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 is a man 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
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. He also feels that no one can understand peace unless they understand "true" pain, something his childhood friend Yahiko believed.

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.

Meeting
Although not seen physically, he appeared as a hologram. He stated that they couldn't afford to make any mistakes in completing their goals.

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 use the Super Great Ball Rasengan but was absorbed. 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 Animal Path, 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 others 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, its 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, Gamabunta, Gamaken, and Gamahiro. 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 she 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 a Rasengan.

As the fight begun, Animal Path sent the rhino, yak, and canine at Naruto, but he easily hurled them in the air and had the toads defeat them. He then got into a fist fight with Preta Path but even though Naruto missed, the level of natural energy around his fist incapacitated Preta Path to Pain's surprise. Finally realizing the truth, Pain deduces that Naruto is using the same Hermit Mode power Jiraiya used. He reveals to Naruto that he too was once a student of Jiraiya, further infuriating Naruto. Naruto then succeeds to take down Human Path with his perfected Wind Release: Rasenshuriken. Then with the assistance of Gamabunta, Naruto also defeats Animal Path.

As Pain suspected, Naruto's repeated use of high level jutsu finally uses up his nature chakra that was needed to sustain Hermit Mode. He then begins to go in a fist fight with Naruto and as he tried to stab Naruto with a Chakra disruption blade. Naruto, however returns to Sage Mode after Fukasaku reverse summons a Hermit Mode shadow clone of Naruto from Myobokuzan and disperses him to gain his nature chakra. The newly re-powered hermit Mode Naruto then delivers Pain a heavy blow. As Naruto tries to finish him off with a Rasenshuriken, Preta Pain moves in to save Deva Pain.

Naruto, after remembering Preta Pain's ability, notices that Naraka Pain never attacked with the other Pain's. Naruto then realizes that Naraka Pain's ability is to heal or revive the other Pain's if they are injured or destroyed. Naruto creates a dust cloud, and then throws another Rasenshuriken at the Preta Pain. The Preta Pain believes he blocked it. However, the Rasenshuriken is revealed to be the original Naruto in disguise and Naruto takes down the Preta Path. Naruto then uses the Shadow clones to launch another Rasenshuriken at the Deva Path, however, Deva Pain's power returns and deflects the Rasenshuriken with Shinra Tensei. The original Naruto grabs and brings down the Preta Path with an elbow to the face prevent the Path's eyes from seeing what's above Pain. Then, while the Deva Path is focusing on the original Naruto, Naruto uses his Shadow Clones to attack Naraka Path with a Rasenrengan from above. Deva Pain then marvels at how Naruto has killed four Paths, leaving only himself and the Preta Path.



Naruto and his clone tries to deal the finishing blows to Pain's two remaining bodies, but Deva Path manages to blow them both away with a Shinra Tensei. Gamabunta, Gamaken, and Gamahiro then attack Pain, who proves to be too difficult of a target for the giant toads. With a single Shinra Tensei, Pain blows all three frogs away, clear out of the village so they could no longer interfere. Pain then compliments Naruto's strength, stating that no one has given him this much trouble before. However, he quickly attempts to finish this fight by using Banshō Ten'in to bring Naruto into close range. Preta Path quickly grabs Naruto and places him into a hold. Naruto begins to try to break free, when he suddenly realizes that the Preta Path is absorbing all of his chakra. He succeeds, causing Naruto to slip into unconsciousness, with Pain stating the Nine-Tails has been captured.

Naruto takes advantage of the immobility to absorb more Sage Chakra which causes Preta Path to transform into a stone frog, which means Naruto has killed five paths of Pain. But Katsuyu then tells Naruto the Paths he killed were all just puppets. Naruto then breaks free. Pain then uses Bansho Ten'in on Fukasaku when he's about to attack with Shima. He then stabs him, while Naruto attacks Pain brings him into close range again, but Pain stabs Naruto's hands to hold him down. He then says he will tell Naruto what he really wants, speaking of peace and their different aspects of it.

