Boruto has had a very distinct image of his father. He’s only seen the more mature, powerful version of the character fans had watched grow up throughout the original series. So Boruto: Naruto Next Generations‘ time travel arc has been showing Boruto a whole new side of his father. This has led to some pretty complicated feelings for the young Boruto, and the latest episode only complicated things further by bringing back a long lost Naruto look to the series. A look that Boruto has never seen his father in before.
As Naruto’s chakra went wild following Urashiki’s attempt to forcibly remove the Nine-Tails’ chakra, Episode 131 of the series saw a return of the all-too familiar look of Naruto’s Bijuu possessed form. One that took Naruto years to work out of, and one that shook Boruto to his core.
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Episode 131 of the series has Urashiki kidnap Naruto after failing to remove the Nine-Tails’ chakra through his usual fishing rod means. Due to Naruto’s sealing jutsu still on his stomach at this point in the timeline, Urashiki had to get a lot more physical in order to access this. While this is a disturbing moment, Urashiki is soon pushed out when Kurama’s chakra takes over Naruto’s body like it did back in the original series.
Unfortunately for Boruto, this also means that Naruto no longer has a conscious control of what he does. Boruto didn’t know this, and tried to ease his dad out of this form. It nearly works as the young Naruto’s chakra begins to resonate with Boruto’s, but it’s clearly not enough as Naruto loses complete control and attacks Boruto.
Luckily, Jiraiya swoops in and subdues Naruto’s wild form before he harms Boruto even further. But this attack shook Boruto to his core. Now scarred by his father’s wild attack, he’s beginning to see the “monstrous” form that his father had to overcome as a child. Combined with the look into his father’s rough life without parents, and now finding out that this chakra form keeps the others in the Hidden Leaf Village at bay, Boruto learns just how much his father had worked to become the Hokage he knows.
The time travel arc is already helping Boruto to get a new perspective on his father, and hopefully it means Sasuke will soon be having the same kind of reflective period before it’s all said and done. 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.