Board Thread:Naruto Discussions/@comment-25139119-20140704145132/@comment-5936871-20140705161157

Elveonora wrote: @Reven, Hagoromo called Hashirama a predecessor, that's because he no longer has Ashura's chakra. @Itachi, see above. The one who gave Sasuke his Rinnegan was Hagoromo, not Hashirama or his cells. Hagoromo most likely meant that Hashirama was the previous incarnation of Asura, not that he lost his chakra. Also yeah Hagoromo did give Sasuke his Rinnegan, but the main reason Sasuke was able to awaken the Rinnegan to begin with was because of him having Hashirama's chakra and cells. That's probably how Hagoromo was able to speak to Sasuke in his mind too.