| “ | 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. | „ |
| ~ Nagato/Pain |
| “ | All is meaningless before overwhelming power. You Great Nations have proved that over the years. You all think of yourselves as the main forces of this world and push death out of your thoughts. Lawed by peace you have become shallow. If you kill, you shall be killed...Hatred is what connects this cause and effect. | „ |
| ~ Nagato (Pain) |
| “ | We are Pain, we are God. | „ |
| ~ Nagato's quote as Pain when introducing himself. |
Nagato (in Japanese: 長門), better known as Pain (ペイン), is a fallen hero who serves as a major antagonist in the Naruto series. Initially an idealist devoted to bringing peace to the violent Ninja World, he is the apparent leader of Akatsuki and the lord of Amegakure (the Village Hidden in the Rain). While he appeared in control the organization for a long time, it was eventually revealed that he is in fact Tobi's second-in-command. He is a member of the scattered Uzumaki Clan, making him a distant relative of the series' primary protagonist Naruto Uzumaki.
He served as the main antagonist in the Tale of Jiraiya The Gallant arc, a major antagonist in the Six Tails Unleashed arc and the main antagonist in the Pain's Assault arc.
He voiced by famous voice actors Vic Mignogna and Troy Baker.
History
Nagato as a child.
Nagato was born in a village near Amegakure. He and his parents lived a difficult life in a country devastated by the Third Ninja War, which the neighbouring 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.
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. Nagato's parents, fearing an attack, got themselves killed fighting the two ninja so 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.
After burying his parents, Nagato, now orphaned was forced to leave his childhood home and wander the ruined country while begging for food and also searching for shelter.
He would eventually come across a stray dog who refused to leave his side, whom he named Chibi.
Nagato with Konan and Yahiko: the group as teenagers.
Unfortunately, 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 and Yahiko, two orphans who soon became his best friends and travelling companions. The three often spoke about their hopes, Nagato being greatly inspired by Yahiko's dream of conquering the world to make it better.
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 "Legendary Trio": Tsunade, Jiraiya and Orochimaru. Soon after the war ended, the three ran into the Legendary Trio, 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, 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.
However, 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 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. Aided by Danzo Shimura, he faked negociations to lure the Akatsuki into an ambush and captured Konan. The only way to save her was for Nagato to murder Yahiko. Not wanting Nagato to make a choice, Yahiko impaled himself on his friend's kunai. With his last breath, he told Nagato that he believed him to be the savior the world needed, as Jiraiya himself believed.
Nagato using the Outer Path.
Hanzō then used an explosive spell that crippled Nagato's legs, and ordered his men to slaughter the group. Devastated, Nagato retrieved Konan and summoned the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path, killing all of Hanzō's and Danzo's men but them, but became frail, emaciated and covered in Chakra Rods embedded in his back. Nagato 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, Nagato severed his ties with Amegakure by slashing the village's symbol on his forehead protector as he no longer wished to be associated with a village that had cost his friend his life while Yahiko's death 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 hope to 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.
Yahiko as the Deva Path.
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. Nagato later caused a civil war, took over Amegakure and killed Hanzō in revenge, systematically killing anyone else who had ties with him. 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.
Plot
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 cut 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 other 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 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 & 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 accidently 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 & 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 & fights his teammates, thus destroying their hideout.
Later after Tobi and Zetsu arrived and Sasori blames him for "recruiting" Lee & 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.
Appearance
Nagato was once a well-built man with pale skin, chin-length hair of the Uzumaki clan’s trademark dark red colour, clad in long dark cloaks. His most noticeable trait is his Rinnegan Eyes, of purplish grey colour, with several circles around a small pupil. Getting crippled at the hands of Hanzō, and subsequently summoning the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path, left him horribly frail, skinny, emaciated and shriveled. He uses a six-legged walking machine for mobility, he has many Chakra Rods implanted into his back, and many smaller Chakra Receivers into his arms, which he keeps his forearms in a device in his walker to transmit his chakra toward long distances.
