Kabuto represents the third option:

He is the ultimate foil to Naruto. While Naruto shouted, "I am Uzumaki Naruto, and I will never give up!" Kabuto whispered, "I am no one. I am a tool." The death of Kabuto is the victory of identity over nihilism. By forcing Kabuto to sit in his own past, Itachi doesn't just save the war effort—he saves Kabuto’s soul. Fans often argue that Kabuto got off too easy. He resurrected an army of the dead. He killed thousands. He manipulated Sasuke and set the stage for the war. And yet, he ends the series running an orphanage, smiling peacefully.

What do you think? Did Kabuto deserve the Izanami loop, or was it a cruel form of psychological torture? Let me know in the comments below.

For Kabuto, that loop is hell.

When fans discuss the most emotional deaths in Naruto , the conversation usually revolves around Jiraiya’s tragic sinking into the deep sea, Itachi’s tearful forehead poke, or Minato and Kushina’s final words to baby Naruto. But rarely—if ever—does anyone mention Kabuto Yakushi.

Every time the loop resets, Kabuto sees himself standing over the corpse of Nonō, the woman he loved as a mother. He hears his own voice justifying the murder. He watches as he rejects his identity ("I am no one") and embraces the scalpel of the spy.

After the loop ends, Kabuto emerges from the darkness not as a monster, but as a broken, weeping child. He is no longer "Kabuto of the Snake." He returns to the Konoha Orphanage, where he becomes the caretaker he was always meant to be.

This is the most radical part of the "death episode":