When Did Madara Tobi First Appear In The Manga?

Back when I first dove into 'Naruto', the Tobi/Madara reveal felt like one of those jaw-drop moments that makes you binge multiple episodes. The short version is: the masked guy who first calls himself Tobi is actually Obito Uchiha, a former comrade of Kakashi who was thought dead. He survived a crushing injury, was found and mentored by the real Madara Uchiha, and later adopted Madara's identity as a cover to run the Akatsuki and push the Eye of the Moon Plan. If you want the meat: Obito starts off as this goofy, masked member of the Akatsuki using a silly persona. Later he drops the act and claims to be Madara to intimidate others and to give his plan historical weight. He has Mangekyō powers—most notably Kamui, which lets him phase and teleport parts of himself or others—and eventually becomes the Ten-Tails' jinchūriki. Then the real Madara gets resurrected, so the war ends up with both the imposter (Obito) and the actual legendary Uchiha playing huge roles. For me, the tragedy—Obito's guilt over Rin, his manipulation by Madara, and his late redemption—keeps the whole arc emotionally heavy and satisfying.

Watching the reveal in 'Naruto Shippuden' gave me that weird chill where the story suddenly snaps into place — and Tobi's choice to hide as 'Madara' is one of those clever narrative moves that works on multiple levels. On the surface, posing as Madara Uchiha was pure strategy: Madara was a legendary name that opened doors, crushed doubts, and scared enemies into obedience. If you want to run a shadow war and recruit people like Nagato, Obito needed a myth, not just a wounded kid from the battlefield. Hiding behind Madara's reputation let him control the Akatsuki, manipulate world leaders, and avoid being personally targeted or pitied by Kakashi and others who might have stopped him. Underneath that, it's deeply personal. Obito had been shattered by Rin's death and by the manipulation of Black Zetsu and, eventually, the older Madara. Taking Madara's identity was a kind of rebirth — a way to bury his guilt and become an idea: uncompromising, godlike, and terrifying. Keeping his face unknown also let him oscillate between playful Tobi and ruthless 'Madara' without anyone connecting the pieces, which made his eventual unmasking all the more powerful. For me, that blend of tactical smarts and tragic psychology is what makes the reveal stick.

The first time I stumbled upon Gaara in the 'Naruto' manga was such a vivid memory—his eerie presence just leaped off the page. He debuted in Chapter 35, titled 'The Sand Village's Secret Weapon,' and instantly became one of those characters you couldn't ignore. The way Kishimoto introduced him, with that gourd on his back and those cold eyes, made it clear he wasn't just another rival. The Chunin Exams arc was already intense, but Gaara's arrival cranked up the tension to another level. His backstory later on just cemented him as one of the most complex figures in the series. I remember discussing his introduction with friends, debating whether he was purely villainous or something more tragic. That duality—his brutal exterior versus his fractured psyche—is what made him stand out. Even now, revisiting those early chapters, his first appearance feels like a masterclass in character design and narrative foreshadowing.

Man, the Rinnegan stuff in 'Naruto' always gets my brain buzzing. Here's how I think about it: Madara didn't just wake up one day with a cosmic eyeball — he engineered the conditions for it. After losing to Hashirama, he secretly took some of Hashirama's DNA (those Senju cells) and grafted them into himself so his Uchiha chakra could mix with Senju life-force. That combination is the core recipe. He didn't immediately pop the Rinnegan though — the manga makes it clear he only awakened it much later, when he was old and close to death. The stress and the life-change apparently helped trigger the evolution of his Sharingan into the Rinnegan. After that, he took both Rinnegan and transplanted them into a kid from the Uzumaki clan, Nagato, because the Uzumaki have the stamina and life-force to handle such powerful eyes. Years down the line, when Nagato died, Obito (the guy going by Tobi/Madara) took Nagato's Rinnegan for himself. He kept one and later handed the other back to Madara when he was brought into play in the war. So the chain is: Madara awakened them, sent them to Nagato, and Obito later retrieved them and used them — which is why Obito could act so godlike until Madara was fully back in the story. It’s one of those grim, clever long-con moves I still admire every time I rewatch 'Naruto'.

