Naruto: Why Obito Turned Evil and Started the 4th Great Ninja War (2024)

Although he wasn’t the series’ final villain, Obito Uchiha was revealed to be the mastermind of all the villainous activities in Naruto: Shippuden. From Pain's destruction of the Hidden Leaf Village to the Fourth Great Ninja War and even the Nine Tails' attack on Konoha during Naruto’s birth, Obito had a hand in orchestrating all those events. Shortly before his death, Obito managed to redeem himself of his dishonorable past -- but why did the ninja go rogue in the first place?

In many ways, Obito's beginnings were quite similar to Naruto's. He aimed to become Hokage and was the underdog of his four-man shinobi squad, but was brimming with potential. His proximity to his prodigy classmate, Kakashi and legendary mentor, Minato prevented him from shining as brightly, but a mutually beneficial rivalry sprouted out of their tenuous friendship. Like Naruto, he fancied the kunoichi specializing in medical ninjutsu who was part of their group, but settled for a friendship with Rin when his feelings weren’t reciprocated. The most glaring difference between the two ninja was that, unlike the Nine Tails Jinchuriki, Obito was quite popular among the villagers. They admired him for his hard work and selfless personality -- which made his descent into evil all the more surprising.

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Naruto's Obito Uchiha Was Declared Dead on a Rescue Mission

During an especially dangerous infiltration mission in Naruto's Third Great Ninja War, Rin was captured by a group of Hidden Stone Ninja. Since they intended to probe her for information, she was kept alive but in a fugue state, unable to resist her captor’s mind-reading jutsu. After a short argument, Kakashi and Obito decided to rescue their teammate and were able to fight together in sync for the first time after Obito’s Sharingan awakened.

Together, they defeated Rin’s captors but were caught in one of their opponents’ Earth Style jutsus that caused an avalanche before they could extract her. Obito sacrificed himself to save Kakashi but had his entire right side crushed under a rock. Before he was lost forever, Obito managed to gift his left Sharingan to Kakashi -- but the Earth Style jutsus' delayed activation effect prevented his teammates from rescuing him from his fate beneath the rock. Obito was subsequently believed to have passed away.

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Unbeknownst to his teammates and the rest of Konoha, Obito was quietly rescued by White Zetsu on Madara Uchiha’s behalf. He was nursed back to health over a long period, having the entire right side of his body replaced with organic prostheses that were cultivated from Hashirama Senju cells. Madara’s operation allowed Obito to gain strength that would have been impossible to achieve through normal means, and his possession of Senju cells empowered his sole remaining Sharingan -- but none of this was done out of the Uchiha ghost’s benevolence.

Madara’s goal for Obito wasn’t revealed to him, but it was to have the young Uchiha keep the legend of his name alive while preparing to resurrect him and complete the Infinite Tsukuyomi plan. To equip him with the tools needed for this doomsday plot, Madara trained him personally, having him spar with White Zetsu clones to speed up his recovery and imparting ancient jutsu directly into Obito’s brain with genjutsu. Through these illicit training methods, Obito managed to attain jonin rank in record time and gained several incredible new abilities, including a limited use of Hashirama’s trademark Wood Style.

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Madara Manipulated Obito Uchiha and Turned Him Evil

After he had groomed Obito to his liking, Madara was ready to move to the next stage of his plan. He staged a conflict between the Hidden Mist and Leaf Villages with Rin at the center. Once again, the young kunoichi was captured by shinobi from a rival village but suffered a far more nefarious fate this time. Rin was made into a Jinchuriki for the three Tails, Isobu, through a hasty process that left her as a ticking time bomb that would destroy the Leaf Village upon her return. Unaware of this fact, Kakashi was racing to get her far away from the enemy ninja -- until he reached the stage Madara had prepared for Obito’s awakening.

Kakashi fought hard to protect Rin but the kunoichi instinctively knew her return would spell doom for her home village. As he readied to thrust his Chidori through another ninja, Rin ran directly into the deadly jutsu, ending her own life as well as the threat of the Three Tails rampage. Unfortunately, Obito arrived at the battleground just in time to witness the perceived murder of his best friend by his closest comrade. The trauma from that incident forced him to finally unlock the elusive Mangekyo Sharingan and embrace his mentor’s Infinite Tsukuyomi plan as the only way the ninja world could finally achieve peace.

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It’s unclear when Madara first began his subtle manipulation of the young ninja, but Obito’s sudden embrace of the Infinite Tsukuyomi plan suggested some foul play may have been at work. Before Rin’s death, Obito had never paid any attention to Madara’s manifestos about the future of the shinobi world yet suddenly became the evil ninja’s willing pawn. By allowing himself to be put under Madara’s genjutsu multiple times, Obito had left himself extremely vulnerable to his sponsor’s ideations. He willingly shed all aspects of his previous identity and chose to live on as a ghost in the shadows, subtly influencing events for the worse as the ghost of Madara Uchiha.

While Obito’s story is indeed tragic, it’s been hard for many Naruto fans to accept the redemption he was offered toward the end of the Fourth Great Ninja War in good faith. In full awareness of his actions, he manipulated the Fourth Mizukage into upholding the Blood Mist Village's abhorrent traditions. Without his interruptions, the Akatsuki may have turned out to be a genuine force for peace instead of the perverted group of rogue ninja who were introduced in Naruto: Shippuden. There's also the staggering number of innocent lives lost in the Fourth Great Ninja War that he started. As dear as Rin was to Obito’s heart, she simply wasn’t worth the carnage he wrought on the ninja world.