Kaguya Ōtsutsuki (Naruto)

“	This place… this earth is my precious nursery. I cannot allow you to damage it any more… Let us end this battle. … Here… I shall erase you all from existence right now.	„
 	~ Kaguya revealing her main goal. 	
“	All chakra… belongs to me. Once again, all chakra shall become one!!!	„
 	~ Kaguya to Naruto. 	
Princess Kaguya Ōtsutsuki, rarely going by her title, is one of the two main antagonists (alongside Madara Uchihia) of the Naruto franchise as a whole.
She is the source of all the conflict of the entire manga and anime series Naruto, and by far the biggest threat faced by the protagonists. Despite this, she is not the final antagonist of the series as Sasuke Uchiha is fought after her defeat. She is the first being to ever wield chakra, who became an unfathomably powerful goddess in order to save the world from war, only to become a power-crazed tyrant. She turned herself into the demonic Ten-Tailed Beast, and was sealed away by her sons, but not before she created Black Zetsu, who orchestrated the entire ninja history to revive her.
She was voiced by Mami Koyama (who also voiced Sharon Vineyard and Charlotte Linlin) in the Japanese version, and Cissy Jones in the English dubbed version.
== Appearance ==
Kaguya Ōtsutsuki is a tall and slender woman with sharp features and aristocratic support, whose white skin, silvery hair, and two spots over her white, pupil-less eyes, show her non-human origin. She wears red lipstick and has very long flowing hair, over twice as long as she is tall (thrice in the anime) and wide enough to cover her surroundings. Upon eating the chakra fruit, she grew two brown horns resembling a rabbit's ears, hence her title, long, pointed black nails, and a third, red eye on her forehead, with concentric circles and nine tomoes around the pupil.
Kaguya's entire character, design and speech pattern included, is based on noble women of Ancient Japan. This shows in her long, white gown with gold and purple trimmings, covering her entire body (in fact a kimono worn by princesses), and her eyebrows cut very thin and short.
== Personality ==
Kaguya is notable among the villains of the series for being disturbingly devoid of humanity. Even Naruto, the primary protagonist, who could sympathize with most of his foes and differentiate the heroes they once were from the monsters they became, was unable to relate with her. Hagoromo’s ghost notes that she once was well-intentioned but became twisted, most likely due to consuming the Chakra Fruit.
The anime develops her character and confirms that she was a kind soul who got corrupted. At first, she was highly reserved, somehow disconnected from humans she was alien to in every way: speaking only when she had to and keeping her feelings to herself. She spent her nights looking at the stars, lost in her thoughts. She knew that her destiny was linked to the God-Tree, and feared that her kinsmen would one day come to Earth to take her away.
Although she defended herself when attacked and erased the witnesses' memories of it after that, she only used lethal force when she had no choice and warned her foes beforehand. She deeply desired harmony for the entire world and was very protective of her loved ones. Nevertheless, she had a hard time learning to open up to people and to trust them, believing that she had to work on her own. Over time however, she grew very close to her servant Aino and her lover Tenji, caring for the world and wanting to make it a safe and happy place for her children.
Unfortunately, her growing worry of her clan's intentions, the betrayal of her lover and children (though the latter was caused by her increasing evil), and her too huge power, gradually twisted her mind. Though she still cares in some way, as she states that she wants to preserve her treasured Earth; and she cried when reminded of her once beloved sons, (though she became furious immediately after and stated to hate them); she has become stern, cruel, remorseless and uncaring. While always distant, Kaguya has become nearly emotionless, keeping a creepy stoic exterior in all situations and conveying her feelings through expressions rather than words.
Kaguya is poised, collected, impassive and cold, but extremely arrogant and conceited. She dismisses her foes as worthless weaklings, and does not even bother to acknowledge those too far beneath her. She is even more self-absorbed than Madara Uchiha himself, which is saying something. Her initial intent to gain divine powers to save humanity from itself gradually worsened into intense paranoia and megalomania, resulting in a God Complex.
