|
Biography of Nagato from the Naruto franchise.
Background[]
Nagato as a child.
Nagato was born in an unnamed village near Amegakure. He and his parents lived a difficult life in a country devastated by the Third Ninja War, which the neighboring Ninja Nations fought by using the Land of Rain as a battlefield.
At one point, he was found by an aging Madara Uchiha, who identified him as the only one who could wield the Rinnegan, the world’s most powerful ability, once wielded by the Sage of the Six Paths, founder of the Ninja World. (This might be due to his ancestry, though it was never fully explained.) Madara secretly transplanted him his Rinnegan eyes, planning to use him in the near future without Nagato or his parents knowing anything about it. Madara, who was too old to carry out his Eye of the Moon plan by himself, intended to have Nagato sacrifice his own life to resurrect him and allow him to complete the plan when the time was right.
One day, two Ninjas from Konohagakure (the Village Hidden in the Leaves) broke into their home looking for food, unaware that the place was still inhabited. The three tried to escape unnoticed but Nagato's fear caused a vase to shatter, alerting the two Konoha shinobi to the three's presence with Nagato's parents, fearing an attack, getting themselves killed fighting the two ninja so that their son could escape. Nagato would remember this event as the first greatest pain of his life. Nagato's grief at what had happened caused his Rinnegan to manifest, leading him to kill the assailants in a rage, although he would not remember it for a long time. He presumably lost consciousness from the effort of doing so and later awakened to see the dead bodies of his parents and the two enemy shinobi.
After burying his parents in two separate graves he had made for them, Nagato, now orphaned was forced to leave his childhood home for good and wander the ruined country while begging for food and also searching for shelter but to no avail as everyone else did not want to lose their already-weakened resources. Nagato would eventually come across a stray dog who refused to leave his side, whom he named Chibi and who he met when Nagato collapsed from hunger with Nagato thanking Chibi for saving his life as he had collapsed into a puddle.
Nagato with Konan and Yahiko: the group as teenagers.
Due to the ongoing war and with resources being scarce, no-one was willing to help Nagato. Upon collapsing from hunger one day, Nagato was later found by Konan who gave him a loaf of bread which he shared with Chibi. After that, Konan brought Nagato and Chibi back to the cave to meet Yahiko with both Konan and Yahiko soon becoming Nagato's best friends and traveling companions. The three often spoke about their hopes, Nagato being greatly inspired by Yahiko's dream of conquering the world to make it better and use his status as a God to end wars.
One fated day, Chibi got killed in the crossfire from the battle between Amegakure's extremely powerful dictator Hanzō and three immensely powerful ninjas from Konoha who would later be known as the Sannin or "Legendary Trio": Tsunade, Jiraiya and Orochimaru. Soon after the war ended, the three who had buried Chibi left their cave and began looking for the Legendary Trio, whom they eventually found and Yahiko boldly asked them to take them as apprentices. Jiraiya accepted to teach them Ninjutsu so that they would become able to look after themselves although Orochimaru had offered to kill them to end their suffering.
Jiraiya started living with the three orphans, having found them a place to fish and at first, was unwilling to train the three children but he only overcame his reluctance to make them into warriors after witnessing Nagato using the Rinnegan to kill a ninja from Iwagakure in self-defense. Jiraiya taught a distraught Nagato to never lose sight of what is important to him, and to use his powers to find the peace that they both desired for the world.
Three years later, Jiraiya returned to his homeland after the three had become full-fledged Amegakure ninjas, confident that they could look after themselves and that they could also bring reform to their country.
However, during their travels, Nagato and his friends encountered a strange man calling himself "Madara" (in fact Tobi who had taken his identity) and his traveling companion. Though the unconvinced Yahiko took Nagato and Konan away from him, the stranger raised Nagato's curiosity with his knowledge of the Rinnegan and promised that Nagato and his friends would one day friends understand his way of thinking.
Forming the Akatsuki.
Over the years, Nagato, Konan and Yahiko began a quest to find peace. News of their exploits would reach Jiraiya, until he heard that they had all died. They soon gathered followers who shared their aspirations for an end to war, leading to the creation of Akatsuki.
