Introduction:
This is a story about how the Sage of Six Paths discovered the mysteries of chakra, invented the first jutsu, as well as major events in his life, such as becoming the Ten-Tails jinchuuriki and splitting it into the tailed beasts. It should be noted that I do not own Naruto, however, the details of the story and non-canon material is pretty much all original. I hate the direction Naruto (the manga/anime) is taking, with it being so overpowered and stuff it's basically auditions for Dragon Ball Z. As a result, I've nerfed the characters in this story as much as I can without making it TOO underpowered. I hope you all enjoy the story, and I'd love to hear your feedback. This is only my second story, so I'm still inexperience, and I'd love to hear your thoughts. Hope you enjoy it!
Prologue:
Long before there existed ninja villages, long before there existed warring clans, long before there existed the powerful jutsu employed today, there were peaceful tribes. The human world was scarcely populated, and there existed several small civilisations across the land, which never interfered nor was informed about the ongoings of one another. Hagoromo Otsutski belonged to the Otsutski Civilisation, which was well-known for its monks and its unique breed of soldiers: a highly disciplined samurai force which placed great emphasis on spiritual training as well as physical. The Otsutski Samurai were well-versed in the art of meditation, and were convinced of a pool of energy existing inside the body. The elder monks called this curious energy "chakra". No one understood exactly what this curious internal energy was, or what it gave them, but those who had trained hard enough spiritually spoke of it. They described it as a cool river that washed over them in the depths of their meditative slumber, fortifying and energizing them, allowing them to fight harder, fiercer, without tiring.
One day, a boy named Hagoromo was born. Since he was little, he and his brother sought to join the ranks of the feared samurai warriors. Hagoromo, skeptical of the existence of "chakra", was determined to experience it for himself to dispel his doubts. Where his brother was brash and aggressive, Hagoromo was of milder temperament, and was more forgiving when it came to fighting. The samurai monks were impressed by his natural aptitude for spirituality, but he was far outmatched by his elder brother in terms of strength and physical capability.
In time, Hagoromo grew to understand the workings of chakra, and was the first to harvest it and weave it into the natural elements around him, inventing the very first jutsu. The Otsutski Samurai's descendants grew in number and colonized, and their descendants eventually came to be separated into the Shinobi clans. Hagoromo himself came to be known as the Father of Shinobi, and his legend was that of the Sage of the Six Paths.
Chapter 1:
The young soldier flung himself down and let out a long sigh. It had been a tiring day. His sword hung low-slung on his shoulder and his armour was heavy. His partner came up behind him. "Resting already, Hagoromo? You'll never make it up the ranks if you give up that quick."
Hagoromo reminded his partner, Akio, that they were of the same rank. "Besides, you look like utter crap yourself." It was true. Akio was sweating profusely, there were dark circles around his eyes, and he was breathing heavily. Neither of them looked like they wanted anything more than to dip in the sparkling blue water of the stream that lay before them.
"Whaddya say, then? Wanna take a dip?" Akio asked. Hagoromo smiled. "Thought you'd never ask."
The two soldiers slipped off their metal breastplates and kabuto helmets, pulled off their metal boots, unslung their swords and slipped out of their kimonos, before taking a dive into the cool, crystal clear water. The current was gentle and the water sweet. It washed over them, revitalizing them. Hagoromo propped his elbows up on the banks and sat comfortably on a rock submerged in the water. "This is the life." He sighed.
The two novice warriors had a long day of training ahead of them. Their mission was patrol, to inspect around the outside of the walls of the Civilisation to detect enemies. They had been relieved of their duty after what seemed like hours, and now had more hours of combat training and meditation ahead of them.
Akio dived and emerged, spitting water out, diving again, splashing around, basically a little kid again. Where Hagoromo was more plaintive and musing, Akio was carefree and unbound. He lived in the moment and enjoyed himself as much as he could, not worrying too much about the future. In some ways, Hagoromo envied his freedom. 'Then again' he thought, 'I've saved my body a lot of nicks and scars.'
"I thought I would find you here," came a commanding, strict voice, and the two samurai whipped around. Their master stood, barrel-chested and stern, his thick arms crossed in front of him. He was not a large man in height, but he was built sturdy and had quite a reputation among his peers. "You two are late for combat training! You were supposed to come directly back to the dojo!" he boomed. "Get your skinny asses out of the water! Quick, before I make you run laps till the sun sets!" Hagoromo and Akio scrambled out of the water and grabbed their clothes.
"Move it! We've lost a lot of time already," he said, whacking them about their shins with a bamboo stick. "But, Taichi-Sensei.." began Akio.
"Shut yer yap! All the other students are waiting for you!"
They made good time (it was impossible not to with the bear of a Sensei marching behind them) and reached the dojo quickly enough. Master Taichi slammed open the sliding door and marched inside. The trainee swordsman, who had been sitting on the floor idly talking amongst themselves, hastily rose to their feet. "Alright, rookies, time for today's training. Since these two lazy bones have been slacking off, they will run my new obstacle course first to show you all how its done. You ready?"
Hagoromo looked out at the training field. Those spikes under the single rope bridge looked awfully sharp…
"Go!" With a whack of his kendo stick, Master Taichi sent his two young students running. The obstacle course was brutally taxing, and the rapidly spinning jungle of wooden sparring poles was especially unforgiving. They made it through the jungle, monkey-scaled the single rope bridge and climbed the other rope over the wall, ducking and weaving as wooden weaponry came flying at them from every direction. Akio, physically gifted, was nimble and managed to avoid most of the hits, but poor Hagoromo was relentlessly pounded by the heavy objects, finding it harder and harder to get back up each time he was knocked down. By the time he finished the course he was moving like a snail. He finally caught up with Akio, who had finished, and was doubled over, hands on his knees, panting. "Alright, there, Hago?"
Hagoromo, wheezing and too tired and hurt to go on, managed to give a thumbs up before collapsing. 'Well, at least this time I finished.'
His small comfort was diminished by the commanding voice "Out of shape, Hagoromo! I wanna see you out here at dawn tomorrow." Hagoromo let out a long groan.
That night Hagoromo crawled into his living quarters with his tail between his legs, physically spent and black and blue all over. He gingerly sat down on his futon; with the hard stone floor below it, it was no bed of roses. He crossed his legs and placed his back against the wall. He closed his eyes and entered a room within his own mind. He immersed himself in his thoughts, so deep in meditation that his senses were dulled; his body was asleep while his mind whirred with activity. He found his centre of peace and focused.
A cool wave washed over him.
He opened his eyes in shock, gasping as the water was dumped on him. Only, there was no water. All around him was still dark, there was no one around him, and he was completely dry. 'What was that?'
He shut his eyes and once again found his centre of peace. The wave rose in front of him again, but this time, expecting it, he spotted it, as if standing on a beach all by himself, looking at the wave rising in front of him. The wave was blue, and, while fluid, did not seem like water. He let it wash over him, he let it caress his body as it hugged him tightly, almost forming a cocoon around him. He could breathe but he could not move; he did not want to move.
When he awoke the next day, he was fully rested, and all his aches and pains from the night before were gone. Hagoromo smiled to himself. He had not understood what had happened or why. But he knew one thing. He had had his first taste of chakra energy. And he thirsted for more.