Nagato

""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. You think you can put off death. But that peace made you foolish and thoughtless. If you kill someone, someone else will kill you... this hatred binds us together. I want you to feel pain, to think about pain, to accept pain, to know pain.""

- ~Nagato (Pain)

Nagato, better known as Pain, was the recognized leader of Akatsuki and Amegakure and was a major antagonist in the Naruto series. While he maintained authority over the Akatsuki members, unbeknowst to most of them, he followed Madara Uchiha's orders.

Background
During the Second Great Shinobi World War, Nagato used to live with his parents in a village near Amegakure. One day two Konoha shinobi broke into their home looking for food, unaware that the place was still inhabited. Nagato's parents, believing they were going to be killed, attacked the two so that Nagato could escape. Having mistaken them to be enemy ninja, the Konoha ninja killed his parents. In his grief, Nagato awakened his Rinnegan and killed the assailants. He would come to consider this incident the first great pain of his life.

His family gone, Nagato wandered the country, going from house to house asking for food. In time he met a dog named Chibi and later, Konan and Yahiko, who began traveling with him in his search for food. One day, Chibi was killed in the crossfire from Hanzō's fight with the soon to be Sannin. Nagato mourned his death and promised himself that he would change the world. Soon afterwards the war ended, and the three orphans ran into the Sannin. Rather than return to Konoha with his teammates, Jiraiya decided to teach the three how to look after themselves.

Soon after Jiraiya began living with the orphans, Nagato and Yahiko were attacked by an Iwagakure ninja. Nagato reactivated his Rinnegan to defend Yahiko, killing the ninja. When Jiraiya found out about this, he decided to train them in ninjutsu. 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.

Over the years, news of the three's exploits would reach Jiraiya. This often consisted of the death of someone who opposed them; eventually he received word that they had all died. In truth, Nagato, Konan, and Yahiko began a quest to find peace. They became full-fledged Amegakure ninja and gathered followers who shared their philosophies of an end to war. The leader of Amegakure, Hanzō, viewed the group as a threat to his position as leader and schemed with Konoha's Foundation to eliminate them. Claiming to want to discuss peace, Hanzō lured Nagato, Yahiko, and Konan to an ambush. There he forced Nagato to choose between killing Yahiko or Konan. Not wanting to force Nagato to make the choice, Yahiko impaled himself with a kunai that was placed in Nagato's hand. With Yahiko's dying breath, he told Nagato to survive, because he believed in Jiraiya's words that Nagato would become the world's savior. This would become the second great pain of Nagato's life.

Devastated, Nagato retrieved Konan and Yahiko's body and launched an attack against Hanzō's men. With the Summoning: Demonic Statue of the Outer Path he was able to kill all but Hanzō. However, the technique left Nagato emaciated, with numerous chakra rods embedded in his back. He severed his loyalties with Amegakure by scratching through the symbol of his Amegakure forehead protector, resolving to teach the village and the world his pain. Yahiko's body would later be incorporated into the Six Paths of Pain as the Deva Path.

Upon adopting the alias "Pain", Nagato led the rebelling forces in the Amegakure civil war, and took control of the village by assassinating Hanzō. He then solidified his leadership by systematically killing anyone who had direct ties to the former leader. At some point he met Madara Uchiha, who manipulated his hatred to make him his servant, and assisted him in the creation of Akatsuki, using Amegakure as his base of operations. He also posed as a God and made the villagers rever him as such.

Appearance
Nagato is a fair-skinned man with chin-length red hair whose most noticeable trait is his Rinnegan eyes. As a child, his hair would regularly hang off his face blocking the view of his eyes. Nagato grew into a tall man, but after subjecting himself to the Summoning: Demonic Statue of the Outer Path, Nagato was reduced into a withered version of his former self with chakra receivers implanted into his back and smaller ones in his forearms. Nagato regularly uses a mechanical walker for mobility, which could fire Chakra Disruption Blades for personal defense.

Personality
Nagato was a sensitive, but kind boy, prone to crying, and was traumatized by the idea of killing others, even 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. Nevertheless, he was a talented and gifted student, mastering every technique Jiraiya had taught him. 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 his names, Pain and Nagato.

As Pain, his personality was very different, having become a calm, serious, aloof, 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 willing to kill Jiraiya 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.

