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. The selfish desire of wanting to maintain peace causes wars and hatred is born to protect love."

- Madara Uchiha (to Obito) ​

Madara Uchiha is the villain who initiated the main conflict 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 making Obito Uchiha into his apprentice Tobi, the main villain of the series. He is eventually resurrected as an indestructible undead and takes part in the Fourth Great Ninja War as his goal comes to fruition.

Childhood
Madara Uchiha was born around a century before the start of the story. In these times, ninja were organized as huge 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 the legendary Sage of the Six Paths, the man who built the fundamentals of Ninjutsu. 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 rivalry and conflict throughout history as mortal enemies.

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, as both lost many of their brothers from the conflict. 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 both 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 remaining 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, who was tired of the pointless fighting, repeatedly offered a truce but Madara refused it, as he came to regard their past friendship as a mistake. (Obito 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 Madara was going blind from overuse of the Mangekyo Sharingan, he accepted Izuna's dying request and transplanted his eyes to regain his vision, awakening the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan. Though he intended to use this power to destroy the Senju, Madara was still defeated by Hashirama. However, he finally accepted peace between their clans upon seeing that Hashirama was willing to kill himself to prove his resolve. This led to the creation of Konohagakure, the Village Hidden (which Madara christened), 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 ware 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. Madara 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 gathing the nine demonic Tailed Beasts and use them to revive the nightmarish Ten-Tailed Beast from which they were born, to become its jinchuriki (host). He would then be able to project an Infinite Tsukiyomi that allow him to alter reality and unite every mind under his control, in order to become god-like in all senses of the word.

As a Rogue Ninja, demonized by all but Hashirama, Madara took control of Kurama, the mightiest Tailed Beast, to destroy Konoha out of revenge. This ultimately led to him and Hashirama to have their final battle in the area that the conflict terraformed into the Valley of the End. Despite Hashirama's pleas, Madara refused to back down from his goal before the fight came to a violent conclusion. 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, Madara survived and went into hiding. Having obtained a sample of Hashirama's DNA during the battle, Madara used it to heal his wounds and became a near-genetic match to the Sage of the Six Paths.

Madara's Final Years
By the time Madara gained Hashirama's Mokuton power (Wood Style) 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. 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. To that end, he also inspired Nagato's friend Yahiko to build the Akatsuki.

During the Third Great Ninja War, Madara saved the life of Obito Uchiha and eventually made the boy into his apprentice. 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 perfected Zetsu by infusing him with a part of his will, 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.

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 extremely proud and is very self-assured, confident 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 lost interest in 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 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, any praise he gives is usually followed with a statement about how far beneath him and Hashirama his foes are. Finally, he is a very intelligent strategist and a talented manipulator.

Madara is cruel, ruthless, homicidal, aloof, self-righteous and spiteful, with a macabre sense of humour. He hates being surpassed, scorns visions of the world other than his own, 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. When he had grown old, Madara became very bitter and disillusioned, regarding the world as worthless and believing that some must always be losers so that others can be winners, doubtlessly a reference to his past failures against Hashirama.

Due to his immense power, Madara is seldom seen frustrated or angry in battle. During his fight with the five Kage, Madara expressed boredom. Madara keeps his composure even when it seems like he might actually lose, though this is mainly because he has at least one other ace-in-the-hole. When Obito successfully takes the Ten Tailed Beast for himself, Madara calmly comments on how he "failed", knowing full well that it wouldn't make much difference in the end. The only times Madara shows any signs of real emotion are when Hashirama is present, at which point Madara will become ecstatic and act like an overtly-eager child. In his youth, Madara was also more prone to angry outbursts, though these gradually faded away as he lost all of his loved ones and accumulated more powers.

Madara believes that will and hopes are irrelevant, that the never-ending conflict plaguing the Ninja World is part of a destiny that cannot be reversed, and that cooperation is nothing but a silent conflict. 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 he tells about it rightly points out that he wants to make the world his own.

All in all, Madara appears as a repulsive and petty individual, to the point that not even the Tailed Beasts can stand him. He is unable to accept being beneath Hashirama or less worthy of the title of Hokage than he was. His main 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 good qualities, as he dearly loved his little brother Izuna, even more than Itachi Uchiha did his brother Sasuke Uchiha, and was enraged when Hashirama brought up the subject of his death in their last battle. 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 is by very far the mightiest ninja ever seen in the series. He already was unbelievably powerful when alive, but as an undead he was restored to beyond 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 an extraordinarily gifted fighter with immense fighting skills, strength, speed, spryness and reflexes; able to dodge highly fast attacks or to take a weapon from its owner with no effort. His skills are such that he could effortlessly mow down the entire Fourth Division of the Ninja Alliance all by himself, and to overwhelm and nearly kill 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, and absorb any kind of attack to reflect the impact in a given direction.

