Boruto Officially Sets Up The Strongest Wood Release User After Hashirama

Boruto: Two Blue Vortex has been quietly rewriting what Naruto Uzumaki brings to a fight, and the manga just closed one door while cracking open another. After years of borrowing chakra from three separate Tailed Beasts, Naruto has officially lost access to those powers now that Kurama is gone from his body.

But the story isn’t leaving him empty-handed. A small detail from the original Naruto manga, tied to a prosthetic arm made of Hashirama Senju’s cells, has resurfaced as the potential most likely explanation for what comes next: Wood Release.

Boruto: Naruto Officially Loses His Three Borrowed Kekkei Genkai Powers

Naruto didn’t get these powers from his bloodline; during the Fourth Great Ninja War, when Kurama’s Tailed Beast Coordination let him share chakra with the other eight Tailed Beasts, Naruto picked up three extra elemental affinities almost as a side effect. Son Goku, the Four-Tails, gave him Lava Release, a nature blend of fire and earth that let him melt through Madara Uchiha’s defenses in Chapters 673 and 674. Kokuo, the Five-Tails, handed him Boil Release, a fire-and-water combination he used to counter Kaguya Otsutsuki at the height of the war.

Shukaku, the One-Tail, gave him Magnet Release, an earth-and-wind pairing built for sealing enemies in place. Fans spent years hyping these three as proof of how far Naruto had grown beyond just being Kurama’s container, since each one required real chakra control most shinobi could never dream of. They’re full Kekkei Genkai, the kind of abilities usually locked to a single clan or bloodline, and Naruto carried all three well into adulthood, using Lava Release again as late as Boruto Chapter 32 against Delta.

Kurama died protecting Naruto during the fight with Isshiki Otsutsuki, and Two Blue Vortex has since made it clear that the rest of the Tailed Beast chakra went with him. When Naruto squared off against Code, he did it with nothing but Sage Mode backing him up, no trace of Lava, Boil, or Magnet Release anywhere in the fight. It’s a quiet but massive downgrade for a character who spent over a decade stacking borrowed powers on top of his own, and it leaves a real gap in his arsenal heading into whatever comes next in the story.

Why Naruto Can Rival Hashirama’s Wood Release in Boruto

Naruto and Kawaki from Boruto | Credits: Studio Pierrot

Naruto isn’t the first person to get Hashirama Senju‘s cells, and history hasn’t been kind to the others who tried. Orochimaru once injected roughly sixty kidnapped children with Hashirama’s DNA to recreate Wood Release, and Yamato was the only one who survived, since the rest died from how poorly their bodies handled the cells’ potency. Even Yamato ended up with a watered-down version of the jutsu, only able to shape lifeless wood into things like walls and bridges, and he still needs Hashirama’s necklace just to suppress a Tailed Beast the way his cells are supposed to allow.

Danzo Shimura had Hashirama’s cells in his body, and while it gave him Wood Release techniques, they came out crude and physically taxing enough that he avoided using them unless forced to. The common takeaway is that neither man ever matched Hashirama’s raw chakra reserves, and Wood Release scales with the user’s own power rather than working the same for anyone who carries his cells. That’s where Naruto looks different and more viable as a candidate.

He’s an Uzumaki, a clan famous for chakra reserves and life force so dense that an Uzumaki is what let Kurama be sealed away safely in the first place. His body has already proven it can absorb any overwhelming foreign chakra without rejecting it, exactly the problem that killed Orochimaru’s other test subjects. He also still likely carries half of the Sage of Six Paths’ chakra, giving him a level of control neither Yamato nor Danzo ever had. If Wood Release finally shows up in Two Blue Vortex, Naruto wouldn’t be working with a diluted copy. He’d have the real arm and the raw power to use it the way Hashirama did.

What are your thoughts on Naruto gaining the ability to use Wood Release? We’d love to know your opinions in the comments below.

All Chapters of Boruto: Two Blue Vortex are available to read on Viz Media and Manga Plus.