Nonetheless, he was seen to be quite respectful, particularly to the fallen and the dead. Given the Akatsuki members' frequent bickering, he often restrained them, and encouraged better relations among members. He even suggested that they mourn for Deidara after his passing, and reprimanded Kisame for calling Hidan and Kakuzu the "Zombie Brothers". After his battle with Jiraiya, he held a moment of silence for his former teacher, out of respect for his power.

Because Konohagakure was partly responsible for the tragedies in his life, he held some form of animosity for 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.

Nagato seems to be extremely sensitive when it comes to talk about "pain" as when Ibiki Morino used a special summoning jutsu to trap the Animal Path with wires and constrict it, as he put more effort and claim that "they were linked by pain" Nagato got furious (through the Animal Path) and shouted that "he had no idea of what true pain was" releasing itself from the jutsu and attack Ibiki violently.

Abilities
As the leader of Akatsuki, and the lord of the ninja village of Amegakure, Nagato was an extraordinarily powerful shinobi, even above the five Kage, who are reputed as the strongest ninjas in the world. His partner, Konan, had stated that he had never lost a single battle, and that he is "unbeatable." Nagato was strongly recognized as the most powerful member of Akatsuki; even Madara Uchiha stated Pain to be "invincible." Even one of the elder toads, Fukasaku, stated that without understanding Pain's power, no one could beat him. It has also been noted at several points in time that Nagato possessed an unusually large amount of exceptionally strong chakra.

He was able to single-handedly overthrow Amegakure and its leader, Hanzō. He made short work of his former teacher Jiraiya after unveiling all six of his bodies, but stated he might not have won if Jiraiya knew the secret to his techniques. Pain was also able to destroy Konohagakure, one of the five great hidden villages. It wasn't until his fight with Naruto that he encountered an opponent capable of matching him.

Rinnegan
Nagato's incredible power stemmed mainly from his Kekkei Genkai, the legendary Rinnegan. This was originally possessed by the Sage of the Six Paths, the world's first ninja, and the founder of modern ninjutsu. The Rinnegan's abilities are largely unknown, but it did permit the user to use all types of elemental chakra, and allowed Nagato to master every technique Jiraiya taught him at the age of ten. It also enhanced his vision of chakra, allowing him to see the chakra of barrier techniques around the perimeter of his location, and the chakra gathered at a shinobi's feet. According to Ibiki, the Rinnegan allows Nagato to use any technique he wishes.

The Demonic Statue of the Outer Path
This demonic-looking, titanic statue of stone is the first and foremost summon available to the one who wields the Rinnegan. Whether it is alive or animated by the one who summon it is not really known. It is first seen as a statue present in the Akatsuki hideouts from which they extract the Tailed Demons to seal them within it at their disposal. It is later revealed that although it was Nagato who called it in the world in the first place, he is not the only one who control it, as Madara Uchiha is seen sealing a Tailed Demon without Nagato's help. It also seems to need to be linked to a specific human in order to manifest istelf in the world, as Madara is planning to link it to his pawn Sasuke Uchiha after Nagato's demise. Moreover, it seems to feed on its master's lifeforce, as when Nagato used it as a weapon for the first time, it pierced him with Chakra Disruption Blades and rendered him frail and emaciated.

When summoned, the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path erupts from the ground and attacks Nagato's enemies by releasing countless dragon-like spirits that rips out the soul of anyone they touch and absorp it, killing the victim.

Six Paths of Pain
Nagato's most dangerous and most used technique was the Six Paths of Pain. This technique allowed Nagato to control six separate bodies as though they were his own. Each of these bodies were reanimated corpses that were both kept mobile by and made use of Nagato's chakra. While controlling them, Nagato used the alias "Pain", yet still regarded them as separate entities from himself. All the Pains can't feel physical pain, as Ibiki Morino discovered when he tried torturing the new female Animal Path.

In order to use the technique, Nagato remained in a machine, that moved with six relatively small mechanical legs, and used several large chakra rods on his back to transmit chakra. From that point, the chakra was picked up by the numerous receivers, modeled as body piercings on each body. To control them, Nagato had to be close by, and ideally at the highest possible point, so he could have the best possible range. Fukasaku stated, the best way of fighting Pain is to take out the paths one at a time as they were most formidable when fighting together in combos. (Given that they could use Nagato's special powers simultaneously and shared their eyesight, rendering them unable to be coaught by surprise.)

