The mental world.
The pitch-black void blurred any sense of a light source—until Sarada stepped in. With her presence, that darkness began to glow faintly.
Behind her, the familiar silhouette of the Seven-Tails—Chōmei—unfolded like a shadow given form.
Tailed beasts were like oil lamps already filled with fuel. They only needed a spark to ignite and illuminate everything.
One after another, those "sparks" arrived. Each new light blooming in the darkness meant another tailed beast had gathered.
Soon, all eight present tailed beasts stood in a wide circle, massive forms looming like living mountains, enclosing the space in the center—the place reserved for the Jinchūriki, the ones to whom they entrusted their power.
Sarada wasn't that kind of "chosen" being. She was just an ordinary girl, a brand-new Jinchūriki acknowledged by the Seven-Tails by a twist of fate.
Even so, all eight had come.
They stared at Chōmei looming protectively behind Sarada, and then at Sarada herself. Their expressions were complicated—confusion, doubt, a bit of surprise.
"Oi, Chōmei. You disappear for a few days, and you've already settled down with some brat?"
The Two-Tails, Matatabi, fixed Sarada with a cold gaze. Those heterochromatic eyes narrowed, catlike pupils sharp and assessing.
"She's… an Uchiha?"
Shukaku's tone instantly soured, his squat sand-tan body bristling with hostility.
The others didn't look much friendlier. Old resentment simmered under the surface; more than one of them clearly suspected that Chōmei had been duped.
"Come on, everyone, don't be like that," Chōmei said, feeling a little embarrassed. "The Uchiha's brutal days are in the past. As for Sasuke, he's been risking his life to protect the ninja world, hasn't he?"
Even as he spoke, Chōmei recalled that just a few days earlier, he'd felt the same way they did. He'd detested the Uchiha name and everything attached to it.
But Sarada had shaken that certainty. Enough that, now, he believed she could do the same for the others.
She'd made him accept her.
She could do the same for them.
The tailed beasts fell silent for the moment, their arguments put on hold. Two more figures stepped into the ring of giants—Boruto and Naruto appeared in the center, small shadows amid colossal chakra.
"Long time no see, Boruto," Naruto said, offering a tired smile. "How was the school trip?"
"…It was alright, I guess," Boruto replied, not sounding particularly thrilled.
Naruto scratched the back of his head. "What happened?"
"The ship ran into trouble halfway," Boruto said simply. "Middle of the night, huge storm. Not exactly a relaxing vacation for humans."
"Ah… that's rough," Naruto muttered.
"Enough," Chōmei suddenly cut in, his voice echoing through the void. The idle father-son chatter halted. All the tailed beasts' eyes shifted toward them.
Only then did Naruto and Boruto really see Sarada—standing beneath Chōmei, her expression complicated but alive.
"Sa–Sarada? Are you alright?" Naruto asked.
"It's a long story," Chōmei said before she could answer, his tone turning grim. "But we've got something more urgent right now—something that concerns the safety of the entire shinobi world."
He took a breath, his many tails flicking.
"I was originally sealed in a valley by that group calling themselves Moon. Later, I was suddenly transferred into this brat's body. Only then did I find out she's Sasuke's daughter."
He gave a small, resigned huff.
"After thinking it through… I decided to acknowledge her as my Jinchūriki."
That much, at least, was already clear. The fact that the other tailed beasts had been able to gather in her mental world proved they tacitly recognized her status.
The others waited quietly. As the one who called the meeting, Chōmei had the floor.
After a short pause, he delivered the bomb.
"The Ōtsutsuki clan may have already infiltrated the ninja world," Chōmei said. "Sarada and I ran into some Ōtsutsuki devotees. That's why I called for this emergency council."
The reason was simple and terrifying.
Among the enemies Sarada and Chōmei had faced, a few of them had revealed traces of Ōtsutsuki chakra. There was no way a tailed beast could mistake that.
"You two… you're both okay?" Boruto asked, worry flickering in his eyes.
"This…" Chōmei hesitated. "Forcing the enemy to reveal power tied to the Ōtsutsuki clan at all is enough to show how strong they were. Even I'm not sure I could beat them outright."
Luckily, they'd confronted those enemies as a shadow clone of Sarada, not her real body. The details were messy and strange, but one thing was clear:
Those enemy shinobi were not from the Moon.
Because Sarada's true body was currently following behind the man in white.
"Could it be another faction tied to Moon?" one of the beasts rumbled. "After you dropped off the grid, another tailed beast vanished. And the one who didn't show up to this meeting… is Isobu."
"The Three-Tails," another confirmed gravely.
"What?!"
Chōmei's tails froze mid-sway.
"Even Isobu lives nearly a thousand meters under the sea," one of them said. "Who could dive that deep and take him?"
Chōmei felt a chill run through him.
