Early life
Obito's year group
Obito arriving as the entrance ceremony ends.
Obito grew up not knowing who his parents were, a sad upbringing which led him to dream of one day becoming the Hokage so that the people of the village would acknowledge his existence.[5] Obito arrived late for his enrollment in the Academy, but was relieved when Rin Nohara handed him his orientation-documents. He eventually graduated at the age of 9 and was placed in Team Minato with Rin and Kakashi Hatake under the leadership of Minato Namikaze. For their final test to become genin, Minato tasked his potential students with taking one of two bells from him in combat. After failing to take a bell on his own and seeing that Minato's skill was well above their own, Obito agreed to work with his team to get the bells. Ultimately, Minato passed all three of them as they succeeded in the real test: showing team-work.[6]
The team later took part in the Chūnin Exams, during which Obito arrived late for the second test in the Forest of Death, having stopped to help an elderly woman. When Team Minato ran across an enemy team, Obito attempted to impress Rin with the Uchiha clan's fire technique, but ended up choking on the candy the elderly woman had given him and was soon defeated by Might Guy. He trained extensively between the second and third exams and told Rin his dream of becoming Hokage; however, he was eliminated in another bout with Guy, who was then beaten by Kakashi, allowing him to rise to the rank of chūnin.[7] Obito did attain the rank some years later at the age of 11.
Team Minato
Team Minato.
During the Third Shinobi World War, Kakashi was placed in charge of the team for a mission to destroy the Kannabi Bridge, which would hinder Iwagakure from using Kusagakure as a relief point. Before beginning the mission, Minato and Rin gave gifts to Kakashi to celebrate his promotion to jōnin, though Obito had forgotten, thus straining an already poor relationship. Minato would soon be called to the front lines, leaving the team to carry on the mission alone. The three were then discovered by Iwa-nin and Rin was captured. Kakashi elected to abandon Rin, believing it was more important to finish the mission before concerning themselves with her safety. Obito became enraged at the idea and insisted that they focus on her rescue. When Kakashi refused, Obito left on his own, remarking that Kakashi was worse than trash for abandoning his friends.[8]
Obito 3
An injured Obito lies trapped beneath the boulder.
Obito located the cave the Iwa-nin were using as a hideout, but before he could make much progress, he was found and attacked by a camouflaged Taiseki. Having a change of heart because of Obito's parting words, Kakashi arrived and saved Obito, shielding him from Taiseki's attack and losing his left eye in the process. To save his team-mate, Obito awakened his Sharingan for the first time, allowing him to see through Taiseki's camouflage and kill him. The two found and released Rin from her restraints, prompting Kakkō to bring the cave down around them. As they made their escape, Kakashi's limited vision greatly hindered him, and when Obito noticed he was about to be crushed by a falling boulder in his blind spot, he pushed him out of the way and became trapped under the rubble in his place, crushing the right half of his body.
With no way to escape, Obito accepted his fate and made an offering: to give Kakashi his left Sharingan as an apology for forgetting to get him a present earlier.[9] Rin performed the transplant and once the procedure was finished, Kakashi used his new Sharingan to kill Kakkō. The Iwa reinforcements quickly began to further compress the rubble, forcing Kakashi and Rin to leave Obito behind. As the rocks tightened around him, Obito lamented that he had finally became friends with Kakashi and was unable to confess his feelings to Rin. Minato rescued Kakashi and Rin, and Obito was believed dead, his name marked on Konoha's memorial.[10]
Madara saves Obito
A heavily bandaged Obito meets Madara.
In actuality, Obito was rescued by an elderly Madara Uchiha, who found the younger Uchiha when the cave-in brought him to one of the tunnels leading to Mountains' Graveyard. Though his Sharingan was miraculously unharmed, the entire right side of his body from the neck down was completely destroyed, prompting Madara to reconstruct his body using Hashirama's artificial body,[11] while secretly placing a cursed seal on Obito's heart to restrict certain actions, such as committing suicide.[12] Telling Obito that he now owed him his life, Obito instead declared that he wanted to return to Konoha and be with his friends. Madara informed him that his new body would prevent him from becoming a shinobi again, and that in the end it wouldn't matter. Madara preached about the harsh nature of reality and how he had a plan to change the world. Still unconvinced, but otherwise unable to leave, Obito remained beneath Mountains' Graveyard to recuperate. while undergoing rehabilitation to use his new limbs, he met and befriended White Zetsu and another spiral-faced Zetsu he called Guruguru.[13]
Obito killed kirinin
Obito standing among the slaughtered Kiri-nin.
As Obito was finally getting used to his new limbs, White Zetsu alerted him to the fact that Kakashi and Rin were surrounded by Kirigakure-nin and in danger. Obito tried to punch through the boulder blocking the exit, but destroyed his right arm in the process.[13] Guruguru then encased Obito with his body and used the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path's power to destroy the boulder. As Obito prepared to leave, he told Madara he had no intention of returning, but thanked him for saving his life. Madara in turn told him that he would return willingly and thank him truthfully. Using Guruguru to locate his friends, he learned that Minato was once again absent. On his way, Obito's left eye socket caught a glimpse of what his left eye was actually seeing, but dismissed it as a panic thought. Upon reaching the battlefield, he was shocked to see Kakashi had impaled Rin through the heart with his Chidori.[14] As Rin died before both of them, their Sharingan matured into Mangekyō Sharingan and Kakashi passed out quickly afterwards. Enraged at Rin's death, Obito responded by using a combination of his newly-awakened Kamui and Wood Release abilities to slaughter all of the Kiri-nin.[15] Ignoring Kakashi completely, Obito cradled Rin's lifeless body and, with Madara's words still echoing in his mind, vowed that he would create a world where they could be together again.[16]
