The Origins of the Uchiha Clan, Explained

This article contains spoilers related to the lore of Naruto, though nothing major about Naruto or Boruto’s own stories.

Summary

Naruto’s lore heavily relies on genetics and bloodlines, with magical powers having scientific explanations.
The origins of the Uchiha clan tie back to the Otsutsuki Clan and genetic mutations from the Chakra Fruit.
Kaguya’s origins and descendants explain the Uchiha Clan’s special powers and complexities.

Genetics are much more important in Naruto than we might think at first. Many things in the story are explained through bloodlines and genetic inheritance — in Naruto, seemingly magical powers have a more or less scientific explanation. While this may take away from the fantasy feel of the series, it also shows that Kishimoto has a fantastic ability when it comes to cohesive world building.

The Uchiha Clan, one of the most powerful shinobi clans, is no exception. Their abilities are so amazing that it even feels like they come from another world — and this feeling is not entirely wrong. Like many things in the series, the Uchiha’s special abilities are also related to genetic mutations and their origins can be traced back centuries, and their ancestors are not native to Earth. It all started with the Otsutsuki Clan and the Chakra Fruit.

Naruto: 7 Things That Don’t Make Sense About The Otsutsuki Clan

The Otsutsuki Clan has played a pivotal role in Naruto, but there are still things about them that remain unknown.

First There Was The God Tree

In Naruto, chakra is a substance found in many life forms, but, at first, humans were not able to manipulate it in the way that ninjas do. This began to change when a God Tree sprang up on Earth — this tree absorbs chakra from the planet, and produces a Chakra Fruit (a fruit filled with chakra and potential genetic mutations). While the tree was believed to be the source of life, it actually drains energy until the planet dies.

Ten-Tails act as seedlings for the God Trees, but in the anime, a seed fell to Earth from a meteorite. Anyway, since the Chakra Fruit provides tremendous power to those who eat it, the Otsutsuki Clan, an alien race, travels around the Universe looking for them.

The Otsutsuki Clan and Predatory Settlements

There are still many mysteries surrounding the Otsutsuki clan in the series. They are aliens (or celestial beings) with the goal of consuming Chakra Fruits to gain even more power — they use Ten-Tails to plant God Trees, which will eventually lead to the demise of many planets. For this reason, they can be considered predatory colonizers, even though they have long been revered as gods.

The Otsutsuki Clan invades planets in pairs. In the case of Earth, Kaguya and Isshiki were sent to cultivate the God Tree and later harvest its Chrakra Fruit. In this process, Kaguya would be sacrificed, but she betrayed her partner, leaving him to die (although he didn’t and took the body of Jigen to survive).

Naruto: The Chakra Fruit, Explained

What exactly is chakra in Naruto and how are humans able to manipulate it?

Kaguya Otsutsuki’s Rule on Earth

Kaguya wanted power, but according to the anime, she slowly grew attached to the Earth and fell in love with Emperor Tenji, with whom she had two children, Hagoromo and Hamura. With the powers she acquired from the Chakra Fruit, she ended a bloody war, and was then worshiped as a goddess. However, she wasn’t supposed to consume the fruit, and it could lead to problems with the clan.

Hagoromo and Hamura inherited part of the powers she had acquired. Later, Kaguya turned into a ruthless ruler, and turned against her own sons in her unbridled desire to possess all chakra once again. Luckily, the two were able to seal her in a process that created the Moon.

I hate you… Hagoromo… Hamura… You both belong to me.

Hagoromo decided to spread chakra throughout the world, creating ninshu, a religious precursor to ninjutsu. He wanted to connect people through chakra and create peace. He became known as the Sage of Six Paths and is one of the strongest people we learn about in the story. And he is also the ancestor of all the Uchihas.

Hagoromo had two sons (the name of their mother is unknown): Indra and Asura Otsutsuki. Indra was the older of the two and was first considered the successor to his father. When Asura was named the successor, they started to fight each other.

Indra had immense power, and he invented new ways to use chakra — he is credited as the creator of ninjutsu. However, he was too focused on power, and became jealous and angry when his younger brother was chosen to succeed their father. Hagoromo saw ninjutsu in a bad light, as it allowed people to start even bloodier wars.

Indra also inherited the Sharingan from his father — as one can easily imagine, his offspring would later become the Uchiha Clan. Unfortunately, the names of his direct descendants are not yet known.

The relationship between the Uchiha Clan and the Otsutsuki Clan explains why the Uchihas are so special and powerful, and why the Sharingan is exclusive to them, as it was inherited from the Chakra Fruit itself — and also gives a clue as to why this clan is involved in so many complicated issues, since the clan was created by someone who wanted power and had a complex relationship with his father and brother.