Chapter 137: Boruto's Counterattack?!
Boruto was thrown into the mouth of the Gedo Statue, and all he felt was pitch-black darkness around him.
"Did I… lose?"
"No."
"How could I possibly accept something like that?"
What was this?
Was it his inner voice?
Was it the unwilling struggle born from his attachment to Himawari and all those friends he couldn't bear to leave behind?
That's right!
Momoshiki had said he used half of the Kāma to save him. Half of his body had already become Ōtsutsuki, so that meant he should also be able to use Momoshiki's abilities!
And now that Momoshiki's consciousness had been taken away by the other side, there was absolutely nothing to interfere with him!
Amazing!
Boruto suddenly opened his eyes in the darkness.
Relying on his half-Ōtsutsuki bloodline, he sensed an enormous amount of chakra below him.
The partial release of the Kāma didn't just carry abilities and bloodlines, it also carried memories.
In Boruto's mind appeared the Ōtsutsuki clan's alchemical techniques. He raised his hand, preparing to refine the massive chakra inside the Gedo Statue into pills, turn the tables, break out, and defeat Shiromo, who was trying to destroy his future…
A few seconds later, Boruto felt light as a feather, as if he were floating, more blissful than he had ever been before.
So this was the [pill] that the Ōtsutsuki clan consumed?
Huh?
Something felt off.
Boruto realized that the voice from earlier wasn't his inner voice at all. It was just Shiromo, after throwing him into the Gedo Statue's mouth, idly reciting some strange lines out of sheer boredom.
After that, Boruto had already been crushed and digested by the Gedo Statue.
Everything that followed was nothing more than his death-flash imagination.
As for feeling light, well, that was simply because he was dead. The soul leaving the body tends to feel that way.
"I hate people who try to pull off a last-second power-up. You weren't seriously fantasizing about turning the tables in a desperate situation, were you?"
Shiromo calmly tossed out a single line.
Boruto's soul had no way of returning to the Pure Land.
Even though Boruto, as the anchor point of the future world, possessed extremely strong resistance to spacetime interference, without the support of his body, his soul was quickly erased and dissipated.
This was crystal clear to both Senju Tobirama and Orochimaru below.
Especially Tobirama, when Shiromo had just taken off, he had already started forming hand seals, preparing to see if he could confine Boruto's soul and study it.
Normally, a soul was already far more insubstantial than a physical body. When a body touched a soul, it would just pass straight through.
But unexpectedly, Boruto's soul now was even more fragile.
Even using the Spirit Transformation Technique, it was the same as a physical body touching a soul, straight through.
And then it simply scattered.
More precisely, it was erased.
Because with Boruto's death, the anchor point, adult Sasuke, who had come along with him, also entered a countdown to disappearance. Sasuke's body began to fade, becoming transparent.
"Goodbye, no, farewell, everyone."
At the moment of departure, Sasuke said nothing more. With a single arm, he gave a light wave, his cloak fluttered in the wind, and he turned his back.
"Oh, right. Orochimaru, I'm not returning the Kusanagi Sword."
As Sasuke's cloak billowed, the Kusanagi Sword at his waist was briefly revealed.
In the next moment, Sasuke dispersed with the wind.
Nothing was left behind.
Except for the Rinnegan disc that Shiromo had extracted in advance.
"It seems Sasuke is very satisfied with the current situation. He left without the slightest attachment or regret."
Orochimaru let out a sigh of emotion.
He hadn't expected that Sasuke's final words would actually be addressed to him.
It left Orochimaru feeling oddly honored.
Orochimaru knew that all three members of Sasuke's former team had inherited something from the Three Sannin.
But from Shiromo's description, it was clear that while Tsunade and Jiraiya had taken on disciples, he himself had somehow found a father instead.
There had never been much respect in the way Sasuke spoke to him.
"Orochimaru, since Sasuke and the strategist both value you so highly, it means you turned over a new leaf in the future. I hope you take care of yourself, otherwise…"
Uchiha Itachi spoke up in warning as Orochimaru was reflecting.
Whenever Orochimaru started thinking, Itachi immediately suspected he was plotting something.
But the way he put it this time… there wasn't even any attempt to act subtle about it.
"Turn over a new leaf" indeed.
"Itachi, you're overthinking it. I was just thinking that although Sasuke left without attachment, there must still be something else he cared about…"
Orochimaru shook his head, his expression serious.
"Something he cared about? Uzumaki Naruto?"
Itachi frowned.
"No. Naruto belongs to this world, so he doesn't count as one of the 'other things' Sasuke would need to care about."
Shiromo landed from the sky: "What Orochimaru means is probably Sasuke's daughter. If there's anyone else he cares about, she barely counts."
"So Sasuke from the future had a daughter? But what do you mean by 'barely counts'?"
Itachi was thoroughly confused.
"That's because Sasuke passed by his own home three times without entering, to the point that he didn't even know what his daughter looked like."
"Years later, when they met for the first time, he almost stabbed her, thinking she was an enemy."
"Yakushi Kabuto and Yakushi Nono only ended up like that because of Danzō's manipulations."
"Sasuke, on the other hand, pulled it off with no additives, pure and natural."
"I never imagined Mikoto's son would grow up to be so neglectful of his family. Naruto absolutely must not become someone like that."
Kushina thought silently to herself after hearing this.
That's right. As one of the "Four Bottles of Wanglaoji" resurrected via Impure World Reincarnation, Kushina was naturally present as well.
However, when it came to interacting with Naruto, she felt something akin to "homesickness fear." Moreover, the atmosphere earlier really hadn't been appropriate for casual family talk.
First, the Third had to take Naruto away.
So she hadn't said anything the entire time.
She even avoided looking in Naruto's direction as much as possible, to prevent anyone from noticing something.
As for why Kushina showed no concern at all for Boruto, Naruto's son, her theoretical grandson.
In truth, many things had already been made clear on the road from the Land of Wind to the Land of Fire, and during the wait for Urashiki to appear.
If possible, Kushina had even fantasized about someone descending from the future during the Night of the Nine-Tails to save her and Minato.
Changing the future or not?
If you could avoid dying, who would actually want to die?
If death were truly for a better future, then perhaps the sacrifice would be acceptable.
But Boruto was fighting for a future that was already doomed to be invaded by the Ōtsutsuki clan.
For this rotten, spoiled-apple future, Boruto had killed the Third Hokage and his son, and was even prepared to attack Jiraiya.
By Boruto's logic, in the world modified by Shiromo, the vast majority of people who wouldn't have needed to die would instead need to be personally killed by him.
That meant the Konoha people who died to the Ten-Tails' Tailed Beast Bomb would also have to be gunned down by Boruto, and his uncle Hyūga Neji would have to die as well.
If she didn't stand on Shiromo's side but instead sided with her so-called grandson Boruto, Boruto would end up becoming Konoha's top killer.
Kushina was very clear about this.
On this point, she was different from Naruto.
"However, later on, Sasuke did want to improve his relationship with his daughter. For that, he even consulted Kakashi, who was still single at the time, and devised a strategy based on the 'Icha Icha' novel series."
Shiromo added casually.
"What?!"
Kushina had been lost in thought, but upon suddenly hearing this, she was utterly shocked.
Using Jiraiya-sensei's novels as a guide to strategize how to approach your own daughter, what kind of inhuman madness was that?
Shiromo deliberately steered the conversation here, creating space for Black Zetsu.
At this moment, a black shadow quietly slipped underground, creeping toward the Gedo Statue, which was twitching as if suffering from indigestion after eating Boruto.
(End of this chapter)