Obito = Tobi end of story im not gonna argue so fight among yourselfs

Well, it cant be obito, cuz yea. I thought the only possibilities are: a) It's madaras younger brother, or b)It's the first hokage, and he just stole his eyes when he killed madara. It has to be some one who's old, and super powerful, and no, it cant be sasuke's dad, that would be the most retarded thing ever, and besides hes not strong enough to do all that crap. But i still think that the first hokage would b unlikely, cuz y would he want to take over the world. And its probably not shisui, even tho its still a possibility.

or of course, it could b actually madara, but its so freakin complicated

it's not fighting, just sharing of thoughts of matured/understanding people who loves this story Naruto for the sake of answering initiator's query.

My first thoughts are still Madara's brother. Although there is no proof, nothing says they couldn't have switched eyes and if so then he would probably be long lived.

Shisui is probably now my second choice, until there is definite proof of his age he is still a possibility. With his ultimate Genjutsu control he could have made Itachi (or anyone for that matter)believe anything. There is nothing that says he can't control more than one person at a time. Just like regular Genjutsu the more people that look into the eyes the more get trapped. Also he was pretty pissed when Danzo destroyed that eye. How is he aware that Danzo had the eye in the first place? And like I mentioned before Itachi went to great lengths to ensure his Sharingan (or face)and Saskue's never meet.

I factor Fugaku in because he could've had the same problem Madara did when the Senju and Uchiha merged. If he wanted to fight and the rest of his clan did not, being the head of the clan he would be pretty pissed. And there is no telling what his strength level was, but I bet it was probably impressive. There aren't too many clan heads out there that can't hold their own. And its still not clear if Itachi didn't want Sasuke to see his face or his Sharingan, so it is possible it's someone he knows. I am sure there are ways he could reveal his face to Sasuke without revealing his Sharingan. Although, this doesn't explain the apparent age of the Fake Madara we know there are jutsu out there that can sap one's strength and youth away.

I am still not buying that it can still be Madara though, what would be the reason behind his aging? The resurrected Madara still seemed very young (but edo tensei tends to vary and have some loopholes) but by his comments he was still alive when Nagato was born and maybe so far as when they formed Akatsuki. But if this is the case who killed him and caused him to split like that? This had to happen way after his fight with the First Hokage. How else is he aware of Nagato? And he didn't know he was resurrected with Edo Tensei. It seems he thought he was resurrected using Nagato's outer path. Which so far as I can tell would mean that he may have been killed by Nagato (and since the dead can't seem to tell the passing of time he probably thought he just bought the farm) or he believed Nagato became that powerful as to raise him from the dead regardless of how he died.

Quoting arthosvalhalla

I don't see the mask man's age in the range of Danzo's age or Danzo's teammate for that matter. Assuming he is, Itachi would think of him as a grand father perhaps bcoz his father would be in the range of the 4th Hokage and the 4th Hokage is a student of Jiraiya and Jiraiya is a student of the 3rd which is the range age of Danzo. That's quite a gap.
So fake Madara whould be in the same range of 4th Hokage's age which could be seen as an older brother (or an uncle perhaps) of Itachi since when the 4th Hokage and fake Madara fought, that was same the time Naruto and a few days after Sasuke was born. I not sure if Itachi was already in his teens when Sasuke was born but plus or minus, i think its quite near.

The guy had way too much behind the scenes action going on to not already be established by the time he went after the Kyuubi, as evidenced by his control of the Mizukage. The fact that he knew the ins and outs of several villages a couple of decades ago means that he had been operating as a ninja for at least a decade or so before he went rogue.

The age of the 3rd hokage is something like 50-60 imo, Danzo was like 40-50. Danzo still had all of his hair color, whereas Hiruzen had none. The fact that they were both on teams at the same time doesn't mean that they were the same age. Danzo also chasing after Hiruzen makes me think their ages were something similar to Naruto and Konohomaru, maybe a bit greater a gap.

Teacher to student relationships have nowhere near the turnover that parent child ones do. It may be 15-20 years before your child has a child, but your student could be teaching a couple of years after you are. So for example Hiruzen teaches Jiraiya, 5 yrs later, Jiraiya teaches the 4th, 5 years later The 4th teaches Kakashi, 5 years later Kakashi teaches Naruto. That means that you could potentially have only 15 years pass before you reach the 4th generation as far as master and student go. It obviously didn't go quite this fast as we know there had to have been at least 13 years between when Kakashi was taught by the 4th and when Kakashi taught Naruto, but it does prove that the master student chain is no real indication of time passage. It could potentially be less than 5 years between as well, Naruto has been learning from his masters (Kakashi and Jiraiya) for only 3 years, and had an apprentice before he even had a master.

Think of the ninja academy as high school, and being a ninja as an on the job apprenticeship
genin = apprentice
chuunin = journeyman
jounin = master
special jounin = grand master

Usually journeyman (chuunin) is when you start teaching others, and master (jounin) is when you take on your own apprentices, but that's not as set in stone here.


http://www.mangafox.com/manga/naruto/v43/c396/17 .html
The guy is at least in his 40s. Itachi was in his 20s when he died 20-30 years is a good gap for an uncle.

The fact that the ninjas adult life starts like 10 years before ours is throwing your timeframes off a bit I think.

Either way I definitely think he's an older dude, to try and masquerade as Madara you'd have to be on the older side of Ninjas.

As for how it could be Madara someone put up a great explanation here:
http://www.naruto-spoilers.in/2011/08/kabutos-tr ump-card.html

OK no1 knows. Itachi said he searched him out to kill the clan. So it cant be orbito to young and mandra is now on the battle field, so it must be older than itachi but i have no clue who????

Hi Almightywood, you have a very good point and reasonable facts to back it up. But the possibilities of having it on the other way around is also probable. Basing it on the normality of hair color and the Master to student normal age gap scenario is also a good point. What is common is always a good point for reasoning. Having a teammate on the same age range and knowing a person of same age but looks older than you would also be quite common. Basing on the looks, not that sure, but the current Raikage should probably be the "old look" range of the 4th Hokage if he is still alive.

Quoting Almightywood

As for how it could be Madara someone put up a great explanation here:
http://www.naruto-spoilers.in/2011/08/kabutos-tr ump-card.html

Ahh! Good link and quite convincing.