. This is supported by the Preta Path when it removes the body piercings from the dead Animal Path.

Pain has been seen using many highly advanced techniques like the Shapeshifting Technique, which allows him to clone Akatsuki members using human sacrifices that they control and can use to engage enemies in place of themselves. The clones formed are perfect copies of the original, possessing any unique genetic traits or weapons they may possess. The clone's abilities are proportionate to the amount of chakra given to the clone.

His most important technique in regards to Akatsuki operations is the Illusionary Dragon Nine Consuming Seals. With the other members of Akatsuki, this technique begins a three day trial to forcibly extract the Tailed Beast from its host and forces it into a giant statue. There seems to be an order on which Tailed Beast they can seal at once as they are unable to seal the Nine-Tailed Fox without sealing the other beasts as it would destroy the statue, possibly freeing all the captured beasts. His most powerful technique seen so far is the Shinra Tensei(Heavenly voice or Gods Judgement), a technique which manipulates gravity. His mastery of this technique allowed him to devastate half of Konohagakure with a single repulsion wave. However, it must also be noted that this massive repulsion wave causes a significant drain of Pain's chakra.To sustain this technique, his 5 bodies had to first give up all of their chakra, coupled with some of Nagato's own life force.

Pain's incredible power stems mainly from his Kekkei Genkai, Rinnegan eyes. 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 does allow the user to use all types of elemental chakra and it has been speculated that Pain can use any jutsu in the world, including secret techniques like the Yamanaka clan jutsu.

It also enhances his vision of chakra in a similar manner to the Hyuga's Byakugan and Uchiha's Sharingan, allowing him to see the chakra of barrier techniques around Konoha.

Six Paths of Pain
The most prominent fact about Pain is that he is not a single entity, but six individual bodies all acting together with one mind and will. He calls this the. Normally, he operates out of a single body and keeps the others stored in sealed room within a strange machine. The only common feature shared by these bodies is their bright orange hair and Rinnegan eyes. Each also has a vast number of body and facial piercings of various shapes, sizes, and patterns. Each body individual body has also shown able to easily defeat multiple ninjas with ease, such as "Copy Ninja" Kakashi Hatake who was a highly skilled ninja of Konoha, as Deva Path demonstrated.

Each one of Pain's bodies have a single special ability and defined purpose (although that doesn't seem to hold true for his Deva Path body), and he coordinates his multiple selves together via their eyes. Each body can see and sense everything that the other bodies can, giving him six fields of view, allowing him to co-ordinate offense and defense with incredible speed and precision as if he was a single entity. They also all carry strange black spear-like weapons that can disrupt a target's chakra on contact. Most disturbing, the bodies can recover from even fatal injuries, courtesy of the Naraka path. During battle, Jiraiya realizes that all the bodies are in fact those of other shinobi that he encountered on his travels although how they came to be part of Pain is still unknown. The code he sent to Konoha stated "The real one isn't with them", meaning the real Pain isn't among the six bodies, but where he really is, is still unknown. Also, during Pain's invasion of Konoha, Shizune figures out that the piercings are chakra receivers that Pain uses to control his bodies from long distances, meaning if Konoha could figure out where the chakra signals were coming from, they could find the real Pain. Pain refers to his bodies as Paths, although he has six selves he appears to prefer using his Deva Path to give orders and co-ordinate his actions.

Thanks to Jiraiya's dying message and successfully capturing one of Pain's bodies, along with probing the mind of a Rain ninja, Konoha was able to discover a startling truth about Pain's abililty to be six different people at once. As it has been discovered that at least one of Pain's bodies was once dead, and all of the piercings on each body are "chakra-recievers" it has been deduced that the Six Paths of Pain are merely corpses that have become reanimated puppets that are being controlled in a manner similar to the Yamanaka clan's mind-tampering jutsu and if so, then the true Pain is somewhere relatively close to them.

Deva Path
The , Pain's first observed body, is the body of Yahiko, and possesses medium length spiky hair, seven piercings and a metal bar through each ear, three studs through the side of his upper nose and one spike stud on each end of his bottom lip. He also wears a beaded necklace. Unlike the other bodies, this body seems to have access to multiple forms of ninjutsu, demonstrated from all the defenses put up to stop intruders from interfering with the sealing of a demon. It also seems to have retained Yahiko's affinity for water-chakra, shown from its ability to summon and control rain, and can conjure and stop it at will, even maintain it for long periods of time. This is apparently tied into his mood. In addition he can detect the movements and chakra levels of people traveling within the rain, making it difficult to infiltrate Amegakure by stealth. It is later revealed that he has the ability "Force Manipulation" that allows him to control attractive and repulsive forces on objects through space in relation to himself. This ability lets him deflect any attacking object around him or pull it in for counterattacks. However he cannot perform it in rapid succession leaving him vulnerable for a short period of time after its use. This body also seems to be more important than Pain's other bodies, as seen when Pain would readily sacrifice his Asura Path to protect this body. This may or may not be a consequence of Nagato and Yahiko's former friendship and emotional attachment to this body, which is a possibility, since Pain is capable of recreating Paths with spare corpses (as seen in case of the Animal Path). It also may simply be because this body is more powerful then the others and thus is more important in a battle.

