Ikada: The Funato Who Refused the War

In the decade that followed the Fourth Great Ninja War, the Land of Water had eight offshore energy platforms built out at sea. A clan of pirates read into them an insult to the natural order of the ocean and resumed the war against Kirigakure. At the center of this naval battle stands an apprentice shipwright who wanted to build boats, not sink them.

An arc told only by the anime

The Funato clan does not exist in the manga: it is an anime-exclusive element, and its entire story fits into a single arc of Boruto: Naruto Next Generations. The Great Sea Battle of Kirigakure is its twenty-second arc, covering episodes 233 to 255, which aired in Japan between January 23 and June 26, 2022. Nothing that follows — the clan, the war, Ikada himself — has any equivalent in the printed story, and none of this information comes from a databook.

Ikada Funato first appears in episode 239, six episodes after the arc opens: the war is already under way when he enters the scene. His entry credits him with a single medium, the anime, a single chakra nature, Water Release (Suiton), and two physical traits — gills and webbed hands. He is voiced in Japanese by Yusuke Shirai, and by Juri Nagatsuma for his childhood scenes.

The Funato clan, a society of pirates

The Funato are a clan of pirates from the Land of Water, presented as one of the oldest known clans in the country and feared for its raids, its kidnappings and its strength on the open sea. Its structure is twofold: chief Araumi's blood relatives form the core, while the bulk of its numbers consists of volunteers who share their views. Members outside the bloodline wear a purple two-stroke tattoo on the left side of the forehead — only Tenma, Araumi's adopted son, is exempt.

The main family shares a recognizable look — strawberry blond hair, tanned skin, silver-blue eyes — and the men of the clan are trained for war from childhood. Loyalty is absolute, to the point that soldiers accept sacrificing themselves for the clan's goals. Recruits pressed into service, on the other hand, have little chance of survival, especially those assigned to Tenma's unit, whose leader kills newcomers judged to be weak. Most members wield Water Release, the water element.

What the Funato hold against Kirigakure comes down to one word: the sea. In the decade that followed the Fourth Great Ninja War, the Land of Water had the Shinonome built, eight offshore energy platforms erected with the help of foreign technicians, which draw their energy from the ocean and calm the currents in the process. The clan sees in them an insult to the natural order of the ocean and a symbol of the country's corruption. Araumi, for his part, considers the Land of Water and its hidden village to be the real aggressors.

Ikada, the son who had no gills

Ikada is born in the northern seas of the Land of Water, the youngest son of chief Araumi. During a battle against Kirigakure, his mother Minamo is struck down and frozen in ice while protecting him; he is only an infant at the time and keeps no memory of it. His older brothers mock him early on for his lack of aptitude in combat and his inability to wield the family power. Unlike the rest of his family, he has no gills, and considers himself a failure.

Like every Funato by blood, he is led to the shore for the ceremony meant to reveal his inherited power. Against his will, his father throws him into the ocean in the middle of a storm. His abilities then manifest: an immense wave saves him from drowning, before the stunned eyes of Seiren, Isari and Tenma. Araumi comes away proud. Tenma, for his part, refuses to believe it and puts the phenomenon down to the storm.

A second trait sets him apart: when he makes the effort to swim, his fingers become webbed. Ikada keeps this trait secret, for fear of being cast aside. It makes him a powerful swimmer, able to face a storm to rescue someone. Born a Funato, he has nonetheless never had a taste for fighting or for plundering: he loves his family, but openly says he has no place among them and their life as pirates.

The Power of the Sea Dragon

The power the Funato pass down has a name: Kairyu no Chikara, the Power of the Sea Dragon. It allows the user to control the surrounding ocean and is available only to Araumi's bloodline, every member of which has the potential to use it. The awakening method remains largely unknown; all that is known is that it requires diving deep into the sea. The Funato comes back up with large gills on the neck.

Ikada's awakening as a child therefore remains incomplete: he manipulates water by instinct, but no gills appear. It will take a second dive for the power to unfold fully. He then splits a tidal wave by thought alone to open a passage for his fleet, raises waterspouts capable of sinking a ship, and creates a dragon of seawater that he rides while dispersing the storm clouds above him.

