Isshiki Ōtsutsuki

**Isshiki Ōtsutsuki** (大筒木イッシキ, *Ōtsutsuki Isshiki*) was a member of the Ōtsutsuki clan's main family who originally came to Earth with Kaguya to plant a God Tree and harvest its chakra fruit. He was betrayed by Kaguya, who left him for dead, and took over the body of a novice monk named Jigen, who he also branded with a Kāma. Centuries later, he became the leader of Kara as Jigen is order to continue to carry out his original plan, as well as secure a new, better vessel in Kawaki. He was forced to ressurrect in Jigen's body, and died without being able to apply a new Kāma, leading to his soul being extinguished, but not before entrusting his failed vessel and loyal follower Code with carrying on the Ōtsutsuki Will.

## Background

A thousand years ago, Isshiki came to Earth alongside Kaguya with the objective to plant a Tree to harvest its Chakra Fruit. While Kaguya, being lower-ranked, was planned to be sacrificed to create the Chakra Fruit, she instead turned on Isshiki, leaving him on the verge of death after destroying Isshiki's lower half. Encountering Jigen and not having the strength to implant a Kāma on him, Isshiki devised a desperate plan and shrunk himself to enter the monk's ear in order to survive his injury by absorbing Jigen's nutrients. Through time, Isshiki came to control Jigen's entire body and embed a Kāma onto his host.

Upon the formation of Kara, Isshiki through Jigen became its leader and acquired a new Ten-Tails seedling; the Inners collectively agreed on obtaining the Chakra fruit by cultivating a new God Tree huge enough to devour all life on Earth. With Kaguya's betrayal and eventual sealing leaving Isshiki alone, he was left with no other option but to use himself via Jigen as the sacrifice for the Ten-Tails, in order to make it bloom into a God Tree. Passing on reviving himself through Jigen as his body would die within a few days as it wouldn't bear his chakra, he instead opted to cultivate Jigen's body as much into an Ōtsutsuki as possible to be fed to the Ten-Tails for its growth. With this intent, Isshiki began preparing for a new vessel to embed another Kāma seal once he fed Jigen and himself to the beast.

Eventually, Isshiki found Kawaki; after Delta tested the boy's blood as a viable candidate to be a vessel in the anime. Jigen approached Kawaki's abusive father with a large sum of money, to buy the boy for his plans. After taking custody of the boy, Isshiki introduced Jigen as his new father and reassured him. Eventually, Isshiki found Amado Sanzu, a scientist who endured several failings to revive his daughter Akebi. Recognising the man's talents, Isshiki offered him a place in Kara with the promise of reviving Akebi through the Chakra Fruit. Upon joining Kara, Isshiki had Amado use the remains of Shibai Ōtsutsuki to implant various powerful abilities into the members of Kara. He also had Amado modified Isshiki's vessel with Scientific Ninja Tools, the two attempted to transfer Kāma to Kawaki, Code and thirteen other boys in an experiment. Kawaki was the only success, while Code gained an incomplete White Kāma and the other thirteen perished. Despite promising him safety, Isshiki put Kawaki through gruelling training to master the Kāma and would constantly berate him as only having value as a vessel, striking the boy whenever he questioned him. Meanwhile, Code was recruited as his most loyal subordinate. At some point, Amado presented to him several cyborgs he had modified to secretly bring down Jigen, under the pretences of being useful for the sake of Kara's plans; however as their combat abilities exceeded Jigen's, he ordered Amado to dispose of them to not undermine his position as leader and ordered Boro to get rid of them, not knowing that Boro had actually hidden them all in his cult.

In the anime, another Inner Ōga was enhanced to help Amado with his research on the human heart. When she attempted to study Jigen's, he considered it treason, and destroyed a portion of her brain before she escaped.

## Personality

Isshiki was driven, pragmatic, and remorseless. Common with the rest of his clan, Isshiki cared not for other lives, desiring only to live at any costs and furthering his own goals with no concern on how many innocent people must die for it, as shown when he crushed Jigen's mind and completely took over his brain and body; even fellow clansmen were not above being expendable by him, as he intended to sacrifice Momoshiki's vessel to cultivate a God Tree. Even as he overwhelmed Jigen's body with his immense power, he mocked Jigen's tears of pain, declaring him a worthless and defective vessel. Like other Ōtsutsuki, he openly viewed himself as a superior being, looking down on all others as beneath him. In battle, he outright mocked enemies, repeatedly insulting his foes upon overpowering them and relishing in their awe and/or fear of his power. He also showed an authoritarian nature, fully capable of commanding respect among the group, to the point even the prideful Victor and hot-tempered Delta were easily silenced by him. He was also shown to be rather vain, storing various trinkets in his pocket dimension, including clothing and glasses of wine. In the anime, he noted to find certain people amusing, such as Deepa making him laugh on occasion, though he seems to not express such emotions openly, as Amado did not think he was capable of laughter.

