Did Kishimoto plan the Tobi-twist in Naruto from the start? Explained

A primary antagonist in Naruto, Tobi led the Akatsuki organization behind the scenes, driving much of the chaos, suffering, and atrocities in the shinobi world. His face constantly hidden by a mask, Tobi’s identity remained an intriguing mystery until its dramatic reveal during the Fourth Ninja War.

Naruto Uzumaki, thanks to the decisive help of his teacher Kakashi Hatake, broke Tobi’s mask to reveal the villain as Obito Uchiha, Kakashi’s presumed dead friend and comrade. In reality, Obito had been saved by Madara Uchiha, who later staged Rin’s death to corrupt his mind and convince him to support the “Eye of the Moon” plan.

So, Obito carried out Madara’s scheme, working in the shadows to reshape the ninja world. He embraced a dark path, his actions directly and indirectly causing countless deaths. Yet, his buried compassion resurfaced, sparking a change of heart that proved pivotal for the fate of the world. Interestingly, Masashi Kishimoto had intended for Obito to survive and become a major antagonist from the beginning of the Naruto story.

An in-depth analysis of how Naruto author Masashi Kishimoto foreshadowed Obito as Tobi

The unexpected mastermind

The story has always hinted at some hidden truth behind the Nine-Tails Attack (Image via Shueisha)

Several subtle hints woven into the manga suggest that Masashi Kishimoto, the author and creator of Naruto, had envisioned Obito’s role in the narrative since the story’s inception. Naruto begins by mentioning the Nine-Tails Attack on Konoha, and while it’s speculative to claim that Kishimoto always intended for Obito to be the mastermind behind the incident, it was implied that someone controlled the Nine-Tailed Fox to target the Leaf village.

Those references were much later in the series—chapters 370 and 386 of the manga—yet earlier than the revelation that Obito was the person who used the Nine-Tails to attack the Leaf. Devastated by Rin’s death, Obito awakened his Mangekyo Sharingan and unleashed it to slaughter the Hidden Mist ninjas he deemed responsible for the tragic event.

At the time, Minato didn't realize it was Obito (Image via Shueisha)

The ability to warp his body into another dimension, phasing through every attack as if he were intangible, allowed Obito to massacre the Mist shinobi. His body enhanced with Hashirama Senju’s DNA, which also enabled him to use Wood Release, Obito also learned to use his Mangekyo Sharingan to teleport himself at will and capture targets in the Kamui dimension.

Obito’s powers made him an extremely dangerous fighter even at just 14 years old. He assaulted the Leaf village, extracting the Nine-Tails from Kushina Uzumaki, the wife of his former teacher Minato Namikaze. He then used the Sharingan to control the beast, directing its devastating wrath toward the Leaf. Minato managed to defeat Obito but never recognized him, as the latter was covering his face with a mask.

The Fourth Hokage also stopped the Nine-Tails, sealing half of its chakra inside his newborn son, Naruto. However, both Minato and Kushina lost their lives in the process, leaving the Leaf village to mourn these two heroes along with the other countless citizens who perished during the Nine-Tailed Fox’s rampage.

The mystery around Obito

The incredible foreshadowing in the early Naruto chapters (Image via Shueisha)

Before appearing in Kakashi Gaiden—a brief arc that explores how a young Kakashi Hatake got his Sharingan eye—Obito was mentioned in chapter 139. This installment revealed him to be the deceased friend whose tomb Kakashi always visits. Additionally, Kakashi Gaiden uncovered the origin of Kakashi’s chronic lateness to Team 7 gatherings, a habit he adopted from Obito.

The iconic line Kakashi pronounced in front of Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura during their Bell Test, aiming to teach them the importance of teamwork, was also revealed to be a memento from Obito during Gaiden. Obito said those words out of admiration for Kakashi’s father, Sakumo Hatake, a world-famous ninja who ended up killing himself after his fellow Leaf comrades criticized him for prioritizing their lives over a mission.

