'Boruto' Makes 'Naruto' Fans Double Take Over Team 7's Rogue Status

Boruto: Naruto Next Generations' latest episode had Naruto fans seeing major flashbacks as the members of Team 7 went rogue in their own way after Mitsuki was declared a deserter of the Hidden Leaf Village.

With Boruto and Sarada giving chase despite knowing they will be labeled deserters as well, fans are having major Naruto and Sasuke flashbacks.

One of the most famous arcs of Masashi Kishimoto's original Naruto series was the Chunin Exams arc, which eventually led to Sasuke deserting the Hidden Leaf Village in order to gain more power from Orochimaru. The most memorable part of this arc, however, is how Naruto and a few of his allies gave unauthorized chase in order to catch up to him.

The latest episode of the series seems to take some cues from this fan-favorite arc as the already mysterious Mitsuki seems to have deserted the Hidden Leaf Village with the help of some Orochimaru-like allies. Boruto, just like his father before, cannot accept the situation as fact and believes Mitsuki must have a good reason for doing so.

This is also in spite of, like with Sasuke, Mitsuki outright telling Boruto that it was his "will" to leave the Hidden Leaf and attack the guards at the front gate. Boruto admits that he doesn't know much about Mitsuki, and is sad they never quite communicated fully and decides to venture out of the Hidden Leaf to chase after him, despite the village being on lockdown.

It's then Sarada tells him that he'll be labeled as a deserter, but Boruto doesn't care. Sarada decides to come along too, as they're both members of Team 7 and want to save their friend. This is different from Naruto, however, as Sarada follows Boruto out of the village rather than stay behind like her mother Sakura did in the previous series.

Neither Boruto nor Sarada care about the "deserter" status of their team because right now, all they care about is finding Mitsuki and figuring out what he's doing. That's all fans want too as the series continues to explore the mysterious Mitsuki.

Originally created by Masashi Kishimoto, Naruto ran in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump for 700 chapters. The story follows 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.