Konan

was a kunoichi from Amegakure and a founding member of the original Akatsuki. After Yahiko's death, she was partnered with Nagato, who had since taken control of Akatsuki, and was the only member to call him by his name. After Nagato's death, Konan defected from the Akatsuki and became the de facto village head of Amegakure.

Background
When she was young, Konan's family was killed during the Second Shinobi World War, and she was left to fend for herself. Some time later, Yahiko found her, and the two worked together to survive. Not long after that, Konan went for a walk and found a young, dying Nagato and his dog, Chibi. She rescued him and brought him back to their hideout. Gradually the three became best friends. They eventually encountered the Sannin, who gave them some food. Konan impressed them by making an elaborate flower out of the paper wrappers left behind as a sign of gratitude. When Orochimaru suggested to kill them so they would not have to suffer the horrors of war, Jiraiya instead opted to stay and teach the three how to look after themselves.

During their time with Jiraiya, he made a defence system composed of four planks, each with one red and one white side, attached to a part of a wall of the hideout they shared at the time with a string and a nail, each one above one of their names, which he called "Hop-In" planks. The purpose of the planks were that when they were in the hideout, they turn their planks to the red side and they leave, they flip their plank to the white side, so when a plank's on the red side and the person's not in the hideout, it means they could have been captured by the enemy and when a plank's on the white side and it appears that the person's in the hideout, it could mean that an enemy has transformed into said person and has infiltrated the hideout, along with a trapdoor hidden among the floorboards leading to a hidden room and emergency escape route he left just in case. After Jiraiya was confident they could take care of themselves, he told Konan that she will be very beautiful when she grows up and to come see him when she turns eighteen. With that said, he left for Konoha and the three continued to bring peace to their land.

Over time, the three formed the Akatsuki and became renowned for their strength and effectiveness, with news of their actions even reaching Konoha. When their group became too big, they were forced to find another hideout, and leave their current one. When they were about to leave, two Iwa ninja attacked the hideout but Yahiko noticed in time and they used the escape route to escape. Through out their time together, Konan became close with Yahiko. During the Third Shinobi World War, their group was approached by a man calling himself "Madara Uchiha". He offered to help them in their pursuits but Yahiko refused the offer, suspecting he only meant to use them.

Through out their quest for peace, Akatsuki's ranks grew and became known throughout of Amegakure, so much so that Hanzō began to feel that Akatsuki threatened his rule so he approached the group and offered that they work together. The next day while on patrol, Konan was abducted by Hanzō's men and was brought to the meeting where he ordered Nagato to kill Yahiko in exchange for her life. Konan cried out for them to flee without her, but they refused to leave her behind. Nagato was paralysed in shock by the order but Yahiko stabbed himself with the kunai in Nagato's hand and in a fit a rage, Nagato saved Konan by slaughtering the Anbu and Hanzō's subordinates.

Accepting Tobi's earlier offer of support, Nagato and Konan began recruiting S-rank missing-nin into the Akatsuki and started offering its services as a mercenary group to ninja villages, earning the money necessary to fund its long-term plans. Some time later, Nagato under the alias of Pain, began a civil war within Amegakure, and as his messenger, Konan promised to the villagers that he would bring change to their village and other nations. Nagato eventually killed Hanzō and Konan assumed his identity to make it appear to the world that he was still alive and in control of Amekagure. In the anime, Konan aided in recruiting Hidan into the organisation.

Personality
Konan was smart, stoic, calm, and level-headed much like her partner, Nagato. As a child, she was bright, compassionate, and relatively cheerful, in comparison to Yahiko's tough attitude and Nagato's sensitivity. However, the traumatic events since then have led her to become a very serious person, and she never spoke during Akatsuki meetings. Nevertheless, she has always placed the safety of her team-mates above her own. Konan had romantic feelings towards Yahiko, which were reciprocated.

