Naruto/WMG/Open Two

This is a list of Wild Mass Guesses which are still possibly true. Just for Fun and silly guesses go on the silly page. If a WMG is Jossed, please move it to the jossed page, if it is Confirmed, please move it to the confirmed page.

Please add new entries to the bottom of the page.

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Madara's plan will succeed, but it will work too well.

His Moon Eye Plan Genjutsu will not just make everyone in the world peaceful and willing to obey him, it will completely sap their will to live causing them to just lay down where they stand, except for a small percentage of the population who it will drive uncontrollably insane.

Madara's plan will reach it's last step, but we'll never be certain if it worked

The series will end with a collosal Or Was It a Dream? where we go from Madara's defeat onward not being sure if he was really defeated or if the whole world is caught in it and he's just showing his defeat to keep people from resisting.

• This would be such a cool twist.

You recall what happened to Karin?

Yeah, well, you see that Sakura is heading that way? What do you wanna bet that Sasuke is gonna have two girls trying to kill him in a few chapters?

• Assuming that Karin isn't dead.
  • Or that Karin truly resents Sasuke enough to want to kill him.
    • Karin isn't dead, and has given up on Sasuke. It's unclear whether she would go so far as to try to kill him, though. And even if this would be the case, it's highly unlikely, that she will be let out of jail soon enough to try to kick Sasuke's ass.
      • She probably will get out. She has a key to get out and hid it from the interrogators.

Danzo had no involvement in Nagato's backstory

Danzo ruined Nagato's life for seemingly no reason, as he seems to be becoming more of a Well-Intentioned Extremist. It was actually Madara Uchiha in disguise who destroyed Nagato's village so that Nagato would destroy Konoha. The Fourth Hokage even said that Nagato was being manipulated by Madara in some way.

• • I don't know what manga you're reading, but Danzo's involvement in Nagato's life is basically limited to standing there and watching when Hanzo attacked Nagato. He didn't ruin Nagato's life any more than he ruined *random character* Rock Lee's life.
  • He brought in some of his men, which might have helped in capturing Konan.
    • Key word "might" There's nothing to suggest they did more than Danzo did.
  • Nagato's backstory could have worked without Danzo. Bringing Root into it was just a way to establish that Nagato hates the Leaf Village, and reinforce that the Leaf Village has a darker side to it. Honestly, if Nagato hadn't mentioned Danzo at all, I wouldn't have noticed Root's involvement.

Crazy Mokuton Tree with Sharingan Eyes will be a major villain, at least in a filler arc in the Anime.

In 480 on page 11 we see that Danzo loses control of his God Arm to the point where it bursts off and becomes a tree. Notice that, in that tree, there are still Sharingan Eyes. Also, a creepy face earlier on. Given that the power of the Jubi is in the Sharingan eyes and apparently in the Senju Mokuton Bloodline, that Tree is going to end up being important. And probably Evil and insane.

• No no no! It'll be a mentor! I mean, creepy face thing? Definite mentor qualifications. All it needs is, quote unquote, "five teenagers with attitude" and... They'll be Sentai!
  • Or maybe it'll be a Deku Tree?
    • Nah. You can't have an Orange Ranger if it turns into a Deku tree...
• However, if you look on the last page of chapter 481, you'll see the tree isn't there at all. Probably because jutsu have No Ontological Inertia and Danzo died. Or maybe it left on its own.
  • Tree is at the far end of the bridge. You can see the roots by the pillars.
    • Those aren't roots, they're cracks in the ground. You can see on this page that the tree was sticking out partially in front of the pillars, so it should have been visible from the other two pages (especially since the pillars in front has a huge gap in it).
      • Tree's back in the latest issue!

Hinata will end up with Shikamaru

Hinata is close to Kurenai, and Shikamaru will spend more time with her as he fufills his promise to Asuma. Hinata is also one of the few women that are more submissive, and Shikamaru is always complaining about overbearing women.

• Yeah, overbearing like his mother. And Hinata? Something more earthshattering than the Pain invasion would have to happen to set that in motion. Besides, Shikamaru is so lazy that he would never actually make a move on a woman anyway. He needs a girl who will make the first move.

The anime will include an omake with Hiashi and Hanabi returning to Konoha after Pain levels it.

Because the look on their faces would be just too funny not to use for an omake. It's easy pickings.

If Naruto and Hinata wind up together, Konohamaru will develop a crush on Hanabi instantly.

Konohamaru copies everything that Naruto does, so Konohamaru would be inclined to develop a crush on Hanabi just based on knowing: Naruto is in a relationship with Hinata, and Hinata has a little sister. What becomes of Konohamaru because of this is as open ended as who Hanabi is.

• I've read some fanfics with this as a running subplot. It kinda makes sense...

Alternative theory to the above.

Sakura is, in fact, not betraying the Village. But Naruto wont realize that. He'll show up and have it out with Sasuke and Sakura, only for Sakura's plan not to work and her to confess that not only does she no longer have feelings for Sasuke, she's actually come to love Naruto. He'll say that he loves her too, even if deep down he doesn't believe her. Only, Hinata will have shown up by now and be just out of sight. She'll hear this confession, after finally revealing her true feelings to Naruto during the invasion, and wont be able to handle it. She'll snap just like Sasuke did, and end up leaving with him instead of Sakura. Or she'll end up with Kabutomaru. Better?

Madara is not a villain.

First, let me say that this WMG is brought to you by Carthestian, the same as further up on this page. Credit and introductions aside, here's the actual theory.

The Moon's Eye Plan is not Madara's plan, it is the history of what happened to the Naruto universe. Madara only told the Kages about his plan in hopes that one of them, or anybody in the ninja world for that matter, would realize that their lives are already in its grip. Naturally this has some pitfalls, such as

1.) How is Madara not affected by the MEP? 2.) Why were the Uchihas assassinated if this is the case? 3.) How can any actions taken by Madara in the series be explained under this system?

I'll continue this later on.

Sasuke's influence over Naruto and Sakura, and women in general, is due to him having some ofthe Ten-Tailed Beast's power

As seen in this picture, the the Ten-Tailed Beast's eye was similar to the Sharingan. And chapter 462 reveals that the Rikudo Sage named a successor from two brothers after he sealed the Ten-Tails into his body, who was the ancestor of the Senju clan, while the other one who wasn't named was the ancestor of the Uchiha. Since Sasuke would likely have some of this power, it explains how Uchiha can control the Tailed-Beasts. This means that Naruto's devotion to Sasuke is because the Kyuubi is drawn to the similar chakra and is, in turn, indirectly influencing Naruto. Whereas the near constantly positive reaction he gets from women is possibly due to them being influenced by Sasuke's latent powers in an attempt to attract a mate to continue that power's existence.

Madara is basically a self-animated zombie

He is repeatedly stated to have impossibly strong, malevolent chakra, which he claims to be the source of refusal to die. The idea is basically that his chakra was so strong that his will to destroy the Leaf Village let it live on even as his body ceased to function. His body is just something that he is using; he's like a ghost possesing a corpse. That would certainly explain his apparent immunity to pain and the ease with which he tore of his own arm.

• It could also explain, why Madara seemingly don't need medical staff. After all he did transplanted himself a new eye, somehow.

Karin's memories of Sasuke during the Chunin Exam were implanted by Orochimaru

There are way too many flaws with Karin's Flashback in the latest chapter. Orochimaru either stole those memories from someone he captured, or created them whole-cloth. The purpose was to have a back up plan in case Sasuke died in training, or turned against him (which Sasuke did, but Itachi ruined that) by imprinting Sasuke as the Knight in Shining Armor to Karin (and possibly others) so that if Orochimaru's plan succeeded Sasuke would not be the last generation of Uchihas and Orochimaru would be able to continue his pursuit of imortality without having just 3 years with a Sharingan.

• This fits with another WMG that Karin was brain washed to try and get pregnant from Sasuke. Orochimaru could have had a lot of others waiting at other bases to try and win over Sasuke.
  • Does that mean that Orochimaru was Shipping them? Ew.

Naruto is Genderless

Or at least able to change genders at will. His Sexy Jutsu is just a manifestation of his genderbending abilities. Remember, Kitsune are fabled to be able to change into humans at will regardless of gender. The Sexy Jutsu Naruto performs is part of his legitimate ability to shape shift while the technique he taught Konoahmaru is a Genjutsu

Madara has a Byakugan underneath his mask.

Seems appropriate enough, considering Madara's face was never fully revealed in the present day. Tie the Byakugan's powers to the moon, or make it the only way to reach/influence the moon, and it makes even more sense plot-wise.

• It has to be in the forehead, even tho mask seems to lack a hole there, as one fan put it "Byakugan don't need a hole".

The Byakugan has connections to the moon.

Stemming from the above, the Sage of the Six Paths always knew that either of his disciples and/or descendants could get the absolutely horrible idea of bringing back the Juubi, so he decides to have a unrelated third party have sole control of anything in regards to the moon: power over it, access to it, and such. The Byakugan is merely proof of that connection.

Furthermore, it can explain the whole "Stop Having Fun!" Guys bit most Hyuuga have, as well as the Caged Bird Seal: The Hyuuga would be too proud to use the Juubi in any manner(If they ever knew of it in the first place), and any Hyuuga who thought otherwise would have their brains and eyes turned to mush. It could also explain Hinata's possible immunity to Bijuu chakra from Naruto's last Unstoppable Rage due to her Bijuu-containing moon mojo, but that's pushing it, I think.

• Which would also explain the genjutsu cancelling powers of the Byakugan. A possible upgrade would be the power to disable all genjutsu within range of the Byakugan's sphere of vision, which can be over half a mile at least.

Kakashi's gonna die.

See, how have the battles between a teacher and his student gone in this series?

The teacher lost. Every one of them.

It seems like a pattern, and so I thought I'd put it out there...

• It's possible that Sasuke will fight against Kakashi until the two of them are nearly exhausted, and then escape, but Kakashi will realize that Sasuke wasn't at his full power. Kakashi and Yamato will then give up on Sasuke, leaving Naruto the only person who's willing to bring him back, and leading to their final showdown in the third invasion of Konoha or in another place.

• Didn't Kakashi already die in the Pain Arc.

Karin's about to have her Crowning Moment of Awesome.

Once she's healed up, she'll have a Heel Face Turn. Sasuke will use some form of genjutsu, but Karin uses her tracking ability to spot him through it, allowing Kakashi/Sakura/Naruto to finally kill him.

The main reason Sasuke will lose to Naruto is Naruto's unpredictability

Most of Sasuke's fights turned against him when his opponents tried something he didn't expect, such as Deidara's suicide explosion, Killerbee using the Eight-Tailed Beast to break out of his genjutsu, or the Raikage punching through Amaterasu. They will most likely ready their ultimate attacks on each other (presumably Rasen Shuriken and Amaterasu), only for Sasuke to find that Naruto's attack was a fake and for Naruto (or a clone) to come out of a blind spot and take him down.

• Seeing how unpredictability is how Naruto wins all his fights, and seeing how deceiving the opponent is the number one method for winning in Shinobi vs Non-Mook Shinobi fights (The Mooks are just overpowered and owned, splat, but not to the degree Luffy does it), you're probably right. Not sure this qualifies as a theory, though.

Suigetsu and Jugo will be attacked and possibly killed by Kabuto

Both Suigesu and Juugo and Kabuto/Orochimaru of them have ties to Sasuke, and both plots are currently unresolved, so it's possible that Kabuto, now having fully lost control of himself to Orochimaru may seek them out to find Sasuke. Kabuto/Orochimaru will likely demonstrate his power by killing them before finding Naruto or Sasuke.

• Weren't they killed in the aftermath of their attack on the Summit?
  • The last we saw of them, they were just surrounded by guards. They are just as likely to be captured, interigated and/or turned over to Kiri (in Suigetu's case). Heck, maybe they won the fight against the samurai and they'll just turn up later and say "oh we got out of that mess no problem, here have a flashback."

Kishimoto is desperately but unsuccessfully trying to sell a heel face turn

Kishimoto's plan is for everyone except Naruto, including the audience, to give up on Sasuke. At that point, Naruto's faith will save the day, Sasuke will turn out to be basically good once freed from Madara's eye techniques, and we will all learn a lesson about believing in your friends. Unfortunately, a large segment of the fanbase refuses to give up on Sasuke, so Kishimoto is forced to keep upping the ante.

• If this is true, than it WILL backfire, as at this point, a large segment will be pissed if that evil son of a bitch gets "redeemed".
• I don't really see much that Sasuke has done which is truly beyond redemption. Now, his stated goals are pretty bad and I'll admit, putting that blade through Karin to get at Danzo was pretty evil, but other than that he's done what? He kicked Naruto's ass, then time skip, then kicked Naruto's ass again, and then he's killed Danzo while potentially being misled by Madara. Really, all he's done is demonstrate a willingness to abandon his teammates plus the Karin thing, which, while reprehensible, doesn't quite put him into the realm of being completely gone. I don't think Sasuke's going to go this route since he's probably going to be crossing the Moral Event Horizon soon, but I don't think he's there yet.
  • Oh, sure you can join my Team Evil, Sakura. Now, just to make sure you're evil enough to be my medic, kill the othe- BACKSTAB! (Cares for nobody but himself and his revenge)
  • You Have Failed Me... for the last time. Now die. [applied to his entire base, not just teammates who disagreed but allies who would do anything for him] (Not even the people loyal to him matter, even if their continued living would be kinda useful with regards to the whole completing his revenge thing. Both irrational and supervillianesque. To abandon one's comrades because of philosophical reasons is horrible, but forgivable. To abandon them because their death is more convenient at the moment than life is utterly unforgivable)
  • Hahahahahahahahahaha! (off the deep end entirely. Once somebody does this, the only forgiveness that is any kind of believable is life in prison or the electric chair)
  • A small group of spymasters in Konoha went too far in quashing a rebellion. The entire city must perish in flames. (further evidence of his mental and emotional disconnect from others He shows every sign of psycopathy, not being able to empathize with others, as well as the evil madness neccesary to make having the many die for the sins of the few believable. If he was at all redeemable, he would at least consider ceasing now that Danzo was dead. It didn't even so much as occur to the bastard).
    • The thing is, all of these are so laughably puppy kickingly evil that it's impossible to take the seriously. Sasuke is messed up in the head. He's not a tragic figure, or an evil figure, or even a sick puppy. He's turned into a flanderized version of himself. It's not a 'Fallen/Redeemed Hero' Paradigm anymore. He's just manipulation-bait. Even if Naruto manages to flip him again, it'll really just be more 'Sasuke gets manipulated to do things, just by the goodguys this time'. I'm sure he'll end up a minion for whoever replaces Madara as the evil figure in the inevitable continuation. And then by the next Big Bad. And the next. He's the Knuckles of Naruto.
      • Knuckles was a Well-Intentioned Extremist when he was manipulated. The fact that Sasuke has displayed insane evil laughter and had a You Have Failed Me... moment all his own indicate that while he's being manipulated, there is evil intent and feeling all his own beyond his manipulator's instructions.
        • Or possibly Sasuke can be redeemed because he is so obviously crazy. Once he has/if he does snap out of his epic Freak-Out, he'll realize what he's done is completely stupid. Sasuke toes the line mightily, as the fact is he hasn't actually managed to do permanent Moral Event Horizon crossing damage. Sure, the intent was there, but the execution was lacking.
        • To the original post I completely agree about what Kishimoto is trying to pull of and how upping the ante isn't working but besides the Draco in leather pants crowd whose continued support of Sasuke drives the author to prove that Sasuke has fallen and needs to be redeemed,there is also a faction who declared him fallen beyond redemption since he first left Kohona and that he should have been killed on the spot so ultimately whatever stance Kishi would have taken somebody would have complained.
        • I still think that, for Sasuke, Redemption Equals Death. He must die, because Konoha can never take him back after what he's done, but he will not die evil. Instead, he'll join forces with Naruto and defeat Madara, being mortally wounded in the process.
          • Actually... I think this is probably true. Especially if you look at the Arcs. I was wrong in comparing Sasuke to Knuckles. He's Raistlin. He'll die, but he won't do it "for the world" or "for naruto" or whatever. He'll do it, because it'll be the thing that spites Madara the most thereby finally satisfying his revenge. And, inevitably, he'll end up coming back just like Raistlin, because Fan Favorite 's never go away, no matter how much half the fanbase hates them. Give it ten-twelve years and we'll have cheesetastic powermetal songs about Sasuke too.
            • I was actually thinking about how similar Raistlin and Sasuke are. I mean, yeah, their plots with Caramon and Naruto respectively is just the basic Cain and Abel story, but there are lots of other similarities. Both run into their "mentor" figure who they will later betray during a test, Raistlin meets Fistandantilus(well, his ghost) during the test of High Sorcery, and Sasuke during the Chunin exams. Both get marked during their tests, Raistlin with his golden skin(and hourglass eyes, but those are given to him by Par-Salian) and Sasuke with the curse mark. Both have a person who wants to bring them back to the side of good, Naruto considers Sasuke like a brother, and of course Caramon actually is Raistlin's brother. Both Raistlin and Sasuke are also considered geniuses, and both are prone to jealousy. Sasuke with when he realized Naruto was advancing faster than him pre-timeskip and Raistlin was jealous of Caramon during most of his life( especially during his test when the fake Caramon revealed he could cast spells even better than Raistlin, and Raistlin stabbed and killed him for it). Fistandantilus and Orochimaru are A LOT alike as well. They both use Grand Theft Me to make themselves immortal, and both try to absorb their apprentices, but get tricked into getting absorbed instead. It was also revealed in Dragons of the Hourglass Mage that Fistandantilus hung out "inside" of Raistlin and could talk to him, like how Orochimaru could talk to Sasuke.
              • This troper would not be surprised that, if Kishimoto wants to draw the story out even more, we see a very-similar-to-Dragonlance time travel arc, probably back to either post-Juubi or the First Hokage's time, to discover Madara's weakness. Especially if they manage to redeem Sasuke in the upcoming fight.

Naruto is going to succeed where Danzo failed.

Essentially, he's never going to be Hokage. He's simply going to gain the title of Kage. As in not a Kage, but the Kage. The other Kages will answer to him. I mean, let's face it... After the fight he had with Pain, it's pretty easy to say that anyone who isn't named Danzo within Konoha would take Naruto's advice under strong advisement at the very least. Amegakure might not have a Kage, but Konan's their leader and she's sworn to follow Naruto. Gaara might not follow him unconditionally, but it's safe to say that if Naruto asks for Gaara's trust in believing that Naruto is uniting the world, Gaara will give it. So that's three countries in his pocket, two of them with Kages. He's halfway there and he hasn't even realized it yet.

• Except for the fact that this doesn't square thematically with the series. Naruto ruling over the world would essentially be the same thing as what Madara and Danzo are trying to accomplish, simply through less distasteful methods. The way Kishimoto is writing, it is clear that he is setting Madara and Danzo in the wrong for believing that the only way to attain peace is by having someone being given absolute power and then lording said power over others to keep them from fighting for each other. Naruto represents the "right" way of doing things by implying that true peace will be achieved by having people come together as equals to build a better future. The most ideal example of this will be Naruto not assuming a position of absolute authority, but by becoming Hokage and working together with the other Kages to build a truly peaceful world.

Sasuke Will Give Naruto Jyuubi

After Killer Bee has his 8-tails captured, Madara will get Naruto. As the Kyuubi extraction nears completion Sasuke will break down, and return the Kyuubi and the other Biju to Naruto making Naruto Jyuubi Jinchuriki. Madara will attack and (seemingly?) kill Sasuke. Naruto, pissed off will open his eyes to reveal, One eye Mageyko Sharingan, the other Rinnegan. After an epic battle, the power of Jyuubi is destroying Naruto, but Sasuke or Sakura or someone will heal Naruto who will take the battle inside Madara where it is revealed that Madara is {{the Sage of Six Paths' Ezra Leven Thumps}}. Naruto kills Madara by summoning the other 8 jinchuriki and combining their power with his to form Kage (shadow) Rasengan.

Madara Is The Mask

He's always wearing another mask on top of it to cover up the green skin side-effect. He gets his immortality and intangibility from its cartoony superpower effect. Remember when Madara said, "If Itachi knew everything about me I would be dead." He meant if Itachi had attacked the mask, it would kill him! Search your heart, you know it to be true. Oh and, just to disprove a lot of WMG's on this page, in 358, Sasuke VS. Deidara, Sasuke cuts through Tobi with his sword. It would kill a normal person, but Tobi gets back up. Almost as if...

• One, Madara used the same "make attacks phase through me" trick on Sasuke before the fight with Deidara as he has been using in every fight since. Two, Madara wore a different mask at the time of the Uchiha massacre.
  • But Madara has unquestionably become more powerful since then. Perhaps his mask some how evolves as his power increases.
    • Actually the attack goes through Tobi was just an attempt to disprove the "Madara is possesing Tobi" WMGs not proof.

There is an equivalent country/continent to China in the Naruto world.

Because one, the entire world can't be a strangely Japanese place, and two, Tenten had to come from SOMEWHERE with a vaguely Chinese culture. It's quite possible that she's an immigrant from this place I have just made up, or her family came from there.

• .... Tenten comes from Konoha? Though, that said, there probably is. We've seen hits that there are other places beyond the seas before, though only in the movies.
• There was a vaguely European-style location in the Gelel movie, the place that had no idea what chakra was. Other continents besides the main one are entirely possible.

Rin is Sakura's Mother.

Even if this is anime, the two of them look too similar in their prime to not have at least some periphery relation. Sakura could've also gotten additional medical jutsu knowledge from Rin along with Tsunade. HECK Tsunade could be Sakura's GRANDMOTHER! ... I'm sorry, I don't know what came over me...

• One problem: Rin is the same age as Kakashi. Kakashi is 26 at the beginning of the series, and Sakura is 12. Unless Rin got TEEN PREGNANT I doubt she's her mother.
• Bigger problem: Kakashi believes Rin is dead. If Rin is still alive, she sure isn't in Konoha.

Sasuke is the anti-Creator's Pet.

That is, Kishimoto hates Sasuke. It would go a long way to explain some most practically all of the crap Sasuke's been through since, well at least since the start of Shippuuden/part 2.

• The flaw here is that Sasuke is cited as being Kishimoto's favorite character to draw.
  • To draw, yes. He said nothing about his personality. One can appreciate a character's looks (or find them easier to draw than any other character—given how many pages Kishimoto puts out on a regular basis, I wouldn't put it past him to like drawing Sasuke simply because it takes less time and effort to do so) and still despise them as a character.
    • Though he did say it was in spite of him being very difficult to draw.

Madara is absolutely, 100%, batshit insane.

It would explain some of his behaviour.

• See collected WMG 17 above, and WMG about being possessed by the Jyuubi for reason for batshit insanity.

Madara is either lying about or thinks he's telling the truth about the Moon Eye Plan.

At this point, we can't trust a single word coming out of his mouth. For all we know The plan might just be just a way to manipulate everyone so he can reach the next step of his grand master plan.

This is a unifying theory about the last few Madara WMGs. Madara likely thinks he's telling the truth about the moon eye plan. Unfortunately, he's batshit insane, and doesn't realize that the plan makes no sense at all. His insanity, Sasuke's rising insanity, Danzo's insanity, Itachi's Insanity, the insanity of Pein's masterplan, and the general insanity of the Uchiha clan, can all be traced to one place. The Juubi. It's probably what powers the Sharingan, given how many it has, and the more evolved your Sharingan gets, the more sway the Juubi has over a the user. We also know that the Juubi is also connected to the Demon King Statue. Now, the most insane plans we've seen have all been from people either with highly evolved sharingans, or who are connected to the Statue.

These plans also make no sense when you look at them objectively. Madara wants to bounce a Tsukuyomi off the moon. Pein intended to turn the Bijuu into some sort of superweapon but never seemed clear on how that would work or why on earth blowing up countries would cause peace. It might end the war, but half his issue with Hanzo was how Hanzo ran Ame during 'peacetime.' Itachi's chagning characterization left him almost Skizophrenic, and most Danzo's actions don't make any sense at all.

The only common thread here is the Sharingan/Demon King Statue. At the center of it all is the Juubi, who's happily manipulating everyone it can and trying to put itself back together. Needless to say, as happens every time someone tries to use a Cosmic Horror for their own ends, Madara's plan is almost certainly going to end terribly for him and set the Juubi free to ravage the world. Or worse.

• This Troper could see it happening.
  • Itachi was anything but insane. The whole time, he was acting a part. He did everything he could to make his own grand master plan (which was not convoluted, just complicated) succeed, but Madara's sheer skill with More Than Mind Control prevented it from going just as planned.
    • Was it? Or was that only what Itachi thought at the end? Because let's be honest here, for a brilliant shinobi, that was one of the stupider plans over all. "Oh, I shall kill my family except my Brother so that he can live a good life and then kill me." is, in my mind, up there with "I know! I'LL TURN THE MOON INTO A GIANT SHARINGAN AND MINDCONTROL THE WORLD!" He may have been acting a part and playing out his own plan, but that plan wasn't any saner than Madara's.
  • Maybe he found out that the Juubi was influnceing him and his fight with Sasuke was an attempt at ending the Juubi's control over him and setting up Sasuke to take out Madara. The crow in Naruto was to deal with Sasuke if he fell under the Juubi's control.

Sasuke is Asexual.

Based on the fact that he has never even shown a hint of sexuality toward either gender.

• Sasuke is Vengeance-sexual
  • Can it really be called Single-Target Sexuality if the "target" isn't a person (or an object), but an abstract concept, such as "vengeance"?
    • This fanfic apparently takes it that way... (Warning: Don't eat chips while reading it. It hurts to have chip pieces lodged in your sinus...)

Madara's current body is made from Zetsu's spores, or maybe the other way around.

When Madara broke his arm off the inside of it was white. In the scene where he's shown with a regrown arm (which looks to be "fresh" judging by the liquid on it) there appears to be a large mass of Zetsu's spores/body parts. The same chapter also showed that white Zetsu can have the parts flat-out move autonomously, instead of just growing on whoever.

The 'Forbidden Jutsu' from the current filler arc is really not that powerful.

Seriously? It gathers nature chakra? Easily? Without Sage Training! Wow, that's great. What a shame all it can be used for is a not-that-impressive Explosion. 'Chakra-->Explosion' is about as basic as it gets when it comes to manipulation.

Naruto and Sasuke are not going to die

Naruto really doesn't seem like the kind of series that would end with a downer ending, and we also have Itachi's gift to wait for.

• • The gift was Jossed

Sasuke doesn't want to destroy Naruto, Naruto's spirit, and Konoha

At the very least, that's not all he has planned. This line (Link's dead) sounds a bit like a Suspiciously Specific Denial ("I am absolutely not planning, or have planned, anything other then the hate-fueled destruction of my village and stupid friend, nosireebob"), and I wouldn't put it past Kishimoto to reveal that Madara has been manipulating Sasuke and Naruto's lives since before they were born, Naraku-style and that Sasuke has long since figured both that and Madara's Instrumentality plot.

• Seems increasingly likely, though given how often Sasuke's character seems to change, who really knows.

The moral of the story of Naruto is Poor Communication Kills.

Almost everything that has happened in the story has been a result of people not talking to eachother.

• I thought the moral was that Aoba is responsible for everything.

Akatsuki's next step...

Will be to recruit new members. They're going to need some back up if they want to capture Naruto and Killer Bee.

• Or alternatively, join with Kabuto and bring five members plus one other person back from the dead

"Madara" never existed.

In fact, he's actually a future timeline Sasuke who went back to before Konoha was founded to get his revenge. Think about it... It explains so much...

