The Tenseigan is an interesting piece of Naruto lore that even the most hardcore fans may not have a heard of. This is mainly because it was produced outside of canon in the Naruto films.
While technically outside the normal canon of Naruto, these films were overseen by Kishimoto who created most of the story concepts while taking somewhat of a backseat role in the writing.
Either way, many fans struggle to contend with the Teseigan’s necessity in the story, the whole thing stinks of retroactive continuity on Kishimoto’s part, drawing thread together to make a story that can just about fit lore and not break continuity.
Yet, the Tesnseigan is forever part of the Naruto lore now, and actually can be quite helpful to understanding the Jougan eye as well as other parts of the Boruto canon, even though the Tenseigan is only mentioned in The Last: Naruto the Movie
So, let’s explore this piece of lore together and learn more about the Otsutsukis as well as the Hyuga clan
What Does The Tenseigan Do?
The Tenseigan translates directly into English as ‘Reincarnation Eye’ which, as per usual, describes the eye’s functions pretty well. Perhaps the best way to fundamentally understand this eye is to understand what Toneri, the film’s antagonist, was trying to use the Tenseigan for.
In essence, Toneri was trying to wipe out everyone on the Earth by colliding the moon with the Earth. Once everyone on Earth was dead he would use his Tenseigan to revive the planet into a new world that could start again.
This is the main function of the Tenseigan. Although the Eye also allows it’s user to fire Truth Seeking Balls when in Tenseigan Chakra Mode, just like other Otsutsuki’s can. Also, the wielder of the eye has a control over repellent and attractive forces, similar to how Pain’s Deva Path does.
In addition to reanimating bodies, the Tenseigan can reanimate objects too. Toneri reanimates many stone golems and rocks which he can use his repellent/attractive force powers on and can also give the inanimate objects their own life when he reanimates them.
Tenseigan Chakra Mode is just the usual chakra mode enhancement. It allows Toneri to fight against Naruto’s Kyuubi Chakra Mode. This Chakra Mode also allows its user to fly, covered in a huge chakra shroud as well as a single horn like Kaguya.
It’s been said that the Tenseigan CHakra Mode is comparable to Naruto’s Kyuubi Chakra Mode when enhanced with his Senjutsu, so pretty powerful.
How Is The Tenseigan Acquired?
Like most of these dojutsu, they have been descended from Kaguya Otsutsuki in one form or another. If we consider that the Rinnegan is an evolution of the Sharingan, then you can consider the Tenseigan the qualitaeral evolution of the Byakugyan.
While it isn’t this simple, it seems Kishimoto and his team were trying to make the Rinnegan equivalent of the Byakugyan and give the Hyuga clan a little more canon importance and backstory just as the Uchihas have.
The reason these points are important is because the Tenseigan can only be acquired when a member of the Otsutsuki clan transplants a Byakugyan from a Hyugan clan member.
So it doesn’t really seem like the Hyuga clan can actually awaken this eye as it’s pretty hard to get Otsutsuki DNA.
Moreover, there does seem to be more behind acquiring the eye then is overtly clear to the viewer. For example, when Toneri takes HInata’s younger sister Hanabi’s Byakugan he seems to claim they work because they are ‘pure’ and what this exactly means isn’t particularly clear.
It’s also unclear how permanent the Tenseigan is, when Naruto defeats Toneri his eye simply reverts back to Byakugan.
Whether this happens because he turned them off, or they ran out, or some other reason, is not abundantly clear. What’s more is that they simply return the eyes back to Hanabi without much comment.
As we mentioned, there isn’t much information out there on the Tenseigan and what there is can often be conflicting or confusing.
There are only two known characters who have ever awoken the Tenseigan. Namely, Hamura Otsutsuki, who already has both Hyuga clan DNA and Otsutsuki DNA, being the progenitor of the Hyuga clan as well as the son of Kaguya, and obviously Toneri awakened it too.
Does Boruto Have A Tenseigan?
This is a frequently asked question among this topic, but has more to do with eager fans than anything else.
When Boruto first started, it was evident that Boruto had his own unique dojutsu. His eye looked different to most other dojutsu, although perhaps looked most like the Tenseigan, and fans tried to quickly figure out and predict what was going on here before it was revealed.
The eye certainly had some resemblance to the Tenseigan that fans could believe. But moreover, Boruto has Hygua DNA even if he doesn’t have a Byakugyan like his sister which could make him a potential vessel for the Tenseigan.
However, much of this ended up being mere fan speculation and expectation that the Tenseigan might be carried into the newer canon (it hasn’t been, yet). Boruto actually has the Jogan, a completely new dojutsu that only Boruto is seen to wield.
Can Boruto Acquire The Tenseigan?
In reality, this has never happened or been talked about and probably won’t be something that happens. But in theory, there are certain things that make it seem like this totally could happen. Let’s explore.
Firstly, Naruto and Hinata are the parents of both Boruto and his sister Himawari. SO both Boruto and Himawari have Hyuga DNA and Himawari actually has a Byakugan. Technically, both Hinata and Naruto were descended from Otsutsukis.
So, it’s definitely not out of the realm of possibility, knowing how one would acquire theTenseigan, that both Himawari and Boruto could technically acquire the Tenseigan.
This opens Pandora’s box of potential dojutsu these two could acquire. If we consider that Sasuke gained the Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan by following the single requirement that he has to transplant a sibling’s eye into his own.
This begs the question of what would happen if Boruto somehow transplanted Himawari’s Byakugyan into his own body then what would happen.
Boruto would have both the Byakugan, and the Jougan, could these two merge into some sort of Eternal dojutsu that is supremely powerful just like the Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan?
There are a whole host of crazy options here that are mainly speculation but technically both Himawari and Boruto have Otsutsuki DNA and Hyuga DNA.
Final Thoughts
There you have it, basically all the information we have on the Tenseigan. There’s not much information out there on the Tenseigan, unlike other dojutsu, as it was only ever mentioned in the film ‘The Last: Naruto The Movie’ and not really at all after this film.
It seems the main function of the Tenseigan within the Naruto lore is to provided the Hyuga clan with a little more power and back story, if anything what resulted was making the Otsutsuki clan even more powerful than before.
It definitely had its own resurgence when the Boruto manga and series came around and many saw the Tenseigan as the most likely suspect for the mysterious dojutsu that Boruto had, but this was in fact a completely separate dojutsu.
Although, there is certainly some interesting speculation from fans around both Boruto and Himawari’s potential capacity to acquire the Tenseigan as they both technically have Hyuga DNA and Otsutsuki DNA.
From here you could speculate on possibilities till the sun comes home but we have to wait for the series and manga to play out a little more before we can see any of this come to fruition.
What we do know is that in Boruto there is a large focus on the Otsutsuki tribe once more as well as much human experimentation, so let’s just wait and see!
