Regarding the strength of Edo Tensei Madara, there have always been two prevailing interpretations.
The first argues that although an Edo Tensei body is immortal and capable of rapidly restoring chakra—approaching an almost inexhaustible state—it is still limited by a lower chakra ceiling. As a result, Edo Madara would be weaker than Madara at the height of his life.
The second interpretation holds that Edo Madara's body was heavily modified by Kabuto Yakushi, granting him chakra reserves equal to—or even surpassing—those he possessed in life, especially during the battle at the Valley of the End.
After all, Madara did not possess the Rinnegan at that time. Even though Edo Madara's Rinnegan is incomplete, having it at all is already a tremendous advantage. By that logic, Edo Madara should be stronger than his living self.
The original canon leaves this issue somewhat ambiguous. However, in this case—after the joint modifications by Orochimaru and Kabuto Yakushi, incorporating the genes of Senju Hashirama, Kinkaku and Ginkaku, Kimimaro, and others, layered atop Madara's own Uchiha bloodline—this Edo Madara is undeniably superior to his former living incarnation.
And so, when Uchiha Madara unexpectedly broke free from Edo Tensei's control and regained his autonomy, Orochimaru and Kabuto stood no chance.
"Deep Forest Emergence!"
Towering trees erupted skyward like monstrous serpents, obliterating Orochimaru's base in an instant.
Kabuto Yakushi was struck head-on, blasted deep into the ruins—his life or death unknown.
Orochimaru slithered between the trees using his soft-body techniques, narrowly avoiding being crushed and strangled.
Madara stood atop a massive tree, coldly surveying Orochimaru as he fled.
"A snake? Power from Ryūchi Cave?"
"Interesting."
Madara formed seals.
Across the forested battlefield, enormous flower buds burst forth from the earth. Nourished by overwhelming chakra, they bloomed instantly, releasing highly toxic pollen that blanketed the entire forest.
To accelerate its spread, Madara unleashed Fire Release: Great Fire Annihilation, turning the pollen into a suffocating cloud of poisonous smoke.
Just as Madara assumed Orochimaru was finished—
A blade suddenly pierced out of the smoke, stabbing straight toward his heart at blinding speed.
"Clang!"
A skeletal Susanoo manifested instantly, blocking the Kusanagi Sword.
The sheer force knocked Madara back several meters, a flicker of surprise crossing his face.
"You can ignore the poison of Deep Forest Bloom?"
From within the dense smoke, Orochimaru's neck stretched over ten meters. A serpent extended from his mouth, and from its jaws protruded the flexible Kusanagi blade.
"So even a sneak attack doesn't work?" Orochimaru hissed.
"What a troublesome man… Uchiha Madara. You breaking free from Edo Tensei truly exceeded my expectations."
"But since I summoned you—
I can just send you back to the underworld."
Seeing Orochimaru withstand several of his techniques, Madara finally lowered his crossed arms.
He was getting serious.
"You're Orochimaru, aren't you?"
"Your Edo Tensei can't control me—but it is a useful technique."
"How about becoming my subordinate?"
"Together, we'll end this shinobi world of hatred and slaughter."
Orochimaru summoned a giant snake, ordering it to carry the gravely injured Kabuto to safety.
Then
He opened his eyes.
Three-tomoe Sharingan.
Madara froze.
When those tomoe twisted and transformed into a four-pointed pinwheel—
Madara's expression shifted for the first time.
"You possess the Mangekyō Sharingan?"
"Are you an Uchiha?"
"Hehehe…" Orochimaru laughed.
"Times have changed, Uchiha Madara."
"It's no longer only Uchiha who can wield the Mangekyō."
"I am not an Uchiha—
but through science, I obtained the Uchiha's ultimate eye."
"The Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan."
"Eternal…?" Madara murmured.
"It seems I've slept too long. The world has changed."
"But—"
A terrifying killing intent erupted from Madara's body.
His eyes transformed as well.
Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan.
"The power of the Mangekyō belongs to the Uchiha alone."
"A pretender like you will only meet death by wielding it."
A blue Susanoo surged from the ground—Madara's Susanoo.
Orochimaru wasted no words.
A deep-purple Susanoo erupted behind him—
and in one breath, he summoned a complete Susanoo, towering over a hundred meters tall.
Two giants, larger than tailed beasts, stood atop the forest born of Deep Forest Emergence.
Facing each other.
"You disgrace the Uchiha."
"I'll show you what true Uchiha power is!"
Madara charged.
Orochimaru did not retreat.
Both Susanoo slammed forward simultaneously—Iron Mountain Crash—colliding with a thunderous explosion.
The forest was flattened instantly.
Flames and pollen were blown away, leaving bare, scorched earth behind.
Madara drew a sixty-meter-long blade and swung.
