Pain

Pain (ペイン, Pein^?) is the leader of Akatsuki, partnered to Konan and the principal figure in the Tailed Beast sealing ceremony as he can summon the Gedō Demon Statue (外道魔像, Gedō Mazō^?). When first introduced Pain is shown as nothing more than a shadowy outline. As Part II of the series progresses, parts of his face are shown; culminating in the revelation that the Pain that is seen is actually Deva Pain, one of six different bodies collectively known as the The Six Paths of Pain (ペイン六道, Pein Rikudō^?). Controlled by a single conscious mind, each of the six bodies are individually named after one of the six Buddhist paths of reincarnation.^[86] All but one of the bodies have orange hair and a number of body piercings that, from a design standpoint, give Pain a "more dangerous" appearance and relate the pain of their installation to the character's name.^[78] Each also has the Rinnegan (輪廻眼^?, lit. "Saṃsāra Eye"), a unique eye technique characterized by a ripple-like pattern around the pupil that enables the six Paths to share visual information and coordinate attacks.^[87] Discovering the secret behind Pain forms a major component of the plot in Part II, and through the efforts of ninja from Konohagakure the identity of Pain's base mind is revealed.

The Paths of Pain are controlled by Nagato (長門^?) who, like Konan, was an Amegakure orphan that was trained by Jiraiya alongside Yahiko (弥彦^?) before he became Deva Pain. During his time with Jiraiya, he awakened his Rinnegan and came to desire peace for the world.^[88] After Yahiko dies as a result of the three falling into a trap by Hanzo years later, Nagato came to the realization that peace could only be attained by teaching the world the pain caused by war. To that end he adopted the name "Pain" to conquer Amegakure before killing Hanzo and his loved ones, becoming a "god" in the eyes of Amegakure's citizens.^[89]

In Part II, Jiraiya tries to eliminate Pain to stop him from bringing chaos to the world, but is only able to figure out how Pain works before he is killed. By fitting corpses with a unique type of body piercing, Nagato can channel his chakra into the bodies to animate and control them remotely. He can also give them unique abilities - the Animal Path can summon a wide array of creatures, the Preta Path can absorb chakra related attacks as a form of defense,^[87] the Deva Path can attract and repel objects, the Human Path can read people's minds and remove their souls, the Asura Path can use various high-tech weapons from his own body, and the Naraka Path can revive the other bodies and summon a spirit creature that can devour the souls of humans he is in contact with. Controlling six bodies puts a great strain on Nagato, who is frail, emaciated, and confined to a six-legged mobility device. All six bodies were eventually defeated by Naruto, with Deva Pain the last to fight him. It is ultimately revealed that Nagato is Naruto's de facto namesake, having been the inspiration for the hero of Jiraiya's first book, after whom Naruto was named. Naruto is able to renew Nagato's faith in his late master and in the possibility of peace, prompting Nagato to sacrifice his life in order to revive the people he killed in Konoha. Konan takes the bodies of Nagato and Yahiko with her back to Amegakure. In the Japanese anime Pain's seiyū is Ken'yū Horiuchi. In his cameo appearance in episode 135 of the English adaptation, he is voiced by Dave Wittenberg,^[90] and in the Shippuden anime he is voiced by Troy Baker.