Boruto Begins Teasing Kawaki's Turn to the Dark Side

07/27/2019 10:32 pm EDT

Boruto: Naruto Next Generations initially brought fans into the series with a flash forward look at a desolate future in which an older Boruto faces off against an older Kawaki in the ruins of the Hidden Leaf Village. Fans have been anxious to see how the sequel will get to this end point, and the pieces have started to come together now that Kawaki has been introduced into the manga series and is training to better master the Karma mark powers that he and Boruto share.

The latest chapter of the series began building even further to this end point as it began to tease Kawaki's turn towards the dark side. Because like it or not, it seems his Karma mark power draws out his most negative tendencies as evidenced by his confrontation with Jigen in Chapter 36.

The recent Kawaki focused arc of the manga has seen Kawaki get closer with Boruto and his family as Naruto has taken him under his wing and is beginning to train him how to use ninjutsu. But the latest chapter of the series saw Jigen suddenly warp to Kawaki's location through the power of the Karma mark. With Kawaki's training, it seems that his mastery of the Karma mark also is bringing him closer to the future fans saw at the beginning of the series.

The biggest indicator of this is his new Karma transformation, spurred on by the increased power of the mark. Along with sporting a horn much like Jigen's Otsutsuki transformation, he also begins to increase his aggression against Jigen. This confrontation also shows how Jigen talks to Kawaki as he says that he's the only one doing what's best for him and that Kawaki is being used. Although it's not a complete turn for Kawaki considering he still has a lot of respect for the Hokage's who taken him in, it does tease that Jigen may eventually get what he wants through this method.

One small other tease of Kawaki's turn is a conversation between Shikadai and Inojin earlier in the chapter where the two say they've come to like Kawaki but do worry he might be an enemy spy. All of these smaller pieces are starting to build toward something even bigger, and the way it's looking, Kawaki might not have much say as to whether or not he becomes a part of the Hidden Leaf Village's future destruction.

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.

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