Kurosaki IchigoNaruto, you played right into my hand!

There you have it. As anticipated previously from a few commenters, Obito does end up trying to use the Rinne Tensei in order to try and revive the people he killed. Only, he gets intercepted by Madara, and his technique ends up giving back Madara the physical body he’s been wanting all along. After multiple weeks of anticipating Madara’s eventual involvement, we finally get it, and it looks like we’re officially moving on from Obito and onto the “final phase” that Kishimoto mentioned in his recent interview. In case you missed it, he recently mentioned that the final phase for Naruto is here, and it’ll be a progression that takes us from Madara and then Sasuke. Of course, this doesn’t mean the end is near regardless—it could conceivably run at least half of next year either way—but it does give a clear picture of what’s to come.

Indeed, if there’s something toe extrapolate from that explanation, it’s that both Naruto and Sasuke will likely survive past Madara, and likely have a fight that both determines the future Hokage and ends the series. That said, the question this ends up bringing up is how exactly they’re going to defeat Madara in the first place. There’s quite a few routes Kishimoto could take here, and each of them brings with it some pretty interesting scenarios. Naruto officially becoming the Sage in lieu of Obito… some/all of the Kages potentially sacrificing themselves in the process… etc. Combine that with what’s likely to be some insane techniques from Madara—more meteors, anyone?—and this could conceivably be one of the better arcs in recent memory. At least, I would hope so, considering that the entire Obito fight ended up below expectations in terms of epicness, and my personal preference that the series end with the bang.

Guess we’ll see how things work out, though there are conflicting reports as to whether or not we’ll be seeing it next week or not. For now though, it seems like the hiatus mentioned a few weeks ago was actually the one we just got, so there should be weekly chapters without break for at least the next few weeks. If not, then you’ll know why there’s no post next week around this time!

40 Comments

  1. YES!!!!! Madara saved the story at the last second!!!

    I swear, if Obito had succeeded and actually simply repeated Nagato there, I probably would’ve outright dropped the story right there.

    I do question why Madara would want to bring himself back to life completely like this. I mean, now he can actually die, unlike before, and presumably would lose his infinite chakra advantage too, unless Kishi decides to hax him even further somehow like somehow retaining Obito’s power as “the Sage” before he was weakened. Also, wouldn’t he lose the advantage of having the Hashirama modifications Kabuto made to him too? Considering the modifications were done on a fake Edo Tensei-made body and not his actual body. Then again, since he already has Hashirama’s DNA, it probably doesn’t matter.

    But, clearly, he still has more in store considering he doesn’t seem the least bit worried about the fact that the (incomplete) Jubi is now separated back into the individual Biju again and that the Moon’s Eye Plan was stopped (temporarily) because of that.

    HalfDemonInuyasha
    1. I believe the logic is that him having a physical body would make him more powerful than the Edo Tensei one. But whatever the case, this much is clear; if Madara didn’t revive himself right then and there the story would pretty much be over by now.

      Gekokujou
    2. It’s possible that Edo Tensei brings the dead back in a weakened form. Usually more dangerous, due to immortality and limitless chakra, but poorer bodily/chakra control. It would certainly explain why the First and Second Hokages seemed rather underwhelming when Orochimaru summoned them back in the Chunin Exam arc.

      However, with no buildup that would be an asspull on Kishi’s part.

      Sekai
      1. IIRC, the reason they seemed weaker (which was also explained by Kabuto when he used it) was largely due to the fact that Orochimaru used seals to erase their personalities and turn them into nothing more than mindless fighting machines (attack, attack, attack, but not really actively defending yourself or think about what your doing, how to do it, and so on), making them far less efficient, which is why Kabuto usually didn’t use them, letting the revived souls retain their personality and SOME free will, unless feeling they’re otherwise necessary.

        HalfDemonInuyasha
    3. As someone pointed out, he can’t become jinchuriki of the 10 tails if he is undead, that’s why his first target as we see is the Bijuu, i suppose he is planning to pummel them into submission and “collect them all” to become the jinchuriki (yay, Pokemon).

