Part of what the Boruto fandom has been asking for for a few months now has been a flashback of sorts to some training between Boruto and Sasuke during the timeskip. If it’s an arc they’re looking for, it remains to be seen if that’ll be honored, but the closest we’ve got is the opening pages of chapter 5, released a few hours ago. Last time on Two Blue Vortex, Boruto displayed his prowess as the third ever shinobi in history to learn and use the Flying Raijin Technique.
Using the technique, he traveled to the Ten Tails’ dimension, but discovered that it was gone from its restraints and he and Code were surrounded by four intelligent claw grime humanoids. Boruto expected to twist Code’s arm into a truce, but the deceitful Ohtsutsuki hopeful nearly left him to die. Guided by a mechanical summoning toad, Boruto escaped to safety and towards a few familiar faces: one long thought defeated and one in a coma.
This month’s chapter began with a quick flashback. Sasuke initially doubted his memory, repeating that he was doing this for Sarada, not for Boruto, but by the time Boruto had finished his training, he was beginning to imitate the Uchiha patriarch in attire and even hair.
He always did say he wanted to be like Sasuke, even if these straits were forced upon him.
Since debuting in August of 2023, Boruto’s timeskip seems to have delivered on its new threats. The Chekhov’s gun is getting used so often, it might be time to clean the barrel. In this instance, Code’s claw grimes have another sequence to them. The previous four chapters show that whenever they bite someone, the victim of the bite turns into a tree. In chronological order, we’ve had four victims of a claw grime’s bite:
Bug
Sasuke
Unnamed Leaf Shinobi
Moegi
Not only that, a claw grime replica is created in their stead. They inherit the appearance of the host, but maintain the original desires of the Ohtsutsuki, which is to consume enough chakra to bear a fruit-bearing tree, just as it was revealed in the Fourth Shinobi War all those years ago. Good grief, Madara’s influence and meddling still scar the shinobi world after all this time. In this case, the sentient trees have expressed desirable targets of their own:
The unnamed Leaf Jounin clone wants to devour Naruto.
Moegi’s clone wants to hunt Konohamaru.
Sasuke’s clone wants to make a beeline for Sarada.
and the clone of Bug wants to target Eida herself.
Meanwhile, Sumire and Amado discuss Boruto’s return and response to Code’s attack on the Leaf. Amado explains that the Karma acts as a storehouse for one’s DNA and since he’s trying to revive his daughter, Akebi, he needs a Karma seal with her memories to revive her as he remembers. Prior to the Shinjutsu event pre-timeskip, Kawaki would’ve been the only person of interest since Amado remembers implanting that DNA in his Karma.
If it was Kawaki who fled the village after scarring Boruto, and practically orphaning him and Himawari, I could imagine Shikamaru as Hokage dispatching ANBU shinobi teams to track him down if not designating a special unit of the ANBU to handle that, similar to the Hidden Mist’s Tracker Ninja. But post-Shinjutsu event, this doesn’t happen. False memories or not, Amado can tell that he was the one who modified Kawaki’s body as shown in the flashbacks across Boruto Part I, but has no definitive way to prove it. And let’s be real, this is the same universe where the whole village conflated their annoyance with Naruto with their hatred at the Nine Tailed Fox, almost no one being able to tell that he looked just like the Fourth Hokage. I made the connection when he was featured in Ultimate Ninja 3, and that game came out when I was 9 years old. Back then, it was a theory not yet proved fact in the manga.
Thankfully for Amado’s endeavors, Kawaki doesn’t pose any flight risk, so he’s got his target right where he wants him. But as a “son” of a former Hokage, the Leaf government won’t make it easy. Kawaki’s and Boruto’s roles are switched, but Amado’s prior employment in Kara makes him far from trustworthy, especially in Shikamaru’s eyes. And Kawaki’s attitude and history with the scientist pretty much leave that move off the table for Amado. He’ll probably have to get to him when he’s incapacitated. How he’ll get to that point also remains to be seen, but as a scientist, he’s patient enough to observe the results with all the data on hand. Amado’s patience is matched with a Bodhisattva — you think another minute will faze him?
The chapter closes off with Sumire and Sarada discussing what Sumire learned from Amado and a heartfelt reunion between the young Uchiha and the exile.
From what I’ve gathered this chapter, the claw grimes are more dangerous than Code himself. Forgive me for power-scaling, but the grimes are a cut above Code, and the divine trees created from their victims might turn out worse when they get their chance to shine. I do have a flowchart of sorts to showcase the direction of the claw grimes: Claw grime bites human -> human turns into tree -> divine tree clone emerges -> divine tree clone hungers for chakra… and I have to leave it as such until the next chapter launches in January, though for reasons I’ll explain on New Year’s Eve, that may not be feasible for me.
Until then I leave you with some questions for thought: What happens if a divine tree bites a specific person? A Jinchuriki? Someone with vast chakra reserves like Kisame? What else do they inherit from their hosts? And since the divine tree clones aren’t loyal to Code, what happens if they get to him or someone like Eida, who has a Senrigan and access to Shinjutsu? Time will tell, but I hope I’ll be able take notes and write about it all by then.
Before I close off, here’s some wholesome from the latest Two Blue Vortex chapter for the holidays.
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.
I haven’t forgotten about this month’s release of the latest chapter. Just spent the last two days studying it and organizing my thoughts so far. Based on what I saw of this chapter, we have more exposition of what we saw in the first two chapters followed by a last-minute twist.
Of the things introduced and explained in the chapter, Boruto expands on what the Uzuhiko technique. The basics are that it’s tied to the planet’s rotation. If hit with the Jutsu, the afflicted will be hit with a semi-permanent sense of “the spins,” so to speak. It can run for as long as the Jutsu caster (read: Boruto) desires, or until the afflicted (read: Code) dies — and this new teenage Boruto seems to be happy with the latter.
A technique that causes whoever’s hit by it to nearly infinitely spin in some manner… that sounds familiar…
Honestly, not the first time the franchise made a JoJo reference.
So let’s backtrack a bit in regard to the Rasengan. So far we have the following users:
Jiraiya
Minato Namikaze
Konohamaru Sarutobi
Naruto Uzumaki
Boruto Uzumaki
Sasuke Uchiha*
Kakashi Hatake
For Sasuke, he used it as a demonstration before asking Boruto if he could develop it himself. After that, he went through an intense and heated training session from Konohamaru before revealing to Sasuke the results of admittedly three days of training. Before him, Naruto worked on the Jutsu with Jiraiya’s guidance for little over a week, and before him, Minato developed the Jutsu over the course of three years.
Furthermore, Minato’s direct legacy has accidentally or deliberately put their own spin on the Jutsu, no pun intended. Naruto developed the Rasenshuriken, a powerful Jutsu that was unfortunately shelved as a double-edged sword, at least until the Akatsuki brought Pain to the Leaf Village.
For Boruto, the first of several variants had come in the form of the Vanishing Rasengan, though he didn’t acknowledge it until he, Sasuke, and the Gokage fought Momoshiki in the other dimension.
So this Jutsu keeps Code immobile yet conscious to answer a question on Boruto’s mind: the location and status of the Ten Tails. Keep this nugget in mind, it’ll be important toward the end. Just as the interrogation gets moving, Leaf ninja respond to the rogue ninja in their village, among the responding party is the object of Boruto’s vengeance: Kawaki. Speaking of Kawaki, he was in contact with Shikamaru who gives him the go-ahead for a kill order, but the opportunity is missed when Code summons a claw grime to escape through.
Earlier I wrote that Boruto was asking about whether Code knew the location and status of the Ten Tails. Out of concern for the safety of the world? Well, let me clarify: the tone of voice suggested by the panel was less of a desperation and concern and more of a boast, as if to say that after 2.5 years of training and keeping an eye out for Code, Boruto is finally one step ahead. This is where that twist comes in: before Code could get away, Boruto planted a mechanical toad on Code’s person.
