Boruto Solidifies Naruto’s Growing Relationship with Kawaki

Boruto: Naruto Next Generations‘ manga has seen the mysterious Kawaki grow closer with the Uzumaki family over the course of its latest arc, and has even taken that relationship to the point where Naruto is helping Kawaki train to use chakra. The two have bonded over their similar upbringings over the last few chapters, and Naruto has gone out of his way to provide Kawaki a comfortable home. But when Jigen arrives to take Kawaki back to Kara’s hideout, Naruto’s closeness with Kawaki is tested.

Thankfully, the latest chapter of the series cements just how much Naruto cares about Kawaki. When Kawaki tries to go with Jigen to keep Naruto from getting hurt, Naruto instead shuts this down, and says it’s his job as Hokage to protect everyone in his village. This, of course, includes Kawaki.

Naruto has gone out of his way to defend Kawaki in the past as he was seen protecting Kawaki and his own children from Delta’s previous attack. This has resulted in Kawaki growing to respect Naruto even more for his talent and care, and had him trying to give up in the previous chapter of the series too. Chapter 37 of the series elaborates on this further by having Kawaki confess that he’s worried that Jigen would be too strong for Naruto to fight against.

But Naruto turns this down immediately, and tells Kawaki that he’s got a problem with Kawaki’s willingness to become a prisoner. Kawaki wanted to keep Naruto out of this fuss, but Naruto jumps into a new fight against Jigen in order to keep protecting him. Through this arc, Naruto has gone above and beyond for Kawaki with big examples being taking him into his home in the first place among many others.

This all makes that future tease even more distressing. The series’ initial hook saw an older Boruto fighting Kawaki in the ruins of the Hidden Leaf Village, and the more the manga fills in Kawaki’s personality, the more this look into the future begins to hurt. Because it seems that regardless of the outcome of this fight with Jigen, Kawaki will one day walk a darker path.

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.