This body is apparently his preferred form for interacting with others since he has participated in all sealing rituals and has been seen in several flashbacks by Amegakure members. Later it leads the attack on Konoha to locate Naruto and ends up clashing with Kakashi Hatake, Choza and Chouji Akamichi, and other Konoha shinobi. Despite the injuries of the Asura Path, the Deva Path eventually defeats them all, leaving Choza Akamichi seemingly dead and Kakashi injured and unconscious, after which he turns his attention to Tsunade. After growing impatient with Tsunade's lack of pain, the Deva Path proceeds to use Shinra Tensei to destroy most of the Village.


 * Jutsu
 * Fierce Raining at Will
 * Five Seals Barrier
 * Illusionary Dragon Nine Consuming Seals
 * Magic Lantern Body Technique
 * Mirrored Sudden Attacker
 * Shapeshifting Technique
 * Shinra Tensei
 * Water Release: Violent Water Wave

Human Path
The  is the body of a tall slender man with very long loose hair, a diagonal bar though his nose, two studs vertically on each cheek, two studs horizontal from each other on his upper chin, and a stud on his shoulders near his neck. This body was originally from Takigakure.

This body's abilities are largely obscure since Jiraiya damaged this Path's eyes early on in his battle but it showed immense physical prowess, being able to block Hermit Mode Jiraiya's punch and not even flinch (at all circumstances, an impressive feat). More recently however he has shown the ability "Mind Tampering", allowing him to read minds by touching another being's head in order to extract information. He's capable of reading the person's mind in seconds and without need of additional equipment. The Human Path then proceeded to rip out the ninja's consciousness, most likely killing the victim.

This body has participated in Pain's battle with Jiraiya and later as a reconnaissance force during the invasion of Konoha. He was seen approaching the village's interrogation center accompanied by the new Animal Path. Recently it is shown to be watching the battle between the Animal Path and Konoha's interrogation team consisting of Ibiki, two ANBU, Shizune, Inoichi and Ino. When the latter three retreat he follows them to the interrogation center. He ambushes the group and holds Shizune hostage. Reading her mind in the process, the Human Path pinpoints Naruto Uzumaki's current location as Myobokuzan. He later unhesitantly disposes of Shizune by ripping her soul out of her body.


 * Jutsu
 * Mind Reading
 * Soul Removal

Asura Path (Former)
(deceased) The  is the body of a tall bald man with a very unusual body shape, possessing a very thick neck, a big square shaped jaw, with a large ring piercing vertically on his nose, six spike studs all around his head, three studs on the top and bottom of each of his arms, an enormous spike stud on his chin and two vertical spikes on each upper cheek. This body's face is strangely set in a permanent smile.

His ability is based on "Body Alterations", allowing him to modify himself with artificial mechanical body parts. Under his cloak the body is revealed to have completely robotic inner workings and a completely inhuman appearance, possessing six arms, three faces each with a different emotion: happy, neutral, and angry (thus resembling the mythical Asura from Buddhist mythology) and a folded serrated blade-like tail. He can fire one of his left forearms off as a long range projectile, pull out one of his right arms to reveal a cluster of segmented cluster missiles, open up the crown of his head to release a titanic shockwave, and protruding from his back a long and flexible saw-like blade that can be whipped at a target. All of these abilities befit the "warring demon" name that the Asura path holds, while giving it a considerably higher degree of versatility than the other Paths have.

During the invasion of Konoha this body caused devastation throughout the village until joining Deva Pain's battle against Kakashi only to be crushed by Choza Akimichi and Choji Akimichi after Kakashi's Lightning Clone Technique rendered him unable to move. Even sustaining so much damage he was still able to move to defend Deva from Kakashi's Lightning Blade, only to be completely cut open. However when Choji later tries to escape, with the knowledge of the Deva Path Pain's abilities, the body reveals that it is still alive, although incapacitated, and fires one of its missiles at Choji. This missile is however stopped by Kakashi's Kamui technique.

This body was later healed by Naraka path, by summoning the King of Hell and engulfing Asura in its mouth, he emerged completely restored. He then proceeded to attack Tsunade but was stopped and then quickly destroyed by Naruto in Sage Mode.


