I'm not saying did 100% did it on purpose, but it is a believable reasoning for his actions. To the point that the second, third and fourth were doing kamikaze runs against Obito and were getting hit on purpose so they could land a hit, taking advantage of their Edo status, to the point that the Fourth lost his arm before knowing it wouldn't grow back.

 

I don't think he let Lee kick him in half.

 

But really, would devil fruit make him stronger then he is already?

Was Sage's mother stronger than Sage?

After all, Madara already achieved Sage's power by combining Uchiha with Senju.

 

The Sage was more than just the Rinnegan.

 

Yes, well, he was Sage, so he probably was able to use Senjutsu...

 

IIRC, the one who ate the fruit had the ability to shape reality as they saw fit, basically infinite Izanagi. Being able to combine Izanagi and Izanami together without vision loss repeatably, he would be unstoppable. He would be able to recreate the world as he saw fit literally, not just as a dream.

 

Hmm... are you sure? I know that Sage was able to use higher version of Izanagi - Banbutsu Souzou - without loss of his Rinnegan, but never read that his mother had such powers.

 

So, just had some idle musings. Particularly, on why the Sharingan became more and more Hax. I doubt most will agree, but I think the following may be possible, or at least contributed to it.

From the beginning, Sasuke was Naruto's rival. He was always supposed to be either superior or near in power-level. The thing is, however, at the end of the day, Naruto is a jinchuuriki and Sasuke isn't. Naruto was always gonna be a powerhouse on another level, even before all the power-creep. So, how was Sasuke to keep up? All he had was his talent and his Sharingan. (And Curse Seal, I guess, but meh) So unless he were to spontaneously become a demon-container too (Which would have been even more bullshit than the current Sharingan insanity), he'd have to build on one of those things or establish something completely new. While making something new might have worked out better, there's also a pretty good chance it could have backfired.

And so, we have the Sharingan. It probably started small, with the Mangekyou and it's Tsukiyomi and Amaterasu. Which, while powerful, weren't nearly so hax. But general power-levels probably ended up getting higher and higher and both Naruto and Sharingan had to keep up. (And maybe it was the other way around, in some parts) Eventually, it just kind of spiraled out of control, to what we have now.

Again, just some idle musings. Maybe I'm right, maybe I'm wrong and maybe I'm giving Kishi too much benefit of a doubt.

 

Up until mid-Shippuuden, Sasuke was very dependent on the Curse Seal. And Amaterasu Susanoo was quite hax. Tsukuyomi seems to have fucked off, for whatever reason.

 

The MS and its techniques were always powerful and hard to counter but they had the interesting drawbacks in that they were difficult to acquire and had a considerable cost to use, on both the eye sight and, as I suspect, on the sanity of the user. They were really last resort techniques, as in, you wouldn't whip them out in a stupid tournament unless your life was in serious danger.

 

Chapter's out.
Uchiha fucking Madara bitchslaps Hashirama and Sasuke even without Rinnegan.

 

if I am reading things right, he is doing it without any damn eyes.

 

And he seems to be going to roflstomp the bijuu next. Lovely.

 

Well, fighting w/o his eyes can be explained through using the Nature Chakra he got from Hashirama.

Still not sure wtf Black Zetsu is.

 

Don't care, time for a single man to fight every bijuu and win... blindfolded.

 

But it's Madara. This good. This is very good. I approve. Wish he wasn't using Hashirama's power to do it (and how the hell was Hashirama incapacitated?) but oh well.

 

Just reread it on mangastream and I don't get how Madara is able to absorb chakra from ninjutsu and from some ninja without Rinnegan. WTF?

 

Hashirama's Sage nature seems to be based on that of the Shinju tree's, which we saw ate ninjutsu like nothing. And since Madara just stole Hashirama's energy...

 

"Eyes are for bitches anyways."
Uchiha Madara

 

Three or four years ago there was actually a fic where Itachi destroyed his eyes after gaining MS. He become even stronger.