Boruto and Kawaki’s Future: The Key to Unlocking New Powers

Boruto Chapter 15: Kawaki’s Power-up and Future Development

Boruto was just shown talking to Kawaki in the new promo panel of chapter 15 of the Boruto: Two Blue Vortex manga and the outcome of this conversation could unveil a lot of mysteries for the story, like how Kawaki gets into this new form from the Flash Forward or the promised character development that will get him there. This panel shows us Boruto and Kawaki having a conversation on top of Hokage Mountain and connecting it with the events of the last chapter. Boruto wanted to talk with Kawaki as he knew something about his future. He starts by telling him that no matter what, he will need to get stronger.

This may reference the current circumstances with the Shinjus and how defeating them requires Kawaki to level up, as Jura could see him getting tossed around, reflecting how he’s far ahead of them. The Shinju are Ten-Tails in humanoid form, and Kawaki has obtained the Karma, which almost makes him a Ōtsutsuki as. He can utilize the powers of the late Isshiki, but there’s still a huge difference between the power levels of both characters. Since Isshiki had firsthand experience of grinding through thousands of years as a Ōtsutsuki, the weaponized Karma of Kawaki won’t be able to give him such expertise. Otherwise, the Shinju shouldn’t be a big deal for him. Arguing that he’s 80% of Ōtsutsuki doesn’t make sense here because 80% of Isshiki’s powers should have been enough to destroy them all. Still, since Kawaki cannot do that, it’s pretty clear he’s just using a tool to replicate the Ōtsutsuki powers instead of their experience.

There will be five possibilities related to how Boruto will helps unlock Kawaki’s new powers, and I will explain them in a separate blog. Also, Isshiki unlocking the power of Kurogane, the same as that depicted in the Shibai panel, only means that he was close to attaining godhood. So, opposite to what Code said about the Karma, Kawaki, for some reason, is unable to utilize Isshiki’s full experience, and that may be one of the reasons Boruto asked him to get stronger since relying on the Karma is a complete waste against the present enemies.

Then, Boruto brings the Naruto angle, telling Kawaki that if he calls himself his disciple and wants to make the world safe before unsealing him, he should receive direct training, but they don’t have enough time. He could be referring to Kawaki receiving training directly from Naruto after unsealing him. However, that won’t be the best idea right now because the Shinju situation is getting worse every moment. If Kawaki wastes his time training, there won’t be any world left to save.

Following this statement, Boruto is about to tell him a conclusion that he would have reached on his own, and if the outcome remains the same, then it’s best to act as fast as they can. Now, the reason that makes me think he’s not referring to Koji here has something to do with Kawaki reaching the conclusion given by Boruto at his zone. If it were a reference to Kashin Koji, then it would mean that Kawaki would not just learn about the Shinju or Koji but also think of it as the best way to get stronger. The problem with this conclusion is that it demands Kawaki not just to meet Koji but also train under him and discover all these things by himself.

But since it’s not likely for Kawaki to end up in such a scenario and decide if he wants to train with Koji, Boruto’s prediction must be about something else. It’s a situation that Kawaki will reach sooner or later, but he’s unaware of it right now. Boruto could reveal it to him so that he could grow stronger as quickly as possible, and considering we don’t have a mistranslation on our hands, it’s not about Kashin Koji’s presence.

What else could Kawaki learn on his own and then decide whether to go with it? Boruto discusses a secret power-up that Amado may have implanted within Kawaki’s body. It fulfills two criteria for this revelation. First, it’s something that Kawaki could eventually get to know about himself. That could be what Boruto and Koji got to know through prescience, meaning that in some possible future, Kawaki gets an update from Amado later sometime, and Boruto wants him to receive that power in advance to become capable of defeating the Shinjus.

This again gives us a hint about understanding the prologue sequence. Boruto is trying to be the greater person by helping out Kawaki in a helpless situation, but little does he know his brother will turn on him again after receiving that major power-up. If Boruto ends up being the reason behind Kawaki’s next power-up, it would add an interesting layer to the story since he would be responsible for Konoha’s destruction, putting too much trust in his father’s disciple. While Amado being the one behind Kawaki’s major power-up is a possibility, it’s not the only one.

