The Rinnegan is one of the three great dojutsu in the world of Naruto. Believed to be the strongest of the three eyes, the Rinnegan is incredibly overpowered, said to hold the powers of God. It is believed that in times of need, someone wielding a Rinnegan will descend upon the world and either cause great destruction or lead to world peace.
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The legend of the Rinnegan descends directly from the Sage of Six Paths, who had this power up his sleeve. Later on in Naruto, fans got to see quite a few characters wield this eye and, curiously, this eye showed variations depending on who used it.
The Awakening Of The Rinnegan
The Rinnegan is an incredibly overpowered eye and it belongs to the members of the Otsutsuki Clan originally. When Kaguya Otsutsuki gave birth to Hagoromo and Hamura, the former, her elder son, was blessed with the powers of the Rinnegan. This eye was incredibly powerful and allowed Hagoromo to do things that normal humans couldn't. He was rightly termed to be a god. With the Rinnegan, Hagoromo could control Six Paths Powers and these were the Deva Path, using which he could control forces of magnetism, Asura Path, using which he could produce and use advanced machinery from within his body, Naraka Path, which gave access to the King of Hell, Animal Path, which gave access to many summonings, Human Path, which gave access to the souls of human beings and any other living things, and finally, Preta Path, using which one would gain access to the ability to absorb chakra.
These are the standard powers of the Rinnegan that Hagoromo was blessed with from birth. However, while he was lucky enough to have it, others have to awaken this power. Hagoromo had two children, Indra and Asura, and both of them will blessed with one half of his powers. The only way to awaken the Rinnegan effectively is to combine the powers of Indra and Asura together.
Since these two kept reinacarnating over the years, Madara Uchiha was successful in combining their chakras to give rise to the Rinnegan. Another way to awaken the Rinnegan is to meet the Sage himself. A gift from the Sage leads one to turn the ocular power of the Mangekyo Sharingan into a Rinnegan, provided that they have the chakra of at least one of the siblings within themselves.
Madara's Rinnegan
Madara Uchiha is the first person in the world of Naruto to have awakened the Rinnegan after the Sage of Six Paths. Being the man at the top of the Uchiha Clan, he had developed his ocular jutsu to the very highest level. This wasn't a surprise, given that he grew up in the Warring States Era and his entire saw him fight on the battlefield. Surrounded by enemies from all sides, Madara had to either live while growing stronger, or perish. Of course, someone with a zeal as strong as him would certainly manage to survive and improve the ocular jutsu. Madara was the first Uchiha to awaken the Mangekyo Sharingan with his brother and, eventually, after his brother died, he gained the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan.
Madara also played a role in creating Konoha and, in fact, he was the man responsible for christening it. Sadly, things were not meant to be and Madara had to leave the village, eventually returning to attack it. In his final fight against his arch rival, Hashirama, Madara ended up dying, however, his main goal in this fight was to obtain a piece of his flesh.
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Thanks to his Mangekyo Sharingan, Madara could read the stone tablet and knew that he had to combine the powers of Indra and Asura to give rise to true power that would eventually cause world peace. Following this, Madara obtained Hashirama's cells and integrated them into his body, which led to the awakening of the Rinnegan for the very first time since the death of the Sage of Six Paths.
Sadly, the Rinnegan only awakened near death in Madara's eyes, which meant that he couldn't use this power for long. He ended up transplanting these eyes into Nagato and created a crafty plan to see himself resurrected in the future. In the 4th Great Ninja War, Madara saw his wish being fulfilled and, eventually, he received his eyes once again. With the powers of the Rinnegan, Madara was unstoppable. His Rinnegan possessed the special ability of Limbo and this allowed him to summon clones of himself from a different plane of existence entirely. To the regular human, seeing the clones of Limbo was impossible. They could only be sensed using Six Paths Senjutsu or seen using the Rinnegan. The power of these clones was great enough to defeat even Tailed Beasts, which just goes to show that they were not to be messed with. In fact, they grew further stronger when Madara became the Jinchuriki of the Ten Tails.
Sasuke's Rinnegan
Madara was certainly not the only mortal in the world of Naruto who attained the Rinnegan. Sasuke Uchiha, one of the main characters in the story, also achieved this feat. After meeting the Sage of Six Paths, Sasuke gained half of his powers and thus ended up awakening the Rinnegan. He calls his eye a gift from the Sage of Six Paths. Just like Madara and Hagoromo, he had all the abilities of a standard Rinnegan, however, in his case, the Rinnegan looks quite different. Sasuke's Rinnegan has six tomoe inside it, which implies that he has special abilities. When these tomoe are visible, Sasuke can use special powers of his Rinnegan. When they disappear, it means Sasuke's eye need to recharge.
The very first ability that Sasuke's eye gave him that is unique to him is Amenotejikara. This technique allows Sasuke to swap places with any object that is within a certain radius. Sasuke can immediately swap places with both living and not living things. This technique is incredibly useful and has seen him defeat countless foes with his unique strategies. With time, Sasuke improved his control over the Rinnegan even further and he also unlocked a new ability. This ability is unnamed, however, it gives him the power to open a hole in the fabric of space and time itself and travel to any dimension he wants.
Sasuke can access the dimension of Kaguya, all six of which are incredibly difficult to get to. He could even access the dimension of the 10 Tails in Isshiki's world as well. Clearly, Sasuke's Rinnegan is very overpowered.
The Otsutsuki Rinnegan
The members of the Otsutsuki Clan are also blessed with the Rinnegan. In their cases, the Rinnegan has shown many variations, both in terms of color and powers. For instance, Momoshiki has a red Rinnegan on the palm of his hands and it eventually evolves and becomes yellow when he absorbs Kinshiki. It also grants him the power to absorb any ninjutsu with one hand and multiply it several times and expel it from the other hand.
Similarly, Urashiki has several Rinnegan colors. He starts with a purple Rinnegan, which then evolves and takes red and eventually becomes blue. Urashiki's Rinnegan also gives him the ability to go back in time, which makes him extremely overpowered.
The members of the Otsutsuki Clan all have different dojutsu and all of them possess unique powers. From Momoshiki to Urashiki, the Otsutsuki are incredibly dangerous to take on in combat. Furthermore, the strongest Otsutsuki of all time, Shibai, also had access to the Rinnegan, however, it isn't known what his eye allowed him to do. Perhaps, in the future, fans will find out more about this and, thus, learn more about the wonders of the powerful eye that is the Rinnegan.
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