Sage

File:Naruto AnimeSagemode.png

Naruto as a Sage.

A Sage (仙人, Sennin) is someone who is able to utilise senjutsu (仙術, literally meaning: Sage Techniques), and has mastered the art of Sage Mode or someone given said title because of their renown for their great power, wisdom, or holy standing.

Senjutsu

Main articles: Senjutsu and Sage Mode Senjutsu (仙術, English TV: Sage Jutsu, literally meaning: Sage Techniques) are a specialised field of jutsu that involve the use of natural energy. Senjutsu practitioners, known as sages, learn to draw natural energy inside their bodies, blending it with their own chakra to create senjutsu chakra (仙術チャクラ, senjutsu chakura, English TV: Sage Jutsu Chakra). This chakra adds a new dimension of power to the user's techniques, while also allowing for the use of techniques that would not otherwise be possible. Very few people are shown to have mastered senjutsu. This is because both learning and using senjutsu is not safe; death may easily occur while learning to use it. Fukasaku claims that the toad sculptures on Mount Myōboku are those who failed to master the art of senjutsu. Naruto Uzumaki, Kabuto Yakushi, Hashirama Senju, Orochimaru, Minato Namikaze and Jiraiya are currently the only known human users of senjutsu. Other animals such as Fukasaku and Shima are also able to use it with the White Snake Sage and Great Toad Sage amongst others, being at least knowledgeable in it.

Other Meanings

Hagoromo Ōtsutsuki.

"Sage" can also refer to an individual renowned for their great power, wisdom, or holy standing.

• Hagoromo Ōtsutsuki, more commonly known as the Sage of the Six Paths (六道仙人, Rikudō Sennin), a legendary figure who was one of the first to be born with chakra, created modern ninjutsu, saved the world from the Ten-Tails and was the first jinchūriki. As the first jinchūriki of the Ten-Tails, he was able to use natural energy in his techniques, just as the latest ones, Obito and Madara Uchiha, are capable of doing. However, it is uncertain whether Hagoromo was able to use senjutsu before he sealed the beast within himself. He was capable of using the Six Paths Senjutsu which he, post-mortem, transferred as the Six Paths Sage Mode to his son's reincarnation Naruto Uzumaki.
• Son Gokū's moniker: The Great Sage Equalling Heaven (斉天大聖, Seiten Taisei) also makes mention of being a Sage.

See Also

• List of sages

Trivia

• The term 仙人 (Sennin), refers to the Japanese term of Chinese sages and practitioners of Taoist ways, who have gained immortality and incredible powers through the manipulation of qi, or natural energy through their body by becoming ascetics and living on mountains, where qi is said to gather at the most and to start flowing from into the world. The training and measures needed to become a Sage in Naruto is just as vigorous and demanding, and similar in some regards, requiring one to have massive reserves of chakra, and come to adopt natural energy, not for the pursuit of immortality, but to become harmonised with the flow of the world around them.