Madara was at the Akatsuki stronghold, yes she was the leader in all but name but she still had to be secretive about her existence until she was revived. The Akatsuki had lost two members within the same week, they went into the leaf village against all orders and got themselves killed. Or so she thought, Zetsu had appeared that morning to tell her about the Uchiha boy's betrayal.
It didn't change anything as Madara always planned three steps, she went to the lowest room in the stronghold after Zetsu told her Obito was hiding something special there.
Madara opened the door to reveal a man bound by chain on all sides of him, his eyes obstructed by a chakra dampening seal. His hair was blonde, the length of his hair was abnormally kept as he must've been here a while. His shirt and coat were in the corner of the room. Madara noted that the coat said the fourth Hokage, she now knew Obito didn't kill her old master.
"Tell me your name, fourth Hokage," Madara said as she circled him.
He weakly murmured, "My name is Minato Namikaze."
"And do you know who I am?" She asked.
"You're Madara Uchiha, you defeated me when you attacked the leaf village." He replied weakly.
Madara couldn't help but laugh, "Oh, you do not know. I guess I should commend her for playing her part."
Madara created another chakra seal and placed it on Minato's back, she removed the chakra seal over his eyes.
Minato's blue eyes laid upon Madara's Edo Tensei eyes, he knew that it wasn't the same person he fought twelve years ago but his perception of time has been skewed since his capture.
"You're not the masked woman, you're the real Madara Uchiha!?" His voice had a sense of fear.
Madara enjoyed the terror in his eyes and said, "That I am, but I suspect you have questions. But I will answer any one you have after I see you break. Zetsu, retrieve her for me will you." Madara demanded the plant creature.
It was roughly a minute until Minato saw the familiar swirling jutsu, "You summoned me." An unfamiliar woman's voice said to Madara, looking away from Minato.
"I did, I wanted you to tell me why you captured this... Man." Madara said gesturing behind her.
Out of everyone Minato thought the masked woman was, he was not expecting to see the girl he had trained, eaten with, protected, and mourned.
He noticed her one Sharingan and the scarred right side of her face, "No, it can't be. Obito?" Minato looked at the now-adult Obito.
She looked at him with a burning hatred that he'd never seen in the always hopeful girl, "I am not Obito, I am no one."
Obito had so many emotions at the reveal of her identity to her own master, "You failed to help me when the stone ninja captured Rin, you failed to save Rin from Kakashi's hand, you failed when the Kyuubi killed Kushina, and you failed the second Hokage from being slain by my hand."
Minato looked at the ground now with his heart shattered at Obito's words, Obito turned to Madara who looked satisfied with the now shattered Hokage.
"I planned on trading him for the nine tails after we've collected all eight tailed beasts," Obito said to the Ghost of the Uchiha.
"Hnn," was all Madara could say as she exited the room, Obito followed after her but gave one last look at her old Sensei. While they were walking up the stairs from Minato's cell Obito asked, "Since the pact I made with Itachi is now null and void, will we attack the leaf?"
"No, with the way I am now we stand no chance in defeating Hashirama. We shall wait until Nagato revives me, but we will only attack it for the nine tails."
Madara was tired of having to train her Rinnegan in secret, but she needed to be prepared for when she would fight Hashirama one last time for the fate of the world. But she had to wait, and she was very good at waiting.
As an Edo Tensei Madara didn't need to sleep so spent her time training while others would sleep, she would train using something new she obtained, wood clones. As she couldn't spar with anyone but herself.
While Madara was busy training, Konan and Nagato snuck out of Amegakure, Zetsu was always watching those who could interfere with the eye of the moon plan. When Madara found out she was furious but she knew he would return, after all, she was inside their village.
Upon their arrival back something was off and Madara couldn't quite place it, but the blue-haired woman looked at her with sympathy, and that annoyed Madara to no end. Nagato agreed to revive Madara only after they collected a majority of the tailed beasts, it annoyed her but she was in no position to argue.
Almost a year after Madara had been reanimated, a certain snake man approached the Akatsuki with an offer.
