Boruto Learns Firsthand How Difficult Naruto's Childhood Was

The primary focus of Boruto: Naruto Next Generations is seeing just how Boruto is trying his best to get out of the shadow of his Hokage father. This dynamic between the father and son has resulted in some great moments throughout the anime, especially because Boruto’s perspective of his father is much different than what fans see. After watching Naruto grow up from the rowdy and talentless ninja to finally accomplishing his dream of earning the respect of the Hidden Leaf Village, fans have developed quite the connection with the orange clad shinobi. That’s why some of the flashbacks are really hitting hard.

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After Boruto saw the younger version of his father really lose himself in the Nine-Tails’ chakra, he was pretty shaken. He’s never seen this frightening version of his father’s raw power, and then he learns first hand that this is what led to Naruto’s isolated and depressing childhood.

Jiraiya explains to Boruto about Naruto’s backstory and why what just happened, happened. What the red chakra was, about the nine tails Kurama and how this has made the villagers hate and look down on Naruto. pic.twitter.com/Rcpp1LE71W

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Jiraiya was able to seal away Naruto’s rampant chakra, and it happened just in time as Boruto was being attacked by Naruto. Following this, Boruto was surprised that his father managed to hurt him so badly. He’s so scared in fact, that he calls him a monster. This situation should feel all too familiar with fans of the franchise, and Jiraiya soon confirms this by telling Boruto all about how others have feared him.

He tells Boruto about the Nine-Tails that attacked the Hidden Leaf, and how it ended up sealed in Naruto to save it. This deemed him as a monster amongst the rest of the villagers, but Naruto doesn’t let it deter him. Wanting to connect with the rest of the village he instead looks to the future. So rather than just being the outwardly goofy kid he met earlier, Naruto’s been struggling with so much on the inside.

As the time travel arc continues, we’ll continue to see how this will change Boruto’s perspective on his father overall. And if it does, perhaps this arc will leave Boruto with a significant amount of growth for the series as a whole? Then maybe fans won’t be bothered so much about this being fancy filler still not keeping the canonical manga stories at bay.

Originally created by Masashi Kishimoto for Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump in 1999, Naruto follows a young ninja, with a sealed demon within him, that wishes to become the leader of his home village. The series ran for 700 chapters overall, and was adapted into an anime series by Studio Pierrot and Aniplex that ran from 2002 to 2017. The series was popular enough to warrant a sequel, Boruto: Naruto Next Generations which is set several years after the events of the original Naruto story and features the children of many of its key characters such as Naruto and Hinata.