‘Boruto’ Just Showed How Much Konohamaru Has Grown

Team 7 were just assigned to their first mission on Boruto: Naruto Next Generations, and fans were impressed by how much Konohamaru has grown since he was last seen in the previous series. Although the series has hinted at his new skills in the past, as well as tease an upcoming battle in the manga, fans of the anime series have yet to see how much he’s grown as a ninja.

While some original Naruto fans may remember Konohamaru as the kid who once looked up to Naruto, in Boruto he’s become a ninja worthy of being the Third Hokage’s grandson.

As the leader of the Team 7, he finds his team in a much rougher situation that they’d realize. Assigned to help a village being attacked from a neighboring village, Konohamaru catches early on that something is a miss. He notes that there’s only one way in and out of the town (that only opens from one side), he notcies something is wrong with the mission debriefing and gets the village leader to tell him what’s really happening, and his growth was even shown before they made it to the town.

When Boruto, Sarada, and Mitsuki jump at something rumbling in the bushes, Konohamaru stands unbaited. After it was revealed there was no threat, he says that until they’re able to parse out real danger and intent, then they’re still not fully grown ninjas.

This humbles the three young ninja, and while they have been taking Konohamaru lightly before, this moment and the next few episodes to come will definitely make them take him even more seriously.

Episode 40 teases the beginning of the next major arc of the series, which will set up the Chuunin Exams, which was a plot first covered in Boruto: Naruto the Movie and later on in the manga run of the series. Although the new Team 7 finds themselves in their first deadly mission, it will soon lead to even more treacherous predicaments.

The core of the arc follows Boruto as he goes through a dilemma during the Chuunin Exams when he’s caught cheating, and his father is kidnapped by a new set of ninja baddies from the Kaguya clan. This new arc has been hotly anticipated, but it has raised many questionsfor fans of the series as Boruto has proven to have already learned the same kind of lessons he learns in the movie and the manga run.

For those unfamiliar with Boruto’s predecessor Naruto, it has quite a storied history. Originally created by Masashi Kishimoto, the series ran in Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump for 700 chapters. The story follows Naruto, a young ninja with a sealed demon within him that wishes to become the leader of his home village. The sequel, Boruto: Naruto Next Generations is set several years after the events of the original Naruto story and featuring the children of many of its key characters such as Naruto and Hinata.