Something else that I think Boruto could recommend to Kawaki might be a brand new Shinjutsu Awakening. He could ask him to activate the cells of Shibai that Amado modified into his body, which would eventually grant him a major power-up. This possibility also matches the criteria of the scenario being something that Kawaki would eventually come to know about himself, and it could have made him a lot stronger in the future, which is why Boruto thinks it’s the best possibility in leveling up his brother.

Also, there is not one but two ways in which the writers explain how Kawaki got the cells of Shibai. First, it’s Amado since he modified all the members of Kara with the divine cells. Kawaki also had a Roman numeral tattooed on his face; he was a member of Kara, which means Amado must have also modified him. Or it could be the transplantation of Boruto’s blood, which was also energized with Shibai cells. Either way, it’s likely for Boruto to inform Kawaki about the divine DNA that could make him a lot stronger.

The Flash Forward has already foreshadowed Kawaki misusing whatever power he has. Still, Boruto, the reason behind ranking up his counterpart, has become a vital and interesting layer. Judging by what he said to Kawaki, he already knows that his counterpart will grow up to become strong. However, the only possible outcome, Konoha’s destruction, is a future that he may not have foreseen yet.

This means even though he would make Kawaki strong, something that he won’t consider is the misuse of those obtained powers. Now, the question remains: assuming Boruto will be the one to help Kawaki get his superpowers early, why didn’t he consider the possibility of what his brother would do after becoming much stronger?

The major thing here is the outcome that Boruto believes could be the same. It must have had some positive aftermath, so he thinks that even if he aids in Kawaki’s attainment of new powers, nothing could go wrong. But he didn’t consider the possibility that no character in the verse could think of, and it’s only through the reader’s comprehension that Boruto could help us evaluate conclusions like these.

The only thing that prevents Koji from warning Boruto about the destruction of Konoha could be his death. That’s right, I believe just like Eida cannot use her Shinjutsu to look into the past before her birth, Koji can neither look into the future beyond his death nor should he be able to see how he dies. Because if he knew Kawaki would be the one to kill him, he would very likely never allow Boruto to grant him a helping hand.

There are many reasons why Kawaki killed Kashin Koji. We know Kawaki will soon get to know that Koji is the source behind Boruto’s future knowledge, so once he makes up his mind to end the Shinobi world, Koji could become a hurdle in his plan since he could tell Boruto multiple ways to prevent the future from getting worse. To eliminate the possibility of Boruto getting in his way, Kawaki misusing his newly acquired powers to destroy Kashin Koji is a major possibility. This is why Boruto couldn’t foresee the only possible outcome—the stubbornness of Kawaki would get him to a point where even Boruto would regret his decision to trust him.

Another possibility for Kawaki’s major power-up involves Boruto telling him the secret ways to activate his Shibai cells or the next stage of the Karma in advance. It may be something that would take him years to attain, but with Boruto’s instructions, he could take his Karma powers to a whole new level—something that would have been a far-off achievement for him under normal circumstances.

What will drive us to the sequence of the prologue is Boruto’s naivety in believing Kawaki won’t cross any more lines after getting an assurance that the threat of Momoshiki is gone. Kawaki’s obsessions are twisted, and he will soon shift them to eliminating the Shinobi system for reasons I will get to in a moment.

The final possibility, which I think would be an interesting plot twist, is related to the Future Trans Theory. The present version of Boruto is obtaining all his techniques and information from his future counterpart, and it looks like this version of him from a different timeline had lived a much worse life than him. So, now that Koji has helped the present Boruto live a better life than his future self, the same is now being applied to Kawaki so that his early attainment of new powers won’t make him the person from the future.

This would mean that the fight from the prologue sequence occurs on a completely different timeline. Another major hint to support this theory comes from Kawaki not having access to Boruto and Koji’s knowledge of the forthcoming future in the alternate timeline. The present Boruto telling him these things in advance may prevent him from going that far.

This also means that we will soon get a multiversal twist in Boruto, where we will see him obtaining his new powers without Koji in a completely different timeline. In the same timeline, Kawaki messed up and became the destroyer of Shinobis. There’s a lot more to this theory, like how the Boruto from the future becomes a time traveler, just like Future Trans.