She did seem to be more empathetic than most other Akatsuki members, as she appeared sad whenever she was reminded of her past. She also expressed a great deal of loyalty and courtesy to Pain, doing his bidding without question, looking out for his well-being and always having complete faith in his abilities. She acted as an intermediary between Pain and Ame, the villagers having given her the title "God's Angel", because with her paper wings activated, she resembles one.

She had the ability to read Pain's emotions without him facially expressing them, presumably as a result of having known him for so long. As soon as Tobi ordered Pain to capture the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox, she could tell right away that there was something about the order that very much upset her emotionally deadened partner.

After Nagato's sacrifice, Konan becomes fiercely adamant to protect Naruto Uzumaki, the person Nagato entrusted his mission of world peace to, even going as far as to proclaim all of Ame's loyalty to him. She was equally fierce in defending Nagato's remains from Tobi going as far as to prepare herself for suicidal attacks against him if it meant protecting Nagato and Naruto from him.

Appearance
Konan was a relatively tall woman who had short, straight blue hair, grey eyes (amber in the anime) with lavender eye shadow, and a labret piercing. Konan's eyelashes are shown to be a diagonal line at the bottom corner of her eyes, but in the anime, they are shown to be distinctive lines. She has worn a large light blue paper flower in her hair since she was a child. Her facial expression was usually neutral, though usually protested or looked worried when Nagato performed a technique that would debilitate him. She wore the Akatsuki cloak and her Akatsuki ring on her right middle finger, the kanji on it meaning. She also wore orange nail polish. Although she never removed her Akatsuki mantle, it was revealed that underneath it she wore a revealing navy blue robe, with a large hemline on the front, and exposed her arms, her back, the lateral part of her breast and her belly, with her navel being surrounded by four more piercings. It was also revealed that her headband is on her right hip; instead of the standard sandals and leg-warmers, she wore a pair of blue pants that also functioned as her shoes, with white high heels, inverting the organisation's standard colour scheme.

As a child, Konan was seen wearing an array of simple clothing. When living with Jiraiya, she was seen wearing a karate top and skirt bottom, with a pouch she wore at the front of her outfit to carry her paper. When Konan, Yahiko, and Nagato began to make Akatsuki, Konan wore a black cloak with purple stockings and high heels, as well as a mid section guard similar to that of Samui, and an Ame forehead protector, that being the only time period Konan's been seen wearing one.

Abilities
An S-rank criminal who grew up in war-torn times, Konan was a very powerful kunoichi whose skills were held in high regard by her partner, Pain, and even highly praised by her former teacher, Jiraiya. In Naruto Shippūden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Revolution, she demonstrated her prowess in battle by defeating Sasori, an extremely powerful shinobi who wielded his most powerful puppet, without sustaining any injuries. She was also able to easily defeat the Five-Tails Jinchūriki Han in a one on one battle despite Han's extreme power. She could also fight nearly the entirety of the Aburame Clan during Pain's Assault, holding the upper hand during the entire battle. After Nagato's death, she became the leader of Amegakure. During their battle, Obito highly underestimated Konan's abilities, which, had it not been for his use of the kinjutsu Izanagi, would have cost him his life.

Ninjutsu
Even as a child, Konan had shown a natural talent for origami and even developed it into her fighting style, able to infuse her chakra with it and develop paper ninjutsu. This form of art caught the attention of Sasori by the time they fought. She had created a unique transformation technique called Dance of the Shikigami, which turned her entire body and clothing into thousands of sheets of paper, which she could control at will and form into any shape or colour. To travel long distances, she could fold them into butterflies or planes for powered flight. To attack, she hardened the sheets to the point where they were as hard as steel and folded them into arrows, spears, and shuriken. She could also restrain opponents by blanketing them in sheets, thus restricting their movements and asphyxiating them. Befitting (and likely inspiring) her title as, the papers could also form large wings for further weaponry, though she is capable of hovering without them. She could also make chakram-like weapons to attack foes and, in the anime, was skilled enough to make two, and control them with great ease, using them to corner her targets from opposing ends.

