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, who refered to him by his name, he directed the actions of the others and maintained authority over them. He took orders from Tobi, who is actually Madara Uchiha, the benefactor of Akatsuki.

Background
During the war in Amegakure, two Konoha shinobi broke into Nagato's house looking for food thinking the house had been abandoned. His parents, believing they were going to be killed, attacked the two so Nagato could escape. Thinking that they were enemy ninja the Konoha shinobi killed Nagato's parents, prompting Nagato to awaken his Rinnegan and attack them. He would come to consider this incident the first great pain of his life.

Having no one left to call family, Nagato left his home after burying his parents and began wondering aimlessly with nothing but few supplies and a stray dog he befriended and named Chibi. He later grouped up with some fellow orphans, Konan and Yahiko, and they looked after each other. The three eventually happened upon the battle between the Sannin and Hanzo when they were caught in a stray explosion, resulting in Chibi dying in Nagato's arms. This infuriated Yahiko to the point of saying he would become a god to stop all the madness, and Nagato's desire became the same.

After the great war ended, Nagato and his friends met 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 an Iwagakure Chunin, who injured Yahiko. Seeing this, Nagato activated his Rinnegan and killed the ninja. Jiraiya then decided he would train them in ninjutsu. Nagato was very emotional about killing the shinobi, and asked Jiraiya for help so he could protect Konan and Yahiko, where Jiraiya said he must grow up. Jiraiya also revealed the truth behind Nagato's Rinnegan, and that his eyes may be the key to finding the peace they both desire for the world.

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 later 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.

In truth, Nagato, Yahiko, and Konan began a quest to find the peace that they desired, just like Jiraiya. While becoming full-fledged Rain ninja, they followed their own path and began gathering several supporters. Unfortunately, Hanzo, the current leader of Amegakure, viewed Yahiko's gang as a threat to his position as leader and schemed with Danzo and Konoha's ANBU Foundation to eliminate them. Luring Yahiko's group into a trap under the guise of three-way peace talks with the Land of Fire, Land of Wind, and Land of Earth, Hanzo took Konan hostage and used her life as a bargaining chip to try and force Nagato to kill Yahiko. Faced with a horrible decision, and with both Yahiko and Konan showing their willingness to die for the sake of the other, Nagato struggled until Yahiko physically forced Nagato to kill him by placing the kunai in his hand and guiding it. With Yahiko's dying breath, he told Nagato to survive because he would become the world's savior; this would come to be the second great pain of Nagato's life.

After Yahiko's death, Hanzo ordered his shinobi to kill Nagato as well, but Nagato managed to unleash Shinra Tensei to repel their kunai. As Nagato rescued Konan, Hanzo captured him with explosive tags, severely burning his legs and hands in the resulting explosion; however, Nagato continued to stand and returned Konan to safety, telling her to take hold of Yahiko's body. Nagato then performed Summoning: Demonic Statue of Heretical Doctrine, despite Konan's pleas, and used the statue to decimate both Hanzo and Danzo's forces, though the two leaders managed to escape. The technique left Nagato emaciated with numerous chakra rods embedded in his back, which, along with the injuries from the explosion, seem to neccesitate his future use of a robotic transport. Leadership of the gang passed on to Nagato and he scratched through the symbol of his Amegakure forehead protector, presumably indicating both the origin of the rebellion that would lead to civil war, and the beginning of his teaching of enlightenment through pain.

Upon adopting the alias "Pain", Nagato led the rebelling forces in the Amegakure civil war and took control of the village by assassinating Hanzo, then solidified his leadership by systematically killing anyone who had direct ties to the former leader. The members of Pain's faction wear their forehead protectors with scratches through them (a practice shared by the members of Akatsuki) to symbolize their rebellion, and continue to wear them even after gaining control of the country, despite no longer being rogue ninja, to symbolize their victory in the conflict.

Personality
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 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 had evolved beyond a mere human. He sought 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 showed no moral qualms about his actions. He was willing to kill his own teacher, Jiraiya, in cold blood and brutally executed all of Hanzo's friends and family to ensure the Amegakure's compliance to his takeover. He even went so far as to proclaim himself a "god of peace" that had to guide the world to maturity through pain. He also felt that no one can understand peace unless they understand "true" pain, something his childhood friend Yahiko believed. Minato Namikaze believes Madara Uchiha to have been using this philosophy in his favor in order to manipulate Nagato.

Nagato also held hatred for Konohagakure village, because during the war between Konohagakure and Amegakure, his parents died by the hands of two Konoha ninjas. Nagato's hatred was quelled when he met Jiraiya, who gave him a new goal in life: to protect his friends. However, when Danzo teamed up with Hanzō and forced him to kill Yahiko, Nagato realized his goal was worthless, and hated Konoha even more, to the point of losing his affections for Jiraiya.

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

Nagato was also very respectful and kind to his childhood friend, Konan, who he declared as 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 his names, Pain and Nagato.

Part in the Story
Pain first appeared as a hologram at the end of Part I, stating the need to capture the tailed beasts, particularly the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox. He appeared in the same form at various points in Part II, regulating the actions of other Akatsuki members. As Part II progressed, portions of his face were shown, until he made his debut alongside Konan when receiving orders from Madara Uchiha. Madara assigned him to capture Naruto Uzumaki, the container of the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox.