It is then that finally, Pain's true body Nagato is shown, revealed to be an emaciated, sickly, and extremely weakened individual. He is seen in some sort of walker-like machine with six legs. Black poles sprout out of his back, likely related to Pain's piercings, and black cords connect his restrained arms to a beam on the wall behind him. He is together with Konan in a sort of cave. There he coughs up blood, something that makes Konan express her worries of Nagato using too much chakra, only for Nagato to proclaim that he can "see peace."

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 known 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, 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 and the chakra gathered at the feet of Tsunade.

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 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 also has been seen to possess incredible speed and strength. Pain's real body, that of Nagato, is kept in a machine that moves with six relatively small mechanical legs, and has large chakra spikes on its back to transmit the signals. Nagato's body appears highly emaciated, suggesting that Pain typically does not use it.

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. 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 ability 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-receivers" 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. It has also been revealed that in order to operate the paths over long distances Nagato must be in the highest place in the immediate area. Pain's real body Nagato is shown attached to some sort of machine that allows him to transmit his chakra to the Six Paths of Pain. The machine seems to have six legs and possibly can move around.

Deva Path
The , Pain's first observed body, is the body of Yahiko, and possesses medium length spiky hair, six 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. Three piercings under each other in each wrist, at least one on his upper wrist and some just under his neck. 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 though this could come from the Rinnegan 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 his primary combat abilities are "Shinra Tensei" and "Banshou Ten'in". These abilities allow him to repel or attract objects and ninjutsu, respectively. However he cannot perform it in rapid succession leaving him vulnerable for a short period of time after its use. A period of approximately five seconds.

This body is apparently Nagato's preferred form for interacting with others since he has participated in all sealing rituals and has been seen in several flashbacks by Amegakure members. It later leads the assault on Konoha to locate Naruto, and during reconnaissance, ends up clashing with Kakashi Hatake, Choza and Choji Akamichi, and other Konoha shinobi. Despite severe injuries of the Asura Path, the Deva Path almost effortlessly defeats them all, leaving both Choza Akamichi and Kakashi seriously injured and unconscious. He then turns his attention to Tsunade. After growing impatient with Tsunade's lack of understanding true pain, the Deva Path proceeds to use Shinra Tensei to destroy most of the Village. He then engages Naruto in battle along with the other Paths of Pain. After Naruto's incredible demonstration of speed and power in Sage Mode, four other Paths of Pain are defeated in the fight. The Deva Path is eventually left as the last Pain standing. However even without the others, Deva Path easily overpowers Naruto, presumably killing Fukasaku in the process, and stabs Naruto's hands together and says that he'll answer all of his questions.

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 than the others and thus is more important in a battle.


 * Jutsu
 * Divine Force
 * Banshō Ten'in
 * Shinra Tensei
 * Chakra Disruption Blades
 * Fierce Raining at Will
 * Five Seals Barrier
 * Illusionary Dragon Nine Consuming Seals
 * Magic Lantern Body Technique
 * Mirrored Sudden Attacker
 * Shapeshifting Technique
 * Water Release: Violent Water Wave

Human Path
Incapacitated 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.

While in the process of saving the Animal Path, 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 affect minds similar to the Yamanaka clan 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 unhesitatingly kills Shizune by ripping her soul out of her body.

This body was obliterated by Naruto's Hermit Mode thrown Wind Release: Rasenshuriken and caught in the ensuing blast, leaving only half of his head.


 * Jutsu
 * Mental Manipulation
 * Mind Reading
 * Soul Removal

Asura Path
Incapacitated 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, quickly propel itself forward with a burst of chakra from its boots, protract multiple blades and a drill from one of his arms, open up the crown of his head to release a titanic shockwave, and wrapped around his waist is a long and flexible saw-like blade that can be used to slice 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. Kakashi is left incapacitated and possibly dead from these injuries.