Araumi claims that Ikada's inheritance surpasses that of everyone who came before him. The chief places particular trust in his youngest son, to honor the last wish of Minamo, who saw in him the future of the clan. The young man also has skills that are in no way supernatural: he has built his own small motorboat and knows how to read the wind and the swell, while acknowledging that he still has much to learn.

Kajiki, and the dream of building boats

When his father is captured, Ikada leaves the clan to pursue his dream. His family takes it badly; only Seiren supports him, and brother and sister stay in touch. After failing to hold down a steady job, he is taken on as an apprentice by the shipwright Kajiki, reputed to be the best builder in the Land of Water. Ikada wants to build his own great ship and sail around the world in it.

Kajiki is nothing like an idealist. Stern and obsessed with efficiency, he insists on being paid for his repairs and treats Kirigakure and the Funato as equally at fault, holding that both sides are trying to impose their own law on the seas. He does, however, share one conviction with his apprentice: a boat exists to connect lands to one another. And when he later learns of Ikada's role in the war, it is he who will steer the Konoha ninja through a violent storm.

His meeting with Boruto Uzumaki begins with a lie. Ikada secretly fishes him out when he falls from a ship, then denies having done so. It takes a storm and a drowning fisherman for him to dive again in front of a witness and show his webbed hands. Boruto is unfazed and promises to tell no one. The two boys head home with the engine part they had come to find.

Araumi's escape and the outbreak of the war

An operation led by the Sixth Mizukage had eventually captured Araumi. He spent five years in prison, far from the open sea and cut off from any source of water: Kagura Karatachi points out that he can be given no access to it at all, even in restraints. His capture had been enough to scatter the clan; his release has the opposite effect, as many people rush to join the Funato as soon as the news becomes public.

The escape is the work of Isari, the eldest, and his team. Just after the inauguration of Shinonome 1, an airship crashes onto Kirigakure: the diversion comes from the clan. Isari uses it to slip into the prison and free his father, who regenerates by absorbing the moisture from a guard. Meanwhile, Tenma occupies islands of the Land of Water from Isari's mobile sea fortress, armed with a chakra cannon — one of those scientific ninja tools that weigh heavily in Boruto.

What follows is a string of setbacks. The fortress and its cannon are destroyed by a joint Kirigakure and Konoha team. Then Tenma, impatient, disobeys Isari to go kill the Mizukage himself: Chojuro had anticipated the ambush, overpowers him and finally strikes him down; Tenma topples overboard. Araumi holds his eldest son responsible for everything, strips him of his command and confines him to the base.

Funamushi, or the revenge that calls for another

Funamushi is Seiren's second-in-command and one of the strongest soldiers in the clan. Stoic and methodical, he takes loyalty to the point of religious zeal. He wields Water Release without a water source for most of his techniques, summons a swarm of leeches that drive their victims into a rage, and can drain the blood from a body — a technique Araumi taught him personally. His giant water jellyfish strikes without sparing his own men.

He is the one who kills Kagura Karatachi. After foiling the trap set at the village, he takes the swordsman hostage when he is out of chakra, then runs him through in retaliation for Seiren's defeat; Kagura will succumb to that wound once the fight is over. Boruto then activates his Karma, breaks through Funamushi's defenses and puts him down with a Rasengan — but the pirate survives. Carried back unconscious by his men, he then ignores Araumi's order to withdraw and holds his position for a day outside the village.

The character is not a pure monster, however. A family man, he refuses to harm children: when his men capture Iwabee and Denki while they were looking for food for the village's children, he simply keeps them prisoner. The assault resumes in the morning: Boruto defeats him with a second Rasengan and Buntan Kurosuki finishes him with Kiba, one of the blades of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist. His death sets his own son, Kobuna, on Boruto's trail, and weighs, along with those of Seiren and Tenma, on Ikada's hatred.

Seiren's death and the fleet sent into the Sea of Death

Boruto realizes that the storm can jam Seiren's echolocation; with Kagura, he locates the archer, and the swordsman catches her off guard and strikes her down. Carried back unconscious by Funamushi, stabilized but showing no improvement, she is watched over by Ikada for days, under the criticism of a family that blames him for his indecision. When she regains consciousness, she wants to return to the fight, collapses and reopens her wounds. Ikada lies to her: he tells her the Funato have crushed Kirigakure and hold the seas. She dies at peace.