The slash cleaved through Orochimaru's body—
then split in two, the twin shockwaves slicing through distant mountains over a kilometer away, shaving their peaks flat.
Orochimaru raised the Yata Mirror, blocking the strike.
He was unharmed—but cracks spread across the mirror's surface.
With his free hand, he condensed purple Yin Release chakra into a spear and thrust it toward Madara's forehead.
Madara countered with both blades—
his left deflecting the spear,
his right slashing toward Orochimaru's true body.
Crack!
The Yata Mirror blocked the strike again—
But this time, Madara's blade struck directly along its fracture.
The mirror split in two.
Orochimaru's Susanoo lost an arm.
Boom!
The severed limb smashed into the ground, carving a massive crater—solid as flesh.
"Orochimaru," Madara mocked,
"You stole Uchiha power but lack the wisdom to wield it."
Even as he taunted, Madara's Susanoo never stopped attacking.
Twin blades flashed—
Orochimaru's Susanoo lost its second arm.
As long as Yin Release chakra is sufficient, Susanoo can regenerate endlessly—
But losing both arms in a split-second exchange placed Orochimaru at a fatal disadvantage.
Before the limbs could regenerate—
Madara's killing blow descended.
Crack.
The hardest part of Susanoo—the forehead—split open.
The massive blade pressed inward, moments from cleaving Orochimaru apart.
At that instant
Orochimaru began forming seals.
His body expanded and warped.
White serpentine forms poured out
In a blink, he transformed into the Eight-Headed Serpent (Yamata no Orochi), coiling instantly around Madara's Susanoo.
At the same time, Orochimaru's Susanoo dispersed.
"Tobirama's forbidden techniques again?" Madara scoffed.
"The Eight-Headed Serpent isn't weak—but using it against a complete Susanoo?"
"Is your brain insufficient?"
Though his arms were bound, Susanoo was not limited to two limbs.
Under Madara's control, two additional arms grew from beneath its ribs, blades forming in their palms.
They slashed toward Yamata no Orochi.
In the original canon, Orochimaru's Eight-Headed Serpent couldn't even defeat Uchiha Itachi's Susanoo—
Let alone Madara's.
Yet
Madara's blades were stopped.
Purple Yin Release energy wrapped around Yamata no Orochi's body—
Forming Susanoo armor.
Madara's eyes widened slightly.
He knew this technique.
At the Valley of the End, he had once clad the Nine-Tails in Susanoo—creating Majestic Attire: Kurama.
Hashirama had needed the Thousand-Armed Buddha to defeat it.
Now Orochimaru had copied the concept—
Majestic Attire: Yamata no Orochi.
It lacked the island-destroying power of Majestic Attire Kurama
But its death-binding coils caught Madara completely off guard.
Crack—crack—crack!
Fractures spread across Madara's Susanoo.
Aside from Hashirama, no one had ever pushed his complete Susanoo this far.
Madara struggled with full force—
But it was futile.
Both wielded Eternal Mangekyō.
Both used complete Susanoo.
Their base strength was already close
And Orochimaru now wielded a forbidden technique.
At last, amid deafening shattering sounds—
Madara's Susanoo collapsed completely.
He leapt back, widening the distance—
But in that exchange, he had lost a move.
"Hahahaha! Magnificent!" Madara laughed.
"Besides Hashirama, you're the first to shatter my complete Susanoo!"
"In Susanoo mastery—
I shall call you the second strongest!"
Orochimaru did not waste time listening.
As Madara indulged in his bravado, Majestic Attire Yamata no Orochi lunged forward, intent on crushing him completely and sealing him away.
Shockwaves like a raging storm surged forth.
Eight massive heads closed in from all directions.
Madara seemed cornered.
Just as Orochimaru believed victory was at hand
Madara's eyes transformed.
From Eternal Mangekyō—
to Rinnegan.
At the same time, a powerful suction erupted.
"Sealing Technique Absorption!"
A protective barrier enveloped Madara, blocking the collision.
Then
Terrifying absorption force surged outward.
The Susanoo armor around Yamata no Orochi's heads dissolved first, turning into pure chakra and being devoured.
The absorption expanded
The armor coating the serpent's entire body vanished, converted into chakra and absorbed completely.
In the blink of an eye
Majestic Attire Yamata no Orochi reverted to bare white serpents.
Defenseless.
Susanoo reappeared.
There was no need for a complete form.
In just the third stage, Madara unleashed several rapid slashes—
Reducing Yamata no Orochi to minced flesh.
The serpent itself was Orochimaru's body.
After being shredded, he was gravely injured.
A white blur burst from the remains
Orochimaru's true form: the White-Scaled Serpent.
He had lost all will to fight.
He tried to flee.
Too late.
