Sage

Naruto as a Sage.

A Sage (仙人, Sennin) is someone who is able to utilise senjutsu and has mastered the art of Sage Mode. It is also a title given to someone because of their renowned power, wisdom, or holy standing.

Senjutsu

Main articles: Senjutsu and Sage Mode Senjutsu (仙術, English TV: Sage Jutsu, literally meaning: Sage Techniques) are a specialised field of jutsu that involve the use of natural energy. Senjutsu practitioners, known as sages, learn to draw natural energy inside their bodies, blending it with their own chakra to create senjutsu chakra (仙術チャクラ, senjutsu chakura, English TV: Sage Jutsu Chakra). This chakra adds a new dimension of power to the user's techniques, while also allowing for the use of techniques that would not otherwise be possible.

Senjutsu is taught by the toads of Mount Myōboku and the snakes of Ryūchi Cave. Whereas use of senjutsu is somewhat common amongst the animals that reside in these locations, very few humans have learned to perform senjutsu due to steep prerequisites and the inherent dangers of it.

Other Meanings

• Hagoromo Ōtsutsuki, more commonly known as the Sage of Six Paths, was one of the first to be born with chakra, he saved the world from the Ten-Tails and created ninshū, a predecessor of the modern ninjutsu. He was capable of using the Six Paths Senjutsu which he, post-mortem, transfers as the Six Paths Sage Mode to his son's reincarnation.
• Son Gokū has the moniker of Great Sage Equalling Heaven (斉天大聖, Seiten Taisei).

Trivia

• The term 仙人 (Sennin), refers to the Japanese term of Chinese sages and practitioners of Taoist ways, who have gained immortality and incredible powers through the manipulation of qi, or natural energy through their body by becoming ascetics and living on mountains, where qi is said to gather at the most and to start flowing from into the world. The training and measures needed to become a Sage in Naruto is just as vigorous and demanding, and similar in some regards, requiring one to have massive reserves of chakra, and come to adopt natural energy, not for the pursuit of immortality, but to become harmonised with the flow of the world around them.
  • In the fourth databook, Hagoromo Ōtsutsuki is called "Rikudō no Shinsen" (六道の神仙) on one occasion. Although both "sennin" and "shinsen" can be translated as "sage", the latter is an archaic way to refer to supernatural beings and even gods.
• The Mount Myōboku, the Ryūchi Cave and the Shikkotsu Forest are called the "Three Big Unexplored 'Sage' Regions" (「仙人」三大秘境, "Sennin" Sandai Hikyō), despite there being no apparent connection between Senjutsu and the slugs of the forest.

See Also

• List of sages