Madara Uchiha

"In this world, whenever there is light, there are also shadows. As long as the concept of winners exists, there must also be losers."

- Madara Uchiha (to Obito) "Man seeks peace, yet at the same time yearning for war. Thinking of peace whilst spilling blood is something only human could do. They’re two sides of the same coin."

- Madara Uchiha

Madara Uchiha is the foremost antagonist of the manga and anime series Naruto. He is the co-founder of the village of Konohagakure (the Village Hidden in Leaves) and its first Rogue Ninja. Though thought to have died, Madara survived and planned to rule the Ninja World as a god. He is responsible for setting up Akatsuki and making Obito Uchiha into his apprentice Tobi. He is eventually resurrected as an indestructible undead ninja and takes part in the Fourth Great Ninja War, during which he succeeds in his plan, only to realize too late that he was but another pawn for the resurrection of Kaguya Otsutsuki, the goddess of the ancient world.

Childhood
Madara Uchiha was born around a century before the start of the story. In these times, ninja were organized as clans of mercenaries hired by the lords of warring nations. The most powerful clans in existence were the Uchiha and the Senju, both descendants of Hagoromo Otsutsuki: the legendary Sage of the Six Paths. While the Senju descended from the younger son, who inherited his father's strength and ideals, the Uchiha descended from the elder brother, who inherited the Sage's eyes and power. Through the brothers' conflict for succession after their father's death, the Senju and the Uchiha were bound by conflict throughout history as mortal enemies. (It was later revealed that their feud was manipulated by Black Zetsu from behind the scenes.)

This was an era of permanent war, in which ninja were forbidden to tell their last names to strangers and were forced to fight and risk their lives at a very young age, many of them never going past childhood. As a child, Madara befriended Hashirama Senju, both unaware that the other was their family's mortal enemy at the time. Like Hashirama, Madara hated the senseless slaughter of children forced to fight in the battlefield. Unfortunately, upon learning of the other's identity, they were forced by their fathers to stage an ambush, while managing to warn the other. Seeing that the conflict was inevitable, Madara immediately relinquished his friendship with Hashirama and declared him his enemy, as he valued his family and his last living brother more.

Madara in his Prime
Madara Uchiha and his brother Izuna eventually awoke their clan's greatest ability, the Mangekyo Sharingan, and became their leaders. As the leader of the Uchiha, Madara had to fight countless times against Hashirama, who had become leader of the Senju. Hashirama repeatedly offered a truce but Madara refused it, as he came to regard their past friendship as a mistake. (Tobi has said however that many Uchiha shared Hashirama’s feelings and tried to push Madara to accept.)

During a battle with the Senju clan, Madara fought evenly against Hashirama, but Izuna was fatally wounded by Hashirama's younger brother Tobirama. Madara refused Hashirama's offered truce at Izuna's request and fled with his brother. Later, as the Mangekyo Sharingan was making him blind, he accepted Izuna's dying request and transplanted his eyes, awakening the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan. After Madara was once again defeated in spite of his newfound power, he finally accepted peace upon seeing that Hashirama was willing to kill himself to prove his resolve. This led to the creation of Konohagakure, the Village Hidden (a name Madara chose), the first of the Five Shinobi Nations.

Though considered to become the First Hokage (Lord of Konoha) by Hashirama, Madara was robbed of the title when Tobirama stated that it should be decided via popular vote, a vote that elected Hashirama (as many were wary of Madara's thirst for power). Taking great offense to the act, Madara attempted to rally his kin to stand against the Senjus, but his clan regarded his mistrust as lust for violence and turned their backs on him, incensing him even more. Madara knew that Hashirama would be unable to name him his successor and that Tobirama would become Second Hokage. He rejected Hashirama's suggestion of proving himself worthy of the title to the village and promptly left Konoha, while telling Hashirama that he intends to make his dream a reality.

Madara's Madness
Having studied the Sage of the Six Path's legend, Madara devised the "Eye of the Moon Plan" to create his ideal "utopia" (a world where he would control everyone and everything). This involved gathering the nine demonic Tailed Beasts to revive the nightmarish Ten-Tailed Beast from which they were born, to become its jinchuriki (host). He would then be able to cast a spell called the Infinite Tsukuyomi spell that allow him to alter reality and unite every mind under his control, in order to become a god in every sense of the word.

