'Boruto' Sets up Sasuke's Long-Awaited Otsutsuki Battle

Boruto has just reached a point in its storyline that's going to be pivotal for a variety of reasons. The threat of the Otsutsuki Clan has risen over Boruto's generation, and in his first confrontation with one of the dreaded White Zetsu, Boruto learned his own limits - and why his father's former rival and friend Sasuke may be the path to Boruto becoming a greater ninja than Naruto.

However, the most pivotal thing about episode 52, "Sasuke's Shadow" was how it aligns the current Boruto anime series with the 2015 movie that first introduced the character. And that alignment came in the form of a post-credits scene that set up a battle between Sasuke and some deadly new villains of the Otsutsuki Clan!

As we see in the post-credits scene, Sasuke arrives in Kaguya Otsutsuki's ice dimension, after using his Rinnegan to traverse space and time. As Sasuke finally catches up to the perpetrators behind the new breeds of White Zetsu, he is observed by Kinshiki Otsutsuki and his foster son Momoshiki, who were held back by Kaguya as potential threats to her power. The meeting between these to Otsutsukis and Sasuke leads directly into the opening of Boruto: Naruto the Movie, in which Sasuke engages in a deadly battle with Kinshiki and Momoshiki in the ice dimension.

(Warning: Boruto movie plot spoilers follow!)

Sasuke's discovery of a potential threat bigger than Kaguya leads to Naruto and Boruto both being pulled into the conflict, after Kinshiki and Momoshiki arrive on Earth, seeking to gather fragments of Kaguya's chakra together for their own nefarious ends. This leads to Boruto training under Sasuke, and eventually learning to harness the Rasengan in order to defeat the Otsutsuki threat.

As stated, this intersection of the Boruto anime series and movie is something that fans have long waited to see. The anime will stretch out and add to the events of the movie, which should provide a more exciting string of episodes that see Boruto begin to evolve into the powerful teenage ninja we met in the flash-forward that opened the show, and another great showcase of why Sasuke is the ninja G.O.A.T.!

Boruto airs new episodes Wednesdays on Funimation and Hulu.