Based on the six Buddhist paths of Reincarnation, each body was named after one of the different "paths": Deva, Asura, Human, Animal, Preta, and Naraka. The only common feature shared by these bodies was their bright orange hair and their Rinnegan. Each also had a vast number of body and facial piercings of various shapes, sizes, and patterns. Each body seemed to serve a specific purpose in battle, such as summoning, repairing, and defensive capability. There is also a seventh body, the Outer Path, with control over the forces of life and death.

A similar effect is that if Nagato is close enough to an opponent, piercing them with a chakra receiver will allow him to control their body as if they were another Path. However, when he attempted to do so to Naruto Uzumaki, Naruto was able to resist the technique by simultaneously activating his initial jinchūriki form and Sage Mode.

As stated by Konan, Nagato is able to use all the powers of the Paths himself, as they are all powers of the Rinnegan.

Deva Path
The Deva Path of Pain (God's Realm - Realm of Bliss) is Nagato's most used and most treasured Path, which was created from the dead body of Nagato's and Konan's best friend Yahiko. Nagato used this Path on a daily basis, practically living through it. Because of this, this Path is 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 the Mightiest of all six, in terms of power, chakra level, fighting skills and physical strength. Given that Nagato's frequent use of it, it is fair to assume that he poured all his strength into it, making it as powerful as Nagato himself would be. It wields Nagato's Special Power to control Gravity, which enables it to perform telekynesis and levitate at will and is the source of his three major techniques: the Banshô Ten'in (Which can attract anything towards the Deva Path with variable intensity and is mostly used to attract his foes at close range to deliver an unavoidable fatal strike.) the Shinra Tensei (Which can repulse anything, either matter or energy, away from the Deva Path with variable intensity. It can be used for defensive purposes, to deflect any attack, or offensive purposes, to blast away everything in a defined perimeter around him. When Nagato gathers all the chakra from his other Paths into the Deva Path, it can use Shinra Tensei to its maximum scale and cause a titanic outburst that obliterates everything in a very large area, though it puts a heavy strain of Nagato's body and chakra supplies.) and the Chibaku Tensei (Nagato's most powerful technique, said to have been used to create the moon. It creates a black sphere of gravity energy which the Deva Path sends into the sky where it attracts everything around, including portions of land, and compress it together, trapping and crushing everyone in its range of action. This technique can only be used near Nagato's real body and puts a great strain on him.)

These combined techniques render the Deva Path close to invicible but it has a weak point: after using his power over Gravity, the Deva Path is unable to use it again for a lenght of time determined by the amount of power it used (the minimum being five seconds) leaving it open for an attack. The Deva Path is by no mean defenseless though, as it can still use his incredible fighting skills and is generally protected by the lesser Paths. In the anime, the Deva Path is also seen using Water based attacks, likely stemming from Yahiko's elemental affinity.

Naraka Path
The Naraka Path of Pain (Hell Realm) is tall, bulky and very physically strong. It wields Nagato's Special Power to control Life and Death through the summoning of a spiritual being knowns as the King of Hell or the Outer Path. (A huge demonic face surrounded with purple flames, with many arm-like tendrils that erupts from its mouth. Only those against whom it is summoned can see it.) Whenever the Naraka Path grabs someone, the Outer Path appears and links itself to the prisoners, gradually absorbing their lifeforce and enabling the Naraka Path to question them. Should they lie or refuse to talk, the Outer Path devours their life and kills them. Should they tell the truth, the Outer Path releases them unscathed though exausted. The Outer Path was never seen directly summoned in battle but there is little doubt about the fact that it can be done. However, given the fact that the Outer Path can rejuvenate all Paths of Pain that it swallows, Nagato avoids to use in battle and always keeps the Naraka Path protected by the other five.

The Outer Path can also be summoned to perform the Samsara of Heavenly Life Technique; used to resurrect all the people who got killed shortly before its use, though Nagato himself is the only one able to perform this technique and the more people it resurrect the heavier strain in puts over its caster's.

Animal Path
The Animal Path wields his Special Power to Summon living, or at the very least animated creatures. It uses it in battle to summon many very powerful monsters, that all had chakra recievers over their bodies and the Rinnegan in their eyes, meaning that Nagato controlled them. It can also summon any other Paths of Pain and anyone related to Nagato, as evidenced when it summoned Konan. The monsters that it can summon are :


 * A gigantic Hummingbird with a spear-like beak that could move at high speed and serve as Pain's mount, attacking with dangerous dives and drill-like charges. The anime also depicts it firing many exploding eggs that can also be used as remote mines, and flapping its wings at high speeds to produce huge lightning-filled clouds of dust.


