Boruto: Will Sasuke Become Hokage?

Warning: Spoilers Follow!!! Boruto: Naruto Next Generations manga chapter 38 takes us back into the decisive battle between Naruto, Sasuke, and Jigen, leader of the mysterious villain group Kara. When Jigen reveals his true identity and power (he’s the vessel of new villain Isshiki Otsutsuki), Naruto and Sasuke are forced to go all-out. However, even with the world’s two most powerful shinobi unleashing their full powered attacks, Jigen/Isshiki is about to shrug off the assualt like its nothing, and ends up giving Naruto and Sasuke a brutal beatdown. The fight ends with Sasuke having to flee the battlefield mortally wounded, while Naruto is subdued by Issihiki and imprisoned in another dimension.

Naruto fans have since taken this latest manga chapter back to the very beginning of the Boruto series, and discovered some interesting insights. Not only is it clear that “Teenage Boruto” may be fighting Isshiki Otsutsuki (who has possessed the body of Boruto’s friend, Kawaki), but it’s also clear from the sequence that Naruto could be locked away in his prison for years on end! If that’s the case, there’s one big potential development that this latest chapter of Boruto sets up:

Will Sasuke become the new Hokage of The Hidden Leaf in Naruto’s absence?

First things first, let’s break down what Boruto‘s flash-forward sequence hints at. During the fight between “Kawki” and Teenage Boruto, the former threatens the latter with the following proclamation:

“The age of he Shinobi is over. I’ll send you where I sent the Seventh Hokage, Boruto.”

Ever since first hearing that line, there’s been a dedicated fan theory that Naruto wasn’t in fact killed by Kawaki, but rather that the Hokage had somehow been sealed away somewhere he couldn’t return from. A lot of fans assumed that Naruto had been taken out just before the epic showdown between Boruto and Kawaki: now it looks like he could be gone for years before Teenage Boruto has his milestone battle.

So if Naruto is gone that long, who steps up to be Hokage?

Sasuke long had the dream to take that role, before he became the “Shadow Hokage” to his best friends, serving as Naruto’s chief shinobi enforcer. Sasuke becoming leader of Hidden Leaf would be an interesting story arc for his character, as it would force him to evolve in ways we haven’t seen before. However, Sasuke is also likely to be the one who tirelessly searches for Naruto or a way to free him, rather than moving into a government role.

Either way, Boruto’s opening sequence suggests that Boruto inherits Sasuke’s sword by his fight with Kawaki; whether Sasuke handed it over to him (when he becomes Hokage) or Boruto takes it in homage (because Sasuke has fallen)…. the implications of that sequence are getting bigger and bigger.

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.