Madara Uchiha was the first Indra reincarnation to awaken the Rinnegan. He is also one of the strongest characters in history and one of the masterminds behind the Fourth Great Ninja War.

The Rinnegan is an integral part of Madara’s character design and his power too. More than that, it is an important part of the story as well! But, do you know how Madara Uchiha Awakened his Rinnegan? So without any further ado, let’s get right into it! 

To awaken the Rinnegan, one needs to have the Sage of Six Paths’ Chakra. There are two ways through which one can obtain the chakra of the Sage of Six Paths. The first would be to obtain it from himself or obtain both Indra and Asura’s Chakra.

While the first method bestows the Rinnegan to the user almost instantly; it isn’t the case with the latter method at all. There’s no guarantee if one will awaken the Rinnegan while their body can still move well enough to fight! To know more, click here!

How did Madara Uchiha Awaken the Rinnegan?

Madara Uchiha awakened the Rinnegan by combining his and Hashirama’s chakra. The two were the reincarnations of Indra and Asura respectively and they are the sons of Hagoromo’s Otsutsuki; the original wielder of the Dojutsu. By kneading the two chakras together, the byproduct became the Sage of Six Paths’ Chakra; hence awakening the Rinnegan.

Madara already had the Sharingan and only needed Hashirama’s senju chakra to awaken the Rinnegan.

When Hashirama stabbed Madara Uchiha for the very last time, Madara bit off a part of Hashirama’s flesh and applied it on himself. Even though he was supposed to be dead, Madara rose up from his grave. He used the forbidden Jutsu “Izanagi” to achieve this. The Izanagi allows one to live a crucial moment again at the cost of one eye.

Using this, Madara survived his fight against Hashirama and kept working on his goal. He slipped away from Konoha’s sight and merged Hashirama’s skin with himself, thus obtaining the Senju chakra he needed.

Did Madara Uchiha awaken the Rinnegan in one night? 

The straight answer is no, definitely. Unlike Sasuke who received chakra from Hagoromo directly, Madara’s body has to knit Madara and Hashirama’s chakra into one in order to awaken the Rinnegan. Hence, It took decades for Madara to awaken the Rinnegan while Sasuke awakened it instantly.

Madara got the Rinnegan when he was nearing his natural death. But then this was different from the Edo Madara.

Edo Tensei Madara Rinnegan: 

Madara Uchiha was revived using the forbidden Edo Tensei Jutsu during the Fourth Great Ninja War. He had his pair of Rinnegan after rising from the dead; even though he had given his Rinnegan to Nagato before dying. This created some confusion among the fans regarding the Rinnegan. 

So first, let’s understand how Madara had Rinnegan during his Edo Tensei phase: 

The Edo Tensei allows the revived to use all of their abilities before they died; including Dojutsu. Hence, Madara could use the Rinnegan even though his real Rinnegan existed somewhere else. Orochimaru and Kabuto hypothesised that combining Madara Uchiha and Hashirama Senju DNA would awaken the Rinnegan, which is true.

While they may not know the exact reason, it still worked. With this hypothesis, Kabuto infused even more Hashirama cells into Madara’s body when he was “fixing” it.

However, Madara Uchiha could use the Rinnegan regardless of what Kabuto did. As Madara stated in the manga, it was simply the Jutsu’s ability and not something Kabuto voluntarily did. 

Madara’s Rinnegan Design: 

Madara’s Rinnegan has the same ripple pattern as the Sage of Six Paths’ Rinnegan. However, his Rinnegan transformed into a Rinne-Sharingan after he became the Ten-Tails’ Jinchuriki. His Edo-Tensei Rinnegan looks like the original one as well, except Madara Uchiha can switch between the Rinnegan and his Sharingan. 

Powers of Madara’s Rinnegan:

Like all Rinnegan, Madara Uchiha gained a set of overwhelming powers. These powers include:

1) See Chakra Flow: 

Like the Byakugan, the Rinnegan can see a person’s chakra flow in detail and also see through invisible walls/barriers. Madara used this ability to try to grasp Might Guy’s condition and predict his attacks. 

2) Mastery of all changes of Nature and Jutsu:

The Rinnegan grants its wielder the ability to master all five basic nature transformations. It also allows them to learn any jutsu with ease! Only a handful of Shinobis in history was able to master all five basic nature transformations without the Rinnegan. A prime example would be the Third Hokage, Hirzuen Sarutobi!

3) Ability to decipher the Sage of Six Paths’ Tablet: 

The Sage of Six Paths’ Stone Tablet is arguably the oldest relic in shinobi history; which also proves the existence of Hagoromo Otsutsuki for many. The tablet discourages the reader from using the powers of the Rinnegan. Also, only a Rinnegan user can read it. Hagoromo made the tablet using Rinnegan.

4) The Six Paths Technique: 

The Rinnegan grants its user the ability to use the Six Paths Technique. Despite its name, the technique gives 7 different Jutsus/Paths to the user. They are the Deva Path, the Asura Path, Human Path, Animal Path, Preta Path, Naraka Path, and the Outer Path. However, Sasuke hasn’t used any of these abilities except the Chibaku Tensei.

Along with all of this, it also grants him a special ability: 

5) Limbo:

Limbo refers to the place between the real world and hell/heaven. Basically, Limbo is a place for those who don’t exist in the real world but don’t belong to other realms as well. Hence, they coexist in a void of sorts. Madara’s Rinnegan allows him to summon Madaras who are stuck in this place. These Madaras are called Limbos. While it is not explained how those Madaras ended up in that space; you could assume that they are from a parallel dimension. They’re as strong as the real Madara Uchiha after all!

Since these limbos don’t belong to the normal world, they cannot be seen or felt. Or, a normal person can’t see/sense them. Sasuke’s Rinnegan allows him to see the limbos. Furthermore, Naruto can sense them in the Sage of Six Paths Mode!

Still, they provide a lot of utility to Madara Uchiha. He can summon 4 of these limbs at a time, hence, his strength is increased exponentially. He can use the limbos for both offense and defense effectively; since only Senjutsu attacks work on them.

However, these Limbos have their limits as well. Madara has to take them back if they’ve suffered too much damage and he is unable to use the limbo for a while.

TL;DR

To awaken the Rinnegan, one needs to have the Sage of Six Paths’ chakra. To achieve this, Madara combined the chakra of Indra and Asura’s reincarnations. He believed that since Indra and Asura were Hagoromo’s sons; combining their chakra would create Hagoromo’s chakra eventually. And, he was right!

Madara did awaken the Rinnegan! The eye granted him various powers like the ability to see the chakra flow, summon the Gedo Statue, The Six Paths Jutsu, etc.

So, what do you think of Madara‘s method? Do you find it to be cunning? smart? Let us know in the comments below!