Despite being made of paper, Jiraiya's Fire Release: Flame Bullet, which was empowered by oil, didn't even damage her. Her paper attacks could even overpower a fire attack. Her paper also doesn't seem to be affected by water, as seen when Pain used his Giant Crustacean to wash away the oil on her, which she was susceptible to, as well as when she fought in the rain of Amegakure against Tobi. Konan could make paper clones to fight in her place and hide explosive tags in them so that they would explode, and catch an enemy off guard. Konan's ultimate technique, the Paper Person of God Technique, could split a large lake, and contained six hundred billion explosive tags that would explode for a full ten minutes, which forced Tobi to use Izanagi to survive since his intangibility only lasts for five minutes.

Konan was able to be able to produce and fold enough paper to mimic environmental surroundings, allowing her and those of her choosing to hide in places one normally wouldn't be able to. The paper itself would camouflage into the surroundings witnessed when she created a giant tree to act as her and Nagato's base of operations during their invasion of Konoha. She was also able to use her paper to mimic an entire ocean. Her skills at camouflaging her paper is so great that even the Sharingan is deceived by it.

Outside her paper ninjutsu, Konan had proficiency in Wind, Water, Earth, and Yang Release nature transformations. In the anime, she was also a sensor type.

Intelligence
Konan had a very keen intellect as she was able to quickly understand the process and reason behind the hop in, hop out system Jiraiya had created for them. In later years, she studied Tobi's space-time techniques, accurately deciphering how they worked and then did countless simulations in order to find the perfect way to kill him. Even Tobi expressed surprise that he was forced to rely on the forbidden Izanagi to survive her final assault at the cost of his left eye.

Sasuke Recovery Mission
At the end of Part I, Konan 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.

In Naruto's Footsteps: The Friends' Paths
In the anime, two years after the Akatsuki's last known meeting, Kakashi Hatake came to her village to present an invitation to an early Chūnin Exams hosted by Konohagakure and Sunagakure, with the assumption that Hanzō is still the leader and alive. To keep this facade up, Konan disguised herself as Hanzō, retrieving the invitation and sending Kakashi off. Afterwards, she approached Pain to ask what their next move would be. Deciding it was too early to make any serious moves, Pain told Konan to accept the offer and send some genin teams to the exams to keep up the cover. As Konan assigned several genin as teams for the exams, she also informed them to keep quiet of Hanzō's demise. In addition, she assigned three kunoichi to use the Chūnin Exams to gather intel on other ninja, particularly look for shinobi with immense chakra levels in the possibility they are jinchūriki.

Ultimately, the Chūnin Exams were ended early before starting the finals due to controversy happening in the second exam. It was also decided that report on each participant's performance would be sent to their respective village leader for them to decide if they would be promoted. From this, Konan chose to promote all three kunoichi, and assigned them an S-ranked mission.

Part II
She was present alongside the other Akatsuki members during most of their meetings. She is a quiet and taciturn person by nature, and didn't say a word during the meetings and sealing rituals. However, her silhouette was shown when Pain mentioned the reason for her affiliation with Akatsuki.

Kazekage Rescue Mission
Konan along with the other Akatsuki appeared whilst extracting Shukaku from Gaara.

Akatsuki Suppression Mission
Konan was seen during the sealing the Two-Tails from Yugito.

Tale of Jiraiya the Gallant
Konan informed Pain that Tobi — who would be revealed as the true leader of the organisation — had arrived in Amegakure for a meeting with them. After Tobi left, she knew that something that the latter said had upset Nagato. When Jiraiya infiltrated Amegakure, Pain stopped the rain and had Konan scour the village in search of him by splitting into numerous paper butterflies. After locating the intruder, she informed Pain and then engaged him in battle until Pain could arrive. After notifying Pain, she attacked Ryūsui who was being shadowed by Jiraiya's technique, restraining him in a swarm of paper and created a spear, but the Sannin noticed the attack and deflected it in time using Fire Release: Flame Bullet, driving Konan back. Jiraiya recognised Konan and complimented her on her power and beauty, commenting that she had become "one hell of a woman".