Kawaki lost his chance to deliver the final blow and will most likely blame Boruto for allowing him to run off, but the last panel reveals why he allowed him to get away. Observe:
So now we wait for the week of November 20 to learn how this happened to the Ten Tails. Was it Boruto’s doing? Borushiki? Did he learn it from Sasuke? However we get to that answer it will likely be over the course of the next few months. As far as this chapter goes, it steadily creeps back into the trickle down expositional method that seems to be more emblematic of Kishimoto than Kodachi who seemed to employ what I believe was a healthy zigzag pattern of storytelling.
Clearly, I’d like to see more of this from the succeeding chapters, but it’ll probably be until at least January or February when we get more of these types of answers, and while this is largely fantasy, some of the answers to be revealed may ironically be less fantastical than whatever theories are out there proposing. But we’ll get them soon enough.
I promised myself that I’d release more Boruto-related news on or after the day of release and to live up to that promise, I have one for September. Sticking with the monthly schedule of its previous part, Vortex released one on September 20, with the third chapter releasing the week of October 20. From what I’ve read, it’s sticking with the drip-feed/cliffhanger method of storytelling not seen since Dragon Ball Z.
In that regard, Omnipotence is still in effect, and like select Boruto fans and many critics who at least try to read the series, I stand with them in voicing a flaw that sites like CBR and Screen Rant seem to be ignoring. There are several minor details that eagle-eyed viewers can’t help but consider that average readers don’t. Under Sasuke’s mentorship, Boruto was given his old scarred headband which now has the new scar given by Kawaki prior to the Omnipotence. Kawaki himself has been confirmed by Amado and Team Konohamaru to be genetically enhanced with the Scientific Ninja Tools, all from Kara’s (read: Isshiki’s) dime. When the Omnipotence happened, everything we knew about them had been reversed as far as those affected by it are concerned with only Sumire and Sarada learning the truth, so why does the village accept that Kawaki–an Uzumaki–doesn’t have the headband while Boruto the “Traitor” has it?
The Vortex manga explained the first time around that Omnipotence gradually does that, but doesn’t specify how that becomes working from the fumes of “trust me bro.” Even Himawari isn’t so sure about the situation.
Credit: @hinatahyugamzng
Then again, I might be jumping the gun expecting an explanation yesterday. Amado lore dumped on the audience over the course of a few chapters and that may just be what’s going on next. Be that as it may, everything that’s been established up to now is a reversal makes the circumstances all so tenuous. Boruto didn’t mind Mitsuki calling him the sun all the time, but Kawaki takes notice asks him to knock it off. Boruto grew up with an entire village expecting the best and the most of him, but Kawaki was born a vessel, used and seen as such until Naruto showed himself to be the only caregiver to actually give care to the boy who needed it the most.
Whatever happens, the village is gonna be rightly confused when their preconceptions about Boruto are challenged.
For Chapter 2, Code recovered from getting a face full of Boruto’s foot in the last chapter whereupon the latter advised Sarada to help out the rest of the village by taking out Code’s claw grimes while he and Boruto had a talk about the Ten Tails. Along the way, we also learn that Boruto claims responsibility for scarring Code’s eye and while he admits there would be no issue in killing him, but the information he has on the Ten Tails and the Chakra Fruit is too precious to resort to that. As for individual shinobi’s performance, as far as we know, Hima’s lessons came straight from Inojin, Shikadai, and Cho-Cho and we mostly have scenes of her training in action so far. The new generation of Ino-Shika-Cho surely has kept up its regimen as well; their parents wouldn’t let that slide especially with two mutually deadly enemies nipping at the heels of the village leadership.
We haven’t seen anyone else emphasize proof of concept though. Sarada got to use her clan’s trademark Fireball Jutsu and herself use Chidori on some claw grimes, but that’s about it. From what I remember, spamming Chidori puts undue strain on the shinobi, something she’d never be able to surpass even with her Mangekyou Sharingan and a curse mark like that of her father’s would be out of the question. On the flip side, Boruto seems to have learned swordsmanship quite well, downing several grimes himself in no time.
Actually, having Googled a reference picture just now, I was brought to a post on the Naruto subreddit about other swordsmen/kenjutsu users in the Narutoverse, among them Orochimaru.
We’re likely to see more of Boruto’s moves in the coming chapters, so we’ll likely see some more posts between the Naruto and Boruto subreddits or even Twitter comparing the fighting styles across all of those who’ve used it over the course of the series. For my definition, I’m not counting the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist because all of their swords are abnormally shaped and mostly make use of Chakra in some form or another. We’ve also hardly seen individual members wield anything close to a normal sword long enough to try something fancy against an enemy. So I doubt we’ll see a comparison to this guy.
Code’s grimes have been shown to use the same transportation technique that he uses: traversal through the claw markings, not necessarily limited to a nonliving object. The latter chapters of Boruto original boasted a grime count of six figures, equal to the number of enemies deployed on the shinobi during the Fourth Shinobi War–and most of them were made of the dead and reanimated.
This time around, Code’s crusade is even more faceless, an amalgamation of beings made from an imprisoned Ten Tails from another dimension. Which reminds me; in the movie, the DLC for Ultimate Ninja Storm 4, and even the anime, it was shown that Sasuke was on a mission before to investigate anything Ohtsutsuki related, including Kaguya’s old temple where he was ambushed by Momoshiki and Kinshiki.
His absence for the first two chapters might be in some way related to that. Before the timeskip, Sarada only asked that he help Boruto and get him to safety, never specifying what else would happen, but the Uchihas trust each other dearly so whatever was up Sasuke’s arsenal (it’s a long list of jutsu, combined with all the other stuff might not have seen) would have been partly passed on to Boruto over the course of those three years.
Credit: u/BarlasLewis
Now that they’re both outcast cyclopes, they can connect even better than Naruto and Jiraiya did. I’ve only got speculation for what Sasuke taught him and where they trained, but one thing that closed off the chapter was the new technique Rasengan Uzuhiko or Rasengan Vortex. It’s not uncommon to joke that Rasengan is the number one technique Naruto defaults to, but the twist this time is that the swirl engulfs Boruto’s body than just the palm of his hand.
It might be in some way related to the sparingly-used Vanishing Rasengan. In the anime and the game, Boruto showed off the new technique to Sasuke who began unimpressed, but before he could close off his honest thoughts, Boruto through the miniature Rasengan at a tree where it dissipated… or so you think because a few seconds later the impact was seen on a nearby tree.
It was explained later that the Lightning Release had an affect on the shape and impact of the Rasengan itself. Further working with speculation in this case, Boruto might’ve convinced to some degree that he’s the one who can use the jutsu like that of Naruto and Minato before him, enough for Sasuke to take full advantage of that and enhance what exists while throwing in something new.
Gotta wait till October to see what the Vortex looks like, but for something we have data on now that the chapter’s out, it looks like Boruto TBV is hot on the heels of another popular manga.
Never thought I’d see the day where a somewhat new series would catch up to an established quarter-century long manga series. If you’re curious what was in third place, it’s Chainsaw Man.
Surprise Post: Boruto’s time-skip has finally arrived
When I say the time-skip was a long-time coming, I mean it. The anime’s first episode in Spring 2017 dedicates the opening scene to a flashforward between Boruto and Kawaki battling on the destroyed Hokage Stone Faces. So does the first volume of the manga.
As an out-of-left-field scene, it was one of the most vague scenes in anime/manga. With almost no prior context, newcomers to the series would have to piece together the preceding events as the manga went on. As the chapters released, fan theories and articles arose attempting to contextualize the scene better, the most popular one that I’ve seen being Ohtsutsuki possession.
