“Boruto: Naruto Next Generations” Manga Issue 69 Review: Captives

Boruto manga chapter 69, titled ‘Captives’, gave us a bit more detail about how Eida’s abilities worked. We also got a whole lot of queer moments!

Whether certain fans want to accept it or not, the Naruto franchise has always had an air of queerness about it. There’s a reason parts of the fandom still talk about the “love” between Naruto and Sasuke and why those two being endgame still made more sense than being paired off with Hinata and Sakura respectively.

And while the queerness wasn’t too obvious during Naruto‘s narrative, except for the existence of two queer characters named Haku and Orochimaru, the Boruto series seems to be okay with making certain things a lot more obvious. Oh, how times have changed!

The queer energy in ‘Captives’ is undeniable!

With Eida being teleported to the Hidden Leaf Village by Code in the previous manga chapter, the beginning of ‘Captives’ had Delta attack Eida only for Eida’s ability to stop Delta in her tracks. Delta became so infatuated with Eida that she fell to the ground, blushed, and even thought Eida’s cute.

There’s also an interaction between Mitsuki and Salad, which I will get to in a bit. I mean, if you are still unable to see the queerness emanating from the Boruto manga after reading chapter 69, I don’t know what to tell you.

While Shikamaru tried to make sense of his current Eida-related predicament, the chapter jumped to Boruto and Sasuke having a nice little conversation about how Boruto didn’t like the village blaming Kawaki for doing Boruto a favor. Boruto had no ill feelings toward Kawaki because he’s the one who made Kawaki promise to kill him if Momoshiki took over his body. As far as Boruto was concerned, Kawaki was his brother and he was grateful Kawaki didn’t get cold feet when Boruto needed him the most.

I could understand why Sasuke felt guilty about the entire thing. As Boruto’s teacher, and a literal adult ninja, it was his responsibility to not only protect Boruto but also carry the burden of killing his student if there was no other option left to save Boruto’s life. But Sasuke had previously failed to hold his end of the bargain. One could argue that Sasuke’s inability to act is what (kind of) led to Boruto taking matters into his own hands and reaching out to Kawaki to do what Sasuke couldn’t.

‘Captives’ had a lot of foreshadowing as far as Sasuke’s future development’s concerned. He mentioned to Boruto how his time to show his resolve to protect Boruto and the rest was likely coming near. He also told Boruto to hold on to his old ninja headband. From what I have learned from reviewing content over the years, when a particular character handed away a prized memento to someone they’re close to, it more often than not meant their end was near. I don’t think Sasuke’s going to die (yet). But I do feel he might get gravely injured very soon.

As for the conversation Mitsuki and Salad had with each other while looking at Boruto and Sasuke chatting away at a distance, the current chapter again made it clear that Mitsuki’s in love with Boruto. Mitsuki felt guilty he couldn’t be with Boruto during his time of need. Not only that, but Mitsuki made it very clear to Salad that he would end the life of anyone who managed to actually kill Boruto.

Salad also got the chance to share her feelings for Boruto. She too felt guilty for not being able to support him earlier. Salad also felt angry at herself for not being powerful enough for Boruto to depend on her and Mitsuki the way he’s able to depend on Kawaki.

Mitsuki stating that Salad also liked Boruto made me laugh. I don’t know if Salad and Boruto will be endgame, but Salad having feelings for her teammate (whom she basically grew up with) and wanting to protect him made sense. Those feelings don’t have to grow into something romantic done the line, but they still need to exist to motivate Salad to do her best to offer Boruto her support.

As of right now, Salad and Mitsuki’s resolve reminded me of Sakura’s arc during the Naruto era. Sakura put in the hard work to become a powerful ninja because she didn’t want to be a burden to Naruto and Sasuke as part of Team 7.

However, while Sakura was the female lead of Naruto, she was still treated primarily as a love interest. The main story focused on Naruto and Sasuke. That’s why I worry about Mitsuki and Salad. I don’t want Mitsuki and Salad to be pushed away to fit supporting roles (and eventual love interests), with the narrative being all about Boruto and Kawaki. I especially want Salad to have a goal that’s separate from Boruto. Salad did mention she also wanted to become stronger to gain the title of Hokage one day. So, at least, that’s good.

Coming back to Eida being a major threat to Shikamaru and Amado, I liked how ‘Captives’ had Shikamaru use his genius-level intellect to figure out how to handle such an opponent. He realized that Eida couldn’t read minds. So, communicating with Amado through Ino’s telepathic ability was the way to go. He also realized that Sasuke and Naruto would have trouble against Eida’s ability to make people fall in love with her and asked Ino to prevent them from dropping in to help. I don’t know if Ino will be able to manage such a thing. But at least Shikamaru told her to do it.

Shikamaru was also able to deduce that Eida didn’t have anything against the Hidden Leaf Village. She just wanted to be with Kawaki. I’m very interested in seeing if she will accept Shikamaru’s offer or not.

As far as Eida’s weaknesses are concerned, Shikamaru was able to use his Shadow Possession Jutsu on her. From what I could understand, Jutsus did work on Eida, even if a person was under her control, as long as the Jutsus weren’t primarily about causing harm. So, perhaps she can succumb to a powerful Genjutsu?

I think Eida’s brother Daemon likely has a similar weakness. He’s able to repel attacks that have killing or harmful intent behind them. However, I think Genjutsu or some kind of Sealing Jutsu could work on Daemon.

We also learned that Eida’s ability to make people fall in love with her gave rise to various symptoms depending on whom she was up next. For example, simple-minded beings like Delta and Code became infatuated with her. However, someone with strong willpower, like Shikamaru, could exhibit headaches, stiffness of muscles, and fever instead.

Regardless of the symptoms, the bottom line was that even if someone wanted to kill Eida, their body wouldn’t let them do it. According to Amado, the only way to stop Eida, who wasn’t able to control her ability to captivate others, was to kill her.

I get that some readers might be disappointed by Boruto manga chapter 69 due to the lack of action and waiting an entire month only to get an installment with a lot of queerness in it. Ha!

However, I found ‘Captives’ to be quite enjoyable. It gave us more details about Eida, focused on Shikamaru’s intellect, and allowed Mitsuki and Salad to talk about their feelings. With how things concluded, I’m looking forward to seeing what will happen next.

Other thoughts and questions:

• I think Kawaki deliberately talked about killing Boruto in front of Sumire because he wanted her to stay in the room while he conversed with Naruto. A lot of people are shipping Kawaki and Sumire and I can see why.
• I wouldn’t be surprised if Mitsuki and Salad followed Sasuke and Boruto to the lab.
• While I’m glad to see Salad and Mistuki wanting to grow stronger, how will they achieve such a goal? Kawaki and Boruto are on a whole other level right now.
• I was joking online about how funny it would be if Eida’s ability only allowed her to captivate straight people (regardless of gender). I really want Eida to try her ability on Mitsuki only for him to smile at her and say, “Was that supposed to do something to me?”

What did you think of ‘Captives’? Do you think Eida will shift allegiances?

Let us know.

Author: Farid-ul-Haq

Farid has a Double Masters in Psychology and Biotechnology as well as an M.Phil in Molecular Genetics. He is the author of numerous books including Missing in Somerville, and The Game Master of Somerville. He gives us insight into comics, books, TV shows, anime/manga, video games, and movies.

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