The Ōtsutsuki Clan (大筒木一族, Ōtsutsuki Ichizoku) is an ancient clan of horned celestial beings (天津人, amatsubito).[1] After the arrival of the clan's members on Earth a millennium ago, the Ōtsutsuki began having a lasting influence on the human population, notably starting the history of shinobi.[2]

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History

For countless eons, the Ōtsutsuki clan have been travelling throughout dimensions seeking out worlds to plant Ten-Tail saplings into. Once planted, it grows into a God Tree with its roots spreading across the planet to siphon chakra from all its surroundings and inhabitants, resulting in everything dying and it bearing a large fruit for the Ōtsutsuki to consume in order for them to evolve, gaining power and longevity. Once harvested, as they no longer need the planet, they move to another to repeat the process.[3]

A millennium ago, the clan sent Kaguya and Isshiki to harvest the Earth's God Tree of its chakra fruit.[4] Instead, Kaguya developed an attachment for the planet she meant to destroy; betraying Isshiki in the process whom she left for dead. In desperation, Isshiki used his Sukunahikona to reduce his body's size and infiltrate the body of Jigen, taking him over through a parasitic mean.[5] Meanwhile, Kaguya consumed the chakra fruit herself, and used its godlike power to end the constant war of Earth's human population with the Infinite Tsukuyomi, resulting in world peace and her being initially viewed as a benevolent deity.[6] Foreseeing the consequences of consuming the Chakra fruit against her clan's wishes, she converted the imprisoned Infinite Tsukuyomi victims into a White Zetsu Army in preparation for the arrival of other clansmen looking to steal her chakra; an act which lead to humans viewing her as a demon instead, and the Ōtsutsuki condemning her as a traitor.

In time, Kaguya gave birth to twin sons: Hagoromo and Hamura, both of whom were born with chakra of their own. Afterwards, Kaguya eventually found herself ruled by her own desire to possess all chakra, in which made her turn against her own sons. Having devised a plan to absorb their chakra, she integrated with the Earth's God Tree and became the Ten-Tails. The monster terrorised the world until Hagoromo and Hamura defeated it with their Six Paths — Chibaku Tensei, thus creating the Moon. The Ten-Tails' chakra was sealed into Hagoromo while its husk, the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path, was hidden away and sealed on the Moon, in order to prevent the Ten-Tails' revival. Before being sealed, Kaguya sent a manifestation of her will, Black Zetsu to find a way to revive her. Leaving leadership of the clan to Hamura, he decreed that the clan would stand guard over the Demonic Statue.[2] Hagoromo and his brother's direct bloodline stayed on Earth, the latter which inherited the Byakugan and became the Hyūga clan, while Hamura immigrated the clan to the moon, maintaining order and stability with the power of his Tenseigan.[7]

Believing chakra was a power that linked everything in the world, Hagoromo set out to spread the message to the people of the land, during which his teachings became known as ninshū.[2] Towards the end of his life, he divided his chakra into the nine tailed beasts, his way of ensuring that the Ten-Tails and thus Kaguya would never be reborn. Before he died, he passed over his eldest son, Indra, and entrusted his mission of peace to his youngest son, Asura. Black Zetsu manipulated Indra's jealousy toward Asura, resulting in the two brothers' confrontation being passed on to their descendants by the pair being reincarnated. Having spent the remainder of his life overlooking Earth, Hamura entrusted his Ōtsutsuki clansmen with a celestial degree watching over humanity before his passing. Afterwards, the people of the moon treated Hamura's Tenseigan as a treasure, enshrining it as a religious object and devoting a plan to eternally preserving it with the Byakugan of newborn members taken and put into the vessel to power it.[7]

The millennium that passed involved the Moon's branch family misinterpreting Hamura's celestial decree, leading to them believing he wanted his descendants to destroy Earth in the event the world Hagoromo fashioned lead astray. The main family warred against the branch family over their different interpretations and eventually annihilated the former using the weaponized Tenseigan. On Earth, humans along with Ōtsutsuki's descendants such as the Senju, Uzumaki, Uchiha, Hyūga, and Kaguya clan utilised Indra's invention of ninjutsu to shape the shinobi world.