It’s become even stronger with the exposition provided by Amado about both Kara and its leader, Jigen. The karma seals on Jigen, Boruto, and Kawaki are the marks of Ohtsutsuki vessels and the series has introduced a couple of ways to get the seal. Boruto got his after defeating Momoshiki with one of the largest rasengans ever seen at this point. Kawaki was one of a number of candidates to survive having his implanted by Jigen himself. And Jigen interestingly was a vessel for one of the strongest Ohtsutsuki seen: Isshiki.
Further evidence to turn this theory into a fact were the different times that both Boruto and Kawaki have either been possessed or activated their seals in some manner. The opening scene of the series suggested that they’d both found a way to do so on command, but Kawaki’s own anecdotes and Boruto’s performance reveal the curse that the karma seal really is, especially if a vessel’s chakra level is near-depletion.
Fortunately, Amado has developed a medicine that can help keep the symptoms down long enough so that karma could be studied without any further surprises. Speaking of which, Kawaki’s solution to the Ohtsutsuki/karma problem thus far has verged on the extreme side with an attempt on Boruto’s life… that failed.
When Momoshiki emerged to explain the circumstances of Boruto’s “death,” he explained that the karma was supposed to convert the vessel into an Ohtsutsuki, similar to what had happened to Jigen who, before his encounter with Isshiki, was a monk, and Kawaki who was in the middle of becoming a vessel for Isshiki to migrate to. But when Boruto was killed, the Ohtsutsukification had accelerated to revive him. As of recent, the manga has made it clear that Kawaki’s mission is to kill Boruto and prevent Momoshiki from coming back, but the first time this happened, Boruto specifically requested it. But now that Boruto is officially 100% Ohtsutsuki, Kawaki hasn’t stopped and a few of the answers to the questions about their time-skip appearances among others have been found in the latter chapters of the manga.
First up: the line about Kawaki having sent the Seventh Hokage somewhere. Nothing about that line suggested Naruto was dead, and even if Naruto was under threat, he’s always found a way to bypass it. From Naruto original to the Boruto manga, he’s had close calls but hardly ever died as I can recall. Kawaki followed that trend by sparing Naruto and Hinata. After declaring that he intends to finish off Boruto for good, he anticipated the resistance from his parents and sent them away to another dimension with the space-time ninjutsu leading directly to this part.
Number two: Without the strongest ninja in the Leaf Village to stop him, Kawaki makes a beeline for Boruto for an assuredly fatal round two. Sarada is standing in his way though and in a nostalgic repeat for those who remember how Kakashi got his scar, Boruto got his while protecting an Uchiha with aspirations for higher office. Not content with this outcome, he attempts once again to do it the right way, but fails to consider the rest of the Hidden Leaf Jonin and other shinobi on standby. Shikamaru, Sasuke, Konohamaru and others all witness the aftermath and get an update as to Naruto’s and Hinata’s whereabouts. With no other options, he flees the scene with Eida in tow.
Scene three: Kawaki’s on the ropes after learning about the immediate kill order on him for threatening/maiming the Hokage’s family. In desperation, he confesses to Eida who inadvertently activates her Omnipotence ability. Immediately after, Kawaki’s and Boruto’s roles are literally reversed. To all but a handful of ninja, Boruto is now remembered as an ungrateful outsider who seemingly killed the Hokage while Kawaki is remembered as the Hokage’s son. Now Boruto’s the one with a kill/capture order. With Sarada and Sumire being the only confirmed individuals who know what happened before the Omnipotence event, Sarada makes a desperate plea to her father to protect Boruto from harm, culminating in her awakening the Mangekyou Sharingan.
Part Four: Reluctantly agreeing to honor his daughter’s wishes, Sasuke helps Boruto escape. This doesn’t mean he’s unaffected by the Omnipotence — he very much is. But Sarada’s Mangekyou Sharingan and Boruto holding Sasuke’s old headband was enough to convince him to protect and train Boruto, even if it means risking his life and the ire of the ninja villages again.
Now that Two Blue Vortex has recently debuted, it opens with everyone’s new designs. Boruto, Kawaki, and Sarada were all seen before this, but some others were missing. Mitsuki, the new Ino-Shika-Cho trio, Himawari, Code, and even Shikamaru and Honohamaru in probably the last positions I was ever expecting them to be.
Make no mistake, I’ve never doubted Shikamaru’s intellect. His old sensei, Asuma Sarutobi, said himself that Shikamaru’s wit is unmatched. With an IQ level at 200, Naruto was wise to make him an advisor. Yet, for a lot of people that’s arguably the best position for him and nothing else. Since Kawaki’s been in the village, he’s been skeptical of his motives, practically pleading with Naruto to put him literally anywhere else besides under his own roof. It’s possible that he knew Kawaki wouldn’t be a threat as he was just a kid, or even if he was, there’s no getting past a Hokage who’s both a Jinchuriki and a master of Sage Mode, but the series has made it clear that Naruto saw him as a guest, then a son, and a possible reflection of himself if he’d gone down a darker path. A familiar sentiment to another shinobi in the series.
Talk no jutsu jokes aside, Naruto does have an innate ability to connect with people and subvert expectations. If you told a random villager that that demon fox boy would soon become Hokage, you’d probably get laughed out of the room if not sectioned for such bonobo babble. Over the course of the series though, the boy who had nothing eventually gained a vast wealth of friends which morphed into wide respect from the village. It was only natural that he’d ascend to the level of Kage, especially with the high-level ninjutsu that comes with being a Kage.
Shikamaru’s a master tactician, but we haven’t seen him use a lot of high-level ninjutsu. As a Nara clan member, his specialty has always been Shadow Possession along with other conventional shinobi tactics. These would be fine for, say, a Chuunin even one who’s up for promotion, but considering the threats that have come close to killing some of the Kage, sometimes successfully, Shikamaru has to come up with new strategies to battle someone as dangerous as Code and his army of claw grimes.
As for Konohamaru, this felt a bit like a slap in the face to me. Of all the characters I could see becoming Hokage, despite getting bodied in nearly every battle, I a least forgave Konohamaru for trying his best as a teacher, as a team captain, as a protégé of sorts to Naruto, and as another user of the famed rasengan. Maybe I can blame this on the writing.
For character trajectories, there’s a few interesting changes that I can get behind, one of which subverted my expectations though in a positive way.
Details don’t exist yet, but I have a theory based on Himawari’s appearance in the debuting chapter. Since she’s shown to be training with the Ino-Shika-Cho trio, and has admitted that she thinks Boruto is innocent, I think she’s another one who was largely unaffected by both Eida’s Omnipotence and her charm. Moreover, Eida’s brother Daemon said he could detect something powerful within her. Whatever it could be might also explain why Daemon felt so intimidated or why she feels the Leaf Village is wrong about Boruto for the most part.
If my theory has merit, then along with Sarada and Sumire, Himawari may stand as another player in the crusade to prove Boruto’s innocence and unmask Kawaki. She probably doesn’t need to do much against Code the walking L, but just in case, she has innate knowledge of the Hyuuga clan’s Gentle Fist technique to go with her Byakugan, if the rest of the cast allow her or anyone else to get a hit in at all.
This is the most recent Code L to take the cake. I saw on the Boruto subreddit that someone drew comparisons between Boruto’s trajectory and that of Dragon Ball Z with Code being compared unfavorably to Cell, a hilarious if misleading statement considering what’s above. But to entertain that theory for a bit, if Code is functionally similar to Cell than I’d hate to see what happens when he reaches perfection.
Finally, there’s time-skip Boruto.
