In What Episode Does Boruto Fight Naruto?

Boruto finally fought Naruto in the recent episode in a manner never seen before. As this father and son duo took center stage, they managed to astonish us once again.

Boruto's audience is divided between people who want to see more of how the new generation develops and people that patiently wait for the older generation to appear. However, as an anime about his son, we have already been seeing traces of Boruto surpassing Naruto and breaking the legends of old.

While there is still some time before that happens, the fight between the two will give us an insight into the new generation's progress. Boruto's grown quite a lot, so it will be interesting to see how Naruto reacts!

In What Episode Does Boruto Fight Naruto?

Boruto fought Naruto in episode 196, titled "A Binding Force." Both father and son engaged in a sparring session that got heated up quickly. With Karma and an N number of techniques in his arsenal, Boruto became significantly stronger and even destroyed one of Naruto's clones.

Episode 196 of Boruto: Naruto Next Generations adapted the 29th chapter of the manga and was one of the earlier episodes in the Kawaki Arc. The driving plot of the episode was the sparring session between Boruto and Naruto Uzumaki, with Kawaki's character development on the side.

The episode started with Kashin Koji and Delta trying to enter Konoha quietly and quickly progressed to show us a view of Boruto's life at home. It seems that even with an additional person, i.e., Kawaki, things hadn't changed much. Naruto soon appeared to remind Boruto about their training session and invited Sarada, Mitsuki, and Kawaki to watch them square off.

There were two purposes to this spar: to train Boruto in hand-to-hand combat and to test Karma and figure out its workings by applying it in action.

As soon as father and son entered into their fighting stances, the fight commenced. Starting with his signature Shadow Clone jutsu, Boruto quickly attacked Naruto but was brushed off easily. Annoyed by this pointless exercise, Kawaki activated his Karma, causing a resonance phenomenon in Boruto.

With this power-up, Boruto immediately launched a barrage of attacks on Naruto. On the sidelines, Sarada noted the drastic increase in his speed and strength. At this point, Boruto unleashed the Lightning-style Thunderclap Arrow that was powerful enough to prompt Naruto to defend himself using a shadow clone. Once the clouds of dust parted, as expected, Naruto was unharmed. Even Boruto's successive and deceptive punches did not reach him.

While Boruto lost, Naruto complimented his innovative thinking and hard work. Furthermore, as the genin noted, not only did Karma boost Boruto's strength but his techniques as well. In Kawaki's words, using Karma simply made him stronger overall.

The sparring match between father and son was successful as they managed to find out a bit more about the mysterious mark, which was the first step to removing it. Additionally, Boruto's quickly improving strength motivated Sarada to grow stronger and Kawaki to gain an understanding of chakra.

Naruto further explained the concept in-depth:

While the episode had a tense and fiery tone, the Uzumaki and Uchiha household created a nice parallel. All these heartwarming family moments just hit harder when we remember the infamous opening scene of Boruto. The destruction of Konoha and the end of the age of shinobi is soon to come, but will our main character, Boruto, be strong enough to prevent it?

How Strong Is Boruto? Will He Surpass Naruto?

Boruto is the main character of the series and has abilities strong enough to support his role. Stemming from two strong bloodlines, he has prodigious talent and innate strength deemed far beyond his years.

Boruto can perform three nature transformations, namely Wind, Lightning, and Water Release. He is exceptionally skilled at manipulating them and can almost effortlessly use two elements simultaneously. At a young age, while initially creating the Rasengan, Boruto subconsciously applied lightning-natured chakra to it, turning it invisible and tricking the opponent. Furthermore, as long as he has enough techniques in his arsenal, as an Uzumaki, Boruto can display them all due to his stamina and massive chakra reserves.

Discounting his skill in ninjutsu, Boruto also has an aptitude for taijutsu, even excelling at it before joining the academy. Furthermore, thanks to his part identity as a Hyuga, Boruto can also use the Gentle Fist despite being unable to target an enemy's tenketsu without Byakugan.

As the main character, how can Boruto not have a dojutsu unique to him? At the age of 8, he awakened Jougan in his right eye. This dojutsu perceives the flow of chakra, enabling its user to see the changes in one's chakra and track a target through it. In addition, the Jougan can also observe the chakra pathway system, determine its vital point and see through invisible barriers that connect between dimensions.

With two legendary ninjas as mentors on top of all this, Boruto has limitless potential. But is that enough to help him surpass Naruto Uzumaki? The answer is yes. While Naruto had the Nine-Tails sealed within him, Boruto has received Karma from an Otsutsuki himself in addition to his Jougan. Furthermore, as Naruto himself has said, the new generation will always surpass the old.