• Nah, Sasuke's too myopic to be able to pull off a stunt like that.
• Even if he isn't, this would make "Sasuke lives" a foregone conclusion, and if Sasuke's alive in the future then Naruto's alive, so it's a relatively happy ending for all, except for the whole "driving Sasuke insane with hatred before the 'My God, What Have I Done?' moment" thing.
• So what happens if Sasuke ever attacked Madara? Would it cause a paradox that resets his life like when Superboy-Prime punched the Time Trapper?

Keeping with the Theme Naming, there are three more Sharingan or Mangekyo-Sharingan jutsu, called Izanami, Ame-no-Uzume, and Inari

Perhaps two of these are the names of Madara's intangibility technique and his teleportation ability.

• Well, whatever that is (it seems his teleportation and intangibility as the same power; he becomes intangible by just teleporting part of his body instead of all of it) it apparently is not a Mangekyo Sharingan technique, as Madara uses it when only using his regular Sharingan.
  • It's possible that this a part of the eternal sharingan's power though.

Sasuke's implantation of Itachi's eyes failed/will fail

Because seriously, that is a ridiculous power-up; and although it does cement Sasuke as firmly on the "completely bat-testicles insane" side of the fence, it seems a little, I don't know, stupid? That, and I really freaking hate Sasuke at the moment, so until he does something cool (my opinions of characters are subject to change, given a good reason), I want everything to go wrong for him. Here's the options for what I think/hope is going to happen:

a) Madara was just screwing with him: he didn't do anything at all with his eyes, which would fit with the "no pain" comment. Of course, we'll have to completely re-evaluate our reading of Madara's character (which we do anyways with each chapter that reveals part of his plan), but that would be the most epic in-story trolling to ever take place.

b) As above, except Madara actually did remove Sasuke's eyes; he just didn't put Itachi's in. Why? Because even he thinks that Sasuke is being a whiny bitch, and wants to take him down a notch or ten.

c) Madara replaced Sasuke's eyes with Itachi's, but there was a flaw in the process—I don't know, maybe his Tobi personality took over in the middle of it, or he just isn't all he thinks he is—and it went wrong to a greater (eyes completely useless for any and all purposes aside for filling in eyelids) or lesser (can't use all those l33t jutsus) degree.

d) Everything went as planned, except Itachi's visual impairment carried over to Sasuke. Think you can find yet another brother? (Madara: "Damn, I really should have thought of that.")

Now that I think about it, the last option is the most likely; it goes with the current flow of the story, yet allows for a future weakness. And a better one than "Sasuke doesn't understand the power of friendship" because DAMN I am tired of that.

• Or perhaps Itachi booby-trapped his eyes somehow. Maybe Sasuke will be in the middle of his fight with Naruto, and then suddenly something will go wrong with his eyes.
• A seems the most likely to me, with a healthy dash of Sasuke's Chronic Backstabbing Disorder being the catalyst for Madara to reveal it.
• This WMG is like a mini-Wish Fulfillment Fic, only it's a WMG and not a Fanfic. Sasuke is the patron saint of New Powers as the Plot Demands, and with Sasuke having overused his Mangekyo, him having Itachi's eyes would actually benefit Madara.

During an important, epic future battle

Naruto will be backed into a corner. Everything and everyone is all serious. Naruto then thinks to himself: 'No choice. I guess I'll have to use that Jutsu. I know Kakashi-sensei said I really shouldn't use it on anyone... and I really don't wanna subject anybody to that, but I'm up against the wall here. I gotta do it'. Naruto then pulls off an epic Shadow Clone combo, gets behind his opponent, and: "Ultimate Secret Leaf Village Jutsu! THOUSAND YEARS OF DEATH!!!. It would be a great surprise, and you all can't tell me you wouldn't enjoy seeing Sasuke flying through the air, propelled skyward by Naruto's "attack" while clutching the seat of his pants.

• I still can't stop giggling at that mental image. Anyone feel like drawing that?

The reason Naruto didn't kill Sasuke

At the Blue Samurai Bridge was because of the Itachi's crow. I have a WMG about the whole thing. Itachi's crow will come into action after Sasuke gets Itachi's eyes. Naruto was somehow aware of this, and thus couldn't fully attack Sasuke then. Once both Naruto and Sasuke are active with something of Itachi's, then finally some scheme of Itachi will come into play. I think that's what he meant when he said "I can't tell you now".

Naruto's statement about Both Naruto and Sasuke dying

Is actually a pointer towards both a Heroic Sacrifice and overall compromise about his Ninja word. Naruto wants to anger Sasuke so much that he will want to obliterate Naruto. Remember, Sasuke is nuts, but is also one of the few people who can actually kill Kyuubi!Naruto, and infuriated enough, he won't be caring about capturing Naruto alive. Therefore, Naruto wants to arrange it so, so that both end up killing each other. (the whole "hit me with all your anger" thing).Naruto killing Sasuke will remove a threat from his village. Sasuke killing Naruto will both kill Kyuubi, a threat that even Yondi had trouble defeating, plus he will incapacitate Madara and the Akatsuki totally with them loosing a Bijuu.

• Except nothing we've seen suggests Sasuke is competant enough to do that. Killing a jinchuriki without extracting the bijuu basically requires the Chunky Salsa Rule. Seeing as hate filed rage tends to impare one's judgment, it doesn't seem likely that Sasuke would be able to kill Naruto, even if he's physically capable of doing so. Remember, at the end of Part I, Sasuke blew a hole through Naruto's lung (twice), and then the Healing Factor kicked in and he recovered practically instantly from something that would be a fatal wound to anyone else.
  • Ah, well, I wasn't talking of current skill level, just that his EMS would perhaps control Kyuubi. Naruto can then allow himself to be killed a la Itachi, and also take down Sasuke with him. A sensible Akatsuki member would hold back, but a angry Sasuke wouldn't care. That is perhaps what Naruto is counting upon, the EMS being strong enough to kill a willing Kyuubi!Naruto even with his Healing Factor.
  • But what about the Hyuuga clan? It hasn't been mentioned for about 400 chapters, but Naruto promissed to see to it that the Caged Bird Seal system is eliminated. To keep his word, he has to live long enough to see it through to the end.
    • Naruto's precise goal is to change the clan, and he has already made an impact on Neji and Hinata, although it's unclear if he thinks it's enough. He notes that he'll do quite a few things after he becomes Hokage, and always says he never goes back on his word. While he seems to be reconsidering how likely he is to bring Sasuke back, which is a prerequisite for becoming Hokage, so it's possible he could see this as a reason to not give up.

The crazyer an Uchiha is the stronger he gets.

All of them run on With Great Power Comes Great Insanity

• • Averted with Itachi and Obito, and probably Shisui.

The After the End parts of Naruto are going to become more important.

Just look at 488; all the technology is clearly a mix of old but-somewhat-working things, and random bits cobbled together to keep them running. If this is the stuff being used by the Daimyos, it's likely some of the best out there. And it's clearly seen better days. And then they spent a bunch of time on it. 'The End' was probably caused by the Juubi, and beating it and Madara will require other lost technology.

• Since you just lobbed it over the plate... The 'ancient technology' that will be used to combat the Juubi is actually, you guessed it, Gunmen. These will be opposed by various biomechanical creatures that run on angst. And it will be AWESOME.
  • ...Does that make the Rasengan concentrated Spiral Energy?! DUDE!!
    • Nope, its just chakra... that can be substituteded with Spiral Energy for a bigger attack. The Raikage, though, is concentrated Spiral Energy.
• Alternatively, the Naruto world is stuck at the tail end of the Age of Strife. Chakra is actually a precurser to psykers, but humanity's evolution isn't quite there, yet. Furthermore, everyone's at war, and Naruto has yet to face the true horrors of the rest of the world and unite everyone as the God-Emperor of Mankind. Or the God-Emperor of Mankind will show up (perhaps after the Sixth Hokage's death) and, unfortunately, kick everyone's asses.
  • Conversely, the Naruto world is a colonized planet lost to the Age of Strife, where psykers are accepted as ninja, because the Imperial Truth has been lost to time as the legend of the Sage of the Six Paths. Again, this explains the ramshackle technology and alternative geography we see in canon.

Karin will join Konoha's Interrogation Force

Probably not going to happen, but still a possibility. Her status as a Living Lie Detector can be really useful in such a situation, not to mention she already has experience with being a jailer. Not sure she has the right attitude though, looking at her interaction with Ibiki.

• "Tell me what you know" "Ah bite me" XD

Orochimaru will eventually either regain his body, or completely take over Kabuto.

Please Elaborate

• There isn't much else to say. Kabutimaru is temporary; Orochimaru will replace him.
  • Given that Kabuto has gone from wanting revenge on Sasuke to wanting his Sharingan, it's possible that Orochimaru's remains are slowly taking control with him, although it's possible that rather than Orocimaru seizing control of Kabuto, he's gradually changing Kabuto until he essentially becomes Orochimaru.
    • Why Kabuto won't try and release Orochimaru from Itachi's prison?
      • Because he's afraid of being the Uke of Orochumaru again. He wants to stay being Caliph instead of the Caliph and not getting back Orochimaru... Unless he does it with the goal to control him somehow and it will go wrong... But then he can claim, that he never betrayed Orochimaru and will plot on to fuck him over somehow.

Kabutomaru plans to betray Madara.

And he'll probably succeed too. The final fight will end up being Team 7 versus Kabutorochimadara.

• Given Kabutomaru's Chronic Backstabbing Disorder, this is a VERY educated guess.

Despite what Naruto thinks, the "boy with power in his eyes" isn't Sasuke.

For no other reason than that would be too painfully obvious.

• Given the rest of the chapter, its probably Kabutimaru.
• It's Tonbo! We all know he's hiding the Rinnegan under those bandages.
  • Sharinnengan.
• Or maybe Madara will discover a way to both regain his "full power" and somehow make himself young ("prime of life" and all that).
  • Of course, the great toad refered to Jiraya as 'Jiraya-boy', so its possible that Naruto'll just fight Madara.
• And Neji might be it, actually- in activating a yet unseen form of his bloodline, he goes binkers and lashes out at everyone around him.
• Or, of course, my above WMG about Minato and Kushina's parentage is correct, and Naruto has to fight himself...

The "that Jutsu" that Fukasaku says Naruto's working to complete in Ch. 489

Is the Hiraishin no Jutsu.

• Makes sense. I don't see how Naruto could possibly fight Madara without the Hiraishin.
  • Gee, really?
    • It's too obvious. In a story that's constantly giving us more and more complex and unintelligeble plans, 'Finishing the Hirashin' is far too streight forward. Either the Finished Hirashin will be nothing like the original, or it's something that's going to come completely from left field, like some sort of super-moon-destroying jutsu to stop Madara's equally crazy plan.
    • Except they don't need to really do anything to stop the Moon's Eye plan. The Juubi is trapped in the moon. Madara need to revive The Juubi in order to have the power to reflect Tsukuyomi of the moon. The plan is self-defeating, once The Juubi's awakened there will be no spoon moon
      • That would be where the Impure World Resurrection technique comes in- an ability that not only lets you revive a person, but gives you control over the same, at the cost of one human sacrifice. Nagato would be capable of reforming the moon, even at the cost of his own life, which would be convenient for Madara anyway. Madara's fulling of tricks, and he always seems to have a backup plan.
        • Except the Juubi's body is unimprtatnt, Madara is only intersted in the chakra.
• Original poster here; I just thought of sumfin! Naruto still can't form a Rasengan without his clone's help (outside of Sage Mode, that is). Maybe that's what he's tryin' to learn how ta do! ...Nah, too anti-climactic. Never mind!
  • No I think you're on to something. But it's something from much earlier. What's the one Jutsu that Naruto has never been able to do, no matter how hard he's tried? BUSHIN NO JUTSU!
• Isn't is probably the Rasen Shuriken?
  • He's already mastered that.
• I thought it was the Tailed Beast Rasengan. Y'know, the Rasengan he's learning to use in his new controlled Nine-Tails Mode?

Madara has no faith in Sasuke winning his fight against Naruto

He's either doing this entire plan for his own amusement, or plans on taking out Naruto himself after Sasuke fails. Alternatively he's using this as a trap for Kabutomaru.

Kabuto's sixth coffin contains the Sage of the Six Paths

• Wouldn't it make more sense to revive Nagato? There's no gaurentee of being able to control the Sage of Six Paths- anything that powerful may be able to overpower the Mind Control of the Impure World Resurrection. Nagato, however, was but a shadow of what the Sage was.
  • Which is exactly why Madara says "you madman" and evident surprise that such was even possible.
    • Or maybe it's Minato, considering that Hiruzen was pretty terrified at the prospect of Orochimaru reviving Minato, to the extent that he makes absolutely sure not to allow the summoning to be completed, even if it meant letting Hashirama and Tobirama emerge. That could have had to do with the Hiraishin, or it could have had to do with the fact that it would defy the Reaper Death Seal, and he didn't want to take a chance about what would happen if Orochimaru succeeded in robbing the Shinigami.
      • It's not Minato. For starters Minato for reasons listed below wouldn't have gotten that kind of response. The other reason is that Minato could not be summoned because his soul is/was sealed. Since he was sealed inside Naruto and now presumably no longer in Naruto it's unclear on if he could be summoned NOW but he still wouldn't get that kind of response.
    • How would Madara even know what, exactly, the Sage looks like. Most people think he's a myth, so there's pretty obviously not a bunch of pictures. Plus he'd be pretty darn rotten by now.
    • For Minato, would he really get such a response out of Madara? No denying he is powerful, but enough for Madara to consider it mad to summon him? As for how Madara knows what the Sage looks like. Well, the Rinnegan would probably be a dead givaway. And remember, it isn't the actual body of the person that the Ressurection revives, it's merely a vessel created for it.
      • Don't you need the original body too? I was under the impression that's why the bodies Kabuto shows off are all somewhat... rotted looking
      • The Impure World Ressurection is a pretty weird technique. I'm pretty sure you only need to know what they look like and their name, not their actual body. And the bodies always start off in a minor state of decay, until a fuda tag is placed to completely restore them. It's sort of like a Life Note
      • You don't need the original body, but you need part of their body. At least, that's what Kabuto says to Madara when he asks the specifics of the jutsu- Kabuto also adds that Orochimaru had a pretty nice collection of dead people dnas, which he probably meant to use for experimenting and/or this technique.
    • As far as Minato goes, Madara already fought him once and walked away. Plus Orochimaru already tried it. There's no reason for Madara to react with shock.

Two things for this: Not only did Orochimaru's summon not manifest, but Madara doesn't have the Kyuubi on his side. Plus, what better fight for Naruto would there be? The personal opponent would also call back to Orochimaru's summoning Sarutobi's senseis.

• • • I suspect a Minato that intends to kill you but now is immortal would be a radically different fight from their prior battle. The Sage of Six Paths really is the most likely of the people we are currently aware of, nothing else SHOULD be a credible threat to Madara.

Kabuto's sixth coffin contains Izuna.

Madara claimed Izuna was the only person he cared about. Bringing him back from the dead would sure shock Madara.

• Would be probably not so good for the health of Kabutomaru, if Madara has said the truth...

Kabuto's sixth coffin contains the person who was in the third coffin Orochimaru was bringing out

This could suggest that Madara's surprised that Kabuto is able to summon this person, and finally show who was in the coffin before while revealing why this was kept secret until now. If it's the Fourth Hokage, who seems most likely given the Third Hokage's desperation to stop him it's possible that the summoning failed before partly because the Fourth Hokage's soul was still inside Naruto, but now that the Fourth Hokage used his one-time seal restoration, his soul is available to be summoned

• • No, the coffin contains this.
    • Another parody suggests that it's the Third Hokage's wife. Since Madara seemingly killed her, she can be summoned.

Kabuto's sixth coffin contains Sasuke

Which means that Madara has to hand over Sasuke or risk causing a time paradox.

Karin has scars or some other markings on her legs too.

She already has the world's most bizarre justification to be wearing a lab coat, why not expect a similar reason for her to always be wearing stockings?

Kyuubi isn't evil.

He just wants revenge against Madara, and will stop at nothing to get it.

• As far as we know, the Kyuubi is the embodiment of hate and resentment (at least, that's what the legends say, which also explains what happens to Naruto in the Waterfall of Truth and in his mindscape when he tries to control Kyuubi). Of course, this wouldn't make it evil per se (is it really evil if you can't do anything else?) and revenge on a bad guy *can* be seen as a good thing... However, I wouldn't go as far as claiming that it's good or even nice.

Hizashi lied about being the second born.

Something just doesn't smell right about the whole curse of fate bit. There clearly isn't anything binding about this rule, or else Hanabi would already be branded. Then, you have the fact that Hiashi and Hizashi had this whole Jacob and Esau thing going on. Now for the Jacob and Esau reference to be fully accurate, Hizashi would have to be the first born and lost his brithright to a more tenacious younger twin. He found this loss so embarrassing, he claimed to have been the second born to save face.

• Maybe Hanabi is a spare until the next leader is chosen, or if Hinata dies.

Rock Lee is capable of learning to use Sage Jutsu.

Rock Lee has trouble externalizing his own chakra, which is why he has trouble with Ninjutsu and Genjutsu, but Sage Jutsu is about gathering external chakra into your body. The training that Naruto goes through looks like something Lee would have no problem with, as he has honed his physical state to near perfection.

• Isn't his issue a problem wtih his Chakra Coils? I could be wrong and that just be fanon, but that's the impression I have. If that's the case, Nature Chackra wouldn't fix anything; he still cant manipulate it.
  • I do not know about the Chakra coils thing, but what if Nature energy did not go through them? What if because it is being drawn from outside his body he has a much easier time externalizing it, because it already came from outside of his body?
    • But it is drawn through them. It's why it can turn you to stone if you do it wrong. Besides, Fukasaku makes a big deal about how you have to have huge chakra levels to learn to use it, which Lee is never shown to have.

Zetsu's duplicates are so perfect they think that they are the original.

If you look back to the parts where what appear to be Kisame had to be a duplicate you'll notice the thing is acting as it was the real one even when no one could hear it and in its thoughts, down to genuinely freaking out when Samehada "betrays" it. This seems the most likely explanation: the real Kisame fused with Samehada actually needed to hold the fake back, becuase it acts the same as the real Kisame would have if Zetsu hadn't come it and really would have killed Bee.

Zetsu is a Reality Warper.

But not a very strong one. Seriously, spores that can create perfect duplicates of people? That's just silly. In reality he's got a very limited kekkigenkai that lets him manipulate reality. His spores are just what happens to things he's changed. Kisame, for instance, really did die. But then Zetsu changed the past, which made the dead Kisame into a double.

• • You are aware of the Transformation technique that allows one to become a perfect duplicate of someone (or most notably, an inatimate object), right? This really isn't that silly.

Naruto and Killerbee will be Put on a Bus for the next 20 or so chapters

Naruto being stuck with a fellow Jinchuuriki who can actually control his Bijuu smacks of a training montage, but in order to generate shock value of his new abilities, most of this training will take place off-screen. Meanwhile, we'll be treated to a series of chapters of how the war is going for the rest of the cast. When Naruto and Killerbee finally reappear, expect a very super-powered Naruto showing off his "Kyuubi mode"!

• Seems likely, but I'd guess Naruto will (as he seems to be doing now) have to go through multiple hoops to get KB to train him.

Madara will avoid making any public appearances

The daimyo authorized the Shinobi Alliance largely on the idea that Madara was still alive and is the head of Akatsuki, but the only proof the Kage have are their own testimonies. They can't prove Akatasuki's leader actually made his declaration of war, they can't prove the guy in the mask is really Madara, or that what he's planning it really possible. If Madara simply stays in hiding or only shows himself to people who have already seen him, then the daimyo may begin to suspect the Kage of a conspiracy to get more power.

Tobitodara.

I know, I know. EVERYONE knows this theory. But why is everyone putting it down as it just being Tobi and Madara?! Did you not SEE Kakashi's reaction to Tobi-Madara? It's gotta be Obito too, It's gotta. It's at least... his... body, * shiver*

• • Tobi/Madara has both of his Sharingan. Obito does not.
    • False: Tobi only has his right Sharingan (plus an implanted Rinnegan, which is why he now wears a mask with a left eyehole) , as did Obito when we saw him die. Oh wait - we never saw him die, just covered up by rocks. There's a chance he's still alive.
      • Actually, before getting the Rinnegan he used to have both eyes. When he fought Konan part of his mask got broken, revealing both Sharingans. However, the left one closed, as he had to use Izanagi to survive Konan's attack. That eye was the one replaced by the Rinnegan. Also, if he were Obito, or his body, he'll be around Kakashi's weight when he fought Minato. Not to mention that, in the few time we have seen a bit of his face, you can notice he is an old person.
    • Let me put forward a theory as to how this WMG is likely true. First off, did you see the back wall when Tobi replaced Sasuke's eyes? Nothing but eyes floating in tanks, and a good number of them were Sharingan. It's simple to say that he replaced his Sharingan afterward. This is backed up by: Tobi only uses his right eye for his space-time jutsu (y'know, the one that looks very similar to Kakashi's Kamui and does the same thing) because he can only do it with that eye; the other eye is not his Sharingan and doesn't have that power. This is also why he was willing to give up that eye in the fight with Konan, because he needs the right one more. Next, when Tobi breaks up the fight between Sasuke and Kakashi after the Kage summit, Kakashi tries to use his Kamui on Tobi. Before he even starts, Tobi says "Nope! Won't work" and negates it. This is the first time he's met Kakashi, so how does he know what he's going to do? Simple; he has met Kakashi before and knows what Kakashi is trying because that's his eye. Plus, Tobi and Obito have really similar hair. And their names are almost the same: drop the first letter in Obito's name, and switch around the rest and you get Tobi (and that works in Japanese, too). As for why Tobi is much larger and seemingly older than Obito? Tobi's body is clearly modified: normal people don't ooze white stuff when they lose limbs. My theory is that in order to survive, Obito had to make himself a new body, or at least part of one, and he made it adult-sized. Unfortunately, a side effect is that he ages much faster; this is why he's so driven to complete his plan, cause his life is shortened.

Sasuke is gonna die.

I know the whole point of his story arc and Naruto's motives are "No one is beyond redemptions, trust your friend Etc." but he has just jumped over the Moral Event Horizon and kept going.

• Not yet... He is heading for the Horizon, but he hasn't passed him... yet.

Madara isn't the real mastermind...

He's just an unwitting man whose being duped by the real final boss...

As we all know, very few things that are mentioned don't get used again. Now, I believe that the actual mastermind is one of the people who showed up for maybe one chapter and haven't been mentioned again. Specifically, Kushina.

• Almost certianly true, but I'm going to bet whoever the Real Final Boss is will end up getting instagibbed by a returned Orochimaru who will be the real Real Final Boss.
  • ...You did see the spoilered text, right? And my further above WMG about the parentage of a pair of characters? S

HE might just be The Dragon.

• • • I did. Doesn't mean I agree with it though.

The Uchiha bloodline has a total of 17/18 abilities...

In the case of affinities, that means that it may or may not manifest in a specific Uchiha.

1: ? Sussano'o/Izanagi

2: ? Sussano'o/Izanagi

3: Water affinity copy.

4: Fire affinity copy.

5: Lightning affinity copy.

6: ?

7: Instant Copy power of Sharingan

8: Ameterasu

9: Earth affinity copy.

10: Air affinity copy.

11: Motion tracking/ movement memorization

12: Kamui

13: Mind Control Genjutsu

14: Expanded Chakra reserves

15: Tsumiyoki

16: ?

17: Genjutsu breaking skillz?

18: ???

Thoughts on the few techniques left out, and where they go?

The Uchiha massacre was a tragic case of Poor Communication Kills facilitated by Madara.

Madara is a lying liar who lies, and he has a huge axe to grind with the Senju clan. He fed Sasuke a pack of half-truths and outright lies about the Uchiha and Senju's tension leading up to the massacre to make it look like the government's fault, hiding the real situation, which would have laid the blame squarely on his shoulders.

The 2nd Hokage had an Uchiha on his personal team, so let us assume that he was not prejudiced against them as Madara claimed. Rather, he welcomed the peace with the Uchiha after the years of war, but was more worried about Madara coming back and ruining things than his brother. He created Edo Tensei so that he could be prepared if he needed his brother back to fight off Madara again, but his real worries when the Fox struck Konoha were that Madara might be able to stir up younger members of the Uchiha into following him and restarting the struggle between the two clans. To try and strengthen the village's ties with the Uchiha, he made them the police force, fully intending it as a gesture of trust. Madara, however, outsmarted the 2nd and disguised himself, infiltrating the Uchiha anonymously and spreading around the idea that the 2nd had done it to keep the clan out of political power and to spy on their movements. Over time, this took root, and the Uchiha began to plan revolt, believing that they couldn't trust the government, while the government officials besides the Hokages began to suspect the Uchihas were intending to betray the peace and perhaps had been planning this from the start. The 2nd died long before he could resolve the situation, and Sarutobi's attempts to make peace were thwarted by the elder's paranoia and the Uchiha's bull-headed pride and old grudges against the Senju being stirred up. The massacre was a senseless waste of human life Madara engineered and caused to get revenge on the Uchiha and weaken the Leaf. Whether Sasuke cares at all when he finds this out is another story.

• If the situation was engineered, isn't that We Could Have Avoided All This?

Sai is an Uchiha

Not a belief so much as a possibility.

1. He seems to have lived with ROOT for pretty much his whole life, so he would have been out of the way during the massacre.

2. He has the black hair and dark gray eyes that seem fairly constant among Uchihas. Similarly, he has been repeatedly noted to look like Sasuke.

3. The sharingan is generally activated by large amounts of emotional stress, and Sai has never really been in any situation that would cause that sort of reaction (besides his brother's death, and that still wouldn't necessarily activate it; after all, Sasuke's didn't show up during the massacre). So, the fact that he doesn't have a sharingan doesn't do much to argue against it, either.

• I thought Sasuke's sharingan DID manifest during the massacre. Wasn't that revealed in the chapter where Sasuke remembered chasing after Itachi and seeing him crying? Although whether that actually happened is anyone's guess...

Madara already pulled off his Moon-eye genjutsu thingy it just didn't work the way he intended.

Most if not all of the events of the series have been happening in Madara's crazy world wide genjutsu. However instead of making everyone mindless sheep it became more of a virtual world fairly similar to the one he had been in before. He has some control over this new construct but most of it is used just to make him untouchable. He hopes that using the same thing again within this virtual world with a few changes would fix the problem with the first one.

Also death in the fake world just merely means release and Madara plans on dropping out of the world to retreive those who escaped once the second moon eye thing is in place.

The only other people who knew what was going on were Itachi and now Sasuke due to their mangekyo sharigans. However Itachi realized that he wouldn't be able to do anything about it with Madara watching him so closely so he purposely turned Sasuke into the crazy nutbag that he currently is. Since so far the only way they know to free people is by killing them Sasuke's goal of destorying Konoha would actually be good for everyone. However Madara doesn't realize what's going on cause he just thinks Sasuke is insane due to his own machinations and the actions of Itachi.

Once Sasuke rips Konoha a new one he plans on committing suicide and then teaming up with all the freed people to hunt down Madara in the real world to kill Madara for real and saving the world.

And the reason they haven't told anyone is so one Madara won't know that they know and two who the heck would believe them?

• That is now personal canon. Why? Because it's really cool.
  • Same here.

The powers of the Sharingan vary based on the person to possess them and the circumstances under which they are acquired

While there is a pool of commonly shared powers, and multiple people can possess the same power at once they can manifest according to a person's nature and desired power, like Geass does in Code Geass Nightmare of Nunnally. For the former, Itachi was forced to deceive many people about his true nature, and gained a talent for Sharingan-based genjutsu besides Tsukuyomi (the jutsu he uses to influence the woman to lure Jiraiya away from Naruto). For the latter, Obito is fighting an invisible enemy in Kakashi Gaiden, and so acquires the ability to see the color of people's chakra. Sasuke's Sharingan grants him the ability to read Haku's moves in the middle of a critical fight.

