In the Boruto anime, Naruto makes a massive mistake twice when he only does so once in the manga. The amount of times Naruto messes up actually makes a considerable amount of difference when considering the severity of his actions' consequences, especially since they portray him as an ineffective and even reckless Hokage.

In both the anime and manga, Naruto takes a huge risk in allowing Kawaki into Konoha because of the boy's ties with the villainous Otsutsuki. Many of the villagers understandably never trusted Kawaki, but Naruto ignored their worries because of how much Kawaki reminded him of what he was like as a kid. Naruto even hides the truth that Kawaki killed his son Boruto to protect Kawaki as a result of those similarities. But now that Kawaki has gone rogue, Konoha's worst fears have been realized, even though a powerful technique has caused the villagers to see Boruto as the traitor.

Kawaki's Story Has Happened Before in Boruto's Anime

Naruto is seen lying down and looking sad towards the sky while an image of an older Kawaki is seen clenching his fist while his shoulder glows with a red power.

But only in the anime has Naruto made this same mistake before. He just got lucky that it didn't culminate in an utter disaster like it did with Kawaki. During the incredible Boruto anime-only Mitsuki Disappearance Arc, it's discovered that Naruto didn't share the knowledge that Mitsuki was the son of Orochimaru, which turns out to be more than just a slight oversight on his part. The boy had just defected and aligned himself with some troubling individuals who were planning on conquering an allied village. Understandably, the former Hokage Tsunade is rightfully furious because Naruto's secrecy put Konoha and their allies in danger.

In the end, Mitsuki's connection with Orochimaru never proved to be an issue and the boy's actions during his defection prevented a serious uprising. Regardless, the fact that Mitsuki could have harmed both villages as a result of Naruto's secrecy was still a problem. And it will prove to be an even bigger problem once the anime adapts Kawaki's betrayal. When only considering Naruto's actions in the manga, it doesn't reflect well on Naruto that he mistakenly trusted Kawaki at the expense of Konoha's safety. But it will be even worse in the anime since it proves he didn't learn from what could have happened with Mitsuki by failing to apply those lessons when Kawaki entered the equation. He shouldn't have been so trusting of Kawaki, especially after Kawaki killed Boruto.

Naruto's Connection with Kawaki Is Not So Special

Naruto tells Tsunade that he accepted Mitsuki as a shinobi in Boruto

Although Naruto essentially adopts Kawaki as his own son, his relationship with Mitsuki isn't so different even though the anime doesn't highlight the connection. Naruto admitted in the manga that he had to take care of Kawaki because he saw parallels between their experiences. And yet, that's undoubtedly why he chose to accept Mitsuki. Mitsuki is the son of a massive villain, but rather than judge him for having a horrible father, Naruto only judged him as a ninja. The major difference between the two, however, is that Kawaki didn't have a father figure while Mitsuki was still on good terms with Orichimaru whom Naruto actually met in secret.

Regardless, it feels as though Naruto being harsher towards Kawaki in the manga would have been more difficult than doing so in the Boruto anime since he would have still trusted and believed in Mitsuki for the best. This isn't to say that Naruto's relationship with Mitsuki could make it easier for him to dump Kawaki like he was some failed experience, where so long as one of the two panned out everything would be fine. It's just that Boruto's anime could make it easier on Naruto knowing that trusting in kids like him doesn't always result in something bad happening.

Boruto: Naruto Next Generations is streaming on Crunchyroll and can be read on Viz.com.