 * Jutsu
 * Flaming Arrow of Amazing Ability
 * Flaming Arrow Missles
 * Laser Explosion

Animal Path


The , Pain's newest body is the replacement of the body lost in the fight against Jiraiya. This body has a very young appearance and, unlike all the other bodies, was originally female, with its hair tied together in a sort of onion like bun at the top of the head and spikes of hair protruding out of it. It has one stud above the nose, studs on either side of the neck, a row of studs vertically down each cheek, a stud below each stud on the neck and two studs on each forearm. When Inoichi is searching through the mind of a man from Amegakure he saw that a man and a friend bring this body, dead and without its piercings, to the tower where Pain resides.

This body can be seen as a reincarnation of (or replacement for) Pain's second body, as both bodies were used primarily for "Multiple Summonings". It is seen calling forth a giant centipede, the multi headed splitting abilitied giant dog, a rhino and the other Pain's.

This body was first seen when Pain began his approach to Konoha. After being launched through the villages barrier techniques it summoned the other bodies of Pain and proceeded to cause chaos with its summoned creatures. It latter was seen approaching Konoha's interrogation ward with the Human Path and has begun battle with Ibiki, two ANBU, Shizune, Inoichi and Ino though the latter three have fallen back to discover more about the secret of Pain.

After seeing Animal Path demonstrate her summoning prowess, Shizune and the rest of the ANBU interrogators are startled by this as the corpse they recieved from Jiraiya was said to be the summoner of Pain's bodies and the new knowledge that the current Animal Path was originally dead.


 * Jutsu
 * Summoning Technique
 * Bird
 * Centipede
 * Chameleon
 * Crustacean
 * Nine-Headed Canine
 * Other Pain Bodies
 * Panda
 * Yak
 * Rhino
 * Violent Bubble Wave (Crustacean Summon)
 * Amplification Summoning Technique (Nine-Headed Canine Summon)
 * Panda Iron Wall (Panda Summon)

Preta Path
The  is the body of a fat, bulky man with six spike stud piercings covering his entire bottom lip, two studs vertical on the front of his nose, two spike studs one on each cheek, a metal bar going through each ear, and a stud on his shoulder one on each side close to his neck. Originally this body was from Kusagakure.

This body's ability "Energy Absorption" is primarily defensive, since he is capable of absorbing any Ninjutsu related technique, such as Jiraiya's Super Great Ball Rasengan and Hermit's Art: Goemon, nullifying them and sucking them into his torso. This technique can also take the form of a large bubble around his body, allowing to absorb attacks from any direction.

This body has participated in the battle with Jiraiya and later acted as a distraction during Pains invasion of Konoha, holding off a number of Leaf ninja by absorbing all their attacks forcing them to rely on Taijutsu to battle him. He is later seen removing the piercings from the autopsy room containing the former Animal Path. At the same time Kiba and his mother enter and attack him; however, he used the Animal Path's body to shield himself.


 * Jutsu
 * Sealing Technique Absorption Seal

Naraka Path
The  is the body of a very tall stocky muscular man with a spiky mop of hair (similar in style to Kisame Hoshigaki), with triple bar ear piercings, a stud on his upper nose, a stud on his shoulders near his neck, and a row of studs diagonally down each cheek.

This body's ability King of Hell seem to be an entity similar to the Death God, although he is physically strong enough to hold a fully grown men in each hand off the ground with no apparent effort. His ability takes the form of a giant demonic head, which protrudes from the ground behind him and is shrouded in black flames. He asks a question, and after an answer is given, the giant's mouth opens, releasing tendril like arms that force a stream of energy (possibly the person's life force or soul) from the victim. If the person was telling a lie, their life force is completely removed and eaten, and they are seemingly killed. If they were telling the truth, they remain alive, though left extremely exhausted. Outsiders are unable to see the demon. .

This body appeared in the later half of Pain's battle with Jiraiya and freed the bodies Jiraya had apparently killed and impaled on large swords. He later acts an interrogator during Pain's invasion of Konoha along with the Deva and Human Path's. After torturing and most likely killing several Konoha ninjas without success he is confronted by and captures Ebisu, but is distracted and challenged by Konohamaru. He is seemingly incapacitated by the Rasengan Konohamaru used. He is seen again in chapter 429 page 10, meaning he is still alive.

Another of this body's powers is to resurrect, or "heal" other Paths. By summoning the King of Hell, Pain engulfs the body he wants to heal in it and it comes out complete. It is still uncertain, whether he can restore a deceased body, or only a grievously wounded but still alive one.


