Drip-feed exposition

The drawback of keeping up to date with a manga is that the expectations I put on myself are to summarize a chapter each time it releases, but the benefits of a monthly manga come with its release window. The larger amount of time it takes to write and draw a chapter give me ample time until the next chapter to get to writing. I’ll try not to make this a pattern, but I can’t promise that. Real life will interfere at times.

So on November 20, Chapter 4 of Boruto: TBV released and continually revealed more surprises especially from Boruto. I talked about events last time where Boruto had planted a toad onto Code’s person; this time around, with the Ten Tails restrained he attempted to cut a deal, but an unforeseen snag cropped up, and it’s somewhat involved with Code and his claw grimes. Whenever the grimes strike someone, they turn comatose and are encased in a tree.

In this panel, one of the Leaf shinobi was bitten by a claw grime and thus became a tree. In a similar manner, at the end of Chapter 3, Boruto used rods and other restraints to trap the Ten Tails, but when he transported himself to its location, the Ten Tails was missing. Instead, he and Code met a few beings that have a connection to the claw grimes. The trees they make when attacking aren’t ordinary trees, but they’re described as divine trees, and since Boruto explains that the beings created are living divine trees, then the conclusion I can draw from this is that the Ten Tails managed to turn itself into numerous divine trees and escape from Boruto’s restraints.

As for how he transported himself, you might recall that as an Ohtsutsuki vessel, he has the Karma seal and its space-time ninjutsu capabilities. Yes, but that’s not what he used to get to the other dimension. In fact, he has a familiar Jutsu to fans of his grandfather: The Flying Raijin.

The legendary technique has a third user on the roster. Created by the Second Hokage, used extensively by Minato Namikaze (and giving him the moniker Yellow Flash of the Leaf) and now Boruto Uzumaki is the newest user of the Jutsu. Continuing with the drip-feed method of exposition, we’re learning just as we go on, so it’s not revealed in this chapter when or how he learned this Jutsu the same way, Naruto learned how to do the Rasenshuriken or go into Sage Mode. Then again, in Naruto’s defense, he learned that long after he’d come back to the village in Shippuden and following the trend, his son may be geared up for a similar training arc.

Whatever the case, part of Boruto’s plan seems to have been to use the Ten Tails as a bargaining chip for Code, but when it turned into divine trees, the plan failed. There’s no Ten Tails to hold hostage and the trees are going to do what they were programmed, absorb as many chakra sources as it can so that it can cultivate a chakra fruit–same as had happened when Kaguya came down from the moon, same as when Momoshiki and Kinshiki and the other Ohtsutsuki invaded and attacked.

These were the only divine trees shown, but there could be others to be revealed in subsequent chapters. Not yet done with the surprises, the clues to Boruto’s Flying Raijin and mechanical toads lies with another familiar face: Koji Kashin. The synthetic clone of Jiraiya, operating as a spy in Amado’s pocket, seems to be working with Boruto, but it’s not yet known who made the proposition. Still, some things can be inferred at the moment.

Before the chapter ends, we get the answer to at least one question: Sasuke’s fate. As I said, the claw grimes make divine trees every time they bite someone and considering the image below, he was also probably unlucky in this regard.

This was a meme for a bit last week, along with another frame of Kakashi planting younger Sasuke. Nice to see the Uchiha tree has finally matured in spite of Tobirama’s efforts to cut it down.

In all seriousness, I wasn’t all that bothered with the so-called nerfing of the old gen to make the new gen look good. In lore, it’s explained that 15 years of peace time led to complacency and only a select few ninja still actively taking missions and whatnot would be the only ones prepared for when a real threat comes around and not just rogue ninja number 1,254–but Sasuke is one of the few ninja who was still going out on missions, many of them taking him either outside of the village or just outside of this reality. For f[Sharingan activation sound]k’s sake, he didn’t even know what his daughter looked like because it’s been so long.

Never mind that he lost the Rinnegan in a surprise attack (not that Boruto being possessed was a surprise, it was a matter of when), it just seems that Sasuke wasn’t as prepared as we all thought, which becomes even more damning when you consider that he’s had much of Sarada’s childhood to prepare and learn about the Ohtsutsuki and their goals. Naruto’s capture works as it shows how badly his Talk no Jutsu backfired, especially on someone like Kawaki who went to extremes to protect him from anything Ohtsutsuki even killing Boruto once.

If Sasuke did get unlucky, then I wouldn’t have problems with it depending on how well it’s explained. And if it’s not that then Kishimoto and Ikemoto oughta work their magic because it doesn’t seem like much of the old gen is getting theirs.

Tenten especially.