Obito Uchiha

Portrait of a black-haired man with the right half of his face heavily scarred, wearing a swirled orange mask pushed aside

Also known as: Tobi; the Masked Man; falsely called Madara Uchiha; Guruguru's host partner is separate - he is also called the Ghost of the Uchiha by some
Birthday: February 10
Height: Approximately 175 cm as an adult
Rank: Chunin (Konohagakure record)
Team: Team Minato (formerly); Akatsuki
Clan: Uchiha
Occupation: Akatsuki figurehead and mastermind of the Eye of the Moon Plan
Japanese voice: Wataru Takagi
English voice: Michael Yurchak
Affiliation: Akatsuki; briefly the Allied Shinobi Forces
First appearance: As "Tobi" following the Kazekage Rescue Mission Arc
Series: Naruto Shippuden

Who is Obito Uchiha?

Introduced as the clownish Tobi and later posing as Madara, Obito is Kakashi's supposedly dead teammate, scarred and radicalised by Rin's death. He engineers the Akatsuki's plan to cast the world into an endless dream through the Infinite Tsukuyomi and launches the Fourth Shinobi World War. Confronted by Naruto and Kakashi, he reclaims his conscience, becomes the Ten-Tails' jinchūriki's opponent, and dies protecting them.

Appearance

For most of the series he hides behind masks: first an orange, spiral-patterned mask with a single right eye hole worn over an Akatsuki cloak, later a smooth white mask with angular slits and a horned crown. Beneath them, the right half of his face is crushed and webbed with pale scars, his black hair falls in spikes over it, and a Sharingan burns in his left eye. His right arm and much of his right side are artificial white Zetsu material. As the Ten-Tails' host he gains white hair, horns and a patterned white body.

Personality

The Tobi persona is deliberately ridiculous - clumsy, chattering, forever irritating his partners - a mask over a man who had decided the world was not worth caring about. Stripped of it, Obito is glacially calm, fatalistic and utterly certain that reality is a place of unearned suffering that deserves replacement with a shared dream. He manipulates others by finding the wound each one hides. Traces of the warm, tardy, loudly optimistic boy he was survive underneath, buried by guilt, and Naruto's stubborn refusal to abandon anyone eventually reaches them. In his final stretch he is self-mocking, tender and quietly determined to spend what is left of himself usefully.

Background

An orphan of the Uchiha clan raised by his grandmother, Obito grew up mocked for being late, soft-hearted and unable to awaken his Sharingan. He idolised the Hokage title and loved his teammate Rin Nohara, while resenting the prodigy Kakashi Hatake. On a wartime mission near the Kannabi Bridge his Sharingan finally awakened; moments later a cave-in crushed his right side and he gave Kakashi his left eye as a farewell gift. Madara Uchiha recovered his broken body, rebuilt it with Hashirama Senju's cells and White Zetsu flesh, and told him about a world without pain. Obito rejected the idea until he watched Rin die on Kakashi's hand, after which he accepted Madara's plan as his own.

Role in Naruto Shippuden

Akatsuki Suppression Mission and the Hunt for Sasuke
Introduced as Tobi, the buffoonish replacement partner foisted on Deidara, he survives the bomber's suicide attack and is promoted into Akatsuki proper. After Sasuke's duel with Itachi he carries the unconscious survivor away, unmasks partially, claims the name Madara Uchiha and recounts the truth of the Uchiha massacre, steering Sasuke's grief toward Konoha.
Five Kage Summit
He crashes the summit of the Kage to announce the Eye of the Moon Plan, demanding the remaining tailed beasts and declaring the Fourth Shinobi World War when refused. Along the way he collects Sasuke's loyalty, fits him with Itachi's eyes, and later confronts Konan at Amegakure to seize Nagato's Rinnegan for himself.
Fourth Shinobi World War: Confrontation
Directing an army of White Zetsu clones and six reanimated jinchuriki fitted with Rinnegan, he fights Naruto, Killer B, Kakashi and Might Guy on the battlefield. His Kamui intangibility makes him nearly untouchable until Kakashi, who shares the technique's other half, finds the timing that lets an attack land.
Birth of the Ten-Tails' Jinchuriki
His mask is shattered and his identity exposed to a stunned Kakashi. Refusing to be dissuaded, he revives the Ten-Tails and binds himself to it, gaining god-like power and a staff-wielding Six Paths form until the combined Allied Shinobi Forces, Naruto and Sasuke batter the beast out of him and Black Zetsu betrays him.
Kaguya Otsutsuki Strikes
Dying and disillusioned, he turns on Madara, opens a path for Naruto and Sasuke into Kaguya's dimensions and fights alongside the people he spent years destroying. He uses his last strength to pull Kakashi out of danger, lending him both Sharingan and a complete Susanoo before fading away beside Rin.

