After a four-month hiatus, the Boruto manga returned for its second part, titled, “Boruto: Two Blue Vortex,” its first chapter simply being named, “Boruto,” officially releasing on August 20th, 2023, written by Masashi Kishimoto and illustrated by Mikio Ikemoto.

   After being teased since 2016, the highly-anticipated timeskip has finally arrived, showcasing new and improved designs for the majority of the major players in the story.

   Chapter 1 kicked off three years after Boruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha fled from the Hidden Leaf Village with the latter’s daughter, Sarada Uchiha, confronting Shikamaru Nara, who has now taken the role of Eighth Hokage in place of Naruto Uzumaki, who is presumed to be dead. Sarada tried negotiating with Shikamaru to hear Boruto out about his current predicament. However, Shikamaru didn’t want to hear any of it.

   We then briefly switched over to Kawaki, checking in on Naruto and Hinata Uzumaki in the Daikokuten dimension he entrapped them in.

   Afterward, we switched over to Sarada and Kakei Sumire, who were attempting to figure out a way to counter Eida’s omnipotence ability that caused Boruto and Kawaki to switch roles in the minds of everyone. They approached Eida and her little brother, Daemon, for answers. Eida questioned how it was possible for Sarada and Sumire to resist her omnipotence, despite them being neither Otsutsuki or her blood relative.

   Later, we saw Himawari Uzumaki and the Ino-Shika-Cho trio. After a brief spar between ChoCho and Himawari, Himawari let it be known that she wants to become stronger in order to help out Boruto for “saving her” back when Naruto had fought Kara inner, Delta. Due to Eida’s omnipotence, in Himawari’s mind, Kawaki is her blood brother and Boruto is the one who saved her from Delta’s attack. She goes on to say that, despite what people are saying about Boruto, somebody who would protect her the way that he did couldn’t truly be a bad person.

   We saw a short interaction between Mitsuki and Kawaki before Code invaded Konoha, who was in search of Boruto. He was accompanied by his Claw Mark/Ten Tails monsters (which are called Claw Grimes in the actual story). Kawaki and Sarada began protecting the civilians within the village when Code confronted Sarada, claiming that he had been searching for Boruto for the last two years but to no avail. That’s when Boruto appeared to protect Sarada, Kawaki closing out the chapter with, “You’ve finally shown yourself, Boruto!”

   The second chapter, titled, “Tree,” picked up where we left off, with Boruto confronting Code in the Hidden Leaf Village. He told Code to withdraw all of his Claw Grimes while he can still control them, threatening to kill Code if he didn’t. Code was taken aback by Boruto’s sudden confidence, reminding him of how helpless he supposedly was against him two years prior

   “You obviously heard me,” said Boruto. “So hurry up and do it, or else you’ll lose more than just your left eye, this time.”

   We then switched over to the Ino-Shika-Cho trio, accompanied by Himawari as they fought off more Claw Grimes. Kawaki showed up to even the odds, where we saw that one Claw Grime bore the coveted Rinnegan eye that only a select few have ever acquired. After fighting off a few, more and more showed up, Shikadai coming to the conclusion that there was a never-ending amount of them.

   We cut back over to Boruto, where he drew his sword and sliced through all of the Claw Grimes that Code sent at him. That’s when Boruto told Code that he didn’t understand the true horror of the Ten Tails. We briefly saw Sarada battle a few Claw Grimes, displaying a Fire Style Jutsu and a Chidori, taught to her by her father. From her blindside, a remaining Claw Grime attempted to attack her, but Soegi, a Hidden Leaf Village ninja, jumped in front of her, suffering a nasty bite from the monster. Suddenly, the monster transformed into a tree, which caught Sarada by surprise. We then switched back over to Boruto and Code and we learned a bit more about the Claw Grimes thanks to a conversation between the two.

   “I know plenty about Ten Tails, obviously,” said Code. “They devour Otsutsuki. Well, in truth, they’re beasts that’ll just instinctively bite anybody in their vicinity until they eventually run into an Otsutsuki.”

   “That might normally be the case,” said Boruto. “But these ones are different, thanks to you enhancing them. It ain’t too late. You need to scrap them while you still hold their reins, or else we’ll end up in the worst possible future for everyone.”

   After dealing with more of Code’s stubbornness, Boruto decided to call it quits on trying to convince him to destroy his Claw Grimes. Boruto began to approach Code, announcing the name of a new Rasengan variation to close out the chapter, Rasengan Uzuhiko.

Chapter 3 drops tomorrow, Thursday, October 19th!