'Boruto' Sets Up Chunin Exam Trouble In Latest Episode

Boruto and the rest of his class are headed for the Chunin Exams, but they're going to have to [...]

Boruto and the rest of his class are headed for the Chunin Exams, but they're going to have to take a pretty big detour on the way to the test!

The latest episode of Boruto, "Boruto's Birthday", saw Team 7 assigned a new mission to stop some local thieves, only to stumble upon a much deadlier threat. Apparently, the threat of the Otsutsuki Clan has risen again, and brought a particularly fearsome foe back to terrorize the Hidden Leaf again: White Zetsu!

The stage has been set for several exciting things to come, such as:

  1. Team 7 going into their biggest, most dangerous battle yet.
  2. Sasuke returning to battle the foe he thought he destroyed once already.
  3. Sasuke and Sarada having a kick-ass father/daughter moment to take out White Zetsu.

Some recent Boruto episode synopses have spelled out some additional troubles that will plague the Uzumaki family, as the Chunin Exams draw closer:

The biggest surprise in all this, is that after all the ordeals he faces and the big threat Team 7 conquers, Boruto won't opt to take the Chunin Exams! This move is not completely surprising, given what we know about Boruto's character, but it certainly throws a big monkey-wrench into Team 7's chances to pass the exams - and is likely going to cause a big rift between Boruto and Sarada. The question is: is Boruto's penchant for helping others going to push him to not let Team 7 down?

For a lot of fans, this "twist" could also present another problem: more filler episodes. Boruto has been a successful continuation of the Naruto franchise, but some fifty-odd episodes in, there is a vocal section of the fanbase that has (rightly) pointed out that there have been a lot of filler episodes as of late. It seemed between the return of White Zetsu and the Chunin Exams we were finally in for a slew of action-packed episodes - and while that may indeed be the case, we're going to have to get through some additional emotional buildup moments to Team 7's biggest test.

Boruto releases new episodes on Wednesdays on Hulu and other streaming services.