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.