A massive blue hand seized him midair—
Lifted him
And before he could struggle—
One clean slash.
Decapitation.
A dense cloud of neurotoxic gas billowed out from within the White-Scaled Great Serpent.
This technique had once poisoned Sasuke into collapse—but unfortunately for it, Madara was now in an Edo Tensei body. Poison meant nothing to him.
"Great Fire Annihilation."
Raging flames engulfed the serpent. Orochimaru's mangled snake body was roasted into something resembling a charred sausage.
One could only say—Madara truly understood the art of erasing evidence.
And that wasn't all.
After reducing Orochimaru to ashes, Madara summoned his Complete Susanoo, soared into the sky, and loosed a single Indra's Arrow, obliterating the entire base in one devastating strike.
"With this, that so-called technology for stealing Uchiha power is gone," Madara snorted coldly.
"In the not-so-distant future, you will all spend your lives inside dreams anyway. There'll be no need for such crude methods."
Hovering in midair, Madara fixed his gaze in the direction of Konoha, preparing to head back and assess the situation.
Unlike Uchiha Rokuro, however, he didn't use Susanoo for long-distance travel.
After flying several dozen kilometers, he landed silently and chose to infiltrate on foot.
Before long, he halted, turning his head toward a nearby forest.
"Come out."
"As expected of you, Lord Madara," a voice replied calmly.
"My stealth has never been detected by anyone—except you."
A White Zetsu emerged from the trunk of a tree and stepped forward.
"You came at the right time," Madara said coldly.
"What year is it now? What exactly has happened? And why was I resurrected with Edo Tensei instead of the Outer Path — Samsara of Heavenly Life Technique? This deviates greatly from my plan!"
"Lord Madara, many things have happened over the years," White Zetsu replied.
"If not for Black Zetsu's intervention, you wouldn't even have had the chance to be revived through Edo Tensei—let alone reincarnation."
White Zetsu proceeded to recount everything: Uchiha Rokuro's rise, the transformation of the Uchiha clan, and the chain of events that followed.
Madara remained silent for a long time after hearing it all.
"…So you're telling me," he finally said slowly,
"that under Uchiha Rokuro's leadership, the entire clan can now awaken the Mangekyō Sharingan with ease?"
"Yes. As of now—including Uchiha Rokuro himself and Uchiha Izumi—there are already over twenty Mangekyō users within the Uchiha clan. And the number is still growing.
At the current rate, within half a year, the number of Mangekyō Sharingan will exceed one thousand pairs."
Even with Madara's ironclad composure, shock flickered across his face.
Back then, he had endured countless separations between life and death, watched loved ones fall one after another, just to awaken the Mangekyō.
Only after transplanting his younger brother Izuna's eyes did he obtain the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan—a path paved with suffering and ruthless calculation.
And now?
It was being mass-produced.
"Lord Madara," White Zetsu continued,
"Obito is currently collecting the tailed beasts. He plans to use your Rinnegan to become the Ten-Tails' Jinchūriki. He believes that only then can he defeat the Uchiha.
However, there's something you should know—he's already learned the truth about what happened to Nohara Rin back then. Because of that, he likely won't cooperate with you anymore."
"Hmph. Whether he knows or not makes no difference," Madara said disdainfully.
"Back then, he was nothing more than a tool I used. Now, he still is."
With that, Uchiha Madara stepped forward, White Zetsu following close behind.
"Lead the way. I want to see Obito and Nagato.
After all… my eyes are still with them."
"As you command, Lord Madara."
After learning that the Uchiha clan was on the verge of producing over a thousand Mangekyō-wielding shinobi, even Madara chose caution.
He decided to observe quietly, waiting until his true resurrection before reclaiming the Rinnegan and revealing himself to the world once more.
Meanwhile, within the Uchiha clan—
As more and more members awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan, Sasuke began to grow anxious.
The list of those permitted to use the special ninja tool did not include his name.
And thinking about the blood feud between himself and Uchiha Rokuro—the murder of his father—Sasuke knew all too well that he would never be granted permission to use it.
The frustration gnawed at him, yet there was nothing he could do.
Mikoto could only comfort him, telling him to take it in stride—but such words were meaningless.
Just as mother and son sat there, both weighed down by worry, a figure who had been absent for a long time suddenly appeared before them—
Uchiha Itachi.
After understanding the situation, Itachi reached out and gently tapped Sasuke on the forehead.
"Don't worry, Sasuke," he said softly.
"You will awaken the Mangekyō Sharingan—using that ninja tool."
END OF CHAPTER
(Some chapters in patreon are double chapters)
5 IN 1 - BE A MEMBER, GET 5 ONGOING STORIES!!
Forbidden Java Jutsu - MrBehringer's Secret
👉 patreon.com/MrBehringer