The Incipient…!!

Naruto wakes to find a stranger drifting in the air above him. Assuming at first that he has died, he grows anxious to leave and rejoin the battle, but he cannot make sense of anything the old man says. The figure keeps shifting his manner of speech until he lands on words Naruto can follow, and only then does he name himself: Hagoromo Otsutsuki, the legendary Sage of Six Paths. Struck with wonder, Naruto settles in to hear the tale.

Hagoromo recounts how his mother, Kaguya, ate the fruit of the divine tree, how he and his sibling battled the resulting monster to save her, and how he later divided that vast power. He speaks of his own two children, the gifted firstborn Indra and the younger Asura, who was dismissed early on as hopeless. Lacking natural talent, Asura leaned on the strength of others and clawed his way to power through relentless effort, and the Sage chose him to inherit the world.

The Sage explains that the chakra of both sons has passed down through the generations, reincarnating into new bearers time and again, with Asura's most recent vessel being Naruto himself. The chapter belongs to the Birth of the Ten-Tails' Jinchuriki arc and appears in the seventieth volume. Viz publishes the title as He of the Beginning, distinguishing it from the later chapter that centers on Kaguya.