Hanzō came to regard their group as a threat to his rule. With Danzō Shimura providing assistance, Danzō having originally informed Hanzo that Akatsuki were responsible for killing members of Hanzo's own clan, the bodies in fact members of a Root team who had attacked the three earlier after they had unknowingly disrupted an attempt by Danzo to ensure that peace didn't exist between Konaha and Iwagakure, Hanzo and Danzo soon began working together to eliminate Akatsuki.
Hanzo approached the group via a disguised Danzo who was posing as a ninja named "Kanzo" and revealed that the leader was allowing to make the group negotiations for peace and wanted them to help with arrangements for the other warring villages. Nagato, Yahiko and the rest of the team, unaware that no such thing actually existed, spent the rest of the day celebrating with the two childhood friends departing early the next morning for the meeting to finalize the arrangement.
However, when they arrived at the destination, they learnt that it was a trap and were promptly ambushed by Hanzo and his men who was also receiving support from Danzo.
Nagato and Yahiko soon learnt that Konan had been taken hostage with Hanzo threatening to kill her if Nagato did not kill Yahiko in exchange for Konan's life. Not wanting Nagato to go through life with that on his conscious, Yahiko willingly committed suicide by impaling himself on the kunai Nagato now held. He then used his last words to state that he had faith that Nagato could change the world, something Jirayia had also expressed before collapsing to the ground and dying instantly, his death devastating Konan and leaving Nagato stunned.
Satisfied that Yahiko had died, Hanzo then ordered his men to kill Nagato with the group throwing kunais at him. Remembering Yahiko's words that he had a dream, Nagato's Rinnegan powers manifested themselves once again and he was able to repel the kunais, rendering them useless much to the shock of the shinobi on the cliff.
Nagato then leapt forward and rescued Konan from Hanzo but Hanzo who had already prepared for such a thing and responded by triggering the appearance of tags that wrapped around Nagato's legs before exploding, the resulting damage crippling Nagato but not killing him.
Upon bringing Konan to where Yahiko's body lay, Nagato told her to keep an eye on Yahiko before he looked at Hanzo.
Not taking any chances, Hanzo's men and the Leaf ANBU launched themselves at Nagato, both sides ready for battle.
Nagato using the Outer Path.
Nagato then immediately summoned the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path, the monster knocking all the invading troops aside as it emerged from the ground with a roar. Driven by feelings of grief and anger over Yahiko's death, Nagato then went on to command the being which he did by having black receivers interjected into his back which allowed him to control the Statue but at the price of having it feed off his life force. Eventually, the Statue succeeded in killing all of the troops with only Hanzo managing to escape from the battle at the last second via a transportation technique.
In the aftermath, Nagato was left permanently immobile, frail and emaciated as a result of having his legs damaged and his energy drained from him with the Chakra Rods remaining in his back.
Following the incident, Nagato slashed the village's symbol on his forehead, signifying that he no longer wished to associate with the village that had led to the death of his childhood friend. He also remembered Yahiko's death as his second greatest pain, and would later use his body for the Six Paths of Pain.
In the aftermath of what had happened, Yahiko's death also left a long-lasting impact on Nagato and convinced him that the philosophy about achieving peace was completely foolish and that the world would never willingly or knowingly end or even break out of the cycle of death and hatred that it had been operating on for countless generations. This also caused Nagato to believe that only through a direct experience of war could anyone ever hope to truly desire peace. Intending to bring a level of despair to the world while hopeful it would result in peace, Nagato took on the alias, "Pain" and formulated plans to bring his dream a reality.
Being confined in a walking machine by his crippled state, Nagato started acting through six corpses, remotely controlling them as extensions of himself. He could use all at once or one at a time, but almost only used Yahiko's corpse, wanting Yahiko to still lead the Akatsuki in spirit. Nagato later caused a civil war, took over Amegakure and killed Hanzō in revenge while also not bothering to give Hanzo a proper burial, a testament to Nagato's own hatred for Hanzo with Nagato also systematically killing anyone else who had ties with him which he did so to prevent anyone else from rising up and challenging him. Occasionally, remnants loyal to Hanzo would emerge to take revenge against Nagato, only for him to single-handily defeat them.
