Boruto Officially Confirmed a Classic Naruto Character is LGBTQ
While it may be surprising that Naruto has basically no canonically LGBTQ+ characters, Boruto changed that. As potentially problematic as the choice is, the sequel series confirmed that the classic villain Orochimaru is actually genderfluid.
Orochimaru is easily one of Naruto's most iconic villains. Throughout the original series, Orochimaru is obsessed with obtaining immortality through swapping bodies with powerful ninja. This most famously occurred with both Sasuke and Itachi, though the brothers were separately able to prevent their bodies from being taken over. Despite these notable setbacks though, Orochimaru would come back from several deaths. Orochimaru actually managed to make it to the end of Naruto alive, despite everything, and Boruto followed up on this by introducing Orochimaru's clone/son and the one ninja with a cooler sage mode than Naruto, Mitsuki.
Related: One Naruto Villain's Many Forms Bring New Meaning to God-Tier
In Boruto chapter 3.5, readers learn more about Mitsuki and his relationship to Orochimaru. After waking up in Orochimaru's lab with his memory wiped, Mitsuki asks a critical question of Orochimaru; «Which are you? My mother or father?» to which the former villain responds that the question is irrelevant. A similar scene in the anime takes this even further, with Orochimaru saying that he's appeared as both a man and a woman but that it doesn't really matter. Though the inclusion of a canonically genderfluid character into the Naruto canon is praiseworthy, the fact that it's Orochimaru is more complicated when considering the villain's history.
It's no understatement to say that Orochimaru is one of Naruto's most monstrous villains. Unlike some threats such as Gaara, Paine, or Obito,
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