Boruto has it tough. Not in the series, as he’s one of the most powerful and gifted young students ever to work in Konoha. But in real life. His dad Naruto is one of the most beloved anime protagonists of all time, because of his devotion to his goals, the hard work he put in, and his willingness to reach his hand out to help any other person who had been abandoned by society like him.
By comparison, even if Boruto was a saint it’d be hard for him to take his father’s place in the minds of anime fans everywhere. But for anyone who’s curious about Boruto the series that was a major fan of Naruto, this list will give them everything they need to know about him.
10 HAS THE JOGAN EYE
No, not the Jagan, that’s a different anime. While Boruto’s mother is a Hyuuga and has the Rinnegan, Boruto is gifted with a completely different eye technique. Supposedly, the Jogan is a technique that comes from the Otsutsuki group, and it tends to activate when the owner happens to be around particularly dangerous people.
The Jogan lets Boruto see the flow of someone’s chakra, allowing him to tell if their chakra has changed in a significant way. With this power, Boruto has been able to deal with multiple threats in the earlier parts of the series, though after the anime got through the Boruto movie arc they seem to have left it behind.
9 TOO TALENTED FOR HIS OWN GOOD
Unlike his father Naruto, Boruto is incredibly gifted. He’s got large chakra reserves as a result of being the son of a Hyuuga, but he’s also got an actual parent around to teach him in Hinata.
Because of this, he was able to naturally excel in anything scholarly, and he’s also a natural at martial arts as well. While Naruto had to bust his backside to stay at the same level as his comrades, Boruto can stay at or ahead of them without even trying, which results in him being frequently lazy about putting effort in.
8 HAS BEEN CURSED
The Boruto: Naruto the Movie storyline saw the ninja world once again under the attack of the Otsutsuki Clan. They found their way to the planet and had every intention of eating the world’s chakra tree so they could continue their immortality.
But thanks to the efforts of Naruto and Sasuke, the group was repelled. Boruto got to land the final blow against them though, and as a result Momoshiki placed a curse on him for “defeating a god”. This curse mark has recently awakened in the manga, and it allows him to absorb jutsu with the seal.
7 WANTS TO BE ACKNOWLEDGED BY HIS FATHER
Unlike Naruto, Boruto has grown up in a world where he doesn’t have to do everything to be accepted. He has a loving mother and sister, he has friends and is respected at school. Despite this, he constantly acts out, committing some of the same foolish acts of rebellion that his father did when he was much younger.
This all comes down to Boruto’s desire to be acknowledged by his dad. Since becoming the Hokage, Naruto never has any time for him, and it’s resulted in a rift in his relationship with his son. The two eventually patch things up, but it takes Naruto nearly dying at the hands of the Otsutsuki for it to finally happen.
6 HAD NO DESIRE TO BE A NINJA
One of the things which the early parts of the anime cover is that Boruto has no desire to be a ninja. While his father was willing to risk his life again and again to be considered worthy of the title of Hokage, Boruto wants no parts of it. Much of this comes from him viewing being Hokage as a stuffy title which involves never being around for the people who care about you the most.
He eventually decides to become a ninja in the arc leading up to the Ninja Academy graduation, and decides to support Sarada in her desire to become Hokage.
5 DEVELOPED A NEW RASENGAN
Naruto’s quest to learn how to do the Rasengan was a major part of his development. After spending so long relying solely on the Shadow Clone jutsu, this was part of him finally getting another technique added to his arsenal. But even then, in the end Naruto could often only make the Rasengan by using multiple clones to shape the chakra.
Boruto hasn’t had this trouble, and in fact found a way to add elemental energy to the Rasengan and change it into the Vanishing Rasengan, a technique that disappears only to reappear at the last moment and inflict massive damage on the enemy.
4 TRAINS UNDER SASUKE
With Boruto having so many problems with his father, it’s unsurprising that he has no desire to actually want to learn from him. And even if he did, there’s no way Naruto would have enough time as the Hokage to do so anyway.
But someone who occasionally has time is Sasuke, a ninja Boruto looks up to because of how he’s always seen doing the ninja work he thinks his father doesn’t do. Sasuke agrees to train Boruto, and with his help Boruto was able to learn the Vanishing Rasengan. Hopefully one day he’ll also learn how to do the Chidori as well.
3 IS BEST FRIENDS WITH INOJIN AND SHIKADAI
Naruto spent much of his younger years being rejected by literally everyone in the village. It’s kind of the point of the early part of his story that the only person who accepts him is Iruka, because everyone else just thinks he’s the monster with the nine-tailed fox inside him. Fortunately, Naruto grows up to become the Hokage, and his family no longer has such a shadow over it.
Boruto’s then free to make friends with plenty of people, and has grown close to two of the other boys of the New Generation of ninja, Inojin (Sai and Ino’s son) and Shikadai (Shikamaru and Temari’s kid). The three of them are constantly hanging out at burger joints playing video games when they’re not asked to do missions.
2 GENTLE FIST MASTER
Boruto’s talented at seemingly every part there is to being a ninja. Of the group, he’s got access to more ninjutsu than probably any other member, but he’s also a pretty awesome hand to hand fighter. His taijutsu style comes from his mother’s side of the family, as he learned the Gentle Fist style of combat from the Hyuuga Clan.
Currently we haven’t seen him use the Eight Trigrams technique, which requires the Byakugan’s 360° vision. Without the Byakugan, merely knowing the Gentle Fist might be the limit of his ability.
1 LOVES HIS MOM AND YOUNGER SISTER
Boruto has a pretty troubled relationship with his dad for most of the series, for obvious reasons. But that doesn’t mean he has a problem with his entire family.
On the contrary, he loves and respects his mother Hinata, who’s always been around to take care of him. At the same time, he cares deeply for his sister Himawari, even going so far as to threaten his dad to make sure he’s around for Himawari’s birthday. Being a good big brother is one thing, but being enough of one to threaten the Hokage is pretty crazy.