"Although we suspected Ōtsutsuki," Kurama said quietly, his massive form radiating killing intent, "Isobu's last message clearly named a Moon operative as the attacker."
"That's why Boruto couldn't stop it, even though he was relatively nearby," Kurama continued with a mix of frustration and grudging pride. "Even in my chakra mode, his diving limit is about five hundred meters."
"What good is that?" Shukaku snorted. "We could only sit back and watch Isobu go dark."
Kurama glared sideways. "We tailed beasts don't die. So why don't you go die in our place and lighten our load?"
Shukaku: …
Naruto finally understood why Boruto's answer about the trip had been so half-hearted.
"So that's why you didn't enjoy yourself," he said.
"Ahem," Boruto coughed, then turned his gaze back to Sarada. "So… Sarada's relatively safe, right?"
"…You could say that," Chōmei replied on her behalf.
After all, Sarada had chosen not to contact Naruto earlier. She probably wanted to use this crisis to sharpen herself, to grow stronger.
Chōmei respected it. But it didn't make following that masked man around any less uncomfortable.
That white-robed "terrorist" could decide to take Sarada's eyes whenever he wanted. For Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan, he'd need another pair of Mangekyō. Blood ties might be a requirement—but Chōmei had a feeling Moon had ways around that.
"You're somewhere in a village in the Land of Birds right now, right?" Boruto said. "Wait there—I'll be there soon."
He stepped closer and set his hands lightly on Sarada's shoulders, a small but steadying gesture.
Their eyes met. Under his touch, Sarada's cheeks warmed just a little—this kind of distance between a boy and a girl would make anyone feel self-conscious.
And then—
"—!!"
Sarada's eyes widened.
She felt something being pulled out from her shoulder, a brand of familiar chakra being stripped away. The white-robed man had used that very same mark earlier to locate her instantly.
Could it be…?
Boruto noticed her reaction at once.
He guessed immediately: the white-robed guy could probably also use this marker to teleport straight to Sarada's location.
So he explained. "That was a Flying Thunder God formula. The white-robed sorcerer left it the day we were about to set out to find your dad. Remember when I smacked your shoulder that morning?"
Sarada blinked, memory flooding back—
Boruto is balancing a bento box, casually patting her shoulder in passing.
"When that guy kidnapped you, Uncle Sasuke and I locked onto that marker," Boruto continued. "That's how we appeared behind him in the sky."
"I see," Naruto murmured. "No wonder you and Sasuke popped out behind him just like that. But we still couldn't see you at the time…"
"That's probably another one of his eye techniques," Boruto said. "He likes to hide his real body in some other space and leave an illusion here, right? Makes him immune to damage."
"True," Naruto said, remembering just how thoroughly he'd tested that man's limits that day. He'd thrown everything he could at him, only to realize later that the man had never truly been there in the first place.
He'd been in hiding the entire afternoon.
"Then, Dad," Boruto said, turning, "I'll head back to Konoha first. I'll use Flying Thunder God to bring you and Uncle Sasuke to Sarada's position, okay?"
"Yes," Naruto said, nodding firmly.
"Actually… you don't have to come," Sarada said quietly. "I've already lost something. I might as well keep going undercover."
"How can we not?!" Naruto burst out. "You're in danger, Sarada! Now that we've finally found you, of course, we'll find a way to get you out of there!"
Sarada lowered her head slightly.
"I'm safe," she said.
"Why?!" Naruto was completely thrown.
"The reason the white-robed man won't kill me," Sarada said, lifting her chin, "is because he wants the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan. So he's waiting for me to grow up—so he can take my eyes and use them to evolve his Sharingan."
"Ah… that actually is pretty safe," Boruto muttered, the corner of his mouth twitching.
"What do you mean by 'safe'?!" Sarada snapped. "I'm already a half-awakened Mangekyō Sharingan user. Don't underestimate the Uchiha's talent!"
"Oh?"
Naruto fell silent, his expression complicated.
No one understood the weight of that more than he did. To awaken the Mangekyō meant she'd seen something she should never have had to see. She probably believed Naruto, Sasuke, and Boruto had all died in front of her.
"Sarada…" Naruto hesitated, then spoke with absolute resolve. "I will rescue you. I can't let you stay with the enemy."
"But can you beat the man in white as you are now?" she asked softly.
"…"
"So isn't it better if I stay close to him?" she continued. "I can keep gathering information on his eye techniques, find the rules behind them, and search for his weaknesses."
Naruto's mouth went dry. No words came out.
"Anyway, I'm safe for now," Sarada said. "Please tell my tou-san and kaa-san I'm alright."
With that, she stepped out of the circle of beasts and let her consciousness withdraw from the mental space.
"Boruto… I—"
Boruto cut him off before he could finish.
"Dad," he said flatly. "You should start thinking about how you're going to explain all this to Uncle Sasuke."
With that, he too let his presence fade and left decisively.
Naruto: …
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