WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Boruto: Naruto Next Generations Episode 157, "Kara's Footprints," now streaming on Crunchyroll.
With the Boruto anime back in full swing, the Kara arc has begun, bringing to life the sinister society we've seen in the manga that's more or less the second coming of the Akatsuki. Their intentions are much more hidden, however, but to first get insight into the terrorist group, Sasuke and Sai have to undertake a key investigation.
In the latest episode, as they hunt for clues, this journey takes them to Amegakure (aka the Hidden Village in the Rain) where they meet a sadistic yet sympathetic serial killer who's disenfranchised with the Great Ninja Nations.
Sasuke and Sai head to the rainy village following intel extracted from Shojoji and vetted by Sai's students. There, they meet a misguided young man, Garashi, who warms to them and reveals a secret facility that Kara operated. He pretends to be an ally, taking them to a lab and feigning a sense of revenge as he said Kara killed his friends. But once there, we discover that it's actually a trap. He blocks off the Konoha ninjas, killing them with poisonous gas.
He's a Kara fanatic known as an Outer who wants to prove himself by murdering his friends as a show of good faith. However, Sasuke and Sai use shadow clones and when they confront Garashi, he admits he hates all the free ninja villages and wants to kill any shinobi from there who visit his home from richer areas. At this point, it's hard to keep hating Garashi because his pain is familiar, matching the kids -- Nagato, Konan and Yahiko -- who Jiraiya found under similar circumstances.
Just like them, Garashi's revealed as a war orphan who was left to suffer on his own after Naruto and Sasuke took down Kaguya. For whatever reasons, when the ninja nations united afterward, Amegakure wasn't part of the rebuilding plan and now it's a derelict place.
During the Second Shinobi World War, Yahiko and Co. endured the same fate but Jiraiya took them in and groomed them to become heroes. Unfortunately, without him, they lost their way and turned into freedom fighters, with Yahiko dying and Nagato then bringing Pain in as leader of the cell to destroy all the villages. Simply put: they wanted to fix the world as they felt it became a cruel place that forgot about the poor people. Garashi follows the exact path, although he's more psychotic than principled. But still, killing privileged elites like Sasuke is justice in Garashi's eyes.
But as Garashi coughs up blood, Sasuke and Sai confirm he's just a pawn as the gas mask Kara gave him is faulty. He was being used and has now been deemed expendable. However, Garashi is proud of being manipulated and accepts his fate, as he'd rather give his life for Kara than help Sasuke find them. This shows that things haven't changed for decades and that while a new world order was promised with youngsters like Naruto (Village of the Hidden Leaf) and Gaara (Village of the Sand) becoming leaders, as Garashi confirms, it was all just politics and lies.
Downtrodden, at-risk areas were promised change yet it never came, which is why Garashi -- a victim of war -- commits suicide, preferring to die for Kara than give info to Naruto's soldiers.