Prior to the complete reveal in Gaiden, Kakashi is already shown to possess a Sharingan eye despite not hailing from the Uchiha clan. He is also stated to be quite famous for his Sharingan prowess, suggesting that he has long possessed this fearsome eye power.

Obito on the cover of chapter 16 (Image via Shueisha)

Considering these elements as well as the visible scar on Kakashi’s face, on the same side as his Sharingan, and the many hints about Kakashi’s mysterious deceased comrade, it’s safe to say that Masashi Kishimoto planned Obito as the one who gifted Kakashi the Sharingan from the start.

Obito first appears on the cover of Naruto chapter 16, which depicts the personal intimacy of Kakashi’s home. By his bedside, the Copy Ninja keeps two photos, one capturing him with his disciples, Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura, and the other being a nostalgic image of his young self with his teammates, Obito and Rin, and their teacher, Minato Namikaze.

The parallel between the two teams is visually striking, but Kishimoto further reinforces it in chapter 122, which showed the Third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi paralleling the Leaf’s squads, past and present, as he reflects on the importance of the Will of Fire and how it raises new valiant ninjas to continue Konoha’s legacy.

The chronological succession of Konoha's main teams (Image via Shueisha)

Tobirama taught Hiruzen, Homura, and Koharu, then Hiruzen mentored Jiraiya, Orochimaru, and Tsunade, with Jiraiya later teaching the members of Team 6, including Minato. The future Fourth Hokage taught Kakashi, Obito, and Rin, and Kakashi became the teacher of Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura.

This chain of mentorship, a sort of lineage perpetuating in time between teams, teachers, and disciples, was completely clear to Kishimoto—and likewise, unmistakable to the fans—by the time of chapter 122. So, the narrative structure of the story was already in Kishimoto’s mind, including Obito being a central character.

Kishimoto’s genius foreshadowing

Too striking to be a coincidence (Image via Shueisha)

Obito’s face is shown for the first time in chapter 16, the installment that first drew the parallel between Minato’s team, of which Kakashi was a member alongside Obito, and Kakashi’s current team, of which Minato’s son is a member. The chapter is titled Who are you?, just like the iconic line that Naruto said after unmasking Tobi, i.e., Obito, and seeing his face for the first time.

Hardly a coincidence, this detail appears as a deliberate, brilliant foreshadowing that signals Kishimoto’s long-term planning. Rin was introduced early in the story, like Obito, and she was nowhere to be seen. In chapter 7, Kakashi mentioned that his loved ones were dead, and in chapter 176 he said that the names of his friends were on Konoha's Memorial Stone.

Putting these elements together, it’s safe to assume that Kishimoto intended for Rin to be dead from the beginning. Perhaps, the mangaka also had Rin’s death in mind as the event that triggered Obito’s tragic descent into darkness. Even the events of Kakashi Gaiden, which are not shown until hundreds of chapters later, are foreshadowed by Kakashi's words as early as chapter 8.

The mysterious "third Mangekyo user alive" was Obito (Image via Shueisha)

Similarly, Obito being still alive was something that Kishimoto had planned from the start. In his flashback of the Uchiha massacre, Sasuke remembered Itachi telling him that unlocking the Mangekyo Sharingan would place him among the three living users of that power. As Kakashi uncovered his Sharingan to fight against Zabuza, Sasuke wondered if his teacher was the Sharingan user Itachi spoke of.

Later in the series, during their fated confrontation, Sasuke pressed Itachi about the identity of this enigmatic Mangekyo Sharingan user. Itachi answered that it was Madara Uchiha, lying in good faith as he didn’t know that Tobi, who claimed to be Madara, was in fact Obito. The intricate connection is explained as Obito, posing as Madara, was the Sharingan user who helped Itachi accomplish the Uchiha massacre.

