Naruto Teases New Forms for Boruto, Kawaki

While the Boruto anime may currently be in the middle of an emotional time travel arc celebrating the franchise’s 20th Anniversary, the manga is getting more intense than ever as Boruto and Naruto’s Karma power has been getting stronger with each passing moment. This definitely has its downsides as not only does it mean that power can be one day exploited by Jigen for some nefarious reasons, but Boruto and Kawaki are on a much darker path than initially thought. The latest chapter of the series gave an example of just how dark this could be.

Chapter 39 of the series sees Jigen decompressing and recharging his chakra after the fight with Naruto and Sasuke in the other dimension, and it’s here that he’s happy with his work so far as he’s seen that both Kawaki and Boruto are progressing at such a fast pace, that one day they’ll both become Otsutsuki themselves.

As Jigen explains to fellow Kara member Amado, Kawaki’s Karma is “ripening” at a quick pace and he’s no longer an incomplete vessel. He believes that he’ll soon one day awaken as an Otsutsuki vessel like he is, and Amado suspects that it’s due to the strong resonance from Boruto’s own Karma. They’re causing one another to develop at a faster rate than expected, and Jigen believes that at this rate the two of them will unlock Otsutsuki forms and a new divine tree will grow much like Kaguya attempted years ago.

Kawaki’s already started to show early signs of this Otsutsuki transformation as he managed to use it when initially trying to fight off Jigen, but this news about Boruto sure is surprising. This certainly puts the flash forward of the two fighting in a ruined Hidden Leaf Village in a new light as the two of them have grown so close only to unlock these dark new forms. But the real test will be to see how both Boruto and Kawaki grow in different directions from one another. There’s going to be a divide somewhere, and it’s sure to be heartbreaking considering just how much Kawaki cares for Boruto and his family.

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.