"I will rejoin the Akatsuki with all my henchmen and experiments, but I want help obtaining Itachi's eyes or his sister's," Orochimaru said.
Some of the members were uneasy about the snake man's return, Pain accepted the offer with open arms restoring one and receiving many others.
Orochimaru himself joined, his apprentice Kabuto did as well, even if he wasn't that strong. And all of Orochimaru's sound four joined, the most promising of the four was Tayuya with her flute and summons.
Madara watched them from the shadows, none of them were particularly interesting but the pink-haired girl drew her attention, she reminded Madara of herself when she was that young.
Obito was less than pleased with Orochimaru's return, she didn't trust him when he was a loyal ninja of Konoha and she didn't trust him now as a rouge ninja. Orochimaru never cared for the Akatsuki's goal, just knowledge, and the perfect body.
Madara was an expert at moving unseen and concealing her chakra, she wanted someone she could trust more than Obito as she knew Obito still cared about her friend and sensei. Madara was going to mold Tayuya into a mini Madara, except without the Sharingan.
While everyone was in their sleeping quarters Madara snuck into Tayuya's bedroom, the redheaded girl wasn't scared of this unknown person in her bedroom, "Hey get the fuck out of my room, I'm practicing my flute."
Madara wasn't shocked at the profanity the young girl used, "Who practices their flute at night."
Tayuya glared at the woman in armor unfazed, "It's the same as during the day but at night."
Madara chuckled as she sat on Tayuya's bed next to her, "I would say you are pretty lucky these walls are reinforced so that no one in the next room can hear you play it."
Tayuya grew tired of the woman's game, "Who are you, and why are you in my room?"
"I have come to speak with a fellow foul-mouthed kunoichi, for I am Madara Uchiha and I would like to make you my apprentice."
Tayuya looked at the undead woman with a sense of admiration, "The original breaker of tradition for girls, you gave me the courage to join Orochimaru and become strong."
Madara thought to herself, "Was I this popular for young girls?"
"I guess, was I not. Well, all of that is in the past now, but I am more curious about you. It takes a lot to gain my eye." Madara said.
Tayuya was full of energy as she started bouncing the bed, "Did you talk Lord Orochimaru about me, or is my talent that amazing?!"
Madara was a little annoyed as Tayuya bounced the bed, "I can see potential, the choice is yours if you want to utilize it."
Madara got up from the bed and walked to the door, Tayuya said "When will I see you again, lady Madara?"
"You could either ask Pain or Tobi, but do not call me a lady, I am anything but."
Tayuya smiled as Madara opened her door and left, Madara knew that Tayuya would come crawling to her at the first chance she got.
Every time Tayuya would question Pain about Madara, he got quite nervous as he saw her as a mini Madara and that was not a good sign. But what could he do? Madara was now the leader of the Akatsuki instead of Tobi, but he trusted Tobi more as he knew her, even if it was only a little.
Tayuya began training with Madara outside of amegakure, Madara had to admit her genjutsus were quite powerful. But Madara was no slouch when it came to genjutsus, she quickly put Tayuya in her place by casting her weakest genjutsu to show how big the gap between them was.
Tayuya would swear at anyone in a fight out, even Orochimaru when she spared with him. But Madara she respected and right outright feared, "You have a long way to go flute girl, but I will see to it that you are stronger than any of these fools." Madara said as she knocked Tayuya to the ground.
Tayuya looked at Madara like she was a goddess, and she wasn't far off, unbeknownst to them however Obito watched them from a distance. She was seeing in front of her eyes Madara was losing trust in her by selecting a new protege. Obito felt betrayed but she would expect nothing less from the ghost of the Uchiha, but she had a trick up her sleeve, Hashirama was still at play and she would utilize that to her advantage.
After several months of training, Tayuya thought of Madara as the mother she never had. Madara had never wanted nor cared for children but she wasn't heartless, except for when Tayuya asked about her armor.
Madara didn't even know why she still wore it when she was going to battle Hashirama, maybe a part of her adored it because it was a gift from Hashirama after the village was founded.