As they fought, Konan's paper ninjutsu was able to overwhelm his fire technique, however, Jiraiya used her weakness against her by countering her technique with an oil-based attack instead, rendering her unable to manipulate her paper. After which she is immobilised by his elongated hair, but she was saved when Pain appeared and washed the oil away. She regrouped with him after he had killed Jiraiya.

Six-Tails Unleashed
After Utakata was captured, Konan, along with the other Akatsuki members extracted the Six-Tails from him.

Pain's Assault
Konan later accompanied Pain during his attack on Konoha. When they arrived, they swiftly eliminated a patrol of Konoha-nin, with Pain giving Konan orders to spare no-one. She was shown asking the Konoha shinobi if they knew the whereabouts of Naruto Uzumaki as they were trapped in her paper. The shinobi were saved by the Aburame clan's kikaichū.

In the anime, she then engaged in a short battle against Shino, his father, and two other Aburame clan members. After Shino stated he would not go easy on her, he sent a swarm of bugs to surround her. However, it is revealed that they only attacked a paper clone, when it dispersed, blowing away the bugs. The Aburame members then looked up to find dozens of paper clones, which then jumped down at them. They then sent their bugs to attack the paper clones, but to their surprise, these paper clones had explosive tags hidden within them, which exploded moments later. Through the fire caused by the explosions, the real Konan was seen walking towards Shino and his clan members, doused in water. As a result, Shino's father commented on her power and quick thinking, using "her natural weakness as an advantage" and warned Shino to be careful.

Later, Konan was called back, only to discover Pain had decided to use one of his most dangerous techniques. Concerned for his health, she begged him to stop using the technique, to no avail. Pain clearly had his mind made up, and continued to use the technique on a massive scale.

After consulting with Pain about the use of his technique, she was shown departing, stating she would look after him from now on. She then dispersed her Paper Clone and remained with Nagato for the rest of the invasion, constantly warning him to not overexert himself. When Naruto later found their location, she attempted to keep him from Nagato, but Nagato told her to step aside. She did as he asked, and listened to their conversation, but remained concerned about Nagato's condition. When Naruto led Nagato to having a change of heart and he decided to revive the people of Konoha, Konan realised that doing so would cost him his life. Knowing she couldn't stop him, however, she only marvelled at Naruto's ability to change others.

When all of the Konoha ninja were revived, Konan, like Nagato, entrusted the task of finding peace to Naruto. She wrapped Nagato and the Deva Path dead bodies in her paper to take them with her to Amegakure. When asked by Naruto if she would return to Akatsuki, she said that she was through with the organisation, as Nagato and Yahiko had meant everything to her, and now she and her village would help Naruto accomplish their dream of bringing peace to the world. She gave him a bouquet of paper flowers to symbolise a truce and wished that they would become "flowers of hope that never die" for him.

Fourth Shinobi World War: Countdown
Tobi infiltrates Amegakure and is immediately confronted by Konan. He asks her where to find Nagato's corpse so that he can take his Rinnegan. She refuses to tell him, instead informing him that she has been waiting for him and intends to personally stop him. Before they begin fighting, Tobi asks why she and Nagato would betray Akatsuki. Konan replied that Naruto was the embodiment of light that gave everyone the flower of hope.

She attacked Tobi with Paper Shuriken but they passed right through his intangible body. She then enveloped him in her dissipated paper form mixed with explosive tags, planning to kill them both. Tobi saves them by warping most of the explosion away, at the cost of his right arm and having a part of his mask broken. Tobi applauds her determination, to which Konan responds by vowing to destroy him, the "darkness" where flowers can do nothing but wilt and die. Konan then divides the lake, revealing an abyss of paper and as Tobi helplessly falls into it, she detonates the six hundred billion explosive tags that she had placed there that would last over a period of ten minutes, longer than the five-minute period that Tobi can remain intangible for.