Abilities and techniques

Kamui

His Mangekyo Sharingan technique warps matter into a pocket dimension and lets him phase attacks harmlessly through his own body. Used for ambushes, instant travel and rescues, it is the backbone of his reputation for invincibility and is limited by strict timing rules.

Mangekyo Sharingan and Izanagi

Beyond standard Sharingan insight and genjutsu, he can cast Izanagi through a transplanted eye, rewriting a fatal outcome into illusion at the cost of blinding that eye - a trick he uses to survive an otherwise lethal confrontation.

Rinnegan and Outer Path techniques

With Nagato's Rinnegan implanted he commands the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path, chains and seals tailed beasts, reanimates corpses as controlled jinchuriki, and manipulates the sealing ritual at the heart of the Eye of the Moon Plan.

Wood Release

Hashirama Senju's cells in his rebuilt body grant him the first Hokage's wood techniques, letting him grow binding trees and constructs, sustain his artificial limbs, and support the White Zetsu army that forms the bulk of his forces.

Ten-Tails jinchuriki form

After merging with the revived Ten-Tails he gains overwhelming chakra, flight, a shakujo-like staff, truth-seeking orbs that erase what they touch, and the ability to shrug off attacks from the entire allied army at once.

Tactical manipulation

His most durable weapon is patience. Over decades he seeds identities, exploits Nagato's and Sasuke's grief, engineers the Nine-Tails attack on Konoha, and builds an organisation that pursues his goal without ever knowing whose goal it is.

Relationships

Kakashi Hatake: Former teammate and rival; Their friendship ended at the Kannabi Bridge with a gift of an eye; their reunion is a war between two halves of the same technique. Obito blames him for Rin, yet dies handing him power and forgiveness.
Rin Nohara: Unrequited love; The girl he loved anchored his childhood optimism. Her death in front of him, and the way she chose it, breaks his faith in the real world and becomes the emotional engine of his entire plan.
Madara Uchiha: Rescuer and manipulator; Madara salvaged his body and handed him a ready-made ideology and a false name to wear. Obito serves the plan for years before recognising that he was only ever a step in someone else's resurrection.
Naruto Uzumaki: Opponent and mirror; Naruto embodies the Hokage dream Obito abandoned. Their clash is as much argument as battle, and Naruto's refusal to write anyone off is what finally cracks the mask for good.

Notable moments

His theatrical Tobi persona collapses for the first time after Deidara's suicide blast, revealing the cold strategist underneath.
He announces the Fourth Shinobi World War to the assembled Kage and demands the world's remaining tailed beasts.
Kakashi's shattering of his mask exposes a face that the Copy Ninja has spent his adult life mourning.
He binds himself to the revived Ten-Tails and single-handedly overwhelms the Allied Shinobi Forces.
In his final moments he lends Kakashi both of his eyes and a complete Susanoo before his body fades.

Trivia

His name, like that of many Uchiha, is written with characters connected to the Uchiha clan's naming tradition; the word 'Tobi' also suits his habit of appearing and vanishing.
He is the Akatsuki member with the longest-running false identity, posing as both an anonymous recruit and a legendary dead man.
His goggles as a child are a visual callback that later makes his mask's single eye hole immediately recognisable in flashbacks.
Kamui is the only technique in the series split between two users, each holding one destination of the same dimension.