Summary
Sasuke Uchiha, one of the main characters in theNarutofranchise, has kept the fans on the edge of their seats with anxiety over the course of the last few months. This is because when the sequel toBoruto: Naruto Next Generationswas finally released, Sasuke was nowhere to be seen. This was quite weird, given that Sasuke Uchiha was at the forefront of things when the original story ended.
However, with the sequel,Boruto: Two Blue Vortex, fans were surprised to see Boruto Uzumaki return from the timeskip all alone, with Sasuke nowhere in sight. Now, it has finally been confirmed why that was the case and, as it turns out, Sasuke Uchiha has been turned into a tree, bizarre as that may sound.
The Claw Grimes In Boruto
To understand how and why Sasuke turned into a tree,fans need to understand the Claw Grimes first.The Grimes were created by none other than Code, who was the biggest antagonist in Boruto that was alive towards the end. Code was entrusted with the will of the Otsutsuki by Isshiki. Although strong, Code was not powerful enough to avenge Isshiki and, to that end, he sought help from the 10 Tails. Essentially, Code decided to use the power of the 10 Tails in a more efficient manner. According to him, using his Claw Marks on the 10 Tails would be more helpful as they would help reduce the size of the 10 Tails. So, he produced many humanoid variants of it.
These 10 Tails humanoids were blessed with the power of the Claw Marks and, at the same time, they were also incredibly powerful. Of course, the strength of the many Claw Grimes wasn’t equal. Some of them were strong enough to be dealt with by a bunch of Chunin, however, others required even stronger shinobi to fight them. Some of them were even wielders of the Rinnegan, which shows a great diversity in their powers. It is through these Claw Grimes that the current catastrophe unfolded and that is exactly what Boruto is covering at the moment.
Sasuke And Boruto During The Timeskip
Fans didn’t really get to see the Claw Grimes in action properly in the previous manga. However, the sequel manga to Boruto covers those things in greater detail. Towards the end of the original Boruto manga, Boruto Uzumaki and Kawaki swapped places, thanks to the shinjutsu of Ada. Using Omnipotence, Boruto and Kawaki swapped lives and Boruto Uzumaki was madethe killer of the 7th Hokage.In reality, Naruto was kept in the dimension of Daikokuten by Kawaki where he is alive and well.
Naturally, Boruto was targeted by Konoha after it was revealed that he could have killed the 7th Hokage. Sasuke jumped to his rescue and the two managed to leave the village together. It was then believed that they would train together to grow stronger and return when they are ready to face bigger threats. A timeskip followed and this was supposed to be incredibly exciting for the main characters. Boruto Uzumaki was expected to grow stronger and Sasuke was expected to make up for losing the Rinnegan and gain tremendous power as well. While the first part of the idea certainly did come true, given that Boruto is exceptionally powerful right now, Sasuke did not return and this is because something ended up happening to him at some point during the timeskip.
How Sasuke Turned Into A Tree
InBorutochapter 4, it was finally revealed that Sasuke Uchiha was actually incapacitated during the timeskip. Fans feared that Sasuke had been killed off, however, he hadn’t died but met an equally worse fate. Essentially, Sauske will not be returning to the Boruto series anytime soon and that is simply because he has now been turned into a tree. As to how that happened, the answer is connected to the Claw Grimes. Fans know that the Grimes are extremely powerful, however, it isn’t their physical strength that causes a problem, it is the fact that they are a product of the 10 Tails.
Essentially, as seedlings for the Divine Tree, the Claw Grimes attack the nearest source of chakra that they can find. These Grimes bite anyone with chakra whom they are close to and, when that happens, they start turning into a Divine Tree. This miniature Divine Tree then locks the target in completely, stripping them of their chakra, and absorbing their powers. This is exactly what ended up happening to Sasuke. It is unknown as to under what circumstances this happened, however, one can assume that Code ended up encountering Sasuke and Boruto at some point and, to defeat Boruto, Sasuke threw his body in harm’s way and was bitten by a Grime. When that happened, Sasuke was turned into a tree and had all his chakra sucked out of his body.
While this is already bad enough, what’s worse is the fact that whoever the Grimes end up biting has a clone of them being created by the 10 Tails. Essentially,Sasuke Uchiha now has a Divine Tree cloneand this clone has the powers of the Ten Tails, along with two Rinnegan, and all the abilities that Sasuke possesses as well. It goes without saying that this villain is monstrously powerful and certainly one of the strongest that fans will ever see in Boruto.
Can Sasuke Be Saved?
Sasuke Uchiha will certainly be saved.This much goes without saying, and fans know that both Naruto and Sasuke will be rescued. The authors of Boruto cannot kill off these characters because they need them to make sure the fans don’t abandon the series. In a way, these two characters are being kept as hostages so that fans continue to stick by this story and see it finish. As such, both Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha can and will be saved. However, it doesn’t seem like it is going to happen anytime soon. In order to free Sasuke, it is clear that his clone which is being created by the 10 Tails needs to be defeated. In order to defeat him, Boruto needs to get even stronger.
Furthermore, it is highly likely that all the clones of the 10 Tails will likely need to be defeated in order for this foe to cease existing. Boruto alone is not strong enough to see that job done and it will likely take the combined effort of many other powerful ninjas in order to defeat them. When that happens, Sasuke Uchiha will finally be freed and return to the series. The same logic applies to Naruto as well. Naruto will not be free anytime soon and in order for that to happen, Kawaki will likely need to be taken care of, which would mean that just like Sasuke, Naruto will not play any role in Boruto for the foreseeable future.
However,fans should not expect Sasuke and Narutoto play an active role in the series even after their unsealing, given that the writers seem dead set on sticking to subpar writing instead of actually doing something productive with the old characters.
Boruto is available to read via Viz Media. The series can be read by the fans officially and for free on the Shonen Jump and theManga Plusapp. The release date for the next chapter of Boruto, Boruto Part 2 chapter 5, is set to be July 06, 2025.
