Boruto Episode 82

Boruto Episode 82

Infiltrating the Hidden Stone Village

In this episode of Boruto: Naruto Next Generations, Boruto, Sarada, Shikadai, and Chocho have a surprisingly easy time getting into the Hidden Stone village. Honestly, I think they made it even harder than it needed to be, and yet they still faced absolutely no resistance.

Since this is a peaceful time, I’m fairly certain they would have simply been able to walk through the main gate to enter the Hidden Stone, but instead they decide to break in through the villages water supply pipes. If anything, that would make them get caught simply because it’s so suspicious.

Once inside, they need to find the third Tsuchikage, Ohnoki, because they believe he’ll be willing and able to help them find Mitsuki. It’s a good thing Kurotsuchi isn’t around, because I don’t think she likes Boruto very much and probably would have immediately had the genin escorted out of the village.

But, the genin don’t know Kurotsuchi has gone missing until later on. While wandering the streets trying to find information on Ohnoki’s whereabouts, Chocho, like usual, messes everything up due to getting hungry. Luckily for them, there’s a restaurant close by and the owner is a die-hard Ohnoki fan.

Shikadai and Chocho in the Hidden Stone Village from the anime Boruto: Naruto Next Generations
Shikadai and Chocho in the Hidden Stone Village

In return for the genin’s apparent appreciation and admiration for the third Tsuchikage, the restaurant owner directs them to his residence. Once there they meet Akatsuchi, who works as Ohnoki and Kurotsuchi’s aide, much like Shikamaru does for Naruto back in the Leaf village.

For anyone who’s seen Shippūden, Akatsuchi was the other aide of Ohnoki along with Kurotsuchi during the Fourth Shinobi War. He’s notable for being the only other shinobi capable of flight besides Ohnoki and his predecessor, Mu (and anyone with six paths abilities).

That said, there are a number of other characters who are technically capable of flight, such as Gaara if he rides on his sand, Naruto if he uses his six paths abilities, and Sasuke if he uses his full Susanoo, but Akatsuchi and Ohnoki are the only two living shinobi capable of flight normally.

Akkun

While Boruto, Sarada, Shikadai, and Chocho are infiltrating the Hidden Stone and locating Ohnoki, Inojin was left behind to watch over the Akuta, Chibiuta as I named it last week, in a nearby cave. This part of the episode wasn’t really that important, but there are a few things I want to touch on.

First, Chibiuta now has an official name, Akkun. I think the name I gave it is better, but I suppose I’ll refer to it as Akkun from now on. It’s also important to note that Akkun chose its own name out of a lineup, and that ties into the next thing I want to discuss, Akkun’s intelligence.

We previously saw that Akkun was capable of learning, but in this episode, Akkun’s intellectual capabilities seem to be increasing. Not only is it able to learning and replicating Inojin’s actions, but it seems to have developed more human-like emotions.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, I think the Akuta are created by using the souls of people, and Akkun’s human-like emotions and intelligence only seems to be reinforcing this. I have a bit more to say regarding the Akuta, but I’ll save that for a later section of this post.

Lord Ohnoki

When the genin finally reach Ohnoki he originally welcomes them, but then turns them away when he learns their reason for being in the Hidden Stone. It’s then revealed that Ohnoki is the one behind the disappearance of Mitsuki, and honestly, this reveal reminded me a lot of SAO: Alicization.

For those who haven’t been watching SAO: Alicization or reading my weekly reviews of it, there was a scene in which Asuna blew her disguise immediately after infiltrating the villain’s base. Ohnoki revealing that he’s actually the mastermind behind Mitsuki’s kidnapping was exactly like this.

Why didn’t Ohnoki just pull an Emperor Palpatine and pretend to help the genin while actually working to keep them from uncovering any information? Instead, we’ll likely get the classic trope where the villain is going to explicitly reveal all of his plans to our heroes.

So, just how is Ohnoki involved in the plot to kidnap Mitsuki? After he refuses to help the Hidden Leaf genin, we see them and Akatsuchi get surrounded by Akuta which rise up from the ground. The implied leader of the homunculi, Ku, then appears and stands alongside Ohnoki.

We don’t yet know exactly who Ku is, but from his appearance it’s clear that he’s ethnically from the Hidden Stone and not some outsider who emigrated there. The people, specifically men, of the Land of Earth are typically much broader than their counterparts from other lands and have wider facial features.

So other than that he’s from the Land of Earth, what do we know about Ku? He’s related to both Ohnoki and Kurotsuchi in some way. Remember, Kurotsuchi is the granddaughter of Ohnoki.

Ku refers to Ohnoki as both master and father, and Kurotsuchi seemed to know who he was when he confronted her, and refused to fight against him, which led to her capture. However, that doesn’t mean that Ku is directly related to either of them.

Since he refers to Ohnoki as father, it would be easy to assume that he’s the son of Ohnoki and the father of Kurotsuchi, but this isn’t the case. We already met Kurotsuchi’s father during the Fourth Shinobi War, as he was one of the leaders of the Allied Shinobi forces.