In the case of transplants, this may influence what ones are inherited. It's possible that Danzo took Shisui's eye for the power it had, but Izanagi could have derived from his strong desire for self-preservation (fleeing the Kage summit, taking Karin hostage, being hesitant to sacrifice himself as a diversion). Kakashi may have also wanted the ability to predict his enemy's movements so that he could use Lightning Blade, and the copying ability may have been based on his desire to expand his repertoire of jutsus.

Much like Enchu of Muhyo and Roji's Bureau of Supernatural Investigation, Sasuke will make a Heel Face Turn and then go to prison for life.

There are many parallels between Naruto's quest to bring Sasuke back and Muhyo's quest to bring Enchu back; both of them were part of a group of three close friends, the person who left was jealous of the main character (althogh Enchu is the hard-working one while Muhyo is the genius), Sasuke and Enchu were turned evil by the death of a family member while being manipulated by the Big Bad, who shared some responsibility for the loved one's death (Teeki killed Enchu's mother while Madara participated in the Uchiha massacre, and most likely summoned the Nine-Tailed Fox to attack Konoha, leading to the massacre, both main characters are determined to bring back their friends or die with them, and both Sasuke and Enchu are obsessed with causing pain to the respective main characters (although it took Sasuke until his confrontation with Naruto to move on to this motive). Enchu starts out about as evil as Sasuke is after hearing the truth about the massacre, it stands to reason that if he does get redeemed and doesn't get Redemption Equals Death, he'll be imprisoned or subject to some other punishment, since his actions are too severe to be ignored and heroes rarely hand down the death penalty, but will acknowledge his friendship with Naruto and Sakura before they part ways.

Shikamaru is behind everything.

Shikamaru is basically acknowledged as the most intelligent character in the series and while he is lazy he's lazy like Yoh from Shaman King. He's been secretly plotting behind the scenes and intends to help Madara acheive his goal but once that's done he's going to take control of that ultimate genjutsu and then make the entire world his. That way he can be as lazy as he wants for the rest of his life cause he can make it so that no one will ever bother him again.

• So the laziest character has been pulling strings so he can be lazy? sounds like a pretty stupid thing for a genius to do.

Inuzuka Jutsu Theories

I'm not exactly sure how ninjutsu works. I presume that the same jutsu will have different effects when performed by different ninja (ie; a stronger and more skilled shinobi can perform a superior version of a jutsu without having to make it a separate jutsu.) Combining this with a previous WMG suggesting Kiba's going to upgrade his Beast Mimicry jutsu.... what if the Beast Mimicry works on an inverted Bishonen Line with the jutsu reaching its greatest possible power when you look like this?

Oh, and the third databook says Kiba learned how to use the Whirlwind Wolf Fang (旋風狼牙, Senpū Rōga) between Part I and Part II. They don't tell us what it is. If anyone can think of what it would possibly be other than Dual Wolf Fang + Wind Release, please share it. You're obviously a creative genius for thinking of it in the first place.

• thats easy, they surround the enemy by forming a whirlwind with both of them circling the enemy and rip the enemy apart.

Cloud was gearing up for a war in order to conquer the other nations prior to Madara's involvement

The Cloud village has been known to kidnap those with powerful Jutsu, Chakra or Kekki Genki, has been explicably stated to have been collecting Jutsu and gearing up their military might in a time of general peace between the powerful nations. In fact, the other large village's (Leaf, Stone, Mist, Sand) have been de-militarizating themselves. Add in the Darwinist Raikage, his general reluctance to work with the other nations, and hints of a larger agenda, it wouldn't surprise me to learn Kumo was preparing to invade the other nations.

The Fourth Raikage was not behind either kidnapping incident, and may be rather new to his position.

• For one thing, Kushina's kidnapping was way before his time, given that both he and Minato were the Fourth of their village. Secondly, given how annoyed the Raikage gets at subterfuge and kidnapping, like when he gets pissed off at Danzo, the other villages' under-the-table cooperation with terrorists like Akatsuki, or his unshakable resolve to see Sasuke die for kidnapping his brother, I don't think it's very in-character for him to be behind these underhanded attempts to collect unusual ninja. However, while the Raikage was growing up, we saw the Third Raikage briefly, who apparently held the job far into old age instead of dying young. Not to judge a book by his cover, but he looks pretty damn shifty, and if he lived to be quite old in his job, there's a good chance that he was still in charge all those years ago when the Hyuuga incident took place.

Naruto Dies

We had a bit of foreshadowing during Naruto's most recent Sasuke confrontation, and what better way for the author to "please" both sides of the fandom and avoid death threats for favoring one pairing over another than to give Naruto a glorious, honorable, and noble death! For bonus points, it would be a beautiful ending...although, I admit that could backfire spectacularly.

• Or Kishimoto could just Gainax Ending the series by having it end right after Naruto's final fight with Sasuke, once everything else is resolved. Both run at each other, Sasuke screams he's going to kill Naruto, Naruto screams that he told Sasuke he'd die with him, Super-Duper-Ultimate Rasengan hits Ultra-Wowie-Uber Chidori and then boom, the series ends.
  • If Kishimoto pulls a stunt like that, he will Never Live It Down, and he'll seriously tempt the animators to write their own ending. We know from Dragonball GT that things like that tend not to end well.

Naruto's Dark Side will die with Sasuke in the final battle

• Dark!Naruto described himself as 'who Naruto really was'. Naruto said that the next time they fought, both he and Sasuke would die. Now, if Naruto nearly died, Dark!Naruto would get really pissed at Sasuke to the point that he would kill himself just to kill Sasuke. However, it may be possible to kill Dark!Naruto without actually killing Naruto. Rid of the darkness forever, Naruto is free to bring his dreams and ideals to reality.

Sasuke will pull off a last minute Heel Face Turn

This could be in several ways:

• Naruto finally gets his therapy jutsu skills to work on him, convincing Sasuke that continous revenge is not a healthy life style to live.
• Sasuke actually grows a few brain cells and realises all the information and motivation he's gotten so far are from a member of the family who has a serious grudge against Konoha, not exactly the most reliable person.
• Sasuke has actually been preparing to Heel Face Turn ever since Madara recruited him, he did the same to Orochimaru after he outlived his usefulness.
• Sasuke won't be willing to fight alongside Kabutimaru, given that the latter won't be pleased with the former's behaviour.
• Itatchi's gift to Naruto causes one of the above
• Itatchi's gift allows Naruto to find out that Sasuke's been influenced by another scource, be it left over curse seal, Orochimaru's soul (somehow) or Madara's influence. This could even allow for a complete happy ending, given that Sasuke will be proven free of a lot of blame for the last two, the blame going to Kabutimaru and Madara anyway. Sure Sasuke will have to repay people somehow, but he will have to work for his happy ending at this point anyway.

Each Jinchuriki has a unique mark from the Bijuu, which is not identical to that of past and future Jinchuriki of the same Bijuu.

Since Kushina does not have wiskers, it appears her Kyuubi attribute is her red hair, similar to the Kyuubi's fur. Therefore, I posit that Shukaku's previous Jinchuriki had attributes other than Gaara's eye circles- perhaps puffy cheecks or a huge torso.

• • But Naruto was born with the whiskers and even if that was because his mother was a Jinchuuriki, she had red hair before having the Kyuubi placed inside of her
  • The whiskers might be a Kyuubi mark, the two ninjas that decided to eat the Kyuubi had them as well.

Concerning the nature of Bijuu seals and their effects on Jinchuriki.

• If the seal is forcibly broken, the Bijuu will be released or extracted and contained, and the Jinchuriki dies.
• If the seal is released by the Jinchuriki while the Jinchuriki has control over the Bijuu, the Jichuriki is able to transform fully into a Bijuu, retain conciousness, and revert at will.
• If the seal is released by the Jinchuriki or breaks on its own, but the Bijuu has less than three tails, the Jinchuriki transforms into a Bijuu, but the Bijuu has control. However, the Jinchuriki will revert to human form upon losing conciousness (two tails) or waking up (one tail).
• If the seal is released by the Jinchuriki or breaks on its own without the Jinchuriki having control over the Bijuu, and the Bijuu has at least three tails, the Jinchuriki permanently merges with the Bijuu and the Bijuu is released. The three tails threshold is evidenced by the fact that Gaara and Yugito were able to revert after transforming out of control, but Yagura appartently wasn't, as Sanbi was found in the wild.

Naruto is going to use every technique he ever learned against Madara.

Naruto is picking up new abilities and power boosts like mad recently. It makes sense he'd have to use all of them against Madara.

• Sounds likely. Plus, given that he still can't do the basic Bushin, I bet that'll be the key to beating him.
  • Apparently, Word of God says that his final battle will be against Sasuke. This still is fairly likely to happen, and it could give the Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors that Yamato mentioned a chance to come into play, with Sasuke countering Naruto's Rasen Shuriken with a Fire jutsu or even Amaterasu, and Naruto having to find some way to deal with Sasuke's fire jutsus without water jutsus.

One or more Hyuuga clan members will teach Naruto how to fight with his eyes closed.

Sasuke and Madara are still very dangerous to Naruto, even if he is vastly stronger than them, because eye contact with them can cripple him. The solution is obvious: Naruto needs to fight with his eyes closed and use his sensory powers in lieu of eyesight. The best choice for this would be a Hyuuga, not because they ever fight with their eyes closed, but because they routinely process 360 degrees of visual information without being affected by line-of-sight, which is exactly what Naruto would be doing if he's using his sensory powers to fight with his eyes closed. Mind you, this doesn't do much for dealing with obsticles, but they're able to deal with rapidly receiving information on target, range and bearing.

• I dunno, having people who get around line of sight by using magical 360 vision teach someone who doesn't have that vision how to fight blindly seems like a terrible idea, and like something Naruto would try.
  • Better have Gai train him. After all, he already spent ungodly amounts of time developing the means to fight against a Sharingan.

How Madara became Tobi

• Had this idea a couple of months ago, but after finding this page...guess I'll see what other people think of it.

1. Madara was mortally wounded by the First Hokage at the Valley of the End.

2. Zetsu happens to come across his body and discovers he isn't dead -yet-. Madara then convinces Zetsu to work for him and he is taken away to be kept alive. Then Zetsu keeps Madara alive with regular chakra infusions, similar to what he did with Sasuke at the Kage Meeting.

3. Madara and Orochimaru meet up at some point before Kakashi Gaiden and they join forces, but not before Orochimaru teaches Madara a prototype version of his immortality jutsu, which causes the victims body to decay rapidly after being taken over and is permanent. Orochimaru vastly improves the technique later but never reveals the new version to Madara.

4. Kakashi Gaiden. Obito is nearly killed, an Akatsuki member/spy (Possibly Zetsu again) finds him, discovers Obito has the Sharingan, and takes him back to Madara, who ordered any Uchiha with an activated Sharingan should be taken to him for Madara's body switching.

5. Madara, in Obito's body, realizes that while he needs Obito's body to achieve his goals and his spys tell him of Danzo's plot involving Itachi.

6. Madara assists Itachi in massacring the Uchiha clan, and then steals many of their corpses.

7. Orochimaru steals a couple from Madara (And Danzo got his Sharingarm with Mokudon from Orochimaru) and Madara puts the useable body parts and eyes in special containers (The huge wall of cubbies with the Uchiha symbol over each hole that was behind Sasuke and Tobi in two different apperances) to replace his body parts with as they decayed. (This is why he wasn't bothered by losing an arm at all...he just replaced it a few minutes later. Also why Tobi hasn't used the Mangekyo Sharingan yet...he hasn't implanted a replacement Sharingan with the Mangekyo yet.)

8. When Kaboro used Edo Tensei to revive the fallen Akatsuki members (Except Hidan...) plus one...the case that wasn't shown was probably Madara's original body (Which retained the EMS!), which by this point had been long gone. Either as a replacement for Tobi's body or to ursup Tobi.

No, I can't figure out when Tobi was ever the Mizukage, since he would have been the third? Fourth was a Jinchuuriki and Fifth is still alive. There was more to my theory, but I've forgotten...must reread... Also..although this is very widely known, I figure I may as well throw it out there again. Tobi is Obito. Literally. Start at the 'o' in Tobi and look around. o-b-i-T-o.

• Just when we thought the "Tobito" theory was dead it returns.

Uchiha Mikoto was the masked culprit that threatened to kill baby Naruto in chapter 500

Alternatively to the above if it was someone else Mikoto at least alerted them

I don't know why but I don't think it was her. For one the text says mysterious MAN. And I don't know I just have a feeling that its Madara, infact the Naruto wiki has jumped the gun and outright stated that its Madara

But Mikoto obviously had something to do with it, no one else saw Kushina leave after all. 

• But wouldn't Madara know that Naruto was the new Jinchuriki, and thus he needed him alive? I suggest that it was either Fugaku or Danzo, depending on whether the Uchiha clan was really planning a coup or the Massacre was orchestrated without legitimate provocation and everyone is lying about it (therefore, we know that either Danzo and/or Fugaku is a traitor, but until we get a crediable account of what happened that night, we don't know who the traitor(s) really is/are.
  • I know, but, whoever it is probably figured that threatening Naruto was the best way to make Kushina lose focus. Plus he's not the Jinchuriki yet, its still Kushina.
    • The man is wearing the mask we saw Madara wear in a flashback, and we know now that Madara orchestrated the Kyuubi incident. Why wouldn't it be him?

Madara isn't an Uchiha, but rather an Uzumaki

• Chapter 500 has Kushina explain that her people, who were very good at seals, were scattered during the last ninja war and that Madara somehow knew her seal would be weakest when she gave birth. It's possible an Uzumaki, yearning for revenge, somehow gained a Sharingan, took on Madara's identity and assembled Akatsuki to gather the bijuu for his own reasons. After his attempt to steal Kyuubi failed, he decided to wait and see if he could find another way to get the beast, explaining the need for Sasuke and Nagato. It'd explain why he so easily "betrayed" the Uchiha and why he hasn't used any kind of MS powers yet; he's not one of them and doesn't have them.

The anime will resolve the shipping issues, while the manga will leave the matter open-ended.

This would allow Kishimoto to avoid the Fan Dumb and hate mail over cannonizing one pairing at the expense of another, while still being able to please half the fans. The winners get to see their ship in official material, and the rest of the fans can write it off as filler and direct the blame at the animators. Either way, Kishimoto avoids blame, and he can even pass it off as hyping the finale by saying that the anime will resolve the romantic subplots.

Uzu no Kuni, the Land of Whirlpools, is at least partially underwater.

It has been shown that Uzu no Kuni is right next to Hi no Kuni. In the water. Since this is a current map, I submit that Uzushiogakure sank underwater. Thus, Uzushiogakure is Atlantis.

Uzumaki, not Senju are the true descendants of the Rikudo Sennin.

Look at the powers of the Uzumaki clan: Having a long life and being sealing masters. That sounds more like the "Body of the Sage" than whatever the Senju have. The Rikudo Sennin was a seal master, so to a logical extension his favourite student would be as well. The "Senju clan ancestor" was the father of two children, one who had the Body of the Sage and became the Uzumaki clan ancestor and one whose talents lay on a completely different area and became the true Senju clan ancestor.

• Possibly gaining credibility with the fact that it has been revealed that Nagato IS AN UZUMAKI; with the Rinnegan to boot.
  • Meaning that it's a Bloodline limit then? So what can Naruto do about to invoke it?

Madara is both an Uchiha and an Uzumaki

This would explain why Madara has lived for so long, and it also explains why Madara has a EMS eye. Which could make for a amusing "Naruto, I am your uncle 3 times removed" joke.

Alternatively, the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan gives Madara the power to copy kekei genkai.

We know next to nothing about the EMS, but we know that the basic Sharingan can copy any technique except kekei genkai and things which their bodies cannot accomodate. A logical powerup for such a technique is the ability to steal kekei genkai. Given the Uchiha obsession with being the best, it's doubtful that they would allow some half-breed to be their leader, even if he was the strongest. However, even if he has Uzumaki traits, who says he acquired them naturally? Why couldn't he have stolen them using his EMS?

Madara: General Ideas

To begin, it seems unlikely we know what Madara's plan actually is. Everything concerning the Moon's eye plan makes very little sense. A desire for peace seems unlikely, as Madara's entire past has been about power and fighting, and a short while ago he helped wipe out the Uchiha clan because he wanted to. He gains nothing by revealing his plan to the Kage's if it's true, but makes it easier to get away with his true plan if he's lying. And the fact that he intended Nagato, and now Sasuke to synchronise with it seems at odds with the idea of him becoming the ten tails jinchūriki. But most of all, Madara lies like a rug.

Second, it's pretty damn obvious Madara used Izanagi in order to escape his defeat by the first Hokage. People seemed pretty certain he died but he's obviously still alive, we only ever see his right Sharingan, he describes himself as a shell of his former self and alot of attention was brought to the fact that different Mangekyo Sharingan eyes control different jutsu. Also, he seems to know alot about a technique forbidden even amongst Uchiha, and this fits for a man who was shown to constantly go against his clan's will in his search for power. So he can be absurdly powerful while having his confidence shaken and alot of his jutsus lost.

Third, Madara could be interested in Sasuke's eyes. Perhaps as a replacement for his own. He seems desperate for Sasuke's eye's to improve, and throwing him at the kage's could be construed as trying to exhaust the eyes so he takes Itachi's. The possibilities of transplanting another Eternal Mangekyo are unexplored. He also has an interest in the Rinnegan.

Theres a lot there which seems related, but I'm not quite sure how to form a unifying theory out of it.

• Maybe Madara needs Sasuke to take Itachi's eyes so they get the upgrade, he then steals the eternal Sharingan because he has lost both of his due to overuse of Izanagi.

The Uzumaki Clan was allies with the Hyuga Clan, and crafted the Caged Bird Seal

The Uzumaki Clan's adeptness with Sealing techniques was made particular note of in the recent chapter, and we know the Hyuga Caged Bird Seal is probably highly advanced to seal away the Byakugan. So, before the formation of the Five Ninja Villages, and possibly the alliance with Senju, the Uzumaki were alligned with the Hyuga, and created the Caged Bird Seal not to keep the Branch Clan in check, but to solely protect the Byakugan's secrets, and prevent it from falling into enemy hands. Before the formation of Konohagakure, the Hyuga were probably hunted for their eyes, since aside from whatever secrets they still might have, they were the perfect scouting tool, and the Gentle Fist was the deadliest known Taijutsu. So, to ensure the Byakugan's secret were kept as such, they approached the Uzumaki with the request for a seal to neutralize the Byakugan upon the wielder's death, hence the creation of the Caged Bird Seal. However, as the years went by, the Hyuga expanded on the Seal's abilities so it became the seal we know today.

• That makes sense, and it would be quite relavent to Naruto and Hinata getting rid of the Seal. Now, it would require only executive fiat to ban the practice of branding children with the Seal, but that won't change the fact that numerous Hyuga already bare the Seal. They would need a seal master to be able to remove it without killing or crippling them in the process (it's connected in such a way as to destroy nerve cells under certain conditions, so haphazardly attempting to remove it is liable to do more harm than good).

The Uzumaki Clan's relation with the Senju was from the Sage of the Six Paths

His wife could be an Uzumaki, thus they'd be "distant relatives" to the Senju, and there's probably more stuff in this statement I couldn't think about.

Alternatively, Madara wiped out the Whirlpool Village to try to find the Kyuubi Jinchuriki.

The Council members are all well aware of Naruto's parentage.

They just decided not to tell anyone for similar reasons as Hiruzen's prohibition on discussing the Kyuubi. As the Sand/Sound invasion and the kidnapping attempt on Hinata attest, some of Konoha's enemies aren't above attacking under a flag of truce. Loose lips sink ships, and allowing enemy spies to find out that the infamous Yellow Flash had a son would bring all kinds of trouble long before Naruto was capable of defending himself, let alone the village. Naturally, this contributes to the All of the Other Reindeer problem, but that's a lot better than worrying about say Kumo trying to kidnap him and turn him against Konoha.

• This would go quite a ways towards explaining some of his treatment too. If the ninja clans paid much attention to a specific orphan it would be something that any good spy could pick up on.

Naruto will use the fact that He does not seek vengence against Madara to make Sasuke realize that vengence is not the answer

I mean really, it's obvious that Madara is the reason why Naruto doesn't have a family, the same way Konoha may or may not be the reason Sasuke's family is dead. Naruto is not going to seek vengence, and this will somehow cause Sasuke to have a My God, What Have I Done? moment, causing him to Heel Face Turn on Madara. He and Naruto will defeat Madara, and Sasuke will spend the rest of his years being horrified at what he did, while being supported by Naruto, who becomes hokage, and Sakura.

Naruto is going to want to learn Fuinjutsu, and then go and use it on either Madara or Sasuke's vengence

It will be a new type of seal, and he'll be famous for it. He'll want to learn fuuinjutsu in order to follow in the footsteps of his ancestors.

• This could happen, given that Minato used a seal to cause Madara to lose control of the fox, and Naruto might use one on one of the seven beasts Akatsuki has.

Fugaku Uchiha (Sasuke's father) is the Masked Man/Flashback Tobi

He was the leader of the Uchiha clan, and the only person outside of the ANBU, the 3rd, his wife, Minato, and Kushina who knew about the birth was Mikoto Uchiha. It wouldn't be such a strech to assume she told her husband about it and he attacked the group, looking to free the Kyuubi. His reason for wanting to do this is unknown at the moment. Aside from the fact the Masked Man wears a mask (Which is different from Tobi's) that reveals one Sharingan and Tobi claimed to have not been involved with the Kyuubi's rampage (At least, that's what he told Sasuke), it was never stated this new person was Tobi/Madara. Also, the Masked Man's hood is pulled up so you can't see his hair, but Tobi never worries about that...in addition, Tobi wears gloves, while the Masked Man does not. (Masked Man's hands look oddly feminine...personally.)

• But Tobi DID wear that mask....in a flashback where he helped Itachi massacre the Uchiha. ^{[dead link]} Also, Madara was probably the only Uchiha powerful enough to rip the bijuu right out of it jiinchuriki.
  • Also its an ANBU mask, which would've helped disguise his identity.

Naruto's surname is Uzumaki for protection, but not from his fathers enemies

The Uzumaki clan had close ties with Konohagakure and as the last (known) member of an allied clan, Naruto would politically enjoy more protection than as the son of a Hokage. Look at Asuma, a son of the Sandaime Hokage, for example: he doesn't enjoy any special rights as far as we know.

• Alternatively, Minato (or at least Naruto) got the surname Uzumaki since it is an important ancient clan, while Namikaze was not.
• With Asuma, the possibility is that this could be influenced by the difficulties he had with his father, as well as him potentially being a strong ninja in his own right when we first see him.
  • Konohamaru acted like he expected special privileges just for being the Hokage's grandson.

Naruto doesn't want to get close to Sakura or Hinata because he's afraid of the Demon Fox's power potentially harming them or being triggered by them coming to harm. Kushina will enable him to realize how to love without losing control

The ball is in Naruto's court as far as his ships with Hinata and Sakura go; he has yet to respond to Hinata's confession and as it's unlikely that he will believe any confession Sakura makes, it will be up to him to make the next move with her. Sakura was harmed when Naruto lost control of the fox, and Yamato calls Naruto out on it, so Naruto decides to save Sasuke with his own power. Seeing Hinata apparently killed after her Love Confession drives Naruto to nearly break the seal on the Fox, and he realizes that not using the fox's power and hoping that he won't lose control of himself won't work, and decides to control it (before, he didn't know how, and had the urgent matter of finding Sasuke before the people who wanted him dead did).

It's thus possible that he fears that if he accepts Hinata's confession or confesses to Sakura and she accepts it, he will grow closer to them and thus react even more harshly to any harm that comes to them. However, he may learn something from his mother, who knew about the seal weakening if she had a child, and chose to have him anyway. This, combined with his new seal, may possibly enable him to get the courage to approach the girl he loves. It's also worth noting that the first question Naruto asks Kushina is how she met his father.

• For that matter, meeting his parents could help him understand love in general. It's one thing to understand a matter conceptually; it's quite another to have an example to point to. He probably would have asked Minato about his mother if it weren't for the fact that there was very little time and they had more urgent matters to discuss.
  • Alternatively, he is under the impression that if get close to anyone it will resmble situation with Gaara, as in Fox will pass into his children.
    • Or is it just that girls have Cooties.

Naruto's fight with Sasuke will end in reverse of the battle in the Final Valley

Naruto will ultimately bend over Sasuke, largely exhausted, and look into Sasuke's face. Sasuke will, either due to lack of chakra or sheer disbelief, not use any of his eye techniques, and realize that their positions have been reversed. He may ask why Naruto won't kill him, and Naruto will likely say something to the effect that it was never what he wanted in the first place, and possibly making a reference to what he did with Pain and/or what Sasuke decided after defeating him, most likely prompting Sasuke's Heel Face Turn.

If Naruto ends up with Hinata or Konan, their child will be "brown"

Hinata has blue hair, and since many of the Hyugas dress in brown, it's possible that it will be her and Naruto's child's color of choice, since orange mixed with blue makes brown. Most of the other potential matches for Naruto don't have hair that is of the primary colors, and thus would not create a seconary color like combining Minato's yellow theme with Kushina's red theme led to Naruto favoring orange.

• Their child would have double colored hair, like Yuugi Motou. Cuz that would be the Rule of Cool.
  • Not with Konan, because she's DEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAD!!!

Naruto, Hinata, and Sasuke are all very distant cousins.

It was stated that the Uzumaki and Senju clans shared a common ancestor, which either is or leads back to the Sage of the Six Path's younger son. During the Chunin Exams, Kakashi mentioned there was a rumor that the Sharingan descended from the Byakugan, so it's quite possible that the Uchiha and Hyuga clans descended from the Sage's older son. Despite countless generations setting them apart, Naruto, Hinata, and Sasuke are cousins.

• Everyone is not closely related is distant cousins if you go back far enough- that's just biology.
  • So Sage of Six paths is a "God", and his two sons is Adam and... Adam?

The next time the action returns to Konoha, Kurenai's baby will have been born.

The baby was conceived before Naruto returned from training with Jiraiya. The Pain Invasion Arc takes place between seven and eight months later, which would place Kurenai well into her third trimester (assuming that we can take the six months reference at face value concerning Orochimaru's attempt to steal Sasuke's body).

Naruto will have the Kyuubi extracted from him and survive

Why else would we have been shown that his mother did the exact same thing? Within minutes of giving birth? And this way Madara's plans could be paying off so Naruto has an even worse situation to stop.

• This could happen, especially since Naruto has taken the Kyuubi's chakra for himself by stealing it from the beast, so even if Madara gets all the tailed beasts, Naruto would still have the power to fight him.

Naruto will have the Kyuubi extracted, and Sasuke will revive him with Edo Tensei, using Kabuto as the sacrifice.

For all we know, Sasuke is planning to betray Madara, too. After all, he's betrayed everybody else so far. Sasuke captures Naruto and hands him over to Madara for extraction. While Madara's busy with the extraction, Sasuke defeats Kabuto, leaving him paralyzed, but alive. Once the extraction is complete, Sasuke will use the Edo Tensei to revive Naruto, because doing so would make Naruto invincible to any technique we've seen thus far, save for the Reaper Death Seal. Sasuke knows he's no match for Madara now, let alone when Madara has the Ten Tails at his disposal, so he'll let Naruto deal with Madara.

• Sasuke said during his confrontation with Itachi that Madara would be next, and during the talk where Madara reveals the truth, he shows anger over Madara's using his brother's eyes to replace his own. It's possible that since he hasn't given up on taking revenge on Madara.

One of the above WMG's is true, but Madara will not be the Big Bad.

