I intended for this week’s post to be about the rakugo manga Akane-banashi, but I guess that’ll be saved for next week, which works for me as I still need to do my research on the manga. About a month ago, I made a post talking about what could be expected of a timeskip in the Boruto series. I said that after Boruto gets his scar from Kawaki in a misguided attempt to protect his new hero Naruto from the threat of the Ohtsutsuki, Kawaki will be closely monitored while Boruto gets more intensive training from Sasuke and most likely Kakashi who also suffered a similar fate: losing an eye while protecting an Uchiha and gaining a dojutsu afterwards. Kakashi got Obito’s Sharingan; Boruto got the Jougan, which is explained in the wiki as a combination between the Hyuga clan’s Byakugan and Naruto’s ability to detect malice, which explains why it was so prominent in the early episodes when Sumire’s summon, Nue, started eating chakra for power.
But when the threat was neutralized, Boruto’s Jougan fell dormant, occasionally glitching awake for the rest of the series for the eagle eyed fans to catch until the Ohtsutsuki threat reemerged to ruin the Chunin Exams as had happened in the movie and the manga.
Momoshiki Ohtsutsuki is the one who implants a Karma seal on Boruto’s palm. The Karma seal is a type of curse mark that enhances the abilities of the owner (Boruto, Kawaki, Jigen/Isshiki) while also holding the biological information of the Ohtsutsuki in question. If the holder of the Karma seal dies, their body undergoes an Ohtsutsukification which can rob them of their original identity while the Ohtsutsuki member takes over. In Jigen’s case, he was a monk who was possessed by Isshiki Ohtsutsuki; and when Kawaki tried to eliminate Momoshiki’s presence in Boruto, the process to Ohtsutsukification sped up rapidly that by technicality, Boruto’s not human anymore.
Additionally, when his chakra runs low, Momoshiki takes over his mind and his body goes on autopilot. The crux of the Boruto series is to show that the Ohtsutsuki threat wasn’t as absent as the shinobi of the previous generation thought. The OG Team 7 had difficulty fighting Kaguya, and now that for them a decade-and-a-half of peace have passed, while the Kage and S-level shinobi can still body major threats, but the Ohtsutsuki prove that, whether alone or in numbers, even the best shinobi would struggle.
The reason I bring Boruto up for a second time and so soon after the first one is because it was publicly announced that episode 293 of the anime is where Part 1 will end. Last month, we were given rumors and glimpses of a possible indefinite hiatus with not a lot of information following on why that was. The most popular reasons being to let the animators rest and also that TV Tokyo’s license to distribute series was ending this summer.
But now we know that the Boruto Timeskip or Shippuden (or realistically Raiden if we note what it would look like in kanji characters) is on the horizon. The manga alluded to such when Kawaki sent Boruto’s parents away and gave Boruto himself the scar. I have to admit that I’m abysmally slow on the anime itself, but recent episodes have shown that the Eida and Daemon have been summoned by Code to track down Kawaki and Boruto for the purpose of becoming a real Ohtsutsuki while getting revenge on the Leaf for what happened to the Ohtsutsuki-led Kara organization and Isshiki.
Between Boruto getting scarred by Kawaki and the destruction of the Leaf as alluded to in the first episode, over the course of the series we’ve learned that Kawaki and Code aren’t working together. They both hate each other, surely, though there’s still no way to tell who or what destroys the Leaf village like that. Maybe the blame falls on one, both, or all three in the heat of battle, but again we’ll have to wait and see what comes up.
I know that my predictions for what might happen during a timeskip it focused only on Boruto and his training. Following up on that, there’s a few things I can expect while others can be said to be speculation.
