Apparently,Madara did said,he activated his rinnegan shortly before his death(chapter 560,page 15).But Madara didn't said he really died after that,right?Maybe,someone have healed Madara injuries after the battle with Hashirama.But,the injuries are too bad for Madara.So,I think,Madara did live long enough to know Nagato.

madara and kabuto talk about taking the 1st powers and living then obtaining the rinngun. now it probably took so long to obtain because no one new about it i mean nobody new of ms till madara or ems till madara so it probably to awhile to figure out. they probably scouted nagato from a young age because tobi was mad when he used the jutsu to bring back the dead for naruto, and madara thought he was brought back to life by nagato so it was probably a plan down the road for nagato to do that for madara.

Quoting wombat3476

madara and kabuto talk about taking the 1st powers and living then obtaining the rinngun. now it probably took so long to obtain because no one new about it i mean nobody new of ms till madara or ems till madara so it probably to awhile to figure out. they probably scouted nagato from a young age because tobi was mad when he used the jutsu to bring back the dead for naruto, and madara thought he was brought back to life by nagato so it was probably a plan down the road for nagato to do that for madara.

Yeah,that's right.It's Nagato who ruined the plan.Since,the plan not in the right order,Tobi has to change the plan.Then,Kabuto step in with Madara body in the coffin and the plan ruined again.Since Madara have been resurrected by Kabuto edo tensei jutsu,I bet,the plan changed one more time.Now,Tobi will not concern about Madara anymore.All Tobi needs is the plan to successfully to cast the infinite tsukuyomi,not by Madara,but himself.It seems,Tobi and Madara is not the same person.Maybe,Madara himself don't know about Tobi.

Madara's plans were totally different from Tobi's he believed that the Uchiha Clan should have gained control of the Leaf and only wanted the destruction of the Leaf so the Uchiha could rule. Madara could have known Nagato but of course he would've been very young, the fight between Hirshomara(or whatever his name is) and Madara took place at the beginning of the 3rd war. The question is how did Madara know about Nagato's Rinnegan because we only saw Nagato's Rinnegan activate during attack while Jairayh was still training him. Also Tobi had to have implanted the Rinnegan into Nagato before that incident. I believe Tobi was around when Madara was mortally wounded took his eyes and implanted them into Nagato or maybe Tobi and Madara was working together back then when he was on the brink of death, he instructed Tobi to have Nagato revive him when he gained complete control of the Rinnegan to finish there plans.

@dootieb98: The fight between the 1st Hokage and Madara was around the time of Konaha's formation; this should be before the 1st Shinobi War not the 3rd; since the war involved the 5 great nations meaning Konaha was already a village. The 3rd war was when Kakashi got his eye and Minato was named the Yellow Flash.

The questions about the Rinnegan are all pretty believable but there may also be another theory: The eyes Nagato got may not be Madara's. With all of the Uchiha eyes that were collected it is totally possible since we have no idea when the collection process began. Someone had to evolve the eyes to the Rinnegan whether it was Tobi, Madara, or other Uchiha's is totally possible.

Madara or Tobi could have swapped eyes out on multiple occasions in order to evolve the eyes. Since we know that you don't have to be an Uchiha in order to evolve the eyes (Kakashi), but you might need to be one plus have Senju DNA in order to evolve them to the Rinnegan.

Or they could have taken them from Uchiha's that happened to evolve their EMS.

Lastly, Nagato could have been born with the Rinnegan and Madara found out about this prior to his death. If I remember right his eyes weren't seen prior to him activating his power, so there may not have been normal eyes to begin with. And Supposedly the Sage's 1st son was born with eyes similar to the Rinnegan so this may be possible. Since a lot of what Tobi says is vague or cryptic his statement about the eyes belonging to him could have an alternate meaning.

@edawg my bad you are correct I was meaning the 1st war and it is confusing on how the Rinnegan came about and who can obtain it. In the series it was never said that only one person can gain the Rinnegan, so again you are correct that Madara and/or Tobi could have gotten the eyes from another Uchiha to give to Nagato.But I do have to correct you Tobi had already said that Nagato's eyes were given to him from him implanting them, so Nagato wasn't born with them, he just activated them during that incident. And remember that Nagato didn't any know what happened and how he activated the eyes and what powers he even had at the time, so again Nagato's eyes were normal until then. But I do believe that Tobi is not Uchiha, Uzmaki, nor Senju and learned about how to gain the Rinnegan and possible started his own plans after the death of Madara. The rumor is that Tobi is Obito but that it is highly doubtful since the right eye of Obito was given to Kakashi and the left was crushed, Tobi is someone who possible knew Madara, Nagato, and Itachi all at the same and may have been mentioned once or twice in the series. And I can't wait to find out who he really is because he is the person that is the keystone to the whole Naruto Series.

@dootieb98: I am not dismissing the possibility of implantation I am just pointing out what was said. Tobi says the eyes were his to begin with, that doesn't exactly say how Nagato obtained them.

Tobi or Madara could have implanted them or he could have set up 2 descendants of the 1st and 2nd Son (with Senju and Uchiha DNA) to produce an offspring which would be born with the Rinnegan or the ability to activate the Rinnegan. Or he could have played Frankenstein by adding DNA like Orochimaru did with Yamato. In either scenerio he can theoretically claim ownership of the eyes. But he never said he implanted them, and like I stated he speaks cryptically so his words could mean anything.


Given that if he was an offspring of both clans then he could have been born with the Rinnegan always showing but not aware how to activate the powers. Just the same if they were implanted he may have had the same issue always on but not aware they were special or had powers. And neither in the Manga or Anime were his eyes shown prior to him activating his power. They always showed him with his hair over his eyes. And ever since they were first revealed they were always on, so one can assume they may have always been on either through birth or implantation.

I think they didnt show them until Jaraiya discovered his eyes after Nagato killed a few ninjas(but I may be mistaken on that point). However if they were normal they were never shown to go back to the normal state even when he exhausted his chackra bringing back the Konoha dead. If he had the ability to turn them normal then this probably would be a point that would happen.

Additionally, after Tobi retrieved the eyes why not "re-implant" both of them? If he evolved them himself he should be able to shut them off, but I don't think this is the case.

na they gave nagato those eyes and the reason we didnt see them till that attack after jiraiya took them in was because is hair blocked his eyes. he could have had them before that. i think he had special chakara that was suitable for the rinngun i also think madara and tobi had something to do with the distruction of the uzamaki clan

@wombat3476: good point on Uzumake. Very tactical if you think about it. You eliminate 1/2 of the equation while you keep a stockpile of DNA or keep tabs on the few that have that DNA. Then you slaughter the Uchiha clan while keeping a stockpile of eyes. You can corner the market on creating Sharingan and Rinnegan, or another Sage like being; a virtual arms race with little to no competition. Genius good catch!

Quoting wombat3476

na they gave nagato those eyes and the reason we didnt see them till that attack after jiraiya took them in was because is hair blocked his eyes. he could have had them before that. i think he had special chakara that was suitable for the rinngun i also think madara and tobi had something to do with the distruction of the uzamaki clan

I believe it too.Madara or Tobi might be have something to do with the destruction of Uzumaki clan.It's the 1st step of Madara or Tobi being a Sot6P himself.In manga or anime,there are no one much of Senju clan except Tsunade,same goes to Uzumaki,it's only Naruto that we know,and Uchiha,it's only Sasuke left.So,it's obvious that the powerful clan eliminated already except for Hyuuga.It seems like Madara or Tobi eliminate the risk of failness in their plan.