A thousand years after the Ten-Tails' defeat, the Moon's branch family dwindled to only Toneri, who was aware that the Demonic Statue was stolen and the Ten-Tails was revived during the Fourth Shinobi World War. The event ultimately lead to Kaguya being temporarily revived, but was soon sealed along with Black Zetsu in another dimension by the reincarnations of Asura and Indra. Two years later, as his clan had concluded that Earth's shinobi will destroy the world's peace and order, Toneri deemed Hagoromo's world a failure, and began to act on Hamura's mistranslated celestial decree. Unable to reach an agreement with the Hyūga clan, Toneri resorted to kidnapping the clan's heir and taking her Byakugan in order to awaken the Tenseigan. The act caught the attention of Konohagakure, leading to a team discovering his intentions and defeating him. After becoming aware of Hamura's true decree, he vowed to remain in self-imposed exile on the Moon in order to stand vigil over the Earth as a solitary guardian.[8]

Years later during the Seventh Hokage's era, Momoshiki and Kinshiki in another world became aware of abnormalities in Kaguya's world, prompting them to inform their clan and investigate the situation.[9] Though they weren't aware of the fate of Kaguya or her chakra,[10] by Urashiki's account they saw everything including the Byakugan Princess incident on the Moon.[1] They deemed Kaguya a disgrace and traitor for growing an attachment to Earth and taking up arms against them.[11] By the time Momoshiki and Kinshiki were defeated, Konoha had discovered four separate Ōtsutsuki clan ruins during their investigation of the clan.[12] Sometime afterwards, Konoha had discovered the clan's time-travelling artefact Karasuki, which Urashiki took in a final bid at stealing the Nine-Tails' chakra from the past, only for him to meet his end.

In the meanwhile, Jigen as Isshiki's vessel managed to acquire a juvenile Ten-Tails, planning to use it together with Kara as a seed for the new God Tree on Earth.[3] The exact details of their plans remain unknown, but it seems that Kawaki, a new vessel for Isshiki, is crucial for their execution.[13] There was some kind of time limit to their plans, but it was extended to an indefinite amount when Kara discovered that Momoshiki also created a vessel of his own, Boruto Uzumaki, before dying.[14]

Appearance

Members of the original clan's main family all possess pale white skin, blank white/lavender pupilless eyes, either pale blue or white hair, eyebrows shaved into a circular pattern as a sign for nobility, and most notably; various types of brown protrusions from their heads resembling horns. Their biology is close enough to humans to be able to procreate with them, and half human hybrids have similar horn like protrusions, however they are less pronounced and generally appear to be the same colour as their skin.

Abilities

Described as a race of alien parasites by Amado, the Ōtsutsuki evolve off the energy and genetic information that served as nutrients of the Chakra Fruits when absorbed by their respective God Trees, giving them their godlike power and longevity by ingesting it. Momoshiki claims that the Ōtsutsuki's greatest skill was their ability to use chakra; a feat previously reserved for them before Hagoromo introduced it to humanity through the concept of ninshū.

Indeed, during the Fourth Shinobi World War, those with the Ten-Tails' chakra and even Kaguya herself are impervious to almost every shinobi skill and it is only by using Hagoromo's Six Paths chakra that she is ultimately defeated. Ōtsutsuki seem to remain unprecedentedly resilient even after they die: Hagoromo's soul lives on through his chakra, which itself travels through time so that he might help solve some of the issues that lingered after his death; Hamura's soul manifests before Hinata Hyūga for a similar purpose, giving her the means of stopping Toneri; Indra and Asura's chakra are repeatedly reborn in their descendants so that they can try to settle their age-old competition; Momoshiki's spirit remained intact for a while even after his body was destroyed and was able to say his last words to Boruto.

Ōtsutsuki's resilience is extended further through the Kāma seal. It is bestowed by a member of the clan on the verge of death to whoever has defeated them. As a result, the person becomes the Ōtsutsuki's vessel (器, utsuwa), preserving their chakra and will within the seal. The Kāma grants its recipient chakra absorbing abilities and other unique skills of the Ōtsutsuki, however, over time it will also allow the deceased clan member to manifest their will within the vessel's body. An incompatible body would not be able to handle the Ōtsutsuki's power for very long, but in the case of a "perfect" vessel, the progress of the Kāma will eventually transform the wielder into a new Ōtsutsuki that resembles the one they defeated. Ultimately, it will allow their sealed will to take over the transformed body, effectively resurrecting the defeated Ōtsutsuki and erasing the host's personality in the process.