The Six Paths of Pain all look like the people they once were, but they all share Yahiko’s ginger hair, Nagato’s Rinnegan eyes and the Akatsuki black cloak covered with red clouds. Their bodies and face are covered with black, piercing-like Chakra Receivers that Nagato uses to transmit his chakra to them, and to perceive what they see and hear.
Personality
| “ | If you don't share someone's pain, you can never understand them. But just because you understand them doesn't mean you can come to an agreement. | „ |
| ~ Nagato (to Naruto). |
Nagato was once a kind, emotional and sensitive boy, very quiet, withdrawn and prone to crying. He heavily disliked the prospect of killing, even to save his friends, but wanted nothing more to protect them and to make the world a better place for everyone. Due to his past, he had a strong distrust towards Konoha ninjas, but would form a close bond with Jiraiya. He regarded his friends and his master as examples and worked hard to emulate them; admiring Yahiko's strong-will and determination and calling Konan his "angel".
As Pain, he has become serious, aloof, cynical, brutal and relentless. He believes that the suffering he experienced enlightened him, making him rise above humanity toward godhood. He is extremely composed and indifferent, barely showing surprise even when Naruto drove him to a corner. Moreover, he mercilessly destroys all opposition and obstacles, killing thousands without batting an eyelid, even when said obstacle is his former teacher. Due to the tragedies he has suffered, he has grown heavily disillusioned, and openly scorns Jiraiya’s ideals of mutual understanding as a pointless delusion.
He heavily despises the five Great Ninja Nations, for building their prosperity on the tragedies they inflicted on smaller nations like his own, and cannot stand their speeches about peace, which he considers as a patronizing aggression. Despite this, he always speaks courteously even to people of the Great Nations. He genuinely praises his foes’ merits and shows a real appreciation for his subordinates, stepping in to stop squabbles and disrespect among them. He is often seen paying respect for the fallen, ally and enemy alike.
More importantly, Pain made Yahiko’s principle of the “understanding of suffering” into the very core of his philosophy. He believes that no-one can understand the value of peace without first experiencing first-hand the horror of war. He makes a point in teaching suffering to anyone he speaks to, making sure that they would see what they hold dear destroyed before their very eyes. He is highly sensitive about it and dislikes when someone criticizes his beliefs, or believes in something else. However, he is not opposed to the idea of confronting points of views with his foes.
After redeeming himself, Nagato turns back to his childhood dreams. His respect for Jiraiya returns tenfold and he embraces Naruto's ideals of breaking the chain of hatred. He also becomes even more melancholic, contemplating the errors of his ways and going as far as calling himself a "failure".
Powers and Abilities
Nagato is an incredibly powerful fighter, even above the Five Kage (the lords of the five Great Ninja Nations, numbering among the mightiest ninjas in the world). He was able to kill Hanzō and Jiraiya, who were feared worldwide, with relative ease. (It must be noted though that Jiraiya might have won if he knew the secret of the Six Paths of Pain.) His large array of abilities makes him as versatile and unpredictable as he is formidable, and he is immensely strong, fast, spry and skilled with weapons and martial arts. As a member of the Uzumaki Clan, Nagato is gifted with exceptionally vast amounts of extremely powerful chakra.
The Rinnegan
Nagato's Rinnegan.
Nagato's main power is the Sage of the Six Path’s Rinnegan (Samsara Eye). The Rinnegan makes him able to physically see the chakra, to perceive someone’s chakra even kilometres away, to use the five elemental natures of chakra of Water, Fire, Wind, Lightning and Earth, as well as Yin (spiritual energy) and Yang (physical energy) or a combination of both, and to master any normal technique he came across.
The Outer Path
The Rinnegan's main power is called the Outer Path (Gedō in Japanese) or Seventh Path. It enables its wielder to channel their chakra through Chakra Receivers. The wielder can control everyone and everything infused with their chakra, alive or dead, to perceive what they see and hear and to transmit it through their other "puppets" and to speak through them. The Outer Path also enables its wielder to conjure chains of ethereal energy that can bind anything and anyone they touch and suppress their powers.
