Naruto and Boruto's Epic Final Battle With Urashiki Raises Major Karma Question

Boruto: Naruto Next Generations epic Time Travel arc reached its penultimate episode with the appropriately-titled "The Last Battle, Urashiki". As you may expect, the tag-team combination of Boruto, Young Naruto, Sasuke and Jiraiya combine to finally take down Urashiki, after the villain uses some pretty horrific means to transform into his full-fledged Otsutsuki form. However, while the battle between the Hidden Leaf Shinobi and Urashiki was fittingly epic, its conclusion has left fans asking some pretty important questions. Boruto has largely centered on the mystery of Karma seal, and its connection to the Otsutsuki Clan, but the battle with Urashiki seems to ignore that connection entirely.

Warning! SPOILERS for Boruto episode 135 Follow!

As Naruto fans know all too well, Boruto's pivotal "Vs. Momoshiki" arc ended with Boruto manifesting his first major Rasengan, and using it to destroy Momoshiki Otsutsuki. That victory came at a cost, however, as in the aftermath of the battle, Boruto found himself on some strange spiritual plane, faced with Momoshiki's spiritual form. The villain explained to Boruto that, "You have strongly inherited the power of the Otsutsuki. Beware. Those blue eyes shall eventually take everything from you. Reflect well upon thy fate, as you proceed in life."

Boruto's Rasengan hand was left marked with a seal known as "Karma," and as the name implies, the seal was a sort of karmic payback for Boruto destroying Momoshiki, by literally and figuratively marking Boruto as the intended "vessel" for Momoshiki's hinted return. And yet, when Boruto and Naruto use a joint jutsu Rasengan to destroy Urashiki, no such penance is required.

So why is that?

Well, between the Boruto manga and anime we know that the Otsutsuki have a definite hierarchy, in which Urashiki is definitely a lower-ranking member. He simply may not qualify for the type of resurrection that other members like Momoshiki (or Jigen, in the manga) get. If Urashiki does qualify for resurrection through Karma, then perhaps there was another obstacle to his resurrection - namely, because the two people who killed him are already occupied as vessels! Young Naruto can barely contain the power of Nine-Tails at this point in his life, while Boruto has already been marked by Momoshiki. There may not have been any space left for Urashiki to leave a seal behind - at least not on Naruto or Boruto...

Originally created by Masashi Kishimoto for Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump in 1999, Naruto follows a young ninja, with a sealed demon within him, that wishes to become the leader of his home village. The series ran for 700 chapters overall, and was adapted into an anime series by Studio Pierrot and Aniplex that ran from 2002 to 2017. The series was popular enough to warrant a sequel, Boruto: Naruto Next Generations which is set several years after the events of the original Naruto story and features the children of many of its key characters such as Naruto and Hinata.