Due to Amegakure's secretive nature, news of Hanzo's death never made into the outside world and the remaining ninja villages were convinced that the country was still divided by the civil war.
Under Tobi's impulse, he turned Akatsuki into a group of criminals. From then on, he ruled both Amegakure and the Akatsuki, being revered as a God by the villagers and every Sunday, would end the rain for a few hours as a tribute to Yahiko.
Role in the series[]
Nagato is seen at first as the faceless, nameless leader of Akatsuki. He first appears "in person" when all Akatsuki members meet as astral projections, to seal a Tailed Beast or to discuss the matter in hand. He is seen explaining the organization's goals of dominating the war business, by offering extremely efficient mercenaries at a very low cost, to gain in strength while weakening the Ninja Villages and take over the world. He also has to scold his subordinates quite often. As the story went on, portions of his face are shown before culminating in his full debut.
Battle against Jiraiya[]
The original Six Paths of Pain.
Shortly after Deidara's death, Tobi orders Pain to lure Naruto Uzumaki, the jinchuriki (host) of Kurama, the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox. However, As he is about to depart, Pain detects Jiraiya infiltrating the village and sets out to kill him.
After sending Konan to distract Jiraiya while he switches to his Animal Path, Pain confronts their former master while revealing his intentions to use the nine demonic Tailed-Beasts to create a technique of mass destruction as destructive as a nuclear bomb, which he would give to every nation. The sheer desolation caused by this weapon would then scare the world away from war, for decades if not more.
Pain launches summons after summons and hides in a Giant Chameleon to turn invisible, forcing Jiraiya to activate the legendary Senjutsu: a fighting style based on the use of natural energy. Jiraiya summons the Elder Toads Shima and Fukasaku to his aid, and Pain retaliates by revealing two of his controlled corpses: the Preta Path and the Human Path, forcing Jiraiya to flee within pipes. The Elders trap the Paths of Pain in a very powerful illusion, and Jiraiya impales each through the heart with a giant sword.
Jiraiya's death.
As Jiraiya has dropped his guard, it is revealed that the Six Paths of Pain were unleashed, and that the Paths he destroyed were restored. The Asura Path attacks him from behind, severing his left arm. When the Six Paths lunge at him, Jiraiya recognizes them as ninjas he met before. He manages to destroy one, but gets fatally wounded when they crush his throat and impale him multiple times.
Having understood too late the secret behind the Six Paths, Jiraiya uses the last of his strength to leave a coded message on Fukasaku's back, before sending him to Konoha with the destroyed Animal Path. Fukasaku manages to escape from Pain, but Jiraiya's corpse sinks into the sea. Pain then holds a moment of silence in respect for his former teacher.
Capturing the Six-Tails[]
While in the manga, Akatsuki had captured Utakata, the jinchuriki of Saiken, the Six-Tailed Demon Slug, off-screen; the anime shows Pain, with his new Animal Path, capturing him. The Animal Path uses its Giant Hound to track down Utakata, and runs into ninjas from Kirigakure, the Village hidden in the Mist, as Utakata is a deserter from their ranks. Pain kills the ninja and finds his target, whom he traps under an avalanche caused by his Asura Path’s missiles, before capturing him.
Invasion of Konoha[]
With Nagato hidden nearby, Pain and Konan are seen arriving near Konoha, slaughtering the guards around. The Asura Path launches the Animal Path inside the village, so that the wards would notice only one intruder, to summon the rest of them inside. The Asura, Preta, and Animal Paths are then tasked to bring as much destruction as possible for diversion, while Konan and the Deva, Human, and Naraka Paths looked for either Naruto or information about his whereabouts.