 * A gigantic Centipede (three in the anime) that can travel underground.


 * A gigantic Crustacean that can use powerful Water-based attacks.


 * A gigantic Chameleon with a snake instead of its tail and an extensive tongue which it can use as a weapon, who can turn invisible. Pain can hide in it's mouth to be protected from his enemies. When he does this, the Chameleon usually turns invisible, making a near-perfect offense and defense combo.


 * A gigantic Rhinoceros that charges its foes and devastates all that stands in its path. Pain was also seen hiding in its mouth.


 * A gigantic yack-like Ram quite similar to the Rhinoceros.


 * A gigantic Panda with an extremely hard and sturdy skin that makes it a very convenient shield.

The first Animal Path of Pain was defeated by Jiraya, who incapacitad it and sent if to Konohagakure for study at the cost of his life, so Nagato recreated it with the corpse of a female ninja before invading Konoha.
 * A gigantic, winged Multi-Headed Hound. Undoubtedly Pain's strongest and most dangerous summon, it can split itself between as many hounds that it has heads and fuse them back, gaining more heads everytime it does so and thus becoming more dangerous. This dividing power is activated whenever the Hound is attacked, rendering it virtually invincible.

Preta Path
The Preta Path of Pain (Hungry Ghost Realm) is large, overweight and wields the Nagato's Special Power of Energy Absorption. It is able to absorb the chakra of anyone he grabs, as long as it maintains a physical contact, and usually does it until its victims dies, replenishing Nagato's own strength. Even worse, it can absorb and nullify any ninjustsu technique and attack spell, making it a very useful defense for the other Paths of Pain. By creating a barrier spell around its body the Preta Path can absorb chakra-based attacks from all sides.

Human Path
The Human Path of Pain wield's Nagato's Special Power of Grasping Souls. By grabbing someone's head with its hand, it gains access to it's victim's soul and can read its mind and memory, transfering the knowledge gained to Nagato. The dire aspect of this power is that by holding his enemy's soul, it can also rip it out of it's victim's body, instantly killing said victim. In other words, anyone it grabs is already as good as dead.

Asura Path
The Asura Path of Pain (Divine War Demon Realm) is the less human-looking of all Paths of Pain, being more akin to a cyborg. It is not known to what extend this is due to Nagato's Special Power rather than mechanical modifications, though it loosely looks like the Asura from the Buddhist religion. It is a three-faced, six-armed humanoid with huge physical strength, who can use its chakra like a weapon and fire blasts of raw chakra through cannon-like openings. It can focus its chakra in his left hands to fire them like rockets; focus its chakra in his feet to propel itself forward with great speed and destructive power in a reaction plane-fashion; pull out one of his hands to fire a barrage of small homing missiles of great destructive power, which it can also fire to a larger extent from all parts of its body at once; fire a single, bigger and more destructive homing missile from its back; fire a massive laser-like burst of chakra from a cannon in his head, that cause a titanic and devastating explosion; release a long, sharp saw-like tail from the back of its head that can be divided into several smaller ones; and finally unfold a huge, serrated curved blade from around its waist.

All these numerous and powerful weapon makes it arguably the second strongest and most dangerous of all Paths of Pain.

Spells
During the course of the story, Nagato was seen casting numerous spells and special ninjutsu techniques that he seems to be the only one able to use. These spells include:
 * To shape-shift human sacrifices, making them exact doubles of a determined person, with the exact same powers and techniques wielded by said person. It is activated by pouring the chakra of the duplicated one into a corpse, determining the double's level of power upon the amount of chakra poured by the said person into it. The duplicated one would then be able to remotely control his or her double and act through it. The duplicated one musts sit down and do nothing but controling the double as long as the technique works, or else the spell would break.


 * To cast an astral projection of Nagato and anyone who channeled his thoughts and chakra to him in a determined place, enabling said people to interact somewhere where they aren't physically present and perform techniques through their astral projections. The people with astral projections must sit down and do nothing but channeling their chakra into the astral projection to maintain it.


 * To create an impenetrable forcefield that prevent anyone from entering in a determined place, neither by stealth nor by brute strength. This spell is activated through writtings on several paper tags set around the protected area. Taking them off usually triggers a trap.


 * To create a perfect Doppelganger of someone, with the exact same strength, tachniques, powers and weaknesses, and control it. It is usually used to fight evenly the original person.


