Nagato

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Appearance
Nagato is a fair-skinned man with chin-length red hair whose most noticeable trait is his Rinnegan eyes. As a child, his hair would regularly hang of his face blocking the view of his eyes. Nagato grew into a tall man, but after subjecting himself to the Summoning: Demonic Statue of the Outer Path, Nagato was reduced into a wither version of his former self with chakra receivers implanted into his back. Nagato regularly uses a mechanical walker for mobility.

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

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

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

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

Abilities
As the leader of Akatsuki, and one of the two sides of the Amegakure Civil War, Nagato was an extraordinarily powerful shinobi. His partner, Konan, had stated that he had never lost a single battle, and that he is "unbeatable." Nagato was strongly recognized as the most powerful member of Akatsuki; even Madara Uchiha stated Pain to be "invincible." Even one of the elder toads, Fukusaku, stated that without understanding Pain's power, no one could beat him. It has also been noted at several points in time that Nagato possessed an unusually large amount of exceptionally strong chakra.

He was able to single-handedly overthrow Amegakure and its leader, Hanzō. He made short work of his former teacher Jiraiya after unveiling all six of his bodies, but stated he might not have won if Jiraiya knew the secret to his techniques. It wasn't until his fight with Naruto that he encountered an opponent capable of matching him.

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

Six Paths of Pain
Nagato's most powerful and most used technique was the. This technique allowed Nagato to control six separate bodies as though they were his own. Each of these bodies were reanimated corpses that were both kept mobile by and made use of Nagato's chakra. While controlling them, Nagato used the alias "Pain", yet still regarded them as separate entities from himself.

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

Based on the six Buddhist paths of Reincarnation, each body was named after one of the different "paths": Deva, Asura, Human, Animal, Preta, and Naraka. The only common feature shared by these bodies was their bright orange hair and Rinnegan. Each also had a vast number of body and facial piercings of various shapes, sizes, and patterns. Each body seemed to serve a specific purpose in battle, such as summoning, repairing, and defensive capability. There is also the Outer Path that controls life and death.

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

A similar effect is that if Nagato is close enough to an opponent, sticking a chakra receiver in them will allow him to control their body as if they were another Path. However when he attempted to do so to Naruto Uzumaki, Naruto was able to resist the technique by transforming into a fusion of his initial jinchūriki form and Sage Mode.

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

Hunt for Itachi arc
Madara Uchiha instructs Pain to go to Konoha and capture Naruto Uzumaki, the jinchūriki of the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox. Before he can depart he detects Jiraiya infiltrating the village. He sends Konan to distract Jiraiya while he switches to his Animal Path, and then confronts his old master. During the first half of their battle, Pain fought with unique summons. It wasn't until Jiraiya activated his Sage Mode and summoned Shima and Fukasaku to help him fight that Pain revealed two more of his bodies (the Preta Path and the Human Path) and after a short fight Pain gained the upperhand against Jiraiya forcing him to flee. The fight was continued within some tunnels where Jiraiya brought down all three of the bodies by using the toad elders to perform a powerful genjutsu, and then pierced each body through the heart with a sword.

When Jiraiya prepared to head back to Konoha, Pain introduced his Asura Path and attacked Jiraiya from behind, severing his left arm. When Jiraiya looked back up, he witnessed all of Pain's six paths standing above, who attacked him together. However, Jiraiya did manage to incapacitate the Animal Path, and sent it to Konoha through a toad. He also recognized that all the rest of the Pain(s) were ninja he met before.

In his attempt to learn more about Pain, his throat was crushed by the Asura Path and his body was pierced through by all five bodies. Believing his teacher to be dead, Pain left but Jiraiya was still able to make a coded message on Fukasaku's back with his chakra about Pain's real identity. Pain tried to attack the toad, but Fukasaku managed to escape from Pain and reached Tsunade. Jiraiya then died, sinking into the watery depths of the battlefield. Afterwards Pain held a moment of silence in respect for his former teacher.

Six-Tailed Beast arc
In the anime, Pain is shown to have been assigned to capture the Six-Tailed Slug, which was sealed within a young man named Utakata. During his search, the Animal Path had his Giant Multi-Headed Dog search the area, where it found a group of Kirigakure Hunter-nin.

Invasion of Pain arc
After finding a replacement for the Animal Path, Pain and Konan set out for Konoha. They eliminated the border guards upon arrival, infiltrated the village, and dispersed, with each of the six paths having a specific task: the Asura, Preta, and Animal Paths served as diversions, while the Deva, Human, and Naraka Paths looked for Naruto, with Konan aiding the latter team. While exploring and destroying the village, the Deva Path was confronted by Kakashi Hatake. The Asura Path came to its aid and together they overwhelmed Kakashi and his allies at the cost of the Asura Path's destruction.

Across the village, the remaining paths continued their tasks, fighting whatever Konoha ninja they came across. The Deva Path met with Tsunade, the Fifth Hokage, who refused to reveal Naruto's location. Elsewhere, the Human Path learned from Shizune that Naruto was at Myōbokuzan. To teach Tsunade the pain that Konoha was so ignorant of, Nagato had the Deva Path destroy the village after Konan and the other paths withdrew.

As the smoke cleared, the Deva Path noticed that Naruto had returned with his toad allies. In retaliation for the village's destruction he destroyed the newly restored Asura Path before beginning his fight with the other Six Paths of Pain. The Animal Path called upon its summons to attack Naruto, but he parried them all and defeated the Preta Path. Soon afterwards he destroyed the Human Path with his Wind Release: Rasenshuriken, and then teamed up with Gamabunta to defeat the Animal Path.