The Juubi is too powerful for Madara to control, and it will kill him as soon as he releases it, and then go on a rampage. Remember that Pain was confident he could harness the Juubi's power into a weapon that could wipe out an entire country in a single blow, so fighting it would be insanely difficult, unless Naruto found a way to absorb it into himself, or seal it into Kurenai's baby (or depending on the timeline, perhaps his own child).

The power Itachi gave Naruto will negate Sasuke's control over the Kyubi and/or negate or restrict the use of Sasuke's Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan on Naruto, making their eventual fight a fair one.

Think about it. Itachi has been shown to be able to implant failsafes on people - look no further than Amaterasu coming from Sasuke when Madara tried to show his face. Itachi is a master of The Plan. He planned every detail of his fight with Sasuke down to the last detail, showing that he had incredible foresight. Therefore, he must have foreseen that Sasuke use his eyes to achieve the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan. The power he gave Naruto will be a counter to Sasuke's EMS, either allowing Naruto full use of the Kyubi's chakra during their eventual battle (remember Sasuke was able to suppress it before), negating Sasuke's use of gamebreaking Mangekyo jutsus like Amaterasu, or both. Either way, Itachi made sure the fight between Naruto and Sasuke will be fair.

• Sasuke's ability to control Kyuubi is up for debate since Naruto split the Kyuubi's chakra from the beast itself and left it unconscious behind a new, improved seal. Although I can still see the gift blocking some of Sasuke's EMS powers.
• Itachi's gift has been revealed, along with what it's supposed to do to Sasuke, so this and anything else involving it is jossed. The fact that it was not used according to plan and apparently can't be used again for awhile could mean that it will make a comeback.

Naruto will end up with Karin or Sakura

In the latest manga chapters, Kushina mentions that Naruto and Minato are the only two men to compliment her on her red hair. Karin has red hair, and after Sasuke pulled a You Have Outlived Your Usefulness on her, she got over him, and has noted that his chakra is warm and makes her feel good. Sakura has pink hair(so it's in the same range of "reds") and has traits like Kushina, and Naruto has had feelings for her. Whether he still does, though, is up for debate.

• Nice pair of Shipping Goggles you got there. Still, the fact that Naruto's love interests boil down to Sakura, Hinata and Karin (with an outside chance) means this could still be right.
  • ......Karin? Hinata I support; that I understand, it's the one I've seen the most evidence for. Sakura....I understand why someone else would root for her....but Karin? Really, some bitch steals the main character out of nowhere?
    • It's somewhat likely that Karin will develop a one-sided crush on Naruto similar to the one she once had on Sasuke, but it's highly unlikely that Naruto will reciprocate, since they've only interacted once.
  • Why can't characters end up with other random characters? Or even people outside of the established set of characters? Real life, after all isn't as convenient as the shipping wars would have you believe. This theory is as plausible as any of the other main pairings.

In Kabuto's sixth coffin is not a powerful person like the Shodaime or Yondaime Hokage.

Madara reacts with shock and surprise and since Madara saw most of Akatsuki being resurrected, it would be a logical conclusion for him to expect somebody like Harashima or Minato. The contents of the coffin will be extreme like somebody who is still alive or Orochimaru, whose state of soul should be too chaotic to properly resurrect.

• Clearly it's the body of whoever Tobi was based off of. You don't pull a personality as annoying as that out of your hat, after all.

Itachi had a child.

A throwaway line from Madara mentioned Itachi killing his lover. If he had a lover, it's possible he had a child, and everything he did (including all the things that don't seem to make any sense) were about protecting that child. The massacre of an entire clan by a genjutsu master while all the focus is on the one surviving witness would make it likely someone would fail to notice a baby untimely ripped from its mother's womb, especially if several women, both pregnant and not had had their wombs cut open. The baby was handed over to Hiruzen with specific instructions to give it to a civilian family to raise, and that the child must never become a shinobi nor be informed of being an Uchiha. His entire plan for Sasuke was simply a distraction, and it's actually quite possible he fully intended for Sasuke to die fighting Madara. If that happened, no living soul would know the Uchiha clan lives on, and that child would live out a peaceful life as a civilian never knowing the horrific circumstances of its birth.

• Itachi was thirteen when he massacred the clan, so this sounds a bit improbable.
  • I don't know about the lover, but he supposed to Kill someone very close to him to gain Mangekyo, maybe Madara was reffering to his friend being also his lover? Which would mean that Itachi is...
  • It's best friend, lover or something equal emotion-wise, Itachi killed his friend and encouraged Sasuke to kill Naruto.

The Sage of the Six Paths fused what was left of his chakra with the Kyuubi after splitting the Jyubi.

Hence once Naruto removed the Kyuubi's mind from the chakra and he begins using the now untainted chakra he becomes all sage like and stuff. It would definitely explain how he knew how to make a new seal up on the fly and why the Kyuubi mention the Sage.

• This might also explain why the Kyuubi was significantly more powerful than the Hachibi.

Karin will become a love interest for Naruto, and then it'll be revealed that she and Naruto are related.

It's a fast way to sink this ship.

• How about Incest ship?
  • Confirmed she is an Uzumaki
• How about Squick?
• Then again, this is Japan we're talking about. Their views on incest somewhat differ from ours.

Sasuke will betray Madara and kill him.

Looking at Sasuke's track record it is kind of obvious, but it can go two ways: Sasuke pulls a Heel Face Turn and helps Naruto to defeat Madara or Sasuke kills Madara the moment the bandages go off and will be the new and final Big Bad.

• This is almost certain to happen, or at least that Sasuke will betray Madara, though whether Sasuke ever "followed" him at all is debatable. Sasuke's outright stated he plans to kill the other person responsible with the massacre, which was Madara, and some of Madara's other actions have got to come out in the open some time.

Kabutochimaru will be the final Big Bad.

Kabutochimaru knows both Sasuke and Naruto rather well (Sasuke more than Naruto)and assumes that either Sasuke will betray Madara and kill him, Sasuke fights Naruto and Sasuke gets killed, or Madara attacks Naruto and gets killed. Either way, Kabutochomaru has another minion who can use the Eternal Mangekyou. The final battle will be between Naruto, maybe with help of Killer B or Sasuke, and Kabutochimaru with his Akatzombies.

Naruto will.....

..be unable to choose who he wants to date Karin, Hinata, or Sakura, this will end in a fight of bitch-slappiness proportions!

• With jello or in dirt.

Sasori has been involved in the creation of Deidara's C4 Garuda

When C4 explodes, a cloud of microscopic bombs are released. Impossible to be seen by a normal person, the victims breathe in the bombs, which then enter the bloodstream. Sasori doesn't breathe or have a normal body, so he is immune to the effects of C4, just like his puppets. So it's likely that the technique is developed to use alongside Sasori, and not to kill Itachi, as Deidara initially claims.

Itachi and Nagato will appear in Naruto's psyche.

Everybody else seems to be doing so.

• Seems like a possible explanation for Itachi's gift to Naruto, except that it will also allow Itachi to communicate with Sasuke during their inevitable fight.
• Or the Edo Tensei will do the same thing.

The Sharingan is powered by despair

The Sharingan is awakened by despair of being in a life or death situation. The Mangekyou is awakened by despair gained by killing your best friend. The Eternal Mangekyou is obtained by being so desperate that you'll take the eyes of your sibling.

• • "I'm in despair! Having to do evil things for the council has left me in despair!"

Mangekyou Sharingan abilities are passed down within the immediate family.

Itachi and Sasuke have both demonstrated Amaterasu and Susanoo, to varying degrees. Sasuke also seems to have a weaker version of Tsukuyomi. However Madara on the other hand has given no sign of using any of those techniques instead having space-time dojutsus. Neither Sasuke or Itachi have demonstrated a similar knack. Which leads too...

Obito is Madara's or Izuna's grandson.

Kakashi despite having a mangekyou has only demonstrated one technique with it, Kamui. Since the eye was originally Obito's this seemed to imply that Obito was a direct descendant of either Madara or Izuna.

Samehada really does love Killerbee and plans to leave Kisame.

Think about it, kisame is the abusive boyfriend that treats his sword as a mere item. Killerbee is the guy with the near infinite chakra, and treats him right. Samehada only betrays bee because he still feels some love towards kisame. if Kisame ever died he'd always be with Bee.

Konan is pregnant.

Because even though Nagato was seriously messed up, she still deserves Someone to Remember Him By.

• I don't know - if Nagato needed a huge freaking bathtub to even stand up, I seriously doubt Little Nagato is in working condition. Even if this was true, Madara killed Konan, so you can forget about that.
• Besides she was interested in Yahiko, which considering that Nagato had him as a zombie/puppet requires some Brain Bleach if she was pregnant.

Kabuto is possessed by the ten-tailed beast

We know little about his past or parentage, so making the assumption this is somehow the case. This possession is not all it's cracked up to be, as it's chakra is already divided among the other tailed beasts, so the possessing doesn't give any particularly amazing abilities. So he wants to be reunited with all his brethren, but his plans are slowed down by Sasori brainwashing him. Sticking with Orochimaru after being freed, he still keeps an eye on the Akatsuki after learning of their plan to amass the beasts for their own use. He tries to get some of the Akatsuki eliminated so when the time comes, it will be easier to get to the tailed beasts. However Naruto and everyone does better then he expected, and with most of the Akatsuki dead there are still two tailed beasts free, and to make things worse out of the few Akatsuki left one of them is Madara, the one who could potentially control him. Still, he is getting desperate, so he allies with Madara, hoping that he'll be able to get the remaining tailed beasts while Killing Madara and Sasuke in the process. Crazy isn't it?

Karin is still on team Hebi

Seems like the kind of twist Kubo likesKishimoto also likes. Also, Jugo and Suigetsu are pulling similar ploys with two of the other groups. At some point, they'll all pull off some master plan of Sasuke's.

• Kubo who?
• Wrong Manga-ka.

Sakura is based on a girl (or possibly several), that Kishimoto had a crush on, but at best saw him as a good friend, and at worst never gave him the time of day, at least until he got rich and famous.

He's on the record saying that he thinks women are actually like Sakura, so it's natural to conclude this is the result of bad experiences. Thus, while the unlearned may attribute Sakura's traits to bad writing, this is no accident. Look at the list: Deconstruction of All Girls Want Bad Boys, highly suspect Unrequited Love Switcheroo, intended to invoke This Loser Is You, Faux Action Girl, the Veronica to an Ojou in a Betty and Veronica Love Triangle despite not being from a major clan and thus not being rich like the character type normally calls for- all this points to serious Writer on Board either lashing out at former unrequited loves or gloating at their Green-Eyed Epiphany.

Despite the differences in interaction times, Hinata actually knows Naruto better than Sakura does.

Following the adage, "It's not what you don't know that gets you in trouble, it's what you know that ain't so," Sakura doesn't have a clue about who Naruto really is, despite spending so much time with him on missions and in training. There's lots of stuff she thinks she knows about Naruto that are just plain wrong, which is the reason she was shocked that Naruto responded to her "love confession" by giving her a What the Hell, Hero? speach. Hinata, by contrast, knows details that Sakura doesn't, like the fact that Naruto is a Stepford Smiler.

• There's also the fact that her powers include the ability to pay great attention, so combined with her crush in him means that she could have been was a sorta-stalker.
• In Naruto's fight with Kiba, Hinata realizes based on observing Naruto from a distance how lonely he was in his childhood, how hard he had to fight to overcome it and how significant it is that he's fighting in front of many of his peers who looked down on him. It takes Sakura a few months of being on the same team with Naruto and fighting alongside him to understand that he really is a Determinator.

== Kisame does not have lungs. == Specifically, he does not have HUMAN lungs. The gills on his face are fully operational, and he uses them to breathe. If he hasn't removed his own lungs—probably asked Orochimaru or Sasori to do it—then these gills are a sort of lung bypass, an integrated SCUBA, if you will. If he was in a fight and someone slashed his gills, Kisame could suffocate, bleed to death, choke on his own blood, or all three. This also means that he's a mouth breather.

Itachi's Crow was a dormant Izanagi

Saw this on another site (http://forums.narutofan.com/showthread.php?t=659397+), and it makes the best damn sense when it comes to what it could be. Edited to avoid spoilers:

In his current state of mind, I have no doubt Sasuke would do almost anything for a victory against Naruto, and it would make sense that the greatest battle of their era features all the sharingan jutsu. And think about it, Naruto did foreshadow that they would both die, and he did ask Sasuke "you saw it too?", implying Sasuke is also aware that if they clash at full power, they both will be killed (along with everything in a 8 miles radius ).

So Sasuke knowing all this, what would be his most likely plan to defeat Naruto? Doing it anyway and surviving thanks to Izanagi.

So how does a genius like Itachi plans this up? By casting Izanagi on Naruto through his crow. So there will be a chapter that ends in both Sasuke and Naruto's "deaths". Not only will Naruto survive, but both of Sasuke's eyes will close as they were Itachi's eyes to begin with, rendering him useless and unable to fight.

• Sounds like a great ending, if this were a movie. However, ending a manga like that would be undermined by advertising the next issue. It still makes a lot of sense, though.
• This has turned out to be not the case, but pretty damn close. It turns out that the crow housed Shisui's Mangekyou Sharingan, which had a technique that amounts to mind control and was supposed to activate upon seeing Itachi's Mangekyou Sharingan. The eye technique was implanted with the command "protect Konoha" and was supposed to have been used on Sasuke who now HAS Itachi's Mangekyou Sharingan. But instead it was used on Itachi himself, freeing him from the Edo Tensei. It's bound to come up again though.

The series will culminate in a Battle Royale With Cheese

Rool Of Cool and The Law of Conservation of Detail dictate that you don't introduce a kamikaze technique without it being used, and we still haven't seen the Eighth Gate or the Twin Snakes technique. With so many enemies to fight, it's natural that Naruto's friends are going to take out several of them to clear a path to fight Madara and Sasuke. Some of the Konoha ninja are going to die (mostly the old gaurd, but I wouldn't be surprised if Neji and/or Sakura died, too). Either Neji or Hinata will do something awesome with an upgraded Byakugan (probably negates all genjutsu within functional radius). Sasuke will go blind, and probably die.

Naruto will gain the Rinnegan.

From from chapters 508 and 509, we know that the Rinnegan a) somehow survived Nagato's death, b) can be passed on to someone else, and c) is currently "hidden"...and being protected by someone who has a great deal of respect for Naruto. Also, Naruto is pretty much being set up by the story as the Ninjassiah by this point.

• Madara gave Nagato the Rinnegan, maybe it's the power of the Sharingan. Do we know somebody with a Sharingan who recentely gave Naruto something? Yes we do, Itachi's crowjob. It might awaken the Rinnegan when Naruto fights against Sasuke.
  • You actually believe that Madara gave Nagato the Rinnegan? This troper has a feeling that this is definitely one of the things that Madara is just plain lying about. Because he's a lying liar who lies.
    • Madara lost a lot of his power: even if he used Izanagi his power would be halved. It would make sense if he lost some power by creating a Rinnegan. Since Ame is a huge warzone, giving a young shinobi a powerful doujutsu would be an guarantee for some form of succes. Madara might be an liar, but this plan makes sense.
      • Now look at his other plans. Create an organization of superpowerfull ninja to wage war on the rest of the world. Kill off your entire clan. Use moon to reflect a giant genjutsu lotus eater machine to brainwash the world. Yeah. This makes way too much sense to be Madara's plan.
      • Rinnegan is Bloodline limit of Uzumaki clan, anyone?

Madara (or whoever the guy in the mask is) based his "Tobi" personality off what he was like when he was younger.

If you think about it, Madara in some ways acts like a much older version of Tobi; he's usually not very serious and often jokes around. It would character be the personality he would be best at keeping in. This could also support the "he's really Izuna" theory, as the way Tobi treated Deidara was a lot like an Annoying Younger Sibling.

The Mizukage is not actually a Christmas Cake or Vain Sorceress.

She's constantly touchy and immature about her age, true. But what if this is because she is mentally much younger than she looks? Mist needed a new Mizukage, but there were no qualified candidates, so they gave found someone with powerful bloodlines and gave her a Plot-Relevant Age-Up with some wacky Jutsu. She's so sensitive about her age because she still hasn't gotten over the shock of the age-up. This also explains why she's flirting with male characters who are rather younger than she is [supposed to be]. It's the same basic principle as a small child thinking that a person in his late teens is ancient.

Elaborating from previous guesses

Hyuuga is to Uchiha as Uzumaki is to Senju. That is to say, the Hyuuga clan is an offshoot of the Uchiha clan in the same way that the Uzumaki's are related to the Senju. If I recall correctly, when the story of the two brothers is recounted, there are two attributes of the Sage assigned to each of them. That makes 4 in total. I imagine it to be a spectrum in the scheme of things. One attribute distributed to each of what would become Konoha's 4 most influential/major clans. On one end Senju, then Uzumaki, then Hyuuga and finally Uchiha as the tail-end. Hyuuga is closer to Uchiha because of the stuffiness and even a bit of arrogance, but still not to the point of narcissism. The Uchiha have the power-hungry side of the deal. However, it should be noted that the Uchiha are not the spawn of evil. Their desire for power is simply misdirected, led astray by human error, something which some like to forget in all the no-emotions-for-shinobi shtick that dares suggest that being a sociopath is badass and better than being lame and thinking about the needs of others. Okay, I'm done now. But yeah... it's pretty simple.

• The Rinnengan's paths are the six Realms of Bhuddism. God/Deva, Demon/Asura, Hell/Naraka, Hungry Ghost/Preta, Human and Animal. Alright, let's relate that to the clans: Uzumaki is God Path because of their long lives and mastery of sealing. Senju would be Animal Path, giving them the power to rule over the forrest and master a thousand different techniques based off of various animal motifs, hence the "Thousand Hands." Uchiha is Hungry Ghost: no matter how much power they obtain, it is never enough to satiate them; even as they kill each other to increase their own power, it still isn't enough. The Hyuuga have the power of the all-seeing eye, which means they represent whichever Path Pain used as a Living Lie Detector. That leaves two others.
  • The demon path is probably the Jubi. Madara needs it for a reason.
  • The Path Pain used as a Living Lie Detector was the Hell path.

Madara's Second Sharingan is proof he's not Madara, but it doesnt matter.

Once upon a time there was an Uchia who wanted to be something special. He wasn't a great ninja or scholar or anything else. He wanted to be. Badly. After all, the Uchiha were supposed to be the best. It wasn't that he failed at everything he tried, but that he was unremarkable. Nothing about him stood out. Over the years this inability to succeed, to be anything but average, slowly drove him mad. In his mind, he was great, he was fantastic, the best. But, while he may not have been successful in the real world, he did have time, and one day he discovered a lost record about the Izanagi, and realized how powerful a technique it could be. He decided that if he wasn't something special, he'd become something special using the Izanagi. But what to wish for? Power? Fame? A Girlfriend? No. He'd make himself into someone else. The greatest Uchiha there ever was. Madara. And so he did. He wished upon his eye that he'd become Madara, with both eyes because this Uchiha wasn't stupid of course, and so he did. And ever since, that Uchiha's been using his Izanagi, bouncing it between eyes, and wishing and dreaming of a world where he's the most important thing. A world that warps itself to his wishes, so that he can play the hero, or the villain, of the story. Unfortunately, he didn't think to wish for better plans, so he's still trying to Use The Demons To Reflect His Eyes Off The Moon Putting Everyone Into An Eternal Genjustu Where They'll All Be Happy Forever and He Can Be King.

Konans last attack wasnt meant to kill Madara.

Her last move was really a message for Naruto that contains Madara's weakness.

Tsunade's vanity genjutsu is slowly draining her life.

When she is forced to deactivate it, she looks like she's in her 70's, even though she's only 53. Either she has been forced to use her Art of Mitotic Cell Regeneration a lot more than we've seen, or something else has been causing her to age faster, especially since her grandmother was an Uzumaki.

• She had just been healing everyone in the village at once, the ones that were still alive, so that would explain the aging.

Jiraya will come back from the dead...

Because Kabuto's excuse that his body is too deep is not going to cut it. Hopefully, that would mean that he will hold up that promise with Tsunade, and they will start new generation of Konoha Ninjas, alongside with the rest of the Ships. Not to mention that he will write a new book about Naruto... I mean why else would he be featured in opening so much?

• So Kabuto brings him back and lets him walk away?
  • Willingly not, but it IS possible for a Edo Tensei to regain his self, As seen with Itachi, so there IS a possibility.

Nagato was Naruto's uncle, or at least a relative.

The basic point of Madara mentioning the Uzamaki clan, points to Nagato being a relative of Naruto through his mother, does this mean that there may be a dojustu in his future? Considering what the hyper fox chakra state looks like the sage was then an Uzamaki?

Akatsuki robes contain the power of invincibility.

Let's take a look:

• Sasori: Kankuro couldn't defeat him. When the robe comes off of Hiruko, Sakura destroyed it with ease. When Sasori used the Third Kazekage, he was wearing his robe, and Sakura and Chiyo couldn't even touch him. As soon as the robe came off, his fate was sealed.
• Hidan: We actually saw this one in effect. Dude was physically unable to die. That is, until Shikamaru blew him up, destroying the robe, and the body.
  • Hidan is immortal and survived both decapitation and dismemberment. Also he mentions that someone will find him and dig him up eventually. That's also th emost likely reason that Kabuto didn't bring him back with Edo Tensai. It only works on the dead.
• Kakuzu: This one's tricky. He never really fought onscreen while wearing the robe. He takes it off to become the tentacle beast, and he gets killed by Naruto and friends.
• Orochimaru: He never died while in the Akatsuki. In order to stay immortal, he has to change bodies every now and then. Sasuki absorbs him... without an Akatsuki robe.
• Deidara: Takes off his robe to use the C4 chakra nuke. Dies in the explosion.
• Itachi: Wasn't wearing a robe at the end of his fight with Sasuke. He died.
• Kisame: Shirtless while being beheaded by Killer Bee and Raikage.
• Pain: This is really hard to figure out. We do see robe-clad Pains get killed... but they're already dead. Putting an Akatsuki robe on a dead guy actually brings them to life (with chakra rods), but doesn't make them completely invincible. Nagato is almost, if not completely, naked when he sacrifices himself for the Gedo art of rebirth.
• Konan: So far, hasn't taken off her robe. Tobi-dara killed her while she kept her cloak on, which probably blows this theory to pieces.
• Zetsu: The white half did not wear a robe, and got curbstomped by the Raikage. Black half is still unknown.
  • I have long supported this very theory, but there are some minor mistakes.
    • The real Kisame came back after the Zetsu clone was killed. However, he died shortly after due to the absence of a cloak.
    • Konan just died, and yet she still had her cloak.
    • Madara has actually replaced his cloak, but we have yet to see what he will do next.

Tobi isn't really Madara Uchiha....

He's really the Sage of the Six Paths, returned from the dead.

Madara's mask shows the next path he needs to assimilate

The mask he wore when he showed up for the killing the Uchiha (known for having a fire-nature) had a flame pattern and he took almost certainly some eyes or did something else. Next he wore a spiral mask, the emblem of Uzumaki and the Rinnegan are a spiral (or concentric circles, close enough). Now he's hunting for the Jubi, and is wearing a mask with the same pattern as the Jubi's eye.

Naruto and Sasuke will kill each other in the end, but only after defeating Madara, Kabuto and all their henchmen, and Naruto has been appointed Hokage and gotten married.

Because Sasuke is just too stuborn to let the dead bury their dead, he will deliberately provoke a fight he can't possibly win just to do as much damage as possible. With all of his former allies dead, incapacitated or having betrayed him, he opts to unleash all of his power to attack Konoha. For Naruto, the matter is personal- protecting his wife and baby from the Uchiha. Naruto intercepts Sasuke in the wilderness, knowing that the powers that will clash in this battle will cause extreme devastation were they to be unleashed in a populated area. Mutually Assured Destruction ensues, as Naruto lays down his life to eliminate the last remaining threat to his family and to world peace. Immediately before the clash, Naruto will lament at how none of this would be necessary if Sasuke could just get over himself, and then he'll smile, telling Sasuke he has no regrets because he now has a real family, and that he loves them enough to protect them with his life.

The person who is calling himself Madara is actually the real Madara, and that's precisely the point.

A lot of people keep claiming that the Big Bad is just someone claiming to be Madara. However, recall that one of the many themes of the series is the old generation being surpassed by the new and younger generation. While one could say one using the name of an old generation to fight the current generation is an example, it's not as powerful as the old generation itself coming back for the fight. Thus, this truly is the real Madara Uchiha and his victory will solidify that the old generation of the founding of the villages will finally die and the new generation can continue on for itself.

Kabutomaru's last coffin contains Kushina.

Because really? Who else is a threat to Madara, then someone who pretty much physically stopped the fox, while dieing?

Naruto will go into the final battle with Sasuke with every intention of either converting Sasuke or fighting to a mutual kill, but he will survive.

Sasuke will come at him full force, and Naruto will counter creating a nuclear-scale explosion (if Izanagi is involved, this will go through multiple rounds). In the end, however, Sasuke just isn't that strong in comparison, and so Sasuke gets vaporized while Naruto walks away, albeit battered and bloody, resigning himself to the fact that the only one responsible for Sasuke's death is Sasuke himself, and that in the end, Sasuke wasn't strong enough morally, mentally or physically to go along with his plans.

• PLEASE let this one come true.

Sasuke will do a Heel Face Turn

He's now a teenager, and teenagers always rebel against their parents. His parents were anti-Konoha, so Sasuke will be pro-Kohona.

• Except Itachi already did that, and Sasuke's too insane to just become good, or be allowed to live

In order to truly kill Zetsu, the black half has to be killed.

Of all the clones we've seen of Zetsu, they have always been of the white half. This suggests that the black half is the dominant personality, and all the white halves are clones.

Zetsu's black side is Tobirama Senju

I've read somwhere that one of the Akatsuki members is the sibling of a Hokage. Now we know that white Zetsu is something related to Harashima, the black side could also be one of those experiments.

Iruka's sonar is a bloodline limit.

Iruka's sonar ability, first seen in the Mizuki Strikes Back arc, seems to require no hand seals, just like Haku's most basic levels of water control. It may be either a bloodline limit or an individual mutation. If it's a kekki genkai, the reason nobody has mentioned that is that it's sonar, so who gives a good damn?

Shikamaru's intelligece results from him being extremely lazy when he was younger.

In order to get out of doing work paradoxically sometimes requires a lot of mind power. Shikamaru by figuring complex ways of getting out of work actually increased his abstract intelligence by a greater amount than he if he was a hard worker when he was younger. Due to the power of friendship, Shikamaru starts to diligently use this intelligence for tasks besides avoiding work.

• Ot it's a bloodline limit. XD

The schizo tech is a result of ninjas carefully assasinating whoever creates modern weapons such as guns and destroying the technology.

The weapons a ninja uses requires a great deal of skill, natural ability, and training so whenever a weapon comes about that requires less training (I might be wrong here guns may require not that much less training than other warefare), the ninjas quickly destroy all that form of technology. That is why there can be things like electric power but no guns. As long as the technology is for civilian use, the ninjas allow it, but the moment something like a gun is a created, the gun gets destroyed and maybe whoever knows how to make one gets assassinated.

Madara is a writer, and his ultimate goal is World Peace, something he'll succeed at.

Look, Madara is clearly completely insane. His plans make no sense, and he's really succeeded in doing is uniting five different incredibly hostile nations against him. Yeah. Pretty impressive isn't it? Somewhere along the line Madara clued in on the one key truth: Every Story Needs a Villain. His plan isn't to turn the moon into a masssive Sharin'gan or ressurect the Juubi or anything else. It's to force everyone to work together to beat him. He's decided that he'll die for the world, thereby saving it by unifying everyone. It's the same plan Pein was trying, but carried out far more elegently, and so far it's working perfectly.

