Summary
- Chakra in Naruto is a substance from combining physical and mental energy that allows jutsu.
- Chakra comes from Chakra Fruits from the God Tree; it was spread by Hagoromo Otsutsuki.
- Kaguya Otsutsuki ate a Chakra Fruit, became a threat, and was sealed by her sons, creating different clans.
Naruto is a series with quite a deep lore. Although the characters’ powers may seem more like magic at first, there are actually many things that are explained using scientific concepts (genetics, for example, plays an important role in the series).
A key feature in Naruto is chakra, which is also explained in a more or less rational way. Firstly, manipulating chakra in the way we see in the series is not exactly native to humans. Chakra actually comes from the Chakra Fruits.
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What Is Chakra And Where Does It Come From?
A Substance That Allows People To Perform Jutsu
We usually think of Chakra as energy, and that’s sort of how it is in Naruto. Chakra is a substance that is created when physical energy (the “body’s energy”) and mental/spiritual energy (the “mind’s energy”) are molded together. It is essential to life, and chakra manipulation is necessary to perform all kinds of jutsu (except taijutsu). Learning how to control chakra and use it efficiently is part of a ninja’s training.
Although all living things produce chakra to some degree in order to live, there is a limit to how much chakra which each person can form — thus, ninjas/shinobi can run out of chakra during a battle. Also, every person has a different chakra with its own signature, but there is a genetic component to these signatures, so it is possible to identify someone’s family background (their clan) by their chakra.
However, chakra wasn’t something easily manipulated on Earth before Hagoromo and Hamura Otsutsuki, the first humans to be born with it because their mother ate a Chakra Fruit from the God Tree (they are actually human hybrids, according to the anime). Hagoromo then spread chakra to others after creating ninshu, which could be described as a religious precursor to ninjutsu.
The God Tree And The Chakra Fruit
As previously mentioned, humans were only able to form chakra because Kaguya Otsutsuki ate a Chakra Fruit from the God Tree and one of her sons spread it to humans. According to the anime, the God Tree is not native to Earth; a seed fell from a meteorite centuries prior to the story.
The God Tree produces a Chakra Fruit every thousand years. A Chakra Fruit is simply a fruit that contains large amounts of chakra. The Otsutsuki clan, which is originally a clan of celestial beings (and who are not originally from Earth), travels around the universe in search of Chakra Fruits to increase their powers, and that’s how Kaguya ended up on Earth. After consuming the fruit, she decided to settle on the planet in order to rule it (not before betraying her partner Isshiki and attempting to kill him).
While the God Tree had been believed and worshiped as essential to the Earth, it is actually the opposite. The God Tree slowly drains the energy from living beings, and then produces a Chakra Fruit with the drained energy and the genetic component of the beings from whom the energy was absorbed — this is why the fruit also promotes genetic mutations in those who eat it. The God Tree keeps draining energy until the planet runs out of it and dies (and the Otsutsuki clan doesn’t really care about it). So it’s more of a parasitic relationship.
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Kaguya Vs Her Offspring
It was not just her partner: Kaguya also tried to kill her sons. When they were born, some of the enormous chakra she had obtained by eating the Chakra Fruit was passed on to them. Kaguya was a cruel ruler, and she eventually fell prey to her own lust, and turned against her sons in order to possess once again all the chakra she thought she deserved.
All chakra… belongs to me. Once again, all chakra shall become one!!!
She merged with the God Tree and became the Ten-Tails Beast, but her sons sealed her inside Hagoromo’s body. Right before being sealed, Kaguya created Black Zetsu, whose purpose is to resurrect his mother.
Afterward, Hagoromo decided to spread chakra throughout the world, and has been known as the Sage of Six Paths. His lineage would later split into the Uchiha (from his son Indra) and Uzumaki (from his son Asura) clans, while the Hyuuga clan came from Hamura’s lineage.
Naruto and Naruto Shippuden are available to stream on Netflix, Crunchyroll and other services.
