Boruto: Two Blue Vortex Chapter 20 Review

Cover

Konohamaru finally receives his first (and likely last) Boruto cover. This feels like part of a pair when placed next to Moegi's cover last month: both of them are dressed in black, their outer layers similar tones; unlike the younger characters in the series, both of them wear "traditional" shinobi clothes; the backgrounds have similar tones, Moegi's being warm, hazy impressionist splotches of green and orange while Konohamaru's color has a similar green, the highlights centering him in the middle of the image like being inside of a leaf.

Konohamaru's pose is defensive, one arm over his shoulder as though to put the viewer at a distance. Because of this, we see his Sarutobi clan crest on his upper arm, reminding us of his family's past and his own aspirations to follow in his grandfather's footsteps. We know that Hiruzen failed to kill Orochimaru when he should have acted due to their bond, leading to further disaster even after he realized his student had become a monster. Konohamaru has a similar heart, not only wanting to follow in the footsteps of his grandfather, but Naruto as well.

Worst First Date Ever, Part 4000

Konohamaru's face is engulfed in Matsuri's wooden petals, the wood digging into his face, drawing blood. Faced with his own mortality, he finally remembers Shikamaru's direction that were supposed to prepare him for this mission. The Shinju are nothing but wild cubs that must be put down while still innocent. It's his job to befriend Matsuri and kill her.

We finally get a peek inside Matsuri's head, the dueling attraction to him warring with her instinct to consume him. The instinct to eat him isn't driven by a desire to evolve, but because she recognizes that the emotions she feels, the ones making her crazy, are dangerous to her survival. She shares the same knowledge Jura has, that love itself is dangerous to a Shinju.

This revelation raises the possibility that the targets each of the Shinju has isn't just an individual with whom their human selves had an individual bond, but the person in this world that's most likely to kill them.

In Matsuri's description of her desire to eat Konohamaru, we get yet another look at the theme of the duality of love that's threaded through the series, that love and madness go hand in hand. Love can be destructive, both to ones self and others, just as easily as it can be protective.

Puppets

With Araya's lodestone sword taken, the new gen kids are once again at a significant disadvantage against Ryu. We get some stunning panels of long-range battle between Mitsuki and Ryu until the latter grabs Araya and uses him as a puppet shield, halting Mitsuki's attack and countering with a hit so severe, his Sage Mode is dispelled.

Ryu takes both Mitsuki and Araya hostage, trying to get information as to Boruto's whereabouts and weaknesses from Yodo and Sarada in exchange for their lives. Once again, we note that the Shinju call him Otsutsuki Boruto, leading us to question whether they, too, are under the spell of Omnipotence. When Mitsuki tell the girls not to believe Ryu won't kill them, Ryu once again tells them that they're the ones who broke their word in the first place, not him. (Think about this again when we return to Konohamaru and Matsuri).

Yodo and Sarada get into an argument in which Yodo insists Sarada should spill whatever intelligence she has on Boruto, assuming Sarada see him as an enemy as well. But when Sarada defends him (before she bothers pointing out that she knows nothing), she refers to him as a friend. Yodo sees a kinship between how she thinks of Shinki, as "the kind of guy who makes you want to have his back even if the rest of the world hates him..."

This is an interesting moment as, if we recall, there are several parallel between Shinki and Kawaki, in their loyalty to their adopted fathers, their off-putting personalities, their single-mindedness, and Yodo perceives Boruto as Kawaki, the memories of Boruto Uzumaki erased. When it's apparent Sarada won't do anything to betray her friend, Yodo steps up, offering her superior sensory abilities to Ryu in exchange for the lives of her friends.

When the Girl is Right, the Girl is Right

During the Yodo/Sarada conversation, we get a flashback to Sumire telling Sarada that perhaps the reason that they don't know Boruto's whereabouts is because he's protecting them by not sharing information about himself.

Through this arc, Sarada has had several flashbacks about things Sumire said during that conversation, but this is the first time she's sensing the validity of Sumire's point of view instead of focusing on the conflict between them that followed. Just as Yodo's message later changes Sarada's perspective on using her Mangekyo Sharingan (MS), this moment might also shift her perspective to actually hearing Sumire's words rather than just reacting to them.

Wanna Hold Hands?

