Chapter 281: Kazekage Ninja- - 70: How Pain Was Born
You have to admit—Nagato was born under a cruel star.
He came into the world in the Land of Whirlpools, but before he was old enough to understand anything, his homeland was wiped out, and his family became refugees. When he was a little older, his parents took him to the Land of Rain. Life was poor, but at least it was warm and filled with love. That didn’t last long. Out of nowhere, for no reason at all, his parents were killed by two Konoha shinobi—suddenly, he was a war orphan with nothing left.
Then came the years of wandering, starving, and scraping by. Luckily, he met Yahiko and Konan. The three of them survived by stealing and hustling in the streets. If Jiraiya hadn’t shown up, Nagato would’ve either become a petty thug or died in a gutter.
Later, he followed Yahiko into "revolution," throwing himself into battle after battle, always running on pure passion. For more than a decade, he never really stopped to think about life or what the future might hold.
And that led to a flaw in Nagato’s character.
He was easy to sway. He lacked a core of his own.
Because, deep down, he never had any real convictions.
That’s what happens when you spend your whole life as someone else’s right-hand man.
Don’t believe it? Just look at the original story.
After Yahiko died, Nagato fell into utter confusion.
When Obito and Zetsu showed up selling their Eye of the Moon Plan, he barely hesitated before agreeing.
Not only did he agree, he fought tooth and nail for that plan—recruiting members, collecting tailed beasts, turning the entire shinobi world upside down.