Shift

Beaten and grounded, Obito looks on while Naruto hurls a Big Ball Rasenshuriken at Madara, whom Hashirama has already pinned with his Wood Dragon. Gaara appeals to Shukaku to help seal Madara away, and the sand spirit finally agrees, eager to show he outranks Kurama. The remaining tailed beasts add their strength for Gaara's sake, wanting to repay Naruto for setting them loose. Allowing the reforming Madara not a second to strike back, Hashirama pens him in still further beneath a set of torii seals. Even trapped, Madara only smirks with expectation. Kurama assures Minato that Obito, though stripped of the tailed beasts, will survive, since his vitality stays bound to the Outer Path's Demonic Statue.

Reflecting on how Nagato had once aimed the Samsara of Heavenly Life, an Outer Path technique, at the enemy's aid, Obito chooses to do likewise. He admits to both Kakashi and Minato that he now understands why Nagato ultimately stood beside Naruto: it was Jiraiya's teachings that had given them faith in a brighter tomorrow. Recognizing that his link to Minato, another of Jiraiya's pupils, placed him in the same lineage as Nagato and Naruto, Obito resolves to atone by giving up his life exactly as Nagato had. At that instant Black Zetsu surfaces and seizes Obito, offering an apology while announcing that this had been his one true aim from the start, and starts fusing into his frame. Madara offers thanks to Naruto for wearing Obito down, since it lets Black Zetsu steer him into invoking the Outer Path technique that brings Madara back. Restored to life, a jubilant Madara proclaims that he can once more relish the excitement of war in a flesh-and-blood body.

The tailed beasts join Hashirama to seal and immobilize Madara. Obito decides to give his own life to bring back the fallen, mirroring Nagato's sacrifice. Black Zetsu grabs Obito and fuses with him, forcing him to cast the technique that revives Madara in a living body.

Two art slips went uncorrected in the tankōbon. Kakashi is drawn with a Konohagakure forehead protector, not the Allied Shinobi Forces headband. Also, when the Six Paths Sage is depicted, the markings running across the back of the kimono match those Obito wore as the Ten-Tails' host, the Rinnegan among them bent into the shape of a magatama. The chapter falls within the arc chronicling the Ten-Tails' first jinchūriki.