Boruto’s teammates: During the Chunin exams, Sarada got the promotion and her vest, which makes the new Team 7 eligible for middling C-rank and low B-rank missions, with her as team captain. Mitsuki may follow suit and advance the difficulty of their missions, though this may leave Boruto in the dust as a Genin much like what happened to the previous generation of shinobi when Naruto was training with Jiraiya before his grand return to the village. The rest of Boruto’s graduating class with exceptions might also follow suit with some overachievers making it to Jonin or going on to be ANBU shinobi in the process, but with the boosts Boruto and characters like Sumire, Mitsuki, and Tsubaki all have, whether Boruto or other characters advance or not doesn’t really matter, when you don’t need a high rank to sleep your opponent with minimal movement. The main changes are responsibilities and pay, which is not dissimilar from real-life military ranks. The U.S. military for example expects the junior enlisted to do a lot of the heavy lifting while high-ranking sergeants and above are gradually put into administrative roles. Medal of Honor recipients and servicemembers awarded similarly high awards get a totally different treatment, rank notwithstanding. In similarity to the Naruto franchise, neither Naruto nor Sasuke made it to Chunin, but wound up being the most powerful shinobi in the lands.
Family: Naruto and Hinata are still missing at the time of writing this post and will likely be stuck there until Boruto brings them back or Kawaki is forced to return them to the real world from custody. Likewise, the anime also has an arc where Kawaki and Himawari are attending the Ninja Academy. Initially, I was given the impression that she wouldn’t have the mentality or drive to become a shinobi all her own, but the anime proves that notion incorrect. Not to mention, she’s the one who has the Byakugan and when she activates it, she exhibits the shinobi’s killing intent, and has done so several times in the series.
Furthermore, one of the more recent chapters (Spoilers) shows Daemon attempting to confront Himawari while she’s walking home with groceries in hand. Daemon was confused as to why she didn’t strike, as he sensed an untapped power coming from her. This could be the Byakugan, though it still remains to be seen what he saw in her specifically. What is known is that she is still an academy student and while her brother is off training, she most likely becomes a shinobi herself as well, becoming a Genin or Genin Promotable, not unlike the promotable positions of U.S. servicemembers who are scheduled to attend a promotion board. However, with the direction Kawaki has gone, she and the rest of the class will be one student short, which is also a parallel to that of the original Naruto series.
Deaths: The ninja world lives and dies by the sword. Before, during, and after the establishment of the ninja villages every shinobi was on the battlefield, including child soldiers like the young sons of the Senju and Uchiha clans. This many bodies on the field of battle brought the average life expectancy down to just 30 years with so many children dying in wars alongside their older veteran counterparts. The Third Shinobi War brought these dangers back as Kakashi, Obito, and Rin barely survived unscathed. Even in these relatively peaceful times, the life of the shinobi benefits from technological enhancements while also suffering the same kind of dangers from yesteryear. The more things change and all that. Shinobi dying on the field of battle or on a mission or by any other means is a fact of life that everyone expects to face, though specific character trajectories are left to some conjecture. I have no way to tell who will die or how; predictions aren’t 100%, and characters fans believed were marked for death wound up surviving, while the least likely death wound up happening. Reception to X character’s death/disappearance/etc. will depend on how well written they were. The only thing that can be said with certainty is that fan-favorite characters like Naruto or Sasuke might be one of the few on the chopping block, and fans would likely sooner see them incapacitated than dead, myself included. As for shinobi who preceded them but are now senior citizens in the Boruto era, they could also be up for death or incapacitation, though ideally it’s done in a way that doesn’t make a joke out of them. No promises, though.
Miscellaneous/Free space: Most of what I’ve said so far in this post might be suited for a light novel or an OVA in the future: Ino-Shika-Cho diverging even slightly from their respective parents; Team 15 having a more important role going forward; other ninja teams getting their time of day; the Hyuga clan’s response to Hinata’s and Naruto’s disappearance; and most likely Shikamaru behaving as the interim Hokage if Sasuke does go on to hasten Boruto’s training, after he likely gets healed by Sakura and/or Tsunade. All of this is up in the air, but at least with the short hiatus, I can play catch-ups.
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