Death Match

Realizing the party hunting the Hashirama Cell had to be formidable to beat Kumogakure jōnin, Sarada stays wary while Boruto tries to calm Hiruga, who wants only to reach his brother Asaka and refuses any alliance. After Boruto helps Hiruga prove his identity to a suspicious Asaka, the two Haze shinobi agree to a temporary truce with the Leaf. That fragile peace shatters when Deepa arrives, stopping a kunai without a mark and revealing that he manipulates carbon to make his body all but indestructible. Victor soon follows, demanding the Hashirama Cell and conjuring a twister to split the jōnin off from the genin.

Deepa shrugs off everything the genin throw at him, from Boruto's overhead Rasengan to Mitsuki's snake lightning, while Sarada reads his motions with her Sharingan for an opening until her chakra gives out. Hiruga dies, and Asaka draws Deepa's attention with the Hashirama Cell before triggering a forbidden Red Spider Lily explosion that leaves Deepa unharmed but furious that the Cell was endangered. Mitsuki enters Sage Mode to snatch the unconscious Boruto out from under Deepa's fist, striking with senjutsu lightning before fleeing with Boruto and Sarada. Elsewhere, Victor manifests extra arms to call down lightning on Konohamaru and Mugino, who barely survive.

Deepa recovers the Hashirama Cell while deliberately letting the genin slip away, and Victor breaks off his own fight to check why the job took so long. Still holding Sage Mode, Mitsuki swears he will keep Boruto and Sarada alive even at the cost of his own safety. The episode belongs to the Kara Actuation arc and pairs the opening Starting and Growing with the ending Maybe I.