Board Thread:Naruto Discussions/@comment-28200770-20170331172343/@comment-734582-20170331174742

NeoAquarius12 wrote: I just began re-reading the manga, and I noticed that on the cover of Chapter 16, Kakashi has two pictures above his bed. One is of himself, Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura. The other is of himself, Minato, Obito, and Rin. It makes you wonder how long Misashi Kishimoto had the finale planned out or how much he knew about these characters. For perspective, this Chapter deals with Zabuza and is before even the Chunin exams. A lot of the story is made up as he went along (which is how 99% of all media is made). Stuff like Hashirama and Madara was probably done conceptually but not entirely worked out. IE Hashirama's wood release was originally just a secret jutsu. It's clear from the Edo Tensei fight in p1 that the Hokage weren't nearly as strong as later made to be. (meaning that the idea of Hashirama binding and spreading the Biju wasn't developed at the time).

It seems that most of the P2 plot was invented at it's start (IE Pain, Obito = Tobi, Masked Man, etc etc). We know that Itachi's role was changed due to Kishimoto becoming a parent, the same is true for Naruto's relation with his parents.

So while it was likely planned that Kakashi killed Rin and got his Sharingan from Obito from early on, that Obito survived likely wasn't planned until PII began.