Naruto: The Six Paths of Pain, Explained

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The Six Paths of Pain in the Naruto: Shippuden universe is an Outer Path technique that can be used by a Rinnegan user. It allows them to control up to six bodies as if they were the user's own. The paths were created by Nagato Uzumaki, the leader of the Akatsuki. The technique is used by embedding black receivers that resemble piercings into a particular body (or corpse). This enables their chakra to be harnessed into it from long distances. Once this is done, the user has control over all the bodies. They can physically manipulate them, see through them, decide on the use of jutsu and talk through them, making it one of the most unique abilities in the Naruto universe.

This technique serves best when used in a combination attack, due to the shared vision between the bodies, surprising presence, and extreme power. The technique does have a caveat. In the event that the user is interrupted while transferring chakra to the bodies, they will all cease to move and become very open and vulnerable to attack. After being left helpless in a battle with Hanzō, Nagato used the Six Paths technique to fight on behalf of his fragile state. He uses this to continue his alias known as «Pain», who wants to restore peace even with less than peaceful means. The first corpse he used was his deceased childhood friend Yahiko. As a tribute, all of Nagato's Paths' have the same hair color as Yahiko. The bodies are stored in a hidden chamber in Pain's Tower in their own separate pods when they are not in use. So what does each Path do?

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The user of the Path can control forces with objects and people. This does have a drawback, as there is a period of recharging necessary before using the technique again.