Does Naruto die in ‘Boruto?’

The spin-off to Naruto, Boruto: Naruto Next Generations is now approaching the publication of its 80th chapter. The anime, however, aired its 293rd episode on 26 March, 2023, thus concluding the first part of the story. The manga has gone on since, but the issue of Naruto’s death has been largely kept untouched.

Boruto started with a flash-forward that prophesied Naruto’s apparent death, leaving fans on edge to discover when those events would actually take place. In it, we see Kawaki — a character no one knew at the time — tell Baruto, during battle, that he would send him to the same place he sent the Seventh Hokage, aka Naruto.

In episode 218 of the anime and chapter 55 of the manga, it looked like the time had come for that flash-forward to be confirmed when Kurama told Naruto about the Baryon Mode and how he could use it to defeat the powerful Isshiki Otsutsuki.

Although Kurama had told Naruto that they would both die by utilizing the Baryon Mode, given the incredible amount of chakra it required, when they finally did, Kurama revealed he had lied. He knew Naruto would refuse to use the mode if he knew only Kurama would die, so he told him they both would. The prophecy didn’t come true, and Naruto was only left in an extremely weakened state after the battle.

The central conflict in Boruto is the rivalry between Naruto’s son Boruto and adopted son Kawaki. Kawaki is set on killing every Otsutsuki so that his father can be safe, but that means killing his own brother, seeing as Boruto is a vessel for Momoshiki Otsutsuki. Because Naruto would never let him go through with this, in chapter 77, Kawaki sends him and his wife Hinata to a different dimension, where they have been sealed ever since. Naruto is not expected to return to the manga until after the time skip, which will happen after Chapter 83. However, since time does not flow in this new world that Naruto and Hinata are trapped in, they will not grow older or even experience hunger and thirst.

So no, Naruto is not dead in Boruto, but the entire world of the manga, bar Kawaki, who knows what really happened, thinks he is. Further developments in the story saw Kawaki ask Eida to use her Shinjutsu powers to make everyone believe he is Naruto’s biological son and that Boruto killed Naruto.

That’s all we know about Naruto’s state as of chapter 79 of the manga. Rumor has it that new chapters will stop coming out soon, and will resume after a time skip in August of this year. Nothing has been confirmed.