Okay, girls and guys, dudes and dudetts, chaps and... chops?.... Whatever...
I'd just like to bring few things to light: old lines and new.
+After the Pain arc, Madara (or so we thought) asked Naruto how he convinced Nagato to betray him. He then continued to state that Nagato was supposed to wait and use that technique for him.
+When Madara stepped out of the coffin, he said something about Nagato and his Rinnegan (by extention, the resurrection technique)
+When Madara chopped off his arm (for resons I can't remember), the interior looked like the material that composes the white Zetsus.
+White Zetsus clone themselves into whoever they absorb chakra from, includeing their techniques and jutsus. However, they're not as powerful or advanced.
+When Madara called himself "a shell of my former self" it means that something deteriorated and/or limited the extents of his powers.
Put two and two together and a quite reasonable hypothosis can be created.
Madara must hve created some plot round the time he gve Nagato the Rinnegan. When Nagato was a child, he awakened his eyes but couldn't use them to their full extent--includeing the resurrection technique. He must have creted a Zetsu cloan of himself in order to pull the strings and keep himself safe. This sounds stupid, but he may have used this cloan and Nagato as his own fail safe in case he died. His Zetsu cloan would put things in motion until the Bhijus were captured and the time came for the war to begin. Then his cloan would resurrect the true Madara and this way he would be safe all these years from being a target until the time was right. However, Nagato turned twoards Naruto and Konoha, bringing them back--but killing himself in the proccess. This put a huge dent in the origional plan, but the cloan could still keep things in motion and use Sasuke as a peice in his ploy for power untill an alterntive was found. Then, along comes a spider (or snake): Kabuto. Since Madara was actually dead and had no way of true resurrection, it ment that nothing stood between Kabuto and using the real Madara as blackmail into the clone's allegance. Once Madara was resurrected via Edo Tensei, he must have beleived that his origional plan was a success--seeing as to how he commented on Nagato's advance with the Rinnegan. However, he becme quite cross once he learned that he was an Edo Tensei zombie. Since this Madara clone is quite a bit weaker than his origional form (probably the reason for no Mngekyo Sharingan), he's using a new Six Paths of Pain and the Bijuus' chakra as his new fighting prowess. Since he's a Zetsu cloan of an Uchiha, he has both Uchiha and Senju DNA , allowing him to use the strange genjutsu that alters reality. With the Shringan and Rinnegan combined, he can cst a Genjutsu powerful enough to control the ten-tailed beast and complete the origional Madara's plan himself.
I mean, hey, you cloan an evil back-stabbing psycopath and you get another evil back-stabbing psycopath.
If that sounds cheey, my origional hypothosis is that it's Madara's brother. I had alot of good hypothosis and reasons for this twelve hours ago, but I can't remember and I'm happy with the ones above. So..... whatever. Life sucks, why be picky, right?