 * To cause and control rain at will, infusing it with Nagato's own chakra so that Nagato becomes able to sense the chakra of anyone and anything in the rainy perimeter. This spell is used to watch over the entire village of Amegakure, creating a god-like omniscience and detecting any stealthy infiltration.
 * To communicate telepathically with the other Akatsuki members.

Chakra Disruption Blades
Each Path of Pain wields one of these long, sword-like blades and wields it with great proficiency, being apparently able to create them at will, given that the Deva Path was seen pinning Naruto to the ground with a dozen of them. The machine that Nagato use to move is frail original body is able to shot them at his foes. These blades are apparently created from the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path and are made with the same material as the piercings that cover each Path of Pain and the Animal Path's summons. This material is able to trasmit and to recieve Nagato's chakra, and it is through this that Nagato can remotely control all Six Paths of Pain at once.

When someone is stabbed by such a blade, Nagato then infuse the wound and subsequently the victim's body with his chakra, disrupting the victim's own chakra and preventing him from using techniques. The closer Nagato is located to the stabbed one, the stronger his grasp over the victim's become and at close distances, he becomes able to overwhelm his victims with his chakra and remotely contol their body like a puppet. The victim needs to have a chakra stronger that Nagato's to overcome this.

In Naruto
Pain appears frequently as a hologram during the early arcs of Part II, convening the Akatsuki members whenever a tailed beast needs to be sealed. As Part II progresses, portions of his face are shown before culminating in his full debut alongside Konan.

Hunt for Itachi
Madara Uchiha instructs Pain to go to Konoha and capture Naruto Uzumaki, the jinchūriki of the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox, but Pain detects Jiraiya infiltrating the village before he can depart. He sends Konan to distract Jiraiya while he switches to his Animal Path, and then confronts his old master. During the first half of their battle, Pain fought with unique summons. It wasn't until Jiraiya activated his Sage Mode and summoned Shima and Fukasaku to help him fight that Pain revealed two more of his bodies: the Preta Path and the Human Path. After a short fight, Pain gained the upperhand against Jiraiya, forcing him to flee. The fight was continued within some tunnels where Jiraiya brought down all three of the bodies by using the toad elders to perform a powerful genjutsu, and then pierced each body through the heart with a sword.

When Jiraiya prepared to head back to Konoha, Pain introduced his Asura Path and attacked Jiraiya from behind, severing his left arm. When Jiraiya looked back up, he witnessed all of Pain's six Paths standing above, who attacked him together. However, Jiraiya did manage to incapacitate the Animal Path, and sent it to Konoha through a toad. He also recognized that all the rest of Pain's six Paths were ninja he met before.

In his attempt to learn more about Pain, his throat was crushed by the Asura Path and his body was pierced by the remaining five bodies. Believing his teacher to be dead, Pain prepared to leave, but Jiraiya was still alive, and used his chakra to make a coded message regarding Pain's true identity on Fukasaku's back. Pain tried to attack the toad, but Fukasaku managed to escape from Pain and reach Tsunade. Jiraiya then died, sinking into the watery depths of the battlefield. Afterwards, Pain held a moment of silence in respect for his former teacher.

Six-Tailed Beast
In the anime, after getting a replacement for the Animal Path, Pain is shown to have been assigned to capture the Six-Tailed Slug, which was sealed within Utakata, a missing-nin from Kirigakure. During his search, the Animal Path had his Giant Multi-Headed Dog scout the area, where it found and killed a group of Kirigakure Hunter-nin lead by Tsurugi. When Utakata later sought out Tsurugi and his men to turn himself in, he instead found Pain; Pain told Utakata that he would be needed to create his world, and informed the jinchūriki that he would be taking the Six-Tails. The Asura Path then fired its Flaming Arrow Missiles at Utakata, carving out an enormous crater and trapping Utakata beneath a rock slide, allowing the Deva Path to capture the young man.

Invasion of Pain
With only the Nine-Tails remaining, Pain and Konan set out for Konoha. After eliminating the border guards upon their arrival, they infiltrated the village and dispersed, with each of the six Paths having a specific task: the Asura, Preta, and Animal Paths served as diversions, while the Deva, Human, and Naraka Paths looked for Naruto, with Konan aiding the latter team. While exploring and laying waste to the village and its inhabitants, the Deva Path was confronted by Kakashi Hatake. The Asura Path came to its aid and together they overwhelmed Kakashi and his allies at the cost of the Asura Path's destruction.