With as many introductions, fan theories, articles, fan art pieces and more about time-skip or, according to the Naruto Wiki, Vortex Boruto, he really doesn’t need anymore intros. But what he does still need is context. In 2017, the introductory scene came apropos of nothing and put as much as it could on display for us to watch. Over the course of the series, though, we’ve been given gradual clues as to what’s become of him during the series’ run. Curse mark? Karma. Scratched headband? A gift from Sasuke. Scar? A parting gift from Kawaki himself. And this only covers his appearance.
His performance on the field remains to be seen and the next chapter might explain piecemeal what he learned from Sasuke. Clearly, he was influential enough for Boruto dress in a cloak and bear a sword. He’s also been shown to have a talent for certain chakra natures, the most important ones for Boruto being Wind, Water, and Lightning; all of which Sasuke also knows very well. Whatever he learned from Sasuke might incorporate one or more of those.
As it stands, the follow-up is on the same level as its predecessor and will likely release the second chapter after September 20. This gives me an idea. On the one hand, surprise updates are a highlight for me and the blog, but on the other hand, honestly speaking, squeezing it into my schedule and rearranging things gets to be tedious. The 20th day of the month isn’t also guaranteed to land on a Friday in accordance with this blog’s schedule. So instead, whenever I get more Boruto news, manga or anime related, I’ll make a post on or the day after as they release.
I still hesitate to call myself the Boruto guy as I personally consider Twitter user Abdul Zoldyck to hold that honor for their largely spot-on news and leaks. This is also an experiment of sorts before I try it with other series from different mediums. Who knows? I might be there in time to watch the first episode of Hokkaido Gals. And by the way, yes, I do still have a topic for Friday.
As much as I’ve written about not wanting to be the Boruto guy, I honestly don’t mind such a connotation just as long as I’m allowed more topics to cover and in that regard on this blog, I’ve succeeded. But to circle back to the topic of this week’s post, Boruto’s timeskip arc has an update. Last week, third party sources brought news to the Boruto community concerning the upcoming timeskip arc. The next chapter is expected to release on August 21 under the new subtitle, Two Blue Vortex, and joining Kawaki and Boruto who both have future redesigns is Sarada Uchiha.
Consistent with trends, there’s already fan art of the new design. Here’s a personal favorite of mine:
And no, the Bayonetta comparisons aren’t lost on the community. Simultaneously, the reveal debunks previous predictions made years prior while also shedding some light on existing concepts. For starters, rather than follow the Naruto convention of the subtitle Shippuden with Raiden and the associated kanji for lightning (雷), Two Blue Vortex deviates significantly from the formula used to craft Naruto and Naruto Shippuden as further proof that Boruto is simply not that kind of guy. Naruto had Sage Mode, was a Jinchuriki, shunned by the village for being the host of the Nine-tailed fox and fought tooth and nail to be seen as more than just the sum of his parts. Boruto, in contrast, was designed with nearly everything handed to him on a silver platter, largely because his parents either had none of it or weren’t allowed all that much to enjoy what they got. And seemingly overnight, he eventually loses it all.
When the story starts proper, Boruto is pretty much a spoiled little brat with a legacy over his head. Naruto was inaugurated as the Seventh Hokage, following a lifelong dream that everyone said was impossible, and his grandfather Minato Namikaze, had the distinction of being the Leaf Village’s shortest serving Fourth Hokage. Considering the negative connotations associated with the number four in East Asia, the Four is Death trope is a time-honored tradition. Guido Mista was right to worry.
Boruto being spoiled is a direct consequence of the shaping of the Ninja World in both his father’s and grandfather’s times. From Minato’s time period, it was expected and tacitly accepted that ninja would have enemies. Constant warfare meant friends were made as fast as they were lost and often from a young age. Minato’s ninja cell were the equivalent of child soldiers during the Third Shinobi War. Even after becoming Fourth Hokage, the peace was tenuous at best, and the ninja villages would essentially shift from fighting organized militaries to disorganized terror cells. This problem didn’t really begin because of anything Minato did, but Naruto’s adolescence was where it got worse.
The Akatsuki, close to achieving its’ goal under false pretenses, and with only a few members left, outright started the Fourth Shinobi War, by way of necromancy and cloning. Initially, through desperation and gradually through teamwork, the ninja villages set aside all differences to combat a worse threat: Madara, Obito, and soon Kaguya Ohtsutsuki. After their defeat, it was a time to rebuild a better world for the future. Naruto’s tenure as the seventh led to many gifted children, some of them directly from the old Konoha 12 of before. They essentially lived so that Boruto’s generation would have it easy, but the down side to that is they don’t see what others are lacking in until it’s missing from them. Which does happen to Boruto gradually. Starting with the seal on his hand and the control that Momoshiki is always threatening to take away, though for the most part he doesn’t have to as long as he leaves things up to Kara, Isshiki, or Kawaki.
With Kara in tatters and Isshiki soundly defeated, Kawaki and Code are the last enemies Boruto has to face in the timeskip. How that comes to pass will be revealed after August 21 when TBV debuts properly so for now, here’s what I know and what I see from the reveal. It’s been confirmed from years prior how Kawaki and Boruto would look. Kawaki would wield a staff/rod-like weapon in the future, and aside from a change in attire, he wouldn’t differ all that much from the Chapter/Episode 1 teaser. In the redesign, he sports longer hair and a tunic and haori that bears a striking resemblance to what Isshiki had.
Boruto meanwhile had a scar over his eye, a headband with two perpendicular scratches, slightly longer hair, a cloak, a sword, and better control of his Jougan. The updated design stays true to what was seen in the manga in 2017, but with a few noticeable changes. The cloak is similar to how Sasuke wears his, the scar is shorter, and the hair is almost the same if not shorter than his current look. We haven’t seen the sword yet, so it’s not known if he’s using one of his own or if Sasuke has an arsenal and let him have an old relic.
From what we saw of Sarada’s design, with all the talks and fanart depicting her with longer hair and a longer tunic similar to what Sakura had in Shippuden, but the Bayonetta-style design immediately tosses that out of the window and calls back to when fans of Naruto thought or expected Naruto himself to have longer hair as he aged.
Additionally, Sarada’s presence on the cover may suggest that the new chapter will include her somewhere in it. As I recall, a beginning scene in Shippuden shows now-genin Konohamaru running into Teuchi. We’ve already made clear that Boruto as a character and as a manga is not the same as Naruto so the tone may be a bit more sullen or serious compared to this classic Shonen slapstick.
Some on the Boruto subreddit also noticed the symbolism in this preliminary design for Sarada, with Uchiha clan earrings, the ring on the choker, and the cloak she seems to be donning. If it’s a cloak she’s wearing, then it may be paying homage to Sasuke. If it’s a jacket, then it could be an homage to Boruto. Or both, but with everyone under the shinjutsu and believing Boruto to be the traitor, everyone’ll think it’s only to remember Sasuke who seemingly abandoned the village once again.
Speaking of shinjutsu, Eida, love her or not, still has a critical role to play in the plot. The shinjutsu she subconsciously used to reverse Kawaki’s and Boruto’s lives has yet to be fully explained. The same goes for her Senrigan.
All we have on both are what was shown in the manga and Amado’s exposition. According to Amado, shinjutsu, like omnipotence, essentially make facts out of fiction and as Amado has surmised, all ninjutsu are humans’ best attempt at recreating the shinjutsu. If that’s the case, then the Omnipotence that kicked off this predicament would function at an even higher level than that of Madara’s or Kaguya’s Rinnegan/Rinnesharingan. Whatever has been the most powerful genjutsu shown in canon or in filler, Omnipotence is even more broken than that.
As for the Senrigan, since it literally translates to “clairvoyance” Eida essentially knows everything that’s going on anywhere in the world and what has happened. Like a very powerful librarian or historian.