He was very confident in his abilities, bordering on arrogance. When he faced Naruto and Sasuke, the well-considered two strongest shinobi in history, he was completely unfazed by this. At the same time, this self-confidence didn't prevent Isshiki from praising his opponents and also remaining calm when cornered, even actually praising them for revealing and figuring out the weakness of his abilities. Likewise, he was willing to admit when he was outwitted, openly declaring Amado's victory in forcing his resurrection in Jigen's body. He was also shown to be a perfectionist, expressing disgust to see his adopted son's preference of his prosthetic right arm over and desire to quickly restore his right arm, however he could only be worried that his future body would be imperfect. Despite his confidence, he was cautious, having ordered Amado to dispose of all the cyborgs that surpassed Jigen's powers to prevent usurpation of leadership, leaving only Code as an exception due to his loyalty, but not without installing limiters in him.

Isshiki was a hypocrite and an abusive parental figure, as when he took in Kawaki as an adopted son and promised him safety, he placed the child, alongside fourteen others, in a dangerous experiment that led to thirteen of them dying outright. His methods of training Kawaki in becoming his vessel, along with discipline for disobedience, amounted to constant physical abuse and neglect, beating the child while refusing to explain to him of the true purpose of the seal he placed onto him. Isshiki's horrible parenting greatly warped Kawaki's personality with violent tendencies and trauma.

Despite his amoral nature, Isshiki was shown to be able to remain calm even when faced with insult. Generally, Isshiki was formal and courteous, addressing the fellow members of his organisation politely, even extending manners to his enemies, as apologised for not removing his shoes when entering the Uzumaki household. He preferred to only incapacitate enemies when not needing to kill them and even willing to avoid conflict if potential adversaries were agreeable to his terms. At the same time, like Momoshiki, Isshiki's confidence stems from an extreme superiority-complex. As such when faced against the prospect of an opponent who can actually challenge him, he becomes furious and determined to restore his self-perceived dominance.

He seemed to have a sense of comradery, referring to the other Inners as comrades and offering to tell Koji's last words to Amado as a favour to his former comrades. He was very composed and systematic in his approach to matters at hand. Even when dealing with momentary failure, he remains determined as ever, convinced that all will fall into place as he designed it. At the same time, he had shown an irritable side, as when tasks fail to reach his expectations, he could lash out, as he kicked a broken tank after another setback to his plans. Prioritising his own survival more than almost anything, Isshiki lost his composure when Naruto drained him of his already limited lifespan, showing his fear of a permanent death and his rage at Naruto's mockery. He made it clear that Kawaki will not amount to anything but as a sacrifice for Isshiki's own survival, and upon being outsmarted by Kawaki, a dying Isshiki, losing all composure, expressed pure horror at his own death. Also, despite his vain attitude, he could genuinely appreciate those who are faithful to him, as he regarded Code as his most beloved, loyal subordinate, naming him his successor to the Ōtsutsuki Will.

He viewed those who value peace as the utmost priority as being cowardly and foolish. Arrogant as he appeared, Isshiki was very cautious and secretive, capable of keeping the full scope of his abilities secret even from his allies. Very perceptive and deceptive, he was fully aware of Koji Kashin and Amado's treason, yet still hid it perfectly from all. He effectively fooled all the Inners so well that he ultimately tricked Koji and Amado to reveal their true intentions of killing him. Even though Victor went to falsify evidence to blame Deepa of his unauthorised project to recreate a God Tree, Isshiki did not trust any of it and while putting Victor off guard by seemingly letting him off with a warning, instead revived Deepa's head to confirm the truth and ordered Victor's execution.

Isshiki was so driven in his goals that he could get over-excited and reckless from the idea of things proceeding so swiftly: Delta noted that money Isshiki had invested for his experiments was enough to buy an entire country. His immense devotion to his goal left him to have little to no interest in other matters, willing to leave his defeated foes alive if he deemed it taking up too much of his time. Isshiki's devotion in cultivating the Chakra Fruit was such even while alone after losing Kaguya, he was willing to feed his own damaged body via his inadequate vessel to the Ten-Tails, even if this would result in the fruit's inferior quality. Even more, the fact that he would wait for over a millennium shows remarkable tenacity and patience on his part. At the same time, he would do whatever he deemed necessary to speed up progress in his plans. After learning of Boruto bearing a Kāma and uniquely having a naturally perfect compatibility with it, he became determined to capture Boruto as a new sacrifice for the God Tree and to ensure he would not die in anyway outside of being fed to the beast, in order to produce the highest calibre of Chakra Fruit.

Even after death he was determined to continue his clan's way of evolving by tasking his most loyal and trusted subordinate Code to follow in his footsteps and become an Ōtsutsuki by planting a new God Tree on Earth and consume a chakra fruit, and then to continue to do so across more planets. He was also vengeful, naming all those who led to his death for Code to kill.

Isshiki seemed to believe that all living beings have their fates predestined by their genetics, as he stated that Koji, a clone of Jiraiya, was destined to die just like his template due to having inherited his genes.