All Ōtsutsuki have possessed at least one inborn skill, the Byakugan being the most prevalent with the potential of awakening the Tenseigan; Kaguya has the Rinne Sharingan and a predecessor ability of the Shikotsumyaku; Hagoromo and Momoshiki both have the Rinnegan, the former of which, in the anime, awakened it after manifesting the Sharingan and Mangekyō Sharingan. Another ability in the anime was the Wood Release as seen by Asura.

An ability of the Ōtsutsuki is to move through dimensions, though it requires an enormous amount of energy even for them.[15] They were able to colonise the Moon by creating the Tenseigan, which they further strengthened over the centuries by storing their Byakugan within it. From the Tenseigan they receive light, a habitable environment for themselves and other flora and fauna, power for their equipment, and the ability to control the Moon's movements. They can also use the Tenseigan to remotely control their automatons, a far more advanced precursor of the shinobi's Puppet Technique. When they were alive, Hagoromo and Hamura each used different seals to grant or restrict chakra, some of which persist or are rediscovered long after their deaths.

Trivia

"Ōtsutsuki" ( 大筒木 ) roughly means "big bamboo tree" and is derived from an obscure passage in the second volume of the Kojiki about the genealogies of Emperor Suinin, eleventh emperor of Japan, which states that he had a consort named Kaguyahime no Mikoto ( 迦具夜比売命 ), the daughter of a king named Ōtsutsukitarine no Miko ( 大筒木垂根王 ); tradition holds that these individuals served as the basis for Princess Kaguya and the old bamboo cutter in The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter .

) roughly means "big bamboo tree" and is derived from an obscure passage in the second volume of the about the genealogies of Emperor Suinin, eleventh emperor of Japan, which states that he had a consort named Kaguyahime no Mikoto ( ), the daughter of a king named Ōtsutsukitarine no Miko ( ); tradition holds that these individuals served as the basis for Princess Kaguya and the old bamboo cutter in . The horns sported by members of the Ōtsutsuki clan are meant to symbolise rabbit ears, denoting a connection to the moon by evoking the moon rabbit, with Kaguya even being known as the "Rabbit Goddess" ( 卯の女神 , Usagi no Megami ) to her followers. The trend continued with Momoshiki and Kinshiki via their chakra pills, based on the cinnabar elixir that the moon rabbit is depicted using a mortar and pestle to create in Chinese folklore.

, ) to her followers. The trend continued with Momoshiki and Kinshiki via their chakra pills, based on the cinnabar elixir that the moon rabbit is depicted using a mortar and pestle to create in Chinese folklore. During the clan's civil war, the main and branch families used different emblems to set each other apart: the main family used an eight-pointed sun ray, while the branch family used a crescent moon and a sun.

On Earth, several clan ruins and Karasuki have a pattern etched into them, which in the case of Karasuki, indicate that it may be some sort of sealing device. [16]

The Ōtsutsuki clansmen on the Moon donned ceremonial kimonos (with various decorations from the back) with sash tied over the right shoulder and shinobi sandals. In battle, they donned a turban, a mask over the lower-half of their face, a white vest, purple sash, purple pants and a purple long-sleeve shirt with bandages over their arms and feet, and additionally using long robes for commander level.

Hinata is referred to by the entire clan as the "Byakugan Princess" ( 白眼の姫 , Byakugan no Hime , Literally meaning: White Eye Princess). The reason for the title is not explained, but by having it, Hinata is immune to Toneri's chakra drain and she is the only individual who can destroy the Tenseigan.

, , White Eye Princess). The reason for the title is not explained, but by having it, Hinata is immune to Toneri's chakra drain and she is the only individual who can destroy the Tenseigan. The clothes Toneri and Hinata wore during their wedding ceremony were traditional wedding attires of the clan. [7]

Passing bread from a groom's mouth to his bride's mouth is part of the clan's wedding ritual. [7]

Momoshiki claimed that the transferal of power is the law of the Ōtsutsuki clan, enforcing his act of killing Kinshiki to strengthen himself. [17]

Based on discoveries in an Ōtsutsuki-related site, Sasuke Uchiha postulated they arrived in new worlds in pairs.

In the anime, after Urashiki was killed by Boruto and Naruto, he apparently had not chosen either of them to be a vessel of his chakra through the Kāma.

Due to their actions of going from planet to planet in order to harvest chakra until it's nothing more than a husk, and forcibly transforming others into perfect copies of themselves, especially when they are on the verge of death and want to preserved their life, Amado has referred to the clan as parasites.