Who Killed Naruto in Boruto? Nobody. Here’s Where That Rumor Comes From

Boruto: Naruto Next Generations opens with Konoha on fire and Boruto standing over Kawaki saying something that sounds a lot like a goodbye. It’s a flash-forward, the kind of hook anime uses constantly to grab viewers before the story has even started.

For a franchise built entirely around one character, it worked a little too well. Naruto Uzumaki has been the center of this story since episode one of the original series, through Shippuden, and into Boruto as the Seventh Hokage.

So when the sequel opens with a scene that looks like his ending, fans noticed immediately.

Does Naruto actually die at some point in this story? Not cleanly, no, but he comes closer than most people realize.

During the Fourth Shinobi War, in manga chapters 662-663, Obito‘s attack on the Ten-Tails jinchuriki separates Naruto from Kurama‘s chakra, and without it, Sakura tells him flatly that he won’t survive. He’s saved at the last second when Obito has his change of heart and restores the connection.

That’s the real event some headlines round up to “Naruto died in the manga,” and it’s worth being precise about it here: he was dying, not dead, and the difference matters for a franchise that treats actual death as permanent.

So who killed Naruto in Boruto, the sequel series specifically? Nobody.

What actually happens is a fight against Isshiki Otsutsuki using a technique called Baryon Mode, which the story states outright will cost a life to use. Naruto and Sasuke win. Isshiki dies.

Naruto survives, but the fight costs him Kurama, and afterward, Kawaki seals Naruto away, Hinata with him, into a separate dimension using his Daikokuten technique.

Kawaki does it to protect them both, not to hurt them: it keeps Naruto safe if Momoshiki ever takes him over again, and spares him from watching Boruto die if that ever became unavoidable. A seal isn’t a killing, even though it plays out as a loss either way.

Other major deaths in Boruto

Naruto isn’t the only one people ask about. Kurama dies as the direct cost of that same Baryon Mode fight, burning through his own life force to win it.

Isshiki Otsutsuki dies in that fight too, after years of jumping between host bodies to survive. Two of his subordinates in the criminal group Kara, Boro and Delta, both die earlier in the series, defeated in separate fights against Naruto’s side.

And Boruto himself has a closer call than most fans remember: Kawaki genuinely pierces his chest and kills him in an earlier confrontation, and the only reason he’s alive at all is that Momoshiki, who was controlling Kawaki’s body at the time, heals the wound purely to keep his own vessel from dying with him.

It’s the same trick this whole page is about, playing out on a different character.

Other major deaths in the original series

For comparison, here’s who doesn’t come back in the original Naruto and Shippuden.

Jiraiya dies fighting Pain in Amegakure, a loss that shapes the rest of Naruto’s story. Asuma Sarutobi dies fighting the Akatsuki members Hidan and Kakuzu.

Neji Hyuga dies during the Fourth Shinobi War, taking a fatal hit meant for Naruto and Hinata. Itachi Uchiha dies in his fight against Sasuke, revealed afterward to have been terminally ill the whole time.

Obito Uchiha dies during the war too, after his own redemption, protecting Kakashi in the end. Nagato dies right after using his own life to revive everyone he’d killed in his attack on Konoha, including the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, who died earlier fighting Orochimaru.

Madara Uchiha dies at the very end of the war. None of these get reversed.

That’s what makes them different from what happens to Naruto and Kurama, and it’s part of why the confusion around Naruto specifically keeps coming back.

Why the opening scene misleads so effectively

To be specific about why that first flash-forward has fooled so many viewers, because the technique is deliberate.

The scene shows a ruined Konoha and Boruto standing over Kawaki, and it is scored and framed as a conclusion. What it withholds is context: who is fighting whom, what led there, and critically, the identity swap that Eida’s Omnipotence later performs on Boruto and Kawaki, which reverses how the audience should read the two figures in that shot entirely.

Once that reveal lands, the opening scene means something close to the opposite of what a first-time viewer assumes. The series spent years letting people draw the wrong conclusion from an image that was accurate the whole time, which is a large part of why speculation about Naruto’s death persisted for as long as it did.

Does Naruto come back?

Since he isn’t dead, there’s technically nothing to come back from, but the more useful question is whether he comes back to the story. As of the current Two Blue Vortex manga, that’s still open.

Kurama shows the first real sign of movement: in chapter 9, part of his chakra is confirmed to have returned, though it surfaces in Himawari, not in Naruto directly.

Naruto himself is still sealed away with Hinata, and the story hasn’t shown his return yet.

A seal is reversible in a way an actual death never is, which is exactly why this stays a real, open question instead of a settled one.

Put it all together and the rumor makes sense even though it’s wrong.

A destroyed village in the opening scene, a technique the story says is fatal, and a main character who’s been missing from the plot for a long stretch: that’s more than enough to make people assume the worst.

The specific answer is just more complicated than the rumor gives it credit for.

Common questions

Is Naruto dead in Boruto?

No. He is sealed away by Kawaki, along with Hinata, inside a separate dimension where time does not pass. A seal is not a death, and the distinction matters because sealing is reversible in a way death would not be.

Who sealed Naruto away?

Kawaki, using his Karma ability Daikokuten. He did it to protect Naruto rather than to harm him, keeping him out of reach if Momoshiki resurfaced and sparing him from watching Boruto die.

Did Naruto ever actually die?

He came close during the Fourth Shinobi War. In manga chapters 662 to 663 Obito’s attack separates him from Kurama’s chakra and Sakura says plainly he will not survive, but Obito’s change of heart restores the connection in time. He was dying rather than dead.

Will Naruto come back?

Unresolved. He remains sealed as of the current Two Blue Vortex manga. Kurama’s chakra has partially returned, though it surfaced with Himawari rather than with Naruto, so the thread is open rather than closed.