Board Thread:Theories and Speculation/@comment-33953813-20171226015659/@comment-33953813-20180105091131

I don't think Nagato had Zetsu spies following him since at one point he was about to die of starvation and it was only luck that Konan found him. The Zetsus didn't help him no matter how dire the situation was. And even if he had Zetsu spies, I agree that Zetsus are great spies but there was no guarantee that they could protect Nagato. Even you know how weak they are. Any person capable of taking Rinnegan from Nagato wouldn't be a chicken. What if Orochimaru had killed Nagato and taken his Rinnegan. Of course, Zetsus couldn't match him. Despite being useful spies they could never find Orochimaru's hideout. They only had a specific area under them. They couldn't do anything out of their range.

If Madara's plan failed, he couldn't use the Edo tensei since he wouldn't be able to be the "saviour" then and wouldn't be able to become the TTJ and then no IT.