RaeRae Reacts · Naruto Shippuden Episode 421 · Fourth Shinobi World War

The Sage of the Six Paths

Hagoromo names the inherited pattern without making it an excuse, and Naruto and Sasuke accept complementary power while Guy spends his final force outside.

Bottom line

“The Sage of Six Paths” refuses to let inheritance become an excuse. Hagoromo tells Naruto and Sasuke that they carry the chakra of his sons, Asura and Indra, after generations of the same conflict. Hashirama and Madara were the previous pair. Madara broke past his natural limit by taking Hashirama’s power, recreating Hagoromo’s chakra, and awakening the Rinnegan. Now he is approaching the domination once exercised by Kaguya. Hagoromo does not ask Naruto and Sasuke to replay the brothers’ ending. He asks what they intend to do with the pattern. Both accept complementary halves of his power: Yang in Naruto’s right palm and Yin in Sasuke’s left. Outside, Guy spends the last force of the Eighth Gate on Night Guy, a kick so violent that space bends and half of Madara’s body is destroyed. Madara regenerates. Guy falls as his body begins turning to ash. Naruto returns before the final Truth-Seeking Ball reaches him and stabilizes the dying life force. The episode’s answer is not that destiny chose two special boys. The answer is that inherited power only becomes ethical through the future they choose together.

Episode 421 continues two simultaneous thresholds

Naruto is speaking with Hagoromo inside a spiritual space while Guy fights Madara under the Eighth Gate. Both sequences concern inherited power and the decision governing its use.

The episode moves between them rather than ranking one as background.

This episode adapts manga chapters 671–672

Chapter 671 develops Hagoromo’s request and the Six Paths inheritance. Chapter 672 completes Night Guy and Naruto’s return to the battlefield.

The final React should credit both chapters.

Hagoromo confirms Naruto carries Asura’s chakra

Episode 420 ended with the revelation. Naruto is the current reincarnate in a cycle that has continued long after Hagoromo’s sons died.

The inheritance is chakra and conflict, not a replacement personality.

Naruto identifies Sasuke as Indra’s reincarnate

He understands the answer through the relationship that has defined much of his life. Sasuke’s gifts, isolation, and reliance on individual power align with Hagoromo’s description of Indra.

Recognition arrives before the Sage names him.

Sasuke meets Hagoromo in parallel

While Kabuto treats Sasuke’s physical body, his consciousness encounters the same ancestor. Hagoromo speaks to both reincarnates rather than choosing one recipient.

The solution requires two people who are physically separated.

Sasuke recognizes Naruto as Asura’s reincarnate

The parallel conclusion confirms that each understands the other as the person across the inherited divide. Their bond has always contained rivalry, identification, and refusal to let go.

History gives that bond a longer shadow.

Hashirama and Madara were the previous pair

Hashirama carried Asura’s chakra while Madara carried Indra’s. Their friendship, ideological break, and battle at the Valley of the End repeated the brothers’ conflict.

The cycle persisted through people with their own choices.

Madara took Hashirama’s flesh

After their battle, Madara incorporated Hashirama’s cells into his own body. Combining the reincarnates’ chakra gradually recreated a form of Hagoromo’s power.

The theft turned relationship into biological acquisition.

The Rinnegan awakened late in Madara’s life

The eye did not appear immediately after implantation. Years passed before the combined chakra produced the dōjutsu.

Cause and timing should remain distinct in publication.

Madara left instructions beyond his death

He used the Rinnegan, the Demonic Statue, Obito, and Nagato to construct a route back to life. His plan converted other people into carriers across decades.

Inheritance became engineered control.

Hagoromo had warned against recreating his power

The cycle’s descendants were not meant to combine Indra and Asura through theft. Madara pursued that fusion because ordinary Uchiha power could not complete his plan.

Forbidden knowledge became a ladder toward domination.

Kaguya was the first person on Earth to wield chakra

Hagoromo describes his mother as the origin point behind the power now distributed through shinobi society. Her strength exceeded the categories Naruto knows.

The war’s history reaches beyond clans and villages.

Kaguya used power to control humanity

Her dōjutsu and overwhelming chakra allowed rule through force rather than understanding. Hagoromo presents that domination as a danger returning through Madara.

