The Boruto Anime Just Framed Naruto's Son for MURDER

WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Boruto: Naruto Next Generations Episode 161, "The Castle of Nightmares," now streaming on Crunchyroll.

The Boruto anime has thrown Naruto's son into the deep end as he's charged with solving the mystery of the Hashirama Cell. Working under Konohamaru and the cynical Mugino, Team 7 discovered the First Hokage's genetics are being peddled around as a weapon so they head to the black market in the Land of Silence.

However, things take a dire turn when Boruto rushes in headfirst into a trap and gets framed for murder. From the look of things, it doesn't seem like he'll be able to conjure an alibi.

After Boruto uses his "Sexy Jutsu" on the rogue medical ninja Kirisaki, he and Konohamaru meet up with a mysterious butler, the person who bought the DNA. He wants it for Queen Sakuya, who's grown old and is looking for immortality. With Konohamaru disguised as Kirisaki to trick the butler, the senior uses an antidote to cure the Hashirama infection of the butler. This allows him and Boruto -- pretending to be his assistant -- to go to the castle.

The shields are lowered, and as they dissect the situation, the butler reveals Boruto must be experimented upon before Kirisaki's allowed near the queen to conduct her procedure. Konohamaru agrees to it, and as the butler preps the operation, Boruto uses a shadow clone, leaving it behind as a guinea pig while he heads out to find the jar with the DNA. However, when he gets to Sakuya's chambers, he finds her dead with a kunai in her back. He's shocked to discover four purple-haired assassins at the scene of the crime, realizing they shape-shifted into women and tried to glean the info from Kirisaki at a bar the same night Boruto got to the doctor.

However, while Kirisaki being taken prisoner worked against them, when Konohamaru pretended to be the doctor, things swung back in the villains' favor as they entered the castle when the shields dropped. To make matters worse, the rogue ninjas kill the queen's guards, making Boruto looking like the killer. The butler and Konohamaru/Kirisaki are stunned at what's transpiring, although Konohamaru knows what's up. The butler, though, calls for backup, leaving Team 7 in dire straits because they'll have to sell their ruse out if the truth's to be told.

The purple-haired ninjas steal the jar for themselves. As they flee, they reveal to the courtyard how Konoha's finest killed Sakuya. The citizens rush the castle, thirsty for blood, which means Team 7 will have the royal guards plus angry commoners to deal with. It'll be tricky not to draw blood so Mugino and Sarada will have to intervene after observing. But it'll be tricky because once word gets out, Konoha could be pulled into a diplomatic war, damaging relations with the rest of the ninja alliance.

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