Board Thread:Naruto Discussions/@comment-4271790-20141016102132/@comment-945885-20141016175916

Devils13thPlayer wrote: That is asura' battle avatar right? and both were normal rasenshurikens or something else? No, but it is definitely very similar. I'm not sure if it's supposed to be representative of how Asura's avatar worked (using residual chakra from the nine Tailed Beasts) or if it's more of a visual callback to link the two characters. Probably the latter, or a mix of the two.


 * Asura's avatar had a humanoid face and was wearing a rosary, which might have been his Truthseeker Orbs, if he had those. It also seemed to have a "cloak" draped over its shoulders rather than tails, though it's hard to tell from just one drawing.
 * Asura's avatar wasn't created using Shadow Doppelgangers, since that jutsu hadn't been invented yet. On the other hand, Naruto's "avatar" is actually just three Shadow Doppelgangers overlapping the forms of their Tailed Beast Modes (you can see all three of his shadow clones floating in inside of its head).
 * Asura's avatar was much smaller and he floated in its center, not its head.

On the other hand, when Sasuke uses his Susano'o as a vessel for the Tailed Beast's chakra, the chakra takes on a pretty distinctly humanoid appearance. Maybe Asura was doing something similar, drawing out some of the chakra of the Tailed Beasts and using his Truthseeker Orbs and/or Six Paths Senjutsu and/or Seal Markings to create a vessel for their chakra with which to do battle.

Of course, the much easier explanation: maybe they're just different transformations that happen to look alike in order to draw parallels between the two characters, one of whom happens to be the reincarnation of the other.

Hopefully the new databook will have entries that explain the similarities or differences.