Boruto: Naruto Next Generations fans who followed the series from Boruto: Naruto the Movie have been waiting for the anime to reach the point where Boruto would face the consequences for his actions during the Chunin Exams, but they certainly did not expect for it to have as much emotional impact as it did.
When Boruto uses the Scientific Ninja Tool during the final fight of the Chunin Exams, he thinks he’s about to get praised by his father but instead is publicly reprimanded for using a cheating tool in front of all of his friends and villages.
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The anime series has done well to build Boruto as a character constantly vying for his father’s attention and praise. Living in the shadow of his Hokage father, Boruto is constantly pressured to do better in order to reach his absentee father. He came closest during the Chunin Exams, as his father praised him for reaching the final round in the first place but this is a complete gut punch.
Not only is Naruto disappointed in his son for cheating, but he also has to act as Hokage and strip Boruto of his ninja title as well. this is made worse when Boruto reaches out for a fist bump, only for Naruto to grab his arm and expose the tool for all to see.
Boruto already felt terrible, but then it’s compounded by his sister’s reaction, Sarada, and Shikadai, who are all feeling a sense of disappointment from him and further adds to the massive drama already palpable in the scene. In the series before Boruto has made note of how little he wants to work to get stronger, but it’s going to take something like this to shake him to his core.
Not only does he look like a failure to his father, but he’s a failure to his friends. It’s going to be a while before Boruto can recover from this one. Especially when the man who got him to use the Tool, Katasuke, tricked him into being a lab rat. Now Boruto doesn’t have an ally anywhere.
For those unfamiliar with Boruto’s predecessor Naruto, it has quite a storied history. Originally created by Masashi Kishimoto, the series ran in Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump for 700 chapters. The story follows Naruto, a young ninja with a sealed demon within him that wishes to become the leader of his home village. The sequel, Boruto: Naruto Next Generations is set several years after the events of the original Naruto story and featuring the children of many of its key characters such as Naruto and Hinata.