Obito's mask reflected the pattern of Kamui (Image via Studio Pierrot)

Tobi debuted in chapter 280, not long after the Kakashi Gaiden, sporting a playful personality reminiscent of the young Obito’s. He later stopped acting goofy to introduce himself as “Madara,” but Madara’s physical appearance had already been revealed at that point. Hiding their face behind a mask wouldn’t make much sense for someone claiming to be Madara, as the legendary Uchiha’s face was known to everyone, making the masquerade meaningless.

The mask’s swirly pattern, strikingly similar to the Kamui vortex, was another clue underscoring Kishimoto’s meticulous foreshadowing. It’s no coincidence that Kakashi first revealed his Kamui space-time jutsu in the exact same arc in which Tobi debuted. Later, Tobi was shown to possess a technique with the same vortex-like teleportation effect as Kakashi’s Kamui, further teasing a deep connection between the two characters.

Kishimoto’s foreshadowing peaked in a quiet yet powerful moment when Tobi, who at the time was still acting as Deidara’s talkative and flamboyant partner, remained eerily silent as Deidara mentioned the Three Tails. Fans would later discover this apparently inexplicable silence reflected Obito’s hidden grief for Rin, who died after being forced to become the jinchuriki of the Three-Tails Isobu.

Another genius foreshadowing hidden in the Naruto manga (Image via Shueisha)

Whether Madara was controlling Obito’s body or Obito was posing as Madara, at this point it was clear that Tobi’s character was connected to Obito. The similar names and hairstyles, the mask with a hole in the right eye to exhibit a Sharingan (in direct contrast to the Sharingan in Kakashi’s left eye socket), the timing of the Kakashi Gaiden, and then the introduction of Kakashi’s Kamui only for Tobi to use a similar jutsu were clues that could not be ignored.

The subtle clues continued with Tobi’s frantic reaction to the undead summoned by Kabuto Yakushi’s Impure World Reincarnation. When the undead was revealed to be Madara Uchiha, it was confirmed that Tobi wasn’t Madara but someone else entirely.

Kishimoto was hiding the truth in plain sight (Image via Shueisha)

Kishimoto spent years weaving subtle clues; his intricate planning was a testament to the mangaka’s long-term vision and masterful storytelling ability to hide the truth in plain sight. He also threw in a few red herrings to misdirect fans and keep the enigma fascinating for as long as possible, but given the evident foreshadowing, few readers were really surprised when the person under Tobi’s mask turned out to be Obito.

Tobi never showed Madara’s Mangekyo Sharingan eye, and Zetsu persisted in calling him Tobi even though he introduced himself as Madara to the other remaining Akatsuki members. Things like Obito being the one who attacked Konoha with the Nine-Tails as well as the Mangekyo Sharingan user who helped Itachi slaughter the Uchiha clan may have been refined over time, but Obito’s survival and role as a major antagonist were always planned.

A complex antagonist

Obito's character development throughout the Naruto story (Image via Studio Pierrot)

Obito, driven by the trauma caused by Rin’s death and unknowingly manipulated by Madara, buried his kind-hearted nature to rise as a merciless man bent on erasing the cruel ninja world. In the attempt to reassemble the shattered pieces of his ideal world, Obito impersonated Madara and went after an illusory dream but caused so much death in the process.

The Fourth Ninja War saw Obito facing Naruto, Kakashi, and other prominent characters in battles that tested both might and ideals. Eventually, Obito came to understand that he had been lying to himself to escape reality, a behavior whose foolishness he realized thanks to Naruto, who empathized with his misery, and Kakashi, who returned to being his friend.

Obito’s journey as a deeply layered character and tragic antagonist culminated in his final grand moment. Not to seek redemption but simply to atone for his sins, he entrusted his chakra and complete eye powers to Kakashi after sacrificing himself to shield Naruto from certain death. Obito then crossed into the afterlife, where he found peace as he reunited with Rin to watch Kakashi and Naruto save the world.