| “ | 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 main antagonist of the manga and anime series Naruto, for the majority of the story. 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, 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. He was initially the main antagonist of the series, being the mastermind behind Tobi's actions for the Infinite Tsukuyomi, only to realize too late that he was but another pawn for the resurrection of Kaguya Otsutsuki at the hands of the real main villain. Madara's goal was to use Dawn Senju 's charka to hyptonize the world into the Infintie Tsukuyomi.
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 the Tailed Beasts can stand. He is unable to accept being beneath Hashirama or less worthy of the title of Hokage. Madara would sacrifice his own pawns to further his plan without remorse and reluctantly kill one of his own clansman. His motivation can be summed up as rising higher than Hashirama ever could, with everyone worshiping 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.
However, after learning that Black Zetsu had both manipulated and betrayed him to revive Kaguya, Madara laments on the mistakes he had made and re-accepts Hashirama's friendship, effectively freeing him from his Curse of Hatred.
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.
Tsunade ponders on how could her grandfather defeat him, when the 5 Kage themselves couldn't. After being fully revived, absorbing Hashirama senjutsu chakra, and retrieving his right eye Rinnegan from White Zetsu, he was able to defeat and seal all nine Tailed Beasts. Since acquiring power as the Ten Tails Jinchuriki, only 8-gates Might Guy and Six Paths: Naruto and Sasuke can fight him on even ground.
Fighting Prowess
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, being able 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 at his disposal. His reserve are also strong enough to harness Senjutsu chakra.
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):
- 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 objects, people, or 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
Madara's Wood Dragon versus Naruto's Tailed Beast Mode.
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
Madara as jinchuriki to the Ten-Tailed Beast.
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.