She regards herself as the only one fit to rule, and dismisses humans as unworthy of freedom, wanting to turn them all into monster-slaves to better control them. She is unable to fathom being wrong, demands absolute obedience and regards contestation, even the smallest lack of reverence, as a criminal affront. And she cannot stand the idea of anyone else wielding powers. In a way, she makes a chilling representation of the overbearing mother who refuses to let her children leave the nest, and the tyrannical deity who demands absolute control over every aspect of their creation.
Although she loved her sons, she never deigned to tell them about her goals and motivations, and immediately resorted to violence when they tried to reason with her, instead of listening to their pleas. Worse, she had them fight to the death without caring the slightest about the emotional turmoil it would cause them. However, she greatly trusts Black Zetsu, listening to his advice even when she does not like it; most likely because he is totally loyal.
In stark contrast with the show-offy Madara, Kaguya goes straight for the kill and proves cautious when dealing with foes. She is also very perceptive and pretty smart, immediately noticing her sons’ secret. The fourth data book states that she devised Black Zetsu’s plan on the spot when she created him. However, her over-reliance on her powers and obsession with monopolizing chakra prompts her to make careless mistakes. Keeping underestimating the foes who repeatedly proved a challenge, coupled with her paranoia, led her final defeat. Even when defeated for good, she was thoroughly unable to admit fathom how it was possible.
== Powers and Abilities ==
Kaguya Ōtsutsuki wields unfathomable godly might from having eaten the Chakra Fruit. Even Hagoromo, the legendary Sage of the Six Paths touted as the most powerful man to ever live, states that her might was out of his and his brother's league. Even at the height of their powers, it took both of them months to defeat her. Along with that, the combined might of Naruto, Sasuke, Kakashi, Sakura and Obito were only barely able to seal her, with Obito dying in process. While the abilities she passed on to her many descendants make them top-tier fighters, they are stated to be a far cry from her own.
=== Original Powers ===
Kaguya wielded great powers even before becoming a deity. As an "alien", she can survive the vacuum of space, or travel between worlds in the form of a glowing light. She is able to instantly put people to sleep without touching them, to hypnotize people or to erase their memories, as well as being able to project waves of pure force of variable scale, in front of her or all around her, ranging from a small shock that harmlessly knocks people out, to a highly powerful blast able to repel a flurry of projectiles and tear many people apart.
=== Divine Powers ===
Kaguya's initial powers skyrocketed after becoming a goddess, with her now being able to erase the memories of the entire population, or to brainwash people and make them mindless slaves. She displays telepathy when speaking to the Ten-Tails' jinchuriki through his mind, but the full extent of it is not known. She also became able to read people's thoughts, memories and feeling by just looking in their eyes, and to fly at will.
Flashbacks show her controlling the weather and causing tremendous thunderstorms wherever she wanted. She is said to merge with her surroundings to control and transform them. In the anime, Kaguya and her sons can cure ailments and heal injuries with a touch, even recreating destroyed organs. Even worse, Kaguya is fully immortal, and recovers from any wound, being seen regrowing a severed arm. Sealing her is the only way to defeat her.
She now masters Yin (the spiritual energy basis of illusions) and Yang (the physical energy basis of vitality), and is able to combine them to warp reality and alter the world, by projecting what she imagines and making it real. She created Black Zetsu this way, by materializing her will into a living being with powers of its own. Hagoromo called this power the Creation of All Things. His sons used a lesser variation to transform things and turn inanimate objects into living beings, and some of Indra's descendants could use a derivation to alter their own fate.
As the Progenitor of Chakra, Kaguya can absorb every technique and masters all elemental transformations (turning one’s chakra into fire, wind, lightning, earth or water) to a ludicrous, yet undisclosed extent. She might wield all existing powers in a latent state: from the basics (infusing things with chakra, walking on walls and water, shapeshifting, cloning), to the advanced (seals, summons, animating drawings, or combining basic elements into wood, steel, crystal, blood, ice, typhoons, storms, steam, acid, lava, heat, explosions, shadows...). However, she never uses them and likely does not know how, as they were developed after she was sealed. That said, many techniques are lesser variation of her powers and some of her powers use advanced elements. Hagoromo’s students had to discover how to perform feats he could do naturally, so they likely derive from her.
