Kawaki’s Journey to Power in Boruto Manga – Kishimoto Confirms Kawaki’s New Shinjutsu From Shibai Otsutuski 

Kawaki’s time has finally come, and this time, it is in a good way. With the recent developments in the Boruto manga, many questions about why Boruto is so much stronger than Kawaki have been answered. However, Kawaki’s path toward rivaling or even surpassing Boruto has also been made clear. This clarity comes not only from the manga but also from recent interviews with Ikemoto and Kishimoto. Kishimoto has confirmed Kawaki’s path toward becoming one of the strongest characters in the series, and according to him, it will take place very soon. This information has been circulating, especially with the interviews that Ikemoto and Kishimoto have done, where they planned a trip to visit the fan base in France. There were a lot of hype moments, and there are many more things we could be talking about. However, we have to talk about Kawaki’s status, as Kishimoto and Ikemoto have something quite interesting to say about Kawaki. 

Kawaki will have character development soon. Boruto has already had significant character development and high self-esteem, and he has more weight on his shoulders than Kawaki. Ikemoto and Kishimoto are talking about the various challenges that Boruto has had to endure. He is working on saving Naruto Hinata and his village, Sasuke, and protecting the entire planet. That’s why whenever Boruto does something entirely rash, we have Kashin Koji, who tells Boruto to watch out or he will lead to the destruction of the planet. This responsibility that Boruto has on his shoulders has led to Boruto becoming quite strong in the time skip. But that’s not the only reason Boruto is so much more robust in the time skip. As we learn in Chapter 13 of Boruto: Two Blue Vortex, Kashin Koji had a vision of the future and could see all possible futures. In those possible futures, he allowed Boruto to learn the moves that he would be learning in the future right now. He gave Boruto a head start over everybody. This is why Boruto’s power level, when you compare it to the likes of Kawaki, Mitsuki, Sarada, Code, and all the various people around him, is just that much stronger because he has to be with the burden and responsibility that he has to carry at the current moment. If Boruto isn’t this strong, the planet is doomed, and this is precisely what Boruto achieved in the time skip. However, this is another reason Kawaki fans must rejoice, and I include myself in that fanbase. 

So far, no character in the time skip has received as much hate as Kawaki. People find a reason to hate everything we see Kawaki do. We see a Boruto that is strong in the time skip, and because Kawaki can’t replicate those same feats, we have a lot of people calling Kawaki a fraud, and some of the reasons were valid, like him getting caught off guard by the Claw Grimes. But by understanding why Boruto is this strong and making perfect sense, we have to return to Kawaki and give him a bit of an apology. In the sense that his training hasn’t been as good as Boruto’s, it’s not necessarily his fault. He hasn’t had the help that Boruto has received to become this much stronger. Although Kawaki may not have followed the Shinobi way of getting more powerful, he still seems to have mastered all of Isshki’s abilities. Based on the information we have been given, I have learned that we see a Kawaki with all eight of Isshki’s triangles for his Dojutsu. So, I believe that Kawaki did take that aspect of training to heart, and it now makes a lot of sense why we see Boruto perform so many feats that make Kawaki seem that much weaker. When we saw Boruto fly so much faster than Kawaki, and we even had a Delta who questioned how much Boruto has trained and didn’t make sense that he is this strong, all of it makes sense why Boruto is more robust. Still, it also makes sense why Kawaki isn’t as strong as Boruto because nobody gave Kawaki all the abilities he would learn in the future. Kawaki had nobody to give him that sort of guidance, and it isn’t wrong that Kawaki Uzumaki didn’t have anything, and Boruto Uzumaki had people to help him, like Kashin Koji.

Kawaki, at the current moment, if he wants to get stronger, if he wants to attain his path toward becoming as strong as Boruto, if not more decisive, if he wants to reduce the gap, there are only two routes that Kawaki can follow. The first route is to follow the Otsutsuki route, which would be to eat a chakra fruit. Kawaki would have to plant a Divine Tree, whether on this planet or a different planet and then eat the fruit it bears. Then, he could become a lot stronger following the Otsutsuki method. However, Kawaki won’t do that. Kawaki will not attempt to tarnish the world that Naruto works so hard to protect, and in none of the futures that Kashin Koji discussed did we have a Kawaki who even had the slightest idea of creating a chakra fruit. This is something that Kawaki has never even seen as an option, and it doesn’t appear like he sees that as an option in the time skip. So, what is the second route? The second option would be to go down the ninja route, the route of improving your chakra control, taking your time, and mastering various elements, and going through that way of training that does end up taking quite a bit of time, maybe four or five years, as Kawaki quoted. But that is a path that Kawaki would take. Knowing what Kawaki says to Boruto in that time skip scene, that the age of Shinobi is over, I don’t believe this will be the path the story will take. Kawaki will not follow the Shinobi method as he has always claimed it is inefficient. Kawaki needs to get powerful now to deal with the likes of Jura Hidari and the various characters we have seen. Boruto being this strong where he can take down Hidari, is because of the special training that Boruto had to go through to be able to become that strong, which probably means that if Boruto weren’t actually this strong and didn’t go through this special method of training, Boruto would have probably died in this first invasion of Jura and Hidari. This is quite scary to think about as we now have the likes of Kawaki, Mitsuki, and the other characters who didn’t go through that special training but still have to become strong enough to face the Shinju.

