The rest of the day went by quickly enough, and Naruto was left awake at night, sleeping beside Hinata. There was a wall of pillows between the two of them, a consequence of Naruto hugging Hinata in his sleep almost every night despite her being mad at him.
[You are worried about Boruto.]
[I am, Kurama. I am terribly worried about what might happen if Kawaki's Kāma responds to him and there is no Kāma on him to resonate.]
[That wouldn't happen in the first place. Your son doesn't have Momoshiki's Kāma. There should be no relationship between him and Kawaki now. In your memories, the only reason that Kawaki even acknowledged Boruto was because he had the Kāma. That was the primary reason that they were able to become friends. Right now, Kawaki views everyone aside from you as meaningless. He doesn't care about any of them.]
[I know … but there are forces in this universe that work beyond straightforward logic. I may have prevented Boruto from getting stuck with the Kāma, but his fate is entangled with more things than just that. Just like me. Even if you weren't sealed into me. The fate of Ashura was still going to be inherited by me. Boruto is the same, except that he hasn't inherited anyone else's fate. It is his own fate that connects him with forces greater than himself. Since he doesn't have the Kāma, that puts a ceiling on his growth.]
[And you are concerned that getting entangled with Kawaki might trigger something that you are not prepared for.]
[Precisely.]
[Then why bring Kawaki to Konoha in the first place? You could simply bide your time until you take all of Momoshiki's power and kill Isshiki. With this, you are trying to pull Kara and Konoha into a conflict.]
[I don't need Momoshiki's divinity to kill Isshiki. Unless he recovers his true form and absorbs the Ten-Tails, he won't be able to hold a candle to my current state. I could end everything right now if I so wished. But there are more Ōtsutsuki behind him. Not to mention the impending doom of our entire reality with the incursion.]
[All the more reason to take care of Isshiki quickly so that you can focus on strengthening yourself further.]
[That would stagnate Konoha's growth, Kurama. Taking things slow and letting my people feel the pressure is the best way to bring out their true potential. Boruto, Sarada, even Himawari. These kids have inherited the powers of the strongest of us all. They aren't meant to die out in obscurity. They are meant to play an important role in the upcoming trials.]
[You are planning to use Isshiki and Kara as the catalyst for their growth.]
[That's at least the plan for now. As long as the curveball that comes tomorrow can be managed.]
[Why not separate Kawaki and Boruto completely?]
[It's going to happen sooner or later. Kawaki is just a catalyst. I've already given Boruto the Dominion Mark. No matter what happens, he's going to be fine. I'll make sure of it.]
[Those two are close by. Those Inners of Kara. Kashin Koji and Delta. Just outside the village. They are observing.]
[Let them observe. I've got quite a few surprises planned for Isshiki if he thinks that I was just bluffing him when I showed up in Kawaki's mindscape.]
…
The next day, Naruto, with Boruto, Kawaki, Himawari, and Sarada, was out in Training Ground Four. It was one of the ten training grounds that were within the perimeter of the village. Konoha had more than a hundred designated training grounds. Most of them were outside the village, and only ten were inside. Even then, a third of the village's area was taken up by them.
"All right, we will start with some light sparring." Naruto clapped his hands and said. "Boruto, Sarada, you two are up. I want to see how you two compare to each other now."
"Got it." They agreed and quickly took up positions some distance away from the others.
"Ready for a beatdown of a lifetime, Boruto," Sarada taunted, facing him.
"You wish. You might have had a headstart by becoming Dad's disciple or whatnot, but that's still not enough to beat me. I'll show you."
"Ready?" Naruto didn't let them continue their back-and-forth of taunts.
They both took up serious expressions and nodded, bowing respectfully before the battle.
"Start!" Naruto announced, and Sarada instantly shot forward, punching Boruto, who quickly parried her blow with his forearm and elbowed her waist, forcing her to block it with both hands. A Rasengan was already forming in his other hand as he did so.
"Not holding back, huh?" Sarada's Sharingan activated immediately as she easily read Boruto's next move and crouched under his Rasengan before attacking his wrist to disrupt his concentration and destabilize the ball of chakra. At the same time, she swiped his leg. Boruto jumped back, looking peeved as he made a hand sign, and four shadow clones appeared around him.
Sarada smiled and charged forward, her left arm lighting up with a Lightning Release jutsu as she maneuvered through the kunai that Boruto's clones shot at her. She stabbed two of his clones directly, dispelling them. For the third, she kicked it, exploding with chakra at the moment of contact as it got dispelled as well. However, now, she finds herself between the real Boruto and his clone.
"Checkmate." Boruto smiled victoriously as he and his clone each prepared a Rasengan.
"Is that so?" Sarada suddenly bent down and punched the ground while using Sakura's technique to enhance the power of her strikes. A massive shockwave spread out from her point of impact, forming a crater under her that destabilized both Boruto and his clone. She didn't waste her opportunity and stabbed Boruto's clone with another Chidori.