  2. About darn time!

    I was worried for a second there when Obito started the Rinne Tensei; Kishimoto’s already used up his “get out of death free” card. Anyhow, seems like Madara’s stronger alive than undead (perhaps Kabuto’s Edo-tensei didn’t bring him back at full strength after all) and we got some more awesome psycho faces to boot! Maybe Naruto will finally get his first kill now that Madara can’t be sealed; fingers are crossed that he won’t be TNJ’d. Hopefully he’s got something good planned for his new mortality; perhaps he’ll absorb the biju or eat a fruit. The conversation between Shukaku and Gaara was interesting as well, I wonder how the tsundere biju will work with the alliance. Maybe they’ll pair up with the rookies and give them some relevance?

    Anyone else notice how Kakashi and Minato, two of the fastest characters, stood and watched while black Zetsu took Obito from behind? PIS at its finest.

    Hochmeister
    1. There’s always the Shiki Fuin, though Minato’s missing an arm now and Hiruzen already did it once, so it’d feel boring and pointless to have him do it again. Same with Orochimaru and the Shinigami Mask.

      Maybe Orochimaru will pull some hax body swap maneuver at the last second. The irony.

      HalfDemonInuyasha
  3. Obito ends up being a coward, choosing the easy way by trying to commit suicide with the Rinne Tensei. On the other hand, Madara’s revival came as expected, as usual he pulled out a plan out of nowhere. I just hope Madara’s future involvement in the war brings something more than just overpowered jutsus and such. The issue here is that Kishi has failed to make us feel any empathy for Obito and least of all for Madara, which makes the plot rather uninteresting. Surely, Naruto isn’t characterized for having complex, intriguing plots, but after all the things the characters have gone through, I simply expected more than the usual “friendship power always wins”, “damn my gf is dead, lets tear the world apart”, “I want to become Hokage”, etc.

    SouthSky
  4. Quoted from another person.

    So Madara just stripped himself of his immortality and is about to battle 7 Bijuu, 2 Jinchuuriki, 1 EMS user, 4 immortal Hokages, 5 Kages and the rest of the Ninjas and Samurais.

    Good work. – Matt90243

    WaffuRefu
    1. It’s why I feel Kishimoto will probably end up haxing out Madara more somehow; more new Rinnegan powers, perhaps retaining Obito’s Sage powers and adding them to his already beefed up power (given he was already stronger than he was alive due to the Rinnegan and Hashirama’s DNA and Mokuton abilities), or something. After all, Sage power seems to be a growing trend now since Jiraiya and Naruto with the Toads, with Kabuto revealing the Dragon Sage powers and Hashirama revealing his own Sage powers. I can’t be the only one just waiting for Tsunade to reveal some convenient Slug Sage power, can I? lol

      HalfDemonInuyasha
    2. if i remember correctly, he still has the shell of the 10 tails (the demonic statue, which probably has the chakra of the bijuu), and the only thing preventing madara from becoming the jinchuriki of the 10 tails was he was not really alive due to edo tensei. Now that he is truly alive, he can take over as the jinchuriki from Obito, a much much more powerful one at that.

      bleacher
    3. Well remember back when Madara was first revived and Kabuto said he made him better than he was at his peak and Madara said “What makes you think you know what my peak was” Good chance edo Madara was actually weaker.

      Also, I feel like sealing Madara is a much easier task than outright killing him so this seems like a better play for Madara.

      Zero Hour 17
    1. Neji can still be revived if you don’t believe that then listen to my explanation.

      It’s true that Madara used black zetsu to force Obito to use the Rinne Tensei no jutsu on Madara instead of Neji and the others who died in the battle field including(Shukaku Nara, Inoichi Yamanaka and others etc). But it’s still not too late.

      Here’s the scenario, Obito can still use the sharingan in His right eye to activate izanagi and come back to life striking His right eye blind and losing it and then with the Rinnegan in His left eye cast the Rinne Tensei No Jutsu on the allied shinobi forces bringing them back to life and this time He dies peacefully and quietly.

      K C M
    1. As I explained to CTT Obito can use the Sharingan in his right eye to escape death and use the Rinnegan in his left eye to recast the Rinne Tensei no Jutsu to revive not just Neji but everyone else who have died in the battlefield including those that were crushed in the Shinobi Alliance HQ.

      K C M
    1. And only now he can become the jinchuriki of the 10 tails (which was impossible when he was undead), which would make him way more powerful than his undead version and also more powerful than Obito as a jinchuriki, he would probably be as powerful as the Sage of six-paths.

    1. Nope, he is setting himself up to become the Jinchuriki of the 10 tails and eventually the Sage of Six-Paths, which will be way powerful than his zombie version, way more powerful than Obito’s sage-form and the closest thing to the original Sage, that’s why he is going to attack the Bijuu first.