Madara has huge amounts of extremely powerful chakra. He also mastered the mightiest fire-based attacks in existence, being able to conjure overwhelming streams of fire that need many powerful water attacks just to be contained 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.

Mangekyo Sharingan
Should Sharingan users witness the death of the one they hold dearest, they awake the Mangekyo Sharingan (Kaleidoscope of Hypnosis). Madara was one of the first Uchiha to gain the Mangekyo Sharingan, which he awoke in his teenage years. 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. The only thing Amaterasu has ever failed to burn is Gaara's Shield of Sand. With the proper training, its wielder can manipulate the black fire and shape it at will.
 * 134px-Madara's_Final_Stabilised_Susanoo.jpgSusanoo: 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.

The Mangekyo Sharingan gradually leads its wielder to blindness. Yet, by transplanting his brother’s eyes, Madara gained the "Eternal" Mangekyo Sharingan. He is now able to use its powers without strain, and unfathomably stronger 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. Madara only uses his perfect form of Susanoo against opponents he deems worthy enough to see it. After the five Kage used their full power as a group against Madara during their battle, he responded by using this tailed beast-sized Susanoo, which outclassed and outmatched the five Kage, who were immediately terrified upon seeing it. According to Madara, this is his full strength and its said that anyone who looks on it dies. Only the five Kage, by sheer luck, survived their encounter with it.

Rinnegan
Shortly before his death, Madara eyes evolved into the Rinnegan (Samsara Eye), the mightiest special power in existence. Madara masters it with even greater proficiency than Nagato himself, being able to conjure immense meteors destructive enough to obliterate an entire battlefield. 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 godly powers:
 * Outer Path: The Rinnegan’s primary power and the source of the other six. It enables its wielder to conjure powerful chains that can bind any creature to anything, and suppress their powers; or chakra receivers that can infuse what they touch with the wielder’s chakra. The wielder can control anything and anyone (be they alive or dead) 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 anything towards the wielder and to repel anything, be it things people and attacks with variable force. It can also generate an orb that attracts anything around and crush it into a sphere of debris.
 * 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.

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 the mightiest Mokuton technique, which conjures a wooden Chinese Dragon, big and strong enough to constrict Kurama, able to absorb chakra and to sprout trees in its wake.

Cryptical Mentions
Madara Uchiha is not mentioned in the first part of the series, as Orochimaru served 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. Irked both by the alliance of the Ninja countries and by Kabuto's manners, 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, now Kazekage (lord of Sunagakure, the Village Hidden in the Sand), manages to drag him away from it. Madara then reveals that he wields the Rinnegan and uses its power of energy absorption to nullify Naruto's attack, before conjuring a monumental meteor to obliterate the battlefield, knowing that he would regenerate shortly after. As Ōnoki attempts to lessen the impact, Madara conjures a second one, wiping out almost everyone in the Fourth Division.

After regenerating, 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 another forest, 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 cancel his contract with Kabuto technique, and remains resurrected.

Now bored with the Kage, Madara swiftly crushes them leaving them barely alive, and joins the fight opposing Tobi (who has just been revealed to be Obito Uchiha) to Naruto and his allies, who are trying to prevent the resurrection of the Ten-Tailed Beast. He scolds Obito for the deviations to their plans, but acknowledges that he might have a scheme of his own, and resolves to capture Naruto and Killer B, jinchuriki of Gyuki the Eight-Tailed Demon Ox, in order to complete the resurrection process. Naruto attacks Madara with the power of Kurama, but he uses the war fan he got back from Obito to deflect the attack and summons a giant wooden dragon to battle the boy. Unfortunately, Naruto's team's fails to prevent the return of the Ten-Tails.

As Obito and Madara take control of the Ten-Tails and use 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 Obito silences him, reminding him that he needs his cooperation to accomplish his plan (while voicing his disgust at the fact that he must 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 Obito and Madara. As the coalition struggles to contain the Ten-Tails who has begun to run amok, Madara grew 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, he notices that a fatally injured Obito has emerged from the Kamui dimension after losing his battle with Kakashi. Deciding that Obito is no longer useful, Madara seizes control of his body using his chakra receiver rods to force him to perform the fatal resurrection technique. However, Obito 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 Obito alongside the others.

After Obito is defeated and left weakened from having the tailed beasts pulled out of him, Madara calls Black Zetsu who fuses to Obito and forces him to once again use the resurrection technique. As Obito is too weak to resist this time, Madara is successfully revived in his prime.