With Boruto: Naruto Next Generations Chapter 80 of the manga Masashi Kishimoto and Mikio Ikemoto hit a major milestone that fans have long been awaiting. The timing of the point in the story that Boruto: Naruto Next Generations Chapter 80 reached is all thanks to one character. And that character is none other than Sarada Uchiha, the daughter of Sasuke and Sakura Uchiha.
Warning everything after this point will contain major spoilers for events up Boruto: Naruto Next Generations Chapter 80. These events are things that the anime has not reached yet. So everything that follows is full spoilers about Boruto: Naruto Next Generations.
March 26th was the date the final episode of Boruto: Naruto Next Generations Part 1 aired. With its 293rd episode Part 1 ended the “Code’s Assault Arc,” with the adapted material being up to parts of Chapter 70 of up Boruto: Naruto Next Generations. Part 1 of the anime did end with an exclusive additional scene that saw a flashforward with a 16 year-old Boruto clashing with Kawaki on the Hokage Rock with Konoha in ruins. This was obviously a call back to the start of the series where we saw both the older Boruto and Kawaki preparing to face off.
Which brings us to the latest developments in Boruto: Naruto Next Generations manga. Chapter 80 of the Boruto manga marked a massive milestone for several major reasons. For one it marks the end of the thirteen chapter long “Omnipotence Arc” which dealt with the fallout from “Code’s Assault Arc.” In the fallout we saw Kishimoto further emphasize how Code is by far the strongest villain in the franchise.
With that there was the question of how all our heroes could deal with Code. The one that took having to take care of Code once and for all the hardest was Kawaki. As we saw in the last few chapters of Boruto: Naruto Next Generations Kawaki took it upon himself to protect Naruto and Hinata, his parental figures. And to do so Kawaki sent Naruto and Hinata into a dimension where there is no sense of time or space while he dealt with not only Code but everything to do with the Ōtsutsuki Clan, including Boruto.
Which brings us where we are at with Boruto: Naruto Next Generations Chapter 80 where everyone deals with Kawaki completely changing the continuity of series thanks to utilizing Ada’s Omnipotence ability. With that Kawaki changed things so he, not Boruto, was Naruto and Hinata’s son. On top of that Kawaki has made everyone believe Boruto killed Naruto, causing Boruto to be branded the Seventh Hokage’s killer and being hunted by everyone in the village.
That is everyone but Sarada Uchiha. Now we know from Boruto: Naruto Next Generations Chapter 80 thanks Sumire Kakei that Ada’s Omnipotence ability didn’t work on everyone. As of now we don’t know why it didn’t work on Boruto, Sarada, and Sumire as Kishimoto is keeping us in the dark on this. Though this does appear to play into how Kishimoto has slowly been building up Sumire’s character to have a key role in the story.
But more importantly, we finally got a much needed spotlight on Sarada’s character. For the last few story arcs Sarada has been pushed to the background. Now that is no longer the case as if it wasn’t for her nothing Boruto: Naruto Next Generations Chapter 80 would’ve played out in the way it did. Because in being one person that still remembers the real continuity of series Sarada was able to convince her father Sasuke to at least understand Boruto did not kill Naruto.
This is a massive moment as Kishimoto pays off the strong father-daughter bond we have seen built between Sasuke and Sarada. Making the moment even more impactful was that it was Sarada’s Mangekyō Sharingan awaking that fully convinced Sasuke to believe his daughter. Knowing that Sarada sorrow about Boruto’s changed status quo was so extreme that it led to her awaking the legendary Mangekyo Sharingan was enough for Sasuke to have such trust in his daughter.
The lengths in Sasuke’s trust in Sarada is shown throughout the second half of the Boruto: Naruto Next Generations Chapter 80. Because we see when he does find Boruto that Sasuke still has the memories of the new continuity Kawaki created with Ada’s Omnipotence ability. In a way it shows that even if someone is aware that the reality of the Naruto Universe has been changed that they will immediately get their memories of the true continuity.