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 a Rasengan from Naruto in Hermit Mode.


 * Jutsu
 * Body Alterations
 * Three Faces
 * Six Arms
 * Enhanced Strength
 * Flaming Arrow of Amazing Ability
 * Flaming Arrow Missiles
 * Laser Explosion
 * Chakra Propulsion Boots
 * Hidden Drill Hands
 * Saw-Blade Sash

Animal Path
Replacement - Incapacitated 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 his friend brought 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, a bull and the other Pains.

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 later 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 received from Jiraiya was said to be the summoner of Pain's bodies and the new knowledge that the current Animal Path was originally dead.

After Pain uses Shinra Tensei, she is launched into the village again and summons the rest of Pain's bodies.

When faced against Naruto, Animal Path begins using several summonings against Naruto, all of which are easily defeated either by him or one of the Toad summonings. With the assistance of Gamabunta, Naruto is able to defeat Animal Path with a Rasenrengan, costing him the last of his nature chakra for Hermit Mode. This body was then spit out of Gamabunta's mouth.


 * Jutsu
 * Summoning Technique (Multiple)
 * Giant Drill-Beaked Bird
 * Giant Multi-Headed Dog
 * Giant Panda
 * Giant Ram (incapacitated)
 * Giant Rhino (incapacitated)
 * Giant Crustacean (Deceased)
 * Giant Centipede (Deceased)
 * Giant Snake-Tailed Chameleon (Deceased)
 * The Other Pain Bodies


 * Summoning abilities
 * Violent Bubble Wave (Crustacean Summon)
 * Amplification Summoning Technique (Dog Summon)
 * Panda Iron Wall (Panda Summon)
 * Chameleon Camouflage (Chameleon Summon)

Preta Path
Incapacitated 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. In addition to its defensive properties, this body's ability has also shown offensive capabilities, sucking all the chakra out of any target unfortunate enough to be grabbed by him. However, this body seems to be weak against physical attacks, as one punch to the face (albeit imbued with natural energy) is enough to kill it. The force from the punch most likely snapped the body's neck.

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 former Animal Path's body to shield himself. When he engages with Naruto Uzumaki in Sage Mode, he is quickly knocked out with just a punch because of the natural energy gathering within sage mode. He is later revived by Naraka Path to defend Deva Path from the Rasenshuriken Naruto uses after re-entering Sage Mode. He is eventually tackled to the ground by Naruto in an attempt to expose Deva Path to yet another Rasenshuriken. While pinned to the ground, Naruto covered Preta Path's eyes with his forearm to prevent Pain from seeing Naruto attacking Naraka Path from above. Deva Path then uses his Shinra Tensei to free Preta Path from Naruto. Preta Path then manages to catch Naruto with Deva Path's assistance and drains Naruto of his chakra. This backfires, when Naruto channeled his sage chakra into Preta Path. Preta Path, unable to handle the sage chakra, is defeated as he turns into a stone frog.

Jutsu
 * Energy Absorption
 * Chakra Absorption Technique
 * Sealing Technique Absorption Seal

Naraka Path
Incapacitated 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 (referred to as the "King of Hell") seem to be a spiritual entity similar to the Death God, although he is physically strong enough to hold a fully grown man in each hand off the ground with no apparent effort. The entity takes the form of a giant demonic head, which protrudes from the ground close too him while shrouded in black flames. When 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 or refused to answer the question, 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, although Naruto in Sage mode apparently can.

Another of this body's powers, most likely its main purpose, is to resurrect or "heal" other Paths. By summoning the King of Hell, Pain engulfs the body he wants to heal in it and the body comes out completely repaired. This is possibly done by "transferring" the life energy that he's collected from victims into his deceased bodies, allowing them to become functional again (similar to the technique Chiyo used on Gaara).

