Kawaki's Path to Becoming a Ninja

At breakfast, Boruto notices Kawaki has not risen for a scheduled meeting at the Hokage's office, and Hinata asks him to wake Kawaki. Neither Boruto nor Himawari wants the job, so Boruto loses at rock-paper-scissors and does it. In the office, Naruto and Shikamaru explain that since Kawaki is already capable, they would rather observe how he manages on missions with teams outside Team 7 than have him graduate the usual way. Unenthused, Kawaki draws a D-rank assignment with Team 5 and dozes off midway through, souring relations with the group.

Once the task ends, Kawaki practises ninjutsu on his own. Heading home, he brushes off Inojin and Shikadai's invitation to play cards. At the Lightning Burger, Boruto's friends trade complaints about Kawaki and question whether he is cut out to be a shinobi, and back home Boruto and Kawaki argue over finishing missions and working with teammates.

The next day Kawaki causes friction again during a mission with Team 15. Naruto and Shikamaru weigh his trouble getting along with others and decide a C-rank escort might motivate him, placing him in Team 10 to fill in for Inojin while backing the Sensing Team. This becomes his deciding test for genin status. Kawaki flatly calls himself unsuited to the shinobi life, still undecided about whether he even wants it. After he leaves, Shikamaru worries about sending him beyond the village, fearing he will be hunted for the Kara technology inside his body, but Naruto insists Kawaki cannot be sheltered forever and needs friends who will protect him.

Suika Kannonji pays out Kawaki's mission earnings, which he spends on taiyaki. At home, Hinata suggests to a concerned Boruto that Kawaki struggles with warmth after so long as a captive, showing him the taiyaki Kawaki bought for them. That night Kawaki finds Sarada training and hears her motivations. The following morning he shows up late for the escort and is scolded by the client, Mozuku of the Land of Calm Seas, before the group sets out.

This Boruto anime episode falls in the Chūnin Re-Examination arc. In the opening scene Boruto's Kāma does not appear on his right palm, and Sara Matsumoto goes uncredited for voicing Mozuku despite the speaking role. The opening theme is Reckless and the ending is Prologue.