When the explosions ceased, Konan collapsed, exhausted, but believed the battle won. At the same time, some of the paper flowers at Nagato and Yahiko's shrine fall apart. Tobi, however, quickly appeared behind her and stabbed her with a pipe, revealing that he had survived her assault with Izanagi at the cost of his left eye. Konan freed herself, and prepared to attack again, but before she did so, the endless rains over Ame stopped for the first time, surprising both Konan and Tobi. Seeing this as a sign of Nagato's will, Konan proclaimed that she would be a support that held up the bridge that lead to peace.

Taking up the mantle of "darkness" that crushes the light, Tobi grabbed her by the throat, dispelling an attack she had been preparing and places her under a genjutsu to force her to reveal Nagato's location. He added that she will die when the illusion ends. In the anime, Konan was able to attack Tobi just before he grabbed her by the throat. Her attack, however, was unable to stop him. Konan's body was left floating in the water. One of her blood-soaked sheets of paper is blown to the Ame Orphans' old hideout and came to rest on her "Hop-In" card, signifying a promise that the three had made to return there one day before leaving.

Creation and Conception
In Naruto Hiden: Sha no Sho Character Official Data Book, Masashi Kishimoto revealed that he'd always planned for Konan to be the only female member of Akatsuki, and, for that reason, gave her quite a revealing design. He jokingly comments that "she's obscene, but she still wears clothes, although her Akatsuki mantle covers it up, and she turns into paper right away". In the concept artwork, her navel is also shown to be pierced.

Trivia

 * The name "Konan" means.
 * Even though she was an Akatsuki member, Konan (like Nagato) was never a missing-nin, since their faction achieved victory in the Amegakure civil wars.
 * Konan shares her birthday and blood type with Yahiko.
 * Studio Pierrot's Settei sheets of Konan shows that she was 160 cm when Jiraiya left Amegakure.
 * According to the databook(s):
 * Konan's hobbies were origami and flower pressing.
 * Konan's favourite food was flame-broiled fish, while she disliked karaage.
 * She would fight anyone who opposes "God".
 * Konan's favourite word was.
 * Konan had completed 341 official missions in total: 0 D-rank, 65 C-rank, 161 B-rank, 85 A-rank and 30 S-rank.

Quotes

 * (To Yahiko and Nagato) "Yahiko and Nagato… I will be the support that holds both our bridges up!"
 * (To Jiraiya) "You have no idea what happened to us after you left, sensei."
 * (To Jiraiya) "I have received the will of god and I must kill you."
 * (To Jiraiya) "That time, you should have listened to what Orochimaru said, but you saved us instead. Now, it's too late as we act to make his plans a reality."
 * (To Naruto) "Nagato believed in you, so I believe in you, too."
 * (To Naruto) "This time… I hope for you these will be flowers of hope that never die."
 * (To Tobi) "I knew you'd come find me eventually. I've been waiting for my chance to destroy you."
 * (To Tobi about Naruto) "He is light personified. That's why everyone he meets… carries the flower called hope!"
 * (To Tobi) "Yahiko founded the Akatsuki. The red clouds on these robes we wear… represent the wars that rained blood upon Amegakure. You merely jumped in our bandwagon. These robes are our legacy, not yours. The Rinnegan is something that Amegakure shinobi Nagato awakened on his own, and it does not belong to you! His eyes are this nation and village's greatest treasure!!"
 * (To Tobi) "One question… Madara. Do you understand why we betrayed you? Because you are darkness, a world without light where flowers can only wither and die!"
 * (To Tobi) "Yahiko and Nagato did what they wanted to do. They were never your pawns! No matter what happened to them, they both fought for their own ideals! And that's why their will has been passed down! I won't let you ruin it!"
 * (To Tobi) "Yahiko and Nagato's will hasn't vanished from this world! I believe in Naruto too! He… He will become the bridge that leads us to peace and I will be a support holding the bridge up!"