Ōtsutsuki Clan

The is an ancient clan of horned, also described as. As a parasitic species they have spent thousands of years traversing the cosmos in order to carry out the, a doctrine which dictates that clan members consume the life energy and genetic material of other worlds in order to continuously evolve, with the ultimate goal of attaining godhood.

After the arrival of Kaguya on Earth a millennium ago, the Ōtsutsuki began having a lasting influence on the human population, notably starting the history of shinobi.

History
For countless eons, the Ōtsutsuki clan have been travelling throughout dimensions seeking out worlds to plant Ten-Tail saplings into. Once planted, it grows into a God Tree with its roots spreading across the planet to siphon chakra and genetic material from all its surroundings and inhabitants, resulting in everything dying and it bearing a large fruit for the Ōtsutsuki to consume in order for them to evolve, gaining power and longevity. Once harvested, as they no longer need the planet, they move to another to repeat the process. In order for the Ten-Tails seeds to bloom into a God Tree, a living Ōtsutsuki must be fed to the beast, hence the clan members travel in pairs, with the lower ranking being the sacrifice, while the other one watches over the fruit's cultivation. However, the Ōtsutsuki to be sacrificed utilise Kāma to prepare a vessel beforehand in order to revive themselves.

A millennium ago, Kaguya and Isshiki were chosen to cultivate the God Tree on the planet Earth and harvest its chakra fruit, with Kaguya serving as a sacrifice to the Ten-Tails sapling. Instead, Kaguya desired to take the chakra fruit for herself, betraying Isshiki in the process whom she left for dead. In desperation, Isshiki used his Sukunahikona to reduce his body's size and infiltrate the body of a monk named Jigen, taking him over through parasitic means. Meanwhile, Kaguya would slowly developed an attachment for the planet she meant to destroy and would fall in love with a human, only to consume the chakra fruit herself and used its godlike power to end the constant war of Earth's human population with the Infinite Tsukuyomi, resulting in world peace and her being initially viewed as a benevolent deity. Foreseeing the consequences of consuming the Chakra fruit against her clan's wishes, she converted the imprisoned Infinite Tsukuyomi victims into a White Zetsu Army in fear of her clan returning to take her chakra — an act which lead to humans viewing her as a demon and the Ōtsutsuki condemning her as a traitor.

In time Kaguya gave birth to twin sons: Hagoromo and Hamura, both of whom were born with chakra of their own. Afterwards, Kaguya eventually found herself ruled by her own desire to possess all chakra, in which made her turn against her own sons. Having devised a plan to absorb their chakra, she integrated with the Earth's God Tree and became the Ten-Tails. The monster terrorised the world until Hagoromo and Hamura sealed it with their Six Paths — Chibaku Tensei, thus creating the Moon. The Ten-Tails' chakra was sealed into Hagoromo while its husk, the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path, was hidden away and sealed on the Moon, in order to prevent the Ten-Tails' revival. Before being sealed, Kaguya created a parasitic lifeform containing her will, Black Zetsu to find a way to revive her. Leaving leadership of the clan to Hamura, he decreed that the clan would stand guard over the Demonic Statue. Hagoromo and his brother's direct bloodline stayed on Earth, the latter which inherited the Byakugan and became the Hyūga clan, while Hamura migrated the clan to the moon, maintaining order and stability with the power of his Tenseigan.

Believing chakra was a power that linked everything in the world, Hagoromo set out to spread the message to the people of the land, during which his teachings became known as ninshū. Towards the end of his life, he divided his chakra into the nine tailed beasts, his way of ensuring that the Ten-Tails and thus Kaguya would never be reborn. Before he died, he passed over his eldest son, Indra, and entrusted his mission of peace to his youngest son, Asura. Black Zetsu manipulated Indra's jealousy toward Asura, resulting in the two brothers' confrontation being passed on to their descendants by the pair being reincarnated. Having spent the remainder of his life overlooking Earth, Hamura entrusted his Ōtsutsuki clansmen with a celestial degree watching over humanity before his passing. Afterwards, the people of the moon treated Hamura's Tenseigan as a treasure, enshrining it as a religious object and devoting a plan to eternally preserving it with the Byakugan of newborn members taken and put into the vessel to power it.

The millennium that passed involved the Moon's branch family misinterpreting Hamura's celestial decree, leading to them believing he wanted his descendants to destroy Earth in the event the world Hagoromo fashioned lead astray. The main family warred against the branch family over their different interpretations and eventually annihilated the former using the weaponized Tenseigan. On Earth, humans along with Ōtsutsuki's descendants such as the Senju, Uzumaki, Uchiha, Hyūga, and Kaguya clan utilised Indra's invention of ninjutsu to shape the shinobi world.