Madara took control of Kurama, the mightiest Tailed Beast, to destroy Konoha out of revenge. This ultimately led to the final battle between him and Hashirama, which terraformed the area the Valley of the End. Despite Hashirama's pleas, Madara refused to back down.

In the end, Kurama was sealed within Hashirama's wife Mito and Madara was presumed to have died in battle. Since then, the people of Konoha carved two immense statues of Hashirama and Madara in the cliff wall, permanently facing one another at both sides of a waterfall, as a symbol of their never-ending rivalry. However, having obtained a sample of Hashirama's DNA during the battle, Madara could use the Sharingan’s special power Izanagi to cheat death and flee, leaving a clone instead of his corpse and went into hiding.

Madara's Final Years
By the time Madara gained Hashirama's Mokuton power over wood from the DNA he stole, which in turn evolved his Sharingan into the Sage of the Six Path's Rinnegan, he had become too old and withered to use it. Madara brought down the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path on the world, being forced to continuously infusing himself with the Statue's chakra to survive. He also used the Statue to harvest Hashirama's DNA and create plant-like humanoids from it, one of which became Zetsu. (It would later be revealed that the Zetsus were in fact humans merged with the God Tree, source of all creation, and that Madara only thought he created them.) Later, Madara secretly transplanted his Rinnegan to Nagato as part of a scheme to revive himself, knowing that he needed someone to carry out his work.

During the Third Great Ninja War, Madara saved the life of Obito Uchiha and eventually manipulated events so that the boy would fall into despair and become his apprentice. Unbeknownst to Obito, Madara had planted several mind-control devices inside him to make sure that he would not rebel. Madara trained Obito and passed on his vast knowledge relating to the Sage of the Six Path's legend, eventually turning him into the villain known as Tobi.

Shortly before his death, Madara infused Zetsu with a part of his will that would become Black Zetsu. (In fact Black Zetsu is a manifestation of Kaguya Otsutsuki's will, who was manipulating the Ninja World for centuries and faked his "birth" to further his goal.), and instructed Tobi to resurrect him with Nagato's power when the Eye of the Moon plan would come into fruition. Using his mentor's name as his own, Tobi altered Akatsuki from its intended purpose into tools to fulfill the Eye of the Moon Plan; (Although he had no intention of resurrecting Madara, whom he despises).

Personality
"Anything that can be passed down to you... is hatred."

- Madara Uchiha

Madara Uchiha's most defining trait is his monumental ego. He is an extremely overproud and conceited man who cares only about might and skills, which shows as he belittles everyone he deems weaker; including the immensely powerful Kage and the formidable Kurama. The only one he respects is Hashirama Senju, whom he admired immensely but grew to hate fiercely. Madara is a staunch battle-lover who lives and breathes to fight, (which he calls "dancing"). However, he only involves himself in battles he deems challenging, going as far as keeping his foes alive as long as he is having fun. On the other hand, he will slaughter mercilessly those who do not interest him or worse, keep fighting after he got bored of them. Although he never bothers fighting at full strength, he is a humongous show-off who uses immensely powerful techniques for no other reason than that he can.

Despite this, he remains very cautious no matter the situation. He also proves to be quite honourable, giving genuine praise whenever someone exceeds his expectations and harsh but constructive criticism when he sees it necessary. However, most of his praises are followed with a statement about superior he and Hashirama are.

Madara is cruel, ruthless, homicidal, aloof, self-righteous and spiteful, with a macabre sense of humour. He cannot stand being surpassed, and displays a childish obsession in settling his score with Hashirama. Growing up in an era of permanent war made him highly warmongering and vindictive. He hated the Senju so much that he was unable to ever conceive the possibility of an armistice. He was persuaded that their offers of friendship concealed attempts to subdue his clan and sought to maintain hatred against everyone’s wishes. His disregard for the welfare of anyone around him has seen him commit some fairly horrific deeds, such as manipulating events to crush Obito's spirit and dismembering both allies and enemies so he can replace missing body parts.