In spite of his perfect mastery of the Rinnegan, Nagato did not have access to the fullest extent of its power, something he is perfectly aware of. Madara Uchiha for instance was able to cast two formidable spells: the Tengan Shinsei (Divine Quaking Star) which conjures incredibly destructive, skyscraper-sized meteors, and the Limbo Hengoku (Limbo Border Jail) which conjures up to five immensely powerful clones of the caster that cannot be detected without powers similar to the caster's own and move independently for a defined amount of time.
Other users of the Rinnegan were able to teleport where they can see and open gates toward other dimensions, to create and transform all sort of objects and weapon made of red energy, and to absorb an attack and fire it back or use it as a power boost. Tobi has stated that the Rinnegan is so powerful that he himself cannot bear its full power. As such, one can guess that only the Sage of the Six Paths, and likely his mother Princess Kaguya Otsutsuki, can use each and every power it grants.
The Demonic Statue of the Outer Path
the statue when summoned
This titanic, otherworldly statue is in fact the shell of the Ten-Tailed Beast, the Primal Demon from the beginning of times that the Sage of the Six Paths sealed into the moon. Wielders of the Rinnegan can summon it and use its power as a fuel, or summon it for warring purposes.
Nagato used The Demonic Statue of the Outer Path to extract the Tailed Beasts from their jinchurikis and to store them within it. The more Tailed Beasts it absorbs, the mightier it becomes. It is absolutely gigantic, standing over fifty meters tall, and has incredible strength and surprising speed.
It can fire Chakra Rods and the Outer Path's chains of ethereal energy. It can also unleash many dragon-like spirits that rip out the soul of anyone they touch and absorb it, killing the victim. At its most powerful, the Statue can unleash devastating, blasting shockwaves or huge bolts of energy that rain down on its targets.
Six Paths of Pain
As if all of the above was not enough, the Rinnegan grants its wielder six powers known as the Six Paths. Nagato was the only wielder of the Rinnegan to master all six. He was able to use at least two at the same time and to switch between one and another within seconds, enabling him to face all types of foes at once.
Due to his crippled state, Nagato uses these powers through his signature Six Paths of Pain. He remotely controls six corpses, each wielding one of the six powers and using it as its name. Nagato can use one to six of them indiscriminately, but he needs to be close to transmit his chakra. The closer he is, the more they can use their power. Nagato always acts through them using the alias "Pain", and regards them as separate entities or vessels.
Each body is named after one of the six paths of Reincarnation from the Buddhist mythology: Deva, Asura, Human, Animal, Preta, and Naraka. When fighting together, the six can combine their powers, protect one another, and overwhelm their foes. They all display incredible fighting skills. Being roughly as good fighters as Nagato himself, and being impossible to catch by surprize due to sharing their vision, they prove absolutely formidable in battle. However, after being resurrected Nagato has proven able to use their powers at an even higher-level.
Deva Path (Tendo)
the Deva Path-The Body of Yahiko
The Deva Path of Pain (God's Realm - Realm of Bliss) is Nagato's most treasured Path, which was created from Yahiko's dead body. Nagato used this Path on a daily basis, practically living through it. Because of this, this Path was the only one seen using other spells and techniques than the special power it was granted, and likely the only one able to do so.
The Deva Path is by far the mightiest of all six, with the highest chakra level and fighting skills. It wielded Nagato's power to control gravity, which enabled it to perform telekinesis and to levitate at will, and was the source of his three major techniques:
- Banshô Ten'in (Universal Pull) This technique pulls anything towards the Deva Path at variable force. It is mostly used to attract the target at close range to deliver an unavoidable fatal strike, but also to attract something toward the targets, to make them collide violently.
- Shinra Tensei (Almighty Push) This technique blows anything away from the Deva Path at variable force; either as a shockwave all around or as a frontal blast. It can be used for defence, to deflect every kind of attack, or offence, to blow up everything in its field of action. When Nagato gathers all the chakra from his other Paths into the Deva Path, it can use Shinra Tensei to its maximum and obliterate everything within an immense area, though it costs a great deal of Nagato’s energy.