Sarada turned to look at Boruto with a gleam of excitement in her eyes. "You gonna give in yet?"
"Never." Boruto created two hand signs in quick succession and was about to activate a jutsu.
"All right, that's all. You both did very well," Naruto interrupted the bout. "I've seen where you two roughly stand for now. We're moving on to the next battle."
"Already?" Boruto said with disappointment as Sarada shared his sentiment.
"Come on, make peace," Naruto said.
Sarada and Boruto both approached the crater before standing in front of each other. They formed the unison sign by holding out their middle and index fingers and crossing them together.
"Kawaki, you're up with Boruto," Naruto said. "Sarada, you can come back."
"Got it." Sarada jumped back as her qipao shirt fluttered in the wind before she landed beside Naruto.
"What was that thing you two did?" Kawaki asked Sarada.
"What thing?"
"That thing just now. Where you crossed your fingers."
"Oh, the unison sign? That's something from our academy days. Whenever we spar with a fellow shinobi, we end the battle with that sign."
"It represents the camaraderie between fellow shinobi," Naruto said as he placed his hand over Sarada's head. "It is made to express that the shinobi who were sparring have made peace after their heated battle."
"Huh… Every battle I've been in has ended in spite," Kawaki mumbled to himself before jumping forward and standing before Boruto.
"Did I do well, Master?" Sarada asked, purring with closed eyes as Naruto rubbed her head.
"Very well," Naruto nodded, patting her head again. He didn't say anything further and focused on Boruto and Kawaki. "Ready? Bow to each other."
Kawaki's movements were a little stiff, but he repeated what he'd seen Sarada do as Boruto did the same.
"Start!"
Boruto immediately created shadow clones that charged toward Kawaki and threw four shuriken at him. Kawaki immediately reacted, and his right arm morphed into a large scythe. He deflected the four shuriken with a single swipe and stabbed Boruto's approaching clones with it.
Boruto was confused when seeing the means used by Kawaki, but he didn't let it get to him and yanked his arm backward as Kawaki was embroiled with his clones.
The shuriken that had been deflected suddenly turned around and approached Kawaki's back.
"Got you." Boruto smiled even as Kawaki sliced through all three of his clones in one move. Kawaki dodged two of the shuriken and deflected the others, but they immediately corrected their course and pursued him.
It took him a moment, but he finally noticed the thin strings that were controlling the shuriken. Immediately, he sliced through them, rendering the projectiles useless after he deflected them one last time.
Boruto quickly moved forward just as Kawaki cut the strings, attacking him with a Rasengan. Kawaki sensed the presence behind himself and reflexively slashed his arm through Boruto's figure.
He was stunned for a moment before the figure disappeared into a puff of smoke, just like Boruto's other clones. At the same time, the real Boruto attacked Kawaki with a Rasengan right to his abdomen.
"Geh …" Kawaki made a sound and blocked the attack with his left hand, grabbing the Rasengan like a ball. At the same time, his Kāma spread across his arm, covering it in red tattoos as he absorbed Boruto's attack.
Suddenly, a massive amount of pain shot through Kawaki's arm, and he fell down on one knee. Before Boruto could ask what was going on, the right side of his face started burning.
He quickly jumped backward while holding his eye, where the pain originated.
"What the hell is going on?"
"How am I supposed to know?"
Suddenly, Kawaki screamed in pain as his Kāma was deactivated and morphed into a rune that released a pitch-black energy from it. Boruto reacted in the exact same manner, but it was his eye that released a pure white beam that impacted the black energy released from Kawaki's Kāma.
"Dad! What's going on?" Boruto asked with a voice filled with pain.
Naruto looked on with a frown on his face as Kawaki's Kāma resonated with Boruto's right eye.
Sarada didn't know why Naruto wasn't making a move, but she didn't wait to ask. She immediately jumped forward, wanting to pull Boruto away from whatever was happening. Before she even got halfway close, she was blasted backward by a forcefield surrounding the both of them. Naruto caught her before she crashed to the ground.
"We can't interfere in this, Sarada," Naruto said, grabbing Himawari to stop her from trying the same thing. "But he's going to be fine. You both have my word."
The black misty energy from Kawaki's Kāma melded with the white beam from Boruto's eye, turning the entire ray gray as it moved closer to Boruto. Within a split second, a black mass traveled toward Boruto and entered his eye. His entire body started glowing with the same white light, which made him float in the air.
An explosion ensued from Boruto, forcing Kawaki far away as he slammed into trees, breaking through multiple thick ones. Naruto was forced to protect Sarada and Himawari from being blown away by the sheer force that was released by his son's explosion.
Seconds passed as the light died down, leaving a cloud of dust. Naruto waved his arm, and a violent gust of wind cleared everything. What was left was a massive crater that was created by the explosion, with Boruto nowhere to be found.
***
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