In stark contrast with the angry outburst he frequently had as a child, Madara has near-unshakable composure, due to the loss of his former ideals. The only times he shows any signs of real emotion are when facing Hashirama or a real challenge, at which point he becomes ecstatic and act like an overtly-eager child. He also proves to be a very intelligent strategist and an expert manipulator, who devises many safeguards to ensure that things go in the direction he wants to, even when it seems he might lose. However, his inability to fathom that he could get outsmarted proved his undoing.

Madara believes that hope is irrelevant, that cooperation is nothing but a silent conflict, and that peace and war cannot exist without each other. He scorns visions of the world other than his own and believes that he is the only one able to fix the precursors’ failures. He also demonstrates a very strong desire for domination, which first made him want Konohagakure to dominate every other nation, and culminated in his desire to rule reality itself. Although he believes that the Eye of the Moon Plan is the only way to make the world better, everyone else rightfully points out that his vision of a better world is a world in which he controls everything.

All in all, Madara appears as someone repulsive and petty, whom not even the Tailed Beast can stand. He is unable to accept being beneath Hashirama or less worthy of the title of Hokage. His motivation can be summed up as rising higher than Hashirama ever could, with everyone worshipping him as the god he thinks he is.

In all fairness however, Madara is not entirely devoid of qualities, as he dearly loved his little brother Izuna, even more than Itachi Uchiha did his brother Sasuke Uchiha. As a child, Madara strived to make a world safe for his family and believed that peace could be attained by coming to an understanding with his enemies, hence his friendship with Hashirama who shared his ideals. (Even at this time though, he was already very domineering and quick to blame others for his own shortcomings.) Unfortunately his selfishness and rampant egomania eventually got the best of him. While he did genuinely want the best for his clan, he was unable to fathom that their wishes could differ from his own and instead felt they did not respect him enough. Tobirama Senju has stated that the Uchiha's Sharingan is powered by their grief and rage and fuels it in turn, at the risk of corrupting them; which partly explains why Madara has become what he is now.

Powers and Abilities
Madara Uchiha already was unbelievably powerful when alive, but as an undead he was restored to his prime while retaining the special powers he obtained after his defeat, putting his might to absolutely ludicrous levels. As if that was not enough, being undead gives him unlimited regenerative abilities and limitless supplies of chakra (energy), making him virtually unstoppable.

Fighting Prowesses
Madara is gifted with immense fighting skills, strength, speed, and reflexes; able to dodge highly fast attacks, to take a weapon from its owner with no effort, to effortlessly mow down the entire Fourth Division of the Ninja Alliance all by himself, and to overwhelm the five Kage multiples times while holding back. He was seen using swords and giant shurikens in battle, but his signature weapon is a huge war-fan which he uses both as a spear of some sort and a shield. His war-fan is connected to a chain which he can use to swing it like a flail, with a scythe attached to its other end. Also, he can channel his chakra through it to increase its sharpness, raise barriers of chakra from it, cause powerful gusts of wind, and absorb attacks to reflect the impact.

Madara has huge amounts of extremely powerful chakra. He is able to identify people and their powers by sensing their chakra and masters the mightiest fire-based attacks in existence: overwhelming streams of fire, gigantic clouds of searing ashes, and powerful fireballs shaped like dragon heads, just to name a few.

Sharingan
Madara was the most proficient user of the Sharingan (Eye of the Copy Wheel), the hereditary eye power of the Uchihas, of his time. The Sharingan gives its wielders several abilities:
 * To physically see the flow of chakra and perceive traps, illusions or hypnosis.
 * To read through movements to mimic them, and predict their outcome in order to avoid attacks. (Though the wielders remain unable to avoid movements too fast or unpredictable for them.)
 * To copy any technique (save from special powers) used by a foe to near-perfection. (Though the wielder cannot copy his/her opponent degree of training and mastery.)
 * To hypnotize foes, either to trap them in illusions or to control their actions. Madara's Sharingan was notoriously powerful enough to gain complete control over Kurama.

Hashirama's DNA enabled Madara to use the Sharingan's mightiest spells, which can only be wielded by wielders of both the Sharingan and the Mokuton and renders the eye that casted them blind: Izanagi (named after the Father of All Things in Shinto religion) which turns the wielder into illusion to avoid death, and Izanami (named after the Mother of All Things who became Goddess of the Underworld) which traps an opponent into a time loop until they accept their fate. (It must be noted that Madara never used Izanami.)