As powerful as the Senrigan, it’s not like Eida will know what’s going to happen next in general or to individual people. Again, it’s more like reaching into the past than it is about the future. So far, it’s served as a means of communication between Eida and Shikamaru, her and Amado, and whoever else she likes or can tolerate. Circling briefly back to the Omnipotence, of all the people affected, Sarada remains unchanged which appears to be linked to how much Eida liked being with her and Sumire. As such, it was also shown that Sumire was unaffected by the shinjutsu.
I can’t promise anything on accuracy for this next chapter as shown by my track record thus far. Any predictions I make are going to play it fast and loose until the chapter proper comes out. Having said that, there are some things I can’t see with any degree of accuracy. There are three that are, as of writing this, anyone’s guess: Sumire, Himawari, and Daemon.
Starting with the most significant one plot-wise:
The extent of Daemon’s abilities are that just thinking about harming him is reflected in real time back at the would-be attacker. For instance, there’s a panel where Boruto and Kawaki both think about teaching the little runt a lesson only for it to literally backfire. So they both need to put up with his silliness to keep Eida from running off until further notice. For what can be said about him going forward, the only level of development seen was that he sensed an energy from Himawari, and we don’t know for certain how well the manga will follow up on that until then. Speaking of which:
The latter episodes of the anime put her in an academic setting with Kawaki going in as well on an undercover mission. For Himawari’s abilities, the Byakugan emerged in her the same day as Naruto’s inauguration and she’s shown to attack with the signature killing intent that each ninja knows about in battle. But for the most part, it’s been depicted as subconscious and while she was shown to be effective during this late anime arc, it remains to be seen if it even gets a reference in the manga if not an accompanying light novel.
Finally, there’s Sumire Kakei, who admittedly got a more generous treatment in the show, despite her starting out as a spawn of a former member of Danzo Shimura’s Foundation within the ANBU Black Ops. The show and the children accepted her with open arms and since the students graduated, she took on an apprenticeship with Dr. Katasuke Tohno. As far as a prediction, this will likely continue unabated, save for the subject area of their study being Boruto instead of Kawaki, but on the side she might be keeping in touch with Sarada on her progress to the best of her ability. And this is just the Hidden Leaf Village. The anime might bring the Sand Ninja back into the fold, but for what or how I can’t foresee. Even if it feels like Shinki et al don’t impact the story much, they’re not unaffected by the events thus far, and are at the mercy of the Sand Village’s moves as shinobi as well. Even a short filler or catch up for the audience to remind us they exist would be acceptable to me.
No matter what happens, Code is still a problem and it’s all up in the air how they choose to address that. Either way, I’m eagerly awaiting the manga’s and anime’s return.
Before we start, I just want to say that I think I meant for last week’s post to be about rewriting the God of War Greek Era narrative in a more cohesive manner considering all the silliness that unearths its plot holes. I’ve defended some overarching stuff since most ancient myths have multiple retellings due to oral tradition, but some specific details are hard to ignore. So, I’ll save that for a future post. This time, we’re gonna talk about the Naruto franchise, more importantly a series of video games based on the franchise that sort of went through a soft reboot about halfway through.
Masashi Kishimoto’s magnum opus, the Naruto franchise, had grown to be a smash hit since its first chapter debuted in 1999. Manga/anime fans hold it in high regard, and it’s part of that generation’s Big Three with the others being Bleach by Tite Kubo and One Piece by Eiichiro Oda. Both of which have gotten their own video games, accessories, figures and more.
With Naruto, part of me wants to say the ninja/shinobi aesthetic was what helped it explode when it began to make waves in the west, so much so that when the anime began dubbing it in English in 2005, the Japanese video games were getting the same treatment soon after. Generally, anime adaptations in Japan are promotional material for the manga, as are the manga’s associated figures, light novels, and other materials. Hence why some of us in the west are still waiting on a second seasons to anime that may never come.
The benefit of releasing in an era where shinobi were the coolest thing since an arctic winter might have heavily tipped the scales in Naruto’s favor, thus explaining the numerous video games associated with it. Specifically, the Ultimate Ninja series. Five main games following the timeline of the manga were released in Japan from October 2003 to December 2007, and ported to the west from June 2006 to November 2009. Likely due to the release of the anime and its western dub, the games loosely follow the events of the manga until they cut off and each successive game adds to the cast of characters to play as.
Ultimate Ninja 1, for instance, starts off with a small cast because it follows the story from the Land of Waves arc until the Destruction of the Leaf/Konoha Crush arc. Many of the important characters are assisting characters during fights, and mostly follow them individually as opposed to staying consistent with the manga, such as the changing around of one or more outcomes of certain battles. The Naruto wiki claims that as far as a presentation goes, critics felt that it left a lot to be desired. Personally, I was introduced to the series through a friend who had the second installment on his PS2 and later I went to buy the first game. From what I’d seen, I agreed with those critics’ statements that more could’ve been done at the outset, and the players and critics got that wish in Ultimate Ninja 2.
In 2004 in Japan and 2007 in the west, the second installment followed up on what the first game brought to the table. Continuing with the rest of the Konoha Crush arc and ending narratively with the Search for Tsunade arc. What became a bit of a trend for the series starting with this game was a game-exclusive arc that can be compared to filler or something along the lines of an OVA. Spoilers to follow: get ready.
After Tsunade is returned to the village to serve as the Fifth Hokage, Orochimaru who didn’t learn his lesson the first time he tried this malarkey has another go at swaying Tsunade’s decision. This time he as an ace in the hole. He and Kabuto were intercepted at the Training Grounds by Kakashi. At this time, Orochimaru’s arms have been sealed and so he needs Kabuto to use his chakra and perform ninjutsu. One such jutsu, is known as the Forbidden Jutsu: Gedo Mark and its main purpose is to limit its opponents.
There’s better pictures for this, I’m sure. Actually, I think it’s better to see it in action.
Sidenote, the YouTube channel in question has a full playthrough of this game among others. I recommend giving it a look.
This next arc sees Orochimaru and Kabuto to try multiple avenues at once to coerce Tsunade into reconsidering releasing Orochimaru’s arms. First, he cripples the more troublesome ninja, namely Kakashi and Naruto, then he uses Reanimation to revive Zabuza Momochi, Haku, and the Third Hokage. After the Leaf ninja find a way to release the Gedo Mark, they soundly defeat Orochimaru and Kabuto and the game ends. Seems even your video games aren’t free from filler. For my take, it’s an interesting story with a lot of stuff that doesn’t make sense. I don’t doubt that Orochimaru’s hunt for the greatest Jutsu ever would lead him to unethical methods, we see this all the way until Boruto confirms that he’s been under lifelong house arrest, but even if he could inhabit another body, the risk to his health in his current state would have even him rethinking his decisions to use ninjutsu willy-nilly like that. Kabuto even says as much. Still enjoyable, and as an added bonus: Taijutsu Naruto.
The Japanese release had characters from the Ninja Clash in the Land of Snow movie.
There’s also a free-roaming mode where players explore the world of Naruto, though considering it stops at the Tsunade Search arc in canon, only a few locations are available. Nonetheless, there’s different activities that can be done with other characters or solo and some of my best memories of the game come from playing with friends at their houses, even if my skills were subpar. Now that the developers were seeing gold, they expanded on this even further in Ultimate Ninja 3.
Released around Christmas 2005 in Japan and in March of 2008 in the west, Ultimate Ninja 3 covers the entirety of Part I from the Land of Waves to the Sasuke Retrieval Mission albeit with some notable omissions, chief among them the Chunin Exam Preliminary Rounds. There might not have been a way get those into the game since the main focus is fighting, but it’s a not insignificant difference that could potentially shape the way someone views the anime if this was their first exposure to the series.
Still, there’s more characters to use, more minigames with the characters, and just like its predecessor there’s an exclusive arc that interestingly got its own OVA for promotional purposes.
