'Boruto' Gets Nostalgic With A Jinchuuriki Nod

Boruto: Naruto Next Generations' manga is heading into its next arc focusing on Kawaki, and after hinting at the burden Kawaki is carrying, the series made a touching nod to Naruto's sad past as a Jinchuuriki.

When Naruto decides to take Kawaki under his care rather than keep him locked up with tight surveillance in the latest chapter, he references the fact that people used to fear him as well during his early days as the Jinchuuriki.

After recovering Kawaki during the last mission, Naruto decides to keep Kawaki under his supervision. Naturally this doesn't sound like a good idea to his adviser Shikamaru, who argues that regardless of whether or not Kawaki's a child, he's still dangerous and should be locked up under tight supervision rather than just stay with the Hokage.

But Naruto retorts that when he was a young Jinchuuriki, people who feared the demon Kurama inside of him would have locked him up under the same kind of surveillance. But if the Third Hokage had not stepped in and agreed to watch over him, then Naruto could have had a much different upbringing.

Shikamaru understands Naruto's argument, but is still hesitant thanks to the new group Kara's unidentified threat. Although the other Kage aren't too happy about this either, Naruto's shadow clones along with his resolve to help Kawaki in this instance eventually gets them to agree to Naruto's plan as well.

This shout-out to his Jinchuuriki past may be small, but it does a lot to show how much Naruto has grown since he was a child. Carrying on the teachings of everyone who's ever reached a hand out to him like the Third Hokage, Naruto's a far cry from where he used to be. That must be what he sees in Kawaki at the moment.

Originally created by Masashi Kishimoto, Naruto ran in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump for 700 chapters. The story follows 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.

Boruto: Naruto Next Generations recently even made TV Tokyo's list of Top 5 Anime in sales and profits, coming third in sales and fifth and profits. The anime has been such a success that the Naruto franchise as a whole stills holds a top spot in many anime profits rankings as well. The series even managed to cross 235 million copies of the manga sold worldwide. Boruto: Naruto Next Generations was even given a major bump of approval as it just took over a more familiar timeslot, airing in the same time and day that its predecessor Naruto: Shippuden once did.