Mangekyo Sharingan
Should Sharingan users witness the death of the one they hold dearest, they awake the Mangekyo Sharingan (Kaleidoscope of Hypnosis). The Mangekyo Sharingan grants three purely fearsome powers, (although some users were able to develop different ones unique to them):
 * Tsukuyomi: An attack named after the Shinto God of the Moon, which traps its victims into an extremely realistic illusion able to alter their perception of time and space, and makes the pain they recieve real. To its most advanced point, it breaks the victims' spirit and plunges them into a coma.
 * Amaterasu: An attack named after the Shinto Goddess of the Sun, which generates a black fire that can consume almost anything and is never extinguished until seven days and nights after its target is reduced to ashes. (Although it can be blocked by a sufficiently powerful defence.) With the proper training, its wielder can manipulate the black fire and shape it at will.
 * Susanoo: A power named after the Shinto God of Storms, extremely difficult to master. It conjures a multi-armed giant made of pure chakra around the wielders, which forms a near-impenetrable protection and uses energy weapons that differ following its wielder. Madara’s Susanoo uses two undulated swords, can perform hand seals to cast spells, and is able to use an attack called "Yasaka Magatama" (powerful, coma-shaped energy projectiles linked through a tread, which it can send together or separately). Susanoo's only weak point is that he cannot block attacks from below. However, this is nonexistent in Madara's case as his has a lower section, inclusive of feet.

Susanoo Gallery
The Mangekyo Sharingan gradually leads its wielder to blindness. Yet, by transplanting his brother’s eyes, Madara gained the "Eternal" Mangekyo Sharingan. He can now use its powers without strain, and much mightier than before. Madara’s complete Susanoo, for instance, became a skyscraper-sized warrior, whose blows have insane reach and can casually slice mountains in half.

Rinnegan
Shortly before his death, Madara eyes evolved into the Rinnegan (Samsara Eye), the mightiest special power in existence. The Rinnegan enables its wielder to master the five elements (fire, water, earth, lightning, and wind) and virtually any existing normal technique. It also enables him to summon the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path: the empty vessel of the Ten-Tails which has immense strength, can conjure soul-absorbing energy dragons, and deadly energy blasts; whose power increase depending on how many Tailed-Beasts it has absorbed. More importantly, the Rinnegan grants seven fearsome powers:
 * Outer Path: The Rinnegan’s primary power. It enables its wielder to conjure powerful chains that can bind any creature to anything, and suppress their powers; or chakra rods that can diffuse the wielder's chakra. The wielder can control anything and anyone infused with his chakra, use his powers through them, share their vision, and rig the receivers with chakra chains.
 * Deva Path: The power to attract and to repel anything, be it things people and attacks with variable force. It can also generate orbs that attract anything around them and create masses of earth that blow up if hit with a strong enough jutsu.
 * Asura Path: The power to turn the wielder's body parts into mechanized weapons, including extremely powerful chakra cannons, clusters of missiles, tentacles, and rocket-punches.
 * Animal Path: The power to summon giant beasts under the wielder's control.
 * Nakara Path: The power to summon the King of Hell, a demon able to absorb its victims' life-force, to store their soul or even resurrect them.
 * Preta Path: The power to absorb chakra either directly from the victims or to cancel attacks.
 * Human Path: The power to read the victims' thoughts and rip off their souls.

Madara’s Rinnegan powers prove far superior to Nagato’s himself, as he can cast two formidable spells: the Tengan Shinsei (Divine Quaking Star) which conjures incredibly destructive, skyscraper-sized meteors, and the Limbo Hengoku (Limbo Border Jail) which conjures up to five immensely powerful clones of the caster that cannot be detected without powers similar to the caster's own and move independently for a defined amount of time. However, he only displays mastery of the Preta Path and the Deva Path’s mightiest spell, and the fullest extent of his control remains unknown.

Mokuton
By grafting Hashirama's DNA to himself, Madara gained his rival's special power to create and control trees, plants and everything made of wood; which is also one of the few means to subdue the Tailed Beasts. Madara is as proficient with it than Hashirama himself, being able to grow huge forests from the ground in a matter of seconds and attack his foes with it; to grow giants flowers that spread toxic or sleep-inducing pollen; to create an army of wooden clones of himself with the exact same powers as him; and so on and so forth. He even masters one of the mightiest Mokuton techniques, which conjures a wooden Chinese Dragon, big and strong enough to constrict Kurama and Gyuki together at the same time, able to absorb chakra and to sprout trees in its wake.

