WARNING: The following article contains major spoilers for Boruto: Naruto Next Generations #37 by Masashi Kishimoto, Mikio Ikemoto and Ukyo Kodachi, on sale now.
The Boruto manga is now moving at a breakneck pace, as Kara terrorist and leader Jigen arrives in Konoha to take down Naruto and retrieve his vessel, Kawaki. Jigen has lost patience and wants his weapon of destruction back home in his lab, which leads to a confrontation in Naruto's living room that results in the Hokage surprisingly being roughed up.
Kawaki warned Naruto that Jigen wasn't to be underestimated. Now, we're seeing a vast array of attacks that show why the villain might be the most powerful of all time. He's absorbing chakra and all of Naruto's energy blasts and using chakra-draining rods to subdue the legendary shinobi. Now this chapter, "United Front!," finds Sasuke inferring the big secret behind his combat style that could soon give them the edge in battle.
Jigen teleports in the blink of an eye, manipulating the space-time continuum just like Sasuke can, something associated with Kaguya's clan members. But the main problem Naruto has is that he can't see or sense the rods since they seemingly appear out of thin air, puncturing him and sapping his very essence. They're thrown at him so quickly that all his clones are stabbed and destroyed, negating both his offensive and defensive capabilities. As the Hokage gets frustrated, Jigen teleports him to his secret lair in another dimension to kill him, only to find Sasuke, who was there spying and collecting data.
Sasuke joins the fight, but he is also amazed at how Jigen seemingly uses god-like powers to make things appear out of thin air. Coupling this with his absorption technique, Jigen isn't easy to figure out, but Sasuke is really just biding his time to make his big move. When he unleashes his Rinnegan -- an ocular power that slows time down and allows him to see everything in the world -- he realizes Jigen isn't teleporting his rods. The villain is actually manipulating matter, shrinking it down and teleporting it at light speed to his points of attack before making it bigger. This applies to his rods, as well as his own body, and it's the first time we've seen someone manipulate matter to this extent.
Choji's family does this with their bodies to become bigger than average humans in Konoha, but Jigen comes off like a lightning-quick Ant-Man, except that he can alter the molecular structure of anything and everything. His weaponized miniature attacks can then be unleashed to produce mortal wounds, which leaves the Konoha ninjas in need of a new game plan.
With all that said, Sasuke's otherworldly vision is still their greatest asset. As an Uchiha, he also has the Sharingan (another ocular ability), which allows him to see things that exist outside of reality we know it, so he uses Naruto as a distraction and tracks Jigen's powers, leaving them to come up with tactics.
With Jigen finally figured out, he starts losing his temper. He shifts into his own monster mode, with a protruding horn and all, ready to finish the job on the brothers in arms. If he can kill them here, it'll leave the village weakened and he can then retrieve a helpless Kawaki to complete his mission.
The deaths of the two ninja would essentially leave the rest of the world defenseless and vulnerable to Jigen's future attacks. While it's not clear how many powers he's obtained through his evil Sage mode, Sasuke and Naruto have their work cut out for them.
Boruto #38 will be released on Sep. 20.