- Chibaku Tensei (Planetary Devastation) Nagato's most powerful technique. It hurls a black orb of energy into the sky, where it attracts everything around from all directions (landscape included) at a very fast rate; compressing it together to form an immense sphere in which anyone gets crushed to dust, and leaving an equally big crater behind. The Deva Path can only use it near Nagato's location and it put a heavy strain on him.
This makes the Deva Path close to invincible, but after using his powers, it becomes unable to use it again for a moment determined by the amount of energy used (the minimum being five seconds). Such weak point leaves it open for an attack. The Deva Path is by no mean defenceless though, as it can still use its incredible fighting skills and is usually protected by the other Paths. In the anime, the Deva Path is also seen using Water-based techniques, (a violent gush of water and a huge tidal wave erupting from the ground) likely stemming from Yahiko's elemental affinity.
Asura Path (Shurado)
Asura Path-the body of a Puppeteer
The Asura Path of Pain (Divine War-Demon Realm) wields Nagato's power to duplicate its body parts and to transform them into mechanical ones, filled to the brim with chakra-powered weapons. When fully transformed, it looks like a three-faced, six-armed humanoid, the same as its Mythological namesake. The Asura Path is the physically strongest and most resilient of the six, being able to toss someone dozens of meters in the air and to function when half destroyed. It is arguably the second most powerful and destructive of the six and one of the most diverse, being able to:
- Focus its chakra on its feet to propel itself like a plane.
- Project a massive, long-lasting, laser-like blast of chakra that causes devastating explosions on its wake, from a cannon hidden inside its head.
- Unfold a large, tail-like, serrated sash from around its waist.
- Release several long, flexible, serrated blades from its arms.
- Release a drill from its hands.
- Fire off its forearms like a rocket, with enough force to destroy a building.
- Turn one of its arms into a cannon, similar to the one in its head, only bigger and possibly even more powerful.
- Separate on of its arms (still linked by a bone-like pole) to reveal many fast-moving, mechanical tentacles.
- Pull out one of its arms to fire a barrage of guided missiles of great destructive power. It can also fire these missiles to a much larger extent from all parts of its body at once.
- Fire a single, bigger and more destructive homing missile from its back.
Human Path (Ningendo)
The Human Path-a water fall Ninja
The Human Path of Pain wields Nagato's power of Soul Removal. By grabbing its victim it can read their minds, transferring the knowledge gained to Nagato. By doing so, it always rips its victims' soul out of their bodies, instantly killing them. Even worse, it could extract the soul from every body part it grabbed. That is to say: anyone it caught was already as good as dead. Moreover, the Human Path is the fastest of the six, to the point that even sensor ninjas could not immediately sense it coming, and were caught off-guard before they could react.
Animal Path (Shikushodo)
First Animal Path-The body of a Fuma Clan Ninja
Nagato has used two of them, the first used to be a ninja from the famed Fuma clan, then a young girl, likely from Amegakure. The Animal Path wields Nagato's power of Summoning, being able to summon many giant monsters unique to it, as well as anyone related to Nagato, as evidenced when it summoned Konan.
Second Animal Path-the body of a young girl
The large number of highly dangerous monsters it can summon makes the Animal Path arguably the third most powerful and the one with the most diverse abilities. All summoned monsters have piercings similar to the Six Paths, implying that Nagato controls them like he does with the Six Paths, and the Rinnegan, enabling Nagato to see through their eyes. Both Nagato and the Six Paths frequently use them as mounts. The summoned monsters are:
- A gigantic Hummingbird with a spear-like beak, who can move at high speed, attacking with dives and drill-like charges. The anime also depicts it firing explosive eggs that can be used as remote mines, and flapping its wings at high speed to produce huge lightning-filled clouds of dust behind it as it flew.
- A gigantic Centipede (three at the same time in the anime) that can travel underground.
- A gigantic Crustacean with enormous pincers, able to spit powerful waves of foam and watery bubbles as both a mean of attack and a smokescreen, among other Water-based attacks.
