Kara

Kara
(殻, literally meaning: Shell or Husk)
Debut
Manga	Boruto Chapter #15
Anime	Boruto Episode #157
Game	Naruto x Boruto: Ninja Voltage
Appears in	Anime, Manga, Game
Team Info
Leaders	Isshiki Ōtsutsuki Code
Team Jutsu

Kara (殻, カラ, Viz: The Husk, literally meaning: "Shell" or "Husk") is a secret society^[1] formerly led by Isshiki Ōtsutsuki, and later by Code.

The group is made up of "Inners" (内陣, インナー, Innā) and "Outers" (外陣, アウトー, Autō), with each of the Inners being in charge of a particular region. Each Inner appears to bear a facial tattoo of a Roman numeral and wears a black hooded cloak with coloured lining, fastened at the right shoulder with a metal pin; all Inners are regarded as completely monstrous in power.^[2] Sasuke speculated them to have powers comparable to the Ōtsutsuki Clan.^[3] This was later confirmed to be true as all the Inner members were made up of cyborgs infused with Shibai Ōtsutsuki’s DNA.^[4] The Inners were considered the backbone of the organisation, so if everyone of them are out of commission, the Outers would effectively cease to function, and Kara would come to an end.^[5]

Outers are individuals who support Kara's ideology from the outside and complete missions requested by the Inners, acting as conspirators, sleeper agents, and spies. Members include politicians and merchants, some of whom actively work to undermine the rule of the Daimyō and Kage.^[6] Outers are also partly responsible for the widespread development and proliferation of Scientific Ninja Tools; as the Outers include engineers and scientists from various villages, they are able to significantly develop and improve the tools before bringing them back to Kara, leading to them possessing the latest in technology and engineering.^[1] Regardless of their loyalty, Outers are easily expendable for the organisation.^[7]

The secret society has accumulated a great deal of wealth and political influence, makes use of Scientific Ninja Tools, and communicates over long range via genjutsu.

History[]

Isshiki's Kara[]

When Isshiki Ōtsutsuki came to earth over one thousand years ago to cultivate a chakra fruit, he was betrayed by his subordinate partner, Kaguya, who injured him to the point of near death. Desperately clinging to life, Isshiki parasitically invaded Jigen, a monk who happened to be nearby.

Using Jigen as a host body, Isshiki went onto to found the secret society, Kara as its leader, which recruited a group of people — the Inners — to assist him in cultivating a new God Tree to collect its chakra fruit,^[8] under the promise that their personal wishes would be fulfilled.^[9][10] Amado Sanzu, the chief scientist of the organisation, modified every member with advanced Shinobi-Ware that they had an unwitting Katasuke Tōno deliver to them. Along with implanting Shibai’s cells, for the purpose of having them manifest one of his many Shinjutsu abilities.^[11]

Due to losing Kaguya, Isshiki intended to feed himself to the Ten-Tails to have it bloom into the God Tree, as there were no other Ōtsutsuki to sacrifice. However, with his body being so critically and irreparably damaged by Kaguya and his current vessel of Jigen being incompatible with the Kāma, this would produce an inferior Chakra Fruit.^[12] To circumvent this, Isshiki began preparing a new vessel for his Kāma to properly continue his survival, having purchased fifteen orphaned children to carry out his experiments to ensure his next body would be suitable for a full lifetime, with Kawaki being the result. Delta noted that Isshiki's investment in preparing his vessel was enough to buy an entire country. Kawaki's development, along with the God Tree's cultivation, became factors that had Kara pressed for time in their goals.^[13] Code, being one of the fourteen children to be deemed a failure and the only one of those to survive, was left with a White Kāma instead, which does not have the capacity of reviving Isshiki, and was then recruited into Kara as an Inner, and Isshiki's most loyal subordinate. In the anime, Kara took advantage of Amegakure's mostly abandoned state to run such earlier experiments in one of their hidden facilities there; they abandoned it themselves after it was discovered by Shojoji of the Mujina Bandits, who had eavesdropped during one of their experiments and quickly fled before they took notice. It remained intact for a long while in disrepair until Sasuke Uchiha and Sai Yamanaka investigated Kara, causing the Outer Garashi Tōno to trigger a self-destruction mechanism. When Jigen questioned why the place was not destroyed long ago, he gave Victor a look of suspicion, who frowned in return, before brushing it off as nothing incriminating in the long run.^[7]

However, when Boruto Uzumaki became the vessel for Momoshiki Ōtsutsuki, the time limit was greatly alleviated.^[13] Kara, therefore, shifted their plans to feeding Boruto to the beast instead, as his healthier and stronger body along with being compatible with the Kāma would result in a more potent Chakra Fruit.^[12] Furthermore, Boruto's contact with Kawaki had led to both of their Kāma to decompress more rapidly than expected due to their resonance, a development that Isshiki found favourable.