Hunt for Uchiha arc
Before Sasuke battled Itachi, Pain encountered Jiraiya as the latter infiltrated Amegakure, putting a short halt at the Akatsuki leader's attempt to hunt down Naruto. Pain switched to his Animal path in order to deal with his old master. During the first half of his battle with Jiraiya, Pain fought the Sannin off with unique summons. It wasn't until Jiraiya activated Sage Mode and summoned Shima and Fukasaku to help him fight that Pain reveal two more of his bodies (the Preta path and the Human path) and quickly began to fight Jiraiya back personally. Jiraiya brought down all three of the bodies by 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 in his Asura path and struck him, destroying his left arm. When Jiraiya looked back up, he looked at all of Pain's six paths and was assaulted. It wasn't long when Jiraiya managed to kill the Animal path and sent it to Konoha. In his attempt to learn more about Pain, he was pummeled by the remaining five bodies and his throat was crushed. Jiraiya then died, sinking into the watery depths of the battlefield, but not before giving a message about Pain's identity to Fukasaku, who managed to escape.

Invasion of Pain arc
After finding a replacement for the Animal path, Pain and Konan set out for Konoha. They eliminate the border guards upon arrival, infiltrate the village, and disperse, each of the six paths having a specific task: the Asura, Preta, and Animal paths as diversions, and the Deva, Human, and Naraka path to find Naruto. While combing the village, the Deva path is confronted by Kakashi Hatake and a group of Konoha ninja. The Asura path comes to its aid and is destroyed during the battle, but Kakashi and the others are all defeated.

In other locations across the village, the other paths are drawn into battle as well. The Preta path, while trying to dispose of the captured Animal path, is attacked by Kiba Inuzuka, Akamaru, Tsume Inuzuka and Kuromaru. The Naraka path is challenged and seemingly defeated by Konohamaru's Rasengan. The Animal path assaults an ANBU building where a captured Rain ninja is being interrogated. Most of the Konoha ninja that are present escape, but the Human path manages to capture Shizune.

Elsewhere, the Deva path meets with Tsunade, the Hokage. Tsunade refuses to tell him where Naruto is and rejects his philosophy of pain. When the Human path is able to extract Naruto's location from Shizune, the Deva path destroys the village to teach Tsunade a lesson while the other bodies and Konan evacuate. The Naraka path restores the Asura path and they meet with the Deva path at the center of the destroyed village. There, they find Naruto and his toad allies, having been summoned during the village's destruction to help in its defense.

When Tsunade arrives to seek revenge, the Asura path attacks her, only to be quickly destroyed by Naruto's Rasengan. He sends Tsunade away and instructs the rest of the villagers not to interfere, engaging Pain's remaining bodies on his own. The Animal path summons its ram, rhino, and dog to attack him, but he parries all with the benefits of his Sage Mode and leaves their defeat to his toad allies. He neutralizes the Preta path and destroys the Human path with his perfected Wind Release: Rasenshuriken. Gamabunta then catches the Animal path in his mouth, where Naruto is able to finish it off without interference by using the Rasenrengan.

Naruto tries to defeat the Deva and Naraka paths with another Rasenshuriken, only for the Preta path to appear and absorb the attack. Noticing that the Naraka path must have restored it, Naruto focuses his efforts on getting rid of it. Although he succeeds the Deva path, it being left temporarily powerless after destroying Konoha, regain its powers and captures Naruto. It gives him to the Preta path which absorbs his senjutsu chakra, but turns to a stone toad because it is unable to handle the natural energy. Naruto breaks free only to be captured again by the Deva path, who restrains him with its Chakra Disruption Blades.

With Naruto no longer able to fight back, his allies come to help him. Pain kills Fukasaku and is then drawn into battle with Hinata Hyuga, who he quickly strikes down. The defeat of the latter prompts Naruto to enter a six-tailed transformation, which the Deva path is unable to compete with in its current condition. It retreats to a location closer to Nagato, who controls the bodies of Pain from nearby, in order to strengthen the flow of chakra to it. This allows it to use Chibaku Tensei to capture the six-tailed Naruto, a short-lived victory when he progresses to an eight-tailed state. The sphere of rubble created by Chibaku Tensei crumbles and Naruto, having receded the demon fox's transformation, emerges.

His resolve renewed, Naruto demanded to be taken to Nagato to speak with him himself. Pain however states that though Naruto now understands true pain, they could never understand each other, as they are just too different. As Pain attacks, Naruto removed one of his chakra blades and located Nagato by following the chakra by stabbing himself in the shoulder. Naruto then battles the Deva path by throwing two Rasenshuriken in a shadow shuriken method, though Pain dodged both of them. In the ensuing chaos Naruto is able to amass enough shadow clones to resist Pain's Shinra Tensei, and strikes it with a Rasengan. Sensing that the last of his bodies have been defeated, Nagato knows that Naruto will soon appear. Upon so, Nagato tells Konan to stand aside and let Naruto in. He then sarcastically states that "peace has arrived".