- A gigantic, snake-tailed Chameleon with a tentacle, which it can use to bind people. Pain can hide in its mouth and turn it invisible for a near-perfect stealthy offence and defence combo, opening its mouth when Pain attacks. The Chameleon can fight on its own and catch its targets off-guard when it is invisible and its foe focuses on Pain.
- A gigantic Rhinoceros that charges forward and devastates all in its path. Pain was also seen hiding in its mouth.
- A gigantic yack-like Ram who serves the same purpose as the Rhinoceros; though it was possibly faster, more precise, more agile and slightly less destructive.
- A huge Panda with an extremely hard and sturdy skin that makes it a very convenient shield.
- A gigantic, Multi-Headed Hound that is without a doubt Pain’s mightiest and most dangerous summon. It can separate itself between as many hounds as it had heads and fuse back together, gaining more heads every time it did so and thus becoming more dangerous. This dividing power activates whenever the Hound is attacked, making it virtually invincible. Only attacks powerful enough to destroy it entirely could work.
Preta Path (Gakido)
The Preta Path-the body of a grass ninja
The Preta Path of Pain (Hungry Ghost Realm) is large, overweight, very strong, and wields Nagato's power of Energy Absorption. It can absorb people's chakra through physical contact, replenishing Nagato's own strength. It most often catches its targets and drains their energy until they die. It can absorb any Ninjutsu technique within seconds, making it a priceless defence for the other Paths. By creating a barrier spell around its body, the Preta Path could absorb chakra-based attacks from all sides.
Naraka Path (Jigokudo)
The Naraka Path-the body of a priest
The Naraka Path of Pain (Hell Realm) is tall, bulky and one of the strongest Paths. It wields Nagato's power to control Life and Death, by summoning the King of Hell. The King of Hell can only be seen by its victims, or those with perception power. It has Rinnegans so Nagato can see through its eyes.
the Naraka Path summons the King of Hell
The King of Hell can devour people's very life, but also store dead souls and resurrect those it swallows, including the Paths of Pain, As such, Nagato always has the Nakara Path protected by the other five. When the Naraka Path catches someone, the King of Hell appears and forms tendrils from its mouth to question them. The King of Hell devours the life of those who lie or refuse to talk, but releases those who tell the truth. The King of Hell is needed for the Samsara of Heavenly Life technique: which sacrifices the caster’s life for a mass resurrection.
Chakra Disruption Blades
Each Path of Pain has at least one of these weapons, made of the same material as the Chakra Receivers. Not only does each Path of Pain wields them with incredible proficiency, but even Nagato's walking machine can shoot them like javelins. Nagato can infuse the body of anyone stabbed by these blades with his chakra, disrupting the victims' own chakra and hindering the use of their powers. At close distance, he is able to remotely control their bodies like one of the Six Paths. The victim needs to have a chakra even stronger that Nagato's to overcome this.
Special Techniques
Nagato demonstrated several Ninjutsu techniques unique to him, including:
- To cause rain at will and use it to sense the chakra of anyone and anything inside its range. He uses it to watch over Amegakure, creating a god-like omniscience and detecting stealthy infiltrations.
- To shape-shift human sacrifices into exact doubles of a determined person, with the same powers. The doubles' might depends on how much chakra the duplicated one pours into it. The duplicated ones can remotely control their doubles but they can do nothing else, otherwise the spell would break.
- To cast an astral projection of himself, and anyone who channels their
chakra to him, in a determined place.
- To create a perfect Doppelganger of someone, with the exact same strength, techniques, powers and weaknesses, and control it. It was usually used as a trap to fight evenly the foe who triggered it.
Gallery
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Trivia
- In anime, when Nagato's Deva Path said, "My pain is greater than yours" while fighting Naruto's six-tailed jinchuuriki form, his expression became distorted (or rather looks ugly) as he angrily punches the ground. This causes many viewers expressed their disappointment with the episode’s “weird” quality production and the excessive smear animation (especially in the said scene). In manga version on the other hand, Nagato's Deva Path's expression while saying the said line was obviously more calmer without any signs of sudden outbursts of rage albeit with the colder tone.
- In spite of this, Deva Path's distorted expression was good enough as the inspiration of an internet meme.