She loathed Hashirama so much that anything associated with him she destroyed, but she loved her armor and she plastered his DNA onto the place Hashirama stabbed her. Now she has the same mokotun abilities Hashirama had but it gave her the Rinnegan as well, no matter what she will never be rid of Hashirama.
After Tayuya's training session with Madara she asked, "Umm... Uchiha-sama, what should I call you? At first, I thought it would be sensei, but now I see you more than a sensei. Though I was thinking between Madara-dono, Madara-baasan, or would it be right to call you Madara-hime?"
Madara felt irritated at being called master and old, but couldn't help but blush at hime. It brought up a memory of when Hashirama called her Madara-hime, it was embarrassing for both her and the albino man as it was during a village council meeting.
"Never call me those things again, just Sensei or sama is fine."
"Why did you blush when I said hime? Has someone else called you that too?" Tayuya seemed to enjoy others' embarrassment and pain, she was different than Madara in that respect.
Madara tried changing the subject by saying, "I think that's enough training for today, we'll resume tomorrow evening."
Tayuya was terrified to argue so she nodded and returned to the stronghold, Madara stayed in the forest thinking about the day when she can have her old strength.
Upon two years later Pain had finished the sealing jutsu for the tailed beasts, Madara wanted to collect them as fast as possible so she told Pain to send the two wannabe artists to capture the one tails. She didn't trust them so she forced Obito to go with them, Obito was reluctant but agreed.
Due to one of the artists being stupid they were killed by the one tails, after Obito and Sasori incapacitated the one tails jinchuriki they went to an Akatsuki cave hideout. Madara couldn't attend the sealing process but heard that leaf Shinobi were making their way to Obito's location, she hoped that the silver-haired one was with them.
Pain ordered Kakazu and Hidan to intercept them with clones of Pain's design, they were dispatched just as easily but gave Obito enough time to seal the one tails.
Obito returned without Sasori so he must've met his demise as well, luckily Orochimaru had plenty of people to spare, he offered up Guren and Jugo as replacements.
Orochimaru and Obito went to capture the five tails jinchuuriki, it wasn't a fair battle. The five tails was sealed into the Gedo statue with no difficulty.
Hidan and Kakazu were sent to capture the two tails jinchuuriki, they were successful and able to seal the two tails but they had a run-in with some leaf Shinobi, only Kakazu returned.
Orochimaru nominated another of his experiments to be Hidan's replacement, Suigetsu Hozuki.
Guren and Jugo were able to capture the three tails with Obito's help of course. Kakazu and Suigetsu were sent to capture the four tails, Suigetsu was able to neutralize the four tail's fire with his body made of water.
The seven tails was tricky to locate but Madara found it and went with both Tayuya and Obito, Madara wanted to see how strong Tayuya had gotten. Tayuya was able to use her Doki to distract the seven tails and trap it in a genjutsu, Madara was impressed with her strategy against the jinchuriki but Madara noted that it wouldn't work on her.
Madara was growing impatient and ordered Nagato to revive her, he agreed but told her he would capture both the six tails and the nine tails.
Nagato was shocked to see she didn't have any eyes, Madara quickly took one of Nagato's Rinnegan.
"I will be taking this back, but I will leave you with one to see if you can capture the nine tails." Madara laughed as she opened her newly acquired Rinnegan.
Konan was going to defend Nagato from Madara when Nagato told her not to, "So these were your eyes, I guess I shouldn't be surprised since you've tried to manipulate me from the beginning."
Madara turned her Rinnegan back to her Sharingan just to show him she could, "I have been planning to initiate my plan for peace for a very long time, you are nothing but a pawn in my game."
Nagato had just given his Ally what she wanted and now she was showing who she really was, "Why don't you test your regained powers on the eight tails, I'm sure you'll be finished by the time we return."
Madara grunted in affirmation as she left the Akatsuki stronghold, Nagato was worried that he might've given a possible enemy exactly what she wanted.
"Don't worry Nagato, we still have a trick up our sleeve," Konan said in reassurance.
Gripping his right eye socket Nagato said, "I know, there's only one hope left."
Nagato and Konan made their way to the leaf village, hoping that their plan would work.