‘Boruto’s Latest Episode Had A Ton of Naruto Throwbacks

Boruto and his friends have been knee deep in their final graduation exam, and Naruto fans have noticed a ton of parallels to the original series.

Since Kakashi’s proctoring the final exam, fans have pointed out a ton of similarities his test in the original series.

As pointed out by Reddit user asterisk_blue, many of the techniques Boruto used against Kakashi were exactly the same as ones used by Naruto and Sasuke years ago. In order to get near him and snatch his single bell, the kids have to also get passed Konohamaru, Anko, and their teacher Shino.Fans will note that the exam already shares a lot of things with Kakashi’s first lesson to Team 7 in the original Naruto, including Boruto’s attitude and tactics.

Kakashi is shown to respond in very much the same way he did back then as well. Boruto eventually catches up to him, and his big maneuver is to summon a bunch of shadow clones, sneak up behind Kakashi, and strike. This is reminiscent to Naruto’s first attempt to take the bell from Kakashi in the original series, even down to its failure.

Like Naruto and Sauke in the original series, Boruto is overconfident in his abilities and causes him to leave his friends behind and attack Kakashi alone. Not surprisingly, the results are the same.

Kakashi’s ability shown in Episode 36 clearly is not at the level it was in the Naruto days, but it’s a strong showing from the Hokage that has yet to be seen in Boruto. Just as with Naruto’s Team 7 bell test, Kakashi is shown to evade and predict Boruto’s tactics with ease and eventually overcome him because he recognizes him as a ninja at level of Genin or Chunin.

Stepping on Boruto’s face presents a much more aggressive tone than his playful counterattacks against Naruto, and mirror much of his treatment of Sasuke. Since Boruto seems to share both of their early characteristics, it only makes sense Kakashi would treat him as an amalgamation of the two.

For those unfamiliar with 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 taht 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.