• Possible expansion to the above: It's possible even that the entirety of the events in Naruto are one long Gambit Roulette by Harashima Senju and Madara Uchiha to create world peace. Harashima and Madara saw that, by working side by side and creating Konohagakure, they were able to forge lasting peace between two incredibly bitter rivals, the Senju and the Uchiha. Other ninja clans followed suit, but war still happened, only now they were between countries instead of families. Harashima and Madara realized they just needed to find a way to make the entire world do undergo the same sort of cooperation that the Uchiha and the Senju did, and concocted this whole plan.
  • You mean Madara is actually Lelouch Vi Britannia?!
    • Seems to make more sense than any of the other ideas of why Madara is doing this.

One of the Rock ninja has the ability to summon giant earthworms

Manda 2 vs giant earthworm.

• Will the giant worm be sinking cities?

Kabuto's attempts at using Zetsu to make a new Deidara/Manda is going to cause major problems

Firstly, it's clear Deidara isn't particularly pleased with not being able to control himself, and also that he has no idea what the situation is. Further, he's not quite the same as he was. Similarly, Manda 2.0 now has legs, despite being a snake. It's pretty clear that Kabuto doesn't really know what he's doing when it comes to using Zetsu to do stuff, and everything is going to go horribly wrong.

• I don't know about Manda, but Deidara is just the result of an Impure Resurrection Summoning. He's given some free will unless the Hokages Orochimaru summoned, but he is still dust and ashes bound by his soul covering a sacrifice. No Zetsu involved.
  • Then why does he look so different?
    • Because some/all the zombies have weird eyes because of the Resurrection technique.

Sakura will have a son with pink hair

Doesn't matter who she's with. Oh, and on a side note, if Sasuke ever settles down he'll have tons of daughters. Doesn't have to be with Sakura, but just saying.

Hinata's mom is dead, and Hanabi will appear again soon

• Isnt this canon? The first part, anyway?
  • Actually, no. Then again, I haven't read the databooks to see if they say anything. Otherwise, the manga is silent, and the anime shows her to still be alive after giving birth to Hanabi. We are left to infer that she died some time later, but this is conjecture.

Shikaku was Asuma's jonin instructor.

Fits with Generation Xerox, and it would explain why they knew each other so well even before Shikamaru graduated (if the anime is to be believed).

Kabuto is lying to Madara about his reasons for withdrawing after capturing Yamato.

• He claims that he is leaving because it was an "impossible battle". Let's examine that claim.
  • Kabuto's side: Manda V.2, Itachi, Deidara, Sasori, Pein, Kakuzu, another unnamed (presumably powerful) dead person, a and himself.
  • Opposing him: The Tsuchikage, Yamato, 4 other Jounin. Gai is out of commission for now and Killer B and Naruto are avoiding the fight.
  • Conclusion: if Kabuto had been by himself, it would have been a bit iffy, but he might have been able to take them all on. With the ridiculous amount of support power that he has available, it would have been a Curb Stomp Battle if he were to fight seriously. Notice that the Tsuchikage is the main threat, and Kabuto handles him by letting Deidara lead him away so that he won't interfere with the capture of Yamato. As far as I can tell, Kabuto is inspired by and respects Naruto and I predict that Kabuto will never attempt to seriously fight him. However, Kabuto's motivations are still largely unknown. What does he want with the wood element and/or Zetsu's clones?

All of Kabuto's actions can be explained with one word - Yandere

• Kabuto is yandere towards Orochimaru. In general, Kabuto generally attempts to find diplomatic solutions to problems and appears to be a genuinely polite and pleasant human being (e.g. he healed Hinata when there was nothing for him to gain from it). However, when it comes to helping Orochimaru achieve his goals, Kabuto is willing to resort to murder, betrayal, war, Mad Science on living human beings, More Than Mind Control (with Kimimaro): in short - a host of other actions which cross the Moral Event Horizon. After Orochimaru died, Kabuto had an existential crisis, but he claims that the person who inspired him to continue was Naruto. Notice that Kabuto's goal currently appears to be killing Sasuke, ostensibly for revenge, but he might be trying to Murder the Hypotenuse as well. This could also be behind his reasons for suddenly retreating from the island after capturing Yamato.
  • Also maybe part of why he wants to get rid of Madara.

Tobi/Madara is not the Original Uchiha Madara.

• The person that Kabuto resurrected to convince Tobi to join forces with him is the real Uchiha Madara.Hell,Tobi may not actually be a Uchiha, similar to Kakashi.
  • Or it was the Fourth Hokage.

Either there was no Uchiha coup plot or Madara was behind it.

Making Itachi an Unwitting Pawn for either Madara and/or Danzo. He's not evil; he's just a Knight Templar who thought he was doing his job to secure peace by killing actual traitors, when in fact he was being set up the whole time.

Kabuto had an ulterior motive for healing Hinata way back during the Konoha Invasion

A couple possibilities. Perhaps he expected the invasion to succeed, and wanted as many unsealed Hyuuga to experiment on as possible (Since Hiashi was strong enough that capturing him might not be an option and Hanabi seemed more heavily guarded) without the restrictions of the seal. Maybe he implanted some kind of hypnosis-thing to make Hinata an unwitting sleeper agent at a later date. Maybe he took a tissue sample to experiment with, and has a mindless clone of Hinata much like the one Madara made of Shodai.

Maybe he was just copping a feel.

• He implanted her with his seed (changed her eggs), so if his plan to absorb Orochimaru will fail - he could be reborn in Hinata's childern. Oh shi...

By the end of the series, Naruto will have gotten married, but his wife and children will not be named or seen.

Giving Naruto a happy (or at least bittersweet) ending, but not telling the audience whom he's with.

• • I'd support this purely because I'd enjoy laughing at the fandom fallout.
    • Or it could be someone that no one ever imagined it to be his pair. Like Tenten =)

The Basis of the Sharingan's Power...

... is combining both Experiential and Analytical thinking. Users of even the most basic form of the Sharingan are able to perceive things happening much more slowly than normal (as in Experiential thinking) while retaining the ability to see patterns and formulate plans (as with Analytical thinking). The overall effect of this is that, when active, the Sharingan puts the brain in overdrive, speeding it up to where it can keep up with the user's sight (a good illustration of what would happen without this would be Sasuke's first fight with Lee, where he could mostly see the boy's movements but was unable to do anything about it because his body simply couldn't keep up—except affecting his brain and not his body). The Sharingan's growth (excluding those fancy-shmancy upgrades) simply further combines the two.

However, as the human brain is not designed to use Experiential and Analytical thinking simultaneously, overuse of the Sharingan can be extremely taxing on the user's neural pathways, and in cases of severe overuse it can cause neurons to effectively fry themselves en masse. Symptoms-slash-effects of this can vary from reduced mental faculties due to a drastically reduced brain-cell count, drastic changes in personality due to loss of behavioral inhibitors and/or empathy, amnesia, retrograde amnesia, increased susceptibility to suggestion, sudden development of mental illnesses like paranoid schizophrenia or bipolar manic depression, and rarely even outright degenerative psychosis.

As for the Mangekyo? Meh, I dunno, probably magic or some such gobbledygook.

The finale is shaping up for a Battle Royale With Cheese

Probable battles:

• Naruto vs. Sasuke (obviously)
  • I would say Naruto would have to battle the 4th Hokage on the way.
• Black Zetsu vs. Yamato and/or Kakashi
• Manda 2.0 vs Tsunade
• Zombie!Konan vs. Shikamaru (he always has to fight the girls)
  • Zombie!Asuma vs. Shikamaru, Choji, and Ino if Kishimoto is cruel enough.
  • Also Zombie!Haku and Zombie!Zabuza vs. Naruto. An unknown (and relatively unremarkable) bloodline user and a swordsman without his sword. Why else other than the emotional impact would Kabuto have brought back ninja who are (compared to the others) unremarkable.
    • "..skilled ninja who were once famous on their own right."
• Zombie!Deidara vs. Tsuchikage (rematch)
• Zombie!Kisame vs. Raikage and Killer Bee
• Zombie!Kakuzu vs. Mizukage
• Zombie!Sasori vs. Sand Siblings (Kankuro vs. Sasori in particular)
• Zombie!Itachi and Zombie!Pein and Zombie!Unknown vs. Madara
• Kabuto vs. ???anyone/everyone/no one???
• Naruto Clone Army and all the other ninja vs. Zetsu Clone Army
• Ninjas vs. Pirates
  • What about these: Naruto v.s. Nagato; Sasuke v.s. Itachi; Sakura v.s. Sasori; Kakashi v.s. Kakuzu; Sai v,s, Deidara
  • Er, arent Impure World Ressurection Zombies indestructable? I thought that was why the 3rd had to seal them away.
    • You're right, this means probably that Sasuke will fight Kabuto with a Susanoo possesing the Totsuka Sword, considering that the Totsuka Sword can also seal souls.
    • Now that Suigetsu and Juugo have gotten out of jail,this troper believes that a Kimimaro vs Juugo is in order(It seems too late for a Suigetsu vs Zabuza at this point).
    • Ten-ten vs. Madara and she wins.

Death Predictions of The War

• Tsunade
• Shikaku
• Inoichi
• Kankuro
• Anko
  • Madara, Kabutomaru.
  • Choza is the most likely of the Ino-Shika-Cho trio to bite it. He's the only one currently on the battlefield, and is injured from being slapped by the faux Kyuubi.

Konan and Kisame are not dead.

Chapter 515 with the shot of the former Akatsuki members did not show Kisame nor Konan.

• Kabuto probably didnt have time to get Kisame's remains, and might not have known about Konan since she wasn't particularly famous.
  • There is currently no reason to believe that you have to get the person's DNA after they've died. There is no particular reason to believe this as it wasn't stated. It also explains how he got DNA of someone like Deidera who presumably didn't leave much at his death being blowed up n all or Sasori who was mostly puppet. Someone of Oorochimaru's or Kabuto (whom I think is smarter than Oorochimaru) inteligence would be constantly gathering DNA from whomever they could whenever they could. For example Kabuto has been at multiple battlefields where Naruto has fought he could have gathered DNA back in the forest of Death for all we know, and then wait until you hear about the death of so and so.

Reviving Nagato will be Madara's undoing.

He will try to force Nagato to fight Naruto for him, but Nagato makes that backfire. He will use a technique called Gravity Style: Time-Space Lockout to prevent Naruto from using the Hiraishin. This will also have the effect of rendering Madara easily vulnerable because it will stop him from using any form of teleportation as well.

Episode 182 is a Future Imperfect retelling of a mission that Gaara and Naruto went on while Sasuke was in the hospital.

It doesn't seem to fit anywhere in the timeline, because at no time between the Chuunin Exams and Sasuke's defection was Naruto in the village and Sasuke not hospitalized. However, notice that Sasuke doesn't say or do anything in front of Gaara- he just stands there. Gaara forgot that Sasuke wasn't there and assumed he must have been. Anything that occurs out of Gaara's view is in-universe Wild Mass Guessing on his part.

• • In the anime canon, there was the Land of Tea arc and the first movie which took place between Sasuke waking up from his coma and going back into hospital from Lo T. The mission probably took place then.

Kabuto's army is screwed

• One of the themes of the manga is that the new generation will surpass the old one. Kabuto's undeads are the old ones...
  • Except that Haku and Itachi and probably Yugito and possibly some of the others are from the new generation. They're dead, but they died young.

Kabuto is not taking this seriously.

• Ressurected Akatsuki? That's a serious threat. Ressurected Kages? That's also a threat. Ressurected Jinchurriki? That's... kind of a threat, but the Akatsuki beat them, and the don't have their demons anymore. Ressurected random characters who have all been defeated by people still alive, such as Haku who was taken out by pre-chunin exams Naruto and Sasuke? Not so much.
  • ...I like this train of thought. Following it, Kabuto is going to start taking it seriously, but only after Madara and Sasuke bite it, thus putting him in the place he's wanted the whole time- Big Bad.
  • You forget how hard it is to kill Edo Tensei!zombies. Powerful ninja + practical immortality = Carnage ensues.
  • Haku was defeated by Kyuubi!Naruto and only because he hesitated, so Haku would be something on par with Jinchuriki.
    • No, he was killed when he jumped between Kakashi and Zabuza to keep the later from being killed by the former.
    • Also, that Kyuubi!Naruto wasn't even at 0 tailed coat state, and had absolutely no control over his actions. He couldn't even walk on water at that point.
    • Zabuza was one of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist and Haku had a lot of unrealized potential, but neither of them were on a level with the Akatsuki or the Kages or even the Jinchuriki.
      • I highly doubt Hizashi Hyuuga or Dan were, either.
  • Haku/Zabuza are a useful tool to throw Naruto off his game emotionally. Or to offer to Naruto as an olive branch (like Dan and Nawaki were to Tsunade). Kabuto's covering all his bases and we STILL don't know what he really wants.
  • Haku and Zabuza are Ensemble Darkhorses. Kabuto is Dangerously Genre Savvy and he realizes their Popularity Power potential.
• I think Kabutomaru resurected people like Dan to give the emotional trouble of fighting them.

Who ever wins, there's World Peace for some definition of 'peace.

The Countries appear to have been basically disolved, with everyone fighting as 'Shinobi and Samurai' and having a single type of Forehead Protector, so if they win the odds of another ninja war happening any time soon is slim. If Madara wins, he'll turn the moon into a giant Sharingan and force world peace on everyone. If Kabuto wins... Well, given that most of his 'crack team of undead' all died to people who are still around...

Ino will finally get a day in the limelight against the Edo Tensei zombies.

Because Revive Kills Zombie, making the otherwise nigh useless Ino a major threat. It's pretty much the only conceivable excuse for giving Ino a Crowning Moment of Awesome.

• How does Ino have revive?
  • Read the article. Revive Kills Zombie also means that healing powers have reverse effects on zombies.
    • Medical Jutsu is more like magically enchanced surgery than the magical healing which kill zombies, so that is probably not an option. Controlled Jinchuriki mode is said to be live-giving on the other hand...
    • Again, how is this related to Ino? She has some medical skills, but it's really not that much. If this was enough to turn Ino into a major threat, then Tsunade or Shizune could beat Kabuto's army without breaking a sweat.
      • She only needs to take out one, revealing their weakness. Then, the medical corps becomes The Cavalry.

This will be the hardest war/battle for the cast(some of it anyway).

Because they have to fight someone they care for:

• Dan for Tsunade
• Yugito Nii for Killer Bee (He respected her)
• Haku, Zabuza, and possibly Minato, Kushina, Jiraiya and Hiruzen for Naruto. He resurrected the previous Jinchuuriki and Kages, so why not the previous Jinchuuriki of the strongest tailed beast, two very powerful Hokage and one Sannin?
  • Because the Hokage's can't be resurrected, he is too lazy to get Jiraiya and Kushina might be too hard to obtain her DNA.
• Hizashi against Neji/Hinata
  • Hiashi vs. Hizashi
• Chiyo against Suna/Sakura
• Asuma against Shikamaru
• Itachi against Sasuke

Kabuto Edo's Tensei Army...

Could be turned agaisnt him. Remember that after Naruto defeated the Kyuubi and gained it power, he showed it to Bee and Yamato.It is said that the energy Naruto emits when he is in control are life-giving, which could be used to temporarily revive and free some of the shinobi Kabuto revived.If that happens, couple with the WMG above then we could finally see how Kushina fight, and we could expect a lot of asskicking by the the Namikaze-Uzumaki family.

Konan is by far the most powerful Ninja to ever live.

• Take a look in the Trivia section up top. Holy crap.
  • You may be right.
  • Also: not really dead. Anyone that powerful could easily stop a wimp like Madara; she's so good, she even made him think he had won.

Kisame is not dead.

Another Zetsu clone. If he's dead, why didn't Kabuto resurrect him?

• We don't know how the soul-binding ritual works. For all we know, it could completely drain the user of his strength and chakra, forcing him to rest for a time. When he was alone and hidden, Kabuto could afford it. Now that he's under Madara's surveillance, with the war looming on the horizon and him a central part in it, he can't afford to waste that kind of time or weaken himself so much.
  • Yes, because one extra resurrection would make such a huge difference when Kabuto has already resurrected a good dozen or so other people.
  • All those people Kabuto summoned, he didn't prepare them after meeting Madara, he already had them at hand when he first met the Uchiwa. See the WMG about the Edo Tenseï below to understand how I think the Edo Tenseï works, and why it means that Kabuto couldn't summon Kisame or Konan, who were both killed after his alliance with Akatsuki.
  • Besides, it's likely that the sharks ate all of Kisame's body.

Edo Tenseï has two phases : binding the soul and summoning the zombie.

Edo Tenseï functions in two phases : the binding of the soul to the world of the living, that involves a sacrifice, and then summoning the end result. The last part doesn't cost much chakra, but the first part has an "enormous" chakra cost, so big in fact that the user is completely drained after performing it. Hence, Edo Tenseï needs a lot of preparation time to be efficient, and the more zombies you want to create, the more quiet time you need.

Tobi/Madara is an Edo Tensei zombie

Somebody summoned Madara with Edo Tensei and he died before he could finish the jutsu. Even when the summoner is dead, the summon will continue to roam the world. Madara needed to use Izanagi in order to prepare his body to receive the Rinnegan. The mysterious person in Kabuto's coffin is the person who summoned Madara, the only person who could send him to the "Pure World" again.

As an alternative to the above, Kishimoto canonizes the Clan Restoration Act.

Which will backfire spectacularly because as much as the harem fans would be happy, everyone else would regard it as an Ass Pull.

• Alternatively, he canonizes it, but makes it far from pleasant. Wives chosen on a genetic rather than romantic basis, not allowed to go on dangerous missions until kids are born, what have you.
  • Explain- Naruto+ Hinata= Badass Family (kids with the chakra reserves of the Fourth Hokage and the Byakugan). Naruto+ Ino= not compatable for kekkei genkai blending. Naruto+ Tenten doesn't make sense for romantic or breeding reasons. Naruto+ Sakura= workable, not as good as Hinata, but if we're talking polygamy, that's no problem. Naruto+ Temari= Political marriage, creating a blood tie that would preserve Konoha/Suna alliance in the event of Gaara's untimely death. Naruto+ Karin= redundant- even assuming Karin's powers are genetic, Konoha already has the best medics and at least one of Naruto's kids are bound to undergo Sage training, meaning that the sensory powers would be available to them anyway (ignoring the fact that if the sensory power is genetic for Karin, Naruto's probably is, too, see above WMG about Karin being Naruto's cousin). Everything else seems to be a crack pairing.

Hinata will kill Zombie!Hizashi.

His weakness will be that he's still subject to the Caged Bird Seal. In a gut-wrenching I Cannot Self-Terminate moment, Hinata will be forced to use the death command on the Caged Bird Seal. This may also result in her killing Neji in the process. Cue Heroic BSOD.

Suigetsu and Jugo will join the Shinobi Alliance and become good guys

Considering their being abandoned / left to die by Sasuke, and other reasons I've forgotten since my last failed attempt to post this WMG. Also, Suigetsu vs. Zombie!Zabuza ("you broke my sword?!")

Naruto is Nearing Power-up Critical Mass

Think of all the jutsu power-ups and new super modes he has been acquiring lately: Sage Mode, Demon Fox Sage Mode, Neo Tailed Beast/Ninjassiah Mode, Rasenshuriken, Giant Rasengan, Rasenrengan, and now the Tailed Beast Bomb (which is everything the Rasengan is, only kicked Up to Eleven and given a badass make-over). Awesome, right? Well, consider this: the Tailed Beast Bomb is essentially the Rasengan, only with an arbitrarily wonky yin-yang chakra ratio. As far as we know thus far, there is nothing to keep Naruto from eventually applying all the boosts and variations he has added to the vanilla Rasengan to the Tailed Beast Bomb itself. Heck, all he really needs to do to unlock his full arsenal for use in his Neo Tailed Beast Mode is become friends with the Nine Tailed Demon Fox. Think about that for a second: all that Naruto Uzumaki, originator of Therapy no Jutsu, whose greatest skill has been stated to be his uncanny charisma and outgoing personality, needs to do to achieve an unparalelled level of raw, unlimited power is befriend the demon sealed in his stomach—a feat that others have managed to do just fine. The outcome is obvious.

Once Naruto does this (and we all know that he will), I for one would not be the least bit surprised to see him handily defeat the final boss with a single Super Giant Tailed Beast Storm Shuriken Bullet Barrage.

• This poster who made the underneath theory thinks your theory is a lot more awesome.

Naruto's next power-up will be combined Sennin Mode and Awakened Jinchuriki Mode

In Sennin Mode, Naruto is able to draw infinite Chakra from nature, but he has to concentrate to do so. In Awakened Jinchuriki Mode, Naruto has some kind of heightened concentration (As he does not need to use Kage Bushin to create Rasengan]] but the Kyuubi saps his Chakra. The weaknesses of these modes are covered by each other: Kyuubi gets to sap the infinite Nature chakra instead of Naruto's chakra and Naruto can collect Nature chakra while moving thanks to Awakened Jinchuriki Mode.

The paper Konan floated over to the Hop-In card is going to be important

It'll have the secrets of Madara's technique on it. Naruto seems likely to want to see where his fellow students were taught, on his quest to prepare for bringing peace or whooping Madara or some such. It just seemed too poignant to not be made critical in some fashion. Madara bashed hope. Konan trusts and HOPES that Naruto can defeat him. Why not give him info, the critical weapon of a ninja, in order to see the task through?

Kabuto has limited omniscience

How else would Kabuto know about Madara's whereabouts and identity. Not to mention that Kabuto was able to get his hands on the remains of every important Shinobi. He was able to find remains of Deidara, who transformed his own body into a bomb. He was able to find remains of Itachi, who was kept by Madara, he was able to find remains of Kakuzu, who was capured by Kohona. He was able to find remains of Nagato, who was guarded by Konan. Evem if Kabuto could use the dead to gain information, there are still things which he shouldn't know, like Nagato's location..

• Not necessarily. He needs their DNA but there's no (stated) reason it needs to come from a corpse. It's likely for starters that much of his collection of DNA came from Oorochimaru's collection. We've already seen enough to know they have hospitals in this world. So you disguise yourself walk right in draw blood from anybody who looks remotely interesting keep it labeled some place and keep an eye on the local obituaries. Alternately he could visit the sights of well recent battles and seach for kunai.

Sooner or later, someone will open all Eight Chakra Gates

Usually, no suicide technique is introduced in a series if no one is ever going to use it and die, or alternatively use it and survive against all odds. As such, there are a few likely scenarios: The main users of the skill and most likely candidates for kamikaze using it are Rock Lee and Might Guy. If Guy ever opens the Eighth Gate, he will most likely die, given that adult characters in Naruto may be stronger than the kids, but they are nowhere near as amazing as the younger generation. If Lee opens it, his chances of survival are 50/50, since he is a member of the new generation. If it is Sasuke who somehow manages to open it, however, there's no way he will kill himself doing it. He's too special.

• And then, it'll only confirm that Sailor Pluto is his mother. Opening portals and everything.
• This Troper is hoping it will be Hinata, and "survive against all odds". See the second guess below "academy for gifted ninjas" (ctrl+ f or Find).
• The villain of the second Shippuden movie claimed that he could do it, but whether he actually did is unclear.

Background of the Uchiha Massacre/Danzo and Madara

The way I interpreted things, Danzo somehow witnessed that Madara was behind the Kyuubi attack on Konoha which claimed the life of the Fourth and got it sealed into Naruto. Madara knew Danzo witnessed it, leading to their meeting, mentioned before Sasuke v Danzo. Danzo agreed to sell out the Uchihas who had betrayed Konoha if Madara gave him carte blanche access to the aftermath and some information regarding the Kyuubi. Lacking a man on the inside, Madara agreed. Danzo started spreading rumors that the Uchiha were behind the Kyuubi attack, which was plausible to the general population for two reasons: first, Madara had fought the First Hokage and had used the Kyuubi; second, the Uchiha had to be defeated by the Senju (read: Madara had to be defeated by Hashirama) in order for Konoha to be fully stabilized. The Second Hokage clearly had a dual intention in making them the police force; they played a major role in village security and order given their powers, and thus, ordinary citizens would learn to trust them. But their visible role would let him keep an eye on them, especially considering he came from that same war-torn era as the First and Madara. Anywho, the villagers started outwardly discriminating against the Uchiha, who had already been moved to the outskirts of town (right? I think that happened before the Kyuubi attack). The Uchiha got pissed and noted that the Third wasn't doing much (even if that was due to a lack of ability given the circumstances), and started actually plotting a coup. Really a giant Plan by Danzo. He pointed to this coup, and the two elders, already being hardliners, jumped in and agreed. The Third tried negotiations, but was trapped between a rock and a hard place: on the one hand, war with the Uchihas would cause a Fourth Ninja World War as Konoha would be weakened and others would try to take the Land of Fire; on the other, the villagers and Uchihas were completely suspicious of each other and could generally find no reason to overcome that mistrust. Things came to a head eventually when negotiations broke down. Danzo, in the meantime, used the ace in his sleeve: Itachi, the prodigy of the Uchihas, who was a mentally unstable pacifist who wanted (almost like Pain) peace at all costs due to his witnessing of the Third World War. Using what he learned from Madara, he told Itachi (who was in the ANBU, and, therefore, probably under Danzo's influence) to seek the tablet (or just told him how to acquire the Mangyeko Sharingan). He sics him on Shisui, who has the same relationship with Itachi as Itachi does with Sasuke (or so I figure). Itachi slays Shisui, whose murder further alienates Itachi and lets Danzo swoop in and acquire his right arm and right eye. Madara, watching from afar, approaches Itachi. Itachi figures out the truth (Madara wants revenge on Konoha as a whole, not just the Uchihas), but decides to work with Madara for the fateful night to eliminate the clan, since they have the same objective regarding the clan, if different reasons. Boom!~Uchihas massacred; Itachi goes with Madara after ensuring the Third protects Sasuke to prevent any further action against Konoha; Danzo gets his eyes and his Sharingan powers (50% of what he needs to tame the beast and use its powers), and the coup, civil war, and world war is prevented.

It makes sense in my head at least...

The reason why Sakura was so mean towards Naruto in part 1

• Not because of his constant goofing around, but because she was so hurt by Sasuke constantly ignoring her, she took all that frustration out on Naruto.
  • In the manga, after he tells her that he doesn't like her suggestion that Naruto's growing up without parents makes him selfish, she briefly wonders if she should be nicer to Naruto.

Madara did not take Izuna's eyes on purpose

It has been stated that it is not enough to kill one's best friend to gain the Mangekyo; you have to feel the genuine emotional sorrow of losing someone close to you. Therefore, when Madara gained the Mangekyo, he wasn't the Complete Monster we know him as currently (he had to have some level of empathy). Now, the way I look at the Sharingan is that it enhances the clarity of an Uchiha's vision, allowing them to take in more sensory information through their eyes than someone without a sharigan. But the Mangekyo Sharingan, through repeated use, will eventually cause an Uchiha's eyesight to deteriorate and go blind at some point; this is much more horrifying when you think of the psychological effects it has on the sharingan user. Their brains are so used to that level of sensory information that when they begin to lose that power, the effects are akin to withdraw from narcotic drugs. Thus, the Mangekyo's blindness side-effect is degenerative to the Uchiha's psyche; this is why Madara was in such a poor condition when he was losing his Mangekyo, and likely why he was so desperate to regain his eyesight. It eventually caused him to lose control of his mind, and he rabidly plucked out his brother's eyes, unaware of what he was really doing. Izuna then went insane from losing his sharingan eyes, suffering from the same degenerative effects Madara was suffering from and killed himself.

• Supposedly, according to one of the databooks, Izuna tried to continue fighting after this, but in an aversion of Handicapped Badass, got killed.

Neji made up the events of Shippuden Episode 192.

Kiba took part in the battle against the Sand/Sound attack force that day, and he was rescued by his mother. Thus, there is no way anything like what Neji said happened that day. Neji just made it up so that the kids would quit bugging him for a story when he really wasn't interested in giving an interview.

