Title: Boruto: Two Blue Vortex Vol. 5
Author: Masashi Kishimoto (Creator), Mikio Ikemoto (Art)
Publisher: Viz Media
Language: English
Format: Digital
Pages: 177
Genre: Shonen, Battle
Publication Date: May 5, 2026
The Story
This volume was all about tracking down Ryu and Matsuri of the Divine Trees and acting upon Shikamaru’s plan. His plan was an unconventional one: to befriend them, lower their guard, then eliminate them to draw out their Thorn Bulbs. Once they had the bulbs, they could use them to rescue their coordinating hosts from the divine trees. Konohamaru, Sarada, and Mitsuki team up with Yodo and Araya from the Sand Village as they look to take out Ryu so that they can revive Shinki from the Divine Tree.
The plan works well, as Konohamaru lures Matsuri away; however, this is easily accomplished because Matsuri is deeply in love with him. He pulls her away to have a conversation while the others search the area for clues as to where Boruto might be. They talk Ryu into bringing out his Thorn Bulb as a way to lure Boruto out, but Yodo acts prematurely and tries to capture it, thus revealing their deception. This leads them into a perilous battle!
On the opposite side, Matsuri wants to know if she can call him Konohamaru-chan, but that triggers memories of Moegi, and it clouds his judgment as to the purpose of the mission. When he denies Matsuri permission, she flips out and begins to suffocate him in an attempt to devour him. Both battles are fierce in their own way, with Ryu being a battle of skill and wit, while Matsuri’s battle is one of words. Our volumes end with the tide of the respective battles taking a turn… for better or for worse.
Characters
Honestly? For a volume that focused on a grand plan of Shikamaru’s, there wasn’t much in the way of character development outside of Konohamaru remembering Moegi, and a little backstory on how Araya got his technique to help give them a fighting chance against Ryu.
The biggest development came from a little side story progression with Kawaki. He confronted Amado about taking off the limiters so that he could have the power to destroy all of the Otsutsuki members, but Amado used a failsafe to put Kawaki to sleep. When he awoke, he revealed his true goals to Kawaki, but their little exchange turned into a very heated debate, which backed Amado into a corner. This was the first time I saw Amado in true despair, as it looked as if his life’s work was slipping from his fingers, and he didn’t know what to do about it. Here is a man who had a contingency plan for everything, but now that he has his back up against the proverbial wall, he’s at a loss as to what the right choice would be. Although he didn’t give Kawaki an answer to his demands, I’m sure we all know what he is going to do.
For the very short time he had “on screen” in this volume, Boruto is learning about patience. Kashin is the one teaching it to him, but it’s not like he has a choice. After all, Kashin knows the timelines, and if Boruto wants to live, he needs to learn patience. You can see how much it’s killing him to stand idly by and just observe things, but he really has no say in the matter.
Final Thoughts
While we didn’t get much in the way of major story development, we did get some pretty solid action here with our team vs Ryu. Being able to use Shinki’s Iron Sand technique shows just how powerful Shinki would be if he were the one fighting here instead of his Divine Tree clone. While Shinki may only be Gaara’s adopted son, through Ryu, we can see that he could have immaculate control over sand just like Gaara does.
The final page of the volume was something that took me by surprise until I realized that it wasn’t as huge a revelation as I thought. I, at first, believed this was the first time we could see something like this, but at the same time, it also looked familiar, and as I thought about it, I had a feeling I had seen this somewhere else before. One quick internet search later, and I discovered that we were introduced to this back in Boruto: Naruto Next Generations Chapter 80. Much like the character, we all forgot about this (or at least I did… in my defense, I am reading about 75 different manga series at the same time, though. I can’t remember EVERYTHING. And no… that number is not an exaggeration.)
Next volume, we look to see the conclusion of our fights with Ryu and Matsuri. Also, we might get Amado’s answer to Kawaki’s demands. I can’t see much more than this happening, although Jura did check out some books, and it became pretty obvious what subject they were on as he provided some commentary to the battles as they unfolded. Whether or not Jura will intervene remains to be seen, but for some reason, he seems content with sitting back and observing. After all, he did go on record to state that he doesn’t particularly enjoy getting violent.
We’ll see what volume six brings!
You can also check out other Outerhaven reviews on your favorite social media networks:
Subscribe to us on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/theouterhaven.net
Subscribe to us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheOuterHaven
Subscribe to us on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/theouterhavennet
This item was provided for review by VIZ Media.
