Disappearance

A final desperate detonation from Deidara lights up the sky, its glare visible far across the bordering nations and drawing both Hebi and the Eight Man Squad toward the source. From a distance Zetsu measures the blast and concludes that Tobi and Sasuke alike have perished, news he carries back to the rest of Akatsuki, whose leader calls for a moment of mourning. Kisame confesses he will feel Tobi's absence yet finds some comfort in the belief that Deidara ended Sasuke as well. Later, as Itachi stands out in the downpour and Kisame mistakes the rain for tears, offering sympathy over the supposed death, Itachi calmly corrects him: his younger brother lives.

Suigetsu realises the serpent inked onto one of Sasuke's scrolls is gone and, with a single drop of his leader's blood, calls forth Manda. Sasuke then steps out of the great snake, explaining that he summoned it and ducked inside to ride out the explosion, though both were struck just before warping clear. With his dying breath Manda damns Sasuke for bending him through the Sharingan and using him as a living shield. Bloodied, Sasuke is carried to a hideout by Suigetsu, Jugo and Karin; when a scuffle between Suigetsu and Karin stirs Jugo's bloodlust, a glance from Sasuke smothers it before he collapses from exhaustion, his followers resolving to press on under his orders.

At the crater the Eight Man Squad's hounds catch Sasuke's trail tangled with Deidara's, proof the two had clashed, and Kiba's keen nose confirms that Sasuke fled the scene rather than dying, sending the hunt onward. Far off in the rain of Amegakure, the partner pair of Konan and the man his allies call Pain meet a masked figure implied to hold true command. He notes that Sasuke survives and will seek them out shortly, but urges swift action against the Nine-Tails jinchuriki, recalling that Naruto's newer techniques tore a pair of Kakuzu's hearts apart, along with the dangerous allies who back him. Konan brushes the worry aside, since Pain has never known defeat. Turning to face them, the figure proves to be Tobi, who vows to command the Sharingan as the sole and true Madara Uchiha.

Episode 125 of Naruto: Shippuden adapts chapters 363 and 364 of the manga and forms part of the Itachi Pursuit Mission storyline. It aired in Japan on September 3, 2009, and in English on April 10, 2012. The opening theme is Light of a Firefly and the ending theme is My Answer.