Who Is Boruto’s Rival? Here’s Why It Isn’t Sarada!

It is a well-known fact that shonen anime do include some romance elements but rarely actually focus on them. It s also known that, aside from romances, shonen anime often have one or several important rivalries. Now, in the case of Boruto, these two elements are connected more often than not. Some theories state that Sarada Uchiha, Boruto’s primary romantic interest, is also his rival. On the other hand, some fans shun this idea and find Boruto’s rival in the person of another character entirely. In this article, we are going to reveal to you who Boruto’s rival is and why it is definitely not Sarada Uchiha.

Boruto’s rival is Kawaki. The Boruto series structure follows the Naruto general idea in several ways, and Boruto having a rival is one of these aspects. Just like Naruto had Sasuke, Boruto has his own rival in the character of Kawaki, who he is seen fighting in the opening scene of the Boruto anime series. Kawaki is Boruto’s adoptive brother, and they are true rivals in the full sense of the word.

The rest of this article is going to focus on Boruto and his relationships with Sarada and Kawaki. Now, we have a lot of relevant facts and information related to these characters, but we have to warn you that there will be a lot of spoilers for those who haven’t seen Boruto. In the first section of this article, we are going to tell you why Kawaki is Boruto’s rival and what their relationship looks like. In the second, we are going to tell you why Sarada Uchiha is a bad pick for Boruto’s rival.

Who is Boruto’s rival?

Without a doubt, Boruto’s rival in the Boruto series is Kawaki. Sure, you could pick some other characters as potential candidates, but Kawaki is the only one who satisfies all the criteria. He is the only one who could be Boruto’s rival, i.e., the only one who could be to Boruto what Sasuke Uchiha was to Boruto’s father, Naruto Uzumaki, in the original Naruto anime. Now, allow us to elaborate on that a bit.

With time and his new life in Konoha, Kawaki began to open up to others, apparently enjoying the game Extreme: Shinobi Picture Scrolls and showing an interest in learning ninjutsu. In the anime, his neglected upbringing causes common foods to be fascinating novelties to him. He became much more responsible in the tasks entrusted to him and relatively calmer and more respectful. This change in nature is largely thanks to Naruto, who continually shows patience and compassion towards the boy.

Seeing the Seventh Hokage as a father figure, Kawaki grew to admire him. In an effort to understand more about Naruto, he offered to swap an exceptionally rare Fourth Hokage card for a Seventh Hokage card. Later, when Kawaki discovered that he and Naruto had similar upbringings and that both had overcome adversity to find happiness, Kawaki grew to adore Naruto and wished to emulate him. Even under house arrest, he has shown a discernible increase in his maturity and lack of rage.

Furthermore, after Jigen insulted Naruto, he became irate with him and told him not to ever talk ill of him. Later, he grows to admire Boruto as well, appreciating the fact that the latter views him as a brother. He even gave up his independence out of a newfound sense of duty to his adopted family in order to ensure their survival. And to help Naruto, he immediately traveled to Jigen’s parallel universe. In front of Isshiki, Kawaki proudly declared that he was a pupil of the Hokage and that he would rather die than live in a world without Naruto.

Now, this brief insight into Kawaki’s personality was enormously important for understanding why Kawaki is Boruto’s rival. Namely, this one has shown us that Kawaki and Boruto have a lot of things in common, which is the prerequisite for a good, solid, and palpable rivalry. If Kawaki and Boruto were so different, it wouldn’t really make much sense for them to be rivals. It just wouldn’t be authentic and believable in that aspect. This is why it was important for us to understand how Kawaki evolved and how he became so closely connected to Boruto over time.

As we have said, the two of them are connected via several factors. The first one is their relationship with Naruto. Namely, Boruto is Naruto’s son, while Kawaki was adopted by Naruto and welcomed into the family. Sure, Kawaki has always been aware of his position, but he genuinely likes and respects Naruto and wants his adoptive father to feel the same towards him. In that aspect, he has Boruto as a rival because Boruto wants the same. This is an example of how their sibling rivalry helps them be rivals in the story.

Another segment is their desire to be the best they can be, where each wants to be better, stronger, and more skilled than the other. This is why they are such great rivals, because their individual desires push them forward, and through it, they become better individually. Finally, the first scene of Boruto showed us how Kawaki and Boruto fought over the world’s future, and if that isn’t proof enough that they are great rivals, then we don’t know what is. As we have said, Kawaki is the only possible candidate for Boruto’s rival, and we can only confirm that he is Boruto’s one and only rival in the series.

Why isn’t Sarada Boruto’s rival?

Naruto fans probably wanted to relive the original Uzumaki-Uchiha rivalry from the original series with this one, but this one doesn’t make sense in any way possible. First of all, Naruto and Sasuke, the original Uzimaki-Uchiha rivals, were two boys who started off at the same time and wanted to become the best. At one point, they also were fighting for the same girl (Sakura). They had very similar personalities, and as they competed for the same thing, it does make sense that they were rivals at one point in their lives.

As far as Boruto and Sarada are concerned, they are not really good rival material. First of all, they are not that similar in character, as Sarada is more similar to Sakura in her demeanor toward Boruto than Sasuke is to Naruto. Sure, Sarada – by all probability – likes Boruto. In contrast, Sakura loved only Sasuke, but this fact only adds more to the intrigue of their relationship, as well as to the fact that they wouldn’t function well as rivals.

Also, Sarada doesn’t have the same ambitions as Sasuke and Naruto, nor does she have the same ambitions as Boruto. In fact, whereas Sasuke was Naruto’s competition in many aspects, Sarada is not Boruto’s competition in any field. The fate of the world of Boruto lies with Boruto, and not Sarada, while in Naruto, both Naruto and Sasuke have the power to influence the world. This is why Boruto and Sarada are better suited as a romantic couple than actual rivals.