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Kawaki (Japanese: カワキ, Kawaki), is the deuteragonist of the anime/manga series Boruto. Originally raised by Kara, a sinister organization, he was subjected to years of experimentation. Their goal was to transform him into the vessel for Isshiki Ōtsutsuki.
Rescued by Konohagakure, he was adopted into the Uzumaki family, becoming Boruto and Himawari's older brother. His deep bond with Naruto, coupled with his loathing for Isshiki, drove him mad and led him to a drastic decision: he switched places with his adoptive brother, Boruto. This deception fooled the world, leading most to believe he was "the biological son" of Naruto, while Boruto was a "outsider who was adopted" by Naruto, but Kawaki makes no effort living in Boruto’s place and it doesn’t make it better.
He was voiced by Shinya Hamazoe in the Japanese version, and Chris Niosi in the English version in the first episode, and currently by Yuma Uchida in the Japanese version, and Michael Schwalbe in the English version.
Personality[]
Kawaki's harsh childhood has shaped him into an aggressive and vulgar individual, particularly towards those he dislikes or opposes. Despite his efforts to distance himself from others, he still possesses a sense of sympathy towards weak animals and innocent children. He can maintain a calm and collected demeanor when questioning strangers, showing his observant and pragmatic nature in battles and ability to see through deceptions. Mitsuki views him as effective in conveying his feelings, even if done aggressively.
His suffering as a vessel for Kara has left a deep impact on Kawaki. He despises his life with Kara and would rather die than endure it further. He exhibits signs of post-traumatic stress disorder, experiencing intense fear and horror triggered by reminders of his past. Kawaki loathes himself for what he has become under Kara's influence and even expresses a desire to harm himself. He holds grudges against Kara, especially Jigen, for betraying their promises of safety. He fears the powerful members of Kara and surrenders when faced with overwhelming odds to protect Naruto.
Despite his fear, Kawaki refuses to be defeated without a fight. He challenges Jigen and confronts other adversaries, demonstrating his determination. His hatred for Jigen and Kara fuels his actions and he relishes in their downfall. However, this hatred also extends to the Ōtsutsuki clan as a whole. Kawaki's harsh upbringing has made him unfamiliar with simple joys, and he is amazed by everyday experiences like tasting pastries or seeing the ocean for the first time. While he may appear gruff, he occasionally displays manners and tries to make amends for his mistakes.
During his time in Konohagakure, Kawaki begins to open up and develop a sense of loyalty toward his surrogate family, particularly Naruto. He admires and respects Naruto, seeing him as a father-figure and learning from his example. He becomes more responsible, calm, and respectful, undergoing a significant transformation. However, he still struggles with emotional attachment and lacks empathy towards others, even within Konoha. Kawaki's loyalty to Naruto drives him to make difficult decisions, including the willingness to sacrifice his own freedom and make morally questionable choices.
Later having reoriented that his world view around Naurto, he decicded that in the sake of protecting the Hokage, he would use his Ōtsutsuki powers to wipe all Ōtsutsuki out, including Boruto. He however acknowledges that his actions are morally wrong and dislikes the idea of betraying those he considers family. Owning up to his moral dilemma, he makes the point to inform Naruto of his new goal and sending him away with a rift to stop him form interfering with killing Boruto. Even more, Kawaki is fully aware and prepared for Naruto to hate him and promises to allow himsefl to be killed after finishing off Boruto to ensure that Ōtsutsuki threat would be dealt with once and for all.
Since Kawaki has regained his Ōtsutsuki powers, he has become callous and unbother by Shikamaru's interest in Amado's motivations and agiated him as believes that Code will kill him, earning himself Naruto's admonishment. He also grew more hostile towards anyone or any circumstances that would threaten Naurto's life, coming to believe that all who want something from him are scum and that good people like Naruto are the first to die. When his and Boruto's histories were swapping within the world's memory, Kawaki took advantage of the situation to make it seemed that Boruto killed Naruto, so no one would hinder his efforts to have Boruto killed. Despite this, Boruto has emphasised that Kawaki's actions came not from malice or selfishness, but his own personal view of justice from his harsh background.
Three years after Boruto's place in the collective consciousness, Kawaki makes no effort to emulate of any of his behaviour, being bothered by Mitsuki constantly following, and repeatedly complaining when Himawari refers to him as brother. In other words, it has not made him any better at all. Kawakis' misguided belief cause him to be shortsighted to imminent threats only focusing on prioritizing on killing Boruto being an Ōtsutsuki over everything else despite the dangers that Konoha is currently at of the time and considers himself as a Ōtsutsuki that meant to kill them when Sarada pointed out of Kawaki being a Ōtsutsuki himself. But simultaneously, he hangs on to a few remnants of loyalty for the few persons he deems close to him, which is why he reacts quite quickly to protect his adopted sister. Therefore, upon learning how useful Boruto would be against the sentient God Trees, even though the original plan was to kill him, he rejected this plan outright and instead settled for his capture.