Titled “Finally a Clash! Jonin vs. Genin,” the main gist of the OVA is that the Leaf Village in association with the Sand Village puts together a tournament based on a points system. Genin and lower start with one blue crystal worth one point while Chunin and up start with one red crystal worth five points each. Passing a threshold of points advances the ninja to the next round, and passing that threshold allows the victor to pass a regulation that the two villages would follow for a week straight.
It’s initially suggested that battling was the only way to earn crystals but these being physical points you can hold in your hand, you’re not necessarily limited to that kind of all-out battle. Select characters trade them as currency for favors or use them in wagers. There’s also simply looking for the crystals on the ground as they fall out of people’s pockets like change. As for the free-roaming open world element, there’s now jumping and double jumping and the exploration isn’t limited to a few locales, but it’s not the same open world that you’d see in the later Ultimate Ninja Storm series.
This one does a lot more, though I think the limitations of the hardware still did a number on this game since it compresses large arcs into a few battles. I’m not saying I want all the battles and dialogue to be redone in the game, just that a few of the important, plot battles be given theirs. Additionally, it was quite clever of them to hide the Fourth Hokage’s name as simply his nickname in the manga: Yellow Flash, but I’m not sure why he has no speaking role in the game. Something I forgot to mention when talking about Ultimate Ninja 2, that game had a notoriously difficult substitution/rebound system that made it near impossible to properly counter attacks. UN3 and up dumbed that down significantly and I praise the change.
Japanese release: April 2007, and Western release: March 2009, UN4 as seen on the cover starts in the Shippuden era and like its predecessors it has an exclusive arc that is separate from the canon manga arcs and its own open-world RPG-type game mode. This time around, Naruto is still training with Jiraiya. To conclude this round of training, he’s given prayer beads to wrap around each limb and Jiraiya uses a weighting Jutsu to alter the weight of the beads. They change color with experience and when Naruto’s beads glow red, he’s instructed to find Jiraiya who’ll take them off to conclude his training.
In the meantime, the two head to the Tree Felling Village where a girl, Aoi, is to be used as human sacrifice to satisfy a demon known as Black Shadow who lives in the caves. Naruto’s disgust with the practice results in him chasing after the girl who’s determined to go deeper into the cave. Black Shadow physically stops the shinobi, though by now his beads turn red and he’s eager to get them off so he can come back and break down the barrier Black Shadow had summoned earlier.
Before that though, he and Jiraiya gather some information on Aoi and her path as a sacrifice. As it turns out, Aoi was using a desperate though dangerous method to help her ailing mother, Tsubaki, who’s introduced at around the same time Naruto and Jiraiya make it to the Tree Felling Village. The village’s namesake is derived from a tree that blossomed flowers with healing properties. As a bonus, these flowers were a barrier keeping Black Shadow at bay, but when it was chopped down by the villagers and subsequently consumed by Black Shadow all hell broke loose. The villagers then offered an annual sacrifice to the demon to keep him satisfied.
As for Tsubaki’s and Aoi’s lineage, their ancestors were closely linked to the tree and their connects to the tree are limited to a charm with the flower petals inside it since the tree was felled. Aoi’s father died of illness and Tsubaki was on the same path; this culminated in her decision to feign sacrifice as a means of getting close to the tree within Black Shadow and using it as some sort of cure.
After the demon reveals its true form, Naruto fights it, aided by Aoi, and soundly defeats Black Shadow. Unfortunately, the leaves from the tree have long since wilted, save for one that Aoi picks up and I presume is used in tea. Then Naruto falls into a weeklong coma and at awaking, he finds that Tsubaki made a full recovery and Naruto and Jiraiya return to the Leaf Village having made a difference in this family’s life.
Afterwards, the game starts in the Kazekage Rescue arc, but ends halfway through before the Kazekage proper has been saved. I don’t have evidence to support this, but I think the game released as Shippuden was beginning. The only evidence I see is the release date being consistent with the beginning of Shippuden’s anime adaptation.
It’s pretty much the same as the other games, but with more characters, more movement, etc. But even though, the Shippuden arc leaves a lot to be desired, fortunately in the open-world game mode, there are coins known as Pieces of Memory where you can view the story of all of Part I from the Land of Waves arc to the Sasuke Retrieval Mission, so it’s not a total loss.
Naturally, you could assume that a fifth game was on the horizon to restart the first arc of Shippuden and keep it going to at least the end of the Tenchi Bridge Arc where we see Shippuden Sasuke. This was what I thought too at the time and I found out as recently as a few years ago that there was a fifth game that never made it to North America.
In the UN series by itself this is the last of the main Ultimate Ninja games until Ultimate Ninja Storm on the next generation of consoles. Do note that I’m not saying it has no English language release. When the UK was still an EU country, it was eligible for most EU ports of certain games, this being one of them, so while I managed to find an emulated version of the EU release, this game doesn’t exist outside of Japan or Europe and I don’t think my preschool level Japanese is gonna help me if I play with Japanese subtitles and audio.
This game actually is what motivated this post. Four games bear the Ultimate Ninja tag all released on the PS2 and the fifth one was never made for fans from the Americas. What’s the reason for this? My closest source again comes from the Naruto wiki and it can be boiled down to time constraints and dubbing issues. I can’t say with certainty as I have no evidence that this is the case, but I’m at least somewhat positive that the release dates and the evidence in the games is enough of a clue to work with.
Almost all of them released concurrent with the anime adaptation, but several years after the manga was a few arcs ahead of what was depicted, which explains why UN4’s main story is so short compared to the others. Episode 15 was the most recent episode when that game came out. As for time constraints, with the other games coming out as fast as they did, of course time was Namco’s enemy here. I only made it to the title screen as I wanted to finish the UN games before making it to five, but from what I saw even the EU release was botched with only Japanese audio with the selected nation’s language for subtitles.
From what I can gather, they were going to keep up with this trend of releasing the games around the same week as a new arc, but it seems fate forced the devs to rethink things a bit. I could see a UN6 continuing from the emergence of the Akatsuki’s Zombie Combo up until Sasuke’s formation of Team Hebi (later Taka) to finally exact revenge on Itachi for the Uchiha Clan Downfall all those years ago. And follow that trend until the manga concluded with some extra ideas for other exclusive/filler arcs.
Realistically, the problems with keeping this up grew to be untenable. At the same time some of these games were being made, the similar graphics were being used for most of the spin-off and mobile/handheld titles like the Ultimate Ninja Heroes series on the PSP and Ultimate Ninja Impact. It’s not like the Japan-only games that weren’t meant for the west; bad luck essentially forced them to hit the reset button and try again with a better series.
Better graphics, new engine, more characters, more to do with the environment and make it feel as though the player is playing the anime, the UN Storm series is in all aspects a technical upgrade. However, there’s a bunch of from the previous series that several gamers may be disappointed to learn were done away with. It took some getting used to to learn that UN3 onwards discarded the multiple screens for an ultimate jutsu as well as different ultimate jutsu in gameplay, and the RPG-esque text reading at least felt like it was advancing faster because the characters would always voice the lines so you did more than read and listen to the background music.
My exposure only comes in the last game Ultimate Ninja 4 which wraps the story up admittedly more beautifully than the anime. At least they did something with the Boruto movie adaptation. And since this was the last of Naruto’s story, if this game was using the Boruto plot to promote the movie then cool!
Though now that I think about it, it’s possible that the reputation of Naruto was what made loads of people expect better from the Boruto series. As much as I’ve been cheerleading Boruto, I also wish it would improve in some areas, though it looks like I’ll get my wish when both the manga and anime return later this year, along with a new game set for release soon.
For this week, I recommend the YouTube channel Alternate History Hub.
