The Third Power

Itachi's final message gnaws at Sasuke, dragging him into questions about his clan, his bonds, and his very reason for living. His brooding breaks when the cave roof caves in; he slips past the falling rock as Suigetsu and Jūgo emerge, announcing they have tracked him down at last. On the battlefield, the five Kage still cannot believe Madara stands whole even after the Impure World Reincarnation was undone. He tells them their fight should have made clear he answers to no master, and while boasting that any witness to his complete Susanoo must perish, he calls summoning it again a shameful retreat.

Nearby, Naruto, Kakashi, Guy, and Killer B press their assault on Tobi and the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path, with Naruto baiting Tobi to bare his face despite Kakashi's caution against provoking him. Tobi calls out the Benihisago and the Kohaku no Jōhei, and recalling the chakra scraps he drew from the Eight and Nine-Tails, he mourns that a flawless Ten-Tails eluded him, though even a partial version proved unchanged. At Kabuto's hideout, Jūgo notes that Anko Mitarashi still breathes and warns Sasuke that Madara walks among the living, jolting him. When Sasuke asks why the two keep trailing him, Suigetsu hands over a scroll pulled from one of Orochimaru's dens. The contents leave Sasuke briefly wordless before he resolves to seek Orochimaru out, reasoning that so cunning a man would not stay dead. Rising to his feet, he declares he is going to see those who know everything.

Suigetsu and Jūgo reunite with Sasuke inside the collapsing cave. Madara scorns the Kage and refuses to reveal his perfected Susanoo. Naruto's team continues battling Tobi, who deploys the Benihisago and the Kohaku no Jōhei while lamenting his incomplete Ten-Tails. Learning that Madara lives, Sasuke reads a scroll from Orochimaru's hideout and decides to track Orochimaru down, setting off to confront the ones he believes hold the truth.

Part of the Fourth Shinobi World War: Climax arc, this is chapter 592 in the sixty-second volume. A trivia point observes that when Sasuke pictured what shinobi truly are, he imagined Shikamaru, Chōji, Ino, Kiba, and Shino in their Part II designs, even though he had not laid eyes on them since departing Konoha back in Part I.