The Evolution Of Boruto Monster Power & Downfall Of Code In Boruto: Two Blue Vortex
I am here bringing you another Boruto: Two Blue Vortex discussion! Today, I thought it was only right to shift gears as we approach the upcoming manga chapter, Chapter 11, which should have official promo teasers dropping in the next few days, so keep notifications turned on. For today, I wanted to turn your attention to the former red-haired stepchild of the series itself, who got his power-up and is now known as the white-haired stepchild, Code himself. Let us discuss whether or not the narrator has made the right decision by leaving him out of the story and, most importantly, if, by waiting in the shadows, Code has signed his own death warrant.
Right now, it cannot be easy to look at Code and say that this man got his limiters removed, and then he proceeded to give us the four main villains of the story of Two Blue Vortex. When he made Boruto run off like a scared little child traumatized by Sasuke’s defeat in the process, Code was enough to be fighting the two of them, and he did not use his Karma seal. Sasuke was able to slice his face across the eye and give Code that moment where he starts saying “nani” as he realized that a weaker enemy managed to get the drop on him. Why is it that ever since Code left Boruto on his own to deal with the awakened Shinju, I am starting to fear he might have made a mistake here?
After all, the knee-jerk reaction is to say that is the smartest thing Code has ever done, and you would be right. What he is doing is exactly what the 48 Laws of Power preaches: let others do the work so that you can take the credit. Use their skill, their time, and their energy to further your ambitions while taking full credit. That is what is going on here. Code is sitting this whole time watching as the awakened Shinju is hunting down Boruto, taking turns beating Kawaki unconscious, and they are even going on side quests in the process. All he has to do is wait for one of them to fulfil their natural purpose, to consume an Otsutsuki, and then a chakra fruit will be harvested. He will be able to walk right up to the mountain top. Instead of grabbing those proverbial brass rings, he is going to grab hold of a chakra fruit and fulfil his promised duty by Isshiki to consume a chakra fruit and become a true Otsutsuki. Eating one of the most powerful chakra fruits in the entire Naruto universe, since it will comprise chakra and DNA made up from every living being who ever set foot on Earth from the Sage of Six Paths himself, through Madara, Kaguya with Ten Tails chakra, Naruto, Sasuke, Daemon, and Isshiki himself, one bite of that is going to be like being given the powers of Superman in exchange for eating a peach.
At face value, that is extremely smart, and it is one of the reasons I sounded the alarm bells when he decided to run off and hide. Fans need to start thinking of Code as being like a Kabuto-type figure who gets overshadowed by those around him. But when you look at his character, he is going to pop back up, potentially have upgrades, and play a role as a tide shifter that nobody saw coming. I still firmly believe that this is the case here, but like Kabuto, he is making a mistake by not considering the most dangerous piece on the chessboard because it is a sheep in wolf’s clothing. Just as Kabuto made the mistake of viewing Zetsu as only a tool to be used (which, granted, in his case, was not nearly as bad as Obito and Madara falling for the rules of Zetsu), but right now, Code at least knows that these awakened Shinju are different and are a problem to worry about, and he is choosing to ignore it. Boruto told him to annihilate them whenever he could while he still could because Boruto made it clear if these things awaken, your power is not going to be able to stop them. He saw it firsthand when the Shinju themselves did fully awaken; there was no stopping them, at least as they were currently. These Shinju were doing what they wanted as they wanted to do it, and they were talking crazy to Code like he was not the one who gave birth to them. They were using his chakra and his abilities and making a point to call a clown to his face. It was the ultimate form of disrespect, yet he took it all because, in spite of the changes that he saw occurring, he still believed that, ultimately, they would serve the purpose and do the work for him.
However, what he does not take into account is the continued evolution of the Shinju themselves. They are going to continue to grow. Their purpose is not only to look for Boruto and Kawaki but also to eat them. They are now seeking out their paths. Each of them wants to consume a person that the people they originally possessed had a deep love for, a strong connection to, in order to fulfil their growing desires that they still have questions about. Moegi Shinju is looking for a virgin sacrifice in Konohamaru. Shinju is looking for the cute 16-year-old girl who finally became legal; she is 19 now in the form of Ada, and he is about to go full-on predator mode, no Diddy, no Drizzy. Sasuke Shinju is looking to get Sarada so they can carry out the Uchiha family tradition of playing hide the kunai so that Sasuke cannot break Itachi’s high score from the Uchiha massacre. Jura, the awakened Shinju of the Ten Tails’ main body, is looking for Himawari, who is now one body and one soul with Kurama because Kurama used to be part of a different Ten-Tails. Jura believes eating Kurama will give him the answers as to the meaning of life because Kurama has lived for thousands of years.
