Naruto is filled with some outstanding arcs, but only a handful come close to the Pain arc. The arc is also known as Pain's Assault arc. As the name suggests, the focus of this arc is Pain's assault on the Hidden Leaf. The Akatsuki only needed to get one more tailed beast for the completion of their mission.
This time it was Nagato and Konan's turn to take the Nine-Tails from the Hidden Leaf. Nagato used the Six Paths of Pain to wreak havoc on the Hidden Leaf. It was a very difficult situation for the villagers and they would have been wiped out if it weren't for a certain knucklehead ninja. In this post, we will go through the five strongest and the five weakest characters from the Pain arc.
10 STRONGEST: Naruto Uzumaki
After the death of Jiraiya, Naruto was in total disarray. Jiraiya was more than just a teacher to Naruto, and Naruto was left in complete shock when the news of Jiraiya's death reached his ears. But there was no time to waste as Pain was planning to invade the Hidden Leaf and only Naruto Uzumaki could stop him. Naruto learned to use the toad sage mode from Mt. Myoboku. With the power of the sage mode, Naruto managed to take down the threat of Pain.
9 WEAKEST: Sakura Haruno
Sakura was mostly a bystander for the arc. Previously, Sakura had managed to take down Sasori with help from Chiyo. The margin for error in that fight was very small and Sakura would have died if Chiyo wasn't present to aid her. In the Pain arc, Sakura had no chance of taking down any of the Six Paths of Pain.
8 STRONGEST: Pain
The Six Paths of Pain were created by Nagato Uzumaki. He could not fight on his own because he could not move. So, in order to fight, Nagato put chakra rods inside the bodies of other people and controlled them from afar. Each body had a unique ability and it was extremely difficult to take them down without any prior information.
The most used body was Yahiko, who is also known as Deva Path. A single Almighty Push from the Deva Path was capable of destroying the majority of the Hidden Leaf.
7 WEAKEST: Konohamaru Sarutobi
Before meeting Naruto, Konohamaru was just an arrogant brat. But he trained with Naruto and became stronger. Konohamaru even managed to use the Rasengan. He showed his battle prowess when he confronted one of the six bodies of Pain and actually managed to land a Rasengan on the Naraka Path, which is actually an amazing feat. The little kid managed to do more than 80% of the adults present in the Hidden Leaf at that time. Unfortunately, there were a lot of strong characters involved in the Pain arc.
6 Strongest: Tsunade
During the time of Pain's invasion, Tsunade was serving as the Hokage. She wasn't involved in any fighting during the arc, but she helped the village in her own way. While the other ninjas were fighting Pain, Tsunade ensured that they were being healed. She used all her power to limit the casualties of the Hidden Leaf. If Tsunade would have fought, then Naruto wouldn't have to work so hard on his own but the situation demanded that she should have kept healing the people of the Hidden Leaf.
5 WEAKEST: Hinata Hyuga
Hinata had the biggest moment of her life during the Pain arc. When Naruto was pinned down by Pain, Hinata decided to step up and challenge Pain. She also confessed her love for Naruto.
Now, this was very moving and all, but it didn't really have any effect on Naruto's situation, as Hinata was quickly tossed into mid-air by Deva Path. It only acted as a trigger for Naruto to lose control of himself and unleash the Nine-Tails.
4 STRONGEST: Kakashi Hatake
Kakashi Hatake had a big role to play during Pain's assault on the Hidden Leaf. He had no chance of taking down all of the Six Paths of Pain, but he wasn't going to go down without a fight. He put up a good fight against several bodies of Pain. Kakashi used his Mangekyou Sharingan to help Choji escape from Pain's attack, and probably would have survived if he didn't need to save him. Kakashi died during the arc, but was brought back to life by Nagato.
3 WEAKEST: Ebisu
Ebisu was never a top-level shinobi. He was a sub-par shinobi who trained others. During Pein's assault on the Hidden Leaf, Ebisu had the misfortune of running into one of the Six Paths of Pain, namely the Naraka Path. Ebisu tried to fight against the Naraka Path, but that was in vain. If Konohamaru wasn't there to rescue him, Ebisu would have been a goner.
2 STRONGEST: Konan
Konan wasn't involved in any major fighting during the arc, she only kept an eye on Nagato and his health, but it would be an injustice to not include her on the list. Up to that point, Konan was easily among the strongest fighters in the series. Her ability to create paper and use it in a variety of different ways was immense. If she had been involved in the fighting as well, then it is fair to say that the Hidden Leaf wouldn't have survived.
1 WEAKEST: Choji
A lot of fans hated Choji because they held him responsible for Kakashi's death. Choji was a decent shinobi, but fighting against any one of Pain's bodies would have been impossible for him. So, Kakashi had to defend Choji at the cost of his own life.