In the anime, when Amado hit a roadblock while studying the human heart, he augmented the brain of the Inner Ōga, so she could help him further his research. However, when she attempted to investigate Jigen's heart, he saw it as treason and destroyed a part of her brain before she escaped.^[14]

In the anime, the Inners Victor and Deepa plotted to use Kara's resources for their own unauthorised project in recreating a God Tree via a splinter that Victor retrieved from the Fourth Shinobi World War, as opposed to helping Isshiki plant the one that was planned, in order to cultivate a Chakra fruit of their own. Victor desired this fruit early to ensure he would not die from his waning lifespan, while Deepa wanted to simply taste it. Deepa acknowledged that neither were trusted by the rest of Kara, and that Victor only became an Inner via a huge investment made by his company. Their plan ultimately failed, as the imitation of the God Tree could not produce a fruit, and Victor plotted to take Kawaki for himself to extend his own life afterwards. Isshiki did not trust Victor, and after learning the truth from a temporarily revived Deepa, tasked Koji Kashin to execute the traitor. Isshiki also ordered Amado to dispose of Deepa as well, eliminating both Inners at the same time.

Amado, though being Isshiki's right-hand man, had his own motives to conspire against Kara: solely to eliminate the threat of the Ōtsutsuki clan. For that, he created the Inner Koji Kashin, a clone of Jiraiya, to assist him. Both Koji and Amado defected from Kara, secretly assisting Kawaki to escape and forced Isshiki to improperly revive via Jigen's body, so that his short lifespan will expire before he could rebrand Kawaki with Kāma. Throughout his tenure in Kara, Amado created many cyborgs that exceed Jigen in terms of power, in hopes they would be able to kill him, but Jigen ordered them all to be disposed of to prevent usurpation of leadership. Code was the only one to be spared of this fate due to his unwavering devotion to Isshiki, while Ada's artificially endowed power of captivation affected Boro, the Inner ordered to dispose of her, and he hid her and her brother Daemon in one of their bases.

Although Isshiki ultimately died before he could reapply the mark onto Kawaki, the data that was already extracted remained within his body. Momoshiki intended to reverse the roles of Kara's revised plans, to offer Kawaki as a sacrifice to Isshiki's Ten-Tails in order to collect a chakra fruit for himself.

Inners[]

Outers[]

Other Members[]

Associates[]

Code's Kara[]

After his demise, Isshiki's spirit temporarily manifested in Code's White Kāma. Isshiki gives Code his final order to take over the Ōtsutsuki Will, by cultivating a God Tree and consuming the chakra fruit, so as to become an Ōtsutsuki himself. In order to achieve that goal, Code locates the hidden establishment of Boro's cult to activate one of the cyborgs that were ordered by Jigen to be deactivated, Ada, that instead was put into stasis. After her awakening, Ada forms a partnership with Code in an effort to exact revenge against Amado and getting a true love with Kawaki or Boruto. As they review their plans, Code notes that he can't fight Naruto and Sasuke at the same time and Ada tells him she only knows simple taijutsu, Code also informs her that as Kawaki is an Ōtsutsuki he could try to kill her, this prompts Ada to send Bug to release her younger brother Daemon. After ten days in hiding, Ada used her Senrigan to inform Code that Kawaki had escaped from Konoha.