If these Shinju have already begun evolving to this degree, what happens when they take the next step in their evolution and begin to ask the question, why is it that they have to be used to make a chakra fruit for someone else to eat? What happens if one of them eats the chakra fruit? It is a natural progression that you have to start at least considering here, the same way that Kaguya said, “Wait a second, why do I have to be a sacrifice? Why do you get to eat the chakra fruit? Let me take that other half of the body; I am going to get a chakra fruit myself.” It makes sense for them to move in this way, just as Kaguya did because it is a part of evolution itself. For all living beings, someone always gets an idea that either takes society a step forward or takes society several steps back with some evil actions. Still, in both cases, it is progression for the better or the worse. Light cannot exist without darkness. Code, in this one moment of danger, is approaching something like that happening, and worst of all, the two Otsutsuki with whom he has the most beef, Boruto and Kawaki, are in danger of being left behind.
Right now, Boruto, in just his base, is already stronger than Code. That much has been made abundantly clear and should have been a big enough shock to his pride to make him look for ways to grow stronger. While we have not seen much from Kawaki except for his getting his head bashed in every other chapter, Kawaki alluded to the fact that he would have been able to kill Code. Because he has been in a house with Daemon for the last three years, and that guy is always itching for a fight, Daemon would have been able to give Kawaki an accurate assessment of how strong Kawaki was in comparison to Code. He is now in the spot where one of his targets can use a shadow clone to beat the brakes off of him while the original eats his first Thunder Burger for the very first time in three years, and the other one can probably beat him up if they fought at full power. The worst thing he can do right now is get complacent, which brings me to the next point: I fear that he might be getting complacent. Code, by all means, has every reason to accept things as they are, except here is the thing: a game that he started out playing in hard mode has suddenly switched to easy mode in his mind. In truth, it should be easier for him, but in reality, it is not like that.
If he were smart, he would use the absence to solidify his forces and rethink his strategy, yet that is the problem here. He is not adhering to some of the lessons of the 48 Laws of Power. What has Naruto continuously told us about Code’s character? He is not the sharpest knife in the drawer. Suppose kid Naruto was dumb enough to eat an eraser because he thought it was a stick of gum. In that case, Code is that who sees that “do not enter” sign in a room where bombs are being detonated during a test, and he just walks in anyway and wonders why a fragment of the bomb just destroyed his eye. He is the “play stupid games, win stupid prizes” expression completely personified as a character, and that is the one worry I have with him right now. He is not Kabuto. At least Kabuto was smart enough to take several calculated steps after Sasuke spared his life by choosing not to kill him. Kabuto was a genius, whereas Code needed to count on his hands and his fingers in order to get to 20. If you tell him to get to 25, he might need to borrow your hand.
Code choosing not to self-improve during this time also fits with the issue that Boruto has purposely given his villains, who are either based on Otsutsuki or they are rooted in technology, in order to contrast the way the Shinobi themselves. From Momoshiki to Isshiki and now with Code, the villains are all content with taking the fastest route possible to gain power. Momoshiki was popping chakra pills and eating chakra fruits; they were relying on ninja tech for their boosting power. Isshiki was desperate to get his hands on the chakra fruit for that same reason. It is in contrast to Boruto, the seemingly last Shinobi during the events of the flash-forward sequence, and we have seen from the moment that it became clear that they could not use Naruto’s power anymore after he lost Kurama. Boruto says that we have to do what Shinobi have always done throughout history, which is train to meet the impossible odds before us. That is what contrasts Boruto and the antagonists he is facing work so well, but when it comes to Code, that is the one thing that completely holds him back. That pattern of saying he is just going to sit there and take the easiest route; he wants to consume the chakra fruit in order to upgrade in spite of all the constantly shifting variables that are occurring during his time as one of the premier threats of the series of Boruto: Two Blue Vortex manga.