As Matsuri starts crying while watching Konohamaru scream in pain, we're reminded of the other times we've seen people cry in Boruto, those being when Hinata broke down when Boruto left their home for the last time, fearing that one day he'd never come back, and when Sarada realized that Omnipotence had occurred, the weight of all the misfortunes that had befallen Boruto crushing her to the point that she awakened her MS.

In Boruto, the pain of tears is associated with deep love and fear for the well-being of those you care for. Thus, in crying Matsuri (and Jura) demonstrate how much pain this dangerous thing called love makes them feel.

As the physical manifestation of sadness tickle down Matsuri's face, she questions why it's happening, unable to tie her outward emotional reaction to what her heart feels. This isn't unlike the experience Sarada has been having, disassociating from her connection to Boruto to the point that she can't recognize her own emotions as well.

What's even more interesting than Matsuri crying is that we get a brief flash of the Shinju's hideout in which Jura also has tears spilling from his eyes, countering the assumption that he lacks feelings because he's the only Shinju without a human counterparts. This opens up the possibility that Jura actually feels all the emotions and love experienced by his fellow Shinju, which is how he also identifies it a dangerous to them.

Seeing Matsuri's moment of weakness, Konohamaru asks her to hold his hands only to betray her trust, double-fisting Rasengans to blow apart the wood that's been trapping him. However, as the size of his Rasengans grow, opening up the possibility for him to deliver a fatal blow, Matsuri whispers, "Konohmaru-chan," yet again causing him to falter. In that opening, she impales him.

Jura narrates what happens, the smears left by tears still staining his cheeks. Because of love, Matsuri was tricked, because of love Konohamaru doubted himself and was defeated (defeat still pending). He could have won if her words hadn't caused him to stumble. We see it is not just Shinju who are endangered by love; humans are as well.

Dying Words

I'm going to direct you to saladsandbolts's language analysis on reddit to understand the full breadth of the intent behind the conversation between Sarada and Yodo. I'm going to lean on saladsandbolts's interpretation of the intent behind the original Japanese version to fully comprehend the meaning of their exchange.

Yodo's generous offer to help Ryu is meet with yet another impaling event, something that I hope the Shinobi health care system is getting better at handling as it seems to come up a lot in the new generation.

Sarada rushes to her ally's side, pursued by Ryu's iron sand. In the quiet preceding death, Yodo sensory abilities can peer deep into Sarada's heart the way they penetrate the sand. She tells Sarada she doesn't understand here feelings, that she's been trying to stay strong (stay, not be, as though she's been viewing the resistance of her powers as a form of strength). Yodo continues, telling Sarada that she's been tricking herself into not using the power that's rotting inside of her. There's an interesting turn of phrase in saladsandbolt's translation:

I don't know what... You're holding back for... But... that power... it's fine... if you don't... want to use it for... the sake of everyone. To protect... that person who's special to you... just for that purpose... You used it... And that's fine...

If I were doing a pure English-language reading of these lines, I'd interpret "it's fine... if you don't... want to use it for... the sake of everyone..." as possibly saying that Sarada has been avoiding her power for the sake of everyone, not reserving it to save everyone. What's apparent from the conversation, though, is that Sarada has been suppressing her power through a subconscious block because she knows the emotion that awoke it was focused on a singular person (Boruto) rather than for the sake of everyone. It's important to take note of the past tense use of used in the quote above. She's not using it now to protect him—it's how she awoke it when confronting Sasuke in chapter 80.

In the final panels of the chapter, we see Sarada close her eyes, a vortex with power similar to a black hole (a collapsed sun!) appearing over her head, sucking in Ryu's iron sand. When she reopens her eyes, Mitsuki recognizes her Mangekyo Sharingan.

Mangekyo Sharingan Limiter Lifted

I am bubbling over with thoughts and theories about Sarada's MS, why she was repressing it, and what comes next. I suspect we'll get additional clarification in the next chapter, but let's engage in some wild speculation in the meantime.

Basic Bitch Explanation

If we want to take a surface-level look at the situation, and lean into the English translation, I think the argument could be made that she's been suppressing her emotions for Boruto because she doesn't understand them herself, and Yodo gave her the permission to cut loose.

However, this fails to grapple with why she's using her MS now. Boruto isn't present to protect. There's no critical information she's secreting away that Ryu could milk out of her. It's just Sarada and her inter-village team. Yet, she feels as though she somehow has permission to access it, which she refused herself previously.

Family Connections

If we get some flashback coming up, it's possible Sarada learned more after awakening her MS and feared to use it due to her family's past. After all, when have good things directly resulted from an Uchiha awakening their MS?