As Pain is devastating Konoha, killing thousands of ninjas and civilians on his wake, The Deva Path ends up against Kakashi Hatake, Naruto’s teacher. Kakashi manages to hold his own against the fearsome Deva Path, but the Asura Path enters the fray. Kakashi and his allies manage to incapacitate the Asura Path, but the Konoha ninjas end up overwhelmed and Kakashi has to sacrifice his life to protect one of his allies.
The Deva Path later confronts Tsunade, the Fifth Hokage (ruler of Konoha), who just heard about his powers from Kakashi’s ally. Pain attempts to force her into revealing Naruto’s location, but she refuses and calls him a terrorist. After a short dispute about the justifications of war, Pain learns Naruto’s location from the Human Path. Pain then decides to educate Tsunade and Konoha in suffering. He uses his powers to obliterate the village, while Konan and the other Paths withdraw.
Shortly after, Naruto returns, having mastered Senjutsu Arts/Sage Attack and gained enough power to challenge Pain. Despite having overexerted herself to exhaustion to minimize the damage, Tsunade attacks Pain in a rage, but he sends the newly restored Asura Path to kill her without sparing her a glance. But Naruto jumps into the fray and swiftly destroys the Asura Path, the Preta Path and most of the Animal Path’s summons, aided by his toad allies.
He blasts the Human Path with his most powerful technique, the Rasenshuriken, before trapping the Animal Path inside the mouth of the Great Toad Gamabunta to destroy it. Pain sends the, temporarily powerless, Deva Path fight Naruto at close range, while the Naraka Path restores the Preta Path to counter Naruto's Rasenshurikens. Naruto uses a diversion to destroy the Naraka Path, but the Preta Path captures him. However, absorbing too much Senjutsu chakra turns the second to last Path to stone.
Though having destroyed the other Paths, Naruto finds himself outmatched by the Deva Path, who kills Master Fukasaku and pins Naruto to the ground with Chakra Rods. Pain lectures Naruto about the suffering of war, the vicious cycles of revenge, the pointlessness of Jiraiya's idealism and his plans for peace. He asks if Naruto has a better solution than his own, but the boy finds himself at lost. Hinata Hyuga attempts to fight Pain, revealing her true feelings for Naruto, but gets blasted away. (In the anime, she knows that she stands no chance and instead attempts to free Naruto, but to no avail.)
Believing her to be dead, an enraged Naruto gets consumed by Kurama's power and his Six-Tailed form attacks Pain in feral rage, severely beating him down. This forces Nagato to get Yahiko's corpse closer to him so Pain can trap Naruto into a ginormous sphere of debris. Naruto almost breaks free by unleashing the unprecedented Eight-Tale form. Fortunately, Naruto's father, the fabled Fourth Hokage Minato Namikaze devised a failsafe in Naruto's seal, enabling his spirit to appear and repress Kurama, before comforting his son.
Nagato in his walking machine.
Reflecting on the earlier lecture, Naruto emerges from the sphere and demands to speak with Nagato, but the Deva Path attacks him. Naruto takes advantage of the time limit of the Deva Path's power to destroy it with a Rasengan, his signature move that Jiraiya taught him and which Naruto's father created. After defeating Pain, Naruto uses Pain's Chakra Rods to find Nagato. Nagato pierces him with a Chakra Rod to control his movements, but Naruto resists it. Despite his hatred, Naruto stands firm and asks how a former student of Jiraiya could have strayed so far from their master's teachings. Hoping that Naruto would come to agree with him, Nagato tells him of his and his friends' tragic childhood.
Nagato dies, at peace with himself.
Though he agrees with Nagato's conclusions, Naruto decides to stay true to Jiraiya's ideals of peace coming from "breaking the cycle of hatred". As such, he refuses to kill Nagato. Amazed by Naruto's resolve and remembering Jiraiya's teachings, Nagato decided to put his faith in Naruto's method and sacrifices his own life to revive all the Konoha citizens he killed during his invasion. The strain of the technique ultimately costs Nagato his life, and with his final breath he encourages Naruto to stay true to his principle despite all the hardships he will find.
