Konan

was the only kunoichi in Akatsuki, and the partner of Nagato, being the only member to call him by his name. She is now the current leader of Amegakure.

Background
When she was young, Konan's family was killed during the Second Great 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 then rescued Nagato and brought him back to Yahiko's hideout, hence becoming close friends. The three eventually encountered the three Sannin, who gave them some food. Konan impressed them by making an elaborate flower out of the paper wrappers left behind. Jiraiya views her as the kindest of the three. After he taught them ninjutsu and was confident they could take care of themselves, he left them on their own.

Over time, the three formed the Akatsuki and became renowned for their strength and effectiveness, with news of their actions even reaching Jiraiya. Hanzō, leader of Amegakure, feared that they would overthrow him. As such, he and Konohagakure's Danzō deceived the group into meeting with them about an allegiance for peace. When Nagato and Yahiko went to meet with them, they kidnapped Konan and 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. Although Nagato was paralyzed in shock by the order, Yahiko stabbed himself with the kunai in Nagato's hand. Nagato saved Konan afterwards, who would thereafter accompany him wherever he went.

Personality
Konan is stoic, calm, and level-headed (much like her partner, Nagato, was). As a child, she was bright, compassionate, and relatively cheerful, in comparison to Yahiko's tough attitude and Nagato's sensitivity. However, the trauma of 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.

She does seem to be more empathic than most other Akatsuki members, as she appears sad whenever she has been 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 seemed to act as an intermediary between Pain and Amegakure, the villagers having given her the title "God's Angel" for this reason, and for the reason that, with her paper wings activated, she looks like an angel.

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 Madara Uchiha 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.

Appearance
Konan is a woman who has short blue hair, gray eyes (amber in the anime), ultramarine 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 three distinctive lines. She has worn a large light blue paper flower in her hair since she was a child. Her facial expression is usually neutral, though usually protests or looks worried when Nagato performs a jutsu that can wear him down. She wears the Akatsuki cloak and her Akatsuki ring on her right middle finger, the kanji on her ring means. She wears orange nail polish.

As a child, Konan was seen wearing an array of simple clothing. When living with Jiraiya, she is 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 wears a black cloak with purple stockings and white high-heels, as well as an Amegakure headband, the only time period Konan's been seen wearing one.

Abilities
Konan is an S-rank kunoichi and her skills were held in high regard by her partner, Pain, although Jiraiya held her off with relative ease, though this is due to the fact he trained her and knew her weakness. She has an amazing natural talent for origami, as seen with the paper flower she keeps in her hair. As a child, after training with Jiraiya, she was able to form paper weapons infused with her chakra. Madara Uchiha highly underestimated her during their combat, leading him to lose his right arm and half of his mask in the process.

As an adult and former member of Akatsuki, her abilities have grown considerably. She has created a unique transformation technique called Dance of the Shikigami, which can turn her entire body and clothing into thousands of sheets of paper, which she can control at will and form into any shape or color. To travel long distances, she can fold them into butterflies or planes for powered flight, and, to attack, the sheets fold into arrows and shuriken. She can also restrain opponents by blanketing them in sheets, thus restricting their movement and asphyxiating them. Befitting (and likely inspiring) her title as, the papers can also form large wings for further weaponry, however, she is capable of hovering without them. The power of the paper attacks could even overpower a fire attack. Konan is susceptible to oil-based attacks, which stick to her and keep her paper from unfolding, although she is not hampered to the same extent by water, as shown when Pain had his summon use Water Release: Violent Bubble Wave on her to wash the oil off, as well as when she was fighting against Madara Uchiha in the rain. Konan can make Paper Clones that she could use to fight in her place. She could hide explosive tags in them so that they would explode, and catch an enemy off guard. Konan can even create an ocean of paper, which can part a large lake.

Konan has been shown 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.

Part II
She was present alongside the other Akatsuki members during most of their meetings. She is a quiet and tacit person by nature, and didn't say a word during the meetings and sealing rituals. However she was seen closer when Pain told the reason of her Akatsuki affiliation.

Itachi Pursuit Arc
Konan appeared when she told her partner, Nagato, that Madara has arrived. After Madara left, she knew something Madara had 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. When she found him, she informed Pain and then engaged him in battle until Pain could arrive. She attacked Jiraiya with a swarm of paper and created a paper spear, but he saw it coming and used his Toad Fire Technique to drive her back. Jiraiya recognized her and complimented her on her power and beauty, commenting that she had become "one hell of a woman".

As they fought, Jiraiya countered her paper techniques with both fire and an oil-based attack and immobilized her with his elongated hair, but she was saved when Pain appeared to wash the oil away. She regrouped with him after he had killed Jiraiya.

Invasion of Pain Arc
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.

Konan retreated shortly after she started to battle them, 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 jutsu. Pain, however, 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 jutsu, 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 asking that he 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 realized that doing so would cost him his life. Knowing she couldn't stop him, however, she only marveled 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 (Yahiko's) 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 organization, 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 symbolize a truce and wished that they would become "flowers of hope that never die" for him.

Confining the Jinchūriki Arc
When Madara infiltrated Amegakure in his attempt to find Nagato's body and steal his Rinnegan he was confronted by Konan, whom he asked for the location of the corpse. After flatly denying his request, she revealed that she had been waiting for him as she planned to destroy him herself. Madara accepted the challenge, saying he wouldn't hold back just because she was a former member of Akatsuki. But before he asked why she and Nagato betrayed Akatsuki for the sake of Naruto, Konan replied that Naruto was the embodiment of light that gave everyone the flower of hope. She then renounced Madara's claim on the Rinnegan saying it was a treasure of her country. She then launched an attack that failed, as they passed right through Madara's intangible body. Then, she tried to envelop him in her dissipated paper form, seeing this Madara planned to warp her into his dimension. She however had mixed in exploding tags with her own paper, which she then detonated, engulfing them both fully intending to kill them both with this attack. However Madara managed to save himself (and inadvertently, Konan) by warping most of the explosion away, at the cost of his right arm and a part of his mask. He sarcastically applauded Konan's attempt to which Konan retorted to asking Madara if he really wanted to know why they betrayed him an answer to which Madara voiced that he no longer had any interest in hearing. She answered angrily that the reason was because he was the "darkness", a place where flowers can do nothing but whilt and die. She then activated a secret technique, transforming the lake beneath them into a sea of paper, which shocked Madara.

Creation
In Naruto Hiden: Sha no Sho Character Official Data Book, 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

 * "Konan" means "little south".
 * Even though she was an Akatsuki member, Konan (like Pain) was never a missing-nin, since their faction achieved victory in the Amegakure civil wars.
 * Konan shares her birthday and blood type with her former team-mate, Yahiko.
 * Konan seems to have a definite liking for flowers, as she wears one in her hair, and presented paper flowers to the Sannin and Naruto as a sign of peace.
 * Konan made her first video game appearance in Naruto Shippūden: Ultimate Ninja Heroes 3. She is also a playable character in Naruto Shippūden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 2.
 * According to the third databook:
 * Konan's hobbies are origami and flower pressing.
 * Konan's favorite food is flame-broiled fish, while her least favorite is karaage.
 * She will fight anyone who opposes "god".
 * Konan's favorite word is "Order".
 * Konan has 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 what Orochimaru said, but you saved us instead. Now, it's too late as we have embraced his ideals."
 * (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 Madara) "I knew you'd come find me eventually. I've been waiting for my chance to destroy you."
 * (To Madara about Naruto) "He is light personified. That's why everyone he meets... carries the flower called hope!"
 * (To Madara) "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!"