=== Body Control and Physical Prowess ===
Kaguya is extremely fast, stepping large distances in milliseconds, leaving even the extremely fast protagonists unable to see her move; and to catch foes off-guard before they can react. She has excellent reflexes, enormous physical strength, and displays some ability in hand-to-hand fighting, being able to block barrages of blows from expert martial artists, though she clearly lacks training and likely owes it to her godlike state more than actual skill.
She has completely controls over her body, using her hair and bones as weapons. She can move her hair like limbs and change their length, using them to seize and constrict her foes in a tentacle-shaped lock, to swat people and physical attacks away, and to launch them forward like a beachcomber wave, covering a huge area. One of her attacks, Rabbit Hair Needle, unleashes a rapid-fire onslaught of hair-needles, sharp and strong enough to pierce immensely powerful defenses. It covers a very wide area and can pierce tiny targets with pinpoint precision, and since Kaguya can regrow her hair, she can unleash continuous waves of needles.
Kaguya's deadliest weapons are her bones. She can make them protrude from her body for offence and defense, make them harder than steel, regrow them, or grow additional ones. With it, she grows horn-like bones from her back and extensible spear-like bones from her palms, striking at close range or firing them at very high speed towards various targets at once. This power is called Murderous Ash Bone, for every target they strike crumbles into dust from the point of impact, beyond saving even for the mightiest healers. It is not shown whether a superficial graze would be lethal though, but it is likely. It's also not known if severing the stricken area would negate the effect.
In the video game Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4, she uses one or two bone-spears as her main close-range weapon, delivering strikes in fencing style, normal slashes, or a flurry of stabs; and claw-like bones from her arm to block attacks and counter. She can fire waves of three to seven bone-spears, or wide barrages at high speed, either a single one or several in different directions, but none of those attacks are one-hit-kill.
Her distant descendants of the Kaguya Clan inherited a similar power named the Macabre Bone Pulse. While weaker and not instantly lethal, they use it much more creatively.
=== Chakra Control ===
Kaguya wields unparalleled levels of incredibly strong chakra. She can sense things and people all around, even hidden from her, paralyse anyone at contact and suppress their victims' power, which can only be broken by emitting a surge of chakra of comparable might. She can also absorb chakra at contact and cancel all Ninjutsu; to overwhelm even someone as powerful as her children with continuous waves of white chakra; and to fire huge blasts of purplish chakra.
She can also surround herself with a purplish aura, create huge chakra claws over her hands, and unleash devastating blasts at close range; or shape her chakra at will, conjuring a giant claw around herself to charge, or giant chakra arms she can use for her Eighty God Vacuum Fists attack: an onslaught of tremendous punches, causing violent shockwaves of pure pressure. In the video game, she can unleash two on each side at once, followed by a final punch.
=== Truth-Seeking Spheres ===
Orbs of black chakra of variable size, described as a mix of the five elements and natural energy. They obliterate anything at contact, cancel normal techniques and overcome regenerative powers. They can be used to channel their wielder’s powers, stuck to people, sent as projectiles, and detonated in a devastating atomic blast. They can be reshaped following their wielder's wishes or even fused to increase their might. In the video game, they can be fused to fire a giant, lasting beam of black chakra, or to engulf the target in a gigantic sphere.
Kaguya never displays normal spheres, but her mightiest attack by far is the Expansive Truth-Seeking Sphere: a planetoid-sized one combining the five elements with Wood, Yin, Yang and natural energy, that can obliterate an entire time-space dimension and recreate a new one from scratch. In the video game, she can fill the entire sky over thousands of miles with tower-sized spikes from, grow more spikes or extensible arms from them, or fuse them in gigantic spikes. Her ultimate attack, "Final Truth-Seeking Sphere" detonates it in an apocalyptic blast.
=== Byakugan ===
Kaguya's eyes sport the Byakugan (All-Seeing White Eye), with which she can see at 360° around her, see far away or through solid matter, see the flow of chakra within anything and anyone with perfect accuracy, sense people through their chakra, see through illusions, and distinguish basic clones from their originals. Her descendants wielding this power have a small blind spot at the base of the neck, but whether she has it or not remains unclear. With it, she can watch over the entire world and beyond. Other wielders of her clan can even use it to see someone’s destiny.