 * Jutsu
 * King of Hell

Animal Path (Former)
(Deceased) Pain's second body, distinguished by a long ponytail and a large bridge piercing through his upper nose and attaching on each cheek, one on his upper nose, and six rimming around the bottom of his face. After being killed and examined, this body was shown to have multiple piercings on his chest as well. The appearance of this body, when first seen, was compared to that of fellow Akatsuki member Deidara. Prior to Jiraiya's encounter with Pain, one of his subordinates noted that some believe Pain to have been from the Fūma clan. This is because this body was originally a man from the Fūma clan, recognized by Jiraiya as a man who had ambushed him, ending up scarred across the forehead in the process.

This body is a powerful summoner, capable of conjuring a massive variety of different animal summons for various different purposes, and most significantly the other bodies of Pain. Each animal summon also shares his Rinnegan eyes and various piercings suggesting that they too are under his control.

This body was the first one encountered by Jiraiya, and was eventually killed and sent to Konoha for study. It is later seen once more when the Preta Path comes to the body and begins to remove the black piercings from its corpse. (The piercings were removed by konoha ninjas formerly, so he wanted something else)


 * Jutsu
 * Summoning Technique (Multiple)
 * Bird
 * Centipede
 * Chameleon
 * Crustacean
 * Nine-Headed Canine
 * Other Pain Bodies
 * Panda
 * Yak
 * Rhino
 * Violent Bubble Wave (Crustacean Summon)
 * Amplification Summoning Technique (Nine-Headed Canine Summon)
 * Panda Iron Wall (Panda Summon)

Creation
In Naruto Hiden: Sha no Sho Character Official Data Book, 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 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 and other media, Pain's eyes were depicted with an incorrect color scheme; the two center rings of the Rinnegan were colored seperate shades of gray 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.

While the Six Paths are depicted with a standard, pinkish skin tone in official color illustrations by Kishimoto, the anime depicts them with deathly pale skin, likely as a visual cue that the bodies are in fact deceased.

Speculations
Before chapter 363 when the face of Pain has actually been fully shown, there was a theory highly popular in fandom that stated the Akatsuki Leader is the Fourth Hokage. This speculation has been recently resolved as incorrect, however even in the light, Pain's Yahiko body resembles Minato Namikaze in ways. Some fans still believe Pain is the Fourth Hokage in disguise as not to have people know who he is since Pain has multiple bodies, but this fact has yet to be proven or disproved. Another speculation is that the multiple bodies of Pain are a variant of his Shapeshifting Technique, used to split his chakra and abilities into multiple bodies.

It can also be inferred that Pain has a seventh body, because in the message Jiraiya left, it mentions that "the real one is not with them"(Shizune and Inoichi Yamanaka also think this in the latest chapters). This could mean that the head body, which could be Nagato, controls his six bodies from a distance, and as long as the seventh one survives, Pain can't die. This theory is gaining gradual support, especially in the recent chapter 428.

It could be possible that the reason the the Deva path is held in such high regard by Pain is because it is the former body of Yahiko, who Nagato wanted to protect.

It has also been speculated in the past that Pain could be the Sage of the Six Paths. However, this theory died out long ago.

While the supposedly "Leader" body of Pain is Yahiko, Konan is seen calling him Nagato when she worries that the technique he used to pulverise Konohagakure will shorten his lifespan - perhaps indicating that Pain can be killed or can die. Her comment also seems to confirm that there is a seventh body.

Trivia

 * Each body of the "Six Paths of Pain" has a designation matching each of the Six Paths of reincarnation in Buddhism: Deva, Asura, Human, Animal, Preta, and Naraka.
 * Based on the new theory about Pain's six bodies, it can also be presumed that Pain's various summoned animals are also reanimated corpses as they too have Rinnegan eyes and piercings in their bodies.
 * A mistake by the scanlation group Inane misled readers of the Naruto manga to believe Pain's Rinnegan was the Sharingan. However, high quality versions of the manga revealed that what was thought to be the Sharingan was simply image distortion. Though his eyes do resemble the Sharingan, they have no tomoe. This was later proven when Pain makes his appearance in the anime.

Quotes

 * "We're both of the same breed, after all..., motives for war are not of concern. Religion, ideology, resources, land, spite, love, or just because..., no matter how pathetic the reason, it's enough to start war."
 * "Sensei..., you're still just a normal person. But I, living in an infinite universe of pain, have grown from a person into something more."
 * "People who have a weapon will inevitably use it..., hundreds of millions of people will be killed instantly. And the survivors would be completely terrified! All the people..., all the world..., will learn what true pain is!!"
 * "This is nothing compared to the pain the world will suffer."
 * "Let's let the world feel some pain!"