Overall was a brilliant episode. Showed the most powerful enemy of the story, the greatest anyone has ever faced. This is what the war arc needed, someone to break the table, to be feared and respected by the Alliance. No more white Zetsus, or gentle resurrected shinobis. The real original threat, the master and brilliant mind behind all the tragedies of the story.
The plotline follows Madara's return. Naruto questions who is the masked man then, yet Onoki says he has no clue despite knowing Akatsuki, besides, it doesn't matter, they must stop him at all costs. Madara observes that the shinobi before him are from an Alliance, and Muu confirms. He thinks this was caused by Obito, and that his plan may not be going as planned. When he asks about the Edo tensei performer, Kabuto uses the 2nd Tuschikage to communicate. Kabuto introduces himself, and tells that he gave him more power before resurrecting him. When Madara says he doesn't know his true power, Kabuto asks to show it. Gaara begins the fight by trying to trap both enemies with sand, but they evade it. Then, the showdown starts. Madara charges against all the battalion, and slaughters hundreds of shinobi like if they were toys. This goes on for a while, showing how he perfectly dominates the Sharingan, on each move he does. Onoki, Gaara and Naruto clone recover from their last battle while this happens. So the first one who manages to push the enemy back is Temari, who uses her fan and the power of wind jutsu. Then, Madara counters with the especiality of the Uchiha clan, the Fire ball jutsu, which is perfect against wind. A group of shinobis create a water wall to protect everyone, but Madara throws a second wave of fire when the vapour rises. He keeps attacking everyone he sees until a healed Gaara forces him to retreat. The Tsuchikage uses rock jutsu, and Naruto creates a big rasengan: the combined attack of the three finally strikes Madara. But the villain protects himself with Susanoo, and starts using the Mangekyo Sharingan. Many shinobis fight back, and Gaara tries to stop him with sand, while Naruto gathers natural energy. Madara continues the massacre, until the two Kages and Naruto prepare their next combined attack: Onoki makes Gaara's sand lighter to win speed. Aware of how Susanoo works given the fight with Sasuke, Gaara decides to use the sand beneath Madara's feet to send him to fly (this way he separates him from Susanoo). As planned, Naruto is waiting mid air to strike a rasen shuriken against Madara. This first part was incredible, amazing. Regardless Madara's power, the allies proved to be a challenge to him. The fight slowly escalated. Temari forced him to use ninjutsu (fire), and then, the perfect combined attack from Gaara, Onoki and Naruto, forced him to use the Mangekyo Sharingan. At last, the next combined attack forced him to use the Rinnegan. Still, it's noticeable how the enemy never felt urge or surprise. He had answers for every move.
The second part shows Tsunade explaining why the other "Madara" lied and used that name. The masked man knew that name would cause fear and respect, enough to provoke a war. He fooled everyone. Back at the battlefield, Naruto and the others are stunned to see that Madara absorbed the attack by using the Rinnegan. The Uchiha tells Kabuto that he awakened the dojutsu before his death. Kabuto tells him that he knows the story until the final battle with Hashirama. He is aware of Tobi's plan but not every detail. Still, Madara is intrigued about what he did to his body, and starts testing his limits. The allied are soon shocked to see a big meteor slowly descending towards them. Gaara tells everyone to retreat, while Onoki makes a brave move, encouraging the others. He flies towards the meteor and uses his rock jutsu to make it lighter. Takes a big effort, but he is able to support such mass, while the Kazekage uses sand to sustain it. The shinobis celebrate and think they are safe. Madara recognizes Onoki as the young he once faced, and praises him from a distance. But he silently asks what he is going to do with another one. Soon, a second meteor arrives, breaks the first, and falls to the ground, causing a massive crush. A tremor is felt and at the headquarters, Ao and Inoichi update everyone about what happened. Tsunade decides to enter the fight. The aftermath of such collapse is shown: only a few shinobi survived. Gaara and Temari were protected by his sand. Dodai protected the Naruto clone with a gum sphere, saying he is more useful than others, despite being just a clone. It's A sad reality. Onoki is shown to be seriously injured, barely alive. To make things worst, Madara tries to summon something: the Kyuubi. Naruto feels pain inside, and the Nine tailed Fox, shocked, feels Madara's presence. Fortunately, the eight trigrams seal protects both of them from the summoning jutsu. Kabuto tells Madara about Naruto, and that the Kyuubi is inside him. They didn't capture him yet. Anyway, the Uchiha decides not to go after the real Naruto, instead, he tries another jutsu: the Mokuton Hijutsu, which produces a Deep Forest. This part was more dramatic than the first one. The first to remark is Onoki's heroic act. As old as he is, managed to pull all his strength to stop an asteroid from crushing the Alliance shinobis. Gaara helped him, but what he did was admirable. Certainly for the 2nd Tsuchikage there would not be better way to die than protecting his people from Madara Uchiha. He earns a monument on Iwagakure. He was the only Kage who used Akatsuki mercenary services during the last war, now he is correcting his way. About the survivors, Gaara, Temari, even Dodai, they deserved to live. I thought Naruto clone would vanish during the tremor, but he was needed to prove Madara that he couldn't summon the Kyuubi. Gaara was great as usual, though he probably could have saved more allies. Temari showed the strength of women. She is a great character, at the level of Tsunade, and Sakura (during most of Shippuden, but not at the beginning or the end) and was well written during the war. Then, Madara's power seems from a different world. He is not an alien but can perform such jutsus which should require a lot of energy. I know he is dead, but still, it's hard to understand how someone can hold so much power. Plus, having Hashirama's cells in his body, just like Danzo and Tobi, gives him even more. There should be limits for ninjas. He still remains the best enemy for this story, but I think the level of power shouldn't reach extreme levels. Slaughtering shinobis like nothing only adds more burden to the storyline. Here there are no dragon balls to resurrect them for free. If at the beginning of the day there were 40000 ninjas, now are left probably 30000. Considering that, Madara's word imply that the war and the Alliance were something provoked by Tobi. Madara had in mind the Inifinite Tsukuyomi and becoming the jinchuriki of the Juubi, but he never told Obito to cause a war. The original plan was to capture all the tailed beasts for separate. The differences between both enemies comes to light.
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