The Byakugan enables its wielders to strike with perfect accuracy, and to see the pressure points that regulate the flow of chakra. With it, they can send their chakra inside their foes' body to cause internal damage, or strike the pressure points to disable their powers. Kaguya uses it to make her Rabbit Hair Needles strike pressure points.
Hamura and some of his descendants awoke the Tenseigan (Eye of Rebirth), the superior stage of the Byakugan. The Tenseigan grants control of gravity, Truth-Seeking Spheres and a cloak of green chakra that increases their might and gives them access to absurdly destructive attacks. It also grant the power to attract giant meteors from the atmosphere against distinct targets. Drawing power from all Tenseigans, it can even divert planets from their orbits. Kaguya herself was never seen using this power, and although she likely wields it in a latent state, she might not have awoken it.
=== Rinne-Sharingan ===
Kaguya's third eye is the origin of the Rinnegan (Samsara Eye) and its lesser form, the Sharingan (Eye of the Copy-Wheel). Like the Byakugan, it enables to see can thousands of miles across, likely expanding eyesight all over the globe. It is stated to grant her the powers of the Sharingan, and she does know about its highest abilities though she never uses them. It is not said whether it also grants the powers of the Rinnegan, though considering she passed both powers to her son Hagoromo, this is quite likely. This is also the source of her major dimensional powers.
=== Sharingan ===
The hereditary power of the Uchiha clan, descendants of Indra Ōtsutsuki, which enables them to physically see the flow of chakra and discover traps, illusions or hypnosis; to read through movements to predict their outcome, so as to avoid attacks; to copy any technique (save from special powers) seen by the wielder even once; and to trap people in illusions to control their actions, or even control the Tailed Beast themselves.
The Sharingan can evolve into the Mangekyo (Kaleidoscope) Sharingan and gain fearsome powers, which the wielder can cast with a delay or implant into someone else's eye. The most prominent powers being Amaterasu, a power named after the Shinto Goddess of the Sun, which generates a black fire that can consume almost anything and can be manipulated and shaped at will; Susanoo, a power named after the Shinto God of Storms which conjures a multi-armed being of pure chakra around the wielders, which forms a near-impenetrable protection and wields variable energy weapons, whose ultimate form is a skyscraper-sized warrior with armed wings and untold destructive power; and finally Tsukuyomi, a power named after the Shinto God of the Moon, which traps its victims into an extremely realistic illusion.
Infinite Tsukuyomi: The superior stage of Tsukuyomi, that can only be cast with the Rinne Sharingan. By projecting their power on a moon, the wielder can send the spirit of everyone caught in its light in an illusionary world where they live the happiest possible life. When within the dream-world, the caster has absolute control over it and can shape it as they please, even dragging there the spirits of the dead, effectively resurrecting them. All victims of this spell can then be bound into the God-Tree and absorbed within it.
=== Rinnegan ===
Wielders of the Rinnegan below Hagoromo's level displayed godly powers named after the different possible reincarnations in Buddhist religion, though few were able to use them all. (The abilities to control gravity, summon creatures, transform the wielder's body into devastating mechanical weapons, read minds and rip souls, absorb chakra, and kill and revive people.) They could also create black spear-shaped Chakra Receivers that
The mightiest wielders of the Rinnegan displayed many other powers, which put even the previous ones to shame, being able to open gateways to dimensions, conjure skyscraper-sized meteors or undetectable ghostly doubles of the wielders, among others. Such abilities varied from user to user, and it is doubtful that one could wield them all.
=== Control of the God-Tree ===
Kaguya has a bond with the God-Tree, which she can control. She mostly uses it to perform the spell called Divine Genesis World of Trees, which controls the building-sized roots of the God-Tree, expands them everywhere in the world and make them erupt from the ground. She used it to encase the victims of the Infinite Tsukuyomi and her sacrifices in a vegetal cocoon hanging from the roots, which regenerates when attacked. She then can draw power and chakra from the victims, who can only be saved by cancelling the Infinite Tsukuyomi. The victims are turned into White Zetsus, white plant-like humanoids blindly devoted to whoever controls the God-Tree.
