Boruto's Latest Kawaki Twist Raises New Questions About That Flash-Forward Sequence

Boruto: Naruto Next Generations manga is on fire with its new "Kara Arc". The mysterious titular organization has been revealed as a league of cyber-enhanced shinobi who scheme and control reigns of underworld power, under the guidance of their powerful leader, Jigen. More than that, it's been revealed that Kara is a front for a new member of the Otsutsuki Clan (Isshiki), who has been using Jigen as his vessel until he could inhabit a better host body: Kawaki. Indeed Kawaki's role has been a pivotal mystery since Boruto's mysterious opening flash-forward scene, and after the latest manga chapter's big Kawaki twist, we have so many new questions!

Warning: Boruto Manga Chapter 47 SPOILERS Follow!

Boruto Chapter 47 is chock-full of some of the biggest reveals in the entire Naruto saga. We learn the true origins of the Otsutsuki Clan, and their protocols for resurrection; we meet a powerful new villain (Isshiki) with cool new set of powers; and we get a major series-changing reveal that Jiraiya has come back from the dead as a clone, who is Kara's spy/enforcer Koji Kashin. With all that going on it's understandable if fans were distracted from another event of significance - the reveal of a major fail-safe built into the Otsutsuki Karma seals!

Karma is used to imprint multiple host bodies (or vessels) that an Otsutsuki can use to "download" their essence into a new body, once an old one is destroyed. The big reveal is that once an Otsutsuki access one body for resurrection, all the other bodies marked with that Karma seal are released. So, when Isshiki Otsutsuki is forced to takeover the body of Jigen, it also destroys Kawaki's Karma seal. That revelation has now (once again) changed everything we thought we knew about Boruto's ominous opening flash-forward.

Originally, it looked like Boruto and Kawaki were two frienemy rival shinobi battling it out, in the Naruto and Sasuke tradition. When the Boruto manga revealed that both Boruto and Kawaki were marked as "vessels" for two Otsutsuki (Momoshiki and Isshiki, respectively), a new theory emerged: that the flash-forward depicted either Boruto, Kawaki, or both boys under the thrall of the Otsutsuki. Now it seems as though that possibility has shifted in a big way; with Kawaki now free of Karma, and Boruto still marked, there's increasing question about what kind of turns lead Boruto and Kawaki to trade blows.

Both Boruto and Kawaki are still marked with some kind of tattoo emblem on each of them - if its not Karma, what is it? Boruto also seems to have mastered his Bayukagan a lot better in that fight; what does that mean for his connection to Momoshiki Otsutsuki? As Boruto goes on, its first mystery is still its most exciting...

Read Boruto: Naruto Next Generation manga chapters online, HERE.