Chakra-less People in Naruto (and Boruto)

The Chakra Paradox

If you’ve watched any part of the Naruto franchise you likely know what chakra is. Chakra is the energy used by shinobi to perform ninjutsu and genjutsu. It has also been explained to be intrinsically tied to the life force of all things. One’s own chakra is derived from one’s own life force.

So it may be strange to learn that not everyone has chakra. Or, at least, probably not everyone has chakra. And if you don’t think that’s strange yet, let me give you a few examples of how chakra is directly connected to life.

First, we have sage, or nature, chakra which is derived from all life in the surrounding area. When this is called upon, the user is borrowing chakra from outside their own body. This implies that it’s not only ninja who have chakra but all living things.

Second, when someone’s chakra is almost depleted, they’re physically worn out. And to go along with this, if all of your chakra is extracted, you die. We’ve seen this happen before, such as to Jinchūriki like Gaara. So there’s no doubt that chakra and life force are entwined.

And yet, we know of a time when people existed before there was chakra on Earth — or whatever planet Naruto takes place on (I think it’s been called Earth).

Origin of Chakra

The exact origin of chakra is a bit hard to pin down, but we do know how it originated on Earth. Chakra was originally a weapon used by the Ōtsutsuki clan, who come from some distant planet. And, it’s explained that chakra is the life force of their people, but we don’t really know if it originated with them — it likely didn’t.

When Kaguya Ōtsutsuki betrayed her clan and fled to Earth, she brought a chakra seed with her. These seeds are planted all throughout the galaxy and grow into chakra trees that bear chakra fruit. Whoever eats the chakra fruit gains its power, and this is something the Ōtsutsuki clan does.

Also, this doesn’t really matter for this discussion, but chakra trees grow by absorbing the life force of everything around them — and eventually the entire planet. Yes, that’s a way chakra and life forces are related, but that has nothing to do with why they’re connected as one currently.

So, because Kaguya was an Ōtsutsuki (the clan that eats chakra fruits), she has chakra. The humans she encounters on Earth do not have chakra. So how do the humans gain chakra? Do they eat the fruit like the Ōtsutsuki clan? No. Kaguya has children with a human named Tenji.

Her children, Hagoromo and Hamura, retain chakra passed down from their mother. And, Hagoromo’s children, Asura and Indra, retain chakra passed down from their father. And so on. Eventually, this line splits into multiple branches, and we end up with the Hyūga, Uchiha, and Kaguya clans in the present time.

But there’s also another way to get chakra, and that’s by receiving it as a gift. Hagoromo traveled the world giving everyone who would listen to him some of his chakra. That’s why chakra is so prevalent today.

People Without Chakra

So now that we know how chakra originated on Earth and spread far and wide, are there any people who still don’t have chakra? Contrary to what you might be thinking, we actually don’t know. I’ll discuss them in the next section, but no, Rock and Metal Lee are not chakra-less.

As far as I can think of, we’ve never met someone in the present who didn’t have chakra. But it’s theoretically possible for people like that to still exist after hundreds or thousands of years. After all, Hagoromo couldn’t spread his chakra to everyone on Earth (I mean, he could, but he probably didn’t).

So as long as there was even one group of chakra-less people who solely bred with other chakra-less people, there should still be chakra-less people alive in the world today.

Except, there probably aren’t for one very good reason.

What do you think would happen to chakra-less people who get attacked by those who have chakra? That’s right, they’d be easily killed. And if they weren’t killed, they’d probably be turned into slaves. And since we don’t see any slaves in Naruto, either that’s not what happened, or they’ve since integrated into chakra-having society.

As much as I’d like to say there are still small groups of people out there without chakra, I just don’t see it. Maybe if they’re on a remote island far away from anyone else. But other than a case like that, if they lived somewhere on the world map we know of, they’ve probably already been killed.

Rock and Metal Lee

Okay, but what about Rock and Metal Lee? I mentioned that they actually do have chakra, so why can’t they use ninjutsu or genjutsu? And no, Might Guy isn’t the same as Rock and Metal Lee. He can use chakra just fine — he just often doesn’t.

Genjutsu is a bit more complicated, and we know less about it, so let’s ignore that one for the purpose of this discussion. Ninjutsu, on the other hand, has three main parts: flow, power, and nature. There’s also form, but that’s probably either connected to or is the same as, flow.

So the problem with Rock and Metal Lee is that they can’t form their chakra into ninjutsu. They have chakra, we know this because the Eight Inner Gates Technique releases chakra. But, they can’t actually control it and turn it into jutsu.

Conclusion

And that’s all I have to say about chakra-less people in Naruto (and Boruto) — basically, there could be some, but there probably aren’t. So what do you think? Are there still people around who don’t have chakra? Have we met them before and I just forgot? Let me know in the comments.

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