Episode 8 — The Jūbi is not merely a prize

The surface persona

On the surface, the Jūbi looks mindless.

In its Gedō Mazō form, it is seen as an inanimate statue meant to be fed the other Bijūs. In its Jūbi form, it is seen as a wild beast, meant to be controlled with Mokuton or by a Jinchūriki. The Kyūbi outright tells Naruto, in chapter 610, that the Jūbi lacks emotions or feelings.

But is the Kyūbi correct in this assessment?

Kyūbi statement, chapter 610.

Being controlled, chapter 613.

Just a statue, chapter 332.

The opening crack

In chapter 673, the Divine Tree tells Madara to absorb it.

That contradicts the Kyūbi’s statement. A mindless beast, devoid of feeling and intelligence, does not give instructions. A mindless beast does not talk.

This instruction, in chapter 673, means we need to investigate.

The question is no longer whether the Jūbi can think. The question is: for how long has it been thinking?

If the Jūbi has a goal, it would be to get revived in its true form: Kaguya. For that, it needs to be as complete as possible, and it needs the correct vessel: Madara, not Nagato or Obito.

Let us analyse the Jūbi’s previous scenes, and see if we can find patterns we could correlate to this goal.

Chapter 673

First clue: the host discrepancy

When Obito absorbs an incomplete Jūbi (lacking the Hachibi and the Kyūbi), he is overwhelmed by its power. It takes Obito several chapters to regain a semblance of control over his own mind and body.

Madara later absorbs a stronger, nearly complete Jūbi, and easily controls it from the get-go, seeming almost unimpressed by its power.

The surface defense is simple: Madara is just more skilled than Obito. That may be partly true: Madara is indeed stronger than Obito. But this discrepancy fits the hidden goal: the Jūbi needs Obito to be defeated, and Madara to succeed in casting the Infinite Tsukuyomi.

Obito being overwhelmed by the Jūbi’s power, chapter 640.

Madara easily controlling a stronger Jūbi, chapter 663.

First clue and a half: Kamui

After absorbing the Jūbi, Obito finds himself unable to use Kamui, the one technique he has been relying on for years. Without this gimmick, he becomes a more manageable opponent, as brute force is the only asset he has left.

Later, after absorbing the Jūbi and stealing Kakashi’s eye, Madara has no difficulty using Kamui, and isn’t seen losing access to any other of his own trademark techniques. His Limbo, for example, still works normally.

Once again, there is a surface explanation: Obito couldn’t use Kamui to become intangible, whereas Madara travelled to the Kamui dimension. Those are two different applications of the technique; the Jūbi may happen to block the former and not the latter.

But it correlates with our pattern: the Jūbi is making itself harder to control for Obito (whom it needs to lose) than for Madara (whom it needs to succeed at first).

Obito cannot use Kamui anymore. (Chapter 643)

But Madara can. (Chapter 674.)

Second clue: the Jūbi performs danger

To reach its goal, the Jūbi needs to look dangerous enough to be believed as a wild catastrophe, while preserving the alliance strong enough to defeat Obito.

Naruto, Sasuke and Bee must not die yet. Obito can’t be allowed to die yet. But no one - especially Obito and Madara - must suspect that the Jūbi is holding back, or that it has a mind of its own.

Therefore, the Jūbi’s attacks repeatedly produce spectacle rather than causing key casualties. In that, the Jūbi’s strategy is similar to what we saw Madara doing in the previous episode. Let us see a couple of examples in the next slides.

The jūbi clones aren’t a threat to Naruto and Sasuke. (Chapter 632.)

The Jūbidama pattern

Here’s an interesting pattern. Like any other Bijū, the Jūbi’s trademark and most dangerous technique would be the Jūbidama. Let’s see when it decides to use it:

Chapter 615: the Jūbi charges a huge Jūbidama, but only when Bee is recharged enough to block it.

Chapter 630: it prepares an even stronger Jūbidama, that could have wiped out the entire alliance… But only when Edo Minato arrives with the exact technique, Hiraishin, needed to teleport it away.

Separately, either event can be explained as a lucky timing for the alliance. Together, they form a pattern, and a coherent strategy by the Jūbi: catastrophe is repeatedly staged at the moment it can be prevented.

Chapter 615: Bee is ready. (Continuation in the next slide.)

The Jūbidama pattern — continuation: panels

Bee counters the first Jūbidama, still in chapter 615.

The second, bigger Jūbidama is fired when Minato is ready. (Chapter 630.)

The barrier move

In chapter 632, the Jūbi plays a particularly brilliant move. It gets trapped inside the Hokage barrier and, trying to escape, fires a Jūbidama. The barrier resists, and the Jūbi only scorches itself.

Surface reading: the Jūbi is stupid. That’s what Mifune concludes.

Detective reading: the move keeps the Jūbi contained, making it easy to keep casualties low from this point, and reinforces the stupid-beast disguise.

It also makes the Jūbi look inept against seals and barriers — exactly the wrong lesson for Obito and Madara to learn, as they are about to absorb it.

Chapter 632.

Third clue: the flashback pattern — Obito

Obito has pursued his goal for decades with iron will. After absorbing the Jūbi, when he is minutes away from victory, he gets assaulted by emotional flashbacks.

He sees the life he could have had, had he returned to Konoha. He sees himself as Hokage, his old dream. He sees Rin, turning her back to the current Obito, and running away with his young self.

Eventually, Obito collapses. He falls to the ground, defeated, without even defending himself.

Can you see the pattern?

Chapter 654.

Chapter 652.

Chapter 651.

Chapter 651.

Third clue: the flashback pattern — Nagato

Another character followed the same pattern: Nagato.

Just like Obito, Nagato had pursued his goal for decades. As we saw in his side quest, Nagato’s plan was about to succeed. He only needed to capture Naruto and lure Obito into a trap, as he and Konan had planned.

Instead, like Obito, Nagato was assaulted with childhood flashbacks, Jiraiya flashbacks… And on the verge of victory, he gave up and committed suicide.

Both Obito and Nagato were linked to the Jūbi when the flashbacks happened: Obito as its Jinchūriki; Nagato through the black receivers that linked him to the Gedō Mazō. And the Jūbi needed both of them to fail, so that Madara, Kaguya’s only suitable vessel, could absorb it.

On the surface, Naruto got Obito and Nagato to change their minds. But in our detective investigation, it turns out the Jūbi is the one who broke them from within with the flashbacks. Naruto’s “talk no justu” had little to do with it.

Nagato’s flashbacks, chapter 448.

Conclusion

The Jūbi is not the treasure at the end of the competition. It is one of the competitors, and one of the most intelligent characters in the novel. It chooses when to look stupid, when to protect the alliance, when to obstruct its Jinchūriki, when to cooperate and empower them, and when to speak. It sabotaged both Nagato and Obito, so as to get absorbed by Madara.

After witnessing Obito’s struggle, Madara could have realised the Jūbi was more than it seemed. But Madara believed providence was on his side, and Obito was fated to fail. So when a voice told Madara to absorb the tree, he didn’t question where the voice was coming from.

In the next episode, we will see the other character who was planning Kaguya’s revival: Zetsu.