As I was saying, the odds of Kawaki going down the first method, I don’t see it taking place, and with what Kawaki said about the age of Shinobi being over and how Shinobi are inefficient and ineffective, I don’t see Kawaki going down the second path. But the path that I see Kawaki going under is the path that Amado has already forced Kawaki to take, and that is the third route, the route that involves Shibai Otsutsuki’s DNA. As we learned in Chapter 13 of Boruto: Two Blue Vortex, all of the inner members of the Kara did end up having some Shibai Otsutsuki DNA mixed into them. This led to Eida gaining omnipotence, Daemon having the reflective ability, Code having the claw marks, and Kashin Koji having the ability to see the future. The only people who didn’t awaken it were Delta and Boruto. Boruto has been taken care of, but Delta is still here, so the possibility of Delta awakening this ninjutsu in the future is vital. But the question would now be, does Kawaki always have some of Shibai Otsutsuki’s DNA? I think so because Kawaki also has the same inner marking as the rest of the Kara members. Like the rest of the Kara members, we have a Kawaki who is almost like a cyborg; he has been modified with machinery, and we literally see that he can remove his arm and have another arm placed. Kawaki has been altered similarly to the rest of the Kara inners, so if we already see these two similar factors between Kawaki and the Kara inners, I believe that Kawaki may have also received some of Shibai Otsutsuki’s DNA. Is it possible for Kawaki to awaken ninjutsu just like Kashin Koji and the other inner Kara members? And suppose it is, in fact, true that Kawaki has Shibai Otsutsuki’s DNA. In that case, the amount of strength that Kawaki seems to have in that time skip scene makes a lot of sense because not only is Kawaki already an Otsutsuki, but to now also inherit Shibai Otsutsuki’s DNA, this is something completely different, and this is why I genuinely do believe that when Kawaki ends up tapping into ninjutsu, Kawaki will be an absolute monster. And that’s where we’re going to see and come to understand what exactly Kawaki means by the age of Shinobi being over.

 Now, this is a possibility, the possibility that we have Kawaki, who already has Shibai Otsutsuki’s DNA. However, it could be the case that Kawakii was deemed a vessel and thus did not need to have Shibai Otsutsuki’s DNA. Then the second option would be that Amado gave Shibai Otsutsuki’s DNA to Kawaki when he implanted him with the karma for the second time, and that was the exact moment that he also gave some of Delta’s information in Kawaki’s karma to allow Kawaki to bring her daughter back. This may be a path that the story may take, where we had a Kawaki who only had Shibai Otsutsuki’s DNA after Amado came to the Leaf Village and fixed his arm. That is one path, but another option that makes a lot of sense is that Amado ends up using Kawaki to beat him to become stronger by having Kawaki plant a Karma on Delta. That is the main goal that Amado has left. In Chapter 75 of Boruto: Naruto’s Next Generations, Amado explained how he wanted to bring his daughter back, and he needed Kawaki to implant his karma onto Delta to allow that to occur. If Kawaki wants to get stronger, Amado could tell Kawaki that he got him with the power and Shibai’s DNA; however, plant your karma on Delta quickly. Everything will be excellent, and that would be an exciting way of seeing Amado and Kawaki get what they want, which is a possibility that I do see. But the real question is now, what Shinjutsu would Kawaki get? This is where I have to ask you to let me know in the comment section what you people personally think because I don’t necessarily have the answer to that question. One of my doubts, and the only thing that may have been hinted towards, is the possibility of Kawaki having a wish-granting ability. However, the only problem I have with that theory is that the wish-granting ability is connected to Isshiki and not Shibai Otsutsuki, so you let me know what your personal opinions are. However, in this interview, we also learned something quite interesting about Kawaki’s character: that it has to do with Kawaki’s clothing. Ikemoto explained in this interview that clothing in the Boruto manga series matters a lot and reflects the intentions of the characters and the way they want to be perceived in Ninja World. When focusing on Kawaki, we have new information from Ikemoto that the one who goes to get clothes for Kawaki and dresses up Kawaki is Eida. Kawaki takes all his clothes from Eida (Ada), but he doesn’t throw away the clothes that are bad, the clothes that are starting to get torn up; he continues to keep those clothes because he has low self-esteem, and this is quite interesting because it reveals a lot about Kawaki’s character. The fact that he has low self-esteem and the fact that Kawaki thinks in a scarcity mindset is not only shown by his clothing but also in the way that he treats Naruto and how obsessive he is like he fears that he would lose Naruto. So, in that scarcity mindset, he first needed to protect the only thing he had. Thus, he sealed Naruto and Hinata. The more they talked in the interview, the more we understood how Boruto and Kawaki’s dynamic had been flipped compared to Naruto and Sasuke. If you want to understand Kawaki and Boruto’s dynamic and how it differs from Naruto and Sasuke, read this article here.