Kawaki

Background

Kodachi and Ikemoto created Kawaki as a major rival for Boruto, and Naruto author Masashi Kishimoto suggested introducing the pair through the flashforward for greater impact: an older Kawaki, standing over a levelled Konoha, tells an older Boruto that the age of shinobi is finally over. Ikemoto has called their relationship more vitriolic than Naruto and Sasuke's, and notes that Boruto's design turns more serious whenever the two meet. While Boruto wears Sasuke's clothes, Kawaki wears nothing notable, reflecting his lack of interest in himself.

Bought from a cold, drunken father by Jigen, he was raised in Kara with a Roman numeral IX tattooed under his left eye, experimented on alongside thirteen other children, branded with a Karma mark and fitted with microscopic Shinobi-Ware that lets him alter his body for combat. Distrusting Kara after Jigen's abuse, he defects and is found by Boruto's team as "the Vessel" lost in a transport accident. The Seventh Hokage, Naruto Uzumaki, adopts him to protect him, and the distant boy slowly warms to the family, repairing a vase Himawari made for Hinata's birthday and asking Naruto to train him as a ninja.

When Jigen kidnaps Naruto, Kawaki joins Boruto, Sarada Uchiha and Mitsuki to rescue him from the Kara member Boro. After Koji Kashin destroys Jigen, Isshiki Ōtsutsuki, revived in Jigen's charred body, attacks Konoha to brand Kawaki anew and claim Boruto for the God Tree; Naruto, Sasuke and Kawaki together defeat him. Kawaki and a barely conscious Sasuke then hold off a Momoshiki-possessed Boruto, who has destroyed Sasuke's Rinnegan, until Boruto comes to his senses. Yuma Uchida voices him in Japanese and Michael Schwalbe in English; critics who disliked his violent debut later praised his growth under Naruto's influence.