Sealed into the moon for centuries after the fateful battle between Kaguya Otsutsuki and her sons Hagoromo and Hamura, the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path — also known as the Gedo Statue — is the husk of the Ten Tails in Masashi Kishimoto's Naruto. Left behind after the beast's enormous chakra was extracted from by Hagoromo and sealed into his own body, the statue resembles an emaciated version of the beast itself, albeit with a slightly more humanoid appearance. Towering over anyone who stand before it, the figure is a formidable sight on its own, which speaks volumes of the monstrous being it once was. Capable of hosting the immeasurable chakra possessed by the Ten Tails, the statue can only be summoned by those who wield the power of the Rinnegan, the most prized and exalted of the Three Great Dojutsu.
Armed with immense strength, on a level that rivals a tailed beast even in its weakened form, the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path is central figure in the Akatsuki's ploy to gather the chakra of all the tailed beasts. In the beginning of Part II of Naruto, the Akatsuki members are shown sealing the chakra of each tailed beast they captured into the statue, with the husk growing more lifelike with each successive sealing. The statue is also blessed with an incredibly strong life force, as it was used by Madara Uchiha to cultivate the cells of Hashirama Senju, the First Hokage, and use them to fuel the growth of a giant tree. Madara also used the tree's chakra to extend his own lifespan, allowing him to take Obito on as an apprentice and train him to see out his Eye of the Moon plan. In this manner, the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path is a constant figure in the series, perpetually lurking in the shadows until its revival as the Ten Tails during the Fourth Shinobi World War.
The Husk Of The Ten Tails
Following their battle against their mother Kaguya and the Ten Tails, Hagoromo and Hamura Otsutsuki sealed her and the beast into the moon through the Six Paths - Chibaku Tensei, making the beast act as the core of the new satellite while forcibly extracting its chakra to be sealed into Hagoromo. Having remained dormant for centuries while being guarded by the Otsutsuki clan of the moon, led by Hamura, the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path was summoned back to earth after Madara Uchiha awakened the Rinnegan, near the end of his lifetime. The elderly Madara cultivated a massive tree with the aid of Hashirama Senju's cells, which he then attached himself to, in order to prolong his own life as he sought out a successor to further his own ambition of triggering the Infinite Tsukuyomi. He also used the statue to grow an army of White Zetsu, believing them to be a product of its life force in combination with Hashirama's cells. In actuality, these artificial humans were retrieved by Black Zetsu, as they had been stored within the statue for centuries.
The mummified, foreboding appearance of the statue, and its colossal size — exponentially larger than even the tailed beasts — is a testament to the ancient power it once contained. On its faces were nine eyes, each the size of an adult, with irregular, spiky protrusions emanating from its back. While the eyes remained closed for the most part, they opened up and gained a light blue iris each time a tailed beast was sealed into it. Earthen colored and humanoid in appearance, the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path is bound by shackles on its wrists and ankles, symbolizing the state of containment it was condemned to for centuries. Initially, the statue was depicted with a blindfold and a scroll in its mouth, which it lets go of when called into battle.
Heeding The Call Of The Rinnegan
Following Madara's death, his Rinnegan were transplanted into Nagato, a child from Amegakure, who would be orphaned during the Second Shinobi World War. His desire to usher in peace, a dream he shared with fellow orphans Yahiko and Konan, led him to seek out Jiraiya's tutelage, and he quickly mastered whatever he was taught. Eventually, the trio set out on their own and formed an organization called the Akatsuki, who strived to end conflict through diplomacy. Unfortunately, Nagato lost control over himself in a couple of situations where his friends were endangered leading him to inadvertently summon the Gedo Statue. During the second instance, which was triggered by Yahiko's death, Nagato called on the statue and used its power to wipe out a force of shinobi led by Hanzo the Salamander, who had betrayed them. As he did not possess the chakra of the tailed beasts, Nagato donated his own life force to the statue, allowing himself to be pierced by innumerable black receivers. This created a phantom dragon made of absorption chakra, which extracted the chakra of all his adversaries, but left him permanently emaciated as a consequence.
Even after his transformation into Pain, Nagato would summon the statue whenever the Akatsuki captured a tailed beast. The organization made use of a powerful fuinjutsu, where nine dragons would emerge from the statue's mouth and extract the beast's chakra for several days until all of it was sealed into the statue. It is likely that the tailed beasts had to be sealed into the statue in a particular order, as it was said the statue would disintegrate if the Nine Tails was not sealed at the very end. With the Akatsuki under his command, Nagato intended to use the statue as a kinjutsu weapon that would serve as a deterrent against any use of force by one of the Five Great Shinobi Countries, in his bid to continue Yahiko's dream of ending all conflict in the shinobi world. However, this goal was never realized by him, as Obito would make use of the statue to revive the Ten Tails after Nagato's death.
Revived By The Eye Of The Moon Plan
When summoned to the theater of the Fourth Shinobi World War in Naruto, the statue was nearing its revival as the Ten Tails, with only the chakra of the Eight Tails and Nine Tails remaining. During the conflict, the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path was shown to be capable of manifesting chakra chains from its mouth, branded with a cursed seal that could restrain the tailed beasts and absorb their chakra at a rapid pace, to be sealed within its form. Additionally, Obito was also able to use black receivers from the statue to funnel the tailed beasts' chakra into the Six Paths of Pain he had created after salvaging Nagato's Rinnegan. It also has offensive abilities such as creating shock waves, or firing bolts of chakra into the ground to destroy entire battlefields.
Imperfectly revived by Obito, who used substitutes for the Eight Tails and NIne Tails chakra, the statue morphed into a version of the Ten Tails, which was then sealed inside his body, only for all the chakra to be extracted once again and resealed after Madara was reincarnated by the Rinnegan's Samsara of Heavenly Life Technique. Madara then summons the statue once more from within Obito's body, and proceeds to seal all the tailed beasts within himself, becoming the Ten Tails jinchuriki. Shortly after, Kaguya Otsutsuki is revived by the hand of Black Zetsu, who betrays Madara. In the ensuing fight between Team 7 and Kaguya, they manage to successfully seal her and extract her chakra with the Six Paths - Chibaku Tensei once again, with the Ten Tails reverting to the Demonic Statue inside Kaguya's dimension, bringing an end to its role in the story.