=== Amenominaka ===
Kaguya's mightiest and most versatile power, named after the first-born Shinto God Amenominakanushi: the very heart of the universe. It grants her access to several dimensions she created. It is hinted that she can create an entire new dimension on the spot. Kaguya can instantly teleport to one of them, bringing anyone and anything with her; removing them from the real world, with no hope of escaping. Even Hagoromo could not summon back people from them on his own.
Six distinct dimensions are seen. She has godlike control over them, being able to manipulate, alter or rewrite everything there at will. As seen when she had the entire landscape animate and distort itself to attack her foes. She can create and control the dimension's main aspect, encasing her foes in ice in her glacier dimension. In the video game she can even use her dimension-related attacks whenever she wants.
* The first dimension to appear in the story is a a giant volcano in the middle of an endless lava field, with the sky permanently obscured by black clouds, and a lavish palace near the top of the volcano. The volcano is full of immense caverns with huge rock stalactites, and very little ground to move. The lava, its toxic fumes and extreme heat makes it a highly dangerous place for people who cannot fly, though the video game adds more ground to fight on. In it, Kaguya might be able to create and control lava like the ninjas with such special powers. In the game, she can conjure lava from the ground, before her or in all directions at close-range, and as a huge splash all around her or right under her foes’ feet.
* The second dimension to appear in the story is a chain of snowy mountains, chasms and icy cliffs, under a cloudy sky. There is a large and lavish palace atop a high cliff-wall. The very low temperature, snow and uneven landscape make it hard to travel through and there can be violent snowstorms. In it, Kaguya might be able to create and control ice like Haku. the video game, Kaguya can make icicles erupt from the ground, either one, a few of them, a wave running along the ground in front of her, or many right under her foes' feet. She can also fly high and hurl three humongous icicles towards her ground-bound foes.
* The third dimension is a never-ending sandy desert with scorching climate and little to no clouds. In it, Kaguya might be able to create and control sand like Gaara. In the video game, she can conjure up to three sand tornadoes of variable size, or a wave of sand along the ground before her.
* The fourth dimension is a tundra of very uneven landscape, filled with hills, cliffs and tablelands (with green sky in the anime). This is Kaguya's main dimension, serving as the link between the other five and the real world, enabling her to draw power and chakra from the God-Tree and the victims of the Infinite Tsukuyomi even there.
* The fifth dimension and the only one never entered during the story is a sea of highly corrosive acid, with no landscape and no other feature, deadly for anyone who cannot fly.
* The sixth dimension is a rocky field with the ground made of gray pyramidal rocks (dark green rocks and purple sky in the anime), in which the gravity is so strong that no one, not even Kaguya herself, can move normally. She can apparently concentrate the gravity on specific targets, and might be able to alter the gravity further.
=== Yomotsu Hirasaka ===
A power named after the gliding pathway that leads the souls of the departed towards the Underworld in Shinto Mythology, which is stated to be the basis of all the space-related powers. With it, Kaguya can open rifts in the very fabric of space, linking two or more separate places or even connecting them to her dimensions. She can open rifts of any size for as long as she pleases. She once created one large enough to make an entire moon visible in the sky to cast the Infinite Tsukuyomi, long before the Earth's Moon was created to seal her.
She can use it to teleport herself, anyone and anything she wants everywhere; or to banish her foes into one of her dimensions. She opens and closes her rifts extremely quickly, so avoiding getting caught is pretty hard. And trying to pry them open is useless. She can use it to warp her attacks and strike from any side and distance she wants, making them unpredictable, extremely hard to dodge, and deadly in combined attacks from all sides. She can take her foes by surprise by disappearing and reappearing behind them at any time; or escape to another dimension while making a small rift for her to watch through, to keep track of her foes and keep attacking them.
With such a power, she could easily send an attack that her enemy has just dodged through a rift to strike again, or turn her enemies' attacks against them, dodging and counter-attacking in the same move. One can even imagine how nightmarish it would be if she were to unleash a flurry of attacks, and continuously harass her enemies by sending them over and over through multiple rifts around them.