A thousand years after the Ten-Tails' defeat, the Moon's branch family dwindled to only Toneri, who was aware that the Demonic Statue was stolen and the Ten-Tails was revived during the Fourth Shinobi World War. The event ultimately lead to Kaguya being temporarily revived, but was soon sealed along with Black Zetsu in another dimension by the reincarnations of Asura and Indra. Two years later, as his clan had concluded that Earth's shinobi will destroy the world's peace and order, Toneri deemed Hagoromo's world a failure, and began to act on Hamura's mistranslated celestial decree. Unable to reach an agreement with the Hyūga clan, Toneri resorted to kidnapping the clan's heir and taking her Byakugan in order to awaken the Tenseigan. The act caught the attention of Konohagakure, leading to a team discovering his intentions and defeating him. After becoming aware of Hamura's true decree, he vowed to remain in self-imposed exile on the Moon in order to stand vigil over the Earth as a solitary guardian.

Years later during the Seventh Hokage's era, Momoshiki and Kinshiki in another world became aware of abnormalities in Kaguya's world, prompting them to inform their clan and investigate the situation. They were dispatched by the main family to investigate Kaguya's whereabouts, alongside Urashiki. Though they weren't aware of the fate of Kaguya or her chakra, by Urashiki's account they saw everything including the Byakugan Princess incident on the Moon. They deemed Kaguya a disgrace and traitor for growing an attachment to Earth and taking up arms against them. By the time Momoshiki and Kinshiki were defeated, Konoha had discovered four separate Ōtsutsuki clan ruins during their investigation of the clan. Sometime afterwards, Konoha had discovered the clan's time-travelling artefact Karasuki, which Urashiki took in a final bid at stealing the Nine-Tails' chakra from the past, only for him to meet his end.

In the meanwhile, Jigen as Isshiki's vessel managed to acquire a juvenile Ten-Tails, planning to use it together with Kara as a seed for the new God Tree on Earth. Originally, Isshiki was planning to feed himself via Jigen to this Ten-Tails for it to bloom into the God Tree, due to Kaguya's betrayal and sealing leaving him with no other option, despite the resulting Chakra Fruit being much lower quality due to Isshiki's fatal injury; Kawaki was then to serve as the vessel for Isshiki's resurrection. Due to the time limit of Isshiki's current vessel degrading and his Kāma not fully extracted into Kawaki, Kara's plans were on a tight schedule, but were allowed more flexibility due to the revelation of Momoshiki creating a vessel of his own, Boruto Uzumaki, before dying. Realising Boruto will be revived as Momoshiki, Isshiki shifted his plans to using the boy instead of himself as a sacrifice for the Ten-Tails, which would produce a much more powerful God Tree and Chakra Fruit. Isshiki's plans ultimately ended in failure as he was betrayed by his subordinates Amado and Koji Kashin, and Kawaki freeing himself as the vessel, which led to Isshiki's demise. Momoshiki, having taken over much of Boruto's being, saw Isshiki's death as a benefit to him.

Despite Kawaki having lost the Kāma, he still had 80% of its biological data extracted into his body, causing Momoshiki to deem him close to a full Ōtsutsuki, and thus a viable sacrifice for the Ten-Tails. However, Boruto managed to regain control of his own body before Momoshiki could take Kawaki to the beast. Soon after, Isshiki's expiring soul appeared before his loyal servant and failed vessel, Code, and bade him use his White Kāma to transform into an Ōtsutsuki and carry on the Ōtsutsuki Will. Code agreed to do so after first getting revenge on those who killed his master.

Appearance
Members of the original clan's main family all possess pale white skin, blank white/lavender pupilless eyes, either pale blue or white hair, eyebrows shaved into a circular pattern as a sign for nobility, and most notably; various types of brown protrusions from their heads resembling horns. Their biology is close enough to humans to be able to procreate with them, and half human hybrids have similar horn like protrusions, however they are less pronounced and generally appear to be the same colour as their skin.

Abilities
Described as a race of alien parasites by Amado, the Ōtsutsuki evolve off the energy and genetic information that served as nutrients of the Chakra Fruits when absorbed by their respective God Trees, giving them their godlike power and longevity by ingesting it. Some Ōtsutsuki can even transform upon consuming enough chakra or particular forms of power, such as dōjutsu. Momoshiki claims that the Ōtsutsuki's greatest skill was their ability to use chakra; a feat previously reserved for them before Hagoromo introduced it to humanity through the concept of ninshū. With it, they can perform feats like flight or concealing their presence.

Indeed, during the Fourth Shinobi World War, those with the Ten-Tails' chakra and even Kaguya herself are impervious to almost every shinobi skill and it is only by using Hagoromo's Six Paths chakra that she is ultimately defeated. Ōtsutsuki seem to remain unprecedentedly resilient even after they die: Hagoromo's soul lives on through his chakra, which itself travels through time so that he might help solve some of the issues that lingered after his death; Hamura's soul manifests before Hinata Hyūga for a similar purpose, giving her the means of stopping Toneri; Indra and Asura's chakra are repeatedly reborn in their descendants so that they can try to settle their age-old competition; Momoshiki's spirit remained intact for a while even after his body was destroyed and was able to say his last words to Boruto.

