Board Thread:Boruto Discussions/@comment-945885-20171013084137

Another dialogue heavy chapter. Konohamaru's teammate gets ambushed and tells Konohamaru to flee. In Konoha, the meeting in the Hokage office continues and they discuss the potential rise of dangerous new threats and how Boruto's mark is probably related to the Otsutsuki and this organization Kara. Naruto assigns the team to escort Katasuke and the prosthetic arm to a research facility in another city; Boruto initially refuses the mission out of distaste for Katasuke, but is ultimately convinced by his team, and he designs to go and treat it purely as an assignment.

On the train to the city they run into a much older Ao, last seen during Ten Tails' attack on the Shinobi Alliance HQ. He seems to have narrowly survived the explosion, and has been undergoing recovery and physical therapy since the end of the war. Thanks to Katasuke's research, he has a prosthetic left arm and leg, and a sort of cybernetic plate covering the right side of his face, which is heavily scarred (it's impossible to tell whether he still has the Byakugan, as his eye is covered). Boruto recalls his field trip to Kirigakure in his Academy days.

Their conversation is overheard by Kashin Koji, who is sitting behind them with a briefcase of some sort under his seat. Kashin Koji has a conversation with Ao -- no translation or summary for the discussion, as of now -- and at the end Ao saying that this will be his first battle in 16 years.

So, first takeaway is the pretty unambiguous confirmation that the anime (or more likely the novels) are canon.

Second is that Ao survived. My first thought was that it's weird we didn't hear about him, but then I realized that they never really touched on the aftermath of the war. Considering that he's from a country that was rarely explored in the series and has been out of commission all this time, it's not like he would have had a presence in the Blank Period, either. I do wonder if they might work him into the current anime arc.

Third is someone in-universe finally stating, definitively, that it's been 16 since the Fourth Great Ninja War. Couple that with the recent confirmation that the anime/novels are set 15 years after the war and we know that roughly a year has passed between them. All we really need is Himawari's actual birthdate and we can estimate character ages with near certainty. 