Abilities[]
Kawaki is a powerful fighter, having been in armed and unarmed combat in brutally training with Jigen to master his enhancements. He wields tremendous amounts of power as he easily destroyed dozens of robotic puppets, Inners of Kara have openly praised his might. He is hypnotized to become an incredible shinobi if he learns how to use ninjutsu along with his previous abilities he learned from Kara, and from regaining his Kāma he inherited Isshiki's abilities, so far nobody in Konoha including Naruto is taught to be able to oppose his power. Three years later, it is believed Amado reset Kawaki's capabilities to be exactly enough in order to fight Code. After Amado fully reset Kawaki's configurations to maximum offense, he is powerful enough to be able to take on the God Tree Leader Jura.
Kāma[]
Kawaki was branded the Kāma mark of Isshiki Ōtsutsuki's vessel Jigen, which he acquired when the Ōtsutsuki branded him in hopes of making him his vessel. He is proved to be compatible with the mark, Kawaki's body has gradually been rewritten at a genetic level to be reborn as a "perfect Ōtsutsuki". When activated, the Kāma mark stretches and expands, covering the entire left side of his body. When using more of Isshiki's power, the black markings will change to red or will shimmer glowing red. The Kāma also allows Kawaki to absorb almost any chakra based ninjutsu or energy-based target. With Boruto's cooperation, he can open portals to other dimensions. While continuing to advance the progess of his mark, Kawaki began to subconciously access the transformed state, manifesting a small horn on the left side of his head. While in the transformed state the markings with change to a different pattern. From his contact with Boruto, who bears Momoshiki's Kāma, created a resonance that accelerated the takeover rate of both vessels. Due to the improper resurrection of Isshiki, Kawaki's being has mostly been written into Isshiki's likeness. By the forced resurrection of Isshiki had also erased Kawaki's Kāma.
He was later had the Kāma reapplied to him by Amado, with the vanishing of Isshiki's soul, functioned only as a weapon. Soon after, the Kāma advanced enough for Kawaki to access Isshiki's Kokugan and various techniques. He can use Sukunahikona to shrink and return to normal size on himself or any nonliving matter. He can use Daikokuten to store items and living beings in a pocket dimension and summon them to himself at any time. He would no longer requires aid to create space-time portals. Seeing these abilites would lead Code to conclude that Kāma had finally progressed to make Kawaki a complete Ōtsutsuki. This restored Kāma was later revealed to contains data about Amado's daughter Akebi, which Amado hopes can properly resurrect her if applied to a cloned body once it matures enough. Three years later, Kawaki could acces the Ōtsutsuki clan's ability to fly unassisted. It is also revealed by Boruto that Amado has deliberately made Kawaki's Kāma have Isshiki's full defensive capabilities. Once Amado removed these limiters, Kawaki now has access to Isshiki full attack power in exchange for his defence. With Isshiki full attack power Kawaki was able to injure the likes of Jura.
Body Modifications[]
Kawaki had went under significant modifications with Shinobi-Ware by Amado. It's a microscopic technology implanted throughout his entire body that constantly alter his physiology throughout his circulatory and nervous systems. These modifications are at the cellular level, changing him into a living scientific ninja tool and giving him unique superhuman capacities similar a Kekkei Genkai. Katasuke Tōno considers the modifications a work of art, as the prosthetic arm intended for Naruto Uzumaki, while perhaps not all the more so. He likewise noticed that dissimilar to Mitsuki, who is a genetically engineered synthetic human utilizing organic technology, Kawaki is a characteristic human changed into something different utilizing inorganic technology.
His body tissue can go through fast cell division, ready to recover lost life systems and heal at accelerated rate, able to mend his injuries in minutes. In the anime, he has shown some resistance from mind control. It can also instantly undergo sclerosis or malaria to harden, soften, and extend. This permits him to change portions of his body, weaponizing it; these developments could in fact be shed and thrown as projectiles, enabling him to produce a myriad of tools and weapons for the fight to come including sharp blades or stretching tendrils. He can likewise deliver a strong shockwave from his body, either as a focus blast or in all directions, even the ground underneath him. In the anime, his body has a heightened resistance to fire. Similar to Code, Amado had also placed limiters on Kawaki to keep his true power under control. With placing essentially all of Kawaki's powers in defense, he is essentially unbeatable with similarly vast regenerative powers as well. At the same time, though, it immensely takes away from his overall offensive capability. With his powers placed entirely on attack, he can compete with the Human God Trees, and can move fast enough to surprise them.