Resurrection
After being resurrected for real, Madara lost the undead's immortality and his eyes crumbled into dust, although he was still able to use his Sharingan powers. He then proceeded to absorb the undead Hashirama's powers and gained access to his unrivaled healing factor and his ability to master Senjutsu (fighting with natural energy instead of chakra). Madara eventually regains one Rinnegan and uses it to capture the nine Tailed Beasts at once, leading to becoming the third jinchuriki of the Ten-Tailed Beast.

Jinchuriki of the Ten-Tails
As the jinchuriki of the Ten-Tails, Madara displays even greater control of the demon's power than Tobi himself. He becomes unbelievably mightier and the extent of his normal powers skyrockets. He also becomes able to levitate and to create Truth Seeking Spheres: orbs of black chakra described as a mix of elements and natural energy far beyond any mortal capacity. The Spheres can obliterate anything they touch, nullify any technique used against him, overcome regenerative powers, and can be given any kind of shape. Madara also wields his monk-staff made of Black Chakra like a weapon and is able to make projectiles from it. Moreover, he can attack by mixing elements and natural energy, such as when he unleashed an onslaught of black lightning.

After regaining both his Rinnegan, Madara was able to open a third eye and cast Infinite Tsukuyomi on the face of the moon, hypnotizing all living things to plunge them into a dream of their ideal lives, before encasing them in cocoons suspended from the roots of the God-Tree.

Cryptical Mentions
Madara Uchiha is not mentioned in the first part of the series, as Orochimaru serves as the primary antagonist while the Akatsuki only serves as an upcomming threat, but he is cryptically mentioned several times: In Sasuke Uchiha's flashbacks about the Uchiha Clan Massacre; when Itachi Uchiha tells Sasuke about the Mangekyo Sharingan, he says that should Sasuke awake it there would be three to share this "blessing", mentioning a yet unknown wielder. (Although he believes said wielder to be Madara, he in facts refers to Tobi.) Later, when Sasuke defects from Konoha, he and his former best friend Naruto Uzumaki (the series' eponymous primary protagonist) do battle at the Valley of the End, near the two giant statues of the founders of Konoha. If the yet unnamed First Hokage can be recognized, nothing is told about the second. In the second part of the story, when Sasuke and Naruto meet again, Sasuke manages to see Kurama sealed inside Naruto and Kurama states that Sasuke reminds him of Madara Uchiha, mentioning his name for the first time.

Madara's story would later be explained by Itachi and Tobi through flashbacks. Finally, after Nagato sacrifices himself to revive his victims, Tobi lament that this resurrection spell was meant for "him", referring to Madara who he is impersonating. (Tobi used his mentor's name to inspire fear to the Shinobi Nations, in order to further his goals.)

The Fourth Great Ninja War
Shortly after his war declaration to the five Kage, the leaders of the five Shinobi Nations, Tobi is approached by Orochimaru's former apprentice Kabuto Yakushi, who offers him an alliance. As Tobi attacks him, Kabuto reveals that he perfected Orochimaru's Reanimation technique and used it to revive many powerful ninja as indestructible undead, which he offers to add to Tobi's army. Kabuto then forces Tobi to accept by displaying another one of the ninjas he resurrected, who is eventually revealed to be none other than Madara Uchiha.

Later, as the Ninja Coalition is gaining the upper-hand, Kabuto decides to release Madara on the battlefield. Madara quickly realizes that he was not brought back by Nagato as expected, and Kabuto explains the situation to him through another undead. Madara proceeds to utterly annihilate most of the coalition's Fourth Division, but Naruto (acting through one of his Shadow Clones) engages him with back up from Ōnoki, the Tsuchikage (lord of Iwagakure, the Village Hidden in the Rocks) who met Madara ages ago. Madara blocks their attack with Susanoo, but Gaara the Kazekage (lord of Sunagakure, the Village Hidden in the Sand) manages to drag him away from it. Madara then uses the Rinnegan to nullify Naruto's attack, before conjuring a monumental meteor. As Ōnoki attempts to lessen the impact, Madara conjures a second one, wiping out almost everyone in the Fourth Division.