• Actually, Kiba was unconscious during the whole of the invasion. He didn't participate in the battle, and since Neji and Ten Ten weren't seen during the invasion either, this story, while filler, is a piece of cake to fit into canon, especially since it doesn't have anyone from Team 7, or seen during the invasion, as main characters.

If Sasuke ever pulls a Heel Face Turn

It would be because the whole time, Madara didn't give Sasuke Itachi's eyes, but just an ordinary set of eyes (maybe from a previous Akatsuki member). It was all a trick so he could get his hands on Sasuke's eyes. Once Sasuke finds out he got dicked by Madara, he decides to team up with Naruto. After defeating Madara, Sasuke still doesn't return to Konoha because of his previous crimes. Unable to face his home after all he's done, he wanders around the world. Just so Sasuke won't be alone, either Sakura or Karin (depending on who you ship), upon seeing that he really has changed, come with him, but not before giving Naruto one last kiss before leaving.

Samehada and Zetsu have a related origin

Both can absorb Chakra and are Eldritch Abominations.

Naruto will marry the Seventh Hokage

In chapter 500, Naruto's mother explains that she was the Kyuubi's Jinchuuriki before Naruto, and that she married the Fourth Hokage. She also says that the first Jinchuuriki married the First Hokage, so perhaps Naruto will follow suit?

• In Motoi's story, it's revealed that the Jinchuuriki are typically family members of the Kages, not necessarily spouses, as we can see with Gaara (son of the 4th Kazekage, later chosen 5th Kazekage so that he could be controlled), Killer Bee (younger brother of 4th Raikage).

Konan invented a jutsu to mass produce paper bombs shortly after Yahiko's death.

Because she never wanted to be completely helpless again, she developed a jutsu that would churn out paper bombs continuously, day and night, without rest or even needing her concious action, in preperation for the scenario that she would one day have to use them as a Desperation Attack. Such a swarm of paper bombs could take out an entire army, which is just what she could have used when held hostage by Hanzo.

Impure World Ressurection does not always pull people from the proper world.

Why else would Undead Hizashi be a Nazi?

• Because you're not paying attention. In the manga, the Caged Bird Seal contains a swastika. It was changed to an X in the anime due to broadcasting standards.
  • Also, the swastika is not originally a Nazi symbol, it came form the East and represents peace, but the bastards took it and inverted it so that it came to symbolize war, genocide and stuff like that instead.

The Second Tsuchikage was born in September.

He was also brought back from a place called "Boogie Wonderland", and pre-emps his battles with "Let's Groove".

This is more of a Wild Mass Question, but... what happened to Black Zetsu?

All we hear about from Madara is White Zetsu this, and White Zetsu that. Where did Black Zetsu go. And for that matter, where did he come from? Wasn't he a grass ninja at one point? How did he go from being the Plant Zombie Demon remains of the First Hokage to a Grass Missing Nin.

• Him being a Grass-nin was pure fanon coming from his plant-like appearance. He was the only Akatsuki member whose village affiliation was left a mystery in the official artbooks, but why there's only one Black Zetsu and what makes him so special is a good question.
  • That may have been back when people assumed that all villages were represented in Akatsuki, but 1)Hidan of the Hot Springs village shows that some villages with no other known members can be represented, and 2)The Raikage points out in the Summit of the Five Kages that no members of Akatsuki came from his village.

Hinata's mother is part of the Yuki clan

If we are to assume that the design for Hinata's mother in the anime is canon, she bears a bit of a resemblance towards Haku. If this WMG is true, then Hinata's true Crowning Moment of Awesome would be when she breaks out some Yuki Clan Kekkei Genkai on an enemy on accident.

• Honestly that sounds less like a Crowning Moment of Awesome and more like an Ass Pull. Lots of characters in anime look alike, the only three defining features in anime are hair, eyes, and height.

The zombie!Fourth Kazekage will use sand attacks like his son.

In the translation I read, Gaara and his father are said to have the same chakra. While this could be a blood relations thing, I'm favoring the sand theory.

• Confirmed.

Naru-Saku will become canon in the manga but Naru-Hina will become canon in the anime.

The main reason being that the people who work on the anime love her.

Madara is actually the original Demon Sage.

He didn't die but was defeated by his own son(s). But because he was so powerful he wasn't killed and had a vastly enhaced life span considering he is the ancestor of the Uzumaki. The son(s) took the Demon Sage's rinnegan eyes away.

The real Madara was killed by the first but the Demon Sage stole his sharingan. When he tells Pain that he gave the rinnegan to him, what he means is that he is his ancestor.

Although the Demon Sage was powerful and though his son(s) inherited his powers they are still distinct entities. Much like the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He needs all three of their traits to be all powerful which is why he retains the sharingan and he sought the power of the Senju.

This is how he comes to know so much about the Sage because He IS the Sage.

The Demon Sage Madara wants Sasuke to fight Naruto because if they worked together they could be his undoing just like how his previous son(s) beat him.

• There's a massive problem with this theory though. Madara's entire plan is to obtain the Jyuubi. As the Sage originally was the one who sealed it away, assuming he's Madara, why would he try and get it back?

The Final Battle Between Naruto and Sasuke

The final battle between these two will parallel the battle between Sennin Rokudo and the Juubi, especially considering their latest power ups. Towards the end of their fight, Sasuke will activate Susanoo with his new Eternal Mangekyo Sharigan that combined with his darkening chakra, will become an Eldritch Abomination on the scale of the Juubi that Naruto will have to fight. So Naruto fights the Susanoo, beats it, and seals it into his body like Rokudo did with the Juubi right? WRONG! Shonen King doesn't roll that. My theory is that Itachi saw this coming and the crow he made Naruto swallow will end up either, A) Sealing off Sasuke's chakra and the Susanoo inside of his body, depriving him of all of his jutsu and making Sasuke the "Jinchuriki" of the corrupted Susanoo and be able to use it or B) Deliver the final blow, destroying the Susanoo and scattering its chakra to the four winds(And possibly make new demons?). If it's B, which I hope it is, a very likely weakened Naruto and Sasuke drained of most of their chakra will finish their fight as equals, they very thing Naruto wanted from the start of the series. No Susanoo or Mangekyou and no Kyubi or Senjutsu, just an epic finally battle between two childhood friends turned bitter rivals. And in the end, when Naruto defeats and kills Sasuke, he will stand over Sasuke's body and lay down next to him, close his eyes, and die with a smile due to his injuries/running out of chakra. The epilouge of the manga will probably be A) A funeral for both of them and the story of their fight becoming a legend remember throughout the world or B) a Distant Finale with an older telling said legend to a group of academy students that walk off dismissing it as a legend while one child remains inspired by the story and tells Sakura about his new dream to "become Hokage!".

The Rikudo Sennin had Yasakani no Magatama

This is the only one of the Imperial Regalia of Japan to have not explicitly shown up yet in the manga. However, compare this to this. It might actually explain some degree of the Sage's power beyond the Rinnegan, and how he successfully managed to seal the Juubi into himself in the first place without a Phlebotinum Overload. Naruto's new Kyuubi seal looking like a set of Magatama could very well mean that the Sacred Jewel has chosen him as the Sage's successor; Magatama are designed to represent the spirit, so this would certainly fit, I think, given how he obtained his new seal in the first place. Being The Chosen One according to the Frog Sage certainly doesn't hurt his chances, either.

• Turns out that Itachi has it, just like he has the Yata Mirror exactly what it does or if anyone else has it is still up in the air.

Sakura's father abused her

We never hear anything about her father while her mother was a disembodied voice in the anime. My guess is that her father abused her and was taken away. It could also explain her Tsundere personality.

Hidan was dug up by the ANBU

I remember reading a simmilar theory on here, but I can't find it anymore- Anyway, it would make sense. I mean, since he's an Akatsuki member, they would dig him up and take him in for questioning.

• It's stated that the Nara clan woods are off limits to all non-Naras (Shikamaru meets Sakura and Sai at the edge of the forest), so it's unlikely

Naruto has already responded to Hinata's confession.

We just haven't seen the result yet.

• My guess is that his response, which will come up when Hinata's backed into a corner, is something along the lines of "I need some time to think about what you told me, especially since it recolors everything I know about you. However, until then, you've got to stay alive, no matter what!" Hinata will then remember that she promised Naruto she would come back to him, and gather the resolve needed to survive the war.

The Six Paths

This is my theory as to what the six paths referring to Rokudo Sennin mean.

First Path- Taijutsu

Second Path- Ninjutsu

Third Path- Genjutsu

Fourth Path- Kekkai Genkai

Fifth Path- Bijuu/Jinchuriki

Sixth Path- Onmyoton

I think this makes sense considering that all six refer to Rokudo Sennin. Also, as the paths ascend, the more rarer they are, like everyone can use Taijutsu and the same is almost true for Ninjutsu and Genjutsu, they're just harder to learn or impossible if you Rock Lee. Kekkai Genkai only a select few can use due to blood relations(And even then for some, there's no gurantee you'll inherit it.). There are only nine Bijuu so only nine people can be Jinchuriki. And for Onmyoton, only those who have the Rinnegan(A rare dojutsu I remind you) or the power of both the Senju and the Uchiha(Due to their rivalry, this would be impossible naturally, especially since there are only two Uchiha left...), only four people have it and only two of them naturally, Rokudo Sennin and Nagato. I believe only someone who have all six paths will be the true successor to Rokudo Sennin.

• There is, at the very least, evidence that the Bijuu are one of the paths. The statue that Akatsuki uses to seal the Bijuu is called Gedo Mazo, which according to the scanlator, translates to "Demon Statue of the Outer Path." Which would also seem to indicate that it comes numerically last, instead of fifth.
  • Additionally, Madara mentions a "Human Path" here, which is somehow connected to the Rinnegan.
    • Actually, it's likely that the "six paths" in series refers to the unique abilities used by Nagato's Six Paths of Pain: Deva Path (Tendō) [can control gravity], Animal Path (Chikushōdō) [summons crazy stuff], Preta Path (Gakidō) [absorbs chakra and ninjutsu], Human Path (Ningendō) [can pull out people's souls to instantly learn everything they know], Asura Path (Shuradō) [... is a cyborg...?], Naraka Path (Jigokudō) [can summon...] the Outer Path (Gedō) [power over life and death], which is the seventh path. Additionally, the "rinne" in "rinnegan" is the Japanese term for "Samsara" (the Buddhist cycle of reincarnation), and each of the Six Paths of Pain corresponds to a path in the Samsara cycle. So, while nice, this theory is probably not correct.
      • Actually what I meant was that the correspond to one of the paths/realms like Onmyoton for Deva and by ascending these paths look get closer to enlightenment and eventually gain the same power as Rokudo Sennin.

Rock Lee will fight Sasuke... and kick his ass

Lee will have, by now, mastered Guy-sensei's 'How to Fight a Sharingan-Wielder' fighting techniques, his speed will allow him to bypass most of Sasuke's defenses, and if/when Sasuke breaks out the Susanoo, Lee will just pepper him with light blows while waiting for the usage of Susanoo to exhaust Sasuke until he can't keep it up anymore, and then Lee will continue the beating until Sasuke is down for the count.

The 'gift' Itachi gave Naruto

Is a method (or knowledge of a method) to destroy the otherwise-invincible Madara.

• It was for Sasuke.

Sarutobi Hiruzen was stronger than Madara

Madara is as powerful as Hashirama, pupils always exceed their masters, so Sarutobi is stronger than Madara. This explains why Madara did not attack Kohona when Sarutobi was Hokage.

• Fascinating theory, but you overlooked something. It was Tobirama, Hashirama's younger brother, that taught Hiruzen.
  • Hiruzen was trained by both, albeit mostly by Tobirama.

As powerful as Konan is, she's only the second strongest Ninja ever.

Despite having fire power equal to a small nuclear device, Konan's power is clearly significantly eclipsed by the Raikage's Secretary, Mabui, who is able to move objects at the speed of light. Nukes have nothing on relativistic weapons, after all. One wonders why she hasn't just flat out killed Madara yet.

• A small nuclear device is nothing compared to Deidara blowing himself up. My back of the envelope calculations estimated that blast at 400 kT of TNT equivalent, or about the size of a typical thermonuclear weapon in the US arsenal.
  • That is wrong on several different levels. Konan's explicitly been stated to have over six billion explosive notes at her disposal. Deidara's most powerful bomb destroys everything within ten kilometers of himself, or roughly six miles. If we assume that's a six-mile radius, that's about 450 square miles destroyed. If you assume that, if each and every one of Konan's explosive notes destroyed a ridiculously undervalued one square foot of real estate, and each one destroyed a separate square foot, then she could potentially wipe out over a million square miles. That's bigger than most countries.
    • If your calculations were accurate, you'd be right, but they are not. 6 billion square feet is 215 square miles. You have to divide by 5280^2, not 5280, to convert square feet into square miles.
• Madara can access alternate dimension, not to mention Susanoo: immovable object meets unstoppable force.

Ino picked up some of the Kyuubi's power when she possessed Kinkaku.

Hence why she's hissing and looks off when she releases him.

Naruto, now the next Sage of the Six Paths, will be forced to fight his predecessor, the original Sage of the Six Paths

Whether it be as a battle in the center of one's mind or due to the Edo Tensei, Naruto, now the new Rikudou Sennin, will confront the first shinobi in an all out match, and barely (I'm talking about nanoscopically barely) wins, proving that the new generation indeed surpasses the last.

Itachi's crow is an illusion

Specifically, one that will reveal itself to Sauske when he tries to use Tsukiyomi on Naruto, likely at the end of their fight. Illusion-Itachi will tell Sauske to let go of his hatred and go back to Kohana. Whether Sauske accepts that is up in the air.

• Not quite, but pretty close.

Killer Bee and Naruto...

Are only playing along with their confinement. It has been shown that whilst Bee is indeed chaotic and reckless in his methods of fighting, he is far from stupid. Either he is planning on running in when things look helpless for the Allied Shinobi Army, or A explicitly told him that plot in mind. Naruto meanwhile is diving headlong into his Jinchuuriki training, wanting to master it as quickly as possible so he can rush in and kick ass. Following that...

• In Chapter 536, Naruto and Killer Bee destroy the barrier and head to the battlefield.

Naruto IS going to keep his vow and bring Sasuke back to Konoha, alive...

...but Uchiha is going back to have his precious Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan plucked out, and hurled into Konoha's deepest dungeon to forever live with the fact his revenge could not be carried out. Madara and Kabuto will be incinerated, the ones under the influence of Edo Tensei will say their heartfelt goodbyes, and the Shinobi World will remain united. The Bijuu will be set free and brought into new hosts that will be raised as respected and adored guardians. The worldwide peace The Sage of Six Paths, Jiraiya, Nagato and Naruto will finally be brought into fruition. The End.

Madara can use Edo Tensei

Madara saw and was explained how to preform the move. And now can do at will with all the white Zetsus to be his sacrifices he needs. So the real turning point in the war will be when he (in an even better verson as well I bet) breaks out all the best Ninja of all time and knows a way a the reaper death seal and brings out even the Hokages. So in the end Naruto does in fact as to become the greatest/ strongest hokage ever.

Moegi and Udon's family names are respectively Utatane and Mitokado.

With all the other Generation Xerox, it really is not that much of a stretch to think that they are the grandchildren of the Sandaime's former team mates.

Uzumaki/Senju Mito was also summoned with Edo Tensei

Who would be able to scare Madara shitless? The woman who was able to seal the Kyuubi in herself of course.

Dan was the original Ino-Shika-Cho trio's sensei

It would explain how Choza seems to know him and his jutsu, and possibly why Choza said, "Easier said than done when you're the opponent". Were Dan still alive, he'd be in his fifties like his ex-girlfriend Tsunade is now, and Choza is in his early forties. Dan would have been in his twenties when Choza and his team mates were teens, so it's plausible he was old enough to be their sensei.

Naruto will learn how to permanently shut down a chakra networks using a Fuinjutsu

Just Like in Avatar: The Last Airbender, where Aang takes away Ozai's firebending using his own energybending. Since the Uzumaki clan were masters at sealing stuff and we've already seen Minato use a seal on Madara to cut off his control, it could be taken a step further.

The Uzumaki clan transformed into the toads

Well they can use hand seals and the Great Toad Sage is ridiculously old. They were porbably experimenting with natural chakra but they were attacked by other ninja so much that they decided to turn into the toads, to avoid getting exterminated.

Sasuke will be killed and then ressurected using the impure world technique, but ultimately finds the will to fight for the side of good

Basicly Redemption Equals Death and he's done way too much bad stuff to walk away with a happy ending.

Shee is Yugito Nii's younger brother

He has the same hair color, eye shape and facial structure as her. Furthermore, it would help keep her connected to the Yondaime Raikage to have her brother be his personal bodyguard.

Asuma's and Kurenai's son/daugher wil force him to get de-zombied

From the looks of it, It's been long enough for their child to have been born. After all, Sasori and Sai's brother got sent back from emotinal attatchments. Kabutochimaru let them keep their emotion to mentally fight everyone else.

Suigetsu will undergo a Heel Face Turn and become an unexpected hero.

He and Juugo are looking for Sasuke, but once they see the war going on, they'll definitely join in. Suigetsu will see his beloved big brother being used as a puppet, and realizing that Sasuke has abandoned them, will join the Shinobi Allied Forces and get his brother to stop fighting. Since Mangetsu mastered all the swords, he must be the leader, and if Suigetsu can get him to stop, then that takes out one powerful group of ninja.

There is a location in the Naruto world where English is the predominant language.

Gratuitous English In a World based on ours is justified by Truth in Television. Gratuitous English in a world where the entire planet apparently speaks Japanese is not. The English words and phrases must come from somewhere.

• Kumo is the most likely candidate, since several characters are named after Latin(English) letters, and most attacks have English names.
  • Yes, I was planning on using Kumo as an example if anyone asked for examples of Gratuitous English. Besides Kumo having characters whose names are just Roman letters and whose jutsu have English names written with kanji that somewhat match the pronounciation,^[1] we also have Jiraiya's Icha Icha Series.^[2] Also, Naruto has said "Good morning" in at least one episode, and I'm pretty sure Sakura said "Ok!" at one point. Where do these English words come from?

Pain/Nagato was stronger than Madara.

Exactly What It Says on the Tin.

Naruto Doesn't Remember Hinata's Confession

• Point One: Naruto has previously demonstrated difficulty remembering things that occurred while in more advanced stages of his tailed beast transformations.
• Point Two: Naruto, after Pain struck down Hinata, rapidly went through, in this order:
  • Swiftly transforming all the way up to his four tailed form and beyond,
  • Going through an existential crisis even while being tempted by the Fox, who offers to destroy anything that causes him pain in exchange for being set loose.
  • Nearly unsealing said homicidal demon.
  • Meeting his father in the center of his mind.
  • Fighting and finishing off the last of the Six Paths of Pain.
  • Confronting Nagato and listening to his grand plan and why he wants to do it.
  • Using therapy jutsu on Nagato, causing him to decide to revive those killed in the invasion.
  • Being received as a hero by the village.
• Point Three: Since the end of Pain's invasion, Naruto has given no indication of being aware of Hinata's feelings for him.
• Point Four: It's pretty much either this, or Kishimoto just really doesn't want to even try to write any sort of conclusion to this particular plot thread until he has the rest of the plot out of the way, even if it means making it seem like Naruto is actively avoiding the poor girl because he has no way how to respond to her confession.
  • Most likely Point 4, since she told him before he went berserk, and Kishimoto seems to want romance left in the background if it has to be in the story at all, also Naruto is still a fairly silly teenager so figuring out how he feels about Hinata probably doesnt top his list of priorities when he is being hunted by powerful ninjas.

Karin and Tayuya are/were related by blood

Just a hunch.

• Not only that, they're undiscovered remnants of the Uzumaki clan, possibly Kushina's nieces.
• At the very least, Karin is an Uzumaki.

Kimimaro and Itachi were not killed by their respective illnesses or injuries

They died from total chakra exhaustion. Says Kakashi while training Sasuke during the Chunin Exam Arc: "If you (can't remember what he says here) too much, you could drain your chakra to absolute zero. Worst case scenario: you die". Kimimaro and Itachi used up all of their chakra in their fights, and with their bodies completely, totally drained of what is essentially life energy, their bodies broke down and they died. The Blood From the Mouth in both (Kimimaro right after death, Itachi while using Susanoo) could be a sign of very dangerously low chakra.

• Chakra exhaustion seems most likely for Itachi (and it's listed as the cause of his death on some summaries), and given that Kimimaro used a fairly powerful jutsu just before dying, he may have used up the last of his chakra.

The Foundation/ROOT/Ne is based on Al-Qaida

Both are terror-cells lead by ideology, but it's also a case of Name Is The Same: Both Ne and Al-Qaida translate as foundation.

The Juubi fires a Bijuu Bomb out of his eye... and it's made of Amateratsu

All the tailed-beasts have some sort of Breath Weapon, but the Juubi's face only consists of a giant Rinne-Sharingan eye. Why not?

The loss of a Tailed Beast's chakra affects its transformation

It could explain the lack of growth in the Kyuubi state until after the sixth tail, the fact that the 6-tail form only has a partial skeleton, and that the 8-tailed form does not have any bones or muscles on its tails. And it obviously explains the Kyuubi's smaller size after being sealed in Naruto, as well as the emaciated appearance after Naruto stealing his chakra.

• Makes sense, they are described as being sentient chakra, nothing more.

Chouji's Butterfly transformation will end badly.

He's using a souped-up version of a technique that almost killed him the only time he ever tried it. Self explanatory.

• The pills were to force the transformation, now that he can transform on his own, the risk is minimal.

Danzo was an alchoholic.

Just a pet theory of mine. After all, living through the previous ninja wars could have been a big enough stress on someone like him, but coupled with Danzo's inferiority complex..well, they say alchohol is liquid courage and confidence.

Tenten is a descendant of the Sage of Six Paths.

In combination with the WMG saying she has very high chakra levels; it would explain how she can wield the Bashonen without it killing her.

Sasuke is going to fall in love with Hinata

Amaterasu is the sun goddess and Hinata and Hyuuga means sunny place and the sun respectively. There's a lot of references about this, even though the two characters haven't talked to/about each other. Also, Hinata looks somewhat like Mikoto. There's alot of Irony about this couple. It's unknown if Kishi were to ever write this. It's just...Ironic. It may be like the battle with Pain, but with a few changes. Given that Sasuke has now entered true darkness and Hinata having the atmosphere to that of an angel's (Especially more so in the anime thanks to Sailor Hinata), along with the fact that she was the first person of the Konoha 11 to ever acknowledge Naruto for who he is. They're somewhat Opposites of what they stand for despite similar expieriences. She somewhat helped Naruto cure the egos of Neji and Pain (to a lesser degree), so it's to happen with Sasuke, removing him from the darkness.

• If this website. is anything to by, the theory of Amaterasu, Tsukiyomi, and Susano'o fits the three Uchihas perfectly (Especially Sasuke and Madara, seeing that former's hatred will lead to rage, and the latter revealed his Moon's Eye plan). Kushinada-Hime somewhat makes sense with Hinata, Seeing that Hime literally means "princess" or "Young lady of Noble birth" (and she has a Hime Cut).
• That would be epic! Sasuke, the former heartthrob, winds up falling in love with the only girl who was NEVER interested in him, and who is instead madly in love with Naruto. "Mia Carlotta" comes to mind when I think about this scenario.

Gedo Mazo will be Juubi's body

Well, it makes a bit of sense if we consider Madara's tale about it as true. The Sage of the Six Paths divided its chakra into nine parts and created the moon to seal its body and since it is sealed in the moon it is impossible to get. Then someone who wanted to see its revival (maybe the sage's elder son) created the statue to overcome it and revive the beast anyway. Once all the Tailed Beasts are sealed, it will revive its essence and work as a perfect replacement for its original body.

• • Quite possibly confirmed in Chapter 537 with Shikamaru asking Madara a question to that effect and Madar replying he is very smart.

Yugito Nii is related to a former Raikage, possibly the first or second

That Raikage was the one responsible for capturing the Tailed Beast, and sealed it into a sibling or child. The Third Raikage, likely his student, then distinguished himself and was awarded the title, but the Two-Tails remained in the previous Raikage's family, eventually making its way to Yugito, who is likely the daughter or granddaughter of the previous jinchuuriki.

Naruto will learn to counter Amateratsu...

...by letting himself enter the Kyuubi form v2. The Nine-Tails' chakra is very similar to Amateratsu flames: it burns incredibly hot, tends to radiate for extended periods of time (as seen in Sakura's injury), and it has ties with the Uchiha clan. Also, Naruto would be burning off his own flesh (and rehealing it), effectively getting rid of the flames' target and rendering it useless. It wouldn't work with the Eight-Tails because of the lack of similarity. In other words, fighting fire with fire.

Madara is the spirit of the Ten Tails

Madara gained the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan which let the Ten Tails spirit possess him. He fought with Hashirama Senju which got him wounded but allowed him to create the Zetsu twins, which he then cloned and fused with it(which is shown here http://www.mangareader.net/93-57473-8/naruto/chapter-510.html), which granted him the ability to regenerate and possess/fuse with other Zetsu clones(http://www.mangareader.net/naruto/536/16), control the Zetsu's and possess Senju DNA which gives him access to Izanagi. The Rinnegan and Sharingan were passed down from the Sage of six paths through the Senju and Uchiha which makes his claim that he gave Nagato the Rinnegan correct. The eye of the moon plan is his method of fusing the tailed beasts back into the Ten Tails body, which he will become its jinchuriki which will let him have all the powers of it plus the extra power gathered from the various jinchuriki's of the 9 tailed beasts.

Madara lied to Sasuke about the Uchiha clan massacre

Either:

• 1. While Itachi still cared for Sasuke, he killed the clan on his own free will. Madara only told Sasuke that the elders made him do it to turn him against Konoha.
• 2. Madara killed the clan. He made Itachi take the fall in exchange for sparing Sasuke's life.
• This has been pretty much jossed by Danzo and Itachi himself. Madara, however, was not TOTALLY truthful. "I had nothing to do with the Kyuubi attack." Yeah... no.

Madara is rushing because of the full moon.

Madara needs a full moon in order to accomplish his plan. With the war going on, Madara realizes that he doesn't have time to wait for another full moon. Therefore, he doesn't have time to go after Naruto and Bee, and is planning to use the Eight-Tails tentacle and the Nine-Tails Chakra from Kinkaku and Ginkaku to summon an incomplete Juubi.

The above WMG is true, but it will be Madara's downfall.

Gaining the power of an incomplete Juubi will make Madara more powerful, but it will also make him more vulnerable, due to being forced to manifest physically continuously.

Itachi's gift to Naruto

Is Itachi's Susanoo, complete with the Yata no Kagami and the Totsuka no Tsurugi. At some time of dire need, it will awaken, and we'll probably get to see a Susanoo duel between Naruto and Sasuke or Naruto and Madara, that will end with Naruto having to use the Totsuka no Tsurugi to seal Sasuke/Madara (or maybe the Juubi) away for eternity.

• That's impossible. He gave Naruto plotdevice-no-jutsu before he died, so how could that have been the mirror and sword when he used them right before his death?
• An anchor. It wouldn't transfer right away, but upon Itachi's death the Susanoo transferred itself to Naruto, using whatever Itachi gave him as a beacon to home in on and latch onto.
• Makes sense, Naruto has a rather strong storm theme (think wind element, Rasengan etc.) and Susanoo is the god of storms.

Naruto will hook up with someone other than Sakura, Hinata or Sasuke

To spite the fandom (Possibly Karin)

Every single Hokage is going to pull a Like a Badass Out of Hell moment at the allied forces' darkest hour.

