Nagato

A broken boy who became a god to force the world into peace through pain.

Nagato Uzumaki (Japanese: 渦巻長門), known primarily under the alias of Pain (Japanese: ペイン, Hepburn: Pein), is a fictional character in the manga and anime series Naruto created by Masashi Kishimoto, and is a major antagonist in the series. Nagato Uzumaki is the public figurehead leader of the Akatsuki who wishes to capture all the tailed beasts sealed into various people around the shinobi world. His past as a war orphan, and his loss of his best friend Yahiko are explored. Due to his traumatic experiences, which stemmed from human conflict, Nagato aims to create a new world, free from the chaos of war.

Quick Facts

Series: Naruto
First: Naruto chapter 372: The Weeping Land!! (2007)
Creator: Masashi Kishimoto
Also known as: Pain

Lore & Background

Nagato was conceived by Kishimoto as a villain, a victim of war, who would show Naruto the impact and gravity of world wars. While Nagato does not fight in the story, he uses a group of corpses known as 'The Six Paths of Pain' (ペイン六道, Pein Rikudō). All of them were given elaborate designs with multiple piercings across their bodies to reinforce the idea that despite his calm demeanor, Nagato is a dangerous person. Orphaned from the war-torn country of Amegakure, the Village Hidden in Rain, Nagato meets fellow orphans that he would become very close to named Konan and Yahiko, before they are all trained by Jiraiya.

A descendant of the Uzumaki clan like Naruto, Nagato's Rinnegan is later revealed to have belonged to Madara Uchiha, who transplanted his eyes into the child as part of his plan. Nagato desires peace for the world, helping Yahiko to create the Akatsuki to achieve that shared dream. Following Yahiko's death, which Tobi orchestrated, by the actions of Hanzo of the Salamander, who was the Hidden Rain village leader, and Danzo Shimura of the Hidden Leaf Village, Nagato rethinks the idea that peace can only be attained by teaching the world suffering caused by war.

For this, Nagato adopts the name of 'Pain' and kills Hanzo, taking over as the new leader of the Hidden Rain and becoming a 'god' for its citizens. Crippled from both Hanzo's attack and his link with the Gedo Statue, Nagato finds a way to overcome his weakness by remotely controlling the corpses of deceased people as if they were their own. Besides Yahiko, Nagato creates the other Paths from the corpses of five ninja that Jiraiya encountered in the past.

Reader's Guide

Nagato's arc concluded with the Samsara of Heavenly Life Technique. In a final act of atonement, he expended his remaining life force to revive every soul he had extinguished in Konoha. Rejecting his title as Pain, he died simply as Nagato, restoring the boy who once dreamed of peace alongside Jiraiya.

Did You Know?

Nagato's alias 'Pain' inspired Kishimoto to add piercings to his body as a metaphor for how he inflicts 'pain upon himself'.
The Deva Path is actually Nagato's deceased friend Yahiko, one of six animated corpses collectively known as 'The Six Paths of Pain'.
In the English dub, Nagato is voiced by Vic Mignogna, who said 'his story arc is amazing'.