Pain, the Akatsuki leader who crumbled Konoha underfoot, is considered one of the best villains in all of Naruto Shippuden. Nagato was not only a reflection and foil to Naruto but was an ever-haunting presence that slowly unraveled itself throughout the first half of Naruto Shippuden. Pain believed the world was just that “pain,” his moniker, was his heart on his sleeve, this shinobi had lived through wars, companionship, and love, only to end up back face to face with the pain and hatred of the world. Pain lived a life not unlike Naruto, however, as a proper foil and an outright antagonist, he existed with the same level of resolve as our hero, but on the opposite end of the spectrum. Naruto intended to bring about peace and justice by becoming strong enough to protect everyone, but Pain intended to free the world of the cycle by granting a mutually assured destruction to all who would participate in this cycle.
Although their showdown ended with Naruto victorious, much of what Pain espoused resonated with Naruto. Pain likened his experiences to Naruto’s and even referred to Naruto’s resolution to kill him in this battle as noble. Our antagonist may have sought the destruction of Konoha and may have slaughtered many of Naruto’s friends, but upon reflection, even Naruto began to see light in portions of Pain’s beliefs.
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A Hero Forged Through Hate
Plenty of fans may immediately be familiar with what’s Pain’s most infamous quote in Naruto. After all of Pain’s resolution and attacks on Konoha in the final moments before fully destroying a large portion of the village, he said, “Those who do not know pain will never understand true peace. I will never forget the pain Yahiko suffered. And now, this world shall know pain.” For those unsure, this allowed any fan who may not have understood the villain yet to finally grasp his intentions. But for Naruto, for as long as he could remember, this pain was all too familiar with him.
Every Naruto fan is aware that Naruto’s life has been surrounded by pain and hatred, and that was the foundation of the young shinobi’s entire belief system. Naruto’s life was one of loneliness and exile, as most of the village shunned him for being the host to Kurama, and he lacked any real parental figure until meeting Iruka in the ninja academy. As Naruto entered shinobi life, his acceptance began to grow rapidly. He was surrounded by more friends and family figures than ever before, and these other ninjas began to slowly accept the knucklehead ninja. Naruto saw the love and mutual respect in the ninja world as a surrogate family, and though the shinobi world is one of pain, it offered solace to our protagonist.
Naruto was entrenched in the hatred of his community and only found love and purpose in heroism and the ninja life. Yet, on the opposite end of this, Pain only ever experiences hate through the ninja world. Pain lost his community to the wars of larger nations and began to see the cycle of hatred that the ninja way of life perpetuated. There were moments where the antagonist saw levity, like with his training alongside Yahiko and Konan under Jiraiya, but even these portions of his life ended in pain, with Jiraiya eventually returning to his home and Yahiko losing his life even in the face of his heroic resolve.
The Perfect Foil
Naruto and Pain are two characters within a mirror. Both of them were full of power beyond their control and emotional compasses that desired peace and love. These men were both trained by Jiraiya and were truly fated to face each other in a battle of ideals. Pain’s truth was that all of the ninja world continuously forced pain upon itself and that this pain would continue as long as there were those removed from it. Naruto was pinned down and had to listen to how Nagato viewed their reality, and Naruto himself even began to understand portions of his enemy’s beliefs. This was the first moment where Naruto began to shift his views that if he were to save Konoha and become Hokage, there would still be a world of pain and suffering outside of his village.
In the moments leading up to the destruction of Konoha, Pain reflected upon his idea that much of Konoha had not experienced true pain thus could not experience peace. While his assertion that much of Konoha had not experienced hatred to the same depths as he had, Pain had not yet realized that many of the shinobi within Konoha were victims of the inner workings of the world they lived in. No ninja reflected the knowledge of pain than Naruto. The young ninja knew all of the pain that came from this world, yet unlike Nagato, he still desired to save the world and to protect those under him from the same pain that he and Nagato had to endure. Although these assertions from Pain rang true for our protagonist, it only highlighted that he was the best equipped for the job of bringing peace to the ninja world.
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