Madara attempts to summon Kurama, only to learn that he was sealed within Naruto as the Nine Tails help his Jinchuriki out of loathing for Madara. Shortly after, A the Raikage (lord of Kumogakure, the Village Hidden in the Clouds), Mei Terumi the Mizukage (lady of Kirigakure, the Village Hidden in the Mist), and Tsunade, the Hokage and granddaughter of Hashirama Senju, are teleported on the battlefield. The five Kage resolve to defeat Madara and they order Naruto to find and get rid of Tobi.

The Kage seem at first to hold their own against Madara through teamwork, but he conjures a forest of flowers with sleep-inducing pollen, and a tremendous fire attack, which they barely escape. He recognizes Tsunade as a Senju and resolves to kill her first, seeing her as a stain on her name, but she attacks him with renewed resolve and they manage to seal him... or so they thought. In fact, Madara used a substitution technique to change place with a wooden clone and attacks her from below. Tsunade then manages to shatter Susanoo's blade and strike Madara with it while Ōnoki's blasts him from behind, but he effortlessly cancels their attacks.

Madara reveals that he was toying with them and creates an army of wooden clones, five for each Kage, to overwhelm them. Against all odds, the Kage manage to defeat Madara's clones and combine their elemental powers to trap him, but he releases the complete form of Susanoo and breaks free from their grasp. Just as he is about to obliterate them, Itachi Uchiha defeats Kabuto and forces him to cancel the Reanimation technique, sending every undead back to the afterlife. Unfortunately, Madara is able to remain resurrected.

Now bored, Madara swiftly crushes the Kage to near death and joins the fight opposing Tobi (whose identity was just revealed) to Naruto and his allies, who are trying to prevent the resurrection of the Ten-Tailed Beast. Unfortunately, Naruto's team's efforts end in failure.

Battle Against The Ten-Tails
As Tobi takes control of the Ten-Tails and uses it to brush off all the protagonist's attacks, the remaining troops of the Ninja Coalition barge in and launch a wave of collective attacks to trap the demon into a pit, before attacking the rogue Uchiha... in vain. The Ten-Tails matures into its second form, escapes the pit, and launches several Spheres of Destruction that obliterates random locations across the world, before destroying the Coalition’s Headquarters and every ninja of the Intelligence Squad within.

Madara suggests ending it once and for all but Tobi silences him, reminding him that he needs his cooperation to accomplish his plan (while voicing his disgust at having to die to revive his mentor). Since Madara is forced to let Tobi handle the fight, he oversees his apprentice decimate most of the alliance and commends the breaking lecture he delivers on a grieving Naruto.

However, Naruto is put back on track and he infuses all his allies with Kurama's power, launching a collective assault that injures the Ten-Tails and separates it from Tobi and Madara. As the coalition struggles to contain the Ten-Tails who has begun to run amok, Madara expresses an insane delight when sensing the chakra of Hashirama, whom a recently resurrected Orochimaru revived as an undead along with the three following Hokage, to give Sasuke the answers he needed. Shortly after, a redeemed Sasuke barges in with his team and the four Hokage to take part in the battle. Hashirama rebuffs his old rival and the four Hokage manage to seal the Ten-Tails in a force-field. He then creates several clones to direct an attack against it, including one to settle his score with Madara once and for all, but the villain is not satisfied with a mere clone and decides to wait until he can engage him at full strength.

After easily defeating the clone, Madara notices that Tobi has been fatally injured. Deciding that Tobi is no longer useful, Madara seizes control of his body using his chakra receiver rods to force him to sacrifice himself and resurrect him. However, Tobi saw him coming and hijacks the process to become the Ten-Tailed Beast's jinchuriki. Madara states that he has a trump card left and engages a fight against Hashirama preventing him from fighting alongside the others. Madara is eventually defeated and restrained at the same time as his apprentice gets the Tailed Beasts pulled out of him.

Madara's Revival
With Tobi defeated and left weakened, Madara calls Black Zetsu who fuses with Tobi and forces him to once again use the resurrection technique, this time successfully. Given that Hashirama got pierced and incapacitated by Madara's chakra spears; he cannot prevent his old rival from siphoning his ability to use Senjutsu and his healing techniques.

