Is Boruto Stronger Than Naruto? It Depends Which Question You’re Asking
This covers ongoing manga material, current as of Boruto: Two Blue Vortex.
This actually splits into three separate questions, and most answers online only address one of them without saying so.
Three different questions, three different answers
Almost every disagreement about this comes from two people answering different versions of the question, so here are all three side by side.
| The question being asked | The short answer |
|---|---|
| Boruto now against Naruto at his absolute peak | Naruto, clearly and comfortably. No real contest here. |
| Boruto now against Naruto at the same age | Genuinely much closer, and Boruto has a real claim. |
| Boruto now against Naruto right now | This is the close one, because current Naruto isn’t what he used to be. |
The fact most people miss
Naruto is significantly weaker in Boruto than he was at the end of Shippuden. Kurama dies as a consequence of the Baryon Mode fight, and losing the Nine-Tails strips away an enormous share of Naruto’s overall power. He’s still formidable, and he still retains some Six Paths Sage Mode chakra, but the version of Naruto who fought Kaguya alongside Sasuke simply doesn’t exist anymore.
That single fact reframes the whole comparison. A lot of casual answers compare Boruto against peak Naruto without accounting for the fact that peak Naruto isn’t the one currently in the story.
Boruto’s case
Boruto has Karma, which gives him access to a portion of Momoshiki’s own power, scaling him well above what a normal genin should be capable of. He has the Jogan, an eye ability the series hasn’t fully explained yet, worth mentioning as underexplained rather than overstating what it does.
He shows real, checkable talent too: better chakra control than Naruto had at the same age, and he learns the Rasengan considerably younger than his father did. And he’s clearly being written with a trajectory heading somewhere significant.
Compared directly at the same age, Boruto is ahead on technique and control. Naruto at that same age had Kurama, which is a fundamentally different kind of advantage rather than a directly comparable one.
Naruto’s case
Peak Naruto operates on a completely different tier: Six Paths Sage Mode, Kurama’s full power, the Truth-Seeking Balls, flight, and a share of Hagoromo’s own strength. He also carries genuine experience, having fought and won at the highest level the setting has ever presented.
Worth being current about his actual standing right now, though: Naruto is no longer active in the story at all. He’s currently sealed away by Kawaki, alongside Hinata, in a separate dimension where time doesn’t pass, and the position of Hokage has since passed to others in Konoha. So “Naruto right now” isn’t really a fair fight to score at all in the strictest sense, since he isn’t in a position to fight anyone. The more honest version of that third comparison is really “Boruto now vs. the diminished Naruto who existed in the moments right before he was sealed.”
Why comparing father and son at all is a slightly different exercise
Pause on why this specific matchup gets asked so often compared to other versus debates on this site. Most power comparisons pit two unrelated characters against each other purely on strength. This one carries an extra layer, since the story is explicitly interested in whether Boruto will surpass his father, and how, as a core piece of its own thematic structure. Every scaling detail in this comparison, Karma, the Jogan, Naruto’s diminished state, is also doing double duty as characterization, which is part of why fans treat this specific matchup with more emotional investment than a typical cross-series versus debate.
What Karma actually gives him, and what it costs
Karma does most of the heavy lifting in Boruto’s case, so it is worth being precise about what it is rather than treating it as a generic power-up.
Karma is not a technique Boruto learned. It is a mark left by Momoshiki that stores the Otsutsuki’s own data inside Boruto’s body, and it lets him draw on a portion of that power in combat. That is why a genin can operate at a level his training alone could never explain, and it is also why his growth curve looks nothing like his father’s steady climb.
The cost is the part most power comparisons leave out. Karma is a vessel process. The mark exists so that Momoshiki can eventually overwrite Boruto entirely and resurrect himself in his body, which means every use carries a real risk of accelerating exactly that outcome. Boruto is borrowing from the thing trying to replace him.
That changes how the comparison should read. Naruto’s power at any given point is his own and safe to use. A meaningful share of Boruto’s is neither, which is a genuine asterisk on any straight strength comparison between the two.
The Jogan sits in a similar position. It is clearly significant, it is clearly tied to his Otsutsuki inheritance rather than to training, and the story has never fully explained what its ceiling is, which makes it impossible to score cleanly in a comparison like this one.
Where this actually lands
Against peak Naruto, no contest. At the same age, close, with a real case for Boruto. Against the version of Naruto that existed just before he was sealed away, post-Kurama, closer than most people assume. And right now, literally, Naruto isn’t in the story to compare against at all.
This is a moving target in an ongoing manga, and the honest thing to do is watch where Boruto’s power continues to go, and watch for Naruto’s eventual return, rather than lock in a permanent verdict today.
Common questions
Is Boruto stronger than Naruto?
It depends which Naruto. Against peak Naruto from the war arc, no contest. At the same age, genuinely close, with a real case for Boruto on technique and chakra control. Against the diminished Naruto who existed just before Kawaki sealed him away, closer than most people assume.
Why is Naruto weaker in Boruto?
Because he lost Kurama. The Nine-Tails died as the cost of the Baryon Mode fight against Isshiki, which stripped away an enormous share of Naruto’s overall power. He retains some Six Paths Sage Mode chakra and his own large reserves, but the version who fought Kaguya no longer exists.
What is Karma?
A mark left by Momoshiki that stores Otsutsuki data inside Boruto’s body and lets him draw on a portion of that power. The cost is that it exists so Momoshiki can eventually overwrite Boruto entirely, so every use carries a real risk of accelerating that outcome.
Will Boruto surpass Naruto?
The story is clearly building toward it, but it has not happened yet and the manga is ongoing. Treat any confident answer as speculation, including this one.