So, with that conclusion rejected, does this mean that Ku is another one of Ohnoki’s sons, making him Kurotsuchi’s uncle? While this is certainly possible, I don’t think this is the case either due to how old Ku appears to be. He looks like he’s closer in age to Kurotsuchi than to her father.

What does this leave us with? I think Ku is a homunculus who was created by Ohnoki, the first homunculus. This would explain why he refers to Ohnoki as both his master and father, and why Ohnoki is interested in Mitsuki, who is a more complete homunculus.

So why has Ohnoki created these homunculi in the first place? If Boruto is your first introduction to the Naruto franchise, then you may not be aware of the history of the Leaf, Stone, and Ohnoki, so it’s time for a history lesson.

Leaf, Stone, and Ohnoki

Although the five major hidden villages are at peace currently, this wasn’t always the case. In particular, the Hidden Stone and Hidden leaf were bitter rivals, which is kind of what caused a lot of the issues to arise in Shippūden.

Long before Naruto was born was the Second Shinobi War in which the Leaf and Stone clashed in the small village hidden in the Rain. For reference, Naruto fought in the Fourth, his father, Minato, fought in the Third, and the teacher of them both, Jiraiya, fought in the Second shinobi war.

Due to the destruction the Leaf and Stone caused to the Rain, a rebel group was formed known as the Akatsuki. Their leader was originally a man named Yahiko, but after his death the lead role was passed to Nagato, also known as Pain.

The Akatsuki’s goal was world peace due to the founding members seeing how much senseless death and destruction was caused to small, neutral states when the large nations fought one another. Eventually they shifted their goal to world peace at any cost, which meant the destruction of the five great nations.

So, from that we can see how the rivalry between the Leaf and Stone caused the rise of the terrorist organization known as the Akatsuki.

Fast forward a few decades, and we get to the Fourth Shinobi War which Naruto took a leading role in. When the Allied Shinobi Force was being created, Ohnoki was the main voice of dissent. Even after all those decades, he still didn’t trust the Leaf, and wouldn’t allow for anyone from the Leaf to be in a position of power in this allied army.

Contrary to how he’s depicted in Shippūden, Ohnoki in Boruto is shown to be a nice, old man who enjoys the fact that the five great nations are now at peace. But, for anyone who’s familiar with the Ohnoki of the past, this is a fairly big change.

I had previously chalked this change up to Naruto’s famous talk-no-jutsu, but it’s starting to seem like that isn’t the case. In fact, Ohnoki may never have really changed after all and may have been plotting something in the shadows ever since, or even before, the Fourth Shinobi War.

But why would he create homunculi, including an army of Akuta? To answer this, let’s pretend that Ohnoki still really doesn’t trust the leaf. If this is the case, then the fact that the army the Allied Shinobi Force fought against in the Fourth Shinobi War was a White Zetsu army is a cause for concern.

White Zetsu are clones made from the cells of the first Hokage. As such, the technology needed to create them belongs to the Hidden Leaf. Further, since the end of the war, the Leaf has used these White Zetsu cells to create new ninja weapons, such as Naruto’s prosthetic arm.

With this in mind, it would be foolish for the Stone to not have any way to fight back against the Leaf if they were to unleash an army of White Zetsu upon them. This is why I believe Ohnoki had the army of Akuta created, specifically as a countermeasure against the White Zetsu of the Leaf.

But, he also made some homunculi which were much more human than the rest, and he sees them as his children. Unfortunately, these children of his don’t have lifespans as long as those of normal humans, which is why he needs to figure out how Mitsuki was created.

The only thing I don’t really understand is why Kurotsuchi had to be captured. We’ve seen in the past that Kurotsuchi is just as aggressive as her grandfather, so I would think she would go along with his plans. The only thing I can think of is that he purposely kept her in the dark so that she wouldn’t be blamed in case his plan doesn’t work out.

Conclusion

So, what did you think of this week’s episode of Boruto: Naruto Next Generations? Also, how do you think Ku is related to Kurotsuchi and Ohnoki? Is he a blood relative? Is he a creation? Or, is he simply holding them both hostage? Let me know in the comments.

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My review of the next episode is available here.

2 Replies to “Boruto Episode 82”

  1. I’m really upset at the old man turning evil, but at the same time it at least creates friction in this otherwise incredibly peaceful society. Without conflict there really isn’t much joy to be taken out of the show and the conflict that has existed so far has been extremely mundane.

    1. I would still argue that he didn’t just recently turn evil, but that he’s always kind of been this way. We know he was like this before the Fourth Shinobi War, and it’s likely that in his dying years he realized the current peace can’t last forever. It’s because of this realization that he felt he needed to do something drastic to protect his people.

      I’m hoping this conflict with the Stone will lead to them playing a more major role in this series. The Sand were main antagonists in Naruto, the Cloud were major allies in Shippuden, and the Mist were always antagonists in the background, but the Stone haven’t really been explored.

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