Boruto: Naruto Next Generations Episode 281

Yatsume’s Biggest Blunder

Boruto: Naruto Next Generations Episode 281 confirmed my suspicions about Yatsume. I started suspecting her in Episode 278 when the idea of a second traitor was introduced. Because she was so mysterious, that naturally made her a prime suspect.

And, since Episode 278, there have been many times when Yatsume has said or done something strange. It even got to the point that I suspected she was Ouga herself. And, as we now know, that turned out to be the case. But, Yatsume’s biggest blunder actually came in Episode 281.

After Boruto, Rokuro, and Yatsume “escape” from the genjutsu, Yatsume does something suspicious. She claims she got a keycard and a map off the Hidden Grass shinobi who was working for Ouga. But, you may have noticed a key detail that makes her claim impossible. She never opened his containment pod.

How could Yatsume get these items off his body if she never touched his body? She never opened the pod he was in. So, she couldn’t have gotten these items from him. And that’s what sealed it, for me. At that point, I was certain that Yatsume was the one behind everything.

Though, I will admit I had some doubts for a second. Even though I knew what Yatsume claimed was impossible, I figured it could be a mistake. It could be poor writing or us simply not getting to see the part when Yatsume opened the pod.

However, once I decided that probably wasn’t the case, something else seemed off. Why didn’t Boruto or Rokuro call out Yatsume here? Rokuro still didn’t seem to trust Yatsume as Boruto did. So, he shouldn’t have been blinded by trust. He should have noticed that what she said didn’t make sense.

Ouga, the Eighth Inner of Kara

Something I wasn’t expecting at all was for Ouga (Yatsume) to be an Inner of Kara. I expected an Outer to be behind all this. But, I’m not sure I like the reveal of Ouga being an Inner. It doesn’t feel like a natural development.

As she describes it, Amado turned her into an Inner by experimenting on her brain. And, just to be clear, there isn’t anything inherently different about Inners. That’s the name for the inner circle of Kara. So, it’s a bit unclear how she could be “turned into an Inner” through experimentation.

She followed Jigen like the other Inners. But, it doesn’t seem like she had some grand goal she wanted to achieve through working with him as the others did. Instead, she seems to have been a proxy for Amado. And this makes it strange that Amado never told the Leaf Village about her.

As I’m sure you remember, Amado defected from Kara to the Leaf Village. In fact, he was never a “true” member of Kara. His goal was to take down Jigen by using Koji Kashin — and he failed. However, that still doesn’t explain why he never brought up Ouga.

Now, I want to go back to Ouga being Amado’s proxy for a moment. All the Inners have Roman numeral face tattoos going from 1 to 9. Amado doesn’t have one of these tattoos, though. Instead, Ouga has his VIII (8) tattoo. In that respect, I guess it does make sense there was an Inner we never met.

And, as Ouga tells it, Jigen attacked her and damaged her brain because she was trying to study him. It’s very possible that Amado believed Jigen killed Ouga at this time. Or, he figured a non-combatant wasn’t worth mentioning.

Not a Desire, a Dream

Let’s quickly go over the Inners of Kara as a refresher. Going by their numbers, there was Delta, Koji, Boro, Jigen, Victor, Code, Deepa, Ouga, Kawaki, and Amado. Amado’s the only one who doesn’t have a number, which is why I put him last.

Also, you could argue that Kawaki was never actually an Inner. That’s fair. But, since he has the IX (9) tattoo, I’m going to include him here. Of these 9 numbered members, we know Amado controlled at least 2 directly. These were Koji Kashin and Ouga.

Additionally, he had indirect control over a few others. We know for a fact that he could control Delta’s body with voice commands. And the same is likely true for Boro since his body was also heavily experimented on. So, Amado pretty much controlled 5 of the 10 total Kara Inners.

Now, let’s get back to Episode 281 and Ouga. At the end of the episode, Boruto uses his father’s signature Talk-no-Jutsu on her. And thanks to his words, Ouga became cute. I preferred her Yatsume form over her Ouga form at first. But, once we got the shot of Ouga blushing, that all changed.

What’s a bit unfortunate is that Ouga is an anime-original character. This means that it’s doubtful we’ll get to see her again. And, I would have actually liked for her to make a return. It would have been cool to see her again in the future after she finds a dream of her own.

But, if Ouga is anime-original and we won’t see her again, was there a point to this arc? Most likely, yes. The anime has used anime-original arcs to set up main story arcs in the past. Ouga’s arc seems like a soft introduction to Code’s arc.

Conclusion

What do you think about Boruto: Naruto Next Generations Episode 281? Did you notice the mistake Yatsume made with the keycard and map? How do you feel about Ouga being the eighth Inner of Kara? And, do you think we’ll ever see her again? Let me know in the comments.

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My review of Episode 282 is available now.