Using her high origami and ninjutsu skills, Konan will turn her body and clothing into many sheets of paper. She can control and reshape even parts of her body with sheets at will, making such forms as weapons for attack, butterflies for spying, paper airplanes for quick transport, or simply covering her enemy in sheets of paper, restricting and asphyxiating them.[2] Also her papers are expendable, including parts of her body converted to paper; and how much paper she can expend depends on her chakra reserve. She can also hide exploding tags amongst her papers to add a deadly surprise to her attacks.[3] Her ability to make wings out of paper, mirror her title as 'God's Angel' in Amegakure. She is capable of hovering while in paper form, and does not require her wings to do so. Besides, she can completely convert her entire body into paper usually for traveling purposes.
In this form, she is weak to oil-based techniques, which causes the paper to stick, but she is not weak against water to the same extent, as Pain washed the oil off her with Water Release: Violent Bubble Wave. This is shown again later in the anime, as Konan uses water to her advantage, soaking her paper body in water so that flames and heat would not burn her.
Trivia
- Shikigami, when written as 式神, refers to a kind of spirit summoned to serve an Onmyōji (a kind of sorcerer). These spirits are often depicted as changing into small pieces of paper once harmed or finished with their task. In the name of this technique, the kanji for "god" (神, kami) has been replaced with the kanji for "paper" (紙), which is pronounced the same. This is likely done to emphasise the paper nature of Konan's shikigami and to point out the subtle difference between them and traditional shikigami.