  5. Doesn’t this situation make Sasuke trying to kill Obito seem ever MORE entirely justified? I mean just think about it, if Sasuke had killed Obito Madara would not have been able to revive himself. He would have probably been sealed by now considering the odds against him. But by Minato and Kakashi deciding to save him they’ve pretty much made their own situation worse not to mention Obito is probably going to die now which makes saving him ultimately pointless.

    Got to love that irony.

    leatherhead333
      1. It would be about time for MANY characters like that. That’s something that really turns me off to such characters with their naive “no killing” ideals (whether they choose to or the author conveniently makes it so they themselves don’t have to); the lack of any real (widespread) negative impacts for leaving the people alive, especially if it’s a more major antagonist.

        Naruto didn’t even kill Kakuzu with the Rasenshuriken. He just destroyed two of Kakuzu’s hearts and left him crippled with the last, allowing Kakashi to simply walk up and kill him with impunity after. No one even (was shown to have) died when he was rampaging in his 6-8 tailed state against Pain, whether it be collateral damage from their fighting, or chakra poisoning from so much of Kurama’s chakra leaking out around him or anything.

        Either…

        A.) The antagonist magically turns good, so there’s never any worry about them later.

        B.) That antagonist is killed by someone/something else (another antagonist or a collapsing building or whatever) before anything can happen.

        C.) The antagonist simply leaves and is never heard from again.

        It seems like it only applies to those who did it in the past, but not in the present most of the time. Like Hiruzen and Jiraiya both allowing Orochimaru to live rather than kill him when they had the chance resulted in Orochimaru being able to go on and continue his experiments and kill who knows how many others towards his goal of immortality, and even allowing him to attack Konoha and such. The only one in the present with Naruto was Sasuke really, and that’s really just because he’s another main character.

        There’s also the fact that it tends to be VERY selective on who the character DOES kill if they ever do so with their own hands. It’s usually only the “worst of the worst” antagonist(s) that get killed, and I’m guessing it’s because it’s “easy” for the main character/viewers to accept the feeling of wanting to kill such a person rather than someone with any sort of sympathetic sob story.

        If Naruto does end up killing Madara with his own hands somehow, it will be another example of being selective. This is primarily because of the fact that, despite what he’s done and what he’s doing now, Madara was given a backstory now and even reasons for why some people may have sympathy for him overall. After all, he was similar to Hashirama, and they both had goals in wanting to end the Clan Wars and bring about peace. Kishi even threw in the whole “Curse of the Uchiha” crap to make him and any Uchiha sound sympathetic (a.k.a. giving them, or at least Sasuke, excuses). So what makes Madara so much more “acceptable” to kill than Obito when Obito was moving towards the same general goal as Madara? The fact that he was a(nother) “Naruto gone wrong” foil?

        HalfDemonInuyasha
    1. And you do realize that they’re not covering the anime, but only the manga right?

      If you’re someone who doesn’t read the manga and only watches the anime, then you’re in the wrong place and, as mentioned, the anime already revealed Madara with the Rinnegan, so it’s not even an anime spoiler anymore, and even then, it would HAVE to be the person’s first time visiting this blog or ANY site talking about the manga because Madara with the Rinnegan has been talked about for over 106 chapters now, since chapter 560 when he first showed up, so it’d be pretty much impossible to avoid learning about it unless you simply don’t use the Internet and just import episodes on DVD or something.

      HalfDemonInuyasha
  6. Too bad they couldnt somehow put the Rinne Tensei on the first Hokage as well. So they can both fight at full power.

    Hell I wouldnt mind seeing all 4 Hokages coming back to life at this point.

    YanDaMan
  7. I pity Obito he got lose, suffered to Rin death, lose himself & manipulated to do someones dirty work (it was still Madara who is the mastermind) he was already regretting what he did then that happened! I knew he was up to something but I cant believe what he did to Obito using him revive him self to living that was cruel!

    On the other hand the beast are in union to help Naruto, I see how thing progress here on!

    lune
  8. I believe Madara needs to be brought back to life to personally activate the Moon’s Eye Plan. If I recalled correctly, Madara and Obito talked about this in a previous ch. and its why Madara played along with letting Obito activate the Moon’s Eye Plan.

    Wissenschaft

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