It's also worth considering what it means that Sarada's MS manifested after Boruto's life was stolen through Omnipotence. Sarada was wounded, traumatized, and perhaps she's been running from the meaning of that pain instead of acknowledging it, afraid of the person she might become.

Another possible interpretation of Yodo's words about Sarada holding back and wanting to use it for the sake of everyone (if indeed this is what she meant) is that Sarada might know the cost of using it. That it will eventually destroy her eyes, take away her vision, and her usefulness to everyone. Perhaps she's been saving the power in hopes of using it to protect everyone when there is truly no other option.

It's also worth remembering that when she asked Sasuke to help Boruto, she framed it as a selfish thing, the only selfish thing she'd ever ask, and she's tried to never again put Boruto's well-being above that of others, at least consciously.

One Who is Worthy of Being Hokage

Saladsandbolts brought this point up in her analysis, but I'd like to expand upon it: perhaps Sarada wants to be like Naruto so much that she's afraid of what it means if she (through wakening her MS due to Boruto's pain) had prioritized him above the rest of the village. She knows Naruto to be the person who treated the entire village like family, making everyone feel utterly safe, and she might feel as though she's failing that legacy by how her MS manifested.

This is an interesting perspective, one that venerates Naruto, because we, as readers, know that Naruto did put the life of his son above the lives of others, refusing to kill him when he posed an existential threat to the village. Because neither Sasuke nor Naruto was able to end the threat of Momoshiki in Boruto, it fell to Kawaki to handle... and, thus, a string of tragedies followed.

We know that Naruto did center the life of one very important friend in his quest to be Hokage, and Sarada is following in his footsteps, saying that if she can't save Boruto like Naruto saved Sasuke, she's not worthy of being Hokage. However, she's also been rejecting the depth of her connection to Boruto, thus associating her own success in saving him with her ability to be Hokage when the two are actually disconnected. This moment might be an important one in which Sarada realizes that she has to save more than one person to lead the village.

A Kindred Spirit

My personal favorite theory as to why Sarada has been rejecting, and perhaps fearing, her feelings for Boruto is that she's seen first hand the destructive power of love through Kawaki.

We know that Kawaki put his connection to one person—Naruto—above his connections to everyone else: Boruto, Himawari, Hinata, the rest of Team 7, Team 10, who considered him a friend. Ikemoto's storytelling is quick to tell us that in Boruto, unlike in Naruto, love cuts both ways: it's just as likely to cause pain and suffering as it is to save you, which also fits into depth of love felt by the Uchiha clan leading to generations of tragedy.

Rightly so, Sarada could fear what it would mean if she values one person above others and acts upon those emotions, particularly when her emotions are tied with great power. Kawaki embraces his Karma once more and kills Boruto: what might Sarada do if she allows herself to feel?

Consequences

There's a lot of places Sarada embracing her MS could lead to:

• A increasing dependence on it, thus destroying her eyesight.
• A turn toward dark Sarada as she allows herself to feel the pain and injustice of Boruto's situation, taking matters into her own hands rather than trying to work through the village as she's been doing.
• An understand that she can have a special bond with one person without negating her connections to others.
• Shikamaru's reliance on her as a juggernaut as he loses confidence in Kawaki.
• Acknowledging her emotions, leading to an honest conversation, or additional conflict, with Sumire.
• A kinship or direct battle with Kawaki as they're both try to protect the person their heart has decided is most valuable.
• And more... a lot more!

Concluding Thoughts

Just as we've gotten flashbacks for Boruto, Konohamaru, and Araya during this arc, I hope we finally get some context as to why Sarada views her MS in this way and what led to her suppression of it. The way Mitsuki recognizes it makes me wondered if it's something they tried to train for at one point, and perhaps she rejected that pathway to power... Maybe there were consequences that we still don't know about yet.

Konohamaru is not in good shape. We're either a chapter away from finding out what happens when a Shinju consumes their target or from someone (Boruto, Kawaki, Team 10) showing up to save him. Likewise, Yodo is bleeding out on the sand, and we're left wondering if Ikemoto is going to pull another Inojin or if this is the end for her.

As I mentioned in my previous chapter review, I suspect Koji was setting Sarada up to have this realization about her powers by holding Boruto back and forcing her into a situation he knew might happen. I think there's an amazing fight ahead of us as we learn more about Sarada's abilities.