Possessing peace is not creating peace.

Madara is approaching Kaguya’s level of control

As Ten-Tails’ jinchūriki, he already carries Six Paths senjutsu and the power needed for Infinite Tsukuyomi. Recovering both Rinnegan would move him closer to completing the same pattern.

The present threat is historical repetition with new machinery.

Hagoromo asks Naruto what he wants after the war

Stopping Madara is not the whole question. A fighter who wins without a vision for relationships can reproduce the conditions that created the enemy.

The future needs an answer beyond victory.

Naruto does not ask to rule alone

His goal remains protecting comrades, ending the current disaster, and dealing with Sasuke as a person rather than an inherited role. He rejects a peace administered through solitary authority.

Connection remains the method.

Naruto remembers the promise around Sasuke

He has never treated bringing Sasuke back as passive protection from consequences. Naruto intends to confront him directly and bear the conflict without abandoning the bond.

Care includes opposition.

Sasuke gives Hagoromo his own answer

The conversation is not identical in temperament, but Sasuke also accepts the need to stop Madara and address the shinobi world. His later definition of revolution will reveal unresolved differences.

Temporary alignment is not complete agreement.

Hagoromo sees the possibility of a different ending

The two reincarnates have inherited a conflict without being forced to complete the same outcome. Their choices can break or deepen the cycle.

Reincarnation creates pressure, not moral automation.

The tailed beasts’ chakra gathers around Naruto

Naruto carries portions from the beasts he met and befriended. Obito’s transfer supplies the missing Shukaku and Gyūki fragments along with Yin-Kurama.

The meeting point exists because the tailed beasts trusted him.

Hagoromo recognizes the old prophecy

The Sage had heard that a blue-eyed youth would unite the tailed beasts and change their future. Their presence inside Naruto confirms the relational condition.

The prophecy follows bonds already built.

Naruto is not granted tailed-beast trust by bloodline

He earned those connections by learning names, listening to histories, sharing pain, and refusing Madara and Obito’s treatment of the beasts as weapons.

Inheritance cannot claim that work.

Hagoromo divides his power between two hands

Naruto receives Six Paths Yang Power in his right palm. Sasuke receives Six Paths Yin Power in his left.

Neither seal is complete without the other.

The sun seal marks Naruto’s palm

The Yang half supports life, physical force, and the sealing function Hagoromo assigns him. The mark is a tool with a specific shared destination.

The symbol should not be confused with every later Six Paths ability.

The moon seal marks Sasuke’s palm

The Yin half complements Naruto’s power and gives Sasuke the other side of the final sealing method. His left hand mirrors Naruto’s right.

The design makes cooperation physically legible.

Hagoromo entrusts power rather than guaranteeing conduct

He cannot force Naruto and Sasuke to remain aligned after Madara is stopped. Giving the seals is a wager on their decisions.

Authority passes with uncertainty.

Naruto and Sasuke begin waking outside

Obito’s chakra transfer and Kabuto’s medical treatment stabilize their bodies while Hagoromo’s gift changes their capabilities. Spiritual power does not replace the physical rescues.

Both layers are required.

Guy continues after Evening Elephant

Madara survived the coordinated fifth step and remains eager for a stronger attack. Guy’s body has almost no usable time left.

The final technique must spend everything remaining.

Guy prepares Night Guy

He compresses the Eighth Gate’s last output into a single kick. Unlike the staged Evening Elephant sequence, Night Guy is a terminal line through the opponent.

The technique is an ending rather than another combination.

The chakra takes the form of a dragon

Guy’s red vapor shapes around the charge as he accelerates. The image gives visual form to force generated by a dying body.

The dragon is not a summoned creature.

Madara attempts to meet the attack

His Truth-Seeking Staff and Six Paths body remain positioned to counter. He understands the danger but chooses direct engagement.

Battle exhilaration overrides safer judgment.

Night Guy bends space

The kick’s speed and pressure visibly distort the area around Madara. The effect establishes force beyond the already extreme Evening Elephant.

Space reacts before the body is struck.

