Sage of Six Paths in Naruto: Hagoromo’s Story and the Power He Gave Naruto
[IMAGE SLOT: original diagram, Otsutsuki family tree, Kaguya at top, branching to Hagoromo and Hamura, then Hagoromo’s sons Indra and Asura, then their descendant clans, then down to Naruto and Sasuke]
These are two different things with almost the same name, and clearing that up first is the most useful thing this page can do: the Sage of Six Paths is Hagoromo Otsutsuki, the man who created ninjutsu. Six Paths Sage Mode is a specific power he later gave to Naruto. One’s a person, one’s a power named after him.
Part one: Hagoromo, the man
Hagoromo is the son of Kaguya Otsutsuki and the brother of Hamura. Kaguya ate the fruit of the God Tree and gained enormous power. When the tree itself came back for what it was owed, transforming into the monstrous Ten-Tails, Hagoromo and Hamura sealed her. In doing so, Hagoromo became the first jinchuriki, the first person in the world to ever hold a tailed beast inside his own body.
Hamura’s own story is worth a line here, since it isn’t just a footnote. After the sealing, he left Earth for the moon to keep watch over their mother, but he had already had children before he left, and that bloodline continued on Earth without him. Generations later, it becomes the Hyuga clan, which is why the Hyuga carry the Byakugan. They inherited it directly through Hamura’s line, the same way the Uchiha and Senju trace back through Hagoromo’s sons.
Later, dying, Hagoromo made a choice that shapes the entire rest of the series. He split the Ten-Tails into the nine separate tailed beasts, so that its full power could never again be gathered into one place. Every tailed beast that appears anywhere in the series traces directly back to that single act.
He also founded Ninshu, and this is worth knowing because it wasn’t originally a fighting art at all. It was meant as a practice for connecting people and building mutual understanding. Ninjutsu, the entire combat system the whole series runs on, is what people eventually turned that peaceful teaching into. That’s a quietly tragic piece of the story’s own backstory, worth stating plainly rather than skipping past.
Hagoromo had two sons. Indra, the elder, inherited his eyes and his formidable chakra. Asura, the younger, inherited his body and his life force, and was the one Hagoromo ultimately chose as his successor. Indra never accepted that decision, and the two brothers fought over it.
Indra’s line eventually becomes the Uchiha clan. Asura’s becomes the Senju, and, through that same line, the Uzumaki. Every major conflict between the Uchiha and Senju across the series’ history is really that original argument between two brothers, playing out again and again. And here’s the fact that reframes the whole story for a lot of readers: Naruto is Asura’s reincarnation, and Sasuke is Indra’s.
Part two: Six Paths Sage Mode
This is the power, not the person, and it’s worth being precise about what it actually is.
Hagoromo grants this power to Naruto during the Fourth Great Ninja War specifically to fight Kaguya, and Sasuke receives a matching version of it at the same time.
Important distinction: this is not the same as the regular Sage Mode Naruto learns earlier through training at Mount Myoboku. Naruto has access to both, and they’re genuinely different things, which is a common point of confusion.
What Six Paths Sage Mode actually gives him is a distinctive marked cloak, the ability to sense and physically interact with tailed beast chakra, flight, and access to the Truth-Seeking Balls, black orbs built from all five basic chakra natures plus Yin-Yang release, capable of negating ninjutsu outright and erasing whatever they touch.
One detail that gets missed constantly: it’s temporary. Naruto loses this power after the war ends. It’s not a permanent upgrade to his abilities, it’s a power specifically loaned to him for one fight.
Why Hagoromo chose Naruto and Sasuke specifically
The reasoning behind the choice is worth setting out, since it isn’t arbitrary. Hagoromo had spent his final years searching for the pair who could end the Indra and Asura cycle for good, watching successive generations reincarnate the same rivalry and repeat the same tragic outcome. Naruto and Sasuke aren’t simply the strongest available candidates when the war reaches its climax, they’re specifically the reincarnations Hagoromo had been waiting for, the one pairing with a real chance of breaking the pattern rather than continuing it. Granting them his power is as much a bet on that possibility as it is a tactical decision about who could beat Kaguya.
Why the reincarnation detail matters beyond a fun fact
Knowing that Naruto and Sasuke are reincarnations of Asura and Indra changes how a lot of their earlier rivalry reads in hindsight. Their competitiveness as genin, the specific shape of their falling out, and even the eventual mutual draw at the Valley of the End all echo a conflict that’s been playing out for generations before either of them was born. The series doesn’t reveal this connection until very late, but once it’s known, it reframes their entire relationship as the latest iteration of something much older than either of them, rather than a rivalry invented from scratch between two specific kids from the same village.
What happened to the Truth-Seeking Balls after the war
Since Six Paths Sage Mode is explicitly temporary, it’s worth noting what that means for the abilities tied to it. Once the power fades, Naruto loses direct access to the Truth-Seeking Balls and the other exclusive traits of that mode, reverting to his standard toolkit built around Kurama‘s chakra and his own trained techniques. That temporary nature is part of why later material in the franchise treats his power level as having dropped somewhat after the war, a detail that becomes directly relevant again once Kurama himself is lost in the Boruto era.
Common questions
Who is the Sage of Six Paths?
Hagoromo Otsutsuki, the man who created ninjutsu. He is the son of Kaguya, the brother of Hamura, the first jinchuriki, and the person who split the Ten-Tails into the nine tailed beasts so its full power could never be gathered again.
Is Six Paths Sage Mode the same as Sage Mode?
No, and this is a common confusion. Regular Sage Mode is what Naruto learns through training at Mount Myoboku. Six Paths Sage Mode is a separate power granted directly by Hagoromo during the Fourth Great Ninja War. Naruto has access to both, and they are different things.
Does Naruto keep Six Paths Sage Mode?
No. It is temporary and he loses it after the war ends. It was loaned to him specifically for the fight against Kaguya rather than being a permanent upgrade, which matters for any power comparison involving later material.
Why are Naruto and Sasuke his chosen successors?
Because they are the reincarnations of his sons, Asura and Indra, and Hagoromo had spent centuries watching that rivalry repeat and end badly. Granting them his power was a bet that this pair could finally break the cycle rather than continue it.