Upon his arrival, Nagato attempted to control Naruto by striking him with one of his chakra blades, but Naruto manages to resist it with the Demon Fox-augmented Sage Mode. Naruto admits to his raw anger towards Nagato, but holds his ground and asks Nagato how he became the way he was despite being a student of Jiraiya. Nagato decides to tell Naruto about his past, recalling his two great sources of pain, the deaths of his parents, and his friend Yahiko. After discussing his past, Nagato asked Naruto to give him the answer that he had promised earlier. Naruto answered him with a combination of both Nagato's and Jiraiya's plans to achieve peace, greatly confusing Nagato. He becomes even more shocked as Naruto breaks the cycle of hatred by deciding not to kill Nagato, despite his hatred towards him.

Calling that vision of peace a fantasy, Nagato berated Naruto and Jiraiya on their vision of peace. Naruto replied with a line from The Legend of the Gutsy Ninja, which Nagato read after Jiraiya left the Ame Orphans. Taken aback, Naruto declared he will become Hokage to break the end of the suffering of Konoha and Amegakure and asks Nagato to believe in him, as Jiraiya had once believed in him. Questioning himself, Nagato remembered how Jiraiya had high hopes for him and remarked how Naruto reminded him of himself. He removed his arms from the support machine to preform a hand seal stating he will also believe in Naruto.

Nagato used the Gedo Rinne Tensei technique and revived all the people of Konoha that had been killed during his invasion. As he had used almost all of his chakra, a severely-weakened Nagato died, after entrusting Naruto to find the answer to peace and pain in the world. Konan shed the origami tree that she had created to hide Nagato, and using her paper techniques, she wrapped the dead bodies of Nagato and Yahiko to take them with her. When Naruto asked if she would go back to Akatsuki, Konan revealed that she was through with the organization as Nagato and Yahiko meant everything to her, and as Nagato believed in him, she would also believe in Naruto. After Naruto accepted Nagato as a "fellow pupil", she gave him a bouquet of origami flowers as a memento of the three Ame orphans and heads out to Amegakure.

Abilities
As the leader of Akatsuki and one of the two sides of the Amegakure Civil War, Nagato was an extraordinarily powerful ninja who could easily be considered to be Kage-level, or even higher. His partner, Konan, had stated that he had never lost a single battle, up until his first loss against Naruto. 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 he admitted that killing Jiraiya would have been very unlikely had Jiraiya had prior knowledge of his six separate bodies). It was not until his fight with Naruto that he encounterd an opponent capable of defeating him.

Rinnegan


Nagato's incredible power stemmed mainly from his Kekkei Genkai, the 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 does allow the user to use all types of elemental chakra, and allowed Nagato to master every technique Jiraiya taught him. It also enhanced his vision of chakra in a similar manner to the Hyuga clan's Byakugan and Uchiha Clan's Sharingan, allowing him to see the chakra of barrier techniques around Konoha and the chakra gathered at the feet of Tsunade.

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 make use of Nagato's chakra. While controlling them, Nagato used the alias "Pain", yet still regards them as separate from himself.

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

Based after the six Buddhist paths of Reincarnation, each body was named after the 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 Rinnegan eyes. 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, repair, and defense.

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 separate 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.

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

Past Speculations
Before Nagato (specifically the Deva path) was revealed, some speculated that Minato Namikaze was the leader of Akatsuki, because their silhouettes were similar and Pain had some knowledge of Konoha. This theory was propagated by a fan-made manga collage where the Akatsuki leader revealed himself as Minato.

Due to an error made by Scanlators, many fans were led to believe that Pain had a Sharingan when he first appeared at the end of Part 1, while it is indeed a very visual nod at the true leader of Akatsuki. It was corrected in the anime and all subsequent scanlations.

Trivia

 * As Nagato's Six Paths of Pain were all deceased ninja, it could have been also be assumed that Animal path's summonings were reanimated corpses as well as they too had several body piercings and Rinnegan eyes (possibily meaning that Nagato could see through their eyes as well).
 * Pain appeared to have a habit of not checking to see if people he had defeated were dead or not.
 * Pain's original six bodies all belonged to ninja Jiraiya had met in the past.
 * Due to the unique nature of Nagato/Pain, Nagato's name was used for all actions done by the main body while Pain was used for all the actions done by the Deva path specifically.
 * Whether or not Nagato was actually crippled has yet to be confirmed, however, it seemed the black rods in his back were responsible for his weakened state.
 * According to Konan, Nagato was the 7th Pain to control life and death.

Quotes

 * (At meeting in Part I) "Of course... Remember what we seek... everything! Including the Nine-Tailed Fox!"
 * "We're both of the same breed, after all... motives for war are of no concern. Religion, ideology, resources, land, spite, love, or just because... no matter how pathetic the reason, it's enough to start war."
 * "We are Pain! We are God!"
 * "Those who do not understand true pain can never understand true peace."
 * "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."
 * "Peace is right before my eyes."
 * "I want you to feel pain, to think about pain, to accept pain, to know pain."
 * (To Naruto) "I... will believe in you... Uzumaki Naruto..."