This in turn leads to what is the moment Boruto fans have been waiting for. That is the point in the story where we get to the timeskip, getting us as close as we’ve ever been to the flashforward. This point happens thanks to Ada, with her brother Daemon tagging along, telling Boruto and Sasuke how Kawaki used her Omnipotence ability to change everything.
In a moment of self-reflection Boruto realized that because of his privileged life up to this point he never really understood the hardships Kawaki went through even though he said he did. While once again, hearing all this doesn’t get his original memories back Sasuke tells Boruto that his current status quo reminds him of where Naruto was originally. In bringing this up Sasuke tells Boruto that even when shunned by the world Naruto proved himself through his actions that he became Hokage.
Hearing all this Boruto became motivate to leave and train in order to take on Kawaki and Code in the future. Joining him, thanks to Sarada’s previous request, was Sasuke. Once again Kishimoto positions Sasuke in the role Jiraya had with Naruto back in the day as Boruto’s mentor. This is also a way for Kishimoto to also pay homage to Akira Toriyama’s Dragon Ball series where Piccolo became a mentor and father-figure to Gohan every time Goku was out of the picture.
Now we know that in the flashforward that started of Boruto: Naruto Next Generations that it is four years in the future of where Part 1 of the series ends. It’s not clear if Kishimoto how close to the point in the timeline where Boruto and Kawaki are battling in the ruins of Konoha four years in the future.
Finding that out will take a few months as Kishimoto and Ikemoto are taking a break with the release of chapters for the series. The manga is currently set to resume in September. What that means for the start of Part 2 of the Boruto anime, which started its own hiatus on March 26th, is unknown. With that in mind, Part 1 of the Boruto anime did not end like Part 1 of the original Naruto anime. Knowing the pacing of the Boruto anime we could see several arcs before we get to what just happened in the Chapter 80 of the manga. Which would also give Kishimoto and Ikemoto more time to develop the plot of Boruto in the timeskip period.
That all just leaves us to speculate what will be the state of the series when it returns. Because right now we’ve only seen the impact of Ada’s Omnipotence ability from Konoha’s point of view. We don’t know if Kawaki’s desire to be perceived as Naruto’s son while Boruto is the outside responsible for the Seventh Hokage’s disappearance truly stretches through the entire world. Given how the post-timeskip era Naruto: Shippuden showed us the rest of the ninja world we could see that happen in Part 2 of Boruto.
Having the other nations also branding Boruto a wanted criminal would certainly be the easy route given Omnipotence ability. Especially considering the Boruto manga is a monthly series Kishimoto and Ikemoto may not have the time to dedicate to fully diving into other Nations status quo like Naruto as a weekly series. Hopefully this route isn’t taken because there could be a lot of interest political drama with other Nations being confused why Konoha is acting the way it is against Boruto and other changes by Kawaki.
Exploring other Nations status quo could also give room to logically explain how Sasuke and Boruto where able to go off and train without being found. Because Sasuke is smart enough to know how to stay in hiding from Konoha’s ninjas. Having the entire world after them would be a different matter.
Along with Sasuke and Boruto’s training we will hopefully see Kishimoto and Ikemoto follow-up on Sarada and Sumire status quos. Because as two of the only people with memories of the true continuity this should be a chance to elevate both characters. It would certainly be great to see Sarada not just be given the Sakura treatment and she plays a much more active role in the story. Kishimoto certainly should use this as a chance to build Sarada up as a key character who could surpase her father now that she has awakened her Mangekyo Sharingan at 12 years-old.
There is a lot more that will hopefully be done with the plot as we now have Kawaki and Code firmly established as Boruto’s main antagonist. Boruto: Naruto Next Generations Chapter 80 certainly set-up a lot of great plotlines for various characters. Hopefully when the Boruto manga series returns in September Kishimoto and Ikemoto will deliver big things for the future of the Naruto Universe.
