Boruto Episode 83

Ohnoki’s Justice

Last week I predicted that the third Tsuchikage, Ohnoki, had been creating an army of Akuta because he didn’t trust the balance between the five great nations. However, this week we learned that this wasn’t necessarily the case.

While Ohnoki does seem to trust the balance between the five great nations, what he doesn’t trust is their cooperation. He’s not worried that the Stone might be overtaken by the Leaf, but he’s instead worried that if the Stone is under attack, the Leaf won’t come to help them.

But, his worries go even further than just that. Five years ago there was a rogue ninja attack on the village in which many of the young shinobi were killed. By creating the Akuta to serve as the Stone’s soldiers, Ohnoki hopes to save the lives of his own people.

But, despite him thinking this is a good idea, the current Tsuchikage, Kurotsuchi, doesn’t like the idea of the Stone having a private, artificial army. Such an army could breed distrust between the nations, which may lead to an arms race and the end of the current peace.

This is simply a classic case of an old person ruining things for everyone else because they don’t understand how the world works currently, and yet they’re in a position of power.

Versus Ku

After Ohnoki reveals his plan to our protagonists, as any antagonist worth their salt does, we get a brief fight between the Leaf genin, Akatsuchi, and Ku. This fight has a few interesting developments regarding both Boruto and Ku, but first we need a bit of background information.

Later on in the episode it’s revealed that Ku is actually a homunculi just like the rest of the group which brought Mitsuki to the Hidden Stone village. I predicted this last week, so that wasn’t too surprising, but what is surprising is the jutsu he knows.

Sekiei uses the forbidden Clay Detonation jutsu, Kokuyou specializes in taijutsu, and the lolita specializes in genjutsu. We don’t yet know what the red-haired homunculus is capable of, but in this episode we learn that Ku is essentially a clone of Ohnoki and can use the Particle Style.

Only the second and third Tsuchikage, Mu and Ohnoki respectively, were capable of using this style, so the fact that Ku is able to use it as well is pretty interesting. In fact, his name could even be a reference to Mu, the founder of the Particle Style and Ohnoki’s mentor.

I’ve already gone over the Particle Style in my post on the strongest chakra nature, but I’ll briefly explain it once more. The Particle, or Dust, style is the only known Kekkei Tōta, which is the combination of three different chakra natures.

To use the Particle Style, the user must have an affinity for Fire, Wind, and Earth chakra natures, and possibly be a member of a specific bloodline. This is why there were previously only two Particle Style users in history.

Last week, along with predicting that Ku was a homunculus, I also predicted that Ohnoki saw him as his own son. The fact that he was given the Particle Style reinforces this second prediction, because it’s not something which Ohnoki would give to just anyone.

Along with seeing that Ku is able to use this special jutsu, we also see more of Boruto’s jutsu capabilities. I mentioned this in a fairly recent post, but Boruto is somehow able to create full-sized Rasengan one-handedly without any real training.

The last time we saw him actually trying to make a Rasengan, he was only able to make a small one. Since then, there has been no indication that he’s been taught any more about this jutsu, and yet he can already use it as well as his father as an adult.

I’ve said this before, but the genin in Boruto are so much more powerful than their parents, and yet they have trouble with the easiest of enemies.

At the age of roughly 12, Boruto has already mastered the Rasengan, three chakra natures, and combining chakra transformations with jutsu. By comparison, Naruto couldn’t even use a single chakra nature until halfway through Shippūden, and he needed a shadow clone to use the Rasengan.

As far as his technical skills are concerned, Boruto is already a jonin-rank shinobi. Not only should he be a jonin, but with three chakra natures he should be one of the strongest jonin. Oh, and don’t forget he’s also an Uzumaki and Hyūga, has the Jougan, and has a summoning pact with Ryūchi cave.

Mitsuki’s Will

While Boruto and the others are confronting Ku and Ohnoki, Mitsuki is in the homunculi’s hideout with Sekiei. It’s here that we learn that the homunculi aren’t evil themselves, even though they were created to be used as weapons.

Just as Ohnoki planned to use his Akuta army to save the Stone’s youth from dying in combat, the homunculi, or at least Sekiei, seems to believe this is a good cause as well. It looks like all of his fascination with humans was actually coming from a genuine place of curiosity because he liked them.

Perhaps we’ll see Sekiei survive this arc and stick around to be one of Mitsuki’s friends in the Hidden Stone just as Gaara became Naruto’s friend in the Hidden Sand. Although he still appears somewhat cautious of the homunculi, Mitsuki does appear to trust Sekiei completely at this point.

Some tests are then run on Mitsuki by a doctor/scientist and it’s revealed that there’s a large curse mark located in his chest where his heart would be. When he finds out about this, Mitsuki will probably be worried that this curse mark is forcing him to have feelings that aren’t his own, but I don’t think that’s the case.

Orochimaru genuinely seems to have given Mitsuki free will, and while this may seem strange considering his background, it actually makes more sense than if Mitsuki were just a tool. Orochimaru may be twisted, but he’s a scientist when everything is said and done.

By giving Mitsuki free will, Orochimaru can then observe him and see what choices he ends up making. Of course, there would have been previous Mitsuki clones which didn’t have free will and who would be used as controls in this experiment, but the Mitsuki we know and love likely has free will.

There’s also precedent for this from the end of Shippūden. Once Orochimaru was resurrected by Sasuke during the Fourth Shinobi War, he decides to follow Sasuke and observe his choices rather than try to control him as he had done in the past.

Conclusion

So what did you think of this week’s episode of Boruto: Naruto Next Generations? Do you think Ku is a clone of Ohnoki? Do you think Mitsuki actually has free will after seeing the curse mark in his chest? Let me know in the comments.

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My review of the next episode is available here.