Nagato

Nagato (長門, Nagato), also known as Pain (ペイン, Pein), was the recognised leader of Akatsuki and Amegakure as well as a major antagonist of the series. Referred to as "Leader" by all Akatsuki members (except for his partner, Konan), he directed the actions of the rest of the members and maintained authority over them. It was later revealed that he had secretly collaborated with Tobi, who acted as Akatsuki's main benefactor.^[4] Nagato is also a descendant of the Uzumaki clan, who are distantly related to the Senju clan.

Source: http://naruto.wikia.com/wiki/Nagato

Background

Nagato as a child.

When Nagato was a child, Madara Uchiha transplanted his own eyes into the young boy without his knowledge.^[6]
Nagato lived with his parents in a village somewhere on the outskirts of Amegakure. One day, during the Second Shinobi World War, two Konoha shinobi attempted to find some rest and food in their thought-to-be-abandoned home. Believing that the shinobi were there to kill them, his parents died during the ensuing chaos in their effort to protect Nagato, as confused and shocked, the Konoha ninja mistook them for enemy shinobi. After witnessing his parents death, Nagato in his grief used the Rinnegan for the first time and killed the assailants.^[7] Nagato would eventually come to regard this as the first of two great sources of pain in his life,^[8] only later realising that it was him who had killed the two shinobi.^[9]
The orphaned Nagato wandered the country, travelling from house to house alongside a dog named Chibi, begging for food. Eventually, Nagato started to starve and later collapsed, which lead to him being found by Konan, who gave him a loaf of bread before taking him to the hideout she and Yahiko had made their home. At first, Yahiko was reluctant to have another mouth to feed, but reconsidered having Nagato hang around due to both boys sharing the dream of a world without suffering. The three then began to search for supplies, often stealing them to survive. One day, Chibi was killed in the crossfire from Hanzō's fight with several Konoha shinobi, including the Sannin, with Nagato and the other orphans later mourning the dog's death.^[10] As the war was nearing its conclusion, the three orphans encountered the Sannin themselves. Although Orochimaru intended to kill the children to put them out of their misery, Jiraiya decided to remain in Amegakure to teach the trio how to protect themselves.^[11]

	The Ame Orphans.

Soon after Jiraiya began living with the orphans, Nagato and Yahiko were attacked by a chūnin from Iwagakure. The need to protect his friend caused Nagato unknowingly resort to his Rinnegan once again to defend Yahiko, killing the ninja. When Jiraiya found out about this, he decided to train them in ninjutsu.^[12] Nagato was very emotional about killing the ninja and asked Jiraiya for help so he could protect Konan and Yahiko. Jiraiya's response was for Nagato to grow up and to use his eyes to find the peace that they both desired for the world. Three years later, the orphans had become competent ninja, so Jiraiya returned to Konoha.^[13]

The original Akatsuki.

Over the years, news of their exploits would reach Jiraiya, often consisting of the death of someone who opposed them. Eventually, he received word that they had all died.^[14] In truth, Nagato, Konan, and Yahiko began a quest to find peace by forming an organisation called Akatsuki with Yahiko as its leader. They became full-fledged Amegakure ninja and gathered followers who shared their philosophies as well as their dream of an end to all conflict.^[15] At some point, Obito Uchiha and Zetsu found Nagato, with Obito introducing himself as Madara Uchiha.^[16] The trio had their doubts about the masked man actually being Madara, but Nagato became interested in his plans after hearing "Madara" mention the Rinnegan and what he could do with it.^[17]
Fearing that Akatsuki would become a threat to his regime, Hanzō schemed with Danzō of Konoha's Root to eliminate its three leading members by making it seem that Hanzō wanted to discuss peace. Once the trap was sprung, Hanzō placed Nagato in a position where he had to kill Yahiko with a kunai, otherwise Konan would die. Before Nagato could take either option, Yahiko forcibly impaled himself onto the kunai that was placed in Nagato's hand, sparing him from making such a horrid decision himself. In his final moments, Yahiko told Nagato to survive as he believed him to be the saviour that Jiraiya spoke of. The death of his friend marked the second great pain of Nagato's life.^[18]

	Nagato after he used the Demonic Statue.

Devastated as he retrieved Konan along with Yahiko's corpse, a furious Nagato launched an attack on Hanzō's men. After summoning the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path and becoming emaciated from the numerous black rods that it embedded in his back, Nagato slaughtered everyone but Hanzō, who used a trap to cripple Nagato's legs. Becoming the new leader of Akatsuki, now going by the name of "Pain", Nagato severed his ties to Amegakure and resolved to show the world what the meaning of pain is.^[19]
Devising a means to regain movement by converting Yahiko's body into the first of his Six Paths of Pain, the Deva Path, Pain led rebelling forces in the Amegakure civil war and took control of the village by assassinating Hanzō. Concealing his true body in the shadows, and becoming a "god" to Amegakure's people, Pain solidified his leadership by systematically killing anyone who had ties to the former leader, from friends and family to ambassadors from other ninja villages.^[20][21]

