Board Thread:Theories and Speculation/@comment-945885-20200727142128

Hey, haven't posted here in a while, so I don't know how much discussion is still going on, but just had a thought I wanted to share.

So, Kekkei Mora, like the precise nature of Six Paths powers, is one of those lingering mysteries from the final chapters of Naruto that has never been sufficiently explained, and which the fourth databook really only raises more questions about: Why is the term exclusively used for Kaguya, Hagoromo, and Madara in the databook? Why are their versions of dojutsu classified as Kekkei Mora when the same dojutsu used by others are classified as Kekkei Genkai? What does Mora (網羅) even really mean?

Anyway, I was having a conversation earlier in which I was trying to succinctly summarize the nature of the Otsutsuki as described in Boruto #45, when it dawned on me.

Amado describes the Otsutsuki as a parasitic species that evolves by harvesting and eating chakra fruits, masses of energy and genetic information that gets collected from conquered worlds using the Divine Tree. Each time the Otsutsuki eats a chakra fruit, their body "updates," or rather mutates.

As soon as I typed that, I realized that kekkei genkai are also mutations, but those are limited by bloodline inheritance. Meanwhile the name kekkei tota implies that these are mutations that have been artificially selected by combining bloodlines.

So, what does Mora mean? We have it listed as "encompassing," and "comprising," "including," etc. show up as definitions. Up until now I just assumed it was meant to be a step beyond the combining of bloodlines represented by kekkei tota, as it was initially used to describe the Expansive Truthseeker Orb which simultaneously combined all chakra natures. That never quite made sense to me, since regular Truthseeker Orbs are ninjutsu/senjutsu, and other biological mutations unrelated to nature transformation are also classified as Kekkei Mora, but I just rolled with it anyway.

Well, Mora can also mean to collect everything, and its Chinese root literally refers to nets and traps that were used to harvest fish or capture birds; mo (net) + ra (covering).

Obviously, the original source material gives no indication that this is the case, and Boruto hasn't drawn a clear connection either, but I'm now inclined to believe that Kekkei Mora should be translated, conservatively, as something like Bloodline Collection, and that it refers to the unique mutations that Otsutsuki develop upon eating a chakra fruit or, perhaps in certain circumstances, upon completely fusing with a Ten Tails / Divine Tree.

Assuming that to be the case, as Amado states that they "continually upgrade" themselves by eating chakra fruit, it could be assumed that some or all of Kaguya's Kekkei Mora were derived from different chakra fruits collected from multiple worlds. It's also likely that the unique dojutsu possessed by Momoshiki, Kinshiki, Urashiki, and Isshiki are also Kekkei Mora, as they have never been formally categorized.

Hagoromo's Rinnegan falls into this category in the databook, perhaps because he inherited it directly from Kaguya, in which case Hamura's Byakugan and Tenseigan, also never formally categorized, should likely also be considered Kekkei Mora.

Madara and Obito both underwent a visible biological transformation as Ten Tails' Jinchurikis, developing the physical traits of the Otsutsuki, but only Madara developed a Kekkei Mora, the Rinne Sharingan, after he fully absorbed the Divine Tree and effectively became Kaguya's vessel.

The exact nuance of where the exact distinction should be made isn't clear to me, but I think this is the best explanation for what a Kekkei Mora is that we currently have available. Pardon the overly wordy hypothesis!

Semi-related, we also have the recent classification of Sukunahikona and Daikokuten as "hijutsu" (secret jutsu), an uncommonly used term, sometimes to describe hiden (secret tradition). I was curious about this, and found one other instance of Otsutsuki abilities being called hijutsu: in Boruto episode 15 / novel 3, Sasuke describes Gozu Tennō as Danzo "closing in on Kaguya's hijutsu."

I'm not sure what the significance of the term is, except that it might be an attempt to clearly distinguish Otsutsuki abilities from shinobi abilities, despite them occasionally being referred to as ninjutsu anyway. Just kind of interesting.  