Boruto: Sasuke’s Lone Wolf Attitude Has Truly Doomed Naruto’s Konoha Utopia

WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for Boruto: Naruto Next Generations #45, by Masashi Kishimoto, Mikio Ikemoto and Ukyo Kodachi, available in English from Viz Media.

Boruto #45 has finally given Konoha a bit of the upper hand in the war against Kara. Not only has Amado defected and is spilling crucial information to Naruto's team, but Kashin Koji is also now fighting his boss, Jigen, to take the terrorist leader off the table in a mysterious civil war.

However, with the revelation that Jigen could have access to more Ten-Tailed beasts, that bit of hope has been snuffed out. And what's very evident is that Sasuke's lone wolf behavior has doomed Konoha and the utopia Naruto worked so hard to build.

Continue scrolling to keep reading Click the button below to start this article in quick view.
Start now

Sasuke's always had a loner attitude, especially after training under Kakashi. It's why he went off as a villain in the Naruto series, but all was forgiven in the end and he became a ranger, helping his village out. But even to this day, he still rolls solo as that's just the way he works. Naruto didn't have a problem with it as they reestablished their trust and Sasuke eventually proved his worth by taking on villains like Momoshiki and Kinshiki. Of course, the fact that his wife Sakura and their daughter Sarada reside in Konoha is further proof that his loyalty to the village shouldn't be questioned.

But the thing is, Sasuke's dislike for teammates has left Konoha unprepared for what's to come. As Amado lays out the details, Sasuke knows most of them already, and you can tell Amado's wondering why they weren't relayed back to the council sooner. If Sasuke rolled with allies, the information could easily have been reaching home faster as he would have teleporting ninjas and brilliant strategists at his disposal, but apart from Boruto, he just doesn't like being around other soldiers.

Now, we see how badly this inefficiency is costing them. We know he isn't harboring jealousy over Naruto getting the Hokage position -- or at least, we're hoping not -- but when Sasuke discerned Jigen had a new Ten-Tails, he immediately fought the villain and barely made it out alive. If he had support, these ninjas could have teleported home and someone could have revealed what was going on, or even brought back up to aid Sasuke. After all, Sasuke and Naruto know the shinobi world has so many villains on their power level and they need help keeping it safe. What makes it worse is that Sasuke also knows Boruto's karma mark means the kid's being groomed to be possessed by Momoshiki, but he keeps this secret too, along with his daughter and Mitsuki. It's ill-advised because all this data laid out, coupled with Kawaki's karma mark, would have indicated Jigen's marked by Isshiki and the Ōtsutsuki is indeed making a comeback through possessions.

Sasuke really needed to cooperate with his peers and seniors like Shikamaru, because now they're blindsided. They thought at first it was all a conspiracy but Sasuke had enough of the pieces already to have solved the puzzle before Amado's arrival. It's all about trust and honesty, and with this alien bloodline back after he and Naruto fought Kaguya, they could have come up with a plan of attack by now.

Instead, Sasuke just hasn't been proactive, and his bad influence has encouraged younger ninjas to similarly keep things in the dark -- leaving Konoha totally vulnerable. We know he has good intentions as he didn't want to chance teammates dying on high-risk scouting missions but he has to put personal style aside at some point for the greater good. Konoha's army has many elite ninjas and Sasuke needs to become a team player to safeguard the future of the entire shinobi alliance.