Boruto Drops Ominous Naruto Cliffhanger in Latest Chapter

Boruto: Naruto Next Generations has reached a point of no return in the manga as the latest chapter has pitted Naruto and Sasuke against Jigen's full range of power and abilities. This is all for Kawaki's sake as he and the Uzumaki family have grown closer the longer he's been staying with them, but it seems that even with all of the good intentions in the world that even Naruto has his limits. When faced with someone as surprisingly strong as Jigen, Chapter 38 ends on a pretty ominous cliffhanger as both Naruto, Sasuke, and even Kawaki's lives hang in the balance.

Chapter 38 of the series deals Naruto and Sasuke a devastating loss as Jigen overwhelmed the two of them with the power of his Otsutsuki transformation. Although this power comes with a twist, it's enough to pin Naruto down and seal him within a coffin -- completely cutting off his chakra from the rest of the world.

The end of Chapter 38 sees Kawaki still in Naruto's house shortly after Jigen and Naruto had whisked away to the pocket dimension. As Sarada arrives, Kawaki is admiring a picture of Naruto. She asks where he is, and soon Kawaki's arm deactivates and the photo drops to the ground and shatters. Then Naruto's smiling photo ominously lies in pieces a Kawaki's arm lies next to it.

This was the replacement arm that Naruto had provided Kawaki modeled after his own. He's constantly flowing his chakra through it, so now that Naruto has been sealed away after his defeat, his chakra is no longer powering the replacement arm. This means that Naruto's sealing is a far more dangerous affair than fans probably expected at first.

Although it's as Jigen says and Sasuke was able to escape from this dimension, it may be harder to rescue Naruto from this space if even his chakra has been cut off from the world. This places Boruto and the others in a fierce predicament, and now Kawaki is in even more danger than ever as he's the one Jigen was after in the first place and Naruto can no longer be his protector.

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.