At dawn, he tears up the plans for his ship and dives. The waters lift him up, the power is completed, the gills appear. His words change with him. He destroys one of Kajiki's boats, declares that his dream was only an excuse for his weakness and takes command of the clan's main forces. Grown arrogant, he announces that anyone who does not follow does not deserve the name Funato.

To save time, he chooses the shortest route, through the Sea of Death. Despite his soldiers' worries, he guides the entire fleet by parting the waves as he goes, and the men chant his name when the Shinonome 1 station comes into view. Araumi, for his part, has Isari executed: the marlin-bone harpoon, which first obeys its former owner, runs his son through at the very moment he was negotiating peace.

Boruto, the sacrifice, and the end of the war

Team 7 boards Ikada's ship; he lets them approach, then destroys their boat. Boruto begs him to stop the war; Ikada, who has thrown his old dreams overboard, mocks him, does not believe the Mizukage would withdraw his forces and demands his head. Boruto offers his own life instead. Ikada agrees to consider it on one condition only: that Mitsuki and Sarada Uchiha watch their friend die without seeking revenge. Boruto makes them promise.

The Funato beat him savagely. Ikada then sets up a ramp and leaves the final push to Kobuna, Funamushi's son. The child hesitates after Boruto's apology, and Boruto then jumps into the raging waters himself. Sarada and Mitsuki keep their word and do not move. Faced with this sincerity, Ikada dives, saves Boruto with his own hands and declares the war over, a choice that many of his men share.

Araumi, for his part, refuses. Having gone to join the mobile fortress whose chakra cannon was already aimed at Shinonome 1, he is about to fire when Kawaki overpowers him; he will be imprisoned again. Ikada lets himself be arrested without resistance. The Sixth Mizukage explains to him that the country's overly rapid modernization fed the support for the Funato: the Shinonome project is suspended. For his role in ending the conflict, Ikada is sentenced to permanent supervision entrusted to Kajiki, which gives him back his trade.

Summary Table

FAQ

• Does Ikada appear in the Naruto or Boruto manga?
  No. The Funato clan and its arc are given as anime-exclusive: their entire story fits into the Great Sea Battle of Kirigakure, the twenty-second arc of Boruto: Naruto Next Generations, that is episodes 233 to 255. Ikada himself debuts in episode 239. No databook documents him.
• Why does Ikada not have gills like the rest of his family?
  Because his awakening to the Power of the Sea Dragon remained unfinished. The power requires diving deep into the sea, and the Funato comes back up with large gills on the neck. As a child, Ikada did trigger a wave that saved him from drowning, but without the gills appearing. Only his second dive, later on, completes the awakening.
• Who kills Seiren, and why does her death turn Ikada?
  Kagura Karatachi strikes her down after Boruto exploits the storm to jam her echolocation. Funamushi brings her back alive, but her wounds do not heal. Ikada watches over her, lies to her about a Funato victory so that she dies at peace, then tears up the plans for his ship and joins the clan out of a thirst for revenge against the Land of Water.
• How does the confrontation between Boruto and Ikada end?
  There is no duel. Boruto offers his life to stop the war, on the condition set by Ikada that his teammates not avenge him. Boruto throws himself into the water, Sarada and Mitsuki keep their word, and this sincerity convinces Ikada to dive in to save him and to declare the war over.
• What is the Shinonome project and why do the Funato hate it?
  The project brings together eight offshore power plants that the Land of Water had built with foreign technicians, in the ten years that followed the Fourth Great Ninja War. They produce energy from the ocean and calm the currents in the process. The clan reads into them an insult to the natural order of the sea and a symbol of corruption. The project is suspended after the war.
• What becomes of Ikada after the clan's surrender?
  He lets himself be arrested without resistance while his fate as a commander is decided. His role in ending the conflict earns him a sentence of permanent supervision entrusted to Kajiki, which allows him to become a boatbuilder again. His father Araumi, for his part, is imprisoned once more.

In summary

Key takeaway: Ikada leaves the war by declaring it over. Saved as a child by a wave, thrown into the conflict by his grief over Seiren, he dives again to save Boruto then lets himself be arrested without resistance; his sentence, permanent supervision entrusted to Kajiki, gives him back his trade.