When I think about the whole Madara/Tobi mess in 'Naruto', the clearest thing to me is that the man who called himself Madara but was actually Tobi (Obito) leans on Kamui as his signature, most-used technique. Kamui is basically his bread-and-butter: short-range intangibility to phase through attacks, and the long-range version to send targets into another dimension. I loved how often he used it defensively—phasing to avoid big hits—then flipping it offensively by sucking people or objects away. Watching him slip through Naruto’s Rasengans or avoid Susanoo strikes felt like watching a master trickster dance on battlefield physics. By contrast, the real Madara uses Susanoo, Wood Release, Rinnegan shenanigans and even Limbo when things get extra-dramatic. So if you mean the Obito-as-Madara persona, Kamui is what he uses most, and it’s honestly one of the coolest space-time jutsu moments in 'Naruto'. I still get chills seeing the teleport-to-dimension trick in action.

Hands-down one of my favorite early shonen moments is when the Uchiha kid first shows up — Sasuke's debut is basically immediate: he appears in the very early chapters of 'Naruto', making his first manga appearance in Volume 1 (Chapter 3). You get him introduced as the aloof, brooding classmate with that iconic scowl and the weight of the Uchiha name already hanging over him. That opening glimpse — him on a rooftop, distant and clearly cooler than everyone else — was the kind of silent storytelling that hooked me. I was probably too young and dramatic when I first read it, scribbling little rivalries in the margins and whispering to a friend about who’d beat who in a fight, but even without knowing the full backstory, the tension between Naruto and Sasuke was obvious from page one. Orochimaru, on the other hand, sneaks in a lot later and with a very different vibe. His first clear appearance in the manga is during the Chunin Exams arc — commonly cited as around Volume 8 (roughly Chapter 68). You don’t get a casual meet-and-greet; he arrives with this unsettling, serpentine presence and a creepy smile that immediately marks him as a major threat. I still get chills thinking about that first panel where he’s introduced: pale skin, long hair, that snake motif, and an aura of calculated menace. Back when I was flipping through those chapters, the library smelled like old paper and iced coffee, and my friend and I passed the book back and forth like we were watching a horror movie — but the cool kind that’s impossibly clever. What I love about both debuts is how different they are and how they set expectations. Sasuke’s entrance is intimate and character-focused: rivalry, pain, and potential. Orochimaru’s is theatrical and ominous: danger, mystery, and a long-term threat that reshapes the series. Seeing them introduced in these contrasting ways makes their eventual interactions and the fallout from their decisions hit harder. If you’re revisiting 'Naruto', flip back to those early volumes — Sasuke’s brooding first pages and Orochimaru’s chilling debut are textbook examples of hooking a reader and planting seeds that pay off decades later. I always find myself rereading these scenes when I need a reminder of how tight storytelling can be, and it still gives me that little electric excitement like I’m discovering it all over again.

I've watched the reveal play out a few times and it still gives me chills. At first 'Tobi' acts like the goofy, masked goofball who doesn't take anything seriously, but that was all a performance. He later starts calling himself Madara and throws everyone off — the voice, the swagger, the sheer audacity — but the truth is harsher: the masked Madara is actually Obito Uchiha pretending to be the legendary Madara. He takes on Madara's name to wield fear and authority, to put the Moon's Eye Plan into motion with the weight of a myth behind him. If you rewatch the big reveals in 'Naruto Shippuden', you can see the layers: flashbacks to Obito's past with Kakashi, the crushed body, the rescued-but-broken morale, and the way he clings to Madara's ideology. It's a complicated masquerade — Obito adopts Madara's identity while being manipulated by Madara's plans, and later the real Madara does show up. So for most of the war arc, when people call him Madara, they're really facing Obito in Madara's mask. I still get a knot in my stomach thinking about that rooftop scene; it's heartbreak dressed up as world-ending choices.

