Chapter 217:
"Ow, that hurts!"
Watching as Modern Boruto gradually began to resemble a frog, Gamakichi immediately smacked him awake.
"Keep your focus! It was just a little, but your body moved!"
"But my legs are numb…"
Modern Boruto grumbled, rubbing the spot on his head where he'd just been hit.
"That's no excuse! Look closely at your future self—he's almost succeeded."
Gamakichi looked over with satisfaction at Future Boruto, who remained perfectly still as natural energy steadily gathered around him.
"This is way too hard… Oh, right—Gamakichi, next time, what if I just enter Sage Mode while holding some toad oil?"
"No shortcuts! Besides, once toad oil leaves Mount Myōboku's special environment, it immediately evaporates and becomes useless!"
"Sigh… seriously?"
Elsewhere, at the residence of the two great toad sages, second only to the Great Toad Sage himself…
"Thank you both."
Fully healed, Shikamaru expressed his gratitude to Fukasaku and Shima.
"It's nothing. While our healing abilities aren't quite on par with those slug creatures in the Shikkotsu Forest, your injuries weren't serious—just some external wounds," said Fukasaku.
"Since you're healed, you should be on your way," Shima added curtly.
"Sigh… Sixth, these two toads seem kind of unfriendly…" Sarutobi Mirai whispered to Kakashi.
"I don't know… I've felt something off about them too…"
After all, Jiraiya—one of the Three Legendary Sannin—Fourth Hokage Minato Namikaze, and even the current Seventh Hokage Naruto Uzumaki had all trained here. Konoha's relationship with Mount Myōboku should've been extremely close, yet the attitude of the two sages now felt unusually cold.
"Did something happen?" Shikamaru asked, subtly signaling Kakashi behind him.
Although the possibility of S.H.I.E.L.D. invading Mount Myōboku was low, it wasn't zero.
"In fact, the Great Toad Sage had a prophecy: welcoming outsiders too freely would bring destruction to Mount Myōboku. Honestly, we didn't even want to accept Boruto at first, but… this was a request from little Naruto…" Fukasaku sighed.
After all, Naruto was now the Hokage of Konoha and one of the strongest in the ninja world, with deep ties to Mount Myōboku. Out of respect, they had reluctantly agreed.
They had hoped to benefit from Naruto's exceptional performance during the Fourth Great Ninja War, but unexpectedly, just a few short years after the war ended, the Great Toad Sage had already decided to seal off the mountain.
"Looks like that prophecy was referring to S.H.I.E.L.D.," the Captain Hydra commented to Kakashi.
"May I ask if the Great Toad Sage prophesied anything else?" Shikamaru asked respectfully.
"We don't know," Fukasaku replied, shaking his head. "He said the future was too unclear… By the way, Shikamaru, how did you get injured?"
"Oh, well, actually…"
Shikamaru began explaining to the two sages, giving them a brief overview of the situation with S.H.I.E.L.D. and Hydra.
"I see… So while Mount Myōboku was closed off, so much happened in the ninja world… Even the Ōtsutsuki find this organization difficult to handle… No wonder the Great Toad Sage chose to seal the mountain."
…
After a long journey, Naruto and his group finally arrived at the now-historical Land of Iron.
Heavy snow fell as the ruins of the Land of Iron's buildings lay blanketed in white.
"It really is desolate… The Kara Organization…"
Naruto muttered to himself, clenching his fists—not only out of anger toward Kara for what had happened here, but also from worry that the same fate might befall Konoha.
"Naruto, you're here."
"Gaara."
Naruto looked in the direction of the voice. Though they had once been the closest of friends, with age came restraint—gone were the days of wildly enthusiastic greetings.
As for that embarrassing moment when Naruto had used the Thousand Years of Death technique on young Gaara, the two of them had wisely chosen never to bring it up again.
"Godfather!"
Shinki respectfully greeted Gaara as he approached.
"Shinki, I've heard everything…" Gaara said to him. "I hope you'll use that power to protect the ninja world."
"Don't worry, godfather—I will!" Shinki nodded firmly.
"…This is supposed to be a dangerous operation against Kara, and yet you brought children along?"
A flash of lightning accompanied the dramatic arrival of Fifth Raikage Darui, who voiced his disapproval.
"They need to gain experience. We can't protect the ninja world forever. Besides, we might actually end up relying on these kids this time."
Naruto responded with a smile.
Just then, a stone giant fell from the sky.
"Whoa? You all got here already? And here I was rushing the stone giant like crazy to catch up."
Fourth Tsuchikage Kurotsuchi jumped down from the giant's head.
"Don't worry, Kurotsuchi—you're not the last one to arrive," Darui told her.
"Chōjūrō still isn't here?"
Kurotsuchi scanned the area, but didn't see Chōjūrō.
"Well, the Land of Water is a fair distance from here. It's natural he'd be a bit late," Naruto offered diplomatically.
As the snowstorm intensified, two figures finally appeared on the horizon.
"Sorry I'm late," Chōjūrō said with a wry smile. Beside him, Ao stood silently, not saying a word.
To be honest, Chōjūrō hadn't wanted to come at all. Anyone who'd made it to the Kage position wasn't some naive idealist. Especially someone from the Land of Water—he couldn't possibly be unaware of the Daimyō's possible ties to Kara.
Ao had always looked down on Chōjūrō ever since he'd become part of the new generation of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen. He believed Chōjūrō lacked the temperament to be a true shinobi. But ironically, as if to slap Ao in the face, not only did Chōjūrō become a shinobi, he eventually became the Mizukage. Meanwhile, Ao had been forced into early retirement due to injuries sustained during the Fourth Great Ninja War.
"Sasuke isn't here? Kara's base is in a different dimension. While Ao knows the coordinates, he doesn't have the ability to open a space-time portal," Chōjūrō said.
"Sasuke stayed behind to protect the village, so he couldn't come. But that's okay—Sarada can open the portal too."
Naruto spoke as he turned to glance behind him at Sarada, standing beside Sumire.
He felt a bittersweet mix of regret over never getting closer to Sasuke and relief that, thanks to Sarada, the Uchiha clan wouldn't vanish from the ninja world.