Let's say for the sake of argument that the Death God Seal was invented by the 4th Hokage going forward with this, and the "eternal battle" being fought in its stomach consists of all four dead Hokage, half the Kyuubi, and Orochimaru's arms. Given that the first was there, the half of the Kyuubi got curb-stomped and tamed a while back, but now the 4th's conversation with Naruto has alerted the Kages to the state of affairs outside, and they're combining their powers with the space/time jutsu mastery of the 4th and 2nd to penetrate the walls of the dimension they've been forced into. As Madara seems to reach his hour of triumph, all four Hokage will burst out of the Death God's stomach and subject him to a Big Good Boss Rush. After the mother of all Curb Stomp Battles, the Hokages have a So Proud of You moment with Naruto and the ninja that have fought for the Will Of Fire before they and Orochimaru's arms (but not the rest of him) pass on to rest in peace rather than eternal torment.

Before you ask, no, I'm not being serious, but I wouldn't complain if it went down that way.

• • Neither would I. Fingers crossed Kishimoto makes it canon!!

Tenten is part of the Fuma clan

The Fuma clan is known for their skills in weapons and the creation of the famous weapons (e.g. Fuma Shuriken). She is the only person that fits that desciption. We were also never given her full name, because it will be part of a reveal.

Neji Is A Clone

Either he is a Zetsu Clone or the Negi Clone from the Rescue Gaara Arc and he actually won. Either way it answers the question of "Why Neji, Why?"

• I was thinking that somehow, Madara took control of Neji when the former appeared on the battlefield, using his Sharingan's powers (the ones he used on Fu and Torune) to control Neji. So perhaps at times, Neji was really looking for the spy, but then Madara (or whoever) controlled him in order to kill the Jonin Medics.

Mokuton is more than an Advanced Element Nature

There is a difference between Yamato's Mokuton and Danzo/Harashima's Mokuton. Yamato's Mokuton only creates wood while Danzo and Harashima create trees with leaf and sprouts. The only time Yamato's Mokuton sprouts is when Naruto uses his Kyuubi Chakra Mode, which is noted as being Yang natured. Since Senju have received tha Yang nature from Sage, Yang being the physical livegiving part. Harashima's true Mokuton is Earth/Water Nature to create the wood and Yang Nature to breathe life in the wood.

All Mangekyou techniques are Yin Nature

The Uchiha received Yin Nature from the Sage, Yin is the spiritual component. All Mangekyou techniques are incorporal: The illusion Tsukuyomi, the black flames Amaterasu, the etheral warrior Susanoo and the black hole Kamui. Yin is also darkness, thus explaining the darkness in Sasuke is in fact the Yin chakra of the Mangekyou.

This series is going to end like Return of the Jedi

Naruto fights and defeats Sasuke non-lethally, then Madara swoops in and starts destroying him, followed by Sasuke reviving somewhat and taking down Madara kamikaze-style. Sasuke gets Vader's Redemption Equals Death, Madara sees total destruction a la Palpatine, and the spoils go to Naruto/Luke.

• I doubt that will be the end though; that's too convienent. Something will have to go Horribly Wrong.

Possible identities for the other two kids in Team Jiraiya

• Long-haired kid: Possible member of the Uchiha Clan. His/her hair is the right shade.
• Short-haired boy with the fox-face: Sakura's father, just for the sake of Generation Xerox.
  • Although looking at the long-haired boy's dress and facial structure, it wouldn't be surprising if he would turn up to be filler character Kazuma, which ties neatly to his relationship with Minato and the Nine-Tailed Fox too.

Naruto will end up destroying the Gedo statue

• That would also allow the other Jinchuuriki to be revived completely, and no longer under Kabuto's control. The chakras stolen by the statue will return to their bodies once released.

The Rinnegan isn't a bloodline limit

• It's a jinchuriki power like Gaara's sand manipulation. The Rikudo Sennin's younger son was born after he divided the Juubi, while the elder was born while he was still its jinchuriki and accidentally received some of its dark chakra, which was passed down to his descendants, the Uchiha clan, as a pseudo-bloodline limit. This is why the Kyuubi said that Sasuke's chakra was more sinister than his own, it's because he basically has a fragment of an Eldritch Abomination inside him.
  • And that makes Nagato exactly what?
    • A Pseudo-Jinchuriki experiment of Madara.

Madara will channel his captured Biju trough the Six Paths of Pain

Since Madara's Paths are the former Jinchuriki, they posses the Sharingan and Madara has the corresponding Biju sealed.

• Confirmed.

Madara's merging with Hashirama's cells will backfire

In the last chapter Naruto displayed the ability to turn the white Zetsus into trees when they react with his new super mode. The reason? They are made of Hashirama's cells and the vital force he displays in this new form makes them return to their original state. Madara merged himself with Hashirama's cells to become immortal and be able to use Izanagi, so in an upcoming battle they will react as well and become trees, Danzo style, and he will be forced to deatach them making him vulnerable.

Naruto is using Sage Mode chakra to fuel the Kyuubi after the fight with the two Kages

He won't worry about transforming from movement because he has a godly amount of chakra, hence a near-infinite flow of sage chakra. Also, he needs the boost in order to make shadow clones without dying instantly.

Danzo has Uzumaki heritage

The Uzumaki were known for their long lives, that implies that they stay longer younger. Now compare Danzo with Sarutobi and the other Elders, who are the same age as him. Danzo shows less signs of ageing, his walking stick is only for show as he showed against Sasuke. The Uzumaki were also well-known seal-masters. Danzo used a curse-seal to bind the tongues of the ROOT members, a curse-seal to bind Sasuke and a seal to activate upon his death to seal his killer.

• Plausible, he does seem to resemble the oldest male Uzumaki that has been seen so far

Madara has just given Kabuto his own set of six path's

Madara turned the former Jinchuriki's into his six paths, but doesn't appear to have any way to control them, which makes them Kabuto's since even if Madara tries to control them, they could easily resist due to having more power than him, and Kabuto could boost any resistance to Madara if needed, since Madara is the reason they died.

Kabuto can now use the Rinnegan and Sharigan against Madara now that he doesn't need to use Nagato and Itachi for it, and even if Madara died, Kabuto could just bring him back to make the Jinchurikis Kabuto's paths

Hiashi is an Iron Woobie.

We've seen a couple scenes indicating that he's Not So Stoic as he lets on. It's a distinct possibility that his coldness comes from a sense of noblis oblige (figuring a clan head, if not a ninja in general, should not show emotion publicly) combined with losing his brother and his wife in a short interval, as well as nearly losing his daughter on more than one occasion, over a system he may well not even like.

Gaara is actually the strongest of the current batch of Kages

These last few chapters have confirmed that he's even stronger than Shukaku now, the One-Tailed demon that was sealed inside him that gave him sand powers in the first place. That puts him having Biju-levels of chakra just like A, and his sand is fast enough to counter Amaterasu three times, making him able to block and counter A's speed. He can also fly, countering Onoki's advantage and I bet his strongest Sand Wall could counter his Jinton: Genkai Hakuri no Jutsu. He can counter Mei's bloodlines via flight and sand manipulation. And he can counter Tsunade's use of Katsuya and her regen and Super Strength by keeping range. As such, he's fighting three Kages at the same time now, and winning. Thus, he's the strongest of the current batch of Kages.

Sora will be a Canon Immigrant during the Fourth Ninja War.

Using Bijuu chakra as a stand-in for the actual Bijuu is already in play, so it's plausible.

The rest of the Sound Five has been brought back

We just haven't seen them yet. I mean, I know Kimimaro was the strongest, but is that any reason to leave out the rest?

Arashi Kazama was part of Team Jiraiya

Who's Arashi Kazama, you may ask? Well, early on when Naruto was learning how to summon, one of the names listed was "Arashi Kazama." Many fans assumed that was Minato's name until that was Jossed during The Reveal. It would seem that Jiraiya taught one of the nameless members of his team to summon as well.

• No. That name wasn't listed, only Minato's name was. So says Word of God. Minato's hand writing was just that bad.

The White Zetsu clones can be killed if Black Zetsu dies

It's kind of like with Piccolo in Dragon Ball, where a separate being was made from him, and if the host dies, they die.

• Which makes sense, because only White Zetsu has been cloned.

Naruto and Bee vs. Itachi and Nagato

There have been countless theories about what Itachi gave Naruto, but as the two of them are now about to fight each other, this is the perfect moment for Itachi to remind him about that "gift". However, in spite of this, the battle will end in Bee getting captured, and either Nagato or Itachi will be defeated. Most likely Nagato, as he is Naruto's last relative, undead or otherwise, and it's a fitting time for him to be defeated here. Itachi will inevitably learn or even see what Sasuke has become, and the necessity for this is a plot-relevant excuse that will allow Itachi to escape the fight, likely with Bee under the effects of a Genjutsu.

• Itachi is the weaker of the duo, a at best (as he admitted) Jiraiya-level fighter. Nagato can use all the Rinnegan's powers in one body but lacks his former mobility for some reason. Itachi is the one whose being led to defeat, showing that Naruto can fight Sharingan users. Bee may be defeated by Nagato, or the fight'll be interrupted by Madara.
• It's also worth noting that Nagato's powers include gravity manipulation- in other words, space-time jutsu. If he can manipulate gravity, it's not much of a stretch to suggest that he can also manipulate other jutsu involving space and time, such as Madara's ability to teleport.

Yamato wasn't the only one to survive Orochimaru's experiment . . .

Zetsu did as well. But the D.N.A did weird things to him . . . this explains why Madara was able to create the White Zetsu's from The First Hokage's D.N.A .

The real message of the show is "judge your life by the contributions you make."

Ok, alot of people are quick to point out the contradictory nature of this show. Naruto bitches about how everyone should fight for their dreams, and they'll eventually get them, regardless of how they were born. However, he's inherited great skill from two powerful ninja parents, and had the nine-tails sealed in him at birth, giving him all of his power, allowing him to beat Neji. Meanwhile, Rock Lee's years of training can be matched in a month by a naturally gifted ninja like Sasuke. However, it could just be that Naruto is to thick to get the real message, and so he bitches about another one. The real message is that all of these people, through hard work, give to a cause greater than themselves, and they all work to better themselves in the pursuit of a collective dream.

• The toads will join the war when the old toad sees that Naruto misunderstood the prophecy, since the prophecy was about him fighting Itachi not Sasuke.

Possible identities for the unnamed Akatsuki members

During the first on-screen Akatsuki meeting, some of the holograms were unrecognizable.

• Big!Kakuzu: One noticable hologram was in Kakuzu's shape, but was much larger than his first physical appearance. Until we get a Word of God confirmation, I assume that he maybe was a previous partner of Kakuzu's from the same village.

Kabuto will either become the final Big Bad or the one before the real Big Bad

• If you've noticed, Kabuto has mostly been in the backround while Madara and the Akatsuki are currently in the evil spotlight. Most of the world doesn't seem to even know that Kabuto is allied with Madara meaning that the Joint Shinobi Forces are focusing all their attention on Akatsuki which will lead to Madara being defeated before Kabuto. Then there's also the possibilty that Kabuto will betray Madara, recent chapters have been hinting that he's planning to soon. Finally, it's also not a sure thing that Sasuke will become a Big Bad but it is possible so Kabuto will either be the main villian before or after Sasuke. Other than Sasuke, I don't see any other potential Big Bads.

There's more to Madara's new powers that appears.

There are a couple of inconsistencies with Madara's new Paths of Pain technique. This is already obvious given that he's using the remaining six Jinchuriki, most of who's abilities we haven't seen, save for perhaps Utaka in the anime. But then, something seemed odd. Look closely at the picture of of them. There are no chakra receivers implanted in their bodies like with Nagato's version! This seemed to be a somewhat crucial component of the technique, otherwise why would Pain have sent a body to retrieve the receivers Konoha obtained from their examination, rather than simply let them get destroyed when he gravity bombed the village?

We also know that Madara now has the Gedo Mazo statue which contains tailed beast Chakra. Now combine that with the fact that one of Pain's very abilities is both ripping your soul out AND resurrecting the dead, (Completely, and not an "artificial" version like Kabuto's).

Plus, we don't exactly know what Akatsuki did with the original bodies of the remaining Jinchuuriki. After Shukaku was extracted, why else would Deidara have made an effort to take the body with him, rather than simply leave it (Yes, I know Deidara's an ass who did it to screw with Naruto, but that's beside the point). So in effect, had Gaara's body not been recovered, Gaara might have ended up as one of Madara's new bodies.

Of course, a lot of this also depends if the remaining Jinchuuriki still have their tailed beast powers, but again Gedo Mazo. Madara has the beasts, so he could distribute them as he chose, but again . Now if it was simple to place the tailed beasts into dead bodies, then why not add Shukaku? Why focus only six of the seven beasts you have, leaving out one that would further increase your chances at victory?

This also throws in a loop with Edo Tensei, as one of its previous users, namely Orochimaru, didn't simply resurrect a dead Uchiha,(Simple for him, this war has proved he had DNA from practically everybody), and steal that body to gain the Sharingan. Unless there's some kind of "dead can't interact with the living clause" which hasn't been fully elaborated on, but it is a possibility given how Edo Tensei zombies heal back into their original state regardless of damage/modifications. So if its the case, then it doesn't explain how Madara was able to implant Rinnegan and Sharingan into the Jinchuuriki... unless they were alive!

So, basically, I think that either: the dead Jinchuuriki are possibly alive and in an "And I Must Scream" situation, or that there's something more to this situation we don't know about yet.

• Seems like there are either two versions of the Jinchuriki around, the originals without souls as Madara's paths and Kabuto's revived Jinchuriki's, or Madara modified Kabuto's zombies.

There will be a 3rd part for Naruto

And it will focus on the apocalyptic after-effects of the Juubi's chakra after being released from the moon. Needless to say, it will be more serious than ever, to the point Naruto might end up becoming a broken idealist a la Archer

Madara will extract the Nine Tails chakra from Naruto...

...but it's all part of Naruto's counter plan to seal the Ten Tails into his own body so Madara loses all the Tailed Beast chakra. He will then make quick work of Madara.

In Chapter 552...

The person with the Rasengan at the very end of the chapter is NOT in fact Naruto, but Jiraiya. Because Kabuto is that much of an evil sadistic bastard.

• I could've sworn that Kabuto said that he was incapable of using Jiraiya with Edo Tensei, because Jiraiya's body is at the bottom of the sea and Kabuto thus can't get the gene sample he needs to use ET on Pervy Sage. My money is on the end-of-552 Rasengan user being Itachi; he's watched Naruto use it before, and Itachi always has his Sharingan active. And in case anyone forgot because of all the crazy new shit the plot keeps giving it, the Sharingan's original gimmick was copying any move it saw.

Naruto's sanity is slipping.

Naruto has already been established as an emotional basket case over the fact that he's an orphan, his former best friend wants to kill him, and people he trusts lie to his face. Now, he's starting to realize that his worldview is no longer self-consistent. He refuses to break a promise, but events beyond his control can make some of them impossible to fulfill. He can't save someone who doesn't want to be saved, and he can't die with Sasuke without breaking his promise to Tsunade that he'd live to become Hokage and his promise to Hinata and Neji to reform the Hyuuga clan. He hates revenge, but at least subconsciously regards himself as Hinata's avenger (at least pre-Waterfall of Truth- the full effects of that confrontation have not been revealed yet, and will not unless and until Naruto is again subjected to direct and severe emotional trauma).

Since these beliefs are no longer reconcilable, the cognitive dissonance is compounding Naruto's already severe and suppressed emotional pain, causing him to develop a delusion where he can reconcile all these promises. This problem is compounded by his tendency to say things without thinking through and understanding the full implications (such as not realizing what the memorial stone was).

There never was a coup plotted by the Uchiha clan.

Itachi was just an Unwitting Pawn for Danzo's plans, and Danzo was the real traitor all along.

Tsunade had a crush on Orochimaru.

Seeing how Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura are growing up to be their generation's versions of Jiraiya, Orochimaru, and Tsunade, this is entirely possible. Tsunade used to be a little boy-crazy like Sakura and liked Orochimaru because he was talented as a ninja and his cold behavior attracted girls.

Orochimaru and Kabuto are two consciousnesses inhabiting the same body, and the reason Kabuto wants Sasuke is not for revenge or to control him via Edo Tensei, but to give Orochimaru a body of his own.

We've known all along that Kabuto is the pragmatic type, so revenge isn't his style, and he already has more than enough Edo Tensei puppets. Orochimaru has wanted to take over Sasuke's body for years, and now Sasuke has the Mangekyou Sharingan, so why should he settle for less? Also, Kabuto's claim that he has no particular reason outside of scientific curiosity to exchange such a powerful war force for one person is clearly Blatant Lies—and why wouldn't he just tell Madara if he wanted revenge or to zombify Sasuke? We've also seen that Orochimaru is extremely hard to kill, and almost took over Sasuke before Itachi sealed him away. Kabuto has also changed considerably since absorbing Orochimaru's cells, and not just appearance-wise: he's never shown this level of deviousness or initiative before, so Orochimaru is probably the one pulling the strings.

• A close alternative for that would be that Kabuto knows Orochimaru is taking over their body, so he needs some place (e.g. host body) to dump Orochimaru out, but the latter's will is strong enough that he'll successfully resist any attempt to be dumped into a body he deems insufficient, and thus needs to put Orochimaru in Sasuke to save himself from total possession.

Kakashi and Ao will get a Back-to-Back Badasses scene.

Because who wouldn't want to see the Sharingan and Byakugan used together like that?

• I totally would want to see that.

The Uchiha family were the original jinchuriki for the Kyuubi.

• Their chakra and kekkei genkai are pretty much built to control the big evil fuzz ball, they also tend to be more tricksters and using illusions, the hat of kitsune. There does seem to be a genetic or family tie to having the eldritch abomination stuck in the next generation, the Senju were their protectors and the

Uzumaki were the "priests" who completed the binding.

• • Alternatively, the sage created both his sons, the senju ancestor as a host due to a long lifespan and the Uchiha to control the tailed beasts if needed.

Sasuke will try to resurrect his clan.

• He will learn of Kabuto's Impure Resurrection Technique and kill people to bring back his clan.

The Uchiha were doomed to be evil by the Sage of the Six Paths

The Uchiha ancestor received the chakra and the eyes of the sage, while the Senju ancestor received the body and willpower of the sage. The eyes and the chakra of the sage however, were those of the Jubi. So basically, the Uchiha were burdened with malevolent powers without something to repress it. No wonder most of them went evil when you great-great-ect.-grandfather gave you demon essence, without his will to resist it.

Anko is a product of genetic engineering by Orochimaru.

It makes some sense in that she has no memories of her origins(birthplace, parents, etc.)or any other kind of memories in general apart from spending time with her mentor in a cloning lab, and that her chacra can be used directly by Kabutomaru.

The masked man "Madara" is really Izuna Uchiha

With the brain-bending reveal of Chapter 559, our masked "I am Madara" Big Bad has been proven 100% irrefutably to not be Madara. Whoever he is, we know he's a liar ("The Kyuubi didn't attack Konoha on my orders; it was a random disaster", etc). It would be a potentially sensible twist if we were wrong all along on which of the brothers was the Cain and which was the Abel.

• Supporting this is the fact that "Madara" has been seen in a morgue filled with Uchiha corpses (based on the markings on the coffins) which would allow Izuna to replace his eyes and the real Madara knows who Tobi really is and was plotting with him
  • In chapter 577, Madara confirms that Izuna is dead. So this is Jossed.

The Man Claiming To Be Madara Is Really Sasuke

But not the Sasuke we know. No, Sasuke from an alternate future timeline. In that timeline, Sasuke killed Itachi, then found out the information about Itachi from Danzo. Going insane with vengeance, Sasuke transplanted Itachi's eyes and did some evil scheme. However, he was thrown into the past with his knowledge, but as an weakened version of himself. That explains why "Madara" is always claiming he understands Sasuke better than anyone, why "Madara" knows so much, why Sasuke reminds Kyubbi of "Madara", and why "Madara" wants Jyubbi: to make the entire world experience his pain. There will probably be a dramatic reveal where Naruto smashes "Madara"'s mask to reveal Sasuke's face. Also, Naruto will then vow to save both Sasuke and other timeline Sasuke.

The Man Claiming To Be Madara is Zetsu.

The Madara we've seen is simply the original Zetsu; a mutant, corpse-eating shape-shifter with no real connection to the Uchiha or the Senju. Living somewhere near the Valley of The End, Zetsu Prime witnessed the final battle of Madara Uchiha and envied the power he'd witnessed; after Madara died from his wounds and Harashima returned home, Zetsu Prime desecrated Madara's corpse and assumed his form to steal his identity, but also stole a sample of Harashima's cells, gaining power over plant matter in the process. Zetsu Prime's knowledge of the Uchiha and Senju resulted from years of research to better understand his stolen powers and identity, which led to Zetsu Prime stumbling upon the realization he had the potential to become the new Sage Of Six Paths. The Rinnegan he gave to Nagato were cloned/synthesized from mixing his stolen Uchiha and Senju DNA to reproduce the original ocular mutation the Sharingan was derived from, but he needed a human host to carry them to ensure his synthetic Rinnegan would work with full efficiency when the time came to harvest them for himself. Zetsu Prime then turned to plans to use his stolen powers to conquer the entire world, building an army of White Zetsu by splicing his DNA with Harashima's, and constructing a Black Zetsu as a more direct clone of his original form. Zetsu Prime is biologically identical to Madara while he's in control of his body, but if he was killed or mutilated, he would revert to his original form, as seen with his Alien Blood.

The man claiming to be Madara is a bunshin.

Specifically a bunshin of Madara that somehow never dispelled.

The man who claims to be Madara is Fugaku

Or he's Madara's brother. If the first is true, then the Fugaku Itachi killed is a White Zetsu Clone.

"Tobi" is Madara Uchiha

Just not THE Madara Uchiha. He's a random (very powerful) Uchiha who was named after THE Madara

Tobi is Sasuke's son

This is an alternative theory to him being Sasuke from the future. In the alternate timeline, after killing Itachi, Sasuke never found out about the truth of the Uchiha clan massacre and returned to Konoha. He and an ambiguous lover had a child together and named him Madara in honor of founder of the clan (or Tobi, which would explain where the name came from. Sasuke doesn't find out until he is on his death bed and tells Madara to "set things right." By the time it took place, the Village Elders have already passed on from natural causes, so he resorts to time travel.

'Madara' is to Madara what Vanitas was to Ventus

Specifically, the darkness and evil of Madara's heart/soul extracted and made manifest as a separate being.

Tobi is the Senju Clan Ancestor who became disillusioned.

Tobi is really the Senju Clan Ancestor who lost his idealism. He believes that the only way to obtain peace is through mind control. Tobi used Izanagi which would require Senju DNA. His Izanagi was complete because he didn't use implanted DNA. Not to mention that the Senju Clan Ancestor also has the same spiky hair.

Tobi is made of the dark half of Madara's chakra.

Considering that everyone seems to have a "light" chakra side and a "dark" chakra side, the Madara that Kabuto ressurected could have been made from the light side while the current Madara could be made from the dark side. We've already seen that the two halves can, theoretically, be separated by both Naruto and Minato in earlier chapters.

Orochimaru has full controll over Kabuto's body

Sometime after Kabuto put Oro's soul in him, he began to take over. He's only masquerading as Kabuto to prevent Sasuke from re-killing him.

Sasuke's Heel Face Turn

Kabuto will try to kill Sasuke to avenge Orochimaru. Alternatively, if the above WMG is true, Orochimaru would try to capture Sasuke so he can obtain his body. Itachi would come in to save Sasuke, either killing Kabutomaru or forcing him to flee. Sasuke, happy to see his brother again, tells him to team up so they can bring down Konoha, but Itachi declines. After a heart-felt talk, Itachi manages to convince Sasuke that he made a big mistake, leading a My God, What Have I Done? moment.

Sasuke will get the Rinnegan

Madara has them, and it seems the eye progression goes sharingan > mangekyou sharingan > eternal mangekyou sharingan > rinnegan. The series just seems to love giving Sasuke power-ups. If it happens, it'll probably happen during his fight with Naruto.

Madara used Izanagi to seal his Rinnegan into Nagato

Madara survived his fight with Hashirama and used the stolen genes to create the Zetsu's, had one of them copy his chakra, he then tracked down Nagato since his parents appear to be Uzumaki and Uchiha, so that would increase the chance of Nagato unlocking the Rinnegan and gave Nagato his Rinnegan before dying.

Tobi is something else entirely...

It may be crazy, but bear with me: Considering his odd name and the fact that his mask looks like the eye of the Ten-Tailed Beast, it is entirely possible that Tobi is, in fact, the soul of the Ten-Tailed Beast incarnate.

Tobi is not planning to cast a genjustsu

Building on the above, Tobi's real plan is to re-unite the nine parts of his chakra and his soul with his body, sealed in the moon. If successful, then the Ten-Tailed Beast will be able to descend back to the earth to resume his reign of terror.

Tobi is the least Uchiha we would expect it to be, but still placed high enough a bit: Kagami Uchiha

For starters, attached is the link about who he is.

Now, why did I mention him as a candidate for Tobi, rather than Obito (the more popular one) or Izuna (the more plausible one)?

The first is: the hair, and his age. It isn't as spiky as we would want it, but looking at how he exposed part of his face, it wouldn't be surprising to be in the same age as Danzo (who was his teammate and age-mate along with the Third).

How would he be able to know everything he knew and did? Being the student of the Second Hokage, he has a level of access (also giving credence to how he knew Tobirama Senju's intentions with the Military Police which the Uchiha led). Similarly, being among the older ones of the Uchiha means he could be considered the least suspicious (due to age) or he could actually fake his death and then live in the shadows where Itachi would find him later (who, due to his ability to hide his identity, gave him the plausible excuse to proclaim himself as Madara).

Being an Uchiha, of course Kagami will have that much loyalty for his clan: however, he similarly was not heeded by them. That he knew about Madara is not surprising, considering how he's also integrated in their mythology and history (now how he got to the finer points of Madara's identity so as to be able to pass himself off as him, he probably did a lot of research and shit). In fact, he could have used the Izanagi to ensure that the young Nagato will have a Rinnegan, which is why he only has one original ight eye (and his other left eyes were swapped out according to utility).

Tobi is an Eldritch Abomination.

He absorbs and assimilates dead or dying shinobi into his being. He claims to be Madara because he absorbed Madara after his battle with Hashirama, and since Madara is vastly stronger than everyone else in Tobi, his personality is dominant. However, Tobi has absorbed a lot more than just Madara- he has also absorbed a great number of the casualties from the Shinobi World Wars. One reason people think he's Obito is that Obito is part of him, and he may even have used Obito's other Sharingan. He can replace body parts because his entire body is made of corpses. His ultimate goal is to merge with everyone on the planet, which is his motive for the Moon's Eye Plan.

Nagato is Madara's son

The one of the very first things Madara wonders is how Nagato has grown up. Both possess the Rinnegan (the orgin of the Rinnegan is unclear, but I suspect that it has something to do with the power of the Uchiha & Senju).

Tobi is really Uchiha Shisui

He never actually died when Itachi "killed" him, but made it seem like he did. There have also been several mentions later on in the series on how powerful Shisui was in life, which makes it seem somewhat hard to believe that he was killed so easily by Itachi, and seems somewhat weird to repeatedly refer to a character who has been supposedly dead for years if it's not going to eventually lead up some important plot event (Danzo and Itachi's crow notwithstanding). Tobi's hair also kind of fits.

Naruto has just tamed the Kyuubi

Thanks to Madara trying to summon the fox, its lent its chakra to Naruto to defeat Madara and was shown to be cheering on Naruto, all signs that he is about to obtain a similar partnership like Killer Bee and the 8 tails.

• Confirmed as of Chapter 571, and boy howdy is it AWESOME!!!