This channel specializes mostly in what’s on the tin: alternate history. What if the US stayed out of both world wars? What if Spain stayed Muslim? What if Japan went Catholic? What if the Ottomans colonized the Americas? and other such topics that explore what would happen if history took a different path than what happened in our timeline.
Just like my Trash Taste recommendation from a few months ago, there’s other associated channels with Alternate History Hub. Cody Franklin oversees this channel, he used to oversee the channel Knowledge Hub which is now Knowledge Husk until he gave it to his brother Tyler, and recently, Cody launched the channel Pointless Hub which looks more at entertainment media than something along the lines of geopolitics. You can even support him and his channels through the associated Patreon links.
If alternate history seems right up your alley, give him a follow. If not, then there’s other stuff of his to view.
This was about to be last week’s post, but I didn’t think it fair to talk about the same thing thrice in such a short amount of time. I’d been meaning to move onto other manga/anime/entertainment, etc. and I don’t really want to be the Boruto guy. I take in as much of the series as I can when I can, but I don’t want to sound like it’s the only thing I take in; my previous posts suggest otherwise.
That being said, the above meme gets to the heart of what this post will be about and the fanfare from the release of the latest chapter on Sunday put so much of the community into a frenzy that there were more people who read Boruto than One Piece.
At one point, the Boruto fans claimed the last chapter alone trounced all of One Piece which isn’t so much a shot for the moon from the Earth as it’s a shot to the sun from Planet X. I liked the last chapter a lot, but I wouldn’t say it was that good.
As for the topic this week: Momoshiki’s prediction in like Volume 3 of the manga comes true in the most recent chapter. I’ll put links down below so that readers can see for themselves what he’s been talking about all along:
And for those of you who care little for spoilers, picking up from 77 and 78, after Kawaki comes to the conclusion that the life of a shinobi is not a pleasant one, he prefaces his plans to Naruto and Hinata by announcing first that in any other circumstance he would never wish harm against Boruto, but him being part Ohtsutsuki and a vessel for Momoshiki to boot has forced hand, literally as we see later. Distraught, neither the Seventh Hokage nor his wife take kindly to Kawaki’s plans and the boy, expecting this resistance, sends the pair to another dimension, hoping to complete his mission unimpeded by the Hidden Leaf Village’s most powerful ninja.
Catching up to Boruto and Sarada, Kawaki strikes, awarding Boruto his new scar only to be apprehended by Sasuke, Shikamaru, and Mitsuki. However, it’s established in an earlier chapter that when Boruto’s chakra reserves are diminished, Momoshiki takes control, as noted by the Jougan’s appearance in Boruto’s right eye. Kawaki breaks free and flees. Eida senses danger coming his way, and catches up to him. Unconsciously, she activates a shinjutsu or god technique known as Omnipotence that reverses Boruto’s and Kawaki’s roles: Kawaki is the one who’s now the son of Naruto Uzumaki and Hinata Hyuga, while Boruto is the nobody, the outcast vessel of Kara and Isshiki Ohtsutsuki while he controlled Jigen’s body.
It’s also worth mentioning that the Boruto anime, which airs on Sundays, released a new episode the same day as Chapter 79, so fans got a glimpse of what Momoshiki meant when he made his prophecy while also watching Kawaki try the first time to rid the world of Momoshiki’s presence. I know they’re not meant to be the highlight of Boruto anymore, but the OG Team 7 and the Sixth Hokage could simply tell Kawaki and the new Team 7 why killing an Ohtsutsuki is so tough. It’s like fighting a necromancer: if you kill the necromancer and it’s easy, you didn’t kill him. Am I right, Quan Chi?
So now that we have this set up, I want to try to make predictions. With the announcement a few weeks ago that Boruto’s Part 1 was ending soon, what we know so far is that Boruto lost everything. He’s his father’s son in appearance and often personality, but Naruto grew up a few years and change after the Third Shinobi War ended. Select shinobi who taught or de facto raised him like Kakashi and Jiraiya are war veterans themselves from that conflict or an earlier conflict; Kakashi himself was a child soldier from the Third War. Including teachers, the OG characters from Naruto are in some manner a victim of loss on either a wide or miniature scale.
Boruto doesn’t know that world and neither does his generation. Relatively speaking there’s peace all around, except for one or two bands of rogue ninja. Fifteen years after the devastation of the Fourth Shinobi War, and the peace that Nagato, Jiraiya, and everyone ever wanted has come to fruition thanks in no small part to the will of a knuckleheaded ninja. As a result, Boruto’s generation doesn’t need more shinobi to fill in a gap or because there’s a war on the horizon in need of some fresh meat; it’s mostly general security and escort missions or at least that’s how they always begin. A simple security mission can easily turn sour depending on several conditions. Remember the Mujina bandits?
Now that Boruto’s lost everything he’s ever had, the only route fans can see going forward is that Boruto follows the path of a rogue shinobi, like Sasuke did but with a significant point of divergence. Sasuke chose to acquire power from Orochimaru to get revenge on Itachi; Boruto had this move forced on him by an omnipotent power that honestly no one understands all that well. Another adverse effect of the Omnipotence shinjutsu is that Ohtsutsuki members and their vessels don’t succumb to Eida’s charm ability. Interestingly, Sumire and Sarada are also immune to this ability, which some on r/Boruto have theorized that since she treated these two as friends, they were spared that outcome.
Call it a miscalculation, but has anything good ever happened when children activate godly powers? In all seriousness, this would mean that one or both of them is likely to join up with Boruto for the foreseeable future while he plots to undo Kawaki’s crimes. Whether this extends to the remnants of the Ohtsutsuki remains to be seen. Sarada might go with Boruto, but if her father falls under the same charm as most people then he’ll likely fight her tooth and nail to keep her in the village. Sakura as well.
Sumire could also join Boruto’s quest since the anime gave her a burden of her own to deal with early on in the show’s run in the form of Nue and her father’s connection to the Foundation, the ANBU cell independent of the Hokage’s control. But this could also go wrong as the show rectified the rampage from that arc and allowed her to return to the life she’d gained in the Ninja Academy, even letting her work as an assistant to Dr. Katasuke Tohno in the manga.
These would be unlikely if they join Boruto in defiance of the Hidden Leaf Jonin. If it were a mission, since Boruto is now perceived as an enemy at the terrorist level, it would be an A-rank mission with S-rank potential and only the most advanced level shinobi would be selected for such a mission. It’s not like when Shikamaru’s rag-tag team fought off the Sound Ninja 4 to get Sasuke back. They village might choose to see it as potentially more dangerous, even for a Chunin like Sarada.
But if they see her potential and do what Hiruzen did with Itachi and make it an undercover/double agent mission like the Uchiha Clan Downfall, then I could see it happening… under Naruto and in response to what happened to his son. Assuming Shikamaru becomes interim Hokage or Kakashi or Tsunade return to their roles, they’d be under the influence of Omnipotence and Shikamaru has shown himself to be way more risk-averse as advisor to the Hokage. Just as he’d wanted to do to Kawaki, he probably won’t stop until Boruto is apprehended, however that comes about.
Also consider the reaction/response to come from the Hyuga clan when they find out their former heiress is missing, or whether the Omnipotence transcends dimensions. Hanabi and Hiashi are the only two Hyuga clan members to appear in the anime and I don’t think ever in the Boruto manga. Compared to the other Hidden Leaf clans, the Hyuga are still intact and kicking, especially with members of theirs amongst the regular Hidden Leaf Jonin in other aspects. A large pool of veteran shinobi to answer to this emergency should be expected.
In the meantime, with Himawari now technically an orphan, she might be taken into the Hyuga clan grounds for her protection and further training as an established academy student and aspiring shinobi. She does have the Byakugan unlike her brother and if they deem her ready, may induct her as a shinobi no different than the others who serve the Hidden Leaf Village.