Using his Claw Mark, Code teleported to speak with Kawaki. Code was unable to kidnap Kawaki thanks to the intervention of Boruto, Shikamaru, Naruto and Momoshiki. When Kawaki nearly killed him with his new Kāma, he realised he had no chance against him at the moment and withdrew, planning to have Amado remove his power limiters. Upon returning to the hideout Ada reminded him that he didn't have any Claw Marks in Konoha, but he said he had already taken care of it, having placed one onto Shikamaru's back. Code then entered Konoha, and after a brief struggle that involved him bringing in Ada to help him, he managed to drag Amado back to his hideout, forcing him to rescind the limiters. However, before he could kill the scientist, Amado persuaded Ada to accept Shikamaru's aforementioned offer to join Konoha so she could be with Kawaki, leading her and Daemon to turn on Code. Code fled with Bug, and hellbent on destroying Kawaki, he decided to use the Ten-Tails against his enemies. He covered the Ten-Tails in Claw Marks to use some of its body to create Claw Grimes to act on his orders. He created over a thousand of them, storing some, wishing to use them in a surprise attack on Konoha, but lamenting that Ada's presence there would negate any surprise. Later, when Ada swapped everyone's memories of Boruto and Kawaki back on Earth, the shinjutsu even reached the dimension that Code resided in, who vowed he will kill Boruto for taking everything he held dear to him.

A year after Boruto left Konoha, Code found Boruto and Sasuke. With his Claw Grimes, he was able to pressure them, prompting Sasuke to sacrifice himself and be consumed by a Claw Grime so Boruto could escape, slashing Code's left eye in his efforts.^[15]

Two years after fighting Boruto and Sasuke, Code decided to attack Konoha with his Claw Grime in an effort to smoke out Boruto, knowing he still cared about his former friends. His plan worked as Boruto suddenly arrived, landing on Code's face. Boruto dodged Code's attack and mocked his disgusting attitude. Code regretted not attacking the village sooner, and was incredulous when Boruto threatened him to withdraw the grimes, recalling how Boruto fled him two years prior. Code began to consider Boruto wasn't bluffing when he effortlessly cut through six grimes surrounding him. Boruto told him that his messing with the Ten-Tails in the creation of the grimes would endanger everyone. Code dismissed the warning, as his goal of consuming a chakra fruit would result in the death of the planet anyway. He observed as Boruto prepared to fight him, mistakenly believing new Rasengan: "Uzuhiko" was just a normal Rasengan.

Code was unable to land any attacks on Boruto, who explained the nature of his new jutsu, offering to rescind its debilitating effects if Code revealed the Ten-Tails' location. They were interrupted by Kawaki, who wanted to kill Boruto. Kawaki initially prevented Code's escape, but Code slipped away on a newly emerged Claw Grime. A hidden toad Boruto snuck on him reported Code returned to the pen, so Boruto teleported there. Code was shocked, and the Ten-Tails vanished before Boruto could check on it. This concerned Code, as they were approached by a handful of mutated Claw Grime. Boruto explained the situation, and removed the Uzuhiko effects on Code, asking for his assistance in defeating them. The Claw Grime explained how they gained sentience and mocked Code for his carelessness. Satisfied that this would still lead to his desired outcome, Code left.

Inners[]

Outers[]

Associates[]

Trivia[]

• The kanji used for the two divisions of the organisation are naijin (内陣) and gejin (外陣), respectively referring to the sanctum and the nave of a Heian-style Buddhist temple. When broken into individual kanji, they can be read literally as "inner team" and "outer team".
• While not a member, Kawaki has a Roman numeral "Ⅸ" tattoo, which is located under his left eye.
  • Additionally, while viewed by Kara as just the vessel, Kawaki apparently held some access to Kara's information, as he noted that he had read Kara's files to learn about Tailed Beasts.
• While Katasuke Tōno was never a direct member and was placed under genjutsu by Ao, this made him act on the group's objectives which revolved around the development of scientific ninja tools and industrial espionage.
• Amado is the only Inner who does not have a Roman numeral tattoo on his face, and a black and secondary coloured cloak along with Ōga. He wears a black and green cloak in the 7th opening of the Boruto anime.
• According to Ōga, the Roman number of the Inners denotes their order of creation/transformation as cyborgs, describing herself as the eighth Inner created by Amado.^[16]
  • This implies that Kawaki, who received the same cybernetic modifications as the other Inners and the Roman Numeral "Ⅸ", was originally intended to be the ninth Inner of the organisation.
  • This also explains why Amado doesn't have a Roman numeral tattoo.
• All members that have been introduced after Isshiki's death to date are named after information technology related terms.

References[]