In the video game, Kaguya can open rifts towards her other dimensions to attack. She can opens rifts to her acid dimension that splash waves of acid before her, or splash acid upwards right under her foes' feet. She can also open many small rifts to both her volcano and glacier dimensions, to conjure a powerful onslaught of lava and ice spears in two different directions; or an even bigger, continuous onslaught of lava, ice, stone, acid and gray rock spears from all her dimensions towards three different directions at once.
== Major Weaknesses ==
While Kaguya is obscenely overpowered, fortunately she is not invincible and the combined might of sufficiently powerful foes can harm and even potentially defeat her; while her sons admits that before they were trained by Gamamaru, they would not be able to defeat Kaguya, Hagoromo was confident that should he and Hamura learn to more properly harness their powers as well as acquire the required skills, they would stand a chance to defeat her. Indeed, at the height of their power, her sons were able to eventually defeat her after months of fighting. It is also hinted by Kaguya herself that her entire reason for creating the White Zetsu army was so she could prepare for the arrival of other Ōtsutsuki members, showing that she didn't believe herself powerful enough to combat them on her own. Team 7 also managed to hold their own and eventually reseal her. The first thing that prevented her from annihilating all opposition in five seconds flat was her staunch obsession with taking their chakra for herself, meaning that she spent most of the battle trying to capture them instead of going all-out from the start. Also, all of her victors were of demigod status when fighting her, mighty enough to hold their own, especially when attacking in concert.
But the biggest factor to her defeat was that despite her nigh-unlimited power, Kaguya lacked the skill to use it effectively and she had infinitely less experience in battle and martial strategy than the protagonists, who are all extremely adept in both fields. The weaker protagonists were able to defeat her through a combination of perfect mastery of their powers, multilayered plans and careful teamwork. All in all, the battle against her is arguably the finest example of the story's major theme: the superiority of skill, training and teamwork over sheer might, which can only lead one so far without perfect mastery of it.
Not to say that Kaguya is completely devoid of skill. As explained before, she displays some tactics, as seen when she makes surprise attacks, sometimes combined with direct ones to overwhelm her foes, takes precautions, and seeks to disable threats before dealing the finishing blow. It is just that she knows nothing of the martial arts developed after her sealing, is far too straightforward, and lacks much in long-term strategy and improvisation. As such, the protagonists were able to surprise and to outwit her several times.
Kaguya is obviously not used to foes whom she cannot cower immediately, and does not know how to save her strength. She spent the battle unleashing increasingly deadlier attacks; while the protagonists were able to analyse her moves and to devise counters. And while she did overwhelm them many times, they were able to react, to predict her actions, to adapt their strategy and to lure her into traps, eventually besting her.
== The Ten-Tailed Beast ==
The Ten-Tailed Beast is Kaguya's alternate form, created when she fused with the God-Tree. It must be noted that while Kaguya is based on the "God is Evil" trope, the Ten-Tails is more of a Satan-like figure, tying both archetypes in the same character.
While it usually looks like a mountain-dwarfing abomination of ever-changing aspect, with a Rinne-Sharingan eyes, ten tentacle-like tails, and a bulb-like protrusion on its back, when Kaguya transforms into the Ten-Tails during the final battle, she looks much different. It has the aspect of a demonic white rabbit as huge as its previous forms if not more, floating in the air. It sports white eyes, jagged fangs, a Rinne-Sharingan eye on the forehead, large, clawed front paws, and a gigantic, moon-like sphere on its back, from which protrude the heads of the Tailed Beasts trapped within it. It has no tail but can sprout ten hand-like tentacles (or even more).
Contrary to the Tailed Beasts born from it, it is not talkative and first appears to be feral and mindless, given that it was born from a tree; though it is later revealed to have Kaguya's personality, albeit tampered down and unable to properly express herself. It is clearly sentient and able to think, but it acts erratically, lashing out violently at what Kaguya hates and rushing at what she desires. When Tobi became its host, it tried to overwhelm him and very nearly shattered his mind to gain control, but it later let itself be assimilated by Madara, whom Kaguya likely deemed a more suitable host.
