King of Hell

The King of Hell manifests as a massive head that rises from the ground wreathed in dark fire, black like Amaterasu's flames in the manga and purple in the anime. The kanji for king sits upon its brow, and its own eyes bear the Rinnegan, so that whoever calls it can see through its gaze. Its tongue can divide into a pair of grasping arms.

More force than character, the deity acts as an arbiter of the dead, weighing honesty against deceit. It draws directly on Yama, the Buddhist judge of the dead known in Japan as Enma, who decides whether a soul is reborn into fortune or torment. Its habit of tearing out the tongues of liars nods to the old warning told to children, that Lord Enma will pull out the tongue of anyone who lies.

A Rinnegan user calls the deity forth through the Naraka Path. Seizing a target and posing a question, the wielder draws the person's soul out as a long tongue, which the King of Hell catches with its own forked tongue to pass judgement: a lie sees the soul torn free and swallowed, while an honest answer wins its release. Used this way, both the deity and the souls it holds stay hidden from all but the caster and the victim.

The Naraka Path can also mend the Six Paths of Pain, the King of Hell consuming a broken body so that it re-emerges whole, once even clad in a fresh Akatsuki cloak. Paired with the Human Path, it can swallow and store a body and soul together to be moved and revived elsewhere. When put to these ends it becomes visible to others, as Naruto witnessed and Itachi proved by blinding its eyes with kunai. It serves a final role in the Outer Path technique Samsara of Heavenly Life, rising up to pour the souls of the dead from its mouth and return them to their bodies.