Guy lands the kick on Madara’s side

The impact destroys a major portion of Madara’s torso and breaks Guy’s right leg. Both bodies display the scale without requiring abstract power rankings.

Damage becomes the measurement.

Madara survives Night Guy

The Ten-Tails’ regenerative power restores the body Guy nearly destroyed. The attack comes closer than anything before but does not end the jinchūriki.

Near victory remains failure under the immediate objective.

Madara declares Guy unsurpassed in taijutsu

He recognizes Guy as the greatest taijutsu user among those he has fought. The statement confirms technical achievement but arrives from a man treating mortal sacrifice as exceptional entertainment.

Praise cannot redeem the spectator.

Guy’s body begins turning to ash

The Gate of Death completes its biological cost. His broken leg and exhausted body start crumbling from internal heat.

The technique keeps the promise attached to its name.

Guy loses consciousness

He cannot defend himself or choose another attack. The person who created the opening becomes a dying body on the battlefield.

Support must continue after sacrifice.

Madara launches a final Truth-Seeking Ball

He aims to finish Guy while regeneration restores his own injuries. The attack turns acknowledgment into execution.

Respect without mercy changes nothing.

Naruto returns before the orb reaches Guy

He appears with new Six Paths power and kicks the Truth-Seeking Ball away. The timing converts Guy’s death sentence into another rescue problem.

The person Guy protected becomes his protector.

Naruto places his marked hand on Guy

Six Paths Yang Power allows him to stabilize Guy’s failing life force. The intervention stops immediate death even though the Eighth Gate’s structural damage remains severe.

Saving a life does not restore an untouched body.

Guy survives without the sacrifice becoming fake

His intent, pain, destroyed leg, and permanent consequences remain real. Rescue changes the outcome because another person arrives with an unprecedented ability.

Survival does not retroactively remove cost.

Lee receives proof that support can interrupt fatal inheritance

Duy died after opening the gate to save Guy. Guy follows the same rule, but Naruto’s return creates a new ending for the next generation.

Patterns can be honored without being repeated exactly.

Naruto’s new state is Six Paths Sage Mode

His appearance, sensing, flight-related potential, and use of tailed-beast chakra reflect the combined conditions created through Hagoromo and the beasts. The form differs from ordinary Sage Mode and Kurama Chakra Mode.

Terminology must remain precise.

Naruto turns toward Madara

He no longer looks like the patient Sakura carried across the battlefield. The recovery brings new calm and control rather than simple rage.

The balance of the encounter changes immediately.

Lava Style Rasenshuriken opens the counterattack

Naruto combines Rasenshuriken with Son Gokū’s lava chakra and drives Madara back. The attack demonstrates access to individual tailed-beast power within the new state.

The episode begins the comeback without completing the battle.

The God Tree is cut by the attack

The expanded blade passes through Madara’s position and severs the enormous tree behind him. Visible environmental damage establishes the technique’s new scale.

Power remains tied to a specific tailed beast relationship.

Sasuke’s return remains part of the next phase

Hagoromo has given him the complementary Yin seal, and Kabuto’s treatment is restoring his body. Episode 421 establishes the awakening even as Naruto reaches the battlefield first.

The pair’s full combat reunion continues afterward.

Episodes 422–423 pause the main battle

The next two broadcasts are anime-original stories centered on Konohamaru and Naruto’s earlier influence. Manga-canon action resumes in Episode 424.

The directory should label that sequence clearly for readers.

The episode challenges a simple destiny reading

Naruto and Sasuke inherit chakra from warring brothers, yet Hagoromo approaches them because the old outcomes have failed. Repetition is the problem he wants them to solve.

Being chosen means receiving responsibility, not exemption from choice.

Madara embodies inheritance through theft

He combines bloodlines, cells, eyes, tailed beasts, and other people’s bodies to reconstruct ultimate authority in himself. Connection becomes consumption.

His power erases the boundaries between persons.

Naruto embodies inheritance through relationship

The tailed beasts remain named individuals whose chakra responds through trust. Hagoromo gives only half the seal and requires cooperation with Sasuke.

Power preserves other agents instead of swallowing them.

Guy embodies inheritance through teaching

Duy passed down the gates and the restriction governing the final use. Guy passed the discipline to Lee. Naruto’s rescue changes what that inherited story can end with.