The Ten-Tails is terrifyingly powerful, although given than Kaguya's aura is described as much more intense than its own (already stated to be immeasurable), it can be guessed than its power is relatively inferior. It does not have the same abilities and its powers are essentially based on pure might, making it somewhat weaker but much more destructive.
Kaguya's Rabbit Demon form mostly attacks by sprouting its tentacle-like tails and grabbing her foes with it. The tentacles are extremely fast and hard to dodge and absorb anything they grab within seconds. In the video game, the Rabbit Demon also attacks with chakra-infused claw strikes; Tailed Beast Bombs and a huge, golden beam from its mouth; waves of five, huge homing spikes from its tails; long lasting purple beams or waves of eight homing golden beams from the Tailed Beasts' heads. It can also use Yomotsu Hirasaka to warp its tails through rifts in space and attack from all sides.
== Trivia ==
* Kaguya Ōtsutsuki is based on the Japanese folk-tale "The Tale of Princess Kaguya" or "The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter", which is about a young girl found as a baby in a stalk of bamboo by an old bamboo cutter, who grows into a beautiful woman who starts crying whenever she looks at the Moon. She is courted by many nobles, including the Emperor himself, but she refuses their advances. She is eventually revealed to have come from the Moon and has to return to her people. (In some version she was exiled on Earth as a punishment, in others, she was sent there to be kept away from a grueling war.) She leaves a letter and a sample of the Elixir of Life as a farewell gift, but the grieving Emperor refuses to drink it, seeing no point in living forever without her. After she departs, the Emperor sends his men to the mountain closest to the Heavens to burn it, in hope that his last message would reach her. This mountain would later be named the Fuji Yama (Mountain of Immortality, or following different readings of the Japanese kanjis, Mountain Full of Warriors, referring to the Emperor's men.)
** Like her namesake, Kaguya comes from outer space and is closely linked to the moon. In the anime, she even arrives in a bamboo field, spends most of her nights looking at the sky, and eventually gets involved with an Emperor. However, she never returns to the Moon (unless you count her final sealing), and she reciprocates the Emperor's feelings, before their relationship is ruined by war.
* Kaguya is also based on the East Asian legend of the White Rabbit of the Moon, according to which a rabbit can be seen in the markings of the Moon, brewing the Elixir of Life for the Moon Goddess. According to the Buddhist legends, a rabbit once threw itself in a fire to serve as a meal for the Heavenly Lord Sakra; who honoured such a noble sacrifice by drawing the rabbit's likeness on the Moon.
** Kaguya's title, the Rabbit Goddess, refers to these legends. Also, her horns somehow look like a rabbit's ears and her unstable Ten-Tails form looks like a rabbit, with the huge sphere on its back from which protrudes its tails and the Tailed Beasts' heads somehow figures the Moon.
* The God-Tree that gave her godhood is linked to World-Tree of many legends across the world; including Northern European, Central European, Turkish, Central Asian and Chinese Mythologies. It sports the entire worlds on its branches and links the Heavens, the Earth and the Underworld. It is also linked with similar Western legends about the Tree of Life and the Three of Knowledge.
* Kaguya defying the taboo and eating the fruit of a divine tree is also linked to the Christian Myths of Adam and Eve, in which the first woman is tempted by a serpent to eat the fruit of the divine Tree of Knowledge About Good and Evil, causing God's wrath and cursing humanity until the end of times.
* Kaguya's character and motivations are rather similar to the Shinto Goddess of the Underworld Izanami. The eternal bliss of the Infinite Tsukuyomi being somehow similar to the Afterlife, and the White Zetsu Army being somehow similar to Izanami’s servants of the Dark World.
* There is an ongoing debate raging among fans, about whether Momoshiki and Kinshiki would have really been able to overthrow Kaguya. Indeed, the narration repeatedly refers to them as an "even greater threat than Kaguya herself". The anime on the other hand, seems to imply that Kaguya was paranoid and could not stand the very prospect of people coming after her power.
