Why Is Sasuke so Much Weaker in Boruto?

Sasuke Uchiha is one of the most important characters in the whole Naruto franchise. The antihero of the series, Sasuke has been it all – the villain, the hero, and, finally, an antihero that beautifully complements Naruto’s heroic ideals. On top of that, Sasuke is also one of the strongest characters in the whole series. A lot of his powers and abilities stem from the fact that he could use the Rinnegan, but with him losing it, many fans consider Sasuke to be much weaker than he usually is. In this article, we are going to tell you why that is.

There are several reasons why Sasuke is weaker in Boruto, but the principal has to do with the fact that Sasuke Uchiha lost his Rinnegan to Momoshiki in the series, which weakened him significantly. Also, the characters are now fighting much stronger opponents, so his usual powers only seem weaker, and there’s also the usual plot tweaking, where Kishimoto intentionally makes Sasuke weaker because of plot-related reasons.

In this article, we are going to tell you just how strong Sasuke Uchiha is in the Boruto series. We are going to go over his powers and abilities and thereby reveal and explain to you just how powerful he is in Boruto, also telling you why these things happened. We are also going to answer some additional questions related to his powers and abilities.

Why is Sasuke so much weaker in Boruto?

As we have explained, the reasons for Sasuke’s perceived weakness in Boruto can be explained by three factors: (1) the loss of his Rinnegan, (2) stronger opponents, and (3) plot tweaking. In this section of the article, we will explain all these reasons so that you can know everything there is.

Losing his Rinnegan

The story of Sasuke losing his Rinnegan begins during the preparations for the battle against Isshiki, where the fear of Momoshiki taking over Boruto’s body is also an issue. Boruto acknowledged that if Momoshiki seized possession of his body, he was more terrified of injuring people than of dying. Still, Sasuke pledged to him that as a teacher, he would stop him by any means necessary.

Once more, Sasuke gave Boruto his genin forehead protection and forced him to make a final oath to return it to him. Sasuke arrived on the battlefield and shielded Naruto from Isshiki’s attack before he started hurling random shuriken at Isshiki, which all but eliminated him. It was actually a shape-shifting Boruto who used his Kama and transferred Isshiki and himself to another dimension, so Sasuke was mistaken when he threw his sword at Isshiki.

Soon after, Sasuke and Naruto joined Boruto to support him with Space-Time Ninjutsu. The Konoha nin grabbed hold of Boruto as he faced Isshiki, visibly in awe of how far his Kama had come in such a short period of time. Sasuke unexpectedly switched places with Boruto to launch a surprise attack, but Isshiki handled him easily. The battle continued, and thanks to their effective collaboration, Naruto and Sasuke were able to put Isshiki on the defensive as he started to parry all of their blows. Isshiki used a novel way to create and control enormous black cubes that divided the pair.

Isshiki then cornered Sasuke and prepared to murder him with his own sword, but Boruto rushed in front of the assault to save Isshiki. Boruto realized that Isshiki needed him alive for his goal when Isshiki stopped his onslaught. In the anime, Isshiki threw his black staves at Boruto while he was aiding Sasuke in his recovery. This caused Sasuke to switch places and sustain grievous injuries. Isshiki tried to use his cubes to crush Sasuke, but he stopped when Boruto couldn’t use his Compression Rasengan to protect him.

Sasuke observed as Naruto put pressure on Isshiki after reuniting with the Hokage, who released his ultimate power with Kurama. Naruto’s chakra was beginning to wane as he drew Boruto away from the fighting. Due to his wounds, Boruto faints. To Sasuke’s dismay, Isshiki used Naruto’s connection to Kawaki via the latter’s prosthetic limb to transfer his host to them. Sasuke attempted to divert attention with his Amenotejikara and a technologically advanced smokescreen as Kawaki attempted to avoid Isshiki’s marking, but he was thwarted by the foe.

Sasuke questioned Naruto about the dangers of his new power when Kawaki deceived Isshiki with a clone, culminating in the death of the Ōtsutsuki. Boruto quickly flew in the direction of Sasuke, stabbing him in the left eye and breaking his Rinnegan before Naruto could explain himself. The Ōtsutsuki, who was under the control of Momoshiki, was delighted that Isshiki had been vanquished and that the remaining fighters were the only ones who could stop him from achieving his goal.

Sasuke helped Kawaki battle Momoshiki when Momoshiki revealed that he intended to feed Kawaki to Isshiki’s Jbi because the host’s body still had a significant amount of Ōtsutsuki DNA. Naruto loses consciousness throughout the battle because of his previously unreachable power. As he had pledged to his pupil, Sasuke decided to kill Boruto if necessary. Assuming that Momoshiki had emerged after Boruto passed out due to chakra exhaustion, he reasoned that restoring the boy’s chakra might enable his personality to reappear. He observed that Momoshiki avoided absorbing any chakra-based ninjutsu with Kama. Sasuke was struck by Momoshiki’s Vanishing Rasengan as he was strategizing with Kawaki.

Following Kawaki’s insistence that Momoshiki learns a technique for self-sacrifice, Boruto is able to awaken and elude Momoshiki’s control. After this brutal battle, Sasuke, Boruto, and Kawaki discovered that Naruto’s safety depended on Kurama sacrificing his life energy. Boruto was the group’s only chance to leave the alien dimension because Sasuke’s Rinnegan was shattered, and Kawaki’s Kama was lost. Boruto could open a portal with Kawaki’s assistance, and Sasuke guided a weak Naruto through it. Sasuke and his allies were happy to make it home safely after their battle.

Stronger opponents

All the other reasons come second to Sasuke losing the Rinnegan, as it was the primary source of his exceptional powers, and that is why the first reason took up soo much of our article. Namely, Sasuke is not really weak, even without the Rinnegan (as we have explained in an earlier article), and he remains a skilled, intelligent, and powerful shinobi. But, in Boruto, he seems to be much weaker, and that was the opinion even before he lost his Rinnegan. Now, one does not simply become weak overnight without an apparent reason, so we can immediately rule that out as a reason.

This, of course, brings us to the second reason why Sasuke seems weaker than usual – stronger opponents. The opponents in Boruto, whether it’s Jigen, Isshiki, Kawaki, Code, or Momoshiki, are much stronger than the opponents in Naruto (save for Kaguya, but she’s an exception). All of these characters have more skills, and new techniques and are generally more powerful than the older opponents, and this makes Sasuke seem weaker than he really is, but this is just a wrong perception.

Plot-related reasons

And finally, there is a third reason why Sasuke seems weaker than usual – plot tweaking. This is normal in shonen anime, because the plot dictates that some things happen in a specific way and at a specific point in time. This means that objectivity gets discarded and that strong characters are intentionally made weaker because it makes sense for the plot. This is usually remedied later on in the story, which is probably going to happen to Sasuke too, but at one point in the story, he had to have been made weaker because it fit the plot at that moment. This does not mean that Sasuke is actually weaker, so this is also a matter of perception.