In the aftermath, Konan takes Nagato and Yahiko's bodies back to Amegakure for burial. She leaves Akatsuki and pledges Amegakure's allegiance to Naruto's and Jiraiya's ideals, giving Naruto a bouquet of origami flowers as a memento. Naruto then builds a memorial to both Jiraiya and Nagato, on which he leaves Konan's bouquet and Jiraiya's first novel as a token of reconciliation.
The Fourth Great Ninja War[]
Nagato carried by Itachi.
Nagato is brought back as an undead by Kabuto Yakushi, alongside many highly powerful ninjas, to serve Akatsuki in the war against the Ninja Alliance. He is paired with Itachi Uchiha, who helps him to walk, since he cannot walk on his own. They have a talk about how they were manipulated all their life and afterlife, because of their immense power.
Shortly after, they meet with Naruto and Killer Bee, the jinchuriki of Gyuki, the Eight-Tailed Demon Ox. Although he is pleased to see Naruto again, he has no other choice than to attack, and he uses his Animal Path's summons as mounts to fight. After Itachi gets freed from Kabuto's control, Kabuto retaliates by deactivating Nagato’s consciousness. This proves a critical mistake though, since while Kabuto has total control, he lets pass attacks that Nagato would have been able to counter easily.
Nagato using the Asura Path.
During the fight, Nagato hides in his Giant Chameleon's mouth to land powerful surprise attack. After his summons are defeated, he absorbs Gyuki’s chakra to rejuvenate his body back to its peak condition and fight at his full power. He captures Naruto with his invisible Chameleon and proceeded to remove his soul with the Nakara Path, while easily subduing Killer Bee by growing two of the Asura Path's mechanical arms. After Itachi saves the two jinchurikis, Nagato attempts to trap them in a sphere of debris, but the three are able to escape before it is too late. Itachi takes Nagato-Kabuto by surprises and seals Nagato with the powers of his own Susanoo summon. Nagato bids a final farewell to Naruto, and wishes him to triumph brilliantly.
Rock Lee & His Ninja Pals[]
Nagato (as Deva Pain) as he appears in Rock Lee & His Ninja Pals.
Although Nagato himself does not appear in the spin-off in person, he appeared most likely in his Deva Path appearance, still using his Pain persona.
He first appeared in the ending credits after Lee unintentionally fell into their hideout, which annoys him and then orders his teammates to attack Lee but is saved by Konoha 11. Later, Pain debuted in Episode 38 wherein he arrived at his hideout alongside with Konan. Tenten was shocked by his arrival. Much like his other teammates, he also mistook Lee as a new recruit. After Konan gives her welcome gift, Pain steps by to introduce himself but accidentally trips from a small rock.
Pain hits Hidan for making fun of him
He stands up and introduces himself and says he is a god, wherein Lee and Tenten thinks he's nuts while Hidan starts to make fun of him, earning himself a Shinra Tensei blast. Later Pain explains to the group that he gathered them all here to have a meeting but then decided to see Lee's abilities, wherein Hidan mistook this for a Jashin ritual, whom he gives another Shinra Tensei.
He decided to make anybody to volunteer to fight him, Deidara steps up and volunteers to "fight" him, actually to secretly help them escape, but was interrupted by a disguised Guy and Neji. While the two are "fighting" using their same-styled attack, Deidara was hit by the "fight" which starts a fight among the group, Kakuzu tries to payback Sasori for unintentionally dragging him but accidentally hits Pain, alongside with Hidan, much to his anger and fights his teammates, thus destroying their hideout.
Later after Tobi and Zetsu arrived and Sasori blames him for "recruiting" Lee and Guy, Tobi admits the truth about them. Upon hearing this, he angrily ask Tobi why he did not told them in the first place. The "good boy" explains that Deidara bribed him. Upon learning the truth, he alongside with the rest of Akatsuki beats up Deidara for not telling Lee was a spy.
In Episode 51, Sasuke teams up with Akatsuki to destroy Konoha. Pain is seen with Konan and Kakuzu fighting Team Asuma. Konan and Kakuzu are shown to be defeated but his fate is not shown.