When Kawaki lost his right arm to Delta's Destruction Beam, he was given a prosthetic replacement by Katasuke, which does not compare to the advance technology of his body. It siphons trivial amounts of chakra from Naruto to function and does not operate when Naruto sleeps or falls unconscious. Furthermore, Kawaki's modified body seems to be rejecting this replacement prosthetic dure to the difference in the complexity of the technologies made them ultimately incompatible. After Isshiki's death, Amado restored Kawaki's proper arm.
Physical Prowess[]
Kawaki has specializes in close-range hand-to-hand combat. His style is shown to be very nimble and coordinated, flipping about to evade enemy attacks and using the environment to launch himself at the opponent. Upon which, he is able to seamlessly unleash a barrage of strikes from each of his limbs. He is also very resilient. While already being tired beforehand, he was able to endure Garō's savage assault and continue fighting effectively despite his battered state. He has considerable raw strength, able to defeat most opponents with a single much, and likewise can hold up a massive wooden beam on his own. In the future, Kawaki is later shown to be proficient in using a bō staff, able to match Boruto's swordsmanship.
Ninjutsu[]
Since living in Konohagakure and taking an interest in ninjutsu, he began learning it from the Seventh Hokage. This included manipulating chakra and shurikenjutsu, to which he showed a noticeable talent for, mastering the basics in a short period of time. He is also able to perform more advanced techniques with a one hand, including Fire Release and the Shadow Clone Technique. He also demonstrated great ingenuity, using the limited skill he has acquired for clever deceptions. Kawaki later learned the Ōtsutsuki ability to hide his chakra signature.
Murders Committed[]
Unforgivable Actions[]
- Sealed Naruto and Hinata in the Daikokuten against their will to "protect" his adoptive parents from the Otsutsuki threat around the shinobi world.
- Scarred Boruto's right eye in the attempt to kill him, used Ada's Omnipotence to switch lives with Boruto, altered Himawari and everyone's memories, except for Sarada and Sumire, and framed him for the "death" of Naruto and Hinata.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Kawaki's name (渇き or 乾き) means "dry" or "parched".
- Kawaki wears his bandana around his neck, the same way his mother, Hinata, used to wear it.
- Although Ada's Omnipotence switched Kawaki and Boruto's positions and altered everyone's memories, Kawaki was given the name Fraudwaki by the Internet, due to the fact that Kawaki is not really the biological son of Naruto Uzumaki and several fans did not seem to like him.
- Kawaki has many similarities with Sasuke Uchiha, in several aspects such as;
- Both faced childhoods marked by pain and abandonment. Sasuke lost his family in the Uchiha clan massacre, caused by his brother, Itachi. Kawaki, in turn, suffered abuse from his biological father and was handed over to Jigen, who subjected him to harsh experiments and training.
- Both seek power to protect what they value and to achieve their goals, even if it means making risky decisions. Sasuke seeks revenge against Itachi and later wants to protect the village. Kawaki initially wants to free himself from Jigen, but eventually finds himself torn between protecting the Hidden Leaf Village and finding his place in the world.
- Both seek power to protect what they value and to achieve their goals, even if it means making risky decisions. Sasuke seeks revenge against Itachi and later wants to protect the village. Kawaki initially wants to free himself from Jigen, but eventually finds himself torn between protecting the Hidden Leaf Village and finding his place in the world.
- Sasuke and Kawaki have introspective and closed-off personalities. Due to their traumas, both are distrustful and prefer not to open up easily to others, which makes them more distant and cold toward most people around them.
- Sasuke and Kawaki deal with existential dilemmas and internal conflicts related to their destiny and the role they play in the world. Sasuke questions his own path after achieving revenge, and Kawaki faces the dilemma of his connection with the Kara Organization and his relationship with the Otsutsuki.
- Both were members of powerful criminal organizations, such as Akatsuki, in Sasuke's case, and Kara, in Kawaki's case.
- Curiously, even if they are not the current incarnations of Indra and Asura, the relationship between Kawaki and Boruto reflects that of Indra and Asura, whose rivalry was marked by opposing worldviews. Like Indra, Kawaki is the older brother who is willing to kill his younger brother to achieve his goals, and follows a path of power and independence, shaped by his painful past, while Boruto, the younger, like Asura, believes in the strength of cooperation and compassion, values inherited from Naruto.
- Boruto and Kawaki draws parallels to the story of Minamoto no Yoritomo and Minamoto no Yoshitsune of the Minamoto clan:
- Kawaki is similar to Minamoto no Yoritomo as both exiles the brother by falsely branded as a traitor.
External Links[]
- Kawaki on the Boruto Wiki
- Kawaki on the Naruto Wiki
- Kawaki on the Villains Wiki
- Kawaki Uzumaki on the VS Battles Wiki
- Kawaki on the The All Stats World Wiki
- Kawaki Uzumaki on the Character Tiers Wiki