Gaara confronts the villain alongside the seven Tailed Beasts, who pummel him to near death, but a White Zetsu arrives on the battlefield and gives Madara the right Rinnegan, which Tobi had hidden away. Madara is able to summon the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path from within Tobi and seal all nine Beasts, putting Naruto to the verge of death. Tobirama Senju the Second Hokage confronts Madara, but gets incapacitated as well. Sasuke then attacks Madara from behind, only to get fatally wounded. With all his foes disabled, Madara is manages to become the new jinchuriki of the Ten-Tails with surprising ease. (It is later revealed that Kaguya Otsutsuki let him absorb it to better resurrect through him.)

Madara makes his way to the place where Black Zetsu is using Tobi to fight Naruto's teacher Kakashi Hatake and Minato Namikaze, the fourth Hokage Naruto's father, spitting back the relics that Tobi used as a substitute to Kurama to resurrect the Ten-Tails. Since Tobi, who starts calling himself Obito Uchiha again, is still able to keep Black Zetsu from taking his Rinnegan, Madara attempts to talk him back into serving him, but he only feigns to accept and manages to steal a part of the nine Tailed Beasts' chakra from him.

Obito then seals the half of Kurama that black Zetsu stole from Minato Namikaze into Naruto in order to save him. Meanwhile, Kabuto who had a change of heart saves Sasuke's life and Madara is confronted by Kakashi's comrade Might Guy, who manages to heavily hurt him by pushing his body to its utmost limit, putting himself on the brink of death. As Madara is about to finish Guy off, Naruto (who got in contact with the Sage of the Six Paths' spirit and gained half of his power) simultaneously sends him flying and damages the God Tree. Sasuke (who gained the other half of the Sage's power) then joins the fray and they submit Madara to a throughout and well-deserved beatdown.

Madara then hear a voice from the God Tree (in fact Kaguya's) advising him to absorb it. Madara steals Kakashi's Sharingan to enter the Kamui Dimension and steal the last Rinnegan from Obito, before using his Rinnegans to cast the Infinite Tsukoyomi, despite the protagonists' best efforts.

After Madara successfully catches everyone in the world into an everlasting illusion, save for Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura and Kakashi who were protected by Sasuke's Susanoo, and the four undead Hokage who cannot be affected; the roots of the God Tree (under Kaguya’s control) start encasing all victims of the spell in a cocoon.

As Madara prepares to deal the finishing blow, he gets stabbed in the back by Black Zetsu, who reveals that he only let Madara succeed in his plans in order to use him to resurrect Kaguya Otsutsuki, the Sage of the Six Paths' mother and the tyrant of the ancient world. With that, Madara is painfully assimilated by Zetsu the same way Obito was, and his body serves as the evil princess' new vessel.

Madara is released after Kaguya’s defeat, only to die from having the Ten-Tails extracted. Madara tells Hashirama in his dying breath that in the end, his dream for peace had died while Hashirama's continues to live on. Hashirama tells Madara that despite all that happened, he still considers him a comrade - which Madara concedes isn't so bad.

Trivia

 * Until the last few Story Arcs of Naruto's storyline, Madara's nature and origins are shrouded with mystery that led the fans creating the following theories just like some other characters in the series.
 * Before revealed to survived his battle against Hashirama and later using a sample of the First Hokage's DNA to awakened his Rinnegan which allowed him to used Demonic Statue of the Outer Path to prolonged his life until he entrusted his Eye of The Moon Plan to Obito Uchiha, he was believed to be achieving immortality by some people (includes Itachi Uchiha) thanks to receiving the transplant of Mangekyo Sharingan from his brother Izuna.
 * Also, until revealed that Indora Ōtsutsuki was the true ancestor of both Madara and Uchiha Clan, some fans were theorized that Madara IS the first of the Uchihas. Their said theory was roots from Sharingan's ablility to see chakra current inside one's body just like Byakugan's albeit in different manner. This led to a belief that Uchiha Clan were born from a boy whom mother was a member of Hyūga clan whom married with a man whom actually a Tengu in disguise, which led the boy and the Uchiha clan are not fully human, but rather more like either cambion or precisely, human-Tengu hybrid.