The Six Paths Technique is the root of the unique abilities granted by the Rinnegan. Despite its name, it includes not six, but seven branches, each of which endows the wielder with power comparable to divine:
The Deva Path controls the forces of attraction and repulsion.
The Asura Path allows growing mechanical limbs, weapons, and armor directly on the body.
The Human Path grants the ability to read the victim's mind and extract their soul.
The Animal Path opens the summoning of a wide range of creatures.
The Preta Path absorbs any form of chakra, including most ninjutsu.
The Naraka Path summons the King of Hell.
The Outer Path grants authority over life and death.
Nagato, crippled in his youth, used the Outer Path to create the Six Paths of Pain — six reanimated corpses controlled through black receivers and bearing copies of the Rinnegan in their eyes. Each body specialized in one of the paths, compensating for the master's physical frailty. Obito Uchiha later replicated this method, using the revived jinchūriki as his Six Paths of Pain. When personally using the techniques through his own body, the Rinnegan wielder acts many times more powerfully and can combine several Paths at once, whereas the abilities distributed among the corpses are rigidly fixed to each vessel. For particularly costly techniques such as a large-scale Shinra Tensei or Chibaku Tensei, one must either concentrate all chakra on a single body or bring it closer to one's own position.