With four of the paths gone, the temporarily powerless Deva Path protected the Naraka Path while it restored the Preta Path. The Preta Path absorbed a second Rasenshuriken, but this was only a distraction to give Naruto an opportunity to destroy the Naraka Path. The Deva Path, its power returned, detained Naruto so that the Preta Path could capture him. It absorbed his senjutsu chakra, which had the side effect of turning it to stone. Naruto escaped its clutches but was captured once again and pinned down by the Deva Path. The Deva Path then lectured Naruto about the chain of hatred, pain, suffering, and war that the ninja system brought to the world, and how he planned to use the tailed beasts' power to achieve peace and end conflict. He asks if Naruto can think of a better solution, but Naruto does not respond.

Before the Deva Path can take Naruto away, Hinata Hyūga comes to his defense. She professes her love for Naruto and engages the path, but is quickly struck down. Believing her to be dead, Naruto entered his six-tailed transformation, which the Deva Path was unable to compete with in its current condition. With this epiphany, the Deva Path retreated to a location closer to Nagato, who was nearby so that he could control his paths. This allowed the Deva Path to use Chibaku Tensei to capture Naruto. This victory was short-lived, as Naruto soon progressed to an eight-tailed state and broke free of the Chibaku Tensei. The sphere of rubble created by the Chibaku Tensei crumbled, and Naruto, once receding to his normal form, emerged from its remains.

Naruto demanded an opportunity to speak with Nagato, but the Deva Path refused and attacked him. By taking advantage of the five second gap between the path's attacks, Naruto was able to defeat it with his Rasengan. He removed its Chakra Receivers and used them to locate Nagato. When he arrived Nagato tried to gain control of Naruto's body by shooting another Chakra Receiver into his stomach, but Naruto resisted. Naruto admitted his anger towards Nagato, but held his ground and asked Nagato how, despite being a student of Jiraiya, he could have run so afoul of their master's teachings. Nagato tells him of his tragic childhood and the events that made him Pain, hoping that Naruto will come to agree with his solution for peace.

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

In the aftermath, Konan encases Nagato and Yahiko's (the Deva Path) bodies in paper and takes them back to Amegakure to be buried. She pledges Amegakure's allegiance to Naruto on behalf of Nagato, giving him a bouquet of origami flowers as a memento.

Creation
In Naruto Hiden: Sha no Sho Character Official Data Book, Kishimoto briefly explained the philosophy behind Pain's design, stating, "He's Akatsuki's leader, so he has to look fairly cool, but I still wanted him to look dangerous. Since his name is "Pain", I decided to add some piercings to his body, like he's the kind of guy who would inflict pain upon himself." Notable among the few unused concept designs is a small sketch in which he appears to wear a partial face mask and feather, or horn-like accessories fitted to his forehead protector.

When first appearing in the anime 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 grey, while the outermost ring was flesh-colored, and the ring in between was white. Following his appearance in chapter 377 of the manga, which featured the first official color illustration of his face, the color scheme was corrected.

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

Trivia

 * His name means "long-lasting gate".
 * Due to the unique nature of Nagato or 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.
 * The original Six Paths of Pain were composed of individuals associated with Jiraiya. They all seemed to share the want for peace.
 * As Nagato's Six Paths of Pain were all deceased ninja, it could also be assumed that Animal Path's summonings were reanimated corpses as well, as they too had several body piercings and Rinnegan (possibly meaning that Nagato could see through their eyes as well).
 * When he was small, Orochimaru offered to kill him and his friends so they would not have to suffer the horrors of war (at least, any more than they already had), but many years later he let Orochimaru join Akatsuki. It is unknown if Orochimaru is aware that two of the Ame orphans he tried to kill became his superiors.
 * Three of the Six Paths of Pain appear as playable characters in Naruto Shippūden: Narutimate Accel 3, with the other three as support characters, allowing all six to appear simultaneously in three-versus-one matchups.
 * Nagato is the only Akatsuki member never seen wearing the organization's uniform. However, his Six Paths of Pain wear it in his stead.
 * According to the third databook:
 * Nagato's favorite phrase is, "The stars are hidden on a rainy night".
 * As a child his favorite phrase was "Growing up".
 * His favorite food was grilled fish and stew.
 * His hobby was practicing ninjutsu.
 * His desired opponent was anyone in order to protect his friends.
 * In the anime, Nagato is shown to have a jutsu for the Fire, Earth, Water, and Wind elements but not one for the Lightning element.

Quotes

 * (At meeting in Part I) "Of course ... no mistakes. 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, Grudges, Love, or 'A whim ...' No matter how pathetic the reason, it's enough to start a war."
 * (To Jiraiya) "Yahiko has been dead for quite some time. All that remains is...Pain."
 * (To Jiraiya) "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."
 * (To Tsunade) "I want you to feel pain, to think about pain, to accept pain, to know pain."
 * (To Jiraiya) "But someday I'll break the curse. If there's such a thing as peace, I will find it!"
 * (To Tsunade) "You think you're the only ones who matter. You think you can put off death. But peace that made you foolish and thoughtless. If you kill someone, someone else will kill you... this hatred binds us together."
 * (To Naruto) "Love breeds sacrifice... which in turn breeds hatred."
 * (To Naruto) "I ... will believe in you ... Naruto Uzumaki ..."
 * (Last Words to Naruto) "Dying like trash... never ending hatred... pain that never heals... that is war... Naruto... this... is what you must face... The book... and you... It's like... someone... set this all up... Or... maybe... this... is... the hand of the real god... My role is over now... Naruto... you... can really--"