Adrian Pilanga
The death of Kurama was a major blow to Naruto fans. Mainly, of course, because Kurama is everyone’s favorite Biju (Tailed Beast). But also, partly because of the suspicion that Kurama’s death was merely used as a plot device to make Boruto’s generation stand out more.
Whether or not you believe that last part to be true, the fact remains, the loss of a beloved character definitely hurts.
But is Kurama really gone gone or is he… you know, whatever the comic book/movie version of “gone” is. If you’re even just somewhat a fan of fictional literature, you’ve probably seen it happen more times than you can count. Characters who “died” or are previously thought dead come back through some sudden plot twist somewhere down the line. So, could this be the case for the orange multi-tailed fox? (Not Tails, he’s fine for now)
Is Kurama going to be revived?
Sadly, as of the writing of this article, or as of chapter 70 of the Boruto manga, there have been no signs of Naruto regaining his partner.
That’s not to say it’s never happening though. Of course, anything I say about Kurama’s revival is purely speculation and theorizing. So, keep that in mind. Nobody knows whether he’s coming back, except maybe for the creators if they’ve already drafted the plot that far.
For the sake of continuity and a sense of consequence, the chances are that no, Kurama is not coming back. We’ve seen important characters die and stay dead in Naruto, it happens and it’s important that they do as deaths in the series tend to push or cause development in the other characters. Undoing deaths ruins this and makes it feel like there are no consequences.
That being said, we have also seen cases where characters do come back, even if it is just for a while (the Fourth Great Ninja War is a great example of this, with dozens of known characters being brought back with the reanimation jutsu). So sure, it’s possible for Kurama to return. Either for just a little while or a full comeback.
How can he be brought back?
As for the How, there are several theories already out there on how Kurama can be brought back, here are just a couple:
Natural Reincarnation: This isn’t the first time Tailed Beast has died. Isobu, the three-tailed beast, and Shukaku, the one-tailed beast have both experienced death.
When a Jinjuriki dies with their Tailed Beast, the said beast doesn’t actually die but just has its chakra reduced to almost nothing. It will “reincarnate” after a long time once it has gathered enough chakra to form a consciousness again.
However, a counterargument could be that Kurama’s death is different. We’ve never really seen a Tailed Beast die due to Baryon Mode because, well, we’ve never seen it before. So maybe death by Baryon Mode makes it permanent?
Further proof of this is that Kurama mentioned meeting Naruto in an afterlife even though he should know Tailed Beasts get reincarnated. Whether or not you want to take that statement as fact is up to you.
Chakra Splitting: Another thing we’ve seen before is that when a large enough part of a Tailed Beast’s chakra is separated from itself, the separated part gains a consciousness and could live on in another body.
The best example of this is Kurama himself being split into two, one part going to Naruto, the other going to Minato. When Minato was reanimated in the Fourth Great Ninja War, we see him also using Kurama’s powers similar to Naruto, before fusing the two parts together again.
So, it’s possible that, for whatever reason, Naruto gave part of Kurama to someone else off-screen, allowing the Tailed Beast to make a comeback in the future.