Across the village, the remaining Paths continued their tasks, fighting whatever Konoha ninja they came across. The Deva Path met with Tsunade, the Fifth Hokage, who refused to reveal Naruto's location. Declaring that he would teach Tsunade the pain that Konoha had been so ignorant of, Nagato had the Deva Path use Shinra Tensei to obliterate the village while Konan and the other Paths withdrew.

As the smoke cleared, the Deva Path found that Naruto had returned with his toad allies. In retaliation for the village's destruction, Naruto swiftly crushed the newly restored Asura Path and began his fight with the remaining Paths of Pain. The Animal Path called upon its summons to attack Naruto, who parried them with the aid of his toads and proceeded to defeat the Preta Path. Soon afterwards, Naruto eliminated the Human Path with his Wind Release: Rasenshuriken, and then teamed up with Gamabunta to defeat the Animal Path.

With four of the Paths gone, the temporarily powerless Deva Path protected the Naraka Path, which restored the Preta Path. The Preta Path absorbed a second Rasenshuriken, but it had only been a diversion to give Naruto an opportunity to finish off the Naraka Path. The Deva Path, its power returned, detained Naruto so that the Preta Path could capture him, however Naruto allowed it to absorb his senjutsu chakra, which had the side effect of turning it to stone. Naruto escaped its clutches, but was seized once again by the Deva Path, who pinned him to the ground with fragments of a chakra disruption blade. The Deva Path then lectured Naruto about the chain of hatred, pain, suffering, and war that the ninja system brought to the world, and how he planned to use the tailed beasts' power to achieve peace and end conflict. He asks if Naruto can think of a better solution, but Naruto does not respond.Before the Deva Path could take Naruto away, Hinata Hyūga came to his defense. She confessed her love for Naruto and engaged the Path, but was quickly struck down. Believing her to be dead, Naruto became enraged and activated his six-tailed form, with which the Deva Path could not compete in its current condition. With this realization, the Deva Path retreated to a location closer to Nagato, who had secluded himself nearby in order to control the Six Paths of Pain. This allowed the Deva Path to use Chibaku Tensei, trapping Naruto in a massive orb of earth and debris. This victory was short-lived, as Naruto soon progressed to an unprecidented eight-tailed form and broke free of the Chibaku Tensei. The sphere of rubble created by Pain's Chibaku Tensei crumbled, and Naruto, reverting to his normal form, emerged from the ruin.

Reflecting on the earlier lecture, Naruto demanded an opportunity to speak with Nagato, but was denied and attacked by the Deva Path. By taking advantage of the five second gap between the Deva Path's ability, Naruto was able to defeat it with a well-timed Rasengan; removing its Chakra Receivers, Naruto realized that he could use the incoming chakra transmission to track down Nagato. Upon discovering Nagato's hiding place, Nagato attempted to gain control of Naruto's body by firing another Chakra Receiver from a hidden compartment in his transportation device. The rod pierced Naruto's stomach, but Naruto was able to resist the influence of Nagato's chakra. Admitting to the rage he now felt towards Nagato, Naruto held his ground and asked Nagato how—despite being a student of Jiraiya—he could have strayed so far from their master's teachings. Hoping that Naruto would come to agree with his solution for peace, Nagato told him of the tragic past he shared with his childhood friends, Konan and Yahiko, and of the series of events that lead to Yahiko becoming the Deva Path and Nagato taking up the moniker of Pain. Although Naruto agrees with Nagato's ultimate conclusion, he rejects it for differing with Jiraiya's ideals. In doing so, he answers Nagato's earlier question about how to attain peace: by "breaking the cycle of hatred". He decides not to kill Nagato, as that would only lead Konan to seek revenge, and in turn, lead others to seek revenge because of her actions. Amazed by Naruto's resolve and remembering Jiraiya's teachings, Nagato decides to put his faith in Naruto's method. Nagato then used the Outer Path: Samsara of Heavenly Life Technique to revive all the Konohagakure citizens that had been killed during his invasion. The strain of the technique costs Nagato his life, so with his final breath he wishes for Naruto's dream of peace to come true.

In the aftermath, Konan encases Nagato and Yahiko's bodies in paper and takes them back to Amegakure for burial. She leaves Akatsuki and pledges Amegakure's allegiance to Naruto and Konoha on behalf of Nagato, giving him a bouquet of origami flowers as a memento.