Transmission remains open to revision.

The three inheritances meet on one battlefield

Madara tries to become the sole owner of history. Guy spends inherited technique to defend others. Naruto receives inherited power that only works fully beside an equal counterpart.

The episode compares methods, not just strength.

The final React should distinguish seals from every power source

Hagoromo gives Naruto and Sasuke the Yang and Yin sealing powers. Naruto’s tailed-beast chakra and Sasuke’s Hashirama-cell treatment also contribute to their transformed states.

One gift should not absorb the full causal chain.

The final React should avoid saying Guy defeated Madara

Night Guy destroys much of Madara’s torso and earns his highest taijutsu praise. Madara survives, regenerates, and attempts to kill Guy.

Impact and outcome are different facts.

The final React should not call Naruto’s intervention full healing

Naruto stabilizes Guy and prevents death. The damage to Guy’s leg and body has lasting consequences.

Rescue is not restoration to the previous state.

Japanese performance requires direct listening

Claims about Hagoromo’s regret, Naruto’s resolve, Sasuke’s restraint, Guy’s final exertion, Madara’s joy, or Lee’s grief require lawful scene-level Japanese listening.

No invented vocal analysis belongs in publication.

Hagoromo gives capacity without guaranteeing justice

The sun and moon seals divide complementary authority between Naruto and Sasuke. That structure acknowledges that neither should hold the entire answer alone.

Entrustment is not prophecy fulfilled automatically. Both recipients remain responsible for how they use power, what they demand from each other, and whether cooperation survives victory.

Night Guy remains a terminal act even after rescue

Guy bends space, reaches Madara, and loses his body to the Gate of Death without defeating him. Naruto interrupts the final orb and stabilizes the life Duy’s rule had taught Guy to spend.

Survival does not make the sacrifice harmless. It proves inherited fatalism can be interrupted by someone arriving with another option.

Three forms of inheritance meet without becoming equal

Madara takes Hashirama’s flesh to manufacture solitary power. Naruto receives trust through relationships with tailed beasts and people. Guy carries Duy’s teaching through discipline and protection.

Each history produces strength, but method and consent determine its ethics. Inheritance is not morally neutral because it reaches an impressive result.

RaeRae’s verdict

“The Sage of Six Paths” works best when the reincarnation reveal is treated as a problem, not a coronation. Hagoromo has watched the conflict between Indra and Asura repeat through Madara and Hashirama. He does not appear to congratulate Naruto and Sasuke for being inevitable heroes. He divides power between them because no single heir should own the answer. Their palms carry complementary seals, and their future depends on whether two people with inherited reasons to fight can choose cooperation without erasing disagreement.

Night Guy gives that argument a body. Guy’s strength is completely his, built through Duy’s teaching and decades of work, yet the attack still cannot finish Madara. Naruto’s arrival keeps Guy from becoming another father whose final lesson requires death. That rescue does not cheapen the Eighth Gate. Guy has already spent the leg, endured the pain, and crossed the point where his body can save itself. Naruto changes the ending because inherited patterns are allowed to change. The episode gives him Six Paths power and immediately judges that power by the life he preserves before the enemy he strikes.

The future opens because power is divided, sacrifice is interrupted, and every inheritance remains accountable to living people who must choose what comes next.

What I am carrying forward

Hagoromo revealed that Naruto and Sasuke are the current reincarnates of Asura and Indra, following Hashirama and Madara. Madara awakened the Rinnegan by combining his chakra with Hashirama’s and is approaching the kind of domination once exercised by Kaguya. Hagoromo gave Naruto the Six Paths Yang seal and Sasuke the complementary Yin seal after asking what future they intended to create.

Guy used Night Guy, bent space, and destroyed much of Madara’s body, but Madara regenerated. Guy collapsed and began turning to ash. Naruto returned in Six Paths Sage Mode, repelled Madara’s Truth-Seeking Ball, and stabilized Guy’s life force with the Yang mark. Naruto then began his counterattack with Lava Style Rasenshuriken. Episodes 422–423 shift to anime-original Konohamaru stories before manga-canon battle action resumes in Episode 424.