Personality

As a child, Nagato was a sensitive, kind boy, prone to crying, and was traumatised by the idea of killing others, even if it was 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. He was consistently respectful and kind to Konan, who he claimed to be his "angel" in Amegakure. He was shown protecting her, without request or hesitation from Jiraiya before his battle with his former teacher. Apparently, she was the only Akatsuki member that addressed him by name. He was aware of Konan's feelings towards Yahiko and left them alone to have personal time together.
A prevalent trait that Nagato possessed during his early years (and to some extent his adulthood) is his submissiveness and his willingness to follow the lead of others. As a child, he followed Yahiko due to his position as leader, and when he grew older he almost immediately fell for Obito's manipulation who was masquerading himself as Madara but was saved by Yahiko. After Yahiko's death, Nagato immediately turned to Obito for leadership believing him to be Madara and when pushed to the brink of defeat he was converted by Naruto within one conversation.
As an adult, after losing Yahiko, his personality became very different, having become a calm, arrogant, delusional, dead-serious, aloof, stolid, melancholic, and detached man. Apparently believing traumas he experienced in his youth had enlightened him to the true meaning of pain and suffering, he considered himself a deity, and believed he had evolved beyond a mere human being. He sought to show the world the meaning of pain by using an ultimate weapon to deter future wars, by means similar to "mutually assured destruction", and showed no moral qualms about his actions. He was even willing to kill Jiraiya, his former sensei, to ensure the completion of his plans. He even went so far as to proclaim himself a "god of peace", that had to guide the world to maturity through pain. Finally, he felt that no-one could understand true peace unless they understood "true" pain, something his childhood friend Yahiko believed. Minato Namikaze believed Tobi to have been using this philosophy in his favour, in order to manipulate Nagato.^[22]
Nonetheless, he was seen to be quite respectful, particularly to the fallen and the dead. Given the Akatsuki members' frequent bickering, he often quelled them and encouraged better relations among members. He even suggested that they mourn for Deidara after his passing,^[23] and reprimanded Kisame for calling Hidan and Kakuzu the "Zombie Combo".^[24] After his battle with Jiraiya, he held a moment of silence for his former teacher, out of respect for his power.^[25] He also told Kakashi that he was honoured to meet him during his invasion of Konohagakure.^[26]
Because Konohagakure was partly responsible for the tragedies in his life, he held a great deal of animosity towards the village. Although Jiraiya's influence improved his opinion of the village during their time together, he eventually came to believe that Konoha profited from the tragedies of others and hated it and his former teacher.
After his reincarnation, Nagato has shown to be kinder and carefree to the point he was even willing to start making jokes, something which surprised Naruto.^[27] His opinion of Naruto also strengthened after he last saw him, pointing out to Itachi Uchiha that he wasn't surprised that Naruto was able to advance his control over the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox since they both had studied under the same master.^[28]

Appearance

The Ame Orphans as young adults.

Nagato was a fair-skinned man with chin-length red hair (a colour which is a trademark of the Uzumaki clan) with his most noticeable trait being his Rinnegan eyes. As a child, his hair would regularly hang off his face blocking the view of his eyes; later only covering the right side of his face. As adult, Nagato grew to be slightly shorter than Yahiko, but after subjecting himself to the Summoning: Demonic Statue of the Outer Path, Nagato was reduced to an emaciated version of his former self with chakra receivers implanted into his back, one in each of his shoulder joints, smaller ones in his forearms and two metal-like screw under his collar bones, near his shoulder joint. Nagato uses a mechanical walker for mobility, which could fire Chakra Disruption Blades for personal defence. He was the only Akatsuki member never seen wearing the organisation's uniform, until after his death, and he ceased wearing a slashed out forehead protector after defeating Hanzō. However, his Six Paths of Pain wore both in his stead. After Nagato used the Outer Path: Samsara of Heavenly Life Technique to revive all the Konohagakure citizens that had been killed during his invasion, his red hair turned white due to the overexertion of his chakra. When reincarnated by Kabuto, Nagato was left in the exact state as he died - emaciated and with white hairs. The only exception were black rods that are no longer attached to his body. However, after Nagato uses his ability to absorb chakra from B's Version 2 form, this chakra seemingly revitalised Nagato's body, restoring his muscle mass, and restoring his hair colour from white back to the Uzumaki clan's characteristic red colour.

Abilities

Nagato using the abilities of the Six Paths Technique after being reincarnated.

As the leader of the S-rank criminal organisation Akatsuki, and one of the two sides of the Amegakure civil war, Nagato was an extraordinarily powerful shinobi, and recognised as the most powerful member of Akatsuki. He was Kabuto Yakushi's second strongest reincarnated shinobi since he noted that he'd have to bring out his trump card after he was sealed.^[29] His partner, Konan, had stated that he had never lost a single battle, and that he was "unbeatable".^[30][31] Fukasaku stated that without understanding Pain's power, no one could defeat him,^[32] and even Obito noted that Nagato was invincible while praising Jiraiya.^[33] Nagato was able to kill Jiraiya with relative ease after revealing all six of his bodies. In praising his former teacher, Nagato later noted that he had underestimated Jiraiya's level of genjutsu usage, stating that he likely would not have won if Jiraiya had uncovered the secret behind his Six Paths of Pain technique.^[25] It was with these six bodies that Nagato led a civil war in Amegakure that not only easily killed Hanzō and overthrew his regime, but also eradicated his lineage and anyone remotely associated with him and his ideals.^[34][35] Zetsu expressed shock when Nagato was defeated by Naruto Uzumaki, stating that he never thought Nagato would ever lose, even in a weakened state.^[36]
After being reincarnated by Kabuto Yakushi and regaining his vitality, he was able to easily overwhelm both Naruto Uzumaki and Killer B and would have killed them both had it not been for Itachi Uchiha's intervention. It took the combined efforts of those three men to successfully defeat him.
Nagato's legs were greatly damaged in his battle against Hanzō. As a result, even though he was able stand on his own, he lacked full mobility. To make up for this, while alive, Nagato used the Six Paths of Pain to fight for him while he remained in a mechanical walker. When he was reincarnated by Kabuto, he used various summons to move around and to keep himself out of range of his opponents' attacks. Though even after being rejuvenated by Gyūki's chakra, which he had absorbed from Killer B, Nagato's mobility was still limited.