Hatake Kakashi, the Hokage

The aftermath sets the endgame's pieces. Sasuke, vision nearly gone after overusing the Mangekyou, demands Itachi's preserved eyes from Tobi and goes under the knife — the transplant that will produce the Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan. In Konoha, Kakashi is shortlisted for Hokage even as Tsunade stirs from her coma, and the Raikage's summit decisions begin reorganizing five villages into one military. The episode is connective tissue, but it is the precise hinge between the Sasuke of revenge and the Sasuke of revolution.