Boruto Breaks Down a Major Kurama Confession

Masashi Kishimoto’s Naruto is overall a story of self-actualization. Naruto eventually earned the respect of his peers due to his overwhelming power and positivity, and he couldn’t get there without making piece with his literal inner demons. Boruto: Naruto Next Generations may be the story of his son, but the manga has shown that both Naruto and his inner beast Kurama still have room to grow the longer they are bonded together.

This comes out especially in Chapter 35 of the series as Kurama, speaking with Kawaki, opens up about his time in Naruto’s body and confesses that he feels regret for putting Naruto through such a tough life.

When Kurama reveals that he’ll be watching Kawaki while Naruto sleeps, Kawaki assumes that Naruto became Hokage due to the Nine-Tailed Beast’s power. But Kurama corrects him and says that he actually got in Naruto’s way throughout his life. He tells Kawaki how he used to be feared and took the lives of many shinobi, including Naruto’s parents. He mentions that Naruto was forced to become a vessel for him, and was isolated due to people’s fears of him.

He mentions how it’s ironic that someone so lonely would specialize in the Shadow Clone jutsu, but at the end of the day Kurama saw Naruto grow at his side and the two eventually became friends. It’s how Naruto began to love himself, and Kurama loved to watch it happen. This was all to ease Kawaki’s pain of loneliness, to reveal why Naruto has taken such an interest in him in the first place.

Fans know Naruto’s plight all too well, but it’s interesting to finally get it from Kurama’s perspective. Their partnership had definitely improved over the years, and fans saw a few cases of it in Boruto already, but it’s something else to have Kurama lay it all out there like this. It certainly paints Naruto’s ability to persuade others in another light, and another great example of why he’s the current Hokage for sure.

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.