Tobi is actually Madara's brother

Think about it, they never actually said you had to kill your brother, you just need his eyes right? So why couldn't you just trade eyes? Sure, it would be gruesome and horrible, but you both get super cool uber powers, and if Tobi just faked his death, suddenly nobody is prepared for when he shows up again.

Eventually, Naruto, Itachi, Sasuke, Madara & Tobi will be on the same battlefield

The Deus Ex Machina concentration will be so huge that Naruto will turn out to be the reincarnation of the Senju ancestor, Sasuke turns out to be Izuna, Itachi the true reincarnation of the sage, Tobi the Uchiha ancestor AND the Jubi and Madara is in fact the cousin of the Shinigami.

Tobi is nobody we know

Just a masked man named Tobi who was connected to the Uchiha Clan. Zetsu was the only one who still referred to him by Tobi, even after he went by Madara. Zetsu must be really close to him to do that.

• On a related note, his identity may not even be important at all. It's been implied Madara may still be the mastermind, and Tobi is just a decoy/someone he entrusted with finishing what he began, because he didn't expect Kabuchimaru would bring him back to life.

Tobi is Madara's son

By Madara's reaction to him, he knows who he is but wasn't 100% cretin he would help.

Filler is about to go Off the Rails due to Shipping Wars.

The writers have their own opinions about One True Pairing, and they don't agree with each other, let alone know what Kishimoto is thinking. The previews for the next episode include a woman who seems to think she's Naruto's fiancee. Then, there's Shippuden:Bonds- it's like, what's the best way to shoehorn UST into this movie? I know, let's have Naruto go on a mission with Sakura AND Hinata, and throw in a girl of the movie who triggers Viewer Gender Confusion. The shippers are now Running the Asylum.

• • This makes sense, but IMO, it's less shipping disagreements alone and more so about the show painfully, painfully, PAINFULLY lacking cohesive artistic direction. (and IMO, the Bleach and One Piece animes suffer from this too)

At some point, Tobi will try a You and What Army? on Naruto

And then Naruto will answer "This army!" with all the Shinobi from Amegakure. Why? Because it would be awesome. Not to mention what Konan said, that Ame would be loyal to him. And they'll probably be pissed that Nagato was used and had his Rinnegan taken, and that Konan was killed.

Deidara's C4 Garuda is able to penetrate Susano'o

Deidara stated that C4 was created for the sole purpose to defefat Itachi. Deidara trained to counter the Sharingan genjutsu so he haas some source of information about the powers of the Sharingan, perhaps Onoki. Against Tsukiyomi or Amaterasu C4 would be useless, but the microscopic bombs of C4 could be able to penetrate Susano'o, since Itachi is still able te breathe.

Deidara will get an Enemy Mine with the Allies...

...When he finds out Sasuke's still alive/Tobi was an Uchiha all along. It will entirely be for "kill the guy I should have killed"/"off that laying bastard" purposes and he'll go back to being a criminal the second the war ends. How?

• A) His will to kick Uchiha hide will trully be that strong (he seems the type to become a vengeful spirit if he has to) OR
• B)some random Ass Pull
• Or, he might end up fighting Sasuke...to save Itachi and will totally hate and enjoy it at the same time.
• OR he's the key to beating Madara due to a slip in the Toni act that he had almost forgotten that gives an important clue.
  • Deidara has trained himself to resist Sharingan Genjutsu, so he might be immune to Eternal Tsukiyomi. In that case, expect Tobi to complete Moon Eye's Plan and Deidara to blow up the moon in anger.

Minato's gambit deciphered!

The awesome moments page inspired this Eureka Moment of Revelation! Minato sealed the Yang part of the Kyuubi inside Naruto and we've seen what effects Yang chakra on Wood Release products, but remember what is the main purpose of Yang chakra: to manifest ideas, the intangible thoughts of a ninja. In other words, to give life to the lifeless, like Chiyo's revival jutsu, or in this case to GIVE FORM TO THE FORMLESS! Naruto can negate Tobi's phasing ability and hit him anytime he wants! Minato, you genius, you! Go Naruto!

Tobi is the sage of the six paths

It is somewhere mentioned that his two sons has tried to prove to him that their own way is right, one of them talking about the path of peace via force and the other about the path of peace via mutual agreement.He did not get a clear answer, so he used up his rinnegan to obtain immortality(if the sharigan can be used up for short reality bending powers ,why cant the rinnegan be used up for immortality?)and tried to enact an experiment to see which of the two paths the people deserve.I have also found some clues to base my theory 1 He did not abduct the persons who had the tailed beasts via teleportation but insteadhe assumed the guise of an playful character and went with Deidara 2 He used the zetsus as a final part of his experiment in order to see if mistrust would take over the nijas,but could not go along with this plan because a certain someone threatened hom with the ressurection of the only man who would be able to recognize his voice,his own son.3 He wanted toget Sasuke to work for him why? because he wanted him and Naruto to batle and prove him which one of his sons was right.If humanity fails the tests he will just proceed with his assimilation plot.

• Awesome as your theory is, it kind of falls apart when it's pointed out that Madara is the distant descendant of the Sage of Six Paths, not his son.
  • Not really, if he wanted true peace then he would have to observe multiple generations following the different ideals.

One of Nagato's parents was an Uchiha!

Think about it. In order to posses the Rinnegan, one needs the DNA of the Uchiha and the Senju. It has already been conformed that he was an Uzumaki (I'm assuming the Uzumaki was his mother based on the fact that the anime gave her red hair), and that the Uzumaki were distant relatives of the Senju If his father was an Uchiha (based on his black hair and process of elimination), the two DNA's that bellonged to the Sage of Six Paths, and his sons, had naturally come together inside someone, for the first time, in a long time, according to history, and boom, little Nagato got the Rinnegan! Unlike Madara, who just stole the DNA. It sorta explains why this kinda thing has never happened before. Those clans were bitter enemies, they didn't even consider going off together and having kids a possabilty.

• The Uchiha parent could be Madara's son.
• And/Or Tobi since he claims to have given Nagato the Rinnegan.

The Uchiha Impostor is somewhat related to Ushio Village

He knows all about the sealing jutsu, plus his second mask, which he wears for most of his appearances looks a lot like the symbol of Ushio Village. It would be hilarious if he was that guy standing with Harishma for one panel in chapter 500.

Each village created its own myth to explain the origin of their tailed-beast(s)

The origin of the Nine-Tails as a physical manifestation of the hate and malice of humanity and Shukaku as the spirit of a priest sealed in a tea kettle have been shown to be incorrect with the reveal of the story of the Sage of the Six Paths and the Ten-Tails. While the real world explanation is that this is a retcon on Kishimoto's part, I think the in-universe explanation is that these were simply myths intended to explain these monsters' existences in the absence of the truth behind their actual origin. Each village most likely had its own myth about the origin of their respective tailed-beast(s), since it's strongly implied that next to no one knows about the Ten-Tails or its role in the true origin of the tailed-beasts; not to mention that the Sage of the Six Paths is generally dismissed as a myth himself. The myths became accepted fact until Tobi revealed where the tailed-beasts actually came from. Though it's implied that the tailed-beasts themselves know where they come from, humanity probably couldn't have been bothered enough to ask them since they didn't even care enough to find out about the tailed-beasts' actual names.

The Two-Tails is named Kirara.

Why not?

• Jossed. His/her name is Matatabi

Kyuubi is actually THAT Kurama.

After this series ends, he'll mellow out, move to Demon World, and take up stealing as a hobby. One nasty run-in with a bounty hunter later and he'll end up back in the human world.

• Naturally, this means Naruto is either the distant past of Yu Yu Hakusho or it's an alternate universe.

Naruto will become the new Sage of the Six Paths.

Except instead of reforming the Ten-Tails, he's going to befriend all the Tailed Beasts and let them live inside him with Kyuubi.

The true power of the Sharingan is...

Reality Warping, and nothing else. Let's take a look: On it's most basic level, it only effects the user ang gives them superhuman vision that can capture and register every detail of every frame percieved and a hypnotic gaze - to be more precise, the Sharingan itself isn't doing these things, it simply grants these powers to it's users because it's the most obvious thing anyone would expect from supernatural eyes. The Mangekyo Sharingan is much closer to it's real function as it gives the user to create and destroy matter (Susanoo turns the user's Battle Aura into a physical entity, while Amaterasu disintegrates - not burns - anything it comes in contact with) and manipulate space and time (The dimensional rifts used by Kakashi and Tobi and Tsukuyomi, which screwes up one's subjective perception of time). Izanagi is basically the fully mastered, unrestricted use of the Sharingan that allowes the user to warp reality beyond what the Mangekyo Sharingan is already capable of.

The Tailed Beasts being unintelligent without hosts is a lie.

We've seen nothing to support this aside from the words of shinobi, the people who imprisoned them and used them as weapons. Son Goku, the Eight-Tails, and Kurama's dialogue in the recent chapters seems to suggest that they've always been sapient.

Kurama's current cooperation with Naruto may entail something more sinister.

While Naruto's convincing Kurama to become cooperative (effectively taming him) is somewhat standard for a shonen series such as this, the beasts' kind of consciousness and, still, somewhat-malevolent origin suggests it might not be that too optimistic a situation. What might happen, perhaps, considering Son Goku's retrieval by Tobi after he's getting too friendly with Naruto (fist bump and all), is that the beasts are actually taking traces of Naruto's chakra, which will actually facilitate into their reunification into the Ten-Tails.

• How will Naruto's chakra facilitate into their reunification, and how exactly are they doing that via fist-bump? That sounds like one heck of an Ass Pull. This isn't Bleach, remember?

Itachi will poke Sasuke in the forehead again...

...except he will do it hard enough to knock Sasuke to the ground so Itachi can sit on him and lecture him for a few minutes (preferably while an epic battle is going on around them). "Foolish little brother...YOU TOTALLY DIDN'T GET THE MEANING OF WHAT I DID!"

• Possibly with references to other brothers/like-brothers form the series. "Does Iruka have to put up with that from Naruto? Hell no! I know Gaara makes Kankuro worry but he's never gone for genocide-due-to-willful-misinterpretation-of-big-brother's-ideals, now has he? And don't get me started on your logic! Killer Bee has better logic than that!"
• Or Itachi chasing someone down crosses between Sasuke and Naruto's Ultimate Battle of Destiny, and Itachi jabs him in the head and says "idiot little brother. Friends don't fight friends" and goes on his merry way after the guy he's chasing.

All the Bijuu represent different aspects of the Juubi.

Based on the personalities/aspects of the Bijuu we know a little better.

• Shukaku: Madness (he was a cackling maniac with a loony personality who tends to drive his hosts to insanity)
• Son Goku: Pride (he seemed quite prideful when he appeared)
• Kurama: Hatred (he's been called a mass of hatred before, he attracts towards human malice)

The rest are something I cannot really guess. Perhaps you could try to make guesses based on their powersets, going by a general "powers follow personality" rule... Hachibi is hard to put down too because we've only seen his personality after he's already been tamed, unlike the rest.

Karin's Mind's Eye of the Kagura is a bastardized version of the Byakugan.

Orochimaru wanted to see if he could artificially create it thru either gene therapy or some odd jutsu surgery, and he succeeded in getting down the long range chakra perception at the cost of making the user severely myopic. However, it had the unexpected result of allowing to percieve the different types down to minute individual differences, something the Byakugan for all its perception is unable to do. Thus Orochimaru stopped his experiments and wrapped up, having created an entirely new Doujutsu thru pure serendipity of trying to copy a known one.

Alternatively, Karin's Mind's Eye of the Kagura is a bastardized version of Senjutsu.

Naruto has displayed similar powers in Sage Mode and Sage of Six Paths Mode. The Sage Mode version is limited both in range and precision, though Naruto was able to sense Hinata's faint life force after recovering his composure. The Sage of Six Paths version, however, is able to sense individuals far away even without specifically trying.

The ruling family in the Land of Lightning is a ninja clan.

Social Darwinism and Authority Equals Asskicking seem like the reigning mindset of Kumo, and presumably of the Land of Lightning in general. Therefore, it is plausible that the feudal lord belongs to a ninja clan and is pretty Badass in his own right, though nowhere near as powerful as the Raikage. After all, would Kumo be loyal to someone who couldn't hold his own in a fight? This theory would also explain how Hiashi killed "the ninja ruler of the Village Hidden in the Clouds." That warrior/diplomat was the Daimyo or the Daimyo's son.

Guy may have once fought the Yondaime Mizukage.

...and lost terribly. Before he could escape, Guy was then swallowed whole by Yagura's full Sanbi form. Spending weeks inside Yagura's gut did wonders to Guy's sanity, which was finally broken when he was expelled through the back end. But he did manage to leech off enough chakra from the Sanbi to gain the ability to summon turtles. It would also explain his seasickness.

Tobi is a physical manifestation of the Juubi's spirit.

The recent chapters prove it quite well. He only sees the possession of the tailed beasts as his goal in life. He treats the beasts cruelly, even moreso than how shinobi throughout history have. He would even resort to running the risk of killing Naruto and Kurama, as well as sapping away at the tailed beasts' chakra in order to get the beasts. It has been proven that he is "weak" without control of the Kyuubi, and he would even use a small portion of Hachibi's and Kyuubi's chakra to resurrect the Juubi, albeit incompletely. All this leads to another theory...

The tailed beasts existed before the Juubi as spiritual beings.

Rather, the Juubi absorbed said spirits and used their combined chakra to wreak havok on the world. Naturally, they prefered that the Sage used their power, since he loved them and treated them like close friends.

Not being connected to the host drives a tailed beast insane.

Look at the few examples we have for the jinchuriki. Gaara had no connection with the Shukaku and he didn't fuse with it like Naruto can. He let it take over. It's apparent from the flashbacks that the Haachibi was destructive as well. I know that some of the motivation is simply Enemy Mine but really for a mass of pure hatred Kurama seems to be surprisingly calm and cooperative. He's even smiled. Considering the actions taken by the Nine Tails in the past [Nearly killing Jiraya and wounding Sakura) make sense for a crazy being and also make sense for a ball of hatred but not for Kurama who likely wouldn't think twice about Sakura and should have been grateful to Jiraya for loosening the seal. Not to mention Bijuu Mode has to be better than being locked in cage. None of the beasts are shown to be mindless and yet Jinchuriki are hated because the beasts innevitably break loose and break shit. It's unlikely that between the tailed beasts themselves, the jinchuriki and all the other ninjas in their villages that NOBODY considered using your words before Killer Bee. My guess is it simply wasn't an option.

Orochimaru's scroll contains...

Place your guesses here.

• The method of awakening Rinnegan.
• An insanely powerful jutsu.
• How to seize control of an edo zombie
• A very sneaky trap that will result in the person opening the scroll both summoning Edo-Orochimaru, and then dying, thus giving Orochimaru true immortality!

A Kekkai Tota is where Hiden and Kekkei Genkai cross.

Basically, it is a Kekkei Genkai that must be taught to you, like Hiden jutsu of clans like the Nara.

Edo-Madara will arise as the final Big Bad and Sasuke will be the responsable.

He will be a Spanner in the Works for Itachi and try to kill Kabuto, eliminating all possibilities of stopping the technique. With Kabuto dead, Madara will be free to reassume the control of the Moon's Eye Plan once Naruto kills Tobi.

Karin is faking her reaction to being bitten by Sasuke.

Sure, it hurts, but her blushing and moaning isn't just her default pain reaction. She does that to try to turn on Sasuke.

If Itachi is God and Naruto is Jesus, does this make Sasuke Satan?

Kishi has previously mentioned that Itachi is basically his attempt at writing God as a human, and with Naruto being The Messiah and whatnot, where does this put Sasuke? As a foil to both of them in some certain aspects, does this make Sasuke Satan? Though the manga has never leaned towards any kind of religion (other than Narutoism), writing God does tend to mean you have to have some kind of opposite, i.e. the Devil. Although Pein mirrored what Naruto could have become if things were different, he was at least repentant in the end, but we have seen zero remorse from Sasuke about pretty much everything, and he's starting to look more and more completely evil as the story progresses. As Naruto's opposite pretty much from day one, this makes Sasuke Satan to Naruto's Jesus.

The reason why Konoha has more variance in jutsu than the other major countries is because...

The Sage of Six Paths lived in the Land of Fire. This is why 3 of the 4 clans that descended from him are in the Land of Fire and the fourth is right off of the coast. While he traveled around teaching other countries jutsu, he was only there for short periods of time, resulting in him teaching them only the basics and techniques based qualities of the land(The land of Water having many coasts or Earth having a lot of rock, etc.) While he was in his own country, he shared much more information with the people he met on his travels and those around him.

Tobi is Madara's Brother

This one is a long shot given Madara's age and the fact that Uchiha Izuna supposedly died in battle. This is a little bit like the claim that Tobi is Madara's brother, but this doesn't assume someone who is isn't stated exists since Izuna did exist. Think about. If Izuna was actually alive, Madara was really kicked out of the Uchiha clan, and Madara was killed by the First Hokage then this would make sense. Izuna, believing in Madara's dream, would no longer have a place in the Uchiha clan so he would leave, maybe even with the help of Madara. It could even have been Madara's plan. He could then meet Zetsu who has the power to watch and subtly influence battles without being noticed. Madara is then killed by the First, but his body just disappears. We can assume that Zetsu quickly removed the body and brought it to Izuna/Tobi. Izuna/Tobi then takes his brothers perfect eyes which had Madara's and his own former powers in them. It's not like the power is sealed upon death like it is with the Hyuga family. Besides it would make sense that they couldn't find the body if this occurred since you know people like Danzo would search every where for it to hide Madara's power or claim it for themselves. Izuna/Tobi now without a cause since his brother failed or with a cause that his brother gave him, then starts in motion a plan to end war like the Uchihas have searched for since the Sage of Six Paths died. He then expands his life in some way which has been proven possible with different methods. Again the only problem is that Izuna supposedly died, but they touched on this very briefly and Tobi pushed the idea that Izuna willing gave Madara his eyes. Tobi could be lying about Izuna in the same manner that he lied about the Nine Tailed Fox attack, but it's still possible that it's true.

Once Naruto and Karin learn about their relationship with each other

Naruto will allow her to live with him, believing that it'll be like having a sister.

• Prompting adorable moments where our hero starts calling her 'Cousin Karin. ^_^

If it weren't for Guy, Rock Lee would've become a Drunken Master.

I'm pretty sure he would've figured out his secret abilities much sooner. Kids tend to be naturally curious about what they're not allowed to touch, after all.

There are multiple ways of obtaining the Rinnegan through a combination of Senju/Uzumaki and Uchiha powers.

• Madara: His own Sharingan and the first Hokage's cells.
• Nagato: An Uzumaki mother and an Uchiha father.
• Orochimaru was experimenting on Senju DNA to give himself the Rinnegan with Sasuke's body.
• The information on the scroll is the method of doing this, so Sasuke will obtain a Rinnegan.
• Alternatively Sasuke will attempt to force Uzumaki Karin to be the mother of his restored clan (how ironic) to breed the Rinnegan into all of them.
  • Considering the potency of Sharingan with genjutsu, manipulating her will would be easy, if necessary at all. We know how Tsukuyomi can be used to torture, but it would be just as effective at propaganda. He could convince her that attacking through her to kill Danzo was the only way to save her life.

The upcoming movie, Road To Ninja, will deal with a Freaky Friday Flip

• If you looked at the poster, Hinata has a more confident smile on her face and her body is more exposed while Ino is the complete 180. Then there's Shikamaru sticking out his tongue, which seems a bit out of character for him. He may have switched with Kiba since he has a more calm expression.

If Tobi manages to summon the Ten-Tails

• It will refuse to serve him, much to his dismay. After spouting insults, Ten-Tails generally gets annoyed and squishes Tobi like an insect, killing him. This will lead to the big final battle.

The Ten Tails name is Jashin

Kabuto is the son of Tsunade and either Dan or Jiraiya

It would explain his aptitude for medeical ninjutsu, his appearance (He seems to combine Tsunade's hair part with Dan or Jirayia's hair coloring), and there is this meta-arguement that in the original story that the Sanin's names and abilities were based on, Orochimaru was Jiraiya and Tsunade's son.

Obligatory Cardinal Sins WMG.

• Sasuke is Pride. He cannot accept anyone who is not an Uchiha being anywhere near as strong as him, and his ego leads him to abandon his village.
• Neji is Wrath. Mind you, this applies before his Heel Face Turn, but he was so blinded by rage he was willing to kill Hinata despite knowing full well she was innocent of any wrongdoing, and he was then willing to kill Naruto for daring to stand up to him.
• Shikamaru is Sloth, and the evidence speaks for itself.
• Choji is Gluttony, which is demonstrated by his reaction when anyone gets between him and food.
• Kiba is Greed. Observe his obsession with getting glory in the war. He even gets called out on his eagerness to become famous because of the war (greed applies not only to inordinate desire for wealth, but also for power and glory).
• Ino is Lust. Notice that she's the only one of the girls to flaunt her sexuality.
• Sakura is Vanity. Everything she does is shallow. In Chapter 3, she worries how to attract Sasuke considering that she's so lacking in the T&A department. Chapter 469 indicates nothing changed over the Time Skip, given that she was willing to confess so-called love for Naruto in a way that was blatantly shallow ("A woman's heart is as fickle as the autumn sky.") And this was after she had seen that Hinata genuinely loved Naruto, but she expected him to accept her shallow confession (never mind that it was false) over Hinata's self-sacrificial one.

WMG: The Sage of the six Paths was the offspring of an Uzumakiand a Hyuga. The combination of the bloodlines created the sharingan which has been revealed to evolve into the rinnengan. This would explain why the Uzumaki's and the Senju are related and why it was mentioned that people believe the sharingan was a mutation from the byakugan. This would also explain how Nagato suddenly developed the rinnengan. We never got a good look at his parents did we?

Tobi is Madara Jr.

This explains why everyone thought he was Madara. He's Madara's son and inherited his father's powers. He also bears his father's name, but Madara Sr. didn't really trust him late in his life.

Karin is Naruto's first cousin.

Law of Conservation of Detail- it makes no sense to declare that Karin is an Uzumaki and not have her be a close relation to Naruto.

Tobi will succeed in obtaining the Kyuubi but Naruto will survive.

Tobi mentions to Minato that he will have his way, and the latter realizes he's dead serious about it. However, the Uzumakis are said to have a strong life force, and this is shown when Kushina has the Kyuubi extracted from her and she survives (She died due to reasons that occurred after the extraction). It's also possible that Kurama will not want to fight Naruto (considering they're more or less companions now), but Tobi might control him again and force him to. He then might use the exhausted and weak Naruto as a hostage to attempt to get the Hachibi to complete his plan (Though as much as it's possible Naruto is separated from Kurama, it doesn't seem likely that Killer Bee will have an extraction, as he would probably actually die from that it. Then again, this is Kishimoto's story we're talking about. He has killed very important main characters in the past. If Tobi succeeds in defeating Killer Bee, he will actually probably complete his Project Tsuki no Me; in the event that he does defeat Naruto, who, again, doesn't die. Also considering characters with a prominent standing in the series have died, Killer Bee may, too).

Killer Bee will perform a Heroic Sacrifice

After getting heavily wounded, he will allow himself to die, causing Hachibi to go with him. With a Jinchuriki gone, Tobi's moon-eye plan will fail.

Tobi's defeat will be with brains, not brawns

If the above WMG is true, Naruto will use a Xanathos Gambit: He will allow Tobi to extract Kurama. With the Uzumaki clan's vitality, he'll live to see Tobi implant Kurama in himself, unaware of the bond between Naruto and the fox. However, since he doesn't have perfect harmony with Kurama, his body will burn into nothing as he forms all nine tails. One of these two options will happen:

• 1. Naruto will allow Kurama to live his own life, ending his own. However, Kakashi used his Sharingan to learn Chiyo's resurrection technique, allowing Naruto to live.
  • Granted, this would kill Kakashi, as it did Chiyo.
• 2. While Kurama still has a chance to save Naruto, either Kakashi or Tsunade seal the fox in Naruto once again.
  • Who says Naruto would die from being separated from Kurama too long? Sure, Nagato thought the extraction would be fatal, but he didn't know about the nature of the Uzumaki clan powers as it applied to Jinchuriki. It's not even clear Nagato knew he was an Uzumaki. Kushina died from being impaled by Kurama's claw, and both plans for defeating Kurama involved Heroic Sacrifice.
    • Right. Kushina was physically exhausted after the extraction, but still alive. She was going to die by taking Kurama with her using her chakra, but she wound up dying to save Naruto from Kurama's attack. Naruto wouldn't die from the extraction unless Tobi gets some New Powers as the Plot Demands, but Naruto dying at all still seems unlikely.

About Tobi's Moon Eye Plan - How to do

To cast that huge-ass Genjutsu and reflect it in the Moon, he needs to become Juubi so he'll have enough power. How? Being the ultimate Jinchuuriki.

1.- He wants a freaking strong body that can take the abuse of malevolent chakra without crashing down (like Naruto's after ?th tail).

2.- He wants all the Bijuu to form just Juubi's chakra construct -and then sealing it in the powerful body he created (his body).

3.- He trusts that having Rinnengan and Sharingan will be enough to mindcontrol Juubi. He knew he couldn't control it just with Sharingan, thus the overcomplicated scheme with Nagato and obtaining Rinnengan. It's been said that Rokudo Sennin was able to tear Juubi's chakra and sealing it in him with his eyes (He send the phisical part of it to the moon). Having Sharingan will help Tobi control it. Maybe he's interested in the senju bloodline, to have an extra failsafe just in case.

That way the moon is not going to vanish, because Juubi's body will still be there (I'd say, extracting the body of that floating rock will blow it to pieces, if Juubi is as big as I think). He'll have the power (for all purposes, he'll be freaking Juubi), the tools and there is his Moon Eye Plan.

Rin taught Kakashi the Ninken summon

Rin looks like she has the Inuzuka Clan marks, but she preferred Medical Ninjutsu. Before she died, she gave Kakashi scrolls that taught him to summon the Ninja Dogs.

The final battle between Tobi and Naruto will be at the Land of Whirlpools

After defeating the Edo Tensei ninja and the Zetsu clones, Tobi will allow Naruto to choose the setting for their final confrontation. Naruto decides on the Land of Whirlpools since that was his mother's birthplace, and no innocent people will get hurt.

Itachi will not die

Itachi is Sasuke's Morality Chain. Sasuke was perfectly sane (if a bit angsty) when Itachi was still alive. When Itachi died, Sasuke began to lose it (admittedly, it took a bit of prodding from Tobi). However, with Itachi back on the scene, Sasuke is far more sane than he has been in 100 chapters. Seeing Itachi crumble before his eyes from the released Edo Tensei would...would...urk!

Tobi was one of the kids in Team Jiraiya

One of his motivations was that Minato always bested him in everything, making him somewhat of an Evil Counterpart for Naruto and his inferiority complex with Sasuke. After discovering the Akatsuki, he faked his death so he could take over. Since Tobi was able to change his voice when he went from Goofy!Tobi to Evil!Tobi, his voice changing abilities made it harder for Minato to recognize him.

Kushina will be revived with the Edo Tensei

Either Kabuto will survive the battle, or Tobi will learn the move and sacrifice one of the females in Naruto's life to make her (mainly Sakura, Tsunade, or Karin (due to her bloodline)). This will put Naruto in a conflicting moment.

• Well the NaruHina shippers would love the idea of Kabuto killing Sakura. It would also be a chance to throw even more angst into this story.

Ebisu will die

And Naruto will be promoted to Jounin for defeating Tobi, thus having him replace Ebisu as Konohamaru and the others' sensei.

1. ↑ for example, Laser Circus is written with kanji that would otherwise be pronounced Reiza Sakaso
2. ↑ Icha Icha Paradaisu, Icha Icha Baiorensu and Icha Icha Takutikusu