Yahiko

1. 1
   The war orphan

   A child of the Rain

   Yahiko is orphaned young by the Second Shinobi World War, left to survive alone in an Amegakure that the larger nations keep fighting their wars across.

2. 2
   The three friends

   An orphan family

   Yahiko finds Konan, and the two help take in Nagato. The three orphans become a family, and ask the passing Sannin Jiraiya to teach them — which, for a time, he does.

3. 3
   Founding the AkatsukiDebut Arc · Pain's Assault

   A movement for peace

   Grown, Yahiko founds the Akatsuki — not a criminal ring, but a movement to win peace for the Hidden Rain. He leads it, the optimist whose conviction makes others believe it can be done.

4. 4
   Hanzō's trap

   The leader who feared them

   Hanzō, the leader of Amegakure, sees the Akatsuki growing and fears it. He allies with Danzō Shimura of Konoha, kidnaps Konan, and lays a trap for Yahiko and Nagato.

5. 5
   A death to save Nagato

   Onto his friend's blade

   Hanzō forces Nagato to choose — kill Yahiko, or lose Konan. Nagato cannot do it. So Yahiko throws himself onto the kunai in Nagato's hand, dying with a smile to spare his friend the choice.

6. 6
   The Deva Path

   His body, the face of Pain

   Nagato, who never stopped seeing Yahiko as the Akatsuki's true leader, uses his body as the Deva Path — the most-seen of the Six Paths of Pain. The peace movement's founder becomes the face of its terror.

Yahiko was a capable frontline fighter, trained under a Sannin and at home with both ninjutsu and the blade. But his real strength was never a technique. It was conviction — the charisma and certainty that turned three orphans and a dream into an organisation, and made hardened shinobi believe peace was something worth building.

Play today's Narutodle or browse past answers.

• Who is Yahiko?+

  Yahiko is the founder and first leader of the original Akatsuki. A war orphan of Amegakure, he built the organisation with his friends Nagato and Konan as a movement to bring peace to their homeland.
• Who founded the Akatsuki?+

  The original Akatsuki was founded by Yahiko, along with his childhood friends Nagato and Konan, during the era of the Third Shinobi World War. Yahiko led it first as a peace movement, not the criminal organisation it later became.
• How did Yahiko die?+

  Hanzō, fearing the Akatsuki, allied with Danzō and trapped its leaders, forcing Nagato to choose between killing Yahiko and losing Konan. To spare his friend the choice, Yahiko threw himself onto the kunai in Nagato's hand, dying with a smile.
• Is Yahiko the Deva Path of Pain?+

  Yes. After Yahiko's death, Nagato used his body as the Deva Path — the most-seen of the Six Paths of Pain. Nagato chose Yahiko's body because he still regarded Yahiko as the Akatsuki's true and undisputed leader.
• What was Yahiko's dream?+

  Yahiko's dream was peace for Amegakure, the Hidden Rain — a small country forever used as a battlefield by the Great Five Nations. He founded the Akatsuki to win that peace, before grief turned the organisation toward other ends.
• Has Yahiko been a Narutodle answer?+

  Yahiko is in the daily answer pool of 210 characters. The Previous Narutodle Appearances list on this page shows every date he was the Classic answer, each linking to a replayable archive puzzle.
• How do you guess Yahiko in Narutodle?+

  Yahiko's Amegakure village is the giveaway — a hidden village almost no other character belongs to. His Rogue rank and Akatsuki member attribute confirm, and his Nature column pairs Water with Earth.