This body first appeared in the later half of Pain's battle with Jiraiya and freed the bodies Jiraiya had apparently killed and impaled on large swords. He later acts as an interrogator during Pain's invasion of Konoha along with the Deva and Human Paths. 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. After a short battle he is caught by surprise and incapacitated by a Rasengan. Just before Deva path levels Konoha, he is recalled by the Animal path and recovers along with the other Paths. He then regenerates Asura path with the King of Hell. Shortly after he is summoned once again to battle Naruto, keeping his distance he is able to regenerate the fallen Preta path in time to protect the Deva path once again. Naruto then realizes that it is this Path that heals the others, and with a clever distraction using a Wind Release: Rasenshuriken and two smoke bombs, drops onto Naraka from above and destroys it with a Rasenrengan.

Both times that Pain's bodies were shown in a combat formation, the Naraka Path has taken the rear with the others protecting him (even behind the Deva Path while its power was still recharging). This could be due to three possible factors. First, the ability to heal and repair any other body almost instantly would make this one of Pain's most important and vital assets in a battle. Second, like with the Deva Path's Shinra Tensei, the King of Hell might need time to recharge after repairing one of Pain's bodies. Third, compared to the other five Paths this body has not shown much combat ability, given that Konohamaru managed to avoid its attacks and strike it with a Rasengan. However, this is uncertain, as he had earlier beaten at least three chunin and Ebisu, a Jonin, using only hand-to-hand combat.

Jutsu
 * King of Hell

Animal Path (Former)
Incapacitated - Replaced 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.
 * Jutsu
 * Summoning Technique (Multiple)
 * Giant Drill-Beaked Bird
 * Giant Multi-Headed Dog
 * Giant Panda
 * Giant Ram (incapacitated)
 * Giant Rhino (incapacitated)
 * Giant Crustacean (Deceased)
 * Giant Centipede (Deceased)
 * Giant Snake-Tailed Chameleon (Deceased)
 * The Other Pain Bodies


 * Summoning abilities
 * Violent Bubble Wave (Crustacean Summon)
 * Amplification Summoning Technique (Dog Summon)
 * Panda Iron Wall (Panda Summon)
 * Chameleon Camouflage (Chameleon 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 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.

Past 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 has already been 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, which has already been proven false, as his bodies are chakra-controlled corpses.

It is unknown why has Nagato ever come up with the idea to operate out of his Six Paths, since he is (or used to be) a highly talented ninja in his own right. As he is shown very weak and emaciated, it can be speculated that he created Paths to overcome his physical incapability (e.g. a crippling disease), but that has yet to be revealed. It could also be the other way around - Nagato could simply have wanted to keep his identity secret, and years of the chakra-taxing operation of the Paths has left him extremely weakened. Either way, Nagato seems to have colossal reserves of chakra at his avail, most likely due to the Rinnegan.

It can also be speculated that Nagato is seen in such a weakened state solely because of the immense amount of chakra and life shortening costs needed to preform the Shinra Tensei technique to destroy Konoha (at least, it's almost certainly due to this Shinra Tensei that Nagato is shown bleeding out of his mouth).

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 translation group Inane misled readers 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.
 * The necklace worn by Pain's Deva Path is similar to the one worn by the Sage of the Six Paths.
 * Pain draws many similarities between himself and Naruto, including their being trained by Jiraiya and their striving for peace. Naruto, however, denies these similarities and hates Pain for what he has done.
 * Pain and Madara seem to have different goals. During the "Hunt of Itachi Uchiha arc" Madara was not so interested in capturing Naruto, showing more interest in Sasuke. By contrast, Pain seems to be more focused in the goal of capturing the 9 hosts and does not care that much for Sasuke.
 * Pain may be hiding the truth of his identity from Madara.

Quotes

 * "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."
 * "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."
 * "Those who do not understand true pain can never understand true peace."
 * "We are Pain, we are God!!"
 * "Peace is right before my eyes."