If Omnipotence transcends dimensions, then that means Kawaki is safe in the short-term but screwed in the long-term. He advised Eida to report Naruto and Hinata (who are in another dimension remember) dead, so he and Eida could be in it if they find out that it’s a lie.
This all remains to be seen, though. We have until April 20 to see what happens, and I may have more material to write about. You know how I wrote up above that I didn’t really want to be seen as the Boruto guy? That might be in my future the more I bring it up. But again we’ll have to wait and see.
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.
The sequel series with a ginormous precedent to live up to
I was originally going to speculate on what the timeskip in the Boruto series would entail, but thanks to leaks provided by Twitter user @Abdul_S17, which have also been passed onto r/Boruto on reddit, this may be a brief post with not as much to say about what happens going forward, or rather, the unpredictable nature of the series makes this very hard, so I’ll try my best with the informaton given. Though I think there’s a few elephants to address regarding the Boruto series. In support of the sequel to Naruto, there’s loads of details that Naruto fans often forget or throw by the wayside. When the Boruto anime debuted in 2017, I recalled a detail that was mentioned in passing, but nonetheless mentioned the death of a major character, and so when it came to it, binging all of Naruto and Shippuden up until that point provided as much context as I could need to make sense of this seemingly unimportant line. This probably gives me the best understanding of the Narutoverse as a whole, the internal politics therein, etc., etc.
That being said, it’s not like Boruto doesn’t have it’s criticisms, and picking apart the worthless drivel from the valid points, Talk no Jutsu or not, if it was Naruto becoming Hokage instead of Konohamaru under the hood of a Transformation Jutsu, rest assured the Orange Hokage would’ve had a way more heartfelt ceremony. Also, regardless of all the money that comes with being affiliated with Naruto, if the Boruto manga was planned better, there probably would’ve been less filler even if the writers can magic it into the plot all the same. The showrunners seem to have fallen for one of the few things that can happen when a manga and anime run concurrent, as explained by a genius in the link below:
A problem inherited by Naruto and other anime adaptations beginning in the early to mid-2000s. And the worst case scenario would be what happened with the Fate franchise, but at least the Big Three have a consistent timeline.
Anyway, the Boruto manga’s next chapter is scheduled for release on February 20, and the leaks tell us how Boruto got the scar that his older self will have in the big brawl against Kawaki. All that’s missing now is the cloak and the sword. If you’ve been reading or watching or both, you know that Boruto has become Sasuke’s pupil and over time gets his old scratched headband as a memento. During the story, a mission to transport a Leaf village scientist to a research facility changes halfway and the new Team 7 is rerouted to assist with a zeppelin crash in the forest transporting autonomous puppets. As it turns out, this was the property of the dangerous group known as Kara and a couple members were sent to intercept.
A familiar face shows himself to keep the secrets from getting out. When that fails, Boruto, Sarada, and Mitsuki, learn that amongst the precious cargo was a boy known as Kawaki whom Kara planned on using as a vital tool. Now that he’s in Leaf Village hands, he’s under the sworn protection of the Hokage, and the troubled kid becomes utterly attached to Naruto, enough that the immediate threat of the Ohtsutsuki clan and its still living members is still felt even close to home.
Multiple attempts and failures to retrieve Kawaki become progressively destructive. Meanwhile, the karma seal on both Kawaki’s and Boruto’s palms begins to resonate and even strengthen at imprecise moments. The flashback in the beginning show that they can both activate it on command, but Boruto as a kid isn’t there yet. The more recent chapters show that whenever Boruto spends most of his chakra or loses control, his karma seal which has the memories of the Ohtsutsuki that Boruto defeated, Momoshiki, activates and Momo’s memories take over his body. Kawaki attempted to remedy this condition with entropy, but Momo, not content on losing his vessel, repairs Boruto’s body.
A cryptic message he gave to Hokage’s son about his blue eyes taking everything he cherished from him starts to come true. At the same time, one of Kara’s worst members, Code, is hellbent on living up to the Ohtsutsuki name by carrying on the will of its old leader Jigen, who was really the vessel of Isshiki Ohtsutsuki. So to summarize it: Code is in one corner hoping to become an Ohtsutsuki with all that comes with it, Kawaki seeks to destroy all Ohtsutsuki, and Boruto wants to get rid of the karma seal on his hand, and these goals all stand in the way of each other with progressively destructive consequences to boot.
I remember being floored by the destruction showcased in the first episode flashforward scene. Until we see the extent of the damage, it’s likely not on the same level as Pain’s Almighty Push.
Then again, them being the only two in the scene on the destroyed Hokage faces says quite a lot doesn’t it.
Now that the scene is set, I want to get a few predictions for what might happen. Spoiler for the leaks shared online, Kawaki gifts Boruto the scar, and is apprehended by Sasuke, Mitsuki, and Konohamaru. After that, I can expect Kakashi to come by as he too lost his eye in his youth and was given a teammate’s notorious Kekkei Genkai lost in the aftermath of the Fourth Ninja War.
In this case, the same may be true for Boruto as he has an ability known as the Jougan. It was originally meant to be the Byakugan, but Kishimoto forgot about that even though there’s a sketch of him with the Hyuga clan’s signature eyes. In the world of Naruto, when a nonmember of a specific clan’s Kekkei Genkai, it’s active for good. There’s no way to turn it off whatsoever, else Kakashi and Danzo wouldn’t have had to make use of eyepatches when they both had theirs.
The jougan activates immediately and the last page shows a glimpse of Momo taking another W for his predictions coming true. Going forward, extra training from Sasuke with some of Kakashi’s input can be expected as both do or used to live with only one normal functioning eye. One thing I didn’t mention was Kawaki trapping Naruto and Hinata in another dimension so that they don’t stand in his way when goes for Boruto again. Soon after being placed under the strictest detention possible, most likely at the behest of Shikamaru, the Leaf Village is gonna demand he release Naruto and Hinata and then keep him under wraps while they deal with Code, and two more Kara members, Eida and her brother Daemon.
As for Boruto, if Kawaki doesn’t comply, then it might fall on Boruto to do so and with less experience than his adoptive brother. The extra training might be signs of a timeskip, but with Kara showing off it’s most overpowered members and keeping them around for a fair bit, it might result in something different. Maybe another flashforward is in order, but again, can’t really tell all that well.
That aside, I recall that Boruto claimed he wanted to be a ninja like Sasuke is in the sense that he protects the village from afar while the Hokage spot goes to Sarada in the future. He seems to be turning into his idol though of course not precisely. Scarred headband, special eye jutsu, currently missing his parents, bearing a curse mark awarded by a pale-skinned enemy, and also under his possession at times, and set to gain a cloak and sword. Holy shit, Boruto is becoming his idol. Let’s have a look.
Of course, Boruto will still have both of his arms, but my point stands: Boruto, by accident or intent, is going to turn into Sasuke, a different type of Shippuden Sasuke. At least that’s what I see, and if it turns out to be true, then awesome. If not, then I’ll wait for Ikemoto and Kishimoto to keep going while I eat a bag of Ligma.
This week’s channel recommendation is TheAlmightyLoli. If you’re looking for a pop culture reviewer with a slice of edge coupled with a passioned understanding of the material at hand look no further. Loli’s style of reviewing and comedy can hit you in the mouth, and his style is an acquired taste, but for those who stick by, there’s never a dull moment. This channel dedicated hours of content to recounting Berserk in honor of Kentaro Miura who sadly died before he could finish the work, though one of his assistant’s, Koji Mori, is picking up where Miura left off at.
If you can sit through days’ worth of content on a single dark fantasy manga that continues to influence the industry to this day, sprinkled in with some other stuff, TheAlmightyLoli’s YouTube channel is linked down below along with the ways to support him on his about section.
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