** Judging from the facts, Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, Kakashi, and Obito had to give everything they got to hold their own against Kaguya, and they could only seal her again. Additionally, the Sage of the Six Paths gave Naruto and Sasuke the ability needed to seal Kaguya so if one of them dies, the battle is already lost since sealing her would become impossible. Meanwhile, Momoshiki did not stand a chance against Naruto and Sasuke until he absorbed Kinshiki, and was eventually killed, although compared to when they faced Kaguya, Naruto and Sasuke were significantly more powerful so it's possible that Momoshiki in that state could be strong enough to threaten Kaguya. Unlike Momoshiki and Kinshiki, Kaguya can switch dimensions, which could potentially make her stronger than them.
** It is more or less admitted that while Momoshiki and Kinshiki are much more skilled fighters than Kaguya, they are not fully immortal and do not have her level of power. Should they have reached godhood like she did, they would doubtless have become even mightier than she is. Also, Momoshiki with Kinshiki's power is estimated roughly on par with Kaguya or slightly lower but still enough to pose a significant threat to her and coupled with his greater skill, could have potentially defeated her.
** However, it is also possible that Kaguya may have feared the arrival of the leader of the Otsutsuki Clan, as said leader may very well be the most powerful. While nothing is known on her clan's leadership system, as Urashiki has stated, he and Momoshiki as well as Kinshiki were send by the Clan's main family and therefore the Clan must have leaders. It is safe to assume that as Kaguya had interacted with the leader, considering on how she was sent by apparently the leader, she must have known how powerful the leader of the Otsutsukis is. If this is true, then it seems that the leader of Otsutsuki Clan will be the most powerful antagonist of the series, as not even Kaguya would dare face the leader alone.
*** Also, as Urashiki must have delivered the news by now, it is safe to assume that the leader will see the Shinobi as a worthy threat to the clan and personally descend to Earth to retrieve Shinju's chakra. If this is true, then it seems that the arrival of the leader of the Otsutsuki Clan is imminent.
** It has recently been revealed that Kaguya came to Earth with a partner and that partner appears to hold power greater than Momoshiki and Kinshiki, leaving even Sasuke in shock and awe when he saw the power of his/her hologram. When Jigen, the current main antagonist, assumed the form of said Otsutsuki, Sasuke showed greater fear than he ever showed when up against the aforementioned two and even Kaguya herself. As Jigen was able to take on both Naruto and Sasuke without using said power, his power is definitely greater than that of Momoshiki and could potentially be a match for even her power. Whether Jigen himself is the ruler of the Otsutsuki who had followed Kaguya but for unknown reasons either returned to the Otsutsuki's dimension or was somehow overtaken by Kaguya, or he is simply connected to but not quite an Otsutsuki remains unknown.
*** It was later revealed Jigen is in fact just a vessel of Isshiki Otsutsuki, who is the actual real main antagonist. Having easily defeated both Naruto and Sasuke, it confirms Isshiki's power is in fact great. Whether he is the ruler or just a singularly powerful member of the Otsutsuki remains unknown. It was also stated that Kaguya only defeated Isshiki by catching him off-guard, meaning that she feared confronting him directly and may lose, indicating Isshiki is really more powerful than Kaguya. As Amado states, Isshiki's power is so great that no one in the world could fight him if he were to revive to full power, despite Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura along with Kakashi and Obito having defeated Kaguya, further reinforcing Kaguya is weaker than Isshiki.
* Kaguya is the ancestor to just about every character with above-average abilities:
** She's the mother of Hagoromo, Hamura and Zetsu.
** She's the grandmother of Asura, Indra and any children Hamura may have had.
** The Senju, Uchiha, Uzumaki, Hyuga and Kaguya clans are all confirmed as being her descendants.
** Kinkaku and Ginkaku might also be her descendants, due to Kinkaku and Ginkaku's ability to assimilate tailed beast chakra.
* Other villains named after and based on Kaguya from the fairy tale include Kaguya, the main antagonist of the second Inuyasha movie (though in her case she was a demon who absorbed the real Kaguya from the fairy tale and assumed her identity), and Princess Snow Kaguya, the main antagonist of Sailor Moon S: The Movie, who is also based on the Snow Queen.
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