I got sucked back into the thrill of 'Naruto' thinking about how the Nine‑Tails (the Kyuubi) is basically hanging over the whole story from page one. In the manga, the Kyuubi first appears right at the start: it's shown during the opening sequence of chapter 1 of 'Naruto', where the beast attacks Konoha and the dramatic events around Naruto's birth play out. Kishimoto uses that prologue to drop the big emotional bomb — the Nine‑Tails' assault, Kushina and Minato struggling to contain it, and the sealing that results in baby Naruto carrying the beast inside him. So even though the narrative then jumps to Naruto as a kid being ostracized, the presence and consequences of the Kyuubi are established immediately in chapter 1. What I love about that choice is how it frames everything that follows. The initial appearance isn’t a slow reveal or a later twist — it’s presented as the inciting catastrophe that explains why Naruto is the way he is and why his village treats him so strangely. The scene with Minato using the sealing technique (the Dead Demon Consuming Seal) and Kushina’s courage during childbirth are among the earliest emotional beats Kishimoto gives us, and they make the Kyuubi more than just a power source — it’s a legacy, a source of pain, and eventually a complicated relationship. Throughout the rest of the series, Kishimoto layers more backstory and perspective onto that first showing with flashbacks and revelations, but that initial chapter is where the Kyuubi is introduced to readers. Even now, the memory of flipping through those first pages and seeing the village under siege sticks with me. The Kyuubi’s first appearance in chapter 1 sets the tone: stakes are high, the past shapes the present, and Naruto’s journey is always tied to that sealed force within him. For anyone revisiting the manga, it’s wild to watch how an opening moment keeps echoing through the entire epic, shaping character arcs and major conflicts long after that first roar fades. It’s one of those storytelling moves that hooked me for the long haul, and I still get a kick out of how effectively it kicks off the whole saga.

There’s a raw, almost tragic vibe to how their rivalry is framed, and I always get pulled into it whenever those flashbacks show up. Madara and Hashirama first clashed during the chaotic Warring States Period — back when clans fought constantly and both were still building their identities. They sparred as youths and later as leaders many times; those early fights were less about a single decisive duel and more about two ideologies bumping heads while the world burned around them. The most famous and commonly cited 'first' big battle is the climactic fight at the Valley of the End, which happened toward the end of the Warring States era, roughly a century before the main timeline of 'Naruto'. That showdown is what the rest of history remembers: Madara leaves, returns to openly challenge Hashirama, and the clash reshapes the future — leading to Madara being presumed dead and Hashirama becoming the first Hokage. I tend to think of their relationship as a long series of pushes and pulls rather than a single moment, but if you want the landmark fight everyone points to, it’s the Valley of the End. It still gives me chills whenever I watch it; the scale and the stakes feel almost mythic.

Every few months I dive back into the final arcs of 'Naruto' and wonder the same thing — could the story have ended with Madara or Tobi in a different role? Officially, the manga and the core 'Naruto Shippuden' anime don't offer a different canonical ending where Madara/Tobi get an alternate fate; the original ending follows Obito's reveal and the sequence that leads to Madara's revival, Ten-Tails madness, and then Kaguya. That final flow is pretty locked in as the official narrative. That said, if you count non-canon material, there are plenty of alternate takes. Video games in the 'Ultimate Ninja Storm' line and others create 'what-if' battles and cutscenes where events diverge from the manga — Madara or Tobi can appear in roles and outcomes that never happened in canon. Fans have also written countless retellings and doujinshi that reimagine who survived or who pulled the strings, and those are a treasure trove if you like twisty alternate endings. I still enjoy stumbling on a clever fan rewrite where Madara actually succeeds — it scratches the same itch as rewinding a TV series and editing the final reel.