How Boruto Paid Homage to Naruto & Sasuke’s Most Explosive Moment

WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Chapter 66 of Boruto: Naruto Next Generations, “Do-or-Die,” by Masashi Kishimoto, Mikio Ikemoto, Mari Morimoto and Snir Aharon, now available in English from Viz Media.

One of the most iconic moments in Naruto lore will always be when Naruto and Sasuke clashed with each other, unleashing their signature moves. In fact, this sequence happened twice to show their evolution from lost kids to motivated teens, who sadly had to fight each other in order to build a free ninja world.

Both confrontations happened at the waterfall where the Hashirama and Madara statues were, with Sasuke hellbent on domination and power and Naruto on redeeming his fallen brethren. Ironically, that moment got recreated when Kawaki and Boruto clashed in the Boruto manga, showing the new generation of stories can indeed pay tribute to the old.

Naruto and Sasuke Clash

The Naruto and Sasuke sequences dealt with on the former unleashing his Rasengan -- the energy ball Jiraiya taught Naruto to use, which his father Minato made famous. As for Sasuke, he used his Chidori -- the lightning blade Kakashi showed him. It first occurred at the Valley of the End in "The End of Tears," where they opened the fight by running into each other, hands out to use these techniques, giving fans an epic scrap.

Naruto ended up using Kurama's chakra, hinting how he and the Nine Tails Demon Fox would bond down the line, with Sasuke in his monstrous form after being poisoned by Orichimaru's seal. The impact caused a huge shockwave, kickstarting a fight that would end with Sasuke leaving his Konoha headband behind and defecting for good to gain revenge for the fallen Uchiha clan.

The second instance was in the Naruto series finale, "Departure," where they beat each other senseless years later. Sasuke betrayed Naruto after they stopped Kaguya, intent on now ruling the world and reshaping the ninja era. They attack each other in similar fashion in the climax, only to end up near death on the ground. It was all due to the chakra collision which caused a bomb, wrecking the valley again. This time, their signature moves were so powerful that each of them lost an arm. Luckily they finally reconciled on the ground, bleeding out but admitting it was time to end the rivalry and build a better world together.

This all got remixed in Boruto Chapter 66 when Kawaki and Boruto went to war. Momoshiki took over Boruto's body while they fought a bitter Code, which caused Kawaki to harness his second Karma mark in the Konoha woods. He needed to kill Boruto to stop the villain from resurfacing, so he raced at his rival with his clawed fire-hand -- something Isshiki used often when in his alien form.

Boruto-Momoshiki, though, did what the Hokage would do, speeding out with his Rasengan, mimicking the shot of Sasuke and Naruto barreling into each other. The energy collision would cause a massive shockwave, leaving Naruto, Shikamaru and Code stunned at the damage done. Only this time, the brooding Sasuke-like Kawaki was the hero, while Naruto's corrupted son was the villain as Boruto flipped the script on its own past.

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