Boruto and Sarada are caught and taken back to the Hidden Stone headquarters along with Ohnoki. There, they find that Ku and his supporters have taken the village, and that things have changed drastically as Ohnoki is horrified to learn Ku intends to sacrifice he was meant to protect to prolong his life.
Sai comes to know the reality behind Danzo's fail safe and the culprit's name. Mitsuki and Boruto are having a conversation regarding if Sumire is the actual person to cause all the ghost incidents. Meanwhile, Sumire is found by Sai and his squad and is being captured with a sealing technique, but she lets Nue out and escapes in the chaos caused by him. Sai, Kakashi Hatake, and Naruto try to stop the summoned Nue using Mud Wall and sealing barrier techniques, but it does not help.
Namida from Team 15 uses an earsplitting cry that can temporarily paralyze or knock out an opponent, but frets that her inability to control this special jutsu makes her a danger to even her allies.
After seeing how selfish and amoral he was acting from resorting to such a tool, he gained a newfound respect for actual hard work. At the same time, he also gained a strong dislike at anyone relying on such advanced tools, believing that one should rely solely on their natural skill. Upon meeting Ao however, he came to appreciate that tools, pelo matter how advanced, are not inherently good or bad, but merely a means to goal that depends on its user. Also, upon seeing how such inventions could be used even small animals, he came to appreciate Katasuke TÅno's work.
Mugino then held Ao down long enough to collapse the cave on him and Ao to save everyone, however, Ao survived, prompting the team to retreat. Afterwards, Konohamaru insisted that they had to return the data he found on the blimp to Konoha, which Katasuke offered to act as a divergence to atone for his mistakes of leaking information. Boruto, realising that the scientist was ashamed of his inventions, reminded Katasuke that he too hated such tools at first, but learned that all tools are either good of bad depending on how they are used.
The anime was popular with Japanese readers of Charapedia, who voted it the ninth best anime show of Spring 2017.[84] IGN writer Sam Stewart commended the focus on the new generation of ninjas as well as the differences between them and the previous generation. He praised the return of other characters like Toneri Otsutsuki and enjoyed the eye techniques.[85] Stewart applauded the characterisation of both Shikadai and Metal Lee, calling their relationship as well as accidental fight interesting to watch and saying Boruto: Naruto Next Generations improves with each episode.
Shikadai appeared and helped his allies escape. As the Ino-Shika-ChÅ trio decided to face off against KokuyÅ, Boruto and Sarada faced Kirara, who caught the pair in genjutsu and had them attack each other. When she was boruto informed KÅ«'s heart was ready, she departed. Continuing to fight each other, Sarada freed herself from the genjutsu and subsequently released Boruto from it.
Mitsuki then revealed he knew who the culprit was. Mitsuki claimed that it was Sumire. While Boruto rebuffed such a claim, he explained the nature of his investigation. Suddenly, there was a large earthquake, followed by the emergence of the Ghost, now in a tangible form, which attacked the village. Boruto quickly rushed off to help. Mitsuki told Boruto that they can stop the creature if they kill the summoner. Boruto refused to kill his friend, prompting Mitsuki to restrain him with a snake clone, which he defeats after Mitsuki leaves.
On the day of the final exam, the competing genin are scheduled in a series of one-on-one tournament matches, with Boruto facing Yurui. Unable to engage him, Boruto used hit Koto to defeat Yurui. Afterwards, Boruto faced Shikadai, where after being caught by his shadow, he relied on using his Kote to pressure Shikadai into surrendering. While in the manga Naruto noticed Boruto cheating and subsequently disqualified him from the tournament, in the anime his cheating goes unnoticed, leading to him progressing to the finals against Sarada and Shinki.
[21] While initially failing to learn the Rasengan,[11] Boruto later learned to create a small version of it between both hands under Konohamaru Sarutobi's guidance and afterwards increased it to a normal size using a single hand. Upon entering Ryūchi Cave, he entered a contract with Garaga, letting him summon the giant snake whenever he wishes.[22]
With the continued thefts performed by the Byakuya Gang throughout Konoha, Team 7 and other genin teams were assigned to help stop the thieves only when accompanied by a higher ranked shinobi. During the afternoon, Boruto found Shikadai playing shÅgi with RyÅgi and showed him the limit edition game Katasuke gave him.
Questioning him, a sick villager went on a rampage and was swiftly subdued by JÅ«go, who made the juinjutsu disappear and warned Boruto to stay away from the forest before fleeing into it. Entering the forest to investigate, the shinobi split up, and Boruto accompanied with Sarada discovered JÅ«go transforming in a cave.
There is anticapitalist protest against companies in Konohagakure created by Byakuyas. Despite his doubts, Ryogi decides he belongs with his group. He then remembers his parents' deaths years ago and how he attacked the assassin by awakening his Ice Release technique. Saved by Byakuya's leader, Gekko, who reveals they are independent ninjas, Ryogi joined them to fill his father's role.
The mysterious person attacks Sasuke and gets defeated by him. Despite this, Sasuke is surprised to see that he has the Sharingan in possession. He then disappears from there. At the Hokage's office, Naruto receives a message from Sasuke and calls Kakashi to discuss the situation. Meanwhile, the person who attacked Sasuke meets someone, tells him about Sasuke's strength and they talk about their intentions of killing Sasuke. After talking with Kakashi, Naruto decides to meet up with Sasuke himself, and Sarada overhears him saying it, who had come there to ask Naruto about Sasuke's whereabouts. She decides to chase after Naruto to meet her father. Sarada gets prepared for the journey and waits for Naruto at the village's entrance. There, she meets Chocho, who also plans to go on a journey to find her real father. Naruto departs and Sarada tries to chase after him but is left behind because Chocho falls halfway. Boruto comes to deliver a lunch box to Naruto but arrives late, and Sarada asks him to let her deliver the lunch box in his place. He initially refuses but later agrees because she keeps asking him persistently. Afterwards, when Sarada and Chocho are going after Naruto, the person who attacked Sasuke earlier gets in their way, introduces himself as Shin Uchiha and asks Sarada to come with him.