[Ero-Senn1n]

Originally Posted by Ulquiorra

I don't see the 4 Hokages ever joining the war. You couldn't avoid it being overkill and having them overshadow everyone. Remember, 4 current Kage will be showing up soon and the Alliance was taking it to Madara, Obito, and the Juubi the last we saw them. There is no room at the inn even when Madara makes a comeback and the juubi enters its final form.

I think you are underestimating Madara and overestimating the 4 kages. Madara has become closer to the Sage than ever before, now the only thing that stands in his way is that he can't seal the 10-tails inside himself while he is not resurrected. He didn't take seriously his fights until now, but i think if Obito shows weakness and is about to be overpowered then Madara will get serious. That's when the alliance and Naruto will need help.

Originally Posted by Ulquiorra

If Kishi has Hashirama and Madara engage in a boring fanservice zombie fight, he risks turning the manga into "The Legend of Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha" as it nears its end rather than "Naruto Uzumaki and his ninja pals save the world."

I think Madara is currently stronger than Hashirama, so the only thing Hashirama will be able to do is to help Naruto, but he can't defeat the evil boss himself. Naruto's "ninja pals" are also be the 4 hokages.

Originally Posted by Ulquiorra

He takes away from the main character and his conflict.

I think it's the opposite, the whole point of showing us the Madara vs Hashirama conflict was to show us what is the problem with the world that Naruto has to fix, now we have the context where to put Naruto's actions. So that we can see Naruto growing above the 1st hokage both mentally and physcially, and then there's only the secrets and powers of the Sage of 6 paths that is left for the story. I think a personal meeting with the past hokages could help Naruto a lot mentally.

Originally Posted by Ulquiorra

That is why the Hokages and Hashirama's role should end when Sasuke decides his fate and leaves for the battlefield. I am sure Kishi has a way to bring their closure.

You say that the 4 hokages are stronger than Madara and Tobito, but then why do you expect that they will just disappear while it's obvious that as hokages they will desperately try to defend the alliance? Can Orochimaru or Sasuke force these 4 to disappear or even force them to fight against the alliance? I think not. We see that Hashirama already broke out of Orochi's control, i don't see how could they force him not to join the war. Maybe if they forced the other 3 hokages to fight the 1st and also Sasuke would fight him too. But such a fight would be completely pointless fanservice that has nothing to do with the war. Orochi could dispell the jutsu to make them disappear but if Madara could remain in this world then i don't see how Hashirama or Tobirama who invented the jutsu could not do the same.

Actually i see only one way for the 4 to willingly go back to the world of dead and have a sort of happy ending: if Sasuke decides to join Naruto and the alliance and beat Madara, if he tells that to Hashirama i'm sure that Hashirama would believe him like he believed the young Madara, and would willingly disappear, and also order Tobirama to stfu and disappear too. But i find it unlikely that Sasuke suddenly decides to join the alliance. It's possible if he decides that Madara and Tobito must die (also after learning from Minato that Tobito lied about his role in the kyuubi incident) but after that he won't join Naruto, which would leave us in a Naruto-Sasuke relationship very similar to the Madara-Hashirama's relationship after the village was formed.

Originally Posted by Ulquiorra

The fight is about the living ninja world uniting to fight evil and returning the past to the past so they can build a brighter future. The Hokages represent part of that failed past and have no place in this fight. They have to leave it to the current generation. That is the whole theme of Naruto.

Until now we have seen many ninja of the past helping the living ninja, Tsunade being save by her lover, Itachi saving the world by defeating Kabuto, etc. The story is also to give a "happy end" to the characters that died before they could reach a state of the mind that we could call happyness. It happened even before the war: Kakashi's father was in a bad state of mind that left him in some sort of "purgatory"-like state where he can't go neither to heaven nor to hell, but his meeting with Kakashi let him go to his personal heaven which was to join his wife (or teammates?) if i remember correctly. Even Sasori got his happy ending when meeting with Kankuro. And we know that all 4 hokages need a happy end since they deserve it, they deserve to see if the next hokage can save the world, otherwise they would go back wondering if Madara won the war and konoha doesn't exist any more.