Ōtsutsuki's resilience is extended further through the Kāma seal. It is bestowed by a member of the clan before their death to the fitting or the only available individuals. As a result, the person becomes the Ōtsutsuki's, preserving their genetic profile within the seal. The Kāma grants its recipient chakra absorbing abilities and other unique skills of the Ōtsutsuki, although its prime function is the actual resurrection of the Ōtsutsuki in question. In time, the Kāma will rewrite their body with the Ōtsutsuki genetic data, transforming the wielder into the deceased Ōtsutsuki who can sometimes manifest their will through the body. Ultimately, all the data will be extracted into the host, erasing their personality and leading to the Ōtsutsuki's revival in a new body while retaining the host's memories, knowledge and skills. However, not every person is a "perfect" vessel for the Ōtsutsuki, while the incompatible one is not able to handle the Ōtsutsuki's power properly, which will lead to their death in several days if such a vessel is used for the revival. In the event that a candidate for a vessel fails, they may be given a White Kāma instead, which grants them the pure power of the Ōtsutsuki but has no capacity in revival. Such bearers could become an Ōtsutsuki themselves if they consume a chakra fruit.

All Ōtsutsuki have possessed at least one inborn skill, the Byakugan being the most prevalent with the potential of awakening the Tenseigan; Kaguya has a predecessor ability of the Shikotsumyaku; Urashiki and Momoshiki both have the Rinnegan. Another ability in the anime was the Wood Release as seen by Asura.

An ability of the Ōtsutsuki is to move through dimensions, though it requires an enormous amount of energy even for them. They were able to colonise the Moon by creating the Tenseigan, which they further strengthened over the centuries by storing their Byakugan within it. From the Tenseigan they receive light, a habitable environment for themselves and other flora and fauna, power for their equipment, and the ability to control the Moon's movements. They can also use the Tenseigan to remotely control their automatons, a far more advanced precursor of the shinobi's Puppet Technique. When they were alive, Hagoromo and Hamura each used different seals to grant or restrict chakra, some of which persist or are rediscovered long after their deaths.

Trivia

 * roughly means "big bamboo tree" and is derived from an obscure passage in the second volume of the Kojiki about the genealogies of Emperor Suinin, eleventh emperor of Japan, which states that he had a consort named, the daughter of a king named ; tradition holds that these individuals served as the basis for Princess Kaguya and the old bamboo cutter in The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter.
 * The horns sported by members of the Ōtsutsuki clan are meant to symbolise rabbit ears, denoting a connection to the moon by evoking the moon rabbit, with Kaguya even being known as the to her followers. The trend continued with Momoshiki and Kinshiki via their chakra pills, based on the cinnabar elixir that the moon rabbit is depicted using a mortar and pestle to create in Chinese folklore.
 * Due to their fantastical powers, members of the clan are often seen as deities. Kaguya was initially viewed as the Rabbit Goddess, Momoshiki deemed himself a god, Code worshipped Isshiki as his god, and Hagoromo was referred to as the "God Sage of Six Paths" (六道の神仙, Rikudō no Shinsen).
 * During the clan's civil war, the main and branch families used different emblems to set each other apart: the main family used an eight-pointed sun ray, while the branch family used a crescent moon and a sun.
 * On Earth, several clan ruins and Karasuki have a pattern etched into them, which in the case of Karasuki, indicate that it may be some sort of sealing device.
 * The Ōtsutsuki clansmen on the Moon donned ceremonial kimonos (with various decorations from the back) with sash tied over the right shoulder and shinobi sandals. In battle, they donned a turban, a mask over the lower-half of their face, a white vest, purple sash, purple pants and a purple long-sleeve shirt with bandages over their arms and feet, and additionally using long robes for commander level.
 * Hinata is referred to by the entire clan as the . The reason for the title is not explained, but by having it, Hinata is immune to Toneri's chakra drain and she is the only individual who can destroy the Tenseigan.
 * The clothes Toneri and Hinata wore during their wedding ceremony were traditional wedding attires of the clan.
 * Passing bread from a groom's mouth to his bride's mouth is part of the clan's wedding ritual.
 * Momoshiki claimed that the transferal of power is the law of the Ōtsutsuki clan, enforcing his act of killing Kinshiki to strengthen himself.
 * Based on discoveries in an Ōtsutsuki-related site, Sasuke Uchiha postulated they arrived in new worlds in pairs.
 * Due to their actions of going from planet to planet in order to harvest chakra until it's nothing more than a husk, and forcibly transforming others into perfect copies of themselves, especially when they are on the verge of death and want to preserve their life, Amado has referred to the clan as parasites.