Story of the Sage

The story of the Sage is a known legend among the people of the western continent. It is a story that explains the coming of chakra and bijuu as the birth of the 'first Shinobi'. Furthermore, it is being used by some clans to claim where their kekkei genkei originates from. While there are some clans, cultures and people who don't believe the story and just consider it a legend, there are plenty who do believe that the legend is in fact true.

## Birth of Shinobi

At the beginning, there was a vast land in which humans lived. They lived in a manner which was expected, at peaceful times and also had wars among them. But at the end, they existed, but they were never alone.

The Ten Tails has also lived there, Lonely and sad. He was being shunned due to his indescribable power, which made him feared by every living creature. He was left to lie alone in an open area, sinking into his own sadness and sorrow. One day he decided that his terrible fate needs to change, and he came up with a plan to make things better for himself.

Approaching a small village, the Ten Tails proposed to the fearful people in it a deal. He would give them abilities which with they will be able to prosper and do great things, and in return, they will allow the Ten Tails to spend time with them, and also insisted they will consider him to be the new village leader. Thinking carefully about this offer, but also fearing his great power, they decided to accept.

The first Shinobi were born that day, when the Ten Tails gave the people of the small village, which consisted of about 50 people, Chakra. They began using their new abilities to make larger farm fields with ease, grow forests which they could now easily harvest for wood, and so on. The Ten Tails also helped them with some things, seeing their abilities were still very much limited and they did not see the need to grow stronger.

## Rise of Conflict

In the meanwhile, the other villages grew envy. The other humans wanted to find out why they did not get any abilities, and only that village got to have such amazing talents. Many villages gathered together and rallied around the small village, angry and bitter. They demanded the Ten-Tails would give them the abilities as well, but the Ten-Tails refused under the claim that the other villages would abuse the abilities. This made the villagers even more furious, and soon enough they declared war against the village.

As the humans attacked the village, the first Shinobi began using their abilities to protect themselves. They found that those abilities can very easily be transferred into combat purposes, which impressed the Ten-Tails. The Humans were of no match to the village, and the Shinobi found they did not need to rest much, as the Ten-Tails gave them “Chakra” as he called it, and he also named the villagers “Shinobi”, to make them stand out of the ones they were fighting.

The war lasted for decades, and the village stood strong against all of the attacks that came against it with the aid of the Ten-Tails. About 64 years into the war, many of the original Shinobi now had children and even grandchildren, and they were worried about them, and once he saw it, the Ten-Tails told the Shinobi to go be with their families, and he will protect them, as they have never let go of their agreement. Among the Shinobi that were within the original 50 was now an elderly woman, who had a few children. The youngest, now at the age of 42, was the Sage of the Six Paths.

## The fight against the Ten-Tails

The Sage had the incredible eyes, known as the Rinnegan, from birth, but he had only managed to learn to control his abilities at the current year, and he watched as the Ten Tails wiped many humans one after the other, taking them out as if they were worth nothing. He thought that the war couldn’t be the only way, and he decided that he will find another way.

The Sage experimented with his abilities and managed to master all, except for one, which was the Outer path of Death, the Seventh path. He became capable of seeing the chakra flow in everyone, transform his hands into strange things, use any jutsu he saw by mimicing the seals used for it, summon many different kinds of animals. After 26 more years of training, at the age of 68, he decided that he was ready nevertheless. After 100 years of fighting, he decided there will be no more fighting among the humans and Shinobi. Approaching the Ten Tails, the now old Sage faced the beast and said that the war needs to stop, and that the Beast needs to be the one to stop it. Outrageous from the fact a Shinobi would dare stand against him after all the years he protected them, the Ten Tails moved his attention to the Sage, and everyone else stood still. Both humans as Shinobi wanted to see what will happen, and what they saw amazed them.

The Ten Tails and Sage began fighting each other, almost as if they were equals. Their fight would last for many hours, and during it the world has changed. The mountains in which Iwagakure would reside were created, and the eternal rain that would forever wash Amegakure also started. But the most notable thing of all would be that the war between the humans and Shinobi has stopped.

Near the end of the fight, the Sage stood in front of the great beast, tired and nearly exhausted. The Ten Tails, impressed with the Sage’s abilities and courage, asked him why he insisted on fighting for the humans, and the Sage told him that Death could not be the only way. Then the Sage did something which would be forever known as the greatest jutsu of them all, one which was never revealed. Creating five shadow clones, each clone did a seal that represented one of the natures of the elements, and then the Sage released them all. Feeling the combined chakra of all the natures, the Sage did the seals as well, which created a flash that would blind the entire world, even the Ten Tails.

## The new beginning

After the flash, the Ten-Tails was no more. The Sage stood, extremely exhausted and aware he does not have much time left, in front of nine smaller, younger appearing beasts, with each one having a different number of tails that went from one to nine. The Sage smiled to all and greeted them to the world, and told them this will be a place for them to enjoy, explore, and that they will forever live in this world. He went between the beasts, naming them and petting each as he gave them a name. Shukaku, Matatabi, Isobu, Son Goku, Kokuo, Saiken, Chomei, Gyuki and Kurama.

He told the beasts that from this day on they are free to do as they will, as they were created by him and that he is giving them complete freedom. The Sage told them to grow, learn and become experienced in the world, and that they need to avoid coming into contact with humans or Shinobi. He explained that they are not ready yet and that one day the humans or Shinobi might approach them instead, and when they did, they must be gentle with the humans and Shinobi, as they can very easily die. He finished his talk with them by telling them that he is very happy to have met them, and then he fell to the ground, now dead due to lack of chakra and exhaustion.

The beasts, sad from seeing their father and creator dead, each went their own way, with the humans and Shinobi not daring to try and do anything with them, as they feared the unknown power of the new beasts that have appeared. The Shinobi and humans also grieved the loss of the Sage, who they considered to be their saviour and greatest hero.

From that day on, they begin counting the years, marking the Death of the Sage as 0.